A couple of months ago I was watching an episode of the BBC's Question of Sport, a light-hearted quiz show that as the name suggests is centred around sport; on the show was a round where the 2 teams where given 9 names of sports stars 4 of whom were genuine pro-athletes and 5 of whom were made up. All 9 had the kind of spoof names that are usually reserved for Bond girls - think Pussy Galore or Ivanna Humpalot if your more of an Austin Powers fan - the teams had to identify the 4 real people on the list. Anyway, beyond the names and the sports they competed in there wasn't really any other information on the genuine names on the list so I thought I'd do some research on who these unfortunately named athletes were.

Walter Whimp - Boxing

When you think of the macho image that fighters try and maintain as well as some of the names they choose to give themselves - "Iron" Mike Tyson, Tommy "The Hitman" Hearns, "Smokin" Joe Frazier, etc. etc. - it's difficult not to laugh at a boxer called Whimp.

Whimp's professional boxing career lasted all of 3 rounds as he was knocked out by Billy Brown at Spinney Hill Boxing Club in Leicester, England in 1937. From there it is very difficult to ascertain what happened next to Whimp. Did he go back into amateur boxing? Given the time period, it's entirely possible that he was drafted to serve for his country in the 2nd World War but I've been unable to locate any service record for him. Regardless of whether he was enlisted in some part of the British Armed Forces that particular time in history would have been a period when many aspiring athletes at the very least lost the chance to fulfill their ambitions while many more would have lost their lives fighting around the world.

Steve Slowly - Sprinter

Certainly, on a per capita ratio, you'd have to say that Jamaica have the greatest pedigree in modern sprint history while also having produced the fastest man ever in Usain Bolt. If having a name like "Bolt" is fairly apt for a guy who is as fast as lightning then spare a moments thought for his fellow countryman Steve Slowly who for much of his career and like the rest of the world was left trailing in Bolt's considerable wake.

A decent prospect in his youth, Slowly never got near the heights of Bolt or indeed the other 19 Jamaican athletes who made up the 100 fastest men on the planet in 2010. However, with Bolt et al opting out of the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Dehli, the Jamaican authorities were required to reach a little deeper into the talent pool and landed on by then the 30-year-old Slowly to run in the 200m.

Slowly finished 6th in his heat in a time 2 seconds slower than what Bolt was capable of running. While hardly slow compared to you or I, he was rather pedestrian for a professional athlete ...

Slowly continued to compete at regional level up until the age of 37

Dominique Dropsy - Goalkeeper (football)

While he may not have had a name that inspired confidence in his handling ability, Dominique Dropsy undoubtedly enjoyed the best professional sporting career of any of the names on this list. He spent all 20-years of his career playing in France's Ligue 1 and at the time of his retirement in 1990 he had made more appearances in the French top-flight than any other player (596). To this day he is still 3rd on that list having been overtaken by fellow keepers Jean-Luc Ettori and Mickaël Landreau.

Dropsy played the majority of his career at RC Strasbourg and was part of the 1978-79 championship-winning side - Strasbourg's first and to this date only Ligue 1 title. As a 34-year-old Dropsy joined a more established Bordeaux team and added 2 further league titles as well as 2 Coupe de France trophies to his cabinet.

The safe hands of Dropsy lead to him winning 17 caps for France including an appearance in the 1978 World Cup Finals. However, a decade after his retirement, Dropsy was diagnosed with leukemia and he died just 4 years ago at the age of 63.