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