It’s the birth anniversary of Colombian footballer Andrés Escobar who was shot dead at the behest of a gangster who had lost money because of an own goal the player had conceded in the 1994 World Cup. This week’s quiz is on sportspersons we lost early.
Game over
3 Which organisation was responsible for the Munich massacre of the 1972 Olympics where members of the Israeli team, who were taken hostage during the event, lost their lives in a shoot-out?
4 Raman Lamba, one of India’s leading cricketers, lost his life during a 1998 league match in Dhaka. Which top Bangladeshi team was he representing when he was hit by a powerful shot by batsman Mehrab Hossain while fielding at forward short leg?
5 In 1986, Len Bias, one of the top US college stars, lost his life to cocaine overdose shortly after being picked by a most legendary NBA franchise. Which team drafted him, just the second player to be chosen?
6 What specifically would you be doing if you traversed a landmark known as Green Boots — a body believed to be of Twesan Paljor, an Indian who died in 1996?
7 While playing which sport did Qutb-al-din Aibak and Sawai Man Singh II sustain critical injury? Even Iftikhar Ali Khan Pataudi had a fatal heart attack playing the same sport.
8 Roland Ratzenberger was an Austrian racing driver who died in a crash during a qualifier for the Formula ONE? Race in 1994. The news of his death was overshadowed by another disaster in the main event the next day. What happened that day?
9 Which baseball player, nicknamed the Iron Horse, played 2,130 consecutive games before voluntarily taking himself out of the line-up on May 2, 1939, and stunning the world with his admission of a life-threatening disease?
10 Lara Victoria van Ruijven was a Dutch sports star who won a bronze medal in the 2018 Winter Olympics and a gold medal at the World Championship in her event a year later. She was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease in June 2020 and died the same year aged just 27. What was her event of choice?
Answers
1 Chapecoense from Brazil. Following the crash, their opponents, Colombian club Atletico Nacional, requested that Chapecoense be awarded the trophy, which was duly accepted by the organisers.
2 Red Star Belgrade.
3 Black September, a Palestinian group that named the operation after Iqrit and Biram, two Palestinian villages whose inhabitants had supposedly been expelled by Israeli forces.
4 Abahani Krira Chakra. They were playing against Mohammedan Sporting Club.
5 Boston Celtics. They retired his number, 30, the jersey he never ever got to wear.
6 Climbing Mount Everest. The body has never been recovered but is visible to climbers making the ascent from the north side.
7 Polo. Aibak fell from his horse in 1210, Singh was critically injured while playing in England in 1970, and the Nawab of Pataudi had a heart attack while playing in Delhi in 1952.
8 Ayrton Senna died after his car crashed while rounding the high-speed Tamburello corner on lap 7.
9 Lou Gehrig, who announced he had amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, an incurable neuromuscular disorder.
10 Speed skating. She specialised in the 3,000-m speed skating event.
Joy Bhattacharjya is a quizmaster;
Twitter: @joybhattacharj