Nations 159
Athletes 8454 (6252 Uomini ; 2202 Donne)
Italian athletes 253 (212 Uomini; 41 Donne)
The changed international situation was felt less at the second Olympics in Asia, won by the capital of South Korea over Japanese rival Nagoya. However, the intransigence of North Korea, which curiously claimed that the IOC should assign the organisation of at least half of the events to them, caused numerous tensions. It was rejected with disdain the offer of the South Koreans to run the marathon between the borders of the two countries, divided since the fifties by the war of the 38th parallel, and there were actually advanced threats of possible attacks. In the end, only North Korea, Cuba, Ethiopia, Nicaragua, Albania and the Seychelles were absent. The Olympic movement was now heading toward its reunification. Gelindo Bordin gave Italy the gold medal in the marathon, 80 years after the drama surrounding Pietri.
Gelindo Bordin gold Athletics Marathon
Giuseppe Abbagnale, Carmine Abbagnale, Giuseppe Di Capua gold Rowing Coxed pair
Agostino Abbagnale, Gianluca Farina, Piero Poli, Davide Tizzano gold Rowing Quadruple sculls
Vincenzo Maenza gold Wrestling wrestling greco-roman 48 Kg
Giovanni Parisi gold Boxing 57 kg
Stefano Cerioni gold Fencing Foil individual
Salvatore Antibo silver Athletics 1.000 m
Carlo Massullo silver Modern Pentathlon equestrian, fencing, swimming, shooting, cross country running
Daniele Masala, Carlo Massullo, Gianluca Tiberti silver Modern Pentathlon equestrian, fencing, swimming, shooting, cross country running
Francesca Bortolozzi, Dorina Vaccaroni, Margherita Zalaffi, Annapia Gandolfi, Lucia Traversa silver Fencing foil team women
Maurizio Damilano bronze Athletics 20 Km Race walk
Stefano Battistelli bronze Swimming 400 m individual medley
Giovanni Scalzo bronze Fencing Sabre individual
Gianfranco Dalla Barba, Marco Marin, Ferdinando Meglio, Giovanni Scalzo, Massimo Cavaliere bronze Fencing Sabre team