Other Multi-Sport Events: Youth Olympics to University Games

The correct answer is B, Singapore. The Youth Olympic Games were proposed by Jacques Rogge, then President of the International Olympic Committee, approved in 2007, and the first Summer edition was staged at Singapore in 2010 for athletes aged fifteen to eighteen. The event also carried a culture and education programme alongside the competitions, which remains a defining feature. Option A, Nanjing in China, hosted the second Summer edition in 2014, and is the distractor most often chosen. Option C, Buenos Aires, hosted the third Summer edition in 2018, which was the first Olympic event of any kind held in South America. Option D, Innsbruck in Austria, is the odd one out because it hosted the first Winter Youth Olympic Games in 2012, not a Summer edition. Fix the sequence in memory as Singapore 2010, Nanjing 2014 and Buenos Aires 2018 for summer, with Innsbruck 2012 beginning the winter series.

The correct answer is B, fifteen to eighteen years. The International Olympic Committee set this band when it created the Youth Olympic Games so that the event would reach adolescents at the stage when they are choosing whether to continue in sport, and the age is counted as of the year of the Games. The competitions are deliberately shorter than those of the Olympics, several events use mixed teams drawn from different countries, and a culture and education programme runs beside the sport. Option A, twelve to fifteen, is below the entry age and belongs to no major international games. Option C, eighteen to twenty-one, is the band used in some age-group world championships but not here. Option D, under twenty-three, is the familiar rule of Olympic football and of several other under-23 tournaments, which is why it is offered as a distractor. The World University Games, by contrast, use a student status rule with an age band of roughly seventeen to twenty-five.

The correct answer is B, Kathmandu. The regional games of the subcontinent began in the Nepalese capital in 1984 under the name South Asian Federation Games, commonly shortened to SAF Games, and the shorter name South Asian Games was adopted in 2004. They are run by the South Asian Sports Council, formed in 1983, and the founding members were India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan and the Maldives, with Afghanistan admitted in 2004. Option A, Dhaka, hosted later editions but not the first. Option C, Colombo, has also hosted the Games, again not the opening edition. Option D, New Delhi, has never hosted this event; India's three turns were Kolkata in 1987, Chennai in 1995 and Guwahati with Shillong in 2016, and the Delhi distractor works only because the capital hosted the Asian Games and the Commonwealth Games. Remember the opening pair: Kathmandu and 1984.

The correct answer is C, Guwahati and Shillong. The twelfth edition of the South Asian Games was held in 2016 across two north-eastern cities, with Guwahati in Assam as the main venue and Shillong in Meghalaya hosting part of the programme, and India finished at the top of the medal table as it has in almost every edition. Options A and B are India's two earlier turns as host and are the natural traps: Kolkata staged the second edition in 1987 and Chennai, then Madras, the sixth in 1995. Option D, Pune and Mumbai, has not hosted this event, although Pune did host the Commonwealth Youth Games in 2008, which is why the name seems plausible. For the exam, carry three pairs in memory: Kolkata 1987, Chennai 1995 and Guwahati with Shillong 2016, and add that the thirteenth edition went to Nepal in 2019 at Kathmandu, Pokhara and Janakpur.

The correct answer is A, FISU, the International University Sports Federation, known worldwide by its French initials. FISU was founded in 1949, has its headquarters at Lausanne in Switzerland, and runs both the Summer and the Winter World University Games along with a long list of World University Championships. The event was called the Universiade, a blend of university and olympiad, until it was renamed the FISU World University Games in 2020, and entry is limited to university students and recent graduates in an age band of roughly seventeen to twenty-five. Option B, FIFA, governs world football and nothing else. Option C, the IAAF, was the former name of the world body for athletics, now called World Athletics, and it conducts the World Athletics Championships. Option D, FIBA, is the international federation for basketball. The Games are frequently described as the biggest multi-sport event after the Olympics, a line examiners like to quote.

The correct answer is A, Turin in Italy, which staged the first Summer Universiade in 1959 under the newly organised International University Sports Federation. The Winter series began the next year, in 1960, at Chamonix in France, so option B is the right city attached to the wrong series, and that swap is the usual way this question is made difficult. Option C, Tokyo, hosted the Summer Universiade of 1967 and the Olympic Games of 1964, and so looks convincing, but it did not open the series. Option D, Moscow, hosted the Summer Universiade of 1973 and the Olympic Games of 1980, and is offered for the same reason. The pair to memorise is therefore Turin 1959 for summer and Chamonix 1960 for winter, with the renaming to the FISU World University Games taking place in 2020 and Chengdu and the Rhine-Ruhr region hosting the Summer Games of 2023 and 2025.

The correct answer is A, Hyderabad. The Afro-Asian Games were conceived as a meeting of the champions of Africa and Asia, and the first edition was held at Hyderabad in 2003, with the main events at the Gachibowli stadium complex built for the purpose. Later editions were announced but never took place, so Hyderabad remains the only host in the history of the event, and that is the fact the question is built on. Option C, New Delhi, has hosted the Asian Games of 1951 and 1982 and the Commonwealth Games of 2010, which makes it the most tempting wrong answer. Option B, Bengaluru, and option D, Guwahati, have hosted national-level competition and, in Guwahati's case, the South Asian Games of 2016, but neither has staged the Afro-Asian Games. Keep India's hosting record in one list: Asian Games 1951 and 1982, Afro-Asian Games 2003, Commonwealth Youth Games 2008, Commonwealth Games 2010 and South Asian Games 1987, 1995 and 2016.

The correct answer is B, CISM, the International Military Sports Council, which takes its initials from its French name and was founded in 1948. CISM holds championships in many sports through the year and gathers them every four years into the Military World Games, whose first edition was held at Rome in 1995 and which carry the motto of friendship through sport. Option A, NATO, is a military alliance with a defence mandate and no sporting programme of its own, and it includes only part of the membership of CISM. Option C, the International Olympic Committee, runs the Olympic Games and the Youth Olympic Games and recognises other events but does not organise this one. Option D, the United Nations, has no games of its own. Place this event alongside the Invictus Games, begun at London in 2014 for wounded and sick service personnel, since both involve armed forces but are run by entirely different organisations.

The correct answer is A, Paris, where the event began in 1924 as the International Silent Games and later took the name Deaflympics. It is conducted by the International Committee of Sports for the Deaf and is older than both the Paralympics and the Special Olympics; starters use lights and flags instead of a whistle or a gun, and referees signal with hand flags. Option B, Rome, hosted the first Paralympic Games in 1960, held alongside the Olympic Games of that year. Option C, Chicago, hosted the first Special Olympics World Games in 1968, the event founded by Eunice Kennedy Shriver for athletes with intellectual disability. Option D, London, hosted the first Invictus Games in 2014. The three events for athletes with disability are run by three different bodies and must be kept apart: Deaflympics for deaf athletes, Special Olympics for intellectual disability, and Paralympics for physical and visual impairment.

The correct answer is B, Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, which hosted the first European Games in 2015 under the European Olympic Committees. The event was created to give Europe a continental games of the kind Asia, Africa and the Americas already had, and several of its competitions double as qualifying events for the Olympic Games. Option A, Minsk in Belarus, hosted the second edition in 2019 and is the commonest wrong choice. Option C, Krakow, together with the Malopolska region of Poland, hosted the third edition in 2023. Option D, Budapest, has hosted world championships in swimming and other sports but not the European Games. For comparison, keep the first editions of the other continental games in the same list: the Pan American Games at Buenos Aires in 1951, the African Games at Brazzaville in 1965, the Mediterranean Games at Alexandria in 1951 and the Southeast Asian Games at Bangkok in 1959.