A year which was supposed to showcase the virtues of modern sport was instead smeared by a series of scandals that exposed the ugly underbelly of the games people love.
On the fields of play, the action this year was at times breathtaking.
A German team, unshackled from its pragmatic past and playing with uninhibited flair, won a World Cup in Brazil that exceeded everyone’s wildest expectations.
Photo: AFP
Germany beat Argentina 1-0 in the final at the sprawling Maracana in Rio de Janeiro, thanks to a superb extra-time goal from baby-faced substitute Mario Goetze, to lift the trophy for the first time since 1990.
The hosts buckled under the weight of expectation, finishing fourth, but never had the samba nation shone so brightly on the world stage.
Magnanimous in defeat, Brazil delivered a tournament that will be remembered for its contagious carnival atmosphere, infecting everyone from the golden sands of Copacabana Beach to the Amazon rainforest.
However, the year did not end well for the beautiful game, with FIFA, soccer’s world governing body, fending off more accusations of bribery over its decision to award the 2018 World Cup to Russia and 2022 to Qatar.
FIFA cleared both of any of wrongdoing, but the former US prosecutor who led the investigation said it had misrepresented his findings and he later quit.
The timing of the 2022 World Cup is also causing problems, with doctors warning the tournament will have to be moved from its usual summer slot to avoid the stifling heat in Qatar.
However, any change could impact the European leagues and potentially clash with the 2022 Winter Olympics, in either Beijing or Almaty, the only two cities in the bidding race.
The rest all dropped out, citing the astronomical US$51 billion price tag for this year’s Winter Olympics in Sochi, and prompting the International Olympic Committee to introduce a raft of reforms.
Like Brazil’s World Cup, Russia’s Olympics went better than expected, despite the inevitable collision between sport and politics. The buildup was overshadowed by threats of Muslim militant violence, an international outcry over a contentious “anti-gay propaganda” law and allegations of corruption.
Western critics labeled the Games a wasteful extravagance to show off modern Russia’s might. Russian President Vladimir Putin said the complaints were fueled by jealousy and were reminiscent of the Cold War rhetoric that dominated the Olympics in the 1970s and 1980s.
Russia finished top of the medals table with 13 golds, but the country’s recent surge in sport was questioned later in the year with allegations of systemic doping by Russian athletes.
Racism, doping and domestic violence dominated the US sporting landscape.
Donald Sterling, the billionaire owner of the Los Angeles Clippers basketball team, was banned for life and eventually agreed to sell the franchise after a racist rant that overshadowed the San Antonio Spurs’ victory over the Miami Heat in the championship final.
Baseball’s highest-paid player, Alex Rodriguez missed the entire MLB season after ending a legal challenge to his record suspension for allegedly using performance-enhancing drugs.
The San Francisco Giants won the World Series for the third time in five seasons, with ace pitcher Madison Bumgarner playing the starring role.
The NFL, the US’ richest and most-watched sport, played its first Super Bowl in the New York area — with the Seattle Seahawks beating the Denver Bronocs.
However, the sport was plunged into crisis when Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice was caught on film punching his then-fiancee, and Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson used a tree branch to discipline his son.
The genteel sport of cricket was left heartbroken after the shocking death of Australia batsman Phillip Hughes — who was killed when he was hit in the head by a ball.
His death triggered a global outpouring of grief not seen since Formula One driver Ayrton Senna was killed in a high-speed crash 20 years ago.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier