International Olympic Committee : News

Ben Johnson

10/1/1988 12:00:00 AM

It was the moment doping reared its ugly on the world stage and marked a watershed in the fight against drug cheats.

Johnson’s time of 9.79secs was a new world record and briefly stunned the crowd in the Olympic Stadium and fellow athletes alike – before it emerged that not all was what it seemed.

It was disclosed by his coach Charlie Francis at the Rubin Commission the following year that Johnson had been taking performance-enhancing steroids since 1981, three years before he burst into the global conscience by winning bronze in the 100m at Los Angeles, won by Lewis.

Johnson narrowed the gap over his great rival in the following years and as the pair prepared for the 1987 world championships in Rome, Johnson beat the American several times to become the sport’s pre-eminent sprinter.

Yet Lewis already had his doubts. Refusing to name names he hinted rivals were using drugs to cheat the system.

Then came Rome, when Johnson, propelled by an astonishing start and phenomenal leg speed, won gold in a new world record time of 9.83secs.

Johnson rubbished Lewis’s suggestions.

When 1988 arrived Johnson was the favourite but a hamstring injury at the start of the year rocked his preparations and Lewis was by far the more impressive qualifier for the Seoul final.

Johnson even qualified for one round as a fastest loser after a decision to ease up near the line saw him finish third.

The final arrived and the world’s eyes were on 100m of running track in Seoul’s glistening Olympic Stadium.

Johnson’s trademark electrifying start gave him an early lead and his position was never threatened. In fact Lewis, whose second 50m was generally recognised as the best, made few in-roads into the Canadian’s lead in the closing stages.

The crowd roared as the time of 9.79secs was displayed on the scoreboard.

On September 24th he was king of the world, three days later he was in utter disgrace.

The IOC’s drug testers encountered a sample that tested positive for steroids, and when the sample and athlete’s number were matched up, Johnson’s name emerged as the guilty party.

A piece of graffiti in the Olympic village encapsulated the story: “Hero to zero in 9.79 secs.”

The IOC immediately released a statement saying Johnson had been disqualified from the Games and his gold medal had been withdrawn. Lewis was awarded the gold, thereby becoming the first man to retain the blue riband title.

Johnson’s story and life began to unravel.

Russian basketball

10/1/1988 12:00:00 AM

Russia earned their place in the final after one of the most eagerly awaited rematches in Summer Games history, which culminated in an 82-76 victory over the United States.

Sixteen years earlier in Munich, Russia beat the USA to gold amid some of the most controversial scenes ever seen at the Games.

Time had run down at the end of the match with the United States leading 50-49, a melee of jubilant team members and coaches flooding the court in celebration.

However the officials, facing vocal protests from the U.S. team and crowd alike, decided to add three seconds to the clock following an overlooked late Russian timeout.

Still seemingly chasing a hopeless cause, the Russians hurled a long pass forward which Sasha Belov skilfully collected, before barging past two defenders and netting the decisive two points. Pandemonium ensued, and the repercussions were immediate.

U.S pride was still bruised when they faced their Cold War foes once again in Seoul’s Jamsil Gymnasium for a place in the 1988 final.

The Americans, under coach John Thompson, were the favourites after cruising through the qualifying stages without defeat, but once again the Red Machine proved too strong in the semi-finals.

Yugoslavia lay in wait in the gold medal contest. They had a superior head-to-head record against the Russians but often fell short on the big occasion.

For many players the memory of the narrow defeat in the 1986 world championship semi was still raw.

So it proved again with the Soviet side running out 76-63 winners on the back of a late surged inspired by the Lithuanian trio of Sarunas Marciulionis, Arvydas Sabonis and Rimas Kurtinaitis.

The US, however, didn’t indulge in prolonged navel-gazing.

They have since reigned supreme with gold medals in four of the next five Summer Games, including the 1992 Dream Team in Barcelona featuring Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen and Charles Barkley.

Though unquestionably the finest basketball-playing nation of recent generations, the agony of the defeats in 1972 and 1988 linger long in the American memory banks.

Freestyle Relay

9/30/1988 12:00:00 AM

His tally of seven medals at a single Games has been bettered only by the great Michael Phelps and he was unquestionably one of the standout male athletes of the 1988 Games in Seoul.

However a stunning loss in the 100m butterfly, when a horribly mistimed lunge for the finishing wall allowed Suriname’s fast-finishing Anthony Nesty to win gold, lingers long in the memory.

Biondi’s first taste of Olympic success had come at Los Angeles in 1984 when he helped the 4x100m freestyle relay to gold. The 19-year-old Californian’s potential was evident.

His Seoul campaign opened in solid fashion with bronze in the 200m butterfly, and then followed the defeat by Nesty.

Biondi’s narrowest of defeats prompted the American to ponder whether he should have grown his fingernails longer, but he would have his revenge with five pulsating gold medals.

Biondi showed his explosive pace by capturing 50m and 100m freestyle golds and helped the medley relay and 4x200 freestyle relay teams to victory too.

But it was in the cavalry charge of the 4x100m relay that he really set himself apart.

The quartet of Christopher Jacobs, Troy Dalbey, Thomas Jager and anchorman Biondi looked the standout favourites as the teams prepared for the start.

The opening two legs saw the Americans surge into a slight lead but a brilliant third leg from Nikolai Yevseyev brought the Russians to neck and neck as the final swimmers entered the water.

Biondi put the result beyond any doubt with a powerhouse opening 50m, and extended his lead on the return as the Americans knocked over half a second off the world record.

His split time was astonishingly sub 48 seconds and his place in Olympic history was assured. Biondi would add two more relay golds in Barcelona in 1992 before taking up a career in teaching.

Janet Evans

9/27/1988 12:00:00 AM

Evans looked the very antithesis of an Olympic swimmer. Slight, wiry and possessing a unique high action often compared to a windmill, she was to prove the unrivalled distance swimming queen of her generation.

In the space of six months at the end of 1987, she started her one-woman assault on the record books.

She set new marks in the 800m and 1,500m freestyle events before her 16th birthday, and broke the 400m freestyle record of nine years’ standing in
December to throw down the gauntlet going into the Olympic year.

Despite weighing only a little over 100 pounds, Evans used her powerful backstroke and freestyle sections to power to her opening gold in the 4x100m individual medley by almost two seconds at the Jamsil swimming arena in Seoul.

Next came the 400m freestyle, where she came face to face competitively for the first time with East German prodigy Heike Friedrich.

The German teenager had boasted equally impressive warm-up performances and was deemed the main threat to Evans.

Evans completed the opening turn in first place and was never headed.

Friedrich and team mate Anke Mohring piled on the pressure in the latter stages but the American powered away to win in 4 mins 3.85secs. It was a record that would stand until Frenchwoman Laure Manaudou set a new mark some 18 years later.

Evans by now was the red-hot favourite for the 800m freestyle, and there was nothing the strong East German and Australian contingents could do about it.

She won in an Olympic record time by three metres and her astonishing hat-trick was complete.

Four years later she was to win the 800m in Barcelona by an even greater margin but her long winning sequence in the 400m was ended by Germany’s Dagmar Hase.

She finished sixth in the Atlanta Olympics in 1996, however the highlight of her Games came in the opening ceremony when she was given the honour of handing the torch to Muhammad Ali before the great boxer lit the cauldron.

Janet Evans handed torch to Muhammed Ali to light cauldron in 1996 and weighed 100 pounds in Seoul.

Kim Kwang-sun

9/26/1988 12:00:00 AM

In the final he was pitted against European champion Andrews Tews from East Germany, who four years later would win featherweight gold at the Barcelona Games in 1992.

Tews had inflicted a rare victory on Kim in 1987 but in the gold medal bout the South Korean put in a fine display of sustained aggression.

Kim was awarded a 4-1 victory to the delight of the home fans.

Kim went on to enjoy a short professional career but it will be for his positive approach and focus at the 1988 Games that he will best be remembered for.

Griffith Joyner

9/25/1988 12:00:00 AM

But all that stopped in 1988, when the Flo-Jo phenomenon took root amid a string of incredible performances culminating in double sprint gold at the Olympic Games in Seoul.

She was undoubtedly a sprinter of note, claiming silver in the 200m at the 1984 Games in Los Angeles and again earning the runners-up spot in the world championships in Rome three years later.

But it was in the relatively humble surrounds of the US Olympic trials in 1988 that she made her astonishing breakthrough.

In the heats of the 100m she broke the world record held by compatriot Evelyn Ashford, knocking almost three tenths off the previous mark with an unheard of time of 10.49secs.

Controversy raged over the new time as the wind reading for the race was 0.0 while the triple jump equipment registered a wind speed of 4.3 miles per second a few yards away. Yet the record stood and only Flo-Jo herself has come within touching distance of the time ever since.

Her performances in Seoul were nothing short of remarkable. She literally devoured a world class field in the 100m final, beating Ashford and Heike Drechsler with blistering pace.

She clocked 10.54secs in the final after establishing a two-yard lead at the halfway stage and scorching away from the field in the second half of the race.

The 200m win was even more impressive, shattering the world record in the final with a time of 21.34secs to leave Jamaica’s Grace Jackson, who beat her own personal best by a large, trailing about five metres behind in silver medal position.

She also guided the American sprint relay team to gold in Seoul yet her decision to retire from international athletics soon after Seoul inevitably left the world pondering just where her dramatic improvement had come from.

Although it was widely suggested that performance-enhancing drugs were involved she never failed a test and a post-mortem after her untimely death in 1998 at the age of just 38 after an epileptic seizure also failed to pinpoint any prolonged use of doping.

Whatever the truth she was a truly remarkable athlete whose world records will long stand as testimony to her undoubted talents.

Christa Luding-Rothenberger

9/25/1988 12:00:00 AM

She did not return to her native Germany with a clutch of gold medals and world records to her name, she did not even win the event for which she was entered.

However she did carve herself a unique place in the Olympic annals by becoming the first, and likely to be only, person to medal at a Winter and Summer Games in the same year.

In the early 1980s she was a hugely accomplished speedskater, winning the 500m gold in the Sarajevo Games in 1984, and the first of two world titles the following year.

Christa was encouraged by her coach and future husband Ernst Ludwig to take up cycling as a means of maintaining fitness during the close season, and she became so proficient that she began entering races.

Her chosen discipline was the sprint, the game of cat and mouse where riders cycle slowly in a tactical first half before the pace cranks up to breakneck speed for the final lap.

She went to the world championships in Colorado Springs in 1986 with much less experience than many of her rivals but she returned with the title.

At the Winter Games in Calgary at the start of 1988 she missed out on a repeat gold in the 500m sprint by a whisker before making amends by winning the 1,000m title a few days later.

A matter of months later she was headed to the Summer Games in Seoul with more medals in her sights.

She beat Frenchwoman Isabelle Gautheron in the semi-final of the 1,000m sprint and won the first race in the best of three final against Russian Erika Salumae.

But the Russian proved too strong and claimed the final two races to deny Luding-Rothenburger an even more formidable achievement.

Canadian Clara Hughes has since won Olympic medals in the same sports, yet the talented German’s record is likely to stay intact forever

The decision to make the 1992 Winter Games in Albertville, France the last to be held in the same year as the Summer Games ensures her place in the history books for good.

Table tennis

9/25/1988 12:00:00 AM

With the sport making its first appearance in Asia the scene was set for the continent to grasp control of the competition.

The debut final was indeed an all-Asian affair but not the one most observers were expecting at the National University Gymnasium in downtown Seoul.

China’s Jiang Jialiang was the top seed, had twice been crowned world champion and was the red-hot favourite to take inaugural gold.

However this was a competition where almost nothing went to plan.

Jiang took the opening game against Sweden’s Erik Lindh but then began to unravel. Lindh, the 10th seed, reeled off the next two games before edging
Jiang 22-20 in a nailbiting finale.

Lindh’s Swedish team-mate Jan Ove-Waldner, who took the gold in Barcelona four years later, also lost in the quarter-finals while other European seeds were scattered by the wayside.

The upsets contrived to put home players Yoo Nam-kyu and Kim Ki-taik into the final, and the match proved a fitting finale to an exhilarating tournament.

Kim won the opener 21-17 in a match of the highest quality. Yoo levelled after a 21-19 win in the second and he went 2-1 up with a comfortable 21-11 win in the third.

The best was reserved for the end though with the rallies being played at breakneck speed.

Yoo edged 22-21 ahead and a wayward forehand from Kim earned the victory which sparked pandemonium among the fiercely partisan crowd.

Mark Todd

9/24/1988 12:00:00 AM

That they were present to repeat the gold of Los Angeles four years previous was something of a minor miracle in itself.

Todd won a nerve-jangling gold in the 1984 Games when American Karen Strives and her mount were a whisker away from a clear round in the decisive show-jumping leg.

In his early career Todd had hoped to be a jockey but opted for eventing when he shot up to 6ft 2. He was desperate for a repeat bid four years later but a dispute with the horse’s owner threatened to derail his ambitions.

The row was resolved in time for the Seoul Games but at 16 years of age many observers said Charisma, affectionately known as Podge by Todd, was past his best and was unlikely to compete for gold against the strong British and West German contingents.

Todd, a dairy farmer by trade who had to sell much of his herd to fund his early career, put in a nerveless exhibition in the dressage at Seoul

Equestrian Park to take the early lead.

Another faultless ride under clear blue skies in the cross-country phase kept Todd clear of the field and only a solid round in the show-jumping stood between the New Zealander and the distinction of a first repeat gold in the event since Dutchman Charles Pahud de Martanges and his horse Marcroix achieved the feat in Los Angeles in 1932.

As it turned out, they knocked over just one fence and Todd had defied the odds to retain his gold from the British riders Ian Stark and Ginny Leng in silver and bronze.

Injury to his horse blighted his attempt at a hat-trick in the 1992 Games in Barcelona, and ironically his late withdrawal due to another equine injury four days before the 1996 Atlanta Games allowed team mate Blythe Tait a late entry to compete, and he took full advantage on board Ready Teddy to win another gold for New Zealand.

Todd retired after claiming bronze with Eye Spy II in Sydney 2000, but was to make an unexpected return in Beijing eight years later when he and his mount Gandalf finished 17th.

Todd, now a British resident, has become synonymous with success at the Badminton Horse Trials, an event he won at the first attempt in 1980. In 2011 he claimed his fourth title there, and few would bet against his chances of yet another Olympic challenge at London next year.

Carl Lewis

9/23/1988 12:00:00 AM

Lewis, who was awarded the gold after Johnson’s performance was found to have been aided by the illegal use of steroids, had worn a look of utter bemusement as the Canadian romped to victory in a record time of 9.79secs days earlier.

The news had sent shockwaves through the city and the Olympic Movement and it was no small feat of concentration that Lewis was able to focus once again on the rest of his programme.

If revenge for that slight on victory wasn’t enough motivation, Lewis was also coping with the loss of his beloved father the year previous.
Lewis had placed his gold medal from the 100m in Los Angeles 1984 into the hand of his deceased father William to be buried with him, pledging to him
and his mother that he would win another.

He did win the second 100m gold but not in the manner he would have liked, and it was to the long jump – his favoured event – that he looked to reaffirm his standing.

Scheduling meant Lewis had less than an hour to recover from a 200m qualifier when the long jump final started.

He was due to jump first but officials accepted his request to go last of the 12 finalists to give him more time to recover.

The contest was seen as a battle between the American trio of Lewis, Mike Powell, and Larry Myricks.

Lewis was the model of consistency with opening jumps of 8.41m, 8.56m and 8.52m to give him a decent but not insurmountable advantage over his rivals.

Officials changed their tune about the jumping order after the third round and Lewis was reinstated at the top of the list but it didn’t faze him one bit and he soared to the ultimately decisive distance of 8.72m and the gold was assured.

Lewis became the first man to retain the long jump title and went on to win again in Barcelona and Atlanta in what is surely a feat never to be emulated.