Javelin Throw Trivia
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50 free Javelin Throw trivia questions with answers — sports quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Javelin throw trivia for track and field fans, throwers, and anyone who watched Neeraj Chopra or Arshad Nadeem and wanted to know more. The quiz opens in ancient Greece, where the javelin joined the Olympic pentathlon in 708 BC and was thrown with a leather strap for spin, then moves through the Swedish and Finnish pioneers, the two-handed and freestyle variants that briefly appeared at early Olympics, and Babe Didrikson's first women's title in 1932. The middle rounds cover the modern era: Bud Held's hollow javelin, Uwe Hohn's 'eternal' 104.80 m record, the 1986 redesign that moved the centre of gravity forward, the dimpled-tail javelins struck from the books in 1991, and Jan Železný's 98.48 m that has stood since 1996. Later questions take in Barbora Špotáková, Fatima Whitbread, Steve Backley, Andreas Thorkildsen, Julius 'Mr YouTube' Yego, Anderson Peters, and the rules on weight, length, runway and the 28.96-degree sector. Questions run from easy to expert and every answer was checked against a reference page and carries its source. See also our track and field and Olympics quizzes.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which other throwing event shared the ancient Olympic pentathlon with the javelin?
The discus
The discus. Both arrived in 708 BC with the pentathlon, whose athletes Aristotle thought the most beautiful of all, because their bodies were built for strength and speed alike.
Q 02What was the 'amentum' that ancient Greek athletes used when throwing the javelin?
A leather strap
A leather strap, looped round the shaft and over two fingers. It slipped off as the javelin left the hand, and the extra leverage and spin sent the throw farther and straighter.
Q 03Which great distance runner's wife, Dana, won Olympic javelin gold in 1952 on the day he won the 5,000 metres?
Emil Zátopek
Emil Zátopek. He had already won the 10,000 m at those Games, then entered the first marathon of his life and won that too, a treble nobody has matched.
Q 04At the 1912 Olympics, a one-off javelin event added together two throws made how?
Left- and right-handed
Left- and right-handed: each thrower's best mark with either hand was added together. Eric Lemming, who had just won the ordinary javelin, threw so poorly with his left that he finished only fourth.
Q 05Which Norse god owned Gungnir, the mythical spear that World Athletics links to the javelin's origins?
Odin
Odin. In the myths dwarf smiths forged Gungnir so well that it never missed, and Odin begins the first war among the gods by hurling a spear over the enemy host.
Q 06Who became the first women's Olympic javelin champion, in 1932?
Babe Didrikson
Babe Didrikson. She won it with her very first throw, added the 80 m hurdles title and a high jump silver, then switched to golf and became the best woman player of her era.
Q 07What happened when Poland's Janusz Sidło, leading the 1956 Olympic final, lent a struggling rival his new javelin?
The rival won with it
The rival won with it. Norway's Egil Danielsen had been throwing an old wooden javelin; with the borrowed one he threw a world record and took the gold, leaving Sidło the silver.
Q 08American thrower Bud Held changed the javelin in the 1950s by making it what?
Hollow
Hollow. Held's design flew farther than the solid javelins it replaced, his brother Dick built them for the world's best throwers, and the hollow model was eventually outlawed.
Q 09As of 2026, who is the only athlete ever to have thrown a javelin 100 metres or more?
Uwe Hohn
Uwe Hohn. His 104.80 m in 1984 became an 'eternal world record' two years later, when a redesigned javelin wiped the record books clean.
Q 10Why did the men's javelin world record holder miss the 1984 Olympics?
His country boycotted them
His country boycotted them. East Germany joined the Soviet-led stay-away, so the man who had just thrown 104.80 m competed at the rival Friendship Games instead, and won.
Q 11Which point of the men's javelin was moved 4 cm forward in 1986?
The centre of gravity
The centre of gravity. Shifting the balance point forward shortened every throw, and as of 2026 the best since is more than six metres short of the old 104.80 m record.
Q 12What did the men's javelin redesign of 1986 mainly aim to stop?
Flat landings
Flat landings. Javelins were skidding in on their bellies and judges faced constant protests over which throws should count, so the new design was built to come down nose first.
Q 13Seppo Räty's 96.96 m from 1991 was struck from the records for what banned javelin feature?
a roughened or dimpled tail
Q 21Which East German threw exactly 80.00 m in 1988, the old-model women's javelin record retired in 1999?
Petra Felke
Petra Felke. No woman had reached 80 metres before her and none has since: the javelin was redesigned in 1999, and the best with the new model is nearly eight metres shorter.
Q 22Which Briton threw a world-record 77.44 m in qualifying at the 1986 European Championships?
Fatima Whitbread
Fatima Whitbread. Abandoned as a baby and raised in children's homes, she was later adopted by her javelin coach, Margaret Whitbread, whose name she took.
Q 23If two javelin throwers tie for the longest throw, what decides the winner?
Their next-best throws
A roughened or dimpled tail. Makers had added holes, rough paint or dimples to win back distance lost in the 1986 redesign, and once such tails were banned every mark set with them was wiped.
Q 14As of 2026, which German has come closest to Jan Železný's javelin world record?
Johannes Vetter
Johannes Vetter. His 97.76 m in 2020 fell just 72 cm short of the 98.48 m record, yet the Olympics never went his way: fourth in 2016, then ninth in Tokyo as the favourite.
Q 15Jan Železný won his first Olympic javelin medals, in 1988 and 1992, for which now-vanished country?
Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia. He took silver and then gold under its flag, and after the country split he won twice more for the Czech Republic, making three Olympic titles in a row.
Q 16Days after winning an Olympic javelin title, Jan Železný had a tryout as a pitcher with which baseball team?
Atlanta Braves
The Atlanta Braves. The tryout was held at their Fulton County Stadium, in the city where he had just won his Olympic title.
Q 17Which future Super Bowl-winning quarterback set a US high school javelin record in 1966?
Terry Bradshaw
Terry Bradshaw. His throw of nearly 245 feet for a Louisiana high school got him into Sports Illustrated's 'Faces in the Crowd', his first taste of national attention, years before the Steelers.
Q 18As of 2026, who holds the women's javelin world record of 72.28 m?
Barbora Špotáková
Barbora Špotáková. She threw it in September 2008, three weeks after snatching the Olympic title in Beijing with her very last throw.
Q 19The women's javelin world record holder finished fourth at the 2000 World Juniors in which discipline?
heptathlon
Heptathlon. She began as a multi-eventer and as late as 2004 set a national record in the women's decathlon, before her javelin career took off.
Q 20Which Cuban held the women's javelin world record from 2001 to 2008?
Osleidys Menéndez
Osleidys Menéndez. She won the 2004 Olympic title with a throw one centimetre short of her own record, then broke it a year later in winning the world title.
Their next-best throws: each thrower's second-longest mark is compared, so one big throw with nothing behind it can lose a title.
Q 24Which Briton won javelin medals at three straight Olympics, from 1992 to 2000, but lost to Jan Železný each time?
Steve Backley
Steve Backley. A three-time world record breaker and four-time European champion, he never won a global title: bronze in 1992, then silver in 1996 and 2000.
Q 25Who won Olympic javelin gold in both 2004 and 2008?
Andreas Thorkildsen
Andreas Thorkildsen. The Norwegian's first title came from nowhere: he had finished last and then eleventh at the two previous world championships, and won in Athens with a personal best.
Q 26At a 2007 meet in Rome, Tero Pitkämäki's wayward throw struck a French athlete competing in which event?
long jump
Long jump. The stray javelin hit Salim Sdiri in the back, damaging his liver and a kidney, yet seven months later he was back in competition.
Q 27Kenya's Julius Yego, world champion in 2015, earned what nickname for the way he taught himself to throw?
Mr. YouTube
Mr. YouTube. Kenya had no javelin coach for him, so he copied the technique of champion throwers from online videos, and only later moved abroad to a specialist training centre.
Q 28Neeraj Chopra's Tokyo 2020 gold made him India's second individual Olympic champion, after which shooter?
Abhinav Bindra
Abhinav Bindra, who won the 10 m air rifle in Beijing in 2008. Chopra's turn came in Tokyo, where the German favourite for the javelin slumped to ninth.
Q 29Neeraj Chopra was born in the Panipat district of which Indian state?
Haryana
Haryana. He took up sport as a heavy child after being teased about his weight, when his family sent him to a gym in nearby Panipat.
Q 30Arshad Nadeem's Olympic record javelin throw at Paris 2024 won which country its first individual gold?
Pakistan
Pakistan. Nadeem's 92.97 m beat the defending champion, India's Neeraj Chopra, into silver, and thousands turned out at the airport to welcome him home.