Olympics of the 1980s Trivia Quiz

Answer: 1988 Calgary

Michael Edwards (born 1963) was the first person to represent Great Britain in the Ski Jump since the 1928 Winter Olympics. Edwards, or "Eddie the Eagle", finished lasted in both the 70 meter and 90 meter events. What gave him his claim to fame was not finishing last but the margin by which he finished last. In the 70 meter event, he scored 69.2 points. The rest of the field ranged from 140.4 to 229.1 points. There was a similar margin for the 90 meter event. After this Olympics, the rules were changed for many events--requiring competitors to meet stricter standards and taking away many automatic bids.

1,423 athletes from 57 nations competed in the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

Answer: 1980 Moscow

Yugoslavia would defeat Italy 86-77 in the final match of men's basketball at the 1980 Moscow Olympics to win the gold. Italy would take the silver medal and the Soviet Union would take the bronze by defeating Spain. In women's basketball, the Soviet Union won the gold medal with Bulgaria taking the silver and Yugoslavia the bronze. Due to the boycott, the men's tournament had 12 teams and the women's tournament only six teams.

Overall, these Olympics were dominated by the Soviet Union (winning 80 gold medals and 195 medals total) and East Germany (winning 47 gold medals and 126 medals total).

Answer: 1980 Lake Placid

At the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, NY, USA, the essentially profession men's hockey team from the Soviet Union was expected to easily win the gold medal. The "Miracle on Ice" game between the United States and the Soviet Union, which the US won 4-3, actually occurred in the semi-final round. In the finals the next day, the US team would beat the Swedish team to win the gold medal.

1980 represented the second time the Winter Olympics took place in Lake Placid. 38 nations brought 1,072 athletes to the games.

Answer: 1984 Los Angeles

Mary Decker of the USA and Zola Budd of South Africa (competing for Britain) were the leaders in the early laps of the 3000 meter race. During the second half of the race, the two women--who had been running close to each other to that point--collided. Decker would fall and not finish the race. While Budd maintained her footing, she would drop back and ultimately finish seventh. Maricia Puca of Romania would win the gold medal.

6,829 athletes representing 140 nations competed in the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, CA, USA.

Answer: 1984 Sarajevo

Jayne Torvill (born 1957) and Christopher Dean (born 1958) represented Britain in Ice Dancing in the Sarajevo Olympics. Their score from the judges after their program was twelve 6.0s and six 5.9s. All nine judges gave the pair a perfect score (6.0) for artistic impression. Since the music to which the pair skated ("Bolero") was eighteen seconds longer than the maximum length of a skate routine, they designed their performance so their skates did not touch the ice until 18 seconds into the music.

1,272 athletes from 49 nations competed at the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo, (then) Yugoslavia.

Answer: 1988 Seoul

Lawrence Lemieux of Canada was competing in the Finn Class (one man dinghy) in Sailing at the Seoul Olympics. He was in second place (the silver medal) when he observed two men thrown from their capsized boat and injured. Lemieux deviated from his course to rescue the two men, waiting for a patrol to arrive and return the men to shore. Lemieux would return to the race but finished his event in 22nd place. The International Olympic Committee would award Lemieux the Pierre de Coubertin Medal for Sportsmanship declaring, "By your sportsmanship, self-sacrifice and courage you embody all that is right with the Olympic ideal."

159 nations and 8,391 athletes competed at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Korea.

Answer: 1988 Seoul

Bowling appeared as a demonstration sport as Seoul with a Men's tournament and a Women's tournament of 12 bowlers each. Finnish bowlers Tapani Peltola (men) and Annikki Maattola (women) won the bronze medals in both tournament. Since the 1988 Summer Olympics, bowling has had a hard time gaining support for additional appearances due to the difficulties of athletes from less wealthy nations training for the sport.

South Korea would come in fourth in the number of gold medals (12) and fifth in the number of total medals (33).

Answer: 1984 Los Angeles

Mary Lou Retton (born 1968) would be the first gymnast from outside of Eastern Europe to win the All-Around Competition in Women's Gymnastics. In addition to her gold medal, she would win a silver medal with the team as well as another silver medal for the vault. Retton would also win bronze medals for the uneven bars and floor exercise. She would later appear on the front of the Wheaties box.

The United States led the medal count with 83 gold medals and 174 medals total in Los Angeles.

Answer: 1980 Moscow

The USA was the first to announce a boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow (capital of the Soviet Union) in response to the Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. 64 other nations would later follow suit--some using the reason of the US and others citing economic reasons. Previously in 1976, 24 African nations had boycotted due to the participation of New Zealand. In 1984, the Soviet Union would lead a boycott of 14 nations in response to the 1983 US invasion of Grenada.

5,179 athletes from 80 nations competed in the 1980 Summer Olympics.

Answer: 1988 Calgary

In the 1988 Olympics in Calgary, the Jamaican team competed in both the two-man and four-man events. In the two-man event, Jamaica finished 30th out 41 teams. In the four-man event, the did not complete its third run and did not make its fourth run, placing it last. This began a run of Jamaica's participation in the Winter Olympics (having begun participation in the Summer Olympics in 1948). The 1993 movie "Cool Runnings" was loosely based on this story.

The Soviet Union was the most successful team at this Olympics both in terms of gold medals (11) and total medals (29).