Olympic Winter Games Calgary 1988

Calgary 1988

Date13 February - 28 February

CountryCanada

Athletes1423

Teams57

Events46

Results Highlights

About the Games

Debuts and Firsts

For the first time, the Winter Games extended to 16 days, including three weekends. The Alpine events were expanded from three to five with the inclusion of the super giant slalom and the Alpine combined. Team events were added in Nordic combined and ski jumping.

Winter and Summer Champion

East Germany’s Christa Rothenburger won the 1000m speed skating title. Seven months later, she earned a silver medal in cycling to become the only athlete ever to win medals in the Winter and Summer Olympic Games in the same year.

Memorable Champions

East German figure skater Katarina Witt defended her Olympic title, while American Brian Boitano edged out Canada’s Brian Orser in an extremely close decision in the men’s competition. Charismatic Italian skier Alberto Tomba made the most of his Olympic debut, winning both the giant slalom and the slalom.

Flying Finn

Finnish ski jumper Mat Nykänen dominated both individual events, winning both by huge margins. This made him the first ski jumper to win two gold medals at the same Games. He then led the Finnish team to victory in the large hill team event and brought his career total to four gold medals and one silver medal.