The Wild Summer by Carl Lewis, Sergei Bubka, Romario and Steffi Graf

The history of the Olympic Games is full of great achievements and sports legends sharing moments of glory that linger in the memory.

This is the case of four of the best athletes of the 20th century, who achieved Olympic glory at the ’88 Seoul Games. We are talking Carl Lewis, Sergei Bubka, Romario and Steffi Grafwhich experienced an extreme end to summer that year (the Games began on September 17) in Korean lands.

The Olympic stadium was the scene of Lewis and Bubka’s victories. The American, who had just won four gold medals at Los Angeles ’84, won three medals, silver in the 200 meters and gold in the long jump and the 100 meter dash, an event in which he crossed the finish line in second position. behind Canadian Ben Johnson, disqualified a few days later after failing an anti-doping test.

Only the disqualification of the American team in the 4×100 relay due to an incorrect passing of the baton prevented Lewis from winning another four medals. Undoubtedly, a great achievement in a legendary career.

Sergei Bubka’s career was less legendary, despite his famous Olympic ‘punctures’. And the ten-time pole vault world champion (six outdoors and four indoors) He made it to the podium only once in all his Olympic participations.

As we have already mentioned It was in Seoul’88, where he won gold after clearing the bar located at 5.90 m, quite far from his world record of 6.06 m at that moment but enough to rise to the top of the box.

A magical moment for him that will never happen again at the Gamessince in Barcelona’92 he failed to succeed in his first three attempts (5.70, 5.70, 5.75 m) and left, in Atlanta’96, a heel injury caused him to withdraw from the competition without an attempt and in Sydney’ 2000 he was eliminated from the final after three failed attempts at 5.70 m.

Also with an Olympic medal, in this case silver, Romario da Souza Faria retired. The Brazilian, with seven goals in six games, is the great opponent of an Olympic tournament which the Soviet Union will win. His great performance put him in the spotlight of great European teams like Barça, who finally decided to bet on Aloisio Pires and left his signing for 1993.

Better achievements Steffi Graf. German has been the first Olympic tennis champion in modern times. The 92nd Session of the IOC, held in Istanbul in 1987 under the leadership of Juan Antonio Samaranch, admitted tennis as a full Olympic sport, with an open door to all its professional players.

Tennis became Olympic for the first seven Games, between Athens 1896 and Paris 1924, and ceased to be so precisely because of disagreements about what distinguished a novice tennis player from a professional.

The first men’s gold medal of the new era went to the Czech Miroslav Mecir (then 12 ATP), while In the women’s category, Steffi Graf was the winner after clearly defeating Gabriela Sabatini in the final by 6-3 and 6-3.

So completed a 1988 remember where became the first and only (male or female) in history to win the ‘real’ Golden Slam, the ‘big four’ and the Games in the same calendar yearand he did it when he was only 19 years old.

After that victory, Graf continued to collect titles until she reached 22 Grand Slams, although she never again climbed to the top of the podium at the Games. In Barcelona’92 he had to settle for silver after falling in a surprising way with, at that time, new sensation on the circuit, Jennifer Capriati, who was crowned in Barcelona at the age of 16.