Olav Bjortomt

Stein Olav Bjortomt (born 13 December 1978 in Eastbourne) is an England international quiz player, two-time world champion (2003,2015) and three time individual European champion (2010,2014,2015). He is the star player of the world's most successful quizzing club "Broken Hearts" with which he has won several European Championships. As of 2016 he is head writer for the show The Chase.[1] In contrast to the other two full-time professionals of Team England Pat Gibson and Kevin Ashman he hasn't 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.

Olav Bjortomt
Medal record
Quizzing
Representing England
Quiz Olympiad
2016 Athens Individual Quiz
2016 Athens Nations Team Quiz
2016 Athens Literature Quiz
2016 Athens Film Quiz
2016 Athens National Specialist Quiz
2016 Athens Pairs
2016 Athens Pentathlon Specialist Quiz
2016 Athens Visual Arts Quiz
IQA World Championships
2003 Birmingham Singles
2015 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
IQA British Championships
2007 Derby Singles
2007 Derby Pairs
2008 Staveley Pairs
2012 Lichfield Pairs

National and international titles

He was the winner of the inaugural 2003 individual World Quizzing Championships,[2] 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".[3]

After his triumph at the very first World Quizzing Championship 2003 he has not won a medal at the world stage ever since (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.[4]

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

Book

Personal details

In 2001 Bjortomt was the joint winner of The Guardian's overall Student Journalist of the Year award. He has a History degree from the University of Nottingham and a Postgraduate Diploma in Newspaper Journalism from Nottingham Trent University.[2] He worked for The Times newspaper in London and has set the weekday times2 quiz since July 2005 (until?).

As of 2016 Bjortomt is a question setter for University Challenge and ITV daytime quiz show The Chase.[5]

He regularly appears in amateur productions in his home town Littlehampton, recently appearing as Omar Little in a re-enactment of thirteen of the best scenes from The Wire.

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

References

  1. ↑ Radio Times September 13,2015 The Chase question writers deliberately try and make me laugh now, says Bradley Walsh
  2. 1 2 "The People's quiz - Finalists". Retrieved 7 November 2008.
  3. ↑ Rutter, Alan (9 May 2006). "Pub games: the quiz". Retrieved 7 November 2008.
  4. ↑ "Mastermind". 10 October 2008. BBC2. Missing or empty |series= (help)
  5. ↑ http://www.staffsunion.com/news/article/your_union/1741
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