Shankley was right, sport can be more important

I remember the ’88 Olympics from Calgary; being British hopes were never high for the winter games. Team GB had a little run of success in figure skating, the superlative performance of Jayne Torivll and Christopher Dean in Sarajevo followed on from the success of Robyn Cousins and John Curry in ‘76 and ’80 respectively.  However going into Calgary I recall no realistic medal hopes, which can lead to really good coverage of the marquee events.

Eddie Edwards provided some light relief and exposure for British winter sports, but as expected the British team returned from Calgary empty handed. Eddie Edwards took his ski jumping very seriously, but like the vast majority of British winter athletes at this time never had the money to do the job properly.

During some reading I discovered there was a fatal accident in Calgary, Jorg Oberhammer was the physician for the Austrian ski team and was preparing for the start of the giant slalom when he collided with another skier and was thrown under a tracked vehicle. This happened in front of Austrian world champion Pirmin Zurbriggen a few minutes before his run.

Every Sunday evening David vine presented Ski Sunday, I knew who Pirmin Zurbriggen was and that he was favorite to win the Super-G.

Under these incredible conditions Zurbriggen went on to take the bronze medal as real tragedy made it’s presence felt at the highest level.

That was 1988; today the death of Jorg Oberhammer is but a footnote to what was a very successful Olympics. Fast-forward twenty-two years to the Vancouver games and despite the outpouring of compassion and the questions raised, I doubt many outside Georgia will remember Nodar Kumaritashvili in a few years’ time.