Manic Ben Johnson, with eyes rolling and arms pumping finished first in
the 100m, only to be promptly disqualified when stanazol was found in his
blood sample. Carl Lewis was subsequently awarded the gold medal, but
strangely his time of 9.92 would not be ratified as a world record for
another 2 years. Perhaps the officials were just too caught up in the
aftermath of Johnson's disqualification and dishonour.
Florence Griffith-Joyner won the women's 100m and 200m. Her time of
21.34 for the 200m still stands to this day. It does seem heartless to
speak ill of the dead - she died tragically before her 40th birthday - but
her phenomenal time, together with her muscular physique, only highlights
the likelihood that her performances at Seoul were drug fuelled; it's just
that unlike Ben Johnson, the tests did not catch Flo-Jo.
Boxing has suffered some dubious decisions down the years, but Roy Jones
was truly robbed of the gold medal when 3 home-town judges gave the gold
medal to South Korean Park Si-Hun. This decision was so bad that even
the winner apologised to Jones. On the film you could see Jones giving
Si-Hun a good pasting, fight analysts counted Jones landing 86 punches to
the gold medallist's 28.
Another sign that boxing committee knew the result was a big mistake came
when they awarded Roy Jones the Val Barker trophy for the most stylistic
boxer at the Seoul 1988 Olympic Games. Those three judges who voted
against Jones were suspended, and inquiry found that they had been received
hospitality from the Koreans. In some ways you have to admire the
IOC's tenacity in asserting the time honoured cry, 'The referee is always
right'.
This was the same Roy Jones Jr who not only won the middleweight world
title, but also beat John Ruiz in a unanimous decision for the WBA
heavyweight championship.
Kristin Otto of East Germany won six gold medals in the swimming pool, while
Matt Biondi won five and Janet Evans three.
Greg Louganis qualified for the springboard final despite hitting his head on
the board. He went on to win the final, to follow up his achievement of
winning the same event 4 years earlier.
China's
Fu Mingxia, 13, won the women's platform diving gold, becoming the
second-youngest person to win an individual gold medal.
After two failures, Sergey Bubka won the gold medal on his final jump in the
pole vault. In 1992 he would fail to clear any height.
Long Wait for Recognition
Sohn Kee-chung won the Berlin Olympic marathon and was listed as
being Japanese. However, he was actually a Korean. In 1936 his country
was occupied by the Japanese so Kee-chung had to receive his gold medal
under a "foreign" flag. In 1988, now 76, Sohn carried the Olympic
torch into the main stadium at the opening ceremony of the Seoul Games. He
was a very happy and proud man!
One tradition is for the host country to introduce a game of their choice.
In Korea, table tennis made its first appearance in the Olympic Games.
Baseball and Taekwondo were demonstration sports. Will and Guy are very
much against team games such as baseball and soccer being part of the Olympic
Games.
Unfortunately some of the live doves, which were released during the
Opening Ceremony were burned alive when the Olympic cauldron was lit.
Following the rightful protests this was the last time that live doves would
be released at the Opening Ceremony.
Vitaly Scherbo won six gold medals, including a record four in one day.
Only Marc Spitz has more medals at one games.
Mark Todd of New Zealand won the individual gold medal in the three-day
event in equestrian on Charisma. This was notable because it was only
the second time in three-day eventing history that the same person won a
gold medal at consecutive Olympic Games.
A special mention for Cecilia Villacorta. Peru don't win many
Olympic medals, thus it's remarkable how Cecilia steered the Peruvian
volleyball team to a silver medal.
Footnote Please send us your interesting facts
and trivia for the Seoul 1988 Olympic Games.
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