Tokyo Olympics 2021 Super Quiz

Team USA collected one-third of all of the medals handed at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics - with a total of 113 medals, 39 of them golden. Team China came second with 88 medals, 38 of them gold. Japan had its all-time national medal collecting record, with 58 medals, out of which 27 golds.

Arigato, in Japanese, means “thank you.”

Tokyo 2020 Closing Ceremony Fun Fact

The 32nd Summer Olympics came to a close in Tokyo on Sunday, Aug 8, 2021, with a big "Arigato" sign and tons of fireworks. By the way, the flashiest component of the ceremony, a formation of the five Olympic rings by tiny points of light, was played only on large screens and to television audiences - remaining invisible in the stadium.

Tokyo hosted the Olympic Games for the first time in 1964. 2021 is the second time Japan hosts the Olympic Summer Games. Japan also hosted the Nagano Winter Olympics in 1998. The 2020 Tokyo Olympics are also the first without spectators and the first to be played in an odd year.

Tokyo Olympics Bonus Fact

The 1940 Olympic Games were supposed to be held in Tokyo but were canceled due to World War II. Upon the return of the Olympics in 1948, London was chosen as host.

Naomi Osaka left the Tokyo 2020 Olympics without a medal. The four-time major champion was upset in the third round Tuesday, July 27, 2021, by Marketa Vondrousova of the Czech Republic. The 23-year-old Osaka lit the Olympic cauldron to open the Games officially.

Where was Naomi Osaka born?

Naomi Osaka was born in Osaka, Japan, to a Haitian father and a Japanese mother. They moved to the United States when she was three.

The men's 100-meter run world record is held by Usain Bolt, who recorded a remarkable 9.58 seconds at the 2009 World Championships, becoming the fastest man in the world's history.

Who is the current fastest man in the world?

At the Tokyo Olympics, Italian Marcell Jacobs became The World's Fastest Man when he crossed the line in 9.8 seconds Sunday, Aug 1, 2021,  to capture the first 100-meter medal ever for his country. He achieved a speed of 26.76 mph at 72 meters. It marked the first time since 2004 that anyone other than Bolt, who retired in 2017, has been the Olympic champion in the men's event.

Japan’s Emperor Naruhito made the opening declaration of the 2020 Olympic Games, Friday, July 23, 2021. He was the third Japanese Emperor to open an Olympics, following his grandfather Emperor Hirohito (1964 Summer and 1972 Winter Olympics) and his father Emperor Akihito (1998 Winter Olympics).

Athletes at the Tokyo Olympics put their medals around their own necks to protect against spreading the coronavirus. Medalists and ceremony officials also wore masks, which the medalists could then take off for 30 seconds. There were no handshakes and no hugs during the ceremony. The medals were presented to the athletes on a tray.

More Tokyo Olympics Covid-19 facts:

With no paying spectators allowed to attend most Olympic events, an immersive sound system will create the right atmosphere for the athletes in the stadiums and venues. Organizers will feed crowd noise recorded from each event at previous Olympics events into the arena as one of several ways to support the athletes.

South Korean broadcaster MBC has apologized for its choice of “inappropriate” images that appeared next to the names of several countries during its coverage of the Friday, July 23, 2021, Tokyo 2020 Olympic opening ceremony.  El Salvador was introduced with a picture representing Bitcoin. When Italy took the stage, they showed a pizza. For Romania, they aired a depiction of Count Dracula. Norway was represented by a Salmon steak, and Ukraine by the Chernobyl nuclear disaster.

El Salvador Bitcoin News Fact

El Salvador became the first country in the world to adopt bitcoin as a legal tender on Sep. 7, 2021.

Karate, sport climbing, skateboarding, and surfing are all sports that made their Olympic debut in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics (held in July 2021).

Olympic skateboarding news fact:

Yuto Horigome, the 22-year-old son of a Tokyo taxi driver, won the first-ever gold medal for men’s street skateboarding on Sunday, July 25, 2021, in an empty, sun-drenched skatepark about eight miles from where he grew up. In Japan, authorities discourage skateboarding in the streets, and it is sometimes considered a lawbreaking activity.

The youngest Olympic gold medalist was Team USA's Marjorie Gestring at the 1936 games in Berlin. Gestring, only 13 years and 267 days old at the time, won gold in the women's diving competition. Dimitros Loundras became the youngest medal winner when he won a bronze medal at ten years, 216 days, during the inaugural Olympic Games in 1896.

13-Year-Old medalists of Tokyo 2020 News Facts

At 13 years, 330 days, Momiji Nishiya's gold medal in Tokyo made her the youngest Japanese gold medalist, third youngest ever to win an event, and the first-ever person to win the women's street skating event Mon July 26, 2021. The silver medal at the same event went to Rayssa Leal, who at 13 years, 204 days, is the youngest Olympic medal winner in more than 60 years and the youngest Brazilian medalist.

After Belarusian Olympic sprinter Krystsina Tsimanouskaya said on Instagram that she was put in the 4x400 relay, even though she has never raced in the event, her team officials hustled her to the airport to put her on a plane back to Belarus. After managing to escape, Tsimanouskaya has received a humanitarian visa from Poland. In an interview with the Associated Press, the Belarusian sprinter said that officials from her team had made it clear she would face punishment if she returned home. The International Olympic Committee said on Tuesday, Aug 3, 2021, that it had launched a formal investigation into the case and was expecting a report from the Belarusian team.

Lukashenko and the Olympics fact:

Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko is very involved in his country’s Olympic team: He and his son, Viktor, have led the Belarus National Olympic Committee for more than 25 years. Both were banned from the Tokyo Games by the IOC, which investigated complaints from athletes that they faced intimidation during the crackdown on anti-government protests over the last year.

The Fédération Internationale de Volleyball issued 22 pages of uniform guidelines for women players in Tokyo 2020. The options include short sleeves and tank tops, long sleeves for modesty and long sleeves for warmth, long pants and shorts, and a one-piece bathing suit or a bikini. The men wear tank tops and board shorts, which can go over long-sleeved shirts and tights in cold weather. And yet, most women's teams choose bikinis.

Which sports limits its women players to bikinis only?

Beach handball, which is not an Olympic sport, requires women to wear bikinis, and the European federation fined the Norwegians for wearing shorts as a protest.

Considered the greatest gymnast, Simone Biles is the most decorated American gymnast, with 31 Olympic and World Championship medals combined, including three individual gold medals in the 2016 Olympics and a record seventh US national championship in June 2021.

Simone Biles 2020 Olympics News Facts

On Sunday, July 25, 2021, Simone Biles qualified first overall for the all-around qualifying competition at the Tokyo Olympics, despite going out of bounds during her floor routine at the end of a tumbling pass, stepping off the mat during vault, and needing extra steps to complete her beam dismount. On July 27, the 24-year-old Biles withdrew from the competition following one rotation after realizing she wasn’t in the suitable mental space to compete. “I didn’t want to go into any of the other events second-guessing myself,” Biles said. On Aug 3, Biles returned to the balance beam final to win the bronze medal, tying her with Shannon Miller for most Olympic medals by an American female gymnast with seven total.

Australia’s Emma McKeon is the first female swimmer to claim seven medals at one Olympics - Four of them were gold, the other three bronze. She is also the second woman to win seven Olympic medals in any sport. The first was gymnast Maria Gorokhovskaya of the Soviet Union, who achieved the record at the Helsinki 1952 Games.

Emma McKeon Fun Fact

Emma McKeon is the daughter of Ron McKeon, a former swimmer who represented Australia in the 1980 Summer Olympics and 1984 Summer Olympics. Her brother, David McKeon, is also a member of the Australian national swimming team in international competitions.

Venezuela’s Yulimar Rojas personal best Triple jump of 15.67 m (51.4 feet), the world record, was set during the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan, on 1 August 2021, as her final jump in the final round.

Yulimar Rojas Triple Jump facts

Rojas is the first female Venezuelan Olympic gold medallist, the current Triple Jump Olympic champion, a two-time World Champion (2017 London and 2019 Doha), and a two-time World Indoor Champion (2016 Portland and 2018 Birmingham).

Jamaica’s Elaine Thompson-Herah became the first woman to win a "double-double" in Olympic track and field races, winning gold in both the 100-meter and 200-meter races in Tokyo 2020, repeating her two wins in the same contests at the 2016 Rio Olympics.

Jamaican athletes took all three top spots in the Tokyo 2020 women’s 100-meter final, as gold medal-winner Elaine Thompson-Herah set an Olympic record with her time of 10.61 seconds. She is now the second-fast woman in history. The fastest being 1988 Olympic champion Florence Griffith-Joyner, with her world record of 10.49 set in the U.S. Olympic trials for the Seoul Games.

World War I and World War II forced the Olympics to be canceled altogether, so there were no 1916, 1940, or 1944 Olympic Games. The separate Winter Olympics didn’t exist at World War I, but World War II forced two of them to be called off.

On July 1, 2021, The United States Anti-Doping Agency reported Sha’Carri Richardson tested positive for THC (the main psychoactive component found in cannabis) following her 100 m final at the U.S. Trials - which made her ineligible to compete in the 100 m Olympics.

When does Sha’Carri Richardson’s suspension end?

After completing a counseling program, Richardson accepted one month of ineligibility. While Richardson is ineligible for the Olympic 100 meters due to the suspension that ends July 27, 2021, she could have been eligible for the Women's 4 × 100 relay on August 5. However, she was not selected, thereby missing the Olympics entirely.

U.S. tennis star Coco Gauff has announced on July 18, 2021, that she tested positive for the coronavirus and will not lead the U.S. tennis team at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

China will host the next Winter Olympics in February 2022.

Are Australia and the US boycotting the China Winter Olympics?

The US and Australia have decided on a diplomatic boycott of the Winter Olympics. Under the sanction, athletes would be free to participate in the Olympic Games, but a delegation of officials would not accompany them.

What happened to Peng Shuai?

Former doubles world No 1 Peng Shuai had a three-week public absence after allegations that a former senior Chinese official sexually assaulted her. The International Olympic Committee said its president had held a 30-minute video call with Shuai on Nov. 21, 2021, and quoted her as saying she was “safe and well, living at her home in Beijing, but would like to have her privacy respected at this time.” Chinese state media have published photos and videos of Peng at a tennis tournament in Beijing and a restaurant the same week. Still, the Women’s Tennis Association said it remained worried about Peng’s “ability to communicate without censorship or coercion.”