Aussie Olympic Triumphs Trivia Quiz

Answer: Ron Clarke

Ron Clarke set 17 world records in a glittering career, but sadly never medaled at an Olympic Games. He later became Mayor of the Gold Coast in Queensland. The 1956 Games were held in Melbourne, Victoria, his home state, the first time in the Southern Hemisphere.

Answer: Win a gold medal

Durack competed in the 1912 Stockholm Olympic Games. She both won gold and set a world record in the 100 metres freestyle event. After the games she beat her own record twice with her fastest recorded time being 1 minute 16.2 seconds which stood until 1920. In 1932 fellow female Australian athlete Claire Dennis also won an Olympic gold medal.

Answer: They went to them all

Australia along with only a small number of other countries including Greece has been represented at every modern Summer Olympic Games. Olympic sports that Australia have been particularly triumphant in are swimming with athletes such as Ian Thorpe, Andrew Charlton and Murray Rose and running with athletes including Cathy Freeman and Betty Cuthbert.

In addition Australia has also done significantly well in cycling, archery, rowing and field hockey.

Answer: Athletes from all nations enter the stadium in unity during the closing ceremony.

The 1956 Melbourne Olympic Games became known as the "Friendly Games", despite a number of countries withdrawing due both the Suez Crisis and the Soviet presence at the Games. Following the suggestion of a Melbourne schoolboy the athletes become one at the final of the closing ceremony.

Answer: Lauren Burns

Lauren Burns took up taekwondo when she was 14 years old. She soon began competing in the sport nationally and internationally and eventually went on to gain her third dan black belt.

In 1994 taekwondo was announced as an Olympic sport, and the first time the competition was included, was at the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games. Lauren trained hard to make the Australian team. At 26 years of age, Lauren Burns was the first competitor to win an Olympic Gold Medal in that sport that year.

Answer: Edwin Flack

Flack was the only athlete to represent Australia at the first modern Olympic Games in Greece. He won gold in both the 800 metre and 1500 metre runs and competed in the marathon of which he was in the lead near the end of the race before he suddenly collapsed. Flack also won a bronze medal in mixed doubles tennis.

Answer: Zali Steggall

Zali Stegall won Australia's first individual medal (a bronze) in the Women's slalom in Nagano, 1998.

2010 Australian flag bearer Torah Bright won gold in the women's snowboarding half pipe, despite crashing out in her first run.
Dale Begg-Smith won silver in the men's moguls, to add to the gold he collected in 2006.
And finally, Lydia Lassila won gold in the women's aerials, the same event Alisa Camplin won in 2001.

Answer: Herb Elliot

Herb Elliot is from Perth, Western Australia. He trained under the famous coach Percy Cerutty at Portsea training camp, one of whose stamina-building regimes was to have his runners sprint up and down sand dunes in bare feet. After retiring from athletics in 1961 Elliot went on to become a successful international businessman.

He has been honoured as a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE), Companion of the Order of Australia (AC), and has been ranked as one of the 100 most influential Australians. Ron Clarke was a highly successful middle and long-distance runner of the same era, who was elected Mayor of the Gold Coast in 2004. John Landy AC, CVO (Commander of the Royal Victorian Order), MBE, was a track athlete who became 26th Governor of the state of Victoria in 2001. Judy Amoore, latterly Judy Pollock, set many records and was selected for three Olympics - Tokyo, Munich and Montreal. All of them high achievers.

Answer: 200m freestyle & 200m obstacle race

The obstacle race was an actual event. It consisted of a 200m swim, but participants also needed to climb firstly over a pole, then over a row of boats, then finally under a second row of boats. The Paris Olympics were the only Olympics to hold this event. Lane was also favourite for the 100m freestyle, but it was canceled.

Incidentally, underwater swimming was also an actual event at these Games.

Answer: Dick Eve

Australia's first Gold Medal came in only the second showing at an Olympics in 1924 by Dick Eve in the Plain High Diving event. He was our lone diving competitor for those Games and also finished 5th in the Springboard event.)

Chantelle Newbery's Gold Medal in the 2004 Athens Olympics on the 10m Platform event was the first Australian woman diver, and only the second Australian diver to get Gold since 1924.
Her husband Robert won two bronze medals in the men's synchronized events making them the first Australian husband and wife to win medals at the same Olympics.

Loudy Tourky won the Bronze in 2004. Giving us two competitors on the Podium for the 10m Platform event..

Matthew Mitcham produced the highest scoring dive in Olympic history at the 2008 Beijing Games, winning the Gold for the 10m Platform and ending China's stranglehold on the diving events in their home Olympics.