Clara Hughes Canadian Cyclist Trivia Quiz

Answer: Winnipeg, Manitoba

Hughes was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba on September 27th, 1972. This amazing and accomplished athlete did not have a particularly athletic start in life. She was interviewed for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and claims that as a teenager she drank, smoked and did drugs and did not see herself as an athlete.

Answer: Speed skating

When Hughes watched Canadian Olympic Champion Gaetan Boucher compete at the Winter Olympics in Calgary in 1988, she became inspired. The first sport she took up was speed skating at the age of sixteen. A year later, she took up cycling. For the next several years she focused her training on cycling and won multiple Canadian national championships in that sport.

Answer: Bronze

Hughes actually won two Bronze medals at the 1996 Summer Olympic Games. She won a Bronze for the Individual Road Race and a Bronze for the Individual Time Trial. These medals were number two and three for Canada in cycling (behind Steve Bauer who won a Silver medal in 1984) and the first by a Canadian woman. She also competed in the 2000 Summer Olympics in cycling.

Answer: False

As well as representing Canada at the Olympic Games, Hughes has won eight Pan American Games medals. She's participated in three Commonwealth Games, winning a Gold in 2002 for the Time Trial event. She has participated in four Tour de France events but has not won any of them.

She won the 1994 Women's Challenge event that takes place in the USA and the 1997 Liberty Classic event (also in the USA).

Answer: Commentator

In 2008 she was in between her stints representing Canada at the Olympic Games and participated as a commentator for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation when the games were held in Beijing. In 2010 she came back to the sport, winning the Individual Time Trial and Road Race events at the 2011 Pan American Championships.

Answer: Salt Lake City 2002

In the 2000-01 season, Hughes focused on speed skating and she qualified for the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. She won the Bronze medal in the 5000m event, making her the second female athlete to medal in both the Winter and Summer Olympic Games (the first was Christina Luding-Rothenberger in Cycling and Speed skating).

She participated in the 2006 Winter Olympic Games in Turin and won a Gold medal in the 5000m and a Silver medal in the team event. This made her the first Olympian to win multiple medals in both the Summer and Winter Olympic Games.

Answer: Let's Talk Mental Health

Hughes does a ton of advocacy for mental health issues and talks about her own struggles with depression. She is the spokesperson for the Bell Canada "Let's Talk Mental Health Initiative" and has started annual bike rides across Canada to raise awareness. A documentary about her was released in 2015 called "Clara's Big Ride" which focused on her advocacy efforts.

Answer: Vancouver 2010

At the Vancouver games in 2010, she won another Bronze medal for the 5000m. This was her last Olympic medal and at the time she charted a course record. With this medal, her total Olympic medals was six which made her the top medal winner in Canadian history (along with Cindy Klassen, another speed skater, who also has six Olympic medals).

Answer: Open Heart, Open Mind

Published in 2015, the memoir is her personal story of her struggles with depression. In the book, she talks about her difficult family life as a child, her journey as an athlete, and her realization that she was suffering from depression. She honestly talks about the physical pain she endures as an athlete of two gruelling sports and the emotional pain she carried inside of herself for years.

Answer: Officer of the Order of Canada

In 2010, Hughes was made an Officer of the Order of Canada. In 2007 she was awarded the Order of Manitoba. She also received the Meritorious Service Cross in 2014 which recognizes civilians who bring honor to Canada through their personal commitments. She was inducted into Canada's Sports Hall of Fame and has a star on Canada's Walk of Fame.