Legends of the Olympics Trivia Quiz

Answer: Marathon

Up to the marathon, none of the track and field events had been won by the Greeks (all had gone to the United States or Australia). This was particularly hard on the Greeks in the case of the discus throw, a classic sporting event that (like the marathon) had not had international competition before, and which the Greeks hoped to win.

Instead it was won by the American Robert Garrett, even though he had started training only on the voyage to Greece (he also won the shot put, and finished second on high jump and long jump).

Answer: Standing long jump

In the standing long jump, competitors had to start their jump from a standing position, no approach run, and takeoff with both feet at the same time. Ewry also won the standing high jump on all these occasions, and the standing triple jump in 1900 and 1904, the only times it was held.

In 1912, the last time that the standing jump events were held, Ray Ewry did not compete, but with a total of 8 gold medals (10 if the intercalulated games are included) among track and fields athletes, he is second only to Paavo Nurmi.

He also set Olympic records in all three events.

Answer: After dropping down from exhaustion, he had gotten help in getting up again

The first few marathons had varying lengths, although they were all around 40 km long. It was the London marathon where the standard length of 42km 195m was run for the first time. Originally it was intended to be 25 miles, but this was extended to 26 miles 385 yards so that the race would start at Windsor Castle, beneath the windows of the nursery.

In 1924, the length of the marathon was standardised to this distance. Pietri entered the stadium as the first runner, but at first, exhaustedly, ran in the wrong direction; when put back on the right track, he collapsed, got up again, and collapsed several times again.

The last few meters, he was mostly carried by a pair of officials. The last 350 meters cost him 10 minutes of the total 2 hours 55 minutes he took for the marathon.

Answer: The Olympic authorities claimed he was a professional runner, and thus not allowed to compete

A group of mainly Olympic officials had claimed that Nurmi had received a too high amount of travel expenses for running in Germany, and was therefore a professional runner. Nurmi did go to Los Angeles (where the games were held) nevertheless, but even though nearly all other competitors pleaded with the IOC to allow Nurmi to compete in the marathon, the ban was not lifted.

His only subsequent participation in the Games was that he was chosen to light the Olympic flame in the 1952 Helsinki Olympics.

Answer: German co-competitor Luz Long

Luz Long, an athlete with all the looks of the 'perfect Aryan' of the Nazis, came second in the competition. He was the first to congratulate Owens on the victory. Another often told story about Owens on the 1936 Olympics is at best partially true. It is said that Hitler refused to shake hands with Owens after his victory because he did not want an African-American to win in 'his' games. Reality is that on the first day, Hitler shook hands with only the German winners.

When told by IOC officials that he should either do so to all winners, or to none, Hitler chose the latter.

Not shaking hands with Jesse Owens was thus not some special treatment by the Führer.

Answer: Javelin throw

Ingrová's victory came just a few hours after Zátopek's victory on the 5000 meters. Emil and Dana were born on the same day, 19 September 1922, and got married on their 26th birthday. Zátopek's success is even more remarkable if one takes into account that it was his first competition marathon.

Answer: Bikila ran the race barefoot

When trying on the shoes that had been offered by sponsor Adidas, Bikila found that none of them fit him very well, which made him decide to run barefoot. The appendectomy story is also true, but it was before the 1964 Olympics rather than the 1960 one. Bikila was the first Olympic gold medallist from a country of black Africa, and the first athlete to win the Olympic marathon twice.

He was also a favorite for the 1968 marathon, but had to abandon because of a knee injury.

Answer: 8.90 meters

8.35 meters was the world record before Beamon's jump, shared by Ralph Boston and Igor Ter-Ovanesyan. 8.95 meters is the distance that Mike Powell jumped in 1991 to take over the world record. Carl Lewis jumped 8.91 meters earlier in that same match, but it was not validated as a world record because he had more than the maximum allowed 2 m/s backwind as he did so. 40 years after his memorable jump, Bob Beamon was still number 2 on the official list of best ever long jumpers because of it.

Answer: She was the first to score a perfect 10.0 at the Olympics

The scoring boards were not designed to show a 10.0, and showed 1.0 instead.
Comãneci's young age is a record that cannot be (legally) broken any longer, because nowadays there is a minimum age of 16 years to be allowed to participate in the Olympic gymnastic events. She retired from international competition in 1981, at the still tender age of 19.

Answer: Mark Spitz

Mark Spitz set his record on the 1972 Munich Olympics, each of them in a world record. John Weissmuller (the same person who later played Tarzan in the movies) scored triple gold in 1924. Matt Biondi wanted to equal Spitz's record in 1992, but scored 'only' 5 times gold. Michael Phelps had scored 6 gold medals in the 2004 Olympics.

His total of 14 gold medals meant he took another record from Mark Spitz, although Spitz already had to share his record of 9 gold medals with 3 others.