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1992 Summer Olympics

The 1992 Summer Olympics (Spanish: Juegos Olímpicos de Verano de 1992, Catalan: Jocs Olímpics d'estiu de 1992), officially known as the Games of the XXV Olympiad (Spanish: Juegos de la XXV Olimpiada, Catalan: Jocs de la XXV Olimpíada) and commonly known as Barcelona '92, was an international multi-sport event held from 25 July to 9 August 1992 in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. Beginning in 1994, the International Olympic Committee decided to hold the Summer and Winter Olympics in alternating even-numbered years. The 1992 Summer and Winter Olympics were the last games to be staged in the same year.[2] These games were the second and last two consecutive Olympic games to be held in Western Europe after the 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville, France, held five months earlier.

"Barcelona 1992" redirects here. For the Summer Paralympics, see 1992 Summer Paralympics.

Host city

Barcelona, Spain

Friends for Life
(Spanish: Amigos para siempre, Catalan: Amics per sempre)

169

9,386 (6,663 men, 2,723 women)

257 in 25 sports (34 disciplines)

25 July 1992

9 August 1992

The 1992 Summer Games were the first since the end of the Cold War, and the first unaffected by boycotts since the 1972 Summer Games.[3] 1992 was also the first year South Africa was re-invited to the Olympic Games by the International Olympic Committee, after a 32-year ban from participating in international sport due to Apartheid.[4] The Unified Team (made up by the former Soviet republics without the Baltic states) topped the medal table, winning 45 gold and 112 overall medals.

At the innovative opening ceremony, Greek mezzo-soprano sang "Romiossini" as the Olympic flag was paraded around the stadium. Alfredo Kraus later sang the Olympic Hymn in Catalan, Spanish and French, as the flag was hoisted.

Agnes Baltsa

The Olympic cauldron was ignited using a flaming arrow, lit from the flame of the . It was shot by Paralympic archer Antonio Rebollo, who aimed the arrow over the top of the cauldron to ignite the gas emanating from it. The arrow landed outside the stadium.[9] This unusual method for lighting the cauldron had been carefully designed to avoid any chance of the arrow landing in the stadium if Rebollo missed his target.[10][11]

Olympic torch

South Africa rejoined the Summer Olympics having been banned for its policy after the 1960 Summer Olympics. The Women's 10,000 metres event was hotly contested. White South African runner Elana Meyer and black Ethiopian runner Derartu Tulu (winner) ran hand-in-hand in a victory lap.[12]

apartheid

Germany sent a unified team having in 1990, the last such team was at the 1964 Summer Olympics.

reunified

As the was dissolved in 1991, the formerly Soviet-occupied states of Estonia and Latvia sent their own teams for the first time since 1936, while Lithuania sent its own team for the first time since 1928. The other former Soviet republics decided to compete together and formed the Unified Team, which consisted of present-day Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan. The Unified Team finished first in the medal standings, edging the United States.

Soviet Union

The of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia led to the Olympic debuts of Croatia, Slovenia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Due to United Nations sanctions, athletes from the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (consisting of present-day Serbia and Montenegro were not allowed to participate with their own team. However, some individual athletes competed under the Olympic flag as Independent Olympic Participants. Serbia would return to the Olympics at the 2008 Summer Olympics and as well as Montenegro on would be its Olympic debut as separate states.

separation

In , the admittance of NBA players led to the formation of the "Dream Team" of the United States, featuring Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird and other NBA stars. Prior to 1992, only European and South American professionals were allowed to compete, while the Americans used college players. The Dream Team won the gold medal and was inducted as a unit into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2010.[13]

basketball

won the 1,500 m in his home country, earning Spain's first-ever Olympic gold medal in a running event.[14]

Fermín Cacho

diver Fu Mingxia, age 13, became one of the youngest Olympic gold medalists of all time.

Chinese

In men's , Vitaly Scherbo from Belarus, (representing the Unified Team), won six gold medals, including four in a single day. Scherbo tied Eric Heiden's record for individual gold medals at a single Olympics, winning five medals in an individual event (Michael Phelps would later equal this record in 2008).

artistic gymnastics

In women's artistic gymnastics, took gold in the All-Around competition edging the USA's Shannon Miller.

Tatiana Gutsu

Russian swimmers (competing for the Unified Team) dominated the men's freestyle events, with and Yevgeny Sadovyi each winning two events. Sadovyi also won in the relays.

Alexander Popov

won her fourth Olympic gold medal in the 4×100-metre relay, making her one of only four female athletes to have achieved this in history.

Evelyn Ashford

The young of Hungary won three individual swimming gold medals.

Krisztina Egerszegi

In women's 200 m , Kyoko Iwasaki of Japan won a gold medal at the age of 14 years and six days, making her the youngest-ever gold medalist in swimming competitions at the Olympics.

breaststroke

athlete Hassiba Boulmerka, who was frequently criticized by Muslim groups in Algeria who thought she showed too much of her body when racing, received death threats[15] and was forced to move to Europe to train, won the 1,500 metres, also holding the African women's record in this distance.

Algerian

After being demonstrated in six previous Summer Olympic Games, officially became an Olympic sport. Badminton and women's judo also became part of the Olympic program, while slalom canoeing returned to the Games after a 20-year absence.

baseball

Basque pelota, and taekwondo were all demonstrated at the 1992 Summer Olympics.

Roller hockey

Several of the USA men's volleyball gold medal team from the returned to vie for another medal. In the preliminary round, they lost a controversial match to Japan, sparking them to shave their heads in protest. This notably included player Steve Timmons, sacrificing his trademark red flattop for the protest. The U.S. team ultimately progressed to the playoffs and won bronze.

1988 Olympics

of the United States won the men's shot put, beating the heavily favored Werner Günthör of Switzerland.

Mike Stulce

On the 20th anniversary of the 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.

Munich massacre

of Great Britain tore a hamstring during a 400-meter 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.

Derek Redmond

came into the 100 meters hurdles as the favorite. Though her Olympic history shows her winning the 100 meters dash twice, the first time earlier in this Olympics, she primarily made her career as a hurdler. And true to form, Devers had a commanding lead in this race until the final hurdle. Devers came up short and hit the hurdle, foot first, hard, knocking her off balance. She stumbled toward the finish line, falling on the last step, but still finished fifth, .001 out of fourth place. Paraskevi Patoulidou of Greece won the gold medal to even her own disbelief, dropping to her knees on the track when she realized she had won.

Gail Devers

won the singles tennis competition at the age of 16. She had previously earned a spot in the semifinals of two grand slams at the age of 14.

Jennifer Capriati

Two gold medals were awarded in solo synchronized swimming after a judge inadvertently entered the score of "8.7" instead of the intended "9.7" in the computerized scoring system for one of 's figures. This error ultimately placed Fréchette second, leaving Kristen Babb-Sprague for the gold medal. Following an appeal, FINA awarded Fréchette a gold medal, replacing her silver medal and leaving the two swimmers both with gold.[16]

Sylvie Fréchette

Indonesia won its first-ever gold medal after winning a silver medal at . Susi Susanti won the gold in badminton women's singles after defeating Bang Soo-hyun in the final round. Alan Budikusuma won the badminton men's singles competition, earning a second gold medal for Indonesia. Several years later, Susanti and Budikusuma married and she received the nickname golden bride or Olympic bride.

1988 Olympics

Montjuïc Area

Estadi Olímpic de Montjuïc

Diagonal Area

Camp Nou

Vall d'Hebron Area

Archery Field

Estació del Nord Sports Hall

A-17 highway

Some events, including diving, took place in view of construction of the

Sagrada Família

(10)

Basque pelota

(16)

Taekwondo

Broadcasting[edit]

International signal[edit]

In order to guarantee that the international signal was produced objectively and impartially, for the first time in Olympic history, a host broadcaster was expressly created for each of the 1992 Olympic Games instead of delegating responsibility to a national host broadcaster. The Albertville Organizing Committee created the Organisme de radio télévision olympique '92 (ORTO'92) for the Winter Olympics and the Barcelona Organizing Committee created the Ràdio Televisió Olímpica '92 (RTO'92) for the Summer Olympics.[19]


RTO'92 managed the staff and the production and technical resources hired to Radiotelevisión Española (RTVE), the Corporació Catalana de Ràdio i Televisió (CCRTV) and the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). With a workforce of 3,083 people, a permanent radio and television installation at the Olympic Stadium and Palau Sant Jordi, and over 50 mobile units for other venues, RTO'92 provided live coverage of all Summer Olympic sports for the first time ever –except for a few preliminary events–, some 2,800 hours of live television footage, to its international rights-holders. The International Broadcast Centre (IBC) was located at the exhibition halls of Fira de Barcelona in Montjuïc.[19]


NHK and Panasonic developed the 1/2" DX digital system used to record the Games digitally for the first time. Also new were the underwater camera dolly on a track at the bottom of the swimming pool, the underwater microcameras at the bottom of the water polo pool, the periscope camera capable of transmit shots from below and above the water, the overhead camera dolly on a track along the canopy of the Olympic Stadium for the 35 metres (115 ft) high zenithal shot of the athletics track, the stabilized optic gyro-zoom cameras, the super slow motion PAL camera and the microcamera on the high jump bar.[19]

Personalized coverage[edit]

To cover the Games, major international broadcasting unions such as the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU), the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), the International Radio and Television Organisation (OIRT), the Organización de Televisión Iberoamericana (OTI), the Arab States Broadcasting Union (ASBU), the Caribbean Broadcasting Union (CBU) and the Union of African National Television and Radio Organizations (URTNA), secured the rights for their member broadcasters in their countries. In other countries, broadcast networks secured the rights directly or pooled to secure the rights. The Games were covered by the following television and radio broadcasters:[20]

Terrorism[edit]

The Basque nationalist group ETA attempted to disrupt the Barcelona Games with terrorist attacks. It was already feared beforehand that ETA would use the Olympics to gain publicity for their cause in front of a worldwide audience.[23] As the time of the Games approached,[24] ETA committed attacks in Barcelona and the Catalonia region as a whole, including the deadly 1991 Vic bombing.[25][26] On 10 July 1992, the group offered a two-month truce covering the Olympics in exchange for negotiations, which the Spanish government rejected.[27] However, the Games went ahead successfully without an attack.[28]

Songs and themes[edit]

There were two main musical themes for the 1992 Games. The first one was "Barcelona", a classical crossover song composed five years earlier by Freddie Mercury and Mike Moran; Mercury was an admirer of lyric soprano Montserrat Caballé, both recorded the official theme as a duet. Due to Mercury's death eight months earlier, the duo was unable to perform the song together during the opening ceremony. A recording of the song instead played over a travelogue of the city at the start of the opening ceremony, seconds before the official countdown.[36][37] "Amigos Para Siempre" (Friends for Life) was the other musical theme and it was official theme song of the 1992 Summer Olympics. It was written by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Don Black, and sung by Sarah Brightman and José Carreras during the closing ceremonies.


Ryuichi Sakamoto composed and conducted some musical pieces at the opening ceremony musical score.[38] The Opening Olympic fanfare was composed by Angelo Badalamenti and with orchestrations by Joseph Turrin.

Corporate image and identity[edit]

A renewal in Barcelona's image and corporate identity could be seen in the publication of posters, commemorative coins, stamps minted by the FNMT in Madrid, and the Barcelona 1992 Olympic Official Commemorative Medals, designed and struck in Barcelona.[41]

1992 Summer Paralympics

1992 Winter Paralympics

1992 Winter Olympics

. Olympics.com. International Olympic Committee.

"Barcelona 1992"

Barcelona Olympic Foundation

Archived 7 December 2010 at the Wayback Machine

Olympic Review 1992 - Official results

Barcelona Olympic Stadium

Postage stamps of the Republic of Moldova, celebrating the Barcelona Summer Olympics in 1992

Postage stamps of the Republic of Moldova, celebrating medal winners at the Barcelona Summer Olympics in 1992