Barcelona was the Spanish hometown of Juan Antonio Samaranch, the President of the International Olympic Committee. He had been elected President of the IOC only days before the tragic Munich Games of 1972; in the 20 years since he had seen television and sponsor budgets balloon and the Games reach a once unimagined global TV audience. It was the first Games in a while not blemished by boycotts, leading to a record 172 nations participating.
From the spectacular Opening Ceremony, highlighted when the Olympic flame was lit by a flaming arrow fired by a Spanish archer, Antonio Rebollo, Barcelona was a visually spectacular Games. Images such as China’s tiny teenage diving sensation, Fu Mingxia, launching herself from the 10m platform with the city skyline as a backdrop, made for a visual feast. Fu, just 13, led a strong Chinese diving team that won three of four possible gold medals.
This was a Games that reflected the changing face of world politics, especially in Europe. The Communist Bloc had crumbled; the Iron Curtain and the Berlin Wall had been destroyed. The new independent republics of the former Soviet Union joined forces to compete as the Unified Team, also known as the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). For the first time since 1964, a single German team competed (East and West Germany had previously competed separately). South Africa also returned to the Games for the first time since 1960.
The Barcelona Olympics in many ways welcomed a new era in Australia’s Olympic history. It invigorated support back at home as popular heroes such as 1500m freestyle idol Kieren Perkins and rowing’s ‘Oarsome Foursome’ captured the public’s imagination – and would return as heroes at future Games.
Australia sent a team of 290 athletes to the Games, 194 men and 96 women. Like in 1988, it set a new record for participation. Diver Jenny Donnett, competing at her fourth Games, was the flagbearer at the Opening Ceremony. Her mother, Barbara MacAuley, had represented Australia in diving at the Melbourne Olympics. Perkins carried the flag at the Closing Ceremony.
Australia won 27 medals in Barcelona: seven gold, nine silver and 11 bronze. Excluding the boycott-affected 1984 Games, it was Australia’s best result since the Melbourne 1956 Olympics. As such, it was the best medal haul ever for a team competing outside of Australia.
The seven gold medals were won across five sports: aquatics (swimming), canoe/kayak, cycling, equestrian and rowing. Minor medals were won in four other sports: athletics, hockey, sailing and tennis. It was an outstanding result, demonstrating the growing depth across Olympic sports within Australia.
The most celebrated medal was Kieren Perkins’s 1500m freestyle win, in a world record time of 14 minutes, 43.48 seconds, regarded by many as the best individual performance of the Games. There was also historic gold medals for cyclist Kathy Watt in the women’s road race and for kayaker Clint Robinson in the K1 1000m. Watt, who also won a silver medal on the track, was Australia’s first women’s cycling champion; Robinson the nation’s first canoe/kayak gold medallist.
The only dual gold medallist was equestrian’s Matthew Ryan. He won gold in both the individual and team three-day event, joining Andrew Hoy and Gillian Rolton on the team podium (David Green was also on the team, but his mountDuncan II did not finish the event and so Green did not receive a medal). Ryan, riding Kibah Tic Toc, matched Laurie Morgan’s 1960 feat of winning both eventing gold medals for Australia. Indeed, it had been 32 years since Australia’s last – and only – equestrian gold medals.
Australia enjoyed its most successful Olympic rowing regatta to date, winning two gold medals. In the men’s double sculls, Peter Antonie and Stephen Hawkins, dubbed the ‘Pocket Rockets’ because of their light body weights, outstayed and outraced their bigger rivals. Sharing the spotlight was the quartet of Andrew Cooper, Nick Green, Mike McKay and James Tomkins, champions of the men’s coxless fours. They would win collective fame as the ‘Oarsome Foursome’, the most feared crew in the world. Prior to Barcelona, Australia had not won a rowing gold medal since Merv Wood’s single scull gold medal in 1948.
It was a Games of tremendous achievement. Among other impressive performances were a third silver medal since 1968 for the men’s hockey team; a first Olympic medal, a bronze, to Susie O’Neill in the women’s 200m butterfly; Danielle Woodward’s silver medal in kayak slalom, the country's first women’s canoe/kayak medal; bronze medals to athletes Tim Forsyth (high jump) and Daniela Costian (discus); the men’s football team placing a best-ever fourth; and a fourth place for 3m springboard diver Michael Murphy, the highest finish by an Australian since 1924.
The celebrities of Barcelona were the American men’s basketball team, known as the 'Dream Team'. Professional players were allowed to compete for the first time, and the US team cruised to the gold medal led by NBA legends Larry Bird, Magic Johnson and Michael Jordan. For Jordan, it was his second gold medal, having also competed at the Games in 1984.
Gymnast Vitali Sherbo, competing for the Unified Team, was the most successful athlete, winning six gold medals. Sherbo, from Belarus, witnessed the Belarussian flag and anthem being used at the Olympics for the first time. American identical twins Karen and Sarah Josephson took synchronised swimming to a new level of synchronicity, winning the pairs gold medal. Other champions to impress included swimmers Alex Popov of the Unified Team (two gold) and Hungarian Kriztina Egerszegi (three gold); Algeria’s first Olympic heroine, Hassiba Boulmerka, in the women’s 1500m on the track; Cuba’s outstanding baseball and women’s volleyball teams; and the Spanish football team, whose 3-2 win over Poland in the final sparked wild celebrations.
The Olympic program continued to grow. Baseball and badminton debuted as new sports, judo events for women were held for the first time, and a handful of other new events, including the return of canoe/kayak slalom, meant there were now 26 sports and 259 events being contested.The Unified Team led the medal table with 45 gold, eight more than the United States in second place. But the two stars of the medal table were Cuba, in fifth place with 14 gold medals, and host nation Spain, with 13 gold medals. In its previous 16 appearances at the Games before 1992, Spain had won a total of four gold medals.
Barcelona is associated with artists such as Picasso, Miró, Dalí, Gaudí and Tàpies. In creating the Barcelona 1992 logo a more creative and personal logo was envisaged. The free-form design represents a gymnastics routine and the colours reflect the standards of Barcelona, Catalonia and Spain.
The motto of the Barcelona 1992 Olympic Games was "Friends Forever".
Cobi was a popular mascot. He was a Catalan Sheepdog represented in cubist style inspired by the the interpretations of Picasso of a masterpiece from Velázquez, Las Meninas.