United States at the 1988 Summer Olympics


The United States competed at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Korea. 527 competitors, 332 men and 195 women, took part in 230 events in 27 sports. The country finished third in the medal standings behind the Soviet Union and East Germany.

Medalists

The following U.S. competitors won medals at the games. In the by discipline sections below, medalists' names are bolded.
MedalNameSportEventDate
SwimmingWomen's 400 meter individual medley
DivingMen's 3 meter springboard

Matt Cetlinski
Troy Dalbey
Doug Gjertsen
Dan Jorgensen*
Craig Oppel*		SwimmingMen's 4 × 200 meter freestyle relay
SwimmingMen's 100 meter freestyle
SwimmingWomen's 400 meter freestyle

Troy Dalbey
Doug Gjertsen*
Chris Jacobs
Tom Jager
Shaun Jordan*
Brent Lang*		SwimmingMen's 4 × 100 meter freestyle relay
AthleticsMen's 100 meters
AthleticsWomen's heptathlon
SwimmingMen's 50 meter freestyle
SwimmingWomen's 800 meter freestyle
AthleticsMen's 400 meter hurdles
AthleticsMen's long jump
AthleticsWomen's 100 meters

Matt Biondi
Chris Jacobs
Tom Jager*
Jay Mortenson*
Richard Schroeder		SwimmingMen's 4 × 100 meter medley relay
AthleticsMen's 110 meter hurdles
DivingMen's 10 meter platform

Allison Jolly		SailingWomen's 470
AthleticsMen's 200 meters
AthleticsMen's 400 meters
AthleticsWomen's 200 meters
AthleticsWomen's long jump

BasketballWomen's tournament
WrestlingFreestyle 62 kilogram
ArcheryMen's individual
AthleticsWomen's high jump

Robert Seguso		TennisMen's doubles

Pam Shriver		TennisWomen's doubles
WrestlingFreestyle 74 kilogram

Steve Lewis
Antonio McKay*
Butch Reynolds
Kevin Robinzine
Andrew Valmon*		AthleticsMen's 4 × 400 meter relay

Alice Brown
Sheila Echols
Florence Griffith-Joyner
Dannette Young*		AthleticsWomen's 4 × 100 meter relay
BoxingBantamweight
BoxingHeavyweight
CanoeingMen's K-1 1000 meters

Norman Bellingham		CanoeingMen's K-2 1000 meters
BoxingLight heavyweight

VolleyballMen's tournament
DivingWomen's 10 meter platform
SwimmingMen's 100 meter butterfly
SwimmingMen's 400 meter individual medley
SwimmingMen's 100 meter freestyle
AthleticsMen's shot put
AthleticsMen's high jump
ShootingMen's 10 meter air pistol
SwimmingMen's 50 meter freestyle
SwimmingMen's 100 meter backstroke

Janel Jorgensen
Tracey McFarlane
Mary T. Meagher*
Betsy Mitchell*
Dara Torres*
Mary Wayte		SwimmingWomen's 4 × 100 meter medley relay
AthleticsMen's long jump
AthleticsWomen's 100 meters
Judo–60 kilogram

Richard Kennelly
David Krmpotich
Raoul Rodriguez		RowingMen's four
RowingWomen's single sculls

Mark Reynolds		SailingStar

Robert Billingham
John Kostecki		SailingSoling
AthleticsMen's 200 meters
AthleticsMen's 400 meters

Joe Fargis
Lisa Jacquin
Anne Kursinski		EquestrianTeam jumping
Synchronized swimmingSolo

Richard McKinney
Darrell Pace		ArcheryMen's team

Diane Dixon
Florence Griffith-Joyner
Denean Howard
Sherri Howard*
Lillie Leatherwood*		AthleticsWomen's 4 × 400 meter relay
BoxingLight flyweight

Sarah Josephson		Synchronized swimmingDuet
TennisMen's singles

Water poloMen's tournament
WrestlingFreestyle 130 kilogram
BoxingLight middleweight
BoxingSuper heavyweight
EquestrianIndividual jumping
DivingWomen's 10 meter platform
SwimmingMen's 200 meter freestyle
WrestlingGreco-Roman 100 kilogram

Jill Sterkel*
Dara Torres
Laura Walker
Mary Wayte
Paige Zemina*		SwimmingWomen's 4 × 100 meter freestyle relay
AthleticsMen's 100 meters
CyclingWomen's sprint
AthleticsMen's 400 meter hurdles
AthleticsMen's long jump
DivingWomen's 3 meter springboard
GymnasticsBalance beam

Doug Burden
Jeffrey McLaughlin
Peter Nordell
Ted Patton
John Pescatore
Jack Rusher
Jonathan Smith
Mike Teti		RowingMen's eight
SwimmingWomen's 50 meter freestyle
SwimmingWomen's 200 meter butterfly
AthleticsMen's 110 meter hurdles
AthleticsWomen's 800 meters
Judo–71 kilogram
SailingMen's Division II

John Shadden		SailingMen's 470
AthleticsMen's 400 meters

BasketballMen's tournament
WrestlingFreestyle 100 kilogram

Denise Parker
Melanie Skillman		ArcheryWomen's team
BoxingLightweight
BoxingWelterweight
TennisMen's singles
TennisWomen's singles
WrestlingFreestyle 68 kilogram

* - Indicates that the athlete competed in preliminaries but not the final.

Archery

The United States continued to be a strong contender in archery, though it found that South Korea had taken the top spot in the sport. Jay Barrs was the only non-Korean to win a gold medal for archery in Seoul. Two-time gold medallist Darrell Pace and 1984 silver medallist Richard McKinney joined Barrs in winning the team silver, while the women's team added a bronze medal despite not having any of the individual archers advance to the final. With her women's team bronze, 15-year-old Denise Parker become the youngest medalist in the history of Olympic archery.
;Men
;Women

Athletics

The men's 100 meter sprint was marred by the usage of performance-enhancing drugs when the initial winner, Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson, tested positive for banned substances after the race and was stripped of the gold medal and his world record time of 9.79 seconds, thus allowing Carl Lewis to repeat as gold medal winner. In 1989, Johnson admitted to further PED usage between 1981 and 1988 and his world record of 9.83 seconds from the 1987 World Championships was rescinded as well, allowing Lewis's 9.92 seconds in the Olympic final became the new world record. This put the United States in position to sweep the gold medals in the men's sprint distances, including a sweep of all medals at the 400 meter distance. The United States men also won medals while setting Olympic records at both hurdle distances. In the men's relays, a fumbled baton exchange in the heat of the 4 × 100 caused a heartbreaking disqualification for the favored American team. In the 4 × 400, however, the United States cruised to victory while equaling the 20-year-old world record which had been set in Mexico City. In men's field events, the highlight came from Carl Lewis defending his gold medal from Los Angeles and leading the United States to a medal sweep in the long jump. In the women's events, Florence Griffth-Joyner had dominating performances in the 100 and 200 meter sprints, lowering the Olympic record by over 0.2 seconds in the 100 and lowering the world record by almost 0.4 seconds in the 200. She also helped the United States to strong performances in the relays, winning gold in the 4 × 100 and coming in second, while beating the previous world record, to a record-shattering performance by the Soviet team in the 4 × 400. Meanwhile, in the heptathlon, Jackie Joyner-Kersee dominated the competition while setting a world record that has not been approached in the succeeding 30 years. Joyner-Kersee's long jump performance in the heptathlon was enough to set the Olympic record for the discipline, only for her to eclipse it in the final of the long jump event. The high jump event also saw Louise Ritter eclipse the Olympic record on the way to a gold medal. Finally, the only United States medal in the middle distance events came from Kim Gallagher, who captured bronze in the 800 meters.
;Men
;;Track and road events
;;Field events
;;Combined event – Decathlon
;Women
;;Field events
;;Combined event – Heptathlon
AthleteEventPointsRank
Wendy BrownResult14.071.8312.6924.836.1344.342:26.43597218
Wendy BrownPoints9681016707902890751738597218
Cindy GreinerResult13.551.8014.1324.486.4738.002:13.6562978
Cindy GreinerPoints104397880393599762991262978
Jackie Joyner-KerseeResult12.691.8615.8022.567.27 45.662:08.517291
Jackie Joyner-KerseePoints11721054915112312647769877291

Basketball

;Summary

Men's tournament

This was the last time that the United States was represented by college players in Olympic competition. Other countries, meanwhile, used their best professionals.
;Roster
;Group play
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----
----
----
;Quarterfinal
;Semifinal
;Bronze medal game

Women's tournament

;Team roster
;Group play
----
----
;Semifinal
;Gold medal game

Boxing

There were several controversies involving the American boxers at the games. Young and talented Roy Jones Jr. dominated his opponents, never losing a round en route to the final, where he controversially lost a 3–2 decision to South Korean fighter Park Si-Hun despite pummeling Park for three rounds and landing 86 punches to Park's 32.
The decision sparked outrage and an International Olympic Committee investigation found that the three judges who voted for Park Si-Hun had been bribed by South Korean officials.
With some elements of corruption in Olympic boxing coming to light, refereeing standards were changed after the games to avoid future controversies. Corruption was also suspected in Michael Carbajal's decision loss in his gold medal match.
In another controversial gold medal match, Riddick Bowe lost to future world heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis. After Lewis landed several hard punches the referee gave Bowe two standing eight counts and waved the fight off after the second one, even though Bowe seemed able to continue. Members of the U.S. Army Boxing Team trained for the Olympics at Fort Huachuca, Arizona.
Furthermore, middleweight Anthony Hembrick never had the opportunity to fight. Hembrick and his coach, Ken Adams, misinterpreted the fight schedule. Afterwards, they blamed the schedule for being too confusing. By the time Hembrick arrived at Chamshil Students' Gymnasium twelve minutes late, he had been disqualified and the match was being awarded to South Korean Ha Jong-ho.

Canoeing

;Men
;Women
Key: QF - Qualified to medal final; SF - Qualified to semifinal; R - Qualified to repechage; * - Heat not held due to lack of competitors. All competitors scheduled for this heat advanced to the next round.

Cycling

Nineteen cyclists represented the United States in 1988. Connie Paraskevin-Young won bronze in the women's sprint.

Road

AthleteEventTimeRank
Scott McKinleyMen's road race4:32:5665
Bob MionskeMen's road race4:32:464
Craig SchommerMen's road race4:32:5669
Norman Alvis
Jim Copeland
Tony Palmer
Andy Paulin		Men's team time trial2:02:35.710
Bunki Bankaitis-DavisWomen's road race2:00:5214
Inga ThompsonWomen's road race2:00:528
Sally ZackWomen's road race2:00:5216

Track

;Points race
;Pursuit
;Sprint
;Time trial
AthleteEventTimeRank
Bobby Livingston1 km time trial1:06.92614

Diving

;Men
;Women

Equestrian

;Dressage
;Eventing
;Jumping

Fencing

19 fencers represented the United States in 1988.
;Men
;Women

Field hockey

;Summary

Women's tournament

The US women's field hockey team competed for the second time at the Summer Olympics.
;Roster
Head Coach: Boudewijn Castelijn
;Preliminary round
;;Group A
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----
;5th-8th place classification
;8th place game

Football

;Summary
;Roster
Head coach: Lothar Osiander
;Preliminary round
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----

Gymnastics

Artistic

;Men
;;Team
;;Individual finals
;Women
;;Team
;;Individual finals

Rhythmic

Handball

;Summary

Judo

Modern pentathlon

Three pentathletes represented the United States in 1988.

Rowing

;Men
;Women
Qualification legend: FA = Final A ; FB = Final B ; SF = Semifinal; R = Repechage

Sailing

;Men
;Women
;Open

Shooting

;Men
;Women
;Open shotgun

Swimming

;Men
;Women

Note: Times in the first round ranked across all heats.

Qualification legend: FA - Advance to medal final; FB - Advance to non-medal final

Synchronized swimming

Three female synchronized swimmers represented the United States in 1988.

Table tennis

Tennis

;Men
;Women

Volleyball

;Summary

Men's tournament

;Summary
;Roster
;Preliminary round
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----
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----
;Semifinal
;Gold medal game

Weightlifting

Wrestling