Memories of 1992 burning
bright in Barcelona
The Barcelona Olympics began 10 years ago to the day following a dramatic opening ceremony that culminated in a burning arrow being fired across the stadium to ignite the Olympic flame.
Barcelona, determined to keep those memories alight, is now laying on an elaborate series of celebrations to commemorate the 10th anniversary of an event that helped give the city a major face-lift and guaranteed it a permanent place on the world's sporting map.
"The success of the games is still very fresh in the memory," former International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Juan Antonio Samaranch told Barcelona-based daily Sport on Thursday.
"They were the perfect Games in terms of organisation and development and introduced a whole series of innovations that were later copied by Atlanta and Sydney.
"It was a giant event full of splendour. Thanks to the Games Barcelona became one of the great cities of the world and they signalled a radical change for both the city and Spanish sport in general."
Barcelona-born Samaranch, who was one of the main driving forces in bringing the games to his home town, will be honoured as part of the celebrations taking place later on Thursday.
The 82-year-old was succeeded by Belgian surgeon Jacques Rogge as IOC president last July after 21 years in charge of the movement and was credited with turning the Olympics into a commercial success.
CAREER HIGHLIGHT
The Barcelona Games were undoubtedly the highlight of Samaranch's career, coming as they did before the IOC's reputation was sullied by the corruption scandal surrounding the successful bid by Salt Lake City for the 2002 Winter Games.
Internationally, the 1992 Games were also memorable as the first Olympics of the post-Cold War era.
They brought the first participation of a united German team following the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and witnessed the one and only participation of the Commonwealth of Independent States, the short-lived successor to the USSR.
There were no boycotts and the Barcelona Games managed to avoid the commercial excesses that led to widespread criticism of the Atlanta Olympics four years later.
For Spain they were also an important landmark, coming as 500 years since Columbus's discovery of the New World and forming part of the new internationalism that marked the country's development since the death of General Franco in 1975.
On the sporting front, Barcelona brought Spain a record haul of 22 medals, the country's best performance at the Olympics and only four short of their total in all previous Games.
Current IOC president Rogge will be present at the 10th anniversary celebrations culminating in a spectacular party at the Olympic stadium on Thursday evening.
