Seoul 1988 - Olympic Games Winners

Start:

17 Sep 1988

End:

02 Oct 1988

Countries:

159

Athletes:

8391

Sports:

Events:

237

City:

Seoul, Korea (Busan - Sailing)

In September 1981, at the 84th IOC Session in Baden-Baden, two candidate cities - Seoul, Korea and Nagoya, Japan were applied to host the Olympic games in 1988.
Korea had no diplomatic relations with Communist-bloc countries, and it was not clear whether the USSR, DPRK, and other communist countries would participate in the Seoul Olympic games.
Despite all, Seoul, Korea won with a large margin: 52 votes for Seoul, 27 - for Nagoya.

President Roh Tae-woo officially opened the Games of the 24 Olympiad at the new 100,000-seat Olympic stadium.
North Korea boycotted the Games because the IOC refused North Korean demand to co-host the Games. Cuba and Ethiopia stayed home in support of North Korea.
The doping disqualification of a sprinter from Canada, Ben JOHNSON, after his victory in the 100m sprint in the world record time of 9.79.
New rules allowed professional athletes to compete in individual sports, and leaders of world tennis could participate in the Games. Steffi GRAF of FRG added the gold medal to her tennis Grand Slam title in 1988.
Christa LUDING-ROTHENBURGER from GDR, who earlier in February 1988 won a speed skating gold medal at the Calgary Winter Olympic games, became the first athlete who won Summer and Winter Olympic medals in the same year when she won silver in the track cycling sprint.