Borșa Olympic Ski Jumps
Built in the Rodna Mountains for a 1948 Winter Olympics that Romania never got to host, including what was billed as Europe's largest natural ski jump; the war stopped the project and the jumps fell silent for good in 2000.
- Region
- Maramureș
- Country
- Romania
- Status
- abandoned
- Year opened
- 1941
- Year closed
- 2000
- Reason for closure
- The Olympic project was killed by the Second World War - the eastern front reached the Prislop Pass in spring 1944 with the cable car half-built - and then formally abandoned by the communist government after 1945, with the IOC dropping Borșa as a 1948 venue. The ski jumps themselves carried on hosting competitions into the post-war decades and were used for the last time in 2000.
History
In 1940 Devan Istvan, a member of the Hungarian Olympic committee, picked the northern slope of the Rodna Mountains at Borșa in Maramureș as the site for the 1948 Winter Olympics, citing its 830 m base, its shelter from strong winds, its rail access and its scenery. The International Ski Federation approved the project on 23 October 1941, construction began that year, and the first runs opened on 25 December 1941 with the Olympya piste inaugurated by a race. International competitions followed on 20 and 21 February 1943 and on 20 February 1944, ski jumping included. In 1943 the engineer Benedek Frigyes and the Polish ski jumper Stanisław Marusarz built what was described as the largest natural ski jump in Europe, and Marusarz set a record on it with a jump of 88 m. Construction of a cable car started in the spring of 1944 and was never finished: the eastern front reached the Prislop Pass that spring, and after 1945 the communist government in Bucharest dropped the Olympic centre altogether, with the IOC abandoning Borșa as a 1948 venue. The jumps outlived the project. Two hills capable of jumps over 80 m survived, one of them still described as the highest natural jumping hill in Europe, and international competitions were held on them until 2000, after which they were left. Borșa itself has since been revived around them: a 3 km Olympic-dimension piste, artificial snow, floodlighting and a 2.6 km gondola carrying 1,800 people an hour were inaugurated on 20 December 2021, eighty years after the original works began. This entry covers the abandoned Olympic-era complex and its jumps rather than the modern ski area.
Lifts
| Name | Type | Manufacturer | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Unnamed lift | A cable car was begun in the spring of 1944 to serve the Olympic complex and was never finished; no specification for it survives in accessible sources. The modern resort's 2.6 km gondola, opened in 2021, is a separate installation |
Runs
- Olympya
Sources and further reading
- https://skiborsa.eu/en/istorie/
- https://www.g4media.ro/partia-olimpica-si-telegondola-din-borsa-au-fost-inaugurate.html
- https://newsweek.ro/timp-liber/prima-partie-de-dimensiuni-olimpice-din-romania-inaugurata-la-borsa-dupa-80-de-ani
- https://ski-outdoor.ro/ski/2022/01/24/partia-olimpica-din-borsa-o-noua-sansa-pentru-statiune/
Location
47.6173, 24.7828