Olympic Games 1960 at Rome Trivia Quiz

Answer: Peter Snell

Michael Schumacher (from Germany, born 1969) is known as a F1 pilot and Ian Thorpe (Australia, born 1982) as a swimmer. They weren't born in 1960, when the Rome Olympics were held. Bob Beamon (USA, born 1946) is legendary for his long jump record in Mexico 1968.
It was Peter Snell, from New-Zealand, who won the 800 m. He was born in 1938. Roger Moens is from Belgium and was born in 1930. George Kerr, born in 1937, competed for the West Indies Federation. He later defended the Jamaican colours.

Answer: Abebe Bikila

All these athletes ran the Marathon in Rome. This Marathon started late in the afternoon to avoid the summer heat. The route started on Capitol Hill and ended on the ancient Appian Road, under the Arch of Constantine. The last part of the Marathon was lit by torches.
Silvio de Florentis (born 1935), one of the Italian competitors, finished on the 38th place. It was his only Olympic Marathon.
Alex Breckenridge (born 1932) was an American runner. He finished 30th. As for de Florentis, 1960 was also for Breckenridge the only Olympic participation.
Sergey Konstantinovich Popov, born 1930, was the favourite for the Marathon. This Soviet-Russian runner held the world record time on the Marathon since 1958. He finished fifth at his only Olympic Marathon.
The barefooted Abebe Bikila (1932-1973) won the Marathon in Rome in a new world record. In 1964 in Tokyo he would repeat this achievement, another gold medal with a new world record on top.

Answer: Brazil

Neither Greece nor Egypt had a basketball team at the Olympics in Rome. Japan did compete, but ended at the 15th place (out of 16).
The 16 teams competed in four pools of four teams in the first round.
In a semi-final, the first and second of each pool competed in two more pools.
Then in the final the first and second of each semi-final pool competed in another pool.
The gold medal was for the USA, who won every single match (both in the first round as in the semi-finals and the finals). The USSR, placed second in their pool in the first round (after Brazil) and placed second in the semi-finals (after the USA), had their revenge on Brazil and took the silver medal.
Anyone who recognised the Portuguese origin of the names of the players I've mentioned should have been able to choose the correct country.
Just a few words on the three Brazilian players I've mentioned. Massoni (born 1939) debuted at the Olympics in 1960. He would clinch another bronze medal in Tokyo 1964 and would compete in Mexico 1968 and Munich 1972.
Pasos (born 1935) started his Olympic basketball career in Melbourne in 1956. He too would obtain the bronze medal in Tokyo 1964.
Zenny de Azevedo, nicknamed Algodao, was born in 1925. He played for the Brazilian basketball team at the Olympics in London 1948 (winning a bronze medal), Helsinki 1952, Melbourne 1956 and Rome 1960 (obtaining his second bronze medal).

Answer: Light heavyweight

Flyweight was the lightest category at the Olympic Games in Rome: boxers weighing less than 112 pounds (51 kg).
Bantamweight is one of the lightest categories: usually between 112 and 118 pounds (or 51 - 54 kg).
Welterweight is the category between 140 pounds (63.5 kg) and 147 pounds (66.7 kg). The most famous welterweight ever was Sugar Ray Robinson (1921-1989).
Cassius Clay, the American boxer who later took the name Muhammad Ali, was born in 1942. As an amateur he competed in the light heavyweight category (168 -175 pounds, or in metric between 76.2 and 79.3 kg). He entered the Olympic Games in Rome, when only amateur athletes were allowed to compete at the Games. When he turned to professional boxing, he upgraded to the heavyweight category.

Answer: She competed under three different surnames

Ingrid Kramer was born in 1943. She competed in three subsequent Olympic Games: Rome 1960 (two gold medals), Tokyo 1964 (one gold and one silver medal) and Mexico 1968 (no medals at all). The only sport she ever competed in at the Olympics was diving.
So the peculiarity has to be the different surnames. How can one explain this fact? Well: she was yet unmarried in 1960, so she used (of course) her maiden name. In 1964, she was married and used her first husband's surname Engel. By 1968, she was divorced and used her second husband's surname Gulbin. By the way, in 1960 and 1964 she entered the Olympics for Germany, while she defended the East-German colours in Mexico 1968.
As for the other options, there have been athletes who accomplished such feats. The German Birgit Fischer (born 1962) competed in canoeing in the Olympics of 1980, 1988, 1992, 1996, 2000 and 2004 and won eight gold medals in total. The Hungarian fencer Aladar Gerevich (1910-1991) won six consecutive gold medals in the sabre team event at the Olympics of 1932, 1936, 1948, 1952, 1956 and 1960.
Several athletes have nine gold medals. The most famous examples are the American swimmer Michael Phelps (born 1985, having assembled 14 gold medals) and the Finnish track and field athlete Paavo Nurmi (1897-1963, having collected 9 gold medals).
Competing in three different sports seems rather exceptional, but Victor Boin (1886-1974, from Belgium) did so. He won a silver medal in fencing (Antwerp 1920), a silver medal and a bronze medal in water polo (London 1908 and Stockholm 1912) and participated in the swimming competition in London 1908. Besides, competitors in the modern pentathlon are considered as taking part in only one sport, but this sport combines five different sports: athletics, equestrianism, fencing, shooting and swimming.

Answer: Men's epee team

There are three different weapons in fencing: the foil, the epee and the sabre. Of these three, only the sabre can be used to score with the blade. Epee and foil don't score any points except by hitting the opponent with the tip of the weapon. The foil is lighter than the epée.
Mangiarotti never entered the Olympic Games in the sabre events. He won the epée team event in 1936, 1952, 1956 and 1960. The other gold medals were epée individual (1952) and foil team (1956).
By the way, Edoardo (born 1919) and his brother Dario (born 1915) as well as their father Giuseppe (born 1883) and Edoardo's daughter Carola (born 1952) all competed in the fencing events at the Olympic Games at one time or another. Carola only used foil, Dario and Giuseppe only fought with the epee.

Answer: Czechoslovakia

Only one of these countries participated at the Olympic Games in Rome in 1960.
Belarus was during many years one of the Republics in the Soviet Union. In 1990, it declared its independence. Since 1992, Belarus competes at the Olympic Games.
Croatia was during almost 70 years part of Yugoslavia. It declared independence in 1991, but had to fight until 1995 before it controlled its territory. Croatia entered the Olympic Games as a separate country in 1992.
Saar is the name for a region in Germany that was occupied by France during the period 1947-1956. In this decade, Saar had its own Olympic Committee and participated in the Olympic Games at Helsinki in 1952. 31 male and 5 female athletes represented Saar, but none of them won any medal.
Czechoslovakia was created as an independent republic in 1918, having been separated from the Austrian-Hungarian Empire after WW I. It participated in the Olympic Games between 1920 and 1992. Starting from January 1st, 1993, the country is replaced by two separate states: the Czech Republic on the one hand and Slovakia on the other hand.
Eva Vechtova-Bosakova (1931-1991) won the gold medal on the Balance Beam in 1960, her second individual medal after a silver medal that she won in 1956 (also on the Balance Beam). As for team events, Vechtova was part of the team that won a bronze medal in 1952 and part of the team that won a silver medal in 1960.

Answer: King of Greece

The 'Knights of Malta' is a Christian order founded in 1099. It started with the mission of nursing the sick or wounded pilgrims to the Holy Land and later emphasized on military matters. As far as I know, no Olympic athlete has become a Knight of Malta after his or her sporting career.
Cyprus is completely independent of Greece. Its Archbishop is thus not a Greek but a Cypriote. One of the best known Archbishops of Cyprus was Makarios III (born 1913), primate of the Cypriote Orthodox Church from 1950 until 1977 and President of Cyprus from 1960 until July 1974 and again from December 1974 until his death in 1977.
There is some controversy whether Queen Sofia of Spain (at that time Princess Sophia of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg, born 1938) did or didn't take part in the sailing event at the Olympic Games in Rome in 1960. Some sources do state her as member of a team, others don't. Fact is that her husband King Juan Carlos (born 1938) sailed for Spain in the Olympic Games of 1972, and that her two children also sailed for Spain: Princess Cristina (born 1965) did so in 1988 and Prince Felipe (born 1968) sailed in 1992.
Crown Prince Constantine (born 1940, at that time known as Konstantinos of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg) was member of the crew on the three person keelboat. They won the gold medal in their class, before Argentina and Italy. The two other members of the crew were Odyssevs Eskitzoglou (born 1932) and Georgios Zaimis (born 1937).

Answer: Dawn Fraser

Esther Williams (born 1921) was a swimmer who wanted to enter the Olympic Games of 1940. Because of WW II, these Games were annulled. Williams got her fame in an acting career. A number of her movies demanded swimming expertise: "Bathing Beauty" and "Jupiter's Darling" (both with a water ballet), as well as Million Dollar Mermaid (in which she dived from a 115 feet high tower).
Inge de Bruijn (born 1973) is a Dutch swimmer. She participated in the Olympics in 1992, 2000 and 2004, and has won in total four gold medals, two silver medals and two bronze medals.
Wilma Rudolph (1940-1994), an American, did compete at the Olympic Games in Rome 1960, but not in the swimming events. She won three gold medals in the athletic sprint events: 100m, 200m and 4x100m relay. Besides these gold medals, she had also won a bronze medal in 1956 (in the 4x100m relay).
Dawn Fraser (born 1937) started her Olympic career at the Games in Melbourne in 1956. She won the 100m freestyle and the 4x100m freestyle relay, both in a world record time. She added a silver medal in the 400m freestyle. In 1960, she took another gold medal at the 100m freestyle and took silver medals in the 4x100m freestyle relay and the 4x100m medley relay. Finally, she won a gold medal in the 100m freestyle at the Olympic Games in Tokyo in 1964, where she also clenched another silver medal in the 4x100m freestyle relay. This makes a total of four gold and four silver medals.

Answer: Finland

This mistake has certainly cost Ylonen a medal, as he finished fourth at only one point behind the Swiss Hansrudi Spillman (born 1932) and the Russian Vasiliy Borisov (born 1922).
The Faroe Islands did not compete in 1960. As they are a part of Denmark, and not a sovereign state, they don't have their own Olympic Committee and thus don't participate in any Olympics.
Fiji had a very small delegation at the Olympics in 1960. Only two athletes represented Fiji: Sitiveni Moceidreke (born 1937) ran the 100m and the 200m, and Mesulame Rakuro (1932-1969) tried his best at the discus throwing. None of these two won any medals.
France was represented in every sport at the Olympics in Rome. Seven French athletes did participate in the shooting competitions, but none of them competed in the Free Rifle 300m events.
Vilho Ylonen (1918-2000) was a Finnish athlete. In 1952 he won a silver medal at the Small-Bore Rifle Three Positions 50m event, and in 1956 he won bronze at the Free Rifle Three Positions 300m event.
The gold medal on the Free Rifle Three Positions 300m event at the Olympics in 1960 went to the Austrian Hubert Hammerer (born 1925).