It’s reasonable to say that 2021 will go down in history as a watershed year. It has given us a variety of sporting highs as well as some difficult moments to conquer. Japan eventually welcomed the sporting world to Tokyo for the Olympic Games after a 12-month delay owing to the coronavirus outbreak. Team GB finished fourth in the medal table with 22 golds, 21 silvers, and 22 bronzes on the historic event.
After Gareth Southgate’s players came close to bringing home the silverware, the European Championships brought our country together and revived optimism. At the age of 18, Emma Raducanu won the US Open, establishing herself as a national treasure and transcending tennis in ways that no other woman has been able to do in the last decade.
Someone behind a camera has been ready to capture the photo that would go down in history with each extraordinary occurrence that has occurred over the previous year. As we look forward to a new year of action, Sportsmail has compiled a list of the 15 most iconic photos and moments from 2021.
Following her stunning victory over Leylah Fernandez at the US Open, Emma Raducanu’s name became a household name. The 18-year-old British tennis player became not just the tournament’s champion, but also the people’s champion. In a tense hour and 51 minutes, the 24,000-seat Arthur Ashe Stadium exploded as she hit an ace on a third match point to defeat the Canadian 6-4, 6-3.
