World Records from 1950 Trivia Quiz

Answer: 8.13 meters

Jesse Owen's 8.13 meter leap in 1935 was a mighty effort that would stand until 1960, and even then it would only be bested by 8 centimeters. One of the most amazing moments in sport happened in 1968 when Bob Beamon (USA) smashed the record at the time of 8.35 meters with a jaw dropping leap of 8.90 meters.

The comment I will always remember is from one of his fellow competitors who said, "This guy just went into orbit. How are we supposed to compete with that?"

Answer: 2.11 meters

Progressing just 34 centimeters in 43 years might not seem very much, but it is very hard to get yourself even a little bit higher off the ground. A lot of the increase in the record for this event is due to the change in technique brought about by Dick Fosbury, with the introduction of the "Fosbury Flop".

Answer: 29 minutes 20 seconds

With the times for each lap of the track taking not much more than 1 minute, it is incredible to think that Zatopek, while running a world record for his era, would have been lapped twice by Bekele, and wouldn't have been far away from being lapped for a 3rd time.

Answer: 11.66 meters

This is another event where improved technique has been of assistance as well as physical advances. In 45 years, the record had increased by almost a third, a much greater percentage than in the long jump, for example. Yamaguchi's record is very unusual, being set by a Japanese athlete during World War II.

It would be a while before Japan entered the war, but when Yamaguchi set her world record on September 21st 1939, the war had already started in Europe three weeks earlier.

Answer: 14.86 meters

As well as Lisovskaya's throw in 1987, there were several other Eastern Bloc competitors throwing well over 21 meters during the 1980s. Over 2 decades later, Valerie Vili of New Zealand won the gold medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics with a throw of 20.56 meters, only 90% of the way to the world record.

Answer: 55.4 seconds

It seems like records tumble at every meet in swimming, but even with all the streamlining and improved techniques, there is only an eight-second improvement between 1950 and 2008. However, if you go back a whole century to the 1908 Olympics in London, an American, Charles Daniels, won the gold medal in what was then a world record of 1 minute 5.6 seconds.

Answer: 10 minutes 52 seconds

It could have been a close finish to the wall between these two swimmers. I don't have the split times for the Hveger's world record effort, but she would have been coming up to the finish line to complete 600 meters at almost exactly the same time as Rebecca Adlington was charging up the pool to complete 800 meters.

Answer: 59.57 meters

In the 10-year period from Jan 1st 1993 to Dec 31st 2002, the best throw in the world was 83.68 meters, not even within 3 meters of the 1986 record. In the case of the hammer throw, speed, technique, and timing are just as important as brute strength.

Answer: 4.77 meters

Pole vaulting, more than any other athletic event has benefitted from improved technology and technique, as well as the improvements in nutrition and training methods that help every event. However, in this case it is also at least partly due to the emergence of one phenomenal athlete.

It was joked that he had to inform Air Traffic Control about when and where he was competing. Interestingly, Warmerdam made his recording setting vault in 1942, to make it onto a very short list of athletes to break a world record while their country was actually at war.

Answer: 2 hours 25 minutes 39 seconds

As Gebreselassie crossed the finishing line, Suh Yun-Bok on the way to his own world record, would still have had about 6.25 kilometers left to run!