Sports categories are often tricky for Jeopardy! contestants. After all, who could forget the 2018 episode when none of the contestants even attempted a response in a football category?
But as we saw on Friday’s episode, sometimes it’s best to just not guess.
Friday’s episode featured a category called “Real Fast,” which dealt with athletes doing things quickly. One of the clues was, “Sifan Hassan holds the women’s world record in this track event: 4 minutes, 12.33 seconds.”
The response from Sharon Bishop, a high school Spanish teacher from Rhode Island, was, “What is the 50-yard dash?” which host Ken Jennings naturally said was incorrect.
After the other two players didn’t ring in with a guess, Jennings quipped, “I think a lot of us can do the 50-yard dash a little faster.” He then said that a mile was the correct response.
Jeopardy! later tweeted out that Hassan no longer holds the record for a mile, that Faith Kipyegon broke it on July 21 and it’s now 4 minutes, 7.64 seconds.
But the more pressing issue was, did she really think that the world record for a 50-yard dash was over 4 minutes?
Sports fans had a lot of fun with this drastically incorrect response.
The 50-yard dash is actually not a standard track & field event. But for anyone curious, the world record in the 60-yard dash belongs to Obadele Thompson (5.99 seconds), while Evelyn Ashford (6.54 seconds) holds the women’s record.
[Photo Credit: Jeopardy!]
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