1992 Summer Olympics

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Games of the XXV Olympiad
Games of the XXV Olympiad
Host city Barcelona, Spain
Motto Friends Forever
Nations participating 169
Athletes participating 9,356 (6,652 men, 2,704 women)
Events 286 in 32 sports
Opening ceremony July 25
Closing ceremony August 9
Officially opened by King Juan Carlos I of Spain
Athlete's Oath Luis Doreste Blanco
Judge's Oath Eugeni Asensio
Olympic Torch Antonio Rebollo (paralympic archer)
Stadium Estadi Olímpic Lluís Companys

The 1992 Summer Olympic Games, officially known as the Games of the XXV Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event held in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain in 1992.

Contents

Host city selection

Barcelona, the birthplace of then-IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch, was selected over Amsterdam, Belgrade, Birmingham, Brisbane and Paris in Lausanne, Switzerland, on October 17, 1986, during the 91st IOC Session. It had bid for the 1936 Summer Olympics, losing out to Berlin. The chart's information below comes from the International Olympic Committee Vote History web page.

1992 Summer Olympics bidding results
City NOC Name Round 1 Round 2 Round 3
Barcelona  Spain 29 37 47
Paris  France 19 20 23
Brisbane  Australia 11 9 10
Belgrade  Yugoslavia 13 11 5
Birmingham  United Kingdom 8 8 -
Amsterdam  Netherlands 5 - -

Highlights

  • In basketball, the admittance of professional players led to the formation of the "Dream Team" of the United States, featuring Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird and other NBA stars.
  • South Africa was allowed to compete in the Olympics for the first time since the 1960 Games, after a long suspension for its apartheid policy. White South African runner Elana Meyer and black Ethiopian runner Derartu Tulu fought a close race in the 10,000 m (won by Tulu) and then ran a victory lap hand in hand.1
  • Following its reunification in 1990, Germany sent a single, unified Olympic team for the first time since the 1964 Games.
  • As the Soviet Union had been dissolved in 1991, the Baltic nations of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania sent their own teams for the first time since 1936. The other Soviet republics competed under the name "Unified Team."
  • The break-up of SFR Yugoslavia led to the Olympic debuts of Croatia, Slovenia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Due to United Nations sanctions, SR Yugoslav athletes were not allowed to participate with their own team. However, individual athletes could compete under the Olympic flag as Independent Olympic Participants.
  • In men's artistic gymnastics, Vitaly Scherbo from Belarus, representing the Unified Team, won six gold medals, including four on a single day. Five of the six golds were in individual events, tying Eric Heiden's record for individual gold medals at a single Olympics (Michael Phelps would tie this record in 2008).
  • In women's artistic gymnastics, Tatiana Gutsu took gold in the All-Around competition edging the United States' Shannon Miller.
  • In the diving competitions, held in the view of the Sagrada Família, Fu Mingxia won the high dive event at the age of 13.
  • Russian swimmers dominated the freestyle events, with Alexander Popov and Yevgeny Sadovyi each winning two events (Sadovyi won a third with in the relays).
  • Evelyn Ashford won her fourth Olympic gold medal in the 4x100 metre relay, making her one of only four female athletes to have achieved this in history.
  • The young Krisztina Egerszegi of Hungary won three individual swimming gold medals.
  • After being demonstrated six times, baseball became an Olympic sport, with Cuba winning the gold medal, Chinese Taipei winning silver, and Japan, the bronze.
  • Roller hockey became a demonstration sport in the 1992 Games. Argentina won the gold medal.
  • Badminton and women's judo became part of the Olympic programme, while slalom canoeing returned to the Games after a 20-year absence.
  • Basque pelota, roller hockey,and taekwondo were the demonstration sports.
  • Chris Boardman won the 4000M individual pursuit track cycling event for Great Britain.
  • Linford Christie finally won gold in the 100m, at 32 years old the oldest champion of the Olympic 100m.
  • Several of the U.S. men's volleyball gold medal team from the 1988 Olympics returned to vie for another medal. In the first round, they lost a controversial match to Japan, sparking them to shave their heads in protest (including Steve Timmons, sacrificing his trademark red flattop for the protest).
  • Mike Stulce of the USA won the men's shot put, beating heavy favored Werner Günthör of Switzerland.
  • On the 20th anniversary of the Munich massacre and the 500th anniversary of the Alhambra Decree, Yael Arad became the first Israeli to win an Olympic medal, winning a silver medal in judo. The next day, Oren Smadja became Israel's first male medalist, winning a bronze in the same sport.
  • Derek Redmond of Great Britain tore a hamstring during a 400m semi-final heat. As he struggled to finish the race, his father entered the track without credentials and helped him complete the race, to a standing ovation from the crowd.
  • Sergey Bubka had won gold in the men's pole vault in Seoul 1988, setting an Olympic record. He was favored to easily take the gold again, but he left Barcelona empty-handed, failing to make any height in the pole vault. He failed in all his attempts. A little over a month later, in Tokyo, Bubka would vault 20 feet 1 and 1/2 inches - his 32nd world record.

Venues

Medals awarded

See the medal winners, ordered by sport:

Demonstration sports

Participating nations

Participants

169 nations sent athletes to compete in these Games. With the Collapse of the Soviet Union, twelve states formed a Unified Team, while the Baltic States of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania had their own teams. Croatia, Slovenia and Bosnia-Herzegovina competed as independent nations after separation from Yugoslavia. Yugoslavia was banned due to UN sanctions, but individual Yugoslav athletes were allowed to take part as Independent Olympic Participants.

Medal count

Main article: 1992 Summer Olympics medal count

These are the top medal-collecting nations for the 1992 Games. (Host country is highlighted):

Rank Nation Gold Silver Bronze Total
1 Unified Team 45 38 29 112
2 United States 37 34 37 108
3 Germany 33 21 28 82
4 China 16 22 16 54
5 Cuba 14 6 11 31
6 Spain 13 7 2 22
7 South Korea 12 5 12 29
8 Hungary 11 12 7 30
9 France 8 5 16 29
10 Australia 7 9 11 27

Songs and themes

There were two main musical themes of the 1992 Games. One was "Barcelona", composed five years earlier by Freddie Mercury and sung as a duet with Montserrat Caballé. The duo were to have performed the song during the opening ceremony, but due to Mercury's untimely death the year before, the song was played over a travelogue of the city at the start of the opening ceremony. The other was "Amigos Para Siempre" (Friends for Life), written by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Don Black, and sung by Sarah Brightman and José Carreras during the closing ceremonies.

Mascot

Main article: Cobi

The official mascot was Cobi, a Catalan sheepdog in cubist style designed by Javier Mariscal.

References

  1. ^ http://www.olympic.org/uk/games/past/innovations_uk.asp?OLGT=1&OLGY=1992

See also

External links

Preceded by
Seoul		 Summer Olympic Games
Host City
XXV Olympiad (1992)		 Succeeded by
Atlanta
v • d • e
Events at the 1992 Summer Olympics (Barcelona)
Archery • Athletics • Badminton • Baseball • Basketball • Basque pelota (demonstration) • Boxing • Canoeing • Cycling • Diving • Equestrian • Fencing • Football • Gymnastics • Handball • Hockey • Judo • Modern pentathlon • Roller hockey (demonstration) • Rowing • Sailing • Shooting • Swimming • Synchronized swimming • Table tennis • Taekwondo (demonstration) • Tennis • Volleyball • Water polo • Weightlifting • Wrestling
v • d • e
Olympic Games
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Medalists • Symbols
Summer Games