Antarctica

[DoubleRBar]

Happy 60th birthday today (Friday) to an Olympic champion who represented two different countries at the Olympic Games.

This champion competed in four Olympic Games in only one event.

Our birthday athlete won a gold and a bronze medal at the World Indoor Championships.

If you are wondering about the title of this thread, I can tell you that our birthday person was not born in Africa, Europe, Australia, Asia, or the place mentioned in our title.

Interesting to know that this individual won the Olympic gold medal at the third of those four Olympics.

Think about this one and then see if you can name this birthday Olympian on this 50th Friday of 2021.

[bambam1729]

Hurdler - 2 countries - born in North America

Mark McKoy

[DoubleRBar]

Mark McKoy was born in South America (British Guiana, now Guyana) 60 years ago today. Good job, bambam1729 (except the North America part).

Mark McKoy competed in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games where he placed fourth in the 110 hurdles. He was seventh in the 1988 Seoul Olympic 110 hurdles and did not run the four by 100 relay for Canada. McKoy won the 110 hurdles gold medal in Barcelona (1992) and he did not make the final of the 110 hurdles in 1996 (Atlanta) while he was representing Austria.

McKoy was well-known for his very fast starts and that is what helped him in winning the 1992 Olympic gold medal. I believe he hit the last hurdle, but by then he was too far ahead for Tony Dees (U.S.) and Jack Pierce (U.S.) to catch him. The top three ran 13.12, 13.24, and 13.26.

Thank you, bambam1729.

[bambam1729]

I was thinking he was born in Canada since I knew he ran for Canada

[DoubleRBar]

He actually lived for awhile in England before moving to Canada and of course later moving to Austria.

[Fortius19]

When you didn't mention "hurdles are not involved", I immediately thought of hurdlers. However, I blanked on McCoy. I didn't even know he competed for Austria.

[DoubleRBar]

McKoy did move around quite a bit. He competed for Austria at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.

[KDFINE]

So what's with the Antarctica clue?

[DoubleRBar]

One of the continents where Mark McKoy was not born.

[bambam1729]

One of the continents where Mark McKoy was not born.

Its kinda like the Final Jeopardy answer by Cliff Clavan, when he was on Jeopardy in Cheers - the answer was the names of 3 people. Cliff didn't know the answer but actually posted a correct question "Name 3 people who have never been in my house"

[DoubleRBar]

Yes, very much like that.

[tandfman]

Have any OG gold medalists ever been born in Antartica? How about other world-class athletes? I don't know of any but it's unlikely that I''d be aware of it even if there were some.

[DoubleRBar]

Has anyone ever been born in Antarctica? Maybe, but I wouldn't imagine very many.

I checked and found an article that said 11 people have been born in Antarctica, none of whom died as infants (pretty low mortality rate). Maybe one of them will win an Olympic gold medal in the future.

[El Toro]

Has anyone ever been born in Antarctica? Maybe, but I wouldn't imagine very many.

I checked and found an article that said 11 people have been born in Antarctica, none of whom died as infants (pretty low mortality rate). Maybe one of them will win an Olympic gold medal in the future.

I confidently predict that none of them will win a gold medal in athletics or any other truly physical sport, because 1985 was the last year any child was delivered, making that person 36 already. Most of the others are 40+.

The whole thing seems to be driven by the respective juntas of Argentina and Chile in the late 70s, early 80s in order to shore up their Antarctic land claims.

Wikipedia have a list of 8 children born of Argentine parents: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...Esperanza_Base if anybody wants to check.

The first Chilean was Juan Pablo Camacho Martino, born on 21 November 1984. I couldn't find the other two but I didn't spend a long time looking.

It's worth noting that the Chileans, while born in the Antarctic, were born on King George Island, not the mainland of Antarctica like the Argentinians. Are they really Antarcticans or not?

[Olli]

It's worth noting that the Chileans, while born in the Antarctic, were born on King George Island, not the mainland of Antarctica like the Argentinians. Are they really Antarcticans or not?

Good question. More or less analogous to: are Britons really Europeans or not?