Copyright (c) 1988 CTV Television Network

Taking place 12 years after the Summer Games in Montreal, the Olympic Winter Games came to Canada for the very first time with Calgary, the largest city in the province of Alberta, held the 15th Winter Olympiad from 13 to 28 February 1988. These Winter Games were also the first to be held over a whole two-week period.

Calgary was picked to host the 1988 Winter Games during the 11th Olympic Congress at Baden-Baden, West Germany on 30 September 1981, being chosen on a 48-35 vote over the Swedish bid from Falun. The other candidate city was Cortina d'Ampezzo in Italy - site of the 1956 Games, but was eliminated during the first round of balloting.

The games attracted over 1,400 athletes from 57 nations, competing in 46 events in 6 sports and 10 disciplines. These Calgary Games are notably remembered for the "heroic failure" of British ski jumper Michael Edwards - or 'Eddie the Eagle', and the Winter Olympic stint of the national bobsled team from tropical Jamaica, both of which would be subjects of major feature films about their participation in the Calgary Games.

The Soviet Union topped the medal tally with 29 medals overall - 11 were gold, and they are followed by East Germany at second with 9 golds, headlined by track cyclist and speed skater Christa Luding-Rothenburger, who became the only athlete to win Winter and Summer Olympic medals in the same year - a feat that is no longer possible due to the staggering of both Winter and Summer Olympiads. But perhaps, Calgary 1988 turned out to be the final Winter Olympics appearance for both of these nations, as the USSR dissolved in 1991, while East Germany gets reunified with its western neighbor in 1990 following the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Calgary 1988 was at the time one of the most expensive Olympics ever held as all the necessary infrastructure used had to be built from scratch, but the organizers turned record television and sponsorship revenue into a net surplus that was used to maintain the facilities built for the Olympics and develop Calgary itself into the heart of Canada's elite winter sports program. The city's Olympic legacy is still standing and in constant use as these purpose-built venues continue to be used in their original functions, being used for training and hosting various international winter sporting events every year, and these world-class facilities have helped the country develop itself into becoming one of the top nations in Winter Olympic competition.

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