Cheating in Sports
0Loading crowd target
0Loading crowd target
7correct to beat the crowd
50 free Cheating in Sports trivia questions with answers — sports quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Cheating is as old as sport itself. For as long as there have been medals, titles and prize money, someone has looked for a shortcut, and the stories of how they were caught are often stranger than the offences. This quiz covers the scandals people still argue about: drug programmes and failed tests, thrown games and betting rings, doctored bats, stolen signals, faked injuries and marathon shortcuts. The questions run from the ancient Olympics to modern leagues, across athletics, cycling, football, cricket, Formula One and more. It suits sports fans, pub quiz regulars and anyone who enjoys a true story with a scoreboard. Every answer comes with a short explanation of what happened next.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which Argentina star scored against England at the 1986 World Cup with a goal nicknamed the Hand of God?
Diego Maradona
Diego Maradona later admitted handling the ball and called the goal symbolic revenge for Argentina's defeat in the Falklands War four years earlier.
Q 02Which runner lost her 1980 Boston Marathon title after officials found she had not run the whole course?
Rosie Ruiz
Rosie Ruiz was stripped of the title eight days after the race, and investigators found she had also ridden the subway during the New York City Marathon.
Q 03Which American cyclist was stripped in 2012 of a record seven straight Tour de France titles for doping?
Lance Armstrong
Lance Armstrong lost every result from August 1998 onward, and cycling's governing body chose to leave those seven Tours without a winner.
Q 04Which country's state doping scheme passed athletes' urine samples through a 'mouse hole' in an Olympic lab wall?
Russia
Russia's scheme came to light when whistleblower Grigory Rodchenkov said doping experts worked with the intelligence service to switch samples at the 2014 Sochi Games.
Q 05Which figure skater was struck with a baton in 1994 in an attack planned by rival Tonya Harding's ex-husband?
Nancy Kerrigan
Nancy Kerrigan was hit on the thigh after a practice session in Detroit, yet seven weeks later she skated to an Olympic silver medal.
Q 06Which quarterback was suspended for four games in 2016 over the underinflated footballs of the Deflategate scandal?
Tom Brady
Tom Brady took the ban to federal court before accepting it, while the New England Patriots were fined $1 million and lost two draft picks.
Q 07Which MLB team banged on a trash can in 2017 to tell its batters what pitch was coming?
Houston Astros
Houston Astros staff decoded catchers' signs from a live camera feed, and MLB answered with a $5 million fine and the loss of four top draft picks.
Q 08Which Canadian sprinter lost his 1988 Olympic 100 metres gold three days after the race for using stanozolol?
Ben Johnson
Ben Johnson had just lowered his own world record to 9.79 seconds in Seoul, and he was also stripped of his 1987 world title.
Q 09Eight players from which team were banned for life for throwing the 1919 World Series to the Cincinnati Reds?
Chicago White Sox
Chicago White Sox players took gamblers' money to lose, and all eight were barred from the game even though a jury acquitted them in 1921.
Q 10Which country's basketball team was stripped of 2000 Paralympic gold after a journalist on the roster exposed it?
Spain
Spain had entered the intellectual disability tournament with players who were never tested for one, as team member and reporter Carlos Ribagorda revealed afterwards.
Q 11Which all-time MLB hits leader was banned in 1989 for betting on games while managing the Cincinnati Reds?
Pete Rose
Pete Rose denied it for years, then admitted in a 2004 autobiography that he had bet on the Reds while managing them, though never, he said, on them to lose.
Q 12Which Cubs slugger was ejected from a 2003 game when umpires found he was using a corked bat?
Sammy Sosa
Sammy Sosa said he had picked up a batting-practice bat by mistake, and MLB found no cork in the 76 other bats of his that it confiscated and tested.
Q 13What did Australia's Cameron Bancroft rub on the cricket ball during a 2018 Test in Cape Town to make it swing?
Sandpaper
Q 21Which Roman emperor was declared winner of an Olympic chariot race in AD 67 despite being thrown from the chariot?
Nero
Nero never finished that ten-horse race, and at the same Games he also sang, played the lyre and acted in tragedies on stage.
Q 22What had Sweden's Hans-Gunnar Liljenwall drunk when he became the first Olympian disqualified for doping, in 1968?
Beer
Beer, reportedly two of them, was meant to calm his nerves before the pistol shooting; instead it got the whole Swedish modern pentathlon team disqualified.
Q 23Brazil's Rivaldo was fined at the 2002 World Cup for clutching which part of his body after a ball hit his thigh?
His face
His face was untouched: Turkey's Hakan Ünsal had kicked the ball at him by the corner flag, and FIFA fined Rivaldo 11,670 Swiss francs after a video review.
Sandpaper is something cricketers normally use on their bats; TV cameras caught him with it, and captain Steve Smith was banned for twelve months for knowing of the plan.
Q 14In which sport were eight players thrown out of the 2012 London Olympics for deliberately trying to lose group matches?
Badminton
Badminton's four women's doubles teams had already qualified and each wanted to lose to earn a kinder quarter-final draw, so the format was changed for the next Games.
Q 15At ancient Olympia, fines paid by athletes who broke the rules were spent on bronze statues of which god?
Zeus
Zeus appeared on 16 such statues, called Zanes after the local plural of his name. Judges could also order a beating or throw an offender out of the Games.
Q 16How did Fred Lorz cover eleven miles of the 1904 Olympic marathon before crossing the finish line first?
By car
By car, driven by his manager until it broke down; Lorz then ran into the stadium, was hailed as the winner, and later claimed it had all been a practical joke.
Q 17Which American sprinter was stripped of five medals from the 2000 Sydney Olympics after admitting drug use?
Marion Jones
Marion Jones had announced she would win five golds in Sydney and left with three golds and two bronzes, before the BALCO investigation undid them all.
Q 18Which Italian club was relegated to Serie B for the first time in 2006 over the Calciopoli scandal?
Juventus
Juventus was also stripped of its 2004–05 league title, then won Serie B at the first attempt to return to the top flight.
Q 19Which NFL head coach was fined $500,000 in 2007 after his team videotaped the New York Jets' sideline signals?
Bill Belichick
Bill Belichick's fine was the largest the NFL had ever imposed on a coach, and the Patriots also lost a first-round draft pick in the affair known as Spygate.
Q 20Which Uruguay striker was sent off for a goal-line handball that denied Ghana a late winner at the 2010 World Cup?
Luis Suárez
Luis Suárez stopped on his way off to watch the resulting penalty, and celebrated when Asamoah Gyan hit the crossbar with it.
Q 24Chile goalkeeper Roberto Rojas faked an injury from a firework in a 1989 qualifier by cutting himself with what?
A razor blade
A razor blade was hidden in his glove, and the stunt backfired: FIFA banned Rojas for life and barred Chile from the 1994 World Cup.
Q 25Soviet pentathlete Boris Onishchenko was expelled from the 1976 Olympics for secretly rigging which piece of equipment?
Sword
Sword touches in épée fencing are scored electrically, and a hidden switch let him register a hit without making any contact with his opponent.
Q 26Tim Donaghy was jailed in 2008 for betting on games he was working in which job?
NBA referee
NBA referee Donaghy spent 13 seasons in the league and admitted betting on games he officiated in four of them, which earned him 15 months in federal prison.
Q 27Which English rugby club used a fake blood capsule to engineer a substitution in a 2009 Heineken Cup quarter-final?
Harlequins
Harlequins wing Tom Williams bit the capsule late in a tight game against Leinster, and investigators found the club had faked blood injuries on four earlier occasions.
Q 28Which Formula One team ordered a driver to crash on purpose at the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix so his teammate could win?
Renault
Renault had Nelson Piquet Jr hit the wall just after Fernando Alonso's early pit stop, and Alonso went on to win the race from 15th on the grid.
Q 29Which Formula One team was fined a record $100 million in 2007 for holding confidential Ferrari technical data?
McLaren
McLaren was also thrown out of that year's constructors' championship, after one of its senior engineers was accused over the theft of a rival's information.
Q 30What did an X-ray reveal in the nose of the car that won the 1973 All-American Soap Box Derby?
An electromagnet
An electromagnet gripped the steel starting gate when the 14-year-old driver leaned his helmet on a hidden switch; he lost the title two days after winning it.