Sports Trivia
0Loading crowd target
0Loading crowd target
8correct to beat the crowd
This sports trivia quiz has 139 free questions with answers and covers the whole field: the Super Bowl and the World Cup, Wimbledon and the Masters, the Stanley Cup and the Kentucky Derby, the Olympics from Jesse Owens to Simone Biles, and the sports people forget are sports, from curling to sumo. Eighty-three multiple choice questions with four options each. It starts with questions any casual fan can get (what colour is the Tour de France leader's jersey?) and climbs to genuinely difficult sports trivia (in what year was the Kentucky Derby shortened to a mile and a quarter?), so it works as a bar sports round, a family game, or a way of settling who in the group chat actually knows their stuff. Every answer has been checked against a reference encyclopaedia or an official source, and each question shows its explanation and citation after you answer.
30 of 139 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01What prize did champions at the ancient Olympic Games receive?
An olive wreath
An olive wreath of wild olive leaves crowned each champion, though in later times winners could also collect generous cash rewards.
Q 02Who founded the International Olympic Committee?
Pierre de Coubertin
Pierre de Coubertin, who founded the IOC, later won an Olympic gold medal himself, for a poem he entered in the 1912 literature contest under pen names.
Q 03Which stadium was the main venue of the first modern Olympic Games?
The Panathenaic Stadium
The Panathenaic Stadium in Athens, rebuilt in marble for 1896, still hosts the ceremony where Greece hands each Olympic flame to the next host.
Q 04Which word was added to the Olympic motto?
Together
Together was added in July 2021; the IOC said the change recognised the unifying power of sport and the importance of solidarity.
Q 05Which town beneath Mont Blanc hosted the first Winter Olympics?
Chamonix
Chamonix billed its 1924 event as an International Winter Sports Week; only later did the IOC recognise it as the first Winter Olympics.
Q 06Which country hosted and won the first FIFA World Cup?
Uruguay
Uruguay, the reigning Olympic champion, beat Argentina 4–2 in Montevideo, but with Europe in the Depression only four European teams made the trip.
Q 07Which team is the only one to have played in every World Cup?
Brazil
Brazil has played at every World Cup since 1930, yet as hosts in 2014 it lost its semi-final 7–1 to Germany.
Q 08Which trophy did FIFA award to World Cup winners from 1930 to 1970?
The Jules Rimet Trophy
The Jules Rimet Trophy became Brazil's to keep after its third title in 1970, but thieves stole it from the Brazilian federation's Rio offices in 1983.
Q 09Who hosted the 2026 World Cup?
USA, Canada, Mexico
USA, Canada, Mexico staged the first 48-team World Cup, and growing from 32 teams stretched the tournament from 64 matches to 104.
Q 10Which country won the 2018 World Cup, watched by 3.57 billion people by FIFA's count?
France
France won the Moscow final 4–2, helped by a penalty the referee gave only after consulting VAR, which FIFA had approved for that World Cup.
Q 11The first Super Bowl matched the champions of which two rival leagues?
The AFL and the NFL
The AFL and the NFL met in a game officially called the AFL-NFL World Championship Game; the media ran with Lamar Hunt's joke name, and 'Super Bowl' became official from the third game.
Q 12After whom is the Super Bowl trophy named?
Vince Lombardi
Vince Lombardi won the first two Super Bowls with Green Bay; the trophy, first sketched by a Tiffany designer on a cocktail napkin, took his name after he died in 1970.
Q 13As of 2026, which two teams share the record of six Super Bowl titles?
The Steelers and the Patriots
Q 21Why was the Tour de France first organised?
To sell more copies of a newspaper
To sell more copies of a newspaper: L'Auto launched the race to win a circulation war with rival paper Le Vélo, and after the first Tour its sales soared.
Q 22Which Paris street traditionally hosts the Tour de France finish?
Champs-Élysées
Champs-Élysées: in 2024 the finale moved to Nice instead, because Paris was preparing to host the Olympic Games days later.
Q 23Which jersey design marks the leader of the Tour de France's mountains classification?
Polka dots on white
The Steelers and the Patriots have six each; New England could have gone clear with a seventh but lost Super Bowl LX 29–13 to Seattle in February 2026.
Q 14Which Super Bowl broke the Roman numeral tradition?
The fiftieth
The fiftieth game was billed as Super Bowl 50 because designers found a lone 'L' didn't work in the logo; Super Bowl LI brought Roman numerals back.
Q 15Which team lost four consecutive Super Bowls?
Buffalo Bills
The Buffalo Bills' four straight defeats began in January 1991, when Scott Norwood's late 47-yard field goal went wide right and the Giants won 20–19.
Q 16Wimbledon's club was founded for which sport?
Croquet
Croquet: as tennis took over, the club dropped croquet from its name in 1882, but later restored it for sentimental reasons.
Q 17Who skipped Wimbledon for three years over its all-white rule?
Agassi
Agassi stayed away from 1988 to 1990, then returned and won Wimbledon in 1992, his first major title.
Q 18Who won the longest match in Wimbledon history, 70–68 in the fifth set?
John Isner
John Isner beat Nicolas Mahut over three days in 2010, and after another Isner marathon in 2018, Wimbledon brought in final-set tie-breaks at 12–12.
Q 19Which Wimbledon court got a retractable roof first?
Centre Court
Centre Court's roof arrived in 2009, letting play continue through rain and into the night up to an 11pm curfew; No. 1 Court got one in 2019.
Q 20Who has won the most women's singles titles at Wimbledon?
Martina Navratilova
Martina Navratilova won nine, the record, after fleeing communist Czechoslovakia at 18, which stripped her of her citizenship.
Polka dots on white: in 1975 Tour co-director Félix Lévitan chose them as a tribute to Henri Lemoine, a pre-war track rider who raced in red dots.
Q 24Which Tour de France climb's 21 hairpin bends are named after its stage winners?
Alpe d'Huez
Alpe d'Huez's 21 bends each carry a sign honouring stage winners; Dutch riders won so many of its early finishes that it became known as the Dutch Mountain.
Q 25What is the last-placed rider in the Tour de France called?
The lanterne rouge
The lanterne rouge takes its name from the red lamp hung on the last carriage of a train; the first, in 1903, finished almost 65 hours behind the winner.
Q 26As of 2026, which city has Canada's only NBA team?
Toronto
Toronto: the Raptors joined in 1995 alongside the Vancouver Grizzlies, but the Grizzlies moved to Memphis in 2001, leaving Toronto as Canada's only team.
Q 27As of 2026, which franchise has won the most NBA championships?
The Boston Celtics
The Boston Celtics have 18, and Bill Russell played on 11 of those title teams, winning the last two while also coaching the side.
Q 28From which league did the NBA borrow the three-point shot?
The ABA
The ABA used the three-pointer, along with a red, white and blue ball, to sell a flashier game than the NBA's, which took up the shot after the 1976 merger.
Q 29Which country hosted the first Cricket World Cup?
England
England hosted it, and in the opening match India's Sunil Gavaskar batted through all 60 overs for just 36 not out as India fell more than 200 runs short.
Q 30Who won the first Cricket World Cup final?
The West Indies
The West Indies won that final by 17 runs, retained the title in 1979, then lost the 1983 final to rank outsiders.