1988 Summer Olympics

The 1988 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XXIV Olympiad, were held in 1988 in Seoul, South Korea. The host was chosen in the September 1981 vote, ahead of the Japanese city of Nagoya.

After boycotts of the Olympics in 1976, 1980 and 1984, the Seoul Games were again boycotted, led by North Korea and followed by Cuba; the basis of the boycott was South Korea's refusal to co-host the Olympics with North Korea, which rejected all compromise. However it was an early, visible triumph of nordpolitik that no other communist nations boycotted the Games despite being allies of North Korea.

Ethiopia, Seychelles and Nicaragua could not afford to send their athletes for economic reasons.

Highlights

Ben Johnson wins the 100 m in a new world record, but is disqualified after tests positive for stanozolol.
American boxer Roy Jones Jr. loses the gold medal to South Korean fighter Park Si Hun in a controversial 3-2 judge's decision, despite clearly dominating the fight. Allegations swirled that Korean officials had fixed the judging.
Swimmer Kristin Otto of East Germany wins six gold medals. Other multi-medalists in the pool are Matt Biondi (five) and Janet Evans (three).
Anthony Nesty of Suriname wins his country's first Olympic medal by winning the 100 m butterfly, scoring an upset victory; he is also the first black person to win a swimming title.
Soviet Vladimir Artemov wins four gold medals in gymnastics, Daniela Silivaş of Romania wins three.
US Sprinter Florence Griffith Joyner wins three gold medals and a silver on the track.
Christa Rothenburger becomes the first (and last) athlete to win Olympic medals at the Winter Olympics and Summer Olympics in the same year. She adds a cycling silver to the speed skating gold she won earlier in the year in Calgary.
US diver Greg Louganis wins 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.
Mark Todd wins his second consecutive individual gold medal in the three-day event in equestrian on Charisma, only the second time in eventing history that a gold medal has been won consecutively.
Tennis returns to the Olympics after a 64-year absence, and Steffi Graf adds to her four Grand Slam victories in the year by also winning the Olympic title.
Table tennis is introduced at the Olympics, with China and the host nation both winning two titles.
Two Bulgarian weightlifters are stripped of their gold medals after failing doping tests, and the team withdraws after this event.
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. Lemieux finished in 22nd place, but received the Pierre de Coubertin Medal for Sportsmanship.
Baseball and Taekwondo are demonstration sports.
Women's Judo was held for the first time.
The last amateur US men's basketball team fails to win the gold for only the third time in Olympic history.