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Figure Skating at the 1988 Calgary Winter Games:

Men's Singles

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Host City: Calgary, Canada
Location: Olympic Saddledome
Date Started: February 17, 1988
Date Finished: February 20, 1988
Format: Skaters were ranked on Ordinal Placement, based on judges' points, with final placement for each section determined by Majority Placements. The tiebreaker for the Short Program was the Required Elements score, while the tiebreaker for the Free Skating was the Artistic Impression score. Thus, if a skater was ranked first by a majority of the judges, that skater was placed first overall for that section. Ties were broken by a Subsequent Majority rule, i.e., if the skaters were ranked for the same position by the same number of judges, Majority Placement for the next higher position for each skater determined who was ranked higher. Final placement was determined by factored placements. The tiebreakers were then 1) Number of Majority Placements, 2) Total Ordinals of Majority, 3) Total Ordinals. The placement for the Compulsory Figures was factored by 0.6 (30%), the placement for the short program was factored by 0.4 (20%), and the placement for Free Skating was factored by 1.0 (50%). The sums of the factored placements were then used to determine final placement, with the Free Skating being the tiebreaker.

Gold:USA Brian Boitano
Silver:CAN Brian Orser
Bronze:URS Viktor Petrenko

Summary

This was the Battle of the Brians, as the two best skaters in the world were Brian Orser (CAN) and Brian Boitano (USA). Orser was World Champion in 1987 with Boitano second, while the results had been reversed in 1986. To date they had met 10 times in international events with Orser leading, 7-3. In the compulsory figures the lead was taken by the reigning European Champion, Aleksandr Fadeyev (URS), with Boitano second and Orser third. Orser edged Boitano in the short program, seven first place votes to two, but Boitano still led going into the free skate, with 2.0 factored placements to 2.2 for Orser. Fadeyev was in third, but was far enough behind that both Brians would have to finish worse than third in the free skate for him to win, and that was not going to happen. The gold medal would go to the winner of the free skate between Orser and Boitano. Orser was considered a slightly better free skater. Boitano skated first and gave an almost flawless performance. Orser skated last. Early in the program he double footed a triple flip, but his performance was still superb. Near the end he doubled out of a triple axel. This was likely the difference, as Boitano was ranked first in free skating by five judges to four for Orser, and the gold medal went to Brian Boitano. Young Soviet skater Viktor Petrenko placed third in free skating to win the bronze medal.

Final Standings

Glossary ▪ CSV ▪ PRE
Rank Athlete Age Team NOC Medal CFFP SPFP FSFP TFP
1 Brian Boitano 24 United States USA Gold 1.2 0.8 1.0 3.0
2 Brian Orser 26 Canada CAN Silver 1.8 0.4 2.0 4.2
3 Viktor Petrenko 18 Soviet Union URS Bronze 3.6 1.2 3.0 7.8
4 Aleksandr Fadeyev 24 Soviet Union URS 0.6 3.6 4.0 8.2
5 Grzegorz Filipowski 21 Poland POL 4.2 1.6 5.0 10.8
6 Vladimir Kotin 25 Soviet Union URS 3.0 2.4 8.0 13.4
7 Christopher Bowman 20 United States USA 4.8 2.0 7.0 13.8
8 Kurt Browning 21 Canada CAN 6.6 2.8 6.0 15.4
9 Heiko Fischer 27 West Germany FRG 2.4 4.4 10.0 16.8
10 Paul Wylie 23 United States USA 7.2 3.2 9.0 19.4
11 Richard Zander 23 West Germany FRG 5.4 6.8 11.0 23.2
12 Oliver Höner 21 Switzerland SUI 6.0 4.0 14.0 24.0
13 Petr Barna 21 Czechoslovakia TCH 9.0 6.0 12.0 27.0
14 Lars Dresler 20 Denmark DEN 8.4 4.8 15.0 28.2
15 Axel Médéric 17 France FRA 7.8 5.6 17.0 30.4
16 Neil Paterson 23 Canada CAN 10.2 5.2 16.0 31.4
17 Makoto Kano 21 Japan JPN 11.4 7.6 13.0 32.0
18 Paul Robinson 22 Great Britain GBR 9.6 8.4 18.0 36.0
19 Cameron Medhurst 22 Australia AUS 10.8 6.4 20.0 37.2
20 Zhang Zhubin 21 China CHN 13.2 7.2 19.0 39.4
21 Alessandro Riccitelli 23 Italy ITA 12.0 8.0 22.0 42.0
22 Jung Sung-Il 18 South Korea KOR 14.4 9.6 21.0 45.0
23 Michael Huth 18 East Germany GDR 12.6 10.0 23.0 45.6
24 Peter Johansson 20 Sweden SWE 13.8 8.8 24.0 46.6
AC David Liu 22 Chinese Taipei TPE 15.0 9.2 DNQ DNF
AC Boycho Aleksiev 24 Bulgaria BUL 15.6 10.8 DNQ DNF
AC Riccardo Olavarrieta 17 Mexico MEX 16.8 10.4 DNQ DNF
AC Ho Gang 12 North Korea PRK 16.2 11.2 DNQ DNF