The , officially known as the '''Games of the XXV Olympiad''', were held in
1992 in
Barcelona ,
Catalonia ,
Spain . The hometown of
IOC president
Juan Antonio Samaranch was selected over
Amsterdam ,
Belgrade ,
Birmingham ,
Brisbane and
Paris in
Lausanne ,
Switzerland in October
1986 .
- All of the IOC Countries participated in the Games for the first time since Munich 1972 Summer Olympics .
- Paralympic Archer Antonio Rebollo lit the Olympic Flame by shooting an arrow into the cauldron. (It should be noted however that slow-motion television footage showed the arrow falling behind the elevated cauldron, which was really lighted by a failsafe mechanism.)
- In Basketball , the admittance of professional players led to the American '' Dream Team '' - probably the best team ever, with players like Michael Jordan , Magic Johnson and Larry Bird . They won the gold medal with great ease.
- For the first time since 1960 , South Africa was allowed to participate in the Olympics. White South African runner Elana Meyer and black Ethiopia n runner Derartu Tulu fought out a great battle in the 10,000 m (won by Tulu) and then ran their lap of honour hand in hand.
- Following the German Reunification in 1990, Germany participated with a single team for the first time since 1960.
- One of the main musical themes of the 1992 Games was " Barcelona ", written especially for the Games by Freddie Mercury .
- As the Soviet Union was dissolved in 1991 , the Baltic nations of Estonia , Latvia and Lithuania participated with their own teams for the first time since 1936 . The other Soviet republics took part in the Unified Team .
- The break up of Yugoslavia led to the debuts of Croatia , Slovenia and Bosnia And Herzegovina . Yugoslav athletes were not allowed to participate with their own team, but could compete under the Olympic flag as Independent Olympic Participants.
- In Gymnastics , Vitaly Scherbo from Belarus won six gold medals, including four on a single day. Five of the six golds were in individual events, tying Eric Heiden 's record for individual gold medals at a single Olympics.
- In the Diving competitions, held in the view of the Sagrada Família , Fu Mingxia won the high dive event, being only 13 years old.
- Russia n swimmers dominated the freestyle events, with Alexander Popov and Yevgeny Sadovyi both winning two events (Sadovyi won a third with in the relays).
- The young Krisztina Egerszegi of Hungary won three individual swimming gold medals.
- After being demonstrated six times, Baseball became an Olympic sport. Cuba won the title easily.
- Badminton and women's Judo became part of the Olympic programme, while Slalom Canoeing returned to the Games after a 20-year absence.
- Basque Pelote , Roller Hockey and Taekwondo were the demo sports
- Baseball was introduced at the Olympics, with Cuba won the gold medal, Chinese Taipei got silver medal and Japan was Bronze medal.
See the medal winners, ordered by sport:
(''Host nation in .'')
(¹ part of
CIS ; team only appeared in these Summer Olympics)
