Olav Bjortomt

English professional quizzer

England
[[2016 Quiz Olympiad
2016 Athens Individual Quiz
2016 Athens Nations Team Quiz
2016 Athens Literature Quiz
2016 Athens Film Quiz
2016 Athens National Specialist Quiz
Silver medal – 016 Athe Pairs
Silver medal – 016 Athe Pentathlon Specialist Quiz

[[World Quizzing Championship
2003 Singles
2015 Singles
2018 Singles
2019 Singles
[[European Quizzing Championships
Silver medal – 006 Par National Team

2007 Blackpool Club

Silver medal – 008 Os Pairs
Silver medal – 008 Os National Team
2008 Oslo Club
Silver medal – 009 Dordrec Singles
2009 Dordrecht Pairs
2009 Dordrecht National Team
2009 Dordrecht Club
2010 Derby Singles

2010 Derby National Team
Silver medal – 010 Der Club

2011 Bruges Club

2012 Tartu National Team
2013 Liverpool National Team
Silver medal – 013 Liverpo Pairs
2014 Bucharest Singles

2014 Bucharest National Team
2014 Bucharest Club
2015 Rotterdam Singles
Silver medal – 015 Rotterd Pairs
2015 Rotterdam National Team
2015 Rotterdam Club
2016 Athens Singles
Silver medal – 016 Athe Pairs
2016 Athens National Team
Silver medal – 016 Athe Club
Silver medal – 017 Zagr Singles
Silver medal – 017 Zagr Pairs
2017 Zagreb National Team

2019 Sofia National Team
Silver medal – 019 Sof Club
[[British Quiz Championship
Silver medal – 007 Der Singles
2007 Derby Pairs

2012 Lichfield Pairs

Stein Olav Bjortomt (pronounced Bortom) (born 13 December 1978 in Eastbourne) is an English international quiz player, four time world champion (2003, 2015, 2018, 2019) and three time individual European champion (2010, 2014, 2015). He is the star player of the world's most successful quizzing clubs, Broken Hearts, with which he has won several European championships. He is of Norwegian and Filipino descent and writes questions for University Challenge and The Chase. In contrast to the other two full time professionals of Team England Pat Gibson and Kevin Ashman he has not 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 was the winner of the inaugural 2003 individual World Quizzing Championships, 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". After his triumph at the very first World Quizzing Championship 2003 he did not win a medal at the world stage for twelve years, 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".

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. In 2008 and 2009 he unsuccessfully competed in Are You an Egghead?, which attempts to find another player to join the existing team. In 2021 he became part of the Channel 5 quiz show Eggheads.

In 2001 Bjortomt was the winner of The Guardians Student Feature writer 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. He worked for The Times newspaper in London and has set the weekday Times2 quiz since July 2005 to the present day along with The Times Saturday quiz. His parents are Norwegian and Filipino. He has two younger sisters and a younger brother.