Snooker celebration.
Ronnie O'Sullivan is in the eyes of many the athlete of the past year.
The question of whether snooker is a sport or not is not really relevant, because at the age of 47 the Briton once again entered the golden books of world sports.
With seven wins in the World Championship, including the one of the past year, it is doubtful whether in our lifetime we will see something similar in terms of achievement and class.
O'Sullivan.
Once in a generation, photo: Getty
Anti-Semitic all the way to the ring.
Anti-Semitism has returned to the sports fields in a big way with the return of the fans to the fields after the corona virus.
It crossed audiences and continents, but Brooklyn Nets basketball player Kyrie Irving seemed to be at the center of things, with his flat world theory and the quotes of his not-so-screwed-up friend Kanye West, in all things anti-Jewish.
Irving probably expressed what many athletes around the world, especially African-Americans, are thinking in their heads, and opened a Pandora's box that has in fact never been closed.
Irving.
Brought anti-Semitism back into vogue, photo: AP
Farewell to the trio.
How beautiful is the fact that this year each of the three biggest tennis stars of our time had their moment of glory.
Roger Federer retired and left us with a deep longing, Rafael Nadal proved that he is still carrying and gave us moments of magic that who knows when they will return and Novak Djokovic, who started the year as the unvaccinated end of the tour, will open 2023 exactly where they did not want him A year ago, to prove once and for all that he remains the last fallen, just before the next generation already arrives and takes the reins himself.
Federer Vandal.
Players of a lifetime, photo: AFP
the biggest.
What can be written or said about Leo Messi that hasn't been written yet?
6,000 Asian laborers buried under the soccer fields at the World Cup in Qatar are a silent testimony to the corruption of FIFA that no one will remember anymore, in view of the crazy, there is no other word, Argentina winning the tournament.
The greatest final we have seen in our lifetime, and especially the fact that the greatest player of our generation won it, made the World Cup the pinnacle event of world sports and established that there is and will never be anything like football.
Oh, and also that Qatar and the Gulf countries are going to take over world sports in the coming years.
Messi.
Expressed the trophy, photo: EPA
There are wineries in English football.
The 81,000 spectators at Wembley Stadium, who broke a record for a women's game, saw the England team display exciting football in the victory over the German team, and an equally historic win in the European Women's Football Championship.
It was the biggest and most successful event in the history of women's football, and it seems to have changed it forever.
The next test, the World Cup matches in Australia and New Zealand, should be the final stamp that, at least in the world, the thrill of women's soccer begins to equal that of men.
England team.
They put women's soccer on the map, photo: Reuters
Real Madrid and the French failure.
Even on their favorite pitch in Paris, Real Madrid proved that they really are the greatest football club in the world with Vinicius' winning goal over Liverpool in the Champions League final.
And yet, what will be remembered from this final is the French failure, which did not end in disaster but raised warning lights around the world: are the French really capable of hosting the Olympic Games in two summers?
Meanwhile the Moroccans are burning the city.
Benzema lifts the trophy, photo: AFP
Is this athlete of the year?
Eliud Kipchoga recorded 2:01:09 hours in the Berlin Marathon in what for athletics fans is the record event in world sports, and of course makes the Kenyan runner the athlete of the year in the world.
The Olympic champion in 2020 and 2016 improved the record by half a minute and once again raised the questions of how far the human body can still go, and whether in the coming years a marathon in less than two hours will become a matter of routine.
Kipchoga.
An unusual record, photo: AFP
The bike returned to its natural place.
You don't really have to love bike racing to realize in real time that what happened at this year's Tour de France was quite historic.
Apart from the fact that it was the fastest race in history, it was simply extraordinarily dramatic as Dane Jonas Vingoger of the Yumbo Wisma team stunned the Slovenian prodigy Tedai Pugačar, who had worn the yellow jersey for two years, and it seemed that no one could stop him.
In the Israeli angle - the "Premier-Tech" team achieved two prestigious and initial victories in sections 5 and 16 and proved its place among the greats.
Winegar.
A rare Tour de France, photo: AFP
There is basketball in Europe.
The European Orange Ball Championship held in September across the continent was embarrassing for Guy Goodes and his anemic group.
But several games during the competition reminded that those who still keep faith in the sport should follow the European team basketball that reminds us why it is still a sport and not a club for adults.
The victory of the Spanish team was just the icing on the cake of the excellent tournament, which proved that white men definitely can.
Spain wins EuroBasket, photo: FIBA
The stars are no longer with us.
The world sport lost too many stars of the past this year, and in the last days of 2022 pray and cross fingers for the Brazilian footballer Pele, who is fighting for his life in the hospital in Brazil.
There are conspirators who will talk about the effects of the corona virus and vaccines, and there are those who will refuse to believe that even the biggest stars in the world just sometimes pass away.
Among the more familiar names who passed away this year: the basketball player Bill Russell, the legendary boxer Ernie Shavers, the immortal cricketer Shane Warner, the beloved soccer players Ronnie Redford and Sinisha Mihailovic, the American soccer journalist Grant Wohl, who died during the World Cup matches, and the coach who changed world tennis Nick Bolltieri.
Bill Russell.
Another legend we said goodbye to this year, photo: AFP
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