The 1988 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXIV Olympiad and officially branded as Seoul 1988, were an international multi-sport event held from 17 September to 2 October 1988 in Seoul, South Korea. 159 nations were represented at the games by a total of 8,391 athletes. 237 events were held and 27,221 volunteers helped to prepare the Olympics.
Jacqueline Joyner-Kersee is a retired American track and field athlete who competed in both the heptathlon and long jump. She won three gold, one silver, and two bronze Olympic medals at four different Olympic Games. Joyner-Kersee was also a four-time gold medalist at the world championships. Since 1988, she has held the world record for heptathlon.
Charles Frederick "Karch" Kiraly is an American volleyball player, coach, and broadcast announcer. He was a central part of the U.S National Team that won gold medals at the 1984 and 1988 Olympic Games. He went on to win the gold medal again at the 1996 Olympic Games, the first Olympic competition to feature beach volleyball. He is the only player to have won Olympic medals of any color in both the indoor and beach volleyball categories. He played college volleyball for the UCLA Bruins, where his teams won three national championships under head coach Al Scates. Kiraly is widely regarded as the greatest male volleyball player of all time.
The United States of America (USA) competed at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Korea. 527 competitors, 332 men and 195 women, took part in 230 events in 27 sports. The United States finished outside of the top two in the overall medal count for the first time and in the gold medal count for only the second time. That was mainly caused by the extensive state-sponsored doping programs that were developed in these communist countries to fulfil their political agenda on an international stage.
The United States of America has sent athletes to every celebration of the modern Summer Olympic Games with the exception of the 1980 Summer Olympics, during which it led a boycott in protest of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. The United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee (USOPC) is the National Olympic Committee for the United States.
Alfrederick Joyner is an American track and field coach and former athlete. He was born in East St. Louis, Illinois. He is the 1984 Olympic gold medalist in the triple jump. He was also the coach and husband of the late four-time Olympic medalist Florence Griffith Joyner and is the brother of six-time Olympic medalist Jackie Joyner-Kersee.
Water polo has been part of the Summer Olympics program since the second games, in 1900. A women's water polo tournament was introduced for the 2000 Summer Olympics. Hungary has been the most successful country in men's tournament, while the United States is the only team to win multiple times at the women's tournament since its introduction. Italy is the first and only country to win both the men's and women's water polo tournaments.
Bogdan Brunon Wenta is a Polish politician and handball coach and former Polish and German handball player. He has been a member of the Poland men's national handball team in 1981–1994 and Germany men's national handball team in 1997–2000, a participant of the Olympic Games Sydney 2000, five-time Polish Champion, and former head coach of Poland. He has been one of the best handball player in the history of Polish handball. Between 2014 and 2018 he was a Member of the European Parliament for the Polish Civic Platform. In 2018, he was elected as Mayor of Kielce, having run from his own committee with the endorsement of the Civic Platform.
Sport in Serbia includes football, basketball, handball, tennis, volleyball, and water polo. Professional sports in Serbia are organized by sporting federations and leagues. Serbian professional sports includes multi-sport clubs, biggest and most successful of which are Crvena Zvezda, Partizan, Radnički and Beograd in Belgrade, Vojvodina in Novi Sad, Radnički in Kragujevac, Spartak in Subotica. Serbia had successes in basketball, winning the Olympic silver medal and Nikola Jokic winning 3 NBA MVPs, as well as the 2023 NBA Championship and Finals MVP, Novak Djokovic winning a record setting 24th Grand Slam, and in handball, volleyball and water polo as well.
Oscar Alberto Furlong Chretienneau was an Argentine basketball player, and tennis player and coach. He was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina. As a basketball player, he was a FIBA World Cup champion in 1950, who also competed at the 1948 Summer Olympic Games, and at the 1952 Summer Olympic Games. Furlong was inducted into the FIBA Hall of Fame in September 2007.
Péter Kovács is a former Hungarian international handball player and handball coach.
Slovenia first participated as an independent nation at the Olympic Games at the 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville, France, and the country has sent athletes to compete at every Games since then. The Slovenian Olympic Committee was established in 1991 and was recognised by the International Olympic Committee on 5 February 1992.
China was the host nation of the 2008 Summer Olympics. China was represented by the Chinese Olympic Committee (COC), and the team of selected athletes were officially known as Team China.
Robert Benjamin Sparks is an American former handball player who competed in the 1972 Summer Olympics and in the 1976 Summer Olympics.
Sean O'Neill is an American table tennis player and coach. He began playing table tennis in Virginia at the age of 8 with this father, Patrick, who was a nationally ranked junior player from Toledo, Ohio. O'Neill went on to win every US National Age Championship title, including the Under 11, 13, 15, 17, 21, and Over 30 events. In addition to the age events, O'Neill won the US National Men's Singles, Men's Doubles, and Mixed Doubles Championships.
Taras "Terry" Liskevych served as the United States women's national volleyball team head coach from 1985 to 1996. During his tenure Liskevych posted over 300 international victories.
Sandra Pisani OAM was an Australian field hockey player who played 85 international games for Australia and was the captain from 1985 to 1987.
Robert Ray Djokovich is an American former Basketball and Handball player who competed in the 1984 Summer Olympics in handball. He was the 6th President of the USA Team Handball. He was born in Gary, Indiana.
Sport in Yugoslavia had a significant role in its culture and society. Team sports such as football, basketball, handball, volleyball and water polo had the biggest popularity. Of individual sports the most popular were tennis, athletics, alpine skiing, swimming, table tennis, ski jumping and chess. Yugoslavia made its debut at the Summer Olympics in 1920. Until its break up in 1992, it competed in 16 Summer and 14 Winter Olympic games and won a total of 87 medals in various summer and winter sports. Yugoslavia hosted its first and the only Winter Olympic games in 1984 in Sarajevo when Jure Franko won country's first Winter Olympic medal, silver in alpine skiing.
Dr. Peter Gerhard BuehningBühning (German) was an American handball player, coach, referee and official.
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