Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts
1. The ancient Olympics, a competition dedicated to Zeus: There were no girls allowed at these games, either to compete or to watch -- but that hardly means they stayed at home! A month before each Olympics, young unmarried women from all over Greece had their own competition in the Olympic stadium. To which goddess were their games dedicated?
2. The ancient Olympics were officially closed to women, yet at least one woman -- Cynisca, a princess of Sparta -- won Olympic events at the beginning of the fourth century B.C. In what type of sport did Cynisca take home the olive branch?
3. Gladiatorial combat was central to ancient Roman life; if the Roman Empire could be said to have a national sport, surely this was it. Most gladiators were male, but there were some women fighters as well. What infamous Emperor was said to have forced highly-born ladies to fight in the amphitheater?
4. The Middle Ages: we don't have many records of the sporting activities of regular people, but the European nobility wrote with great interest about themselves. A favorite sport among the aristocracy was falconry, which entailed training birds of prey to hunt for human masters. There were often strict rules about who was allowed to use each type of bird; in England, what bird was reserved for noble ladies?
5. In eighteenth-century England, sporting opportunities were very different for working-class women as opposed to aristocratic ones. In the 1720s, one working-class woman, Elizabeth Stokes, took London by storm as she won victory after victory, bragging about her success in newspaper advertisements for subsequent matches. In what sport did Stokes compete?
6. As the eighteenth century progressed, women in the English countryside began playing modern team sports. One sport in particular was widely popular, and accounts of the women's matches (and notches) were widely published in newspapers. This is how we know of the exploits of Miss S. Norcross, star of the Maids of Surrey, who in 1788 became the first known woman to score a century. In which sport did Norcross excel?
7. On the thin edge of sports innovation, women sometimes had an icy reception. In 1851, in the Alsatian town of Colmar (a town in Alsace, France), a woman named Maria Weigel tried to engage in what we now view as a wholesome winter sport (well, except for Tonya Harding) -- and was physically attacked by her neighbors for indecency. In what sport was Weigel trying to take part?
8. Wimbledon, the world's most prestigious tennis championship, began in 1877 to celebrate the inauguration of the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club (previously the All England Croquet Club). The first Wimbledon women's championship was held in 1884. What was the format of this championship?
9. The 1890s saw a trend for female racers in the vélodromes of Paris. Hélène Dutrieu, a future aviator, covered a record 39.19 kilometers (24.35 miles) in an hour in 1895. Amélie LeGall, racing as "Lisette," won an 1896 hundred-kilometer (62-mile) race in two hours and forty-one minutes. What type of races were these?
10. In 1896, the Olympic tradition was revived as representatives of fourteen countries gathered in Athens to compete. The ancient Olympics had banned women even as spectators. Were there any events for female athletes at the first modern Olympics?
Source: Author
CellarDoor
This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor
gtho4 before going online.
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