History
Fast Facts
Host City: Barcelona, SpainOpening date: July 25, 1992
Closing date: Aug. 9, 1992
Nations: 169
Athletes: 9,367 athletes (2,708 women, 6,659 men)
257 events in 28 sports
Spain's pitch for the 1992 Olympics emphasized the 500th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's discovery of America under the auspices of the Spanish monarchy.
Columbus and the explorers who followed him obviously changed the world. But the world had also changed dramatically since the 1988 Olympics.
South Africa had finally abandoned apartheid and was welcomed back to the Olympics for the first time since 1960. Every nation with a National Olympic Committee was represented at Barcelona. And there were more of them than ever before because of the breakup of the Soviet Union into 15 different countries.
Lithuania had an independent team for the first time since 1928, and Estonia and Latvia returned to the Olympics after being absent since 1936. Other former Soviet republics competed as the "Unified Team." There was one less country in the world, though, because of the fall of the Berlin Wall and the reunification of Germany.
Badminton, baseball, and women's judo were added to the program in 1992. And basketball was opened to professionals for the first time, allowing the U. S. "Dream Team" to stock up on NBA players, led by Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, and Michael Jordan.
The biggest individual star was Belarus gymnast Vitaly Scherbo, who won six gold medals. Derartu Tulu of Ethiopia won the women's 10,000-meter run to become the first black African woman gold medalist ever.
Andreas Keller of Germany extended a family tradition as a member of Germany's gold medal field hockey team. His father had played for the 1972 gold medal team, his grandfather for the 1936 silver medal team.
The most exciting contest of the games was the women's 100-meter dash. Gail Devers of the United States won in 10.82 seconds, just 1/100 second ahead of Juliet Cuthbert of Jamaica and only 6/100 faster than Merlene Ottey, also of Jamaica, who finished fifth.
The major surprise was Voula Patoulidou's victory in the women's 100-meter hurdles. Patoulidou, who had never before won a major championship, was the first Greek woman ever to win a medal and the first Greek athlete to win a track and field gold medal since 1912.
