2000s Sports Trivia
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This 2000s sports trivia quiz has 70 free questions with answers and covers the whole decade, from Cathy Freeman lighting the cauldron in Sydney to Lewis Hamilton stealing the 2008 title on the last corner in Brazil. In between are the moments people still argue about: the Red Sox coming back from 3-0 down, the 16-0 Patriots losing to a helmet catch, Zidane's headbutt, Liverpool's three goals in six minutes in Istanbul, the Malice at the Palace and Tiger winning a US Open on a broken leg. The questions span the NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, soccer, tennis, golf, the Olympics, motor racing, boxing, rugby and cricket, so a general fan will get a fair share and a specialist will still find a few that bite. About a third are easy warm-ups, a third are medium, and the rest are for people who remember who Rocco Mediate is. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia and primary records before publishing, and each question carries the sentence that establishes it. If you think one is wrong, use the report button and we will look again.
30 of 70 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which team ended the Patriots' 19-0 bid by beating them in Super Bowl XLII?
New York Giants
New York Giants: big underdogs, they scored the winning touchdown with 35 seconds left and handed the 18–0 Patriots their only loss of the season.
Q 02Whom did the Red Sox beat in the 2004 ALCS after trailing 3-0?
New York Yankees
New York Yankees: after losing the first three games, Boston won four straight, then swept the World Series to end an 86-year title drought.
Q 03Whose record of seven golds at one Olympics did Phelps break in 2008?
Mark Spitz
Mark Spitz won seven at Munich 1972; in Beijing, Phelps was seventh at the turn of the 100 m butterfly before beating Milorad Čavić by one hundredth of a second for his seventh gold.
Q 04Which country won both the men's and women's 100 m gold medals at the 2008 Beijing Olympics?
Jamaica
Jamaica: Usain Bolt set a 9.69 world record despite celebrating before the line, and Shelly-Ann Fraser led a Jamaican sweep with a dead heat for silver.
Q 05Which player did Zinedine Zidane headbutt in the 2006 World Cup final, his last professional match?
Marco Materazzi
Marco Materazzi took the headbutt to the chest, and Zidane, sent off in the last match of his career, still won the Golden Ball as the tournament's best player.
Q 06What is the nickname for Liverpool's comeback from 3-0 down against AC Milan in the 2005 Champions League final?
The Miracle of Istanbul
The Miracle of Istanbul: Liverpool scored three goals in six second-half minutes, then Jerzy Dudek saved Andriy Shevchenko's penalty to win the shootout 3–2.
Q 07Which club went unbeaten through the 2003-04 Premier League season, earning the nickname "The Invincibles"?
Arsenal
Arsenal saw their unbeaten league run halted at 49 matches at Old Trafford in October 2004, in a bad-tempered game after which pizza was thrown at Alex Ferguson.
Q 08Which outsider won Euro 2004 by beating hosts Portugal in the final?
Greece
Greece had already beaten Portugal 2–1 in the tournament's opening game, so Euro 2004 began and ended with the same upset.
Q 09Which two nations co-hosted the 2002 FIFA World Cup?
South Korea and Japan
South Korea and Japan were rival bidders until FIFA, whose rules did not allow co-hosting, brokered a compromise and awarded the tournament to both.
Q 10Who won the Golden Shoe at the 2002 World Cup with eight goals, including both in the final?
Ronaldo
Ronaldo had barely played for almost three years because of two major knee injuries, and in 1998 he played the final Brazil lost hours after suffering a fit.
Q 11Which Australian sprinter lit the Sydney 2000 cauldron and then won the women's 400 m?
Cathy Freeman
Cathy Freeman ran the final in a full-body hooded suit, then took her lap of honour carrying both the Aboriginal and Australian flags.
Q 12The 2004 'Malice at the Palace' brawl broke out during a Pistons home game against which team?
Indiana Pacers
Indiana Pacers forward Ron Artest went into the stands after a fan threw a drink at him, and he was suspended for 86 games, including the playoffs.
Q 13Which team drafted LeBron James first overall in 2003?
Cleveland Cavaliers
The Cleveland Cavaliers won the lottery, and Detroit used the next pick on Darko Miličić, passing on Carmelo Anthony and Chris Bosh.
Q 21Which pitcher gave up Luis Gonzalez's series-winning bloop single in Game 7 of the 2001 World Series?
Mariano Rivera
Mariano Rivera took a 2–1 lead into the bottom of the ninth, but his own error on a bunt helped Arizona rally to win the title.
Q 22The Steve Bartman foul-ball incident in the 2003 NLCS involved the Chicago Cubs and which opponent?
Florida Marlins
The Florida Marlins were five outs from elimination when the ball was deflected, then won Games 6 and 7 and went on to win the World Series.
Q 23Which team won the 2005 World Series, its first since 1917, by sweeping the Houston Astros?
Chicago White Sox
Q 14Which team drafted Yao Ming first overall in 2002?
Houston Rockets
The Houston Rockets drafted Yao from the Shanghai Sharks, and in 2009 he bought the Sharks, his former club.
Q 15Whose seven Tour de France titles were stripped in 2012?
Lance Armstrong
Lance Armstrong lost all seven after a US Anti-Doping Agency investigation, and no other rider was named winner of those Tours.
Q 16Tiger Woods completed the "Tiger Slam" of holding all four majors at once by winning which event?
The 2001 Masters
The 2001 Masters gave Woods four straight major titles, but because they did not come in one calendar year, the feat became the Tiger Slam, not a Grand Slam.
Q 17Whom did Tiger Woods beat in a playoff to win the 2008 U.S. Open?
Rocco Mediate
Rocco Mediate lost in sudden death after an 18-hole playoff, and Woods, playing on a badly injured left leg, needed surgery soon afterwards.
Q 18Federer won his first Grand Slam at Wimbledon in 2003 by beating which Australian?
Mark Philippoussis
Mark Philippoussis was beaten by a Federer who had lost in the first round of Wimbledon a year earlier, to 18-year-old Mario Ančić.
Q 19Who beat Roger Federer 9-7 in the fifth set of the 2008 Wimbledon final, in near darkness?
Rafael Nadal
Rafael Nadal had lost the 2006 and 2007 Wimbledon finals to Federer before ending Federer's run of five straight titles.
Q 20Whose single-season record of 70 home runs did Barry Bonds break with 73 in 2001?
Mark McGwire
Mark McGwire hit 70 in 1998 during a record chase with Sammy Sosa, and in 2010 he admitted using performance-enhancing drugs during his career.
The Chicago White Sox's sweep ended an 88-year wait that stretched back past 1919, when White Sox players took money to throw the World Series.
Q 24Who broke George Sisler's 84-year-old single-season hits record in 2004?
Ichiro Suzuki
Ichiro Suzuki finished with 262 hits, and after the record-breaking single he walked over to greet Sisler's 81-year-old daughter near first base.
Q 25Which singer's 2004 Super Bowl halftime performance gave the phrase "wardrobe malfunction" to the language?
Janet Jackson
Janet Jackson was exposed on live TV by Justin Timberlake, and the FCC fined CBS a record $550,000, a penalty the courts later overturned.
Q 26Which team did the Patriots upset 20-17 in Super Bowl XXXVI, Tom Brady's first title?
St. Louis Rams
The St. Louis Rams were 14-point favorites, but Adam Vinatieri kicked a 48-yard field goal as time expired to win it.
Q 27Who became the first African American head coach to win a Super Bowl, with the Colts in 2007?
Tony Dungy
Tony Dungy had been fired by Tampa Bay after the 2001 season, and the team he built won the Super Bowl the next season under Jon Gruden.
Q 28Which Steeler returned an interception 100 yards to end the first half of Super Bowl XLIII?
James Harrison
James Harrison intercepted Kurt Warner on the goal line and returned it 100 yards as the half ended, giving Pittsburgh a 17–7 lead.
Q 29Which Canadian pair received duplicate gold medals after the 2002 Salt Lake City judging scandal?
Jamie Sale and David Pelletier
Jamie Sale and David Pelletier shared gold after a French judge said she was pressured to favour Russia's pair, and the scandal led to the end of the 6.0 system.
Q 30Which major North American league cancelled its entire 2004-05 season over a labor dispute?
NHL
The NHL called off the season, and the Stanley Cup went unawarded for the first time since 1919, when a flu epidemic halted the final.