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50 free Discus Throw trivia questions with answers — sports quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This discus throw trivia quiz covers the oldest throwing event in athletics from Myron's Discobolus to Mykolas Alekna's 75-metre world record. The first questions deal with the ancient Greek pentathlon, the statue that taught a Bohemian athlete how to spin, the sport's revival in Germany in the 1870s and its place at the very first modern Olympics in 1896, where a Princeton student who had never seen a real discus won the event. The middle section covers the rules and technique: the size of the circle, the landing sector, the direction of spin, why a headwind helps, and the odd Greek-style and two-handed variants once held at the Games. Then come the champions: Al Oerter's four consecutive golds, Faina Melnik's eleven world records, Gabriele Reinsch's untouchable 76.80 m, Jürgen Schult's record that stood for 37 years, the Alekna father and son, Sandra Perković, Valarie Allman, Daniel Ståhl and Jamaica's Rojé Stona. Some questions are easy for anyone who watches Olympic athletics; others will stretch dedicated track and field fans. Every answer has been checked against Wikipedia's articles on the discus throw, its Olympic history and the athletes themselves.
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Q 01The discus was part of which ancient Greek multi-event competition, dated to at least 708 BC?
The pentathlon
It remains part of the modern decathlon, though it is not in the modern pentathlon.
Q 02Which sculptor made the famous fifth-century-BC statue of a discus thrower, the Discobolus?
Myron
The original bronze is lost; the work is known through Roman marble copies such as the Palombara Discobolus, found in 1781.
Q 03Which dictator bought the Palombara Discobolus in 1938 and had it shipped to Munich?
Adolf Hitler
Foreign minister Galeazzo Ciano sold it for five million lire over the protests of Italy's education minister; it went back to Rome in 1948.
Q 04The Townley Discobolus, excavated at Hadrian's Villa in 1790, is now held where?
The British Museum
Charles Townley paid £400 for it and insisted his was the better copy even though its head had been wrongly restored.
Q 05In which German city was the discus revived as a sport in the 1870s by Christian Georg Kohlrausch?
Magdeburg
Organized men's competition resumed in the late 19th century, in time for the first modern Olympics in 1896.
Q 06František Janda-Suk, the first modern discus thrower to rotate the whole body, developed the technique by studying what?
The Discobolus statue
After a year of work on the spin he took silver for Bohemia at the 1900 Paris Olympics.
Q 07Who won the discus at the first modern Olympics in 1896?
Robert Garrett
The Princeton student had never seen a real discus until Athens; his final throw beat the local favourite by 19 centimetres.
Q 08The 1896 discus champion first had a discus forged from classical descriptions. What was wrong with it?
It weighed nearly 30 pounds
He gave up on the event until he found in Athens that a real discus weighed under five pounds, then entered for fun and won.
Q 09How far did the winning discus throw travel at the 1896 Olympics?
29.15 m
His first two attempts tumbled end over end and nearly hit spectators, who laughed along with him.
Q 10At the 1900 Olympics, why could the 1896 champion not record a legal discus mark?
All his throws hit trees
The course was so poorly planned that trees stood in the sector; he still took bronze in the shot put without competing in the Sunday final.
Q 11The women's discus was added to the Olympic programme in which year?
1928
It was one of five athletics events in the first Olympic women's programme.
Q 121928 discus champion Halina Konopacka was which country's first Olympic champion?
Poland
Nicknamed 'Miss Olympia', she always competed in a red beret and later became a poet.
Q 13What is the diameter of the discus throwing circle?
2.50 m
The circle is larger than the shot put circle, there is no stop board, and there are no form rules on how the discus must be thrown.
Q 14The discus must land within a sector of how many degrees?
Q 21Which Soviet thrower won the USSR's first ever Olympic gold medal, in the discus in 1952?
Nina Romashkova
She improved the Olympic record twice in the final and later made front pages after pleading guilty to shoplifting five hats in London in 1956.
Q 22Al Oerter won discus gold at four consecutive Olympics. Which was the first?
1956 Melbourne
He was not the favourite in Melbourne but produced a career-best 56.34 m to win by more than five inches.
Q 23Which injury did Al Oerter compete through to win his third gold in Tokyo in 1964?
Torn rib cartilage
He also wore a neck brace, skipped his last throw for the pain, and told doctors 'These are the Olympics. You die for them.'
34.92°
The sector is centred on the throwing circle, which is recessed 20 millimetres into a concrete pad.
Q 15A right-handed thrower spins in which direction before release, and through how many rotations?
Anticlockwise, one and a half
In flight the discus itself spins clockwise when seen from above for a right-hander.
Q 16Generally, throws into what kind of wind achieve the greatest distance?
A moderate headwind
Aerodynamics matter as much as raw momentum, and a faster-spinning discus gains gyroscopic stability.
Q 17Sports scientist Richard Ganslen found that a discus will stall at what angle?
29°
His research on discus aerodynamics is why throwers pay so much attention to the release trajectory.
Q 18Because the technique is so hard to master, most top discus throwers are at least what age?
30
The event needs years of experience; several champions have won medals into their forties.
Q 19Who won the Greek-style discus, thrown from a raised pedestal, at the 1908 Games?
Martin Sheridan
Sheridan won both the Greek-style and regular events in London; scholars later said the style rested on a misreading of an ancient text.
Q 20What unusual discus variant was contested at the 1912 Stockholm Olympics?
Two-handed throwing
Athletes threw with each hand and their best left- and right-handed marks were added together.
Q 24Which sprinter matched Al Oerter's feat of four straight Olympic golds in one track and field event?
Carl Lewis
Swimmers Michael Phelps and Katie Ledecky later did the same in their sports.
Q 25Al Oerter set his lifetime best of 69.46 m at what age?
43
It came in his 1980 comeback, when he finished fourth at the US trials; the throw was 27 feet beyond his best gold-medal performance.
Q 26In retirement Al Oerter became an abstract painter. How did he make his 'Impact' series?
By flinging a discus into puddles of paint
If the discus landed painted-face up he signed it and gave it to the buyer; he founded Art of the Olympians in 2006.
Q 27Mac Wilkins broke the world record three times with consecutive throws on a single day in 1976. Where?
San Jose, California
He threw 69.80, 70.24 and 70.86 m in succession before winning Olympic gold in Montreal that summer.
Q 28Soviet champion Faina Melnik, who set 11 world records, later inspired which children's-book character?
Miss Trunchbull in Matilda
She won gold at the 1972 Olympics and later worked as a dentist and coach in Moscow.
Q 29Who holds the women's discus world record of 76.80 m, set in 1988?
Gabriele Reinsch
Her throw in Neubrandenburg beat the previous record by 2.24 metres; she had started out as a high jumper and shot putter.
Q 30Hellmann's 78.14 m in 1988 is the farthest women's discus throw ever. Why isn't it the record?
It was thrown at an unofficial training-camp meeting
The session at Kienbaum was held to decide the last East German place for Seoul, where she went on to win Olympic gold.