Venues of the 1992 Summer Olympics

Lake Banyoles in 2005. The lake hosted the rowing events for the 1992 Summer Olympics.

The idea of Barcelona hosting the Olympic Games started as early as 1913.[40] In 1924, the Spanish Olympic Committee was founded in Barcelona. During the reign of Francisco Franco, Barcelona hosted the men's Rink Hockey World Championship in 1951, 1954, and 1964, and the Mediterranean Games in 1955.[41] The first bid for the Summer Olympics took place for 1924, losing to Paris, then tried again for the 1936 Games, losing to Berlin. Montjuïc Stadium had its first stone laid in 1927, as part of the International Exposition that took place in Barcelona two years later.[42] Following Barcelona's success at the 1955 Mediterranean Games, the city made another attempt for the Summer Olympics for the 1972 Games in a joint bid with Madrid in 1966, but they lost out to eventual winner Munich.[43]

After World War II, Barcelona started playing host to the Formula One auto and Grand Prix motorcycle racing. The first circuit used in Barcelona was at Pedralbes in 1951, where the inaugural race was won by Argentina's Juan Manuel Fangio.[44] One more race was held at Pedralbes in 1954, won by Great Britain's Mike Hawthorn.[45] Formula One would not return officially to Spain until 1968 though Barcelona's Montjuïc circuit would share duties hosting with Circuito del Jarama to 1975 with Monjuïc hosting in odd-numbered years.[46][47] The 1975 race was won by Jochen Mass of West Germany.[47] In the former circuit, the Palau dels Esports de Barcelona was constructed in the north part of the circuit as part of the 1955 Mediterranean Games.[48][49] Montjuïc Stadium was located south of the circuit as was the Piscines Bernat Picornell.[49] Montjuïc hosted the Spanish motorcycle Grand Prix annually from 1951 to 1968 and then in even-numbered years until 1976.[50][51][52] Formula One did not return to Barcelona until 1991 with the opening of the Circuit de Catalunya near Barcelona that would be won by Britain's Nigel Mansell.[53] The Brit also won the 1992 race, held twelve weeks before the venue was to be used for the 1992 Summer Olympics.[54]

Spain hosted the FIFA World Cup in 1982.[55] Both stadiums in Barcelona hosted football matches with Camp Nou (Estadi del FC Barcelona)'s most notable game being the semifinal between Poland and Italy while Estadi de Sarrià (RCD Espanyol Stadium) hosting all three Round 2 Group C matches, including the 3–2 match between Brazil and Italy.[56][57] Two other stadiums used in the 1982 World Cup would later serve as football venues for the Summer Olympics ten years later. They would be Valencia's Estadio Luís Casanova and Zaragoza's La Romareda, both used for Group 5 Round 1 match play.[58][59]

Even before selection of the 1992 Summer Olympics took place, Barcelona started working on the possible venues to be used in January 1985.[60] This continued for all of the venues before the International Olympic Committee (IOC) announcement in October 1986.[61] The venues to be used were among the items presented at the IOC meeting.[62] Barcelona was selected on 17 October 1986 in Lausanne, Switzerland.[63] Of the forty-three venues used for the Games, fifteen would be new while ten would be refurbished. The venues that were being worked on in 1985 were done by 1990 while the other ones needed would be built or refurbished between 1987 and May 1992.[64]

Aerial view of Camp Nou. It was known as Estadi del FC Barcelona for the 1992 Summer Olympics, hosting the football final.

The marathon course was run on a flat stretch of road for 37.5 km (23.3 mi) before having the final 4.695 km (2.92 mi) up Monjuïc to the Estadi Olímpic.[65] In the men's race, South Korea's Hwang Young-cho and Japan's Koichi Morishita ran side-by-side toward the latter part of the race for 4 km (2.5 mi) before Hwang accelerated with 2 km (1.2 mi) left before the stadium and Morishita was unable to respond.[65]

During the sailing competition, there were numerous complaints from the sailors over the debris found at the Olympic Harbor.[66] Among the items found were dead rats and floating refrigerators.[66] It was so bad that Barcelona port authorities, under pressure from the International Yacht Racing Union (World Sailing since 2015), assigned four garbage vessels to collect garbage daily.[66] In the men's windsurfer event, American Mike Gebhardt got a plastic bag caught on his boardsail in the last lap of the seventh race.[66] Six boardsailers passed Gebhardt before he could dislodge the plastic bag.[66] Gebhardt lost out a gold by 0.4 points over France's Franck David.[66][67]

Circuit de Catalunya has hosted the Spanish Grand Prix every year since the 1992 Games.[68][69] In 1996, Grand Prix motorcycle racing (MotoGP) returned to Barcelona at the Circuit de Catalunya.[70] [71][72][73]

When the 2003 World Aquatics Championships were held in Barcelona, Palau Saint Jordi, Piscines Bernat Picornell, and Piscina Municipal de Montjuïc would be used as event venues.[74] Ten years later, the same three venues hosted the World Aquatics Championships.

Estadi Olímpic de Montjuïc (now Estadi Olímpic Lluis Companys) hosted the European Athletics Championships in 2010.[75][76]

Parc Olímpic del Segre hosted the ICF Canoe Slalom World Championships in 1999 and 2009.[77]