Women in Sports Trivia
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6correct to beat the crowd
This women in sports trivia quiz has 48 free questions with answers and runs from the first women's Olympic events in 1900 to Caitlin Clark's rookie season, and it goes wide: tennis, gymnastics, soccer, basketball, golf, track, swimming, skiing, motor racing, marathon running, boxing, MMA, wrestling and even the Iditarod. Expect the famous moments (the Battle of the Sexes, Nadia's 1.00 scoreboard, Brandi Chastain at the Rose Bowl) alongside the details that decide a trivia night: who signed Title IX, which major paid women equally first, who saved China's third penalty in 1999, and which musher won four Iditarods in five years. It works as a stand-alone quiz, a Women's History Month or Title IX anniversary round, or a warm-up for a sports-bar night. About a third of the questions are for casual fans, a third for people who followed these athletes, and the rest for those who know their record books. Every answer was checked against encyclopaedic and primary sources rather than other trivia lists, so the years, scores and names hold up when someone argues.
30 of 48 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01The 1973 Battle of the Sexes match between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs was played in which arena?
Houston Astrodome
At the Houston Astrodome, Riggs handed King a giant Sugar Daddy lollipop, she gave him a squealing piglet, and he played the first three games in a Sugar Daddy jacket.
Q 02Which reigning champion did 55-year-old Bobby Riggs rout 6-2, 6-1 in 1973's 'Mother's Day Massacre'?
Margaret Court
Margaret Court's loss persuaded Billie Jean King, who had repeatedly turned Riggs down, to accept his challenge.
Q 03Which Grand Slam tournament became the first to pay men and women equal prize money, in 1973?
US Open
The US Open made the change after Billie Jean King lobbied for it, while Wimbledon did not pay equally in every round until 2007.
Q 04Title IX, the law barring sex discrimination in federally funded education, was signed by which president?
Richard Nixon
Richard Nixon's signing statement dwelt on school busing and never mentioned the new ban on sex discrimination.
Q 05In 2002 Congress renamed Title IX in honor of which congresswoman, a leading champion of the law?
Patsy Mink
Patsy Mink died that September, and because her name was still on the ballot, Hawaii voters re-elected her to Congress weeks later.
Q 06In April 2017, Serena Williams revealed her pregnancy with a '20 weeks' photo on which app?
Snapchat
Snapchat: she said she posted it by accident, and the timing meant she had won that January's Australian Open while about eight weeks pregnant.
Q 07Serena's 23rd major broke whose Open Era record of 22 singles titles?
Steffi Graf
Steffi Graf won her 22nd and last major at the 1999 French Open by beating favourite Martina Hingis, then retired that August at 30.
Q 08When Wimbledon paid equal prize money in 2007, Venus Williams matched which men's champion's cheque?
Roger Federer
Roger Federer and Venus took home the same winner's prize; she had pushed for it in a 2006 essay in The Times saying unequal pay branded women inferior.
Q 09At Paris 2024, Simone Biles and Jordan Chiles bowed on the podium to which floor exercise champion?
Rebeca Andrade
Rebeca Andrade won after Biles stepped out of bounds twice, and the gold made Andrade Brazil's most decorated Olympian.
Q 10Simone Biles withdrew at Tokyo 2020 with 'the twisties', a sudden loss of what?
Air awareness
Losing air awareness mid-twist left Simone Biles unable to 'tell up from down', yet she came back days later to win bronze on the beam.
Q 11The vault named the Biles II is a Yurchenko entry into what, a skill no woman had completed before her?
Double pike
Simone Biles first landed the Yurchenko double pike in May 2021, and at Paris 2024 she used it on her way to Olympic vault gold.
Q 12Megan Rapinoe knelt during the anthem before a 2016 NWSL match in solidarity with which athlete?
Colin Kaepernick
Megan Rapinoe called it 'a little nod' to Colin Kaepernick, saying that as a gay American she knew what it meant when the flag did not protect all your liberties.
Q 13Which coach finished her Chelsea season in 2024 and then led the USWNT to Olympic gold?
Emma Hayes
Q 21In 2025, which team became the first WNBA expansion team since 2008?
Golden State Valkyries
The Golden State Valkyries were built largely from other teams' bench and role players, yet they became the first WNBA expansion team to reach the playoffs in its debut season.
Q 22Before her golf career, Babe Didrikson won two golds and a silver at the 1932 Olympics in which sport?
Track and field
Track and field: earlier that summer she won the AAU national team championship single-handedly, as the only member of her team.
Q 23At which men's PGA Tour event did Babe Didrikson Zaharias make a cut in January 1945?
Los Angeles Open
Emma Hayes had coached in the U.S. before: the Chicago Red Stars fired her in 2010, and 14 years later she returned to win Olympic gold.
Q 14In the 1999 final shootout, which U.S. goalkeeper saved China's third kick, from Liu Ying?
Briana Scurry
Briana Scurry later admitted she came off her line early, which should have meant a retake, and Brandi Chastain then scored the winning kick.
Q 15On which day in 2019 did 28 USWNT players sue their own federation, U.S. Soccer?
International Women's Day
International Women's Day: the suit ended in a 2022 deal under which U.S. Soccer pays its men's and women's teams equally, World Cups included.
Q 16Whose 159th goal in 2013 broke Mia Hamm's international scoring record?
Abby Wambach
Abby Wambach had already saved the U.S. at the 2011 World Cup, heading a 122nd-minute equalizer against Brazil before a shootout win.
Q 17The first WNBA game, in June 1997, saw the Los Angeles Sparks host which team?
New York Liberty
The New York Liberty won 67–57 even though the Sparks' Penny Toler scored the first points in WNBA history.
Q 18Which franchise won the first four WNBA championships, every title from 1997 to 2000?
Houston Comets
The Houston Comets won all four behind Cynthia Cooper, then folded in 2008 when the league could not find a new owner.
Q 19Who became the first player to dunk in a WNBA game, in 2002?
Lisa Leslie
Lisa Leslie once scored 101 points in one half of a high school game, and the other team refused to come back out for the second half.
Q 20In March 2024 Caitlin Clark became NCAA Division I's all-time leading scorer, passing which LSU legend?
Pete Maravich
Pete Maravich scored his 3,667 points in only three varsity seasons, at a time when freshmen could not play varsity and there was no three-point line.
Los Angeles Open: she first had to shoot 76-76 just to qualify, then made the two-day cut before missing the three-day cut.
Q 24George Zaharias, whom Babe Didrikson married in 1938, was a professional what?
Wrestler
Wrestler: billed as 'The Crying Greek from Cripple Creek', George quit the ring after the wedding to manage his wife's career.
Q 25Who holds the record for most LPGA Tour wins, with 88?
Kathy Whitworth
Kathy Whitworth turned pro in 1958 and waited until 1962 for her first win, yet no golfer on the LPGA or PGA Tour has won more events.
Q 26Which childhood disease left Wilma Rudolph, triple Olympic champion in 1960, needing a leg brace?
Polio
Polio weakened her left leg, so her family took off the brace and massaged the leg several times a day until she could walk without support.
Q 27At the 1988 Seoul Olympics, Jackie Joyner-Kersee set a world record in which event?
Heptathlon
Heptathlon: she set that world record despite severe asthma, a condition she battled throughout her career.
Q 28Florence Griffith Joyner died in her sleep in 1998 at 38 from what?
Epileptic seizure
Epileptic seizure: a congenital blood-vessel abnormality in her brain triggered it, and she suffocated while it happened.
Q 29Nadia Comăneci's first perfect 10 at the 1976 Montreal Olympics came on which apparatus?
Uneven bars
Uneven bars: yet for all her perfect scores in Montreal, Romania still had to settle for silver in the team event.
Q 30Which timing company's Montreal scoreboard showed Nadia Comăneci's perfect 10 as 1.00?
Omega
Omega had been told that a 10.00 was not possible, so its Montreal gymnastics boards had room for only three digits.