Born to Run Trivia Quiz

Answer: Jesse Owens

Jesse Owens is best known for competing in the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin where he won four gold medals. Infamously, he was said to have disproved Hitler's theory of white supremacy. Owens would later claim Hitler's attitude toward him was over exaggerated in the USA.

In the USA in 1935, he set 3 world records in under an hour, a feat called the "Greatest 45 minutes in sports". Because he was black, Owens suffered discrimination in the United States more so than he did in Nazi Germany. He was repeatedly snubbed by Franklin Roosevelt and never invited to the White House like most major Olympians were and are. During a campaign rally for Alf Landon in 1936, Owens said "Hitler did not snub me - it was our president who snubbed me". Legend has it that Owens used to carry around a picture of him shaking hands with Hitler.

Answer: Thomas Burke

Thomas Burke was the very first gold medalist in the 100m at the 1896 Olympic Games in Athens. The winners of the 100m dash are often called the fastest man or woman in the world. He also popularized the crouch start at the beginning of sprint races. He later became a famous long distance runner and a journalist for the Boston Post.

Answer: Florence Griffith Joyner

Florence Joyner was popularly called Flo-Jo. Her husband was Al Joyner, a gold medal triple jumper. Flo-Jo's sister-in-law was Jackie Joyner Kersee, a two-time Olympic gold medalist in the heptathlon and once in the long jump.

Flo-Jo won three gold medals at the 1988 Seoul Games in the 100m, 200m and 4 x 100m relay and setting the world record in the 200m. Her reputation was somewhat tarnished by doping allegations, however she never failed a doping test and since her death in 1998, her reputation recovered.

Answer: Abebe Bikila

The reason why Bikila famously won the 1960 Olympic marathon barefoot was because he was a last minute addition to the Ethiopian team and there were no more sneakers available that fit him. He practiced barefoot normally. Bikila also won the 1964 Olympic marathon, becoming the first two-time gold medalist in that event.

Answer: Joan Benoit

Joan Benoit won the inaugural women's marathon at the 1984 Olympics over heavy favorites, including Grete Waitz and Rosa Mota. She also twice won the Boston Marathon in 1979 and 1983 and the Chicago Marathon in 1985.

Answer: Paula Radcliffe

Paula Radcliffe is considered one of the best female marathon runners of all time, including setting the marathon world record for women of 2:15:25 in 2003 at that year's London Marathon. At that race she broke her own world record previously set at the 2002 Chicago Marathon.

At the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Radcliffe was ridiculed for dropping out of the marathon 22 miles in, with British press claiming she quit. She also dropped out of the 10,000m a few days later. At the time, Radcliffe had been taking medication to recover from an injury. The medication upset her stomach, leading her to drop out.

Answer: Usain Bolt

Usain Bolt was one of the most famous Jamaican athletes of all time. His feat of winning the Olympic gold medal back-to-back in the 100m and 200m is called a double-double and he is the first person to accomplish this. He also won the gold in the 4 x 100m relay in both those games, giving him a double-triple.

He would have won these three events four times in a row at the World Championship Games, which run every two years, from 2009-2015 but he false started in the 100m in a qualifying heat and was disqualified.

Answer: Babe Didrikson Zaharias

Babe Didrikson Zaharias won the Olympic gold medal at the 1932 Summer Games in Los Angeles in both the 80m hurdles and the javelin throw. Her real first name was Mildred but earned the name Babe because she was so good at baseball like Babe Ruth. She is perhaps most famous for her golfing career. In fact, she won her last golf championship while wearing a colostomy bag.

Answer: Paavo Nurmi

Although Paavo Nurmi is commonly called the Flying Finn, that nickname is given to any successful Finnish track star, and sometimes non-track stars. He won 12 Olympic medals between 1920-1928, including nine gold, mostly in middle-distance events. He lit the Olympic Cauldron at the 1952 Summer Games in Helsinki.

Answer: Wilma Rudolph

After she won three gold medals at the 1960 Summer Games in Rome, Wilma Rudolph became a civil rights and women's rights leader in the United States. She was admired for her athletic skill worldwide and was admiringly called La Gazzella Nera (the Black Gazelle) by the Italians and La Perle Noire (the Black Pearl) by the French.