Olympic Games Closes in Barcelona, Spain

On this day, in 1992 Olympic Games closes in Barcelona, Spain: The 1992 Summer Olympic Games celebrated in Barcelona, closed after the 257 events took place.

  August 9, 1992

Sport: Olympics

The 25th Summer Olympics closed in Barcelona, Spain, on Aug. 9, 1992, at the Estadi Olímpic de Montjuïc. The games hosted 9,356 athletes from 169 nations. It was the first games in which NBA players were allowed to compete for the USA, leading to the formation of the “Dream Team.” The team, consisting of Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird and other professional basketball stars, won the gold medal, and the group was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2010. 

Other highlights from the 1992 games include South Africa rejoining the Olympics since being banned after the 1960 Summer Olympics for the country’s apartheid policy. Germany also brought a unified team for the first time since 1964, once communist East Germany and democratic West Germany merged into one nation. The Unified Team, consisting of 12 of 15 former Soviet republics that chose to compete together, won the most medals (112). The United States finished second in the medal count (108) and Germany was third (82). 

Sources: 
https://web.archive.org/web/20020404134346/http://www.olympic.org/uk/games/past/innovations_uk.asp?OLGT=1&OLGY=1992
https://stillmed.olympic.org/Documents/Reference_documents_Factsheets/Opening_ceremony_of_the_Games_of_the_Olympiad.pdf