25 Years of the Olympic Games

1984

The XXIII Olympics Games were held in Los Angeles.

Photo credit:  Wikipedia

Los Angeles was selected to hold the 1984 Olympics simply because it was the only city to put in a bid to do so. There was no vote and no decision to be made. The selection was made in may 1978 and it thought that the reason why no other city wanted to host the games was because the 1976 games in Montreal had run massively over budget. The Americans had led a boycott of the 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow because of Soviet interference in Afghanistan. This triggered retaliation and the Russians boycotted Los Angeles. The games are supposed to be completely free of politics but this clearly had not been the case.

1988

The XXIV Olympic Games : Seoul, South Korea.

Photo credit:  Wikipedia

Seoul was selected over the Japanese city of Nagoya, to host the XXIV Olympiad. It was only the second time that an City had hosted the games. (Tokyo was the host in 1964). 160 nations took part and there was a total of 8391 athletes. Fortunately, the Seoul Games did not suffer from political boycotts as the two preceding Games had.

1992

The XXV Olympiad: Barcelona, Spain.

Photo credit:  Wikipedia

The 1992 XXV Olympiad was held in Barcelona, Spain. This was the year that South Africa was allowed to participate in the games again. It had previously been excluded because of its apartheid policy and this was the first time in 28 years that South African athlete had joined in the games. The music associated with these games was ‘Barcelona’ written by Freddie Mercury and ‘Amigos Pare Siempre’ written by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Don Black and sung by Sarah Brightman.

1996

The XXVI Olympiad in Atlanta, Georgia, USA.

Photo credit: Wikipedia

197 nations took part in the Olympiad and 80,000 people celebrated 16 days of Olympic Games in the stadium in Atlanta and the finale was a display of music and lights a giant conga line of athletes snaking its way around the arena. As soon as the games ended this fabulous stadium had its track removed and was downsized to seat just 50,000 in preparation for its recycled role as the home of the Atlanta Braves baseball team.

2000

The XXVII Olympiad in Sydney, Australia.

Photo credit: Wikipedia

A record 199 nations were represented at the Sydney Olympics of 2000. The only missing International Olympic Committee member was Afghanistan which was suspended because of the Taliban prohibition of any kind of sport. North and South Korea entered as one nation under a specially designed flag.

2004

The XXVIII Olympiad in Athens, Greece.

Photo credit: Wikipedia

The lighting of the flame for the 28^th Olympiad in Athens was arranged like a pagan ceremony with dancers. It was certainly different from anything we have seen before at opening ceremonies. 10,625 athletes from 201 countries competed in these games. This was the first time since 1896 that all member countries of the International Olympic Committee were represented. It was also the first time the games had been hosted in the country where they originated since 1896.

2008

The XXVIV Olympiad in Beijing, China.

Photo credit: Wikipedia Creative Commons

This amazing display of organization and spectacle was an a wonderful achievement for China. The opening ceremony with the athlete ‘flying’ up to light the Olympic flame was one of the most memorable yet. The televised firework display at the opening ceremony was breathtaking but later revealed to have been computer generated. 205 countries competed in the games and the only one missing from the IOC was Brunei. China had the largest team with 639 athletes, with USA coming close behind with 596. Several countries sent only one athlete each.