Think you know everything there is to know about the Winter Olympics? Test your knowledge — answers follow the question, so no peeking!
Two former Avalanche players were the last skaters to touch the puck in a thrilling end to the 1994 gold medal men’s hockey game in Lillehammer. Who were they?
A: Sweden’s Peter Forsberg scored a sudden-death shootout goal to give his team the lead. Then Canada’s Paul Kariya tried to tie the score, but his wrist shot was saved by Tommy Salo, giving the Swedes gold.
Two men’s figure skating jumps rose to prominence in the mid-1970s. What were they?
A: Canada’s Don Jackson was the first to land a triple lutz, at the 1962 world championships — 12 years before anyone else did. By 1976, only three men had ever completed the jump. It soon became common. Also, at the ’76 Innsbruck Games, American Terry Kubicka became the only skater to land a legal backflip. It was banned immediately after.
Since women’s ice hockey debuted in 1998 at Nagano, Canada has reached all three gold medal games, twice facing the U.S., with each nation winning once in their matchup. What is the aggregate score in final games between the neighboring nations?
A: The U.S. won gold in 1998, beating Canada 3-1 behind Sandra Whyte’s goal and assist. In 2002 at Salt Lake City, Canada won 3-2. The U.S. leads in aggregate scoring in the matchup, 5-4.
How much faster was the men’s 1,500-meter speed skating champ in 2006 than the winner in 1924, when it made its Olympic debut?
A: At Turin in 2006, Italy’s Enrico Fabris won in 1:45.97, more than 30 seconds faster than Finland’s Clas Thunberg, who won at Chamonix in 1924 in 2:20.8. American Shani Davis, the favorite at Vancouver, holds the world record at 1:41.04, nearly 54 seconds faster than Jaap Eden’s first world record in 1893.
American women dominated the early years of alpine skiing. Name one of the big names back then.
A: In 1948, when only slalom was contested, Washington’s Gretchen Fraser, left, a well-known action movie double, won at St. Moritz. In 1952 at Oslo, Vermont’s Andrea Mead Lawrence, then 19, became the first American skier to win two gold medals when she topped the field in slalom and giant slalom.
The Canadian men’s hockey team won gold in 1932 at Lake Placid without actually defeating the U.S. in the final game. How did that happen?
A: Because of the Great Depression, only four teams competed in 1932 in a round-robin style tournament with teams playing each other twice. Canada topped the U.S. 2-1 in the first game. Needing a victory over the U.S. in the second matchup, Canada tied the score 2-2 on a Romeo Rivers goal with 50 seconds remaining. After three scoreless overtimes, Canada was declared the gold medal winner.
It took 78 years for women’s skeleton to appear in competition at the Olympics. What happened at the first games, in 2002 at Salt Lake City?
A: American Tristan Gale, then 21, had been competing in skeleton for only a year. But she won gold in her hometown by edging countrywoman Lea Ann Parsley, a 33-year-old firefighter, by .10 of a second.
The U.S. won one gold medal in the 1968 games at Grenoble. Who did it?
A: Peggy Fleming, whose mother designed and sewed all her competition dresses, dominated the figure skating field after compiling a huge lead in the compulsory figures — which no longer are part of the competition.
What is the record for most years between winning medals by an individual competitor in the Winter Games?
A: Because of the Great Depression and World War II, 20 years passed between when American John Heaton (luge) and Switzerland’s Richard Torriani (ice hockey) first won medals in 1928 and last won them in 1948.
The 500 meter short-track men’s speedskating race first was contested in 1994 at Lillehammer. In the four Olympics it has been held, which country has done best?
A: No single nation has won more than one gold in the shortest speedskating sprint. Korea, Japan, Canada and the U.S. — Apolo Ohno, who holds the Olympic record from 2006 — all have won. Canada owns the most 500-meter medals with three (a gold and two silvers).
Source: David Wallechinsky and Jaime Loucky’s “The Complete Book of the Winter Olympics”
