This article titled “The best sports photography of 2019” was written by Jim Powell, for theguardian.com on Tuesday 24th December 2019 10.51 UTC
Last year, I was lucky to be playing again … to now be the champion, 22 years between wins, it’s a long time. But it’s just unreal for me to experience this.
Tiger Woods celebrates after sinking his putt to win the Masters at Augusta on 14 April. Fourteen years after he last put on the Green Jacket, 11 years after last winning a major and 24 months after conceding to friends ‘I’m done’, Woods completed a triumph which rates as extraordinary even by his standards.Photograph: Kevin C Cox/ Getty Images
When the crowd is chanting ‘Roger’ I hear ‘Novak’. It sounds silly, but it is like that.
Serbia’s Novak Djokovic celebrates winning a point against Roberto Bautista Agut of Spain during their men’s singles semi-final at Wimbledon. In the final Djokovic ground down the classical skills of the ageless Roger Federer to win his fifth Wimbledon.Photograph: Carl Recine/AP
Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola berates Raheem Sterling despite him having scored twice during the 6-0 rout of Watford in the FA Cup Final at Wembley. Though Sterling himself might have been aggrieved not to have finished the day as the first player since Stan Mortensen in 1953 to score a hat-trick in the final. City’s second goal was initially given to him before the FA announced after the game that it was being credited to Gabriel Jesus instead, by a matter of millimetres.Photograph: Tom Jenkins/The Guardian
Jamaica’s Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, Dina Asher-Smith of Great Britain and Ivory Coast’s Marie-Josée Ta Lou start in the women’s 100m final at the Khalifa Stadium during the IAAF World Athletics Championships in Doha, Qatar. Asher-Smith became the first British athlete ever to win three medals at one world championships by winning silver in the 4x100m relay. She had already glided to gold and silver in the 200m and 100m.Photograph: Richard Heathcote/Getty Images
A dejected and bloodied Billy Vunipola of England walks off after defeat to South Africa in the Rugby World Cup final. Eddie Jones’s side were comprehensively beaten 32-12 by South Africa despite going into the match as favourites. The Springboks dominated the scrum after Kyle Sinckler had to go off in the third minute having been inadvertently knocked out by Maro Itoje, and led 12-6 at half-time before tries in the second half from Makazole Mapimpi and Cheslin Kolbe pulled South Africa clear. Jones described the Springboks as ‘worthy winners’.Photograph: Tom Jenkins/The Guardian
A bloodied Lee Selby in his fight with Omar Douglas at the O2 Arena in London on 23 February. Selby was sliced badly around his left eye in round two, but he outpointed Douglas, an uncompromising customer from Wilmington, Delaware.Photograph: Andrew Couldridge/Action Images/Reuters
Sometimes I wonder how I do it. I feel like it’s just not me. I wish I could have an out-of-body experience to witness it because sometimes I think I’m going crazy.
Simone Biles of the US performs on the uneven bars at the gymnastics world championships in Stuttgart. Biles became the most decorated gymnast in world championship history when she won the beam and floor finals on the final day of competition to take her career tally to 25 medals. She had already won gold medals in the team, all-around and vault finals.Photograph: Matthias Schräder/AP
Spain’s Rafael Nadal plays a shot against Switzerland’s Roger Federer during the semi-final of the French Open in Paris on 7 June. Nadal, hair thinning, legs slowing imperceptibly but genius intact, remained unbeatable on the clay of Roland Garros. Not even a spirited challenge by the world No 4, Dominic Thiem, could stop the 33-year-old Spaniard winning the French Open for a 12th time.Photograph: Christophe Ena/AP
Cori Gauff of the US celebrates her win against Slovenia’s Polona Hercog in the women’s singles third round at Wimbledon. She had been the story of this year’s tournament, attracting the largest British TV audiences as well as lavish praise from Michelle Obama. But on the day that Gauff’s bubble finally popped, the 15-year-old American promised to come back stronger and better – and continue to dream big. A 6-3, 6-3 defeat in the last 16 to Simona Halep was no disgrace given that Gauff was the youngest player to go this deep into the draw since Jennifer Capriati in 1991.Photograph: Shaun Botterill/Getty Images
You cannot be thinking ‘one more’ all the time, otherwise you are never happy. You want more money, a bigger house, a new boat, an even prettier girlfriend! You cannot be happy like that – I don’t like the frustration. You have to thank life for all that it gives you.
England’s Ben Stokes watches Nathan Lyon of Australia misfield as he attempts to run out Jack Leach during day four of the third Ashes Test at Headingley. When all hope seemed lost, and with it the Ashes, England’s talismanic all-rounder Stokes held his nerve with an unbeaten 135 that sealed a thrilling one-wicket win over Australia and one of the most remarkable heists in cricket history.Photograph: Tom Jenkins/The Guardian
You just feel light. You feel everything is beautiful
Romania’s Simona Halep cries after her victory over Serena Williams in the women’s singles final at Wimbledon. ‘It’s tough to describe the moment,’ she said after a straight sets win in which she hit just three unforced errors.Photograph: Tom Jenkins/The Guardian
The ball deflects off Ben Stokes’s bat as he dives to make his ground during the Cricket World Cup final. England lifted the trophy for the first time after beating New Zealand following a super over at Lord’s. The hosts matched New Zealand’s score of 241 from the final delivery, but earlier in the concluding over they were awarded six runs in bizarre circumstances. With nine needed from three deliveries, Ben Stokes and Adil Rashid pushed for a second run when a throw deflected off Stokes’s outstretched bat and away to the boundary for four overthrows and six runs in total.Photograph: Tom Jenkins/The Guardian
The pack rides between Saint Etienne and Brioude during the ninth stage of the Tour de France on 14 July.Photograph: Tim de Waele/Getty Images
I said to him: ‘Enjoy it, soak it all up and don’t worry about crying, because all real men cry.’
Athletes compete on the way from Maloya to S-Chanf during the 51st annual Engadin skiing marathon in Sils, Switzerland, on 10 March.Photograph: Ennio Leanza/EPA
Germany’s Daniel Deusser rides Calisto Blue in the nations’ cup team jumping event in Aachen, Germany.Photograph: Sascha Steinbach/EPA
A rider attempts to compete in the Gotland grand national enduro race at Tofta airport near Visby in Sweden on 26 October.Photograph: Soren Andersson/TT/AFP/Getty Images
Not bad for a boy from a Stevenage council house.
Mercedes’s British driver Lewis Hamilton drives during the F1 Bahrain Grand Prix at the Sakhir circuit. After he had secured his sixth world title, Hamilton said that 2019 has been his best and toughest season. Number six gives the 34-year-old sole ownership of second place on the all-time list. The greatest driver of his generation has overtaken Juan Manuel Fangio, whose championships came in the 1950s, leaving him one behind Michael Schumacher.Photograph: Clive Mason/Getty Images
Texas Rangers starting pitcher Mike Minor throws during the seventh innings of the game against the Milwaukee Brewers on 11 August.Photograph: Morry Gash/AP
A general view of The Macca’s Run, the fourth race of Melbourne Cup Day, at Flemington racecourse.Photograph: Scott Barbour/EPA
Flamengo fans celebrate a goal scored by Gabriel Barbosa against Argentina’s River Plate in the Copa Libertadores final, broadcast on a giant screen at the Macarena stadium in Rio de Janeiro. Flamengo won the Copa Libertadores for the first time in 38 years with two goals from Barbosa in the last three minutes, beating the defending champions, River Plate, 2-1 after an astonishing comeback in Lima. River took the lead through Rafael Borré after 14 minutes and looked to be cruising to their fifth Libertadores triumph.Photograph: Silvia Izquierdo/AP
Georginio Wijnaldum celebrates with Trent Alexander-Arnold after scoring Liverpool’s third goal against Barcelona during the Champions League semi-final second leg at Anfield on 7 May. The Liverpool players were in tears at the end following an incredible 4-0 victory over the Spanish champions, who led 3-0 from the first leg. Jürgen Klopp described the greatest comeback in Liverpool’s illustrious European history as a unique and unforgettable night built on the ‘mentality of giants’ as his injury-hit team demolished Barcelona to reach a second successive Champions League final.Photograph: Tom Jenkins/The Guardian
I’m just a normal lad from Liverpool whose dream has just come true.
Eliud Kipchoge runs behind his pacemaking team following the timing vehicle which is projecting a green laser to guide them on the Hauptallee in Vienna on 12 October during his attempt to run a sub two-hour marathon. Kipchoge brushed aside his pacemakers during the final stretch. ‘That was the best moment in my life,’ said Kipchoge of catching sight of the finish line. When he crossed it, the clock read 1hr 59min 40.2sec. In the inevitable, wide-ranging assessment of what this all means, at least this can be defined as a reference point for decades and generations to come.Photograph: Jon Super/AP
Guinea-Bissau’s Braima Suncar Dabo helps Aruba’s Jonathan Busby to the finish in the men’s 5,000m heats during the World Athletics Championships at the Khalifa Stadium in Doha, Qatar.Photograph: Kai Pfaffenbach/Reuters
I started counting my steps and my head was gone, I think I lost sight in one eye. I just couldn’t lift my legs at all and I just couldn’t move.
Great Britain’s Hayley Carruthers attempts to finish the women’s race at the 39th London Marathon. Carruthers collapsed metres before the finish after her legs dramatically gave way beneath her. The 25-year-old then crawled over the line on her hands and knees in a personal best time of 2:33:59 before being carried away on a stretcher. She later reassured supporters she was fine on Twitter by posting a picture of bandaged knees alongside the caption: ‘Today I learnt how NOT to run a marathon! At least I PB’d.’Photograph: Alastair Grant/AP
Megan Rapinoe of the US celebrates with teammates Alex Morgan and Samantha Mewis after scoring the opening goal in the Women’s World Cup final against a resilient Netherlands at Stade de Lyon. The US won their fourth Women’s World Cup with a coolly taken Rapinoe penalty and beautifully worked goal from Rose Lavelle.Photograph: Richard Heathcote/Getty Images
Your message is excluding people. You’re excluding me. You’re excluding people that look like me. You’re excluding people of colour. You’re excluding Americans that maybe support you. I think that we need to have a reckoning with the message that you have and what you’re saying about, ‘Make America Great Again’
Australia’s Ricky Betar competes in the heats of the men’s 200m freestyle S14 during the London 2019 World Para-Swimming championships at the Aquatics Centre in London.Photograph: Richard Heathcote/Getty Images
France’s Elodie Clouvel contests the women’s individual swimming final during the modern pentathlon world championships in Budapest.Photograph: Tamás Kovács/EPA
South African captain Siya Kolisi lifts up the Webb Ellis Cup after his side defeated England in the final of the Rugby World Cup at Yokohama International Stadium. Every 12 years South Africa have an unerring habit of winning World Cups and they have done so again, following up their triumphs of 1995 and 2007 with another prodigious display of power and might. In some ways this was an even more special achievement, certainly for anyone who has ever dreamed of a black Springbok captain lifting the Webb Ellis Cup.Photograph: Tom Jenkins/The Guardian
I never dreamed of a day like this at all. When I was a kid all I was thinking about was getting my next meal.
Canada’s François Imbeau-Dulac performs a dive during the men’s 5m synchro springboard final of the diving world series at the Olympic Aquatics Centre in London.Photograph: Tom Jenkins/The Guardian
Great Britain’s Oliver Stanhope, James C Fox, Giedre Rakauskaite, Ellen Buttrick and coxswain Erin Wysocki-Jones train ahead of day three of the 2019 World Rowing Championships in Linz-Ottensheim, Austria, on 27 August.Photograph: Naomi Baker/Getty Images
These three photos show the trajectory of the ball and photographer Pavel Golovkin’s lens after it was hit by a ball from the serve of Kazakhstan’s Alexander Bublik during his second round French Open match against Austria’s Dominic Thiem on 30 May.Photograph: Pavel Golovkin/AP
