HERITAGE OF GOLD : Calgary’s Olympic Hall Captures Essence of Winter Games

A world-class winter sports training center and the world’s largest Olympic museum are legacies of 16 glorious days in February 1988, when the XV Winter Olympics were held here.

The spirit of Calgary lives on at the 204-acre Canada Olympic Park, where much of the competition was held.

It’s a Mecca for athletes from many nations who train at the facilities erected for the Winter Games a year and a half ago and for ordinary people who watched the competition on television.

For the fearless, brave-of-heart visitors willing to experience the breathtaking thrill of an Olympic bobsledder, it is possible from late October through March to shoot down the 1,475-meter track. The combination bobsled-luge track was constructed especially for the Games.

The price of a ticket for “the fastest minute of your life” bobsled ride is $100. And despite the high cost for a fleeting few seconds, scores of iron-nerved men and women slid down the steep course last winter, through twists, straightaways and 14 curves, seated between seasoned bobsled drivers and brakemen.

And more than 20,000 training runs were made from October through March on the track by bobsled and luge teams. It was the busiest bobsled run in the world and the only one in operation in North America. There is one at Lake Placid, N.Y., but it closed two years ago for reconstruction. The nine other bobsled tracks are in Europe.

Speed skaters from many national teams, including the United States, train here, as do ski jumpers and Alpine and cross-country skiers. Last winter, 10,000 boys and girls from Calgary-area schools learned to ski on the slopes of Canada Olympic Park.

Ski jumpers practice their airborne sport year-round from the 70- and 90-meter jump towers constructed for the Olympics. And coaching junior members of the Alberta ski jump team on the 30- and 50-meter practice jumps this summer is Dave Serbold, 27. His father, Clarence, and uncle, Irvin, were members of the 1956 and 1960 Canadian Olympic skiing teams, respectively.

“We’re training to be members of Canada’s 1992 or 1996 (actually, 1994, when the Winter Games begin begin their own four-year schedule) or both Olympic ski jump teams,” said Mark Rolseth, 14, after he and Niels Kaech, 13, of Calgary had sailed off the plastic-covered jump from the 50-meter tower and soared like a couple of pros.

On Feb. 12, 1988, the day before the XV Winter Olympics began, Brian Mulroney, Canada’s Prime Minister, and Juan Antonio Samaranch, president of the International Olympic Committee, officially opened the Olympic Hall of Fame at Canada Olympic Park.

The three-story glass museum filled with photographs, graphics and artifacts from 15 Winter Olympics was built at a cost of $2.5 million, a gift from the foundation of the Siebens family, which made a fortune in gas and oil.

There are three other Olympic museums in the world: in Innsbruck, Austria, on the island of Cyprus, and at the headquarters of the International Olympic Committee in Lausanne, Switzerland.

Construction began last month at Lausanne on a $15-million museum to replace the small one there dedicated to both the Summer and Winter Olympics. It will replace the one here as the biggest Olympic Hall of Fame.

Until then, though, Calgary’s is No. 1. One wall follows a 64-year time line complete with photographs of nearly every Winter Olympic medalist since American Charles Jewtraw won the first gold medal, in the 500-meter speed skating event at the 1924 games in Chamonix, France. A 15-minute video captures the spirit of the Games in a montage that recalls highlights of the 1988 and other Winter Olympics--the battle of the Brians, Boitano and Orser; the Jamaican bobsled team, Debi Thomas, Katarina Witt, Eric Heiden’s single greatest performance of any Winter Olympics--five gold medals in speed skating at Lake Placid in 1980 . . .

The agony as well as the ecstasy of the games is remembered, with footage of speed skater Dan Jansen’s two falls here.

“We have something on exhibit, national uniform, clothing, skates, skis, etc., from 40 of the 57 nations that were represented at the XV Winter Olympics and eventually we hope to have something from all of the countries that participated,” said Tom West, 42, director-curator of the museum.

West was director of the Canada Sports Hall of Fame in Toronto for 12 years before coming to Calgary in the summer of 1987 to begin the Olympic Hall of Fame. He designed the exhibits on display during the games and the subsequent exhibits featuring the 1988 Games.

On display are costumes worn during the opening and closing ceremonies at Calgary, national team uniforms from many of the countries, contributions from Olympians such as the helmet and goggles worn by Eddie (the Eagle) Edwards, the British plasterer who became a sentimental favorite despite his ineptitude as a ski jumper.

The costumes of Hidy and Howdy, the mascots of the games, are here. So is the athletic guest book with signatures of 80% of the medalists from every Olympics since Berlin in 1936, including all of the gold medal winners.

Quotation Wall is filled with memorable quotes from Olympians such as:

“Everything I am today I owe to Snoopy and peanut butter,” from Annie Henning, 16-year-old speed skater who won the gold at Sapporo, Japan, in 1972.

And:

“It’s a funny thing about athletics. It transcends all prejudice,” from Jesse Owens, U.S. track star of the 1936 Berlin Olympics.

Craig D’Arcy of the hall’s staff pointed to goalie Jack Cameron on a huge blow-up photo of the 1924 gold-medal Canadian hockey team and related an anecdotes:

“The Canadians won five games to take the gold with an incredible total score of 110-3 in the first Winter Olympics,” he said. “During a game the Canadians won, 33-0, it was so lopsided, goalie Cameron at one point left his net unattended, walked over to the wall and signed autographs for two attractive young women.”

The Calgary Olympic Development Assn. (CODA) is the administrator of the legacy of the 1988 Winter Olympics, the most successful of all Winter Olympics.

CODA has a deposit of $90 million in the bank, the interest on which is used to maintain the training facilities and operate the Hall of Fame at Canada Olympic Park and develop amateur sports. Dr. Dennis Kadatz, former dean of physical ed at the University of Calgary, is general manager of CODA.

Part of the legacy of the Winter Olympics here is the Saddledome, where figure skating and hockey were contested. It is the home of this year’s winning Stanley Cup team, the Calgary Flames.

Bobby Libin, 33, a third generation Calgarian and local businessman, echoes the sentiments of his countrymen about the XV Winter Olympic Games:

“They were the most exciting 16 days of my life. The eyes and ears of the world were focused on Calgary. We were so proud to have been part of such a big event. I went to several venues every day, talked to people from all over the world. One day at a hockey game, I sat next to Paul (Crocodile Dundee) Hogan.

“The games will remain alive in the hearts and minds of Canadians for generations here at Canada Olympic Park. They were 16 days we shall never forget.”