CNN Sports’ Top Stories of 2022

CNN Sports’ Top Stories of 2022

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From the one-of-a-kind World Cup in Qatar to Ukrainian athletes returning home to fight the war against Russia, CNN Sports has handpicked the must-read stories from the last 12 months.

Gay Australian footballer Josh Caval looks back on the year that changed his life

It’s been over a year since Josh Cavallo came out as gay, and he still struggles to comprehend the far-reaching impact of his announcement.

Since making a life-changing decision in October 2021, Cavallo has become one of the most recognizable names and faces in world football, becoming something of an icon.

“I was walking down the streets of London and was stopped,” Cavallo told CNN in October.

“I’ve only been to London twice and I was like, ‘Wow, I came all the way from Australia and what I did was through social media.’ , to see the impact it has had from people on the other side.” The scale of the Earth is absolutely staggering. ”

Josh Cavallo has become one of the most recognizable faces in football since coming out as gay.

Exclusive: World Cup soccer fan stopped by security guards for wearing rainbow-colored items

During the World Cup in Qatar, two German soccer fans told CNN’s Ben Church about the rainbow-colored items they were wearing on their way to see France and Denmark play in Qatar 2022. He said he was asked by security officials to remove it.

CNN reported that Bengt Kunkel, who was wearing a rainbow-colored sweatband, and his friend, who wore similarly colored armbands, refused to hand over the items at Doha’s Mushe Leb metro station. , witnessed the end of the incident.

After taking the Germans aside, a group of guards eventually released them on the condition that they pocket rainbow-colored items, Kunkel said.

“Out of nowhere. They very aggressively took my friend in their arms, pushed him away from the crowd, and told them to take it.” [the armband] Kunkel told CNN:

German fan Bengt Kunkel wears a rainbow arm and wristband outside Stadium 974 on Saturday 26 November.

Exclusive – “This is not salvation, this is destruction”: Ukrainian MMA champion Yaroslav Amosov talks the horrors of war

After Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine on February 24, many prominent Ukrainian athletes chose to return to their home countries to help fight the war.

Among them was MMA Championship Bellator Welterweight World Champion Yaroslav Amosov.

On May 13th, he was supposed to defend his world title at the Bellator event at London’s Wembley Arena. Instead, Amosov returned to his hometown of Irpin and took part in the territorial defense to assist civilians in and around the town.

“It’s hard to see your city, which was once so full of happiness and life,” Amosov said in an exclusive interview with CNN’s Matthias Grez in May.

Yaroslav Amosov has missed his world title fight to return to Ukraine.

Remembrance Sunday: For one dissident, this is his most dangerous day

For footballer James McLean, Remembrance Sunday is arguably the most difficult day of his year.

Since he first refused to wear poppies in 2012, McLean and his family have faced abuse both in football stadiums across England and online.

The Northern Ireland-born Republican representative has spoken candidly about what Poppies and Remembrance Sunday mean to his community and his relationship with the British military.

James McLean has been regularly abused for his stance on poppies.

YouTubers, doping and greed: It’s been a tough year for boxing

Simiso Buthelezi, Miracle Amaeze and Luis Quiñones are just some of the talented boxers who died this year as they pursued careers in the sport and pursued their world title dreams.

It’s an accepted risk of the profession. A database first compiled by anti-boxing activist Manuel Velázquez and updated in the Electronic Journal of Martial Arts and Sciences shows direct results of injuries sustained in the ring between 1890 and 2011. It is estimated that 1,604 boxers died as a result.

This is a shocking statistic for professional sports, but it may not be all that surprising. As Stephanie Alessi LaRosa, director of the sports neurology program at Hartford Healthcare, points out, “neurologically weakening the opponent” is the goal of a boxer’s fight.

2022 was a tough year for the sport of boxing.

“Our dream didn’t come true.” These men helped build Qatar’s World Cup.now they are struggling to survive

The plight of Qatar’s migrant workers was a cloud overshadowing what should have been the greatest sports spectacle on the planet.

For all the incredible action on the pitch, including perhaps the greatest World Cup final in history, tournament organizers say workers who helped build the stadium contributed to the deaths of migrant workers. I could not escape the accusation that I had been exposed to terrible conditions.

Ahead of the World Cup, CNN spoke with Kamal, a Nepalese worker in Qatar who was arrested without explanation and spent a week in a Qatar prison.

When he described the conditions in the cell he shared with 24 other Nepali migrant workers, he was provided with blankets and pillows, but the mattress on which he had to sleep was infested with bed bugs. I say.

“In the prison there were people from Sri Lanka, Kerala (India), Pakistan, Sudan, Nepal, Africa and the Philippines. We had about 24 to 25 people per room,” he says.

Treatment of migrant workers was a major issue at the 2022 Qatar World Cup.

‘Righting child abuse’: Canadian gymnast quit at 13

Amelia Klein still remembers that she loved gymnastics. The 32-year-old Canadian, she says, was her chance to explore the limits of gravity.

At the age of two, Klein says her interest was obvious to her parents, as she was pulling “little baby chin-ups” on the kitchen counter. By the time she was nine or her ten, Klein had grown beyond the capabilities of her local coach and she traveled from her home to train at her now elite club. was traveling for an hour.

For a while, her love of the sport continued, but Klein says everything changed when Vladimir Rassin and his wife Svetlana arrived as a new coaching team. says it got dark soon.

“Right away, it was verbal abuse,” she recalled. “If you do something wrong, they’ll scream and humiliate you.” According to Klein, it wasn’t long before coaches also resorted to physical abuse.

Amelia Klein spoke to CNN about her abusive training regime.

What impact has this World Cup had on the ‘brands’ associated with it?

As billions of viewers traditionally watch the World Cup and are focused on what’s happening on the pitch, the names of the world’s biggest companies flash in technicolor loops spinning behind the players. Do – Budweiser, Visa, Coca-Cola, Qatar Airways, Adidas, McDonald’s, Wanda, Vivo, Hyundai Kia.

But Qatar 2022 is different. Many of these brands, especially those with Western roots, were caught in the geopolitical crosshairs of the tournament, with sponsorship and competition from football’s global governing body FIFA and hosts Qatar, particularly on human rights issues. Balanced with criticism.

It’s not that it’s affecting FIFA’s bottom line.

Several 'brands' are now associated with the Qatar World Cup.

Fearing torture and possible execution, Iranian powerlifter Amir Asadrazade quit the Norwegian team and fled for his life

Athletes good enough to compete at the World Championships are the best in their field. I dream of going home with it hanging from my neck.

But at the IPF World Powerlifting Championships in November, not one athlete was competing for glory. Iranian Amir Assadrahzadeh says he found himself literally running for his life.

The 31-year-old Iranian lifter told CNN that he felt compelled to abandon his team midway through the tournament and run away from his teammates.

He struggled with a decision that would change his life forever, but at around 3:30 a.m. he made up his mind to sneak out of a hotel in the Norwegian city of Stavanger on the North Sea coast.

“I left with what I needed for my journey,” recalls Asadorahzadeh. 例文 I ran to the bus stop in a hurry, but I arrived five minutes late.

He was one of Iran's top athletes. Then his life unraveled.

Camille Heron has put “heart and soul” into breaking the 100-mile world record.But officials now say the course is too short

Camille Herron calls this the “unicorn moment” of the sport of ultrarunning. This is a performance that expands the concept of what women can achieve in an endurance event.

When Herron crossed the finish line in February’s 100-mile race at the Jackpot Ultra Running Festival in Henderson, Nevada, she crossed the finish line as an outright winner.

But her efforts now seem to be in vain, at least as far as the record books are concerned.

Capturing Lionel Messi’s viral moment: The story behind Instagram’s most-liked photo, told by the photographer who took it

Lionel Messi vs plain brown eggs was a clash that no one expected in 2022.

But the photo that Messi chose to upload to his Instagram page to celebrate his World Cup victory broke the app’s previous record.

It was captured by Getty photographer Sean Botterill for a front-row seat to one of the most iconic moments in sports history.

This is the story of how he captured the most popular photo of all time.

A blind skateboarder challenges misconceptions about vision and sport

Dan Mancina is a skateboarder whose incredible videos have racked up hundreds of thousands of views.

Mancina is also blind, and videos of him skating with a white cane arouse curiosity and admiration.

20221019 Sports Team Mancina

A blind skateboarder challenges misconceptions about vision and sport

03:06

– Source: CNN

‘We didn’t feel like we were representing ourselves’: This figure skating pair is shedding the sport’s rooted gender norms

US figure skaters Ashley Kane-Gribble and Timothy Leduc bring another story to the ice – one based on equality.

The pair stand out for their discipline rooted in traditional gender norms through their performance and skating style.

NASHVILLE, TN - JANUARY 8: Ashley Kane Gribble and Timothy LeDuc after winning the pair competition at the United States Figure Skating Championships at Bridgestone Arena on January 8, 2022 in Nashville, Tennessee. Poses on the medal podium. (Photo by Matthew Stockman/Getty Images)

‘We didn’t feel like we were representing ourselves’: This figure skating pair is shedding the sport’s rooted gender norms

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– Source: CNN

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