Q 01/05

Which other throwing event shared the ancient Olympic pentathlon with the javelin?

A) The shot put

B) The discus

C) The hammer throw

D) The weight throw

Answer · why

B) The discus

The discus. Both arrived in 708 BC with the pentathlon, whose athletes Aristotle thought the most beautiful of all, because their bodies were built fo...

Q 02/05

What was the 'amentum' that ancient Greek athletes used when throwing the javelin?

A) A bronze weight

B) A throwing stick

C) A leather strap

D) A feathered tail

Answer · why

C) A leather strap

A leather strap, looped round the shaft and over two fingers. It slipped off as the javelin left the hand, and the extra leverage and spin sent the th...

Q 03/05

Which great distance runner's wife, Dana, won Olympic javelin gold in 1952 on the day he won the 5,000 metres?

A) Paavo Nurmi

B) Vladimir Kuts

C) Emil Zátopek

D) Alain Mimoun

Answer · why

C) Emil Zátopek

Emil Zátopek. He had already won the 10,000 m at those Games, then entered the first marathon of his life and won that too, a treble nobody has matche...

Q 04/05

At the 1912 Olympics, a one-off javelin event added together two throws made how?

A) Standing and running

B) Left- and right-handed

C) Underarm and overarm

D) Forwards and backwards

Answer · why

B) Left- and right-handed

Left- and right-handed: each thrower's best mark with either hand was added together. Eric Lemming, who had just won the ordinary javelin, threw so po...

Q 05/05

Which Norse god owned Gungnir, the mythical spear that World Athletics links to the javelin's origins?

A) Thor

B) Freyr

C) Tyr

D) Odin

Answer · why

D) Odin

Odin. In the myths dwarf smiths forged Gungnir so well that it never missed, and Odin begins the first war among the gods by hurling a spear over the ...