20 Trivia Questions on Sport!

Welcome to Trivia Thursday, Expat Living’s weekly quiz! How about challenging a friend or family member? You can get together with them over Zoom, Houseparty or Google Hangouts. Each week, there’s a new quiz covering topics relating to pop culture, geography, history, language and more. This one is 20 trivia questions on sport!

#1 Which of these was not an official Olympic sport at the 1900 Olympic Games: tug-of-war; 200-metre swimming obstacle course; contract bridge; live pigeon shooting?

#2 Simone Biles is the current world champion in what sport? 

#3 What sport did the Apollo 14 crew play on the moon?

#4 Who famously yelled “You cannot be serious!” to an umpire during a sporting encounter? 

#5 What number can be found to the right of the “20” on a dartboard? 

#6 Match the athlete to the sport: Lindsey Vonn, Bethany Hamilton, Mia Hamm; football, skiing, surfing

#7 The recently released sport documentary The Last Dance is about who?

#8 Which annual sporting event in Australia is nicknamed “The Race that Stops a Nation”? 

#9 Which is the only national football team to have played in every World Cup tournament?

#10 Which swimmer has won more individual gold medals than the combined total of gold medals won by Portugal, India and Ireland across Olympic history?

#11 Who said this about their sporting profession? “It’s just a job. Grass grows, birds fly, waves pound the sand. I beat people up.”

#12 In what sport might you “catch a crab”? 

#13 In which three countries did these martial arts originate: Krav Maga; capoeira; taekwondo?

#14 What sport is played at Hogwarts?

#15 Which baseball team has won the most World Series championships?

#16 Which song by the band Survivor is known for being used as a motivational tool to pump up athletes before the start of a competition or match?

#17 The regular Test cricket series played between England and Australia is known as what? 

#18 The marathon takes its name from a town in which country? 

#19 Which famous figure handed the winner’s trophy (the Webb Ellis Trophy) to South African captain François Pienaar at the Rugby World Cup presentation in 1995?

#20 Which of these is not a sport-related term: fartlek, nutmeg, silly mid-on, vogon, deke?

BONUS

(If you can answer correctly after the first clue, you get 10 points, but you lose a point for each additional clue you require to identify the person.)

I’m a famous sports personality born in 1986. (10)
I have a brother, Sadiki, and a sister, Sherine. (9)
I mostly played cricket and football when young, but those weren’t the sports I made my name in. (8)
My coach at school was sometimes frustrated with my joking attitude and lack of dedication to training. (7)
My talent shone through, however, and I became one of only a handful of athletes to win world championships at youth, junior and senior levels of an event. (6)
I really rose to prominence at the World Junior Championships of 2002, which were held in my home town of Kingston, Jamaica. (5)
I would go on to win eight gold medals across three Olympic Games, dominating the competition and winning worldwide renown for my feats. (4)
I am the current 100m and 200m men’s world record holder. (3)
Nicknamed “Lightning Bolt”, I am considered the fastest human in the world. (2)
I am ____. (1)

All the answers for the trivia (no cheating!)

#1 Contract bridge
#2 Gymnastics
#3 Golf
#4 John McEnroe; he said the words at the 1981 Wimbledon Championships when a line call went against him
#5 The number 1
#6 Lindsey Vonn = skiing; Bethany Hamilton = surfing, Mia Hamm = football
#7 Michael Jordan
#8 The Melbourne Cup (horseracing)
#9 Brazil
#10 Michael Phelps; he won 23 gold medals, while Portugal (4), India (9) and Ireland (9) have 22 between them to date
#11 Muhammad Ali
#12 Rowing; it refers to the blade catching in the water
#13 Krav Maga = Israel; capoeira = Brazil; taekwondo = South Korea
#14 Quidditch
#15 New York Yankees (they’ve won 27 times)
#16 “Eye of the Tiger”
#17 The Ashes
#18 Greece
#19 Nelson Mandela
#20 Vogon (“fartlek” is a term used in fitness/running, “nutmeg” is a football skill, “silly mid-on” is a cricket position and “deke” is a positional play in ice hockey; Vogon is the name of a fictional alien race in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy)

BONUS: Usain Bolt

More trivia here!

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Shamus Sillar

While he has worked as a magazine editor since 2003, Shamus also has a PhD in Roman History (useful!) and is a published author. He writes mostly on travel but also covers food, history, sport, trivia and more, across Expat Living’s publications and websites in Singapore and Hong Kong.