Seoul Olympic Park 1988: History, Emotions and Travel Tips
The Olympic Park is the first place we visit when we arrive in Seoul from Busan, where we spent our first week in Korea.
It’s also quite far from the downtown area where we have found our small hotel. Maybe there is a way to reach the Olympic Park by metro, but we decide to ride a taxi. It takes about 30 minutes, maybe a bit longer. The driver drops us at the back of the park, so to get where I want absolutely to go, i.e. to the Olympic Flame, we need to cross the main park in its entire length. It would be a super nice stroll, if it weren’t for the weather.
We move slowly, we are sticky and sweating because of the heat and the humidity, enter a convenience store each time we see one, to steal some AC, buy water or ice cream.
August is not the best time to be in Korea. I would not recommend to go in summer.
Being at the Olympic Parc of Seoul 1988 Games brings to my mind plenty of memories and intense feelings.
The 1988 Seoul Olympic Games are the first Games that I can remember. And it is also the first connection with Korea.
I was 10 years old. At that time the Olympic Games would still take place in October. I was at the third year of primary school and our teacher had given us as homework, to draft the list of medals won by the Italians. That’s how I remember the names of Dorina Vaccaroni in fencing, Vincenzo Maenza in wrestling, Boris Preti and Yuri Chechi – the Lord of the Rings – in gymnastics, the Abbagnale bros and Peppino di Capua in rowing. I know them by hearth, I don’t have to check.
I vividly remember one more name.
It was the last day of the Games and there was only the last competition left, the Marathon. I thought my homework was done. But no. I was wrong.
“Gelindo is behind him… it is an important moment, now he moved on the strip…At the 40th kilometer he now leads… he leads the marathon… we are closer and closer to the entry gate….and it’s Gelindo Bordin! He follows the safest trajectory….Gelindo Bordin enters the Olympic Stadium, he’s the marathon man, he’s the one going on the highest podium! Gelindo Bordin, with his regular wide pace….this arrival is harmony, is music, it’s Italian music…He’s the man living now the greatest satisfaction that an athlete can live!!!”
Unexpectedly – at least for me – we won another gold medal, so I had to update my notebook with my homework for the next day.
It’s with great emotion that I stand in front of the Wall of Glory, staring at his name.
“Gelindo, thank you.Thank you for that last medal. Thank you for that joy. Thank you for that surprise. I didn’t forget”.
But it’s not just the Italian legends, that I remember well.
Florence Griffith.
Carl Lewis.
Sergey Bubka.
That was their Olympics.
Another wave of emotions invades me while I contemplate the Olympic flame, meditating all that it represents.
Citius. Altius. Fortius.
Faster. Higher. Stronger.
After the pandemic, the IOC added a fourth word to the Olympic motto:
Communiter. Together.
It was the time of the Covid-19 pandemic and the Tokyo Olympic Games.
And I was there. Serving at my second Olympic Games as IF Staff Member.
In fact, since 2013 I have been working for an International Federation and had the privilege to serve at 3 different editions of the Games, on 3 different continents:
Rio de Janeiro, 2016
Tokyo 2020 (2021)
Paris 2024
As such, I got to know many champions, including some that participated in Seoul Olympic Games.
So, when I meet someone and find out that he or she participated in Seoul Olympic Games, I revere him or her even more than usual.
And now I am here, in Seoul. 35 years later. Bringing that little girl that watched Bordin winning, to visit her first Olympic Park.
