1986 World Junior Championships at The Netropolitan Museum of Figure Skating Pins

For the second time in three figure skating seasons, the best junior-level skaters from more than 20 nations gathered in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia, to compete for a world title when the 1986 World Junior Figure Skating Championships came to town. It was just two years after the 1984 Olympic Winter Games, and Zetra Arena, site of the event, was still a new facility—one that ultimately would be destroyed but would rise again. Zetra was also site of the 1983 World Junior Figure Skating Championships, which was the first major event held in the arena (read the pin blog).

Marking the occasion of the 1986 World Junior Championships is a simple pin that carries the logo of the Savez Klizačkih i Koturaljkačkih Sportova Jugoslavije (Federation of Skating and Inline Skating of Yugoslavia), the governing body of skating at the time in the former Yugoslavia. The two-tiered, stylized skate blade logo neatly contains the abbreviation of the federation inside the stanchions: “SKKSJ.” The textured background of the silver-color pin provides a strong contrast to the medium blue color of the skate blade logo. In raised lettering below the logo are the event location and year: “Sarajevo, 1986.” The pin looks and feels like winter sports. The event was contested in December 1985 for the 1986 season.

The 1986 World Junior Figure Skating Championships pin is one of three issued for World Junior Championships to have information on the reverse.

Over the years, only a handful of figure skating pins made for major events have ever been two-sided, a unique treatment that makes a pin more interesting simply because it’s different. The 1986 World Junior Championships pin is one of three issued for World Junior Championships to have information on the reverse¹ (two of the three competitions, coincidentally, held in Sarajevo). For the 1986 pin, the event name, in English, is inscribed in raised lettering: “World Junior Figure Skating Championships.” Both the face and reverse of the pin are shown in the gallery. Interestingly, two-sided pins were issued for the 1970 World Figure Skating Championships, also held in Yugoslavia (in Ljubljana, some 330+ miles Northwest of Sarajevo).

Enjoy this week’s figure skating pins blog: On the Flip Side. 1986.

¹Based on knowledge of The Curator of The Netropolitan Museum of Figure Skating Pins, and only on pins from the event inception in 1978 through 1990.

1986 World Junior Figure Skating Championships Pin Gallery

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