The Olympics Change a Country

For South Korea, hosting the Olympics successfully means opening its door to the world by tool of sport and culture. The Olympics’ benefits were not countable, they changed a country and still influence the country today, even in the 0066uture.

The 1988 Summer Olympics, also known as The Seoul Olympics, were an all international multi-sport events celebrated from September 17 to October 2, 1988 in Seoul, South Korea, with the motto” Harmony and Progress”. These were the second summer Olympic Games to be held in Asia and the first were the 1964 Summer Olympics held in Tokyo, Japan.

There were 160 nations who participated in the games. At that time, North Korea (still officially at war with South Korea), and its allies, Albania, Cuba, Madagascar and Seychelles boycotted the games. Ethiopia, Nicaragua, and Albania did not participate in the Games for different reasons.
For two of the world's "dominating" sport powers, Soviet Union and East Germany, these were the last Olympic Games, as both ceased to exist in the drastic changes in Eastern Europe (since 1989).
Dramatically, it was the first time for the two camps, Soviet Union and United States, to participate The Olympics together, after eight years mutual resistance.

No matter what, there were a lot of meanings to host the Olympics in the domain of politics, economy, society, culture, etc, for South Korea. The Olympics gave South Korea a new beginning.
In an attempt to follow the model of 1964 Tokyo Olympics which is 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.
We can say that the 1988 Seoul Olympics were really a miracle. We cannot even use an adjective exactly to describe their influences for South Korea in the domain of politics, economy and society. At one time, South Korea