1. B. Carl Lewis
Frederick Carlton "Carl" Lewis (born July 1, 1961) is
an American former track and field athlete who won nine Olympic gold medals,
one Olympic silver medal, and 10 World Championships medals, including eight
gold in his career spanning from 1979 to 1996, when he last won an Olympic
event. He is one of only three Olympic athletes who won a gold medal in the
same individual event in four consecutive Olympic Games - Michael Phelps's 4
Gold Medals in "200 m individual medley swimming" from 2004-2016 and Al
Oerter's 4 Gold Medals in "Discus Throw" from 1948-1960 (both from US)
are the other two athletes to achieve the feat.
Lewis was a dominant sprinter and long jumper who topped the
world rankings in the 100 m, 200 m and long jump events frequently from 1981 to
the early 1990s. He set world records in the 100 m, 4 × 100 m and 4 × 200 m
relays, while his world record in the indoor long jump has stood since 1984.
His 65 consecutive victories in the long jump achieved over a span of 10 years
is one of the sport's longest undefeated streaks.
His accomplishments have led to numerous accolades, including
being voted "World Athlete of the Century" by the "International
Association of Athletics Federations" (IAAF) and "Sportsman of the
Century" by the "International Olympic Committee, "Olympian of
the Century" by Sports Illustrated.
2. A. Zimbabwe
The 1980 Moscow Olympics were first to feature women's hockey
and the first to include "Zimbabwe" under that name—barred from the
last three Olympics for political reasons, the country had last competed as
Rhodesia in 1964. The National Olympic Committee for Zimbabwe was recognized by
the International Olympic Committee in 1980.
The 1980 Zimbabwe women's national field hockey team which won
the gold medal were a squad of 16 women, all from Zimbabwe's white minority,
assembled less than a month before the Olympics began to help fill the gaps the
American-led Olympic boycott created in the women's hockey competition.
Zimbabwe's subsequent victory in the round-robin tournament with
three wins and two draws was regarded as a huge upset, particularly considering
the team's lack of preparation and experience; it has been called an "irresistible
fairy story". Won at a time of great political transition in Zimbabwe, the
gold medal was the country's first Olympic medal of any colour.
3. B. Romania
Nadia Elena Comaneci (born
November 12, 1961), a Romanian gymnast thrilled the world at the 1976 Olympic
Games in Montreal, Canada, where, at the age of 14, she became the first woman
to score a perfect 10 in an Olympic gymnastics event. She received seven
perfect scores and won three gold medals—for the uneven bars, balance beam and
individual all-around—and a bronze medal for her floor exercise. As part of the
second-place Romanian national team, she won silver. Comaneci's performance at
the 1976 Olympics redefined both her sport and audiences' expectations of
female athletes.
At the 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow, Russia, Nadia Comaneci
won two gold, for the balance beam and floor exercise and two silver medals,
for the team competition and individual all-around.
The five-time Olympic Gold medalist Comaneci retired from
competition in 1984. In 2000, she was named as one of the "Athletes of the
20th Century" by the Laureus World Sports Academy.
4. B. 1972, Munich
"One Day in September" is a 1999 documentary film
directed by Kevin Macdonald examining the 5 September 1972 murder of 11 Israeli
athletes at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, Germany known as "Munich
Massacre". Michael Douglas provides the sparse narration throughout the
film. The film won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature at the 72nd
Academy Awards in 2000.
(All the 12 persons
killed in "Munich Massacre" including the German Police Officer in
rescue efforts - in bottom right corner)
The "Munich massacre" was an attack during the 1972 Munich
Summer Olympics in which the Palestinian terrorist group "Black September"
took eleven Israeli Olympic team members hostage and killed them along with a
West German police officer. Shortly after the crisis began, a Black September
spokesman demanded that 234 Palestinian prisoners jailed in Israel and the West
German-held founders of the "Red Army Faction", "Andreas Baader"
and "Ulrike Meinhof", be released. The standoff in the Olympic Village
lasted for almost 18 hours during which German Police officers killed five of
the eight Black September members during a failed attempt to rescue the
hostages. The other three Palestinian hijackers were also captured. The next
month, however, following the hijacking of Lufthansa Flight 615, the West German
government released them in a hostage exchange.
The Olympic motto is "Citius, Altius, Fortius",
which is Latin for "faster, higher, stronger". It was proposed by "Pierre
de Coubertin" upon the creation of the International Olympic Committee in
1894. Coubertin borrowed it from his friend "Henri Didon", a
Dominican priest who was an athletics enthusiast. The motto was introduced in
1924 at the Olympic Games in Paris.
These three words encourage athletes to give their best during competition. The motto can be compared to the Olympic creed which says:
“The important thing in life is not the triumph, but the fight; the essential thing is not to have won, but to have fought well.”
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