New York City Marathon Trivia
0Loading crowd target
0Loading crowd target
6correct to beat the crowd
66 free New York City Marathon trivia questions with answers — sports quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
This New York City Marathon trivia quiz covers the world's largest marathon from its first running in 1970, when 127 runners looped Central Park and only 55 finished, to today's five-borough spectacle that starts on the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge and ends beside Tavern on the Green. It takes in the founders and pioneers (Fred Lebow, Ted Corbitt, Vince Chiappetta, Nina Kuscsik and the NYC Six, Dick Traum's prosthetic leg), the champions (Bill Rodgers, Grete Waitz's nine wins, Alberto Salazar, Paula Radcliffe, Meb Keflezighi, Shalane Flanagan, Mary Keitany, Geoffrey Mutai and Tamirat Tola), and the stories every runner tells: Rosie Ruiz, Wrong Way Silva, Rod Dixon catching Geoff Smith at the finish, and the closest finish in race history. There are also questions on the course itself, mile by mile through Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx and Manhattan, on the lottery and the 9+1 program, the wheelchair division, the two cancellations, the sponsors and broadcasters, and the celebrities who have run it. Some questions any spectator on First Avenue could answer; others are for people who know their splits. Every answer has been checked against primary sources, chiefly the Wikipedia articles on the race and its champions, and each explanation adds one further detail. If you want the sport more broadly, try our general marathon quiz too.
30 of 66 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Who won the men's race at the 2024 New York City Marathon?
Abdi Nageeye
Abdi Nageeye had dropped out of the Paris Olympic marathon less than three months earlier; in New York he broke clear of Evans Chebet near the finish to become the race's first Dutch winner.
Q 02Who won the New York City Marathon men's race in both 2017 and 2019?
Geoffrey Kamworor
Geoffrey Kamworor held off Wilson Kipsang by three seconds in 2017, then dropped Albert Korir in the 24th mile to win again in 2019.
Q 03Who was the only woman to enter the first New York City Marathon in 1970?
Nina Kuscsik
Nina Kuscsik fell ill and dropped out at about 15 miles that day, but she came back to win the women's race in both 1972 and 1973.
Q 04How did six women protest a ten-minute head start at the 1972 New York City Marathon?
Sat down
They sat down at the start with protest signs until the men's gun fired ten minutes later, then ran with them; the AAU soon dropped the rule.
Q 05Who won the women's race when the New York City Marathon first crossed all five boroughs in 1976?
Miki Gorman
Miki Gorman did not start running competitively until her mid-thirties, yet at 41 she won in 2:39:11 and kept the title the following year.
Q 06Which runner, famous for being grabbed by a race official in 1967, won the 1974 New York City Marathon women's race?
Kathrine Switzer
Kathrine Switzer won in 3:07:29, seven years after official Jock Semple tried to tear off her bib number in mid-race; the two later became friends.
Q 07Which Ethiopian, twice Olympic 10,000 m champion, won the 2009 New York City Marathon women's race at 37?
Derartu Tulu
Derartu Tulu shook off Ludmila Petrova at the 26-mile mark to win by eight seconds, the first Ethiopian woman to take the New York title.
Q 08Who won the first five-borough New York City Marathon in 1976, the first of his four straight titles?
Bill Rodgers
Bill Rodgers had finished only 40th in the Montreal Olympic marathon that summer; in New York he beat the Olympic silver medallist, Frank Shorter, by three minutes.
Q 09Dick Traum made history at the 1976 New York City Marathon as the first person to finish a marathon with what?
A prosthetic leg
A prosthetic leg carried Dick Traum round in 1976; seven years later he founded the Achilles Track Club for disabled athletes, and six of its members finished New York that year.
Q 10Which Norwegian track star won the 1978 New York City Marathon at her first attempt at the distance?
Grete Waitz
Grete Waitz, an Oslo schoolteacher, had never run a marathon before; her 2:32:30 was hailed as a world best, and she went on to win New York nine times.
Q 11Which Latvian runner won the New York City Marathon women's race in both 2005 and 2006?
Jelena Prokopcuka
Jelena Prokopcuka outran Susan Chepkemei by 14 seconds in 2005, then left the whole field a full minute behind when she defended the title in 2006.
Q 12Which runner crossed the line 17th at the 2025 New York City Marathon to complete his set of six majors?
Eliud Kipchoge
Eliud Kipchoge came home in 2:14:36, more than six minutes behind the winner, and hours later announced his next goal: a marathon on each of the seven continents.
Q 13Rosie Ruiz's mistaken 1979 New York finish time qualified her for which race, where her fraud was exposed?
1980 Boston Marathon
Q 21Fred Lebow, founder of the race, was born under what name in Arad, Romania?
Fischel Lebowitz
Fischel Lebowitz survived the Holocaust as a boy, emigrated to the United States and shortened his name to Fred Lebow.
Q 22Which 1994 winner earned the nickname 'Wrong Way' after a detour seven-tenths of a mile from the finish?
Germán Silva
Germán Silva turned off the course with less than a mile left, doubled back 40 yards behind, and still ran down countryman Benjamín Paredes to win by two seconds.
Q 23Who in 1994 became the first African woman to win the New York City Marathon?
Tegla Loroupe
Tegla Loroupe, who as a girl ran ten kilometres to and from school, won in 2:27:37 in her first major marathon and took the title again a year later.
Rosie Ruiz's 2:56:29 from New York got her into the 1980 Boston Marathon, where she was declared women's winner before officials found she had not run the full course of either race.
Q 14Which American won the 1980 New York City Marathon in 2:09:41 in the first marathon of his life?
Alberto Salazar
Alberto Salazar ran the fastest marathon debut by an American and was on the cover of Sports Illustrated that week; he won New York again in 1981 and 1982.
Q 15Why was the winner's 2:08:13 'world best' at the 1981 New York City Marathon later annulled?
The course was too short
The course was too short by about 150 metres when it was measured again three years later, so the mark was wiped out and Rob de Castella's 2:08:18 stood as the world best instead.
Q 16Which New Zealander caught leader Geoff Smith at the 26-mile mark to win the 1983 New York City Marathon?
Rod Dixon
Rod Dixon swept past in the final 385 yards and won by nine seconds; Smith, running his first marathon, later blamed dehydration for his fade.
Q 17Who won the 2025 men's race by three-hundredths of a second, the closest finish in New York City Marathon history?
Benson Kipruto
Benson Kipruto and Alexander Mutiso were given the same time, 2:08:09; Albert Korir, third across the line, later lost that place to a five-year doping ban.
Q 18From 1984 to 1986 the men's winner of the New York City Marathon came from which country three years running?
Italy
Italy: Orlando Pizzolato won in 1984 despite stopping several times with cramps in the heat, won again in 1985, and Gianni Poli made it three in 1986.
Q 19Who in 1987 became the first African man to win the New York City Marathon?
Ibrahim Hussein
Ibrahim Hussein had worked his way up from ninth in 1985 and fourth in 1986 before breaking through in 2:11:01 to become the race's first African men's champion.
Q 20In 1992 the nine-time women's champion ran the whole race beside founder Fred Lebow to mark what?
His 60th birthday
His 60th birthday: Fred Lebow, diagnosed with brain cancer two years earlier, had vowed to run his own race while he still could; the champion stayed beside him all the way, and he died in 1994.
Q 24Which wheelchair racer completed a 2013 sweep of four major marathons by winning in New York?
Tatyana McFadden
Tatyana McFadden became the first person to win four major marathons in one calendar year; as a child in a Russian orphanage with no wheelchair, she got around by walking on her hands.
Q 25Tesfaye Jifar's 2001 course record of 2:07:43, set weeks after 9/11, stood until who broke it in 2011?
Geoffrey Mutai
Geoffrey Mutai ran 2:05:06, over two and a half minutes inside the old mark; that April he had run 2:03:02 in Boston, then the fastest marathon ever, on a course that cannot count for world records.
Q 26Whose 2003 women's course record of 2:22:31 at the New York City Marathon stood until 2025?
Margaret Okayo
Margaret Okayo cut nearly two minutes off her own record from 2001; the mark lasted 22 years, until the first three women home in 2025 all ran faster.
Q 27Which rapper ran the 2003 New York City Marathon and raised $2 million for the city's children?
P. Diddy
P. Diddy had trained for only eight weeks and fought leg cramps on the way round, but he finished, and his 'Diddy Runs the City' drive brought in about $2 million.
Q 28Which reigning marathon world record holder won New York in 2005 in a sprint finish against Hendrick Ramaala?
Paul Tergat
Paul Tergat outsprinted the defending champion through Central Park to win by less than a second, a margin that stayed the closest in the race's history until 2025.
Q 29Marílson Gomes dos Santos, winner in 2006 and 2008, was the New York City Marathon's first champion from which country?
Brazil
Brazil's Marílson Gomes dos Santos held off Stephen Kiogora by eight seconds in 2006 to become the first South American runner to win in New York.
Q 30Which cyclist ran the 2006 New York City Marathon in 2:59:36, just inside three hours?
Lance Armstrong
Lance Armstrong, paced by a team of famous runners, squeezed under three hours and said afterwards that the race was extremely hard compared with the Tour de France.