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2008 Summer Olympics Quiz: Test Your Knowledge

Test your knowledge of the 2008 Summer Olympics with this engaging quiz covering key events, records, and cultural aspects of the Games.

1 ________ broke the records for most gold medals in one Olympics and for most career gold medals for an Olympian by winning eight swimming events.

2 What proceeded 2008 Summer Olympics?

3 What was the size of the 2008 Summer Olympics?

4 What is the motto of 2008 Summer Olympics?

5 The official song of the 2008 Olympics, titled "You and Me", was performed by Britain's ________ and China's Liu Huan, on a large spinning rendition of the globe.

6 [112] On August 21, the IOC ordered a probe into the legal ages of double gold medal winning gymnast ________ and her teammates.

7 Which of the following titles did 2008 Summer Olympics have?

8 Beijing was awarded the Games over four competitors on July 13, 2001, having won an absolute majority of votes from members of the ________ (IOC) after two rounds of voting.

9 The originally proposed route would have taken the torch through ________ after leaving Vietnam and before heading for Hong Kong.

10 The 2008 Summer Olympics emblem is known as Dancing Beijing (simplified Chinese: 舞动的北京; traditional Chinese: 舞動的北京; ________: Wǔdòng de Beíjīng).

💡 Interesting Facts

  • at the 2008 Summer Olympics, Indian freestyle wrestler Sushil Kumar won his country's second medal in the sport since the 1952 Games.
  • after previously competing at the 2004 games in Athens, Brooklyn-bred Erinn Smart and her brother Keeth are again part of the U. S. Olympic fencing team at Beijing.
  • Tim Morehouse, a member of the U.S. fencing team at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, originally took up fencing in order to be excused from his high school gym class.
  • following show jumper Denis Lynch's Olympic ban for doping offences, the President of the Olympic Council of Ireland threatened to ban the equestrian team from participating in future Olympic Games.
  • in 1908, swimmer Henry Taylor (pictured) became the only Briton to win three gold medals at a single Olympic Games until Chris Hoy equalled his mark in 2008.
  • the Marshall Islands, Montenegro, and Tuvalu will all be making their first Olympic appearance at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.
  • the silver won at the 2008 Summer Olympics by the Singapore women's table tennis team, comprising Feng Tianwei, Li Jiawei and Wang Yuegu, is the second Olympic medal in Singapore's history.
  • in her début at the 2008 Summer Olympics, Tao Li broke the Asian record for the 100 m butterfly twice and became the first Singaporean swimmer to enter an Olympic final.
  • Shinan District, Qingdao, China, is the site of the Qingdao International Sailing Centre, a sailing marina constructed for the 2008 Summer Olympics.
  • Seteng Ayele was the oldest track and field athlete at both the 2004 and 2008 Summer Olympics.
  • Senegalese long jumper and triple jumper Ndiss Kaba Badji was the only person from his country to reach a final at the 2008 Summer Olympics.
  • Ireland's former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern presented an episode of GAA television programme The Road to Croker when the usual host was at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.
  • Latvian basketball player Ieva Tāre suffered a serious arm injury during the qualification for 2008 Summer Olympics, but recovered in time for the actual Olympics.
  • British canoeist David Florence failed with an application to join the European Space Agency's astronaut training program before winning a silver medal at the 2008 Summer Olympics.
  • Britain's Heather Fell, the 2008 Olympic silver medallist in modern pentathlon, had to work three part-time jobs in order to fund her training.
  • Rodney Pattisson became Great Britain's most successful Olympic yachtsman in the 1976 Montreal Olympics until Ben Ainslie bettered his two gold medals and one silver medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
  • Ricardo Blas, Jr. surpassed the previous record for the heaviest Olympic competitor by 44 lb (20 kg) when he competed at the 2008 Summer Olympics.
  • Daba Modibo Keïta, 2008 Olympian for Mali, was the first Sub-Saharan African to be a Taekwondo World Champion.
  • 2004 Olympic gold medalist Rhi Jeffrey left competitive swimming just four months before the U.S. Olympic Trials for Beijing.