Bringer Of Olympic Darkness

Hitler & Spiridon Louis

 Olympics Photo Quiz 13 

 Background 

Berlin had been due to hold the 1916 Olympics before World War I forced their cancellation. By 1931 Germany once more found itself within the bosom of the international community so that in that year Berlin was awarded the 1936 Games ahead of Barcelona's bid. Dark forces lurked, then strutted, as they planned dismal futures for both cities. By 1933 Hitler was in power in Germany, but despite unease in some quarters about the Nazis' racial policies, whispers of a boycott of the Berlin Games came to nothing. Spain would be absent from the event as it's civil war cranked into deadly gear and the people of Barcelona in particular would come to feel the full punitive force of the Franco led victors of that conflict. It was Hitler who declared the official start of the Berlin Games at the 1936 opening ceremony, before receiving, in what to the modern eye looks like excruciating irony, an olive branch from Spiridon Louis, the Greek winner of the first Olympic marathon at the 1896 Games in Athens.            

 Olympics Photo Quiz 13 

Aside from Berlin, which is the other German city to have hosted an Olympic Games? 

The Answer will be published along with the next Highly Questionable quiz and associated blog post.

 Olympics Photo Quiz 12 Answer 

Muhammad Ali was the iconic sportsman who lit the Olympic flame at the start of the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. Ali, fighting under his previous name of Cassius Clay, had won a gold medal for boxing at the 1960 Rome Games, before embarking on a tempestuous career, that at it's peak, was to see him become probably the most famous human being on the planet.

The author of the Highly Questionable? quiz and trivia blog, Harry Reid, is a freelance question setter, writer and blogger. He can be contacted at harryreid@btinternet.com

Bringer Of Olympic Light

Yoshinori Saki

 Olympics Photo Quiz 12 

 Background 

Arguably the most poignant of Olympic moments took place when the nineteen year old runner Yoshinori Sakai lit the flame at the opening ceremony of the 1964 Tokyo Games. Born in Hiroshima on the day the city was devastated by an atomic bomb, he stood as both a universal symbol of hope and an emblem for Japan's reemergence into the international community.

 Olympics Photo Quiz 12 

Which iconic sportsman, himself a gold medal winner in 1960, lit the Olympic flame at the start of the 1996 Atlanta Games? 

The Answer will be published along with the next Highly Questionable quiz and associated blog post.

 Olympics Photo Quiz 11 Answer 

Natalie Du Toit was the South African swimmer who, having lost a leg in a 2001 motor cycle accident, participated in both the Beijing Olympics and Paralympics in 2008.

The author of the Highly Questionable? quiz and trivia blog, Harry Reid, is a freelance question setter, writer and blogger. He can be contacted at harryreid@btinternet.com

Olympic Golden Girls

Gertrude Ederle

 Olympics Photo Quiz 11 

 Background 
Women were banned from participating at the first Olympics of the modern era held in Athens in 1896, and a key strand to the story of the Games since then has been their long battle for equality as competitors. Slowly female involvement increased as more women's events became part of the Olympic programme at each Games, but even by the 1948 London Olympics only ten per cent of the athletes competing were female. One of the main forces in their progress to gain increasing Olympic recognition were the athletic performances of a wave of women each of whose achievements helped challenge and overcome prevailing stereotypes as to what was right and proper for members of 'the fairer sex.' One such was the American swimmer Gertrude Ederle. Having won three medals at the 1924 Paris Olympics she was on the public radar but what made the sporting and wider world really sit up was her swim across the English Channel two years later. At that time only five people - all men - had successfully completed this feat, which was regarded as the swimming equivalent of climbing Mount Everest and viewed as simply beyond women. At nineteen years old she confounded the nay sayers by not only swimming the Channel but by doing so in a time that was more than two hours faster than the fastest of her male predecessors.              

Olympic Swimming

Early editions of the Olympics saw open water used for swimming competitions, with the sea in the Bay of Zea and the River Seine respectively providing the venues at the 1896 Athens and 1900 Games.
London 2012 Olympic Swimming

Swimming is a sport were women have achieved equality with their male counterparts at the Olympics, with the total of 34 available swimming gold medals at London 2012 divided on the basis of 17 apiece for men and women.

 Olympics Photo Quiz 11 

What is the name of the South African swimmer who, having lost a leg in a motorcycle accident, participated in both the Beijing Olympics and Paralympics in 2008? 

The Answer will be published along with the next Highly Questionable quiz and associated blog post.

 Olympics Photo Quiz 10 Answer 

Iranian Hossein Rezazadeh was the athlete who at the 2004 Athens Games lifted the heaviest weight ever made at the Olympics when he clean and jerked 265.5kgs.

The author of the Highly Questionable? quiz and trivia blog, Harry Reid, is a freelance question setter, writer and blogger. He can be contacted at harryreid@btinternet.com

Against The Odds

Jim Halliday

 Olympics Photo Quiz 10 

 Background 

One of the most inspiring aspects of the Olympics are the stories of athletes who overcome various kinds of adversity to become competitors to the Games. The British weightlifter Jim Halliday is a distinctive case in point. After emerging in August 1945 from a Japanese prisoner of war camp, he weighed just four and a half stone (28.5 kg). Determined to build his strength he put himself on a nutritious diet that included eating whole eggs, shells and all, to boost his calcium intake. Working by day as a coal stoker at a power station he resumed weightlifting, a sport he had enjoyed and excelled at before the second world war. Training at night he prepared for the 1948 London Olympics where he won the bronze medal in the lightweight category. Later he co-wrote a sports book called 'Olympic Weightlifting & Body Building' which became a bestseller and inspired a generation of admiring youngsters. Halliday would go on to enjoy a long life, dying in 2007 aged 89.         

Olympic Weightlifting

Although men's weightlifting was one of the sports featured at the first modern Olympics held in Athens in 1896, it has not been part of the programme at every Games. Having been absent on three occasions (1900, 1908 and 1912), it has been a constant at every Olympics since the 1920 Antwerp Games with women's Olympic weightlifting debiting as part of the 2000 Olympics in Sydney.    

London 2012 Olympic Weightlifting

15 weightlifting gold medals will be up for grabs at the 2012 London Olympics with 170 men and 90 women competing for them. Highly Questionable's London 2012 weightlifting tip is to watch out for Behdad Salimikordasiabi, partly because if he can carry that name around he clearly is someone to reckon with, but mostly because he is likely to excel in the 105 kg class.

 Olympics Photo Quiz 10 

What nationality is Hossein Rezazadeh, the athlete who at the 2004 Athens Games lifted the heaviest weight ever made at the Olympics when he clean and jerked 265.5kgs? 

The Answer will be published along with the next Highly Questionable quiz and associated blog post.

 Olympics Photo Quiz 9 Answer 

Epee is the type of sword that is used in the fencing component of the modern pentathlon.

The author of the Highly Questionable? quiz and trivia blog, Harry Reid, is a freelance question setter, writer and blogger. He can be contacted at harryreid@btinternet.com

Five Star All Rounder

Willie Grut

 Olympics Photo Quiz 9 

 Background 

Debates about who is the greatest Olympic athlete of all time are undoubtedly great fun, giving as they do the opportunity to savour the achievements of dozens of worthy candidates for the accolade. However they are ultimately futile as it's impossible to compare the accomplishments of people from different eras who competed in very different sports and circumstances. Additionally, attention in such discussions invariably centres on those who had the platform of the more popular glamour sports at the Games. One name rarely if ever mentioned in such debates, possibly because it scarcely rolls of the tongue, is Swedish athlete Willy Oscar Guernsey Grut. Yet his Olympic activities and achievements, are well worth remembering and saluting. His Olympic connections began even before he was born, as his father Torben was the architect of the stadium at the centre of the Stockholm Olympics in 1912. He kicked off his own Olympic account by swimming at the 1936 Berlin Olympics where he saw Gottard Handwick win the modern pentathlon for Germany. 

Early Swedish Domination

Until then this event had been won at previous Olympics exclusively by Swedes, and Grut vowed that he would train in it's five disciplines to retake the gold in it for Sweden at the next Olympics. As an officer in the Swedish army he was well placed to devote himself to the fencing, shooting, cross country running, horse riding and swimming that combine to form the modern pentathlon. He had to wait over a decade to get his chance to put all his training to the test as the second world war intervened to force the cancellation of the 1940 and 1944 Games. In 1948 he prepared for that year's London summer Olympics by entering the winter pentathlon at the St Moritz winter Olympics. This event replaced the cross country running and swimming components with downhill and cross country skiing. He scooped the silver medal in this winter warm up and went on to win the modern pentathlon gold at the London Games by setting a new Olympic record. Having achieved his goal, Grut turned his hand to coaching, training amongst others Lars Hall who then went on to win gold in the pentathlon at both the Helsinki 1952 and Melbourne 1956 Olympics. 

Olympic Modern Pentathlon

While the men's event was introduced at the 1912 Stockholm Games, the women's modern pentathlon did not feature at the Olympics until the Sydney Games of 2000.  

London 2012 Comment

With only a minor change to it's rubric, which has seen the shooting and running elements combined in an unusual fashion, the modern pentathlon staged at the London 2012 Olympics will essentially be the same event won by Grut, Hall and the other Swedish champions of yesteryear. Highly Questionable is tipping the Czech David Svoboda, who is the current world champion, to win gold in the modern pentathlon at the 2012 London Games, and Germany's Lena Schonebora to take the top spot in the women's event, so repeating her triumph at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.             

 Olympics Photo Quiz 9 

What type of sword is used in the fencing component of the modern pentathlon? 

The Answer will be published along with the next Highly Questionable quiz and associated blog post.

 Olympics Photo Quiz 8 Answer 

Italian was the nationality of the fencing brothers Aldo and Nedo Nadi who between them took eight gold fencing medals at the 1920 Antwerp Olympics.

The author of the Highly Questionable? quiz and trivia blog, Harry Reid, is a freelance question setter, writer and blogger. He can be contacted at harryreid@btinternet.com

Relatively Speaking

 Olympics Photo Quiz 8 

 Background 

Now largely forgotten outside of diehard fencing circles, triple Olympic gold winner Aldo Nadi was without question amongst the greatest swordsmen in the world in the era between the first and second world wars. The trouble from Aldo's point of view was that despite being one of the greatest exponents on the planet in foil, epee and sabre, he lived in the fencing shadow of his brother Nedo. Aged just eighteen, Nedo had taken a fencing gold at the 1912 Stockholm Olympics when Aldo was still a child. After the cancellation of the 1916 Games because of World War I the Nadi brothers travelled to the 1920 Olympics in Antwerp where twenty-one year Aldo scooped three golds and a silver. Despite this impressive haul his older sibling outdid him with five golds. After the Antwerp Olympics both brothers turned professional, Nedo heading to coach in Argentina while Aldo used his prize money from contests across Europe over the next decade to live the life of a diletante womanising playboy while based for many years in a luxury hotel in Paris. Running out of competitors to beat, and with the second world war approaching, Aldo Nadi moved to the United States where he coached both Hollywood actors and serious fencers. Amongst the latter numbered Janice-Lee Romary, who over the period 1948-68 became the first woman to appear at six Olympic Games and was the first woman to carry the flag of the USA into an opening ceremony at the Olympics when she led her country's athletes into the stadium at the Mexico City Games. As to which Nadi brother was the better, we can only speculate as they faced each other just once in public, when they agreed in advance they would draw because their father was amongst the audience watching the contest.

 Olympics Photo Quiz 8 

What nationality were the Olympic fencers Aldo and Nedo Nadi? 

The Answer will be published along with the next Highly Questionable quiz and associated blog post.

 Olympics Photo Quiz 7 Answer 

Wrestling was the sport in which the Rank gong man Ken Richmond competed at the Olympic Games held in London in 1948, Helsinki in 1952 and Melbourne in 1956.

The author of the Highly Questionable? quiz and trivia blog, Harry Reid, is a freelance question setter, writer and blogger. He can be contacted at harryreid@btinternet.com

King Gong

 Olympics Photo Quiz 7 

 Background 

The British Olympic medal winner Ken Richmond's nineteen stone frame was for decades known to millions, but few of them could have named the face that topped the six foot five strongman. For, although three men preceded him in the role, from the mid fifties onwards it was his oiled torso that cinema goers saw bang the gong at the start of J Arthur Rank films. Or at least that's what they thought they saw and heard. In fact Richmond mimed striking what in fact was a prop made of papier mache, for as he said in an interview in his later years 'hitting a real gong that size would have deafened me'. By that time Ken Richmond was able to look back on a colourful life that had not only included competing at three Olympic Games, and appearing as an extra in numerous films, but saw him serve time both in prison as a conscientious objector during the second world war and as a crew member of Antarctic whaling ships. His Olympic medal, a bronze, came at the Helsinki Games of 1952, while he kept himself fit enough throughout his life to be an active windsurfer in his sixties.                         

 Olympics Photo Quiz 7 

In what sport did Ken Richmond compete at the Olympic Games held in London in 1948, Helsinki in 1952 and Melbourne in 1956? 

The Answer will be published along with the next Highly Questionable quiz and associated blog post.

 Olympics Photo Quiz 6 Answer 
Three other Olympic medalists in addition to Johnny Weissmuller played the character of Tarzan in Hollywood films, they were fellow swimmer Buster Crabbe, shot putter Herman Brix and decathlete Glen Morris.

The author of the Highly Questionable? quiz and trivia blog, Harry Reid, is a freelance question setter, writer and blogger. He can be contacted at harryreid@btinternet.com

Swimming Into The Jungle

 Olympics Photo Quiz 6 

 Background 

Winner of five gold medals in swimming for the United States at the 1924 Paris and 1928 Amsterdam Olympics, along with a bronze as part of his adopted country's water polo team at the Games in the French capital, the Romanian born Johnny Weissmuller would famously go on to play Tarzan in a string of movies during the nineteen thirties and forties featuring the jungle man. Less well known is the fact that he took up swimming to help offset the sickly physique that came in the wake of his childhood bought of polio. Eagle eyed Beatles fans will however know that his is one of the faces that appear in the montage that forms the cover of the band's 1967 landmark 'Sergent Pepper' album.                   

 Olympics Photo Quiz 6 

How many other Olympic medalists went on to portray Tarzan in Hollywood movies? 

The Answer will be published along with the next Highly Questionable quiz and associated blog post.

 Olympics Photo Quiz 5 Answer 

Refusal to accept their silver medals was the form of protest mounted by members of the USA basketball team at the 1972 Munich Olympics. They were aggrieved at what they saw as irregular timekeeping at the end of their match with the USSR which allowed the Russian's to snatch victory and the gold medal in a sport that the Americans had never previously lost a match in in the history of the Games.

The author of the Highly Questionable? quiz and trivia blog, Harry Reid, is a freelance question setter, writer and blogger. He can be contacted at harryreid@btinternet.com

Superpowers Slam Dunk The Rings

 Olympics Photo Quiz 5 

 Background 

The scoreboard at the end of the 1972 Olympic basketball final revealed that the apparently unthinkable had happened - America had been beaten at their own game. The United States had approached that final with an imperious record. They had won all sixty-two matches they had played since basketball first became an Olympic sport at the 1936 Berlin Games. Now, after processing to the final in Munich  thirty-six years later having dispatched eight challengers they fully expected to be once more crowned Olympic champions. The trouble was the Soviet Union side, who now formed their opponents in the gold medal match, had also had an unbeaten run to the final. The Russians stormed to an early seven point lead and a highly physical encountered ensued with players on both sides dismissed from the court. With the United States one point behind and ten seconds remaining on the clock, Doug Collins burst towards the basket only to be halted by a punch. The very obvious foul resulted in the Americans being awarded two free throws at a potential point a piece. With three seconds remaining Collins sank the throws and the USA team erupt in celebration having, as they thought, won 50-49. Yet in a highly controversial twist, the clock was twice reset, and when play resumed for a second time, Aleksander Belov scored to give the Olympic basketball title to the Russians.                

 Olympics Photo Quiz 5 

What form did the USA teams's protest at the result take? 

The Answer will be published along with the next Highly Questionable quiz and associated blog post.

 Olympics Photo Quiz 4 Answer 

Jesse Owens was the black American athlete who won gold medals in the 100m, 200m, long jump and 4 x 100m relay at the 1936 Berlin Olympics much to the discomfort of the racist Nazi organisers of those Games.

The author of the Highly Questionable? quiz and trivia blog, Harry Reid, is a freelance question setter, writer and blogger. He can be contacted at harryreid@btinternet.com