It's been a truly wonderful year to be a sports fan with marvellous achievements across both men's and women's sport. While England Women finally ensured Football came home with their Euro 2022 win, England's men cricket team dominated the cricket world to become the first team to hold both the ODI and T20 World Cups.
Meanwhile Indian Athletes caught the eye with some historic feats in 2022 while the Indian women grabbed silver in the first-ever Women's T20 tournament played at the Commonwealth Games 2022.
The year then culminated in the crowning moment for Lionel Messi as Argentina's No. 10 finally lifted the elusive World Cup trophy to rightfully take his place as one of the best to have ever played the game.
Here's a look at the top sporting events in 2022:
January | Africa Cup of Nations: The year began with the spotlight on Africa where 24 nations battled it out to be crowned continental champions. Senegal ultimately prevailed as Sadio Mane’s Lions of Teranga beat his club teammate Mohammad Salah’s Egypt 4-2 on penalties in the final to win their first-ever AFCON title. The final had ended 0-0 after extra time.
March | ICC Women’s ODI Cricket World Cup: In March, Eight teams convened in New Zealand to decide who will be crowned the Women’s ODI World Champions. Meg Lanning’s Australia entered the tournament as firm favourites and they didn’t disappoint, beating England by 71 runs in the Final to lift their seventh World Cup trophy. Alyssa Healy dazzled with 170 off 138 balls, the highest individual score in the tournament as Australia posted a record 356/5 in the Final. Nat Sciver valiantly fought back with an unbeaten 148, but ran out of partners as England were bowled out for 285 in 43.4 overs.
July | UEFA Women’s Euros 2022: In July, Football finally came home for England as manager Sarina Wiegman masterminded a 2-1 victory in extra-time over old rivals and eight-time European champions Germany 2-1 in front of a record crowd of 87,192 fans at Wembley stadium. Chloe Kelly scored the winner in the 110th minute to seal the first European Title for the Lionesses and also first major trophy for England, 56 years after the Men's team won the World Cup in 1966.
July | 2022 World Athletics Champions: The eighteenth edition of the World Athletics Championships was held in Oregon, United States. Neeraj Chopra ended India’s 19-year wait for a medal at the championships since Anju Bobby George’s long jump bronze medal in 2003. The Tokyo Olympic champion won the men’s javelin throw silver medal in Oregon, making it India’s first-ever silver medal won at the World Championships.
July - August | Commonwealth Games 2022: Nearly 200 Indian athletes competed at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham and returned home with a tally of 61 medals, made up of 22 golds, 16 silvers and 23 bronze medals. India finished fourth on the medals table behind Canada (92), England (175) and Australia (178). It was India’s fifth-best performance in the history of the event, however, it’s important to note that Shooting, which contributed 16 medals for India in the 2018 edition, was excluded from the list of events in Birmingham.
August | Women’s Cricket Makes a Debut at Commonwealth Games: Cricket returned to the Commonwealth for the first time since 1998 when the Men's teams played a 50-over tournament, which South Africa won. This time, Women’s T20 Cricket made it’s debut at the games with eight teams battling for Gold. India and Australia were the two teams in the Final but Harmanpreet Kaur’s Women In Blue had to settle for Silver after losing by 9 runs to the indomitable Aussies.
October - November ICC Men’s T20 World Cup | England beat Pakistan by five wickets in the final in Melbourne to further strengthen their hold over white-ball cricket. The reigning ODI champions found a familiar hero in the form of Ben Stokes who once again shone in the final with his maiden T20 fifty to make England the first men’s team to hold the T20 and ODI World Cups simultaneously.
November - December FIFA Men’s World Cup 2022 | The tournament in Qatar will be remembered as the one that sealed Lionel Messi’s legacy as one of the greatest-ever to have played the game. The 32-team festival culminated with arguably the greatest Final ever which saw France recover from 2-0 down to push the game into extra-time. Then with Argentina winning 3-2, Kylian Mbappe completed his hat-trick to then force a penalty shootout. Ultimately, the defending champions couldn’t overcome La Albiceleste as it seemed written in the stars that Messi should be crowned World Champion.
