60 free Track and Field trivia questions with answers — sports quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
52 free Track and field trivia questions with answers. Track and field is the oldest sport at the Olympics and the simplest to explain: run faster, jump higher, throw farther. The stories underneath are anything but simple, and this quiz digs into them: why a marathon is 26 miles and 385 yards, who ran the greatest 45 minutes in sport, why Dick Fosbury went over backwards, and how many years Bob Beamon's jump survived. The early questions cover the basics any Olympics viewer knows: Bolt's 100 m record, the ten events of the decathlon, the barefoot marathon champion. The later ones are for people who follow Diamond League meets: false-start rules, relay changeover zones, hammer weights, and which Kenyan is the only triple Olympic 1500 m champion. Every answer has been checked against a published source and carries a link, so you can settle an argument in the stands. Good for coaches, club runners and anyone counting down to the next Games.
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Q 01What is Usain Bolt's 100 m world record, set at the 2009 World Championships in Berlin?
9.58 seconds
He took the record down by 0.11 seconds, the biggest improvement since electronic timing began; his 19.19 in the 200 m came at the same meet.
Q 02How many Olympic gold medals did Usain Bolt win?
Eight
He also collected eleven world titles; his only slip was a false start in the 2011 world 100 m final.
Q 03How many events make up the decathlon?
Ten
They run over two days, from the 100 m to the 1500 m; the winner is traditionally called the world's greatest athlete, a line King Gustav V used on Jim Thorpe in 1912.
Q 04Which event closes the decathlon?
1500 metres
Kevin Mayer's world record of 9,126 points, set in 2018, is the only score above Ashton Eaton's 9,045.
Q 05Which Frenchman holds the decathlon world record of 9,126 points?
Kevin Mayer
He set it at the 2018 Decastar and is only the third man to pass 9,000 points.
Q 06How many events are in the women's heptathlon?
Seven
It replaced the pentathlon in the early 1980s by adding the javelin and the 200 m.
Q 07Whose heptathlon world record of 7,291 points, set at the 1988 Seoul Olympics, still stands?
Jackie Joyner-Kersee
Sports Illustrated for Women later voted her the greatest female athlete of all time, just ahead of Babe Zaharias.
Q 08Which Belgian became the first athlete to win three Olympic multi-event golds, in the heptathlon?
Nafissatou Thiam
She carried Belgium's flag at the Tokyo opening ceremony.
Q 09What is the official distance of a marathon?
42.195 kilometres
That is 26 miles 385 yards; the distance was only standardised in 1921, a quarter-century after the first Olympic marathon.
Q 10The marathon takes its name from the legend of which Greek messenger?
Pheidippides
In the story he ran about 40 km from the battlefield to Athens, announced victory over the Persians and dropped dead.
Q 11In what year did the marathon distance become standardised at 42.195 km?
1921
French philologist Michel Bréal dreamt up the event for the first modern Olympics in Athens in 1896.
Q 12Which Ethiopian won the 1960 Olympic marathon in Rome running barefoot?
Abebe Bikila
He won again in Tokyo in 1964, the first man to defend an Olympic marathon title.
Q 13Eliud Kipchoge ran 1:59:40 for the marathon distance in Vienna in 2019 in an event with what name?
INEOS 1:59 Challenge
It did not count as a record because of the pacing and drinks arrangements; his official best came in Berlin, where he has won five times.
Q 21The back-first high jump technique that won gold at the 1968 Olympics is named after which American?
Dick Fosbury
A local paper's caption 'Fosbury Flops Over Bar' gave it the name; deep foam landing mats made it possible.
Q 22Whose 1993 men's high jump world record of 2.45 m is the longest-standing in the event?
Javier Sotomayor
Ukraine's Yaroslava Mahuchikh set the women's record of 2.10 m in 2024.
Q 23Pole vaulter Armand 'Mondo' Duplantis competes for Sweden but was born and raised in which US state?
Louisiana
He grew up in Lafayette and won a world youth title at 15 in 2015.
Q 14Which Kenyan broke Eliud Kipchoge's marathon world record at the 2023 Chicago Marathon?
Kelvin Kiptum
Kipchoge had held the record since 2018 and is the 2016 and 2020 Olympic champion.
Q 15Which is the world's oldest annual marathon, first run in 1897?
Boston
It is held on Patriots' Day, the third Monday in April, and was inspired by the 1896 Olympic race.
Q 16Emil Zátopek, who won three distance golds at the 1952 Olympics, had what nickname?
The Czech Locomotive
He decided at the last minute to enter the marathon, the first he had ever run, and remains the only person to win all three at one Games.
Q 17How many gold medals did Jesse Owens win at the 1936 Berlin Olympics?
Four
100 m, 200 m, long jump and 4x100 relay; a year earlier he had set five world records and tied a sixth in 45 minutes at Ann Arbor.
Q 18How far did Bob Beamon jump at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics?
8.90 m
He beat the old record by 55 cm and it took Mike Powell almost 23 years to better it.
Q 19Who set the men's long jump world record of 8.95 m at the 1991 Tokyo World Championships?
Mike Powell
Carl Lewis also passed Beamon's mark that night, but his jump was wind-assisted.
Q 20How many Olympic gold medals did Carl Lewis win?
Nine
He won the long jump at four straight Games, matching discus thrower Al Oerter's feat of four consecutive golds in one event.
Q 24How much does the men's shot weigh in open competition?
7.26 kg
That is 16 pounds, the same as the men's hammer; throwers use either the glide or the spin.
Q 25Which American is the only three-time Olympic shot put champion and holds the world record of 23.56 m?
Ryan Crouser
He won in Rio, Tokyo and Paris and set the outdoor record in May 2023.
Q 26Why was the men's javelin redesigned in 1986?
To shorten throws and stop flat landings
Uwe Hohn's 104.80 m record was wiped out; Jan Zelezny's 98.48 m from 1996 is the mark under the new spec.
Q 27Which ancient Greek statue by Myron shows a discus thrower and gave its name to the classic pose?
Discobolus
A Czech thrower named Janda-Suk worked out a new rotational technique from studying the statue.
Q 28How many hurdles does a runner clear in the 110 m hurdles?
Ten
They stand 42 inches high; the race was once run as the 120-yard hurdles.
Q 29What is Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone's 400 m hurdles world record, set at the 2024 Paris Olympics?
50.37
She has broken her own record repeatedly and also holds the American record for the flat 400 m.
Q 30How long is the passing zone in the 4x100 m relay since the 2017 rule change?
30 metres
The old 20 m box and 10 m acceleration zone were merged into one; the outgoing runner cannot touch the baton before it enters.