30 September 1981 - 84th IOC Session in Baden, West Germany - Calgary was elected to be the host of the XVth Olympic Winter Games in 1988.

Olympic Alpine skiing added a men's and women's super-giant slalom, and re-introduced a men's and women's Alpine combined, after a 36-year hiatus. In Nordic skiing events, team competitions were added to ski jumping and the Nordic combined. Jamaica made its Winter Olympic debut with a four-man bobsled team and, although it was not foreseen, Soviet athletes would be competing under the hammer and sickle for the last time.

After six unsuccessful attempts by Canada to host the Olympic Winter Games, including three bids by Calgary, the Games came to Canada. The Calgary Games were the biggest and longest ever. Calgary officials convinced the IOC to extend the Games to 16 days, including three weekends.

At the Games, there were stories of both painful tragedy and heart-warming joy. On the first day of competition, American speed skater Dan Jansen learned that his older sister had died. Skating in her memory, Jansen fell in both of his events -- the 500m and the 1,000m. It was left to Bonnie Blair to raise the spirit of not only the U.S. speed skating team, but Americans in general. Skating before her in the 500m was Christa Rothenburger of the usually unbeatable East German team. Rothenburger set a world record, but Blair came out and topped it with a world record of her own.

Yvonne van Gennip of Holland, inspired by Blair's defeat of the East German, won all three distance events. Van Gennip's exploits on ice were matched in the air by the "Flying Finn," Matti Nykanen, who blew away all ski jumping competitors in the individual events and helped carry Finland to the team gold.

Nykanen was not the only story in ski jumping. The event's real star was British ski jumper Eddie "The Eagle" Edwards. He finished last in both individual events, but his appearance and style were the talk of the Games.

In the bobsled, the stories were not those of the eventual winners, the Soviets in the two-man and the Swiss in the four-man, but rather of the Jamaicans having a bobsled team at all and of Prince Albert of Monaco competing.

The story in the rink was a familiar one in both hockey and ladies' figure skating. The Soviet Union won gold again in hockey, and Katarina Witt repeated her Sarajevo performance, winning the gold. The men's figure skating competition came down to a duel between Brian Orser of Canada and Brian Boitano of the United States. Boitano won, giving the Americans just their second gold and sixth overall medal of the Games.

On the slopes the story was of a young brash Italian by the name of Alberto Tomba. He had won seven of nine giant slalom and slalom races going into the Olympics and practically guaranteed a victory. He came through on his promise.

The Soviet Union continued its dominance by taking 29 medals.

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1980 
1984 
1988 
1992 
1994 
1998 
2002 
2006 
2010 

COUNTRY

G

S

B

TTL

Soviet Union

11

9

9

29

East Germany

9

10

6

25

Switzerland

5

5

5

15

Austria

3

5

2

10

West Germany

2

4

2

8

Finland

4

1

2

7

Netherlands

3

2

2

7

Sweden

4

0

2

6

United States

2

1

3

6

Italy

2

1

2

5

Norway

0

3

2

5

Canada

0

2

3

5

Czechoslovakia

0

1

2

3

Yugoslavia

0

2

1

3

France

1

0

1

2

Japan

0

0

1

1

Liechtenstein

0

0

1

1

TOTAL

46

46

46

138