One of my favorite sports shows – well, the only one I really like– is going on right now, and I don’t miss an episode! The Winter Olympics. This trivia puzzle is about the Olympics – see how well you score.
1. Approximately how many medals have been made for the Sochi Olympic games? 1,000; 1,300; 1,500; 1,900.
2. The Olympic motto is “Citius, Altius, Fortius.” What does that mean in English?
3. Which American city has hosted the Winter Olympics twice? Squaw Valley, Calif.; Salt Lake City, Utah; Lake Placid, N.Y.
4. Which of the following is a real figure skating move named after a former Olympic gold medal winner? The Witt Twist; The Hamill Camel; The Button Hook.
5. Norway’s Bjorn Dahlie is the most decorated Winter Olympian of all time. Who holds the most medals for the Untied States? Eric Heiden; Bonnie Blair; Dick Button; Bode Miller.
6. Which country won the most overall medals at the 1998 Winter Games in Nagano? Austria; Germany; Norway.
7. In 1998, Tara Lipinski became the youngest athlete to win a Winter Olympic gold medal in an individual event. Who’s the oldest? Magnar Solberg, biathlon, Norway; Gunda Niemann-Stirnemann, speed skating, Germany; Sonja Henie, figure skating, Norway.
8. Which former football star was also a member of the 1992 U.S. men’s Olympic bobsled team in Albertville? Marcus Allen; Earl Campbell; Herschel Walker.
9. Who’s the only hockey player to win an Olympic gold medal and a Stanley Cup in the same year? Bill Cleary; Ken Morrow; Wayne Gretzky.
10. Olympic lugers ten reach maximum speeds of approximately: 90 mph; 60 mph; 75 mph; 95 mph.
ANSWERS:
1. The www.olympic.org website says approximately 1,300 medals have been made, and that they feature the official name of the Games engraved in Russian, English, and French on the rim. 2. It means “Faster, Higher, Stronger.” Pierre de Coubertin, considered the father of the modern Olympic games, proposed it in 1894 after hearing the words said by Dominican priest Henri Didon years earlier. 3. Lake Placid in 1932 and 1980. 4. The Hamill Camel, where a skater turns a camel spin into a sitting spin, was named for 1976 American gold medalist Dorothy Hamill. 5. Between 1988-1994, Blair won six Olympic speed skating medals: five gold and one bronze. 6. Germany. The Germans won 29 medals in 1998: 12 gold, nine silver, and eight bronze. 7. Magnar Solberg, biathlon, Norway. Solberg was 35 years and four days when he won the 20-km biathlon in 1972. Niemann-Stirnemann (now 35) won her last of three gold medals in 1998 at the age of 31, but returned to Salt Lake City to defend her title. Henie was merely a baby, at 23, when she won her final gold in 1936. 8. Walker, the former Heisman Trophy winner and Dallas Cowboys star running back, teamed with Brian Shimer to finish seventh in the two-man bobsled competition. 9. Ken Morrow. Morrow was a defenseman for the U.S. 1980 team, then went to the pros, where he won four consecutive Stanley Cups (1980-83) as a member of the New York Islanders. Cleary won the gold with the U.S. in 1960 but never played in the NHL. Gretzky won four Stanley Cups, but his 1998 Olympic appearance with the Canadian team earned no medal to bring home. Gretzky, however, was the general manager of the 2002 gold medal winning Canadian team and returned to helm the 2006 team. 10. Amazingly, speeds in luge can reach upwards of 90 mph. Yikes! With no brakes!