1988 Calgary

Calgary 1988

Alpine Skiing

Biathlon

Bobsleigh

Cross-Country Skiing

Figure Skating

Freestyle Skiing

Ice Hockey

Luge

Short Track Speed Skating

Ski Jumping

Snowboard

Speed Skating

Austria

Canada

Finland

France

Germany

Great Britain

India

Italy

Jamaica

Netherlands

Portugal

Sweden

Switzerland

United States

USSR

Eddie the Eagle was one of the stars of the 1988 Olympics in Calgary.
His Olympic dream captured the imagination of the globe with his quest to be the first British ski jumper since 1928 to make the Games.
He finished last in both the 70m and 90m events. His

Michael EDWARDS

Calgary 1988 | Olympic Winter games

LONDON, ENGLAND - MARCH 17:  Eddie Edwards arrives for the European premiere of 'Eddie The Eagle' at Odeon Leicester Square on March 17, 2016 in London, England.  (Photo by Jeff Spicer/Getty Images)

GettyImages-516170182

Eddie the Eagle: Everything you need to know about the iconic British ski jumper from the 1980s

The first appearance of the Jamaican bobsleigh team remains one of the most iconic moments in the history of the Olympic Games.
The true story inspired the 1993 movie ‘Cool Runnings’ starring the late actor John Candy.
Since then, Jamaica has been represented at six Olympic Games in bobsleigh.
The

The Jamaican bobsleigh team competing at Calgary 1988

Jamaican bobsleigh team 1988 and the movie Cool Runnings: All you need to know

In “The Blair Bunch”, speed skater Bonnie Blair tells how her cheering squad grew from two family members to over 60 during her career.

Bonnie BLAIR

Originals

EP_Blair_1557749717496.jpg

Why the support of family was key to Bonnie Blair’s Olympic success

Van Gennip had made her Olympic debut four years earlier in Sarajevo, when she produced a strong showing in three events without ever seriously pushing for a medal\. There was little doubt that she had improved markedly since then, but the combined obstacle of the East German challenge and her

Speed Skating - Speed skater Van Gennip defies the odds to win triple gold

Michael Edwards made history at the 1988 Olympic Winter Games in Calgary when he became the first competitor to represent Great Britain in Olympic ski jumping. He finished last in both the 70m and 80m events, but his story and remarkable persona (Edwards competed while wearing his now-iconic glasses) earned

13-28 Feb 1988:  Eddie Edwards of Great Britain gives the thumbs up before the 70 metres Ski Jump event during the 1988 Winter Olympic Games in Calgary, Canada.  \ Mandatory Credit: Gray  Mortimore/Allsport

Eddie Edwards before the 70 metres Ski Jump event during the 1988 Olympic Games

Olympic cinderellas: How a British plasterer became ski jumping legend Eddie the Eagle

Alberto Tomba is an unusual Italian skier, and one of the greatest champions in the history of his sport, very different from his mountain\-born compatriots, many of whom are from the Trentino\-Alto Adige \(South Tyrol\) region, and generally taciturn in nature\. Tomba is a true son of Bologna, from a

Alberto TOMBA

When Alberto Tomba burst onto the Olympic scene 32 years ago…

His problem was that the Swiss already had a very strong team, so he had bide his time\. Fasser’s Olympic debut didn't come until 1984, by which time he was already into his thirties\. He had recently won a world championship gold as a member of the Swiss four\-man team,

Bobsleigh - Fasser ends his long wait for Olympic gold

He faced a very strong rival in the guise of reigning world champion Maurilio De Zolt of Italy\. The early pace had been set by Switzerland's Andi Gr&uuml;nenfelder\. De Zolt and Svan were among the last competitors to race\. The Italian struggled to match the early split times, but eventually

Cross country skiing - Golden Svan song for cross country legend Gunde 

Their story was a remarkable one, which started when two local businessmen saw a so\-called &ldquo;pushcart&rdquo; race in Jamaica and decided that the skills could be successfully transferred to bobsleigh\. Adverts calling for recruits to take part in the experiment produced a healthy response, with three members of the newly

Bobsleigh - Cool runnings in Calgary

Since then, Witt had added the 1985 and 1987 world titles to establish herself as the pre\-eminent female figure skater in the world\. In fact, in the four years between the 1984 and 1988 Winter Games, she had been beaten only once, by the American Debi Thomas, who pipped her

Katarina WITT

Figure Skating - Witt and charm prevail on the ice

Blair had made her Olympic debut four years earlier in Sarajevo, taking eighth place in the 500m, but she was now faster, more experienced and more versatile\. In Calgary she was entered into the 500m, 1,000m and 1,500m and looked capable of mounting a serious medal challenge in each\.

Speed Skating - Blair switch project bears fruit

Known almost universally as Tomba the Bomba, he was a graceful and technically superb skier who had won his first World Cup races &ndash; a slalom and a giant slalom \- the season prior to Calgary 1988\.

Alpine Skiing - Tomba the Bomba explodes onto the Olympic stage

The 23\-year\-old had already won a number of World Cup races and had been crowned world champion in giant slalom the previous year\. But how would she cope under the Olympic spotlight? The initial answer to that question appeared to be: not very well\. She didn't finish her first event,

Alpine Skiing - Schneider bounces back

She had won 500m gold in Sarajevo and had subsequently picked up gold, silver and bronze medals at the world championships\. But she was also developing great prowess as a cyclist, enthusiastically adopting the sport during the off\-season\. Originally it had been a hobby and a way of keeping fit

Speed Skating - Multi-talented Rothenburger launches miracle year 

His first opportunity came in the blue riband event, the downhill\. It was a chance for Zurbriggen to confirm himself as the fastest Alpine skier in the world, a mantle that many had already awarded him\.

Alpine Skiing - Zurbriggen justifies downhill hype

First up was the 20km\. Roetsch had won three of the four World Cups in the Olympic cycle leading up to Calgary 1988\. His closest challenger was the Soviet Union’s Valery Medvedtsev, himself a former world champion\. Medvedtsev produced the stronger shooting display, with just two misses compared to Roetsch's

Biathlon - Roetsch creates Olympic biathlon history

Great Britain had absolutely no pedigree in Olympic ski jumping, having never before entered anyone into the competition\. Edwards was his country&rsquo;s best competitor&hellip; and its only one\. He had only taken up the sport a couple of years earlier, having missed out on selection for the British downhill team\.

Ski Jumping - The Eagle has landed!

Austria’s Sigrid Wolf was very much regarded as an outsider, despite the fact that she did have two major super\-G victories to her name, having won events in Sestriere and Tignes in the run\-up to the Games\.

Alpine Skiing - Wolf pins her hopes on super-G success

Switzerland’s Pirmin Zurbriggen, generally regarded as the finest all\-round skier in the world, was hotly tipped to win the inaugural Olympic super\-G gold\. He had already earned a gold medal in the downhill after producing an astonishing run to edge out his great rival and compatriot Peter Müller\. Taking the

Alpine Skiing - Piccard does it his way

The time he had to beat had been set early on by Dutch skater Leo Visser\. Several other skaters had pushed him hard before fading into the finish\. Gustafson, by contrast, had never once been ahead of Visser's split times and with just 400m left he found himself almost a

Speed Skating - Super Swede Gustafson completes mission impossible

On one side there was Brian Orser&nbsp;of Canada\. Pitted against him was the USA&rsquo;s Brian Boitano\. They were very well used to going head to head, having met in no fewer than 10 major competitions prior to Calgary\. Orser had prevailed in seven of those contests, but Boitano's three victories

Figure Skating - The battle of the Brians

She had taken up speed skating when she was nine years old and began competing eight years later, winning three gold medals at the Canadian Winter Games\. She went on to compete at the 1980 and 1984 Olympic Winter Games, earning top\-20 finishes\. However, it was to be in the

Short Track - Daigle gives Canada cause for cheer

Her main focus was the super\-G, which she regarded as her strongest event\. But even by the time she arrived her recent patchy form meant that she wasn’t guaranteed a starting slot\. Officials from the German team set her a target: if she could finish in the top six in

Alpine Skiing - All downhill for Kiehl 

A string of World Cup victories had put US speed skater Dan Jansen among the favourites for both the 500m and 1,000m events\. Just a week before the Games, he had won the world sprint title and seemed well placed to push for gold in Calgary\.

Speed Skating - Jansen preseveres in face of tragedy

So it was with Sergei Grinkov and Katya Gordeyeva\. They were considered one of the best partnerships in the world, having been skating together for five years, but they were constantly attempting to improve and perfect their routines\.

Figure Skating - Grinkov and Gordeyeva prove a match made in heaven

Neither started as favourite\. That mantle belonged to Austria's Markus Prock and Soviet slider Yury Kharchenko\. However, the first run gave a very strong indication of what was to come\. Müller went fastest, with Hackl just 0\.054 seconds behind him\. Kharchenko was very nearly as quick in third place, but

Luge - Müller makes his mark in the luge

Calgary 1988 - Stories Mosaic

Watch Shailaja Kumar, the first Indian woman to compete at the Winter Olympic Games, in action at Calgary 1988.

Shailaja KUMAR

2762202040089378807.png

Shailaja Kumar: The first Indian woman to compete at the Winter Olympic Games

The team, consisting of Devon Harris, Dudley Stokes, Michael White, and last-minute replacement Chris Stokes, debuted at the 1988 Winter Games in Calgary. They started their training in a tropical environment only five months before the Winter Games. Their first appearance in Canada remains one of the most iconic moments

CALGARY - FEBRUARY 25:  The Jamaican four man bobsleigh team in action at the 1988 Calgary Winter Olympic Games held on February 25, 1988 in Calgary, Canada. (Photo by David Yarrow/Getty Images)

Jamaica bobsleigh Calgary 1988

Olympic Cinderellas: Devon Harris and Chris Stokes of the famous Jamaica bobsleigh team on following your dreams

When people usually think about Portugal's Olympic history, their minds turn to Rosa Mota, Nelson Evora, Fernanda Ribeiro, Telma Monteiro and Carlos Lopes or, more recently, Pedro Pichardo, Fernando Pimenta and Patrícia Mamona.
When assessing the success of Portuguese athletes at the Winter Olympics, it’s necessary to remember that the

Calgary 1988 Winter Olympic Games: Portuguese bobsleigh team. Photo: Personal archive

Olympic Cinderellas: The bobsleigh team that brought Portugal back to the Olympic Winter Games 

The all-consuming rivalry between Marc Girardelli and Pirmin Zurbriggen altered the course of alpine skiing and saw the pair dominate the FIS Ski World Cup tour in the 1980s. The so-called White Circus – as the competition is informally known – was never the same again…
Epic rivalry without precedent

Girardelli and Zurbriggen in Madonna di Campiglio's podium (1984)

Great rivalries: Girardelli and Zurbriggen's epic 80s battle ignites Alpine White Circus 

Two years ago, when Nelson Christian Stokes was honoured by the Jamaican government for his contribution to the development of sport in the country, his wife organised an event to celebrate the achievement. On the invitation, in Latin, she’d had inscribed, ‘Non nobis nati sumus’.
“My wife recognised something in

Olympic Winter Games Calgary 1988

Calgary 1988Stories

All Stories

Shailaja Kumar: The first Indian woman to compete at the Winter Olympic Games

Olympic Cinderellas: Devon Harris and Chris Stokes of the famous Jamaica bobsleigh team on following your dreams

Olympic Cinderellas: The bobsleigh team that brought Portugal back to the Olympic Winter Games

Great rivalries: Girardelli and Zurbriggen's epic 80s battle ignites Alpine White Circus

Beyond Cool Runnings: Iconic Jamaican bobsledder launches NFT collection