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The 1988 Olympics were the second summer Olympic Games to be hosted by an Asian nation, after the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan.

North Korea, still officially at war with South Korea, boycotted the event and was joined by Albania, Cuba, Ethiopia, Madagascar, Nicaragua, and Seychelles. However, the much larger boycotts seen in the previous three Olympics were avoided, resulting in the largest ever number of participating nations to that date.

In the Seoul Games, 160 nations were represented by a total of 8391 athletes (2194 women and 6197 men) in the games. 237 events were held. 27221 volunteers helped to prepare the Olympics. 11331 media (4978 written press and 6353 broadcasters) showed the Games all over the world.

Interesting Facts

• Soviet Vladimir Artemov won four gold medals in gymnastics while Daniela Siliva? of Romania won three.
• US sprinter Florence Griffith Joyner won three gold medals and a silver on the track.
• Canadian Ben Johnson won the 100 m in a new world record, but was disqualified after he tested positive for stanozolol. In 2004, Johnson accused the American sports authorities of protecting American athletes at the expense of foreign ones. He still claims to this day that André Jackson, “the Mystery Man” put the stanozolol in his food or his drink.
• American boxer Roy Jones Jr. lost the gold medal to South Korean fighter Park Si-Hun in a very controversial 3-2 judge’s decision. Allegations swirled that Korean officials had fixed the judging. Jones Jr. receives the Val Barker Trophy, an award for the most impressive boxer of the Games. The three judges ruling against Jones were eventually suspended.
• Lawrence Lemieux, a Canadian sailor in the Finn class was in second place and poised to win a silver medal when he abandoned the race to save an injured competitor. He arrived in 21st place, but was recognized by the IOC with a special award honoring his bravery and sacrifice.
• US diver Greg Louganis won back-to-back titles on both diving events, but only after hitting the springboard with his head in the 3 m event final. This became a minor controversy years later when Louganis revealed he knew he was HIV-positive at the time, and did not tell anybody. Since it is now known that HIV cannot survive in open water, no other divers were ever in danger.
• Christa Luding-Rothenburger of East Germany became the first (and only) athlete to win Olympic medals at the Winter Olympics and Summer Olympics in the same year. She added a cycling silver to the speed skating gold she had won earlier in the Winter Olympics of that year in Calgary.
• Anthony Nesty of Suriname won his country’s first Olympic medal by winning the 100 m butterfly, scoring an upset victory over Matt Biondi by .01 of a second (thwarting Biondis attempt of breaking Mark Spitz’ record seven golds in one Olympic event); he is the only black person to win individual swimming gold.
• Swimmer Kristin Otto of East Germany won six gold medals[14]. Other multi-medalists in the pool were Matt Biondi (five) and Janet Evans (three).
• Swedish fencer Kerstin Palm became the first woman to take part in seven Olympics.[2]
• Mark Todd of New Zealand won his second consecutive individual gold medal in the three-day event in equestrian on Charisma. It was only the second time in eventing history that a gold medal had been won consecutively.
• Baseball and Taekwondo were demonstration sports. The opening ceremony featured a mass demonstration of taekwondo with hundreds of adults and children performing moves in unison.
• This was the last time the US were represented by a basketball team that disn’t feature NBA stars; the team won the bronze medal after being defeated by the Soviet Union.
• For the first time in history all the dressage events were won by women.
• Women’s judo was held for the first time, as a demonstration sport.
• Table tennis was introduced at the Olympics, with China and South Korea both winning two titles.
• Tennis returned to the Olympics after a 64-year absence, and Steffi Graf added to her four Grand Slam victories in the year by also winning the Olympic title, beating Gabriela Sabatini in the final.
• Two Bulgarian weightlifters were stripped of their gold medals after failing doping tests, and the team withdrew after this event.
• A series of controversies involving Korean boxers culminated with the second round in bantamweight class boxing, when a Korean boxer lost a judgment to a Bulgarian boxer. The Korean coaches got furiously angry, entered the ring and struck a referee – then to make matters worse, although other matches were going-on, Korean officials turned off the electricity in the amphitheater and went home.

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