Olav Bjortomt

Education

University of Nottingham.

Career

Time Out described him in 2006 as a "former child quiz prodigy and a rising star of the quiz world". Bjortomt"s success on television 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 British Broadcasting Corporation"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. In 2008 and 2009 he unsuccessfully competed in Are You an Egghead?, which attempts to find another player to join the existing team

He works for The Times newspaper in London and has set the weekday times2 quiz since July 2005.

He has a History degree from the University of Nottingham and a Postgraduate Diploma in Newspaper Journalism from Nottingham Trent University. Bjortomt is currently a question setter for University Challenge. 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.

He has two younger sisters and a younger brother.

Achievements

• 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 (comprising all 4 world champions to date (Ashman, Mark Bytheway and Pat Gibson). He is also part of the Broken Hearts ( with Ian Bayley, David Stainer 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".