Brian Boitano of the United States celebrates a flawless performance in figure skating.

Olympic Alpine skiing added a men's and women's super-giant slalom, and re-introduced a men's and women's Alpine combined, after a 36-year hiatus. In Nordic skiing events, team competitions were added to ski jumping and the Nordic combined. Jamaica made its Winter Olympic debut with a four-man bobsled team and, although it was not foreseen, Soviet athletes would be competing under the hammer and sickle for the last time.

Highlights

Billed by the media as the "Battle of the Brians," the competition between figure skaters Brian Boitano (United States) and Brian Orser (Canada) provided for high drama at the Calgary Games. Entering the competitions final program, the two were virtually in a dead head score wise. In the end, Boitano's flawless performance in the long program earned him the gold medal. Orser took the silver, while the bronze went to a future gold medalist, Viktor Petrenko of the Soviet Union.

Italian Alpine skier Alberto Tomba burst onto the scene in 1988, winning a pair of gold medals in the slalom and giant slalom events.

Matti Nykanen (Finland) emerged as a new king of the ski jumping at Calgary. Following up on his gold medal performance in the 90m hill at Sarajevo in 1984, Nykanen took home three golds in the 90m hill, 70m hill and team ski jumping events.

Attendance	Male Athletes	Female Athletes	Most-Medaled	U.S. Rank
49 nations	1,270	364	USSR (29)	Eighth (tied)

Source: Knight-Ridder/Tribune