People Can Be So Cold Trivia Quiz

Answer: Franz Klammer

Downhill skiing is basically racing on skis at breakneck speed and Franz Klammer was the dominant name in the sport during the 1970s and into the 1980s. While other skiing disciplines involve turning as well as speed, downhill needs bravery to cope with speeds which can be as high as 80 miles per hour (130 kilometres per hour) while maintaining an aerodynamic position to prevent drag.

The Austrian born Klammer won the gold medal in the World Cup twenty-five times between 1973 and 1985, plus ten silvers and six bronzes. He also won the gold medal at the 1976 Olympic Games held in Innsbruck.

Answer: Eve Muirhead

Nicknamed 'chess on ice', curling originated in Scotland and has similarities to the game of bowls, played on grass. Heavy granite stones are sent across the ice to reach a concentric target. The aim is for a team to get their four stones closer to the centre than their opponents' stone, denoted by different colours.

The sport is included in the Olympic Games and Eve Muirhead was the captain, known as the skip, of the Great Britain team which won the gold medal in the Beijing Olympics in 2022. She had previously won a bronze medal in 2014 at Sochi. At World and European Championships, Eve represented her home country of Scotland and has one gold medal from the World and three from the European Games.

Answer: Mario Lemieux

Ice hockey is played by teams of six, with one goaltender, two defenders and three forwards. It is played on a rink with players on skates trying to score a goal by hitting the puck into the opposition's goal. It is fast and sometimes furious, with players serving time in a penalty box, off the rink, if they overstep the mark. It is particularly popular in Canada, the USA, Russia and the Nordic countries.

Canadian Mario Lemieux spent his playing career in the USA, with the Pittsburgh Penguins being his only team over two periods. The first was from 1984 until 1997 and then a further period when he came out of retirement and played from 2000 until 2006. Lemieux bought the club, which had declared bankruptcy, in 1999, saving the franchise. Playing for Canada, Lemieux won a gold medal at the Salt Lake City Olympics in 2002 and another in the 2004 World Cup.

Answer: Alberto Tomba

Slalom is skiing in a zig-zag fashion with the requirement to successfully negotiate gates, denoted by coloured poles. Failure to follow the correct course means elimination. Modern day poles are made of plastic and skiers are able to bend them out of the way while skiing through them. There are two main levels, with the giant slalom having the poles spaced further apart, allowing for greater speed. Super giant slalom is even more of a speed event with even wider gaps. All three events feature in both the Winter Olympics and World Championships.

Alberto Tomba, from Italy, was the dominant slalom skier during the late 1980s and into the 1990s. He won gold medals at the 1988 Calgary Olympics, picking up both the slalom and giant slalom events, and won gold again in 1992 (Albertville) in the giant slalom with silver in the slalom event. Tomba also won gold in both events in the 1996 World Championships and has fifty gold medals over the two events in World Cup events.

Answer: Katarina Witt

Figure skating is an artistic performance carried out on an ice rink and usually accompanied by music. Skaters can perform individually, with men and women performing separately, or in partnership. Pairs skating involves a lot of throws and lifts while the other discipline for a pair is ice dance, where the focus is rather more on elegance and grace.

Katarina Witt, from Germany, was the leading female figure skater of the 1980s, winning gold medals at successive Olympic Games in 1984 (Sarajevo) and 1988 (Calgary). She also won the World Championship on four occasions and amassed six gold medals in the European Championships, all in the 1980s.

Answer: Francesco Friedrich

Also called bobsleigh, the sport involves teams of two or four riders who push start their sled before jumping in and racing down an ice covered course as fast as possible. The only power involved is that of gravity, but control of the sled and choosing the best route down the course increases the speed. The other team member(s) assist by their positioning and reducing drag.

Francesco Friedrich is a German bobsleigher who acts as the pilot in charge of the sled in both the two person and four person events. He has achieved much success in the twenty-first century, winning gold medals in both the two and four man events at the Winter Olympics held in 2018 and 2022. In addition, he has amassed eleven gold medals over the two events at the World Championships held between 2013 and 2021.

Answer: Shaun White

This relatively recent sport, dating from the 1960s, was developed from surfing and was originally known as snurfing as the first equipment was derived from surfboards. It also has similarities to skateboarding. Participants have both feet attached to one board to travel across snow and ice. Over the years the sport has developed with different disciplines becoming common. These include speed events, similar to downhill skiing, big air, involving tricks, and half-pipe, performed in a ramp with competitors performing acrobatic moves in the air.

Snowboarding has been part of the Winter Olympics since 1998 and Shaun White, from California, made his mark in the half-pipe events. He won gold medals in the event in 2006 (Torino), 2010 ((Vancouver) and 2018 (PyeongChang). White also dominated the Winter X Games, set up by ESPN, between 2003 and 2013 winning numerous gold medals in different snowboarding events.

Answer: Matti Nykanen

Ski jumping involves hurtling down a curved jump and travelling as far as possible before making an aesthetically pleasing landing on the ground. The skier positions his or her body as parallel to the skis as possible to reduce drag. The sport originated in Scandinavia and has been part of the Winter Olympics since 1924 for men and 2014 for women.

Matti Nykanen, from Finland, achieved a run of success during the 1980s which included four gold medals at the Olympics - one in 1984 and three in 1988 (in different ski jumping events). He also won a silver in 1984. Nykanen added five World Championship gold medals to his trophy cabinet between 1982 and 1989.

Answer: Lizzy Yarnold

If you thought sliding down an icy track in a fast moving bobsled sounded scary, how would you feel about doing it lying face down on something like a tin tray on runners? Skeleton is the slowest of the sliding events which rely on gravity, as the position of the rider's head makes their body less aerodynamic. Even so, speeds can reach 80 miles per hour (just over 130 kilometres per hour) - luge, which is similar but where the rider goes down the track facing up and feet first, is faster with speeds being about ten mph faster.

Lizzy Yarnold is a British skeleton racer who won gold medals at the Winter Olympics in Sochi (2014) and 2018 (PyeongChang). She also has gold medals from the World Championships in 2015, the European Championship in the same year and the World Cup which ran from 2013-2014. Lizzy retired from the sport in 2018.

Answer: Eric Heiden

As the name tells you, speed skating involves travelling as fast as possible around a track with races covering certain set distances. Originating in Scandinavia and other countries with cold winters, speed skating developed into a sport in the nineteenth century and became part of the Winter Olympics in 1924 for men with women's events added in 1960. Events range in distance from 500m to 10,000m and races can often be chaotic with falls and collisions regular events.

The American speed skater Eric Heiden dominated the 1980 Winter Olympics winning all five of the available gold medals in Lake Placid. The distances not already mentioned are 1000m, 1500, and 5000m. Between 1977 and 1980 he won another seven gold medals at the World Allround Championships and World Sprint Championships. Heiden took up professional cycling when he retired from skating.