- Ask Steven
Gladiatorial Games
ESPN staff
March 18, 2014
Former British Olympic swimmer Sharron Davies as Amazon, alongside fellow Gladiator Trojan © Getty Images
Enlarge
What's the sporting connection between Amazon, Nightshade and Zodiac? asked Martin Chadwick
I think this one will mystify anyone outside the United Kingdom - because those were the screen names of three former Olympians who took part in the British TV gameshow Gladiators, in which brave (or possibly foolhardy) competitors tried to out-muscle professionals in leotards in various vaguely athletic events.
Amazon was the name adopted by Sharron Davies, a swimming silver medallist at Moscow in 1980. Nightshade was Judy Simpson, the 1986 Commonwealth Games heptathlon champion. Kate Staples, a former British pole-vault record-holder, was Zodiac.
