Sports: previous-year questions

Answer: (A) Chelsea

Chelsea won the first expanded, 32-team FIFA Club World Cup, beating Paris Saint-Germain 3-0 in the final at MetLife Stadium, New Jersey (USA) on 13 July 2025; Cole Palmer scored twice and won the Golden Ball. The new tournament replaced the old annual seven-club competition and is to be held every four years. Of the other options, Real Madrid lost to PSG in the semi-final, Manchester City (winner of the last old-format edition in 2023) went out in the round of 16, and Barcelona did not qualify. Chelsea thus hold the title under both formats, having also won the 2021 edition.

Answer: (A) Arthur Ashe Stadium

Answer as of 2023 — this may have changed since.

Arthur Ashe Stadium at Flushing Meadows, New York, home of the US Open, seats about 23,000 and is the largest tennis-specific stadium. The O2 Arena, Rotterdam Ahoy and Perth Arena are multi-purpose indoor arenas with smaller tennis capacity.

Answer: (B) Pierre de Coubertin

French educator Baron Pierre de Coubertin founded the International Olympic Committee in 1894 and revived the Games at Athens in 1896. Spyridon Samaras composed the Olympic Hymn, and Wilson and Hoover were US Presidents.

Answer: (B) Hockey

The Sultan Azlan Shah Cup is an international men's field hockey tournament held annually in Malaysia since 1983. It is not a badminton, table tennis or golf event.

Answer: (C) Wrestling

Pehlwani (kushti) is the traditional wrestling of the Indian subcontinent, practised in akharas on earthen pits. It has no connection with boxing, football or badminton.

Answer: (C) 1973

The first Women's Cricket World Cup was held in England in 1973, two years before the first men's World Cup, and was won by England. The other years are wrong.

Answer: (D) Cricket

The Friends Provident Trophy was the name of English county cricket's one-day knockout cup from 2007 to 2009, sponsored by the insurer Friends Provident. It was not a football, volleyball or squash event.

Answer: (C) Lionel Messi

At the BBC Sports Personality of the Year awards in December 2022, the "World Sport Star of the Year" award went to Lionel Messi, who had just led Argentina to the FIFA World Cup title in Qatar (final against France won on penalties; Messi took the Golden Ball and Kylian Mbappé the Golden Boot). The main Sports Personality of the Year award that evening went to the English footballer Beth Mead. Roger Federer and Serena Williams both retired in 2022, and Neeraj Chopra won the Diamond League final that year, but none of them received this award.

Answer: (B) India

The 13th IBA Women's World Boxing Championships were held in New Delhi from 15 to 26 March 2023; India has hosted the event three times (2006, 2018 and 2023). India topped the medal table with four gold medals: Nitu Ghanghas (48 kg), Nikhat Zareen (50 kg), Lovlina Borgohain (75 kg) and Saweety Boora (81 kg). M. C. Mary Kom holds the record of six women's world titles. The IBA (International Boxing Association, formerly AIBA) is based in Lausanne. The 2023 men's championships were held in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.

Answer: (B) Neeraj Chopra

Switzerland Tourism named Olympic champion Neeraj Chopra its "Friendship Ambassador" in 2022, to showcase the country's outdoor and adventure destinations to Indian travellers. Neeraj Chopra won the javelin gold at the Tokyo Olympics (87.58 m), India's first Olympic gold in athletics, followed by the Diamond League title in 2022, the World Championship gold in 2023 and the silver at the Paris Olympics in 2024. P. V. Sindhu (badminton), Mary Kom (boxing) and Virat Kohli (cricket) have no such role; the actor Ranveer Singh had earlier been Switzerland Tourism's brand ambassador for India.

Answer: (C) Madhya Pradesh

Madhya Pradesh declared Mallakhamb its State sport in 2013. Mallakhamb ("malla" = wrestler, "khamb" = pole) is a traditional Indian sport in which gymnasts perform yoga-like postures and aerial feats on a vertical wooden pole, a hanging pole or a rope; it was revived in the Maratha period, and Ujjain in Madhya Pradesh is a major centre. It was demonstrated at the 1936 Berlin Olympics and is part of the Khelo India Youth Games. Kerala is associated with Kalaripayattu, while Assam and Rajasthan have no link with Mallakhamb.

Answer: (C) Rohit Sharma

Rohit Sharma crossed 10,000 runs in all T20 cricket (internationals, IPL and domestic T20 together) in April 2022 during an IPL match for Mumbai Indians against Punjab Kings, becoming the second Indian after Virat Kohli and the seventh batter overall to do so. The first batter ever to reach the mark was Chris Gayle. The other options had not reached 10,000 T20 runs at that time.

Answer: (C) Ravi Kumar Dahiya

At the Asian Wrestling Championships held in Ulaanbaatar (Mongolia) in April 2022, Ravi Kumar Dahiya won gold in the men's 57 kg freestyle, his third Asian title in a row and India's only gold of the event. Bajrang Punia (65 kg), Deepak Punia (86 kg) and Gourav Baliyan (79 kg) all won silver, and India finished with 17 medals. Ravi Dahiya is also the silver medallist of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

Answer: (B) India

India won the Thomas Cup (the men's world team badminton championship) for the first time on 15 May 2022 at Bangkok, beating 14-time champions Indonesia 3-0 in the final; the winning matches were played by Lakshya Sen, the pair Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, and Kidambi Srikanth. The women's equivalent, the Uber Cup, was won by South Korea that year, and the Sudirman Cup is the mixed team event.

Answer: (A) Victoria

Answer as of 2022 — this may have changed since.

In April 2022 the Australian State of Victoria was announced as host of the 2026 Commonwealth Games, to be held across regional centres such as Geelong, Bendigo, Ballarat and Gippsland; this was the correct answer on the exam date. Later update: Victoria withdrew in July 2023 citing rising costs, and Glasgow (Scotland) stepped in to host a scaled-down Games in July-August 2026. Earlier Games: Gold Coast 2018 and Birmingham 2022. Brisbane will host the 2032 Olympics.

Answer: (B) P.V. Sindhu

P. V. Sindhu won the women's singles title at the Swiss Open (a BWF Super 300 event) at Basel in March 2022, beating Busanan Ongbamrungphan of Thailand, the name given in option D, in straight games. Sindhu is a two-time Olympic medallist (silver at Rio 2016, bronze at Tokyo 2020) and the 2019 World Champion, a title she also won at Basel. Saina Nehwal had won the Swiss Open in 2011 and 2012; Carolina Marin of Spain beat Sindhu in the Rio Olympic final.

Answer: (B) England won Super Over by boundaries.

In the final at Lord's on 14 July 2019 both England and New Zealand scored 241, and the Super Over was also tied at 15 runs each. Under the rule then in force, England were declared winners on boundary count (26 boundaries to New Zealand's 17). It was England's first men's ODI World Cup; Ben Stokes was Player of the Match and Kane Williamson Player of the Tournament. Hosting, the toss and match-fixing had nothing to do with it. The ICC scrapped the boundary-count rule in October 2019 - Super Overs are now repeated until there is a winner.

Answer: (A) Manpreet Singh

Midfielder Manpreet Singh captained the Indian men's hockey team at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics (held in July-August 2021), with Birendra Lakra and Harmanpreet Singh as vice-captains; he was also India's flag-bearer along with Mary Kom. The team beat Germany 5-4 to win bronze, India's first Olympic hockey medal in 41 years (after the gold at Moscow 1980). P. R. Sreejesh was the goalkeeper, and Harmanpreet Singh later led India to another bronze at Paris 2024. The women's team at Tokyo, led by Rani Rampal, finished fourth.

Answer: (B) Dingko Singh

Ngangom Dingko Singh of Manipur won the bantamweight gold at the 1998 Bangkok Asian Games - India's first boxing gold at the Asiad in 16 years - and received the Arjuna Award (1998) and the Padma Shri (2013). He died of liver cancer on 10 June 2021, aged 42, having inspired a generation of boxers including M. C. Mary Kom. Pooja Rani, Amit Panghal (Asian Games gold, 2018) and Shiva Thapa were all active boxers at the time.

Answer: (D) Novak Djokovic

Novak Djokovic of Serbia won the 2021 French Open men's singles, beating Stefanos Tsitsipas in the final after losing the first two sets, having defeated 13-time champion Rafael Nadal in the semi-final; it was his 19th Grand Slam and second Roland Garros title. The women's title went to Barbora Krejcikova (Czech Republic). Daniil Medvedev won the US Open later in 2021, denying Djokovic a calendar Grand Slam. The French Open is the only Grand Slam played on clay; Nadal holds the record with 14 titles.