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1988 Summer Olympics

"Seoul 1988" redirects here. For the Summer Paralympics, see 1988 Summer Paralympics.

Games of the XXIV Olympiad
Emblem of the 1988 Summer Olympics
LocationSeoul, South Korea
MottoHarmony and Progress
(화합과 전진)
Nations160
Athletes8,453 (6,250 men, 2,203 women)
Events237 in 23 sports (31 disciplines)
Opening17 September 1988
Closing2 October 1988
Opened by
President Roh Tae-woo[1]
Cauldron
Sohn Mi-chung
Chung Sun-man
Kim Won-tak[1][2]
StadiumSeoul Olympic Stadium
Summer
Winter
1988 Summer Paralympics
1988 Summer Olympics
Hangul
서울 하계 올림픽
Revised RomanizationSeoul Hagye Ollimpik
McCune–ReischauerSŏul Hagye Ollimp'ik
IPA[sʰʌ.uɭ haɡje oɭːimpʰik̚]
Olympic rings
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1988 Summer Olympics

The 1988 Summer Olympics (Korean: 1988년 하계 올림픽; RR: 1988-nyeon Hagye Ollimpik), officially the Games of the XXIV Olympiad (제24회 올림픽경기대회; Je-24-hoe Ollimpik-Gyeonggidaehoe) and officially branded as Seoul 1988 (서울 1988), were an international multi-sport event held from 17 September to 2 October 1988 in Seoul, South Korea. 159 nations were represented at the games by a total of 8,391 athletes (6,197 men and 2,194 women). 237 events were held and 27,221 volunteers helped to prepare the Olympics.

The 1988 Seoul Olympics were the second summer Olympic Games held in Asia, after Tokyo 1964, and the first held in South Korea.[3] As the host country, South Korea ranked fourth overall, winning 12 gold medals and 33 medals in the competition. 11,331 media (4,978 written press and 6,353 broadcasters) showed the Games all over the world.[4] These were the last Olympic Games of the Cold War, as well as for the Soviet Union and East Germany, as both ceased to exist before the next Olympic Games in 1992. The Soviet Union dominated the medal count, winning 55 gold and 132 total medals. The results that got closest to that medal haul in the years since are China's and the United States's 48 gold medals in 2008 and 2012, respectively, and the United States's 126 total medals in 2024.

Compared to the 1980 Summer Olympics (Moscow) and the 1984 Summer Olympics (Los Angeles), which were divided into two camps by ideology, the 1988 Seoul Olympics was a competition in which the boycotts virtually disappeared, although they were not completely over. North Korea boycotted the 1988 Seoul Olympics, as did five socialist countries including Cuba, an ally of North Korea. Albania, Ethiopia, and Seychelles did not respond to the invitation sent by the IOC.[5] Nicaragua did not participate due to athletic and financial considerations,[6] while the expected participation of Madagascar was withdrawn for financial reasons.[7] Nonetheless, the much larger boycotts seen in the three previous editions were avoided, resulting in the largest number of participating nations during the Cold War era.

For South Korea, the 1988 Olympics was a symbolic event that elevated its international image while also contributing to national pride.[8] Only thirty-five years after the Korean War which devastated the nation, and during a decade of social unrest in South Korea, the Olympics was successfully held and became the culmination of what was deemed the "Miracle on the Han River".[9][10]

  1. ^ a b "Factsheet – Opening Ceremony of the Games of the Olympiad" (PDF) (Press release). International Olympic Committee. 9 October 2014. Archived (PDF) from the original on 14 August 2016. Retrieved 22 December 2018.
  2. ^ "Seoul 1988 Torch Relay". olympic.org. Retrieved 2 June 2018.
  3. ^ "Seoul surprises Nagoya for Olympic bid". UPI. 30 September 1981.
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference SEOUL 1988 Games of the XXIV Olympiad was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ John E. Findling; Kimberly D. Pelle (1996). Historical Dictionary of the Modern Olympic Movement. Greenwood Publishing Group. pp. 182–. ISBN 978-0-313-28477-9.
  6. ^ Janofsky, Michael (16 January 1988). "CUBANS TURN THEIR BACK ON THE SEOUL OLYMPICS". The New York Times. Retrieved 27 September 2017.
  7. ^ "Seoul Olympics 1988". Retrieved 27 September 2017.
  8. ^ "Seoul 1988: South Korea opens up to the world". olympics.com. 25 June 2020.
  9. ^ Randy Harvey (14 September 1988). "OLYMPICS '88: A PREVIEW : THE HOST CITY : Seoul Rises From Ashes to Become Metropolitan Center of Distinction". Los Angeles Times.
  10. ^ Bridges, Brian (1 December 2008). "The Seoul Olympics: Economic Miracle Meets the World". The International Journal of the History of Sport. 25 (14): 1939–52. doi:10.1080/09523360802438983. ISSN 0952-3367. S2CID 143356778.

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