Wrestling, Boxing and Shooting: Rules and Medallists

The correct answer is B, Khashaba Dadasaheb Jadhav. Jadhav, a wrestler from Satara in Maharashtra, won the bronze medal in freestyle bantamweight wrestling at the Helsinki Olympic Games of 1952, and that was the first Olympic medal won by an individual athlete of independent India, all earlier medals having come to the men's hockey team. Option A is wrong because Sushil Kumar's medals came much later, a bronze at Beijing in 2008 and a silver at London in 2012, which made him the first Indian with two individual Olympic medals but not the first medallist. Option C is wrong because Guru Hanuman was a celebrated coach who received the Dronacharya Award and the Padma Shri; he trained wrestlers rather than competing at the Olympics. Option D is wrong because Yogeshwar Dutt won his bronze at the London Games of 2012.

The correct answer is B, Greco-Roman. In Greco-Roman wrestling a competitor may not seize the opponent below the waist and may not use the legs actively to trip or lock, so every attack must be made with the arms and the upper body and the style is famous for its high throws. Option A is wrong because freestyle wrestling permits the whole body to be held, including leg attacks such as the single-leg and double-leg takedown, and it is the only style in which women compete at the Olympic Games. Option C is wrong because sumo is a separate Japanese sport fought in a clay ring where the aim is to push the opponent out or make him touch the ground, and it is not an Olympic wrestling style. Option D is wrong because beach wrestling is a variant played on sand with its own simplified rules and is not the style defined by the waist restriction.

The correct answer is C, Sakshi Malik. Sakshi Malik of Rohtak in Haryana won the bronze medal in the 58 kilogram freestyle category at the Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games of 2016, coming back from behind in the last seconds of her repechage bout, and she thus became the first Indian woman wrestler to stand on an Olympic podium. Option A is wrong because Vinesh Phogat, though a Commonwealth and Asian Games gold medallist, had not won an Olympic medal. Option B is wrong because Geeta Phogat made history as the first Indian woman wrestler to qualify for the Olympic Games, at London in 2012, and as a Commonwealth Games gold medallist, but she did not win an Olympic medal. Option D is wrong because Babita Kumari's honours are Commonwealth Games medals, not an Olympic one.

The correct answer is C, 10 metre air rifle. Abhinav Bindra won the gold medal in the men's 10 metre air rifle event at the Beijing Olympic Games of 2008, and it remains the first individual gold medal ever won by India at the Olympics; the only earlier golds had been won by the men's hockey team. Option A is wrong because the 25 metre rapid fire pistol is the event in which Vijay Kumar won a silver medal at London in 2012. Option B is wrong because double trap, a shotgun event, is where Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore won a silver at Athens in 2004, India's first individual silver in shooting. Option D is wrong because the 50 metre rifle three positions event, fired prone, standing and kneeling, is where Swapnil Kusale won a bronze medal at Paris in 2024.

The correct answer is B, Boxing. A southpaw is a boxer who stands with the right foot forward and leads with the right hand because the left is the stronger one, and below the belt describes an illegal punch landed under the waistline, for which the referee warns or disqualifies the offender. Option A is wrong because wrestling has its own vocabulary of fall, takedown, half nelson, gut wrench and technical superiority. Option C is wrong because shooting speaks of the bullseye, sighter shots, prone and kneeling positions, trap and skeet. Option D is wrong because fencing uses terms such as foil, epee, sabre, riposte, lunge and en garde. Other boxing terms worth remembering are the jab, the hook, the uppercut, the clinch and the knockout counted to ten.

The correct answer is B, Boxing. The code published in 1867 under the patronage of John Douglas, the ninth Marquess of Queensberry, turned bare-knuckle prize fighting into a regulated sport: it made padded gloves compulsory, fixed the round at three minutes with a minute of rest, introduced the ten-second count for a downed boxer and forbade wrestling holds, and modern amateur and professional boxing still rests on it. Option A is wrong because wrestling's rules come from the international federation now called United World Wrestling and from older classical traditions. Option C is wrong because shooting is regulated by the International Shooting Sport Federation, whose rulebook is far more recent. Option D is wrong because weightlifting rules, covering the snatch and the clean and jerk, come from its own world federation and have no link with the Queensberry code.

The correct answer is B, Munich. The International Shooting Sport Federation, abbreviated as ISSF, has its headquarters in Munich in Germany, the same city that hosted the Olympic Games of 1972, and it frames the rules for rifle, pistol and shotgun events and recognises world records. Option A is wrong because Lausanne in Switzerland is the seat of the International Olympic Committee, a fact often confused with the individual federations. Option C is wrong because Zurich, also in Switzerland, houses the world football body FIFA and the world athletics body has its own separate base in Monaco. Option D is wrong because Rome is not the seat of the shooting federation; India's own governing body for the sport is the National Rifle Association of India, with its office in New Delhi.

The correct answer is B, Vijender Singh. Vijender Singh of Bhiwani in Haryana won the bronze medal in the middleweight category at the Beijing Olympic Games of 2008, becoming the first boxer from India ever to win an Olympic medal, and he later received the Arjuna and Padma Shri honours. Option A is wrong because Mary Kom's Olympic bronze came four years later, at London in 2012, which made her the first Indian woman boxer to win an Olympic medal, though not the first Indian boxer. Option C is wrong because Lovlina Borgohain won her bronze medal at the Tokyo Games held in 2021. Option D is wrong because Nikhat Zareen is known for her world championship gold medals rather than for an Olympic medal, and she came into the national side long after 2008.

The correct answer is B, Wrestling. The half nelson is a wrestling hold in which one arm is passed under the opponent's armpit from behind and the hand is placed on the back of the neck, giving the wrestler leverage to turn the opponent over and work towards a pin; using both arms in this way makes it a full nelson. Option A is wrong because boxing's vocabulary is built on punches and stances such as the jab, hook, uppercut, clinch and southpaw. Option C is wrong because shooting terms describe targets and positions, namely bullseye, sighter, prone, kneeling, trap and skeet. Option D is wrong because judo, though also a grappling sport, has Japanese names for its techniques such as ippon, seoi nage, osoto gari and shiai, and the nelson is not among them.

The correct answer is C, Double trap. Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, an army officer, won the silver medal in the men's double trap shotgun event at Athens in 2004, and that was India's first individual silver medal at the Olympic Games; he was later honoured with the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna and the Padma Shri. Option A is wrong because skeet is a different shotgun event in which clay targets are thrown across the shooter from two houses on either side. Option B is wrong because in ordinary trap a single clay target is released at a time, while double trap, as the name says, sends two together. Option D is wrong because the 10 metre air pistol is a pistol event and belongs to the indoor range, and it is the event in which Manu Bhaker won a bronze medal at Paris in 2024.

The correct answer is B, Prone, standing and kneeling. The 50 metre rifle three positions event requires the shooter to fire the same rifle from three different body positions, lying flat on the stomach which is called prone, upright on both feet which is standing, and resting on one knee with a roll under the ankle which is kneeling. Prone is the steadiest and standing the hardest, so scores usually fall in the standing stage and rise in the prone stage. Option A is wrong because sitting is not one of the recognised positions in this event. Option C is wrong for the same reason and because it also drops prone, the steadiest position of the three. Option D is wrong because crouching is not a shooting position in the rulebook; Swapnil Kusale won India's bronze in this event at Paris in 2024.

The correct answer is C, 10 points. Under the rules of United World Wrestling a freestyle bout stops as soon as one wrestler is ten points ahead, and the win is recorded as technical superiority, because a lead that wide is treated as decisive and there is no point in continuing. In Greco-Roman wrestling the same rule applies at a lead of eight points, the smaller figure reflecting the lower scoring of that style. Option A is wrong because a six-point lead brings no such stoppage in either style. Option B is wrong because eight points is the Greco-Roman figure and swapping the two is the commonest trap in this question. Option D is wrong because twelve points was never the mark; a bout can also end earlier at any score by a fall, which means pinning both shoulders of the opponent to the mat.