Guam at the 1988 Winter Olympics

The Guam National Olympic Committee was recognized by the International Olympic Committee on 1 January 1986.[1] The 1988 Winter Olympics were therefore their debut in Olympic competition; and Judd Bankert the territory's first Olympic athlete. Guam has gone on to participate in every Summer Olympic Games since the 1988 Seoul Olympics, but has yet to make a return trip to the Winter Olympic Games.[2] The 1988 Winter Olympics were held in Calgary, Alberta, Canada from 13 to 28 February 1988; a total of 1,423 athletes representing 57 National Olympic Committees took part.[3] The Guamian four member delegation included only a single biathlete, Judd Bankert, who was selected as the flag-bearer for the opening ceremony.[2][4]

The following is the list of number of competitors in the Games.[5]

Judd Bankert was 38 years old at the time of the Calgary Olympics.[6][7] He was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan and had moved to Guam in 1981.[8] He had suffered a hip fracture in a fall six year earlier and was able to train on skis only four months before the Games.[8] Bankert was the first ever Olympian to represent Guam.[9] On 23 February, he took part in the sprint race, a 10 kilometer race with two shooting rounds. Each missed shot required an athlete to ski a 150-meter penalty loop. Bankert missed four out of five targets in each of the shooting rounds, meaning he had to ski a total of eight penalty loops; he finished the race in 45 minutes and 37.1 seconds. This put him in 71st place out of 72 competitors who finished the race.[10] Frank-Peter Roetsch of East Germany won the gold medal in a time of 25 minutes and 8.1 seconds; the silver and bronze medals were both won by biathletes from the Soviet Union, Valeriy Medvedtsev and Sergei Tchepikov respectively.[11]

• Guam at the 1988 Summer Olympics