page_title: Australia at the 1988 Summer Paralympics
section_title: Opening Ceremony
hierarchical_section_title: Australia at the 1988 Summer Paralympics / Opening Ceremony
caption_attribution_description: English: Australian team flagbearer Paul Croft during opening ceremony of 1988 Seoul Paralympic Games
context_page_description: Australia competed at the 1988 Summer Paralympics in Seoul, South Korea in 16 sports, winning medals in 6 sports. Gold medals were won in three sports – athletics, lawn bowls and swimming. Australia won 95 medals – 23 gold, 34 silver and 38 bronze medals. Australia finished 10th on the gold medal table and 7th on the combined medal table. Australian Confederation of Sports for the Disabled reported another medal ranking after Games with Australia being 2nd ranked in amputee sports, 8th in wheelchair sports, 11th in blind sports and 12th in cerebral palsy sports.
  Notable Australian performances included:
  Rodney Nugent, an arm amputee, won 4 gold medals and 3 bronze medals in athletics
  Elizabeth Kosmala, a wheelchair shooter, won 3 gold medals and 1 silver medal
  Dual individual gold medallists included: amputee swimmer Greg Hammond, amputee swimmer Judith Young, vision impaired thrower Russell Short and wheelchair thrower Bruce Wallrodt
  Australian athletes broke eight world records.
context_section_description: During the Opening Ceremony there were more than 75,000 people within the Olympic Stadium with a then record of 3,057 competitors from 61 nations. The President of South Korea, Roh Tae-Woo, presented the new Paralympic flag to the President of the ICC, Jens Bromann. Paul Croft, competing in his second Paralympic Games, was the flag bearer for Australia during the Opening Ceremony. Parachutists in the Paralympic colors of blue, black, red, yellow, and green swept down into the Olympic Stadium following a procession of children in wheelchairs. The Olympic Torch was carried in by a one-legged South Korean Paralympic volleyball player and handed to 19 year old Cho Hyun-hui, a wheelchair bound athlete with cerebral palsy. Cho Hyun-hai was wheeled around the stadium by her 7-year-old daughter before handing the Torch to blind runner Lee Jae-oon, who linked hands with women's handball Olympic gold medalist Kiifi Hyun-mi, who together, were carried up by elevator platform to light the Olympic Flame.
  Chief Paralympic Organiser Koh Kwi-nam addressed the athletes by saying "The goal you as athletes should try to reach for in the Games is not to accomplish the Olympic slogan of 'faster, higher and farther' but to show the world your real selves as courageous challengers, glorious conquerors and impartial participants."
caption: Flag bearer Paul Croft at the Opening Ceremony
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