Last modified: 2023-06-10 by zachary harden
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image by Zachary Harden, 8 February 2021
Candidature logo on flag from "Official Report of the Games of the XXV Olympiad, Barcelona 1992"; image located by Esteban Rivera, 22 January 2021
The first time that Barcelona was to be promoted as candidate city was at the 18th Session of the IOC held in Antwerp during the 1920
Olympics, in which Barcelona made a formal request to organise the Games in 1924. After Paris was
selected to host the 1924 Games, Amsterdam was selected to host the
1928 Games and Los Angeles had been selected to host the 1932 Games,
Barcelona again bid for the 1936 Games, a nomination (that) was to be
decided in Barcelona on the 24th of April, 1931 at the 29th Session of
the IOC. However, because of the lack of quorum, the decision about
the site for the 1936 Games was adjourned and it was agreed that
there would be a postal vote. The count was made in Lausanne one month
later: Berlin (winner) obtained 43 votes; Barcelona 16; and there were 8
abstentions. Yet again, at the the 30th Session of the IOC in Los Angeles during
the 1932 Games, Barcelona had again presented its candidature for
(the) 1940 (Games). However, the Games were awarded to another city
and due to the outbreak of World War II, the Games were cancelled. In 1965 (the) Barcelona City Council presented yet another application
to organise the Olympic Games, this time in 1972. However, the
President of the COE changed the venue city for Madrid. In the end, at the 64th Session of the IOC in
Rome in April 1966, the Games were awarded to Munich.
In the mid-1980's, the mayor of Barcelona, Narcís Serra, and the
deputy Mayors, Josep Miquel Abad, Josep Maria Cullelland Pasqual
Maragall, began to carry out a study of the possibility of holding the
Olympic Games in the city. On 31January 1981, at a dinner to
celebrate the awards for the sportsmen and women of the year organised
annually by the sports newspaper "El Mundo Deportivo" at the Hotel Princesa Sofía, Narcís Serra
announced in public that he wished to offer the city as the site for
the 1992 Olympic Games.
The City Council then started to debate the proposal for the bid and
on June 30, 1981 the decision to run for the Games was adopted
unanimously by all political parties represented at the City Council,
namely PSC (Partido de los Socialistas de Cataluña), PSUC (Partido
Socialista Unificado de Cataluña), CiU (Convergència i Unió), UCD
(Unión de Centro Democrático) and ERC (Esquerra Republicana de
Catalunya). Together with the Mayor's office approval on January 14,
1982, a special publication was launched, "Barcelona pretén els Jocs
de 1992 (English: Barcelona seeks the 1992 Games") by Romà Cuyàs,
aimed at communicating the formal bid of Barcelona. At the same time,
a study of the works to be done in the city and the real chances it
had of winning the nomination was prepared. The report, entitled
"Projecte de Jocs Olímpics Barcelona 1992. Primeres aproximacions"
(English: "Barcelona 1992 Olympic Games Project. First approach") was
presented to reporters on November 11, 1982. It (also) pointed out
that twenty-seven of the thirty-two venues required for the
competitions already existed. The report also proposed that other
towns around Barcelona should be used for Olympic competitions. On November 26, 1982, the Barcelona City Council approved the setting
up of the Olympic Office, with Romà Cuyàs as commissioner.
The city presented its candidature through a series of election
processes (mainly: the Preliminary Project for the Candidature stage
in 1983-1984, with the formal establishment of the the operational
framework for the Candidature which was formally established in
January 1983, when the Barcelona City Council and the Generalitat of Catalonia signed the agreement
constituting the Managing Council for the Barcelona Candidature for
the 1992 Olympic Games, formally the "Comitè Organitzador Olímpic
Barcelona'92 S.A. (Sociedad Anónima)". The Managing Council, which
had to bring together all the institutions which were to make the
Games of the XXV Olympiad possible, became the highest
representational and decision making body. Its main function was to
set out the guidelines for the Olympic project and coordinate the
measures to be taken. In March 1983 the Olympic Office began to
publish the bulletin Barcelona Olympic News in four languages, to
keep the Olympic Family informed about the progress of the
Candidature.
In November 1983, Pasqual Maragall met a group of businessmen under
the aegis of the Barcelona Chamber of Commerce, Industry and
Navigation and asked them to take part in the management and financing
of the Candidature. This was the first time that a joint venture of
this kind had been suggested to local firms. Later, they were joined
by the Spanish government on April 2, 1985 and the COE on March 22 and
ratified on June 13, 1985. In 1984 another publication came to light,
called "Barcelona'92"; it was a summary of the Preliminary Project in
which the initial ideas were made more specific. Also, a series of
events were being held to raise awareness, namely the First Olympic
Day (June 16, 1983), followed by the Second Olympic Day (June 6, 1984)
as well as two additional ones, in 1985 and 1986. The Preliminary
Project of the Barcelona Candidature was approved by the Managing
Council on December 12, 1983. The Assembly of the Spanish Olympic
Sports Federations gave its approval on December 21 the same year.
Last, on February 28, 1984, the Spanish Olympic Committee also gave
the go-ahead, after some reticence at the beginning. With this
approval, the Candidatures of Jaca and Granada to organise the Winter
Games in 1992 were discarded so as to concentrate all efforts on
securing the nomination of Barcelona as host city for the Summer
Games. The Consejo Superior de Deportes received the
favourable reports from the Spanish Olympic sports federations and
passed on the Preliminary Project to the government. At a meeting of
the Council of Ministers on March 28, 1984 the project was approved
and the Candidature given official support. In November the same
year, Pasqual Maragall appeared before the Culture and Sports
Committee of the Parliament of Catalonia to ask for the support of all
the Catalan parties and institutions. A few months later, in May
1985, he did the same before the Education and Sports Committee of
the Congress of Deputies. At both forums the Candidature received the
formal support of all the parliamentary groups.
The consolidation stage in 1985-1986 kicked off with the President of
the COE, Alfonso de Borbón, and the Candidature Commissioner, Joan Más
Cantí, formally presenting the Barcelona application to organise the
1992 Olympic Games to the IOC on May 13, 1985. The City Council had
unanimously approved the presentation of the Candidature a month
earlier, on April 11. The communication stage, the official submitted Candidature Dossier)
and the venue for the games which was selected after three rounds of
voting, the final one held on October 17, 1986 being held during the
IOC Assembly in Lausanne, Switzerland.
"(During) the closing ceremony at the Seoul Games marked the start
of the XXV Olympiad, the four years during which Barcelona had to
guard the Olympic colours. After the performance of a group of
Catalan dancers before millions of viewers around the world, Pasqual
Maragall, the mayor of Barcelona, received the Olympic flag from the
hands of the president of the IOC, Juan Antonio Samaranch. The
Olympic Movement bade farewell to the Korean city and arranged to meet
in Barcelona in 1992."(Source: "Official
Report of the Games of the XXV Olympiad, Barcelona 1992",
ISBN:84-7868-107-8 , p. 197, 207, 210, 217, 219, 223, 231-233,
235-243, 247-255, 261, 270, 275-289, 293, 300 and 305-319)
Esteban Rivera, 22 January 2021
Barcelona'92 Olympic Organizing Committee logo; image located by Esteban Rivera, 22 January 2021
The Olympic Committee in charge of the organization of the games (both Olympic and Paralympic) was formally designated "Comitè Organitzador Olímpic Barcelona'92 S.A. (Sociedad Anónima)" (English: "Barcelona'92 Olympic Organizing Committee, plc." ), and officially abbreviated COOB'92, with its respective emblem featuring the respective sport pictogram (an athlete) with the Olympic interlocking rings below and the committee's official abbreviation below. It was headed by the Mayor of Barcelona at the time, Pasqual Maragall i Mira and its CEO Josep Miquel Abad i Silvestre. At the beginning of 1984, the Managing Council decided to provide the Candidature with a graphic image which would identify it and give it its own seal. In April a committee was constituted to draft the bases for a competition to choose it. In essence the image sought was not specifically local, but one which would communicate the Barcelona'92 concept and would be as understandable in the city as in an international context. Before the competition, other temporary designs had been used, such as the poster which showed the outline of Montjuïc with the five Olympic rings rising over the coastline. The bases of the competition specified the various applications for which the future logotype would be used, both internal for the Olympic Office (stationery, exterior signposting, publications) and external (sports events). Esteban Rivera, 22 January 2021
2:3
no shadow variant; image by Zachary Harden, 8 February 2021
The logo used for the Games was designed by Josep Maria Trias. Elements of the logo were inspired by the colors of the flags of Barcelona, Catalonia and Spain and was seen as an artistic tribute to local artist Joan Miró. There are two variants of the logo where there is a shadow on the main logo and one where it is not present. Both are allowed as per the 1992 Olympics Style Manual. The Pantone colors for the logo are as follows: 286 Blue, 123 Yellow, Process Black, 340 Green, 032 Red and 415 Gray; the red, yellow and blue used in the Olympic Rings are used in the logo. The font that is used in the logo is Times New Roman.
As for the flag itself, both variants of the logo are used on a white background.
Zachary Harden, 8 February 2021
Barcelona'92 Olympic Organizing Committee logo shadows; image located by Esteban Rivera, 4 February 2022
Barcelona'92 Olympic Organizing Committee logo in multi-color variants; image located by Esteban Rivera, 4 February 2022
image located by Esteban Rivera, 22 January 2021
image located by Esteban Rivera, 22 January 2021
image located by Esteban Rivera, 22 January 2021
image located by Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg, 30 January 2020
At Ebay, there's an offer for: 1986 Birmingham Bid for the Olympic Games
1992 large Flag. In this case it's a blue flag (1:2?) with white imagery: centred joined
Olympic rings superimposed with a an Olympic torch, superimposed with
three lines saying: "BIRMINGHAM", "1992", "THE HEART OF GOLD".
There are stripes flanking the second line, suggesting that this is a
mono-colour of an actual multi-colour design. Does anyone have more
information, so I can go to the bank as I intended, rather than spend it
looking up the non-existent 1992 Birmingham Olympics?
Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg, 30 January 2020
image located by Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg, 30 January 2020
That's certainly the logo of the Games bid in 1992. But I've only ever seen it as a full coloured logo, not as a flag.
Olympic rings in the usual colours, the v-shaped whatever-it-is (the City Council's then logo IIRC) blue and red, torch grey/white, the single line blue,
the double line blue over red. But the slogan is absent from the copy of the logo I've seen.
Ian Sumner, 30 January 2020
Brumpic treats the Olympic bid, including the colour
image. It doesn't seem to be exactly a flag in that photograph, but the image
is clear. Indeed, no slogan. I guess this may be due to exact rules at
that time for Olympic bid and other flags.
Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg, 18 May 2020
image located by Esteban Rivera, 22 January 2021
image located by Esteban Rivera, 22 January 2021
image located by Esteban Rivera, 22 January 2021