40 previous year UPSC Prelims questions on sports and games are on this page, from 1996 to 2009. UPSC asked about tennis tournaments and champions, cricket records, football tournaments and India’s Olympic record. The explanations give the result as it stood then, so some records have since changed.
Explanations state facts as of the year each question was asked; words like “recently” refer to that year.
Showing 21–30 of 40 questions
V.V.S. Laxman holds the record for the highest score by an Indian in a Test match innings with his 281 against Australia in 2001 at Eden Gardens, Kolkata.
Top 5 Test Scores by an Indian Batter:
Virender Sehwag - 319 runs Virender Sehwag - 309 runs Karun Nair - 303* runs Virender Sehwag - 293 runs VVS Laxman - 281 run
| List-I | List-II |
|---|---|
| A. Shikha Tandon | 1. Badminton |
| B. Ignace Tirkey | 2. Swimming |
| C. Pankaj Advani | 3. Lawn Tennis |
| D. Rohan Bopanne | 4. Snooker |
| 5. Hockey |
Shikha Tandon (Swimming) - Indian swimmer with 146 national and international medals; first Indian to qualify for two events at the 2004 Olympics. Ignace Tirkey (Hockey) - Versatile Indian midfielder; part of the 2003 Asia Cup-winning team and represented India in multiple international tournaments, including the Olympics. Pankaj Advani (Cue Sports) - 23-time world champion in snooker and billiards, one of India’s greatest cueists. Rohan Bopanna (Tennis) - Indian doubles specialist; 2017 French Open mixed doubles champion and ATP circuit star.
Prakash Padukone - First Indian to win the All England Open (1980). Pullela Gopichand - 2001 All England Open champion, now a top coach. Saina Nehwal - Olympic bronze (2012), former world No. 1. PV Sindhu - Olympic silver (2016), bronze (2021), 2019 World Champion. Kidambi Srikanth - Former world No. 1, multiple Super Series titles. Lakshya Sen - 2022 Commonwealth Games gold medalist. HS Prannoy - Key player in India’s 2022 Thomas Cup win. Chirag Shetty & Satwiksairaj Rankireddy - India’s famous men’s doubles pair.
The highest individual score in a Test innings evolved over time, with Hanif Mohammad (337 in 1958) holding the record before Garfield Sobers surpassed it with 365* in 1958. Brian Lara then set a new record with 375 in 1994, before Matthew Hayden broke it with 380 in 2003.
| List-I (Cricketers) | List-II (Country) |
|---|---|
| A. Barry Richards | 1. England |
| B. Tex Dexter | 2. West Indies |
| C. Alan Davidson | 3. South Africa |
| D. Charlie Griffith | 4. New Zealand |
| 5. Australia |
Barry Richards was a legendary South African batsman. Tex Dexter was a well-known cricketer from England. Alan Davidson was a famous Australian left-arm fast bowler and all-rounder. Charlie Griffith was a feared fast bowler from the West Indies.
Famous Cricketer of New Zealand Richard Hadlee Martin Crowe Glenn Turner John R. Reid Stephen Fleming
Soma Biswas is associated with Athletics. She’s a renowned Indian athlete from West Bengal who specialized in the heptathlon, winning silver medals at the 2002 and 2006 Asian Games.
Some notable Indian athletes:
Milkha Singh (Track and Field) P.T. Usha (Track and Field) Varsha Gautham (Sailing) Vishnu Saravanan (Sailing) P. R. Sreejesh (Hockey) Aditi Ashok (Golf) Neeraj Chopra (Javelin Throw) Hima Das (Sprint) Dutee Chand (Sprint) Seema Punia (Discus Throw)
In the 2002 IAAF Grand Prix Final, Tim Montgomery set a new world record in the 100 m Dash, with a time of 9.78 seconds. This performance broke the previous world record of 9.79 seconds, which was held by Maurice Greene (USA).
In the 2002 US Open Men’s Doubles final, Mahesh Bhupathi (India) and Max Mirnyi (Belarus) won the title by defeating the pair of Jiri Novak and Radek Stepanek.
In the 2024 US Open Men’s Doubles Tennis Championship, the Australian duo of Max Purcell and Jordan Thompson clinched the title by defeating Germany’s Kevin Krawietz and Tim Putz with a score of 6-4, 7-6 (4).
In the 2002 French Open Men’s Singles final, Albert Costa of Spain won the title. He defeated Juan Carlos Ferrero, also from Spain, in the final with a score of 6-1, 6-0, 4-6, 6-2. This victory marked Costa’s first and only Grand Slam title in his career.
In the 2002 FIFA World Cup, Ronaldo of Brazil was the top scorer of the tournament. He scored 8 goals in total and was awarded the Golden Boot for being the highest goal scorer of the tournament. His goals played a crucial role in helping Brazil win their fifth World Cup title.
In the 2022 FIFA World Cup held in Qatar, France’s Kylian Mbappe won the Golden Boot award by scoring 8 goals, including a historic hat-trick in the final against Argentina. This achievement made him the tournament’s top scorer.
In 2001, Venus Williams defeated her sister Serena Williams in the US Open Women’s Singles Final to win the title. This match was a memorable moment in tennis history as both sisters were at the peak of their careers, and it marked the beginning of a dominant era for both in tennis.
In the 2024 Wimbledon Championships, Barbora Krejcikova won the women’s singles title, defeating Jasmine Paolini with a score of 6-2, 2-6, 6-4. This victory marked Krejcikova’s first Wimbledon singles title
| Q | UPSC year | Correct answer |
|---|---|---|
| 21 | 2004 | (d) V.V.S Laxman |
| 22 | 2004 | (d) A-2; B-5; C-4; D-3 |
| 23 | 2004 | (c) Hanif Mohammed, Garfield Sobers and Brian Lara |
| 24 | 2003 | (c) A-3; B-1; C-5; D-2 |
| 25 | 2003 | (d) athletics |
| 26 | 2003 | (c) 100 m Dash |
| 27 | 2003 | (d) Jiri Novak and Radek Stepanek |
| 28 | 2003 | (a) Albert Costa |
| 29 | 2003 | (c) 8 |
| 30 | 2002 | (d) US Open 2001 |
This page covers 40 previous year UPSC Prelims GS Paper-I questions on Sports and Games (General Knowledge), asked from 1996 to 2009. Each has the correct answer and an explanation.
Greece, a surprise winner of the tournament, beat the hosts Portugal 1-0 in the final in Lisbon. It was Greece’s first major international football title, and the result was seen as one of football’s biggest upsets.
At Moscow in 1980, according to the question’s date of 2006. India later won its first individual Olympic gold when Abhinav Bindra won in shooting at Beijing in 2008, and hockey gold in 1980 remained the last for the team then.
Cara Black of Zimbabwe. The pair beat Liezel Huber of the United States and Jamie Murray of Britain in the final to win the mixed doubles title at the 2008 US Open.
