Profile: Lapel Pins – 1989 World Junior Championships, Sarajevo, Yugoslavia

In the early to late 1980s, Sarajevo, Yugoslavia, hosted the World Junior Figure Skating Championships every three years, like clockwork: 1983, 1986, and 1989. So for the third time during the decade, the best junior-level skaters from more than 20 nations gathered in the Olympic city to compete for a world title. Hosting the event was not the only thing to be repeated when the 1989 World Junior Figure Skating Championships came to town since the same event logo design used for the 1986 World Junior Championships made another appearance on the 1989 pins. The overall look and feel of the main pin remained the same, including the unusual two-sided design, and the addition of a smaller, circular logo pin created a nice two-pin set to commemorate the event.

Both pins from the 1989 World Junior Figure Skating Championships prominently feature 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. On the smaller pin, the two-tiered, stylized skate blade logo neatly contains the “SKKSJ” federation abbreviation inside the stanchions. The textured background of the gold-color pin provides a strong contrast to the raised, shiny surface of the skate blade logo. Also in raised lettering along the bottom of the pin are the event location and year: “Sarajevo 89.” The pin measures approximately 11/16″ in diameter (1.7 cm).

Hosting the event was not the only thing to be repeated when the 1989 World Junior Figure Skating Championships came to town since the same event logo design used for the 1986 World Junior Championships made another appearance on the 1989 pins.

The larger, main logo pin is a near repeat of the 1986 pin and features the federation abbreviation “SKKSJ” in a bit brighter blue than 1986 but on a textured gold-color base metal. The skate blade logo complements the background color exceptionally well, with the event location and year directly below: “Sarajevo 89.” The event name, in English, is inscribed in raised lettering on the reverse: “World Junior Figure Skating Championships.” Both the face and reverse of the pin are shown in the gallery. The pin measures approximately 1″ x 1‑7/8″ (2.5 cm x 4.8 cm).

Only a handful of figure skating pins made for major events have been two-sided, a unique design that makes a pin more interesting simply because it’s different. The 1989 World Junior Championships event is one of three where pins issued for that competition have information on the reverse¹ (and, as seen here, two of the three competitions were held in Sarajevo). 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: 1989 World Junior Figure Skating Championships Pins: A Threepeat With a Repeat. And be sure to read the museum story for more information about figure skating pins.

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.

Pins Gallery: 1989 World Junior Figure Skating Championships

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