GB in Olympic Games Trivia

1. In which English coastal town, known for its association with the Royal Navy, was Sharron Davies born?

From Quiz Silver Girl

Answer: Plymouth

Sharron was born in Plymouth in November 1962. She joined local swimming clubs and soon developed an aptitude for the sport. At the age of 11 she was invited to join the British national swimming team, making her at the time the youngest swimmer to do so.

From Quiz Messing About in Boats

Answer: Second

The pair rowed in the lightweight double sculls event. The final started dramatically when one of the seats in the boat broke. Since it happened early, the rules allowed for the race to be stopped for repairs to be carried out. Despite building up a lead, the pair were overtaken by the Danish rowers, with New Zealand taking bronze.

From Quiz London 2012 - Team GB Gold Medals

Answer: Bradley Wiggins

The victory by Wiggins in the 2012 Tour de France meant that he was a national hero even before winning an Olympic gold (actually his seventh Olympic medal in total). On the day of the time trial, some British newspapers printed "cut out and wear" sideburns for their readers, to match Bradley's resplendent facial hair.

From Quiz Rebecca Adlington's Beijing Olympics

Answer: Great Britain

Rebecca Adlington was born in Mansfield, England, on February 17, 1989. She is a British swimmer.

From Quiz UK and World Athletics

Answer: Linford Christie

Linford took gold in Barcelona in 1992, having eventually taken Silver behind Carl Lewis at the previous Olympics in Seoul, when Ben Johnson was disqualified.

From Quiz Silver Girl

Answer: Thirteen

Sharron was a member of the 1976 Great Britain Women's swimming team which took part in the 1976 Montreal Summer Olympic Games. At the Montreal Games, there were 13 women's swimming events. East German swimmers won gold in eleven of these, silver in six, and bronze in one. By contrast, in the men's events they won a single bronze, which is odd, considering they would have shared similar training regimes and resources. Sharron has since written how she and her colleagues knew at once that there was something suspicious about the East German swimmers, who were never allowed to mix with members of the other national teams and seemed almost like automatons in their behaviour. Much later, revelations about the state-sponsored doping regime confirmed what all the other athletes suspected - that the East German female swimmers had been given a cocktail of illegal performance-enhancing drugs.

From Quiz Messing About in Boats

Answer: Katherine Grainger

Katherine had finished second in the quadruple sculls in both Sydney (2000) and Beijing (2008). She also won silver in Athens (2004) in the coxless pair. For 2012, she was teamed with Anna Watkins in the double sculls and the duo raced to gold ahead of Australia and Poland. Beth Tweddle was in the gymnastics team, while Tina Cook and Mary King both represented Great Britain in eventing.

From Quiz London 2012 - Team GB Gold Medals

Answer: Swimming, cycling, running

Contestants in the Triathlon start with a 1,500-metre outdoor swim, followed by a 43-kilometre cycle ride and finishing with a ten-kilometre run. Had Jonny Brownlee not been given a 15-second penalty for getting on his cycle too early after the swim, he would probably have picked up the silver medal instead of the bronze.

From Quiz Rebecca Adlington's Beijing Olympics

Answer: 2.

During the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, Rebecca Adlington won gold medals in both the women's 400-meter freestyle and the women's 800-meter freestyle.

From Quiz UK and World Athletics

Answer: Kelly Holmes

What an amazing achievement! She beat her old training partner and rival Maria Mutola, and rightly went on to be voted Sports Personality of the Year 2004 by a huge majority. She was only the third woman in history to achieve this double, and only the seventh British woman ever to win an Olympic athletics gold medal.

From Quiz Silver Girl

Answer: Father

Sharron's father Terry Davies became her official coach when she was nine. He also coached several other successful British swimmers on an individual basis, although he was never invited to become a British national team coach, with all the prestige and additional opportunities this would have brought. This is because he had spoken openly about the East German doping regime at a time when officialdom was pretending it didn't exist.

From Quiz Messing About in Boats

Answer: Great Britain

Despite his name, Etienne is English and paired with Tim Baillie to take the gold medal, with the other British duo taking the silver. As the slowest qualifiers, Baillie and Stott were the first competitors in the final run, and set a time that no-one else could beat. The bronze medal was taken by Slovakia. The slalom events took place at the Lee Valley White Water Centre, in Hertfordshire. The venue was purpose built for the Olympics and was officially opened in 2010 by Princess Anne, the Princess Royal.

From Quiz London 2012 - Team GB Gold Medals

Answer: Boxing

Nicola Adams won the gold medal in the Flyweight Boxing, after picking up a silver medal in the world amateur championships earlier in 2012. Incidentally, it was calculated that if the county of Yorkshire had been an independent nation, it would have finished 11th in the medal table at the 2012 Olympics, with eight golds (more than Australia), although admittedly four were in team events.

From Quiz Great Britons at the Olympic Games

Answer: Harold Abrahams

Abrahams and Liddell were the subject of the 1981 movie "Chariots of Fire". The movie primarily focused on Abrahams' rivalry with Scottish sprinter Eric Liddell (who refused to run on Sunday due to religious beliefs). Abrahams won the 100 metres beating American Charlie Paddock into second place. In third place was Arthur Porritt, who later became the Governer General of New Zealand. The race took place at 7 PM on 7 July, and after the race Abrahams and Porritt had dinner together. Every year thereafter, Abrahams and Porritt would meet at 7 PM on 7 July for dinner. One other item of interest is that when, in 1954, Roger Bannister became the first man ever to run a four minute mile, Harold Abrahams was the official timekeeper.

From Quiz Rebecca Adlington's Beijing Olympics

Answer: August 11, 2008

She won the women's 400-meter freestyle, with a time of 4:03.22. During the heats for this event, she also broke the Commonwealth record with a time of 4:02.24.

From Quiz UK and World Athletics

Answer: Colin Jackson

Colin was an extremely successful athlete during his career, carving a niche for himself as an almost unbeatable hurdler, starting with Commonwealth and European Championship golds in 1990, and rounding off his illustrious championship career with his fourth successive European Championship victory in 2002. In spite of setting the world record for the 110m hurdles in Stuttgart in 1993, he never managed to win Olympic gold, the one blot in an otherwise outstanding career.

From Quiz Silver Girl

Answer: Jönköping, Sweden

The year after her Olympic debut, Sharron competed in the European Aquatics Championships, held in Jönköping, Sweden, where she won two bronze medals. Once again, the women's swimming was dominated by the East Germans, who won gold medals in 12 out of the 14 events. Sharron's individual bronze in the 400-metre individual medley was behind two East German swimmers, and the 4 x 100-metre freestyle relay in which she shared a team bronze was won by an East German quartet. Even if you hadn't heard of Jönköping, hopefully the clue "northern" would have pointed you in the direction of Sweden.

From Quiz Messing About in Boats

Answer: Ben Ainslie

Ben started poorly by his standards, and the Danish competitor built up a useful lead over the first six races. Ainslie then pulled back, angered by what he believed to be some gamesmanship from the Dane, who he relegated to the silver medal position. Ben originally competed in the Laser class, where he had already won silver in 1996 and gold in 2000. He moved up to the bigger Finn class and went on to win gold in 2004, 2008 and 2012. Iain Percy won silver, with Andrew Simpson, in the Star class which they had won in Beijing. Greg Rutherford was Britain's gold medal winner in the long jump, in which Chris Tomlinson finished sixth.

From Quiz London 2012 - Team GB Gold Medals

Answer: Jessica Ennis

The weight of expectation on her shoulders was enormous. Jessica Ennis had been the "poster girl" of "Team GB" in the run-up to the London 2012 Games, with her image plastered over everything from bus stops to billboards. Over two days, she held her nerve in the seven events and took the gold by a margin of 306 points over the second-placed Lilli Schwarzkopf (Germany).

From Quiz Great Britons at the Olympic Games

Answer: Sarajevo

Jayne and Chris performed their famous "Bolero" routine, for which they received nine perfect 6.0 marks for artistic impression, to sweep to victory at the 1984 winter games. They didn't defend their title in 1988, but returned to the winter Olympics again in 1994. In one of the closest ever ice dance competitions they were edged out into the bronze medal position.

From Quiz Rebecca Adlington's Beijing Olympics

Answer: Women's 800-meter freestyle.

On August 16, 2008, it was the women's 800-meter freestyle that provided Rebecca Adlington with her second gold medal of the Beijing Olympics. She also broke the world record in the process, finishing with a time of 8:14.10.

From Quiz UK and World Athletics

Answer: 400 metres hurdles

Kriss was a regular fixture in the British relay squad, where he often ran the crucial anchor leg in spite of not being a specialist 400m flat runner. This was due to his amazing tenacity and determination which made him feared by the world's best. The pinnacle of Akabusi's career came at the World Championships in 1991, when he took bronze in his own event, 400m hurdles, then went on to clinch gold for the 4x400m squad, beating world number 1 ranked USA team into second.

From Quiz Silver Girl

Answer: Two gold, one silver, one bronze

In 1978, Sharron went to the Commonwealth Games in Edmonton, Alberta. Not being part of the Commonwealth of Nations, East Germany was not eligible to take part, and Sharron was at last able to compete on a level playing field against other "clean" athletes. Still aged only 15, she won individual gold medals in the 200- and 400-metre individual medleys. She also won a team silver medal in the 4 x 100-metre freestyle relay, and a team bronze in the 4 × 100 metre medley relay.

From Quiz Messing About in Boats

Answer: Eton

All these are well known public (i.e. fee paying) schools in the UK, but it was Eton College which acted as host to the rowing and some of the canoeing events. Dorney Lake was renamed Eton Dorney for the duration of the games, and saw much success for the British team. The idea of creating a purpose built facility at Eton was first suggested in the 1960s, but building work did not start until 1996, finishing, as planned, in 2006.

From Quiz UK and World Athletics

Answer: Pentathlon

She took Olympic gold at the Munich games in 1972. Unfortunately, successes at those games were tragically overshadowed by the assassination of Israeli athletes in the athletes' village.

From Quiz Silver Girl

Answer: 400-metre individual medley

The 400-metre individual medley was always one of Sharron's strongest events, and indeed she held the Commonwealth Record for 18 years, but that was attained in a competition from which East Germany was excluded. In the 1980 Moscow Olympics final she found herself up against three East German swimmers, plus two Poles, a Russian and a Bulgarian. The eventual winner, the East German Petra Schneider, was 10 seconds faster than Sharron, but following the reunification of Germany in the 1990s she confessed to having been given various drugs to improve her performance. Shockingly, despite overwhelming evidence of doping, the International Olympic Committee refused to rescind the medals of the East German athletes; and numerous discredited East German medals remained in the record books.

From Quiz London 2012 - Team GB Gold Medals

Answer: Three silver medals in 2000, 2004 and 2008

Coming into the London Olympics, everyone knew that Katherine Grainger had been disappointed to have been beaten into second place at the three previous Olympics. It seemed too much to hope that she could make it gold at her fourth attempt, aged 36, at her home Games in London 2012. Even hardened commentators had to choke back the tears when she finally managed it.

From Quiz Great Britons at the Olympic Games

Answer: Princess Anne

Princess Anne represented Britain in equestrianism as part of the Three Day Event team. She was the only female participant at the games who was not required to submit to a gender test. Her husband at that time, Mark Philips, had previously won gold for Great Britain in the Three Day Event competition at the Munich Games in 1972. Prince Phillip (the Queen's husband) was for many years a keen carriage racer and Prince Charles was a champion polo player, but neither sport was an Olympic event when they were active participants. The Duchess of Kent is a keen tennis player, but not of any particular note. However, she is a Patron of the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club which hosts the annual Wimbledon tournament and has often presented the trophies for the men's and women's singles.

From Quiz Rebecca Adlington's Beijing Olympics

Answer: Bill Furniss

Bill Furniss was Rebecca Adlington's swimming coach prior to, and during the Beijing Olympics and coached her at the Nova Centurion club in Nottingham.

From Quiz UK and World Athletics

Answer: Javelin

Steve had a long and illustrious career, but left athletics never having won the elusive Olympic gold. His biggest rival throughout his career was Jan Zelezny of the Czech Republic, who was rather more successful in Olympic terms, winning no less than 3 golds in 1988, 1992 and 1996. Mick Hill also had a long international career, being a regular member of the British squad at international competitions and winning a total of 6 championship medals.

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Last Updated Nov 16 2024 5:50 AM

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