This sports trivia quiz has 90 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 90 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Where were the ancient Olympic Games held?
Olympia
They were religious and athletic festivals at the sanctuary of Zeus, held every four years. The modern revival came much later.
Q 02Who founded the International Olympic Committee?
Pierre de Coubertin
He wanted to promote international peace and friendship through sport. The first games under the committee followed in 1896.
Q 03Where were the first modern Olympic Games held, in 1896?
The Panathenaic Stadium
It was in Athens in 1896. The stadium is built entirely of marble.
Q 04Which word was added to the Olympic motto in 2021?
Together
The Latin original is Citius, Altius, Fortius. It had stood unchanged for over a century.
Q 05Where was the first winter sports week, the forerunner of the Winter Olympics, held in 1924?
Chamonix
It ran for eleven days despite the name. The French town has hosted only that one edition.
Q 06Which country hosted and won the first FIFA World Cup?
Uruguay
It was staged in 1930 with thirteen nations. They won on home soil.
Q 07Which team is the only one to have played in every World Cup?
Brazil
They have also won it five times, more than anyone else. No other nation has qualified for every edition.
Q 08What was the World Cup's original prize called, from 1930 to 1970?
The Jules Rimet Trophy
Brazil kept it permanently after their third win. It was stolen in 1983 and never recovered.
Q 09How many teams compete at the World Cup from 2026?
48
It had been 32 since 1998, and 24 before that. The field started at just thirteen.
Q 10What was the estimated viewership of the 2018 World Cup?
3.57 billion
That is close to half the world's population. Engagement with the 2022 edition was put at five billion.
Q 11What was the Super Bowl originally called?
The AFL-NFL World Championship Game
The Packers beat the Chiefs at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in the first one. The catchier name came later.
Q 12After whom is the Super Bowl trophy named?
Vince Lombardi
He coached the winners of the first two games. The trophy is made by Tiffany & Co.
Q 13Which two teams share the record of six Super Bowl titles?
The Steelers and the Patriots
Both play in the AFC. Dallas and San Francisco are next with five each.
Q 21Why was the Tour de France first organised in 1903?
To sell more copies of a newspaper
The paper was L'Auto, which later became L'Équipe. The yellow jersey matched the colour of its pages.
Q 22How many day-long stages make up a modern Tour de France?
21
They are spread over 23 or 24 days and cover about 3,500 kilometres. Rest days account for the difference.
Q 23Which colour marks the leader of the Tour's mountains classification?
Polka dots on white
Green goes to the points leader and white to the best young rider. Yellow, of course, leads overall.
Q 14Which Super Bowl broke the Roman numeral tradition?
The fiftieth
It was played in February 2016 and branded with an ordinary numeral. Roman numerals had been used since the fifth edition.
Q 15Which broadcast set a US television viewing record in February 2025?
A recent Super Bowl
Super Bowl LIX averaged 127.7 million viewers in the United States. Super Bowls now occupy most of the top of that list.
Q 16Since which year has Wimbledon been held?
1877
It is the oldest tennis tournament in the world. It is also the only major still played on grass.
Q 17When was Wimbledon's all-white clothing rule introduced?
1963
That was the tournament's first enforced dress code. Players are still sent away to change if they break it.
Q 18How many portions of strawberries and cream were served at Wimbledon in 2019?
191,930
The dish is culturally inseparable from the fortnight. The strawberries are picked in Kent the day before.
Q 19In which year did Centre Court get its retractable roof?
2009
It was the first time rain did not stop play there for long. Matches can now run late into the evening.
Q 20Who has won the most women's singles titles at Wimbledon?
Martina Navratilova
She won nine. Roger Federer holds the men's record with eight.
Q 24How many riders share the record for Tour de France overall victories?
Five of them
Anquetil, Merckx, Hinault, Indurain and Pogacar. Nobody has managed six.
Q 25Roughly how long is a modern Tour de France?
About 3,500 km
That is over three weeks of racing. Riders burn through thousands of calories a day.
Q 26How many teams make up the NBA?
30
Twenty-nine are in the United States and one in Canada. The league dates its founding to 1946.
Q 27Which franchise has won the most NBA championships?
The Boston Celtics
Eighteen titles, the most recent in 2024. The Lakers are close behind.
Q 28From which league did the NBA borrow the three-point shot in 1979?
The ABA
The rival league had folded a few years earlier. The line changed how basketball is played entirely.
Q 29Which country hosted the first Cricket World Cup, in 1975?
England
It was the only nation with the resources to stage it at the time. The West Indies won the final at Lord's.
Q 30Who won the first Cricket World Cup final?
The West Indies
They beat Australia by 17 runs at Lord's. They went on to win the next tournament as well.