Sports Kaleidoscope 2022: Messi's Record, Tragedy, And Happy End

Lionel Messi (Instagram @leomessi)

JAKARTA - During 2022 special things happen in the world of sports, be it old dreams and ambitions that have materialized, as well as the tragedy and separation of athletes who have been poor for a long time across the sports arenas.

But the biggest story in 2022 is certainly Lionel Messi's success in finally lifting the World Cup trophy five times after participating in the second largest sports tournament after this Olympics.

Launching Antara, Wednesday, this year will also be the closing curtain of a career for a number of great and legendary athletes such as Roger Federer.

2022 is also a historic milestone for athletes such as On's Jabeur who became the first Arab and African players to reach the Grand Slam final.

But this year is also a year of tragedy for the sports world after a major disaster occurred at the Kanjuruhan Stadium in Malang on October 1, which killed 135 people or the second most after the tragedy at the National Stadium, Peru, in 1964, which killed 328 people.

Here are some of the many important events in the world of sports throughout 2022.

On January 30, Rafael Nadal became the male tennis player who won the Grand Slam the most with 21 trophies.

Ironically he created this achievement at Melbourne at the Australian Open when everyone believed that the milestone would be set for him in a clay field tournament that he specializes in, at Rolland Garos at the French Open.

But five months later Nadal added one Grand Slam title to the French Open.

Another important event in international sport is the success of the Senegal football national team in the Africa Cup of Nations which they won the tournament for the first time after beating Egypt in the final on February 7, 2022.

This success also paved the way for their work in the World Cup finals nine months later in Qatar where their steps were stopped by England in the last 16.

Unfortunately, they went through this tournament without their biggest star, Sadio Mane, who was forced to miss an injury just moments before the 2002 World Cup kickoff.

February 4, China opened the Winter Olympics in Beijing which lasted until the 20th of that month. This event created beautiful and unforgettable moments for athletes competing in this event. But a month later when the Winter Paralympics were held from March 4 to April 3, the sports arena became a political arena after a number of participants said they refused to compete against Russian and Belarusian athletes following Russia's invasion of Ukraine at the end of February.

Shortly after the Winter Olympics in Beijing, Russia did launch an invasion of Ukraine through Belarus which is north of Ukraine.

The United Nations and most countries condemned this maneuver, while the global sports community simultaneously isolated Russia and Belarus from sporting events so athletes from both countries could not take part in international events except in neutral flags.

The following month in March, Cristiano Ronaldo sparked a debate over the greatest footballer of all time (GOAT) after scoring his 806th goal which saw him surpass Josef Bican's achievement as FIFA's top scorer. His eternal competitor, Lionel Messi, is 37 goals behind Ronaldo.

Also in March, in NBA basketball, LeBron James became the first NBA player of all time to score a total of 10,000 points, rebound and assist.

In the same month in the badminton arena, Indonesia created the All-Indonesian Final in All England on March 16 when Mohammad Shohibul Fikri/Bagas Maulana won 21-19, 21-13 over their senior, Mohammad Ahsan/Hendra Setiawan. This is the only title that Indonesia has won from All England 2022.

Then on March 22, shocking news came from the tennis arena after world number one female Ashleigh Barty stepped down after becoming the first Australian to win the Australian Open in 44 years.

On the other hand, four days later footballer Cristian Eriksen came back to his career after suffering a heart attack in 2021 at Euro 2020. He scored when Denmark lost 2-4 to the Netherlands.

The following two months Europe's top leagues ended their season of competition.

In England, Manchester City confirmed their league title on May 22 after beating Aston Villa 3-2. On the same day in Italy, AC Milan won the Italian Serie A again after 11 years of not being able to win, after slaughtering Sassuolo 3-0.

But in Germany a month earlier Bayern Munich had already confirmed the tenth consecutive Bundesliga title after beating Borussia Dortmund on April 23.

On the same day in France, Paris Saint Germain won Ligue 1 after the 1-1 draw against Lens. PSG have now won the league 10 times to match Saint-Etienne as the team that won the French League the most.

Seven days later Real Madrid confirmed the status of Spanish League champions after beating Espanyol 4-0, one of which was scored by Karim Benzema who later starred when Madrid won the Champions League a month later on May 28 and was finally awarded the Ballon d'Or on October 18.

In May, the 2021 SEA Games, which were supposed to be held last year, were held in Vietnam from May 12 to 23. Indonesia, with a new paradigm of only sending track-scattering athletes, efficiently and effectively finishing third with 331 medals, 69 of which are gold medals. The host Vietnam became the overall champion, while Thailand was in second place.

The following month on June 16. After two consecutive seasons of failure, third seed Golden State Warriors won the NBA after beating the Boston Celtics in six games which left Stephen Curry the three-pointer named the NBA Final Player of the Year.

While in the pool, in the same month, Katie Ledecky established herself as the queen of the women's 800m freestyle, after becoming the world's first swimmer to become world champion five times in a row. Since 2013, she has won this number number number 42.

Another female athlete also scored a great milestone when Tunisian Ons Jabeur became the first Arab and African tennis player to reach the Grand Slam final on July 9. Unfortunately he surrendered to Kazakshtan tennis player Elena Rybakina in the Wimbledon final.

Meanwhile, a day later Novak Djokovic won the Wimbledon title four times in a row and a total of seven times which made him two Grand Slam trophies behind Nadal.

In September the world of tennis lost two legends after Venus Williams and Roger Federer declared their retirement in the same month Carlos Alcaraz to become the youngest ATP players to be ranked as one in the world at the age of 19, following their four-set win overruud in the US Open final.

But this year is a year of tragedy for the world of sports, especially football, when 135 people died in the tragedy at the Kanjuruhan Stadium on October 1.

In the aftermath of this tragedy, Indonesian football is in the process of transforming into a better state and may become even more professional. This process is still ongoing, and all eyes, including the world football body, FIFA, are focused on whether Indonesia and its football community can make this tragedy a turning point for improving the overall national football climate.

On October 12, Max Verstappen for the second year in a row was awarded the Formula 1 world champion trophy. He is phenomenal because before this there was no F1 rider who won 13 races in one season.

October 15, the Serbian women's volleyball team beat Brazil 3-0 in the women's soccer world championship finals in the Netherlands and Poland. A month earlier in the men's volleyball world championships in Slovenia and Poland, Italy won the world after beating Poland 3-1 in the final.

From the MotoGP arena, Francesco Bagnaia became the first Ducati rider in 15 years to win MotoGP after going through a winding year of up to 91 points behind until before the summer break to win this prestigious race.

Finally, from November 20 to December 18, FIFA held the 2022 World Cup in Qatar which will be remembered forever as a place that presented the World Cup trophy to Lionel Messi who also ended the GOAT debate between him and Cristiano Ronaldo.

The Qatar World Cup also created major surprises, from Saudi Arabia to overthrow Argentina in the group phase, to Morocco's success in becoming the first African and Arab teams to reach the World Cup semifinals.

In this tournament, the Asian and African teams also showed themselves to be no longer below Europe and South America.

When this year someone confirmed his retirement, this year there were also athletes who had retired but were then active again. One of them was Tyson Fury who had declared hanging up his boxing gloves last April but then took the boxing ring again to land Derek Chisora with TKO on December 3.

Fury then issued a challenge to Oleksandr Usyk in order to unite various versions of the world heavyweight boxing champion.

Next year is certainly not only about Fury against Usyk, but also about other duels including the new era of global football between Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland, and about other major achievements, including Indonesia in the AFF Cup, Asian Cup and U-20 World Cup.