2024 Paris Olympics Highlights #3: Athletics Quiz

Answer: Saint Lucia

Julien Alfred (born 1 June 2001) won the event with a time of 10.72 seconds ahead of Sha'Carri Richardson (USA) who clocked 10.87s and Melissa Jefferson (USA) in 10.92s. This was the first ever medal won by Saint Lucia. She also clinched a silver in the 200m in 22.08s, behind American sprinter Gabrielle Thomas who clocked 21.83s.

Saint Lucia is an island nation with an area size of 617 sq. km, and had a population of nearly 180,000 in 2024.

Answer: Botswana

Letsile Tebogo (born 7 June 2003) clocked 19.46 seconds to win the event. He defeated American sprinters Kenny Bednarek and the favorite Noah Lyles who finished second and third respectively. His win also earned him the first ever gold medal for Botswana at the Olympics. He also anchored his team to a silver medal in the men's 4 x 400m relay, finishing behind the USA.

Answer: Dominica

Thea LaFond (born 5 April 1994) won the event with a jump of 15.02m to claim the first ever medal for Dominica. Dominica is a small island nation with an area size of 750 sq km and population of more than 73,000 in 2024.

Answer: Pakistan

Arshad Nadeem (2 January 1997) threw a distance of 92.72m to win the gold medal for Pakistan. He is the first Pakistani to win a medal in athletics. He beat the defending Olympic champion from Tokyo 2020, Neeraj Chopra (born 24 December 1997) of India, who finished second.

Answer: Bahrain

Winfred Yavi (born 31 December 1999) produced a stunning final kick to win the event, beating defending champion Peruth Chemutai of Uganda and Kenyan Faith Cherotich.

This was the third athletics gold medal for Bahrain in Olympic history, all of which had been won by female athletes born in Africa. Ethiopian-born Maryam Yusuf Ismal won the women's 1500m at London 2012 and Kenyan-born Ruth Jebel won the women's 3000m steeplechase at Rio 2016.

Answer: Netherlands

The Dutch team was in fourth place in the early part of the final leg. In the final stretch, Femke Bol (born 23 February 2000) overtook Belgium, Great Britain and the U.S.A to win the gold medal for her team. Netherlands also won the silver medal in the women's 4 x 400m relay, finishing behind the USA.

Answer: Spain

Spain won this event with Ecuador finishing second and Australia in third position. This event is over a distance of 42.195 km, the same distance as the marathon. The relay team is made of one man and one woman and the winning Spaniards were Alvaro Martin and Maria Perez.

Each athlete has to complete two legs each, alternating in this order: male 11.45km, female 10km, male 10km, female 10.745km. This event replaced the 50km race walk event.

Answer: Dominican Republic

Marileidy Paulino (born 25 October 1996) became the first woman from the Dominican Republic to win an Olympic gold medal. She clocked a time of 48.17s to finish ahead of Salwa Eid Naser (Bahrain) and Natalia Kaczmarek (Poland). She won the silver medal for this event at Tokyo 2020.

Answer: Pole vault

Swedish pole vaulter Armand Duplantis (born 10 November 1999) broke his own record clearing 6.25m. He also won this event at Tokyo 2020.

Answer: 400m hurdles

Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone (born 7 August 1999) clocked 50.37s to win the women's 400m hurdles. She broke her own previous world record of 50.65s. She became the first female athlete to break four world records in this event, and also the first woman to clock sub-52 seconds and sub-51 seconds.

Answer: Canada

Canada, anchored by their star sprinter Andre De Grasse (born 10 November 1994), finished in 37.50s to clinch the gold medal, ahead of South Africa in 37.57s and Great Britain in 37.61s. The women's event was won by the USA with Great Britain in second place and Germany in third.

Answer: Fourth

Jakob Ingebrigtsen (born 19 November 2000) improved his European record on 12 July 2024 with a time of 3m 26.73s at Monaco's Herulis meeting, to become the fourth man to go under the 3:27 barrier. In the 1500m final, he faded to fourth with Yared Nuguse, Josh Kerr and Cole Hocker passing him in the final straight. Hocker (USA) won the event in 3m 27.65s, ahead of British runner Kerr and another American runner Nuguse. By winning the 5000m, he became the first Norwegian to win this event in the Olympics.

Answer: Ethiopia

Tamirat Tola (born 11 August 1991) won the event in 2h 6m 26s. Belgian runner Bashir Abdi finished 21s behind the winner in second and Kenyan runner Benson Kipruto 44s behind in third place. Kenyan legend Eliud Kipchoge, two-time Olympic champion in 2016 and 2020, failed to finish the race.

Answer: Netherlands

Ethiopian-born Sifan Hassan (born 1 January 1993) won the marathon for the Netherlands in a new Olympic record time of 2h 22m 55s. She sprinted past Ethiopian Tigst Assefa who finished three seconds behind her. Kenya's Hellen Obiri finished third with a time of 2h 23m 10s.

With this achievement, she became the first woman in Olympic history to win three medals in 5000m, 10000m and the marathon in one Games. She clinched two bronzes in the 5000m and 10000m.

Answer: Kenya

Kenya won four gold medals in the following events: women's 1500m, women's 5000m, women's 10000m and men's 800m. Beatrice Chebet (born 5 March 2000) won the 5000m and 10000m to become the third woman in Olympic history to win these two events in one single Games. Faith Kipyegon (born 10 January 1994) won the 1500m; she also finished second in the 5000m. Emmanuel Wanyonyi (born 1 August 2004) won the men's 800m.

It was a disappointing Games for Jamaica as they failed to win a gold medal in any of the sprint events: men's 100m and 200m, women's 100m and 200m, men's and women's 4 x 100 relay. Kishane Thompson (born 17 July 2001) came closest in the men's 100m; he was pipped to the line by American sprinter Noah Lyles, losing by 0.05s.