1988 Calgary Winter Olympic Games Quiz

Answer: Governor General of Canada

Jeanne Sauve was the 23rd Governor General of Canada, and the first woman to hold the position, from 1984 to 1990. As the British monarch is still officially the head of state of Canada, the Governor General is the monarch's representative in Canada. The Governor General performs duties such as signing off on bills that have been approved by the House of Commons and the Senate, reading the Speech from the Throne, and appointing members of the Queen's Privy Council.

The 1988 Winter Olympics were officially opened by Suave during the Opening Ceremony on February 13, 1988.

Answer: False

The 1988 Winter Olympic Torch Relay was actually one of the longest in Olympic history. The torch went from coast to coast, through all ten provinces and two territories (Nunavut was not yet a territory in 1988). Another Canadian Torch Relay, for the 1976 Summer Games, was one of the shortest in Olympic history. That year, the Torch simply went from the capital city of Ottawa to the host city of Montreal - just a couple hours East of Ottawa.

Answer: Soviet Union

1988 would be the last time that the Soviet Union participated in the Olympics, both Winter and Summer (later that year), because the Soviet Union ceased to exist in 1991, before the next Olympic year. Since the first year they'd participated, in 1952, the Soviet Union usually performed very well in the Olympic games, especially in the winter sports. Ice hockey was one of their best sports, dominating the sport for several decades along with Canada, in other international tournaments as well as the Olympics.

1984 was the year that the Soviet Union boycotted the Summer Olympics because they were hosted in Los Angeles, California. Several Western countries, led by the USA had previously boycotted the 1980 Moscow Games.

Answer: Polar bears

The official mascots were two polar bears called Hidy and Howdy. The bears were dressed in Western/cowboy attire, as an homage to Calgary's Western heritage and famous Calgary Stampede. The names for the mascot were chosen out of 7000 entries in a contest sponsored by the Calgary Zoo.

Answer: Sergei Grinkov

Ekaterina Gordeeva and Sergei Grinkov were famous pairs' figure skating competitors from the Soviet Union. They also got married, in 1991. They competed in the Olympics for the first time in Calgary in 1988, and won the gold medal. They missed the 1992 Olympics, due both to Ekaterina's pregnancy and the birth of their daughter in the fall of 1992, and also because they'd chosen to give up their amateur status and skate professionally.

When the Olympic rule changed to allow professionals to compete, Gordeeva and Grinkov returned to the Olympics and won gold again in 1994 in Lillehammer.

They continued to skate together, often with the "Stars on Ice" team, until Grinkov suffered a major heart attack on the ice and died, in 1995. Gordeeva wrote a book about their career and relationship, "My Sergei: A Love Story"(1996).

Answer: Brian Boitano

At the previous Winter Olympics in 1984, Brian Orser had won a silver medal while Brian Boitano had finished in fifth place. Orser won the 1985 World Figure Skating Championship, and Boitano won the same competition in 1986. Orser won again in 1987. Going into the '88 Olympics, they were both the stars of their respective countries' skating teams, and it seemed a toss-up as to who would win gold.

In the end, Boitano's Olympic routine was technically perfect, and while Orser skated well too, the judges voted 5-4 for Boitano, giving him the gold, and Orser the silver.

Answer: Chinook winds

The Chinook winds, similar to Foehn winds (as they're called in Europe), are a common occurrence in Western Canada, especially in the Southern areas of the Western provinces. For example, Calgary gets snow for Christmas only 59% of the time, compared to 88% of the time a bit further North, in Edmonton. In 1992, a southern Alberta town hit a record 24 degrees Celsius in February.

Calgary had previously bid on the Olympics in 1964 and 1968, and finally won, in 1981, the hosting duties for the 1988 Games. Many people were immediately concerned about Calgary's unpredictable February weather. In 1987, a good chunk of the winter was unseasonably warm, and many thought this would cause havoc with the outdoor events in 1988. There were some small problems, such as sandy bobsleigh tracks, and the inconsistency of the snow caused some problems with skiers overshooting jumps and falling more. Artificial snow was used for many events.

Answer: Saddledome

The Saddledome was built in the early '80s in anticipation of the Olympic Games, and the Calgary Flames, of the National Hockey League, moved in in 1983. Now called the Pengrowth Saddledome, it is also home to the Calgary Hitmen, of the Western Hockey League, and the Calgary Roughnecks, of the National Lacrosse League.

The Saddledome also serves as Calgary's major venue for concerts, rodeos, and other events.

Answer: Jamaica

The Jamaican bobsled team had pretty much no chance of winning any medals (which they didn't), but their heart and determination made them lovable underdogs that stole the show away from the actual winners. All of the bobsled medals in 1988 went to Switzerland, the USSR, and East Germany.

There were other unlikely countries entered in the bobsled competition that year as well, such as Mexico, New Zealand and the Netherlands Antilles. Of these countries who stood no chance at winning, New Zealand had the best performance; they finished 20th overall. In the two-man bobsled event, the Netherlands Antilles did the best, finished in 29th place. The story of the Jamaican bobsled team, however, is probably the best known, thanks to the 1993 Disney live action movie "Cool Runnings".

Answer: True

Canada won no gold medals at the 1988 Winter Olympics. They also won no gold medals at their previously hosted Games, the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal. Canada did win five medals at the Calgary Olympics, two silver (Brian Orser and Elizabeth Manley, both in figure skating), and three bronze (two to Karen Percy in alpine events, and one for Tracy Wilson and Robert McCall in ice dancing).