On 17 October 1986, Barcelona was selected to host the 1992 Summer Olympics over Amsterdam, Netherlands; Belgrade, Yugoslavia; Birmingham, United Kingdom; Brisbane, Australia; and Paris, France, during the 91st IOC Session in Lausanne, Switzerland.

During the Olympic bid process, Barcelona demonstrated itself to be open and motivated to host the Paralympic Games and, unlike previous host cities, the bidding Committee managed to establish good relations with the then International Coordination Committee (ICC).

Shortly after the selection of the Olympic host city in September 1986, negotiations with the ICC began under the mediation of Juan Antonio Samaranch.

While COOB'92 was linked to the IOC for ticket sales, the ICC was not interested in this and the public can follow the Games on site practically for free.Since only tickets for the opening and closing ceremonies were sold out within minutes.It is noteworthy that this decision mediated again by Juan Antonio Samaranch became a catalyst for the International Paralympic Movement, because both athletes and future organizers would from now on have a standard of excellence to be demanded and fulfilled.The idea of unifying the organization of the two events under the auspices of the same people was so impactful that for the only time in history the Greek Olympic Committee in a mesure of approximation authorized the use of the Olympic fire during the Paralympic Games.Despite these innovative issues, the Barcelona organizers had serious financial problems.

As the financial amounts were not covered, some other partners appeared who were crucial to the success of the Games, civil society organizations such as Spain's National Organization for the Blind (ONCE) which until 1993 was one of the owners of the country's main private television channel, Telecinco, which created a lottery system that was also used as a form of population engagement as they also purchased 50% of the COOB'92 Paralympic department.

Thus, with a big political power, ONCE was predisposed to help the Paralympic division to seek new financial resources to cover the missing amounts.

[9] In the north of the city, the Horta-Guinardó District, hosted three sports: A total of 1710 medals were awarded during the 1992 games: 555 gold, 557 silver, and 594 bronze.

South Africa returned to the Paralympics for the first time since being declared "undesirable" due to its policy of apartheid in 1980.

[11][12] Countries who made their first appearances in the Barcelona Games were Algeria, Burkina Faso, Chile, Chinese Taipei, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Iraq, Myanmar, Namibia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Panama, Seychelles, Tanzania, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, Uruguay and Yemen.

Twenty-one countries did not send a delegation to Barcelona, but sent one to Madrid; they were: Aruba, Bolivia, Côte d'Ivoire, Curaçao, El Salvador, Fiji, Ghana, Guatemala, Honduras, Jordan, Lebanon, Malta, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Philippines, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Sierra Leone, Sri Lanka, Suriname and Zimbabwe.