BARCELONA ’92 OLYMPICS : PEACE: THE GREATEST COMPETITION OF ALL

It began with a chat over cups of coffee, with co-workers sitting around and talking about the distressing news on television.

In Lillehammer, Norway, host city of the 1994 Winter Olympics, people were talking about what was happening to another Olympic city, Sarajevo. What was left of the historic city was being shelled, children were starving and hundreds of thousands of refugees were fleeing what was formerly Yugoslavia.

“I have a daughter who is 2 years old,” said Line Urke, a consultant to the Lillehammer Olympic Organizing Committee. “I had a nightmare that she was murdered. It was all because of the television pictures. In the office, we started talking. ‘What can we do? Why do we sit here and watch when, as an Olympic city, we have tremendous resources.’ Also, competing in peace is part of the Olympic charter.”

It was Friday, July 17. By the next Tuesday, Lillehammer Olympic Aid was born. The city’s mayor, Audun Tron, had sent letters to mayors of all the cities that had ever been host cities for the Winter or Summer Games. He called on them to aid Sarajevo, their Olympic sister city.

The campaign, in partnership with the International Red Cross, hopes to raise 94 million Norwegian kroner, about $50 million. In addition, Lillehammer has invited 250 children of Sarajevo to stay for the duration of the fighting.

All Olympic cities have been asked to take in children.

“So far, we know that Berlin has received 300 kids,” Urke said. “You know, when I was thinking about this, I looked at what I had. I have a basement. It’s kind of cold, but 10 children could easily stay in there and be out of danger.”

The Lillehammer Olympic Organizing Committee, which has an office in the main press center in Barcelona, has begun to put up posters with information about Lillehammer Olympic Aid. The posters show an outline of the city, “Sarajevo 1984” and a photo of a child with a bandaged head, “Sarajevo 1992.”

The Olympic Aid group has also made a logo and T-shirts on which its mascot is shown holding the Olympic torch in one hand and the hand of a child in the other.

A rock concert is planned for October.

“The Olympic movement is powerful,” Urke said. “We want to prove it can be a force for good.”

This a daily roundup of Olympic-related items from reporters in Barcelona from the Los Angeles Times, Newsday and Baltimore Sun, all Times-Mirror newspapers.