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Sports Quiz
Track and Field — Second Lap
Here’s another quiz about Jewish track-and-field greats. Nothing about train tracks or corn fields! We’re talking running on tracks and field sports like jumping and throwing. Will you run out of breath or go the distance? Ready... set... go!
1. Not many athletes find Olympic Gold and Oscar Gold, too! But Harold Abrahams won a Gold medal in the 1924 Olympics in the 100 meters, and his story is told in the movie that won Best Picture at the Oscars in 1981. The title is an image from the story of Elijah the Prophet:
2. Deena Kastor holds American records for the 10,000 meter, 8K, 12K, 15K, 10 mile, and 20K distances, and the world record for the 5K! But she won her Olympic Bronze for an even longer race, and won the Chicago and London versions of it to. That race is just over 26 miles long, and it’s called a:
3. The first time women could compete in the Olympics was back in 1928, and Canada’s Fanny Rosenfeld celebrated by winning a Gold and setting as world record with her 4x100 relay team. She held Canadian records in long jump, shotput, discus, and javelin, and she tied the word record of 11 seconds in the 100-yard dash, which is the same length as a:
4. Maria Itkina’s best distance was 400 meters. This Russian rocket set the world record, then beat it, lowering it to just 53 seconds. She was a European Champion in that distance four times! She also ran a leg of an 800 meter relay that set a word record, and by the time she stopped running had racked up __ Russian track-and-field wins.
5. Elias Katz won his Olympic Gold alongside his cross-country team from Finland in the 3,000 meters in 1924. He ran a leg of a relay team that set and then broke a record for the 4x1,500. He then joined one of Europe’s first Jewish sports clubs, which made it very popular. When the Nazis broke it up, he went to coach the first Olympic track team in:
6. Irena Szewinska has won medals at four Olympics in a row! (Remember, they are held four years apart!) Three of her medals were Golds, for a 4x100 relay, 200 meters, and 400 meters. She’s also has two each of Silver and Bronze, for an amazing total of:
7. For seven straight years, the #1 woman discus thrower was Ukraine’s Fania Melnik. She won a Gold and set a world record at the 1972 Olympics, and was the first woman ever to throw one more than 70 meters. It’s much heavier than a usual one, weighing between 2 and 5 pounds, but most people think a discus looks like a:
8. Lilli Henoch was a world-record holder in several track-and-field sports, and won 10 national German championships in just four years! The ones she set world records in were:
9. Born in Russia, Myer Prinstein won 4 Olympic Golds for the US. He’s the only person who won the hop-step-jump and long jump in the same Olympics, and that was way back in 1904. Today, the hop-step-jump is called the:
10. We already wrote about Marty Gilckman’s second career in our Sportscasters Quiz! First, he was a runner, and an Olympic-level one. Marty’s teammate at the Berlin 1936 Olympics, famous for shaming Hitler’s racism by beating all the Nazi runners, was:
Bonus!
Doug Heir is one of the best Paralympic athletes ever. The “Paralympics” are like the Olympics, but for people with physical disabilities. Doug has set world records, was pictured on the Wheaties box, and has won the most gold medals in the world... all by racing his:

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