Worse Than Last Trivia Quiz

Answer: Jürgen Hingsen

Jürgen Hingsen, silver medalist of the 1984 Olympic decathlon, was one of West Germany's greatest medal hopes in the track and field stadium at the Seoul Olympics. His attempt to improve on his placing of four years prior, however, ended literally before he so much as competed at the first event: he was responsible for three false starts in the 100 meter dash and was promptly disqualified.

Answer: Michael Rasmussen

In a much discussed decision, Team Rabobank decided to withdraw and immediately fire their most successful rider while he was leader of the race. The accusations were that he violated team rules by having lied about his whereabouts during the spring's training weeks.

He claimed to have been in Mexico but was seen in Italy - but this fact was just one more question mark behind the integrity of Michael Rasmussen who was already under investigation and suspended from his national team on allegations of intentionally missing doping controls.

The team's decision was widely seen as, maybe, just maybe, a way to avoid them seeing their prime rider disqualified for use of illegal substances, further tarnishing their reputation.

Answer: His boxing license was rescinded for 15 months

Asonishingly, Tyson got away from this extreme case of unsporting conduct without any career-ending consequences, not one. His boxing license was revoked but reinstated just over a year later and while he had to pay over three million dollars in fines, this did not bankrupt him (although this fate caught up with him six years later). Tyson could not lose any titles in the fight as he was the challenger (it was a rematch of the title fight he had lost in 1996) nor was it his last attempt at reclaiming the World Championship as he got another chance against Lennox Lewis in 1999. Also, none of Tyson's several criminal convictions came as a result of this fight.

Answer: Riding in a car for almost half the race

It appeared that Lorz was ill-prepared to tackle the 40 kilometer race as he collapsed from exhaustion at the 15 km mark. However, with the events of the day hardly as supervised as today, his manager was able to pick him up in a car and drive him back to the stadium. Most likely, this would have been the end of it had the car not broken down. Lorz, by now recovered, exited the car and ran the last 8 km, entering the stadium as a celebrated winner - until the truth came to light.

Answer: Dorando Pietri

Pietri was a victim of the exceptionally hot 1908 London summer. Having taken a daring run during the second half of the race, he fell victim to dehydration over the last kilometers and, when he entered the stadium, took a wrong turn and then fell when he was redirected by offficials; and then fell another four times over those last 350 meters (which took him ten minutes to complete).

In spite of this, he had enough of a lead to still cross the line in first place and, even though he had covered every inch of the distance on his own feet, the support by officials was enough to trigger a disqualification. Unlike some others who are disqualified, Pietri was still celebrated as a hero for his dedication and is, by many, still seen as the true winner of the 1908 marathon.

Answer: John McEnroe

John McEnroe was quite well-known for his occasional inability to control his temper on the court. The game that escalated to the point of a disqualification was his fourth-round game against Mikael Pernfors from Sweden. McEnroe was up two sets to one but behind in the fourth set when, already having been warned earlier, he repeatedly threw his racket to the ground in frustration, hard enough to crack it. When he was penalized for that with the loss of a point (the second escalation level), he complained in rude terms and demanded the overseer of the Grand Slam circuit, Ken Farrar, to intervene. Farrar indeed did intervene by authorizing Armstrong to hand McEnroe his third and final penalty - a match forfeit. Later, in a press conference, McEnroe related that he had misunderstood a recent rule change and that he had thought only the fourth offense would result in a disqualification. In my opinion, that's hardly a justification for bad behavior.

The previous disqualification in a Grand Slam event was at the French Championships in 1963, when William Alvarez (Colombia) was disqualified for repeatedly arguing over line calls and holding up play. It was a second round match vs. Martin Mulligan (Australia).

Answer: Retroactive forfeiture of the entire season's points

The final race of the 1997 season had all the trappings of a great story. Schumacher had come from behind against Villeneuve during the second half of the season and came to the Jerez circuit with a one-point lead. Everything looked set for Schumacher's third World Champion title when he comfortably led the race.

However, a coolant leak on his Ferrari in the final laps made a finish unlikely and, with Villeneuve scoring, the title would be lost. So, when Villeneuve attempted to overtake Schumacher for the championship, the German provoked a collision intended to crash both drivers out of the race.

The maneuver failed in two ways - not only was Villeneuve able to finish the race in fourth place and secure the championship, but Schumacher's dangerous maneuver was punished with the forfeiture of all points and thus the loss of second place in the season's championship along with all its benefits.

Answer: The race was on a Sunday

Eric Liddell was a devout Scottish Christian who, according to his own words, ran for the glory of God. When he found out that his qualifying heat would be on a Sunday, he could not justify running in the light of his faith and withdrew from the race, leaving a highly ambitious Jewish Harold Abrahams, whom he knew well from their common time at Cambridge, with the opportunity to score a gold medal in his absence. Liddell however ultimately came out a winner as well - instead of the 100 meters, he entered the 400 meter race and, against all odds, won the gold medal for Scotland and his faith.

Answer: Ruffian

Ruffian's last race was a one-on-one match race in July 1975 against the leading three-year-old stallion of her year, Kentucky Derby winner Foolish Pleasure. It was promoted as "battle of the sexes". About 600 meters into the race, both sesamoid bones in Ruffian's foreleg broke under pressure. Her rider tried to stop her, but the wounded mare continued down the track, still bent only on winning the race, further injuring her leg. After she was finally stopped, the damage was extensive, but not yet irreparable - immediate emergency surgery was undertaken and it looked as if she could survive and at least, if not race again, be used for breeding.

However when Ruffian woke from anesthesia, her instincts once again took over and she began flailing helplessly, as if still racing, and by doing so, she not only undid the repairs but further smashed her elbow joint beyond any repair, leaving the veterinarians and owner with no choice but to euthanize the animal.

As an outcome of this tragedy, major developments in horse rehabilitation were made. Today, racehorses requiring leg surgery are placed in special water tanks after the operation where any reflex movements cannot lead to such disastrous consequences.

Answer: 54 years, 8 months, 6 days, 8 hours, 32 minutes and 20.3 seconds

During the 1912 Olympic marathon race, Mr. Kanakuri passed out from exhaustion and was cared for by a Swedish family for some time. He never checked in at the finish and was actually considered missing by the Swedish authorities as he also left no record when he traveled home after the games.

In 1920, he returned to the Olympic games, finishing the marathon in 16th place. It was however not until 1966 that he returned to the very spot he had passed out at 54 years prior and, before the cameras of Swedish Television, ran the remainder of the distance on the original track layout.

While his result has never been recognized by the IOC, several Olympic statistic collections actually show his record-breaking completion time, rehabilitating him from "worse than last" to a well-earned and unique last place he could be rather proud of.