The Antwerp Summer Olympics: 1920 Quiz

Answer: Wrestling

The Antwerp Olympics were Summer Games, and yet there was a competition in ice hockey and in figure skating. However, these 'icy' competitions were held at the end of April 1920, a few days after the opening ceremony. Besides of this fact, you have to know weight classes are not applied to figure skating or to ice hockey.
Taekwondo was only admitted to the Olympic Games in 1988 (Seoul) as a demonstration sport. It was upgraded to a medal sport in 2000 (Sydney).
The wrestling competition was over in Antwerp before the official opening ceremony. I haven't found the exact reason for this peculiarity. By the way, Finland collected the largest number of medals in the wrestling competition: five gold medals, five silver medals and two bronze medals. There were 152 competitors from 19 different countries.

Answer: Fencing

The Rugby Union competition had only two competing countries: France and the USA. Against all odds, the USA won. If you have picked this option, you have overlooked that Victor Boin also competed in the individual event, which doesn't make any sense in the case of rugby.
The modern pentathlon consists of five events: pistol shooting, free style swimming (200 meters), fencing (with the epee - a sporting sword), horse jumping (with an unfamiliar horse) and a cross-country run. Not a single Belgian athlete competed in this discipline at the 1920 Olympic Games. There were 23 athletes from 8 different countries. The Four Swedish athletes occupied the first four places in the final ranking. There was no team event in the modern pentathlon.
Did you pick diving? Alas, there were no team events in diving at the 1920 Summer Olympics. So Victor Boin certainly won no team medal in diving. In fact, there were three Belgian divers, and none of them won a medal. The USA dominated this competition with three gold medals, two silver medals and three bronze medals.

Victor Boin entered the fencing competition for country teams. The Belgian team won the silver medal in epee fencing, while Italy won the gold and France took the bronze.

Answer: Gillis Grafstrom

Sonja Henie in the men's singles? You had to see this was a red herring. Sonja Henie was a female athlete, winning the women's singles in 1928, 1932, and 1936 for Norway.
Christopher Dean was born in 1958, so he couldn't compete in 1920. Jane Torvill and he won the gold medal at ice dancing in 1984, and the bronze in 1994.
Ioannis Theofilakis was of course not a Swedish athlete. This Greek entered ten different events in the shooting competition at the Antwerp Olympics, winning the silver medal for the team event in men's rapid fire pistol (together with his brother Alexandros).
The figure skating competition was held on April 25 to April 27. All seven jury members found Gillis Grafstrom to be the best skater overall.

Answer: Netherlands

Sailing at sea in Luxemburg? No way: Luxemburg is a landlocked country.
Monaco doesn't share a border with Belgium, nor does Argentina. Argentina is even in a different continent.
So the only plausible option is the Netherlands. If you wonder why: the 12 foot dinghy had only two competitors, both from the Netherlands, and the race had to be done again because of an irregularity with one of the buoys.

Answer: He was 72 years old when competing

Did you pick the 36 gold medals? This would be a bit exaggerated. There were only 21 shooting events at the Antwerp Olympics, so there were only 21 gold medals to distribute. In fact, the most successful shootist at the 1920 Olympics was Willis Augustus Lee, competing for the USA. He won five gold medals, one silver medal and one bronze medal.
Surely you wouldn't pick a blind athlete to compete at the Olympic shooting contests? It would endanger his opponents as well as the spectators...
In later Olympic Games, there have been doubts on the gender of some of the athletes competing in the women's events. However, I have not found any woman posing as a man for the Olympic Games.
Oscar Swahn was 72 years old when he entered the Olympic shooting contest. He and his son Alfred were members of the Swedish team that won the silver medal on the team event of double shot at running deer.
By the way, there have been several other athletes who competed at an advanced age. Let's name just a few of them: the shooter Owen Phillips from Belize at the 1976 Olympic games in Montreal (at 70 years), the equestrians Arthur von Pongracz (from Austria, competing in Berlin 1936 at 72 years) and Lorna Johnstone (from the UK, competing in Munich 1972 at 70 years), and the sailor Krasimir Krastev (from Bulgaria, competing in Moscow 1980 at 70 years).

Answer: Weightlifting

Judo was not present at any Summer Olympics until 1964.
Would anyone consider boxing outdoors? I don't think so. At the 1920 Olympics, the USA won the most gold medals in the boxing events (three titles out of the eight categories).
Field hockey is of course always played outdoors. In the Antwerp Olympics, Great-Britain won the gold medal, before Denmark and Belgium. France lost all three matches in a round robin competition.
The only sport listed here that was shifted from outdoor to indoor is weightlifting. At the 1920 Summer Olympics (outdoor), both Swiss competitors won a medal. Eugene Ryther won bronze in the featherweight category, and Fritz Hunenberger won the silver medal in the light heavyweight category. (By the way, isn't this category name contradictory?)

Answer: South Africa

The race was held over a distance of 175 km. In later days, this distance is unheard of. In the 21st century, most individual road races against the clock are maximum 50 km. Yet 42 out of 46 competitors did finish the race.
Germany was not invited for the Antwerp Olympics. It was banned because of the Great War (1914-1918).
Poland was invited, but didn't send a team, as it was at war with the Soviet Union.
There were thus no German nor Polish competitors.
Kaltenbrunn certainly doesn't sound Japanese, does it? Well, no Japanese cyclist entered the competition in Antwerp. The Japanese limited their efforts to diving, swimming, athletics, and tennis.

Answer: The Flying Finn

"The Greatest" did not compete in track and field events. He chose the name Muhammad Ali and won several world titles in boxing. His only participation at the Olympic Games was in Rome in 1960, where he won the gold medal in the category light heavyweight.
"The Cannibal" refers to the Belgian cyclist Eddy Merckx. He entered the Olympics only once, in Tokyo in 1964, where he finished 12th in the individual road races against the clock. However, his career really took off in 1968, when he won the Giro d'Italia. His complete palmares would fill up some pages, so let's mention only five victories in the Giro d'Italia and five as well in the Tour de France.
"The Locomotive" was the nickname of an Olympic runner. This Czech athlete, by the name of Emil Zatopek, won a gold and a silver medal at the London Olymmpics of 1948, and three gold medals in Helsinki in 1952.
Paavo Nurmi was nicknamed "the Flying Finn". However, some of his contemporary compatriots earned the same nickname: Hannes Koleihmanen (three gold medals and a silver medal in Stockholm in 1912, and Olympic champion at the marathon in Antwerp 1920), Ville Ritola (four times gold and twice silver in Paris 1924, one gold and two silver medals in Amsterdam 1928) and Volmari Iso-Hollo (one gold and one silver medal in Los Angeles in 1932, and one gold and one bronze medal in Berlin in 1936).

Answer: Czechoslovakia

Austria was not invited for the 1920 Olympics, as it was held for one of the counries having caused the Great War (1914-1918).
Togo was one of the many African countries that gained its independence in 1960. In 1920, the country was a colony of France, so any athletes hailing from this region would compete as French sportsmen.
Brazil was present at the Antwerp Olympics, but didn't compete in the soccer competition. They concentrated on shooting (one medal of each metal), water polo (fourth place), swimming (first round), rowing (first round) and diving (three events, best place seventh).
It was Czechoslovakia that showed its discontent with the decisions taken by the English referee. Following the Czechoslovakian disqualification, Spain took the silver medal and the Netherlands won the bronze.

Answer: Suzanne Lenglen

Did you pick René Lacoste? Alas, you chose the wrong gender: René was a male tennis player, so he had no right competing at the women's singles or women's doubles. René Lacoste entered the Olympic Games of 1924 in Paris, and won a bronze medal in the men's double.
Amélie Mauresmo was not yet around in 1920. She was born in 1979 and competed in the Olympic Games in Sydney 2000 (no medals), and in Athens 2004 (silver medal in the women's singles).
Simone Sabouret was no tennis player. She and her husband Charles competed in the figure skating discipline. They ended seventh at the Antwerp Summer Olympics (1920) and ninth in the Chamonix Winter Olympics of 1924.
Suzanne Lenglen won at Wimbledon both the women's singles as well as the women's doubles six times. She also won three times the mixed doubles at Wimbledon. In Paris, she won the women's singles six times, the women's doubles five times, and the mixed doubles five times.