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Dream Team: Swept all aside.
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In this year...
- The end of apartheid allowed South Africa to return for the first time since 1960.
- Paralympic archer Antonio Rebello lit the Olympic cauldron with a flaming arrow at the opening ceremony.
- The Winter Olympics took place in Albertville, France - the final time both Summer and Winter Games have been held in the same year.
- Badminton, baseball and women's judo made their Olympic debuts, while slalom canoeing returned after a 20-year absence.
- The map of Europe was redrawn in the wake of the fall of communism with the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia all breaking up.
- Queen Elizabeth II declared 1992 to have been an Annus Horribilis (horrible year) after the royal family suffered from several scandals and a Windsor Castle fire.
- Rioting broke out in Los Angeles after four white police officers were acquitted of beating black motorist Rodney King.
- Denmark were crowned European football champions, beating Germany 2-0 in the final in Gothenburg, including a rare goal from John Jensen.
- Former heavyweight Mike Tyson is convicted of rape and sentenced to six years in prison.
- The Maastricht treaty was signed, creating the European Union and laying the framework for a single currency.
- Euro Disney opened in Paris.
Linford Christie sprinted to 100m gold for Britain at an Olympic Games best remembered for America's basketball dream team.
For the first time professionals were allowed to compete and the United States included Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson among a roster packed with NBA all-stars.
They swept all before them, averaging 117 points in their eight matches and never even needing to take a time-out.
Christie's crowning moment on the track was one of two British athletics golds, Sally Gunnell providing the other in the 400m hurdles.
Chris Boardman and his revolutionary bike were the talk of the velodrome, the Liverpool rider storming to victory in the 4,000m individual pursuit.
Steve Redgrave's new coxless pairs partnership with Matthew Pinsent brought him gold for the third straight Olympics, while brothers Greg and Jonny Searle's triumph in the coxed pairs produced tears of joy from their cox Garry Herbert at the medal ceremony.
South Africa's participation for the first time in 60 years sat alongside a unified Germany and entries from former Soviet Union republics after the collapse of the communist administration.
Gymnast Vitaly Scherbo won six gold medals, including a record four in one day.
Olympic Stars:
Linford Christie - The Londoner saved his best for late in his career, at 32 becoming the oldest 100m champion. Benefiting from the absence of his great rival Carl Lewis, Christie came on strong in the closing stages to triumph in 9.96 seconds.
Vitaly Scherbo - The Belarussian, competing for the Unified Team in the wake of the collapse of the Soviet Union, won six of the eight golds on offer in the gymnasium. His victories came in the team event, all-round, pommel horse, rings, vault, and parallel bars - and included a record four in a single day.
Derartu Tulu - The dominance of African men in the long-distance events was by now well established but Tulu's victory in the women's 10,000m was the first time a black African female had won an Olympic gold medal of any kind. Her victory lap - hand-in-hand with white South African silver medallist Elana Meyer - was equally significant in the first post-apartheid Games.
Krisztina Egerszegi - The Hungarian teenager was the most successful swimmer at the Games with three golds, including a successful defence of the 200m backstroke title she won as a 14-year-old in Seoul. Egerszegi added further golds in the 100m backstroke and 400m individual medley.
