Seoul Olympics

Overview

The Seoul Olympics (the 24th Olympic Games, Seoul 1988) were a Summer Olympics held over 16 days, from 17 September to 2 October 1988, centred on Seoul. Under the slogan "Harmony and Progress," the Games, according to the Encyclopedia of Korean Culture, drew 160 countries and were the largest Olympics held up to that time. The opening and closing ceremonies, along with athletics and football, took place at the Seoul Olympic Stadium in Jamsil. The mascot was Hodori, a baby tiger wearing a sangmo (traditional straw hat with long ribbons).

Bidding

The bid began in September 1979, when the National Sports Promotion Council passed a resolution and the government approved it, and in October the Mayor of Seoul announced a bidding plan. In December 1980, the Seoul city government applied to the IOC as a candidate city, and a private promotion committee headed by Chung Ju-yung carried out bidding activities in Baden-Baden, West Germany. On 30 September 1981, at the 84th IOC Session held in Baden-Baden, Seoul defeated Nagoya, Japan, by 52 votes to 27 and won the right to host the Games. In 1986, the Asian Games were held in Seoul, serving as a test of the city's ability to run the event.

Cold War and the Inter-Korean Question

The 1980 Moscow Olympics were boycotted by some 60 countries, led by the United States, over the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, and the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics were boycotted by the Soviet Union and other Eastern Bloc countries, making both Games lopsided. There were similar concerns about the Seoul Games, which would be held in a divided country, but as the Soviet Union, China, and most Eastern European countries largely took part, the Games became the first in twelve years to bring together both Eastern and Western blocs.

North Korea demanded joint hosting. Beginning in 1985, with IOC mediation, inter-Korean sports talks were held in Lausanne, Switzerland. South Korea and the IOC proposed holding some events in Pyongyang, but North Korea insisted on the name of the Games, the allocation of events, and the separation of the opening and closing ceremonies, and no agreement was reached. In the end, North Korea did not participate, and Cuba, Ethiopia, Nicaragua, Albania, and the Seychelles also stayed away. In November 1987, ten months before the Games, North Korean agents carried out the Korean Air Flight 858 bombing. As a result, a security force of about 112,000 people, including police and military personnel, was deployed to more than 300 Games facilities.

The Games

The opening ceremony on 17 September began at 10:30 a.m. with a river procession on the Han River. Son Kee-chung, the winner of the marathon at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, entered the main stadium carrying the torch, and a scene of a primary school pupil rolling a hoop across the empty stadium became an enduring image of the Games. President Roh Tae-woo declared the Games open.