Tag: Athletes

Mixed martial arts is only getting bigger in Australia. Here’s why

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This Sunday, Sydney will host UFC 293 – the first pay-per-view event the fight promotion has held in NSW since 2011.

The long-awaited return of the UFC to Sydney is the first of a $16 million agreement between the state government and the UFC that will bring three events to NSW over four years.

UFC stands for Ultimate Fight Championship and is the world’s largest mixed martial arts (MMA) promotion. 

It is set to be one of the biggest fight cards this year with New Zealand superstar Israel Adesanya defending his belt against American Sean Strickland — a trash-talking provocateur who revels when asked to be the pantomime villain.

For those involved in the sport the move by the state government to bring premium UFC events back to Sydney is easy to understand.

Ben Johnston is a fighter, trainer, gym owner and training partner of Sunday’s main event fighter Adesanya.

Ben Johnston is a training partner of UFC champion Israel Adesanya and fights under Australian fight promotion Eternal MMA. (Supplied: Ben Johnston)

“There’s just something about the event the UFC put on, the scale, the emotions. It’s so much more exciting and the stakes are so high,” he told The Drum.

A former Muay Thai world champion, Johnston was recruited as a striking specialist by the UFC champion and is hoping that the increasing number of UFC events in Australia will open up a pathway to the UFC’s iconic octagon cage for more Australian fighters like himself.

“The UFC is the goal, but my job as a fighter is just to keep winning, making myself marketable and appealing and hopefully they make that offer one day,” he said.

The pull of the UFC is undeniable for aspiring fighters — the promotion has a monopoly of the world’s best fighters, creating a sporting product that is unrivalled by any other organisation.

And that product is loved by Australian fight fans who consistently break records when the UFC is on our shores.

The two highest ever attended UFC events both took place in Melbourne’s Marvel Stadium and the organisation eclipsed the Rolling Stones to be named Australia’s highest ever grossing arena event in Perth’s RAC Arena earlier this year.

On Sunday, 10 athletes will be fighting out of Australia and New Zealand, a testament to the region’s impressive representation at the top end of the sport. 

Contrast this to the last time Sydney hosted an pay-per-view event, the sport was widely considered fringe and there was not a single ranked fighter from Australia or New Zealand on the UFC roster. Today there are eight considered in the top 15 of their respective divisions. 

From spectators to practitioners

Unlike traditional codes, MMA does not have a governing body in Australia tracking participation numbers.

This makes getting a real sense of the sport’s participation rate difficult, with many aspiring athletes partaking in various disciplines; such as Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, kickboxing and boxing.

NSW and WA’s combat sports association bodies provided data to The Drum that shows a trend of growing registration for amateur and professional combat sports athletes in their states.

In NSW, there has been a 22 per cent increase in registered amateur MMA fighters since 2017, rising from 918 to 1,175 athletes.

Registration across all combat sports athletes (including both amateur and professional boxing and kickboxing) increased by 21 per cent in the same time frame, rising from 6,930 to 8,682.

The increase in MMA participation in WA is even more stark, considering cage-fighting was illegal in the state as recently as 2016.

According to data from the state’s combat association, the number of all registrations (including trainers, officials and industry partners) increased by 79 per cent from 2021-22 to 2022-23, a rise from 559 to 1,003 in just a single year.

The state’s combat sports commission chair Bob Kucera told The Drum that there was “no doubt” that the UFC visiting Australia was increasing participation in combat sports. 

Navigating the growth of a violent sport

Besides a tourism windfall, the sport carries a obvious reputation for violence.

The Australian Medical Association called for a complete ban on combat sports in 2015, and when initially Mr Minns initially supported the UFC coming to NSW, the Liberal then-government rebuked the proposal as a promotion of violence.



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Elite athletes with genetic heart disease can safely return to play with diagnosis and treatment, early study suggests | CNN

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CNN
 — 

In a new study, most elite athletes with a diagnosed genetic heart disease did not experience serious or fatal symptoms of their condition, such as sudden cardiac death. The research suggests it can be “feasible” and “safe” for athletes to continue to participate in their sport.

Among a sample of 76 elite athletes with a genetic heart disease who had competed or are still competing in either Division I university or professional sports, 73 out of the 76 did not experience a cardiac event triggered by their disease during the study period, according to researchers behind a late-breaking clinical trial presented Monday at the American College of Cardiology’s Annual Scientific Session Together With the World Congress of Cardiology.

Among those elite athletes with a genetic heart disease, 40 of them – 52% – were asymptomatic, the study abstract finds.

Over the years, researchers have become more aware of alarming reports about elite athletes experiencing heart problems, or even suddenly collapsing during games.

“For athletes with genetic heart conditions, and I would add non-athletes, the tragedies occur when we don’t know of their condition,” said Dr. Michael Ackerman, a genetic cardiologist at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, who was a senior author of the new research. “When we know of their condition, and we assess the risk carefully and we treat it well, these athletes and non-athletes, they can expect to live and thrive despite their condition.”

The new research has not yet been published in a peer-reviewed journal, but the findings suggest that many athletes with a genetic heart disease can decide with their health care professionals on whether to continue competing in their sport and how to do so safely, instead of being automatically disqualified due to their health conditions.

“In sports, historically, we’ve been paternalistic and de-emphasize patient preference and risk tolerance, but we know that athletes come from all walks of life. They are intelligent and when there’s scientific uncertainty, their values should be incorporated in medical decision-making,” Dr. J. Sawalla Guseh, cardiologist at Massachusetts General Hospital, who was not involved in the new study, said during Monday’s scientific session.

“Shared decision-making when done well can have very favorable outcomes,” he said.

Elite basketball, hockey, soccer and football players, were among the 76 athletes included in the new study, conducted by researchers at Mayo Clinic and other institutions in the United States. They wrote in their study abstract that this is the first study to their knowledge describing the experience of athletes competing at the NCAA Division I level or in professional sports with a known genetic heart disease that puts them at risk of sudden cardiac death.

The athletes in the study were cleared for return-to-play at either a NCAA Division I school or at the professional level. They were studied over an average of seven years, and all had been diagnosed with a genetic heart disease in the past 20 years, being treated at either Mayo Clinic, Morristown Medical Center, Massachusetts General Hospital or Atrium Health Sports Cardiology Center.

“Only three of them had a breakthrough cardiac event, which means after they were diagnosed and treated, they were still having an event,” said Katherine Martinez, an undergraduate student at Loyola University in Baltimore, who helped conduct the research as an intern in the Mayo Clinic’s Windland Smith Rice Sudden Death Genomics Laboratory.

Fainting was the most common event, and one athlete received a shock with an implantable cardioverter defibrillator, or ICD. None of the athletes died.

“The majority of these athletes went on to continue their career with no events at all,” Martinez said. But most of the athletes in the study – 55 of them, or 72% – were initially disqualified from competing by their primary provider or institution after their diagnosis. Most ultimately opted to return to play with no restrictions after undergoing comprehensive clinical evaluations and talking with their doctors.

While each sports league has its own set of rules, historically, some people diagnosed with a genetic heart disease that puts them at an increased risk for sudden cardiac death have been restricted from competitive sports, the researchers wrote in their study abstract.

“Just because you were given this diagnosis, doesn’t mean that your life, your career, the future that you see for yourself is over, but taking a second opinion from an expert who knows what they’re doing and is comfortable with shared decision-making is the next step,” said Martinez, who worked on the new research alongside her father, Dr. Matthew Martinez, director of Atlantic Health System Sports Cardiology at Morristown Medical Center and an author of the new research.

Regarding the new study, “the take-home message is, if you have one of these findings, seek out an expert who’s going to help you identify a safe exercise plan for you and determine what level you can continue to safely participate in,” he said. “This is the next best step – the next evolution – of how we manage athletes with genetic heart disease.”

Leaving their sport due to a genetic heart disease can be “very destructive” for athletes who have devoted their lives to excelling in competitions, said Dr. Lior Jankelson, director of the Inherited Arrhythmia Program at NYU Langone Heart in New York, who was not involved in the new research.

Yet he added that these athletes still need to consult with their doctors and be watched closely because some genetic diseases could be more likely to cause a serious cardiac event than others.

The new study highlights that “the majority of athletes with genetic heart disease could probably – after careful, meticulous expert risk-stratification and care strategy – participate in sports,” Jankelson said. “But at the same time, this is exactly the reason why these patients should be cared only in high-expertise genetic cardiology clinics, because there are other conditions that are genetic, that could respond very adversely to sports, and have a much higher risk profile of developing an arrhythmia during intense activity.”

Separately, the NCAA Sports Science Institute notes on its website, “Though many student-athletes with heart conditions can live active lives and not experience health-related problems, sudden fatality from a heart condition remains the leading medical cause of death in college athletes.”

For athletes with a genetic heart disease, their symptoms and their family history of cardiac events should be considered when determining their risks, said Dr. Jayne Morgan, a cardiologist with Piedmont Healthcare in Atlanta, who was not involved in the new research.

“Certainly, there is concern with elite athletes competing and whether or not they are being screened appropriately,” Morgan said. But she added that the new research offers “some understanding” to the mental health implications for athletes with a genetic heart disease who may be required to step away from a competitive sport that they love.

“This study, I think, begins to go a long way in identifying that we may not need to pull the trigger so quickly and have athletes step away from something that they love,” Morgan said.

The new study is “timely” given the recent national attention on athletes and their risk of sudden cardiac death, Dr. Deepak Bhatt, director of Mount Sinai Heart in New York City, who was not involved in the research, said in an email.

“These are some of the best data showing that the risk of return to play may not be as high as we fear,” Bhatt said about the new research.

“Some caveats include that the majority of these athletes were not symptomatic and about a third had an implantable defibrillator,” he added. “Any decision to return to the athletic field should be made after a careful discussion of the potential risks, including ones that are hard to quantify. Input from experts in genetic cardiology and sports cardiology can be very helpful in these cases.”

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Is your school equipped to save a life? Here’s how you’ll know | CNN

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CNN
 — 

When 24-year-old Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin collapsed on the field from cardiac arrest during the January 2 game against the Cincinnati Bengals, millions of people witnessed a remarkable resuscitation in real time on live television.

As a trauma neurosurgeon myself, I was in awe of the dozens of medical professionals – athletic trainers, doctors and EMTs – who put their years of training into action within seconds. The immediate recognition that this wasn’t a routine injury and the speedy administration of CPR and defibrillation saved his heart, his brain and his life. Six weeks later, we now hear Dr. Thomas Mayer, the medical director of the NFL Players Association, say “I guarantee you that Damar Hamlin will play professional football again.”

The rescue response was awesome to watch and reflected the remarkable resources and planning that go into every game played in the NFL. As a parent, though, I couldn’t help but wonder what would’ve happened if Hamlin faced this when he was still in high school. What if it would’ve happened to any of my three teenage kids at their school? Would they have been saved as well?

Sudden cardiac deaths are rare in young people, but you may be surprised to know that the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that there are about 2,000 such deaths in people under the age of 25 every year.

While the overall number of cardiac arrests has stayed largely consistent, there is no question that school safety efforts – and cardiac arrest survival rates – have improved over the years. Florida was the first state to enact laws requiring automated external defibrillators, or AEDs, in schools in 1999, and there are now 20 states, along with the District of Columbia, with similar mandates, according to the American College of Cardiology. Even in most of the states with no requirement on the books, AEDs are available in the majority of schools.

Most venues with more than 200 people – large businesses, stadiums, casinos and concert halls – are required to have AEDs as well, but there has been a major focus on schools in recent decades, considering that about 20% of the US population is on school grounds at any one time. In the past quarter-century, we went from hardly any AEDs being present in schools to a remarkable awareness of the lifesaving potential they hold. That increased awareness and attention to defibrillators and CPR has directly resulted in more athletes surviving, says Dr. Jonathan Drezner, director of the University of Washington Medicine Center for Sports Cardiology and team physician for the Seattle Seahawks.

He points out that when he began investigating sudden cardiac arrest in young athletes in the early 2000s, survival rates hovered around 11%. A more recent study of young athletes from 2014 to 2018 found that survival rates have climbed to an average of 68%. That’s an improvement of more than 500% in less than two decades.

Still, we can and must do better, especially at the high school level. While there is increased awareness and availability of AEDs, none of that matters if the lifesaving device can’t be accessed within two to three minutes.

As part of a CNN investigation, we wanted a detailed understanding not just of AED availability in schools but of real-life accessibility. Speed matters when someone has suddenly dropped due to cardiac arrest. The best estimates are that every minute without defibrillation reduces survival by up to 10%.

That’s why Dr. Victoria Vetter, a cardiologist with the Cardiac Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, told us that “just having an AED is not sufficient.”

“You need to make sure that there is an accessible AED that is not locked in the nurse’s office or in some back office,” Vetter said.

The American Heart Association recommends that defibrillators be placed within a two- to three-minute walk. Unfortunately, even in schools that have diligently purchased devices – typically at a cost of $1,000 to $2,000 – too many of them are not readily accessible.

One small study of secondary public schools in Ohio and southeast Michigan found that in more than 70% of the 24 public schools surveyed, the devices simply couldn’t be reached in time. Another study of schools in Oregon found that people in just half of the schools surveyed could access the devices within four minutes of a field or arena. In Vermont, 81% of the state’s 74 schools had defibrillators near athletic fields or arenas; half of the time, the AEDs were kept in the main office, with the nurse or in the lobby.

As part of our investigation, we defined AED access as knowing where the AEDs are in case of emergency. But it is essential to make sure they are always fully charged and that drills are regularly run to ensure people know how to use them.

“We have fire drills in schools generally, every month. We have active shooter drills. But we do not in most schools have sudden cardiac arrest drills,” Vetter said.

Nationally, she said, just a handful of states require schools to practice cardiac emergency plans.

Many people have held up the NFL’s cardiac response as the gold standard: quick action and accessibility. Watching the remarkable 30-person team of professionals who saved Hamlin, many would argue that most high schools don’t have the resources to employ dozens of medical professionals.

But it doesn’t take an army to save a life.

“A single person can save a young athlete’s life if they promptly recognize cardiac arrest, call for help, start CPR and someone gets the AED,” said the Seahawks’ Drezner. “The treatment algorithm really is that simple.”

For many schools, that person would be an athletic trainer, the medical professional on the field.

And yet, in about a third of the nation’s high schools, there is no access to athletic trainers at all.

“You have to ask yourself: When those athletes get injured, who’s addressing those injuries? Who’s there to provide the emergency action plan in case something like this happens?” asked Kathy Dieringer, president of the National Athletic Trainers’ Association.

Drezner’s work has found that the survival rate from cardiac arrest for young athletes nearly doubled to over 80% when an athletic trainer was present or an AED was used. Part of the reason is that schools with athletic trainers were also the ones most likely to have emergency plans and AEDs. As things stand now, schools least likely to have athletic trainers are in urban or rural areas, and the schools most likely to have them are in the suburbs, areas that tend to have higher incomes.

“If I were a parent, I would ask those questions,” Dieringer said. “Where are the AEDs in my school? Are they accessible, and does someone know how to use them if they’re needed?”

Sudden cardiac arrest is a leading cause of death in young competitive athletes, with one study finding as many as one death every three days in youth sports.

One of those deaths was 16-year-old Matthew Mangine Jr., a soccer player at St. Henry District High School in Erlanger, Kentucky. In 2020, Matthew collapsed on the soccer field.

“There were five AEDs at the school that night, and one wasn’t brought to him,” his father, Matthew Mangine Sr., told the local news. “That night, his initial shock came from EMS. They arrived roughly 12 minutes after he was down.” Matthew died an hour later at the hospital.

John and Luann Ellsessar also know that pain well. They lost their 16-year-old son, Michael, on the football field when he went into cardiac arrest during a game in 2010. “There was no ambulance or AED on the field, and it took 15 minutes for the squad to arrive,” John told CNN. “If that ambulance is arriving 15 minutes later, he’s already 150% gone.” John recalls that the doctors at the hospital worked on Michael for 45 minutes before pronouncing him dead.

Many schools have AEDs on campus, but often, they're hard to find quickly.

Fortunately, this wasn’t the story for Peter Laake. In 2021, the star lacrosse player was already on the varsity team as a freshman at Loyola Blakefield in Towson, Maryland. Peter was hit on the left side in what was apparently a normal play, but what followed wasn’t normal at all. Peter told me he blacked out and collapsed on the field.

Jeremy Parr, the school’s athletic trainer, said he immediately went to Peter’s side and checked for a pulse.

“With no pulse, no breathing, we needed to get the AED and EMS activated as soon as possible,” Parr told me when I spoke with him recently.

CPR was started, and in Peter’s case, the AED data showed that his heart was beating again within two to three minutes.

Within three weeks, Peter was back on the field.

It’s an example of how things should work and could work in all schools.

Training in CPR for all staff, athletic and educational. Availability and accessibility of AEDs with regular drills to make sure execution is flawless. An emergency action plan that is posted and reviewed.

As a parent, you can and should ask about all of this yourself. After witnessing what happened to Hamlin, I did just that with the athletic department at my own children’s school.

In a world where we have many complicated problems, saving someone’s life is possible with the knowledge and resources we have right now. With a plan, it is easy. We often prioritize buses, fields and athletic equipment, but cardiac safety must also be at the top of the list.

As Parr told me, when the unthinkable happens, “every athlete deserves the chance to survive.”

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‘The world had become dark for me’: Afghan women athletes barred from the sports they love

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Noura’s determination to play sports was so great that she defied her family’s opposition for years. Beatings from her mother and jeers from her neighbours never stopped her from the sports she loved.

But the 20-year-old Afghan woman could not defy her country’s Taliban rulers.

They have not just banned all sports for women and girls, they have actively intimidated and harassed those who once played, often scaring them from even practising in private, Noura and other women said.

Noura has been left shattered.

“I’m not the same person anymore,” she said.

“Since the Taliban came, I feel like I’m dead.”

A number of girls and women who once played a variety of sports said they have been intimidated by the Taliban with visits and phone calls warning them not to engage in their sports.

The women and girls spoke on condition of anonymity for fear they will face further threats.

A number of women posed for portraits with the equipment of the sports they loved.(AP: Ebrahim Noroozi)

They posed for an AP photographer for portraits with the equipment of the sports they loved.

They hid their identities with burqas, the all-encompassing robes and hood that completely cover the face, leaving only a mesh to see through.

They didn’t normally wear the burqa, but they said they sometimes do now when they go outside and want to remain anonymous and avoid harassment.

An Afghan woman poses for a photo on her bicycle wearing a burqa in Kabul.
The Taliban require women to cover their hair and faces in public.(AP: Ebrahim Noroozi)

Escalating restrictions on women

The ban on sports is part of the Taliban’s escalating campaign of restrictions that have shut down life for girls and women. 

Since their takeover of Afghanistan in August 2021, the Taliban have barred girls from attending middle and high school.

Last month, they ordered all women thrown out of universities as well. 

The Taliban require women to cover their hair and faces in public, and prohibit them from going to parks or gyms.

They have severely limited women’s ability to work outside the home, and most recently forbade non-governmental organisations from employing women — a step that could cripple the vital flow of aid.

An Afghan woman poses with a basketball wearing a green burqa.
Even before the Taliban, women’s sports were opposed by many in Afghanistan’s deeply conservative society.(AP: Ebrahim Noroozi)

Even before the Taliban, women’s sports were opposed by many in Afghanistan’s deeply conservative society, seen as a violation of women’s modesty and of their role in society.

Still, the previous internationally backed government had programs encouraging women’s sports and school clubs, leagues and national teams for women in many sports.

A 20-year-old mixed martial artist recalled how in August 2021, she was competing in a local women’s tournament at a Kabul sports hall.

Word spread through the audience and participants that the advancing Taliban were on the city’s outskirts. All the women and girls fled the hall. It was the last competition the young athlete ever played in.

Afghan mixed martial arts fighter poses for a photo wearing a burqa with her trophies.
Afghan mixed martial arts fighter poses for a photo with her trophies.(AP: Ebrahim Noroozi)

Months later, she said she tried to give private lessons for girls, but Taliban fighters raided the gym where they were practising and arrested them all.

In detention, the girls were humiliated and mocked, she said. After mediation by elders, they were released after promising not to practise sports anymore.

She still practises at home and sometimes teaches her close friends.

“Life has become very difficult for me, but I am a fighter, so I will continue to live and fight,” she said.

An Afghan woman wearing a burqa poses for a photo with her cricket bat.
An Afghan woman poses for a photo with her cricket bat in Kabul.(AP: Ebrahim Noroozi)

Mushwanay, spokesman of the Taliban’s Sports Organisation and National Olympic Committee, said authorities were looking for a way to restart sports for women by building separate sports venues.

But he gave no time frame and said funds were needed to do so.

Taliban authorities have repeatedly made similar promises to allow girls seventh grade and up to return to school, but still have not done so.

A lifetime of resistance

An Afghan women's soccer team poses for a photo wearing burqas and holding footballs.
Some continue to practise their sports in secret.(AP: Ebrahim Noroozi)

Noura faced resistance her whole life as she tried to play sports. 

Raised in a poor Kabul district by parents who migrated from the provinces, Noura started out playing soccer alongside local boys in the street.

When she was nine, a coach spotted her and, at his encouragement, she joined a girls’ youth team. 

She kept it a secret from everyone but her father, but her cover was blown by her own talent. At 13, she was named the best girl soccer player in her age group, and her photo and name were broadcast on television.

“All over the world, when a girl becomes famous and her picture is shown on TV, it’s a good day for her and she’s at the peak of happiness,” she said.

“For me, that day was very bitter and the beginning of worse days.”

Afghan girls who practice wushu hold their equipment while wearing burqas.
Afghan girls who practise wushu, a Chinese martial art, pose for a photo in Kabul.(AP: Ebrahim Noroozi)

Furious, her mother beat her, shouting that she was not allowed to play soccer. She kept playing in secret but was exposed again when her team won a national championship, and her photo was in the news. Again, her mother beat her. 

Still, she sneaked off to the award ceremony. She broke down in tears on stage as the audience cheered.

“Only I knew I was crying because of loneliness and the hard life I had,” she said. 

When she found out, her mother set fire to her soccer uniform and shoes.

‘The world had become dark for me’

Afghan women who practice Muay Tha pose for a photo wearing burqas and boxing gloves.
Noura gave up soccer, but then turned to boxing.(AP: Ebrahim Noroozi)

Noura gave up soccer, but then turned to boxing. Her mother eventually relented, realising she couldn’t stop her from sports, she said. 

The day the Taliban entered Kabul, she said, her coach called her mother and said Noura should go to the airport to be taken out of the country.

Noura said her mother didn’t deliver the message because she didn’t want her to leave. When she learned of the message — too late to escape — Noura said she cut her wrists and had to be taken to the hospital.

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The year in sport: A fond farewell for some, a glimpse of the future for others | CNN

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CNN
 — 

An athlete, former jockey AP McCoy said earlier this year, is the only person who dies twice, such is the pain of walking away from the intoxicating, all-consuming nature of professional sport.

McCoy retired from his long, decorated racing career in 2015, and since then has had to learn, in his own words, how to “start again and have another life.”

Based on the past 12 months, there are some notable sports stars who might have been listening extra closely to McCoy’s experience of retirement – or indeed to anyone else who has spoken candidly about the difficulty of ending a successful sporting career.

Among them is Roger Federer, who called time on his trophy-laden tennis career at the Laver Cup in September after years spent trying to recover from two knee surgeries.

In the letter announcing his retirement, Federer, like McCoy, alluded to the heightened emotions of being a professional athlete and how they make saying goodbye so hard.

“I have laughed and cried, felt joy and pain, and most of all I have felt incredibly alive,” Federer wrote. “To the game of tennis,” he signed off the letter, “I love you and will never leave you.”

Those final words were reassuring for fans who have admired Federer’s career for so many years, but also spoke to another issue: namely, of how hard it can be to walk away entirely from professional sport after retirement.

It remains to be seen exactly how Federer will remain involved in tennis moving forward, and the same can be said of Serena Williams, who announced she would “evolve away from tennis” ahead of this year’s US Open – but refused to say she was retiring.

On several occasions over the past three months, the 23-time grand slam champion has even teased fans about a potential return to tennis.

At the 2022 US Open, Serena Williams lost to Australian Ajla Tomlijanovic in the third round.

While Federer and Williams have stepped away from their careers as two of the greatest athletes of all time, other sports stars can’t seem to decide when, or how, to walk away.

Heavyweight boxing champion Tyson Fury has yo-yoed in and out of retirement this year, saying in October that he’s finding it “really hard to let this thing go.”

And earlier this year, Tom Brady announced he would be retiring from the NFL, leaving the sport as a seven-time Super Bowl champion and arguably the greatest quarterback of all time. the 45-year-old then reversed that decision and is still breaking records with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers during his 23rd season in the NFL.

However in September, Brady and Gisele Bündchen announced they were to divorce after 13 years of marriage.

“I think there is a lot of professionals in life that go through things that they deal with at work and they deal with at home,” the Bucs quarterback said on his weekly podcast a few days the couple’s divorce announcement.

“Obviously, the good news is it’s a very amicable situation, and I’m really focused on two things: taking care of my family, and certainly my children, and secondly doing the best job I can to win football games. That’s what professionals do.”

Tom Brady flip-flopped on retiring.

Brady has redefined what most believed to be the average shelf-life of an athlete, and he’s not the only person refusing to let the light dim on his career.

LeBron James is about to turn 38 but is still setting records in the NBA – in February passing Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for the most combined regular season and postseason points in NBA history.

Federer’s rivals Rafael Nadal, 36, and Novak Djokovic, 35, meanwhile, have added to their grand slam tallies this year – the Mallorcan at the Australian Open and French Open, where he became the oldest men’s singles champion, and the Serbian at Wimbledon. Djokovic’s Wimbledon triumph moved him to within one grand slam title of Nadal’s men’s record of 22.

Having been deported from Australia over his vaccination status at the start of the year, Djokovic is set to compete at the Australian Open at the start of 2023 – a tournament he has won on nine previous occasions and is favorite to win again next year off the back of his recent ATP Finals victory.

For Nadal, his future in the sport rests on the amount of strain his injury-ravaged body can continue to withstand.

In golf, Tiger Woods faces similar questions. The 15-time major champion completed a stunning return from serious leg injuries suffered in a car crash at this year’s Masters, scoring a remarkable one-under 71 at Augusta National before making the cut the following day.

Then there’s sprinter Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, who turns 36 later this month but has shown no signs of slowing down. The Jamaican produced a string of consistently fast performances this year, running under 10.7 seconds for the 100 meters a record seven times and claiming her fifth world championship title over the distance in July.

Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce celebrates winning the women's 100m final at the World Athletics Championships in Eugene, Oregon, in July.

And it’s not just athletes who have defied the call of retirement this year. In November, 73-year-old Dusty Baker became the oldest ever manager to win the World Series when he guided the Houston Astros to a 4-2 victory against the Philadelphia Phillies.

Many of the athletes who stole the headlines in 2022 have been doing so for years.

No one is sure where an aging Cristiano Ronaldo will play his club football in January after ending his second spell at Manchester United in ignominious fashion, but the 37-year-old still appears to be set on extending his playing career after Portugal’s quarterfinal exit from the World Cup.

His rival Lionel Messi, meanwhile, ended the year on a sensational high, guiding Argentina to a third World Cup trophy. The 35-year-old Messi scored twice in an absorbing final against France and finally got his hands on the World Cup at the fifth time of asking, further staking his claim as the game’s greatest ever player.

That hasn’t been the only recent instance of an established superstar winning silverware. In last season’s NBA Finals, Steph Curry guided the Golden State Warriors to a fourth championship title in eight seasons – in the process picking up his first Finals MVP award as the Warriors beat the Boston Celtics.

In baseball, meanwhile, Aaron Judge enjoyed a season for the ages. The 30-year-old outfielder, who has reportedly just signed a nine-year, $360 million deal with the New York Yankees, hit 62 home runs last season, breaking Roger Maris’ single-season American League (AL) home run record from 1961.

On Wednesday, the Yankees named Judge, the reigning AL MVP, as the 16th captain in the franchise’s history.

Judge (left) hit a record-breaking 62 home runs last season.

But even as familiar faces have continued to shine, the past year has also seen future stars emerge.

The 19-year-old Carlos Alcaraz ends the year as the youngest No. 1 in the history of the men’s tennis having triumphed at the US Open, and in the women’s game, Iga Swiatek, who rose to No. 1 in the world following Ashleigh Barty’s decision to retire after winning the Australian Open, looks set to dominate for years to come.

This year, the 21-year-old Swiatek won her second grand slam title at the French Open – which came in the middle of a 37-match winning streak – and her third at the US Open.

In Formula One, Max Verstappen has cemented his position as the best driver in the sport, comfortably defending his world title with four races to spare, while Erling Haaland, regarded as one of the best strikers in European football, has been scoring goals at a record-breaking rate during his first season at Manchester City.

There was no stopping Max Verstappen this year.

At the Winter Olympics in Beijing, then-18-year-old freestyle skier Eileen Gu stole the headlines, winning two gold medals and a silver for the host nation; she also became the first freestyle skier to earn three medals at a single Olympics.

Another teenager, figure skater Kamila Valieva, had a memorable Games for different reasons. The 16-year-old tested positive for trimetazidine, a heart medication, in December 2021, but the result didn’t come to light until Valieva was already in Beijing and had won gold in the figure skating team event.

In that competition, she became the first woman to land a quadruple jump – which involves four spins in the air – at the Winter Olympics.

The outcome from the positive test remains unresolved, and in November, the World Anti-Doping Agency referred Valieva’s case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport after deeming the Russian Anti-Doping Agency had made no progress.

Eileen Gu performs a trick during the women's freestyle freeski halfpipe final at the Beijing Winter Olympics in February.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has cast a shadow over much of this year’s sporting calendar.

Athletes and teams from Russia and Belarus were banned from competitions across various sports, including qualification games for this year’s World Cup and participation at Wimbledon.

The decision from Wimbledon was perhaps the strongest stance taken by a sports organization, resulting in the ATP and WTA Tours removing ranking points from this year’s tournament.

At the start of the war, many Ukrainian athletes – like skeleton racer Vladyslav Heraskevych and MMA fighter Yaroslav Amosov – opted to put their careers on hold and support the country’s military efforts.

Boxer Oleksandr Usyk has also spoken passionately about serving his country, and in the ring has extended his undefeated record, beating Anthony Joshua in August to retain his WBA (Super), IBF, WBO, and IBO heavyweight titles.

Oleksandr Usyk lands a punch on Anthony Joshua during their

Throughout 2022, sport and geopolitics have been closely entwined. This month, WNBA star Brittney Griner returned home to the US having been detained in Russia for nearly 10 months on drug smuggling charges.

Despite her testimony that she had inadvertently packed the cannabis oil that was found in her luggage, Griner was sentenced to nine years in prison in early August and was moved to a penal colony in the Mordovia republic in mid-November after losing her appeal.

The 32-year-old’s arrest in Russia sparked diplomatic drama between the US and the Kremlin which played out alongside Russia’s war in Ukraine.

She was released in a prisoner swap that involved Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout. The exchange, however, did not include another American that the State Department has declared wrongfully detained, Paul Whelan.

Brittney Griner is seen getting off a plane in an undated photo posted to her Instagram.

Perhaps no sport has been as gripped by internal politics this year as much as golf, which was rocked by the launch of the Saudi-backed LIV Golf series in June.

LIV Golf has been criticized by some of the game’s leading players – including Woods and Rory McIlroy – while others – major champions Phil Mickelson and Dustin Johnson – have abandoned the PGA Tour in favor of the lucrative, breakaway series.

It has left the sport divided. Earlier this year, LIV Golf joined an antitrust lawsuit alongside some of its players, alleging that the PGA Tour threatened to place lifetime bans on players who participate in the LIV Golf series.

The suit also alleges that the PGA Tour has threatened sponsors, vendors, and agents to coerce players into abandoning opportunities to play in LIV Golf events.

The PGA Tour filed a countersuit in late September, claiming “tortious interference with the Tour’s contracts with its members.”

The LIV Golf series is backed by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) – a sovereign wealth fund chaired by Mohammed bin Salman, the crown prince of Saudi Arabia and the man who a US intelligence report named as responsible for approving the operation that led to the 2018 murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Bin Salman has denied involvement in Khashoggi’s murder.

LIV Golf’s launch is part of Saudi Arabia’s wider ambition to host and invest in global sports events. This year, it staged the rematch between Usyk and Joshua and even won a bid to host the 2029 Asian Winter Games.

But unquestionably, the most prominent sporting event held in the Gulf region this year has been the World Cup in Qatar.

The four-week-long tournament came to a thrilling conclusion on Sunday as Argentina lifted the trophy, bringing down the curtain on what FIFA president Gianni Infantino argued was the greatest World Cup of all time.

There were upsets, high-scoring games, and brilliant goals throughout – right up to Sunday’s showpiece when Messi reigned supreme and Kylian Mbappé scored a stunning hat-trick in a losing cause.

The match between Argentina and France at Qatar 2022 is being viewed as the greatest ever World Cup final.

It was the first time a country in the Middle East had hosted the World Cup, and Qatar, which has a population of just three million people, invested billions of dollars in building seven new stadiums, as well as new hotels and expansions to the country’s airport, rail networks and highways.

The tournament was also fraught with controversy, particularly when it came to allegations surrounding the country’s poor human rights record and treatment of migrant workers.

Since 2010, many migrant workers in Qatar have faced delayed or unpaid wages, forced labor, long hours in hot weather, employer intimidation, and an inability to leave their jobs because of the country’s sponsorship system, human rights organizations have found.

In the face of such criticism, Qatar has maintained it is an open, tolerant country and has seen the World Cup as a vehicle to accelerate labor reforms.

Elsewhere in international football, England won the Women’s European Championships for the first time in front of a record crowd on home soil, while Senegal claimed the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) title in February, also for the first time.

Outside international competitions, Real Madrid won its 14th European crown by defeating Liverpool in the Champions League final – a game that was marred by security issues.

Real Madrid defeated Liverpool in this year's Champions League final in Paris.

The match itself was delayed by more than 35 minutes after Liverpool fans struggled to enter the Stade de France and tear gas was used by French police towards supporters held in tightly packed areas.

Paris police chief Didier Lallement admitted in June that the chaos was “obviously a failure” and said he takes “full responsibility for police management” of the event.

Tragically, football has witnessed multiple serious stadium disasters this year. In October, more than 130 people were killed in a stampede in the Indonesian city of Malang – one of the world’s deadliest stadium disasters of all time.

Indonesia’s President Joko Widodo later said the country would demolish and rebuild the stadium, vowing to “thoroughly transform” the sport in the football-mad nation.

Players and officials from Arema Football Club gather to pray on the pitch for victims of the stampede at Kanjuruhan stadium in Malang.

A stadium crush in the Cameroonian capital of Yaoundé during this year’s AFCON also saw at least eight people killed and 38 injured during the game between Cameroon and Comoros.

Looking ahead to 2023, Australia and New Zealand is scheduled to host the Women’s World Cup in July and August.

The US Women’s National Team (USWNT) could become the first team to win the tournament three times in a row.

This year, the United States Soccer Federation (USSF), the USWNT’s Players Association (USWNTPA) and the United States National Soccer Team Players Association (USNSTPA) forged a landmark equal pay deal – the first federation in the world to equalize prize money awarded to the teams for participating in World Cups.

Next year will be the first time the USWNT has played a major tournament under such a deal.

Among the other major sporting events being held next year are the World Athletics Championshps in Budapest, Hungary, and the Rugby World Cup in France.

In the NFL, Super Bowl LVII in Glendale, Arizona is only weeks away, while the NBA Playoffs begin two months later in April.

With the men’s World Cup over, club football resumes in Europe and tennis’ first grand slam of the year, the Australian Open, begins on January 16.

For sports fans, that will hopefully serve as tonic to stave off the January blues.



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