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This sports trivia quiz has 89 free questions with answers and covers the whole field: the Super Bowl and the World Cup, Wimbledon and the Masters, the Stanley Cup and the Kentucky Derby, the Olympics from Jesse Owens to Simone Biles, and the sports people forget are sports, from curling to sumo. Eighty-three multiple choice questions with four options each. It starts with questions any casual fan can get (what colour is the Tour de France leader's jersey?) and climbs to genuinely difficult sports trivia (in what year was the Kentucky Derby shortened to a mile and a quarter?), so it works as a bar sports round, a family game, or a way of settling who in the group chat actually knows their stuff. Every answer has been checked against a reference encyclopaedia or an official source, and each question shows its explanation and citation after you answer.
30 of 89 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Where were the ancient Olympic Games held?
Olympia
Olympia, the sanctuary of Zeus in the western Peloponnese, hosted the ancient Games every four years from the traditional first date of 776 BC.
Q 02Who founded the International Olympic Committee?
Pierre de Coubertin
Pierre de Coubertin, a French educator, founded the International Olympic Committee at the Sorbonne in Paris in 1894; the first Games under it followed in Athens in 1896.
Q 03Where were the first modern Olympic Games held, in 1896?
The Panathenaic Stadium
The Panathenaic Stadium in Athens, rebuilt entirely in white marble, staged the opening ceremony and athletics of the first modern Games in 1896.
Q 04Which word was added to the Olympic motto in 2021?
Together
Together (Latin Communiter) was added in July 2021, making the motto Faster, Higher, Stronger – Together; the original Citius, Altius, Fortius dated from 1894.
Q 05Where was the first winter sports week, the forerunner of the Winter Olympics, held in 1924?
Chamonix
Chamonix in the French Alps hosted the International Winter Sports Week from 25 January to 5 February 1924; the IOC later designated it the first Winter Olympics.
Q 06Which country hosted and won the first FIFA World Cup?
Uruguay
Uruguay hosted the first World Cup in 1930 with thirteen nations and beat Argentina 4–2 in the final in Montevideo.
Q 07Which team is the only one to have played in every World Cup?
Brazil
Brazil has appeared at every World Cup from 1930 through 2022 and holds a record five titles (1958, 1962, 1970, 1994, 2002).
Q 08What was the World Cup's original prize called, from 1930 to 1970?
The Jules Rimet Trophy
The Jules Rimet Trophy, named after the FIFA president who launched the tournament, was awarded from 1930 to 1970; Brazil kept it after a third win and it was stolen in Rio in 1983.
Q 09How many teams compete at the World Cup from 2026?
48
48 teams compete from the 2026 World Cup in the USA, Canada and Mexico, up from the 32 used at the previous seven tournaments; the 1930 field was thirteen.
Q 10What was the estimated viewership of the 2018 World Cup?
3.57 billion
FIFA put the 2018 World Cup's audience at 3.57 billion, close to half the world's population; the final alone reached 1.12 billion viewers.
Q 11What was the Super Bowl originally called?
The AFL-NFL World Championship Game
The AFL-NFL World Championship Game was the official name of the first two games; the Packers beat the Chiefs 35–10 in the first, at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in January 1967.
Q 12After whom is the Super Bowl trophy named?
Vince Lombardi
Vince Lombardi coached the Green Bay Packers to victory in the first two Super Bowls; the trophy was named for him after his death in 1970 and is made by Tiffany & Co.
Q 13Which two teams share the record of six Super Bowl titles?
The Steelers and the Patriots
Q 21Why was the Tour de France first organised in 1903?
To sell more copies of a newspaper
The Tour was created to sell more copies of the newspaper L'Auto, later L'Équipe, in a circulation war with Le Vélo; the yellow jersey matched the colour of its pages.
Q 22How many day-long stages make up a modern Tour de France?
21
A modern Tour de France has 21 day-long stages ridden over 23 days, the two rest days making up the difference; the 2024 race ran from Florence to Nice.
Q 23Which colour marks the leader of the Tour's mountains classification?
Polka dots on white
The Pittsburgh Steelers and New England Patriots had each won six Super Bowls through the 2024 season, both in the AFC; Dallas and San Francisco followed with five apiece.
Q 14Which Super Bowl broke the Roman numeral tradition?
The fiftieth
The fiftieth game, played in February 2016, was branded Super Bowl 50 because 'Super Bowl L' looked awkward on its own; Roman numerals returned with Super Bowl LI.
Q 15Which team lost four consecutive Super Bowls from January 1991 to January 1994?
Buffalo Bills
The Buffalo Bills lost four straight Super Bowls, XXV through XXVIII, from January 1991 to January 1994, beginning with a 20–19 loss to the New York Giants.
Q 16Since which year has Wimbledon been held?
1877
Wimbledon was first held in 1877 at the All England Croquet and Lawn Tennis Club, making it the oldest tennis tournament in the world; Spencer Gore won the first title.
Q 17When was Wimbledon's all-white clothing rule introduced?
1963
In 1963 Wimbledon wrote the rule that players must dress predominantly in white; it was tightened to 'almost entirely white' in 1995, and offenders are sent off court to change.
Q 18Who won the longest match in Wimbledon history, 70–68 in the fifth set, in 2010?
John Isner
John Isner beat Nicolas Mahut 70–68 in the fifth set in 2010; the first-round match lasted 11 hours 5 minutes over three days, the longest in tennis history.
Q 19In which year did Centre Court get its retractable roof?
2009
Centre Court's retractable roof was completed for the 2009 Championships and first closed during play on 29 June 2009, for Dinara Safina against Amélie Mauresmo.
Q 20Who has won the most women's singles titles at Wimbledon?
Martina Navratilova
Martina Navratilova won nine Wimbledon women's singles titles between 1978 and 1990, including six in a row from 1982 to 1987.
Green goes to the points leader and white to the best young rider. Yellow, of course, leads overall.
Q 24Which Tour de France climb's 21 hairpin bends are named after its stage winners?
Alpe d'Huez
Alpe d'Huez's 21 hairpins each carry a plaque naming a stage winner there, starting with Fausto Coppi, who won the first summit finish on the climb in 1952.
Q 25Roughly how long is a modern Tour de France?
About 3,500 km
That is over three weeks of racing. Riders burn through thousands of calories a day.
Q 26How many teams make up the NBA?
30
The NBA has 30 teams, 29 in the United States and one in Canada, the Toronto Raptors; the last expansion added the Charlotte Bobcats in 2004.
Q 27Which franchise has won the most NBA championships?
The Boston Celtics
The Boston Celtics won their 18th NBA championship in 2024, beating Dallas, the most of any franchise; eleven of those titles came between 1957 and 1969 under Red Auerbach's teams.
Q 28From which league did the NBA borrow the three-point shot in 1979?
The ABA
The ABA (American Basketball Association) used a three-point line from its 1967 launch until its 1976 merger with the NBA, which adopted the shot for the 1979–80 season.
Q 29Which country hosted the first Cricket World Cup, in 1975?
England
England hosted the first Cricket World Cup in June 1975, with eight teams playing 60-over matches in the long English summer daylight; the final was held at Lord's.
Q 30Who won the first Cricket World Cup final?
The West Indies
The West Indies beat Australia by 17 runs at Lord's in the 1975 final, captain Clive Lloyd making 102, and retained the trophy in 1979.