September 14, 1988

Matt Biondi, who would go on to win seven medals (five gold), was the cover boy for our 1988 Olympic preview, but the excitement was in anticipation of the first Games since 1972 without a major boycott. Kenny Moore wrote, "This time, we're going to be lucky. True, Cuba, Ethiopia, Nicaragua, Albania, the Seychelles and, not least, North Korea may be absent, and they will be missed, but at the very least, 161 of the IOC's 167 member countries will send teams totaling more than 10,000 athletes. No Olympics has come close to the number of matchups of the world's best -- in many cases history's best -- that will come off in Seoul's lovingly and expensively prepared stadiums."

Photograph by Heinz Kluetmeier