Where Did the Gold Blow Off To? Quiz

Answer: Brazil

Thiago Braz (whose full name is Thiago Braz da Silva) was from the host country, Brazil. Born in 1993 in Marilla, Sao Paolo, he started his career in 2009 with a 4.40-meter jump, which earned him third place in the South American junior championships. Gradually he improved his skills, culminating in a jump of 6.03 meters at the 2016 Olympics, which was a new Olympic record. Braz was also the first athlete from South America to win the gold in men's pole vaulting.

From the start of the Olympic Games until 1968, the gold medal in men's pole vaulting had always gone to the United States, with one exception in the 1906 Intermediate Games in Athens, where French athlete Fernand Gonder defeated Swedish contender Bruno Sonderstrom and American athlete Ed Glover.

Soviet athlete Sergey Bubka was the first to set a world record of over six meters. Bubka ultimately set a great record of 6.14 meters in 1994. French jumper, Renaud Lavillenie, who won Olympic gold 2012, set a new record of 6.16 meters in 2014. At the Rio Games in 2016, however, he had to settle for the second-place silver medal, because his two jumps fell short at only 6.03 meters each time.

Question by JanIQ

Answer: Belgium

Nafi Thiam was born in Brussels in 1994. She specialized in the heptathlon, with her best event being the high jump. Nafi won the heptathlon in Rio de Janeiro in 2016 with 6810 points, breezing by favorites Jessica Ennis-Hill from the UK and Brianne Theisen-Eaton from Canada. Nafi's personal best score in 2017 came in a match in Austria, with 7,013, making her the fourth athlete ever to hit 7,000 points in the women's heptathlon.

Question by JanIQ

Answer: Jamaica

Usain Bolt was born in 1986 and dominated the sprint events at the Olympic Games in 2008, 2012 and 2016. In 2008 he won the 100-meter and the 200-meter sprints, and he repeated those feats in 2012 and 2016, flying like the wind. In 2008, Usain was disqualified from the 4x100-meter relay, but Usain and his Jamaican teammates managed to win the gold again in this event in 2012 and 2016.

The other countries mentioned also had at least one athlete who has won the Olympic gold in the 100-meter race at one time. For Great Britain, Harold Abrahams won in 1924, Allan Wells in 1980 and Linford Christie in 1992. Canadian winners have been Percy Wiilams (1928) and Donovan Bailey (1996). The first South African gold medalist in the 100-meter sprint was Reggie Walker in 1908.

Question by JanIQ

Answer: Ethiopia

Women have been running the Olympic 10,000m race since the 1988 games. Ethiopian athletes are undeniably quite good at this distance, and an Ethiopian woman flew home with the gold in 1992, 2000, 2008, 2012 and 2016. Even more astonishing is the fact that Tirunesh Dibaba from Ethiopia won the event in 2008 and 2012, and then took home the bronze in 2016.

Question by JanIQ

Answer: Eliud Kipchoge

Eliud Kipchoge was born 1984 and is a long-distance runner from Kenya. After competing in 5000-meter race in the 2004 and 2008 Olympic Games, Kipchoge switched to the marathon. In 2016 he seemed to float on air and won the gold medal.

In 2017, Nike organized an unofficial challenge to attempt to run a marathon within the mythical limit of two hours. The brand set everything up to allow for the best times: a very early-morning run, at sea level, on a Formula-One Circuit, and with specific instructions that the most important thing was not who won the race, but that the race be won with the magical time of two hours. This meant that the athletes had to work together towards that goal instead of competing against each other. Kipchoge managed to come out of this unofficial marathon in only two hours and twenty-four seconds, but alas, due to the nature of the race, it doesn't count as a world record.

The other athletes all flew on the wind in their own sports. Bikila (1932-1973) was an Ethiopian marathon winner in 1960 and 1964. Kipketer (born 1972) competed for Denmark. Julius Kiplagat (born 1989) is a Kenyan athlete who specialized in the javelin throw.

Question by JanIQ

Answer: Long jump

Drechsler was born in what was then East Germany in 1964. She specialized in the long jump, but also competed in sprint events (the 100-meter and 200-meter sprints) as well as the heptathlon. In the 1988 Olympics, she won a silver medal in the long jump and two bronze medals in the sprint events. Then, in 1992 and in 2000, she won the gold in the long jump. Drechsler was accused, but never convicted, of doping, by the World Anti Doping Agency.

Question by JanIQ

Answer: 10,000-meter run

Paavo Nurmi excelled in middle and long-distance running events. He was a Finnish athlete who from 1920 to 1928 won nine gold and three silver medals in three different Olympic Games. His first individual gold medal came at the 1920 Summer Olympics in Antwerp, Belgium, when he placed first in the men's 10,000m run. Two days later he won two more gold medals, one each in the individual cross country and team cross country events.

Question by zorba_scank

Answer: France

Jeannie Longo is a French cyclist who had been riding longer than some of her competitors had been alive at the 2008 Olympics, which was the last time she competed in the Olympic games. At the 1996 games in the women's individual road race, she beat out Imelda Chiappa of Italy and Clara Hughes of Canada, who won the silver and bronze medals for their countries, respectively.

Longo's stellar record has been clouded by suspicions of doping, with one confirmed use of ephederine in 1987, as well as three missed tests in 2011, which were not counted as failed tests because Longo was not notified that she was to have been tested.

Question by shuehorn

Answer: India

Prior to Abhinav Bindra's victory, the only gold medals that had flown to India were in Men's Field Hockey events. India's best individual performance up to that time was also in shooting, when Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore won the silver in the Men's double-trap event at the 2004 Olympics. Bindra himself qualified for the following two Olympic Games, but was unable to make the podium.

Question by zorba_scank

Answer: United States

Bonnie Blair is the only woman to have won the gold in Olympic speed-skating events three times in a row in 1988, 1992 and 1994. She also won the 1,000-meters in 1992 and 1994 and the bronze in 1988, giving her a total of five gold Olympic medals. Only Lidiya Skoblikova of Russia has won more gold in speed-skating than Blair has (with six).

Blair originally raced on short tracks, before concentrating on the 400-meter Olympic race. She won the World Short-Track Championship in 1986, as well as World Sprints in 1989, 1994, and 1995. Blair has also set multiple world records, showing that she really does have the wind at her back when she skates.

Question by shuehorn