1988 Summer Olympics

In the summer of 1988, Seoul, South Korea played host to the XXIV Olympiad games. Only the second Asian country to host the summer Olympics since the 1964 games in Tokyo, Japan. Seoul was chosen over Nagoya, Japan in a 52-27 count vote. 160 nations were represnted by 8,391 athletes from around the world.

Venues

Medal Count

Rank	Nation	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 (Host nation)	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

Significance

Hosting the multinational event allowed South Korea to bring international attention to itself. The bid to bring the games to Korea came from Park Chung-Hee's administration in the late 1970s. After his assassination in 1970, his successor, Chun Doo-Hwan "submitted Korea's bid to the IOC in September 1981, in hopes that the increased international exposure brought by the Olympics would legitimize his authoritarian regime amidst increasing political pressure for democratization, provide protection from increasing threats from North Korea, and showcase the Korean economic miracle to the world community". In introducing the world stage to the small country's existence, the Olympic games opened the scope of the American perspective towards Korea.