Olympics Quiz

Paris 2024 held the first Summer Games opening ceremony outside a stadium. How did the athletes parade?

• On foot up the Champs-Elysees
• On bicycles round the Eiffel Tower
• On boats along the Seine
• In open buses past the Louvre

Answer: On boats along the Seine. Each team sailed down the Seine, and the parade ended at the Trocadero, across the river from the Eiffel Tower.

He drew the rings in 1913 so every nation's flag shared one of their colours. Who?

• Juan Antonio Samaranch
• Pierre de Coubertin
• Jacques Rogge
• Avery Brundage

Answer: Pierre de Coubertin. Pierre de Coubertin, founder of the modern Games. Six colours with the white background covered every flag then.

At Beijing 2008 he broke Mark Spitz's record of seven golds at one Games. Who?

• Ryan Lochte
• Ian Thorpe
• Matt Biondi
• Michael Phelps

Answer: Michael Phelps. Michael Phelps won eight, beating Spitz's 1972 haul by one.

On the first day of competition at Tokyo 2020, a weightlifter from Manipur won silver, India's first medal of the Games. Who?

• Mirabai Chanu
• Kunjarani Devi
• Sanjita Chanu
• Punam Yadav

Answer: Mirabai Chanu. Mirabai Chanu lifted 202 kg in the 49 kg class, India's first Olympic weightlifting medal since Karnam Malleswari in 2000.

In Hitler's Berlin in 1936, one American won the 100 m, 200 m, long jump and sprint relay. Who?

• Carl Lewis
• Ralph Metcalfe
• Jesse Owens
• Eddie Tolan

Answer: Jesse Owens. Jesse Owens. Carl Lewis matched the same four golds at Los Angeles 1984.

At Tokyo 2020, India's men's hockey team came back from 1-3 down to beat Germany 5-4 for bronze. It was their first Olympic medal since which Games?

• Montreal 1976
• Moscow 1980
• Los Angeles 1984
• Seoul 1988

Answer: Moscow 1980. Moscow 1980, where India won the last of their eight hockey golds. The bronze ended a 41-year wait.

She lost to Carolina Marín in the final, taking badminton silver. Which Games?

• London 2012
• Rio 2016
• Tokyo 2020
• Paris 2024

Answer: Rio 2016. P.V. Sindhu took silver at Rio 2016, India's first Olympic silver in badminton, then bronze at Tokyo 2020.

At Paris 2024 she won bronze in the 10 m air pistol, then another with Sarabjot Singh, the first Indian since independence with two medals at one Games. Who?

• Rhythm Sangwan
• Esha Singh
• Heena Sidhu
• Manu Bhaker

Answer: Manu Bhaker. Manu Bhaker. Before independence, Norman Pritchard had won two silvers at Paris 1900.

At Paris 2024, Neeraj Chopra threw a season's best 89.45 m and still took silver. Who beat him with an Olympic record of 92.97 m?

• Anderson Peters
• Arshad Nadeem
• Jakub Vadlejch
• Julian Weber

Answer: Arshad Nadeem. Pakistan's Arshad Nadeem, whose gold ended his country's 32-year wait for an Olympic medal. Anderson Peters of Grenada took bronze.

At Rome 1960 an Ethiopian runner won the marathon at night, through the city's streets, and became the first Black African Olympic champion. How did he run it?

• Barefoot
• With a broken wrist
• In borrowed spikes
• Without water stops

Answer: Barefoot. Barefoot. The shoes on offer in Rome didn't fit and gave him blisters, so Abebe Bikila ran barefoot, as he trained, and set a world best of 2:15:16.

How is the Olympic flame lit at Olympia in Greece?

• Sunlight focused by a curved mirror
• A match struck by the IOC president
• A spark from the last Games' cauldron
• A lamp kept burning in the temple

Answer: Sunlight focused by a curved mirror. A priestess uses a parabolic mirror at the Temple of Hera to focus the sun's rays, a method first used for the Berlin 1936 relay.

In 2022 it became the first city to host both the Summer and the Winter Olympics. Which city?

• Tokyo
• Seoul
• Moscow
• Beijing

Answer: Beijing. Beijing held the Summer Games in 2008 and the Winter Games in February 2022.

At Montreal 1976 the scoreboard flashed '1.00' for 14-year-old Nadia Comaneci on the uneven bars. What had she really scored?

• 1 out of 10
• 100 out of 100
• A perfect 10
• Zero, for a fall

Answer: A perfect 10. A perfect 10, the first in Olympic gymnastics. The board had only three digits, because a 10 was thought impossible.

Lillehammer 1994 came only two years after Albertville 1992. Why?

• The Winter Games moved off the Summer Games year
• Albertville's results were annulled
• Norway paid to host the Games early
• The 1996 Winter Games were cancelled

Answer: The Winter Games moved off the Summer Games year. In 1986 the IOC decided to hold the Summer and Winter Games in different years. Until 1992 both were held in the same year.

His principal mortgaged a house to send this wrestler to Helsinki 1952. Who won bronze?

• Dara Singh
• Yogeshwar Dutt
• Sushil Kumar
• K.D. Jadhav

Answer: K.D. Jadhav. K.D. Jadhav's bronze was independent India's first individual Olympic medal.