The first Summer Youth Olympic Games were held in 2010 in which city?

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.