Olympic Games of 1988

The Event The 1988 staging of winter and summer international athletic competitions, held every four years

Date Winter Games, February 13-28, 1988; Summer Games, September 17-October 2, 1988

Place Winter Games, Calgary, Alberta, Canada; Summer Games, Seoul, South Korea

The 1988 Calgary Games witnessed dominating performances by the Soviet Union and East Germany but disappointing results for the United States. The truly competitive Seoul Games were noted for impressive athleticism in multiple events as well as controversies over steroid use.

Unlike the 1980 and 1984 Summer Olympics, there was no widespread boycott in 1988. Athletes from both sides of the Cold War competed at both Calgary (Winter Games) and Seoul (Summer Games). Scandal following the prestigious men’s 100-meter sprint in track and field brought front and center the rampant rumors of the illegal use of performance-enhancing drugs.

Winter Games

The Calgary Games were the first to be scheduled over sixteen days, ensuring that viewers worldwide would receive three weekends of Olympic activities. Those watching at home saw 1,423 athletes from fifty-seven nations compete. Demonstrating once again (though for the last time) that it was the most dominant nation in the Olympics, the Soviet Union won eleven gold and twenty-nine total medals. Its political ally East Germany came in second in both categories (nine and twenty-five, respectively). The Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, and athletes from the former socialist state competed either for new nations or for the Commonwealth of Independent States in 1992.

Calgary will also be remembered as the Games in which freestyle skiing, curling, and short-track speed skating made their Olympic debuts. It was the city where the charismatic Italian skier Alberto Tomba won the gold medal in both slalom and giant slalom and then announced that he wished to date East German figure skater Katarina Witt. He even offered to give her one of his medals if she did not win her own gold. Finland’s Matti Nykänen won three gold medals in ski jumping, and Dutch speed skater Yvonne van Gennip also took home three gold medals.

The host country did not win any gold medals, but perhaps the biggest winners were future Canadian Olympic hopefuls. The Calgary Games turned a profit estimated between $90 and $150 million, and these funds were used to ensure that the Olympic facilities in the city remained at their best when the Olympic athletes went home.

U.S. Shortfalls

Far down the medal table was the United States. Indeed, Calgary was not kind to American athletes, who took home fewer medals (two gold, six total) than had been forecast. Speed skater Bonnie Blair won one of those gold medals, in the 500 meter, and she also took home a bronze medal in the 1,000 meter. Figure skater Brian Boitano earned the other gold medal, narrowly defeating Canadian Brian Orser, the silver medalist. The so-called Battle of the Brians made for great television viewing, with the home crowd booing lustily when the final results were announced. Orser led after the short program, but Boitano delivered a stunning, technically perfect long program that forced Orser to be perfect to have a chance to win. He almost delivered, but a slight error during one of his jumps was critical. Boitano won gold, and Orser, who also won the silver medal in 1984, was left wondering what might have been.

Perfection also eluded an American female figure skater, Debi Thomas, who finished without a gold medal. As did her principal competitor, East Germany’s Witt, Thomas delivered her long performance to the music Georges Bizet’s “Carmen.” However, a lackluster effort, which included an inability to complete three triple jumps, left her with the bronze medal. Witt did not dazzle either during her long program, but she still won the gold medal, defending the title that she had won during the 1984 Winter Games. Witt was a fourth-time world champion in her sport in 1988.

Perhaps the most tragic figure of the Games was American speed skater Dan Jansen. He was one of the favorites in the 500 meter, and he also stood a realistic chance of earning a medal in the 1,000 meter. However, on the morning of the first event, he learned that his sister had died of leukemia. He chose to skate but fell on the first turn. A few days later, he was leading the 1,000 meter when he fell again. However, Jansen never publicly complained about what had happened to him, nor did he seek any special treatment.

Summer Games

The 1988 Summer Games in Seoul, South Korea, marked the first time in twelve years in which no organized, widely supported boycott took place. One hundred fifty-nine nations and 8,391 athletes competed in the Games.

The Soviet Union once again dominated the competition, winning 55 gold and 132 total medals. The United States finished third, taking home 36 gold and 94 total medals. Those results were considered unacceptable by the American public, which was still fondly remembering the great performances by U.S. athletes four years earlier in Los Angeles. Forgotten by many was the absence from those Games of Soviet and Eastern European athletes.

Performances and Controversies

The men’s 100-meter sprint in track and field is probably the most anticipated event of any Summer Games. Sprinters race to determine who is the world’s (unofficial) fastest human being. That title appeared to belong to Canadian Ben Johnson, who set a world record at Seoul when he finished in 9.79 seconds. However, Johnson was later disqualified, stripped of his medal and his record after testing positive for stanozolol, an anabolic steroid. Not long after the Olympics, he lost whatever was left of his reputation by acknowledging that he had taken performance-enhancing drugs for several years. The Jamaican-born athlete went from hero to villain in his adopted Canada.

American Carl Lewis, who finished second to Johnson, was given the gold medal. Lewis also won the long jump, giving him six career Olympic gold medals. He won two additional events during the 1992 Summer Olympics and was considered by many to be the greatest U.S. track-and-field athlete.

Lewis was upstaged by the controversy surrounding Johnson. He also was upstaged by another American sprinter, Florence Griffith-Joyner, who won three gold medals and one silver medal at Seoul, and whose flamboyant outfits and nail polish made her a media celebrity. Later that year, she won the James E. Sullivan Award, which recognizes the top amateur athlete in the United States.

Another athlete surrounded by controversy was U.S. diver Greg Louganis. At Seoul, the returning champion competed in the springboard and platform events, securing his place among history’s best divers. However, Louganis struck his head against the springboard during one of his dives, requiring stitches. Despite the accident, he went on to win the gold in both events. Years later, it was learned that Louganis had HIV at the time of the accident. Some critics wondered whether he should have revealed his medical condition, although it should be noted that no one who entered the pool after him was put in danger of contracting the virus.

Hungarian swimmer Krisztina Egerszegi burst onto the international scene in Seoul, where she won a gold and silver medal in the two backstroke events. What made these accomplishments noteworthy was that Egerszegi was only fourteen years old. Seventeen-year-old American Janet Evans won three gold medals and cemented her reputation as one of the greatest all-time distance swimmers. Despite these impressive performances, it was East Germany’s Kristin Otto who dominated the pool, taking home six gold medals—a record for any woman in any sport.

Finally, tennis made its return to the Olympic stage in 1988 after a sixty-four-year hiatus. Germany’s Steffi Graf, the world’s best player in her sport, won the gold medal.

Media Coverage

The American television network the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) once again experienced bad luck with its broadcasting plans. (The network had lost millions of dollars because of the 1980 Olympic boycott.) NBC invested $300 million to gain the broadcast rights to the Summer Games, but a fourteen-hour time difference between Seoul and the eastern United States combined with the uneven performance by American athletes to bring the network lower-than-expected ratings.

Meanwhile, American newspapers reported that the South Korean government was angry that NBC provided substantial coverage of a boxing judge being attacked by several South Korean coaches, trainers, and others after one of their boxers lost a match but did not sufficiently discuss the questionable judging associated with the bout. Media reports also indicated that the South Koreans were disappointed at NBC’s decision to ignore almost completely the theft of an $860 mask from a Seoul hotel by three American athletes. NBC was also chastised for airing a critical story about North Korea, which was not taking part in the Games.

Impact

The 1988 Winter and Summer Olympics were the last in which athletes from the United States and the Soviet Union competed against each other, as the Soviet Union dissolved just prior to the 1992 Olympic year. At the same time, 1988 marked a pivotal turning point in the long-running but never sufficiently resolved discussion of how to classify an amateur athlete. From this point forward, the Games essentially would be open to all athletes, including openly professional ones.

Bibliography

Buchanan, Ian, and Bill Mallon. Historical Dictionary of the Olympic Movement. Lanham, Md.: Scarecrow Press, 1995. A good resource to learn about general information about the Olympic Games, but it lacks depth about any specific topic.

De Moragas Spa, Miquel, Nancy K. Rivenburgh, and James F. Larson. Television in the Olympics. London: John Libbey, 1995. Examines how television became a critical player in the development and presentation of the Olympics.

Klatell, David A., and Norman Marcus. Sports for Sale: Television, Money, and the Fans. New York: Oxford University Press, 1988. Covers a wide sweep of sports on television and focuses on the difficulty of making a profit at the Olympics and other sports events.

Larson, James F., and Heung-Soo Park. Global Television and the Politics of the Seoul Olympics. Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 1993. Excellent book that provides numerous examples and insights into how South Korea’s Olympic organizers used the media to advance their agenda for the 1988 Summer Games.

Orser, Brian, and Steve Milton. Orser: A Skater’s Life. Toronto: Key Porter Books, 1988. Aimed at a general audience, this autobiography highlights the career of Canadian figure skater Brian Orser.

Ungerleider, Steven. Faust’s Gold: Inside the East German Doping Machine. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2001. Examines the extent to which the East Germans were willing to go to become an international power at the Olympics. The consequences of these immoral practices still haunt many former East German Olympians.