clout
Hall of Fame
2012 was quite a year in the sports world looking back. Lots of great stories, tons of ATG/GOAT-level performances, strong fields, many tight match-ups, and usually any year with either the Olympics or WC is a great season in sports. Here are some of the notable highlights:
In Football:
- Spain continued their international dynasty with a dominant performance at the 2012 Euro Cup to win an unprecedented 3rd consecutive major tournament
- The Premier League had one of their wildest finishes ever when Man City came from behind against Queens Park by scoring two goals in stoppage time in the final game to win their maiden Premier League title
- Messi and Ronaldo were both at the peak of their power. Messi scored a record breaking 91 goals (club & country) in the calendar year to win his 4th straight Ballon D'or, while CR7 finished second in the Ballon D'or once again but he would've won it in practically any other year as the Portuguese superstar scored 65 goals (club & country) throughout the year.
- The Champions League had quite a story too as Chelsea broke through as the underdogs to win their first ever CL title by beating some very tough competition en route. This included Serie A staple (Napoli), defending champs (Barcelona), and next year's champs (Bayern Munich).
In Tennis:
- 2012 was the height of the big 4 era with all four of them splitting each major
- The Australian Open that year (won by Djokovic) was arguably the summit of this era
- Nadal made history at RG by winning his record 7th title in Paris
- Federer extended his then-record by winning his 17th major which was also a record-tying 7th title in London and his first major since turning 30
- Murray broke Britain's near 80-year drought by winning the USO
- Some other main events include Murray winning gold medal on home soil, and the YEN1 race coming down the very last match in the WTF finals between Djokovic and Federer - that was quite a match itself
In the Olympics:
- Usain Bolt defended his 100m crown in one of the most loaded races ever featuring Bolt, Blake, Gay, Gatlin, Powell & Thompson
- Michael Phelps became the most decorated Olympian ever by finishing the games with 22 medals. Swimming also had a loaded field with Phelps, Lochte, Yang, Le Clos, Adrien, Ledecky, Franklin & Shiwen
- Murray and Serena played the best week of tennis in their lives to win the gold. The doubles gold was also won by the two most famous sibling duos in tennis (Bryan brothers & Williams sisters)
- The US Basketball team brought one of the most dominant rosters to the games which was touted as the "Dream Team 2.0"
- Farrah won the long distance race to win gold in front of 80k people beating many ATGs en route
- Chris Hoy won his 6th gold medal; second most among cyclists in history
- Katie Taylor had one of the more emotional victories as she became the inaugural gold medalist in women's lightweight boxing while Ireland (Taylor's home country) was in the midst of an economic recession
- The Chinese table tennis team once again dominated their way to yet another gold
- The American, Russian and Chinese teams steal the show in gymnastics featuring the likes of Douglas, Raisman, Kai, MacLennan (who's Canadian!!)
- Countries like Bahrain, Cyprus, Gabon, Grenada, Guatemala, and Montenegro won their first ever medals at the games; Grenada won their first gold medal
- USA and China had the highest combined medals won by two countries as both nearly touched triple digits. Hosts UK did very well for themselves winning 65 medals in total; Russia as well taking home 68 medals
- There were countless other stories but if I explained them all this post would be way too long
In Basketball:
- LeBron James was the biggest winner of 2012 in the basketball world as he was at the peak of his powers winning his 3rd MVP, his first championship + FMVP, and his second Olympic Gold
- The playoffs were extremely exciting as there were like 6-7 teams that were challenging for the title (Heat, Thunder, Spurs, Lakers, Celtics, Mavs, Clippers)
- The Dream Team 2.0 was one of the greatest teams ever assembled with LeBron, Kobe (RIP), Durant, Melo, Chris Paul, Westbrook, Harden, AD, Love, D-Will & Iggy
- Lin-Sanity took over the regular season as this undrafted Harvard grad named Jeremy Lin came out of nowhere to quickly become the league's newest and most unique overnight sensation
In Baseball:
- Miguel Cabrera became the first player in 45 years to win the triple crown as a position player
- We got introduced to two future superstars in Mike Trout and Bryce Harper who both had two of the best rookie seasons in recent memory
- This was also the first year of the wild-card game being in existence and the NL WC game was one of the craziest games of the season
- The Giants won their 2nd title in 3 years and the middle title of their even year dominance during the early 2010s
- A knuckleballer won the CY Young Award
In Golf:
- Team Europe had the greatest comeback in Ryder Cup history as they overcame a 6-10 deficit on the final Sunday to upset the USA 14.5-13.5 (i.e. the Miracle at Medinah)
- The Masters was a treat as well with Bubba Watson winning in an epic playoff against Louis Oosthuizen
- 43-year old veteran star Ernie Els had his last hurrah at the Open Championship with an improbable comeback win against Aussie star Adam Scott
- 2012 was also the only year where we got to witness in-form versions of both Rory McIlroy & Tiger Woods as they finished 1 and 2 in the year-end rankings, respectively
In Formula 1:
- Sebastian Vettel won his 3rd straight WC at just 25 years old narrowly edging Alonso at the very last race in Dubai
- A record six former WC winners participated in the finale (Vettel, Hamilton, Alonso, Raikkonen, Button & 43-year old Schumacher)
In Women's Tennis:
- We had one of the strongest years in recent WTA history
- Serena stormed back to win WI, OLY, USO & WTF against in-form players like Azarenka, Sharapova, Kvitova, Radwanska, Li & Kerber
- Sharapova made history by joining the rare career grand slam club by winning RG
- Azarenka became the first player (male or female) from Belarus to win a major and become number one - she was the in-form player of the year throughout
In American Football:
- The Super Bowl came down to the very last down as the E. Manning-led Giants once again pulled off the upset against Brady's Patriots
- ATGs like Brady, Manning, Rodgers, Peterson & Brees all had prime/peak seasons
- The rookie class was also loaded with RGIII, Luck, Cousins & Wilson
I'm sure I'm missing other ones out there but overall, this was quite an epic year across the sports world
In Football:
- Spain continued their international dynasty with a dominant performance at the 2012 Euro Cup to win an unprecedented 3rd consecutive major tournament
- The Premier League had one of their wildest finishes ever when Man City came from behind against Queens Park by scoring two goals in stoppage time in the final game to win their maiden Premier League title
- Messi and Ronaldo were both at the peak of their power. Messi scored a record breaking 91 goals (club & country) in the calendar year to win his 4th straight Ballon D'or, while CR7 finished second in the Ballon D'or once again but he would've won it in practically any other year as the Portuguese superstar scored 65 goals (club & country) throughout the year.
- The Champions League had quite a story too as Chelsea broke through as the underdogs to win their first ever CL title by beating some very tough competition en route. This included Serie A staple (Napoli), defending champs (Barcelona), and next year's champs (Bayern Munich).
In Tennis:
- 2012 was the height of the big 4 era with all four of them splitting each major
- The Australian Open that year (won by Djokovic) was arguably the summit of this era
- Nadal made history at RG by winning his record 7th title in Paris
- Federer extended his then-record by winning his 17th major which was also a record-tying 7th title in London and his first major since turning 30
- Murray broke Britain's near 80-year drought by winning the USO
- Some other main events include Murray winning gold medal on home soil, and the YEN1 race coming down the very last match in the WTF finals between Djokovic and Federer - that was quite a match itself
In the Olympics:
- Usain Bolt defended his 100m crown in one of the most loaded races ever featuring Bolt, Blake, Gay, Gatlin, Powell & Thompson
- Michael Phelps became the most decorated Olympian ever by finishing the games with 22 medals. Swimming also had a loaded field with Phelps, Lochte, Yang, Le Clos, Adrien, Ledecky, Franklin & Shiwen
- Murray and Serena played the best week of tennis in their lives to win the gold. The doubles gold was also won by the two most famous sibling duos in tennis (Bryan brothers & Williams sisters)
- The US Basketball team brought one of the most dominant rosters to the games which was touted as the "Dream Team 2.0"
- Farrah won the long distance race to win gold in front of 80k people beating many ATGs en route
- Chris Hoy won his 6th gold medal; second most among cyclists in history
- Katie Taylor had one of the more emotional victories as she became the inaugural gold medalist in women's lightweight boxing while Ireland (Taylor's home country) was in the midst of an economic recession
- The Chinese table tennis team once again dominated their way to yet another gold
- The American, Russian and Chinese teams steal the show in gymnastics featuring the likes of Douglas, Raisman, Kai, MacLennan (who's Canadian!!)
- Countries like Bahrain, Cyprus, Gabon, Grenada, Guatemala, and Montenegro won their first ever medals at the games; Grenada won their first gold medal
- USA and China had the highest combined medals won by two countries as both nearly touched triple digits. Hosts UK did very well for themselves winning 65 medals in total; Russia as well taking home 68 medals
- There were countless other stories but if I explained them all this post would be way too long
In Basketball:
- LeBron James was the biggest winner of 2012 in the basketball world as he was at the peak of his powers winning his 3rd MVP, his first championship + FMVP, and his second Olympic Gold
- The playoffs were extremely exciting as there were like 6-7 teams that were challenging for the title (Heat, Thunder, Spurs, Lakers, Celtics, Mavs, Clippers)
- The Dream Team 2.0 was one of the greatest teams ever assembled with LeBron, Kobe (RIP), Durant, Melo, Chris Paul, Westbrook, Harden, AD, Love, D-Will & Iggy
- Lin-Sanity took over the regular season as this undrafted Harvard grad named Jeremy Lin came out of nowhere to quickly become the league's newest and most unique overnight sensation
In Baseball:
- Miguel Cabrera became the first player in 45 years to win the triple crown as a position player
- We got introduced to two future superstars in Mike Trout and Bryce Harper who both had two of the best rookie seasons in recent memory
- This was also the first year of the wild-card game being in existence and the NL WC game was one of the craziest games of the season
- The Giants won their 2nd title in 3 years and the middle title of their even year dominance during the early 2010s
- A knuckleballer won the CY Young Award
In Golf:
- Team Europe had the greatest comeback in Ryder Cup history as they overcame a 6-10 deficit on the final Sunday to upset the USA 14.5-13.5 (i.e. the Miracle at Medinah)
- The Masters was a treat as well with Bubba Watson winning in an epic playoff against Louis Oosthuizen
- 43-year old veteran star Ernie Els had his last hurrah at the Open Championship with an improbable comeback win against Aussie star Adam Scott
- 2012 was also the only year where we got to witness in-form versions of both Rory McIlroy & Tiger Woods as they finished 1 and 2 in the year-end rankings, respectively
In Formula 1:
- Sebastian Vettel won his 3rd straight WC at just 25 years old narrowly edging Alonso at the very last race in Dubai
- A record six former WC winners participated in the finale (Vettel, Hamilton, Alonso, Raikkonen, Button & 43-year old Schumacher)
In Women's Tennis:
- We had one of the strongest years in recent WTA history
- Serena stormed back to win WI, OLY, USO & WTF against in-form players like Azarenka, Sharapova, Kvitova, Radwanska, Li & Kerber
- Sharapova made history by joining the rare career grand slam club by winning RG
- Azarenka became the first player (male or female) from Belarus to win a major and become number one - she was the in-form player of the year throughout
In American Football:
- The Super Bowl came down to the very last down as the E. Manning-led Giants once again pulled off the upset against Brady's Patriots
- ATGs like Brady, Manning, Rodgers, Peterson & Brees all had prime/peak seasons
- The rookie class was also loaded with RGIII, Luck, Cousins & Wilson
I'm sure I'm missing other ones out there but overall, this was quite an epic year across the sports world
