University of Kentucky - Kentuckian Yearbook (Lexington, KY)

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Memories of Seoul The Summer Olympics once again brought the world many spectacular performances. Story and Layout by Tracey L. Boyd 6 1 988 Olympic Games in Seoul, South Korea held many sur- prises for athletes and fans around the world. With the return of the Eastern bloc, after their '84 boycott, the Olympics once again proved to be a true test of world champions. Besides upsets in many events, the 24th Summer Games were shad- owed by scandals involving controversial judging, poor sportsmanship, and steroid use among athletes. This raised many questions and doubts among people about the true spirit of the Olympic Games, and led the Herald- Leader to run a special editO' rial column about such is- sues. Besides the official com- petition, there were two major sldeshows that will most be remembered about these games. First came the controversial boxing match between bantamweights Byun Jong of South Korea and Alexander Hristov of Bul- garia. When Hristov was an- nounced the decided winner of a close match, people raged in protest. The referee was assaulted by Korean boxing officials, coaches, and security guards, as well as people from the crowd throwing objects into the ring Jong, staged a sit-in as protest, but, after 67 min- utes, he rose, bowed to the After winning the 200 meter dash setting a world record and getting the gold, Flo-Jo tell to her knees ap- pearing to say a prayer of thanks. remaining crowd, and walked out with his head hung low in shame. The chaos surround- ing the unfavorable decision left many Koreans feeling shamed and embarassed, es- pecially as host to the Games. uNo matter what happens from this moment on, no matter what went be- fore and what follows, we can never recover from this tragedy, Oh 800 in, the general director of the South Korean boxing federation, told Sports Illustrated. After all was said and done in the 100 meter dash with the world-famous match- up between archrivals Carl Lewis of the USA and Ben Johnson of Canada, Johnson not only had the gold and a new world record by an in- credible margin, but also the accusations of having used steroids, Johnson, after test- ing positive for steroids, was stripped of his gold medal, and all of the benefits that go along with being an Olympic champion, He was also sus- pended from international competition for two years. According to several coaches, the surprise was not that steroids were being used, but that Johnson got caught Despite the few bad spots seen in every Olympics. the athletic victories prevailed by far. As tradition goes, the Olympics again brought to- Two USA baseball players celebrate their victory over Puerto Rico to put them in the Gold Medal Game.

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