Sports Questions and Answers

Answer: A

The first Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna went to Viswanathan Anand.

The Khel Ratna, India's highest sporting honour (renamed the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna in 2021), was instituted in 1991-92, and its first recipient was the chess grandmaster Viswanathan Anand, who later became world champion.

The other players received it in later years: billiards champion Geet Sethi in 1992-93, Sachin Tendulkar in 1997-98, and hockey player Dhanraj Pillay in 1999-2000.

Answer: D

Libero is related to volleyball.

The libero, introduced by the international volleyball federation in 1998, is a specialist defensive player who wears a different coloured jersey, plays only in the back row and may not attack the ball above the net or serve under the international rules. He can replace any back-row player without counting as a normal substitution, which lets teams strengthen their reception and digging.

Kabaddi and kho-kho have raiders, chasers and defenders but no libero, and basketball has guards, forwards and centres. The word also appears in football, for a sweeper, but football is not among the options.

Answer: D

The answer is All of them.

The Dronacharya Award for outstanding sports coaches was instituted in 1985, and in that first year it was given to three coaches together: O. M. Nambiar, the athletics coach of P. T. Usha; Bhalchandra Bhaskar Bhagwat, the wrestling coach; and Om Prakash Bhardwaj, the boxing coach.

Since all three named in the options were the first recipients, choosing any one of them alone would leave out the other two. That is why the single-name options are incomplete.

Answer: C

The marathon distance is 26 miles 385 yards.

The marathon was run over varying distances until the London Olympics of 1908, where the course was set from Windsor Castle to the royal box in the stadium, a distance of 26 miles 385 yards. That distance, 42.195 km, was adopted as the standard by the international athletics federation in 1921.

42 km is only a rounded figure, short of the official distance by 195 metres, so it is not the exact distance. 25 miles 385 yards and 21 miles 385 yards fall well short of the standard distance, which has not changed since 1921.

Answer: C

The Olympic gold medallist is Abhinav Bindra.

Abhinav Bindra won the gold medal in the men's 10 metre air rifle at the Beijing Olympics in 2008, becoming India's first individual Olympic gold medallist. At the time of this paper he was still the only Indian to have won an individual Olympic gold.

The others won other medals: Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore took silver in double trap shooting at Athens 2004, Gagan Narang bronze in 10 metre air rifle at London 2012, and the wrestler Sushil Kumar bronze at Beijing 2008 and silver at London 2012. None of them won gold.

Answer: D

The player is Pullela Gopichand.

The badminton player Pullela Gopichand received the Arjuna Award in 1999, won the All England Championship in 2001 and the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna for 2000-01, and was given the Padma Shri in 2005. As a coach of players such as Saina Nehwal and P. V. Sindhu he received the Dronacharya Award in 2009, which makes him one of the very few to win both the player's and the coach's awards.

Abhinav Bindra, Sachin Tendulkar and Prakash Padukone have won major awards as players, but none of them has received the Dronacharya Award, which is given only to coaches.

Answer: B

The International Olympic Committee has its headquarters in Lausanne.

The IOC was founded in Paris in 1894 by Pierre de Coubertin and moved to Lausanne, Switzerland, in 1915. Lausanne is called the Olympic Capital and also houses the Olympic Museum.

Geneva is home to many UN agencies and other international bodies, Vienna hosts the IAEA and OPEC, and Madrid hosts the UN World Tourism Organization. None of them is the IOC's seat.

Answer: A

The first Indian woman to win an individual Olympic medal was Karnam Malleshwari.

Karnam Malleswari won the bronze medal in weightlifting (69 kg) at the Sydney Olympics in 2000, India's first Olympic medal won by a woman.

Saina Nehwal won bronze in badminton at London 2012 and P. V. Sindhu silver at Rio 2016, both later than Malleswari. Sania Mirza, a tennis player, has not won an Olympic medal.

Answer: D

The highest award of the Madhya Pradesh Government for sports coaches is the Vishwamitra Award.

Madhya Pradesh's state sports awards, given by the Department of Sports and Youth Welfare, include the Vikram Award for senior sportspersons, the Ekalavya Award for junior sportspersons, and the Vishwamitra Award for coaches.

The Dronacharya Award is the national award for coaches given by the Government of India, not the state's. The Vikram and Ekalavya awards are for players, not coaches.

Answer: C

The Madhya Pradesh Archery Academy is in Jabalpur.

The Department of Sports and Youth Welfare runs a network of residential sports academies across the state. The state archery academy is at Jabalpur.

Bhopal, Indore and Jhabua host other sports facilities and academies, but not the state archery academy.