{{infobox olympic games|1988|summer | name

Games of the XXIV Olympiad | Logo Seoul 1988 Olympics logo.svg | Size 150 | Optional caption | Host city Seoul, South Korea | Nations participating 160 | Athletes participating 8,391 (6,197 men, 2,194 women) | Events 237 in 27 sports | Motto Harmony and Progress | Opening ceremony 17 September | Closing ceremony 2 October | Officially opened by South Korea president Roh Tae-woo | Athlete's Oath Hur Jae and Shon Mi-Na | Judge's Oath Lee Hak-Rae | Olympic Torch Chung Sunman, Kim Wontak and Sohn Kee-chung | Stadium Jamsil Olympic Stadium | }}

The 1988 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XXIV Olympiad, were an all international multi-sport events celebrated from 17 September to 2 October 1988 in Seoul, South Korea. They were the second summer Olympic Games to be held in Asia and the first since the 1964 Summer Olympics held in Tokyo, Japan. They were also the fourth Olympic Games to be held in autumn.

In the Seoul Games, 160 nations were represented by a total of 8391 athletes: 6197 men and 2194 women. 237 events were held. 27221 volunteers helped to prepare the Olympics. 11331 media (4978 written press and 6353 broadcasters) showed the Games all over the world.

These were the last Olympic Games for two of the world's "dominating" sport powers, Soviet Union and East Germany, as both ceased to exist before the next Olympic Games.

North Korea, still officially at war with South Korea, and its allies, Albania, Cuba, Madagascar and Seychelles boycotted the games. For differing reasons, Ethiopia, Nicaragua, and Albania (who declared an Olympic-record fourth consecutive boycott) did not participate in the Games. However, the much larger boycotts seen in the previous three Summer Olympics were avoided, resulting in the largest ever number of participating nations to that date.

Host city selection

Seoul was chosen to host the Summer Games in a vote held on 30 September 1981, finishing ahead of the Japanese city of Nagoya. Below was the vote count that occurred at the 84th IOC Session and 11th Olympic Congress in Baden-Baden, West Germany.

{|class="wikitable collapsible" |- ! colspan="7" | 1988 Summer Olympics bidding result |- ! City ! Country | style="background:silver;"|Round 1 |- | Seoul || || style="text-align:center;"|52 |- | Nagoya || || style="text-align:center;"|27 |}

Highlights

Soviet Vladimir Artemov wins four gold medals in gymnastics. Daniela Silivaş of Romania wins three. After having demolished the world record in the 100 m dash at the Olympic Trials in Indianapolis, US sprinter Florence Griffith Joyner sets an Olympic record (10.62) in the 100-meter dash and a still-standing world record (21.34) in the 200-meter dash to capture gold medals in both events. To these medals, she adds a gold in the 4×100 relay and a silver in the 4×400. Just after the Games, she announces her retirement. Canadian Ben Johnson wins the 100 m with a new world record, but is disqualified after he tests positive for stanozolol. In 2004, Johnson accused the American sports authorities of protecting American athletes at the expense of foreign ones. He still claims to this day that André Jackson, "the Mystery Man," put the stanozolol in his food or his drink. American boxer Roy Jones Jr. loses the gold medal to South Korean fighter Park Si-Hun in a very controversial 3–2 judge's decision. Allegations swirled that Korean officials had fixed the judging. Jones Jr. receives the Val Barker Trophy, an award for the most impressive boxer of the Games. The three judges ruling against Jones were eventually suspended.

Lawrence Lemieux, a Canadian sailor in the Finn class was in second place and poised to win a silver medal when he abandoned the race to save an injured competitor. He arrived in 21st place, but was recognized by the IOC with a special award honoring his bravery and sacrifice.

US diver Greg Louganis wins back-to-back titles on both diving events, but only after hitting the springboard with his head in the 3 m event final. This became a minor controversy years later when Louganis revealed he knew he was HIV-positive at the time, and did not tell anybody. Since HIV cannot survive in open water, no other divers were ever in danger.

Christa Luding-Rothenburger of East Germany becomes the first (and only) athlete to win Olympic medals at the Winter Olympics and Summer Olympics in the same year. She adds a cycling silver to the speed skating gold she won earlier in the Winter Olympics of that year in Calgary. Anthony Nesty of Suriname wins his country's first Olympic medal by winning the 100 m butterfly, scoring an upset victory over Matt Biondi by .01 of a second (thwarting Biondis attempt of breaking Mark Spitz' record seven golds in one Olympic event); he is the first black person to win individual swimming gold. Swimmer Kristin Otto of East Germany wins six gold medals. Other multi-medalists in the pool are Matt Biondi (five) and Janet Evans (three). Swedish fencer Kerstin Palm becomes the first woman to take part in seven Olympics. In swimming Mel Stewart of the USA is the favorite to win the men's 200 m butterfly final but comes in 5th. Mark Todd of New Zealand wins his second consecutive individual gold medal in the three-day event in equestrian on Charisma, only the second time in eventing history that a gold medal has been won consecutively. Baseball and Taekwondo are demonstration sports. The opening ceremony featured a mass demonstration of taekwondo with hundreds of adults and children performing moves in unison. This is the last time the US are represented by a basketball team that doesn't feature NBA stars; the team wins the bronze medal after being defeated by the Soviet Union. For the first time in history, all the dressage events are won by women. Women's judo was held for the first time, as a demonstration sport.

Bowling was held as a demonstration sport, with Kwon Jong Yul of South Korea and Arianne Cerdeña from the Philippines winning the men's and women's gold medal, respectively.

Table tennis is introduced at the Olympics, with China and South Korea both winning two titles. Tennis returns to the Olympics after a 64-year absence, and Steffi Graf adds to her four Grand Slam victories in the year by also winning the Olympic title, beating Gabriela Sabatini in the final. Two Bulgarian weightlifters are stripped of their gold medals after failing doping tests, and the team withdraws after this event. Controversies occur involving boxers including a gold medal being awarded to a Korean light-middleweight after having apparently been defeated by an American boxer and an assault on a New Zealand referee by Korean officials after the referee cautioned a Korean bantamweight.

Soviet weightlifter Yuri Zakhareivich wins the mens Heavyweight (up to 110 kg class) with a 210 kg snatch and 245 kg clean and jerk for a 455 kg total. Zakhareivich had dislocated his elbow in 1983 attempting a world record and had it rebuilt with synthetic tendons.

Live doves were released during the Opening Ceremony as a symbol of world peace, but a number of the doves were burned alive by the lighting of the Olympic cauldron. As a result of protests following the incident, the last time live doves were released at the Opening Ceremony was in 1992 in Barcelona, hours before the flame was lit. Balloon doves were released in 1994 at the Lillehammer Winter Games and paper doves were used at the Atlanta Ceremonies in 1996.

These were also the last Summer Olympic Games to hold Opening Ceremonies during the daytime due to hot summer weather. The Opening Ceremonies were highlighted by a skydiving team descending over the stadium and forming the 5-colored Olympic Rings, as well as a mass demonstration of taekwondo.

Significance of the 1988 Olympics in South Korea

Hosting the 1988 Olympics presented an opportunity to bring international attention to South Korea. The idea for South Korea to place a bid for 1988 Games emerged during the last days of the Park Chung-hee administration in the late 1970s. After President Park’s assassination in 1979, Chun Doo-hwan, his successor, 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. South Korea was awarded the bid on 30 September 1981, becoming the 16th nation, the second Asian nation (following Japan in the 1964 Summer Olympics).

In an attempt to follow the model of 1964 Tokyo Olympics as a rite of passage for the Japanese economy and re-integration of Japan in the family of nations in the post-war era, the Korean government hoped to use the Olympics as a “coming-out party” for the newly industrialized Korean economy. The South Korean government hoped the Olympics would symbolize a new legitimacy of Korea in world affairs. The Olympics gave a powerful impetus to the development of South Korea's relations with Eastern Europe, the USSR and with the People's Republic of China.

As political demonstrations emerged in June 1987, the possibility of jeopardizing hosting the Olympic Games contributed to the 29 June declaration which issued President Chun out of power and led to direct elections in December 1987. The desire not to taint the Olympic Games with military dictatorship and riots served as an impetus for Korea’s transition to democracy. Roh Tae-woo served as the transitional president, directly elected by South Koreans in December 1987, during the 1988 Seoul Olympic Games.

1988 Summer Olympics boycott

In preparation for the 1988 Olympics, the International Olympic Committee worked to prevent another Olympic boycott by the Eastern Bloc as had happened at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. This was made more difficult by the lack of diplomatic relations between South Korea and socialist countries. This prompted action by the IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch, who was committed to the participation of these countries. Thus, at the Assembly of National Olympic Committees in Mexico City in November 1984, the "Mexico Declaration" was adopted; by it, the participants agreed to include the host of the Olympic Games in 1988. The agreement of the Soviet Union brought a pledge of equal participation, to which, however, various socialist National Olympic Committees reacted with incomprehension. After the Los Angeles games, East Germany had already decided to participate again in Seoul. The IOC also decided that it would send invitations to the 1988 Games itself and did not leave this task to the organizing committee as had been done before. Despite these developments, behind the scenes, the IOC did consider relocating the Games and explored the suitability of Munich as an alternative.

Another point of conflict was the involvement of North Korea in hosting the Games, something encouraged by the Cuban president Fidel Castro Ruz who called for North Korea to be considered joint host of the Games. As a result, on 8 and 9 January 1986 in Lausanne, Switzerland, the IOC President chaired a meeting of the North and South Korean Olympic Committees. North Korea demanded that eleven of the 23 Olympic sports be carried out on its territory, and also demanded special opening and closing ceremonies. There should be a joint organizing committee and a united team. The negotiations were continued into another meeting, but were not successful. The IOC did not meet the demands of North Korea and only about half of the desired sporting events were offered to the North. So the focus thereafter was solely on Seoul and South Korea.

North Korea boycotted the Games after the failed negotiations and was supported by Cuba, Nicaragua and Ethiopia. Albania and the Seychelles also did not attend, but, in order to avoid sanctions by the IOC, did not call their absence a boycott. The participation of Madagascar had been expected, and their team was expected at the opening ceremony of 160 nations. However, the country joined the North Korean boycott.http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympische_Sommerspiele_1988#Sportpolitik

Official theme song

In 1988, the Seoul Olympic Organizing Committee (SLOOC) decided to produce and distribute an official song of the Seoul Games to publicize the Games to all the IOC member nations, encouraging their participation in the festival and consolidating the harmony and friendship of the entire world citizens through the song. The song "Hand in Hand." was written by Italian composer Giorgio Moroder and American songwriter Tom Whitlock, and performed by singing group Koreana. "Hand in Hand" topped popular songs in 17 countries including Sweden, Federal Rep. Of Germany, the Philippines, Spain, Switzerland, Austria, Japan and Hong Kong and was listed among the top 10s of the popular songs in more than 30 countries.

Venues

Seoul Sports Park venues

*Seoul Olympic Stadium² – opening/closing ceremonies, athletics, equestrian (jumping individual final), football (final)

*Jamsil Indoor Swimming Pool² – diving, modern pentathlon (swimming), synchronized swimming, swimming, water polo

*Jamsil Gymnasium² – basketball, volleyball (final)

*Jamsil Students' Gymnasium² – boxing

*Jamsil Baseball Stadium² – baseball (demonstration)

Olympic Park venues

*Olympic Velodrome¹ – cycling (track)

*Olympic Weightlifting Gymnasium¹ – weightlifting

*Olympic Fencing Gymnasium¹ – fencing, modern pentathlon (fencing)

*Olympic Gymnastics Hall¹ – gymnastics

*Olympic Tennis Center¹ – tennis

*Mongchon Tosong¹ – modern pentathlon (running)

Other venues in metropolitan Seoul

*Seoul Equestrian Park– equestrian (all but jumping individual final), modern pentathlon (riding)

*Han River Regatta Course/Canoeing Site Course¹ – canoeing, rowing

*Saemaul Sports Hall¹ – volleyball preliminaries

*Hanyang University Gymnasium¹ – volleyball preliminaries

*Changchung Gymnasium² – judo, taekwondo (demonstration)

*Seoul National University Gymnasium – badminton (demonstration), table tennis

*Royal Bowling Center² – bowling (demonstration)

*Dongdaemun Stadium² – football preliminaries

*Hwarang Archery Field², Nowon-gu – archery

*Taenung International Shooting Range², Taenung – modern pentathlon (shooting), shooting

*Streets of Seoul – athletics (20 km/ 50 km walk, marathon)

*Jangchung Gymnasium – taekwondo (demonstration), judo

Venues outside Seoul

*Sangmu Gymnasium¹, Seongnam – wrestling

*Daejeon Stadium², Daejeon – football preliminaries

*Daegu Stadium², Daegu – football preliminaries

*Buson Stadium², Busan – football preliminaries

*Gwangju Stadium², Gwangju – football preliminaries

*Suwon Gymnasium¹, Suwon – handball

*Seongnam Stadium², Seongnam – field hockey

*Busan Yachting Center¹, Busan – sailing

*Tongillo Road Course – cycling (individual road race, road team time trial)

¹ New facilities constructed in preparation for the Olympic Games. ² Existing facilities modified or refurbished in preparation for the Olympic Games.

Medals awarded

Demonstration sports

These were the demonstration sports in the games: 20px|Judo Judo () 20px|Athletics Wheelchair racing ()

Calendar

Opening ceremony

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September

October

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align="left">Archery at the 1988 Summer Olympics

Archery

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Total gold medals !! !! 5 !! 7 !! 9 !! 14 !! 17 !! 12 !! 30 !! 26 !! 9 !! 15 !! 9 !! 11 !! 36 !! 37 !! 9

Ceremonies

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Participating nations

Athletes from 159 nations competed at the Seoul Games. Aruba, American Samoa, Cook Islands, Guam, Maldives, Vanuatu, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and South Yemen made their first Olympic appearance at these Games.

In the following list, the number in parentheses indicates the number of athletes from each nation that competed in Seoul: {| |valign=top| |valign=top| |valign=top| |valign=top| |}

also participated in the Opening Ceremonies and Closing Ceremonies, marking its first appearance at the Olympic Games, but its delegation consisted of only one swimming official.

Medal count

These are the top ten nations that won medals at these Games: {| |- | 1 ||align=left| || 55 || 31 || 46 || 132 |- | 2 ||align=left| || 37 || 35 || 30 || 102 |- | 3 ||align=left| || 36 || 31 || 27 || 94 |- bgcolor=ccccff | 4 ||align=left| (host nation) || 12 || 10 || 11 || 33 |- | 5 ||align=left| || 11 || 14 || 15 || 40 |- | 6 ||align=left| || 11 || 6 || 6 || 23 |- | 7 ||align=left| || 10 || 12 || 13 || 35 |- | 8 ||align=left| || 7 || 11 || 6 || 24 |- | 9 ||align=left| || 6 || 4 || 6 || 16 |- | 10 ||align=left| || 6 || 4 || 4 || 14 |}

Mascot

The official mascot for the 1988 Summer Olympic Games was Hodori. It was a stylized tiger designed by Kim Hyun as an amicable Amur Tiger, portraying the friendly and hospitable traditions of the Korean people. Hodori's female version was called Hosuni.

The name ''Hodori'' was chosen from 2,295 suggestions sent in by the public. It is a portmanteau of ''ho'', which is a derived word from the Korean word for "tiger" (''horangi''), and ''dori'', which is a diminutive for "boys" in Korean.

Broadcast rights

The games were covered by the following broadcasters: : Ten Network : Rede Globo, Rede Manchete, SBT and Rede Bandeirantes : RTÉ : BBC, ITV and Channel 4 : CCTV : NBC : NPO : SVT : CBC : NHK : ATV and TVB : TDM : TVE : TTV, CTV and CTS : KBS and MBC : Televisa : ARD and ZDF : DFF : TF1 : NBT : Doordarshan : TRT : TVNZ : TVRI : TV3 : Singapore Broadcasting Corporation Twelfth Frequency : PTV and RPN : RTB : RAI : TVN, UC-TV : Argentina Televisora Color, Canal 13, Canal 11 : Magyar Televízió : TVP : Eurosport : CT-USSR

See also

Notes

References

Official Report Vol. 1

Official Report Vol. 2

External links

The program of the 1988 Seoul Olympics

Olympics O Category:Sport in Seoul Category:Olympic Games in South Korea

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The Summer Olympic Games or the Games of the Olympiad are an international multi-sport event, occurring every four years, organized by the International Olympic Committee. Medals are awarded in each event, with gold medals for first place, silver for second and bronze for third, a tradition that started in 1904. The Winter Olympics were also created due to the success of the summer Olympics.

The olympics have increased from a 42-event competition with fewer than 250 male athletes to a 300-event sporting celebration with over 10,000 competitors from 205 nations. Organizers for the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing expected approximately 10,500 athletes to take part in the 302 events on the program for the games.

The United States has hosted four Summer Olympics Games, more than any other nation. The United Kingdom will have hosted three Summer Olympics Games when they return to the British capital in 2012, all of them have been (and will be) in London, making it the first city to hold the Summer Olympic Games three times. Australia, France, Germany and Greece have all hosted the Summer Olympic Games twice. Other countries that have hosted the summer Olympics are Belgium, China, Canada, Finland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, South Korea, Spain, the Soviet Union and Sweden. In the 2016 Summer Olympics, Rio de Janeiro will host the first Summer Games in South America. Four cities have hosted two Summer Olympic Games: Los Angeles, London, Paris and Athens. Stockholm, Sweden, has hosted events at two Summer Olympic Games, having hosted the games in 1912 and the equestrian events at the 1956 Summer Olympics—which they are usually listed as jointly hosting. Events at the summer Olympics have also been held in Hong Kong and the Netherlands (both represented by their own NOCs), with the equestrian events at the 2008 Summer Olympics being held in Hong Kong and two sailing races at the 1920 Summer Olympics being held in the Netherlands.

Five countries – Greece, Great Britain, France, Switzerland, and Australia (twice combined with New Zealand as Australasia) – have been represented at all Summer Olympic Games. The only country to have won at least one gold medal at every Summer Olympic Games is Great Britain, ranging from one gold in 1904, 1952 and 1996 to fifty-six golds in 1908.

Qualification

Qualification rules for each of the Olympic sports are set by the International Sports Federations (IFs) that governs that sport's international competition.

For individual sports, competitors typically qualify through attaining a certain place in a major international event or on the IF's ranking list. National Olympic committees may enter a limited number of qualified competitors in each event, and the NOC decides which qualified competitors to select as representatives in each event if more have attained the benchmark than can be entered.

Nations qualify teams for team sports through continental qualifying tournaments, in which each continental association is given a certain number of spots in the Olympic tournament.

History

Early years

The modern Olympic Games were founded in 1894 when Pierre Fredy, Baron de Coubertin sought to promote international understanding through sporting competition. He based his Olympics on the Wenlock Olympian Society Annual Games, which had been contested in Much Wenlock since 1850.

The first edition of de Coubertin's games, held in Athens in 1896, attracted just 245 competitors, of whom more than 200 were Greek, and only 14 countries were represented. Nevertheless, no international events of this magnitude had been organized before. Female athletes were not allowed to compete, though one woman, Stamata Revithi, ran the marathon course on her own, saying "[i]f the committee doesn’t let me compete I will go after them regardless".

The 1896 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the I Olympiad, was an international multi-sport event which was celebrated in Athens, Greece, from April 6 to April 15, 1896. It was the first Olympic Games held in the Modern era. Ancient Greece was the birthplace of the Olympic Games, consequently Athens was perceived to be an appropriate choice to stage the inaugural modern Games. It was unanimously chosen as the host city during a congress organized by Pierre de Coubertin, a French pedagogue and historian, in Paris, on June 23, 1894. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) was also established during this congress.

Despite many obstacles and setbacks, the 1896 Olympics were regarded as a great success. The Games had the largest international participation of any sporting event to that date. Panathinaiko Stadium, the first big stadium in the modern world, overflowed with the largest crowd ever to watch a sporting event. The highlight for the Greeks was the marathon victory by their compatriot Spiridon Louis. The most successful competitor was German wrestler and gymnast Carl Schuhmann, who won four gold medals.

After the Games, Coubertin and the IOC were petitioned by several prominent figures including Greece's King George and some of the American competitors in Athens, to hold all the following Games in Athens. However, the 1900 Summer Olympics were already planned for Paris and, except for the 1906 Intercalated Games, the Olympics did not return to Greece until the 2004 Summer Olympics.

Four years later the 1900 Summer Olympics in Paris attracted more than four times as many athletes, including 11 women, who were allowed to officially compete for the first time, in croquet, golf, sailing, and tennis. The Games were integrated with the Paris World's Fair and lasted over 5 months. It is still disputed which events exactly were ''Olympic'', since few or maybe even none of the events were advertised as such at the time.

Numbers declined for the 1904 Games in St. Louis, Missouri, United States, due in part to the lengthy transatlantic boat trip required of the European competitors, and the integration with the Louisiana Purchase Exposition World's Fair, which again spread the event out over an extended period. In contrast with Paris 1900, the word ''Olympic'' was used for practically every contest, including those exclusively for school boys or for Irish-Americans.

A series of smaller games were held in Athens in 1906. The IOC does not currently recognize these games as being official Olympic Games, although many historians do. The 1906 Athens games were the first of an alternating series of games to be held in Athens, but the series failed to materialize. The games were more successful than the 1900 and 1904 games, with over 900 athletes competing, and contributed positively to the success of future games.

The 1908 London Games saw numbers rise again, as well as the first running of the marathon over its now-standard distance of 42.195 km (26 miles 385 yards). The winner of the first Olympic Marathon in 1896 (a male-only race) was Spiridon "Spiros" Louis, a Greek water-carrier. He won at the Olympics in 2 hours 58 minutes and 50 seconds at a distance of 40 km (24 miles 85 yards). The new marathon distance of 42.195 km (26 miles 385 yards) was chosen to ensure that the race finished in front of the box occupied by the British royal family. Thus the marathon had been 40 km for the first games in 1896, but was subsequently varied by up to 2 km due to local conditions such as street and stadium layout. At the six Olympic games between 1900 and 1920, the marathon was raced over six different distances.

At the end of the 1908 marathon the Italian runner Dorando Pietri was first to enter the stadium, but he was clearly in distress, and collapsed of exhaustion before he could complete the event. He was helped over the finish line by concerned race officials, but later he was disqualified and the gold medal was awarded to John Hayes, who had trailed him by around 30 seconds.

The Games continued to grow, attracting 2,504 competitors, to Stockholm in 1912, including the great all-rounder Jim Thorpe, who won both the decathlon and pentathlon. Thorpe had previously played a few games of baseball for a fee, and saw his medals stripped for this breach of amateurism after complaints from Avery Brundage. They were reinstated in 1983, 30 years after his death. The Games at Stockholm were the first to fulfill Pierre de Coubertin's original idea. For the first time since the Games started in 1896 were all continents represented with athletes competing in the same stadium.

The scheduled Berlin Games of 1916 were cancelled following the onset of World War I.

Interwar era

The 1920 Antwerp games in war-ravaged Belgium were a subdued affair, but again drew a record number of competitors. This record only stood until 1924, when the Paris Games involved 3,000 competitors, the greatest of whom was Finnish runner Paavo Nurmi. "The Flying Finn", won three team gold medals and the individual 1,500 and 5,000 meter runs, the latter two on the same day.

The 1928 Amsterdam games were notable for being the first games which allowed females to compete at track & field athletics, and benefited greatly from the general prosperity of the times alongside the first appearance of sponsorship of the games, from Coca-Cola. The 1928 games saw the introduction of a standard medal design with the IOC choosing Giuseppe Cassioli's depiction of Greek goddess Nike and a winner being carried by a crowd of people. This design was used up until 1972.

The 1932 in Los Angeles games were affected by the Great Depression, which contributed to the fewest competitors since the St. Louis games. The 1936 Berlin Games were seen by the German government as a golden opportunity to promote their ideology. The ruling Nazi Party commissioned film-maker Leni Riefenstahl to film the games. The result, ''Olympia'', was a masterpiece, despite Hitler's theories of Aryan racial superiority being repeatedly shown up by "non-Aryan" athletes. In particular, African-American sprinter and long jumper Jesse Owens won 4 gold medals. The tale of Hitler snubbing Owens at the ensuing medal ceremony is a fabrication. The 1936 Berlin Games also saw the reintroduction of the Torch Relay.

Due to World War II, the Games of 1940 (due to be held in Tokyo and temporarily relocated to Helsinki upon the outbreak of war) were cancelled. The Games of 1944 were due to be held in London but were also cancelled; instead, London hosted the first games after the end of the war, in 1948.

After World War II

The first post-war Games were held in 1948 in London, with both Germany and Japan excluded. Dutch sprinter Fanny Blankers-Koen won four gold medals on the track, emulating Owens' achievement in Berlin.

At the 1952 Games in Helsinki the USSR team competed for the first time and immediately became one of the dominant teams. Finland made a legend of an amiable Czech army lieutenant named Emil Zátopek, who was intent on improving on his single gold and silver medals from 1948. Having first won both the 10,000 and 5,000 meter races, he also entered the marathon, despite having never previously raced at that distance. Pacing himself by chatting with the other leaders, Zátopek led from about half way, slowly dropping the remaining contenders to win by two and a half minutes, and completed a trio of wins.

The 1956 Melbourne Games were largely successful, barring a water polo match between Hungary and the Soviet Union, which political tensions caused to end as a pitched battle between the teams. Due to a foot-and-mouth disease outbreak in Britain at the time and the strict quarantine laws of Australia, the equestrian events were held in Stockholm.

At the 1960 Rome Games a young light-heavyweight boxer named Cassius Clay, later known as Muhammad Ali, arrived on the scene. Ali would later throw his gold medal away in disgust after being refused service in a whites-only restaurant in his home town of Louisville, Kentucky. Soviet women's artistic gymnastics team members won 15 of 16 possible medals. Other performers of note in 1960 included Wilma Rudolph, a gold medalist in the 100 meters, 200 meters and 4x100 meters relay events.

The 1964 Games held in Tokyo are notable for heralding the modern age of telecommunications. These games were the first to be broadcast worldwide on television, enabled by the recent advent of communication satellites. The 1964 Games were thus a turning point in the global visibility and popularity of the Olympics.

Performances at the 1968 Mexico City games were affected by the altitude of the host city, specifically the long jump, in which American athlete Bob Beamon jumped 8.90 meters. Beamon's world record would stand for 23 years. The 1968 Games also introduced the now-universal Fosbury flop, a technique which won American high jumper Dick Fosbury the gold medal. Politics took center stage in the medal ceremony for the men's 200 meter dash, where Tommie Smith and John Carlos made a protest gesture on the podium against the segregation in the United States; their political act was condemned within the Olympic Movement, but was praised in the American Civil Rights Movement.

Politics again intervened at Munich in 1972, with lethal consequences. A Palestinian terrorist group named Black September invaded the Olympic village and broke into the apartment of the Israeli delegation. They killed two Israelis and held 9 others as hostages. The terrorists demanded that Israel release numerous prisoners. When the Israeli government refused their demand, a tense stand-off ensued while negotiations continued. Eventually the captors, still holding their hostages, were offered safe passage and taken to an airport, where they were ambushed by German security forces. In the firefight that followed, 15 people, including the nine Israeli athletes and five of the terrorists, were killed. After much debate, it was decided that the Games would continue, but proceedings were obviously dominated by these events. Some memorable athletic achievements did occur during these Games, notably the winning of a then-record seven gold medals by United States swimmer Mark Spitz, Lasse Virén (of Finland)'s back-to-back gold in the 5,000 meters and 10,000 meters (defeating American distance great Steve Prefontaine in the former), and the winning of three gold medals by 16-year-old Soviet gymnast Olga Korbut. Korbut failed to win the all-around, losing to her teammate Ludmilla Tourischeva.

There was no such tragedy in Montreal in 1976, but bad planning and fraud led to the Games' cost far exceeding the budget. The Montreal Games were the most expensive in Olympic history, until the 2008 Summer Olympics, costing over $5 billion (equivalent to $20 billion in 2006). For a time, it seemed that the Olympics might no longer be a viable financial proposition. In retrospect, the belief that contractors (suspected of being members of the Montreal Mafia) skimmed large sums of money from all levels of contracts while also profiting from the substitution of cheaper building materials of lesser quality, may have contributed to the delays, poor construction and excessive costs. In 1988, one such contractor, Giuseppe Zappia "was cleared of fraud charges that resulted from his work on Olympic facilities after two key witnesses died before testifying at his trial." There was also a boycott by African nations to protest against a recent tour of apartheid-run South Africa by a New Zealand rugby side. The Romanian gymnast Nadia Comăneci won the women's individual all around gold medal with two of four possible perfect scores, thus giving birth to a gymnastics dynasty in Romania. Another female gymnast to earn the perfect score and three gold medals there was Nellie Kim of the USSR. Lasse Virén repeated his double gold in the 5,000 meters and 10,000 meters, making him the only athlete to ever win the distance double twice.

End of the 20th century

Following the Soviet Union's participation in the Afghan Civil War, 66 nations, including the United States, Canada, West Germany and Japan, boycotted the 1980 games held in Moscow. The boycott contributed to the 1980 Games being a less publicised and less competitive affair, which was dominated by the host country.

In 1984 the Soviet Union, and 13 Soviet Allies, reciprocated by boycotting the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. These games were perhaps the first games of a new era to make a profit. The games were again viable, but had become more commercial. Again, without the participation of the Eastern European countries, the 1984 Games were dominated by their host country. The game was also the first time Mainland China (People's Republic) participated.

The 1988 games, in Seoul, were very well planned but the games were tainted when many of the athletes, most notably men's 100 metres winner Ben Johnson, failed mandatory drug tests. Despite splendid drug-free performances by many individuals, the number of people who failed screenings for performance-enhancing chemicals overshadowed the games.

The 1992 Barcelona Games featured increased professionalism amongst Olympic athletes, exemplified by US basketball's "Dream Team". 1992 also saw the reintroduction to the Games of several smaller European states which had been incorporated into the Soviet Union since World War II. These games also saw gymnast Vitaly Scherbo equal the record for most individual gold medals at a single Games set by Eric Heiden in the 1980 Winter Games, with five.

By then the process of choosing a location for the Games had itself become a commercial concern; allegations of corruption rocked the International Olympic Committee, in particular with reference to Salt Lake City's bid to host the 2002 Winter Olympics. In the Atlanta games in 1996, the highlight was 200 meters runner Michael Johnson annihilating the world record in front of a home crowd. Canadians savored Donovan Bailey's record-breaking gold medal run in the 100-meter dash. This was popularly felt to be an appropriate recompense for the previous national disgrace involving Ben Johnson. There were also emotional scenes, such as when Muhammad Ali, clearly affected by Parkinson's disease, lit the Olympic torch and received a replacement medal for the one he had discarded in 1960. The latter event took place not at the boxing ring but in the basketball arena, at the demand of US television. The atmosphere at the Games was marred, however, when a bomb exploded during the celebration in Centennial Olympic Park. In June 2003, the principal suspect in this bombing, Eric Robert Rudolph, was arrested.

New millennium

The 2000 Games were held in Sydney, Australia, (actually the last games of the old millennium) and showcased individual performances by local favorite Ian Thorpe in the pool, Briton Steve Redgrave who won a rowing gold medal in an unprecedented fifth consecutive Olympics, and Cathy Freeman, an Indigenous Australian whose triumph in the 400 meters united a packed stadium. Eric "the Eel" Moussambani, a swimmer from Equatorial Guinea, had a memorably slow 100 meter freestyle swim that showed that, even in the commercial world of the twentieth century, some of de Coubertin's original vision still remained. The Sydney Games were also memorable for the first appearance of a joint North and South Korean contingent (to a standing ovation) at the opening ceremonies, even if they competed as different countries. Controversy did not escape the 2000 Games in Women's Artistic Gymnastics, in which the vaulting horse was set to the wrong height during the All Around Competition. Several athletes faltered, including Russian Svetlana Khorkina, who had been favored to win gold after qualifying for the competition in first place.

In 2004 the Games returned to their birthplace in Athens, Greece. Greece spent at least $7.2 billion on the Games, including $1.5 billion on security alone. Nonetheless, the Men's Gymnastics events were mired in controversy when it was discovered that Korean gymnast Yang Tae Young had been incorrectly credited with a lower start value, which placed him third behind American Paul Hamm, who won the competition. Later in the event finals, fans halted the Men's High Bar competition with chants of disapproval following the release of the score for Russian Alexei Nemov. Allegations of corrupt judging also marred the event finals in men's still rings. Although unfounded and wildly sensationalized reports of potential terrorism drove crowds away from the preliminary competitions of the first weekend of the games (14–15 August), attendance picked up as the games progressed. Still, a third of the tickets failed to sell. The Athens Games witnessed all 202 NOCs participate with over 11,000 participants.

The 2008 Summer Olympics were held in Beijing, People's Republic of China. This Olympics was the subject of much controversy, especially following the March Tibetan riots. Human rights activists unsuccessfully called for a boycott, and some even compared the 2008 Olympics to the 1936 ones held in Nazi Germany. Several new events were held, including the new discipline of BMX for both men and women. For the first time, women competed in the steeplechase. The fencing program was expanded to include all six events for both men and women. Women had not previously been able to compete in team foil or saber events (although women's team épée and men's team foil were dropped for these Games). Marathon swimming events, over the distance of 10 kilometers, were added. In addition, the doubles events in table tennis were replaced by team events. American swimmer Michael Phelps set a record for gold medals at a single Games with eight, and tied the record of Heiden and Scherbo for most individual golds at a single Games. Another major star of the Games was Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt, who became the first male athlete ever to set world records in the finals of both the 100 and 200 metres in the same Games.

London, United Kingdom will hold the 2012 Summer Olympics, making it the first city to host the Games three times. The International Olympic Committee has removed baseball and softball from the 2012 program. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil will be the host city of the 2016 Summer Olympics, becoming the first South American city to host either the Summer or Winter Games. Also, this will be the first games held in a lusosphere country (a Portuguese speaking country).The International Olympic Committee including golf and rugby sevens, returning after many Olympic Games, from the 2016 program

List of Olympic sports

43 different sports, spanning 56 different disciplines, have been part of the Olympic program at one point or another. 28 sports have comprised the schedule for the 2000, 2004, and 2008 Summer Olympics, though baseball and softball have been removed to give a list of 26 for the 2012 Games.

The Summer Olympic Sports or Federations are regrouped under a common umbrella association, called the Association of Summer Olympic International Federations (ASOIF).

{| cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" |valign="top"| {| class=wikitable ! Sport || Years |- | Archery || 1900–1912, 1920, since 1972 |- | Athletics || all |- | Badminton || since 1992 |- | Baseball || 1992–2008 |- | Basketball || since 1936 |- | Basque pelota || 1900 |- | Boxing || 1904, 1908, since 1920 |- | Canoeing and kayaking || since 1936 |- | Cricket || 1900 |- | Croquet || 1900 |- | Cycling || all |- | Diving || since 1904 |- | Equestrian || 1900, since 1912 |- | Fencing || all |- | Football || 1900–1928, since 1936 |- | Golf || 1900, 1904, 2016, 2020 |- | Gymnastics || all |- | Handball || 1936, since 1972 |- | Hockey (field) || 1908, 1920, since 1928 |- | Jeu de paume || 1908 |- | Judo || 1964, since 1972 |- | Lacrosse || 1904, 1908 |} |valign="top"| {| class=wikitable ! Sport || Years |- | Modern pentathlon || since 1912 |- | Polo || 1900, 1908, 1920, 1924, 1936 |- | Rackets || 1908 |- | Roque || 1904 |- | Rowing || since 1900 |- | Rugby union || 1900, 1908, 1920, 1924 |- | Rugby sevens || 2016 |- | Sailing || 1900, since 1908 |- | Shooting || 1896, 1900, 1908–1924, since 1932 |- | Softball || 1996–2008 |- | Swimming || all |- | Synchronized swimming || since 1984 |- | Table tennis || since 1988 |- | Taekwondo || since 2000 |- | Tennis || 1896–1924, since 1988 |- | Triathlon || since 2000 |- | Tug of war || 1900–1920 |- | Volleyball || since 1964 |- | Water motorsports || 1908 |- | Water polo || 1900, since 1908 |- | Weightlifting || 1896, 1904, since 1920 |- | Wrestling || 1896, since 1904 |} |}

List of modern Summer Olympic Games

241 997 651 2008 2407 2626 3089 2883 1332 3963 4104 4955 3314 5338 5151 5516 7134 6084 5179 6829 8391 9356 10318 10651 10625 10942

Games	Year	Host	Dates	Nations	Competitors	Sports	Events	Ref
Total	! Men	! Women
1896 Summer Olympics	I	1896	align=left		14	241	|	0	9	43
	1900	align=left		24	|	975	22	18	95
	1904	align=left		12	|	645	6	17	91
	1908	align=left		22	|	1971	37	22	110
	1912			28	|	2359	48	14	102
	''1916''
	1920			29	|	2561	65	22	154
	1924	align=left		44	|	2954	135	17	126
	1928			46	|	2606	277	14	109
	1932			37	|	1206	126	14	117
	1936	align=left		49	|	3632	331	19	129
	''1940''
	''1944''
	1948	align=left		59	|	3714	390	17	136
	1952			69	|	4436	519	17	149
	1956			72	|	2938	376	17	145
	1960			83	|	4727	611	17	150
	1964			93	|	4473	678	19	163
	1968			112	|	4735	781	18	172
	1972			121	|	6075	1059	21	195
	1976			92	|	4824	1260	21	198
	1980			80	|	4064	1115	21	203
	1984			140	|	5263	1566	21	221
	1988			160	|	6197	2194	23	237
	1992			169	|	6652	2704	25	257
	1996			197	|	6806	3512	26	271
	2000			199	|	6582	4069	28	300
	2004			201	|	6296	4329	28	301
	2008			204	|	6305	4637	28	302
	2012
	2016
	2020
	2024
	2028

''Note: Although the Games of 1916, 1940, and 1944 had been cancelled, the Roman numerals for those Games were still used because the Summer Games' official titles count Olympiads, not the Games themselves; those Olympiads occurred anyway per the Olympic Charter. This is in contrast to the Roman numerals in the official titles of the Winter Olympic Games, which ignore the cancelled Winter Games of 1940 & 1944; those titles count Games instead of Olympiads.''

See also

List of participating nations at the Summer Olympic Games

All-time Olympic Games medal count

Olympic Games scandals

Winter Olympic Games

Olympic Stadium

Multi-sport event

Olympic Games ceremony

Summer Paralympic Games

Notes

External links

Official Site of the Olympic Movement

Summer Olympic Games medalists and records (German)

Candidate Cities for future Olympic Games

LA84 Foundation archive of Official Reports

Category:Recurring sporting events established in 1896

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names	Johnny williams | background non_performing_personnel
birth name	John Towner Williams
birth date	February 08, 1932
origin	Flushing, Queens, New York, United States of America
genre	Film score, Contemporary classical music, Jazz Alma mater: UCLA, Juilliard School
occupation	Composer, pianist, conductor
years active	1952–present
spouse	Barbara Ruick (1956–74) (deceased)Samantha Winslow (1980–present) }}

John Towner Williams (born February 8, 1932) is an American composer, conductor, and pianist. In a career spanning almost six decades, he has composed some of the most recognizable film scores in the history of motion pictures, including the ''Star Wars'' saga, ''Jaws,'' ''Superman,'' the ''Indiana Jones'' films, ''E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial,'' ''Hook,'' ''Jurassic Park,'' ''Schindler's List,'' ''War Horse'', ''Home Alone'' and the first three ''Harry Potter'' films. He has had a long association with director Steven Spielberg, composing the music for all but two (''Duel'' and ''The Color Purple'') of Spielberg's major feature films.

Other notable works by Williams include theme music for four Olympic Games, ''NBC Sunday Night Football'', the ''NBC Nightly News,'' the rededication of the Statue of Liberty, the DreamWorks Pictures production logo, and the television series ''Lost in Space.'' Williams has also composed numerous classical concerti, and he served as the principal conductor of the Boston Pops Orchestra from 1980 to 1993; he is now the orchestra's conductor laureate.

Williams has won five Academy Awards, four Golden Globe Awards, seven BAFTA Awards, and 21 Grammy Awards. With 47 Academy Award nominations, Williams is the second most nominated person, after Walt Disney. John Williams was honored with the prestigious Richard Kirk award at the 1999 BMI Film and TV Awards. The award is given annually to a composer who has made significant contributions to film and television music. Williams was inducted into the Hollywood Bowl Hall of Fame in 2000, and was a recipient of the Kennedy Center Honors in 2004.

Early life and family

John Williams was born on February 8, 1932 in Long Island, New York, the son of Esther (née Towner) and Johnny Williams. His father was a jazz percussionist who played with the Raymond Scott Quintet.

In 1948, the Williams family moved to Los Angeles where John attended North Hollywood High School graduating in 1950. He later attended the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), and studied privately with the Italian composer Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco. In 1952, Williams was drafted into the U.S. Air Force, where he conducted and arranged music for the Air Force Band as part of his assignments.

After his Air Force service ended in 1955, Williams moved to New York City and entered the Juilliard School, where he studied piano with Rosina Lhévinne. During this time, Williams worked as a jazz pianist in New York's many clubs and eventually studios, most notably for composer Henry Mancini. His fellow session musicians included Rolly Bundock on bass, Jack Sperling on drums, and Bob Bain on guitar—the same lineup featured on the ''Mr. Lucky'' television series. Williams was known as "Little Johnny Love" Williams during the early 1960s, and he served as music arranger and bandleader for a series of popular music albums with the singer Frankie Laine.

Williams was married to actress Barbara Ruick from 1956 until her death on March 3, 1974. The Williamses had three children: Jennifer (born 1956), Mark (born 1958), and Joseph (born 1960). Williams' younger son (Joseph) is one of the various lead singers the band Toto. John Williams married his second wife, Samantha Winslow, on July 21, 1980.

John Williams is an honorary member of Kappa Kappa Psi, the national fraternity for college band members.

Film and television scoring

While skilled in a variety of 20th century compositional idioms, Williams' most familiar style may be described as a form of neoromanticism, inspired by the same large-scale orchestral music of the late 19th century—especially the compositions of Richard Wagner and its concept of leitmotif—that inspired his film music predecessors.

After his studies at Juilliard, Williams returned to Los Angeles, where he began working as an orchestrator at film studios. Among other composers, Williams worked with Franz Waxman, Bernard Herrmann, and Alfred Newman, and also with his fellow orchestrators Conrad Salinger and Bob Franklyn. Williams was also a studio pianist, performing on film scores by composers such as Jerry Goldsmith, Elmer Bernstein, and Henry Mancini. Williams recorded with Henry Mancini on the film scores of ''Peter Gunn'' (1959), ''Days of Wine and Roses'' (1962), and ''Charade'' (1963). (Williams actually played the well-recognized opening riff to Mancini's ''Peter Gunn'' theme.) Williams (often credited as "Johnny Williams") also composed the music for various TV programs in the 1960s: The pilot episode of ''Gilligan's Island'', ''Bachelor Father'' (1959-1960), the ''Kraft Suspense Theatre'', ''Lost in Space'' (1965–68), ''The Time Tunnel'' (1966–67), and ''Land of the Giants'' (the last three created by the prolific TV producer, Irwin Allen).

Working at Universal Studios, Williams shared music credit on a number of films, the most notable being ''The Creature from the Black Lagoon'' in 1954. Williams's first major film composition was for the B movie ''Daddy-O'' in 1958, and his first screen credit came two years later in ''Because They're Young.'' He soon gained notice in Hollywood for his versatility in composing jazz, piano, and symphonic music. Williams received his first nomination for an Academy Award for his film score for ''Valley of the Dolls'' (1967), and then was nominated again for his score for ''Goodbye, Mr. Chips'' (1969). Williams broke through to win his first Academy Award for his adapted score for the film ''Fiddler on the Roof'' (1971). In 1972 he composed the score for the Robert Altman psychological thriller ''Images'' (recorded in collaboration with noted percussionist Stomu Yamashta) which earned him another nomination in the category 'Best Music, Original Dramatic Score' at the 1973 Academy Awards. During the early 1970s, Williams' prominence grew thanks to his work for now–film producer Irwin Allen's disaster films, composing the scores for ''The Poseidon Adventure'' (1972) and ''The Towering Inferno'' (1974). In addition, he scored Universal's ''Earthquake'' (1974) for director Mark Robson, completing a "trinity" of scores for the highest grossing "disaster films" of the decade. He also wrote a very memorable score to ''The Cowboys'' (1972), a western starring John Wayne and directed by Mark Rydell.

In 1974, Williams was approached by director Steven Spielberg to compose the music for his feature directorial debut, ''The Sugarland Express.'' The young director had been impressed with Williams's score for the movie ''The Reivers'' (1969), and Spielberg was convinced that Williams could compose the musical sound that he desired for any of his films. They teamed up again a year later for Spielberg's second film, ''Jaws.'' Widely considered to be a classic suspense film, its film score's ominous two-note motif has become synonymous with sharks and approaching danger. The score for ''Jaws'' earned Williams his second Academy Award, his first one for an original composition.

Shortly thereafter, Williams and Spielberg began a long collaboration for their next feature film together, ''Close Encounters of the Third Kind'' (''CE3K,'' 1977). In an unusual step for a Hollywood film, Spielberg and Williams developed their script and musical concepts simultaneously, as in the film these entwine very closely together. During their two-year-long collaboration, they crafted its distinctive five-note figure that functions both in the background music and as the communications signal of the film's extraterrestrials. Williams also used a system of musical hand signals in ''CE3K'' that were based on hand signs created by John Curwen and refined by Zoltan Kodaly.

During the same period, Spielberg recommended Williams to his friend and fellow director George Lucas, who needed a composer to score his ambitious space epic, ''Star Wars'' (1977). Williams delivered a grand symphonic score in the fashion of Richard Strauss and Golden Age Hollywood composers Max Steiner and Erich Wolfgang Korngold. Its main theme, "Luke's Theme" is among the most widely recognized in motion picture history, and the "Force Theme" and "Princess Leia's Theme" are well-known examples of leitmotif. Both the film and its soundtrack were immensely successful—it remains the highest grossing non-popular music recording of all-time—and Williams won another Academy Award for Best Original Score. In 1980, Williams returned to score ''The Empire Strikes Back,'' where he introduced "The Imperial March" as the theme for Darth Vader and the Galactic Empire. The original ''Star Wars'' trilogy concluded with the 1983 film ''Return of the Jedi'', for which Williams's score provided most notably the "Emperor's Theme," "Parade of the Ewoks," and "Luke and Leia." Both scores earned Williams Academy Award nominations.

Williams worked with director Richard Donner to score the 1978 film ''Superman.'' The score's heroic and romantic themes, particularly the main march, the Superman fanfare and the love theme, known as "Can You Read My Mind," would appear in the four sequel films. For the 1981 film ''Raiders of the Lost Ark,'' created and directed by Lucas and Spielberg, Williams wrote a rousing main theme known as "The Raiders March" to accompany the film's hero, Indiana Jones. He also composed separate themes to represent the Ark of the Covenant, the character Marion, and the Nazi villains of the story. Additional themes were featured in his scores to the sequel films ''Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom'' (1984), ''Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade'' (1989), and ''Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull'' (2008). Williams composed an emotional and sensitive score to Spielberg's 1982 fantasy film ''E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial''. The music conveys the film's benign, childlike sense of innocence, particularly with a spirited theme for the freedom of flight, and a soft string-based, harp-featured theme for the friendship between characters E.T. and Elliott. The film's final chase and farewell sequence marks a rare instance in film history in which the on-screen action was re-edited to conform to the composer's musical interpretation. Williams was awarded a fourth Academy Award for this score.

The 1985 film ''The Color Purple'' is the only theatrical feature directed by Steven Spielberg for which John Williams did not serve as composer. The film's producer, Quincy Jones, wanted to personally arrange and compose the music for the project. Williams also did not score ''Twilight Zone: The Movie,'' but Spielberg had directed only one of the four segments in that film; the lead director and producer of the film, John Landis, selected Jerry Goldsmith as composer. The Williams-Spielberg collaboration resumed with the director's 1987 film ''Empire of the Sun,'' and has continued to the present, spanning genres from science fiction thrillers (1993's ''Jurassic Park),'' to somber tragedies (1993's ''Schindler's List'', 2005's ''Munich),'' to Eastern-tinged melodramas (2005's ''Memoirs of a Geisha'', directed by Rob Marshall). Spielberg has said, "I call it an honorable privilege to regard John Williams as a friend."

In 1999 George Lucas launched the first of a series of prequels to the original ''Star Wars'' trilogy. Williams was asked to score all three films, starting with ''The Phantom Menace.'' Along with themes from the previous movies, Williams created new themes to be used as leitmotifs in ''Attack of the Clones'' (2002) and ''Revenge of the Sith'' (2005). Most notable of these was "Duel of the Fates," an aggressive choral movement utilizing harsh Sanskrit lyrics that broadened the style of music used in the Star Wars films. Also of note was "Anakin's Theme," which begins as an innocent childlike melody and morphs insidiously into a quote of the sinister "Imperial March" of the prior trilogy. For ''Episode II,'' Williams composed "Across the Stars," a love theme for Padmé Amidala and Anakin Skywalker (mirroring the love theme composed for the second film of the previous trilogy, ''The Empire Strikes Back''). The final installment combined many of the themes created for the series' previous movies, including "The Emperor's Theme," "The Imperial March," "Across the Stars," "Duel of the Fates," "The Force Theme," "Rebel Fanfare," "Luke's Theme," and "Princess Leia's Theme," as well as new themes for General Grievous and the film's climax, entitled "Battle of the Heroes." Few composers have scored an entire series of this magnitude: The combined scores of all six ''Star Wars'' films add up to more than 14 hours of orchestral music.

In the new millennium, Williams was asked to score the film adaptations of the widely successful book series, ''Harry Potter.'' He went on to score the first three installments of the film franchise. As with his ''Superman'' theme, the most important theme from Williams's scores for the adaptations of J. K. Rowling's ''Harry Potter'' series, dubbed ''Hedwig's Theme'', has been used in the fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth films (''Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire'', ''Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix'', ''Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince'', ''Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1'' and ''Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2''), scored by Patrick Doyle, Nicholas Hooper and Alexandre Desplat respectively. Like the main themes from ''Star Wars'', ''Jaws'', ''Superman'', and ''Indiana Jones'', fans have come to identify the ''Harry Potter'' films with Williams's original compositions. Williams was asked to return to the film franchise to score the final installment, ''Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2'', but director David Yates stated that "their schedules simply did not align" as he would have had to provide Williams with a rough cut of the film sooner than was possible.

In 2006 ''Superman Returns'' was completed under the direction of Bryan Singer, best known for directing the first two movies in the ''X-Men'' series. Although Singer did not request Williams to compose a score for the intentionally Donner-esque film, he employed the skills of ''X2'' composer John Ottman to incorporate Williams's original ''Superman'' theme, as well as those for Lois Lane, Krypton and Smallville. Don Davis performed a similar role for ''Jurassic Park III'', recommended to the producers by Williams himself. (Film scores by Ottman and to a lesser extent Davis are often compared to those of Williams, as both use similar styles of composition.)

In 2008 Williams returned to the ''Indiana Jones'' series to score the fourth film—''The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull''. He received a Grammy nomination for his work on the film. During 2008, he also composed music for two documentaries, ''Warner at War'', and ''A Timeless Call'', the latter of which was directed by Steven Spielberg.

After a three year absence from film scoring, Williams composed the scores for Spielberg's ''The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn'' and ''War Horse'' in 2011. Both scores received overwhelmingly positive reviews, with both scores earning Oscar nominations, and the latter being nominated for a Golden Globe. The Oscar nominations are Williams' 46th and 47th, making him the most nominated musician in Academy Awards history (having previously been tied with Alfred Newman's 45 nominations), and the second most nominated overall, following Walt Disney. Williams won an Annie Award for his score for ''The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn'' in 2012.

Williams is next scheduled to score Spielberg's 2012 film ''Lincoln''.

Conducting and performing

From 1980 to 1993, Williams succeeded Arthur Fiedler as Principal Conductor of the Boston Pops Orchestra. Williams never met Fiedler in person but spoke with him by telephone. His arrival as the new leader of the Pops in the spring of 1980 allowed him to devote part of the Pops' first PBS broadcast of the season to presenting his new compositions for ''The Empire Strikes Back,'' in addition to conducting many Fiedler audience favorites.

Williams almost ended his tenure with the Pops in 1984. Considered a customary practice of opinion, some players hissed while sight-reading a new Williams composition in rehearsal; Williams abruptly left the session and turned in his resignation. He initially cited mounting conflicts with his film composing schedule, but later admitted a perceived lack of discipline in and respect from the Pops' ranks, culminating in this latest instance. After entreaties by the management and personal apologies from the musicians, Williams withdrew his resignation and continued as principal conductor for nine more years. In 1995 he was succeeded by Keith Lockhart, the former associate conductor of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and Cincinnati Pops Orchestra.

Williams is now the Laureate Conductor of the Pops, thus maintaining his affiliation with its parent, the Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO). Williams leads the Pops on several occasions each year, particularly during their Holiday Pops season and typically for a week of concerts in May. He conducts an annual Film Night at both Boston Symphony Hall and Tanglewood, where he frequently enlists the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, official chorus of the BSO....

Williams has written many concert pieces, including a symphony; a Concerto for Horn written for Dale Clevenger, principal hornist of the Chicago Symphony; a Concerto for Clarinet written for Michele Zukovsky (Principal Clarinetist of the Los Angeles Philharmonic) in 1991; a sinfonietta for wind ensemble; a cello concerto premiered by Yo-Yo Ma and the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Tanglewood in 1994; concertos for the flute and violin recorded by the London Symphony Orchestra; and a trumpet concerto, which was premiered by the Cleveland Orchestra and their principal trumpet Michael Sachs in September 1996. His bassoon concerto, "The Five Sacred Trees", which was premiered by the New York Philharmonic and principal bassoon player Judith LeClair in 1995, was recorded for Sony Classical by Williams with LeClair and the London Symphony Orchestra. He is also an accomplished pianist, as can be heard in various scores in which he provides solos, as well as a handful of European classical music recordings.

Williams was the subject of an hour-long documentary for the BBC in 1980, and was featured in a story for ABC's newsmagazine 20/20 in 1983.

In 1985, Williams was commissioned by NBC to compose a television news music package for various network news spots. The package, which Williams named "The Mission", consists of four movements, two of which are still used heavily by NBC today for ''The Today Show'', ''NBC Nightly News'', and ''Meet the Press''. Williams also composed the "Liberty Fanfare" for the rededication of the Statue of Liberty, "We're Lookin' Good!" for the Special Olympics in celebration of the 1987 International Summer Games, and themes for the 1984, 1988, 1996, and 2002 Olympic games. His most recent concert work, "Seven for Luck", for soprano and orchestra, is a seven-piece song cycle based on the texts of former U.S. Poet Laureate Rita Dove. "Seven for Luck" was given its world premiere by the Boston Symphony under Williams with soprano Cynthia Haymon.

Williams makes annual appearances with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl, and took part as conductor and composer in the orchestra's opening gala concerts for the Walt Disney Concert Hall in 2003.

In 2004, Williams both served as the Grand Marshall for the Rose Parade, and directed the Star Spangled Banner at the beginning of the Rose Bowl.

In April 2005, Williams and the Boston Pops performed "The Force Theme" from ''Star Wars'' at opening day in Fenway Park as the Boston Red Sox, having won their first World Series championship since 1918, received their championship rings. For Game 1 of the 2007 World Series, Williams conducted a brass-and-drum ensemble through a new dissonant arrangement of the "Star Spangled Banner."

In April 2004, February 2006, and September 2007, he conducted the New York Philharmonic at Avery Fisher Hall in New York City. The initial program was intended to be a one-time special event, and featured Williams's medley of Oscar-winning film scores first performed at the previous year's Academy Awards. Its unprecedented popularity led to two concerts in 2006: fundraising gala events featuring personal recollections by film directors Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg. Continuing demand fueled three more concerts in 2007, which all sold out. These featured a tribute to the musicals of film director Stanley Donen, and had the distinction of serving as the opening event of the New York Philharmonic season. After a four-season absence, Williams conducted the Philharmonic once again in October 2011.

Awards

John Williams has won five Academy Awards, and four Golden Globe Awards. He has also been nominated for 22 Golden Globes, winning four, and 59 Grammys, winning 20. With 47 Oscar nominations, Williams currently holds the record for the most Oscar nominations for a living person, and is the second most nominated person in the history of the Academy Awards behind only Walt Disney's 59. Forty-two of Williams' Oscar nominations are for Best Original Score and five are for Best Original Song. He won four Oscars for Best Original Score and one for Best Adapted Score ''(Fiddler on the Roof).''

Williams has received three Emmy Awards and five nominations, seven BAFTAs, twenty Grammy Awards, and has been inducted into the American Classical Music Hall of Fame and the Hollywood Bowl Hall of Fame. In 2004 he received a Kennedy Center Honor. He won a Classical Brit award in 2005 for his soundtrack work of the previous year.

Notably, Williams has won the Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Composition for his scores for ''Star Wars'', ''Close Encounters of the Third Kind'', ''Superman'', ''The Empire Strikes Back'', ''E.T. The Extraterrestrial'', ''Angela's Ashes'' (1999), ''Munich'' (2005), and ''Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.'' The competition includes not only composers of film scores, but also composers of instrumental music of any genre, including composers of classical fare such as symphonies and chamber music.

In 2003, the International Olympic Committee accorded Mr. Williams its highest individual honor, the Olympic Order.

In 2009, Williams received the National Medal of Arts in the White House in Washington for his achievements in symphonic music for motion pictures, and "as a pre-eminent composer and conductor [whose] scores have defined and inspired modern movie-going for decades."

John Williams was made an honorary brother of Kappa Kappa Psi at Boston University in the late 80's.

AFI

Williams's richly thematic and highly popular 1977 score to ''Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope'' was selected in 2005 by the American Film Institute as the greatest American movie score of all time. His scores for ''Jaws'' and ''E.T.'' also appeared on the list, at No. 6 and No. 14, respectively. Other Williams scores for the following films were nominated for the list:

''A.I. Artificial Intelligence'' (2001)

''Close Encounters of the Third Kind'' (1977)

''The Cowboys'' (1972)

''Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone'' (2001)

''Raiders of the Lost Ark'' (1981)

''Schindler's List'' (1993)

''Superman'' (1978)

''The Witches of Eastwick'' (1987)

List of awards

! Award	! Year	! Project	! Category	! Outcome
rowspan=2
rowspan=2
rowspan=3	''Cinderella Liberty''
	''The Towering Inferno''
rowspan=2
''Close Encounters of the Third Kind''
	''The Empire Strikes Back''
	''Raiders of the Lost Ark''
rowspan=2
"If We Were in Love" (from ''Yes, Giorgio'')
	''Return of the Jedi''
rowspan=2	''Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom''
rowspan=2
rowspan=2
''Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade''
rowspan=2	''Home Alone''
"Somewhere in My Memory" (from ''Home Alone'')
rowspan=2
rowspan=3
	''Saving Private Ryan''
rowspan=2	''A.I. Artificial Intelligence''
	''Catch Me If You Can''
rowspan=2
rowspan=2
Annie Award		''The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn''	Music in a Feature Production
	1975
''Close Encounters of the Third Kind''
1980	''The Empire Strikes Back''
1981	''Raiders of the Lost Ark''
1982	''E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial''
1988
1993
1998	''Saving Private Ryan''
2002
2005
2011
		''Alcoa Premiere''	Outstanding Achievement in Original Music Composed for Television
	''Alcoa Premiere''	Outstanding Achievement in Composing Original Music
		Outstanding Achievement in Musical Composition
		Outstanding Achievement in Musical Composition
	The 74th Academy Awards	Outstanding Music Direction
	''Great Performances''
rowspan=2	''Cinderella Liberty''
rowspan=2
	''Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope''
	''Close Encounters of the Third Kind''
	''Star Wars: Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back''
	"If We Were In Love" (with Alan Bergman and Marilyn Bergman) from ''Yes, Giorgio''
	''Schindler's List''
	''Saving Private Ryan''
	''A.I. Artificial Intelligence''
		''Checkmate''
rowspan=3
"Main Title" from ''Star Wars''
''Star Wars''	Best Album of Original Score Written for a Motion Picture
rowspan=2	"Theme" from ''Close Encounters of the Third Kind''	Best Instrumental Composition
''Close Encounters of the Third Kind''	Best Album of Original Score Written for a Motion Picture
rowspan=2	"Main Title Theme from Superman"	Best Instrumental Composition
	Best Album of Original Score Written for a Motion Picture
rowspan=2		Best Instrumental Composition
''Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back''	Best Album of Original Score Written for a Motion Picture
		Best Album of Original Score Written for a Motion Picture
rowspan=3	"Flying" (Theme from ''E.T.'')	Best Instrumental Composition
''E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial''	Best Album of Original Score Written for a Motion Picture
"Flying" (Theme from ''E.T.'')
rowspan=2	''Olympic Fanfare and Theme''	Best Instrumental Composition
		Best Instrumental Composition Written for a Motion Picture or for Television
		Best Instrumental Composition Written for a Motion Picture or for Television
		Best Instrumental Composition Written for a Motion Picture or for Television
rowspan=2	''Schindler's List''
	Best Instrumental Composition Written for a Motion Picture or for Television
		Best Instrumental Composition Written for a Motion Picture or for Television
		Best Song Written Specifically for a Motion Picture or for Television
rowspan=2		Best Instrumental Composition Written for a Motion Picture or for Television
	Best Instrumental Composition Written for a Motion Picture or for Television
rowspan=2	''Saving Private Ryan''	Best Instrumental Composition Written for a Motion Picture or for Television
	Best Instrumental Composition Written for a Motion Picture or for Television
rowspan=2		Best Instrumental Composition
		Best Score Soundtrack Album for Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media
		Best Score Soundtrack Album for Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media
rowspan=2	''Catch Me If You Can''	Best Score Soundtrack Album for Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media
	Best Score Soundtrack Album for Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media
		Best Score Soundtrack Album for Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media
		Best Score Soundtrack Album for Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media
rowspan=3		Best Score Soundtrack Album for Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media
	Best Score Soundtrack Album for Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media
"A Prayer For Peace" (Theme from ''Munich'')	Best Instrumental Composition
rowspan=2	"The Adventures of Mutt" from ''Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull''	Best Instrumental Composition
''Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull''	Best Score Soundtrack Album for Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media

Discography

Charting hits (U.S., Billboard)

1975 - "Theme From Jaws", #32

1977 - "Star Wars Theme - Main Title", #10

1978 - "Theme From Close Encounters Of The Third Kind", #13

1979 - "Theme From Superman", #81

See also

List of compositions by John Williams

Star Wars music

Superman music

Harry Potter music

References

Further reading

External links

John Williams Fan Network

Music by John Williams

The John Towner Touch (1957) (First solo album)

The John Williams Web Pages

Hollywood Bowl's Hall of Fame

John Williams Music Network

John Williams at Soundtrackguide.net

John Williams on SoundtrackNet

John Williams Discography at SoundtrackCollector.com

The John Williams Collection

John Williams Sheet Music and Scores

Timelines John Williams (Article Part 1 of 6)

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6

Critical review of Williams's career by Anthony Tommasini at New York Times (2005)

John Williams Fan Site (Chinese language)

John Williams on Pandora

Category:1932 births Category:People from Queens Category:Star Wars music Category:Home Alone Category:Jurassic Park Category:Jaws (franchise) Category:20th-century classical composers Category:21st-century classical composers Category:American film score composers Category:American music arrangers Category:Best Original Music Score Academy Award winners Category:Brit Award winners Category:Grammy Award winners Category:Saturn Award winners Category:Harry Potter music Category:Honorary Members of the Royal Academy of Music Category:Juilliard School alumni Category:Kennedy Center honorees Category:Living people Category:Songwriters Hall of Fame inductees Category:United States Air Force personnel Category:University of California, Los Angeles alumni Category:United States National Medal of Arts recipients

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name	Janet Evans
fullname	Janet Beth Evans
nicknames	Beth
nationality	American
birth date	August 28, 1971
birth place	Fullerton, California, U.S.
height
weight
medaltemplates	}}

}}

Janet Beth Evans (born August 28, 1971) is an American competitive swimmer who specializes in distance freestyle. She recently announced her comeback to the sport with intentions to swim in the 2012 Olympic Trials .

Biography

Born in Fullerton, California, Evans grew up in neighboring Placentia, where she started swimming competitively as a child. By the age of 11, she was setting National Age Group records in distance events. After graduating from El Dorado High School, she attended Stanford University and the University of Texas before graduating from the University of Southern California in 1994 with a degree in communication.

Evans was distinctive for her unorthodox "windmill" stroke and her apparently inexhaustible cardiorespiratory reserves. Slight of build and short of stature, she more than once found herself competing and winning against bigger and stronger athletes, some of whom were subsequently found to have been using performance-enhancing drugs.

Janet Evans was the 1989 recipient of the James E. Sullivan Award as the top amateur athlete in the United States.

She was named the Female World Swimmer of the Year by ''Swimming World Magazine'' in 1987, 1989, and 1990.

Since her retirement from competitive swimming, Evans has been a motivational speaker and corporate spokesperson for companies such as AT&T;, Speedo, Campbell's, PowerBar, John Hancock, Cadillac, and Xerox. In 2008, Evans competed on the NBC show ''Celebrity Circus''.

Evans has been married to Bill Willson since 2004. In 2006 they had a daughter. She also has a one-year old son. In 2010, Evans returned to competitive swimming in Masters swimming.

Career

In 1987, she broke the world records in the 400-, 800-, and 1,500-meter freestyle events. At the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, she won three gold medals and earned the nickname "Miss Perpetual Motion". In the games, she set a new world record in the 400-meter freestyle event; this record would hold for 18 years until Laure Manaudou broke it in May 2006. Until June 2007, Evans held the 1,500-meter freestyle record (set in March 1988) when it was broken by Kate Ziegler with a time of 15:42.54. Evans' world record of 8:16.22 in the 800-meter freestyle, set in August 1989, was broken in August 2008 at the Beijing Olympics by Rebecca Adlington of Great Britain with a time of 8:14.10. The 800-meter freestyle record was one of the longest standing ever in the sport of swimming, lasting through four Olympic Games. Only the 100-meter freestyle record of the Dutch swimmer Willy den Ouden stood longer (1936–1956).

Following her 1988 performance, Evans continued to dominate the American and world distance scene. She became the first woman ever to win back-to-back Olympic and World Championship titles in any event, taking the 1988 and 1992 Olympic titles and the 1991 and 1994 World titles in the 800-meter freestyle.

She won the 400-meter and 800-meter freestyle at the U.S. National Championships 12 times each, the most national titles in one event by any swimmer in the 100-year history of the event.

Her career ended with the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta. She did not win a medal, but she added one more highlight to her career, when she was given the honor of carrying the Olympic Torch at the Opening Ceremony, handing the torch to U.S. Olympic boxing legend Muhammad Ali to light the cauldron. In the pool, she finished ninth in the prelims of the 400-meter freestyle. She didn't qualify for the finals (nor the B finals), as only the top eight times advance. In the final swim of her career, Evans finished sixth in the 800-meter freestyle.

At the Atlanta Games, Evans outspokenly criticized Ireland's Michelle Smith on the latter's unexpected gold medals, suggesting that she might have been using performance enhancing drugs in the Olympics. Smith was not considered a favorite entering the Games, and her husband and coach Erik de Bruin had failed a drug test in 1993. Indeed, from 1996–97, the International Swimming Federation (FINA) raised concerns about Smith's repeated unavailability for random out-of-competition testing, and Smith received a four-year suspension in 1998 after being found guilty of tampering with a urine sample. However, Smith's medals and records from Atlanta were allowed to stand.

At the end of her career, she held seven world records, five Olympic medals (including four gold), and 45 U.S. national titles — third only to Tracy Caulkins and Michael Phelps.

In June 2011, it was announced that Evans is in the process of a comeback and has been training for six months. Her potential goal is the 2012 Olympic Trials.

See also

List of multiple Olympic gold medalists at a single Games

List of multiple Olympic gold medalists

External links

Official website

Janet Evans Official Bio

Janet Evans Gold Medal Greats Page

IOC profile

''Janes Evans'' – Entry at the International Swimming Hall of Fame (retrieved 2009-12-7)

References

Tracey Wickham Anke Möhring|title=Women's 800 metres freestyleworld record holder (long course)|years=July 27, 1987 – August 19, 1987March 22, 1988 – August 16, 2008|after= Anke Möhring Rebecca Adlington|rec}} Kim Linehan|title=Women's 1500 metres freestyleworld record holder (long course)|years=July 31, 1987 – June 17, 2007|after= Kate Ziegler|rec}} Tracey Wickham|title=Women's 400 metres freestyleworld record holder (long course)|years=December 20, 1987 – May 12, 2006|after= Laure Manaudou|rec}} Kristin Otto Kristin Otto|after= Kristin Otto Krisztina Egerszegi|years=19871989 – 1990}} Mary T Meagher|after= Summer Sanders|years= 1987–1991}}

Category:1971 births Category:Living people Category:People from Fullerton, California Category:American swimmers Category:Olympic swimmers of the United States Category:Swimmers at the 1988 Summer Olympics Category:Swimmers at the 1992 Summer Olympics Category:Swimmers at the 1996 Summer Olympics Category:Stanford University alumni Category:University of Texas at Austin alumni Category:James E. Sullivan Award recipients Category:Swimming World World Swimmers of the Year Category:Former world record holders in swimming Category:University of Southern California alumni Category:Olympic gold medalists for the United States Category:Olympic silver medalists for the United States Category:Olympic medalists in swimming Category:Swimming World American Swimmers of the Year Category:Female freestyle swimmers Category:Female medley swimmers Category:World Aquatics Championships medalists in swimming

ca:Janet Evans cs:Janet Evansová de:Janet Evans et:Janet Evans es:Janet Evans fr:Janet Evans ko:자넷 에반스 hr:Janet Evans it:Janet Evans he:ג'נט אוונס mn:Жанет Эванс nl:Janet Evans ja:ジャネット・エバンス no:Janet Evans pl:Janet Evans pt:Janet Evans simple:Janet Evans sl:Janet Evans fi:Janet Evans sv:Janet Evans

name	Florence Griffith Joyner
fullname	Florence Delorez Griffith-Joyner
nicknames	Flo-Jo
nationality	American
sport	Running
event	100 meters, 200 meters
birth date	December 21, 1959
birth place	Los Angeles, California
retired	1988
death date	September 21, 1998
death place	Mission Viejo, California
height
weight
country	United States
medaltemplates	}}

}} Florence Delorez Griffith-Joyner (December 21, 1959 – September 21, 1998), also known as Flo-Jo, was an American track and field athlete. She is considered the "fastest woman of all time" based on the fact that she still holds the world record for both the 100 metres and 200 metres, both set in 1988 and never seriously challenged. She died of epilepsy in 1998 at the age of 38.

Career

Griffith was born in Los Angeles, California, and raised in the Jordan Downs public housing complex. During the late 1980s she became a popular figure in international track and field because of her record-setting performances and flashy personal style. She was the wife of triple jumper Al Joyner and the sister-in-law of heptathlete and long jumper Jackie Joyner-Kersee.

Griffith finished fourth in the 200 m at the inaugural World Championship in 1983. The following year she gained much more attention, though mostly because of her extremely long and colorful fingernails rather than her silver medal in the Los Angeles Olympics 200 m. In 1985, she won the final of the Grand Prix with 11.00 seconds. After the 1984 Olympics she spent less time running and married the 1984 Olympic triple jump champion Al Joyner in 1987.

Returning at the 1987 World Championships, she finished again second in the 200 m. She stunned the world when — known as a 200m runner — she ran a 100m World Record of 10.49 in the quarter-finals of the US Olympic Trials. Several sources indicate that this time was very likely wind-assisted. Although at the time of the race the wind meter at the event measured 0.0, indicating no wind, observers noted evidence of significant wind, and wind speeds up to 7 meters/second were noted at other times during the event. Since 1997 the International Athletics Annual of the Association of Track and Field Statisticians has listed this performance as "probably strongly wind assisted, but recognised as a world record". Griffith-Joyner's coach later stated that he believed the 10.49 run had been aided by wind. Outside this race, Griffith-Joyner's fastest time without wind assistance was 10.61 seconds, which would give her the world record anyway. At present, only Carmelita Jeter's best time of 10.64 seconds even approaches Griffith-Joyner's fastest time without wind assistance.

By now known to the world as "Flo-Jo", Griffith-Joyner was the big favorite for the titles in the sprint events at the 1988 Summer Olympics. In the 100 m final, she ran a wind-assisted 10.54, beating her nearest rival Evelyn Ashford by 0.3 seconds. In the 200 m semifinal, she set a world record (21.56) and then broke that record again in winning the final by 0.4 seconds with a time of 21.34. She also ran in the 4 x 100 m and 4 x 400 m relay teams. She won a gold medal in the former event and a silver in the latter (which is still the second fastest time in history behind the winner of that race), her first international 4 x 400 m relay. Her effort in the 100 m was ranked 98th in British TV Channel 4's 100 Greatest Sporting Moments in 2002. She was the 1988 recipient of the James E. Sullivan Award as the top amateur athlete in the United States. Griffith-Joyner retired from competitive sports shortly afterwards.

In 1996, Griffith-Joyner appeared on the Charlie Rose show and announced her comeback to competitive athletics, only this time in the 400m. Her rationale was she had already set world marks in both the 100 and 200 meter events, with the 400 world record being her goal. Griffith-Joyner trained steadily leading up to the June US Olympic trials; however, tendinitis in her right leg ended her hopes of becoming a triple world record holder. Al Joyner was to also attempt a comeback, but he too was unable to compete due to an injured quadriceps muscle.

Among the things she did away from the track was design the basketball uniforms for the Indiana Pacers in 1989.

Controversy

Aside from whether her 1988 Olympic trial world record was wind-aided, Griffith-Joyner was dogged by rumors of drug use.

In 1988, Joaquim Cruz, Brazilian gold medalist in the 800 meters at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics claimed that Griffith-Joyner's times could only have been the result of using steroids or other performance-enhancing drugs, that her physique had changed dramatically in 1988 (showing marked gains in muscle mass and definition), and that her performance had improved dramatically over a short period of time. Before the 1988 season, Griffith Joyner's best 100 meter time was 10.96 seconds. In 1988 she improved that by 0.47 seconds (or 0.35 sec for the non-wind aided time). Similarly, her pre-1988 best at 200 meters was 21.96. In 1988 she improved that by 0.62 seconds to 21.34, another time which has not been approached. Griffith-Joyner attributed the change in her physique to new health programs. Al Joyner replaced Bob Kersee as her coach and changed her training program to include more lower body strength training exercises like squats and lunges.

She retired from competitive track and field after her 1988 Olympic triumph. Griffith-Joyner was tested during competition and did not fail any drug tests. After her death in 1998, Prince Alexandre de Merode, chairman of the International Olympic Committee's medical commission claimed that Joyner was singled out for rigorous drug testing during the 1988 Seoul Olympics because of steroid rumors. He told the New York Times that Manfred Donike at the time considered the foremost expert on drugs and sports, failed to discover even minute traces of banned substances during the testing.

Her husband stated that Griffith-Joyner was never interested in being a career sprinter, found the early nights and no-junk-food diet restrictive, and wanted to start a family as well as pursue interests in fashion design and crafts.

Death

On September 21, 1998, Griffith-Joyner died in her sleep at the age of 38. The unexpected death was investigated by the sheriff-coroner's office, which announced on October 22 that the cause of death was suffocation during a severe epileptic seizure. She was also found to have had a cavernous angioma, a congenital brain abnormality that made Joyner subject to seizures. According to a family attorney, she had suffered a grand mal seizure in 1990, and had also been treated for seizures in 1993 and 1994.

Griffith-Joyner's supporters claimed that the autopsy cleared her of allegations that she used performance-enhancing drugs. The Orange County coroner's office noted that the autopsy records showed that she did not die from drugs or banned substances and that tissue and organ tests revealed none of the changes associated with recent steroid use. Her husband had requested that Griffith-Joyner's body specifically be tested for steroids, but was informed that there was not enough urine in her bladder and that the test could not accurately be performed on other biological samples.

References

External links

Official website

USATF profile

Florence Griffith Joyner at Find-A-Grave

Florence Griffith Joyner is breaking 100m World Record. Video

Florence Griffith Joyner is breaking 200m World Record. Video

EPSN OTL: Dream Chaser - E-Ticket

Evelyn Ashford|title=Women's 100 m world record holder|years=July 16, 1988 – present |after=Incumbent}} Marita Koch|title=Women's 200 m world record holder|years=September 29, 1988 – present |after=Incumbent}} Jackie Joyner-Kersee|after= Ana Fidelia Quirot|years=1988}} Silke Möller|title=Women's 200 m best year performance|years=1988|after= Dawn Sowell}}

Category:1959 births Category:1998 deaths Category:American sprinters Category:Athletes (track and field) at the 1984 Summer Olympics Category:Athletes (track and field) at the 1988 Summer Olympics Category:California State University, Northridge alumni Category:Deaths from epilepsy Category:James E. Sullivan Award recipients Category:Olympic track and field athletes of the United States Category:Olympic gold medalists for the United States Category:Olympic silver medalists for the United States Category:UCLA Bruins track and field athletes Category:World record holders in athletics (track and field) Category:Deaths from asphyxiation Category:Olympic medalists in athletics (track and field) Category:Female sprinters Category:Neurological disease deaths in the United States

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