Honolulu’s Chris Duplanty immersed himself in the Olympics like few others. It only made sense for a guy who spent all his time in the water through three quadrenniums.

Duplanty, a 1984 Punahou graduate, won a silver medal in water polo at the 1988 Olympics at Seoul.

He played 35 seconds, backing up Craig Wilson, who was nine years older. It was more of the same in Barcelona.

But for the Atlanta Games, Duplanty was ubiquitous. He appeared in the 1994 Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue and captained the U.S. team. Duplanty led the world in saves, but the Americans finished a disappointing seventh and he went looking for new challenges.

They found him on the way to yet another Olympics. The 1993 and ’96 U.S. Water Polo Player of the Year was called in as an assistant coach for the inaugural U.S. women’s water polo team after it finished eighth at the 1998 World Championships.

That team earned him another silver medal. From there Duplanty, who got his MBA from UC Irvine in 1992, devoted himself to the U.S. Olympic movement full-time. He held several positions with the USOC over the past 12 years, including vice chair to the Athletes Advisory Council.

Now 46, Duplanty lives in California and is "transitioning" into work with his own consulting firm. He speaks at schools — he has kids 3 and 7 — and to athletes. He spoke to the women’s water polo team the day it left for London.

"As an Olympian I had my Olympic experience," he says. "When I got back involved it was truly about trying to make it better."

» Seoul’s 1988 Games were the first where all three equestrian dressage medalists were women, and their dominance did not end there. Russia’s Natalya Lisovskaya threw the shot six times and all six would have won the gold medal. Also, Swedish fencer Kerstin Palm became the first woman to take part in seven Olympics.

Albania set an Olympic record by boycotting its fourth consecutive Games.

» For the first time in 20 years, all nations were represented in Barcelona in 1992. Derartu Tulu of Ethiopia became the first black African female gold medalist when she won the 10,000 meters. She shared a victory lap with runner-up Elana Meyer, running hand in hand with the white South African whose country was back in the Olympics for the first time in 32 years after abolishing apartheid.

» The 1996 Games in Atlanta marked the only time at the Olympics that the colonial flag of Hong Kong was raised, accompanied by "God Save the Queen," the British national anthem. It honored Lee Lai Shan’s gold medal in sailing — the only medal Hong Kong won as a British Colony. A year later, Hong Kong’s sovereignty was transferred to China.