Olympics 1988 Calgary Review to Ode to Joy

For many years ABC would run the Olympic Highlight reel at the very end of the closing ceremonies to various renditions of Beethoven's 9th Symphony Fourth Movement "Ode to Joy". Here is the one from Calgary in 1988. This is the final highlight reel done by ABC, and the music is arranged by Waldo De Los Rios.

[@Sueb18631]

Man, I miss these. They were awesome.

[@ScoopNemeth]

What a great, dignified way for ABC to end an era of Olympic coverage. Jim McKay was one of the best sports announcers we've ever had!

[@welles2002]

The power of Music and the right imagery perfectly placed is amazing

[@marthamagruder3698]

I wish Ode To Joy was still played at the end of the Olympics. That was always one of my favorite parts.

[@MKIVWWI]

Excellent version of the 4th movement of Beethoven's 9th Symphony. Was recorded by Waldo De Los Rios; I have it on his "Classics" CD! Waldo was an Argentine composer, arranger and conductor, who actually arranged and conducted for Spaniard Miguel Rio's (no relation) hit vocal version of this song, which was released as "A Song of Joy" in 1970. Shortly upon the success of that version, Waldo recorded this instrumental version. Waldo is best remembered for his rendition (also released in 1970) of Mozart's 40th Symphony.

[@Ed__Powell]

MKIVWWI thanks for the info! I've always wondered which arrangement this was.

[@pookerville]

Truly, the end of an era for ABC and a fitting finish to their Olympic tenure. They set the standard by which all future events have been or will be measured. Their coverage of the Millenium and the tragic events of 9/11 are unequaled. Jim even made a came appearance on ABC 2000 when he described the dark day in Munich.

[@andysorensen1737]

I remember watching a documentary on Munich ABC/ESPN did on I’m guessing the 30th Anniversary. I wasn’t around when it happened, but whenever I hear that audio of Jim relaying the events at the airport it sends a chill down my spine.

[@robertcummins7199]

Loved those Olympics!

[@cartalumni]

Best Olympic closing credits......EVER!!

[@eddiemag1799]

Sadly, this was the last part of the final telecast of the Olympics on ABC. Since the Calgary games, ABC has never aired the Olympic Games again. CBS aired the next 3 winter games, and NBC all the rest, beginning with the summer games in Seoul in 1988. NBC also owns the rights through the 2032 games. ABC, with lead anchor Jim McKay under the direction of Roone Arledge, put the Olympics on the TV map in the U.S. beginning with Innsbruck in 1964. The televised games have never been the same since Calgary. I miss the games on ABC.

[@TMC1982Part2]

ABC stopped bidding for the Olympics once Cap-Cities took over in 1985 (at least that's what Keith Jackson claimed back around 2006, when it was announced that ESPN was going to fully take over ABC's sports operations). Basically, Cap-Cities was very thrifty or cost-effective (soon after the Calgary Olympics, ABC lost the Major League Baseball package to CBS).

[@TMC1982Part2]

Al Michaels claims in his autobiography that ABC was in the bidding for the 1996 Olympic Games from Atlanta. It was in his contract that if ABC ever got to broadcast the Olympics again, he would get to be the prime time anchor. Jim McKay would get to hang around in a vaguely described emeritus position.

[@SarahB1863]

Me too. Check out the end of the 1984 LA Olympics opening ceremony and you'll see ABC's schedule for the following day - the Olympics were on all day, except for a one-hour break for news between 6 and 7. None of the "We'll show you four hours at night with all the sports crammed in together and most of them missing" crap that NBC pulls - and that's with the Olympics within a one-hour time difference on the East Coast! Sadly the days when sports was taken seriously is over, now it's all packaged like a reality show for short attention spans...

[@eddiemag1799]

Also, remember, in 1984, cable sports channels did not exist, yet ABC managed to show a lot with limited resources. With today's availability of coverage, I can't stand NBC's "REPPR" model (record, edit, package, present replay) because they want to save it for their primetime show.

[@andysorensen1737]

eddie mag Or "We interrupt this Slovenia/Argentina match so we can bring you some heart wrenching feature!" The Olympics happen for two weeks every other year; let me enjoy them as opposed to dreading how it's covered; and with three straight Asian Olympics it's going to get real ugly.

[@matthewbrown8486]

2:57 Hidy & Howdy!

[@perfesser944]

Many people dismiss sport as grown men being boys again. Most of those people couldn't walk around the block if their life depended on it. When one sees those images, coupled to Beethoven's immortal music, one is reminded that there is such a thing as the joy of effort. THE JOY OF EFFORT. The knowledge that one has pushed their body, mind, and soul to do things that were thought unattainable, to places beyond physical endurance and beyond pain. Sometimes, one has been forced to accept defeat, to accept that some goals, whether one likes it or not, are beyond one's reach. There is no shame in that. Where there is infinite, unendurable, SHAME is in the LOATHSOME EXCUSE. In the concept that one's inability is not in the lack of even a feeble attempt at doing something, but in saying that race, gender, economic situation, whatever, is to blame, not even for defeat, but for not even trying. Just as these images are in the past, so it seems that reaching for lofty goals is in the past too. Too much of BLM, of CRT, of rainbow this and inclusive that, of petty achievements obtained by whining, to contemplate glory.

[@altfactor]

Didn't NBC at more recent Olympics also.edit highlights of the Olympics to "Ode To Joy" at the end of the Games?

[@Ed__Powell]

The 1996 Atlanta games (also on my channel) were the last games.