[11] South Africa, which had been excluded from the Olympics for its use of the apartheid system in sports, returned to the games for the first time since 1960.

[13][14] Due to conduct in the ongoing Yugoslav Wars, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was placed under sanctions by United Nations Security Council Resolution 757, which prevented the country from taking part in the Olympics.

[18] Algeria,[19] Indonesia,[4] and Lithuania won their nations' first Summer Olympic gold medals.

[20] Croatia,[21] Israel,[22] Malaysia,[23] Namibia,[24] Qatar,[25] and Slovenia won their nation's first Olympic medals.

[29][30] If teams are still tied, equal ranking is given and they are listed alphabetically by their IOC country code.

[42] Events in boxing and tennis resulted in bronze medals being awarded to each of the competitors who lost their semi-final matches, as opposed to them taking part in a third place tiebreaker.