Let’s take a trip down memory lane as we relive the biggest sports moments of 2024. ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏
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JANUARY |
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🏈 Hail to the Victors (Jan. 8): Michigan crushed Washington, 34-13, to win its first national championship since 1997 and become the fifth team in FBS history to finish 15-0, joining 2022 Georgia, 2019 LSU, 2018 Clemson and 1897 Penn.
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- 🏈 Jan. 10: Nick Saban retired from Alabama, Pete Carroll was fired by the Seahawks, and early the next morning Bill Belichick parted ways with the Patriots as three memorable tenures* ended in one fell swoop.
- 🎾 Jan. 28: Jannik Sinner won the Australian Open for his first Grand Slam title, kicking off a dominant year that saw him win eight more tournaments (including the U.S. Open, ATP Finals and Davis Cup) and ascend to world No. 1.
Plus: Nick Dunlap became the eighth amateur to win a PGA Tour event (Jan. 21); Joel Embiid (Jan. 22) and Luka Dončić (Jan. 26) became the ninth and 10th NBA players to score 70 points in a game.
*Wild stat: There have been 25 Super Bowls and 24 college football title games this century. Belichick, Saban and Carroll coached in 22 of those games (45%) and won 15 of them (31%).
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FEBRUARY |
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🏈 Back-to-back (Feb. 11): The Chiefs walked off the 49ers, 25-22 (OT), to win their second straight Super Bowl, becoming the NFL's first back-to-back champion since the Patriots in the early 2000s and cementing their place as one of the league's greatest dynasties.*
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- ⛳️ Feb. 12: After 27 years with Nike, Tiger Woods unveiled his new "Sun Day Red" apparel and footwear brand in partnership with TaylorMade.
- 🏀 Feb. 28: The Lakers beat the Clippers in their 98th and final meeting as co-tenants of Crypto.com Arena, a home they'd shared since 1999. The Clippers moved into the Intuit Dome this season.
Plus: Caitlin Clark broke the Division I women's scoring record with a signature logo three (Feb. 15); William Byron won the Daytona 500 (Feb. 19); MLB's new uniforms, see-through pants and all, became the talk of spring training (Feb. 22).
*Three titles in five years: The Chiefs joined the 1970s Steelers, 1990s Cowboys, 2000s Patriots and 2010s Patriots as the only teams to win three Super Bowls in a five-year span.
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MARCH |
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🏀 Caitlin passes Pete (March 3): Two weeks after breaking the women's scoring record, Caitlin Clark (3,951 points) passed Pete Maravich (3,667) as the NCAA's all-time scoring leader, dropping 35 points the final regular-season game of her collegiate career.
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- ⛳️ March 10: Scottie Scheffler won at Bay Hill for his first victory of the year, kicking off the best PGA Tour season* since prime Tiger Woods.
- ⚾️ March 20: News broke that Shohei Ohtani's longtime friend and interpreter, Ippei Mizuhara, had stolen $16 million from him to cover his own gambling debts. Mizuhara has since pleaded guilty and faces up to 33 years in prison.
Plus: LeBron James inaugurated the 40K points club (March 2); the KC Current opened the first venue ever built for a women's pro sports team (March 16).
*The year of Scottie: Scheffler won nine tournaments in 2024, including the Masters, the Players, the Olympics and the Tour Championship. He made the cut in all 21 of his starts and had 18 top-10 finishes.
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APRIL |
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🏀 38-0 (April 7): South Carolina beat Iowa, 87-75, to become the 10th undefeated national champion (38-0) in women's college basketball history. The game averaged 18.7 million viewers and peaked at 24 million, making it the most-watched women's basketball game ever.
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- 🏀 April 8: UConn* beat Purdue, 75-60, to become the first back-to-back men's basketball national champion since Florida in 2006-07.
- ⛳️ April 21: Nelly Korda won her fifth consecutive tournament at the Chevron Championship (first major of the year), joining Nancy Lopez (1978) and Annika Sorenstam (2004-05) as the only women to win five straight LPGA starts.
Plus: Scottie Scheffler joined Tiger Woods as the only golfers to win the Masters and Players in the same year (April 14); Caleb Williams, Jayden Daniels and Drake Maye went 1-2-3 in the 2024 NFL Draft (April 25), which saw six QBs go in the first round for the first time since 1983.
*Huskies own the 21st century: This was UConn's fifth men's basketball championship since 2000. No other school has more than three this century (Duke and UNC).
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MAY |
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⚽️ Four-peat (May 19): Manchester City* clinched their fourth consecutive Premier League title, becoming the first club in the 124-year history of English football to win four straight top-flight titles.
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Plus: Victor Wembanyama was named the sixth unanimous ROY in NBA history (May 6); Paul Skenes threw 17 pitches of 100+ mph in his MLB debut (May 11); the Pac-12 held its final championship game before effectively disbanding (May 25).
*Then vs. now: City's run of dominance has come crashing down this season. The reigning champs have lost eight of their last 11 matches across all competitions and are fifth in the EPL, nine points behind first-place Liverpool.
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JUNE |
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🏀 18 rings (June 17): The Celtics beat the Mavericks in five games to win their record 18th NBA championship, and first since 2008.
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- ⚽️ June 1: Real Madrid beat Dortmund, 2-0, for their record 15th Champions League title, and a day later signed all-world striker Kylian Mbappé. The rich get richer.
- 🏒 June 24: The Panthers won their first Stanley Cup, beating the Oilers* in Game 7 to avoid a historic collapse after Edmonton had fought back from a 3-0 series deficit.
Plus: Oklahoma completed the first four-peat in Women's College World Series history (June 6); Bryson DeChambeau won his second U.S. Open after Rory McIlroy missed two short putts on the final three holes (June 16).
*The drought continues: No Canadian team has won the Stanley Cup since the Canadiens in 1993.
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JULY |
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⚽️ Summer of Soccer (July 14): Spain won their record fourth European Championship (breaking a tie with Germany) and Argentina won their record 16th Copa América (breaking a tie with Uruguay) within hours of each other, bringing an end to the Summer of Soccer.
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- 🎾 July 14: Carlos Alcaraz beat Novak Djokovic in the Wimbledon final, becoming the sixth man* in the Open Era to win the "Channel Slam."
- 🚴 July 21: Tadej Pogačar won his third Tour de France in dominant fashion, becoming the eighth cyclist (and first since 1998) to win the Giro d'Italia and Tour de France in the same year.
Plus: The Summer Olympics opened in Paris (July 26) and the Team USA gymnasts gave themselves a NSFW nickname — "F.A.A.F.O" — in a viral video filmed by some guy named Kendall Baker (July 30).
*The Channel Slam: Alcaraz joined Djokovic, Björn Borg, Rod Laver, Roger Federer, and Rafael Nadal as the only men to go back-to-back on the clay of Roland Garros and the grass at the All England Club.
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AUGUST |
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🥇 Gold medal in sportsmanship (Aug. 5): In the lasting image of an all-time great Olympics, Americans Simone Biles and Jordan Chiles bowed down to Brazil's Rebeca Andrade after she beat them out for gold in floor exercise.
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- 🥇 Aug. 4: Noah Lyles* won gold in the closest 100-meter final ever, beating Jamaica's Kishane Thompson (9.789) by five one thousandths of a second, which is less time than it takes to blink.
- 🥇 Aug. 10: Stephen Curry went nuclear in the final minutes of Team USA's gold medal winning victory over France with a three-point explosion that I promise you won't regret re-watching.
Plus: Algeria's Imane Khelif beat Italy's Angela Carini by forfeit in an Olympic boxing match that sparked a culture war (Aug. 1); Katie Ledecky won her fourth straight 800m freestyle gold (Aug. 3); Shohei Ohtani hit a walk-off homer to become the sixth member of the 40-40 club (Aug. 23).
*Ending the drought: Lyles is the first American to earn the title of "World's Fastest Man" since Justin Gatlin in 2004.
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SEPTEMBER |
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⚾️ 50-50 (Sept. 19): Shohei Ohtani achieved MLB's first 50-homer, 50-steal season with perhaps the greatest offensive performance* ever: 6-for-6 with 3 home runs, 2 doubles, 2 steals, 10 RBIs and 4 runs scored.
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- ⚾️ Sept. 26: After 57 seasons and four World Series titles, the Athletics played their final game in Oakland. They'll spend the next three years in Sacramento before moving to Las Vegas in 2028.
- ⚾️ Sept. 27: The White Sox lost their 121st game, breaking the record set by the 1962 Mets (40-120) for most losses in an MLB season.
Plus: The Eagles beat the Packers in the first NFL game in Brazil (Sept. 6); A'ja Wilson broke the WNBA's single-season scoring record (Sept. 11); the Commanders and Bengals played the first NFL game without a punt or turnover since 1940 (Sept. 23).
*Wild stat: Ohtani is the only player to have a game with 10+ RBI, a game with 6+ hits, a game with 5+ extra-base hits, a game with 3+ home runs and a game with 2+ steals over an entire career… And he did it all in a single game. To inaugurate the 50-50 club.
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OCTOBER |
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⚾️ L.A. over NY (Oct. 30): The Dodgers* beat the Yankees in five games to win their eighth World Series, matching their rival Giants for fifth-most all-time behind the Yankees (27), Cardinals (11), Red Sox (9) and Athletics (9).
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- 🏀 Oct. 20: The Liberty beat the Lynx in a winner-take-all Game 5, finally capturing their first WNBA championship in their sixth trip to the Finals.
- 🪐 Oct. 28: The NFL, NBA, MLB and NHL all played on the same day during the 31st Sports Equinox in history, and the only one in 2024.
Plus: Inter Miami broke the record for most points in an MLS season (Oct. 21); Jayden Daniels completed a walk-off Hail Mary to beat the Bears in the "Maryland Miracle" (Oct. 27); LeBron and Bronny James shared the court in Cleveland (Oct. 30).
*World Series MVP: Freddie Freeman homered in each of the first four games and finished with 12 RBIs, tied for the most ever in a single World Series (Yankees 2B Bobby Richardson, 1960).
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NOVEMBER |
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🎾 Gracias, Rafa (Nov. 19): Rafael Nadal's otherworldly career* came to an end with one final match at the Davis Cup. "The titles, numbers, they're there," Rafa said during his farewell speech. "The way I'd like to be remembered more is like a good person from a small village in Mallorca."
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Plus: The Jets won 15 of their first 16 games, the best start in NHL history (Nov. 12); the Cavaliers started the season 15-0, tied for the second-best start in NBA history (Nov. 17); Max Verstappen clinched his fourth straight F1 title with a win at the Las Vegas GP (Nov. 24).
*The King of Clay: Nadal's career is full of wild stats, but this one might be the craziest: He played in 19 French Opens and won 14 of them, going 112-4 at Roland Garros.
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DECEMBER |
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(Mary DeCicco/MLB Photos via Getty Images) |
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⚾️ $765 million (Dec. 8): After one season in the Bronx, Juan Soto joined the crosstown Mets after signing the richest contract in sports history: 15 years, $765 million.*
More headlines:
- ⚽️ Dec. 7: The LA Galaxy beat the New York Red Bulls, 2-1, for their record sixth MLS Cup title, and their first since 2014.
- 🏈 Dec. 11: Six-time Super Bowl champion Bill Belichick agreed to become the head coach at North Carolina, where his father spent three years as an assistant coach from 1953-55.
Plus: McLaren won its first Constructors' Championship since 1998 (Dec. 8); Travis Hunter edged out Ashton Jeanty to win the Heisman Trophy (Dec. 14); Chargers kicker Cameron Dicker converted the NFL's first fair- catch free kick since 1976 (Dec. 19).
*Just how much is that? Soto will make $51 million a year, $980K a week, $6,000 an hour and $100 a minute… until the year 2040.
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PLAY NOW |
DAILY DRAW IS LIVE! |
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Daily Draw is live! Our new free-to-play game in the Yahoo Sports app gives fans a chance to predict outcomes in the day's biggest sporting event. Start playing today.
Did we mention you could also win big just by playing? We're giving away a golden MrBeast card and $10,000 in cash each day for 10 days straight (12/20 through 12/29).
Make your picks.
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