Montreal, Moscow and Los Angeles... Games marked by boycotts for political reasons had to be forgotten, the International Olympic Committee needed a perfect review.
The choice "fell" on Seoul, which, in competition with Nagoya, convincingly won the organization of the 24th Olympic Games.
The Games in Seoul were much more interesting than the previous few. A record 160 countries showed up to that time (only North Korea, Cuba, Ethiopia and Nicaragua boycotted), represented by 8.391 athletes (6.197 men and 2.194 women), who competed in 27 sports, and as many as 11.331 watched the games from the venue. a journalist.
And they had a lot to report on - the performances of Kristin Otto, Florence Griffith-Joyner, Matt Biondi... and the doping scandal of Ben Johnson will forever remain in the memory of sports fans.
Female swimmers from DR Germany dominated in the open pool "Jamsil". Just one year before the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the iron curtain that separated the world into East and West, members of the famous GDR triumphed in 10 out of 15 swimming disciplines.
As is usually the case, one name stood out from the rest - Kristin Otto became (and remains) the only woman to win six gold medals at one Games.
She triumphed in the 50 and 100 meter freestyle, 100 butterfly and backstroke, as well as in the 4X100 freestyle and medley relays.
A year later, she retired at the age of 23, which deepened suspicions that all athletes from East Germany had been doping for years.
Matt Biondi, at that moment the best swimmer in the world, arrived in Seoul with only one wish - to surpass the record of countryman Marko Spitz, who won seven gold medals in Munich in 1972. Already in the first final, in the 200-meter freestyle, his dreams were dashed, because he was only third.
He was dealt a new blow by Surinamese Anthony Nesti, who finished in front of Biondi with exactly 53 seconds to one hundredth and became the first and only dark-skinned swimmer with Olympic gold.
“One hundredth? What if I had longer nails", the then 22-year-old from Palo Alto (California) asked himself after that race.
Bjondi, however, showed how mentally strong he is - in the following five disciplines (50 and 100 freestyle, 4X100 and 4x200 freestyle and 4X100 medley) he won gold medals and broke four world records.
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There were doping scandals at the previous Games as well, but none shook the world as much as the one that was revealed on September 27, 1988.
Just three days after breaking his own world record (100) in the final of the 9,79 meters race and defeating his biggest rival Carl Lewis, it was revealed that Ben Johnson used the illegal substance Stanozolol.
The Canadian was immediately disqualified, and Luis was awarded the fifth of a total of nine Olympic gold medals.
The performance of women in the "queen of sports" (or as many called athletics the "queen of doping" after Seoul) was marked by Florence Griffith-Joyner, who won three gold medals (100, 200 and 4x100) and one silver medal (4x400 meters).
The big question, however, is whether Flo Jo, who is the current world record holder in the two shortest sprint disciplines, achieved that success without the help of illegal means. Speculation about this deepened even more after her death in 1998.
She died in her sleep at the age of 39, and the official cause remains unclear, although an autopsy indicated she had a congenital brain defect.
Greg Louganis defended his titles from Los Angeles in diving from three and 10 meters. Seven years later, the American announced in his autobiography that he was a carrier of the HIV virus and that he knew it before leaving for Seoul.
A lot of dust was raised, because Luganis hit his head on the board in the final of the jumps from three meters, which caused minor bleeding.
Fortunately, the virus could not infect the other competitors, because it cannot "survive" in water.
Tennis returned to the program of the Olympic Games after 64 years. Just in time for Štefi Graf to enter history - the great German is the only one in the "white sport" to win all four Grand Slam tournaments and the Olympic gold in one year (she was better than Gabriela Sabatini in the final).
All the most important tournaments and the brightest medals at the OI were also won by her current husband - Andre Agasi, but it took him seven years (from 1992 to 1999). After him, Rafael Nadal succeeded - of course, not in one year. Nobody like Štefi Graf!
Krista Luding-Rotenburger from East Germany, after the gold in speed skating, which she achieved six months earlier at the Winter Games in Calgary, also reached the medal at the Summer Olympics in Seoul, because she was second in cycling! She is the only athlete to win medals at two Olympics in one year. The list of heroes was completed by the Swedish fencer Kerstin Palm, the only person who participated in seven Games.
In the last performance before the dissolution of the state, SFRY was represented by 157 athletes, who won 12 medals (three gold, four silver and five bronze).
Shooters Jasna Šekarić and Goran Maksimović climbed to the top step of the winner's podium, boxer Ante Josipović defended the gold from Los Angeles in the light heavyweight category, as did the water polo players, who defeated the USA in the final with 9:7.
The youngest member of Ratko Rudić's team was 20-year-old Mirko Vičević from Kotor, and Igor Gočanin, who was born in Herceg Novi, was less than two years older.
Silver was won by wrestler Šaban Trstena, table tennis tandem Ilia Lupulescu - Zoran Primorac, as well as both basketball teams. In the Dušan-Duda Ivković team, which was defeated by the USSR in the final (76:63), two Montenegrins born in 1966 played notable roles - Žarko Paspalj from Titograd and Zdravko Radulović from Nikšić.
Bronzes went to handball players, for whom Veselin Vujović played brilliantly, as well as to boxer Damir Škar, the rowing couple Sadik Mujkić - Bojan Prešern, Jasna Šekarić and the table tennis duo Gordana Perkučin - Jasna Fazlić.
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