Mark Sherwin was 22 years old at the time of the Barcelona Olympics, and was making his Olympic debut.[7][8] On 31 July, in the first round of the men's 100 meters, Sherwin was drawn into heat five. He finished his heat in 11.53 seconds, eighth and last place in the heat; only the top three from each heat and the next two fastest among all ten heats were able to advance, and he was eliminated.[9] The slowest qualifier in his heat was John Myles-Mills of Ghana who posted a time of 10.64 seconds.[9] The gold medal for the event was won by Linford Christie of Great Britain in a time of 9.96 seconds. Frankie Fredericks of Namibia took the silver, and Dennis Mitchell of the United States won the bronze.[10] Sherwin would come back four years later to race the 100 meters again in Atlanta; while his time was faster, he was once again eliminated in the heats.[8]
Sam Nunuke Pera was 23 years old at the time of the Barcelona Olympics, and was making his first Olympic appearance.[11][12] On 2 August, he took part in the 100 kg and under body weight event. Pera weighed in at 92.6 kg.[13] In his three attempts at the snatch, he failed to lift 105 kilograms, the lightest lift attempted by any of the 25 competitors.[14] By failing to post a mark in the snatch, he was eliminated from the competition before he could compete in the clean and jerk.[15] The gold medal eventually went to Viktor Tregubov of the Unified Team, who posted a lift from the snatch of 190 kg[14] and the clean and jerk mark of 220 kg;[16] making his combined total 410 kg.[15] Silver was won by Tymur Taimazov, also of the Unified Team, and bronze was taken by Waldemar Malak of Poland.[15] Pera would return to represent the Cook Islands again in the 1996 Summer Olympics where he finished 24th; and the 2004 Summer Olympics in which he ranked 14th in his category.[12] Between late 1996 and 2002 he was forced to abandon the sport due to losing his job.[17]
