Olav Bjortomt

Stein Olav Bjortomt (born 13 December 1978 in Eastbourne) is an English international quiz player, four-time world champion (2003, 2015, 2018, 2019) and three time individual European champion (2010, 2014, 2015). He is the star player of the world's most successful quizzing clubs, Broken Hearts, with which he has won several European championships. He writes questions for University Challenge and The Chase.[1][2]

Olav Bjortomt

Olav Bjortomt (right) at the 2011 European Quizzing Championships
Medal record
Quizzing
Representing England
Quiz Olympiad
2016 AthensIndividual Quiz
2016 AthensNations Team Quiz
2016 AthensLiterature Quiz
2016 AthensFilm Quiz
2016 AthensNational Specialist Quiz
2016 AthensPairs
2016 AthensPentathlon Specialist Quiz
2016 AthensVisual Arts Quiz
IQA World Championships
2003 Singles
2015 Singles
2018 Singles
2019 Singles
IQA European Championships
2006 Paris National Team
2006 Paris Club
2007 Blackpool Club
2008 Oslo Singles
2008 Oslo Pairs
2008 Oslo National Team
2008 Oslo Club
2009 Dordrecht Singles
2009 Dordrecht Pairs
2009 Dordrecht National Team
2009 Dordrecht Club
2010 Derby Singles
2010 Derby Pairs
2010 Derby National Team
2010 Derby Club
2011 Bruges Singles
2011 Bruges Pairs
2011 Bruges Club
2012 Tartu Singles
2012 Tartu National Team
2013 Liverpool National Team
2013 Liverpool Pairs
2014 Bucharest Singles
2014 Bucharest Pairs
2014 Bucharest National Team
2014 Bucharest Club
2015 Rotterdam Singles
2015 Rotterdam Pairs
2015 Rotterdam National Team
2015 Rotterdam Club
2016 Athens Singles
2016 Athens Pairs
2016 Athens National Team
2016 Athens Club
2017 Zagreb Singles
2017 Zagreb Pairs
2017 Zagreb National Team
IQA British Championships
2007 Derby Singles
2007 Derby Pairs
2008 Staveley Pairs
2012 Lichfield Pairs

In contrast to the other two full-time professionals of Team England Pat Gibson and Kevin Ashman he has not done as well both in domestic competitions, with only a second place in the individual British championships 2007 to his credit (though he has won the pairs competition) and as a TV candidate, a second place in the Fifteen to One series of 2002 being his best result. He is of Norwegian and Filipino descent.

National and international titles

He was the winner of the inaugural 2003 individual World Quizzing Championships,[3] when it was a fledgling event with then only 45 participants (now in the thousands) but won a second title in 2015. In 2009 he won three out of four possible European titles and was runner-up behind Kevin Ashman in the singles to become the most successful participant.

Time Out described him in 2006 as a "former child quiz prodigy and a rising star of the quiz world".[4]

After his triumph at the very first World Quizzing Championship 2003 he did not win a medal at the world stage for twelve years, but always was Top 10. His absence at Ghent in 2004 (when England won the first European Championship) meant he was not selected for the national team until 2006. He should have played in 2007 but travel problems delayed his arrival at the event. Consequently, he has only latterly become a regular in the star-studded English national team (Ashman, Mark Bytheway and Pat Gibson). He is also part of the Broken Hearts ( with Ian Bayley, formerly David Stainer, replaced by Didier Bruyere and Mark Grant) quiz team which play in the QLL and have been European Club champions from 2007 to 2009. Bjortomt won the Pairs Championships with partner Stainer in 2009 and has won 21 international medals on aggregate (see medal table). He also holds the title "British Quizzing Grandmaster".

TV appearances

Bjortomt's success on TV has been rather moderate compared with that of his teammates in the national team, and he describes himself as a "choker" (see Q&A link).

He appeared on the quiz show Fifteen to One four times, finishing as a series runner-up in 2002.

He captained the University of Nottingham team to the quarter-finals in the 1999/2000 series of BBC's University Challenge, and according to the credits of the show as of 2012, is currently a question setter. When he appeared on the Channel 4 quiz show Grand Slam in 2003, commentator James Richardson described him as the "Wayne Rooney of the quiz world."

In 2007, Bjortomt competed in The National Lottery People's Quiz and was the first contestant to qualify for the grand final, answering 97 per cent of his questions correctly during the show.

In 2008, he appeared in the quiz programme Battle of the Brains.

On 10 October 2008 he appeared on Mastermind, scoring eight points on questions about West Indies Test cricket, and fourteen in the General Knowledge section, to finish in second place.[5]

In 2008 and 2009 he unsuccessfully competed in Are You an Egghead?, which attempts to find another player to join the existing team.

Book
  • National Quiz Team: The Only Quiz Book You Will Ever Need (co author)ISBN 978-1780893693

Personal details

In 2001 Bjortomt was the winner of The Guardian's Student Feature writer of the Year award.[6] He has a History degree from the University of Nottingham and a Postgraduate Diploma in Newspaper Journalism from Nottingham Trent University.[3] He worked for The Times newspaper in London and has set the weekday Times2 quiz since July 2005 to the present day along with The Times Saturday quiz.

His parents are Norwegian and Filipino. He has two younger sisters and a younger brother.[3]

References
  1. "Could you face University Challenge?". Staffordshire University Students' Union. 28 September 2010.
  2. "The Chase question writers deliberately try and make me laugh now, says Bradley Walsh". Radio Times. 13 September 2015.
  3. "Finalists: Olav Bjortomt". The People's quiz. BBC. April 2007. Archived from the original on 18 April 2012.
  4. Rutter, Alan (9 May 2006). "Pub games: the quiz". Retrieved 7 November 2008.
  5. Mastermind. 10 October 2008. BBC2.
  6. "Guardian Student Media Awards 2001". The Guardian. 18 October 2001.
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