1988 Summer Olympics medal table

1988 Summer Olympics medals
Kristin Otto of East Germany won the most gold medals at the 1988 Summer Olympics, winning six gold medals in women's swimming.
Location	Seoul,  South Korea
Highlights
Most gold medals	Soviet Union (55)
Most total medals	Soviet Union (132)
Medalling NOCs	52

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The 1988 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XXIV Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event held in Seoul, South Korea, from 17 September to 2 October 1988. A total of 8,397 athletes representing 159 National Olympic Committees (NOCs) participated in 237 events in 23 sports across 31 different disciplines.^[1][2][3] Table tennis was introduced to the Summer Olympic Games program at these games,^[4] while tennis was reintroduced following its removal after the 1924 Summer Olympics in Paris, France.^[5]

Overall, athletes representing 52 NOCs received at least one medal, and 31 NOCs won at least one gold medal. The Soviet Union won the most gold medals and the most overall medals, with 55 and 132 respectively.^[6] Suriname's team won their first Olympic gold medal, which was also their first Olympic medal of any color.^[7] The other teams that earned their first Olympic medal were Costa Rica,^[8] Djibouti,^[9] Indonesia,^[10] the Netherlands Antilles,^[11] Senegal,^[12] and the United States Virgin Islands.^[13]

Swimmer Kristin Otto of East Germany won the most gold medals for an individual at the games, with six gold medals.^[14] Fellow swimmer Matt Biondi of the United States won the most overall medals, winning seven medals with five golds, one silver, and one bronze, tying Mark Spitz's record for most medals won in a single games.^[15]

The medal table is based on information provided by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and is consistent with IOC's conventional sorting in its published medal tables. The table uses the Olympic medal table sorting method. By default, the table is ordered by the number of gold medals won by athletes from each nation, where a nation is an entity represented by a NOC. The number of silver medals is taken into consideration next, and then the number of bronze medals.^[16][17] If teams are still tied, equal ranking is given and they are listed alphabetically by their IOC country code.^[18]

Events in boxing resulted in a bronze medal being awarded to each of the two competitors who lost their semi-final matches, as opposed to fighting in a third place tiebreaker.^[19] Events in judo used a repechage system which also results in two bronze medals being awarded.^[20]

In the gymnastics events, there were five ties for medals. Three gold medals and no silver or bronze medals were awarded due to a three-way first-place tie in the men's pommel horse. Two gold medals and no silver medal were awarded in the men's horizontal bar and men's rings, with the former also having a tie for bronze. Two bronze medals were awarded in the men's floor and women's balance beam events.^[21] Outside of gymnastics, the men's high jump in athletics and the women's 50 metre freestyle in swimming both resulted in two bronzes being awarded due to third-place ties.^[22][23]

  *   Host nation (South Korea)

1988 Summer Olympics medal table^[6]

Rank	NOC	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Soviet Union	55	31	46	132
2	East Germany	37	35	30	102
3	United States	36	31	27	94
4	South Korea*	12	10	11	33
5	West Germany	11	14	15	40
6	Hungary	11	6	6	23
7	Bulgaria	10	12	13	35
8	Romania	7	11	6	24
9	France	6	4	6	16
10	Italy	6	4	4	14
11	China	5	11	12	28
12	Great Britain	5	10	9	24
13	Kenya	5	2	2	9
14	Japan	4	3	7	14
15	Australia	3	6	5	14
16	Yugoslavia	3	4	5	12
17	Czechoslovakia	3	3	2	8
18	New Zealand	3	2	8	13
19	Canada	3	2	5	10
20	Poland	2	5	9	16
21	Norway	2	3	0	5
22	Netherlands	2	2	5	9
23	Denmark	2	1	1	4
24	Brazil	1	2	3	6
25	Finland	1	1	2	4
	Spain	1	1	2	4
27	Turkey	1	1	0	2
28	Morocco	1	0	2	3
29	Austria	1	0	0	1
	Portugal	1	0	0	1
	Suriname	1	0	0	1
32	Sweden	0	4	7	11
33	Switzerland	0	2	2	4
34	Jamaica	0	2	0	2
35	Argentina	0	1	1	2
36	Chile	0	1	0	1
	Costa Rica	0	1	0	1
	Indonesia	0	1	0	1
	Iran	0	1	0	1
	Netherlands Antilles	0	1	0	1
	Peru	0	1	0	1
	Senegal	0	1	0	1
	Virgin Islands	0	1	0	1
44	Belgium	0	0	2	2
	Mexico	0	0	2	2
46	Colombia	0	0	1	1
	Djibouti	0	0	1	1
	Greece	0	0	1	1
	Mongolia	0	0	1	1
	Pakistan	0	0	1	1
	Philippines	0	0	1	1
	Thailand	0	0	1	1
Totals (52 entries)		241	234	264	739

Key

  ※   Disqualified athlete(s)

List of official changes in medal standings

Ruling date	Sport/Event	Athlete (NOC)				Total	Notes
22 September 1988	Weightlifting, Men's 56 kg	Bulgaria (BUL) Mitko Grablev ※	−1			−1	Mitko Grablev was disqualified after testing positive for furosemide and became the first doping case of the 1988 Summer Olympics. The medals were then reallocated, with Okzen Mirzoyan of the Soviet Union awarded the gold, He Yingqiang of China the silver, and Liu Shoubin of China the bronze.[24][25]
		Soviet Union (URS) Oksen Mirzoyan	+1	−1		0
		China (CHN) He Yingqiang		+1	−1	0
		China (CHN) Liu Shoubin			+1	+1
24 September 1988	Weightlifting, Men's 67.5 kg	Bulgaria (BUL) Angel Genchev ※	−1			−1	Angel Genchev was disqualified after testing positive for furosemide, with the gold medal being awarded to Joachim Kunz of East Germany, the silver medal to Israel Militosyan of the Soviet Union, and the bronze medal to Li Jinhe of China. After Grablev and Genchev were stripped of their titles, Bulgarian officials commented that they condemned the usage of drugs in sport.[25][26]
		East Germany (GDR) Joachim Kunz	+1	−1		0
		Soviet Union (URS) Israel Militosyan		+1	−1	0
		China (CHN) Li Jinhe			+1	+1
27 September 1988	Athletics, Men's 100 metres	Canada (CAN) Ben Johnson ※	−1			−1	Three days after Ben Johnson won the 100 metres title and set a world record of 9.79 seconds, Park Jong-sei of the IOC's Olympic Doping Control Center saw that Johnson's urine sample tested positive for stanozolol. Johnson was subsequently disqualified with Carl Lewis of the United States awarded the gold and the world record transferred to him, Linford Christie of Great Britain awarded the silver, and Calvin Smith of the United States awarded the bronze.[27][28]
		United States (USA) Carl Lewis	+1	−1		0
		Great Britain (GBR) Linford Christie		+1	−1	0
		United States (USA) Calvin Smith			+1	+1
28 September 1988	Weightlifting, Men's 100 kg	Hungary (HUN) Andor Szanyi ※		−1		−1	Andor Szanyi, who originally won the silver medal in the men's 100 kg event in weightlifting two days before, tested positive for stanozolol and was disqualified afterwards. The silver was then awarded to Nicu Vlad of Romania and the bronze was awarded to Peter Immesberger of West Germany.[29][30]
		Romania (ROM) Nicu Vlad		+1	−1	0
		West Germany (FRG) Peter Immesberger			+1	+1

List of official changes by country

NOC	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Net Change
Bulgaria (BUL)	−2	0	0	−2
Canada (CAN)	−1	0	0	−1
China (CHN)	0	+1	+1	+2
East Germany (GDR)	+1	−1	0	0
West Germany (FRG)	0	0	+1	+1
Great Britain (GBR)	0	+1	−1	0
Hungary (HUN)	0	−1	0	−1
Romania (ROM)	0	+1	−1	0
Soviet Union (URS)	+1	0	−1	0
United States (USA)	+1	−1	+1	+1

• All-time Olympic Games medal table
• 1988 Summer Paralympics medal table
• 1988 Winter Olympics medal table

• "Seoul 1988". Olympics.com. International Olympic Committee.
• "1988 Summer Olympics medal table". Olympics.com. Retrieved 11 August 2024.