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. Table tennis was introduced to the Summer Olympic Games program at these games, while tennis was reintroduced following its removal after the 1924 Summer Olympics in Paris, France.
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. Suriname's team won their first Olympic gold medal, which was also their first Olympic medal of any color. The other teams that earned their first Olympic medal were Costa Rica, Djibouti, Indonesia, the Netherlands Antilles, Senegal, and the United States Virgin Islands, for Netherlands Antilles, it was their only Olympic medal before the country's dissolution in 2010.
Swimmer Kristin Otto of East Germany won the most gold medals for an individual at the games, with six gold medals. 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.
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Medals table
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. If teams are still tied, equal ranking is given and they are listed alphabetically by their IOC country code.
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. Events in judo used a repechage system which also results in two bronze medals being awarded.
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. 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.
* Host nation (South Korea)
Changes due to doping
Key
※ Disqualified athlete(s)