Olympic Games: History, Symbols and India's Medals

The correct answer is B, 776 BCE. The ancient Games were held at Olympia in Greece in honour of Zeus, and 776 BCE is the earliest celebration for which a written record of the winner survives. The prize was a wreath of olive leaves, and only free Greek men were allowed to compete.

Option A, 1200 BCE, belongs to the legendary period before any record of the festival exists. Option C, 490 BCE, is the year of the battle of Marathon, which gave the modern marathon race its name and its story, so it is placed here as a deliberate distraction. Option D, 393 CE, is the year the ancient Games were abolished by the Roman emperor Theodosius I, who treated them as a pagan festival, so it is the closing date rather than the opening one. Learn the two dates 776 BCE and 393 CE as a pair, because papers ask for one and offer the other.

The correct answer is C, Baron Pierre de Coubertin. The French educationist believed that sport built character in the young, and at a congress at the Sorbonne in Paris he founded the International Olympic Committee on 23 June 1894, which led directly to the first modern Games at Athens in 1896. He also designed the five-ring symbol in 1913.

Option B, Demetrius Vikelas of Greece, was the first president of the IOC, a fact often confused with founding the movement; Coubertin was the second president and served much longer. Options A and D, Avery Brundage and Juan Antonio Samaranch, were later presidents of the IOC who shaped the Games in the twentieth century but had no part in reviving them. The safe way to answer is to separate two ideas: the founder of the movement is Coubertin, while the first president is Vikelas.

The correct answer is D, Athens. Greece was chosen for the first modern Games because the ancient festival had been held there, and the event took place in 1896, two years after the International Olympic Committee was founded. The Panathenaic Stadium in Athens was restored for the occasion.

Option A, Paris, hosted the second modern Games in 1900, which is also the Games at which India took part for the first time. Option C, St. Louis in the United States, hosted the third Games in 1904. Option B, London, hosted the Games for the first time in 1908 and is remembered as the first city to host them three times. All three are genuine early hosts, which is what makes them good distractors. Fix the sequence Athens, Paris, St. Louis for the first three modern Games and the question becomes easy.

The correct answer is A, Lausanne in Switzerland. The International Olympic Committee moved its headquarters there during the First World War and has remained in the city since, which is why Lausanne is also called the Olympic Capital and houses the Olympic Museum.

Option B, Geneva, is the seat of many United Nations bodies, the World Health Organisation and the International Committee of the Red Cross, so students often place any international body there by habit. Option C, Zurich, is the headquarters of the international football federation, which is a common source of confusion in sports questions. Option D, Paris, is where the IOC was founded in 1894 at the Sorbonne, but it was never the permanent seat of the organisation. Separate the two facts clearly: founded at Paris, headquartered at Lausanne.

The correct answer is C, Faster, Higher, Stronger. The three Latin words were suggested to Pierre de Coubertin by his friend Henri Didon, a French priest and educator who used them for the pupils at his school, and Coubertin adopted them for the Olympic movement. In 2021 a fourth word, Communiter, meaning Together, was added, so the complete motto is now Citius, Altius, Fortius, Communiter.

Option A replaces Higher with Farther, which sounds plausible for athletics but is not the Latin word used. Option B replaces Faster with Braver, another word that fits the spirit of the Games but not the motto. Option D mixes the order and inserts Together in the place of Stronger, which is a good trap now that Communiter has been added at the end. Remember the sequence exactly as it runs, one word for each of speed, height and strength, with togetherness added last.

The correct answer is B, the five inhabited continents. Pierre de Coubertin designed the symbol in 1913, and the rings are interlaced to show the meeting of athletes from every part of the world at the Games. The flag itself was first flown at the Antwerp Games of 1920.

Option A, the five oceans, is the commonest wrong answer and is offered in almost every version of this question. Option C, five founding nations, is wrong because far more than five countries took part from the beginning and the rings were never tied to a list of members. Option D, five original sports, is also wrong, since the first modern Games included several sports and the rings carry no sporting meaning. A related fact worth holding: the colours blue, yellow, black, green and red, together with the white background, were chosen because every national flag of that time carried at least one of them, so no colour officially belongs to a named continent.

The correct answer is A, Chamonix in France. The event held there in 1924 was recognised afterwards as the first Winter Olympic Games, and it created a separate cycle for sports played on snow and ice. Until 1992 the Winter Games fell in the same year as the Summer Games, after which they were shifted so that an Olympic event now comes every two years.

Option B, St. Moritz in Switzerland, hosted the second Winter Games in 1928 and is remembered as one of the few places to host them twice. Option C, Lake Placid in the United States, hosted the third Winter Games in 1932 and again in 1980. Option D, Oslo in Norway, hosted them in 1952, and Norway is otherwise the country most closely associated with winter sport, which is why it is placed in the options. The safe pairing is 1896 Athens for the Summer Games and 1924 Chamonix for the Winter Games.

The correct answer is B, K. D. Jadhav. Khashaba Dadasaheb Jadhav won a bronze medal in wrestling at the Helsinki Games of 1952, the first individual Olympic medal won by an Indian after independence, at a time when India's Olympic reputation rested entirely on the hockey team.

Option A, Leander Paes, won a bronze in men's singles tennis at Atlanta in 1996, ending a long gap after Jadhav but not preceding him. Option C, Karnam Malleswari, won a bronze in weightlifting at Sydney in 2000 and is remembered as the first Indian woman to win an Olympic medal. Option D, Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, won a silver in double trap shooting at Athens in 2004, India's first individual silver. All four are genuine individual medallists, so the examinable word is first, and the answer is the earliest of them.

The correct answer is C, field hockey. The Indian men's hockey team won the gold medal at the Amsterdam Games of 1928 and then kept winning, taking eight Olympic golds in all, in 1928, 1932, 1936, 1948, 1952, 1956, 1964 and 1980. The six in a row from 1928 to 1956 remain unmatched in the sport, and Dhyan Chand, who played in the first three, is remembered as its greatest player of the age.

Option A, shooting, gave India its first individual gold much later, when Abhinav Bindra won the 10 metre air rifle at Beijing in 2008. Option B, wrestling, gave India its first individual medal after independence through K. D. Jadhav in 1952, but that was a bronze. Option D, athletics, produced India's earliest Olympic medals of any kind, the two silvers Norman Pritchard won in 1900, again not gold. Read whether the question asks for the first medal, the first gold or the first individual gold.

The correct answer is C, Karnam Malleswari. She won a bronze medal in weightlifting at the Sydney Games of 2000, the first Olympic medal won by an Indian woman, and the achievement is the standard one-line fact set from this chapter.

Option A, P. T. Usha, came agonisingly close at Los Angeles in 1984, finishing fourth in the 400 metres hurdles by the smallest of margins, and her name is placed in the options precisely because students remember that race. Option B, Mary Kom, won a bronze in boxing at London in 2012, and Option D, Saina Nehwal, a bronze in badminton at the same Games, both after Malleswari. The reliable way to answer is to hold the year 2000 and the sport weightlifting together, since every other woman medallist from India belongs to 2012 or later.

The correct answer is B, the 10 metre air rifle. Abhinav Bindra won that event at the Beijing Games of 2008, giving India its first individual Olympic gold medal in any sport and its first gold of any kind since the hockey team's win in 1980.

Option A, the 10 metre air pistol, is a different shooting event and is offered because the distance is the same; the discipline in the question is the rifle. Option C, the 50 metre rifle three positions, is a separate rifle event in which Indian shooters have competed but which is not the one Bindra won. Option D, double trap, is the shotgun event in which Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore won a silver at Athens in 2004, India's first individual Olympic silver, so it belongs to a different shooter and a different Games. The three details to hold together are the name, the event and the year 2008.

The correct answer is C, the Berlin Games of 1936. The flame itself had been lit at earlier Games, but the relay in which runners carry the torch from Olympia in Greece all the way to the host city began at Berlin, and it has been part of every Olympics since.

Option A, Antwerp in 1920, is where two other symbols appeared for the first time, the Olympic flag with its five rings and the Olympic oath, taken there by the Belgian athlete Victor Boin. Option B, Amsterdam in 1928, is where a flame was first kept burning in the stadium through the Games, and is also the Games at which India won its first gold medal in hockey. Option D, London in 1948, is the first Games held after the Second World War. Attach each symbol to its own Games: flag and oath to 1920, cauldron flame to 1928 and the relay to 1936.