1988 Winter Olympics
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The 1988 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XV Olympic Winter Games, were held in Calgary, Alberta, Canada and opened by Governor General Jeanne Sauvé. The Olympics were highly successful financially as they brought in million-dollar profits. The games left a lasting impression on the host city and gave it a new identity from a cowtown to a large commercial sector of the country.
1988 was also the last year that the Paralympics and the Winter Olympics were held in separate cities; all subsequent games have been hosted by the same city or a city nearby.
Highlights
- The Games were opened by Her Excellency the Right Honourable Jeanne Sauvé, Governor General of Canada, on behalf of the Queen of Canada, Elizabeth II.
- Two competitors, Eddie 'the Eagle' Edwards in ski jumping and the Jamaican Bobsled Team, entered their respective competitions with little experience and less chance of winning any medals. However, the determination of these novices to compete in spite of being outmatched by their competitors won the affection of the spectators which overshadowed the actual winners. They were hailed as demonstrating the true Olympic spirit as playing for the simple thrill of competition. The story of the bobsledding team was made into a film called Cool Runnings.
- Curling, Freestyle skiing, short track speed skating and paralympic skiing were demonstration events.
- For the first time the Winter Olympics were extended to 16 days, the speed skating events were held indoors on a covered rink, the alpine events took place on artificial snow, and warm Chinook winds not only threatened to cancel events, but sent a ski jumper flying into a camera tower.
- For the first time the Closing Ceremony is held in the same main Olympic stadium as the Opening Ceremony.
Medals awarded
See the medal winners, ordered by sport:
- Alpine skiing
- Biathlon
- Bobsleigh
- Figure skating
- Ice hockey
- Luge
- Nordic skiing
- *Nordic combined
- *Cross-country skiing
- *Ski jumping
- Speed skating
Venues
- Canada Olympic Park - Ski jumping, bobsleigh, luge, nordic combined, freestyle skiing (aerials and ballet), disabled alpine skiing
- Canmore Nordic Centre - Cross-country skiing, biathlon, nordic combined, blind cross-country skiing
- Max Bell Centre - Curling and short-track speed skating
- McMahon Stadium - opening and closing ceremonies
- Nakiska - Alpine skiing, freestyle moguls skiing
- Olympic Oval - Speed skating
- Olympic Saddledome - ice hockey, figure skating (primary venue)
- Stampede Corral - Figure skating and ice hockey (secondary venue)
Medal count
| 1988 Winter Olympics medal count |
| ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pos. | Country | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
| 1 |
USSR | 11 | 9 | 9 | 29 |
| 2 | 9 | 10 | 6 | 25 | |
| 3 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 15 | |
| 4 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 7 | |
| 5 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 6 | |
| 6 | 3 | 5 | 2 | 10 | |
| 7 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 7 | |
| 8 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 8 | |
| 9 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 6 | |
| 10 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 5 | |
The Olympics in Canada and Calgary
1988 was the second time Canada had hosted the Olympics, after the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal. Subsequently, Canada won the bid to host the 2010 Winter Olympics for Vancouver.
Unfortunately, like in Montreal, the host Canadian team again failed to obtain a gold medal. The Canadian Olympic Committee has pledged to change this at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver with a program called Own the Podium - 2010, and the Olympic team's success in Turin 2006 made that seem like a distinct possibility.
Calgary gained international stature from the Olympics, and ended the events with world class facilities to host international meets and serve as a training facility. Ever mindful of the financial disaster of the 1976 Summer Olympics, Calgary was financially successful, erasing the spectre of a second Canadian games at a loss. Its use of the profits for the future Canada Olympic Park and the funding of Canadian athletes through the Calgary Olympic Development Association (CODA) gave Calgary a lasting legacy and impact on the Canadian sports scene. It also provided funds for the maintenance and upgrading of athletic facilities in Calgary, Banff, and Lake Louise. Well after the Olympics ended, CODA has continued to use its resources to develop resources for Olympic athletes in the city, which includes supporting Canada's first high school designed for Olympic calibre athletes, in a partnership with the Calgary Board of Education.
Not only was there a profound economic impact, there was a substantial social one as well. From the unprecedented volunteer involvement in staging the games, to a program where ordinary Calgarians could purchase, for $19.88, a brick at the medal presentation plaza with their name laser-engraved on it, the involvement of ordinary Calgarians was evident. This was of paramount importance to the organizing committee, OCO'88, as it kept the games from appearing distant and "out of reach".
However, in many ways, some citizens from various backgrounds saw the Calgary 1988 Winter Olympics as a warning to other cities about the "dangers" of hosting mega-sized events. Even today, there are pros and cons of what these Games did for Calgary and Canada.
Some have said that, without the legacy of the venues from the 1988 Winter Olympics, Canadian winter athletes would not have performed well from the 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville, France, to the 2006 Winter Olympics in Torino, Italy. Therefore, it is prudent for all entities involved to support these athletes and upgrade the venues to new world-class standards in any way possible, if the positive results are to continue in future Winter Olympics and other major world winter sports events. Also, these facilities can give the average Canadian a chance to see how they function and may give some of them to become future winter athletes. For example, the Canmore Nordic Centre had a major makeover, in order to host its first major World Cup event in 2005 in about 15 years. Before that happened, it was being one of the less-known 1988 Winter Olympics venues and getting neglected in the process. The University of Calgary's Olympic Oval had some renovations to its existent structure so that the venue can continue its world standards of being a training and major international competition site. Now that Canada is going to host the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, there are on-going negotiations about whether Canada Olympic Park will have the necessary funding to re-make its overall look of the whole site itself for about a 15-year time period.
For others, the Games was nothing more than a "bottomless pit" that takes money away from alleviating the social ills of society to feed the "rich athletes" and "rich entities" nationally and internationally. These viewpoints were allegedly to have been used successfully against the first Toronto bid for the 1996 Olympic Games, which was won by Atlanta, Georgia, USA, by a group called Bread Not Circuses. Also, some of have said about the Games being financially successful (mentioned above here) as nothing but a big sham and an insult to the average Canadian taxpayer. They claim that the Calgary 1988 Winter Olympics lost approximately as much C$550 million. Whether it is true or not, it is still being debated. From kicking out the homeless to skyrocketing prices for various basic needs in and around Calgary, these people had quite a lot to say in going against the city's "16-day 'circus'." There is even a university paper from Singapore claiming about how such events, as the Olympic Games, could lead to these outrages.
All in all, the Calgary 1988 Winter Olympics did give the world the kind of Winter Olympics image we see today. From the marketing by the IOC to the people who contributed their 1988 Winter Olympics experiences to future Olympic host cities since then, it could be said that the Olympic Games changed the city's image and the perception of Olympic Winter Games for the better overall for all to see.
Trivia
The instrumental theme song ("Winter Games") was composed and performed by Canadian musician David Foster.Participants
A record of 57 National Olympic Committees (NOCs) entered athletes at the 1988 Winter Olympic Games.| Olympic Games | Summer Olympic Games>Summer Games 1896, 1900, 1904, 1906, 1908, 1912, (1916), 1920, 1924, 1928, 1932, 1936, (1940), (1944), 1948, 1952, 1956, 1960, 1964, 1968, 1972, 1976, 1980, 1984, 1988, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2008, 2012, 2016, 2020, 2024 | |
| Winter Olympic Games>Winter Games 1924, 1928, 1932, 1936, (1940), (1944), 1948, 1952, 1956, 1960, 1964, 1968, 1972, 1976, 1980, 1984, 1988, 1992, 1994, 1998, 2002, 2006, 2010, 2014, 2018, 2022 | ||
| Athens 2004 — Torino 2006 — Beijing 2008 — Vancouver 2010 — London 2012 |
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