Figure Skating at the 1988 Winter Games: Previous Winter Games ▪ Next Winter Games
Host City: Calgary, Canada
Venue(s): Father David Bauer Olympic Arena, Calgary; Olympic Saddledome, Calgary; Stampede Corral, Calgary
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: | ![]() |
Silver: | ![]() |
Bronze: | ![]() |
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.
Rank | Athlete | Age | Team | NOC | Medal | TFP | CFFP | SPFP | FSFP | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Brian Boitano | 24 | United States | USA | Gold | 3.0 | 1.2 | 0.8 | 1.0 | |
2 | Brian Orser | 26 | Canada | CAN | Silver | 4.2 | 1.8 | 0.4 | 2.0 | |
3 | Viktor Petrenko | 18 | Soviet Union | URS | Bronze | 7.8 | 3.6 | 1.2 | 3.0 | |
4 | Aleksandr Fadeyev | 24 | Soviet Union | URS | 8.2 | 0.6 | 3.6 | 4.0 | ||
5 | Grzegorz Filipowski | 21 | Poland | POL | 10.8 | 4.2 | 1.6 | 5.0 | ||
6 | Vladimir Kotin | 25 | Soviet Union | URS | 13.4 | 3.0 | 2.4 | 8.0 | ||
7 | Christopher Bowman | 20 | United States | USA | 13.8 | 4.8 | 2.0 | 7.0 | ||
8 | Kurt Browning | 21 | Canada | CAN | 15.4 | 6.6 | 2.8 | 6.0 | ||
9 | Heiko Fischer | 27 | West Germany | FRG | 16.8 | 2.4 | 4.4 | 10.0 | ||
10 | Paul Wylie | 23 | United States | USA | 19.4 | 7.2 | 3.2 | 9.0 | ||
11 | Richard Zander | 23 | West Germany | FRG | 23.2 | 5.4 | 6.8 | 11.0 | ||
12 | Oliver Höner | 21 | Switzerland | SUI | 24.0 | 6.0 | 4.0 | 14.0 | ||
13 | Petr Barna | 21 | Czechoslovakia | TCH | 27.0 | 9.0 | 6.0 | 12.0 | ||
14 | Lars Dresler | 20 | Denmark | DEN | 28.2 | 8.4 | 4.8 | 15.0 | ||
15 | Axel Médéric | 17 | France | FRA | 30.4 | 7.8 | 5.6 | 17.0 | ||
16 | Neil Paterson | 23 | Canada | CAN | 31.4 | 10.2 | 5.2 | 16.0 | ||
17 | Makoto Kano | 21 | Japan | JPN | 32.0 | 11.4 | 7.6 | 13.0 | ||
18 | Paul Robinson | 22 | Great Britain | GBR | 36.0 | 9.6 | 8.4 | 18.0 | ||
19 | Cameron Medhurst | 22 | Australia | AUS | 37.2 | 10.8 | 6.4 | 20.0 | ||
20 | Zhang Zhubin | 21 | China | CHN | 39.4 | 13.2 | 7.2 | 19.0 | ||
21 | Alessandro Riccitelli | 23 | Italy | ITA | 42.0 | 12.0 | 8.0 | 22.0 | ||
22 | Jung Sung-Il | 18 | South Korea | KOR | 45.0 | 14.4 | 9.6 | 21.0 | ||
23 | Michael Huth | 18 | East Germany | GDR | 45.6 | 12.6 | 10.0 | 23.0 | ||
24 | Peter Johansson | 20 | Sweden | SWE | 46.6 | 13.8 | 8.8 | 24.0 | ||
25 r2/3 | David Liu | 22 | Chinese Taipei | TPE | 15.0 | 9.2 | ||||
26 r2/3 | Boycho Aleksiev | 24 | Bulgaria | BUL | 15.6 | 10.8 | ||||
27 r2/3 | Riccardo Olavarrieta | 17 | Mexico | MEX | 16.8 | 10.4 | ||||
28 r2/3 | Ho Gang | 12 | North Korea | PRK | 16.2 | 11.2 |