Help with a bet on olympic trivia

The first man was Michael Johnson in 1996 Atlanta; the first woman was Valerie Brisco-Hooks in 1984 Los Angeles. You can search yourself to find out where they went to school.

Valerie Ann Brisco-Hooks (born July 6, 1960 in Greenwood, Mississippi) won three gold medals as an Olympic track and field athlete at the 1984 Olympics at Los Angeles, California, making her the first Olympian win gold medals in both the 200- and 400-meter races. She also won a gold medal for the 4x400m. Brisco competed in the 1988 Olympic Games, which took place in Seoul, South Korea, running on the American 4x400 meter-relay team that finished in second place (but above the older record) behind the Soviet team that broke the 4x400 meter-relay world record.

I remember something about this, but the answers so far don't ring a bell.

Mr. Almanac wrote:

The first man was Michael Johnson in 1996 Atlanta; the first woman was Valerie Brisco-Hooks in 1984 Los Angeles. You can search yourself to find out where they went to school.

Correct.

Settle A Bet wrote:

My roommate says that the first runner to win both the 200 and 400 in the same olympics was a runner from Syracuse. I bet him a beer he is wrong. Help me collect.

Interesting question. The correct answer has not yet been posted, but your friend is wrong and you can claim your beer.

Something of a parallel question: Who was the first athlete to achieve 12 wins in olympic competition.?

Mark Spitz?

Only if Valerie Brisco Hooks went to Syracuse. I cannot find where she went to college, but I am guessing West Coast since she grew up there (born in Mississippi).

Mr knowitall wrote:

Interesting question. The correct answer has not yet been posted, but your friend is wrong and you can claim your beer.

Something of a parallel question: Who was the first athlete to achieve 12 wins in olympic competition.?

Yes, it has.

And off the top of my head I'm pretty sure that's Ray Ewry.

Mr knowitall wrote:

Settle A Bet wrote:

My roommate says that the first runner to win both the 200 and 400 in the same olympics was a runner from Syracuse. I bet him a beer he is wrong. Help me collect.

Interesting question. The correct answer has not yet been posted, but your friend is wrong and you can claim your beer.

Something of a parallel question: Who was the first athlete to achieve 12 wins in olympic competition.?

Would 12 wins mean something like going through prelims or early rounds? If so there are probably a lot. Or do you mean 12 gold medals? No one has won 12 gold medals (Dahlie has 12 medals, 8 gold and 4 silver).

Doogie Howser, M.D. wrote:

Mr knowitall wrote:

Interesting question. The correct answer has not yet been posted, but your friend is wrong and you can claim your beer.

Something of a parallel question: Who was the first athlete to achieve 12 wins in olympic competition.?

Yes, it has.

And off the top of my head I'm pretty sure that's Ray Ewry.

No, it has not. And Ewry is close, but wrong.

The second question helped give it away. The first runner to double in the 200 and 400 was Astylos of Kroton (a city-state in southern Italy) in the 73nd Olympiad in 488 BC. He repeated in 484 BC. Then he switched his allegience to Syracuse and doubled for the 3rd time in 480 BC.

So the answer is no, the first 200/400 double win was not performed by a runner from Syracuse. The beer is on your friend.

As to the other trivia question, Ray Ewry has 10 gold medals (standing long jump 1900, 1904, 1906, 1908, standing high jump 1900, 1904, 1906, 1908, standing triple jump 1900, 1904). Not bad for a Polio victim.

But please note the question did not mention anything about gold medals. The first 12 time winner is probably Leonidas of Rhodes who tripled (winning the stade (200), the diaulos (400), and the armour race) in 4 consecutive Olympics (164BC, 160BC, 156BC, and 152BC).

Interesting research. And lets not forget the great Birgit Fischer of Germany who has 12 medals (8 gold, 4 silver) in......

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wait for it.......

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Flatwater Canoeing

Anybody want to get into trivia about the oldest medal winners? (and it is not Dressage (horse jumping))

I am impressed. Maybe this site hasn't jumped the shark after all.

AlexTrebek wrote:

Anybody want to get into trivia about the oldest medal winners? (and it is not Dressage (horse jumping))

This last winter Scott Baird of Bemidji, MN got a bronze in curling. I think the summer record is held by a norwegian in duck hunting.

What a load of shit. Sorry, but if you are going back to ancient times, then you are just being idiotic.

Those old naked Greek guys ran races measured in stadions,the length of the course was aprox 622 feet, so the question about 200/400 double was correctly answered with VB-H. Your old games info indicates that similar distances were run, and I do not doubt it,but the 200/400 double can only be correctly translated as the 200 and 400 metres. But thanks for the link Alex(BTW regrow your mustache!!) that you are about to give us, that educates us about the greats of the Ancient Games.

Poster behind Alex's name---You ever work with a guy named Fenneman and a duck??

Not only was Michael Johnson not the first (see "Wikipedia"'s response above), he wasn't even the first runner to do so in 1996! Marie-Jose Perec completed her 200-400 double 20 minutes before MJ did his. Of course, she was 12 years after Brisco-Hooks...

Jossi wrote:

Not only was Michael Johnson not the first (see "Wikipedia"'s response above), he wasn't even the first runner to do so in 1996! Marie-Jose Perec completed her 200-400 double 20 minutes before MJ did his. Of course, she was 12 years after Brisco-Hooks...

1. As wineturtle pointed out, the ancient games stuff really doesn't apply here.

2. Yes, we all know MJ-P beat MJ to the punch. But she was the second woman, he was the first man.

Snowbear wrote:

AlexTrebek wrote:

Anybody want to get into trivia about the oldest medal winners? (and it is not Dressage (horse jumping))

This last winter Scott Baird of Bemidji, MN got a bronze in curling. I think the summer record is held by a norwegian in duck hunting.

Close. The oldest summer medalist was a swede in deer hunting.