Cross Country Skiing at the 1988 Winter Olympics

Dates 14 – 27 February 1988
Medal Events 8
Non-medal Events 2

The 1988 cross-country events were held at Canmore Nordic Centre, a specially constructed venue for the 1988 Calgary Olympics. The centre is located 105 km (65 miles) west of Calgary, and was later declared an Alberta Provincial Park. The centre has areas for cross-country skiing, mountain biking, and hiking.

The basic Olympic program was unchanged in 1988 with four events for men, as had been the case since 1956, and four events for women, as in 1984, when a third individual race was added. But there was a slight change. In the late 1970s, American Bill Koch had pioneered the skating technique of cross-country. There had been an outcry from the traditionalists in the sport, but eventually the technique became very popular and was found to be faster than the classical in-line style. However, the governing body of the sport wished to maintain races in the classical style so beginning in 1988 at the Winter Olympics, the races have been designated as either freestyle (allowing skating technique), or classical. In 1988 the two shorter races (15 and 30 km for men, 5 and 10 km for women) were designated as classical races, while the longest race (20 km for women and 50 km for men) was a freestyle race. This would continue to be true in 1992 but in 1994, the FIS began the practice of keeping the shortest distance classical, while alternating the longer non-pursuit distances between classical and freestyle from one Olympics to the next. Relay skiers were required to start in the classical style, for the first 500 metres, to avoid ski congestion at the start, but could later switch to the skating technique.

No skier dominated the cross-country events at Canmore, but three skiers won three medals – Marjo Matikainen, Vladimir Smirnov, and Tamara Tikhonova, with only Tikhonova winning two gold medals – in the 20 km and relay.

In addition to the regular events, two events for disabled skiers were held as an exhibition.

Events

Event Status Date Participants NOCs
15 kilometres (Classical), Men Olympic 19 February 1988 90 32
30 kilometres (Classical), Men Olympic 15 February 1988 90 32
50 kilometres (Freestyle), Men Olympic 27 February 1988 70 23
4 × 10 kilometres Relay, Men Olympic 22 February 1988 64 16
5 kilometres (Classical), Women Olympic 17 February 1988 55 17
10 kilometres (Classical), Women Olympic 14 February 1988 52 17
20 kilometres (Freestyle), Women Olympic 25 February 1988 55 18
4 × 5 kilometres Relay, Women Olympic 21 February 1988 48 12
197 (120/77) 35 (33/18)

Non-medal events

Event Status Date Participants NOCs
5 kilometres, B1, Men Olympic (non-medal) 17 February 1988 20 8
5 kilometres, B1, Women Olympic (non-medal) 17 February 1988 10 3
30 (25/5) 9 (9/3)

Medals

Event Gold Silver Bronze
15 kilometres, Men Mikhail DevyatyarovURS Pål Gunnar MikkelsplassNOR Vladimir SmirnovURS
30 kilometres, Men Aleksey ProkurorovURS Vladimir SmirnovURS Vegard UlvangNOR
50 kilometres, Men Gunde SvanSWE Maurilio De ZoltITA Andi GrünenfelderSUI
4 × 10 kilometres Relay, Men SwedenSWE Soviet UnionURS CzechoslovakiaTCH
5 kilometres, Women Marjo MatikainenFIN Tamara TikhonovaURS Vida VencienėURS
10 kilometres, Women Vida VencienėURS Raisa SmetaninaURS Marjo MatikainenFIN
20 kilometres, Women Tamara TikhonovaURS Anfisa ReztsovaURS Raisa SmetaninaURS
4 × 5 kilometres Relay, Women Soviet UnionURS NorwayNOR FinlandFIN

Medal table

NOC Gold Silver Bronze Total
Soviet Union URS 5 5 3 13
Sweden SWE 2 0 0 2
Finland FIN 1 0 2 3
Norway NOR 0 2 1 3
Italy ITA 0 1 0 1
Czechoslovakia TCH 0 0 1 1
Switzerland SUI 0 0 1 1