The champions had a mixed year... Some soared, some fell. There were also new champions, who conquered the world. The Telegraph sifts through the events in the world of sports in 2021 to reflect the talking points

Olympics

The Tokyo 2020 Olympics, delayed by a year, turned out to be an eventful one, where the fantastic, the ordinary and the the dubious overlapped one another.

The highs

The United States finished at the top of the medals tally with a total of 113 medals with 39 gold, followed by China and Japan. Italy’s Lamont Marcell Jacobs won a shock men’s 100 metres gold. Jacobs’ 9.80-second victory also set a new European record. Italy’s 4×100-metre sprint relay team, including Jacobs, registered another astounding win that took Italy’s athletics gold tally in Tokyo to five. Jamaica’s Elaine Thompson-Herah became the first woman to win a “double-double” — winning gold in both the 100m and 200m races in Tokyo to retain her two gold medals in the same events at Rio 2016. US sprinter Allyson Felix won a record 11th Olympic medal, becoming the most decorated track and field women Olympic athlete of all time and the most decorated in US history. Felix achieved the feat by winning gold in the 4×400-meter relay. In swimming, 18-year-old Ahmed Hafnaoui of Tunisia shocked the sporting world after winning the 400 metres freestyle. Hafnaoui went into the final race with the slowest qualifying time of the eight swimmers. His win was only the fifth medal for Tunisia in Olympics history. Team USA’s Caeleb Dressel won five gold medals and Australian Emma McKeon baggedfour gold and three bronze medals. New Zealand weightlifter Laurel Hubbard went down in history as the first transgender athlete at the Olympics.

The lows

French boxer Mourad Aliev registered an extraordinary protest, refusing to leave the ring for an hour or so after he was disqualified for an intentional head butt. In athletics, the US men’s relay team’s failure to qualify for the 4×100-metre final was panned by critics as a “total embarrassment”. In tennis, Australia’s Ashleigh Barty, the world No. 1, lost in the first round to Spain’s Sara Sorribes Tormo 6-4, 6-3.

Inspirational US gymnast Simone Biles withdrawing from several events to focus on her ‘mental health’ was a major talking point. Biles dropped out after suffering an injury during a team vault competition and subsequently sat out five out of six events. “There is more to life than just gymnastics,” she said. The 24-year-old star gymnast received an outpouring of support and praise for her difficult decision. She later went on to win the bronze in the balance beam.Qatar’s Mutaz Barshim and Italy’s Gianmarco Tamberi choosing to share the gold in high jump was hailed by many as one of the best moments of the games.

Some controversies

Krystsina Tsimanouskaya was granted a visa on humanitarian grounds by Poland after the Belarusian sprinter said she feared for her safety and that her team’s officials were trying to force her to fly home. The standoff began after Tsimanouskaya criticised how officials were managing her team. The runner was then hustled to the airport but refused to board a flight for Istanbul and instead approached the police for help.

TENNIS

2021 may well go down as a cusp between the old order and the young in the world of tennis. While Roger Federer won the ATP fan favourite award by playing a handful of matches and Novak Djokovic (in picture) came close to securing a golden slam, two teenage women came from nowhere to reach the US Open final. While Emma Raducanu, the 19-year-old from Britain, has hogged the limelight since defeating another 19-year-old from Canada, Leylah Fernandez, in the US Open final, the transition in the game has been underlined by the new blood on the men’s side. The top spot still belongs to the old guard, in the form of Djokovic, but the next slots are taken over by Daniil Medvedev (25), Alexander Zverev Zverev (24), Stefanos Tsitsipas (23) and Andrey Rublev (24). Rafael Nadal comes in at No.6 in the rankings and Federer at 16th, and 2022 may turn out rather tough for the 30-plus maestros. Among women 25-year-old Ashleigh Barty topped the year-end rankings.

Novak Djokovic.

FORMULA ONE

It was one of the most memorable seasons in Formula One history, where a new driver was crowned champion in one of the most captivating finales. It was a season which saw six different drivers and four different teams claiming a race victory. But it was the finale in Abu Dhabi which in a way summed up the entire season. The last race turned out to be the decider with the top two drivers, Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen (in picture), going into it level on points — 369.5. Such a thing was a first in F1 history since 1974. Verstappen beat Hamilton to the title, but it was not as straightforward as it sounds. Hamilton led till the last five laps. Then after Williams’ Nicolas Latifi had an accident and the safety car was deployed, the scenario changed completely. Race director Michael Masi initially did not allow the cars to un-lap themselves, but then he changed his decision. That saw Verstappen, who was on fresher tyres, pounce on Hamilton and outpace him.

MENTAL HEALTH

That a win or a loss is not everything in sport was perhaps better understood this year as multiple sportspersons spoke out on mental health. The biggest of them was USA’s Simone Biles, who withdrew from multiple events at Tokyo Olympics citing her mental health concerns. Naomi Osaka (in picture) too highlighted the issue when she opted out of the French Open after playing just one match. The French grand slam officials fined her $15,000 for skipping a media conference and that triggered Osaka’s pullout. She later withdrew from Wimbledon 2021. “I would never trivialize mental health or use the term lightly,” the Japanese tennis star said in a statement. There were others too, like England cricketer Ben Stokes, who felt mentally drained. Pressure at highest level of sport has always been instense. And the pandemic, perhaps, has worsened the scenario further.

Naomi Osaka.

FOOTBALL

Lionel Messi’s tearful farewell to Barcelona, Cristiano Ronaldo’s return to the red side of Manchester, Chelsea winning the Champions League, Italy ruling Europe after an English meltdown, Dane Christian Eriksen’s tryst with death, Sergio Aguero leaving football for good after being diagnosed with heart problem, Covid-19 outbreak at English Premier League… it was a roller-coaster ride for football fans across the world in 2021.

Debatable choice

The most dramatic, surprising and controversial issue of all was Robert Lewandowski missing out on his first Ballon D’Or trophy to Messi. The prolific scorer for the past two years should have been the natural choice but majority of around 190 journalists voted in favour of Paris Saint-German’s summer signing, who led Argentina to Copa America victory, their first major title in 28 years. Messi got 613 points followed by Lewandowski (580) and Chelsea’s Jorginho (460). It was his seventh Ballon d’Or trophy. A graceful Messi said in his acceptance speech it would have been fair if Lewandowski was given the 2020 trophy. Lewandowski scored 41 goals in Bundesliga 2020-21 to break Gerd Mueller’s single-season goal record set in 1971-72. He also bettered Der Bomber’s 1972 record for most goals in a calendar year, scoring his 43rd goal of 2021 last week, against Wolfsburg.

Youth power

The year also saw some talented youngsters hogging the limelight. Two of the most spoken-about young guns were Barcelona’s 19-year-old midfielder Pedri and Real Madrid’s Brazilian Vinicius Jr. While Pedri had a fantastic campaign till the summer where he shone for his club and Spain, Vinicius was the driving force behind Real’s ascent in the later part of the year. Watch out for them at the Qatar World Cup.

Big boys struggle

There was a surprise in store in Europe’s World Cup qualification. Serbia topped their group to qualify for the World Cup at the expense of Portugal. Cristiano Ronaldo’s team and Italy, the reigning European champions, were later drawn in the same path for the play-offs to be played in March. That means one of the two heavyweights would miss the flight to Qatar.

DISAPPOINTMENT OF THE YEAR

Embarrassed on the football field, outsmarted in the transfer market and shrouded in mismanagement, Barcelona, revered as giants of European club football not too long ago, have fallen from grace and how. In March, even as Joan Laporta returned as club president, Barcelona were knocked out of the 2020-21 Champions League by Paris Saint-Germain. In August, Lionel Messi, the club’s face for many years, had to quit because of financial issues. Then Antoine Greizmann was sent to Atletico Madrid on loan. The club hit their lowest as they suffered elimination from the group stage of the current edition of the Champions League, a first in two decades. For a club who earned admiration from the world over for etching poetry on the football field, this was as bad a year as it could get.

WORLD CALENDAR 2022:

Jan. 17-30: Australian Open (tennis)
Feb. 4-20: Winter Olympics
March 16-20: All England Open (badminton)
March 20: Bahrain GP (F1 season opener)
April 7-10: Augusta Masters (golf)
May 19-22: PGA Championship (golf)
May 22-June 5: French Open (tennis)
May 28: Uefa Champions League Final
June 16-19: US Open (golf)
June 27-July 10: Wimbledon Championships (tennis)
July 14-17: The Open (golf)
July 15-24: IAAF World Championships
July 28-Aug. 8: Commonwealth Games
Aug. 29-Sept. 11: US Open (Tennis)
Sept. 10-25: Asian Games
Oct. 16-Nov. 13: ICC World T20
Nov. 21-Dec. 18: Qatar World Cup (football)