Individual, Men

The World Cup in 1986-87 had been won by Norway’s Torbjørn Løkken, who was also World Champion in 1987. At the time of the 1988 Winter Olympics Løkken and Germany’s Klaus Sulzenbacher were in a closely fought battle for the World Cup lead, with Sulzenbacher slightly ahead. The event was marred by bad weather that caused a postponement of the ski jumping, and both sections were held on the same day. Sulzenbacher took the lead in the ski jumping with 228.5, well ahead of Hubert Schwarz with Hippolyt Kempf in third place. Løkken had taken himself out of it with 199.4, and was in 19th place. In the ski race, the first one ever conducted at the Winter Olympics in the Gundersen Method, Sulzenbacher started 1:02.0 ahead of Schwarz, 1:10.7 ahead of Kempf, with Løkken well back at 3:14.0. Løkken crushed the field in the ski, finishing in 37:39.0, over 37 seconds ahead of Kempf. But it would bring him only to sixth place. Kempf’s second in the ski was what he needed, as he caught Sulzenbacher 2.3 km from the finish and pulled ahead to win by 19.0 seconds. Kempf had been third in the 1986-87 World Cup and would again place third in 1988-89. Sulzenbacher would win the 1987-88 season World Cup.