The first European Games, a continental multi-sport event, were held in 2015 in which city?

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.