The 1988 Seoul Olympics

On the morning of September 17, 1988, every eye in the Olympic Stadium in Seoul turned toward the sky.

High above, from an airplane, parachutists leapt out one after another.

They fell free for a while, then opened their parachutes. And while they were still drifting in midair, they found their way toward each other and moved into formation.

Five rings.

Five Olympic rings, hanging in the sky over a city that 35 years earlier had still lain in the rubble of war.

That was how South Korea opened its Olympic Games.

Down on the field, after the parachute jump, came another scene just as memorable. A great crowd of people performed taekwondo, the host country's own martial art, every movement struck on the same beat across the whole field.

Set side by side, those two displays said a good deal. One was the five rings of the whole world, formed by people coming down from the sky. The other was the host country's own martial art, performed by a great many people together on the ground. The host was telling the world two things at once. We belong with you. And we are still ourselves.

The Games ran from September 17 to October 2.

But the most important number of those Games was not anyone's medal count.

It was the number of countries taking part: about 160.

To see why that number was so large, it helps to look back at the two Games before it.

In 1980, the Olympics were held in Moscow, and a whole group of countries refused to come.

In 1984, the Olympics were held in Los Angeles, and this time a different group of countries refused to come.

Two Games in a row, the stadium opened its gates and a whole group of countries did not walk in. Athletes trained for four years and then stayed home, only because their country and the host country stood on opposite sides of an invisible line.

Think of it from one athlete's point of view: someone who began training at the age of 10, several hours a day, for more than a decade, just to take part in one Games. A whole career comes down to one or two chances to compete. Then, when that turn finally comes, someone signs a piece of paper, and it is over.

Over eight years, that happened twice, to two different groups of countries.

Then came Seoul.

And in Seoul, almost everyone came together. These were the Olympic Games with the most countries taking part in the entire Cold War era.

The slogan of those Games was "Harmony and Progress." It sounds like any other slogan. But in its real context, it was far from empty words. After eight years in which the Games had been split in two, about 160 teams passing through one gate together was something worth turning into a slogan.

Now look at these Games from the host country's point of view.

In 1953, the Korean War ended. Seoul at that time was a ruined city, and South Korea was one of the poorest countries in the world.

Thirty-five years later, that same city stepped forward to host the largest sporting event on the planet.

Thirty-five years is the length of a working life. Some people lived through both ends of it. They were born during the war, and later they sat in the stands watching the opening ceremony.

Hosting the Olympic Games is not simply a matter of opening the doors and inviting guests in. It means having stadiums that meet the standard, and roads, hotels, an airport, hospitals, and people who speak foreign languages to give directions. In other words, a city that wants to host the Olympics must first lift itself up. Most of that work happens in the years before the torch is lit.

That is why Koreans regard these Games as the high point of what they call the Miracle on the Han River. It is their name for the road their country traveled, from deep poverty to where it stands today.

With a great sporting event, the part people remember longest is usually not the results. Few people still remember who won which event in Seoul that year.

What remains is an image.

A city that spent many years cleaning up and rehearsing for two weeks. And during those two weeks, the whole world was present in one place, after eight years in which it could not.

One September morning that year, in the sky above the Olympic Stadium in Seoul, people formed five rings out of their own bodies.