Top 10 Worldwide Sports Moments of 2024: Titles, Records, and Retirements
These 10 stood out among the many 2024 sporting moments on the international scale that left us speechless.
Photo: Boston Celtics, 2023–24 NBA champions (screenshot youtube.com/@Celtics)
In 2024, sports enthusiasts were pampered. Even though the Paris Olympics only lasted for 19 days, they produced some of the most thrilling, contentious, and widely shared sports stories of the year, which we wrote about earlier. Outside the Olympic hub, however, there were some significant highs and lows in the sports world last year, ranging from devastating retirements to massive championship-winning moments and everything in between. Here are 10 of the most significant worldwide sports stories of 2024, so let’s go back and review them, chronologically.
# 10 “Caitlin Clark Effect”
When Caitlin Clark was identified as the cause of women’s basketball’s explosive growth during the 2023–24 NCAA Division I season, the phrase “Caitlin Clark Effect” began to acquire popularity.
Her games with the Iowa Hawkeyes garnered millions of viewers throughout the season, and her first three games in the 2024 NCAA tournament alone were the highest-watched women’s collegiate basketball games (excluding the Final Four). She was also the center of attention during the 2024 WNBA draft in April, where she was chosen as the first overall pick in front of the largest audience in the draft’s history, 2.45 million people.
Her name alone has had a significant impact on women’s basketball’s popularity in the US, the most basketball nation in the world, increasing attendance, ticket sales, and retail sales.
# 9 Mbappé’s Club Ambitions Cease
The men’s football superstar Kylian Mbappé completed a long-awaited move on June 3 when he joined Real Madrid from Paris Saint-Germain. In front of 80,000 spectators at the Santiago Bernabéu stadium in July, he was unveiled and said his “dream has come true”. But the 25-year-old had a rough start to life at his new club, finding it hard to fit in with a side that won both the Spanish La Liga and UEFA Champions League trophies the previous season and had Brazilian sensation Vini Jr. playing in Mbappé’s preferred left-wing position.
Having to play with a damaged nose, Mbappé had a terrible UEFA EURO 2024 campaign with France. Off-field matters have diverted him in recent months, including a rumored inquiry into a rape claim in Sweden and a sour dispute with former team PSG over almost 55 million euros ($57.3 million) in unpaid wages, which he ultimately won. Despite being the captain, he has also been excluded from successive France squads because of concerns regarding his mental health.
# 8 Banner 18 Is Hung by Celtics
The Boston Celtics became the most dominant team in the whole North American men’s basketball league—the most well-liked and powerful in the world—when they won the 2023–24 NBA Championship on June 17, marking their 18th title.
The Ring Ceremony in October may have been even more memorable than the celebration of the title immediately following their Game 5 triumph over the Dallas Mavericks. A moving reminder of the type of company Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum, and the rest of the crew of Banner 18 now find themselves in, the Ring Ceremony at TD Garden brought together Celtics players from past generations, including Ray Allen, Paul Pierce, and Kevin Garnett. It was a genuinely unique celebration.
# 7 Spain’s Triumph at EURO 2024
At EURO 2024, England believed that football would finally be “coming home”. They were unable though to defeat a young Spanish team that brightened an otherwise dull UEFA European Football Championship for men in Germany, winning a record-breaking fourth continental title for the nation in mid-July.
Even though Spain won the 2023 UEFA Nations League, few people considered it pre-tournament favorites. However, they were worthy champions, defeating England, the hosts Germany, the 2018 FIFA World Cup winners France, and holder Italy en route to victory in Berlin. Lamine Yamal, a 16-year-old boy who became the tournament’s youngest-ever scorer with a magnificent long-distance curling attempt in the semifinal victory over France, and Ballon d’Or winner Rodri led Luis de la Fuente’s team.
# 6 Dark Clouds Over Sinner’s and Świątek’s Slams
We’re living in a time when tennis is going through generational changes. All eyes are on the new players while two tennis greats, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer, celebrate their retirement and Novak Djoković is nearing the end of his career. Who’ll take the place of these well-known figures and establish themselves as independent legends?
Particularly this year, Jannik Sinner is one of the young players demonstrating his abilities. He won the US Open and Australian Open for men and rose to the top of the world rankings, won the ATP Tour Finals, and guided Italy to a Davis Cup defense. However, a doping test dispute in August casts doubt on the 23-year-old’s near future in the sport. The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) is calling for a one- to two-year penalty, even though Sinner was exonerated of any wrongdoing when traces of the steroid clostebol were discovered in his blood in March.
Later in November, it was announced that Iga Świątek, a five-time major women’s winner and another young, talented tennis player, had accepted a one-month suspension after testing positive for the cardiac drug trimetazidine (TMZ). Nonetheless, the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) acknowledged that it was brought on by the player’s usage of melatonin, a regulated over-the-counter drug produced and marketed in her native country Poland, to treat sleep problems and jet lag.
# 5 World Marathon Record Smashed by Chepng’etich
When Kenyan Ruth Chepng’etich won the Chicago Marathon on October 14 at 2:09:56, she broke the women’s world record by nearly two minutes. Her highly emotional victory went viral on social media.
The 30-year-old beat Ethiopia’s Tigst Assefa’s previous world mark of 2:11:53, which was achieved in Berlin in 2023. In addition to winning in Chicago in 2021 and 2022, Chepng’etich dedicated her most recent triumph to Kelvin Kiptum, who established the men’s world record at the marathon last year just four months before he passed away at the age of 24 in a car accident.
# 4 Ohtani Enters Baseball Books
Shohei Ohtani, a Japanese superstar, helped the Los Angeles Dodgers win the men’s baseball World Series on October 30 after carving out an incredible MLB season. The Dodgers took the championship home after defeating the Yankees in the best-of-seven final.
The 30-year-old became the first player in the history of the North American baseball league, the most watched in the world, to blast 50 home runs and steal 50 bases in the same season, earning him his second consecutive MVP title. He inked then a record 10-year contract worth $700 million with the Dodgers organization in December 2023, which was surpassed by Juan Soto’s for the Mets this December ($765m).
Is Ohtani currently the top player in the league? We think so…
# 3 Nadal Calls It Quits
After a career that included 22 Grand Slam victories, two Olympic gold medals, and four Davis Cup trophies, men’s tennis great Rafael Nadal formally announced his retirement in November. For tennis players and spectators worldwide, it was an incredibly moving emotion. In addition to his accolades, the 38-year-old Spaniard received recognition for his humility both on and off the court after engaging in titanic matches against rivals Federer and Djoković.
However, Nadal wasn’t the only tennis legend to retire this year. Similar to him, who has been beset by injuries in recent years, Andy Murray, a three-time major winner who notably broke Britain’s 77-year wait for a men’s Wimbledon champion in 2013, finished his career in 2024. At the end of the year, the 37-year-old committed to coaching Djoković in 2025.
An era in the tennis world comes to an end with these two retirements.
# 2 After Turbulent Season, Verstappen Joins F1 Greats
Following a season filled with intrigue and controversy both on and off the track for him and his Red Bull team, Max Verstappen became just the sixth man to win four Formula One world titles.
Following Red Bull team principal Christian Horner’s alleged inappropriate behavior against a female coworker, there were rumors that Verstappen may join Mercedes next year to replace Lewis Hamilton, who was heading to Ferrari.
The Dutch driver was eventually caught up by McLaren’s Lando Norris, whose faster pace challenged Red Bull, even though he had dominated the early races of the 2024 season. Verstappen nevertheless secured his place among the sport’s greats by racing his way to a fourth championship at the beginning of December. These two drivers have been installed by the odds of bookmakers online as joint favorites to clinch the championship in 2025.
# 1 McLaren Wins First Constructors’ Championship This Century
Despite Verstappen’s victory in the 2024 Formula One drivers’ championship, McLaren won the constructors’ title following an astonishing season-long climb. Their two drivers, Oscar Piastri and Norris, worked hard last season, challenging Verstappen and his Red Bull and holding off Ferrari, another constructors’ title challenger, all year long.
On the season’s last weekend in Abu Dhabi, the race for the championship came down to the wire, but thanks to Norris’ and Piastri’s finish, McLaren was once again named constructors’ champion. The British team hadn’t won a constructors’ championship since 1998, therefore this was their first in 26 years and also the first this century.
