71 Interesting Athletics Trivia Questions and Answers

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Regardless of how much your glutes will be killing you and the breathless feeling that follows, we all still appreciate what athletics means to our bodies. The strength and speed required for this sport are enough to send down an instant adrenaline rush to any athletic lover or even a spectator.

From the track events to the heptathlons and decathlons, and down to the greatest athletic feats of all times, these Athletics Trivia Questions and Answers is fully packed to give you the thrills of the sport! You can surely bet on this one. If you’re ready, let’s go!

1. At the first modern Olympic Games in 1896, there was an Australian man, who had originally come to spectate the games, but ended up deciding to compete in the athletics events. He even won the 800-meter and 1500-meter events in the competition. Who is he?
Answer: Edwin Flack.

2. Which Mexican track and field athlete is the first woman to light the Olympic flame at the 19th Summer Olympics, in Mexico City?
Answer: Enriqueta Basilio.

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3. Who was the first British athlete to run under 20 seconds for the 200 meters? This athlete, as of 2020, still holds the UK record for the event.
Answer: John Regis.

4. How many gold medals did Jesse Owens win at the 1936 Olympic Games?
Answer: 4.

5. How many times did Paula Radcliffe win the London Marathon?
Answer: 3 times.

6. Which athlete is famously known as The King of Speed?
Answer: Usain Bolt.

7. Which athlete was proclaimed the greatest athlete of the 1st half of the 20th century by US President Nixon?
Answer: Jim Thorpe.

8. Which event is the last but one (or penultimate) event of the decathlon?
Answer: Javelin.

9. In which country did athletic events first begin?
Answer: Greece.

10. Who won a total of 16 Paralympic medals, including 11 golds, held over 30 world records, and won the London Marathon six times?
Answer: Tanni Grey-Thompson.

11. In which athletics throwing event is the woman’s world record further than the men’s?
Answer: Discus.

12. With a total of 2959 medals in athletics, which country has the most athletic medals in the world?
Answer: USA.

13. Who is the only track athlete to win gold medals in the same individual event in four consecutive Olympic Games?
Answer: Carl Lewis.

14. Who was the first black British woman to become an Olympic champion?
Answer: Tessa Sanderson.

15. In which year’s Olympics did Bruce Jenner win the men’s decathlon?
Answer: 1976.

16. What is the first command given to start a race?
Answer: “On your marks”.

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17. How often is the world athletics championship held?
Answer: Every 2 years.

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18. The athletes representing this country have won a total of 54 Olympic medals, all of which are in athletics. Which country is this?
Answer: Ethiopia.

19. All forms of athletics are individual sports except which event?
Answer: Relay racing.

20. How many athletic events are defined by the sport’s governing body, World Athletics?
Answer: 6.

21. This sprinter recently came out in 2019 as India’s first openly gay professional athlete. What is her name?
Answer: Dutee Chand.

22. Where is the headquarters of the international body governing World Athletics?
Answer: Monaco.

23. Usain Bolt’s final appearance in the 100 meters sprint, at the 2017 World Championships in London, was disappointing by his standards. What was his position in that race?
Answer: Third.

24. In which Commonwealth Games event (year, location) did Usain Bolt win his only gold medal at a Commonwealth Games event?
Answer: 2014, Glasgow.

25. What is the name of the Greek athlete who was the first-ever winner of the stadion race in the first recorded Ancient Olympic Games in 776 BC?
Answer: Coroebus.

26. In sprint events of all major championships, how many false starts are allowed before an athlete is disqualified?
Answer: 0.

27. How many laps do athletes have to complete in a 10,000-meter race on a standard outdoor athletics track?
Answer: 25.

28. How heavy is the metal used for the men’s hammer throw?
Answer: 7.26 kg or 16 lbs.

29. How many runners are there in each team in a relay race?
Answer: 4.

30. What is the right sequence in a triple jump?
Answer: Hop, Step, Jump.

31. Who is the only British athlete to have won titles in Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, European Championships, and World Championships?
Answer: Sally Gunnell.

32. The 2022 World Athletics Championship is scheduled to take place in Eugene, Oregon, United States. What is the date for the event?
Answer: July 15–24, 2022.

33. Jumping and throwing is a composition of which type of athletics event?
Answer: Field events.

34. A race in which members of the team take turns in completing the race, is known as?
Answer: Relay race.

35. In which athletic events do contesters have to throw a very heavy round ball as far as possible?
Answer: Shot put.

36. An athletic event with 7 field and track events is known as?
Answer: Decathlon.

37. Which athlete is considered the greatest sprinter of all time, with 8 Olympic gold medals and 19 world records?
Answer: Usain Bolt.

38. When was athletics first introduced to the modern Olympics Summer Games?
Answer: 1896.

39. Which country is well known for producing some of the best male sprinters to grace the world of athletics, with the likes of Usain Bolt, Warren Weir, and Yohan Blake as proud champions of the country?
Answer: Jamaica.

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40. What does the word “athlete” mean in Greek?
Answer: Competition.

41. How many lanes are there in a typical running track?
Answer: 8.

42. If the women’s 400 meters hurdle height is 2 feet 6 inches, how high is the men’s hurdle for the same distance event?
Answer: 3 feet.

43. What do relay race runners pass on to each other while running?
Answer: A baton.

44. In which two athletics events are an athlete required to clear obstacles on the track during the race?
Answer: Hurdle events and the steeple chase.

45. The marathon, half marathon, 10 km, and 5 km are features of which athletic event?
Answer: Road running.

46. How many prestigious marathon competitions are there in the World Marathon Majors?
Answer: 6.

47. The most naturalistic of the sports in athletics that take place on open-air courses over surfaces such as grass, woodland trails, and earth is known as?
Answer: Cross country running.

48. What does IAAF stand for?
Answer: International Amateur Athletics Federation.

49. In what year were Japanese athletes barred from the London Olympics?
Answer: 1948.

50. The only sport in athletics in which judges monitor athletes on their technique, whereby the athletes must always have a foot in contact with the ground and their advancing leg must be straightened, not bent at the knee. What form of athletic event is this?
Answer: Race-walking.

51. Athletics competitions where age is not taken into account are known as?
Answer: Senior or Open Class athletics.

52. A track athlete with a visual impairment is known as?
Answer: A classified T12 athlete.

53. Even though he did not develop the ability to walk until he was five years old, at the age of 100, he broke 8 world records for centenarians in athletics in one day. Who is he?
Answer: Fauja Singh.

54. In what year were female athletes allowed to compete for Saudi Arabia at the Olympics for the first time?
Answer: 2012.

55. The athletic brand ASICS is an acronym for “anima sana in corpore sano”. What does it translate as?
Answer: “a sound mind in a sound body”.

56. Elite athletes have an area of the brain that performs 82 percent faster than average under intense pressure. True or False?
Answer: False.

57. There were 2 American athletes who finished 1st and 2nd in 400m at the Munich Olympics; acted casually on the medal stand, did not face the flag during the anthem, and were eventually banned from the Olympics for life. Who are there?
Answer: Vincent Matthews & Wayne Collett.

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58. What type of athletic shoes was named because when they were invented, people used them to their advantage to move around quietly?
Answer: Sneakers.

59. At what Olympic sports event were 11 Israeli athletes taken hostage and later killed by the Palestinian Black September group?
Answer: The Munich Olympics, 1972.

60. Who is the Japanese athlete that was a bombing survivor of Hiroshima, thus earning him the nickname “atomic boy”, and he was also the winner of the 1951 Boston Marathon?
Answer: Shigeki Tanaka.

61. What was the name originally given to the track and field long jump, until the name was changed in the 1960s, after the rise of women’s athletics?
Answer: Broad jump.

62. While the discus, shot put and hammer are thrown from the throwing circle, where is the javelin thrown from?
Answer: The runway.

63. Which athlete won a medal for being the only one not to crash during a race?
Answer: Steven Bradbury.

64. In 1930, the University of California dedicated $1,500 to research on the prevention & cure of what athletic injury?
Answer: Athlete’s foot.

65. Whose feat of breaking 4 world records in just 45 minutes, is regarded as “the greatest 45 minutes ever in sport”?
Answer: Jesse Owens.

66. Although sadly, this Ethiopian athlete was later paralyzed in an auto accident, he was the first athlete to win the Olympic marathon twice. What is his name?
Answer: Abebe Bikila.

67. Mark Spitz was the first athlete to win 7 Olympic gold medals in a single Game. In what year did he achieve this world record?
Answer: 1972.

68. How old was Ulrike Meyfarth when she became the youngest winner of an individual athletics event in Olympic history?
Answer: 16.

69. In what year did the American athlete Carl Lewis win the first of his 9 Olympic gold medals?
Answer: 1984.

70. She is the first American woman to win an Olympic gold medal in the long jump and the first woman to compile more than 7,000 points in the seven-event heptathlon. What is her name?
Answer: Jackie Joyner-Kersee.

71. Which athletic champion was disqualified and had her string of 42 consecutive 100m final victories snapped by Zhanna Pintusevich-Block of Ukraine at the World Athletics Championships in Edmonton, Canada?
Answer: Marion Jones.

Did you enjoy these fun athletic trivia questions? Please leave a comment below and share if you like the content. Do you know that Wife Carrying is a sport?  Check out 30 weird sports around the world and 86 Fun Sports Trivia Questions and Answers


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