The year in quotespublished at 20:32 Greenwich Mean Time 17 December 2024
20:32 GMT 17 December 2024
"This is 20 years in the making. I wouldn't change a second of it. This is by far the proudest moment of my life. My hamstrings are shot, but that doesn't matter right now." - Wales most-capped player and record goalscorer Jess Fishlock after qualifying for Euro 2025, a first major tournament for Wales' women's team.
'I have been doing sport for a long time and I love it'published at 20:30 Greenwich Mean Time 17 December 2024
20:30 GMT 17 December 2024
BBC One
Image source, PA Media
Britain’s most successful Paralympian Sarah Storey, speaking
to BBC One: "I am not used to being this slow! I was training to do some ice skating and I tripped and broke my ankle.
"I did it two weeks ago and got the pot off yesterday. I am doing rehab like a crazy person.
"I have been doing sport for a long time and I love it."
On the LA Games: "I have not had the conversation.
"I love a challenge and they [Storey's children] love to be part of a big team and hopefully we put together a plan when I am better and fixed - we will see what it takes."
Volunteer Paton has helped more than 800 children learn to sailpublished at 20:29 Greenwich Mean Time 17 December 2024
20:29 GMT 17 December 2024
Jean Paton is a Royal Yachting Association (RYA) dinghy instructor.
During her time at Salterns, Paton has helped more than 800 children learn to sail.
The club, which is run by children with the of adults, operates as not-for-profit and hosts 'Moppy Camps' - RYA-accredited sail training weekends - twice yearly.
Paton has been at every 'Moppy Camp' since they began 20 years ago and has undertaken many roles, which require not only sailing expertise, but also leadership and the ability to inspire confidence in young sailors.
Verstappen wins drivers title as McLaren clinch constructorspublished at 20:22 Greenwich Mean Time 17 December 2024
20:22 GMT 17 December 2024
Lorraine McKenna BBC Sport F1 reporter
Image source, Getty Images
At the beginning of the 2024
Formula 1 season, Max Verstappen and Red Bull looked to be on course for
another dominant year thanks to the Dutchman winning seven of the opening 10
grands prix.
By the end of the campaign,
while Verstappen did wrap up his fourth consecutive drivers’ title after a
winless run of 10 races (his victory from 17th on grid at the
rain-affected Sao Paulo Grand Prix one of the best of the campaign), Red Bull
had slipped to third in the constructors’ championship, handing over their
crown to a resurgent McLaren – a first for the team since 1998.
There were plenty of
highlights this year, including Lewis Hamilton’s record ninth triumph on home
soil at Silverstone – his first race win since 2021 – and the emergence of a
genuine four-way title fight between the top teams.
What’s to come in 2025?
There’s only one thing to look out for: Hamilton driving a Ferrari.
A year in photos - Sarah Storeypublished at 20:16 Greenwich Mean Time 17 December 2024
20:16 GMT 17 December 2024
Competing at her ninth Paralympics - the most by a British athlete - in August, Sarah Storey won her 18th gold medal with victory in the C5 time trial. It marked the fifth successive Games at which she has won the event.
Image source, Getty Images
A second Parisian gold followed just two days later when Storey beat French rider Heidi Gaugain in a thrilling sprint finish to win the C4-5 road race for a fourth time.
She now has 30 Paralympic medals, earned across two sports and nine Paralympic Games since she first competed as a swimmer at Barcelona 1992. Nineteen of those are gold - no British athlete has won more.
Image source, Getty Images
In September, Storey successfully defended her C4-C5 individual time trial title at the World Championships in Switzerland, then retained her C5 road race title on the wet streets of Zurich.
It marked her 10th road race-time trial double at the World Championships, and her 39th cycling world title.
Sports Personality of the Year contenders - Sarah Storeypublished at 20:15 Greenwich Mean Time 17 December 2024
20:15 GMT 17 December 2024
Sarah Storey is Britain's most successful Paralympian and added two more gold medals to her incredible collection as she won the C4-C5 road race and C5 road time trial at the Paris Games.
Maskill and Bush among British success stories at Paralympicspublished at 20:14 Greenwich Mean Time 17 December 2024
20:14 GMT 17 December 2024
Elizabeth Hudson BBC Sport disability sport reporter
Image source, Getty Images
Paris proved to be another
very successful Paralympic Games for the Great Britain team.
The team came back from the
French capital with 124 medals – 49 gold, 44 silver and 31 bronze - and were
second behind China in the table, winning medals in 18 of the 19 sports they
took part in.
Among the numerous highlights
were swimmer Poppy Maskill winning three golds and two silvers to lead the
medal haul, cyclist Sarah Storey extending her record as Britain’s most
successful Paralympian with her 18th and 19th titles at
her ninth Games and archer Jodie Grinham claiming a gold and silver while seven
months pregnant.
Matt Bush became the first
British man to win an Olympic or Paralympic taekwondo title while Lauren Rowles
clinched her third successive gold medal to become Para-rowing’s most
successful athlete.
Overall, the French crowd
embraced the Games and after Covid had a huge negative impact on Tokyo, the
global Paralympic movement seems to be back on a strong trajectory ahead of the
Los Angeles Games in 2028.
Cast your vote now!published at 20:12 Greenwich Mean Time 17 December 2024
20:12 GMT 17 December 2024
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Wales qualify for Euro 2025 and Hayes wins goldpublished at 20:11 Greenwich Mean Time 17 December 2024
20:11 GMT 17 December 2024
Emma Sanders BBC Sport women’s football news reporter
Image source, Getty Images
There
was a sense of déjà vu in 2024 as Chelsea won the WSL for a fifth year running,
Barcelona were crowned European champions again and Emma Hayes’ victories
continued as she led the USA to gold at the Olympic Games just weeks after
starting her new job.
Chelsea
were pushed all the way by Manchester City, winning the WSL on goal difference,
while Scottish champions Celtic reached the Women’s Champions League group
stages for the first time in their history.
Manchester
United won their first major trophy in the Women’s FA Cup, seeing off final
debutants Tottenham, while Arsenal
beat Chelsea to the Women’s League Cup but manager Jonas Eidevall stepped down
seven months later – one of many managerial changes in the WSL this year.
On the international stage, it has been a tough
year for the Lionesses as they missed out on Olympic qualification and had a
rocky Nations League campaign before securing their spot at Euro 2025.
But it was a year to for Wales as they
qualified for their first major tournament, while Northern Ireland and Scotland
missed out in the play-offs.
Sabalenka dominates as Paolini becomes Italy's new starpublished at 20:09 Greenwich Mean Time 17 December 2024
20:09 GMT 17 December 2024
Amy Lofthouse BBC Sport tennis reporter
Image source, Getty Images
Aryna Sabalenka started the year by defending her Australian Open title without dropping a set.
She ended it as the world number one, producing a remarkable home stretch where she won the US Open and two big hard-court titles to overhaul Iga Swiatek as world number one.
Swiatek continued her French Open dominance, winning her fourth Paris title in five years, but a tough end to the year saw her accept a one-month ban after testing positive for a banned substance.
Jasmine Paolini was the breakout star. She began 2024 having never gone beyond the second round of a Grand Slam. She promptly went on to reach the French Open and Wimbledon finals, before helping Italy lift the Billie Jean King Cup trophy.
The year in quotespublished at 20:08 Greenwich Mean Time 17 December 2024
20:08 GMT 17 December 2024
"Obviously, it was emotional because it's the last time I will play a competitive match. But I am genuinely happy just now. I'm happy with how it finished. I’m glad I got to go out here and finish on my . At times in the last few years, that wasn't a certainty." - Andy Murray after playing his last competitive tennis match before retiring. Murray and doubles partner Dan Evans reached the quarter-finals at the Paris 2024 Olympics.
The evolution of men’s tennis gathers pacepublished at 20:07 Greenwich Mean Time 17 December 2024
20:07 GMT 17 December 2024
Jonathan Jurejko BBC Sport tennis reporter
Image source, Getty Images
For so long, the burning ATP Tour question has been: who fills the void left by the ageing superstars? This year has finally seen the evolution gather serious pace.
Italy's Jannik Sinner produced one of the finest seasons on record – claiming Australian Open, US Open and ATP Finals titles before guiding Italy to Davis Cup victory - although the cloud of an ongoing doping case hovers. Spain's Carlos Alcaraz won the French Open and Wimbledon to reinforce why ATP chiefs hope the pair will carry the men's game forward.
The duopoly left 37-year-old Novak Djokovic – the last man standing in the 'Big Three' – stomaching a Slam-less season. The 24-time major champion, though, achieved what he really had set his heart on: winning the Olympic title to seal a rare career Golden Slam.
While Djokovic soldiers on, 2024 will be ed as the year of the retirement. Grand Slam champions Rafael Nadal, Dominic Thiem and, of course, Andy Murray brought the curtains down on illustrious careers with a tear in their eye.
Murray's role as the British talisman has already been reassigned. Jack Draper, a charming 22-year-old with an explosive style, showed what the future could hold for the nation's tennis fans with a breakout season headlined by a US Open semi-final run.
The year in quotespublished at 20:07 Greenwich Mean Time 17 December 2024
20:07 GMT 17 December 2024
"It’s the fastest I’ve ever run. It’s the best 1500m performance I could ever ask for - a British record and a personal best. I told you guys we were going to put on a 1500m that would go down in generations and we did that today." - Josh Kerr after winning silver in the 1500m at the Paris Olympics with a time of 3:27.79 behind American Cole Hocker.
Finucane dominates on the track as Richardson switches flagspublished at 20:06 Greenwich Mean Time 17 December 2024
20:06 GMT 17 December 2024
Katie Falkingham BBC Sport track cycling reporter
Image source, Getty Images
Great Britain’s Emma Finucane made British Olympic history by winning three medals at the Paris 2024 Games, the first British woman to do so at the same Olympics since athlete Mary Rand in 1964. She won team sprint gold alongside Katy Marchant and Sophie Capewell before two bronze medals followed in the individual sprint and keirin.
The Dutch, and triple gold medallist Harrie Lavreysen, dominated the men’s sprint events, but there was a shock after the Games when Australia’s Matty Richardson, who won double silver, announced he was switching nationality to Great Britain.
In total, Team GB won eight track cycling medals in Paris, while 13 came back to British shores from the World Championships in Denmark in October.
It was at that event that Katie Archibald made her comeback, having broken her leg in a freak garden accident on the eve of the Olympics. She helped GB to team pursuit gold in Ballerup, while Anna Morris won her first solo world title in the individual pursuit.