Canada's Olympic Skiing/Snowboarding Memories
1988 Calgary, Alberta (Canada)
Calgary, Alberta, was the first Canadian city to host the Olympic Winter Games. With sixteen days of competition, it was also the longest running, welcoming record numbers of participants with the introduction of Freestyle skiing demonstration sports, and Paralympic skiing exhibition events. Weather was always a concern especially the potential for an appearance of the "Chinook", an unwelcome phenomenon accompanied by very high winds and soaring, snow-melting temperatures. While fluctuating temperatures and high winds caused postponements, the Chinook, fortunately, never materialized.
In cross country skiing, Canada's most noteworthy result was an exceptional 14th place by Pierre Harvey in the 30-km event. Jon Servold, the first Canadian to appear in the gruelling nordic combined event since the 1976 Games, showed exceptional courage and determination by competing in the two events (15 km and ski jumping) which were held just hours apart. In ski jumping, Steve Collins' 13th place in the 70-metre event, and Horst Bulau's unexpected 7th place in the 90-metre, were Canada's best finishes in nordic skiing.
The mens' alpine team results were encouraging in the downhill event with Mike Carney (14th) and Rob Boyd (16th), Jim Read's 13th place in super G, and Alain Villiard's 14th in slalom. Unfortunately, the giant slalom squad was disqualified before their second run for wearing ski suits not certified to Olympic air permeability standards.
On home soil, Canada's champion Karen Percy captured two medals with a bronze in downhill and another in super G. Other exceptional performances came from Laurie Graham, 5th in downhill, Josée Lacasse, 11th in giant slalom, and several top-15 finishes in the alpine combined event; Karen Percy (4th), Michelle McKendry (7th), Kerrin Lee-Gartner (8th) and Nancy Gee (13th).
Opening date: February 13, 1988
Closing date: February 28, 1988
Candidate cities: Falun (SWE), Cortina d'Ampezzo (ITA)
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For a brief history of the Olympic Games, please click here.
To learn more about the skiing disciplines at the Olympic Winter Games, please click here.