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.
