Slaven DIZDAREVIĆ
Olympian Artist - Painting, photography: Tokyo 2020
Olympic Games:
Beijing 2008
Athletics (heptathlon, decathlon)
Celebrating the Games
All the continents come together in a festive celebration of the Olympic Games.
The five Olympic rings represent the five continents.
The sky above Tokyo is lit up in the colours of these rings and shines down on celebrating couples. Fifteen couples at the forefront of the painting create all possible combinations.
© 2021 – Slaven Dizdarević
New Sports
The Olympic Games in Tokyo will see the inclusion of five new sports on the programme.
These are: baseball/softball, surfing, karate, skateboarding and sport climbing.
Each sport carries one of the colours of the Olympic rings, which symbolically bring all the continents together.
© 2021 – Slaven Dizdarević
The Olympic Values
This painting reflects the main values of the Olympic Movement.
Rising above the city of Tokyo, respect, friendship, and excellence stand next to each other, while the sun, in the shape of the Japanese flag, covers the city’s buildings with its light, with Mount Fuji in the background.
© 2021 – Slaven Dizdarević
Protection
Sumo wrestling, the national sport of Japan, dates back to ancient times.
Throwing salt in the air is a ritual that sumo wrestlers perform before each match.
In this painting, the sumo wrestler gives the city of Tokyo and the Olympic Games magical protection and purifies the space, which is the main purpose of this ritual.
The salt merges with the night sky, creating stars that provide light and give hope for the challenging times the world is facing today.
© 2021 – Slaven Dizdarević
Determination
One of the main qualities of successful athletes is their determination to achieve their goals.
Only the best make it onto the podium, but all Olympians carry the values of Olympism with them.
The medal podium that emerges from the ground in this painting is formed by the buildings and the lights shining through the windows.
The scenery of Tokyo is shaped by the medal podium while respect, friendship and excellence take their medals.
These are the Olympic values that all athletes embody as ambassadors and that make each Olympian a winner.
© 2021 – Slaven Dizdarević
All Together
Against the backdrop of Mount Fuji, the Skytree and the sun, in the colours of the Japanese flag, five hands connect to represent the Olympic rings.
Each hand symbolises one of the five continents with one of the five colours in the background, while an open hand shows five fingers, which mean that we are all connected, we are all one and we have all the continents within us.
© 2021 – Slaven Dizdarević
Track and field athlete Slaven Dizdarević was born in Sarajevo and spent most of his childhood growing up in what had been the Olympic Village, where his family received an apartment after the 1984 Winter Olympics.
At the age of 10, Dizdarević and his family moved to Slovakia, where he started training in track and field disciplines and also enjoyed art classes at school.
His painting skills were first recognised during a national painting competition, and his sporting prowess came to the fore as he became junior national champion in the high jump. In 2008, in Beijing, Dizdarević became the first Slovak decathlete to participate in the Olympic Games.
He holds the national record in the heptathlon and has several national titles in the decathlon, high jump and hurdle sprints. Dizdarević now lives and works between Lausanne and Gstaad, Switzerland, where he coaches sport, and has also fully transitioned into being a painter and photographer. His first exhibition was held in Lausanne in 2019, and in 2020 he was involved as an artist during the Winter Youth Olympic Games.
Q&A
To me, being an Olympian means a possibility to inspire people around me and bring them the same joy and passion that the journey to becoming an Olympian brought to me. In my work as a sports coach, I feel the responsibility to be a good ambassador of the Olympic values, especially when I work with younger generations.
For me, Olympic culture means the long-term legacy that Olympism leaves behind, reflecting the Olympic values in one’s thoughts and carrying oneself as an athlete on the sports field, and off it. And this culture is exactly what defines Olympism, reaching beyond sports competitions. The Olympic Games unite people and share joy and passion with the whole world through art activities, education, and sports competition. The Games inspire young generations and motivate them to lead better lives.
Relax, everything will be alright.
My approach to sport and art is very similar and, many times, the same. Both art and sport bring out the same intensity and desire in me to get better, which is a necessary obsession to reach my goals, to have the ability to overcome obstacles in my journey and stay focused. Experiencing an altered state of mind and the so-called ‘flow’ is very present in both activities.