Ho hum, another … world record?
Sometimes even all-time-great performances don’t look very impressive on a screen — especially during the Olympics, when a gold medalist is often faster, higher or stronger by just a tiny bit.
But if you put those feats in the context of the real world, well, that’s another story. Let’s try to tell it with this quiz.
Let’s start with a heavy topic.
Weightlifting
1 of 6
The world record for heaviest lift is kind of like hoisting which of these over your head?
A sea horse
A sea cow
A sea lion
A seaplane
Story continues below advertisement
Advertisement
High jump
2 of 6
To set the record, you would have to jump higher than …
The average ceiling in a house
A regulation men’s volleyball net
The noggin of NBA star Anthony Davis
Any of those, depending on the record
Shot put
3 of 6
To approximate Ryan Crouser’s best, you could chuck a 16-pound bowling ball the length of …
A blue whale
A regulation basketball court
A railroad boxcar
42 pages of The Washington Post, end to end
Story continues below advertisement
Advertisement
Long jump
4 of 6
To set a record during your trip to Washington, you could jump across …
Two lanes of Interstate 95
The Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool
The T. rex at the National Museum of Natural History
Both incoming pandas, lying ears to toes
100 meters
5 of 6
Maybe running is your thing. Usain Bolt’s top speed was fast enough to …
Cause a sonic boom
Earn a speeding ticket in a school zone
Leave a warthog in his dust
Nearly go toe-to-wheel with a Segway
Story continues below advertisement
Advertisement
Pole vault
6 of 6
At the highest point of his most recent world record jump, Armand “Mondo” Duplantis could have …
Landed on top of a semi-truck
Looked a large giraffe in the eyes
Inspected the gutters on a two-story house
Flown over the Empire State Building
About this story
Track and field records come from WorldAthletics.org, swimming from USASwiming.org and weightlifting from IWF.sport.
Editing by Samuel Granados and Matt Rennie. Copy editing by Ella Brockway. Print page measurement by Kati Perry.
Photographs and images used in photo illustrations by The Washington Post, Agence France-Presse, Xinhua News Agency, Getty Images, iStock and Associated Press.
Your score: 0 out of 6
ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7uK3SoaCnn6Sku7G70q1lnKedZMCxu9GtqminnK66sbXCrGaipqSav6Kv06KtnmdiZX91e86lsKaomZh6uLvRpZtmqpWYvLOw0mapnpmcYsSwvsudZKqtma98