Venue Canada Olympic Park Competitors 135 from 23 nations | Dates 20-28 February | |
Bobsleigh at the 1988 Winter Olympics consisted of two events, at Canada Olympic Park. The competition took place between February 20 and February 28, 1988.
The event included competitors from countries with little or no snow. These countries included Jamaica (whose involvement spurred the movie Cool Runnings), Mexico, and New Zealand. An informal "Caribbean Cup" of such countries was won by New Zealand's Alexander Peterson and Peter Henry, who finished equal twentieth. In the two-man event, the best result from a completely snow-less country was twenty-ninth by Bart Carpentier Alting and Bart Dreschsel of the Netherlands Antilles. Alting also competed in luge, finishing thirty-sixth out of thirty-eight.
Three countries won medals in Calgary, with the Soviet Union leading the medal table, winning two medals, one gold and one bronze. Germany won the most medals, with three.
Twenty-three nations participated in bobsleigh at the 1988 Games. With nine debutants, more than a third of these were competing in Olympic bobsleigh for the first time. The nations making debuts were the Netherlands Antilles, Australia, Bulgaria, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Jamaica, Mexico, Monaco, New Zealand and Portugal.