On This Day 24 Years Ago – Barcelona Olympics 1992 unites the World!

On 25th July 1992 the Olympic Games opened in the Spanish city of Barcelona with all countries present for the first time in modern history! A record 169 nations took part in the opening ceremony because of the extraordinary political changes since the last Olympic Games at Seoul in 1988. Also it was the first Olympiad since 1972 that no country boycotted the Games and all bans were lifted.

The opening ceremony began with the lighting of the Olympic Flame with a flaming arrow fired by paralympic archer Antonio Rebollo. The spectacle included a staging of the mythical birth of Barcelona from the sea which included ocean battles between sea monsters and humans.

Opera stars Placido Domingo and Jose Carerras performed at the massive neo-classical Olympic Stadium at Montjuic but the crowd saved their loudest appreciation for Montserrat Caballe‘s performance of the anthem of the Games: the song Barcelona, written by Queen singer Freddie Mercury who died from Aids in 1991.

There were some new flags in the opening ceremony parade:

On 25th July 1992 the Olympic Games opened in the Spanish city of Barcelona with all countries present for the first time in modern history! A record 169 nations took part in the opening ceremony because of the extraordinary political changes since the last Olympic Games at Seoul in 1988. Also it was the first Olympiad since 1972 that no country boycotted the Games and all bans were lifted.
On 25th July 1992 the Olympic Games opened in the Spanish city of Barcelona with all countries present for the first time in modern history! A record 169 nations took part in the opening ceremony because of the extraordinary political changes since the last Olympic Games at Seoul in 1988. Also it was the first Olympiad since 1972 that no country boycotted the Games and all bans were lifted.