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50 free Australian Sports trivia questions with answers — sports quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Australia punches far above its weight in sport, and its best stories are not always the ones in the record books. A teenager sails around the world alone, a speed skater wins by staying upright while the field falls, a jockey on a 100-1 shot tells her doubters exactly what she thinks, and an entire national institute is founded because one Olympics brought home no gold. These fifty questions range across swimming, athletics, cricket, Australian rules, football, horse racing, surfing, golf, tennis, motorsport, netball, rowing, boxing and the Paralympics. Each one carries a clue for players who do not know the answer outright, and every explanation adds something worth repeating. It suits pub quiz hosts, teachers filling a lesson on Australian culture, and anyone who grew up watching the Boxing Day Test and the Melbourne Cup and wants to see how much stuck.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which Australian speed skater won 2002 Olympic gold after every rival ahead of him crashed in a last-corner pile-up?
Steven Bradbury
Steven Bradbury became the first person from a Southern Hemisphere country to win a Winter Olympic event, skating past a pile-up 50 metres from the line in the 1000 m short-track final. He was about 15 metres behind when the leaders fell.
Q 02Which jockey became the first woman to win the Melbourne Cup, riding 100-1 shot Prince of Penzance?
Michelle Payne
Michelle Payne won the 2015 Cup in the race's 155-year history and told the doubters who had wanted her off the horse to 'get stuffed' in her post-race interview. Her brother Stevie was the gelding's strapper.
Q 03Archie Thompson scored 13 goals as the Socceroos beat which team 31-0 in a 2001 World Cup qualifier?
American Samoa
American Samoa's 31-0 defeat in Coffs Harbour remains the biggest win in international football, and Thompson's 13 goals are still the record for one player in a match.
Q 04On captain Greg Chappell's orders, how did brother Trevor bowl the last ball to New Zealand at the MCG in 1981?
Underarm
Underarm was still legal then: New Zealand needed six from the final ball to tie, and batsman Brian McKechnie threw his bat away in disgust after blocking it.
Q 05Which swimmer, the first woman under a minute for 100 m freestyle, was banned for ten years after the 1964 Olympics?
Dawn Fraser
Dawn Fraser won the 100 m freestyle at three straight Games from 1956, then was suspended after a night out in Tokyo that ended with her accused of souvenir-hunting a flag from the Emperor's palace.
Q 06Which 16-year-old sailed solo and non-stop around the world, returning to Sydney Harbour in Ella's Pink Lady in 2010?
Jessica Watson
Jessica Watson spent 210 days at sea, arriving back on 15 May 2010, three days before her 17th birthday. Her pink yacht was a 10-metre Sparkman & Stephens 34.
Q 07Which former mountain-bike world cup champion became the first Australian to win the Tour de France, in 2011?
Cadel Evans
Cadel Evans won the 2011 Tour riding for BMC Racing, two years after taking the road race world championship in Mendrisio, Switzerland. He had won the mountain-bike World Cup in 1998 and 1999.
Q 08Patty Mills scored 42 points as the Boomers beat which nation for Australia's first Olympic men's basketball medal?
Slovenia
Slovenia, led by Luka Doncic, lost the Tokyo 2020 bronze-medal game 107-93 after the Boomers had lost every previous Olympic bronze match they played.
Q 09Former schoolteacher Jeff Horn upset which Filipino great in the 2017 'Battle of Brisbane' at Suncorp Stadium?
Manny Pacquiao
Manny Pacquiao lost his WBO welterweight belt on a unanimous decision to Horn, a former PE teacher at Pallara State School, before a crowd of more than 50,000.
Q 10Which mare, named from the first two letters of five tuna-company employees, won three straight Melbourne Cups?
Makybe Diva
Makybe Diva won in 2003, 2004 and 2005, the only horse to take the Cup three times; owner Tony Santic named her after Maureen, Kylie, Belinda, Diane and Vanessa.
Q 11Which Chris Waller-trained mare retired in 2019 on a 33-race winning streak that included four Cox Plates?
Winx
Winx, ridden by Hugh Bowman, was the first horse to win the Cox Plate four times, taking it every year from 2015 to 2018.
Q 12Which golfer holed a playoff putt against Angel Cabrera in 2013 to become the first Australian to win the Masters?
Adam Scott
Adam Scott sank a 12-foot birdie putt on the second extra hole in 2013, wielding a long putter in the Augusta rain. It was his first major.
Q 13Which golfer, world number one for 331 weeks, blew a six-shot final-round lead to Nick Faldo at the 1996 Masters?
Greg Norman
Q 21Whose 1,000th AFL goal in 2022 brought thousands of Sydney Swans fans pouring onto the SCG mid-match?
Lance Franklin
Lance Franklin became the sixth player in VFL/AFL history to reach 1,000 goals, kicking four against Geelong in round two; play paused while the ground was cleared.
Q 22Which Holden driver won the Bathurst 1000 a record nine times before dying in a 2006 rally crash?
Peter Brock
Peter Brock's Mount Panorama record earned him the nickname 'King of the Mountain'; he died at 61 when his car hit a tree in the Targa West rally near Perth.
Q 23Which Perth-born Formula One driver turned the 'shoey', champagne drunk from his own race boot, into a podium ritual?
Daniel Ricciardo
Greg Norman shot 78 to Faldo's 67 and lost by five; his 'Great White Shark' nickname nods to his blond hair, his aggressive play and the coastal wildlife of his Queensland birthplace.
Q 14Which left-hander is the only player to complete tennis's calendar-year Grand Slam twice, seven years apart?
Rod Laver
Rod Laver swept all four majors in 1962 and again in 1969, and was barred from them for five years in between because he had turned professional.
Q 15Australia's Kookaburras, who won their first Olympic gold at Athens 2004, compete in which sport?
Hockey
Hockey's Kookaburras finally won gold under coach Barry Dancer after decades of near misses, including Olympic silver medals in 1968 and 1992.
Q 16Which striker, Australia's all-time leading international scorer, captained the Matildas' 2023 home World Cup squad?
Sam Kerr
Sam Kerr's side beat France in a 20-kick shoot-out to become the first senior Australian team to reach a World Cup semi-final. She has scored more than 70 international goals.
Q 17Which Australian won the Athens 2004 200 m freestyle 'Race of the Century' ahead of van den Hoogenband and Phelps?
Ian Thorpe
Ian Thorpe edged the Dutchman in the last 50 metres for his second gold of the Games, while Phelps took bronze in an American record.
Q 18Which Australian swimmer beat Katie Ledecky by 0.66 seconds to win the 400 m freestyle at the Tokyo Olympics?
Ariarne Titmus
Ariarne Titmus clocked 3:56.69 to beat the American, and her coach Dean Boxall's wild celebration in the stands went viral within hours.
Q 19Which swimmer's seven medals at Tokyo 2020 equalled the most by any woman at a single Olympics?
Emma McKeon
Emma McKeon's four golds and three bronzes tied Soviet gymnast Maria Gorokhovskaya's 1952 haul and made her Australia's most decorated Olympian.
Q 20At which Brisbane ground did India end Australia's 32-year unbeaten Test record in January 2021?
The Gabba
The Gabba, officially the Brisbane Cricket Ground, had not seen Australia lose a Test since 1988 before Rishabh Pant's unbeaten 89 chased down the target.
Daniel Ricciardo took his first win at the 2014 Canadian Grand Prix, passing Sergio Perez and Nico Rosberg in the final four laps.
Q 24Which swimmer scraped into the Atlanta 1996 1500 m final by 0.24 seconds, then won gold from lane eight?
Kieren Perkins
Kieren Perkins was the only swimmer under 15 minutes in that final, defending the title he had won in a world record at Barcelona 1992.
Q 25Which 15-year-old won three Munich 1972 golds, each in world-record time, after holding every freestyle world record?
Shane Gould
Shane Gould held every freestyle record from 100 m to 1500 m at once between December 1971 and August 1972, then quit racing at 16.
Q 26Which sprinter won three golds at Melbourne 1956 and is the only Olympian with 100, 200 and 400 m titles?
Betty Cuthbert
Betty Cuthbert, the 'Golden Girl', came back from injury to win the 400 m at Tokyo 1964, eight years after her home-Games treble.
Q 27Which miler stopped to check on a fallen Ron Clarke in the 1956 Australian championships and still won?
John Landy
John Landy, the second man to run a four-minute mile, made up the lost ground in the final two laps; he later served as Governor of Victoria.
Q 28Which Australian won the 1966 Formula One title in a car bearing his own name, a feat no other driver has matched?
Jack Brabham
Jack Brabham's three world titles came in 1959, 1960 and 1966, the last at the wheel of a Brabham-Repco he built with designer Ron Tauranac.
Q 29Which rider won MotoGP titles with Ducati in 2007 and Honda in 2011, then retired at 27 citing burnout?
Casey Stoner
Casey Stoner won his home Australian Grand Prix at Phillip Island six years running from 2007 to 2012, and the circuit later named a corner after him.
Q 30Which track cyclist broke her neck in 2008, won Beijing silver seven months later, and carried the flag at Rio 2016?
Anna Meares
Anna Meares beat Britain's Victoria Pendleton 2-0 in the London 2012 sprint final, then won keirin bronze in Rio as the team's captain.