Going, Going, Gone Online Trivia | Olympic Games

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. 1924 - "We're in Paris, July 20th, and the finals for the 100m free style are about to start. A young American swimmer takes a terrific start. He's going fine. At the turning point, he's still going for gold. And there he is - in a new Olympic record: 59 seconds. He's the first one to swim the 100 metres under one minute at an Olympic event. AAAH-AAAAAAH-AAH!" What is his name?

Answer: Johnny Weissmuller

Whew, that was impressive. I'd like to call out "AAAH-AAAAAAH-AAH!", but the victorious swimmer didn't utter this yell (yet). Johnny Weissmuller has just obtained another Olympic gold medal (after the 400m free style and on the same day as the 4x200 metres freestyle relay). In Paris, he also won a bronze medal in water polo. In Amsterdam in 1928, he would gain another two gold medals - with a new Olympic record on the 100 metres.
After his swimming career, Johnny would have success in his acting career, with two major roles in several movies: Tarzan (twelve times) and Jungle Jim (thirteen movies). As Tarzan, he adopted the aforesaid yell: "AAAH-AAAAAAH-AAH!"
The American brothers Duke and Sam Kahanamoku won the silver and bronze medals, respectively, at the 100 metres free style in Paris. The Swedish swimmer Arne Borg finished fourth, and the Japanese Katsuo Takaishi was the last finalist in this race.

2. Tokyo 1964- The Australian woman who already won gold in 1956 and in 1960 in the 100m free style, is once again favourite. "October 12th, the semi-finals. She takes a blasting start. She's going fine, she's going to qualify - and the Olympic record is gone, at 59.9 seconds. Yes! She's the first woman to swim 100 metres within a minute." What's her name?

Answer: Dawn Fraser

Dawn Fraser is the swimmer we've just watched. The next day she won the final in a new Olympic record of 59.5 seconds. Her career would total eight Olympic medals: four times gold, and four times silver. She also is the first swimmer to win three Olympic swimming titles in the same event (in her case 100m free style), a feat that was equalled by Krisztina Egerszegi (200m backstroke, in 1988, 1992 and 1996) and by Michael Phelps (100m butterfly and 200m individual medley). The red herrings mentioned here are other Australian Olympic swimmers. Tracey Wickham once swam for Australia in the 1976 Montreal Olympics, when she hadn't reached the age of 14 - but she didn't qualify for any of the semi-finals. Susie O'Neill, nicknamed "Madame Butterfly" won eight Olympic medals (of which two gold), and Leisel Jones won nine Olympic medals (three gold).

3. Munich 1972- October 4th, the final of the 4x100 metres medley relay. "The third American swimmer, who'll swim the butterfly stroke, has already collected six gold medals at these Olympic Games. He makes a good start, barely leading before East-Germany. And he's going fine - he's going great - and now the front crawler has just to finish the race. The American team wins in a new World record." Who can now claim his seventh gold medal on one Olympic game, and with a World Record in each and every of these events?

Answer: Mark Spitz

I've mentioned here all four finalists in the American team, for they all contributed to Mark Spitz's record streak. Mike Stamm started the medley relay with the backstroke and limited the damage from the best backstroke swimmer at that time, the East-German Roland Matthes. Tom Bruce used the breaststroke to tie with East-Germany, and Mark Spitz gained two seconds over the East-German Hartmut Fl�ckner. Jerry Heidenreich secured the gold and the World record using the front crawl. Mark Spitz then could proudly present seven gold medals in seven World records: 100m freestyle in 51.22 seconds; 200m freestyle in 1:52.78; 100m butterfly in 54.27 seconds; 200m butterfly in 2:00.70; 4x100m freestyle relay in 3:26.42; 4x200m freestyle relay in 7:35.78 and the 4x100m medley relay in 3:48.16.

4. Seoul 1988- We're watching the 50 metres freestyle. "One East-German woman has already won the five previous events in which she competed at these games. Will she win a perfect score? The race starts. She's going fine - she's going for gold - and there she finishes. The Olympic record is gone, this East German athlete has set a record of 25.49 seconds." What is her name?

Answer: Kristin Otto

Kristin Otto was the first woman to swim six Olympic gold medals at one Olympics. In Seoul, she won the 50m freestyle, the 100m freestyle, the 100m backstroke, the 100m butterfly, the 4x100m freestyle relay and the 4x100m medley relay. Of these races, she ended four in an Olympic record time: the butterfly race, both the relay races and the 50 metres freestyle.
The Chinese Yang Wenyi won the silver medal in the 50 metres freestyle. Tamara Costache (from Romania) and the French Catherine Plewinski were also in the finals, finishing sixth and seventh, respectively.

5. Aleksandr Popov was favourite for the 100m freestyle at Atlanta 1996. It's July 20th, and the final starts. "There he goes. He's going fine, he's going for it - and he has won." What's remarkable about his third gold medal on the Olympics, and the first he wins in Atlanta?

Answer: Popov won gold for a second country

The Soviet Union fell apart into fifteen different countries between 1989 and 1993, but twelve of them chose to join forces for the 1992 Olympic Games and competed as the "Unified Team". Likewise Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia split, whereas Germany was reunited.
Popov entered the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona as one of the members of the Unified Team. He won the 100m and 200m freestyle swimming events. In 1996, the Unified Team had ceased to exist. Popov represented Russia for these Games. Once again, he won the freestyle swimming events over 50m and 100m. So he was arguably the first swimmer to win the same event for two different countries.
However, Popov was not the first athlete over all disciplines compared to win gold for two different countries. At least 17 Olympic competitors had achieved this feat by 1992, and two of them would even win gold for three different countries (the wrestler Aleksandr Karelyn and the handball player Andrey Lavrov -- - USSR, Unified Team and then Russia).
There have been a few athletes to compete in five or more consecutive Olympic Games. The German canoeist Birgit Schmidt-Fischer won even gold in six different Olympic games (1980, 1988, 1992, 1996, 2000 and 2004), and the British rower Steve Redgrave won at five Games.
The swimmer who announced before the opening ceremonies which races he would win, was Mark Spitz in 1972. He had tried such annunciation in 1968, but there he won only two gold medals of the six he had promised.
Since the Olympic Games welcomed professional athletes, only very few have tried their hand at multiple disciplines. Professional sports competitions are so specialised it is very hard to go for a medal in another discipline. Since professionals entered the Olympics (around the seventies - eighties), the first two win gold in two "different" disciplines was Karch Karoly - an American who won gold in indoor volleyball (1984 and 1988) and in beach volleyball (1996).

6. Athens 2004- August 18th. "Can one Australian win five gold medals? Let's see the finals of the 200m freestyle. The swimmers are going, with the Dutch at the lead. The Australian is going to take over in the last lap. He's going for gold. YES ! His fifth gold medal is achieved in an Olympic record time." Which Australian swimmer won a fifth gold medal in what was commonly called "the race of the century"?

Answer: Ian Thorpe

The Australians Thorpe and Hackett, the Dutch van den Hoogenband and the American Phelps were by some media considered the best freestyle swimmers ever. And these four met in the finals of the 200m freestyle. No wonder publicity was made for "the race of the century", although each and every Olympic event can grow to epic proportions.
Pieter van den Hoogenband took the lead in the first lap, and led Thorpe by 1.44 seconds halfway. But then Thorpe accelerated, closed the gap and took the lead in the last lap. Thorpe set an Olympic record of 1:44.71, whilst van den Hoogenband took the silver and Phelps had to be content with the bronze medal.
Besides his five gold medals (three in Sydney, two in Athens), Thorpe also won three silver medals and one bronze medal.

7. We're still in Athens, at the 2004 games. Now it's August 21, and we're watching the women's 50 metres freestyle . "The Dutch is going fine, she's going well ahead, and she has won. She already had two silver and two bronze medals, and now she adds her fourth gold medal." What is her name?

Answer: Inge De Bruijn

Inge De Bruijn was the swimmer we're looking for here. She was the first Dutch woman to collect eight medals in Olympic swimming (even more than her contemporary colleague Pieter van den Hoogenband, who has to be content with seven medals).
In 2000, Inge won the gold medals in the 50m and 100m freestyle, as well as the 100m butterfly, and silver in the 4x100m freestyle relay. In 2004 she added silver in the 100m freestyle, bronze in the 100m butterfly as well as in the 4x100m freestyle relay, and finally (on the last day of the swimming competition) gold in the 50m freestyle. In 2012 her Dutch medal record was bettered by the equestrian Anky van Grunsven, who won a ninth medal.
The red herrings were also Dutch swimmers. Ada Kok won two silver medals in 1964 and one gold medal in 1968. Annemarie Groen participated in the backstroke events in 1972, but didn't qualify for any of the finals. Ranomi Kromowidjojo won one gold medal in 2008, two gold medals in 2012, and a silver medal in 2012.

8. Athens 2004- we're listening to the comments on the women's 4x100m medley relay. It's August 21st. "In the third lane, we have the German team. Antje Buschshulte starts with the backstroke. The USA are going into the lead, Germany for second place. Sarah Poewe takes over with the breaststroke. The Americans hold the lead, but the Australians are just going past Germany. Germany for third place. Now Franziska von Almsick swims the butterfly stroke. Australia takes the lead, Germany holds third place. And the last swimmer for Germany is the young Daniela G�tz, in freestyle. Oh, Daniela can't overtake the Americans any more. Gold for Australia, silver for the USA, and bronze for Germany." Franziska von Almsick won here her tenth Olympic medal. What's odd about her achievements?

Answer: Even with ten medals, Franziska never won gold

Franziska von Almsick won four silver medals and six bronze medals. In doing so, she's the first athlete ever to win ten Olympic medals without ever claiming the gold.
Her medals are dispersed over four Olympics. In Barcelona (1992) she won silver on the 200m freestyle and in the 4x100m medley relay, and bronze in the 100m freestyle and the 4x100m freestyle relay. In Atlanta (1996) she added silver on the 200m freestyle and the 4x200m freestyle relay, and bronze on the 4x100m freestyle relay. In Sydney (2000) she won bronze in the 4x200m freestyle relay. In Athens (2004) she repeated the Sydney achievement, and finally added bronze in the 4x100m medley relay.
Competing in the normal Olympics and in the Paralympics is a very rare sight. But the South-African runner Oscar Pistorius did so in the 2012 Olympics and the 2012 Paralympics.
Women in many countries lose their previous surname and adopt their husband's surname when they marry. One athlete who participated first under her maiden name, then under the name of her first husband and finally under the surname of her second husband was the German diver Ingrid Kr�mer-Engel-Gulbin.
Theoretically a woman swimmer could collect 18 medals in one Olympic game, for there are in total 18 different events. But these events are so diverse (four basic strokes, distances varying between 50 metres in a swimming pool and 10 kilometre in open water) that it is highly unlikely any woman will ever do so. The first woman to swim six Olympic medals at one Olympic game, was Kristin Otto in 1988.

9. In 2008, the Japanese swimmer Kosuke Kitajima and the U.S. swimmer Brendan Hansen were considered the favourites for the finals of a specific event held on August 11th. Let's listen to what a commentator could have said. "A very interesting finals, for five of these eight people have swum this distance within one minute in the heats or in the semi-finals. It's going to prove a very fast race. And yes, they're going fine through the water. They're going for a World record. And yes, Kitajima wins in the World record time of 58.91 seconds." You've probably already guessed the event is the 100m, but which stroke was used?

Answer: Breaststroke

These four options I gave are the four official strokes for Olympic swimming events. Freestyle can mean each and every stroke, but usually swimmers use the front crawl - the fastest way one can move in the water.
The breaststroke is the slowest stroke. The world record for 100m breaststroke went down below the minute in 2001. The Olympic competition saw the first competitors to swim this event within the minute in 2008, in Beijing.

10. In London in 2012, the first athlete ever won his twentieth Olympic medal. Let's hear the comments. "The athletes prepare for the start of the 200m individual medley. The Americans are the favourites. That's the start. Wow, that American is going fast in the butterfly. He holds the lead in the backstroke, although the Brazilian is closing in. In the breaststroke lap, the American is still going for gold, and the Hungarian is securing a medal. And now in the freestyle the American is safe - he wins his twentieth Olympic medal. Amazing!" The question is obvious: who is the first athlete to win twenty Olympic medals?

Answer: Michael Phelps

In 2000 Michael Phelps finished fifth in the only event he competed in.
But his glory days started in Athens in 2004. Here he won two bronze medals and six gold medals, including three Olympic records and one World record.
In Beijing in 2008, Michael Phelps did even better. He won all eight events in which he competed, with seven World records and one Olympic record.
In London in 2012, he won a silver medal and two gold medals in the three relay events in which he competed. Of the four individual events he competed in, he was disappointed to win only the 200m individual medley and the 100m butterfly. He took silver in the 200m butterfly, and came in fourth in the 400m individual medley.
In total Michael Phelps thus won 18 gold medals, 2 silver medals and 2 bronze medals. If we discard the team events, Michael won 11 individual gold medals, one individual silver medal (200m butterfly in London 2012) and one individual bronze medal (200m freestyle in Athens 2004).

Source: Author JanIQ

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor gtho4 before going online.
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Going, Going, Gone Trivia Quiz

This quiz relates some of the most significant achievements at the swimming events at the Olympics. All these swimmers have done something for the first time. I'll start each question with the words I imagine a radio commentator could have used.

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