I Played This Sport Trivia Quiz

Answer: Rowing

Steven Redgrave from England won gold medals in 5 consecutive Olympic Games from 1984 to 2000 in rowing, either in pairs or four-man crews. He also won 3 Commonwealth golds and 9 world championships. He achieved these accomplishments despite suffering from colitis and diabetes.

Answer: Cricket

Brian Lara was one of the world's greatest batsmen in cricket, playing for the West Indies. He has two of the three highest scores in Test Cricket, the sports highest form. He scored 375 against England and 10 years later had a score of 400 not out (he was still batting when the game or innings ended).

Answer: Rugby Union

Jonah Lomu (1975-2015) was born of Tongan parent in New Zealand and achieved legendary status playing for the All Blacks rugby team (NZ). He was 6'5" (1.95m) 260 pounds (100kgm) with tremendous speed and strength. While still in his prime he developed nephritis and ultimately received a kidney transplant before his early death.

Answer: Skiing

Franz Klammer from Austria was the downhill race champion at the Innsbruck 1976 Olympics. In an electrifying performance (repeated many times on TV) when he seemed to be racing at the very edge to gain every split second to gain a narrow victory for the home country. He won the World Cup in downhill racing for four consecutive years (1975-76-77-78) and once again in 1983.

Answer: Golf

Seve Ballesteros was a Spanish professional golfer. He won 90 international tournaments in his career, including five major championships between 1979 and 1988 and was a World Number 1 for a time. He played a leading role in the re-emergence of European golf, helping the European Ryder Cup team to five wins both as a player and captain.

Answer: Boxing

Lazlo Papp (1926-2003) was a stylish Hungarian boxer in the post-War era. At that time boxers from Communist countries stayed as "amateurs". Papp won three consecutive Olympic gold medals in 1948, 1952, and 1956 (middleweight then two light middleweight). He turned professional in 1957 at age 31, but had to travel outside of Hungary to train and box. He defeated the top middleweight boxers for the European title and was scheduled to fight Joey Giardello for the world championship when the Hungarian government ended his career by denying him an exit visa. He retired undefeated.

Answer: Distance Running

Grete Waitz (1953-2008) was a dominant Norwegian marathon runner after the race was opened to women. She was a former world record holder and won the New York marathon 9 times. As a rising junior star, she won Norwegian titles in the 400m and 800m runs, set a European junior record in the 1500 meter run, and a bronze medal at the European championship.

At ages 22 and 24 she set world records in the 3000 meter run. She first ran the New York marathon in 1978 and broke the course record for women in each of her first three years.

Answer: Volleyball

Charles (Karch) Karaly is a prominent US volleyball player, announcer, and coach. He was a key member of the US team that won Olympic gold medals in team volleyball in 1984 and 1988. He would later win another gold medal in the first Olympic beach volleyball competition.

He'ad won three college national volleyball championships while attending UCLA. For the national team he was relied on for covering services and returning the ball to the team setter. After his second gold medal he played professionally in Italy.

He had played beach volleyball since age 11 and won at least one title in 24 of the 28 years he played. He won 148 beach volleyball titles during his long career. As coach of the US women's volleyball team he led them to a bronze (2016) and a gold medal (2020) in the Olympics.

Answer: Soccer

Johan Cruyff (1947-2006) was voted the European football Player of the Century in 1999, behind only Pele as the Player of the Century. He won the Ballon d'Or three times in the 1970s and led Netherlands to a second place finish in the 1974 World Cup. Cruyff and the Dutch style of play, Total Football, has had a significant impact how football has evolved since his prime in the 1970s. Later Cruyff had successful stints as manager of the Ajax and Barcelona teams, both of which he had played for. His Barcelona "Dream Team" won four consecutive league titles (1991-92-93-94) and numerous European trophies.

Answer: Swimming

Katie Ledecky has won seven Olympic gold medals and 19 world championship gold medals, the most in history for a female swimmer. She won a surprise gold medal in the 2012 London Olympics as a 15 year old swimmer. She continued her success in the 2016 Rio and 2020 Tokyo Olympic games. In her career she broke 16 world records.

Answer: Figure skating

Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean skated one of the most memorable performances in figure skating history to win the 1984 Olympic gold medal while performing to the music of "Bolero". Previously they had finished 5th at the 1980 Lake Placid Olympics.

After turning professional they were not allowed to compete in the Olympics until a rule change in 1993. They returned to win a bronze medal in the 1994 Lillehammer Olympics.

Answer: Ice Hockey

Gordie Howe is viewed as perhaps the most complete ice hockey player in the history of the NHL, where he played 26 seasons. All but one of those years was as a stalwart for the Detroit Red Wings. Howe led Detroit to four Stanley Cup wins and seven league championships, mostly on the famous "Production Line" with Ted Lindsay and Sid Abel.

He was noted as a tough physical player, beside perennially being one of the top goal scorers in the league. Hockey pundits have created a new category, the "Gordie Howe Hat Trick", which consists of scoring a goal, an assist, and a 5 minute major for fighting in the same game.

Despite his reputation, Howe has only 2 such hat tricks, trailing the leader who has 18.

Answer: American Football

Joe Montana is regarded as one of the best quarterbacks in NFL history. He was noted for his coolness under pressure and his ability to win comebacks after trailing until late in the game. He had won a college national championship at Notre Dame and later led the San Francisco 49ers to 4 Super Bowl wins in the 1980s.

Answer: High Jump

Dick Fosbury revolutionized the high jump. As a high school sophomore he was unable to clear 5 feet while using the standard high jump technique (run to the bar and elevate one leg over the bar and roll to get the other leg over). Fosbury developed a new technique that require him to turn his back to the bar and arch his shoulders and back over the bar first.

This was called the "Fosbury Flop". He won the 1968 Mexico City Olympics gold medal in the high jump with an Olympic record of 7ft 4 1/4in (2.24m0.

His technique has since become the standard style.

Answer: Cycling

Eddy Merckx dominated cycling between the mid 1960s until the mid 1970s. His victories include an unequalled eleven Grand Tours (five Tours de France, five Giros d'Italia, and a Vuelta a Espaņa), all five Monuments, setting the hour record, three World Championships, every major one-day race other than Paris-Tours, and extensive victories on the track.

The Belgian was nicknamed "The Cannibal" for his fierce attacking style and desire to win.