Beijing 2008 Olympics: Swimming Quiz

Answer: Michael Phelps

Michael Phelps from the USA began the meet on a high with a gold medal and a world record in the first event of the games. This was for the 400m Individual Medley. Laszlo Cseh from Hungary won the silver medal and Ryan Lochte from the USA won the bronze medal. Alessio Boggiato from Italy was 4th in the event.

Answer: 8

Michael Phelps won an amazing 8 gold medals during the course of the swimming events in Beijing. He eclipsed Mark Spitz who won 7 gold medals at the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich. This included 7 world records in the finals. He won gold for the 400m Individual Medley, the men's 4x100m relay with his USA teammates: Garrett Weber-Gale, Cullen Jones and Jason Lezak, the 200m freestyle, the 200m butterfly, the men's 4x200m relay with his USA teammates: Ryan Lochte, Ricky Berens and Peter Vanderkaay, the 200m individual medley, the 100m butterfly and the 4x100m medley relay with his USA teammates: Aaron Piersol (Backstroke), Brendan Hansen (Breaststroke) and Jason Lezak (Freestyle). Phelps swam the butterfly for his team in that event.

Answer: Stephanie Rice

Stephanie Rice from Australia won the 400m individual medley for women on the first day of finals competition. She beat Kirsty Coventry from Zimbabwe and Katie Hoff from the USA. Stephanie also won the 200m individual medley and was a part of the Australian 4x200m freestyle relay that won gold. Libby Trickett from Australia won the gold medal in the 100m freestyle on the second day, and was a part of the gold medal winning 4x100m medley relay team.

Inge Dekker was part of the Dutch team that won gold on the same day in the women's 4x100m freestyle relay. Natalie Coughlin won the gold medal in the 100m backstroke on the third day.

Answer: Maarten Van Der Weijden

Maarten Van Der Weijden won this event after making an amazing comeback to swimming after fighting cancer. He was diagnosed with Leukemia in 2001 but made a comeback to the open water events, winning the world championship in Spain 2008 over 25 kilometres. David Davies of Great Britain finished with the silver medal after completing the 1500-metre freestyle two days previously. Thomas Lurz of Germany claimed the bronze and Ky Hurst from Australia came 11th in the race.

Answer: Cesar Cielo Filho

The men's 50-metre freestyle is also known as the "Splash and Dash" as it decides the quickest man in the pool over 50 metres. It is usually a closely contested event which the commentators usually say it is a "blanket finish".
Cesar Cielo Filho from Brazil was the winner of the event. Amaury Leveaux claimed the silver medal for France, and his teammate Alain Bernard won the bronze medal. Roland Schoeman was the defending champion from Athens 2004 and he finished 7th in the event.

Answer: 41

Dara Torres was 41 when she competed for the United States. She started her Olympic career at the 1984 games in Los Angeles. At the Beijing Games, she competed in the women's 4x100 metre freestyle relay, the women's 50-metre freestyle, and the women's 4x100 metre medley relay. She picked up 3 silver medals which was a great feat.

Answer: Oussama Mellouli

Oussama Mellouli from Tunisia won this coveted event from the defending champion from both Sydney and Athens Grant Hackett. Mellouli trained in the United States at the University of Southern California. He served a ban for testing positive to a banned substance in 2006, and all his wins from November that year to 18 months later were voided.

This included a win over Michael Phelps in December 2006. Ryan Cochrane from Canada took the bronze medal and David Davies finished 6th in the event and then went on to compete in the 10km open water event.

Answer: Larissa Ilchenko

Larissa Ilchenko from Russia won the gold medal in this event beating out the two girls from Great Britain, Keri-Anne Payne and Cassandra Patten who won the silver and bronze respectively. Angela Maurer from Germany came fourth in the event. The open-water events were held at SY Rowing-Canoeing Park.

Answer: Australia

The Australian team consisting of Emily Seabohm (Backstroke), Liesel Jones (Breaststroke), Jessicah Schipper (Butterfly), and Libby Trickett (Freestyle), broke the world record in a time of 3 minutes 52.69 seconds to win the gold medal from the highly rated USA, who took the silver medal, and China who won the bronze. The team from Great Britain finished 4th.

Answer: Zige Liu

Zige Liu won the gold medal from her teammate Liuyang Jiao and Jessicah Schipper who won the silver and bronze medals respectively. Jessicah Schipper was the favourite coming into this event as the world record holder. Yuko Nakanishi from Japan was 5th in the event. This was the only event that the host nation won gold in the pool, and they did it in great fashion coming 1st and 2nd.