Bobsleigh Bobsleigh or bobsled is a team winter sport that involves making timed runs down narrow, twisting, banked, iced tracks in a gravity-powered sleigh. International bobsleigh competitions are governed by the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Feder ...

at the

1988 Winter Olympics The 1988 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XV Olympic Winter Games (french: XVes Jeux olympiques d'hiver) and commonly known as Calgary 1988 ( bla, Mohkínsstsisi 1988; sto, Wîchîspa Oyade 1988 or ; cr, Otôskwanihk 1998/; srs, Guts� ...

consisted of two events, at

Canada Olympic Park Canada Olympic Park (COP), formerly known as Paskapoo Ski Hill, is a ski hill and multi-purpose training and competition facility located in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, owned and operated by WinSport. It is currently used both for high performance at ...

. The competition took place between February 20 and February 28, 1988. The event included competitors from countries with little history of bobsleigh participation and/or little or no snow.David Wallechinsky: "The Complete Book of the Winter Olympics" (2002 edition) These countries included

Jamaica Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ...

(whose involvement spurred the film '' Cool Runnings'' in 1993),

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

, and

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

. An informal "Caribbean Cup" of such countries was won by New Zealand's Alexander Peterson and Peter Henry, who finished equal twentieth. In the two-man event, the best result from a completely snow-less country was twenty-ninth by Bart Carpentier Alting and Bart Dreschsel of the

Netherlands Antilles nl, In vrijheid verenigd"Unified by freedom" , national_anthem = , common_languages = Dutch English Papiamento , demonym = Netherlands Antillean , capital = Willemstad , year_start = 1954 , year_end = 2010 , date_start = 15 December , ...

. Alting also competed in

luge A luge is a small one- or two-person sled on which one sleds supine (face up) and feet-first. A luger steers by using the calf muscles to flex the sled's runners or by exerting opposite shoulder pressure to the seat. Racing sleds weigh for s ...

, finishing thirty-sixth out of thirty-eight.

Medal summary

Medal table

Three countries won medals in Calgary, with the Soviet Union leading the medal table, winning two medals, one gold and one bronze. East Germany won the most medals, with three.

Events

Participating NOCs

Twenty-three nations participated in bobsleigh at the 1988 Games. With nine debutants, more than a third of these were competing in Olympic bobsleigh for the first time. The nations making debuts were Netherlands Antilles, Australia, Bulgaria, U.S. Virgin Islands, Jamaica, Mexico, Monaco, New Zealand and Portugal. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Ireland

For the first time, a team from Ireland was also entered in the competition. However, just ten days before the opening ceremony took place, its entry was cancelled by the

Olympic Council of Ireland The Olympic Federation of Ireland or OFI ( ga, Cónaidhm Oilimpeach na hÉireann) (called the Irish Olympic Council until 1952 and the Olympic Council of Ireland until 2018) is the National Olympic Committee (NOC) of the island of Ireland. At ...

, without explanation. An attempt to overturn the withdrawal in court was unsuccessful. The story is told in the 2020 documentary film ''

Breaking Ice Breaking or breakin' may refer to: Arts * Breakdancing (also breaking), an athletic style of street dance * ''Breakin, a 1984 American breakdancing-themed musical film * "Breakin, a twelfth-season episode of the American animated television se ...

''.

References

External links

*Wallechinsky, David and Jaime Loucky (2009). "Bobsleigh". In ''The Complete Book of the Winter Olympics: 2010 Edition''. London: Aurum Press Limited. {{Bobsleigh at the Winter Olympics

1988 File:1988 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The oil platform Piper Alpha explodes and collapses in the North Sea, killing 165 workers; The USS Vincennes (CG-49) mistakenly shoots down Iran Air Flight 655; Australia celebrates its Australian ...

1988 Winter Olympics events 1988 in bobsleigh