True Olympic Spirit

 Olympics Photo Quiz 2 

 Background 

Ethiopian Dirartu Tula and South Africa's Elena Meyer run a lap of honour loaded with hopeful symbolism at the end of the women's 10,000 metres final at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. After finishing in the gold and silver medal positions respectively, the pair joined hands to circle the stadium in a celebration of African unity following the end of the poisonous apartheid system in Meyer's country. South Africa's racist policies had seen it banned from the Olympics from 1964, with its athletes only allowed to return to the Games of 1992 in the Catalan capital. Tula, who was twenty at the time of this photo, would go on to have an astonishing running career. She again won Olympic Gold in the 10,000 metres at the Sydney Games of 2000, before turning her attention to a decade of marathon running that was book-ended by triumphs at the London 2001 and New York City 2009 marathons. By a quirk of history the Olympic stadium that witnessed Tula and Meyer's demonstration of racial unity had been built to support Barcelona's unsuccessful bid to host the 1936 Games which were awarded to Berlin and would be presided over by Hitler's Nazis with their own brand of uber racism.     

 Olympics Photo Quiz 2 

What significant Olympic first did Dirartu Tula achieve when she won the gold medal in the 10,000 meters at the 1992 Barcelona Games?

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

 Olympics Photo Quiz 1 Answer 

The invasion of Hungary by 200,000 Soviet troops to forcefully quell political dissent, was the background factor, that less than a month later, incited high octane ill feeling during the water polo match between Hungary and Russia at the 1956 Melbourne 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.