Sports Trivia: 20 Facts Every Quiz Fan Should Know

The sports round rewards fans who know a little history as well as the latest scores. Results change every week, but the origins, rules and great records stay the same — and that is exactly what quiz writers reach for. Here are 20 facts that come up again and again on quiz night.

The Olympics

1. The ancient Olympic Games were held at Olympia in Greece; the traditional date for the first is 776 BC.
2. The modern Olympics were revived in Athens in 1896, led by the French educator Pierre de Coubertin.
3. The five Olympic rings represent the union of five continents. The colours — blue, yellow, black, green and red on white — were chosen so every nation's flag at the time contained at least one.
4. The Summer and Winter Games alternate every two years. They were held in the same year until 1992; the Winter Games moved to 1994 to separate them.
5. The marathon is 42.195 kilometres. The name comes from the legend of a Greek messenger running from Marathon to Athens; the exact distance was fixed after the 1908 London Olympics.
6. Michael Phelps has won more Olympic medals than anyone — 28, of which 23 are gold.

The World's Games

7. Football (soccer) is the most popular sport in the world by number of fans and players.
8. Basketball was invented in 1891 by James Naismith, a Canadian teacher in Massachusetts. The first "hoops" were peach baskets, and someone had to fetch the ball after every score.
9. A basketball team has five players on court; a volleyball team has six; a rugby union team has fifteen.
10. Volleyball was invented in 1895 by William G. Morgan as a gentler indoor alternative to basketball.
11. Tennis scores run 15, 30, 40, game. Nobody is sure why. One popular theory links it to a clock face, with 45 later shortened to 40.
12. Wimbledon is the oldest tennis tournament in the world, first held in 1877, and the only Grand Slam still played on grass.
13. Rugby takes its name from Rugby School in England, and badminton from Badminton House, a country estate in Gloucestershire.

Cricket

14. The first official Test match was played between Australia and England in Melbourne in 1877.
15. Test matches can last up to five days, while a Twenty20 match is over in about three hours.
16. Sachin Tendulkar is the only player to score 100 international centuries.

Records and Firsts

17. Usain Bolt's 100 metres world record of 9.58 seconds was set in Berlin in 2009.
18. The Tour de France began in 1903. The leader wears the yellow jersey, a colour chosen to match the newspaper that founded the race.
19. Golf has been played on the Moon. Astronaut Alan Shepard hit two golf balls during the Apollo 14 mission in 1971.
20. A badminton shuttlecock is the fastest object in racket sports, with smashes measured at over 400 km/h.

How Sports Questions Are Asked

• Numbers — players per team, distances, how long a match lasts.
• Origins — where a sport was invented and how it got its name.
• Records — the fastest, the most medals, the most titles.
• Venues — Wimbledon, Lord's ("the home of cricket"), St Andrews ("the home of golf").

How to Prepare

You do not need to follow every league. Pick one fact per sport — how many players, where it was invented, and its most famous record — and you will have a foothold in almost any question. The Olympics are worth extra attention, because they bring dozens of sports into one category.

Keep these in your back pocket and the sports round becomes easy points. Fancy a challenge? Start a free Sports quiz or browse all quiz categories.