Igman Olympic Jumps (Malo Polje)
The five ski jumps built on Mount Igman for the 1984 Sarajevo Olympics, three destroyed and two left riddled with bullet holes by the fighting of 1992-95; the concrete inruns and the judges' tower still stand, abandoned.
- Region
- Sarajevo Canton
- Country
- Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Status
- abandoned
- Year opened
- 1983
- Year closed
- 1988
- Reason for closure
- The jumps hosted their last competition in 1988 and were then overtaken by war. During the Siege of Sarajevo the Igman plateau saw fierce fighting and became part of a United Nations buffer zone; the three wooden jumps were destroyed and the two concrete ones badly damaged. They have never been repaired.
History
Malo Polje, on the Igman plateau south-west of Sarajevo, was built for the ski jumping and Nordic combined events of the 1984 Winter Olympics. A new road went in from 1979, followed by two concrete jump chutes, a judges' tower and lifts, and the complex of five hills - three wooden and two concrete - opened in 1983. The large hill was a K112 and the normal hill a K90, with smaller K40, K25 and K10 training jumps alongside. The Olympic large hill competition drew 90,000 spectators and the normal hill 45,000; Matti Nykänen set the hill record of 116 m on 18 February 1984, and Primož Ulaga had jumped 95 m on the K90 the previous year. Sarajevo's winter sports boom kept the venue busy through four Europa Cup meetings in the mid-1980s, and the last competition was held in 1988. Then came the war. Between 1992 and 1995 the Igman plateau was fought over bitterly and eventually made part of a UN buffer zone running out from Sarajevo airport; the three wooden jumps were destroyed and the two concrete ones left standing but wrecked. They are still there, structures pocked with bullet holes, faded UN markings on the abandoned judges' tower and pine growing through the outruns, and the site has become one of the most photographed ruins of the Sarajevo Games. The surrounding facilities and the Veliko Polje cross-country trails have since been redeveloped, and Malo Polje now has a working restaurant and a small beginners' lift, but the jumps themselves remain out of use.
Lifts
| Name | Type | Manufacturer | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Unnamed lift | Lifts were built to serve the jumps during construction in the early 1980s; no specification for them survives in accessible sources. A small ski lift and beginner slope operate at Malo Polje today, separate from the jumps |
Runs
- K112 large hill
- K90 normal hill
- K40 hill
- K25 hill
- K10 hill
Sources and further reading
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Igman_Olympic_Jumps
- https://www.skisprungschanzen.com/EN/Ski+Jumps/BIH-Bosnia+and+Herzegovina/Sarajevo/0012-Malo+Polje/
- https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/igman-olympic-jumps
- https://www.spomenikdatabase.org/post/the-architectural-legacy-of-sarajevo-s-84-winter-olympics
Location
43.7683, 18.2463