Europe's Great Sport Champions Quiz

Answer: Fred Deburghgraeve

All these athletes are from Belgium, but only one of them competed in the swimming contests at Atlanta.

Fred Deburghgraeve was the first Belgian to obtain Olympic gold in any swimming discipline. He started his Olympic career at the Games in Barcelona in 1992, competing in men's 100m breaststroke, men's 200m breaststroke and men's 4 x 100m medley relay in which he swam, of course, the breaststroke lap. In Atlanta, Deburghgraeve (the reigning European champion at that time) was one of the favourites for the 100 metres. He swam a new world record of 1:00:60 in the first round, and won the final and the gold medal in 1:00:65.
Later on Deburghgraeve would gain the World Championship in the same swimming discipline in 1998. He ended his active career in 2000, failing to qualify for the Olympic Games in Sydney.

Robert Van de Walle was a Belgian judoka, winning Olympic Gold in Moscow in 1980. Philippe Lejeune, a Belgian equestrian, won the World Championship in show jumping in Lexington, Kentucky, in 2010. Eddy Merckx was a very succesful cyclist. He won five times the Tour de France, five times the Giro d'Italia, once the Vuelta (in Spain) and three times the World Championship.

[ this question was brought to you by the Belgian couch potato JanIQ ]

Answer: Jan Ullrich

Jan Ullrich won the Tour de France in 1997 at the age of 24, being the first German overall winner. The Team Telekom rider wore the yellow jersey for 12 days that summer and finished the Tour ahead of Richard Virenque (2nd) and Marco Pantani (3rd).

Kurt Stöpel was the first German athlete to wear the yellow jersey of the Tour de France (1932). Dietrich Thurau wore the "maillot jaune" for 15 days in 1977. Jens Voigt won two stages of the Tour (in 2001 and 2006) and wore the yellow jersey for two days (in 2001 and 2005).

[ question written by player rosaklebb ]

Answer: Spyridon Louis

Spyridon Louis was the first man to win the Marathon race in the first modern Olympic Games that were held in Athens. He covered the 40 km distance in 2:58:50 (it was only after 1924 that the Marathon distance was changed into 42.195km).

Gyula Kellner was third in the same Olympics.
Dorando Pietri won the 1904 Olympics marathon (although in the end he was disqualified).
Samuel Kamau Wanjiru won the Olympics marathon in Beijing.

[ this question was brought to you by the Greek (non-marathon runner) gkaz4 ]

Answer: Karine Ruby

In 2OO9, whilst climbing on Mont Blanc, Karine had a fatal accident when she fell into a deep crevasse, roped to two others in the group. She was only 31 years old when she died.

Vanessa Boslak has represented France in many international events. She is a pole vaulter. Her personal best is 4.70m.which she achieved twice - in Malaga in 2006 and also in Japan in 2007 during the World Championships.

Christelle Daunay is a long-distance, road runner. Amongst her many great achievements, she has come 2nd. and 3rd. in the Paris and New York Marathons. She was the French cross-country champion in 2007 and 2009.

At the 2004 Olympic Games, in Athens , Laure Manaudou won France her first gold medal ever for women's swimming. She has won several gold, silver and bronze medals - not only in the Olympic Games but also in the World Championships and the European Championships.

[ this question comes from an ex-athletic member of our team - Jomarion ]

Answer: 0.6 seconds

On 6th May 1954 at Oxford's Iffley Road Track, around 3,000 people saw Bannister become the first man to run 1 mile in under 4 minutes, beating the previous record of 4 minutes 1.3 seconds set by Sweden's Gunder Hagg (a record which had stood for nearly 10 years). Unfortunately for Bannister, his new record lasted just 46 days, until John Landy ran a time of 3.58 in Finland.

[ this question was created by the UK's number one armchair athlete MusicalMan90 ]

Answer: Aeronautics

Hermann Schreiber (1909-2003) was a Swiss pilot. In 1936 he flew a glider from Switzerland to Berlin, which was good enough to win "Olympic gold" (Merit for Aeronautics). Although gliding was a demonstration sport of the 1936 Olympics, this feat earned Schreiber "a gold medal".

Moon golf has never been an Olympic discipline. In 1971, Alan Shepard surprised his colleagues at Apollo 14 and the control center by producing a golf club and some golf balls. He hit a few balls, but it is not clear whether he obtained a score above or under par.

Tug-of-war has been an Olympic discipline from 1900 until 1920. Teams of five or six men pulled on a rope until one of the teams was pulled over the starting line, or until the time ran out.

Croquet was only an Olympic discipline in Paris 1900. Ten French athletes competed in three events.

[this question was brought to you by player JanIQ, who enjoys seeing some of the weirdest sport competitions ever ]

Answer: Middle and long-distance running

The first "Flying Finn" was long-distance runner Hannes Kolehmainen, who won three gold medals and broke two world records at the 1912 Summer Olympics in Stockholm. After Kolehmainen the nickname was given to other successful middle and long-distance runners, such as Paavo Nurmi who in Finland is considered to be the most famous Flying Finn.

In the 1960s the term was extended to motorsports: first to rally drivers and then to Formula 1 drivers and motorcyclists. Flying Finns in motorsport include Tommi Makinen (rally), Juha Kankkunen (rally), Mika Hakkinen (F1), Juha Salminen (enduro), Jarno Saarinen (motorcycle) and many others. In winter sports the nickname has been used to describe for example ski jumpers Matti Nykanen and Janne Ahonen and also ice hockey players Jari Kurri and Teemu Selanne. Other Flying Finns include Jarkko Nieminen (tennis), Patrik Antonius (poker) and Shefki Kuqi (football/soccer).

[ this question was written by (not-so-Flying-Finn) Outolintu ]

Answer: The Black Pearl

The Portuguese topscorer in the 1966 FIFA World Championship was Eusebio da Silva Ferreira. He was born in 1942 in Mozambique (at that time still known as Portuguese East Africa). After a few years with Sporting de Lourenço Marques, Eusebio had the main part of his career with Benfica Lisbon. In 614 matches for Benfica, he scored 638 goals. His nicknames were "The Black Pearl" and "The Black Panther" (based upon his appearance and the way he moved), and "O Rei" (Portuguese for "The King"). Eusebio scored nine goals at the 1966 FIFA World Cup in England.

"The Rocket" is one of the nicknames for the Scottish snooker player Ronnie O'Sullivan. "Mr. 100" is the moniker of the retired Belgian billiard player Raymond Ceulemans, who won more than 300 titles (including 70 individual titles in three cushion billiard only: 23 world titles, 23 European titles and 24 Belgian titles). "Fed-Ex" is one of the many nicknames of Swiss tennis player Roger Federer.

[ this question was brought to you by player JanIq, who likes to watch any ball sports ]

Answer: Ellen van Langen

Ellen van Langen was a middle distance runner, born in Oldenzaal, the Netherlands. She became Dutch Champion in the 800m for the first time in 1989. She improved a lot in the years after and had been very succesful leading up to the Summer Olympics in 1992. She defeated Russian Lilya Nurutdinova and Cuban Ana-Fidelia Quirot in the final. In the years after she was plagued by injuries and was unable to fully continue her career. She retired from professional sport in 1998.

Fanny Blankers-Koen remains one of the most succesful Dutch athletes to date. She won four gold medals at the 1948 Summer Olympics in London, in the 100m, the 200m, the 80m hurdles and the 4x100 m relay.

Nelli Cooman was an athlete who specialised on the 60m hurdles. She was World Champion in this discipline in 1987 and 1989. She held the world record between 1987 and 1992.

Mieke Sterk was an athlete who specialised in hurdles and sprint. She has 20 Dutch titles in these disciplines. She was later known as a politician.

[ this question was brought to you by James25, who can run surprisingly fast when being chased ]

Answer: Robert Korzeniowski - Athletics - 50 km walk

Robert Korzeniowski won the 50 km walk in 1996 (Atlanta), 2000 (Sydney) and 2004 (Athens). In Sydney he also added a win in 20 km walk, thus becoming the first Olympic winner on both distances. He's also the first Polish athlete with 4 Olympic gold medals.

Jozef Szmidt won the triple jump at 1960 Rome and 1964 Tokyo Olympic Games. He was also the first person to pass the 17.00 meters mark and his world record (17.03 m or 55.87 ft) stood for eight years (1960-68), until the Games in Mexico City, where the high altitude favored the jumpers. He was born in 1935 as Josef Schmidt in a German family in Silesia.

Waldemar Baszanowski won his two Olympic gold medals in 1964 (Tokyo) and in 1968 (Mexico City). He is considered one of the best weightlifters in the history of the sport. In 1999, he became the President of the European Weightlifting Federation and he was also the Honorary President of the Polish Weightlifting Federation . He died in 2011.

Jerzy Kulej also won his gold medals in Tokyo and in Mexico City.
He was a Member of the Parliament (2001-2005, social-democratic party), he also played a big role in a 1976 comedy/crime movie, "Przepraszam, czy tu bija?" ("Excuse me, do they beat here?"), where you may see him sparring with a fellow police officer, played by Jan Szczepanski (1972 Olympic champion in Lightweight).

[ question by player Krzysztof ]