Greek, Set, Match Trivia Quiz

Answer: Kostas Tsiklitiras

Konstantinos Tsiklitiras (1888-1913), nicknamed Kostas, competed in both defunct jumping disciplines in London 1908 and in Stockholm 1912. Besides these jumping events, he also practiced water polo and soccer in Greece. In London Tsiklitiras scored a standing high jump of 1,55 m. He shared second place with the American John Biller, and the gold went to the famous Ray Ewry (also from the USA). For the standing long jump, Ewry reached 3,33 m and first place, while Tsiklitiras and the American Martin Sheridan jumped for 3,22 m. But when the distance was calculated using Imperial standards instead of metres, Tsiklitiras had a narrowly better result than Sheridan.

In Stockholm Tsiklitiras repeated his standing high jump of 1,55 m. But this gave him only the third place, as the Americans Ben Adams (with 1,60 m) and Platt Adams (1,63 m) outdid him. In the standing long jump, Tsiklitiras won with 3,37 m. Platt Adams (3,36 m) claimed second place and Ben Adams (3,28m) completed the podium.

Vyntra and Papadopoulos (both born 1981) gained fame as soccer players. Stojakovic (born 1977 in Serbia, but with the double nationality) played basketball.

Answer: Wrestling

As said in the introduction, I give some extremely subtle hints. No need to include that Petros Galaktopoulos competed in the weight class below 70 kg (Mexico) or below 74 kg (Munich).
Petros Galaktopoulos was born in Athens in 1945. He took up wrestling in the Greco-Roman style (no gripping below the waist). Galaktopoulos competed at four consecutive Games: Tokyo 1964 (15th place), Mexico City 1968, Munich 1972 and Montreal 1976 (8th place). In Mexico, Galaktopoulos defeated the local wrestler Mario Tovar, the German Klaus Pohl, the Portuguese Antonio Galantinho, the Korean Seo Hun-Gyo and the Soviet competitor Gennady Sapunov. But in the semi-finals Galaktopoulos lost to the Japanese Munji Munemura, who would later also win the final. Stevan Horvath took the silver medal home to Yugoslavia.
In Munich Galaktopoulos once more started with a nice winning streak. After eliminating the Belgian Constant Bens, the Soviet player Viktor Igumenov, the Austrian Franz Berger, and the Finn Eerio Tapio, he had to face the Czech Viteszlav Macha. Macha won the final on decision.

Answer: Charalambos Cholidis

Charalambos Cholidis is the English transliteration of the name of the wrestler we were looking for. His Greek name starts with the letter X (chi), which is transposed into the English alphabet as KH, CH or H (and perhaps J or X in Spanish). Charalambos is a quite popular first name in Greece, but is frequently shortened to Babis. So don't be astonished if you encounter other orthographies as well. Cholidis was born in Kazakhstan in 1956. He started his Olympic career in 1976 (Montreal), but did not make it to the finals there, nor in Moscow in 1980. In 1984 Cholidis started with a win against Egyptian Abdel Latif Khalaf and the Moroccan Ali Lachkar. In the final qualifying round Cholidis defeated the Swedish Benni Ljungbeck but lost to Masaki Eto. Eto in turn lost the final to the German Pasquale Passarelli, who took the gold. Cholidis won the bronze against the Romanian Niculae Zamfir.

In 1988 Cholidis won in the qualifying group against the Soviet fighter Alexander Chestakov, against Benni Ljungbeck, against Huh Byong-Ho from South-Korea and against the American Anthony Amado. But he lost the group final against Stoyan Balov. Cholidis defeated the Chinese Yang Changling for the bronze.
Arvaniti played beach volleyball, Bakoyanni was a high jumper, and Papaloukas played basketball.

Answer: Weightlifting

Kakiasvili was born in Georgia in 1969. In 1992 he competed for the Unified team (athletes from different states of the defunct Soviet Union). In 1993 he entered the world championship and the European championship for Georgia, before choosing Greece for the remainder of his career.

At the Olympic Games of 1992 in Barcelona, Serguey Syrtsov took the lead in the snatch phase (one single movement), winning the first lift with 177,5 kg, the second with 185 kg and the third with 190 kg - an Olympic record. Kakiasvili lifted 177,5 kg in the third lift, and the Pole Sergiusz Wolczaniecki came in third with 172,5 kg. Syrtsov (Russian born) and Kakiasvili (born in Georgia) had the same trainer, the Russian Vasily Alexeev. In the second phase (clean and jerk: lifting in two thrusts) Kakiasvili took the lead with 220 kg at the first lift and 222,5 kg at the second lift. Wolczaniecki also lifted 220 kg at the first try, but failed twice on 232,5 kg. Syrtsov lifted 217,5 kg at the first try and 222,5 kg at the third try, virtually taking the gold. At that moment Wolczaniecki was already certain of bronze, Kakiasvili almost certain of silver and Syrtsov almost certain of gold. Alexeev advised to take the logical step of trying 225 kg, but Kakiasvili went all out for 235 kg - which would break the Olympic record and tie him with Syrtsov at a total lifted of 412,5 kg. Indeed Kakiasvili succeeded, and because he weighed slightly less than Syrtsov, Kakiasvili conquered the gold.In 1996 Kakiasvili won a second gold medal, with a total of 420 kg - a new Olympic Record. The silver went to the Kazakh Anatoly Khrapaty and the bronze to Denys Hotfrid from Ukraine.

The weightlifting competition in 2000 had two Greeks who won a third consecutive gold medal: Pyrros Dimas and (two days later) Akakios Kakiasvili. In Kakiasvili's weight class the silver went to Szymon Kolecki from Poland and the bronze was for the Russian Aleksey Petrov.

Answer: Gal Fridman

Fridman and Kaklamanakis were two of the medallists in Atlanta and in Athens in the class Mistral One - a sailing competition for individual sailors.
It was Gal Fridman who won the gold medal in Athens. Fridman (born 1975) participated in 1996 and claimed bronze, but did not qualify for Sydney 2000.
In 2004 Kaklamanakis took the first race. Fridman moved into fourth position after the second race, and occupied second place (before Kaklamanakis) after the fourth race. After the sixth race, Fridman took the lead before the Brazilian Ricardo Santos (nicknamed Bimba), the Pole Miarczynski and Kaklamanakis. After the tenth (and penultimate) race Santos took the lead, but he ended only 17th in the final race. Fridman ended second in the last race, and thus won the gold medal before Kaklamanakis. The bronze went to Nick Dempsey from Great Britain. In 1996 Kaklamanakis won the gold medal, with the Argentinian Carlos Espinola for the silver and Fridman winning the bronze.

Davidovich (born 1988) competed in the Olympics in 2008 and 2016, but she did not win any medal. Mashiah (born 1988) won silver in the World Championships in 2009 and bronze in 2010 and 2011. Atedji (born 1961) competed in the Olympics in 1984. He ended 14th.

Answer: Leonidas

Leonidas Sabanis was born in Albania in 1971. His name can alternatively be spelled Leonidas Sampanis or (in Albanian) Luan Shampani. He started competing in the weightlifting championships representing Albania. In 1989 was he the first Albanian ever to win a (bronze) medal in weightlifting at the European Championships. In 1991 he claimed silver at the European Championships.
But after adopting the Greek nationality, he did even better: twice he won silver at the Olympic Games. As a bantamweight (-59 kg) in Atlanta, he came second to the Chinese Tang Lingsheng. And moving to the featherweight class (-62 kg) in Sydney, only the Croatian Nikolaj Pesalov did better than Leonidas Sabanis.

Why would quizzers get excited on hearing the name Leonidas? Well, they might link it to several other names: the name of the Spartan king at the Thermopylae, a world famous brand name of Belgian chocolates or even some other Greek weightlifting medallists: Leonidas Kokas (silver in Atlanta 1996 in the weight class up to 91kg) or Valerios Leonidis (silver in Atlanta 1996 in the class up to 64 kg).

Answer: Germany

Anastasia Kelesidou was born in Germany (more specifically in Hamburg) in 1972. She won the silver medals in Sydney in 2000 and in Athens in 2004. She also took second place in the world championships in 1999 and 2003, and third in 2001. Kelesidou took the silver medal in Sdyney, after the Bulgarian Elina Zvereva but before the Bulgarian Irina Yatchenko.

In Athens Kelesidou was beaten by the Russian Nataliya Sadova, while the Czech Vera Pospisilova-Cechlova took with her the bronze medal.

Answer: Durres

Maniani was born in Durres, Albania in 1976. At first, she competed for Albania, and she set the Albanian national record in 1996, which would hold for at least 20 years. In 1997 she married the Greek Giorgos Tzelilis, and during the marriage she competed under the name of Maniani-Tzelili.

In Sydney in 2000 she threw the javelin for a distance of 67,51 m - the Greek national record for more than the following fifteen years. So amazingly she held the national record for two different countries at least for fifteen years. Gjirokaster, Vlore and Elbasan are just random other Albanian counties. 

Answer: Zanetti

Dimosthenis Tampakos was born in Thessaloniki in 1976. In 2000 he took the silver medal after the Hungarian Szilveszter Csollany, while Yordan Yovchev from Bulgaria claimed the bronze. In 2004 Csollany didn't compete, but Tampakos had another tough competitor: the Italian Yuri Chechy, who already won gold in 1996. Tampakos won in 2004, before Yovchev and Chechy.

In London 2012 the Brazilian Arthur Zanetti won the gold medal before Chen Yibing from China and Matteo Morandi from Italy. He earned the honorific nickname "Lord of the Rings" with this feat. Zanetti would also claim the silver in Rio de Janeiro in 2016. The Japanese Akinori Nakayama was a gymnast who won gold twice on the rings (1968 and 1972), twice before the Russian Mikhail Voronin. 

Answer: Cha Dong-Min

Did this question hit you as a kick over the head? All four options are South-Korean taekwondo experts, but only Cha Dong-Min is a man. Kim So-Hui took the gold in Rio de Janeiro 2016 (flyweight class). Im Su-Jeong won the gold in the featherweight class at Beijing 2008, and Hwang Gyeong-Seon can sport three medals in the welterweight class: bronze at Athens 2004, gold in Beijing 2008 and gold in London 2012.
In Athens Nikolaidis started by defeating the Colombian Julian Rojas, the Moroccan Abdelkader Zrouri and the Jordanian Ibrahim Kamal. But he was knocked out by the South-Korean Moon Dae-Sung.
In Beijing Nikolaidis won against the Kazakh Arman Chilmanov, against Abdelkader Zrouri (his adversary In the same round four years prior), and against Chika Chukwumerije from Nigeria. But Cha Dong-Min won the final with the smallest possible margin.