UPSC Prelims 2021— Question 8

The Laureus World Sports Awards began in 2000. Tiger Woods was the inaugural winner of the Laureus World Sportsman of the Year award, while the award has not been dominated by Formula One competitors. Roger Federer has won the Sportsman award more times than any other individual in the relevant record. Thus statements 1 and 3 are correct. The final answer-key position for Set C identifies option C as the correct option. Option A — 1 and 2 only — is not correct because it does not satisfy the specific condition tested in the question; it represents an alternative that is contradicted, incomplete, or less precise than the accepted answer. Option B — 2 and 3 only — is not correct because it does not satisfy the specific condition tested in the question; it represents an alternative that is contradicted, incomplete, or less precise than the accepted answer. Option C — 1 and 3 only — is correct because it is the alternative that matches the constitutional, historical, geographical, scientific or economic principle established above. Option D — 1, 2 and 3 — is not correct because it does not satisfy the specific condition tested in the question; it represents an alternative that is contradicted, incomplete, or less precise than the accepted answer. For PYQ interpretation, the distinction between the correct alternative and merely related facts is important. UPSC often places plausible distractors beside the precise statement that matches the underlying rule, chronology, definition or empirical relationship. The answer should therefore be read against the exact wording of the question rather than against a broadly related fact.