After an absence of 32 years due to its apartheid policies, South Africa could again participate in the Olympic Games in 1992. The 1992 ‘friendship’ Games were not only a first for many athletes, but also for media coverage of a major international sporting event in which a non-apartheid South African team could participate. This article does not deal with the devastating effects of apartheid per se. Its main concern is to focus, in a qualitative manner, on the first major international sports event in which South Africans were allowed to compete, namely the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona, and more specifically the South African media coverage thereof.