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50 free PE trivia questions with answers — sports quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Physical education is more than running laps, and these 43 PE trivia questions prove it. They are written for gym teachers, sports-day quizzes and rainy-day PE lessons, with plenty an 8- to 12-year-old can answer: how many players are on a soccer, basketball, volleyball or baseball team, how high a basketball hoop is, what a hat-trick is, why the marathon is 26.2 miles, and how many bones and muscles the body uses to do all of it. There are harder ones for older students and staff too: who invented basketball with peach baskets and volleyball as 'mintonette', where the beep test came from, why the ancient Greek gymnasium was named after nakedness, what the five Olympic rings mean, what the decathlon's ten events are, and where pickleball and ultimate were invented. Fitness basics get their turn as well: what a push-up works, what 'aerobic' means, what the Presidential Fitness Test measured, and how fast a resting heart beats. Every answer has been checked against Wikipedia and sports governing-body sources, and each question shows its explanation and source once you answer, so it is safe to use in class.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01How many players does each team have on the field in a game of soccer?
11
That includes the goalkeeper, the only player allowed to use hands, and only inside the penalty area.
Q 02How long is a full soccer match, not counting stoppage time?
90 minutes
Two halves of 45 minutes; the World Cup is played every four years and is watched by more people than the Olympics.
Q 03How many players from one team are on the court at a time in basketball?
Five
Teams of five became standard by 1897-98, a few years after the game was invented.
Q 04Who invented basketball in December 1891 to keep his gym class busy on rainy days?
James Naismith
He was a PE instructor at the YMCA training school in Springfield, Massachusetts, and nailed peach baskets to the wall.
Q 05How high is the rim of a basketball hoop above the court?
10 feet
That is 3.05 metres, the same at almost every level from school gyms to the NBA.
Q 06What did the first basketball players throw the ball into?
A peach basket
Someone had to climb up and get the ball out after every score until the bottom was cut open.
Q 07How many players does each volleyball team have on the court?
Six
Each side gets up to three touches to send the ball back over the net.
Q 08What was volleyball originally called by its inventor, William G. Morgan, in 1895?
Mintonette
He was a YMCA PE director in Holyoke, Massachusetts, and wanted something gentler than basketball for older businessmen.
Q 09How many players are on a baseball team's fielding side?
Nine
A game normally lasts nine innings, and each half-inning ends after three outs.
Q 10In baseball, how many balls does a batter need to be awarded a walk to first base?
Four
Three strikes and the batter is out; the terminology comes from the umpire calling each pitch.
Q 11How long is a marathon?
26.2 miles
That is 42.195 km, fixed in 1921 to match the 1908 London Olympic course from Windsor Castle to the royal box.
Q 12In which modern country is the battle site the marathon is named after?
Greece
Pheidippides is said to have run from Marathon in 490 BC; the race was one of the original events of the 1896 Olympics.
Q 13How many rings are on the Olympic flag?
Five
Blue, yellow, black, green and red on white; Coubertin said those six colours cover every nation's flag.
Q 14What is the Olympic motto 'Citius, Altius, Fortius' in English?
Q 21What is the single largest muscle in the human body?
The gluteus maximus
Its size is what lets humans stand upright and run; other primates have much flatter hips.
Q 22The heart is a muscle about the size of what?
A closed fist
It has four chambers and beats about 72 times a minute at rest, roughly 100,000 times a day.
Q 23What is a typical resting heart rate for an adult, in beats per minute?
About 72
Anything from 60 to 100 is normal; exercise makes it climb, and fitter people often rest lower.
Faster, Higher, Stronger
'Communiter', meaning Together, was added in 2021.
Q 15The Olympic torch relay from Olympia to the host city began at which Games?
Berlin 1936
The flame is still lit at Olympia and carried to the host stadium before every Games.
Q 16The ancient Olympic Games were held every four years at Olympia in honour of which god?
Zeus
They ran from 776 BC to AD 393; the only event at the first thirteen Games was a 192-metre sprint, and winners got olive wreaths.
Q 17In which city were the first modern Olympic Games held in 1896?
Athens
Fourteen nations sent 241 athletes, all men; American James Connolly won the triple jump to become the first champion in 1,500 years.
Q 18The word 'gymnasium' comes from a Greek word meaning what?
Naked
Ancient Greek athletes trained without clothes; the gymnasia doubled as schools where philosophers lectured.
Q 19How many bones does an adult human skeleton have?
206
Babies are born with around 270; many fuse as we grow. The skeleton is about 14 percent of body weight.
Q 20Which is the longest bone in the human body?
The femur
The thigh bone is also the thickest, which is why it takes so much force to break.
Q 24Push-ups mainly work the triceps, the front of the shoulders and which chest muscles?
Pectorals
The one-hour record is 3,378, and Charles Servizio did 46,001 in 24 hours in 1993.
Q 25The word 'aerobic', as in aerobic exercise, means relating to or requiring what?
Oxygen
Air Force doctor Kenneth Cooper coined 'aerobics' in the 1960s; running, swimming and cycling all count.
Q 26The 'beep test' run in PE classes worldwide has students shuttle back and forth over what distance?
20 metres
Luc Léger devised it; the beeps get faster every minute and it estimates VO2 max. It is also called the PACER.
Q 27The Presidential Fitness Test used in American schools from the 1950s to 2013 included a run of what distance?
One mile
Sit-ups, pull-ups or push-ups, a sit-and-reach and a shuttle run rounded it out; students above the 85th percentile got an award.
Q 28How many events make up the decathlon?
Ten
Two days, five events each; the winner is traditionally called the world's greatest athlete, a title King Gustav V first gave Jim Thorpe in 1912.
Q 29Which three sports make up a triathlon, in order?
Swim, bike, run
The first modern one was in San Diego in 1974; the Olympic distance is a 1.5 km swim, 40 km ride and 10 km run.
Q 30In dodgeball world championships, how many balls are in play at once?
Six
Six balls, six players a side; some schools have dropped the game after complaints it is too aggressive.