How the 1992 Barcelona Olympics changed the city
WAS BARCELONA 92 THE MOST SUCCESSFUL OLYMPICS IN HISTORY?
Barcelona hosted the 1992 Summer Olympics, and the city was totally transformed: there was a before and an after. It’s been over 30 years already, and the transformation continues to be present in the locals everyday life. No one can deny that the Barcelona Olympic Games were a success (even if you’ll do find people that complain about how such success was managed, and how several decades later overtourism and gentrification have gone out of control). So how did it all happen? It was a combination of human momentum, sport milestones and excellent economical and urban planning.
Barcelona had been a candidate 3 times already: 1928, 1936 and 1940. Actually, in 1936 the Games went to a Berlin already run by the nazis. As a protest Barcelona decided to host the “Popular Olympiad“, an alternative sport event with antifascist influences. Unfortunately, the Spanish Civil War broke out the day before the event started. Most participant foreign athletes and visitors run away, but a few stayed to fight in favor of the Spanish republic that was being attacked.
Unfortunately the fascists won the war, which was followed by the dictatorship of General Franco, and Barcelona entered a long time of depression. But after Franco died in 1975 and the democracy came back by the hand of king Juan Carlos, things started slowly improving and the 1992 Olympic Games were to be a turning point. In 1986 Juan Antonio Samaranch, president of the International Olympic Committee and a native of Barcelona himself. The announcement made the first of many iconic moments of the Games, which we will also be rememorating in this post.
Understanding the success of the Barcelona Olympic Games
1
Human driving force
Barcelona had become grey, boring and industrial during the dictatorship. But there was a desire for change, and when Barcelona was given the organization of the 1992 Olympics, the door opened, and the locals were euphoric at the opportunity. I was 10 years old at the time, and the memories of the extreme joy at hearing Samaranch say "A la ville de... Barcelona!", still gives me the chills just like I'm sure it does to anyone of my generation and older.
And it wasn’t just a sentiment of celebration: it was the will to participate and make it a success. For the first time in history, over 100000 people volunteered in the organization of the Games. People of all ages (yes, some of them were as young as 14yo doing minor tasks) worked for free in access control, information points, translating, assisting the participants and the visitors…
I was 17, and by the time I decided to become a volunteer they weren’t taking any more applications, but I was able to volunteer for the Paralympics that took place in September of the same year (the Olympics had been a months earlier). I remember walking around the city on my volunteer uniform, and receiving proud looks from the passers-by. I even remember a suburban train conductor allowing me to seat on second class, when I only had a third class ticket and was supposed to stand, just because I was on my volunteer uniform. It’s in the small details that one can see how much we all felt we were being part of a big thing. (BTW, the second class coaches of the FCG trains were eliminated in 1995).
Another memory I want to share is that during the games, the balconies of Barcelona were full of flags: most of them Barcelona and Catalonia flags, as well as Olympic flags and some Spain flags. And the flags remained even months after the Games were over: people were so proud of what had been achieved. But what’s most important, is that the flags bore little political meaning: it was about pride and fellowship – so different to recent times when flags have been back to our balconies to protest about political tensions…
And one more thing: after the Games were over, the volunteer movement persisted, with the creation of the Voluntaris 2000 organization, that even nowadays continues to participate altruistically in all kind of events that take place in the city. The name of the organization itself gave back in those days the message that the momentum wasn’t a flash in the pan, but it was meant to continue into the future.
2
Sport accomplishments
Barcelona'92 was the 25th Olympics. A total of 9364 athletes from 169 countries participated in the competitions. There were 28 official sports, including baseball and badminton which were made official for the first time. And there were 3 more exhibition sports: Basque pelota, roller hockey and taekwondo. One of the most memorable events was the fact that for the first time US NBA players were accepted into the basketball competitions, as before that only amateur sportmen were invited to compete.
So in 1992, the USA sent to the Games what was known as the “Dream Team” because it included elite players such as Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird and Scottie Pippen. And they of course won the final against Croacia, 117 to 85.
Several world records were broken in the Athletics competitions, and the most breathtaking was the American Kevin young completing the 400 meter hurdles in just 46”58 seconds. His record wouldn’t be beaten until 2021 by the Norvegian Karsten Warholm, do first reduced it in only 8 hundredths of a second in July, just to take it to an impressive 45”94 mark the next month.
Spain, the hosting country, also celebrated its first ever track and field world record, with Fermin Cacho covering the men 800m in 1:43.66. And by the way, another runner, Daniel Plaza, had become Spain’s first ever Olympic gold medal on the very first day of the competitions, winning the 20km race walk.
In Tennis, Boris Becker paired with Michael Stich to win the gold medal in doubles. And Jennifer Capriati won the gold medal at only 16 years of age. She wasn’t the youngest Olympic athlete, though: the Spanish Carlos Front was the youngest competitor, an 11yo coxswain in the eights.
In soccer, Spain won the gold medal with 3 to 2 against Poland. 2 of the team players were to become coaches of the FC Barcelona team in the future: Josep Guardiola and Luis Enrique.
3
Iconic moments
Barcelona 1992 had many iconic moments, some of them during the competitions, but also many from the opening and closing ceremonies. Here is a selection of what you shouldn’t miss:
Mascot and logo
The mascot of the 1992 Olympics was Cobi (from COOB, Barcelona Olympic Organization Commitee). Designed by the Spanish artist Javier Mariscal, it represented a very minimalistic and sort of cubist Catalan mountain dog. He had a female mate, Petra, who used a wheelchair and was the mascot of the Barcelona Paralympics. People had a love-hate relationship with them, but their boldly contemporary design was a statement and sent the message that Barcelona was ready for modernity.
The Barcelona 1992 logo was also quite minimalistic, and it represented an athlete jumping over the Olympic rings. It was the work of the Spanish designer Josep Maria Trias, who used only three colors for it: the blue of the Mediterranean sea, the yellow of the Sun and the red of fire. It also had a Paralympic counterpart, where the red open legs became a circle that evoked a wheelchair.
The torch and the arrow
The Olympic Games couldn’t start in a more spectacular way. The flame entered the stadium and it was taken around the track by the famous Spanish basketball player Juan Antonio San Epifanio, known as Epi. On the stage was waiting the archery champion Antonio Rebollo with a specially designed arrow that was lit with the flame. The archer threw the arrow, that flew 86m (282ft) during which the world stopped breatheing… until it lit the torch.
SPOILER ALERT: The truth is that the arrow was never meant to land “inside” the torch: it just had to go through the gas column coming out of the torch so it could be lit. Easier than getting the arrow into the torch, but still challenging from such a distance and so little light to be a reference for the shot. But Mr. Rebollo was a champion, he had trained dozens of times and he never failed once. And the firemen were placed outside the stadium ready to collect the arrow in the area where they knew it was going to fall. But… who cares? It was magical anyway.
The duet that couldn’t be
Freddie Mercury, the leader of the British band Queen, was a big fan of the Barcelona-born opera singer Montserrat Caballé. After he declared on a radio show that Caballé was the best voice alive, she contacted her and they became friends. Mercury wrote for her the iconic “Barcelona”, which they recorded in 1987. Then they performed it for the first time in public in a nightclub in Ibiza run by the manager of Queen in Spain.
Then the next year they sung it again in Barcelona during a festival called La Nit, which was one of the main events of the Olimpiada Cultural, a program designed to revitalize the cultural life of Barcelona in preparation for the Olympics. Unfortunately, Freddy Mercury passed away in November 1991, seven months before the Games. The Olympic Commitee chose the song to be the official anthem of Barcelona’92, however later on it was substituted by Amigos para Siempre (see below).
The diving competitions
The diving competitions of the 1992 Olympic Games took place outdoors, in the newly renovated pools located half way to the top of the Hill of Montjuic. The images of the competitions were spectacular, as the athletes were diving with the city views in the background (apparently, many people watching on TV thought it was a chroma screen rather than the real city!).
A father and a son
The British runner Derek Redmon was the favorite for the 400 meters race, despite an old injury that had had him go through surgery several times. However, only 150m after the starting shot his hamstring muscle tore and he fell to the ground. Despite the intense pain he stood up again, decided to at least finish the race. It was then that his father, who had fully supported him throughout his career, jump to the track and helped him to continue.
And just a few meters before the finish line, he released him so Redmon could finish the race by himself, last but a living example of tenacity. The images and the standing ovation he received went around the world.
Friends for life
The renowned musical theater composer Andrew Lloyd Webber wrote the song Amigos para Siempre (Friends for Life), which became the official anthem of the Games. The Barcelona opera singer Jose Carreras sung it together with the soprano Sarah Brightman. However, that’s not the version that the Barcelonans carry in their hearts.
The song was revisited by the Catalan rumba band Los Manolos, who performed it during the opening ceremony of the Barcelona Paralympics, and their happier rhythm made their version a classic. BTW, another Catalan rumba was played during the closing ceremony of the Summer Olympics: Gitana Hechicera, a love song to Barcelona by the Catalan singer Peret (and many will remember how a crowd of euphoric athletes climbed to the stage, and the MC of the ceremony had to ask them to get down because it was dangerous…)
4
Political implications
Barcelona 1992 sent a message of peace and freedom to the world. The presence of flags with the Dove of Peace designed by Picasso in the Opening Ceremony was the perfect visual metaphor of the fact that for the first time since 1972, no boycott was held against the Olympic Games from any country. Some of the biggrest international conflicts found a resolution at a sport level in Barcelona:
- Germany. The Berlin Wall had fallen in 1989. For the first time, Germany competed as a unified team, not as two separate countries.
- Baltic republics. With the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania were able to compete as independent teams.
- Other ex-soviet republics. Atlethes from 12 former soviet republics including Russia joined on a Unified Team, under the Olympic flag.
- Balcans. After Yugoslavia broke up in 1992, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina attended the Games as independent teams. Meanwhile, Serbia, Montenegro and Moldova had athletes competing as independent participants under the Olympic flag. The Barcelona organizing committee sent humanitarian aid to the city of Sarajevo in state of war as an act of Olympic fraternity, since Sarajevo had hosted the 1984 Winter Olympics.
- South Africa. Thanks to the end of the Apartheid, South Africa was allowed to joined the Olympics again. They hadn’t participated since 1960. Nelson Mandela, leather of the Anti-Apartheid movement, attended.
Interestingly, some of the results of the competitions also sent a message for peace and freedom:
- Against racism. Ethiopian runner Derartu Tulu was the first black African woman to win an Olympic medal (10000m race)
- Against anti-semitism. Coinciding with the 500th anniversary of the decree of expulsion of the Jews from Spain, and the 20th anniversary of the Munich massacre, judoka Yael Arad became the first Israeli to win a medal in the Olympics.
- For women’s rights. Algerian runner Hassiba Boulmerka, won the gold medal at the 1500m race after having been threatened by Islam fundamentalists for not wearing the veil and running in shorts.
As for Spain, the Barcelona Olympics were also full of political meaning. Starting with the fact that Spain effectively joined the European Community in 1986, the same year Barcelona was awarded the organization of the 1992 Games. Continuing with the success fighting domestic terrorist groups (Terra Lliure, the Catalan separatist terrorists had been dissolved in 1991, and despite the threats of ETA, the Basque separatist terrorists, the collaboration between the Spanish and French police ensured attack-free competitions.
In the other hand, the Games were also a way to reinforce the good image of the Spanish crown, who had a key role in the instauration of the democracy in Spain after the death of the dictator Franco. The prince heir Felipe (currently King of Spain) was a member of the Spanish sailing team and porting the Spanish flag during the teams parade in the Opening Ceremony.
5
Urban renewal
The Olympic Games were the best opportunity to renovate a city that urgently needed new infrastructures. And the plan to transform Barcelona was a key component of the Games success. The project involved many different points, and one can say that after the Games the locals felt almost like they have moved to a totally different, more vibrant and more beautiful city! Here is a list of the most important things that happened at this level:
- Telecommunications. Two giant communication antennas were built. Sir Norman Foster designed the Torre Collserola, dedicated to radio and TV signal, whereas Santiago Calatrava designed stylish Torre Calatrava, for phone frequencies.
- Traffic improvements. A road ring, divided into Ronda de Dalt and Ronda Litoral was built, helping to redirect the heavy traffic that didn’t need to go through the city center anymore to get from one end of the city to the other. The reduction of traffic density achieved is estimated in a 15%.
- Subway improvements. Barcelona had a long history of underground train service, the first line created as early as 1869, and since then it hadn’t stopped growing. The growth plan between the nomination in 1986 and until the Games included the opening of 10 more stations, as well as the renovation of the carriages and some stations.
- Airport renovations. The Barcelona – El Prat airport went through a complete renovation. 2 more terminals were added to the original building: Terminal C for the Madrid-Barcelona air shuttle, and Terminal A for the International arrivals. All three were connected internally for easy mobility, and new spaces were created to allow direct access to the aircrafts by use of fingers. BTW, in only 12 years this extension of the airport was to become too small, and a brand new Terminal 1 was built. With its inauguration in 2009, the original airport turned into a secondary terminal mostly for low cost airlines.
- Port renovations. Before the Olympics the Barcelona port had become a run down area that most locals would avoid, or at least not consider as an area to enjoy their free time. That changed with the refurbishment of the Port Vell marina and the creation of a new one: the Port Olimpic marina.
- Olympic Village. Beyond the Ciutadella park used to extend a depressed area of railways, slums and abandoned factories. That was the zone selected to host the athletes during the Games. The winners of the Barcelona FAD architecture awards were invited to participate in the project designing the buildings of the new Olympic Village. They were given certain rules regarding size and materials to homogenize the final result, but the idea was that each building or group of buildings had its own personality. Greenery was carefully planned around the new neighborhood, and the closeness to the Mediterranean was also a key concept. After the Games were over, the apartments where the athletes had lived were sold, and the area quickly became a coveted place to live. Sure at first there were complaints about the flimsy quality of some finishes (after all, the construction had been a race against the clock). But with the right repairs, this first bad aftertaste was quickly forgotten. In the following years, the Forum of Cultures and the 22@ project completed the recovery of the old industrial area of the city and its most poverty-striken districts.
- Recovery of the beach. In the 1980’s the beach of Barcelona was polluted and lacked of services. But everything changed with the games, when the water was cleaned, showers and safety services were added, new promenades with palm trees were built, and with the construction of a road ring covered with gardens and greenery, the closeness of the depressed industrial area stopped deterring the locals from enjoying the city beaches.
- Calling international art and architecture stars. In order to establish Barcelona at a world class level, the transformation of Barcelona also involved attracting big names of the art and architecture star system. We’ve already mentioned Calatrava and Norman Foster. Frank Gehry designed a sculpture of a fish for the Olympic Village. Arata Isozaki built the Palau Sant Jordi covered stadium, Bruce Graham was in charge of a skyscraper that together with its twin tower by Iñigo Ortiz y Enrique León became the tallest buildings in Barcelona. Roy Liechtenstein created a sculpture for Port Vell. Richard Meier started building the MACBA museum, even if it wouldn’t be completed until 1995… And this call effect continues to have momentum even now more than 30 years later.
- Awakening the Old Town. A city with centuries of history, the oldest districts in Barcelona had fallen into a spiral of decadence with buildings falling apart and crime and drugs hiding in its alleys. Besides getting the Gothic Quarter, the most historical area, ready for the visitors, the Born district – mostly the area around Santa Maria del Mar and the Picasso Museum, was given a face lift and soon started attracting young local designers, artists and chefs. The area was quickly embraced by the locals, who considered it the new “Barcelona SOHO”. The even more conflictive Raval started its transformation with the creation of a cultural hub that included the MACBA museum, the CCCB and a new faculty of the University of Barcelona. However, the project wouldn’t be completed in time for the Games and it would take place in the years to follow.
- Barcelona Get Pretty! In order to involve the citizens as well, a program called Barcelona Posa’t Guapa was initiated to help building owners restore their façades. It was so successful that even after the Olympics the demand for scaffolding remained high for years. A city that used to be grey, rediscovered the beauty of mosaics, frescos and sculptures that the sooth had been covering.
On the other hand, long distance trains didn’t receive the attention they merited. Spain was also hosting that year the Expo in Seville, so the first high speed train line ever in Spain was that between Madrid and Seville. The one between Barcelona and Madrid would have to wait until 2008, 13 years later.
6
Economical impact
According to Wikipedia,
The Oxford Olympics Study estimates the direct costs of the Barcelona 1992 Summer Olympics to be US$9.7 billion (expressed in 2015 U.S. dollars) with a cost overrun of 266%.
But that’s a quite poor summary of the real economical impact of the Olympics in Barcelona, as the return has immensely exceeded the mentioned overrun. The International Olympic Commitee states that:
The organisers’ EUR 900 million investment generated a direct EUR 7 billion boost to the region and wider economic benefits exceeding EUR 18.6 billion, according to an independent estimate.
And that was thanks to a carefully designed strategy that would focus on the needs of the city, not just the organization of a single sport event. Starting with the most evident: the cost of the facilities. Barcelona was already a sport city. With three world class stadiums (Camp Nou, Olympic Stadium, and Estadi de Sarria – this last gone nowadays), there was no need to build large facilities from scratch: just renovate them. And the 15 new venues that were indeed created for the Games were built with their future in mind. As a result, all of them continue to be in use at present, some for special events and some for the daily use of the locals:
The Palau Sant Jordi hosts regularly all kind of events, from trade shows to corporation celebrations, to sport events and concerts. The Olympic pools Piscines Picornell are a public sport club, and the Tennis pavilions in Vall d’Hebron are a public tennis club. The martial arts venue is now a university faculty. And the handsome Estacio del Nord where badminton was played is now the main suburban bus station and a sports center.
In the other hand, Barcelona projected an image of modern and exciting city to the world, and that boosted its position as a tourism destination. At the same time, the unique works of Antoni Gaudi were given a central place in the videos that promoted the city before the competitions. Park Guell was thoroughly restored, and the façades of both Casa Mila and Casa Batllo were cleaned for the events – even if they wouldn’t be opened to the public until a few years later – Casa Mila in 1995, and Casa Batllo in 2002. Finally Barcelona was put on the international map.
7
Will Barcelona be the first city ever to have hosted both the Summer and Winter Olympics?
Pasqual Maragall, the city mayor between 1982-1997, was acknowledged for his excellent management of the Olympics and his commitment to make sure that they would leave a real legacy to the city, rather than a become a burden. And Maragall’s success has been something that other politicians after him have been dying to emulate. Bringing the Winter Olympics to Barcelona is a temptation that from time to time is put on the political table. After all, the indoor facilities and infrastructures already exist, and the Pyrenees, where the outdoor competitions could take place, are only a convenient couple of hours away.
The mountain areas would just benefit from the game, and even a co-hosting solution with the Aragon town of Jaca was discussed at some point. But the majority of Barcelonans feel that 1992 brought all the good changes that the city needed, and instead the Winter Olympics would only bring expenses, additional crowds and more gentrification. The Barcelona Olympics were a success because the city was given the opportunity to develop its full potential. But now already being at the same level of Paris, London and Tokio, there’s little else that the Games can contribute anymore.
What are your best memories of the Barcelona 92 Olympics?
Marta
Marta is the founder of ForeverBarcelona. She is a passionate tour guide that loves Barcelona and loves writing too. She is the main author of our Blog, and is committed to sharing her knowledge about Barcelona and her best tips with our readers.
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