1988 Olympics Anniversary

[SilverDoctor]

We are celebrating the anniversary of the 1988 Olympic games. The Games led to the construction of numerous sports and cultural facilities in our city, providing many athletic and recreational spaces that are still widely used today, including:

 

• The Saddledome
• Olympic Plaza
• The Olympic Oval
• Canada Olympic Park

 

lmost 10,000 volunteers played an integral role in what has been deemed one of the most successful Olympic Games in modern time. The opening ceremonies alone showcased roughly 10,000 of Calgary’s youth along with 40 social and cultural groups displaying their performances to the 60,000 thunderous spectators at McMahon. These are times we shared with the world more than two decades ago, but the memories remain fresh of Olympic pin trading, glasses at Petrocanada and those Sun/Ice jackets.

 

Anyone have other memeries?

[trailhead]

 

Drunk Russian figure skating judges looking for the Palliser Hotel in Sunnyside. Drunk German lugers bringing their own beer to COP. Drunk French hockey players demanding to be drug tested at the Saddledome. Ah yes it was a fun time, and a once in a lifetime experience.

[RedBeard]

I remember seeing the mountains for the first time when I was 4 at the '88 Olympics on our way out from Winnipeg to Nakiska.

 

I was blown away at the size and beauty of the mountains... and I still rememeber peering out our van window straight up at the snowy peaks! I now live out here and have the same love for the mountains every time I come see them. Just a cool memory from my early childhood and the '88 Olympics.

[Hawgstoppah]

Eddie the Eagle!!!

[ÜberFly]

Funny I don't remember a lot of snow back then (check that! natural snow - as a Chinook blew through and they had to scramble to find/make/have enough snow for many of the venues) !! LoL

 

 

I remember seeing the mountains for the first time when I was 4 at the '88 Olympics on our way out from Winnipeg to Nakiska.

 

I was blown away at the size and beauty of the mountains... and I still rememeber peering out our van window straight up at the snowy peaks! I now live out here and have the same love for the mountains every time I come see them. Just a cool memory from my early childhood and the '88 Olympics.

[SilverDoctor]

Funny I don't remember a lot of snow back then (check that! natural snow - as a Chinook blew through and they had to scramble to find/make/have enough snow for many of the venues) !! LoL

 

I worked for an Ad Agency in those days and I remember them trucking in thousands of tons of snow for the “photo ops” and commercials we shot on the hill. The snow was then donated to the local hills for the venues.

[Flytyer]

How about the Jamaican bobsled team.....they had to be the favourite underdogs.

[RedBeard]

Hey, I was 4.. Not guaranteeing those memories were accurate.

[DonAndersen]

Flytyer,

 

Recall trying to get tickets and were turned down for every venue. Watched the games on TV. Got to pay for them though!

Saw two competors who wil likely never be allowed into another Games. Eddie the Eagle and the Jamacian Bobsled team. A shame that folks like that are gone.

And the toughest competitor a Mexican Cross Country skier who was slower and got caught be a mountain storm. His wax selection made the skiing ugly. The front runners finished over 3 hours ahead of him but he didn't quit!

 

The memory of Vancuver are somewhat different. Several things come to mind. CDN's spontaneously singing O Canada, CDN's celebrating all over downtown after the hockey win without burning a single car (unlike several weeks later), a young man winning gold in Free Style skiing with his parents by his side.

 

 

Don

[skearns]

I ended up working as a bartender ( with no experience, beer and wine only) in the U of C dinning hall within the Olympic Village. Highlights included serving Katrina Witt and trading shirts with double gold winner Matti Nykanen ( perhaps the genus of his male stripper career). Watched Russian figure skating gold medal winners stuffing free chocolate bars in their luggage to take home. Attended events at Nakiska ( great big beer tent) and of course the crazy second last day at COP where three or four wind delayed events all happend the same day. Still have a lot of the coverage on VHS, need to get it over to DVD someday to show my kids how this city rocked for two weeks. Actually bought $3500 worth of Vancouver tix but didn't get any Canada hockey or curling so sold them all and reluctantly stayed home but that looked like a helluva a party ... now Rio, that's intriguing....sk

[fishinglibin]

And lets not forget, How Many Calgarians Does It Take To Change A Light Bulb? Wait for it, --- 10, One to change the bulb and 9 to talk about the 88 Olympics. Where is a drum and cymbal when you need one?

[aaa]

Was working at International Jet Air Avitat up on Palmer Road in 1988. We, and the other FBO's on the airport took in almost 200 corporate jets on Friday Feb 12th, '88.....

 

ABC alone brought in 3 Challengers just for their news/sports/tech people. Joan Lunden amongst them. Not a big deal, not really a Joan fan, we saw/met many celebs come through our facility in the years I worked there. But, she had her clothes packed in these two really heavy upright cardboard moving closets. They were so big they would only fit on the upper deck of the Challenger. Since ABC's people were busy unloading the high tech stuff out of the bellies, the flight crew asked us to help with Joan's closets. We did.....got the first one down halfway down the the airstair, while the other was manuevered into the doorway...

 

Disaster, the guys pushing the one out of the doorway lost control of it in the doorway and it came toppling down the stairs, hammered into ours, and both ended up going end over end down the stairs and onto the ramp.

 

Joan, who was sitting in the back of her limo talking on her cell phone (which was about the size of a WW2 walkie talkee) saw the whole thing and came storming out and boy was she pissed off. "Don't you idiots know this is a 3 week assignment and you just ruined all 21 of my outfits"

 

Well, the one she was wearing still looked pretty good I said.

[Castuserraticus]

Sitting in the ski jump bowl doing the wave and chanting on the "tastes great" side vs the "less filling" side while waiting for the wind to calm down. Some kids (probes) were sent down to check whether the winds were safe. Every one of them jumped further than Eddy the Eagle - he essentially fell off the end of the ramp.

 

Standing inside the kreisel turn during the bobsleigh - only heard the Germans and other good teams rumble by. The Mexicans and Jamaicans went around the turn sideways. Yes - there was a Mexican bobsleigh team.

 

Watched the last ever Soviet hockey team in a nothing game. Still have a USSR hockey pin.

 

I got real lucky on tickets.