Soviet Union at the 1988 Winter Olympics

The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (Soviet Union) took part in the 1988 Winter Olympics held in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. This was an important moment because it was the last time the Soviet Union competed in the Winter Olympics before the country broke apart in 1991. After that, six of the places that used to be part of the Soviet Union joined together as the Unified Team at the 1992 Winter Olympics, and later each place competed on its own.

The Soviet Union did very well in these games, winning more total medals than ever before—27 in all. This was better than their performance in 1976. They also won 13 gold medals, which was their second-best number of gold medals in Winter Olympics history.

Medalists

Medal	Name	Sport	Event	Date
Gold	Vida Vencienė	Cross-country skiing	Women's 10 kilometre classical	14 February
Gold	Aleksey Prokurorov	Cross-country skiing	Men's 30 kilometre classical	15 February
Gold	Ekaterina Gordeeva Sergei Grinkov	Figure skating	Pair skating	16 February
Gold	Nikolay Gulyayev	Speed skating	Men's 1000 metres	18 February
Gold	Mikhail Devyatyarov	Cross-country skiing	Men's 15 kilometre classical	19 February
Gold	Jānis Ķipurs Vladimir Kozlov	Bobsleigh	Two-man	21 February
Gold	Svetlana Nageykina Nina Gavrilyuk Tamara Tikhonova Anfisa Reztsova	Cross-country skiing	Women's 4 × 5 kilometre relay	21 February
Gold	Natalia Bestemianova Andrei Bukin	Figure skating	Ice dance	23 February
Gold	Tamara Tikhonova	Cross-country skiing	Women's 20 kilometre freestyle	25 February
Gold	Dmitry Vasilyev Sergei Tchepikov Aleksandr Popov Valeriy Medvedtsev	Biathlon	Relay	26 February
Gold	Soviet Union men's national ice hockey team Evgeny Belosheikin Ilya Byakin Vyacheslav Bykov Viacheslav Fetisov Alexei Gusarov Sergei Yashin Valeri Kamensky Sergei Svetlov Alexei Kasatonov Andrei Khomutov Vladimir Krutov Igor Larionov Aleksandr Kozhevnikov Igor Kravchuk Andrei Lomakin Aleksandr Chernykh Sergei Makarov Alexander Mogilny Sergei Mylnikov Vitali Samoilov Anatoly Semenov Sergei Starikov Igor Stelnov	Ice hockey	Men's competition	28 February
Silver	Raisa Smetanina	Cross-country skiing	Women's 10 kilometre classical	14 February
Silver	Vladimir Smirnov	Cross-country skiing	Men's 30 kilometre classical	15 February
Silver	Elena Valova Oleg Vassiliev	Figure skating	Pair skating	16 February
Silver	Tamara Tikhonova	Cross-country skiing	Women's 5 kilometre classical	17 February
Silver	Valeriy Medvedtsev	Biathlon	Individual	20 February
Silver	Vladimir Smirnov Vladimir Sakhnov Mikhail Devyatyarov Aleksey Prokurorov	Cross-country skiing	Men's 4 × 10 kilometre relay	22 February
Silver	Valeriy Medvedtsev	Biathlon	Sprint	23 February
Silver	Marina Klimova Sergei Ponomarenko	Figure skating	Ice dance	23 February
Silver	Anfisa Reztsova	Cross-country skiing	Women's 20 kilometre freestyle	25 February
Bronze	Yury Kharchenko	Luge	Men's singles	15 February
Bronze	Vida Vencienė	Cross-country skiing	Women's 5 kilometre classical	17 February
Bronze	Igor Zhelezovsky	Speed skating	Men's 1000 metres	18 February
Bronze	Vladimir Smirnov	Cross-country skiing	Men's 15 kilometre classical	19 February
Bronze	Viktor Petrenko	Figure skating	Men's singles	20 February
Bronze	Sergei Tchepikov	Biathlon	Sprint	23 February
Bronze	Raisa Smetanina	Cross-country skiing	Women's 20 kilometre freestyle	25 February
Bronze	Jānis Ķipurs Guntis Osis Juris Tone Vladimir Kozlov	Bobsleigh	Four-man	28 February
Bronze	Allar Levandi	Nordic combined	Individual	28 February

Competitors

The Soviet Union sent athletes to compete in the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, Canada. This was their last appearance before the country broke apart a few years later.

Sport	Men	Women	Total
Alpine skiing	2	1	3
Biathlon	5	–	5
Bobsleigh	10	–	10
Cross-country skiing	6	6	12
Figure skating	9	8	17
Ice hockey	21	–	21
Luge	7	3	10
Nordic combined	4	–	4
Ski jumping	2	–	2
Speed skating	12	5	17
Total	78	23	101

Alpine skiing

Main article: Alpine skiing at the 1988 Winter Olympics

The Soviet Union took part in alpine skiing events at the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, Canada. Competitors from the Soviet Union raced in both men's and women's categories, including combined events.

Men's combined

Women's combined

Athlete	Event	Race 1	Race 2	Total
Athlete	Event	Time	Time	Time	Rank
Sergey Petrik	Super-G			DNF	–
Konstantin Chistyakov	Super-G			DNF	–
Konstantin Chistyakov	Giant Slalom	1:10.09	1:06.58	2:16.67	35
Sergey Petrik	Giant Slalom	1:09.78	1:05.38	2:15.16	30
Konstantin Chistyakov	Slalom	DNF	–	DNF	–
Sergey Petrik	Slalom	55.39	DNF	DNF	–

Athlete	Downhill	Slalom		Total
Athlete	Time	Time 1	Time 2	Points	Rank
Konstantin Chistyakov	1:55.99	DNF	–	DNF	–
Sergey Petrik	1:55.82	DSQ	–	DSQ	–

Athlete	Event	Race 1	Race 2	Total
Athlete	Event	Time	Time	Time	Rank
Golnur Postnikova	Downhill			1:28.23	16

Athlete	Downhill	Slalom		Total
Athlete	Time	Time 1	Time 2	Points	Rank
Golnur Postnikova	DNF	–	–	DNF	–

Biathlon

Main article: Biathlon at the 1988 Winter Olympics

The Soviet Union took part in the biathlon events at the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, Canada. Biathlon combines skiing and shooting, and athletes competed in several races, including a relay race where teams worked together.

Event	Athlete	Misses ¹	Time	Rank
10 km Sprint	Juri Kashkarov	3	26:49.1	18
	Dmitry Vasilyev	1	26:09.7	9
	Sergei Tchepikov	0	25:29.4
	Valeriy Medvedtsev	0	25:23.7

Event	Athlete	Time	Misses	Adjusted time ²	Rank
20 km	Aleksandr Popov	56:24.0	3	59:24.0	12
	Juri Kashkarov	55:43.1	2	57:43.1	5
	Sergei Tchepikov	56:17.5	1	57:17.5	4
	Valeriy Medvedtsev	54:54.6	2	56:54.6

Athletes	Race
Athletes	Misses ¹	Time	Rank
Dmitry Vasilyev Sergei Tchepikov Aleksandr Popov Valeriy Medvedtsev	0	1'22:30.0

Bobsleigh

Main article: Bobsleigh at the 1988 Winter Olympics

Sled	Athletes	Event	Run 1		Run 2		Run 3		Run 4		Total
Sled	Athletes	Event	Time	Rank	Time	Rank	Time	Rank	Time	Rank	Time	Rank
URS-1	Jānis Ķipurs Vladimir Kozlov	Two-man	57.43	4	58.05	1	59.52	2	58.48	2	3:53.48
URS-2	Zintis Ekmanis Aivars Trops	Two-man	57.95	10	59.12	6	1:00.72	14	59.13	6	3:56.92	9

Sled	Athletes	Event	Run 1		Run 2		Run 3		Run 4		Total
Sled	Athletes	Event	Time	Rank	Time	Rank	Time	Rank	Time	Rank	Time	Rank
URS-1	Māris Poikāns Olafs Kļaviņš Ivars Bērzups Juris Jaudzems	Four-man	56.75	6	57.66	7	56.70	10	57.24	2	3:48.35	5
URS-2	Jānis Ķipurs Guntis Osis Juris Tone Vladimir Kozlov	Four-man	56.72	4	57.28	1	56.41	4	57.85	7	3:48.26

Cross-country skiing

Main article: Cross-country skiing at the 1988 Winter Olympics

The Soviet Union took part in cross-country skiing events at the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, Canada. Athletes competed in both men's and women's races, using either classical or freestyle styles. There were relay races for both men and women, where teams of skiers worked together to complete their distance.

C = Classical style, F = Freestyle

Men's 4 × 10 km relay

C = Classical style, F = Freestyle

Women's 4 × 5 km relay

Event	Athlete	Race
Event	Athlete	Time	Rank
15 km C	Aleksey Prokurorov	43:36.9	18
	Aleksandr Batyuk	43:08.7	15
	Vladimir Smirnov	41:48.5
	Mikhail Devyatyarov	41:18.9
30 km C	Yury Burlakov	1'28:02.4	12
	Mikhail Devyatyarov	1'25:31.3	4
	Vladimir Smirnov	1'24:35.1
	Aleksey Prokurorov	1'24:26.3
50 km F	Aleksey Prokurorov	2'14:01.0	38
	Yury Burlakov	2'12:02.2	26
	Mikhail Devyatyarov	2'12:01.7	25
	Vladimir Sakhnov	2'09:00.1	12

Athletes	Race
Athletes	Time	Rank
Vladimir Smirnov Vladimir Sakhnov Mikhail Devyatyarov Aleksey Prokurorov	1'44:11.3

Event	Athlete	Race
Event	Athlete	Time	Rank
5 km C	Raisa Smetanina	15:35.9	10
	Svetlana Nageykina	15:29.9	8
	Vida Vencienė	15:11.1
	Tamara Tikhonova	15:05.3
10 km C	Tamara Tikhonova	30:38.9	5
	Svetlana Nageykina	30:26.5	4
	Raisa Smetanina	30:17.0
	Vida Vencienė	30:08.3
20 km F	Nina Gavrilyuk	DSQ	–
	Raisa Smetanina	57:22.1
	Anfisa Reztsova	56:12.8
	Tamara Tikhonova	55:53.6

Athletes	Race
Athletes	Time	Rank
Svetlana Nageykina Nina Gavrilyuk Tamara Tikhonova Anfisa Reztsova	59:51.1

Figure skating

Main article: Figure skating at the 1988 Winter Olympics

The 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, Canada, included exciting figure skating events. Athletes from many countries, including the Soviet Union, competed in four categories: men's singles, women's singles, pairs, and ice dancing. Each category had its own set of talented skaters performing beautiful routines on the ice.

Athlete	CF	SP	FS	TFP	Rank
Vladimir Kotin	5	6	8	13.4	6
Alexander Fadeev	1	9	5	8.2	4
Viktor Petrenko	6	3	3	7.8

Athlete	CF	SP	FS	TFP	Rank
Anna Kondrashova	9	7	7	15.2	8
Kira Ivanova	1	10	9	13.6	7

Athletes	SP	FS	TFP	Rank
Larisa Selezneva Oleg Makarov	6	4	6.0	4
Elena Valova Oleg Vassiliev	2	2	3.0
Ekaterina Gordeeva Sergei Grinkov	1	1	1.5

Athletes	CD	OD	FD	TFP	Rank
Natalia Annenko Genrikh Sretenski	4	4	4	8.0	4
Marina Klimova Sergei Ponomarenko	2	2	2	4.0
Natalia Bestemianova Andrei Bukin	1	1	1	2.0

Ice hockey

Main article: Ice hockey at the 1988 Winter Olympics

The Soviet Union played in the ice hockey tournament at the 1988 Winter Olympics. In the first round, they won several games against teams like Norway, Austria, and the USA.

In the medal round, they continued to compete against other top teams, winning some matches and losing one to Finland.

	Pld	W	L	T	GF	GA	Pts
Soviet Union	5	5	0	0	32	10	10
West Germany	5	4	1	0	19	12	8
Czechoslovakia	5	3	2	0	23	14	6
United States	5	2	3	0	27	27	4
Austria	5	0	4	1	12	29	1
Norway	5	0	4	1	11	32	1

	Pld	W	L	T	GF	GA	Pts
Soviet Union	5	4	1	0	25	7	8
Finland	5	3	1	1	18	10	7
Sweden	5	2	1	2	15	16	6
Canada	5	2	2	1	17	14	5
West Germany	5	1	4	0	8	26	2
Czechoslovakia	5	1	4	0	12	22	2

Roster:

Evgeny Belosheikin
Ilya Byakin
Vyacheslav Bykov
Viacheslav Fetisov
Alexei Gusarov
Sergei Yashin
Valeri Kamensky
Alexei Kasatonov
Andrei Khomutov
Vladimir Krutov
Igor Larionov
Aleksandr Kozhevnikov
Igor Kravchuk
Andrei Lomakin
Sergei Makarov
Alexander Mogilny
Sergei Mylnikov
Vitali Samoilov
Anatoly Semenov
Sergei Starikov
Igor Stelnov
Sergei Svetlov
Aleksandr Chernykh

Luge

Main article: Luge at the 1988 Winter Olympics

The men and women from the Soviet Union took part in luge events at the 1988 Winter Olympics. There were races for individual men and men's doubles teams, as well as for women.

Men's doubles

Athlete	Run 1		Run 2		Run 3		Run 4		Total
Athlete	Time	Rank	Time	Rank	Time	Rank	Time	Rank	Time	Rank
Valery Dudin	47.812	28	46.982	13	47.061	13	47.025	9	3:08.880	17
Sergey Danilin	46.564	5	46.827	7	46.648	5	47.059	10	3:07.098	6
Yury Kharchenko	46.391	3	46.605	3	46.475	3	46.803	4	3:06.274

Athletes	Run 1		Run 2		Total
Athletes	Time	Rank	Time	Rank	Time	Rank
Vitaly Melnik Dmitry Alekseyev	46.060	6	46.399	6	1:32.459	6
Yevgeny Belousov Aleksandr Belyakov	45.973	3	46.580	8	1:32.553	7

Athlete	Run 1		Run 2		Run 3		Run 4		Total
Athlete	Time	Rank	Time	Rank	Time	Rank	Time	Rank	Time	Rank
Irina Kusakina	46.690	11	47.071	12	46.643	8	46.639	9	3:07.043	10
Nadezhda Danilina	46.597	10	46.447	6	46.613	6	46.707	11	3:06.364	8
Yuliya Antipova	46.449	7	46.425	5	46.610	5	46.303	4	3:05.787	5

Nordic combined

Main article: Nordic combined at the 1988 Winter Olympics

The Nordic combined events at the 1988 Winter Olympics featured both individual and team competitions. In the individual event, athletes competed in ski jumping and then a cross-country ski race, with the start times for the ski race depending on their ski jumping scores.

In the team event, each team had three members who all took part in ski jumping and a shorter cross-country ski race, again using start delays based on ski jumping results.

Athlete	Event	Ski jumping		Cross-country		Total
Athlete	Event	Points	Rank	Start at	Time	Points	Rank
Sergey Nikiforov	Individual	191.8	30	4:04.7	42:43.0	402.905	14
Andrey Dundukov		194.0	26	3:50.0	42:21.1	406.185	12
Vasily Savin		203.7	17	2:45.4	41:22.9	414.925	10
Allar Levandi		216.6	4	1:19.4	40:31.8	422.590

Athletes	Ski jumping		Cross-country		Total
Athletes	Points	Rank	Start at	Time	Rank
Andrey Dundukov Vasily Savin Allar Levandi	282.5	11	DNF	DNF	–

Ski jumping

Main article: Ski jumping at the 1988 Winter Olympics

Athlete	Event	Jump 1		Jump 2		Total
Athlete	Event	Distance	Points	Distance	Points	Points	Rank
Eduard Suboch	Normal hill	76.0	83.7	78.0	89.9	173.6	38
Mikhail Yesin	Normal hill	80.0	92.1	74.0	79.5	171.6	39

Speed skating

Main article: Speed skating at the 1988 Winter Olympics

The Soviet Union took part in the speed skating events at the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, Canada.

Competitors from the Soviet Union raced in events for both men and women.

Event	Athlete	Race
Event	Athlete	Time	Rank
500 m	Nikolay Gulyayev	1:02.86	36
	Vitaly Makovetsky	37.35	12
	Igor Zhelezovsky	36.94	6
	Sergey Fokichev	36.82	4
1000 m	Boris Repnin	1:14.41	12
	Andrey Bakhvalov	1:14.39	11
	Igor Zhelezovsky	1:13.19
	Nikolay Gulyayev	1:13.03 OR
1500 m	Andrey Bobrov	1:58.97	35
	Nikolay Gulyayev	1:53.04	7
	Aleksandr Klimov	1:52.97	6
	Igor Zhelezovsky	1:52.63	4
5000 m	Yury Klyuyev	7:00.01	26
	Sergey Berezin	6:58.08	23
	Dmitry Bochkaryov	6:56.57	17
10,000 m	Aleksandr Mozin	14:28.91	18
	Sergey Berezin	14:20.48	9
	Yury Klyuyev	14:09.68	6

Event	Athlete	Race
Event	Athlete	Time	Rank
500 m	Yelena Ilyina	41.15	16
500 m	Nataliya Shive-Glebova	40.66	9
1000 m	Nataliya Shive-Glebova	1:22.99	20
1000 m	Yelena Ilyina	1:22.40	18
1500 m	Yelena Tumanova	2:07.71	15
1500 m	Yelena Lapuga	2:04.24	5
3000 m	Yelena Tumanova	4:24.07	9
	Yelena Lapuga	4:23.29	7
	Svetlana Boyko	4:22.90	6
5000 m	Yelena Tumanova	7:40.82	15
	Yelena Lapuga	7:28.65	5
	Svetlana Boyko	7:28.39	4

Medals by republic

This table shows how many medals each republic won at the 1988 Winter Olympics. For team events, it counts the number of athletes from each republic who got medals, not just one medal for the whole team. This is because athletes from different republics were on the same teams.


Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Russian SFSR	38	9	4	51
2	Latvian SSR	2	0	3	5
3	Kazakh SSR	1	4	1	6
4	Lithuanian SSR	1	0	1	2
5	Ukrainian SSR	0	0	2	2
6	Byelorussian SSR	0	0	1	1
6	Estonian SSR	0	0	1	1
Totals (7 entries)		42	13	13	68

Competitors	101 (78 men, 23 women)
Sports	10 sports
Flag bearer	Andrei Bukin (figure skating)
Medals	Gold 11, Silver 9, Bronze 9, Total 29

Soviet Union at the 1988 Winter Olympics

Medalists

Competitors

Alpine skiing

Biathlon

Bobsleigh

Cross-country skiing

Figure skating

Ice hockey

Luge

Nordic combined

Ski jumping

Speed skating

Medals by republic

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