The Sports Quiz
1. The picture below shows the most complete skull of an Homo heidelbergensis ever found. It was found in 1992 in Sierra de Atapuerca. This skull is unviersally known by a nickname that was given to it thanks to whose achievements?
2. Johnny Weissmuller was an Austro-Hungarian-born American competition swimmer and actor, best known for playing X in films of the 1930s and 1940s and for having one of the best competitive swimming records of the 20th century. Weissmuller was one of the world's fastest swimmers in the 1920s, winning five Olympic gold medals for swimming and one bronze medal for water polo. He was the first to break the one minute barrier for 100-meter freestyle, and the first to swim 440-yard freestyle under five minutes. He won fifty-two U.S. national championships, set more than 50 world records.
After retiring from competitions, he became the sixth actor to portray X, a role he played in 12 motion pictures. Dozens of other actors have also played X, but Weissmuller is by far the best known.
ID X
3. At various times in Britain's history, monarchs have banned the likes of football, bowls and even golf, because men were playing these sports rather than practicing X in their spare time. In fact, during the reign of Henry VIII, every man in the country had to "Practice at the Butts" after church on Sundays to hone their X skills.
X is one of the oldest sports and it is also the national sport of Bhutan.
ID X
4. CNN reports on which friendship?
"You'd think they would be sick of the sight of each other. But from the ashes of their encounter match in 2010 an enduring 'bromance' has blossomed".
One says: "He actually is a good friend of mine. We keep in touch all the time. So we developed a friendship from that match."
Who are the two athletes mentioned here?
5. In the 1936 Olympics held in Berlin, Germany, two Japanese athletes were tied for the second place in pole vault. When the Japanese athletes refused to compete against each other, they were given the silver and bronze medals respectively. On their return to Japan, they did something to establish their friendship. What did they do?
6. On 18 July 1976, 14-year-old Romanian gymnast Nadia Comăneci performed in the uneven bars event and because the scoreboard only allowed three digits, it had to display her score as 1.00. This led to total confusion, with even Comăneci unsure of what it meant. An iconic press photograph shows a beaming Comăneci, arms upraised, beside the scoreboard.
What did Comăneci actually do?
7. Eukonkanto first originated in Finland. Tales have been passed down from one person to another about a man named Herkko Rosvo-Ronkainen. This man was considered a robber in the late 1800s, lived in a forest, and ran around with his gang of thieves causing harm to the villages. From what has been found, there are some ideas as to why/how this sport was invented. One of which is, Rosvo-Ronkainen and his thieves were accused of stealing food and women from villages in the area he lived in, then carrying these women on their backs as they ran away.
X is now practiced in Australia, the United States of America, Hong Kong, Estonia, the UK and other parts of the world besides Finland and has a category in the Guinness Book of Records.
ID X or how is Eukonkanto better known as?
8. An early use of X is in the novel A bad lot by Brian Glanville(1977). According to Alex Leith's book Over the Moon, Brian - The Language of Football, the first part of X refers to the testicles of the player through whose legs the ball has been passed and X is just a development from this.
There is also a street football game originated in the Netherlands which is called panna. This game depends on usage of this technique.
ID X
9. Michael Phelps retired from competitive swimming last year with a record 23 Olympic gold medals. His latest swim — if you can call it that — was also record-breaking.
Discovery Channel’s “Phelps vs. X: Great Gold vs. X,” in which the swimmer lost a race to a computer-generated X, and angered the internet along the way, averaged more than 5 million total viewers in a night.
ID X and what made the viewers angry?
10. In July 2013, 80645 flowers-- yellow marigolds and black, pink and grey petunias were used to make what announcement in a spectacular fashion?
ANSWERS
1. Miguel Indurain (winner of the Tour de France and Giro d' Italia in 1992). The skull was nicknamed Miguelon.
2. Tarzan
3. Archery
4. John Isner and Nicholas Mahut (regarding the longest match played in the history of tennis).
5. After returning to Japan, with the help of a jeweler, they cut the silver and bronze medals in half and merged them together as a symbol of their friendship. The "Friendship Medals" were half in bronze and half in silver.
6. Comăneci achieved a perfect 10.
7. Wife-carrying
8. Nutmeg⚽
9. X is the great white shark.
The Discovery Channel’s title for the show – "Phelps vs Shark: Great Gold vs Great White" – left some viewers disappointed that a real shark was not featured in the race.
10. Borussia Dortmund's unveiling of their home jersey for the 2013-2014 season.
