Athletics at the 1988 Seoul Summer Games:

Since 1976, every major title had been won by Yury Sedykh and Sergey Litvinov, with the obvious exception of the 1984 Olympics, when they could not compete because of the Soviet boycott. Litvinov was a slight favorite in Seoul as the 1983 and 1987 World Champion. Assisted by Jüri Tamm the Soviet threesome swept the medals in this event, as they had in 1976 and 1980. Litvinov led from the first round with 84.76 (278-1), which was good enough for gold, but improved slightly in round five with 84.80 (278-2¾). Sedykh added a silver to his golds from 1976 and 1980.