1988 Seoul Summer Games

The problem became more complicated in July 1985 when DPR (North) Korea demanded that it be allowed to co-host the Games with the Republic of Korea. Over the next three years the IOC negotiated with North Korea and offered to allow it to stage several events. However, no IOC concession was ever enough for the North, who wanted equal co-host status and an equal number of events. They demanded this despite the fact that the Games were close at hand and they had no possible hope of building the necessary facilities in time. When the IOC would not concede further to the North’s demands, North Korea announced that it would definitely boycott the Seoul Olympics.

By then, however, most of the Eastern Bloc countries had agreed to compete in Seoul, making 1988 the first Summer Olympic competition in 12 years between the United States, the Soviet Union and the German Democratic Republic. After the North Korean’s final boycott announcement, Cuba and Ethiopia also announced that they would not attend the Olympics, out of solidarity with North Korea. Nicaragua, Albania, and the Seychelles also did not attend the Olympics, though their reasons were less clear and may not have been directly related to any boycott.

But the Seoul Games went on and saw the largest participation in Olympics history. There were more nations and more countries represented than ever before. The Games themselves were excellent and very well run. Controversies and political intrusions, unlike the Games of the last 20 years, were relatively few and comparatively minor.

Three swimmers and one female track & field athlete dominated the sporting events. In the pool, the GDR’s Kristin Otto broke all sorts of records by winning six gold medals. It was an unmatched performance by a woman at the Olympics. Her only rival for swimming supremacy was America’s Janet Evans who won three gold medals. But they never raced each other, as Otto was a sprinter and Evans a distance swimmer.

On the men’s side of the pool, Matt Biondi was attempting to equal Mark Spitz’s record of seven gold medals. He failed in his first two events, taking a silver and a bronze. However, he then won gold in his last five events, to equal Spitz’s haul of seven medals, though they had a bit less lustre.

On the track, the world was stunned by the performances of Florence Griffith Joyner. A solid world-class sprinter for a decade, she had re-dedicated herself in 1988 and had shattered records at the American Olympic Trials. At the Olympics she won the 100 and 200, setting world records in the 200 finals. In the 100, she posted a time that was wind-aided, but was otherwise the fastest time ever recorded. She then helped the American women win a gold medal in the 4 x 100 relay. Finally, she was asked by the American coaches to run anchor in the 4 x 400 relay. She did so, and narrowly missed catching the Soviet’s Olga Bryzgina, as the Americans won a silver medal. Her total haul was three gold medals and one silver.

The biggest media event of the 1988 Olympic Games was the disqualification of Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson, after he had won the 100 metres in the world record time of 9.79, and defeating Carl Lewis in the process. But a few days later, Johnson tested positive for stanazolol, an anabolic steroid, and was disqualified with Lewis receiving the gold medal. After the uproar of the scandal, the Canadian launched an inquiry into drug use in international sport, the Dubin Inqury. At the inquiry, Johnson admitted he had used steroids for several years.

One of Seoul’s legacies to the Olympic Movement was a new Olympic Flag. The main Olympic flag was termed the Antwerp flag, because it had been made in 1920 and donated to the IOC by the Antwerp organizing committee. But the flag was worn and it was soon to be retired to the Olympic Museum. Seoul provided the IOC with a replacement, fashioned from pure raw Korean silk, with the needlework done by skilled Korean craftsmen. Thus the Seoul legacy will literally fly over many future Olympic Games.