17 September 2026 marks 38 years since the opening ceremony of the Summer Olympic Games in Seoul. The International Olympic Committee’s official Seoul 1988 page records the Games of the XXIV Olympiad, opened by President Roh Tae-woo. The ceremony took place on 17 September 1988 at Seoul Olympic Stadium; competition ran until 2 October.

Seoul had been chosen as host city in 1981. The Games followed Moscow 1980 and Los Angeles 1984, editions marked by boycotts. Participation in Seoul was broader, though not every Olympic committee in the world was present. The IOC notes the flame lit by Chung Sun-man, Kim Won-tak and Sohn Mi-chung; Sohn Kee-chung, the 1936 Olympic marathon champion, was part of the opening moment.

Thousands of athletes competed in a programme that produced records and controversies that remain part of sporting history. This anniversary piece does not detail individual doping cases or protests; it records the scale of the event and its significance for South Korea, which gained global exposure through a competition watched internationally.

The Jamsil stadium and other Olympic infrastructure remain visible in the capital. The cover photograph shows the stadium in 1994, not the 1988 ceremony.

17 September 1988 is the date of the opening ceremony, not of the entire competition period. The closing ceremony was on 2 October 1988.

Thirty-eight years later, Seoul 1988 remains a landmark in Olympic history and in the modern history of South Korea.

Image: Scarlet Sappho, Seoul Olympic Stadium, 1994. Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0. Not a photograph of the 1988 ceremony. Cropped to 16:9.

Source consulted: Olympics.com — Seoul 1988 Summer Olympics.