| 1988 Winter Olympics medals | |
|---|---|
| Location | Calgary, Canada |
| Highlights | |
| Most gold medals |  Soviet Union (11) |
| Most total medals | Soviet Union (29) |
| Medalling NOCs | 17 |
The1988 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XV Olympic Winter Games, was a wintermulti-sport event held inCalgary,Canada, from 13 to 28 February 1988. A total of 1,423 athletes representing 57National Olympic Committees (NOCs) (+8 from1984 Olympics) participated in 46 events (+7 from 1984) from 10 differentsports and disciplines (unchanged from 1984).[1] Five new events were contested at these Games—men's and women'sSuper G inalpine skiing, team events inNordic combined andski jumping, and women's 5000 metres inspeed skating[1]—and two events returned to the program—men's and women'scombined in alpine skiing.[2]
As in the1984 Winter Olympics, 17 NOCs won at least one medal and 11 of them secured at least one gold medal. TheSoviet Union returned to the top of the gold medal count with 11, relegatingEast Germany—which took first place four years earlier—to second place with nine. The Soviet Union also collected the most overall medals (29), including the most bronzes (9). In a repeat of the1976 Summer Olympics inMontreal and mimickingYugoslavia at the 1984 Winter Games,Canada, as host nation, did not win any gold medal, totalling two silver and three bronze medals. Canadian hopes for a gold rested on the shoulders offigure skaterBrian Orser, the reigning World champion and silver medalist at the Sarajevo Games.[3] A tight contest withBrian Boitano of theUnited States ended with the American taking the Olympic title.[4] Athletes fromNorway failed to win any event in Calgary, making this the first and so far only time that the country ended the Winter Olympics without a single gold medal.[5]Italy's two gold medals were won by the same athlete:Alberto Tomba, a first-time Olympian who was crowned Olympic champion in thealpine skiing's slalom and giant slalom events.[6] Ski jumperMatti Nykänen ofFinland contributed to three of his nation's four gold medals by winning both individual events (first time by an Olympic ski jumper) and helping his team to win the collective title.[7] The performance of theSwiss athletes ensured their nation's best result at the Winter Games, securing a record number of 15 medals, including a then-record of five gold medals that took 18 years to be improved.[8]
Five NOCs participated for the first time in the Winter Olympics—Fiji,Guam,Guatemala,Jamaica, andNetherlands Antilles[9]—but none of them won a medal. Jamaica's lone entry, theJamaican bobsled team, inspired the making of the 1993 movieCool Runnings.[10]
The medal table is based on information provided by theInternational Olympic Committee (IOC) and is consistent with IOC convention in its published medal tables. The table uses theOlympic medal table sorting method. By default, the table is ordered by the number of gold medals the athletes from a nation have won, where a nation is an entity represented by aNational Olympic Committee (NOC). The number of silver medals is taken into consideration next, and then the number of bronze medals.[11][12] If teams are still tied, equal ranking is given and they are listed alphabetically by theirIOC country code.[13]
* Host nation (Host nation (Canada))
| Rank | Nation | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Soviet Union | 11 | 9 | 9 | 29 |
| 2 |  East Germany | 9 | 10 | 6 | 25 |
| 3 |  Switzerland | 5 | 5 | 5 | 15 |
| 4 |  Finland | 4 | 1 | 2 | 7 |
| 5 |  Sweden | 4 | 0 | 2 | 6 |
| 6 |  Austria | 3 | 5 | 2 | 10 |
| 7 |  Netherlands | 3 | 2 | 2 | 7 |
| 8 |  West Germany | 2 | 4 | 2 | 8 |
| 9 |  United States | 2 | 1 | 3 | 6 |
| 10 |  Italy | 2 | 1 | 2 | 5 |
| 11 |  France | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| 12 |  Norway | 0 | 3 | 2 | 5 |
| 13 | Canada* | 0 | 2 | 3 | 5 |
| 14 |  Yugoslavia | 0 | 2 | 1 | 3 |
| 15 |  Czechoslovakia | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| 16 |  Japan | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
 Liechtenstein | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | |
| Totals (17 entries) | 46 | 46 | 46 | 138 | |
