Where is the headquarters of the International Olympic Committee located?

The correct answer is B, 776 BCE. The ancient Games were held at Olympia in Greece in honour of Zeus, and 776 BCE is the earliest celebration for which a written record of the winner survives. The prize was a wreath of olive leaves, and only free Greek men were allowed to compete.

Option A, 1200 BCE, belongs to the legendary period before any record of the festival exists. Option C, 490 BCE, is the year of the battle of Marathon, which gave the modern marathon race its name and its story, so it is placed here as a deliberate distraction. Option D, 393 CE, is the year the ancient Games were abolished by the Roman emperor Theodosius I, who treated them as a pagan festival, so it is the closing date rather than the opening one. Learn the two dates 776 BCE and 393 CE as a pair, because papers ask for one and offer the other.

The correct answer is C, Baron Pierre de Coubertin. The French educationist believed that sport built character in the young, and at a congress at the Sorbonne in Paris he founded the International Olympic Committee on 23 June 1894, which led directly to the first modern Games at Athens in 1896. He also designed the five-ring symbol in 1913.

Option B, Demetrius Vikelas of Greece, was the first president of the IOC, a fact often confused with founding the movement; Coubertin was the second president and served much longer. Options A and D, Avery Brundage and Juan Antonio Samaranch, were later presidents of the IOC who shaped the Games in the twentieth century but had no part in reviving them. The safe way to answer is to separate two ideas: the founder of the movement is Coubertin, while the first president is Vikelas.

The correct answer is D, Athens. Greece was chosen for the first modern Games because the ancient festival had been held there, and the event took place in 1896, two years after the International Olympic Committee was founded. The Panathenaic Stadium in Athens was restored for the occasion.

Option A, Paris, hosted the second modern Games in 1900, which is also the Games at which India took part for the first time. Option C, St. Louis in the United States, hosted the third Games in 1904. Option B, London, hosted the Games for the first time in 1908 and is remembered as the first city to host them three times. All three are genuine early hosts, which is what makes them good distractors. Fix the sequence Athens, Paris, St. Louis for the first three modern Games and the question becomes easy.

The correct answer is C, Faster, Higher, Stronger. The three Latin words were suggested to Pierre de Coubertin by his friend Henri Didon, a French priest and educator who used them for the pupils at his school, and Coubertin adopted them for the Olympic movement. In 2021 a fourth word, Communiter, meaning Together, was added, so the complete motto is now Citius, Altius, Fortius, Communiter.

Option A replaces Higher with Farther, which sounds plausible for athletics but is not the Latin word used. Option B replaces Faster with Braver, another word that fits the spirit of the Games but not the motto. Option D mixes the order and inserts Together in the place of Stronger, which is a good trap now that Communiter has been added at the end. Remember the sequence exactly as it runs, one word for each of speed, height and strength, with togetherness added last.

The correct answer is B, the five inhabited continents. Pierre de Coubertin designed the symbol in 1913, and the rings are interlaced to show the meeting of athletes from every part of the world at the Games. The flag itself was first flown at the Antwerp Games of 1920.

Option A, the five oceans, is the commonest wrong answer and is offered in almost every version of this question. Option C, five founding nations, is wrong because far more than five countries took part from the beginning and the rings were never tied to a list of members. Option D, five original sports, is also wrong, since the first modern Games included several sports and the rings carry no sporting meaning. A related fact worth holding: the colours blue, yellow, black, green and red, together with the white background, were chosen because every national flag of that time carried at least one of them, so no colour officially belongs to a named continent.