Joyful and Triumphant Trivia Quiz

Answer: Jesse Owens

Jesse Owens will long be remembered for his achievements at the 1936 Olympics, which came just one year after he set three world records and tied a fourth at the Big Ten Championships in Michigan. The 22 year old won more gold medals than any other athlete in the 1936 Games, amidst a reigning Nazi regime that had attempted to exclude Jews and Blacks from participating, and referred to African-Americans athletes as "black auxiliaries" and "non-humans". Fortunately, not everyone from the Olympic host country were proponents of the "master race" theory. Owens himself was mobbed by thousands of German fans upon his arrival in Berlin, and he credited his qualifying for the long jump event to the technical advice he received from his German counterpart Luz Long, who was the first to congratulate Owens and pose for photos after losing the gold medal to him. "It took a lot of courage for him to befriend me in front of Hitler," Owens later said. "You can melt down all the medals and cups I have and they wouldn't be a plating on the 24-karat friendship that I felt for Luz Long at that moment." In 1984, a street near the Olympiastadion in Berlin was renamed for Jesse Owens.

Answer: The four-minute mile

Conventional wisdom of the time dictated that running a mile under four minutes was a physical impossibility. The four-minute milestone had become something of a psychological obstacle - many had tried to overcome it for years and several had come close, but even the most recent world record at the time had endured for almost a decade.

By the 1950s, a few athletes had set their sights on breaking the elusive barrier. Among them were American Wes Santee and Australian John Landy, but it was a 25-year-old Oxford medical student who was destined to make history. Spurred on by his failure to secure a medal in the 1,500 m event at the 1952 Olympics in Helsinki, Bannister trained while juggling his work at St. Mary's Hospital Medical School in London to become the first person to run a sub-four minute mile.

When his final time of 3 minutes 59.4 seconds was announced at the end of the race, the roar of the crowd at Iffley Road drowned out everything around them. As "The Times" reported the next day, "There was a scene of the wildest excitement - and what miserable spectators they would have been if they had not waved their programmes, shouted, even jumped in the air a little." Even though his world record only stood for 46 days, it still represents an important reminder of the strength of the human spirit.

As Bannister once said, "I think it foolhardy to predict the absolute limits of human endeavor."

Answer: Don Larsen

On October 8, 1956, the 60,000 plus crowd at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx witnessed history in the making when pitcher Don Larsen played the best game of baseball in his life. Larsen wasn't even sure if he would be pitching that day after his lackluster performance in Game 2, but he learnt that morning that Yankees manager Casey Stengel had selected him to start Game 5.

It turned out to be a wise decision. "I had great control," Larsen recalled, years later. "I never had that kind of control in my life." After seven innings, Larsen was in the dugout when he remarked to Mickey Mantle, "Look at the scoreboard, Mick. Wouldn't it be something? Two more innings to go." When all was said and done, Larsen had thrown 97 pitches without letting any of the 27 Dodger players get to base.

In a memorable moment caught on film, catcher Yogi Berra jumped into Larsen's arms after he struck out Dale Mitchell to complete the historic no-hitter. "Looking back on it, though, I know how much pressure he was under," Larsen later said about Mitchell. "He must have been paralyzed. That made two of us." Larsen won the World Series MVP Award and the Babe Ruth Award for his efforts, and the Yankees went on to win the championship. Thinking back on his legacy, Larsen remarked, "They can never break my record.

The best they can do is tie it."

Answer: Bobby Riggs

Bobby Riggs was a former world no. 1 male tennis player and Wimbledon champion who came out of retirement to make headlines by advancing the cause for misogyny. He famously argued that a women's tennis game was inferior to a man's, and was once quoted as saying "the best way to handle women is to keep them pregnant and barefoot".

He challenged the world's best female tennis players to prove him wrong and defeat him in an exhibition game. Billie Jean King took on the fight for gender equality by playing Riggs in front of over 30,000 fans at the Houston Astrodome, while over 90 million more watched on television.

The stakes were high - Riggs had previously defeated Margaret Court in what became known as the "Mother's Day Massacre", so all eyes were on King. "I thought it would set us back 50 years if I didn't win that match," she said. "It would ruin the women's tour and affect all women's self-esteem." King prepared for the match by studying her opponent's playing style in order to beat him at his own game.

She defeated Riggs 6-4, 6-3, 6-3, and at the end of the final set Riggs conceded that he had underestimated King. The pair eventually became friends and remained so until Riggs' death from prostate cancer in 1995.

Answer: Gymnastics

A score of 10.00 for an artistic gymnastic routine at the Olympics was long thought to be unachievable under the rules of scoring set by the Federation Internationale de Gymnastique (FIG), the sport's governing body. When Omega, the official timekeepers for the 1976 Games, asked the International Olympic Committee how many spaces they should provide for the scoreboards they were constructing for the gymnastics events, they were informed that three digits would suffice, as a score of "10.00" would never be awarded. Then Nadia Comaneci did the impossible. The 14 year old gymnast took to the uneven bars on the second day of the games, and performed what the judges felt was a flawless routine. Her score was displayed as "1.00" on the digitally impaired scoreboard, resulting in confusion amongst the spectators that slowly turned into riotous applause when its meaning became clear. Comaneci went on to win five medals and score a perfect 10 six more times in Montreal, three times apiece on the balance beam and uneven bars, and became known as "Little Miss Perfect".

In 2006, the FIG changed its code of points to remove the maximum score of 10, resulting in overall scores in the teens becoming routine. The new scoring system quickly attracted criticism, with Comaneci herself stating, "There are no comparison points now. It's so hard to define sports like ours and we had something unique. The 10, it was ours first and now you give it away. We created it and our sport should be proud of it."

Answer: Soviet Union

At a time when Cold War tensions had reached new heights following the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, the U.S. Olympic ice hockey team overcame impossible odds to defeat its natural rivals in what many consider to be one of the greatest moments in U.S. sports history. The Soviet team comprised veteran players who practiced 11 months a year, and had taken home the gold at the last four consecutive Olympic Games. The U.S. team, on the other hand, was made up almost entirely of amateur or college players, with only one player having any previous Olympic experience. The Soviets had also trounced the U.S. team 10-3 in an exhibition match just 13 days earlier at Madison Square Garden, and were the favorite to win yet again at the Olympics. The U.S. team surprised everyone at Lake Placid when they tied with Sweden and defeated a formidable Czechoslovakia team, before advancing undefeated against Norway, Romania and West Germany into the medal round to face the Soviets.

The Soviets led the game for most of the first period, with the Americans equalizing with only a second to spare before the first intermission. The second period saw the Soviets scoring one goal to secure a 3-2 lead, with the Americans only equalizing at the 8.39 mark of the third period. With 10 minutes left in the game, U.S. team captain Mike Eruzione scored a fourth goal, giving them a 4-3 lead. All that remained was for the U.S. to run out the clock, which they did with the help of goalie Jim Craig. As the crowd in Lake Placid began to count down the final euphoric seconds, ABC sportscaster Al Michaels made his now-famous call, "Five seconds left in the game. Do you believe in miracles? YES!" The U.S. team went on to defeat the Finland team to win the gold medal.

Answer: Australia

For 132 years, the United States had successfully defended the America's Cup, causing writer Rob Mundle to equate attempts at winning the Auld Mug to "trying to climb Mt. Everest in a pair of thongs backwards". Seven potential hopefuls competed in the inaugural Louis Vuitton Cup in 1983 to determine the final challenger, which turned out to be Australia II and its infamous winged keel, designed by Ben Lexcen and skippered by John Bertrand.

The 1983 edition marked the first time that the America's Cup required more than five races to determine a winner.

When the Australia II crossed the finish line in Newport, Rhode Island during the seventh race on September 26, 1983, it ended the NYYC's incredible 132-year long winning streak. While previous races were only of interest to sailing fans, the 1983 America's Cup transcended boundaries and captivated the world.

The victory sparked celebrations all over Australia, with the headline on many newspapers that morning screaming out "IT'S OURS!" in large, bold letters. Because Australians could only watch the final race on television in the early hours of the morning, Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke famously announced that "Any boss who sacks anyone for not turning up today is a bum." It was a proud moment for Australia, at a time when the country was dealing with a recession, bushfires and floods, and badly needed to be inspired.

As Hawke later said, "I think the America's Cup sort of fitted in beautifully with the change of 1983. There's no doubt that Australia was in a very downbeat mood because the economy was in a mess, there was double digit inflation, double digit unemployment. 1983 needed some big lifts and changes and... they got them."

Answer: Diego Maradona

Argentina and England had been bitter football rivals since the 1960s, and the Falklands War of 1982 only served to deepen that rivalry. When both teams met in the quarter-final World Cup round on June 22, 1986, it proved to be a memorable game for the two goals scored by Diego Maradona. The first came just six minutes into the second half, when England goalkeeper Peter Shilton tried to clear the ball away from the penalty area, but was beaten to the punch (as it were) by Maradona, who scored the first goal of the game using his hand. The illegal handball went unnoticed by the referee, who allowed the goal much to the annoyance of the England team. At a press conference later that day, Maradona said that the goal was scored "a little with the head of Maradona and a little with the hand of God", and it became known as the "Hand of God" goal.

If his first goal created ill-will and controversy among English football fans, his second goal, scored just four minutes later, inspired as much (if not more) admiration for its brilliance. In what became known as "The Goal of the Century", Maradona dribbled the ball halfway across the field past five English players, and got goalkeeper Shilton to fall quite literally for a dummy, clearing the way to put the ball into the net. "Whenever I see it again I can't believe I managed it, honestly," Maradona later said, "Not because I scored it but because it seems like a goal that just isn't possible, a goal that you could dream of but never actually score." In a Channel 4 poll conducted in 2001, the UK public voted the goal #6 in a list of the 100 Greatest Sporting Moments. Even Gary Lineker, England's striker who scored the only other goal of that game, was quoted as saying, "When Diego scored that second goal against us, I felt like applauding. I'd never felt like that before, but it's true. ... It was impossible to score such a beautiful goal. He's the greatest player of all time, by a long way - a genuine phenomenon." Argentina went on to defeat West Germany 3-2 in the final to emerge victorious, while Maradona walked away with the Golden Ball.

Answer: Nelson Mandela

It was just one year after Nelson Mandela had taken office as the nation's president after the first democratic elections of the post-apartheid era. South Africa was set to host the Rugby World Cup after being excluded from the first two Rugby World Cups due to the apartheid-related boycotts, and Mandela saw it as an opportunity to unite black and white South Africans in one common goal. Mandela urged the entire nation to support the Springboks' World Cup ambitions, which was a big request given the historically segregated nature of the sport.

As John Carlin, author of "Playing the Enemy: Nelson Mandela and the Game That Made a Nation", explained, "For the white population as a whole, [rugby was] a symbol of their pride and identity, [but] for the black population, the Springboks were a symbol of apartheid." To help bridge the divide, Mandela did the unexpected by showing up for the match at Ellis Park in Johannesburg dressed in a symbol of his former oppressors - the jersey of Springboks' captain Pienaar.

The predominantly Afrikaner crowd began to cheer and chant Mandela's name, while the rest of the country, black and white, watched on television. By one powerful gesture, Mandela had "won the hearts of millions of white rugby fans" (as F.W. de Klerk later put it) while demonstrating to the rest of the nation that reconciliation, not division, was the only way forward. By the time fly-half Joel Stransky scored the final drop goal to secure the win for South Africa with only seven minutes left in extra time, people of all races were celebrating together all over the country. In accepting the trophy from Mandela, Pienaar remarked that they had won the trophy for all 43 million South Africans. Mandela later described the unifying power of sport in these terms: "Sport can create hope, where once there was only despair. It is more powerful than governments in breaking down racial barriers. It laughs in the face of all types of discrimination."

Answer: Rowing

Steve Redgrave cemented his place in rowing history by winning five consecutive gold medals between 1984 and 2000. "Anybody who sees me in a boat has my permission to shoot me," he famously said after winning his fourth consecutive gold medal at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta. Two days later, he changed his mind, and resolved "to make the Olympic rings in gold medals" four years later in Australia. "People were saying that Sydney would be the best ever, and the best ever would seem like a good time to end your career," Redgrave explained. "I felt I was just about young enough to go there and win." Redgrave was 38 years old at the time of the Sydney Olympics and had been diagnosed with diabetes mellitus just three years earlier, but he didn't let that stand in the way of his goal. Together with Matthew Pinsent, Tim Foster and James Cracknell, Redgrave finished the coxless four event just 0.38 seconds ahead of the team from Italy to secure the gold. As Pinset commented after the nerve-wracking race, "I said beforehand that Steve had achieved the title of ultimate Olympian irrespective of what happened today. Today, winning his fifth Olympic gold medal I think he's put himself into the greatest Olympian that certainly Great Britain has ever produced and arguably in the world."

Over 30 thousand people gathered in Redgrave's home town of Marlow, Buckinghamshire to welcome him back upon his return from Sydney. Redgrave was knighted in 2001, and served as one of the final torch-bearers at the 2012 Olympic Games in London. After retiring from rowing, Redgrave established his own charity and became an ambassador for sport, working with young athletes and fighting for gender equality in sports.