Sport round-up 2022

As another remarkable sporting year draws to a close, I thought I would look back and reflect on some of the 2022 highlights.

Winter Olympic Games: In February, the 24th winter Olympic Games took place in Beijing, China coinciding with the Chinese New Year. A total of 2,871 athletes from 91 different nations competed in 109 different events across just 16 days.

Beijing was selected as host city in 2015, marking its second time hosting the Olympics and the last of three consecutive Olympics hosted in East Asia. The 2018 winter Olympics was in South Korea and the 2020 summer Olympics took place in Tokyo, Japan. Having hosted the 2008 summer Olympics, Beijing became the first city to have hosted both the summer and winter Olympics. 

Norway finished at the top of the 2022 medal table for the second successive winter Olympics, winning a total of 37 medals, of which 16 were gold, thus setting a record for the most gold medals won at a single winter Olympics. 

Germany finished second with 12 golds and 27 medals overall. The host nation, China, finished third with nine gold medals.

Team GB had a golden finish with Eve Muirhead’s women’s curlers defeating Japan 10-3 on the final day. This was in addition to the silver medal that Bruce Mouat’s men won in the same event.

Commonwealth Games: This was England’s third time hosting the Commonwealth Games after London in 1934 and Manchester in 2002 and the 7th games held in the UK. Birmingham 2022 was the largest Commonwealth Games event ever held and the city pulled out all the stops. From the moment the iconic ‘Raging Bull’ stormed into the Alexandra Stadium for the opening ceremony until the curtain came down with brummie legend Ozzy Osbourne 11 days later at the closing ceremony, Birmingham really came alive as the Games seemed to capture the imagination of the whole city. In terms of medal count, Australia narrowly edged out England with a total of 178, including 67 gold to England’s 176 with 57 gold.  

Horse Racing: The Cheltenham Festival in March hosted 28 races over 5 days, including the Champion Hurdle – won by the unbeaten Honeysuckle – and the Gold Cup (A Plus Tard) both trained in Ireland. April saw the Grand National run at Aintree. Inaugurated in 1839, and with an estimated worldwide TV audience of 500 million, it was won by outsider Noble Yeats at 50-1. In May, Sawbuck became the biggest priced jumps winner in history with an amazing 300-1 success in Ireland. Finally, in December, legendary jockey 52 year-old Frankie Dettori announced his retirement from racing at the end of the 2023 season.

Football: Most sport fans’ favourite sporting moment of the year took place at Wembley in July, with the Women’s Euro 2022 Final.

The Lioness’s first game of the tournament was a modest 1-0 win against Austria, then 5 days later came the demolition of Norway 8-0, soon followed by a 5-0 thrashing of Northern Ireland … momentum and expectation were building! I remember thinking ‘we’ve got a good team here… could the girls really bring it home’? The stronger teams were still to play though and we held our collective breath as we sneaked through the quarter finals in extra time against the Spanish 2-1. 

Sweden was next, who has always been a decent side and anything can happen in a semi-final, but they refused to let the pressure get to them and swept aside the Swedes 4-0. It seemed like the girls had now grabbed the attention of the whole country. The following night we watched the other semi-final to see who we would face in Sunday’s final. Germany of course – who else! 

Manager Sarina Wiegman proudly led her side out at Wembley in front of a crowd of 87,192, the biggest crowd in European Championship history – men or women. 

Ella Toon put England in front in the 62nd minute, only for it to be cancelled out by Lina Magull with just 11 minutes to go. Extra time again and penalties loomed, until substitute Chloe Kelly poked the ball home from a corner which sent the crowd in the stadium wild; let alone the 17.4 million watching on TV and the 5.9 million online. Captain Leah Williamson picked up the trophy on behalf of her ecstatic teammates while most integral to the success was Beth Mead, who won the ‘Golden Boot’ and was announced as ‘Player of the Tournament’ with 6 goals and 5 assists.

As 2022 drew to a close, Gareth Southgate’s England men’s team again fell short in the World Cup, held this time in Qatar; losing narrowly 2-1 in the quarter-finals to losing finalists France. However, the England team are making good progress under Southgate and with a young improving squad the future looks bright. 

Despite a shock opening game defeat to Saudi Arabia 2-1, a Lionel Messi inspired Argentina lifted the most prestigious trophy in football after a penalty shoot-out in what was probably the best ever World Cup final.

A thoroughly entertaining tournament also saw Morocco become the first African country to reach the semi-finals. Perhaps a tournament too far for an ageing Gareth Bale, who unfortunately failed to drag Wales out of their group with England.

Rugby: It was certainly a busy year in England for hosting, as the Rugby League World Cup was staged across various venues throughout the north; concluding in November with the hot favourites Australia defeating the plucky Samoans 30-10. England lost to Samoa in the semi-final by the ‘golden point ‘rule, which takes its name from football’s now defunct ‘golden goal’. A disappointing tournament for Scotland and Wales as they both finished bottom of their respective groups, while Ireland also failed to reach the knockout stages.

For the first time, the Rugby League World Cup was run alongside the women’s and wheelchair tournaments; with all players being paid the same.

At about the same time, on the other side of the world, the women’s Rugby Union World Cup also took place in Auckland, New Zealand. The hosts ran out victorious with England runners-up and France in third. Scotland and Wales again unfortunately failed to reach the later stages.

Snooker: In the world of snooker, Ronnie O’Sullivan equalled Scotland’s Stephen Hendry’s record of seven World Championship titles when he defeated Judd Trump 18-13 at the Crucible in April to become the sports oldest World Champion at 46. He surpassed Ray Reardon, who last won aged 45. 

‘Rocket Ronnie’ is widely regarded as being the best player ever to pick up a cue and has achieved that despite his father being sent to prison in the year that he turned professional (1992). He won the UK Championship in 1993 at only 17 but didn’t win a world title until 2001. The now 21-time triple-crown title winner credits his father for much of his success on the green baize but has also said that his father’s incarceration has sadly cost him so much more. Will 2023 be the year that he takes his 8th World title?

Cricket: England went to Australia in October for the Men’s T20 Cup and found themselves in a rain-threatened final against a strong Pakistan team. England, led by talisman Ben Stokes, came out victorious defeating Pakistan by 5 wickets with Stokes hitting the winning runs just as he did 3 years ago when England won the one-day World Cup. England became the first ever men’s side to hold the one day and T20 World Cup at the same time. The Test side have also recently just won back-to-back tests in Pakistan; having never managed to win more than one Test out there. The women’s team also reached the final of the World Cup back in April but just came up short against Australia. So, the future for both looks bright.

Tennis: It was a record-breaking year in tennis and Rafael Nadal started by winning the Australian Open; his 21st major title, thus moving the hard-

hitting Spaniard one title ahead of Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic. Ashleigh Barty won the women’s event – then shortly after retired from the sport at the grand old age of 25, relinquishing her No1 world ranking in the process to Poland’s Iga Swiatek, who then went on to win the French and US Open. Nadal was back later in the year to win an incredible 14th French Open title and 22nd Major. Novak Djokovic won at Wimbledon – his 21st Major – to stay hot on the heels of Nadal in the race to be crowned the greatest of all time.

F1: Max Verstappen won his second World Championship in Formula 1 with Red Bull Racing.

Darts: In darts, Peter ‘Snakebite’ Wright kicked the year off by winning his second PDC World Championship; Michael Van Gerwen won the World Match-Play, the World Grand Prix and the Premier League, while fellow Dutchman Danny Noppert won the UK Open.

Golf: Sheffield born Matt Fitzpatrick won his first Major at the US Open golf championship in Brookline, Massachusetts and along with the trophy, 28-year-old Matt also picked up a cool 3.1 million dollars in prize money … not bad going for 72 holes of golf in the sunshine!

Pool: In pool, team Europe beat team USA 11-7 to retain the Mosconi Cup and take an overall lead (since 1994) of 15-13 with one tie.

Boxing: In heavyweight boxing, Anthony Joshua lost his rematch with Ukrainian Oleksandr Usyk and Tyson Fury continued his unbeaten record against fellow brits Dillian Whyte and Derek Chisora (yes, I know again). Will 2023 be the year when Fury finally gets it on against Joshua or Usyk and completes his legacy?