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49 free Unusual Sports trivia questions with answers — sports quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
16 free unusual sports trivia questions with answers. Think you know about sports? Test your knowledge with our unusual sports trivia quiz featuring 16 challenging questions about the world's strangest athletic competitions. From extreme niche sports to bizarre international games, this quiz covers unique sports you've probably never heard of. Can you score a perfect game?
30 of 49 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01What unusual sport, first staged in Sonkajärvi, Finland, in 1992, has competitors race with a team-mate on their back?
Wife Carrying
Wife Carrying began in Sonkajärvi, Finland, in 1992; the 253.5-metre course has two dry obstacles and a water obstacle, and the winner traditionally receives the wife's weight in beer.
Q 02Which hybrid sport has competitors alternate rounds of blitz chess and boxing until one wins by checkmate or knockout?
Chess Boxing
Chess Boxing alternates rounds of blitz chess with rounds of boxing; Dutch performance artist Iepe Rubingh staged the first official bout in 2003 and founded the World Chess Boxing Organisation to govern the sport.
Q 03Which team sport, known as Octopush in the UK, is played on the bottom of a swimming pool?
Underwater Hockey
Underwater Hockey has players push a puck across the pool floor with short sticks; it was invented in England in 1954 and is played in masks, snorkels and fins.
Q 04Which Southeast Asian sport has players use feet, knees, chest and head to send a rattan ball over a net?
Sepak Takraw
Sepak Takraw, played with a woven rattan ball over a net using only feet, knees, chest and head, has been contested at the Asian Games since 1990; its name joins Malay 'sepak' (kick) and Thai 'takraw' (woven ball).
Q 05What Central Asian equestrian sport has horse-mounted players dragging a headless goat carcass to a scoring area?
Buzkashi
Buzkashi, meaning "goat grabbing" in Persian, is a rugged and often violent game played on horseback primarily in Central Asian countries like Afghanistan, where riders compete for control of a carcass.
Q 06What sport involves pressing wrinkled clothes with an iron and board in unusual or dangerous outdoor spots?
Extreme Ironing
Extreme Ironing, originating in Leicester, England, in 1997, combines the mundane task of ironing with the thrill of extreme outdoor activities, with participants pressing clothes in places like mountaintops or underwater.
Q 07What recreational activity involves rolling down a hill inside a large, transparent, inflatable sphere?
Zorbing
Zorbing originated in New Zealand and offers a unique experience of rolling down slopes inside a giant inflatable ball, often with water inside for an added slip-and-slide effect.
Q 08What sport, originally inspired by a fictional book series, was officially rebranded as Quadball in 2022?
Quidditch
The real-life sport, initially known as Quidditch and inspired by the Harry Potter series, was renamed Quadball in 2022 by its governing bodies, partly due to trademark issues and to distance itself from the original author.
Q 09In what sport do competitors race down Cooper's Hill in Gloucestershire chasing a wheel of Double Gloucester?
Cheese Rolling
The annual Cheese Rolling event at Cooper's Hill is famous for its steep slope and the dangerous but exhilarating pursuit of a large wheel of Double Gloucester cheese.
Q 10Which sport, played on an inflatable court with trampolines, combines volleyball, soccer and gymnastics?
Bossaball
Bossaball, invented in Spain in 2004, is a dynamic sport played on a giant inflatable court that incorporates trampolines, allowing players to perform acrobatic maneuvers to hit the ball over a net.
Q 11Which Dutch sport involves sprinting to a canal pole, climbing it as it tips, and landing on the far bank?
Fierljeppen
Fierljeppen is Frisian for 'far leaping'; it began as a practical way for farmers to cross the region's many waterways and is now judged on distance, with poles up to 13 metres long.
Q 12What is Argentina's national sport, played on horseback with a handled leather ball?
Pato
Pato, meaning 'duck' in Spanish, is Argentina's national sport, historically played with a live duck in a basket. It has evolved into a regulated equestrian game where riders try to throw a handled ball through vertical rings.
Q 13What sport combines basketball with trampolines on a spring-loaded court?
SlamBall
Q 21The Kırkpınar oil-wrestling festival is held each summer near which Turkish city?
Edirne
Edirne hosts the Kırkpınar oil-wrestling festival every summer; wrestlers doused in olive oil grapple in leather kispet trousers for the title of başpehlivan, and the tournament claims a history dating to 1346.
Q 22In kabaddi, why must an attacker repeatedly chant the word 'kabaddi' while in the opposing half?
To prove it is done on a single breath
The chant, called a cant, shows referees the raider is not inhaling.
Q 23Kabaddi is the national sport of which country?
Bangladesh
SlamBall is a unique sport played on a court with four trampolines in front of each net and surrounded by plexiglass walls, allowing for high-flying dunks and aggressive play.
Q 14Which motorsport has pilots in FPV goggles flying camera-equipped remote aircraft through 3D courses?
Drone Racing
Drone Racing pilots fly small quadcopters through gates at highway speeds while watching a live camera feed in FPV goggles; the Drone Racing League, founded in 2015, runs a televised professional circuit.
Q 15What sport scores bounces or distance from throwing a flat rock across water?
Stone Skipping
Stone Skipping, called stone skimming in Britain, is scored on bounces or distance; the World Stone Skimming Championships are held each year in a flooded slate quarry on Easdale Island, Scotland.
Q 16In what contact sport do teams of skaters on an oval track score by having a 'jammer' lap opponents?
Roller Derby
Roller Derby teams field five skaters each, and the jammer scores a point for every opposing blocker they lap.
Q 17Roughly how much of a head start does the cheese get on the runners at the Cooper's Hill race?
About one second
The cheese gets about one second's head start before the runners go; the 7–9 lb Double Gloucester reaches speeds that can injure spectators on the 1-in-2 slope, so a foam replica has been rolled since 2013.
Q 18In wife-carrying, what is the 'Estonian style' hold?
Passenger upside-down on the back
Passenger upside-down on the back, legs over the carrier's neck and shoulders; piggyback and fireman's carry are the alternatives, and there are generally no rules about gender or marital status.
Q 19Bog snorkelling world records are set at the Waen Rhydd bog in which Welsh town?
Llanwrtyd Wells
Llanwrtyd Wells, which bills itself as Britain's smallest town, has hosted the World Bog Snorkelling Championship at the Waen Rhydd peat bog since 1985; competitors cover two lengths of a 60-yard trench using flipper power only.
Q 20Which French comic-book artist invented the hybrid of chess and boxing?
Enki Bilal
Enki Bilal depicted chess boxing in his 1992 graphic novel Froid Équateur; Dutch artist Iepe Rubingh staged the first real bout in 2003, and the Wu-Tang Clan had name-checked the idea in a 1993 song.
Bangladesh adopted kabaddi, known locally as ha-du-du, as its national sport in 1972; India has no officially declared national sport, and kabaddi joined the Asian Games in 1990.
Q 24Alan Blake invented Octopush in Portsmouth in 1954 for what purpose?
To keep sub-aqua club members active in winter
Open-water diving lost its appeal in the cold months, so the Southsea Sub-Aqua Club moved to the pool floor.
Q 25The Royal Shrovetide Football match, with goals three miles apart, is played in which Derbyshire town?
Ashbourne
Ashbourne has played Royal Shrovetide Football on Shrove Tuesday and Ash Wednesday for centuries; the Up'ards and Down'ards goal at mill sites three miles apart, and the royal prefix dates from 1928 when the Prince of Wales started play.
Q 26Ferret-legging, holding live ferrets inside one's trousers, was once popular among which workers?
Yorkshire coal miners
Ferret-legging was a pub pastime of Yorkshire coal miners; Barnsley's Reg Mellor set the record of 5 hours 26 minutes in 1981, and one origin theory says poachers hid illicit ferrets in their trousers.
Q 27Oina, a bat-and-ball game codified for schools in 1899, is the national sport of which country?
Romania
Romania's national sport is oina, a bat-and-ball game first mentioned in 1364; Education Minister Spiru Haret introduced it to schools and organised the first competitions in 1899.
Q 28Shin-kicking is a star event of which English games, first held in 1612 and revived in 1951?
The Cotswold Olimpicks
The Cotswold Olimpicks, founded by Robert Dover near Chipping Campden in 1612, ran until 1852 and were revived in 1951; shin-kicking remains their signature event, with contestants padding their trousers with straw.
Q 29In Scotland, the caber used in the caber toss is usually made from which tree?
Larch
The caber is traditionally a trimmed larch trunk, typically 16 to 20 feet long and 90 to 150 pounds; a perfect toss turns end over end and lands pointing straight away at '12 o'clock'.
Q 30In modern camel racing, what has widely replaced child jockeys following bans in the UAE and Qatar?
Remote-controlled robotic whips
Remote-controlled robotic whips now ride the camels, which can sprint at up to 65 km/h and hold 40 km/h for an hour.