Skip linksSkip to Content
play
Live
Navigation menu
  • News
    • Africa
    • Asia
    • US & Canada
    • Latin America
    • Europe
    • Asia Pacific
  • Middle East
  • Explained
  • Opinion
  • Sport
  • Video
    • Features
    • Economy
    • Human Rights
    • Climate Crisis
    • Investigations
    • Interactives
    • In Pictures
    • Science & Technology
    • Podcasts
play
Live

In Pictures

Gallery|In Pictures

In 2022, sport brought every imaginable emotion

Be it joy or pain, exhilaration or anguish, relief or regret, sport inspired a wide range of feelings.

ye 2022 sports
Argentina's Lionel Messi celebrates after winning the World Cup final against France in Qatar on December 18, 2022. Argentina won 4-2 in a penalty shootout after the match ended tied 3-3. [Showkat Shafi/Al Jazeera]
Published On 27 Dec 202227 Dec 2022
facebooktwitterwhatsappcopylink

Emotion.

Sport is a forum where it cannot be hidden, where the feelings that are pulsing through someone’s core at a particular moment – exhilaration or devastation, delight or fury – can be captured in a single image.

It was there when Lionel Messi, maybe the greatest football player of all time, finally hoisted the World Cup trophy for Argentina. The euphoria, unmistakable.

It was there when Mikaela Shiffrin of the United States, maybe the greatest women’s skier of all time, sat on the side of the course at the Beijing Olympics after skiing out in the first run of the slalom race, hiding her face from the world. The disappointment, unmistakable.

Everyone knew what they felt in those moments.

Sometimes, it works the other way. The image makes the viewer feel something as well. Like a shot of a Team Ukraine member competing in artistic swimming at the world championships in Hungary, droplets of water spraying off her body while she competed for a war-torn country. You could feel the pride. Or a shot of two men on the ground, trying to protect themselves from a rampaging bull in Mexico City. You could feel the fear.

Advertisement

Capturing the moment takes no more than a sliver of a second, but these images live forever. Many from 2022 are unforgettable. Serena Williams in the spotlight at the US Open, presumably for the final time. Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic all holding back emotion in the same image at the Laver Cup, Federer’s final event before retirement. The enormity of that moment was not lost on any of them as they realised that the greatest three-person rivalry the sport had ever seen was over.

A picture, as the cliche says, is worth 1,000 words. Sometimes, the picture conveys words as well.

“I’m a good curler. I have confidence. Let’s have fun,” Japan’s Satsuki Fujisawa wrote on her right hand in English during the Beijing Olympics.

The affirmation must have helped: She won silver, improving one spot from her bronze-medal finish at Pyeongchang four years earlier.

And many needed no additional explanation. Scottie Scheffler, hoisting his putter skyward as the warm Georgia sun shone down when he won the Masters. Mike Krzyzewski, college basketball’s all-time winningest coach, sitting on a courtside stool as he led Duke at the Final Four for the final time. Anna Hall, throwing up her arms on her way to winning bronze in the heptathlon at the world track and field championships. Hector Neris of the Houston Astros, leaping to celebrate his team being two innings away from closing out the Philadelphia Phillies and winning the World Series.

The moments were just that, moments. This year is gone. Next year awaits. But these images from 2022 will live on, a forever reminder of what this year made us feel.

Advertisement
YE Sports 2022
Participants recover at the finish line during the women's mass start free 10km event at the Tour de Ski in Val di Fiemme in northern Italy's Trento province on January 4, 2022. [Giovanni Auletta/AP]
Advertisement
YE Sports 2022
Sweat drips from the face of Rafael Nadal of Spain during a break in his second-round match against Yannick Hanfmann of Germany at the Australian Open in Melbourne, Australia, on January 19, 2022. Nadal went on to win the tournament, which made him the men's tennis player with the most Grand Slam titles. [Andy Brownbill/AP]
YE Sports 2022
Laura Wallner of Austria competes during the women's freestyle skiing big air qualification round of the 2022 Winter Olympics on February 7, 2022, in Beijing. [Matt Slocum/AP]
YE Sports 2022
American Jessie Diggins celebrates after winning the bronze medal in the women's sprint free cross-country skiing competition at the 2022 Winter Olympics on February 8, 2022, in Zhangjiakou, China. [Alessandra Tarantino/AP]
YE Sports 2022
Latvia's Martins Dzierkals, bottom, winds up under Sweden goalkeeper Lars Johansson after they collided during a preliminary round men's hockey game at the 2022 Winter Olympics on February 10, 2022, in Beijing. [Matt Slocum/AP]
YE Sports 2022
Jan Zabystran of the Czech Republic crashes out during the first run of the men's slalom at the 2022 Winter Olympics on February 16, 2022, in the Yanqing district of Beijing. [Alessandro Trovati/AP]
Advertisement
YE Sports 2022
Kentucky's Dre'Una Edwards, 44, celebrates after making the winning shot to beat South Carolina in the NCAA women's college basketball Southeastern Conference championship game on March 6, 2022, in Nashville, Tennessee. Kentucky won 64-62. [Mark Humphrey/AP]
YE Sports 2022
Jack Wallace of the United States celebrates after his team defeated Canada in their ice hockey gold medal match at the 2022 Winter Paralympics on March 13, 2022, in Beijing. [Dita Alangkara/AP]
YE Sports 2022
Milwaukee Brewers pitcher Adrian Houser rolls after catching a ball hit by the Baltimore Orioles' Austin Hays at Camden Yards on April 11, 2022, in Baltimore. [Julio Cortez/AP]
YE Sports 2022
American Errol Spence Jr lands a punch against Yordenis Ugas of Cuba during a world welterweight championship boxing match on April 16, 2022, in Arlington, Texas. Spence became a three-belt champion when he won the fight in the 10th round in a technical knockout. [Jeffrey McWhorter/AP]
YE Sports 2022
Supporters of German Bundesliga football team Eintracht Frankfurt light fireworks as they celebrate the arrival of the team in Frankfurt on May 19, 2022, a day after Eintracht Frankfurt won the Europa League final against Scotland's Glasgow Rangers FC in Seville, Spain. [Michael Probst/AP]
YE Sports 2022
A member of Team Ukraine competes in artistic swimming at the world championships in Budapest, Hungary, on June 25, 2022, four months into Russia's war on her country. [Anna Szilagyi//AP]
YE Sports 2022
Alfa Romeo driver Zhou Guanyu of China crashes at the start of the British Formula One Grand Prix at the Silverstone circuit in England on July 3, 2022. [Frank Augstein/AP]
YE Sports 2022
Spectators watch from a classic Citroen 2CV car on July 2, 2022, as the pack passes during the second stage of the Tour de France, which for the first time started in Denmark. [AP]
YE Sports 2022
People sprint through the streets during the first day of the running of the bulls at the San Fermin Festival in Pamplona in northern Spain on July 7, 2022. The festival staged a comeback after it was cancelled for two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic. [Alvaro Barrientos/AP]
YE Sports 2022
Anna Hall of the United States wins a heat in the women's heptathlon 200-metre run at the World Athletics Championships on July 17, 2022, in Eugene, Oregon. [Ashley Landis/AP]
YE Sports 2022
England's Chloe Kelly, right, celebrates after scoring her side's second goal during the Women's Euro 2022 final against Germany at Wembley Stadium in London on July 31, 2022. It proved to be the winner in the 2-1 match as England won their first major women's football championship. [Alessandra Tarantino/AP]
YE Sports 2022
Georgia Godwin of Australia performs on the uneven bars during the women's all-around finals at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, England, on July 31, 2022. Godwin won the gold medal. [Manish Swarup/AP]
YE Sports 2022
A diver jumps from the Old Bridge during the 456th annual high diving competition in Mostar, Bosnia, on July 31, 2022. Thirty-one divers leapt from the 23-metre-high bridge into the Neretva River. [Armin Durgut/AP]
YE Sports 2022
Athletes prepare to start on their stand-up paddle boards on the Moyka River during the annual costumed Fontanka SUP-board festival in St Petersburg, Russia, on August 6, 2022. [Dmitri Lovetsky/AP]
YE Sports 2022
Jose Ramirez of the Cleveland Guardians dives safely into third base ahead of the throw to New York Yankee Josh Donaldson in the 10th inning of Game 2 of an American League Division baseball series on October 14, 2022, in New York. [Frank Franklin II/AP]
YE Sports 2022
Athletes start in the men's triathlon during the European Championships in Munich, Germany, on August 13, 2022. [Martin Meissner/AP]


    • About Us
    • Code of Ethics
    • Terms and Conditions
    • EU/EEA Regulatory Notice
    • Privacy Policy
    • Cookie Policy
    • Cookie Preferences
    • Sitemap
    • Work for us
    • Contact Us
    • User Accounts Help
    • Advertise with us
    • Stay Connected
    • Newsletters
    • Channel Finder
    • TV Schedule
    • Podcasts
    • Submit a Tip
    • Al Jazeera Arabic
    • Al Jazeera English
    • Al Jazeera Investigative Unit
    • Al Jazeera Mubasher
    • Al Jazeera Documentary
    • Al Jazeera Balkans
    • AJ+
    • Al Jazeera Centre for Studies
    • Al Jazeera Media Institute
    • Learn Arabic
    • Al Jazeera Centre for Public Liberties & Human Rights
    • Al Jazeera Forum
    • Al Jazeera Hotel Partners

Follow Al Jazeera English:

  • facebook
  • twitter
  • youtube
  • instagram-colored-outline
  • rss
Al Jazeera Media Network logo
© 2025 Al Jazeera Media Network