Presidential Trivia Answers (August 2 & 3)

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(1) QUESTION: True or False? Ronald Reagan was the first United States President to open the Olympic Games.

ANSWER: True.  Reagan opened the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.  Since then, both Bill Clinton and George W. Bush opened Olympic Games in Atlanta and Salt Lake City, respectively. A yet-to-be-determined President is slated to open the Olympic Games in 2028.

(2) QUESTION: The first United States city to host the Olympics was St. Louis. Which President made this happen?

ANSWER: Theodore Roosevelt.  He didn’t attend the events, which weren’t exactly a raging success. “Unfortunately, the St. Louis Games repeated all of the mistakes of 1900,” the Olympics website explains. “The various competitions were spread out over four-and-a-half months and became lost in the chaos of a World’s Fair celebrating the purchase of the Louisiana Territory from France.”

(3) QUESTION: One President injured his knee while tackling renowned Olympian Jim Thorpe. Which President?

ANSWER: Dwight Eisenhower. In 1912, he was a linebacker on the West Point football team during a game against the Carlisle Indian School.[i] Eisenhower injured his knee as he was trying to tackle Jim Thorpe. A book has been written about this legendary football game: “Carlisle vs. Army: Jim Thorpe, Dwight Eisenhower, Pop Warner, and the Forgotten Story of Football's Greatest Battle” by Lars Anderson.