Summer Olympic Games Trivia Quiz

Answer: Greece

Coroebus from the ancient district of Elis in Greece was the winner of the only event in 776 B.C. It was the Stadion, a running event. In those very early days of course, all competitors came from Greece.

Answer: 1900

It was at the Paris Games of 1900. The Olympic movement professed equality in sport for men and women and they felt therefore that women too should be represented.

Answer: It was the first time competitors represented their country

Prior to 1908, competitors represented their club or they were an individual. It was at these Games therefore that competitors first marched into the stadium behind their national flag at the opening ceremony. The first female gold medalist was in 1900. Soccer was introduced in 1900. The Olympic Oath was introduced in 1924.

Answer: James Brendan Connolly

Connolly represented the United States of America in the triple jump, which wasn't the very first event but was the first completed event. Florence Jolio was a made up name. Henry Winkler is of course an actor best known for the comedy series 'Happy Days' and Solomon Grundy a nursery rhyme character.

Answer: London, 2012

Prior to the 2012 games, Saudi Arabia didn't even allow women to take part in the Olympics by law. When calls were made to ban Saudi Arabia from the Olympics for violating the Olympic Charter, the law was rescinded and they sent two women athletes to the London Games. Brunei and Qatar also sent a female athlete for the first time.

Answer: 19

They were Greece, France, United States, United Kingdom, Sweden, Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, Finland, Australia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Canada, USSR, South Korea, Spain, China and Brazil.

Answer: Sweden

The United Kingdom and Greece have also taken part at every Games along with France, Australia and Switzerland. Sweden attended every Olympic Games during this period except for the St. Louis games of 1904.

Answer: 1920

This happened at the Antwerp Games of 1920 in Belgium. The flag is passed on to the next host city at the close of the Games. The original Antwerp flag was lost before the next Games in Paris (1924) and a substitute was made, which was flown at Summer Games until 1988 when a new flag was used.

Answer: Antwerp, 1920

The 12 foot dinghy event commenced in Antwerp, Belgium as you would expect. As with all sailing events, the competition is decided over a series of races. When it came to the last two races in the series, they were moved to the Netherlands as there were only two competitors and they were both Dutch.

The chance of that happening again is virtually non-existent as the likelihood of there being only two competitors for an Olympic event is itself improbable and added to that they would have to be from the same country. I wouldn't be surprised if many of you chose Melbourne, 1956 as the equestrian events were held in Stockholm due to Australia's quarantine regulations.

The point here is that the equestrian events of 1956 were held in their entirety in Sweden. No part of them were held in Australia.

Answer: Figure skating

Grafstrom won the figure skating gold medal at the 1920 Antwerp Olympics. In 1924, the Olympics were split into Summer and Winter Games and Grafstrom retained his title at the first Winter Games at Chamonix, France in 1924 and again at St. Moritz in 1928. He won silver at the 1932 Winter Olympics at Lake Placid, USA.

Answer: Ethiopia

Abebe Bikila ran his marathons barefoot. He must have had feet like iron. Having won gold at Rome in 1960, he repeated his success at the Tokyo Games in 1964 despite having an appendectomy just 40 days earlier.

Answer: Waldi (dachshund)

Amik, Misha and Cobi were the mascots of Montreal 1976, Moscow 1980 and Barcelona 1992 respectively. The dachshund originates from Germany. Waldi's body featured several colours. Its head and tail were light blue and its body consisted of coloured stripes.

Answer: Mexico, 1968

Richard Fosbury astonished the world by jumping over the bar facing away from it. He won the gold medal and 'the Fosbury flop' has been the dominant style used for high jumping ever since.

Answer: London, 1908

Prior to the 1908 Olympics, swimming events were held in open water. A 100 metre pool was built for the 1908 Olympics right in the middle of the field events area in the main stadium. Ideal for the underwater shot-put I suppose.

Answer: Rome, 1960

In 1948, at the Summer Olympics opening ceremony, a wheelchair archery competition was announced which was known as the Stoke Mandeville Games. Stoke Mandeville was a hospital for spinal injuries in the UK. Taking part in sport was seen as an important step in rehabilitation of patients.

The games carried on with more events being added. In 1960, those games gave rise to the first Paralympic Games in which 400 athletes and 23 countries took part. They have continued every four years since then.