Official report of the Games of the XXV Olympiad : Barcelona 1992. V.3. The Organisation : the preparation of the Games

COOB’92 (1992): Official report of the Games of the XXV Olympiad : Barcelona 1992. V.3. The Organisation : the preparation of the Games. Barcelona : COOB’92.

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“The Olympic Games are one of the most complex and demanding events today. To guarantee success a high level of planning is indispensable, but so is a capacity for improvisation to deal with the incidents which inevitably crop up in a project which simply cannot be rehearsed beforehand. The Barcelona Games, which bore little resemblance to earlier Olympics, called for an effort of preparation and organisation which was without precedent in this country in terms of length or intensity.

The eleven chapters of this volume, which is entitled The organisation, describe the process of preparing and operating all the projects which COOB’92 mounted to produce the results described in Volume IV, Sixteen days in summer. First of all, it talks about the sports organisation itself: the competitions and the route of the torch and the ceremonies.

The next four chapters deal with the “material” aspects of planning: adaptation of the venues, logistics, technology and accommodation. Next comes a description of the work done in the field of the services which the Organising Committee had to provide for the Olympic Family, and a fundamental matter: security. Last are the two aspects in which the Barcelona’92 organisation stood out most notably from earlier Olympics: image and commercial management.”

Fragment taken from the editorial note to the volume, written by Roma Cuyàs i Sol, Director of the Official Report.