50 free Triathlon trivia questions with answers — sports quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Triathlon is barely fifty years old and already has more legends than most sports. This quiz starts in Mission Bay, San Diego, in 1974, when 46 runners swam in the dark by car headlights, and follows the story to Hawaii, where a bar-room argument about the fittest athletes produced the Ironman, and to Sydney 2000, where the sport joined the Olympics. Along the way it covers the standard distances, the T1 and T2 transitions, drafting rules, wetsuit temperature limits, brick workouts, Clydesdale divisions and why you cannot call your race an Ironman. The people are here too: Julie Moss crawling to the line in 1982, Dave Scott and Mark Allen, Paula Newby-Fraser's eight Kona titles, Chrissie Wellington, Daniela Ryf, Jan Frodeno, Kristian Blummenfelt's sub-seven, Simon Whitfield, Gwen Jorgensen, Flora Duffy's gold for Bermuda, the Brownlee brothers and Alex Yee. About a third of the questions are easy for anyone who has done a sprint tri, a third are medium and the rest will test serious multisport fans. Every answer is verified against reference and biography pages, and each question carries its source.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In what order are the three disciplines of a triathlon raced?
Swim, bike, run
The clock includes the two transitions between disciplines, so a slow change of shoes costs real time.
Q 02The first modern triathlon was held in 1974 at Mission Bay in which city?
San Diego
Organisers Jack Johnstone and Don Shanahan of the San Diego Track Club had never heard of the earlier French events.
Q 03Les Trois Sports of 1901, the first triathlon-style event, replaced the swim with what?
A canoe leg
By 1921 the canoe had been swapped for a crossing of the river Marne, making it a genuine swim-bike-run.
Q 04How many entrants took part in the first Mission Bay Triathlon in 1974?
46
The organiser's 13-year-old son floated on a surfboard as lifeguard, and cars were pulled up to light the finish with their headlights.
Q 05Which couple who raced at Mission Bay in 1974 went on to found the Hawaii Ironman four years later?
Judy and John Collins
John Collins was a US Navy commander stationed on Oahu.
Q 06The idea for the Ironman arose during the awards ceremony for which 1977 Hawaiian event?
The Oahu Perimeter Relay
The debate was over whether swimmers, cyclists or runners were the fittest athletes.
Q 07Which cyclist's record oxygen uptake led Ironman founder John Collins to argue cyclists might be the fittest athletes?
Eddy Merckx
His answer was to settle it with a race combining the island's three existing endurance events.
Q 08The full Ironman distance is a 2.4-mile swim, a marathon run and a bike ride of how many miles?
112
The total is 140.6 miles, and most events give athletes 16 or 17 hours to finish.
Q 09The original Ironman combined the Waikiki Roughwater Swim, the Honolulu Marathon and what?
The Around-Oahu Bike Race
The bike race was originally a two-day event; it was cut by three miles to link up with the marathon start.
Q 10Who was the first person to earn the title Ironman, finishing the 1978 race in 11 hours 46 minutes?
Gordon Haller
He was a US Navy communications specialist; Collins had said whoever finished first would be called the Iron Man.
Q 11In 1981 the Ironman moved from Oahu to a new home. Where?
The Big Island
The bike ride crosses the lava desert to Hawi and back, and the race is based in Kailua-Kona.
Q 12Who passed Julie Moss just before the line as she crawled to finish the 1982 Ironman?
Kathleen McCartney
Moss had entered as research for an exercise physiology thesis; the footage was broadcast worldwide and inspired thousands to try the sport.
Q 13Julie Moss later married which six-time Ironman world champion?
Mark Allen
Allen lost at Kona six times, often to Dave Scott, before winning in 1989.
Q 21Triathlon made its Olympic debut at which Games?
2000 Sydney
48 women and 52 men raced over the standard 1.5 km, 40 km and 10 km distances.
Q 22The Olympic triathlon is a 1.5 km swim, a 10 km run and a cycle leg of how many kilometres?
40 km
Race director Jim Curl created the format in the mid-1980s for the US Triathlon Series.
Q 23Who won the first men's Olympic triathlon in Sydney, recovering from a 15-rider bike crash to win?
Simon Whitfield
The Canadian's time of 1:48:24 stood as the fastest Olympic triathlon until 2012.
Q 14Dave Scott, the first six-time Ironman world champion, was known by what nickname?
The Man
In 1994, aged 40, he finished second at Kona and nearly won a seventh title.
Q 15The 1989 Kona winner took the last of his six Ironman titles in 1995 at what age, then a record?
37
It made him the oldest winner at the time; Outside magazine dubbed him the World's Fittest Man in 1997.
Q 16Paula Newby-Fraser, the Queen of Kona, won the Ironman World Championship how many times?
Eight
Born in Zimbabwe and raised in South Africa, she won 21 of the 26 Ironman races she entered over 12 years.
Q 17Chrissie Wellington was undefeated over how many full-distance Ironman races?
Thirteen
She won the world title less than a year after turning professional, which no other triathlete has managed.
Q 18Daniela Ryf, five-time Ironman world champion, competes for which country?
Switzerland
She also won the Ironman 70.3 world title five times and raced two Olympics before moving to long distance.
Q 19Jan Frodeno won Olympic triathlon gold at which Games before his three Ironman world titles?
2008 Beijing
The German started as a swimmer in South Africa and later lowered the long-distance world best to 7:27:53.
Q 20In June 2022, who became the first person to complete an Ironman-distance triathlon in under seven hours?
Kristian Blummenfelt
The Norwegian clocked 6:44:25 at the Pho3nix Sub-7 event on a German race track, an unofficial record because of pacing help.
Q 24At which Games did Alistair Brownlee win his two Olympic individual triathlon titles?
2012 and 2016
He won at home in London and again in Rio, with his brother Jonathan taking bronze and then silver.
Q 25At the 2016 series final in Cozumel, Alistair Brownlee gave up his own chance of winning to do what?
Help his collapsing brother over the line
Jonathan had been leading with a kilometre to go before heat exhaustion set in; South Africa's Henri Schoeman passed them both to win.
Q 26Jonathan Brownlee received a 15-second penalty at the London 2012 Olympics for what?
Mounting his bike too early
He still won bronze behind his brother Alistair.
Q 27Who is the most decorated Olympic triathlete, with two golds, a silver and a bronze from 2020 and 2024?
Alex Yee
The Briton is the only triathlete with four Olympic medals and the only one to win two at each of two Games.
Q 28Flora Duffy's triathlon gold in Tokyo was the first Olympic gold ever for which country?
Bermuda
It made her nation the smallest ever to win a Summer Olympic gold medal.
Q 29What was Gwen Jorgensen's job before USA Triathlon recruited her?
Tax accountant
She had passed the CPA exam and was working for Ernst and Young in Milwaukee.
Q 30The mixed team relay was added to the Olympic triathlon programme at which Games?
2020 Tokyo
Each team fields two men and two women, a format World Triathlon adopted in 2009.