The city where Antoni Gaudí left an indelible mark and set his stamp on architecture rarely seen anywhere else was the host of the XXV Olympic Games. Of course, we are talking about Barcelona, which hosted the world's best athletes in 1992.
The fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989 was the wave that brought the new world order. When the Games were opened on July 25, with a phenomenal song by the now-deceased Montserrat Cabalje and the singer of the group "Queen" Freddy Mercury, nothing was the same - the Soviet Union was dissolved, the two Germanys were united, Czechoslovakia was divided into two parts, and civil war was raging in SFR Yugoslavia.
For the first time since 1960, athletes from the Republic of South Africa, the country where the abolition of apartheid was voted, appeared on the battlefields. The Czechs and Slovaks performed together for the last time, that time under the name of the Federal Republic of the Czech Republic and Slovakia (the two countries began their independent journeys on January 1, 1993). Russia led a group of 12 countries (along with Azerbaijan, Belarus, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan) that competed under the name United Team.
The then Commonwealth of Independent States was the most successful in the Catalan capital, winning a total of 112 medals. Of the former members of the USSR, only Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia performed independently.
The former Yugoslav republics of Slovenia, Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina sent their athletes to the Olympics for the first time. Competitors from FR Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro) could only compete under the Olympic flag, in individual disciplines, due to UN sanctions.
That decision of the IOC was best used by shooters from Serbia - Jasna Šekarić reached silver, and Aranka Binder and Stevan Maksimović won bronze medals.
The leaders of the IOC, led by Juan Antonio Samarano, who was the most influential in getting his hometown to receive the organization, wanted the Games in Barcelona to be spectacular. One decision made it possible for them - for the first time they allowed NBA basketball players to perform at the Olympics.
Detroit Pistons coach Chuck Daly brought the best team of all time to Catalonia, the first and only real dream team. Michael Jordan, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, Charles Barkley, Clyde Drexler, Patrick Ewing, Karl Malone, Scottie Pippen, David Robinson and John Stockton, players who are among the 50 best in NBA history, as well as the "lost" Christian Leitner and Chris Malin (it is speculated that they were in the lineup only so that there would not be 10 African-Americans, along with the whites Bird and Stockton), they looked like they were from another planet - in all eight matches they scored over 100 points, and the difference by which they beat their rivals was average 43,8 points.
In the final, they overcame Croatia (117:85), although Dražen Petrović, Toni Kukoč, Dino Rađa and others held their own. It's a pity that due to the disintegration of the SFRY selection team, in which Petrović, Kukoč and Radja were joined by Vlade Divac, Saša Đorđević, Predrag Danilović, Žarko Paspalj, Zoran Savić, Jure Zdovac...
Kristina Egersegi was only 1988 years old in Seoul in 14 when she won her first Olympic gold (200 backstroke). In Barcelona, she defended that title and added two more brilliant medals, in the 100 back and 400 medley races. In Atlanta in 1996, the Hungarian was again the best in the 200 backstroke, making her the second swimmer in history with three consecutive gold medals in the same discipline, along with Australian Dawn Fraser.
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And American Evelyn Ashford won her third consecutive gold, but in the 4X100 relay. The men's part of the swimming tournament was marked by Russians Aleksandar Popov and Yevgenij Sadovij, who dominated the freestyle.
Carl Lewis won his seventh and eighth gold in Barcelona. And he did it in a phenomenal way - in the long jump final with 8,67, he surpassed his biggest rival, the world record holder Mike Powell, by three centimeters, and in the 4x100 relay with Michael Marsh, Leroy Barrell and Denis Mitchell, he ran the last shift in breaking the world record ( 37,40).
Athletic events were also marked by Kevin Young, who set a world record (400) in the 46,78-meter hurdles, which is still valid today. The third world record was set in the 4x400 meter relay - Andrew Wallmon, Quincy Watts, Michael Johnson and Steve Lewis ran that section in two minutes, 55 seconds and 74 hundredths of a second. The supremacy of the Americans in the sprint was spoiled by Linford Christie - at the age of 32, the legendary Briton triumphed in the 100 meters (9,96) and became the oldest Olympic champion in the fastest race.
Sergej Bubka is one of the greatest tragedians in the history of the Olympic movement. The most dominant athlete in history won only one gold, although he broke the world record 35 times. He did not participate in Los Angeles due to the boycott of the USSR, and in Seoul he triumphed with 5,90.
When he arrived in Barcelona, he already had a jump of 6,11 outdoors and 6,13 indoors. No one even thought that he would not be the first, but the Ukrainian completely failed - he broke the ranking three times to 5,30! The gold went to Maksim Tarasov (5,80).
He skipped Atlanta in 1996 due to an injury, and in his last performance, in 2000 in Sydney, for the then 36-year-old Bubka, the height of 5,70 was an insurmountable obstacle...
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