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This 2000s sports trivia quiz has 70 free questions with answers and covers the whole decade, from Cathy Freeman lighting the cauldron in Sydney to Lewis Hamilton stealing the 2008 title on the last corner in Brazil. In between are the moments people still argue about: the Red Sox coming back from 3-0 down, the 16-0 Patriots losing to a helmet catch, Zidane's headbutt, Liverpool's three goals in six minutes in Istanbul, the Malice at the Palace and Tiger winning a US Open on a broken leg. The questions span the NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, soccer, tennis, golf, the Olympics, motor racing, boxing, rugby and cricket, so a general fan will get a fair share and a specialist will still find a few that bite. About a third are easy warm-ups, a third are medium, and the rest are for people who remember who Rocco Mediate is. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia and primary records before publishing, and each question carries the sentence that establishes it. If you think one is wrong, use the report button and we will look again.
30 of 70 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which team ended the Patriots' 19-0 bid by beating them in Super Bowl XLII?
New York Giants
The 2007 Patriots went 16-0 in the regular season, then lost 17-14 in February 2008 after a last-minute drive built on a catch that is still replayed every year.
Q 02Whom did the Red Sox beat in the 2004 ALCS after trailing 3-0?
New York Yankees
Boston then swept the Cardinals in the World Series to end an 86-year title drought. David Ortiz was the ALCS MVP.
Q 03How many gold medals did Michael Phelps win at the 2008 Beijing Olympics?
8
That broke Mark Spitz's 1972 record of seven at a single Games. Phelps had already won six golds in Athens four years earlier.
Q 04What time, in seconds, did Usain Bolt run to win the 100 m final at the 2008 Beijing Olympics?
9.69
He slowed to celebrate before the line and still set a world record. A year later in Berlin he lowered it to 9.58.
Q 05Which player did Zinedine Zidane headbutt in the 2006 World Cup final, his last professional match?
Marco Materazzi
Italy went on to win 5-3 on penalties after a 1-1 draw. Zidane still won the Golden Ball as the tournament's best player.
Q 06What is the nickname for Liverpool's comeback from 3-0 down against AC Milan in the 2005 Champions League final?
The Miracle of Istanbul
Liverpool scored three goals in six second-half minutes and won 3-2 on penalties, with Jerzy Dudek saving from Andriy Shevchenko.
Q 07Which club went unbeaten through the 2003-04 Premier League season, earning the nickname "The Invincibles"?
Arsenal
The record was 26 wins and 12 draws. The only previous English club to go a league season unbeaten was Preston North End in 1888-89.
Q 08Which 150-1 outsider won Euro 2004 by beating hosts Portugal 1-0 in the final?
Greece
Angelos Charisteas scored the only goal. It was the first major tournament in which the final featured the same two teams as the opening match.
Q 09Which two nations co-hosted the 2002 FIFA World Cup, the first held in Asia?
South Korea and Japan
Brazil beat Germany 2-0 in the final for a fifth title, and co-host South Korea shocked Italy and Spain on the way to the semi-finals.
Q 10Who won the Golden Shoe at the 2002 World Cup with eight goals, including both in the final?
Ronaldo
It capped a comeback from years of knee injuries. His half-shaved haircut at the tournament became almost as famous as the goals.
Q 11Which Australian sprinter lit the Sydney 2000 cauldron and then won the women's 400 m?
Cathy Freeman
She ran the final in a full-body hooded suit and did a victory lap carrying both the Australian and Aboriginal flags.
Q 12The 2004 'Malice at the Palace' brawl broke out during a Pistons home game against which team?
Indiana Pacers
Ron Artest was suspended for the rest of the season, a total of 86 games including playoffs, still the longest non-drug suspension in NBA history.
Q 13Which team drafted LeBron James first overall in 2003?
Cleveland Cavaliers
Q 21Which pitcher gave up Luis Gonzalez's series-winning bloop single in Game 7 of the 2001 World Series?
Mariano Rivera
The Diamondbacks beat the Yankees weeks after 9/11, and Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling were named co-MVPs.
Q 22The Steve Bartman foul-ball incident in the 2003 NLCS involved the Chicago Cubs and which opponent?
Florida Marlins
The Cubs were five outs from their first World Series since 1945 when it happened. They lost Game 6 and then Game 7.
Q 23Which team won the 2005 World Series, its first since 1917, by sweeping the Houston Astros?
Chicago White Sox
Detroit took Darko Milicic second, ahead of Carmelo Anthony, Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade, one of the most second-guessed picks ever.
Q 14Which team drafted Yao Ming first overall in 2002?
Houston Rockets
Yao came from the Shanghai Sharks and had to negotiate his release from the Chinese Basketball Association before he could sign.
Q 15Lance Armstrong's run of consecutive Tour de France wins, later stripped for doping, ended in which year?
2005
The seven titles from 1999 to 2005 were voided in 2012 and he received a lifetime ban. No winner was declared for those years.
Q 16Tiger Woods completed the "Tiger Slam" of holding all four majors at once by winning which event?
The 2001 Masters
Because the four wins straddled 2000 and 2001 rather than one calendar year, purists refused to call it a Grand Slam, hence the nickname.
Q 17Who did Tiger Woods beat in a 19-hole playoff to win the 2008 U.S. Open on a fractured leg?
Rocco Mediate
Woods had a torn ACL and a double stress fracture of the tibia, and had reconstructive surgery days later, missing the rest of the season.
Q 18Federer won his first Grand Slam at Wimbledon in 2003 by beating which Australian?
Mark Philippoussis
It was the first of a record eight Wimbledon men's titles. Federer wept on court afterward, something that became a habit at trophy ceremonies.
Q 19Who beat Roger Federer 9-7 in the fifth set of the 2008 Wimbledon final, in near darkness?
Rafael Nadal
Rain delays pushed the finish to 9:15 pm. Many still rank it as the greatest tennis match ever played.
Q 20How many home runs did Barry Bonds hit in 2001 to set the single-season record?
73
The 73rd came off Dennis Springer on the last weekend of the season. Bonds passed Hank Aaron's career mark of 755 six years later.
It ended the so-called Curse of the Black Sox, an 88-year drought that had lasted two years longer than Boston's.
Q 24How many hits did Ichiro Suzuki finish with when he broke the single-season record in 2004?
262
Sisler's 257 had stood since 1920. Ichiro also holds the Japanese single-season record, making him the only player with both.
Q 25Which singer's 2004 Super Bowl halftime performance gave the phrase "wardrobe malfunction" to the language?
Janet Jackson
Justin Timberlake tore away part of her costume in the final second of the show. The fallout led to a broadcast delay on future live events.
Q 26Which team did the Patriots upset 20-17 in Super Bowl XXXVI, Tom Brady's first title?
St. Louis Rams
Adam Vinatieri kicked a 48-yard field goal as time expired. It was the Patriots' first league championship of any kind.
Q 27Who became the first African American head coach to win a Super Bowl, with the Colts in 2007?
Tony Dungy
The opposing coach, Lovie Smith, was his former assistant. It was also the first Super Bowl played in the rain.
Q 28Which Steeler returned an interception 100 yards to end the first half of Super Bowl XLIII?
James Harrison
It was the longest play in Super Bowl history at the time. Santonio Holmes's toe-tap catch won it 27-23 over Arizona.
Q 29Which Canadian pair got a second set of gold medals after the 2002 Salt Lake City judging scandal?
Jamie Sale and David Pelletier
The Russians Berezhnaya and Sikharulidze kept theirs too. The scandal killed the 6.0 system; the ISU replaced it with points-based judging in 2004.
Q 30Which league was the first in North America to cancel an entire season over a labor dispute, in 2004-05?
NHL
Commissioner Gary Bettman cancelled the season on February 16, 2005, and the Stanley Cup went unawarded for the first time since 1919.