1988 Summer Paralympics

The 1988 Summer Paralympics () were the first Paralympics in 24 years to take place in the same city as the Olympic Games. They took place in Seoul, South Korea. This was the first time the term "Paralympic" was used officially.

Bidding process

During the fourth meeting of the International Paralympic Committee held at the Aylesbury Civic Center in England (28 July 1983), two candidate cities made themselves known;

* Seoul, South Korea, under the initiative of Dr. Whang Youn Dai
* Melbourne, Australia, under the initiative of Dr. John Grant

The ICC sent to both cities a questionnaire in order to gauge both cities' interest, as well as their preparedness for hosting such an event, with both candidates given one year to respond. In the end, only Seoul returned with a completed document; as Melbourne did not respond to the ICC.

At the same time, a political movement in Australia to have Brisbane host the 1992 Summer Olympics and Paralympic events weakened the case for Melbourne to be a host city in 1988.

A final choice would have to be made during the sixth meeting of ICC, scheduled for 14 June 1984 in New York City, and Seoul was selected to host the 1988 events.

As the 1988 Olympic and Paralympic games were the first to both be hosted in the same city, the Games in Seoul gave a new generation of Paralympic athletes the opportunity to compete in many of the well-designed and well-constructed facilities previously only used for the Olympic Games. The medal results have shown the importance of assistance from host countries.

Relation Between the Olympic and Paralympic Organizing Committees

The Seoul Paralympic Organizing Committee (SEPOC) had only a tangential relationship with the Seoul Olympic Organizing Committee (SLOOC). But this relationship was substantial enough to recruit and train many of the sports, technical officials and another common areas for the Paralympic Games as well.

Background

For the first time in history since Tokyo 1964, the Olympics and Paralympics were held in the same city - a tradition that was revived there and has never been abandoned. This is also the first Summer Paralympics on history under the aegis of the International Co-ordinating Committee (ICC). The ICC was accepted into the Olympic Family in 1982, which allowed greater co-operation by National Olympic Committees in regards to the organization of Paralympic Games. The Seoul Olympic Organizing Committee (SLOOC) regarded the Paralympic Games as an extension of the Olympic Games and formulated a big support plan which allowed sharing of Seoul Olympic manpower, facilities, equipment, and key personnel. The SLOOC gave a subsidy of US$12,857,143.

A specific village for the Paralympic Games

Before the 1988 Summer Olympic Games,all the 3,962 apartments at the 86 buildings from the Olympic Village were sold to local citizens and due the high local demands during the Miracle on the Han River period made a hastily eviction of the complex when the Games .Between 1983 to 1989,the country and Seoul authorities were in a middle of a lot of controversies about the evictions of poor and low income neighborhoods were raised by human rights monitors who associated the hosting of the 1986 Asian Games and the 1988 Summer Olympic Games with the actions to clean, redevelop and ‘beautify’ the city, and in particular the decadent and historical Jamsil area. Despite the construction of gigantic building complexes were built to accommodate 720,000 people between 1983 to 1988, this new housing offers were not conceived for those who had been evicted – namely low-income or poor renters. When this situation turned public as results, scholars, policy-makers and lawyers advocated for a better social housing policy, including the minimum housing standards and a higher degree of transparency from the city government.

As a consequences of the housing crisis and local demands at the host country, there was not enough time to convert the apartments and facilities to better conditions of accessibility. Another hard situation was the transition time between the two events was insufficient (the opening ceremony was on October 15th, 13 days after the end of the Olympic Games). Thus, the government of South Korea and the prefecture of Seoul understood that had a necessity to build a specific Paralympic Village. This complex was located 4km at an intersection between Seoul Olympic Park and Jamsil Complex clusters and was the first housing complex in the country to be fully accessible to people with disabilities, as the athletes were accommodated in ten specially designed and accessible apartments blocks with 1.316 new apartments in total, each building had the height of fourteen stories. Between 1982 to 1986, a delegation composed of some members of the organization of architects sent by Seoul and the Government of South Korea visited the Stoke Mandeville Hospital to research about the accessibility of the hospital and collect information about the complex to made a project to build a specific village. Due your specific caracteristics,this would be the first and only time in history that a Village for the Paralympic Games was being built. Being that the fact that originally this was not being foreseen (SEPOC had made the plans to use the same Village and Venues).The Seoul Paralympics Village plans were seen by ICC as controversial in some points. And one of them caused some concern. Three of the 10 buildings would be exclusive for wheelchair users and the entity had never managed this situation. Since they had never managed a complex of large proportions like this. One of the questions asked was related to how to evacuate wheelchair users from the buildings in case of internal commotions such as fires or water leaks. The answer from the architects and planners was simple. In addition to the elevators, each of the buildings is planned to have a complex of ramps that would go up to the fourteenth floor and this process would be faster and safer. All services that were made available in the Olympic Village were replicated on a smaller scale. The SEPOC offered catering, recreation areas, banking, post office facilities, medical and religious centers, an Olympic/Paralympic store and a mall. The 1988 Seoul Paralympic Games was also the first time both the Olympics and Paralympics shared some competition venues and the two respective Organizing Committees shared the common services such as the transport area and the logistics, security and human resources (SLOOC assumed practically all the training and capacity building of volunteers and workforce) and since then, every Winter and Summer Paralympic Games have been held in the same cities as the Olympic Games.

Visual Identity

When the games ended, the logo used by Seoul Paralympic Organizing Committee (SEPOC), turned the first Paralympic symbols which was used from 1989–1994. The Five 'teardrops' (resembling the halves of the ''taeguk'' pattern, also found in the South Korean flag) in the 'W' configuration and colors of the Olympic rings represented the five oceans and the five continents.Due a lot of controversies, that started in 1989,this symbol was eventually changed after the 1994 Winter Paralympics, as it was considered to be too close to the International Olympic Committee's (IOC) 5-ring emblem. Due this actions, the 1988 Seoul Summer Paralympic Games is considered as the start of the Modern Paralympic Games.

Mascots

According to Korean ancestral culture, bears are known for their courage and wisdom, which is reflected in the sky by the existence of two sister constellations in the sky: Ursa Major and Ursa Minor.The two bears that were chosen as mascots are of a species known as the Asian black bear who is very common on the Korean peninsula and are marked by the white V-shaped chest mark. The two chosen mascots are brothers and also demonstrate the brotherhood, coerent and coexistent cooperation and relationship that the Olympic and Paralympic Games would have from now. This is also reflected in the figure that they are tied by a rope to the leg. It is as if one was guiding the other or else working together,as dreamed of by the Organizing Committee of this edition of the Paralympics, as they also represented achievements and camaraderie recorded during the event. The name chosen for the mascots was Gomoodori.

Opening Ceremony

During the Opening Ceremony there were more than 75,000 people within the Olympic Stadium with a then record of 3,057 competitors from 61 nations. The President of South Korea, Roh Tae-Woo, presented the new Paralympic flag to the President of the ICC, Jens Bromann. Paul Croft, competing in his second Paralympic Games, was the flag bearer for Australia during the Opening Ceremony.

Several elements used in the opening and closing ceremonies of the Olympic Games were recycled or made on a smaller scale and another ones was added. As the enter made from parachutists in the Paralympic colors of blue, black, red, yellow, and green swept down into the Olympic Stadium following a procession of children in wheelchairs. The Olympic Torch was carried in by a one-legged South Korean Paralympic volleyball player and handed to a 19 year old athlete with cerebral palsy, who in turn passed it to Cho Hyun-hui, a wheelchair athlete and him was wheeled around the stadium by her 7-year-old daughter before handing the Torch to blind runner Lee Jae-oon, who linked hands with women's handball Olympic gold medalist Kiifi Hyun-mi, who together, were carried up by elevator platform to light the Olympic Cauldron.This scene was recreated during the 2018 Winter Paralympics opening ceremonies also held in South Korea.

Chief Paralympic Organiser Koh Kwi-nam addressed the athletes by saying "The goal you as athletes should try to reach for in the Games is not to accomplish the Olympic slogan of 'faster, higher and farther' but to show the world your real selves as courageous challengers, glorious conquerors and impartial participants."

Controversies

Despite the advances, the Seoul Paralympic Games also took place with several controversies, embarrassments and polemics. At the first day,the Iranian goalball team was disqualified for refusing to play against the Israeli team. It was deemed that the Iranian team had misused the sporting platform for political aims. After the draw, the ICC made immediate arrangements to send the team home. Asghar Dadkhan, the Iranian team manager, made a formal statement of apology pledging that all other Iranian athletes would compete with full regard to the regulations and would compete against Israel and any other nation.

Due logistic problems, the Libyan delegation arrived in Seoul, some days after the opening ceremony and as the ICC rules did not allow this situation. Their athletes could not register for the events or stay in the Paralympic Village. They entered in South Korea without having gone through the normal entry procedures. The SEPOC urged the ICC to accept the Libyan team and a compromise was reached, permitting the athletes and delegates to participate as observers and they could compete in the marathon events, however they would not have any medal entitlement, nor would they be officially recognized at the Closing Ceremony.

Another embarrassing moment happened at the athletics slalom event. Some athletes were incorrectly awarded at the end of the first round of the event. The mistake was discovered latter,when officials realized that the medals should not have been awarded until after a second round of competition.

Sports

The games consisted of events in seventeen sports, including one demonstration sport, but the medals count for the official medal list. Powerlifting and weightlifting were considered to be a single sport.

* Archery
* Athletics
* Boccia
* Cycling
* Football 7-a-side
* Goalball
* Judo
* Lawn bowls
* Lifting
** Powerlifting
** Weightlifting
* Shooting
* Snooker
* Swimming
* Table tennis
* Volleyball
* Wheelchair basketball
* Wheelchair fencing
* ''Wheelchair tennis'' (demonstration sport)

Venues

Medal table

The top ten listed NOCs by number of gold medals are listed below. The host nation, South Korea, is highlighted.

Participating delegations

Sixty delegations took part in the Seoul Paralympics. Burma, which had taken part in the previous Games, was absent. The Seoul Paralympics occurred mere weeks after the 8888 Uprising and the military coup which brought the State Peace and Development Council to power. Burma would return as Myanmar in 1992.

The Soviet Union made its Summer Paralympic début, having previously taken part in the 1988 Winter Paralympics. It was not only the USSR's first participation in the Summer Games, but was also to be its last, as the Union was dissolved prior to the 1992 Summer Paralympics. It won a total of 56 medals, of which 21 gold. Other countries who made first appearances were Bulgaria, Cyprus, Iran, Macau, Morocco, Oman, Philippines, Singapore and Tunisia.Soviet Union at the Paralympics
International Paralympic Committee

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See also

* 1988 Summer Olympics
* 1988 Winter Paralympics

References

External links

International Paralympic Committee

{{Paralympic Games

Paralympics Summer
Paralympics
Paralympics
Multi-sport events in South Korea
Paralympic Games
Sports competitions in Seoul
Summer Paralympic Games
1980s in Seoul
October 1988 sports events in Asia
Bear mascots