In what year does Finny intend the Olympics to take place?

• A. 1945
• B. 1944
• C. 1943
• D. 1940

Answer: (B)

Finny’s plan to stage his own Olympics is testing your ability to read how he uses sport as a shield against the grim reality of war. He fixes the Devon School Olympics on the year 1944, a choice that shows his buoyant faith that life can return to normal and that sporting heroism can still shine, even in wartime. By naming 1944, he taps into the real Olympic cycle and signals a hopeful belief that by that year the world will be ready for triumph and glory again. The other years don’t fit because they aren’t the year Finny explicitly assigns for their make-believe event, and they don’t carry the same symbolic weight of renewal and idealism he intends.