Next Sunday in Rio de Janeiro, 30-year-old identical (and alliterative) triplets Leila, Liina, and Lily Luik of Estonia are expected to run the women’s marathon. This will make the “Trio in Rio,” as they call themselves, the first set of triplets to compete in an Olympics.
In comparison, about 200 sets of twins have competed in the Olympics over the years. Here are some of the Olympic twins with similarly alliterative names:
- Åke & Arne (Sweden) – not technically alliterative; see JJ’s comment
- Catarina & Christina (Sweden)
- Darius & Donatas (Lithuania)
- Darrin & Dan (USA)
- Dennis & Duane (USA)
- Dionísio & Domingos (Portugal)
- Jean-Jacques & Jean-Marc (France)
- Jodie & Julie (Canada)
- Jules & Julian (Belgium)
- Katalin & Krisztina (Hungary)
- Katrine & Kristine (Norway)
- Lívia & Lucia (Slovakia)
- Madeline & Margaret (Puerto Rico)
- Marianne & Mildred (Netherlands)
- Sandy & Sonia (Zimbabwe)
- Malcolm “Mal” & Melville “Mel” (Jamaica)
- Mark & Michael (Canada)
- Maureen & Melanie (Netherlands)
- McJoe & McWilliams (Puerto Rico)
- Mikuláš & Miloslav (Slovakia)
- Pascal & Patrick (France)
- Paula & Peta (Bermuda)
- Paulo Miguel & Pedro Miguel (Portugal)
- Pavol & Peter (Slovakia)
- Randolph & Robert (USA)
- Rhoda & Rhona (Canada)
- Ricardo & Rodrigo (Chile)
- Sharon & Shirley (Canada)
- Stanley & Sydney (Great Britain)
- Tami & Toni (USA)
- Terry & Tom (USA)
- Valeriy & Volodymyr (Ukraine)
- Valj & Vita (Ukraine)
- Veronika & Viktoriya (Belarus)
- Vida & Vidette (South Africa)
- Zlatko & Zoran (Yugoslavia)
You can see a full list of Olympic twins in the OlympStats post Twins at the Olympics.
Have you been tuning in to the Olympics? If so, have you spotted any interesting names so far?
Source: “Racing in Triplicate.” Tampa Bay Times 30 Jun. 2016.
Image: Leila Luik Rio 2016 by Citizen59 under CC BY 3.0.
Here are the results!
Lily finished in 97th place, Leila in 114th place, and Liina did not manage to finish.
A pair of identical twins from Germany, Anna and Lisa Hahner, also ran in the marathon. They finished 81st and 82nd.
Source: Rio 2016: Estonian triplets, German twins run in Olympic marathon
I love this list, but I feel like I have to make one small correction:
While Åke and Arne is a very matchy sibset, it’s not actually alliterative. Å is a scandinavian letter, and it’s not pronounced like A, but more like the way the o is pronounced in names like Morris and Dora. Not important, I know, but felt like I had to mention it.
Thanks JJ — you’re right. I should have double-checked those pronunciations beforehand.