Archived from groups: rec.games.trivia,rec.sport.olympics (More info?)
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================================================
***Olympics Rare Entries Contest**
The goal of this contest was to
a) Answer each of 10 questions correctly, and
b) Give answers that will be given by as few other people as possible.
Each person's score for a question was the number of people giving the
same answer; wrong or omitted answers resulted in a penalty score (which
in this contest ended up being twice the highest score for a correct
answer on that question). The scores on each question are multiplied
together to give a final score, with a perfect score being 1.
This contest was written and judged jointly by Harold Buck and Brian Van
Dorn, with Brian writing and doing the primary judging on Q0, Q6, and Q7.
Thanks for entering! We hope you enjoyed it and that you learned as much
by playing as we did by judging. We're sure there will be some
discussion generated; we're cross-posting the results to
rec.games.trivia and rec.sport.olympics.
================================================
Here are the answer slates for the top three finishers (some answers
abbreviated).
________________________________________________
| | HEATHER | DAVIDE | ERIC |
| | GREBE | TOSI | MADDY |
+===+==============+=============+===============+
|[0]| Geordie |Endurance |Tokyo orimpikku|
|[1]| Sailboard |Arch |Paddle (WR) |
|[2]| Mod. Pent. |Show jumping |Steeplechase |
|[3]| St. Moritz |Stockholm |Long Beach, CA |
|[4]| Curling |Curling |Curling |
|[5]| Halfpipe boot|Skate |Soccer boots |
|[6]| Vreni |Ulrike |Kim |
| | Schneider |Meyfarth |Rhode |
|[7]| Indonesia |Venezuela |Pakistan |
|[8]| Boxing |Trampoline |Taekwondo |
|[9]| Handball |Triathlon |Triathlon |
===+==============+=============+===============
Q0 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q5 Q6 Q7 Q8 Q9
1. 216 Heather Grebe 1 1 6 3 4 1 1 1 3 1
2. 6144 Davide Tosi 1 1 2 4 4 6 1 2 2 8
3. 6400 Eric Maddy 1 WR 5 1 4 1 1 2 2 8
4. 6480 Joshua Kreitzer 1 WR 1 2 3 2 1 2 9 3
5. 9072 E. van der Pijll 1 1 WR 1 3 2 2 1 9 7
6. 12096 George Gilbert 1 1 1 4 1 4 WR 1 9 7
7. 36000 Dave Zahn 4 WR 5 5 2 1 1 1 9 2
8. 120960 Steve Cox 3 1 5 2 2 1 WR WR 7 3
9. 145152 Andrew Young 1 3 1 2 3 WR WR 1 7 8
10. 217728 Chris Harrison 4 2 3 3 8 6 1 1 9 7
11. 230400 Bruce Bowler 1 WR 2 4 4 6 WR 2 5 1
=. 230400 Aaron Luttman WR 1 WR 1 4 WR 1 4 5 2
13. 322560 Neil Jones 5 2 1 2 4 2 WR WR 7 3
14. 614400 Gareth Owen 1 1 2 5 8 2 6 WR 5 WR
15. 746496 Carolyn Pitcher 3 3 2 1 8 WR 6 1 9 8
16. 864000 CsmaCD 5 5 5 4 WR 6 1 1 WR 1
17. Clay Blankenship 2 3 5 1 WR 1 WR WR 3 8
18. Malinda Carlson 1 WR 3 2 WR 1 2 WR 5 WR
19. Daniel Spring 4 3 1 5 8 6 1 4 7 WR
20. Tristan White 4 5 2 5 4 2 1 WR 7 WR
21. Gary Stacey 5 3 6 4 8 2 6 4 2 8
22. Michael Sullivan 2 WR 5 4 2 4 WR 2 5 7
23. David Breton 1 WR WR 3 2 WR 1 WR 9 7
24. Stuart Allen 2 WR 6 4 8 6 1 2 7 WR
25. Matt Dunscombe 3 5 6 4 WR 6 6 1 3 WR
26. Don Del Grande 2 5 6 5 4 WR 6 4 9 7
27. Simon Chambers 5 WR 6 2 8 4 WR WR 2 7
28. Mike Taylor 1 WR 2 WR 8 WR 6 WR 9 8
29. Ozzz 5 5 3 WR WR 4 WR WR 7 8
Scores over 1,000,000 have been omitted.
================================================
0. Name a theatrical-release motion picture where the primary story
involves in some way an athlete or group of athletes competing in the
Olympic games.
Chariots of Fire (1981) 5
Cool Runnings (1993) 4
The Cutting Edge (1992) 3
Goldengirl (1979) 2
The Games (1970) 2
2076 Olympiad (1977) 1
Charlie Chan at the Olympics (1937) 1
Endurance (1999) 1
Geordie (1955) 1
International Velvet (1978) 1
Miracle (2004) 1
O Sport, Ty - Mir (1981) 1
Popeye Meets Hercules (1948) 1
Prefontaine (1997) 1
Running (1979) 1
Tokyo orimpikku (1965) 1
Without Limits (1998) 1
WRONG:
Vengeance (not yet in production) 1
If I had to guess, the three best known movies about the Olympic Games
are ³Chariots of Fire², ³Cool Runnings² and ³Miracle², and thus it¹s no
surprise that two of the three were the two most popular answers. If you
avoided those along with the cheesy ³The Cutting Edge², an early 90s
movie about a skater and hockey player who become a pairs figure skating
team, it wasn¹t too difficult to get a 1. Two contestants accomplished
this by finding late 90s movies about the legendary Oregon distance
runner Steve Prefontaine (³Prefontaine² and ³Without Limits²) without
mentioning the same one.
³Vengeance² is a Steven Spielberg ³movie in concept² about the Israeli
tragedy in Munich, but since it has not been released in theaters (and
may never will) it¹s an incorrect answer.
There was discussion between Harold and myself whether to limit the
question to English language movies. There ultimately was no such
restriction, an opening which was exploited by two entrants. I was
considering whether to exclude Bud Greenspan type documentaries like
³Endurance², but it¹s not clear where to draw the line between movies
like that and well known dramatizations of true stories that are the
best known Olympic movies. Greenspan should have waited anyway, his
story about Haile Gebrselassie would have gotten a lot more interesting
if he had waited until 2004.
Special mention should go to ³Popeye Meets Hercules², the only correct
answerto any question in this contest to reference the *ancient* Olympic
Games.
================================================
1. Give a one-word, non-hyphenated name of a piece of equipment owned by
an individual (and used more or less exclusively by that individual) for
use in a summer Olympic sport. The piece of equipment must be such that
the sport in question is uniquely determined and is obvious to an
average Olympic sports follower from the name of the equipment.
Javelin 5
Bow 3
Saber 2
Oar 3
>>>Scull 1
Arch (=arrow) 1
Badmintonracket 1
Hammer 1
Quiver 1
Sailboard 1
Shot 1
WRONG:
Racquet (badminton and tennis) 2
Epee (fencing and modern pentathlon) 1
Bridle (equestrian and modern pentathlon) 1
Stirrup (equestrian and modern pentathlon) 1
Saddle (equestrian and modern pentathlon) 1
Shuttlecock (not used exclusively by an individual) 1
Paddle (name used in table tennis and canoe/kayak) 1
Tab (obscure archery equipment) 1
Luge (not used in summer Olympics) 1
The main place where people ran into trouble in this question was not
recognizing the significance of modern pentathlon. People wisely avoided
bicycle, since that is used in cycling and triathlon.
Several people also missed places where their term was used in a
different sport. As to "tab," I don't think if you walked up to most
people who watch the Olympics and asked, "In which Olympic sport do they
use a tab?" you'd get very many correct answers.
The answer "badmintonracket" is one word in Dutch, and it's clear what
sport they're talking about. I forgot to specify "English word," so that
was my mistake.
I accepted "arch" for arrow since it seemed likely that people would be
able to determine the sport even if they didn't know what an arch was.
The answer "oar" troubled me at first since my impression from having
rowed is that the team owns the boats and the oars. However, it later
occurred to me that in singles rowing, the norm is for the rower to own
the boat and the oars. Incidentally, the term "oars" includes both
sweeps and sculls, so general/specific scoring was appropriate.
A few nice answers no one submitted were discus, ribbon, horseshoe,
hammer, and foil. I think I would have had to allow answers like canoe
and kayak, since there are singles events in those races. Pistol and gun
would have been incorrect, again due to pentathlon, but rifle would have
worked.
================================================
2. Name an Olympic discipline or sport having one or more events
requiring the presence of liquid water as part of the venue in a
quantity visible to a large number of spectators.
Modern pentathlon 6
Athletics (= Track and Field
= steeplechase) 5
Aquatics (= Swimming and Diving) 5
>>>Diving (= 10m platform diving
= synchronized diving) 3
>>>Water Polo 1
Sailing 2
Rowing (=sculling) 2
Equestrian
>>>Show jumping 2
>>>Eventing 1
Triathlon 1
Canoe/Kayak Slalom 1
Hockey 1
WRONG:
Curling (water not liquid) 1
Motorboating (not an Olympic sport) 1
Marathon (water not visible to
large number of spectators) 1
General/specific scoring was definitely in effect here: if you listed a
sport and other people listed a discipline within that sport, you got a
higher score and the other people got a lower score. For people who
mistakenly listed an event, your answer was ruled to be the same as the
sport it belonged to provided the event you listed met the other
requirements of the question.
Athletics was correct because of the steeplechase, and there are water
jumps in equestrian.
The hockey answer was the most interesting. Officially, the sport of
hockey is what we call field hockey in the U.S. It turns out that major
tournaments are played on an artificial turf surface which is then
watered down. The entrant who gave this answer pointed out that you can
often see the water splash when the ball is hit. I don't think this is
sufficient to say that water is present as part of the venue in
quantities large enough to be seen, since the venue refers to the
setting for the sport and not the actual play of the game (e.g., is a
ball in mid-air required as part of the basketball venue just because
you often see one during play). However, I can't rule out the
possibility that the spectators in, say, the first 20 rows can see the
water on the field, so I ruled it correct.
The explanation given for Marathon was that you need cups of water as
part of the course. My initial thought was that these weren't part of
the venue, but in any case it is doubtful that a large number of
spectators are close enough to look into the cups and see the water, and
the water a runner spills out of the cup is not really part of the
venue. If this answer had been correct, it would have been lumped in
with "Athletics" since the questions asked for a sport or discipline.
Correct answers omitted were swimming and synchronized swimming.
================================================
3. Name a city that has earned the right to host at least a portion of
the Olympics at least two separate times.
Los Angeles 5
Paris 4
Stockholm 4
St. Moritz 3
Athens 2
Berlin 2
London 2
Helsinki 1
Lake Placid 1
Long Beach, CA 1
Rome (see 1908) 1
Tokyo 1
WRONG:
Melbourne 1
Munich 1
This question was very carefully worded to allow cities that had been
awarded the Olympics twice but which did not host them twice for some
reason or another (such as Berlin, Tokyo, Helsinki, and Rome). A site
listing many of these cases is found at
http://www.harveyabramsbooks.com/hostcities.html. The case of Rome is
covered at http://tinyurl.com/5xzdx.
The question was also worded to allow answers like "Long Beach,
California," which hosted some events for both Los Angeles Olympics. We
suspected that some such answers existed but did not know of any for
sure before the contest.
Stockholm hosted the equestrian events for the Melbourne Olympics
because of Australia's strict quarantine laws.
================================================
4. Name a team sport in Olympic competition in which no team scored more
than 30 points in a single Olympic game between January 1, 2001, and
August 30, 2004. In this context, a team sport is a sport in which there
is no individual competition and in which a team competes directly
against another one in a game involving a ball or similar object.
Hockey (=Field Hockey) 8
Curling 4
Football (=Soccer) 4
Softball 3
Ice Hockey 2
Water polo 2
Baseball 1
WRONG:
Table tennis (also an indiv. sport) 1
Volleyball (=beach volleyball)
(ITA-BRA, 8/17, had a 31-33 game) 4
As mentioned above, the sport of "Hockey" refers to what is called
"Field Hockey" in the U.S., so general/specific scoring does not apply
regarding the people who answered "hockey" versus those who answered
"ice hockey" or "field hockey." I suspect that some people who said
"hockey" really meant "Ice Hockey," but I specifically gave a site which
listed the sports and disciplines to avoid confusion on such issues.
For volleyball, it is unclear whether a ³game² constitutes a match or a
set. The IVBF website makes no reference to the word game, only points,
sets and matches. If a game is a match, the answer is clearly incorrect,
since teams normally have to win at least 75 points over three games to
win the match. But it turned out that even if we only count sets, the
answer is still wrong, due to a (33-31) fifth set on August 17 between
Brazil and Italy, which turned our to be a prequel of the gold medal
game, er, match.
Since we asked for a "sport," we considered disciplines or events within
a sport to be equivalent to the sport. Thus, "beach volleyball" is
incorrect, since the sport of volleyball had a game in which a team
scored over 30 points.
No one answered handball, which occasionally has games over 30, but I
didn't notice any over 30 in the Olympics.
================================================
5. Give a one or two word name for a type of athletic footwear that
resembles a shoe or boot, that is used in an Olympic sport, and that you
could not normally use for everyday wear because they would tend to
damage flooring or because they would inhibit your ability to walk
normally. You may not use the words 'cleat,' 'left' or 'right'
Spikes 6
>>>Track Spikes (= Running Spikes
= Sprinter's Spikes) 2
>>>baseball Spikes 1
Skate (= Ice Skate) 6
>>>Clap Skate (= Slap Skate) 2
Cycling Shoe (= Bicycle Shoe) 4
Stretcher (= Rowing Shoes) 2
Horseshoe 1
Soccer boots 1
Ski boot 1
Halfpipe boot 1
Dressage boot 1
WRONG:
Waders (no evidence used in Olympics) 1
Water ski (not an Olympic sport;
doesn't resemble shoe or boot) 1
Cross-country ski (doesn't
resemble shoe or boot) 1
Gymnastics shoes (could be worn normally) 1
Boxing Boots (could be worn normally) 1
Wrestling shoe (could be worn normally) 1
General/specific scoring was used here. I learned after I scored this
question that sometimes this is not used when the question is posed the
way I phrased it, but since this was posted many places outside
rec.games.trivia I'm hoping I didn't throw people off. If I did, I
apologize. Skate was taken to be equivalent to ice skate since there are
no other types of skates used in the Olympics, and "spikes" was taken to
be more general than "track spikes" and "baseball spikes."
Initially, it appeared that a dressage boot was not footwear, since I
turned up links showing a dressage boot to be something to be worn by a
horse just above the ankle. The relevant links are
http://www.horseboots.com/Dressage.html and
http://www.spequine.com/fetlock-foot.htm. However, it turns out,
however, that there is also a dressage boot worn by the rider that
sounds far too stiff to do much of anything besides to ride a horse
(http://tinyurl.com/5mvxa).
On the other hand, the question was carefully worded to allow the answer
"horseshoe." It certainly resembles a shoe--since it *is* a shoe--and
*you* couldn't wear them since they'd tend to damage floors and make it
difficult to walk.
I was able to verify that there would be no particular problem walking
in gymnastics shoes (gymnastics coach), boxing boots (contacted a boxing
store), and wrestling shoes (my wife has worn them for years), nor would
they tend to damage floors. In each case, it seemed that they wouldn't
be any harder to walk in than bare feet, and it is not difficult to walk
normally in bare feet. There could have been an additional stipulation
about offering protection to the feet, but that was not a requirement in
this question.
A few answers omitted were figure skate, hockey skate, goalie skate, and
triathlon shoe (a cycling shoe designed to be put on quickly). Bobsled
shoes and certain curling shoes appear to be possible answers as well.
================================================
6. Name an Olympic athlete who won an individual gold medal twice in the
same event without winning that event in consecutive Olympic games.
Edwin Moses, Athletics
(400m hurdles, 1976&1984) 6
Darrell Pace, Archery
(1976 and 1984) 2
Birgit Fischer, Canoe/Kayak
(500m single, 1980&1992) 1
Bjorn Daehlie, Biathlon
(50k, 1992&1998) 1
Derartu Tulu, Athletics
(w. 10000m, 1992&2000) 1
Gert Fredriksson, Canoe/Kayak
(10000m kayak, 1948&1956) 1
Kim Rhode, Shooting
(w. double trap, 1996&2004) 1
Lutz Hesslich, Cycling
(Sprint, 1980&1988) 1
Paavo Nurmi, Athletics
(10000m, 1920&1928) 1
Sixten Jernberg, Nordic Skiing
(50k XC skiing, 1956&1964) 1
Ulrike Meyfarth, Athletics
(w. high jump, 1972&1984) 1
Vladimir Golubnichy, Athletics
(10k walk, 1960&1968) 1
Vladimir Salnikov, Swimming
(1500m swimming, 1980&1988) 1
Vreni Schneider, Alpine Skiing
(women's slalom, 1988&1994) 1
WRONG:
Carl Lewis, Athletics (see below) 2
NA(no answer) 1
Betty Cuthbert, Athletics
(did not win same event twice) 1
John Jesus Flanagan, Athletics
(won three consecutive golds) 1
Kathrin Boron, Rowing
(did not win in individual events) 1
Kent Mitchell, Rowing
(did not win in individual events) 1
Paul Elvstrom, Sailing
(won either three or four consecutive golds) 1
Steven Redgrave, Rowing
(did not win in individual events) 1
I have to admit that this question lacked a desirable trait in rare
entries questions--an obvious answer. I could only think of two correct
answers before the contest; Edwin Moses and Vladimir Salnikov. Moses is
an Olympic legend, but it¹s not *that* well known that he won a gold in
1976 at the start of his decade of 400m hurdle dominance, and while
Salnikov is also a legend, Soviet distance swimmers aren¹t generally as
well known as American track stars. Thus, Moses easily received the most
entries.
Still, those answers typified the most apparent strategy for attacking
the question--find a dominant athlete who missed either the 1980 or 1984
games due to boycott. This was at least a partial factor in six of the
correct answers (Moses, Salnikov, Pace, Meyfarth, Hesslich, and
Fischer). Two other entrants took advantage of the two year hiatus in
the 1992-1994 winter games to find athletes who won golds six years
apart.
The incorrect answers included rowers who won their golds in multi-rower
events, along with two athletes who won three or more consecutive golds,
in my judgment failing to meet the requirement that ³they won the gold
medal twice in the same event without winning the event in consecutive
games². They did, after all, win the event in consecutive games. John
Jesus Flanagan was an American hammer thrower who won gold in 1900,
1904, and 1908, while Paul Elvstrom was the Olympic sailing champion in
the firefly in 1948. After 1948 the single-handed sailing competition
changed to the Finn class, which Elvstrom won in 1952, 1956 and 1960. So
depending on your interpretation he either won three or four consecutive
golds, but it¹s an incorrect answer either way.
Carl Lewis was wrong, or I should say, nearly right, in three different
ways. He won four consecutive golds in the long jump from 1984 to 1996,
and he won non-consecutive golds in 1984 and 1992 in the 4x100 relay,
which is not an individual event (the U.S. was disqualified in 1988 in a
heat that Lewis didn¹t run). But one entrant didn¹t base his answer of
Lewis on either of those events. His argument was that he was awarded
the gold medal in the 100m dash in 1984 and 1988, two consecutive games,
meeting the first requirement. But Lewis, says the entrant, didn¹t
actually win the 100m in 1988 since Ben Johnso finished ahead of him
before losing his gold due to a positive drug test. Thus he won two
golds without winning two events. This argument was rejected since the
IAAF did declare Lewis to be the winner of the event.
================================================
7. Name a country with a current population over 15 million that existed
in 1950 but did not win an Olympic gold medal until after that time.
China (1984) 4
Ethiopia (1964) 2
Pakistan (1960) 2
Venezuela (1968) 2
Brazil (1952) 1
Chile (2004) 1
Indonesia (1992) 1
Iran (1956) 1
North Korea (1976) 1
Romania (1956) 1
South Korea (+) 1
Syria (1996) 1
Thailand (1996) 1
WRONG:
Australia (won first gold in 1896) 1
Cambodia (never won gold medal) 1
India (won first gold in 1928) 1
Israel (does not have 15 million people) 1
Mexico (won first gold in 1948) 1
Peru (never won gold medal) 1
Saudi Arabia (never won gold medal) 1
Sri Lanka (never won gold medal) 1
Uganda (not independent until 1962) 1
NA(no answer) 1
The years in parentheses are the years of the first gold for that country
The most popular answer wasn¹t a surprise here either. China, the most
populous, one of the oldest, and the last major country to enter the
Olympics, was the most popular answer with 4 entries. There weren¹t any
other obvious answers without a little research, but once the work was
put in it wasn¹t difficult to find a unique answer.
The question required a three pronged approach of finding a country that
was old enough, big enough, and futile enough in the games before 1950.
Most of the incorrect answers failed one of those three conditions, with
a few other incorrect entries giving countries with no Olympic golds at
all.
The question had a completely unintentional trap the IOC Olympic medal
database at www.olympic.org/uk/athletes/results/search_r_uk.asp is
unreliable. In particular, under certain search conditions it will
reveal no pre-1950 gold medals for countries like Australia, which has
won gold medals since the first Olympics in 1896, or India, which
dominated field hockey before 1950. I presume some entrants fell into
that trap. A more reliable database can be found at
www.olympic.it/english/country .
I was curious if anyone would enter a country that only became correct
during the Athens Olympics. It turned out that only one country joined
the list of correct answers, and that country, Chile, was given by one
contestant. The more publicized case of Israel is incorrect since it
doesn¹t have 15 million people, even if you include the West Bank and
Gaza Strip.
The trickiest correct answer turned out to be South Korea. The
aforementioned database lists South Korea as having a gold in 1936, but
that was won in the marathon by Son Ki-jong under the Japanese flag
(Japan occupied Korea in 1936). I¹m certainly not saying Ki-jong wasn¹t
Korean, but since the gold likely wasn¹t credited to South Korea until
after 1950, it was ruled a correct answer.
================================================
8. Name an Olympic sport in which the outcomes of at least some events
depend on the subjective ratings given by one or more judges. In this
context, 'judge' does not refer to simply to a sports official, but to
someone who assigns a rating to the performance of the contestant that
is used in determining the winner.
Skiing (=ski jumping, moguls,
snowboarding) 9
Equestrian (= eventing, dressage,
equestrian show jumping) 5
Aquatics (= diving, synchronized
swimming synchronized diving) 7
Boxing 3
Gymnastics (= gymnastics
trampoline) 2
Taekwondo 2
WRONG:
Diving and gymnastics (no sport with that title) 1
This was in some ways the most vexing question to judge. It was written
with the intent of excluding boxing, since Olympic boxing is scored very
differently from professional boxing (where the judges give scores to
each boxer in each round). In the Olympics, there are 5 judges, and each
judge presses a button if they think a boxer lands a scoring blow. If
three or more judges press a button within 1 second, a point is awarded.
This does not, in my mind, fit in with the idea of "giving a rating."
However, in the event of a tie, the judges do some funny subjective
tiebreaker--taking into account things such as style--which is not fully
explained anywhere that I could find. Thus, we finally decided that we
had to allow boxing and, similarly, Taekwondo.
People gave a variety of different skiing events and disciplines, which
were all lumped together into "skiing" since the question asked for a
sport. The same thing happened with aquatics, equestrian, and gymnastics.
As far as I know, the only correct answer omitted was "skating."
================================================
9. Name an Olympic event--no part of which takes place on the track, and
without specifying 'men's' or 'women's'-- in which you would normally
expect to see most competitors run at least 25 meters (all at once, in a
relatively straight line, without carrying, holding, or otherwise moving
any object other than the clothing and protective equipment normally
worn in that sport and without significantly changing direction) at
least one time during the event.
Triathlon 8
Modern Pentathlon 7
Football (= Soccer) 3
Baseball 2
Basketball 1
Handball 1
Athletics 1
WRONG:
Gymnastics (don't run 25m) 3
Equestrian (horses carry riders) 2
Biathlon mass start (don't run 25m) 1
This question may have confused some people slightly. The "all at once"
provision was meant to modify "run at least 25 meters" (which is what it
was next to in the question); in other words, running 15 meters, then
stopping, then running another 15 meters was not sufficient. Some people
took it to mean that all of the competitors in the event had to run 25
meters at the same time. Even if I had meant the more restrictive
interpretation, I would have to have accepted the less restrictive one
in the face of ambiguity.
Also, it's fine if people *sometimes* run more than 25 meters carrying
or pushing something, as long as most people do it at some point during
the event without carrying or pushing anything.
Athletics has the long jump and triple jump, which take place on the
field, not on the track. The handball court is 40 meters, and has two
6-meter goal areas, so it certainly seemed like they were doing a lot of
25m+ runs during the game. Most of the team sports given fit this model:
people often run the length of the field or court during transition from
offense to defense and vice versa..
Gymnastics was a popular but incorrect answer. The vault runway extends
25m from the front of the vaulting table, but most athletes start inside
the end of the runway to get their steps right. They also don't run all
the way to the front of the table, and many are jumping or tumbling well
in front of the table. Based on this, I would argue that *none* of the
athletes are running 25 meters in the vault. Incidentally, the distance
25 meters was picked specifically to exclude gymnastics.
Equestrian was an interesting answer. The horses certainly run more than
25 meters, although it seems to me that the riders are not running.
Someone argued that--in the language of equestrian--the rider is in fact
running, but I think it's clear that the horses are carrying the riders,
so there is no way "most" of the competitors run 25 meters without
carrying anything.
"Biathlon mass start" is a skiing event. As far as we can tell, there's
no running in this event, but even if they made them run for a bit
before they put their skis on, we're betting they'd at least be carrying
ski poles.
================================================
--Harold Buck
"I used to rock and roll all night,
and party every day.
Then it was every other day. . . ."
-Homer J. Simpson
[PLEASE NOTE: This post is formatted for use with a mono-spaced font
like Courier; you might need to use a 10pt font to get the line breaks
right.]
================================================
***Olympics Rare Entries Contest**
The goal of this contest was to
a) Answer each of 10 questions correctly, and
b) Give answers that will be given by as few other people as possible.
Each person's score for a question was the number of people giving the
same answer; wrong or omitted answers resulted in a penalty score (which
in this contest ended up being twice the highest score for a correct
answer on that question). The scores on each question are multiplied
together to give a final score, with a perfect score being 1.
This contest was written and judged jointly by Harold Buck and Brian Van
Dorn, with Brian writing and doing the primary judging on Q0, Q6, and Q7.
Thanks for entering! We hope you enjoyed it and that you learned as much
by playing as we did by judging. We're sure there will be some
discussion generated; we're cross-posting the results to
rec.games.trivia and rec.sport.olympics.
================================================
Here are the answer slates for the top three finishers (some answers
abbreviated).
________________________________________________
| | HEATHER | DAVIDE | ERIC |
| | GREBE | TOSI | MADDY |
+===+==============+=============+===============+
|[0]| Geordie |Endurance |Tokyo orimpikku|
|[1]| Sailboard |Arch |Paddle (WR) |
|[2]| Mod. Pent. |Show jumping |Steeplechase |
|[3]| St. Moritz |Stockholm |Long Beach, CA |
|[4]| Curling |Curling |Curling |
|[5]| Halfpipe boot|Skate |Soccer boots |
|[6]| Vreni |Ulrike |Kim |
| | Schneider |Meyfarth |Rhode |
|[7]| Indonesia |Venezuela |Pakistan |
|[8]| Boxing |Trampoline |Taekwondo |
|[9]| Handball |Triathlon |Triathlon |
===+==============+=============+===============
Q0 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q5 Q6 Q7 Q8 Q9
1. 216 Heather Grebe 1 1 6 3 4 1 1 1 3 1
2. 6144 Davide Tosi 1 1 2 4 4 6 1 2 2 8
3. 6400 Eric Maddy 1 WR 5 1 4 1 1 2 2 8
4. 6480 Joshua Kreitzer 1 WR 1 2 3 2 1 2 9 3
5. 9072 E. van der Pijll 1 1 WR 1 3 2 2 1 9 7
6. 12096 George Gilbert 1 1 1 4 1 4 WR 1 9 7
7. 36000 Dave Zahn 4 WR 5 5 2 1 1 1 9 2
8. 120960 Steve Cox 3 1 5 2 2 1 WR WR 7 3
9. 145152 Andrew Young 1 3 1 2 3 WR WR 1 7 8
10. 217728 Chris Harrison 4 2 3 3 8 6 1 1 9 7
11. 230400 Bruce Bowler 1 WR 2 4 4 6 WR 2 5 1
=. 230400 Aaron Luttman WR 1 WR 1 4 WR 1 4 5 2
13. 322560 Neil Jones 5 2 1 2 4 2 WR WR 7 3
14. 614400 Gareth Owen 1 1 2 5 8 2 6 WR 5 WR
15. 746496 Carolyn Pitcher 3 3 2 1 8 WR 6 1 9 8
16. 864000 CsmaCD 5 5 5 4 WR 6 1 1 WR 1
17. Clay Blankenship 2 3 5 1 WR 1 WR WR 3 8
18. Malinda Carlson 1 WR 3 2 WR 1 2 WR 5 WR
19. Daniel Spring 4 3 1 5 8 6 1 4 7 WR
20. Tristan White 4 5 2 5 4 2 1 WR 7 WR
21. Gary Stacey 5 3 6 4 8 2 6 4 2 8
22. Michael Sullivan 2 WR 5 4 2 4 WR 2 5 7
23. David Breton 1 WR WR 3 2 WR 1 WR 9 7
24. Stuart Allen 2 WR 6 4 8 6 1 2 7 WR
25. Matt Dunscombe 3 5 6 4 WR 6 6 1 3 WR
26. Don Del Grande 2 5 6 5 4 WR 6 4 9 7
27. Simon Chambers 5 WR 6 2 8 4 WR WR 2 7
28. Mike Taylor 1 WR 2 WR 8 WR 6 WR 9 8
29. Ozzz 5 5 3 WR WR 4 WR WR 7 8
Scores over 1,000,000 have been omitted.
================================================
0. Name a theatrical-release motion picture where the primary story
involves in some way an athlete or group of athletes competing in the
Olympic games.
Chariots of Fire (1981) 5
Cool Runnings (1993) 4
The Cutting Edge (1992) 3
Goldengirl (1979) 2
The Games (1970) 2
2076 Olympiad (1977) 1
Charlie Chan at the Olympics (1937) 1
Endurance (1999) 1
Geordie (1955) 1
International Velvet (1978) 1
Miracle (2004) 1
O Sport, Ty - Mir (1981) 1
Popeye Meets Hercules (1948) 1
Prefontaine (1997) 1
Running (1979) 1
Tokyo orimpikku (1965) 1
Without Limits (1998) 1
WRONG:
Vengeance (not yet in production) 1
If I had to guess, the three best known movies about the Olympic Games
are ³Chariots of Fire², ³Cool Runnings² and ³Miracle², and thus it¹s no
surprise that two of the three were the two most popular answers. If you
avoided those along with the cheesy ³The Cutting Edge², an early 90s
movie about a skater and hockey player who become a pairs figure skating
team, it wasn¹t too difficult to get a 1. Two contestants accomplished
this by finding late 90s movies about the legendary Oregon distance
runner Steve Prefontaine (³Prefontaine² and ³Without Limits²) without
mentioning the same one.
³Vengeance² is a Steven Spielberg ³movie in concept² about the Israeli
tragedy in Munich, but since it has not been released in theaters (and
may never will) it¹s an incorrect answer.
There was discussion between Harold and myself whether to limit the
question to English language movies. There ultimately was no such
restriction, an opening which was exploited by two entrants. I was
considering whether to exclude Bud Greenspan type documentaries like
³Endurance², but it¹s not clear where to draw the line between movies
like that and well known dramatizations of true stories that are the
best known Olympic movies. Greenspan should have waited anyway, his
story about Haile Gebrselassie would have gotten a lot more interesting
if he had waited until 2004.
Special mention should go to ³Popeye Meets Hercules², the only correct
answerto any question in this contest to reference the *ancient* Olympic
Games.
================================================
1. Give a one-word, non-hyphenated name of a piece of equipment owned by
an individual (and used more or less exclusively by that individual) for
use in a summer Olympic sport. The piece of equipment must be such that
the sport in question is uniquely determined and is obvious to an
average Olympic sports follower from the name of the equipment.
Javelin 5
Bow 3
Saber 2
Oar 3
>>>Scull 1
Arch (=arrow) 1
Badmintonracket 1
Hammer 1
Quiver 1
Sailboard 1
Shot 1
WRONG:
Racquet (badminton and tennis) 2
Epee (fencing and modern pentathlon) 1
Bridle (equestrian and modern pentathlon) 1
Stirrup (equestrian and modern pentathlon) 1
Saddle (equestrian and modern pentathlon) 1
Shuttlecock (not used exclusively by an individual) 1
Paddle (name used in table tennis and canoe/kayak) 1
Tab (obscure archery equipment) 1
Luge (not used in summer Olympics) 1
The main place where people ran into trouble in this question was not
recognizing the significance of modern pentathlon. People wisely avoided
bicycle, since that is used in cycling and triathlon.
Several people also missed places where their term was used in a
different sport. As to "tab," I don't think if you walked up to most
people who watch the Olympics and asked, "In which Olympic sport do they
use a tab?" you'd get very many correct answers.
The answer "badmintonracket" is one word in Dutch, and it's clear what
sport they're talking about. I forgot to specify "English word," so that
was my mistake.
I accepted "arch" for arrow since it seemed likely that people would be
able to determine the sport even if they didn't know what an arch was.
The answer "oar" troubled me at first since my impression from having
rowed is that the team owns the boats and the oars. However, it later
occurred to me that in singles rowing, the norm is for the rower to own
the boat and the oars. Incidentally, the term "oars" includes both
sweeps and sculls, so general/specific scoring was appropriate.
A few nice answers no one submitted were discus, ribbon, horseshoe,
hammer, and foil. I think I would have had to allow answers like canoe
and kayak, since there are singles events in those races. Pistol and gun
would have been incorrect, again due to pentathlon, but rifle would have
worked.
================================================
2. Name an Olympic discipline or sport having one or more events
requiring the presence of liquid water as part of the venue in a
quantity visible to a large number of spectators.
Modern pentathlon 6
Athletics (= Track and Field
= steeplechase) 5
Aquatics (= Swimming and Diving) 5
>>>Diving (= 10m platform diving
= synchronized diving) 3
>>>Water Polo 1
Sailing 2
Rowing (=sculling) 2
Equestrian
>>>Show jumping 2
>>>Eventing 1
Triathlon 1
Canoe/Kayak Slalom 1
Hockey 1
WRONG:
Curling (water not liquid) 1
Motorboating (not an Olympic sport) 1
Marathon (water not visible to
large number of spectators) 1
General/specific scoring was definitely in effect here: if you listed a
sport and other people listed a discipline within that sport, you got a
higher score and the other people got a lower score. For people who
mistakenly listed an event, your answer was ruled to be the same as the
sport it belonged to provided the event you listed met the other
requirements of the question.
Athletics was correct because of the steeplechase, and there are water
jumps in equestrian.
The hockey answer was the most interesting. Officially, the sport of
hockey is what we call field hockey in the U.S. It turns out that major
tournaments are played on an artificial turf surface which is then
watered down. The entrant who gave this answer pointed out that you can
often see the water splash when the ball is hit. I don't think this is
sufficient to say that water is present as part of the venue in
quantities large enough to be seen, since the venue refers to the
setting for the sport and not the actual play of the game (e.g., is a
ball in mid-air required as part of the basketball venue just because
you often see one during play). However, I can't rule out the
possibility that the spectators in, say, the first 20 rows can see the
water on the field, so I ruled it correct.
The explanation given for Marathon was that you need cups of water as
part of the course. My initial thought was that these weren't part of
the venue, but in any case it is doubtful that a large number of
spectators are close enough to look into the cups and see the water, and
the water a runner spills out of the cup is not really part of the
venue. If this answer had been correct, it would have been lumped in
with "Athletics" since the questions asked for a sport or discipline.
Correct answers omitted were swimming and synchronized swimming.
================================================
3. Name a city that has earned the right to host at least a portion of
the Olympics at least two separate times.
Los Angeles 5
Paris 4
Stockholm 4
St. Moritz 3
Athens 2
Berlin 2
London 2
Helsinki 1
Lake Placid 1
Long Beach, CA 1
Rome (see 1908) 1
Tokyo 1
WRONG:
Melbourne 1
Munich 1
This question was very carefully worded to allow cities that had been
awarded the Olympics twice but which did not host them twice for some
reason or another (such as Berlin, Tokyo, Helsinki, and Rome). A site
listing many of these cases is found at
http://www.harveyabramsbooks.com/hostcities.html. The case of Rome is
covered at http://tinyurl.com/5xzdx.
The question was also worded to allow answers like "Long Beach,
California," which hosted some events for both Los Angeles Olympics. We
suspected that some such answers existed but did not know of any for
sure before the contest.
Stockholm hosted the equestrian events for the Melbourne Olympics
because of Australia's strict quarantine laws.
================================================
4. Name a team sport in Olympic competition in which no team scored more
than 30 points in a single Olympic game between January 1, 2001, and
August 30, 2004. In this context, a team sport is a sport in which there
is no individual competition and in which a team competes directly
against another one in a game involving a ball or similar object.
Hockey (=Field Hockey) 8
Curling 4
Football (=Soccer) 4
Softball 3
Ice Hockey 2
Water polo 2
Baseball 1
WRONG:
Table tennis (also an indiv. sport) 1
Volleyball (=beach volleyball)
(ITA-BRA, 8/17, had a 31-33 game) 4
As mentioned above, the sport of "Hockey" refers to what is called
"Field Hockey" in the U.S., so general/specific scoring does not apply
regarding the people who answered "hockey" versus those who answered
"ice hockey" or "field hockey." I suspect that some people who said
"hockey" really meant "Ice Hockey," but I specifically gave a site which
listed the sports and disciplines to avoid confusion on such issues.
For volleyball, it is unclear whether a ³game² constitutes a match or a
set. The IVBF website makes no reference to the word game, only points,
sets and matches. If a game is a match, the answer is clearly incorrect,
since teams normally have to win at least 75 points over three games to
win the match. But it turned out that even if we only count sets, the
answer is still wrong, due to a (33-31) fifth set on August 17 between
Brazil and Italy, which turned our to be a prequel of the gold medal
game, er, match.
Since we asked for a "sport," we considered disciplines or events within
a sport to be equivalent to the sport. Thus, "beach volleyball" is
incorrect, since the sport of volleyball had a game in which a team
scored over 30 points.
No one answered handball, which occasionally has games over 30, but I
didn't notice any over 30 in the Olympics.
================================================
5. Give a one or two word name for a type of athletic footwear that
resembles a shoe or boot, that is used in an Olympic sport, and that you
could not normally use for everyday wear because they would tend to
damage flooring or because they would inhibit your ability to walk
normally. You may not use the words 'cleat,' 'left' or 'right'
Spikes 6
>>>Track Spikes (= Running Spikes
= Sprinter's Spikes) 2
>>>baseball Spikes 1
Skate (= Ice Skate) 6
>>>Clap Skate (= Slap Skate) 2
Cycling Shoe (= Bicycle Shoe) 4
Stretcher (= Rowing Shoes) 2
Horseshoe 1
Soccer boots 1
Ski boot 1
Halfpipe boot 1
Dressage boot 1
WRONG:
Waders (no evidence used in Olympics) 1
Water ski (not an Olympic sport;
doesn't resemble shoe or boot) 1
Cross-country ski (doesn't
resemble shoe or boot) 1
Gymnastics shoes (could be worn normally) 1
Boxing Boots (could be worn normally) 1
Wrestling shoe (could be worn normally) 1
General/specific scoring was used here. I learned after I scored this
question that sometimes this is not used when the question is posed the
way I phrased it, but since this was posted many places outside
rec.games.trivia I'm hoping I didn't throw people off. If I did, I
apologize. Skate was taken to be equivalent to ice skate since there are
no other types of skates used in the Olympics, and "spikes" was taken to
be more general than "track spikes" and "baseball spikes."
Initially, it appeared that a dressage boot was not footwear, since I
turned up links showing a dressage boot to be something to be worn by a
horse just above the ankle. The relevant links are
http://www.horseboots.com/Dressage.html and
http://www.spequine.com/fetlock-foot.htm. However, it turns out,
however, that there is also a dressage boot worn by the rider that
sounds far too stiff to do much of anything besides to ride a horse
(http://tinyurl.com/5mvxa).
On the other hand, the question was carefully worded to allow the answer
"horseshoe." It certainly resembles a shoe--since it *is* a shoe--and
*you* couldn't wear them since they'd tend to damage floors and make it
difficult to walk.
I was able to verify that there would be no particular problem walking
in gymnastics shoes (gymnastics coach), boxing boots (contacted a boxing
store), and wrestling shoes (my wife has worn them for years), nor would
they tend to damage floors. In each case, it seemed that they wouldn't
be any harder to walk in than bare feet, and it is not difficult to walk
normally in bare feet. There could have been an additional stipulation
about offering protection to the feet, but that was not a requirement in
this question.
A few answers omitted were figure skate, hockey skate, goalie skate, and
triathlon shoe (a cycling shoe designed to be put on quickly). Bobsled
shoes and certain curling shoes appear to be possible answers as well.
================================================
6. Name an Olympic athlete who won an individual gold medal twice in the
same event without winning that event in consecutive Olympic games.
Edwin Moses, Athletics
(400m hurdles, 1976&1984) 6
Darrell Pace, Archery
(1976 and 1984) 2
Birgit Fischer, Canoe/Kayak
(500m single, 1980&1992) 1
Bjorn Daehlie, Biathlon
(50k, 1992&1998) 1
Derartu Tulu, Athletics
(w. 10000m, 1992&2000) 1
Gert Fredriksson, Canoe/Kayak
(10000m kayak, 1948&1956) 1
Kim Rhode, Shooting
(w. double trap, 1996&2004) 1
Lutz Hesslich, Cycling
(Sprint, 1980&1988) 1
Paavo Nurmi, Athletics
(10000m, 1920&1928) 1
Sixten Jernberg, Nordic Skiing
(50k XC skiing, 1956&1964) 1
Ulrike Meyfarth, Athletics
(w. high jump, 1972&1984) 1
Vladimir Golubnichy, Athletics
(10k walk, 1960&1968) 1
Vladimir Salnikov, Swimming
(1500m swimming, 1980&1988) 1
Vreni Schneider, Alpine Skiing
(women's slalom, 1988&1994) 1
WRONG:
Carl Lewis, Athletics (see below) 2
NA(no answer) 1
Betty Cuthbert, Athletics
(did not win same event twice) 1
John Jesus Flanagan, Athletics
(won three consecutive golds) 1
Kathrin Boron, Rowing
(did not win in individual events) 1
Kent Mitchell, Rowing
(did not win in individual events) 1
Paul Elvstrom, Sailing
(won either three or four consecutive golds) 1
Steven Redgrave, Rowing
(did not win in individual events) 1
I have to admit that this question lacked a desirable trait in rare
entries questions--an obvious answer. I could only think of two correct
answers before the contest; Edwin Moses and Vladimir Salnikov. Moses is
an Olympic legend, but it¹s not *that* well known that he won a gold in
1976 at the start of his decade of 400m hurdle dominance, and while
Salnikov is also a legend, Soviet distance swimmers aren¹t generally as
well known as American track stars. Thus, Moses easily received the most
entries.
Still, those answers typified the most apparent strategy for attacking
the question--find a dominant athlete who missed either the 1980 or 1984
games due to boycott. This was at least a partial factor in six of the
correct answers (Moses, Salnikov, Pace, Meyfarth, Hesslich, and
Fischer). Two other entrants took advantage of the two year hiatus in
the 1992-1994 winter games to find athletes who won golds six years
apart.
The incorrect answers included rowers who won their golds in multi-rower
events, along with two athletes who won three or more consecutive golds,
in my judgment failing to meet the requirement that ³they won the gold
medal twice in the same event without winning the event in consecutive
games². They did, after all, win the event in consecutive games. John
Jesus Flanagan was an American hammer thrower who won gold in 1900,
1904, and 1908, while Paul Elvstrom was the Olympic sailing champion in
the firefly in 1948. After 1948 the single-handed sailing competition
changed to the Finn class, which Elvstrom won in 1952, 1956 and 1960. So
depending on your interpretation he either won three or four consecutive
golds, but it¹s an incorrect answer either way.
Carl Lewis was wrong, or I should say, nearly right, in three different
ways. He won four consecutive golds in the long jump from 1984 to 1996,
and he won non-consecutive golds in 1984 and 1992 in the 4x100 relay,
which is not an individual event (the U.S. was disqualified in 1988 in a
heat that Lewis didn¹t run). But one entrant didn¹t base his answer of
Lewis on either of those events. His argument was that he was awarded
the gold medal in the 100m dash in 1984 and 1988, two consecutive games,
meeting the first requirement. But Lewis, says the entrant, didn¹t
actually win the 100m in 1988 since Ben Johnso finished ahead of him
before losing his gold due to a positive drug test. Thus he won two
golds without winning two events. This argument was rejected since the
IAAF did declare Lewis to be the winner of the event.
================================================
7. Name a country with a current population over 15 million that existed
in 1950 but did not win an Olympic gold medal until after that time.
China (1984) 4
Ethiopia (1964) 2
Pakistan (1960) 2
Venezuela (1968) 2
Brazil (1952) 1
Chile (2004) 1
Indonesia (1992) 1
Iran (1956) 1
North Korea (1976) 1
Romania (1956) 1
South Korea (+) 1
Syria (1996) 1
Thailand (1996) 1
WRONG:
Australia (won first gold in 1896) 1
Cambodia (never won gold medal) 1
India (won first gold in 1928) 1
Israel (does not have 15 million people) 1
Mexico (won first gold in 1948) 1
Peru (never won gold medal) 1
Saudi Arabia (never won gold medal) 1
Sri Lanka (never won gold medal) 1
Uganda (not independent until 1962) 1
NA(no answer) 1
The years in parentheses are the years of the first gold for that country
The most popular answer wasn¹t a surprise here either. China, the most
populous, one of the oldest, and the last major country to enter the
Olympics, was the most popular answer with 4 entries. There weren¹t any
other obvious answers without a little research, but once the work was
put in it wasn¹t difficult to find a unique answer.
The question required a three pronged approach of finding a country that
was old enough, big enough, and futile enough in the games before 1950.
Most of the incorrect answers failed one of those three conditions, with
a few other incorrect entries giving countries with no Olympic golds at
all.
The question had a completely unintentional trap the IOC Olympic medal
database at www.olympic.org/uk/athletes/results/search_r_uk.asp is
unreliable. In particular, under certain search conditions it will
reveal no pre-1950 gold medals for countries like Australia, which has
won gold medals since the first Olympics in 1896, or India, which
dominated field hockey before 1950. I presume some entrants fell into
that trap. A more reliable database can be found at
www.olympic.it/english/country .
I was curious if anyone would enter a country that only became correct
during the Athens Olympics. It turned out that only one country joined
the list of correct answers, and that country, Chile, was given by one
contestant. The more publicized case of Israel is incorrect since it
doesn¹t have 15 million people, even if you include the West Bank and
Gaza Strip.
The trickiest correct answer turned out to be South Korea. The
aforementioned database lists South Korea as having a gold in 1936, but
that was won in the marathon by Son Ki-jong under the Japanese flag
(Japan occupied Korea in 1936). I¹m certainly not saying Ki-jong wasn¹t
Korean, but since the gold likely wasn¹t credited to South Korea until
after 1950, it was ruled a correct answer.
================================================
8. Name an Olympic sport in which the outcomes of at least some events
depend on the subjective ratings given by one or more judges. In this
context, 'judge' does not refer to simply to a sports official, but to
someone who assigns a rating to the performance of the contestant that
is used in determining the winner.
Skiing (=ski jumping, moguls,
snowboarding) 9
Equestrian (= eventing, dressage,
equestrian show jumping) 5
Aquatics (= diving, synchronized
swimming synchronized diving) 7
Boxing 3
Gymnastics (= gymnastics
trampoline) 2
Taekwondo 2
WRONG:
Diving and gymnastics (no sport with that title) 1
This was in some ways the most vexing question to judge. It was written
with the intent of excluding boxing, since Olympic boxing is scored very
differently from professional boxing (where the judges give scores to
each boxer in each round). In the Olympics, there are 5 judges, and each
judge presses a button if they think a boxer lands a scoring blow. If
three or more judges press a button within 1 second, a point is awarded.
This does not, in my mind, fit in with the idea of "giving a rating."
However, in the event of a tie, the judges do some funny subjective
tiebreaker--taking into account things such as style--which is not fully
explained anywhere that I could find. Thus, we finally decided that we
had to allow boxing and, similarly, Taekwondo.
People gave a variety of different skiing events and disciplines, which
were all lumped together into "skiing" since the question asked for a
sport. The same thing happened with aquatics, equestrian, and gymnastics.
As far as I know, the only correct answer omitted was "skating."
================================================
9. Name an Olympic event--no part of which takes place on the track, and
without specifying 'men's' or 'women's'-- in which you would normally
expect to see most competitors run at least 25 meters (all at once, in a
relatively straight line, without carrying, holding, or otherwise moving
any object other than the clothing and protective equipment normally
worn in that sport and without significantly changing direction) at
least one time during the event.
Triathlon 8
Modern Pentathlon 7
Football (= Soccer) 3
Baseball 2
Basketball 1
Handball 1
Athletics 1
WRONG:
Gymnastics (don't run 25m) 3
Equestrian (horses carry riders) 2
Biathlon mass start (don't run 25m) 1
This question may have confused some people slightly. The "all at once"
provision was meant to modify "run at least 25 meters" (which is what it
was next to in the question); in other words, running 15 meters, then
stopping, then running another 15 meters was not sufficient. Some people
took it to mean that all of the competitors in the event had to run 25
meters at the same time. Even if I had meant the more restrictive
interpretation, I would have to have accepted the less restrictive one
in the face of ambiguity.
Also, it's fine if people *sometimes* run more than 25 meters carrying
or pushing something, as long as most people do it at some point during
the event without carrying or pushing anything.
Athletics has the long jump and triple jump, which take place on the
field, not on the track. The handball court is 40 meters, and has two
6-meter goal areas, so it certainly seemed like they were doing a lot of
25m+ runs during the game. Most of the team sports given fit this model:
people often run the length of the field or court during transition from
offense to defense and vice versa..
Gymnastics was a popular but incorrect answer. The vault runway extends
25m from the front of the vaulting table, but most athletes start inside
the end of the runway to get their steps right. They also don't run all
the way to the front of the table, and many are jumping or tumbling well
in front of the table. Based on this, I would argue that *none* of the
athletes are running 25 meters in the vault. Incidentally, the distance
25 meters was picked specifically to exclude gymnastics.
Equestrian was an interesting answer. The horses certainly run more than
25 meters, although it seems to me that the riders are not running.
Someone argued that--in the language of equestrian--the rider is in fact
running, but I think it's clear that the horses are carrying the riders,
so there is no way "most" of the competitors run 25 meters without
carrying anything.
"Biathlon mass start" is a skiing event. As far as we can tell, there's
no running in this event, but even if they made them run for a bit
before they put their skis on, we're betting they'd at least be carrying
ski poles.
================================================
--Harold Buck
"I used to rock and roll all night,
and party every day.
Then it was every other day. . . ."
-Homer J. Simpson
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