Sports Governing Bodies and Their Headquarters: Complete Static GK and General Awareness Notes for Competitive Exams

Introduction

Every sport played at the international level has one apex body that writes its rules, ratifies its records and runs its world championship. In competitive exams, this topic is tested in the simplest possible way: a body is named and you must recall its headquarters, its founding year or the event it organises. One line of memory is worth one full mark, and these questions appear in almost every General Awareness paper, from SSC CGL and CHSL to IBPS PO, RRB NTPC, Insurance exams and UPSC Prelims.

The good news is that this is a closed, finite list. There are roughly forty bodies that matter, and a large majority of them sit in one country, Switzerland, with Lausanne alone hosting the IOC and more than a dozen international federations. Once you learn the exceptions, the rest of the list almost memorises itself. This article organises the entire topic into clean tables, then converts it into mnemonics and one-liners so that revision takes minutes rather than hours.

The Indian half of the topic has become even more important recently, because the National Sports Governance Act, 2025 replaced the old non-binding Sports Code and created new statutory bodies such as the National Sports Board and the National Sports Tribunal. Questions on this Act now appear alongside classic static questions, so you should study current developments together with the fixed facts. For a steady supply of such updates, keep following the daily current affairs section along with these notes.

Core Concepts You Must Understand First

Before memorising headquarters, fix four definitions in your mind. Most wrong answers in this topic come from mixing up these four categories rather than from forgetting a city name.

• International Federation (IF): the global governing body of one sport, recognised by the IOC. It frames the rules, ratifies world records and sanctions the world championship. Examples: FIFA for football, World Athletics for athletics, BWF for badminton.
• Continental confederation: a regional unit working under the international federation, which runs the continental championship and Olympic or World Cup qualifiers. Examples: AFC and UEFA under FIFA.
• National federation or National Sports Federation (NSF): the country-level body affiliated to the international federation. Examples: All India Football Federation under FIFA and AFC, Hockey India under FIH.
• Professional league: a commercial competition, not a governing body. The NBA, IPL, Premier League and PGA Tour organise tournaments but do not write the global rules of the sport. This distinction is a favourite trap in exams.

Two further ideas complete the picture. First, the IOC recognises international federations, and no sport can enter the Olympic programme unless its international federation holds IOC recognition. Second, an international federation can be suspended or de-recognised, as happened with boxing, in which case the sport's Olympic future is put at risk until a compliant body appears.

Why So Many Federations Are Based in Switzerland

• Flexible association law: Articles 60 to 79 of the Swiss Civil Code allow a non-profit association, or Verein, to frame its own internal rules with minimal state interference.
• Tax privileges: Switzerland grants substantial fiscal exemptions to recognised international sports organisations, so more revenue stays inside the sport.
• Neutrality and proximity: Switzerland's political neutrality suits international sports diplomacy, and being close to the IOC in Lausanne makes coordination on Olympic matters far easier. Lausanne is therefore called the Olympic Capital, while Mies, near Nyon, hosts FIBA and FIM.

Why Some Bodies Moved to Asia

• ICC, 2005: the International Cricket Council shifted from Lord's in London to Dubai, moving closer to the game's biggest revenue market in South Asia and into a tax-neutral, logistically strong hub.
• BWF, 2005: the Badminton World Federation moved from Cheltenham in the United Kingdom to Kuala Lumpur, placing itself inside the sport's dominant playing and commercial corridor in East and Southeast Asia.

Master Table: Major International Sports Governing Bodies

This is the core table of the topic. Learn the headquarters column first, the founding year second and the flagship event third.

Football: FIFA and Its Six Continental Confederations

Boxing: Olympic Body Versus Professional Sanctioning Bodies

Boxing is the single biggest source of confusion in this topic because the sport has one Olympic governing body and four separate professional title-sanctioning organisations.

Tennis and Golf: Governing Bodies Versus Tours

Other Olympic and Recognised International Federations

These bodies are asked less often, but their sport-to-federation mapping is standard exam material. Headquarters is given where it is a commonly tested fact.

Sports Governance Framework in India

The Indian side of this topic is tested from two angles: the fixed structure of ministries, agencies and federations, and the recent statutory reform. Note first that under the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution, sports is Entry 33 of the State List, so grassroots development is primarily a State responsibility, while the Union Government handles national policy, recognition of federations, anti-doping and international participation.

The National Sports Governance Act, 2025

• Legislative journey: introduced in the Lok Sabha in July 2025, passed by the Lok Sabha on 11 August 2025 and the Rajya Sabha on 12 August 2025, and given Presidential assent on 18 August 2025.
• Significance: India's first parliamentary law comprehensively regulating sports governance, replacing the non-binding National Sports Development Code of India, 2011.
• Bodies covered: the National Olympic Committee, the National Paralympic Committee, a National Sports Federation for each designated sport and a Regional Sports Federation for each designated sport.
• New institutions: the National Sports Board, the National Sports Tribunal and a National Sports Election Panel that oversees free and fair elections to the Executive Committee and the Athletes Committee of every national sports body.
• Compliance duties: mandatory Safe Sports Policies and Codes of Ethics protecting women, minors and other vulnerable participants, accounts audited by the Comptroller and Auditor General, and a National Sports Board Fund.
• Name protection: organisations using words such as India, Indian or National, or national insignia, need central government approval, and only authorised bodies may field teams representing India.
• Implementation in 2026: the National Sports Governance (National Sports Board) Rules, 2026 and the National Sports Governance (National Sports Tribunal) Rules, 2026 were notified in May 2026, and a Search-cum-Selection Committee headed by the Cabinet Secretary was constituted in June 2026 to recommend names for the Board.
• Stated purpose: aligning Indian sports administration with the Olympic and Commonwealth Charters ahead of the Ahmedabad 2030 Commonwealth Games and India's bid for the 2036 Olympic Games. The National Anti-Doping Act, 2022 was also amended in August 2025 to match updated international definitions.

Major National Sports Federations of India

Who Heads What: Position as of Mid-2026

Office-bearers change often, so treat this table as current affairs revision and cross-check the latest position before your exam.

How Governing Bodies Actually Enforce Their Rules

Exams increasingly ask what these bodies do, not just where they sit. Three enforcement areas are worth knowing: match technology, equipment limits and anti-doping science.

Tracking and Officiating Technology

• Electronic Performance and Tracking Systems (EPTS): bodies such as FIFA and World Athletics certify tracking units worn in training vests that combine GPS receivers with Inertial Measurement Units containing tri-axial accelerometers and gyroscopes to record speed and mechanical player load.
• Optical tracking: synchronised camera arrays use computer vision to triangulate the three-dimensional position of players and the ball. Hawk-Eye is the best known system and is used in tennis, cricket's Decision Review System and badminton.
• Semi-Automated Offside Technology (SAOT): used in elite football, it combines roof-mounted cameras tracking 29 skeletal points fifty times a second with a 500 Hz sensor inside the ball to fix the exact moment of the pass.

Equipment Rules and Technological Doping

• World Athletics shoe rule: road racing shoes are limited to a maximum midsole stack height of 40 mm with only one embedded rigid plate, to stop artificial energy return.
• ISSF equipment checks: dead-weight testing verifies that trigger mechanisms hold a specified load, for example 1500 g, without firing, and stiffness sensors check that shooting jackets do not act as rigid support.
• ITTF racket testing: volatile organic compound detectors are used to eliminate illegal speed glues and chemical rubber boosters that increase rebound.

Anti-Doping: The Athlete Biological Passport

• Haematological module: tracks total haemoglobin mass and reticulocyte percentage over time to reveal blood doping or the use of recombinant EPO.
• Steroidal module: tracks urinary steroid values, especially the testosterone to epitestosterone ratio. If a sample crosses the 4:1 reference, laboratories run Isotope Ratio Mass Spectrometry to compare carbon isotope ratios and separate natural hormones from plant-derived synthetic ones.
• Data and privacy: biometric and location data collected from athletes in India must comply with the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023, which requires consent and limits on processing sensitive personal data.

How Rankings Are Calculated

• Rating versus ranking: a rating is a continuous numerical value showing how strong a competitor is, while a ranking is only an ordered list built from those ratings. Ratings show the size of the gap, rankings show the order.
• Accumulation model: points are earned by progressing through tournaments, weighted by tournament tier, and drop off after a rolling 52-week cycle. Used in tennis and badminton style circuits.
• Elo model: points move between opponents based on the difference between expected and actual results, using a logistic probability model. Used by FIDE for chess.
• Weighted averaging model: total points are divided by matches played over a window, so a team cannot inflate its position by playing many weak fixtures.

Indian Schemes, Milestones and Hosting Plans

Khelo India and the Target Olympic Podium Scheme

• Khelo India: the grassroots talent identification programme of MYAS, implemented by SAI, covering school and college competitions, the Khelo India Youth Games and University Games, with scholarships, coaching and equipment for selected athletes.
• Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS): launched by MYAS in September 2014 and run by SAI for athletes with realistic podium chances, offering foreign training, competition funding, equipment, coaching camps and a monthly stipend. It works in two tiers, a Core Group and a Development Group.
• The pathway: Khelo India spots talent, TOPS funds elite preparation, National Sports Federations conduct trials and national championships, and the Indian Olympic Association approves final squads for multi-sport events.

Landmark Indian Milestones Linked to These Bodies

• K. D. Jadhav: won bronze in freestyle wrestling at the 1952 Helsinki Olympics, independent India's first individual Olympic medal, in a sport now governed by United World Wrestling.
• Karnam Malleswari: won bronze in the women's 69 kg category at Sydney 2000, the first Olympic medal won by an Indian woman in any sport, under the IWF.
• Abhinav Bindra: won gold in the men's 10 m air rifle at Beijing 2008, India's first individual Olympic gold, under ISSF rules.
• Thomas Cup 2022: the Indian men's badminton team won the BWF Thomas Cup for the first time in the tournament's 73-year history, beating fourteen-time champion Indonesia 3-0 in Bangkok.
• Chess Olympiad 2024: at the 45th FIDE Chess Olympiad in Budapest, India won gold in both the Open and Women's team sections, a historic double.
• World Chess Championship: Gukesh Dommaraju became the eighteenth and youngest World Champion at 18 by beating Ding Liren in Singapore in December 2024, and defends the title in a 2026 match in Geneva against Javokhir Sindarov of Uzbekistan.
• Motorsport hosting: India hosted the Formula One Indian Grand Prix from 2011 to 2013, the FIA Formula E Hyderabad E-Prix in 2023 and the FIM MotoGP Bharat Grand Prix in 2023 and 2024, largely at the Buddh International Circuit.

Ahmedabad 2030 and the 2036 Olympic Bid

• Ahmedabad 2030: India will host the centenary edition of the Commonwealth Games, delivered jointly by the Central Government and the Government of Gujarat, with MYAS as nodal ministry, SAI handling athlete preparation and venues, and the IOA acting as liaison with the Commonwealth Games Federation.
• Glasgow 2026: the immediately preceding edition of the Commonwealth Games, for which Indian squads are selected through NSF trials and IOA approval.
• 2036 Olympic bid: India submitted a Letter of Intent to the IOC in October 2024 proposing Ahmedabad as host city and is in the IOC's Continuous Dialogue stage, with the host expected to be chosen by around 2029. India's pitch includes regionally popular sports such as cricket, kabaddi and kho kho.

Memory Tricks and Mnemonics

Trick 1: The Lausanne Family, or LAUSANNE Is the Default

Assume Lausanne first and then learn only the exceptions. The Lausanne group includes the IOC, FIH, FIDE, FIVB, ITTF, IWF, FIG, World Archery, IGF, CAS, World Boxing, IBA, World Rowing, ICF, FEI, FIE, World Triathlon and WBSC.

Lausanne is the postal address of world sport; if you cannot recall a federation's city, Lausanne is your best single guess.

Trick 2: The Swiss but Not Lausanne List, or ZAMBAN

• Z for Zurich: FIFA and IIHF
• A for Aigle: UCI cycling
• M for Mies: FIBA basketball and FIM motorcycling
• B for Basel: IHF handball
• A for another Swiss village, Corsier-sur-Vevey: UWW wrestling
• N for Nyon: UEFA

ZAMBAN: Zurich, Aigle, Mies, Basel, Another village, Nyon. These six locations are Switzerland's non-Lausanne answers.

Trick 3: MMM for Monaco, Monaco and Munich

• Monaco: World Athletics, the running body in the racing principality
• Monaco: UIPM modern pentathlon, five events in one small state
• Munich: ISSF shooting, so shooting goes to Germany, not Switzerland

Athletes and pentathletes live in Monaco, shooters live in Munich.

Trick 4: The Asian Pair of 2005, or Cricket and Shuttle Flew East

Two bodies left Europe in the same year, 2005. The ICC left Lord's in London for Dubai and the BWF left Cheltenham for Kuala Lumpur.

In 2005, the ball and the shuttle both boarded a flight east: ball to Dubai, shuttle to Kuala Lumpur.

Trick 5: The Budapest Versus Lausanne Swap Trap

• Weightlifting (IWF): Budapest to Lausanne in 2020, after a governance scandal, so the answer today is Lausanne.
• Judo (IJF): Lausanne to Budapest in 2019.
• Aquatics: Lausanne to Budapest, approved in 2023 and being completed in stages.

Lifters ran to Lausanne, judokas and swimmers moved to Budapest. Two went to Hungary, one came out of it.

Trick 6: League Versus Governing Body, or NBA Is Not FIBA

• FIBA governs basketball, the NBA is a private league in the United States and Canada.
• BCCI governs Indian cricket, the IPL is a tournament run by BCCI.
• ITF governs tennis, the ATP and WTA run professional tours and the four Grand Slams are run by their own organisers.
• IGF handles Olympic golf, while The R&A and the USGA write the rules and the PGA Tour is a commercial circuit.

Governing bodies make rules, leagues make money. If the question says organises the world championship, pick the federation.

Trick 7: Oldest and Newest, or 1881 to 2023

• 1881, FIG gymnastics: the oldest international sports federation
• 1886, World Rugby: the second oldest of the famous bodies
• 1894, IOC: Coubertin's creation in Paris
• 1904, FIFA, FIA and FIM: three bodies in one year, all founded in the automobile and football boom
• 2023, World Boxing: the newest major Olympic federation

Gymnastics is the grandfather at 1881, boxing's new body is the baby at 2023.

Trick 8: The India Ladder, or Policy, Practice, Participation

• Policy: MYAS, the ministry that decides and funds
• Practice: SAI, the agency that trains and builds
• Participation: IOA, the body that sends the team abroad
• Police: NSB, NST and NADA, the bodies that regulate, adjudicate and test

Four Ps in order: Policy, Practice, Participation, Police. MYAS decides, SAI trains, IOA travels, NSB and NADA discipline.

Additional Notes

Frequently Confused Facts

• IOC versus IPC: the IOC in Lausanne runs the Olympics, the IPC in Bonn runs the Paralympics. Different cities, different bodies.
• FIFA versus World Rugby: FIFA governs association football only. Rugby football is governed by World Rugby in Dublin.
• FIH versus IIHF: FIH in Lausanne governs field hockey, the IIHF in Zurich governs ice hockey.
• FIBA versus NBA: FIBA in Mies is the world governing body, the NBA is a professional league.
• IBA versus World Boxing: the IBA is the de-recognised former Olympic body, World Boxing is the provisionally recognised current one, and the WBC, WBA, IBF and WBO are professional sanctioning bodies.
• ITF and the Grand Slams: the ITF governs tennis and runs the Davis Cup and Billie Jean King Cup, but does not organise the Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon or US Open.
• IWF direction of move: weightlifting moved from Budapest to Lausanne, not the other way round. Aquatics and judo moved to Budapest.
• Old names versus new names: IAAF became World Athletics in 2019, FINA became World Aquatics in 2023, IRB became World Rugby in 2014, FITA became World Archery in 2011, AIBA became IBA in 2023, FILA became UWW in 2014 and IBF badminton became BWF in 2006.
• MYAS versus SAI: MYAS is a ministry that frames policy and recognises federations, SAI is an autonomous body under it that implements schemes and manages training.
• Sports Code versus Sports Act: the 2011 National Sports Development Code was only an executive code, whereas the National Sports Governance Act, 2025 is a parliamentary law with statutory bodies.
• BCCI's status: the BCCI is India's cricket governing body but is not a typical government-funded NSF, which makes it a favourite trick option in questions about recognised federations.

Repeating PYQ Patterns

• SSC CGL, CHSL and MTS: straight one-line headquarters questions on the IOC, FIFA, ICC, BCCI and WADA, plus founding years of the IOC and FIFA.
• IBPS PO, Clerk, RRB and Insurance exams: current affairs versions such as who was elected IOC President, who chairs the ICC, or which body regulates recognition of Indian federations under the 2025 Act.
• RRB NTPC and Group D: sport-to-body matching questions, for example match FIH, BWF, FIDE and ISSF with their sports, and Olympic firsts by Indian athletes.
• UPSC Prelims and State PCS: statement-based questions on the constitutional position of sports in the State List, the powers of the National Sports Board and Tribunal, and India's 2036 Olympic bid process.
• Defence and PSU exams: Commonwealth Games Federation, Olympic Council of Asia and Asian Games hosting questions, along with the Khelo India and TOPS schemes.
• High-frequency single facts: Lausanne for the IOC, Zurich for FIFA, Dubai for the ICC, Monaco for World Athletics, Kuala Lumpur for the BWF, Mies for FIBA, Montreal for WADA, 1881 for FIG as the oldest federation, and 1984 for SAI.

Quick Insight

This topic is unusually alive right now, and that is exactly why examiners like it. Between 2024 and 2026 the IOC changed its president for the first time in twelve years, boxing's Olympic future was rescued by an entirely new federation, aquatics began shifting its headquarters from Switzerland to Hungary, and India replaced a thirteen-year-old advisory sports code with a full statutory framework backed by a regulator and a tribunal. Add India's Ahmedabad 2030 Commonwealth Games and 2036 Olympic bid, and it becomes clear that a static list of headquarters is now inseparable from current affairs. The smart strategy is to fix the permanent facts through the tables above and then update only the moving parts, such as office-bearers and headquarters shifts, month by month through your static GK notes and the daily current affairs quizzes.

One-Liners for Quick Revision

• IOC → Founded 1894, headquarters Lausanne, Switzerland → Founded by Pierre de Coubertin in Paris, runs the Summer, Winter and Youth Olympic Games under the Olympic Charter, and Lausanne is called the Olympic Capital.
• Olympic motto → Citius, Altius, Fortius - Communiter → Faster, Higher, Stronger - Together, with the IOC owning all Olympic symbols, the flag and the anthem.
• The Olympic Partner programme → Started 1985 → The IOC's worldwide sponsorship system granting exclusive global marketing rights for each four-year Olympic cycle.
• IPC → Founded 1989, headquarters Bonn, Germany → Runs the Summer and Winter Paralympic Games and directly governs about ten Para sports.
• Commonwealth Games Federation → Founded 1932 as the British Empire Games Federation, headquarters London → Runs the Commonwealth Games, with Glasgow 2026 followed by the centenary edition at Ahmedabad in 2030.
• Olympic Council of Asia → Founded 1982, headquarters Kuwait City → Successor of the Asian Games Federation with 45 National Olympic Committees, running the Asian Games and Asian Winter Games.
• FIFA → Founded 1904 in Paris, headquarters Zurich → 211 member associations, works through Congress, Council and General Secretariat, adopts the Laws of the Game framed by IFAB, and runs the FIFA World Cup.
• AFC → Headquarters Kuala Lumpur → Runs the AFC Asian Cup, begun in 1956, with Japan holding a record four titles, and India was a founding member in 1954.
• UEFA → Headquarters Nyon, Switzerland → Runs the European Championship from 1960 and the Champions League, with Spain holding four Euro titles.
• CAF → Headquarters Cairo → Runs the Africa Cup of Nations from 1957, with Egypt holding a record seven titles.
• CONMEBOL → Headquarters Luque, Paraguay → Runs Copa America from 1916, the oldest continuous continental football championship, with Argentina on sixteen titles.
• CONCACAF → Headquarters Miami → Runs the Gold Cup from 1991, with Mexico on ten titles.
• OFC → Headquarters Auckland → Runs the OFC Men's Nations Cup from 1973, with New Zealand on six titles.
• ICC → Founded 1909 as the Imperial Cricket Conference, headquarters Dubai since 2005 → Renamed International Cricket Council in 1989, incorporated in the British Virgin Islands, with 12 Full Members and events including the ODI World Cup, T20 World Cup, Champions Trophy and World Test Championship.
• BCCI → Founded 1928, headquarters Cricket Centre, Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai → ICC Full Member since 1926, functionally autonomous rather than a standard government-funded federation, and organiser of the IPL and Women's Premier League.
• Big Three in cricket → India, England and Australia → The BCCI, ECB and Cricket Australia historically held disproportionate influence in ICC decision-making because of revenue generation.
• FIH → Founded 1924, headquarters Lausanne → Governs field hockey and runs the Hockey World Cup and the annual FIH Pro League, while ice hockey belongs to the IIHF.
• World Athletics → Founded 1912 as the IAAF, headquarters Monaco since 1993 → Renamed World Athletics in 2019, ratifies world records, runs the World Championships and Diamond League and created the Athletics Integrity Unit in April 2017.
• BWF → Founded 1934 as the International Badminton Federation, headquarters Kuala Lumpur since 2005 → Renamed BWF in 2006 and runs the World Championships, World Tour, Thomas Cup, Uber Cup and Sudirman Cup.
• ITF → Founded 1913, headquarters London → Runs the Davis Cup, the oldest team competition in tennis from 1900, and the Billie Jean King Cup, formerly the Fed Cup.
• ATP → Founded 1972, headquarters London → Men's professional tour with the ATP Finals for the top eight players.
• WTA → Founded 1973 by Billie Jean King, headquarters St. Petersburg, Florida → Women's professional tour with the season-ending WTA Finals.
• FIDE → Founded 1924 in Paris, headquarters Lausanne since 2019 → Recognised by the IOC in 1999, maintains the Elo rating system and awards Grandmaster at 2500, International Master at 2400, FIDE Master at 2300 and Candidate Master at 2200 rating thresholds with verified norms.
• FIDE events → World Chess Championship, Candidates Tournament, Chess Olympiad → India won double gold in the Open and Women's sections at the 45th Chess Olympiad in Budapest in September 2024.
• World Aquatics → Founded 1908 as FINA, renamed 2023, headquarters moving from Lausanne to Budapest → Governs swimming, diving, water polo, artistic swimming, open water and high diving, with the Foundation and Integrity Unit remaining in Lausanne.
• ISSF → Founded 1907, headquarters Munich → Governs rifle, pistol and shotgun events and enforces trigger dead-weight and jacket stiffness checks.
• IWF → Founded 1905 in Duisburg, headquarters Lausanne since 2020 → Moved out of Budapest after a governance scandal, and its competition lifts are the snatch and the clean and jerk.
• ITTF → Founded 1926, headquarters Lausanne → One of the largest federations by membership, runs the World Championships and the WTT circuit launched in 2021, and tests rackets for illegal speed glues.
• FIVB → Founded 1947, headquarters Lausanne → Governs indoor, beach and snow volleyball with more than 220 members and runs the Volleyball Nations League.
• FIBA → Founded 1932, headquarters Mies, Switzerland → Runs the Basketball World Cup and the 3x3 World Tour, and is not the same as the NBA, which is a league.
• UWW → Founded 1912 as FILA, renamed 2014, headquarters Corsier-sur-Vevey → Governs freestyle, Greco-Roman and women's wrestling.
• FIA → Founded 1904, headquarters Paris → Governs four-wheel motorsport including Formula One, the World Rally Championship, Formula E and endurance racing.
• FIM → Founded 1904, headquarters Mies → Governs motorcycle racing including MotoGP and the Superbike World Championship.
• World Rugby → Founded 1886 as the IRFB, renamed 2014, headquarters Dublin → Governs rugby union and Sevens, an Olympic sport since 2016, and runs the Rugby World Cup from 1987.
• FIG → Founded 1881, headquarters Lausanne → The oldest international sports federation, governing artistic, rhythmic, trampoline, aerobic and acrobatic gymnastics plus parkour, with scoring split into difficulty and execution.
• UCI → Founded 1900, headquarters Aigle, Switzerland → Governs road, track, mountain bike, BMX and cyclo-cross, with the Tour de France run independently under UCI rules.
• World Archery → Founded 1931 as FITA, renamed 2011, headquarters Lausanne → Recurve is the Olympic discipline alongside compound and barebow.
• IGF → Founded 1958, headquarters Lausanne → Handles Olympic golf, which returned in 2016 after 112 years, while The R&A at St Andrews and the USGA jointly maintain the Rules of Golf.
• WSF → Founded 1967, headquarters Hastings, England → Governs squash, which is not yet Olympic but has been approved for Los Angeles 2028.
• World Boxing → Founded April 2023, headquarters Lausanne → Given IOC provisional recognition in February 2025, after which boxing was restored to the LA 2028 programme with gender parity across seven weight classes each for men and women.
• IBA, formerly AIBA → Founded 1946, headquarters Lausanne → Suspended by the IOC in 2019 and de-recognised in June 2023, which is why the IOC itself ran Olympic boxing at Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024.
• Professional boxing bodies → WBC 1963 Mexico City, WBA 1921 Panama City, IBF 1983 New Jersey, WBO 1988 Puerto Rico → These sanction paid world titles and have no role in Olympic boxing.
• IJF → Founded 1951 in London, headquarters Budapest since 2019 → Runs the World Judo Championships and the IJF World Tour.
• IIHF → Founded 1908, headquarters Zurich → Governs ice hockey and shares its city with FIFA.
• IHF → Headquarters Basel, Switzerland → The world governing body for handball.
• World Taekwondo → Headquarters Seoul → Based in the sport's country of origin and earlier called the World Taekwondo Federation.
• World Rowing, FEI, FIE, ICF, World Triathlon and WBSC → All headquartered in Lausanne → Rowing was earlier FISA, triathlon was earlier the International Triathlon Union, and the WBSC combines baseball and softball.
• UIPM → Headquarters Monaco → Governs modern pentathlon and shares its base city with World Athletics.
• World Sailing → Headquarters London → Formerly the International Sailing Federation.
• IFSC and UIAA → IFSC in Turin, UIAA in Bern → Sport climbing became Olympic at Tokyo 2020, while the UIAA governs mountaineering.
• WKF and INF → Karate in Madrid, netball in Manchester → Karate appeared only at Tokyo 2020, and netball is a Commonwealth Games sport.
• WADA → Founded 1999, headquarters Montreal → Frames the World Anti-Doping Code, runs the ADAMS database and the Athlete Biological Passport framework.
• CAS → Founded 1984, headquarters Lausanne → The final appellate forum for international sports disputes including doping appeals.
• Athlete Biological Passport → Two modules → The haematological module tracks haemoglobin mass and reticulocytes, and the steroidal module flags a testosterone to epitestosterone ratio above 4:1, which triggers Isotope Ratio Mass Spectrometry.
• Hawk-Eye → Optical ball-tracking system → Used in tennis, cricket's Decision Review System and badminton, based on synchronised camera arrays and computer vision.
• Semi-Automated Offside Technology → Elite football → Tracks 29 skeletal points fifty times per second with a 500 Hz sensor inside the ball.
• World Athletics shoe rule → Maximum 40 mm stack height → Only one rigid embedded plate is allowed in road racing shoes to prevent technological doping.
• Rating versus ranking → A rating is a continuous number, a ranking is an ordered list → The three models are accumulation over a rolling 52 weeks, the Elo model and weighted averaging.
• Sports in the Constitution → Entry 33 of the State List, Seventh Schedule → States lead grassroots sport, while the Union Government handles policy, recognition, anti-doping and international participation.
• MYAS → Apex policy ministry with Departments of Sports and Youth Affairs → Recognises federations, allocates funds and confers the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna and Arjuna Awards, and approved Khelo Bharat Niti 2025 replacing the 2001 policy.
• SAI → Established 1984, autonomous body under MYAS → A legacy of the 1982 Asian Games in New Delhi, running national centres and implementing Khelo India and TOPS.
• TOPS → Launched September 2014 → Supports podium-potential athletes with foreign training, competition funding, coaching and a monthly stipend through Core and Development groups.
• Khelo India → Grassroots talent identification programme → Runs Youth Games and University Games and feeds athletes into TOPS.
• IOA → Established 1927, headquarters Olympic Bhawan, New Delhi → India's National Olympic Committee and also the Commonwealth Games Association of India, currently headed by P. T. Usha, its first woman and first Olympian president.
• National Sports Governance Act, 2025 → Assent on 18 August 2025 → India's first parliamentary sports governance law, replacing the National Sports Development Code of India, 2011.
• National Sports Board → Statutory regulator with a Chairperson and two Members → Grants, renews, suspends or cancels recognition of national sports bodies, and only recognised bodies get central funding.
• National Sports Tribunal → Chairperson is a Supreme Court judge or High Court Chief Justice with two expert members → Has civil court powers, orders executable as decrees and appeals to the Supreme Court, except where CAS arbitration is required.
• National Sports Election Panel → Created under the 2025 Act → Oversees elections to the Executive Committee and Athletes Committee of national sports bodies.
• NADA → Headquarters New Delhi → Enforces anti-doping rules under the National Anti-Doping Act, 2022, amended in August 2025, with testing at the National Dope Testing Laboratory.
• NSNIS Patiala and LNIPE Gwalior → Patiala for elite coaching and sports science, Gwalior for physical education → LNIPE also has a campus in Thiruvananthapuram.
• Major Indian federations → AIFF at Football House, Dwarka, New Delhi, founded 1937 → Hockey India, AFI, BAI, NRAI, WFI and BFI are also based in New Delhi, while the All India Chess Federation is based in Chennai.
• K. D. Jadhav → Bronze in freestyle wrestling, Helsinki 1952 → Independent India's first individual Olympic medal.
• Karnam Malleswari → Bronze in weightlifting, women's 69 kg, Sydney 2000 → The first Olympic medal won by an Indian woman in any sport.
• Abhinav Bindra → Gold in men's 10 m air rifle, Beijing 2008 → India's first individual Olympic gold, under ISSF rules.
• Thomas Cup 2022 → India's first title in 73 years → Beat fourteen-time champion Indonesia 3-0 in Bangkok in a BWF Grade 1 major team event.
• Gukesh Dommaraju → World Chess Champion from December 2024 → Beat Ding Liren in Singapore at 18 to become the youngest world champion, and defends the title in Geneva in 2026 against Javokhir Sindarov.
• India as motorsport host → Formula One Indian Grand Prix 2011 to 2013, Formula E Hyderabad E-Prix 2023, MotoGP Bharat 2023 and 2024 → Mostly staged at the Buddh International Circuit under FIA and FIM sanction.
• Kirsty Coventry → Tenth IOC President from 23 June 2025 → The first woman and first African IOC President, elected for eight years at the 144th IOC Session, with Milano Cortina 2026 as her first Games.
• Jay Shah → ICC Chair from 1 December 2024 → The youngest ICC Chair, having moved from the post of BCCI Secretary.
• Ahmedabad 2030 and the 2036 bid → Centenary Commonwealth Games in 2030 → India sent a Letter of Intent to the IOC in October 2024 proposing Ahmedabad for the 2036 Olympics, with the host expected to be selected by around 2029.

Revise this list twice, then test yourself before you forget it. Attempt the topic-wise sets on the static GK quiz page and pair them with the banking awareness quizzes if you are preparing for IBPS, Insurance or PSU exams.

If your target exam also carries a computer section, add the computer awareness quizzes to the same revision cycle, and keep an eye on the latest government jobs notifications so that no application deadline slips past you.