The Need for Speed Trivia Quiz

Born Elizabeth Schwartz, Robinson competed at the Amsterdam Summer Olympics. It was the first time that women athletes were allowed to compete at the Games. For Robinson, who was just sixteen at the time, this was only her third athletics meeting. She was discovered by her science teacher, Charles Price, a former athlete and coach, who saw her running to catch a train to school.

Her first official meet was on March 30, 1928, where she competed in the 60 yard dash and was placed second behind Helen Filkey who, at the time, was the US record holder for the 100 metres. They would meet again, a little over two months later, in a 100 metre race and, on this occasion, Robinson would turn the tables on her rival. She was denied a world record in that race because it was deemed to be too heavily wind assisted. At the Olympics, she was the only US woman to make the final. In what was a closely contested race she crossed the line first in a time that equaled the world record. In the process she became the first woman to win the women's 100m at the Olympics.

Stanisawa Walasiewicz, who was also known as Stella Walsh, was an incredible athlete who was born in Poland but raised in the USA. In 1927 she qualified for the US Olympic team, however, as she didn't have US citizenship, she could not compete. To complicate matters, as she was under 21 years of age, she was not even able to apply for the same.

In the run up (pun not intended) to the Summer Olympics of 1932 she continued to dominate athletics, winning the US national championships for the 100-yard dash (1930), 220 yard dash (1930-31), and the long jump (1930). Despite being offered US citizenship at this time, she chose to race for Poland. At the Los Angeles Summer Olympics (1932) she would set a new world record for the 100 metres in the heats. Remarkably, she would equal that mark in the semi-final and then again in the final of the race. She accepted American citizenship in 1947 and would be inducted into the US Track & Field Hall of Fame in 1975.

Nicknamed the "Lithgow Flash", Jackson came to notice when she defeated Dutch athlete Fanny Blankers-Koen in 1949. At the time Blankers-Koen held the world record for the 100m. After collecting four titles at the 1950 Empire (now Commonwealth) Games in Auckland, New Zealand, Jackson entered the 1952 Helsinki Games as the favourite for the 100 metres.

She would set a time of 11.5 seconds in the semi finals of the race, breaking her own world record, and then repeating the effort in the final. Jackson would also win the 200m at those Games but would be denied a third gold in the 4x100m relay, in which the Australian team were raging favourites, thanks to a poor baton exchange.

Rudolph was a superstar who first came to notice at the Melbourne Summer Olympics in 1956. It was there that she represented the USA in the 200m dash. She didn't place but she did earn a bronze medal as part of the US 4x100m relay team. It was a different story at Rome in 1960.

She would run 11.3 seconds in the semi-finals of the 100m, breaking Betty Cuthbert's world record, on her way to winning the gold medal in the event. She backed that up with gold medals in the 200m and as the anchor for the US 4x100m relay squad.

She became the first American woman to win three gold medals at a single Summer Olympic Games and, thanks to unprecedented television coverage, she became a world-wide star. Despite this, two years later, she would retire from the sport, holding the world records in both sprint events.

Encouraged by her parents to become active in sports, Tyus started playing basketball in high school and did not consider the track. Her first moves in that area started on the field where she showed promise as a high jumper and only took to sprinting in 1960 after being invited to a clinic at the Tennessee State University.

By 1964, she was 19 years old and competing at the Tokyo Olympic Games. She would equal Wilma Rudolph's world mark in the heats, break it in the quarter finals and then enter the final as the red-hot favourite to win gold, which she duly did. In 1968 she would defend her title at the Mexico Summer Games, breaking the world record in the final and winning gold. In doing so, she would become the first athlete, male or female, to defend their 100m title at the Olympics.

Mississippi born Barbara Ferrell was the US women's national champion in the 100m dash in 1967 and 1969. In 1968 she represented her country at the Mexico Summer Games and would set a new world record in the same event at 11.1 seconds in the first quarter final.

Despite this, she was beaten into second place by her teammate, Wyomia Tyus, who would also set a new mark for the event in the final. Her consolation was that she teamed with Tyus to win the gold medal in the 4x100 metre relay. She would return to the Olympics in 1972 at Munich but, for her, it was a season in which she was severely hampered by injury.

It showed in the final where she was only able to muster seventh place.

Irena was an incredible athlete who competed in five Summer Olympic Games from 1964 to 1980. In that time, she would win seven medals, three of them would be gold. Her first gold would arrive in 1964 at Tokyo, where she ran the second leg of Poland's 4x100m relay team. To showcase her versatility, she would also win silver in the 200m dash and the long jump.

By 1968 (Mexico) she had stamped herself as a force in women's track and field. Shortly after Barbara Ferrell had set a new world record for the 100 metres in the first quarter final, Irena proved her equal in the fourth quarter final by also running a time of 11.1 seconds (Hence the IMPORTANT qualification in the hint). Unfortunately for both women they would lose their world records and the final to the USA's Wyomia Tyus. While Ferrell would take the silver, Irena had to contend with finish third and claiming a bronze medal.

However, Irena would still take away a gold medal from the Mexico Games, winning the 200 metres in a new world record time. In 1972 she would win a bronze medal in the 200m at Munich. Two years later she would become the first woman to break the 50 second barrier in the 400m. This also made her the first athlete, male or female, to have held the world record in 100, 200 and 400 metre events. She would round off her Olympic career by winning the 400 metres at the Montreal Games in 1976.

As an athlete, Renate Stecher excelled at several track and field events and appeared likely to be her country's best pentathlete. However, after being called in as a last minute substitute for the 200m event at the 1969 European Championships and winning silver, it was decided that the sprint events were her best option. She would eventually set 34 new world records in her career.

At the Munich Olympics she would set a new world mark in the 100m of 11.07 seconds. However, it would not be, immediately, recognised. At the time, world records were assessed in tenths of seconds and it wouldn't be until 1976, when Wyomia Tyus' world mark would be adjusted to 11.08 seconds that the mark was recognised. Controversy would surface over Stecher's performances when East German secret service files were released, and her name appeared in a state sponsored drug programme. Stecher would be inducted into Germany's Sports Hall of Fame in 2011.

Annegret was part of a potent West German sprint programme that was a force in women's athletics during the course of the 1970s. Her first success came as part of her country's 4x100m relay team in the 1971 European Championships, where they won gold. They, with Annegret, would repeat that success at the 1972 Summer Games in front of their home crowd. Individually, Annegret would make the final of the 100m but would be relegated to fifth spot.

Four years later, at the Montreal Summer Games, she was in much better shape. Just before the Games, she would break the world record for the 100 with a time of 11.04 seconds. She would defeat Renate Stecher, the defending Olympic champion, in the first set of heats, get close to her own record in the second round with a time of 11.05 and then she would smash the mark with an astonishing 11.01 seconds in the semi final. The final was an incredible race with barely a stride separating Richter, Stecher and Richter's teammate, Inge Helten, in the medals. Richter would emerge as the one with the golden smile.

At the conclusion of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, only nine women have equaled or set a new world mark in the women's 100m event at a Summer Olympic Games. Elaine Thompson-Herah did not set a new world record at the Tokyo Olympics.

Thompson-Herah was a five time Olympic champion. She won gold in the women's 100 and 200m events at the 2016 Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro. She followed this up by winning the same double at the Tokyo 2020 Games, which were held in 2021 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. This made Thompson-Herah the second sprinter, after Usain Bolt, to win the "sprint double" at consecutive Olympic Games. She backed up the Tokyo success by being a part of Jamaica's successful 4x100m relay team, making her the third sprinter behind Bolt and Florence Griffith-Joyner to win the Olympic treble.

My initial thought was to record the remarkable Florence Griffith-Joyner (Flo-Jo) in this quiz. After all, at the conclusion of the 2020 Olympics she was listed as the world record holder in the 100m event. Her incredible time of 10.49 seconds had been standing since 1988. For 33 years, no female had come close. The best was Thompson-Herah and that was a time of 10.54 in 2021. There is, however, a small question mark that exists over Flo-Jo's time. The time was ratified by the IAAF because the trackside anemometer registered a wind reading of zero. The doubt arises because the anemometer at the triple jump pit, a mere ten metres away was showing a reading of 4.3 metres per second, which is more than twice the acceptable limit. Had that time not been ratified, Griffith-Joyner's world record would have stood at 10.61 seconds, a mark that Thompson-Herah equaled at Tokyo in the final.