The Winter Olympics

The 2010 Winter Olympics were held in Vancouver, Canada, although unseasonably warm weather meant a lack of snow for the Games that hosted athletes from 82 competing nations.

Canada topped the medal table winning 14 gold medals and 26 in total. The last event of the Games saw a dramatic win for the hosts in the men’s ice hockey final. The Canadian team beat the USA 3-2 after an overtime goal by ice hockey superstar Sidney Crosby.

Memorable moment:

Amy Williams won gold for the Great Britain team in the skeleton competition; it was the only medal for team GB at the Games.

The World Cup

The 2010 FIFA World Cup was hosted by South Africa, the first African country to stage the event. The hosts got off to a promising start in the tournament drawing with Mexico 1-1 in the opening game, they lost their second match against Uruguay 3-0, but went on to defeat France 2-1. However it was not enough for South Africa, as they became the first ever host nation to be knocked out at the group stage of the World Cup.

England’s hopes of glory ended in a 4-1 loss to Germany. Although they were unfortunate to have a perfectly good goal ruled to not have crossed the line against Germany, they never reproduced the form that saw them top their qualifying group. Spain went on to win the tournament, beating the Netherlands 1-0 after an extra-time goal by Andres Iniesta. It was Spain’s first ever World Cup triumph.

Memorable moment:

England goalkeeper Rob Green could only look back in horror as he failed to control a tame shot that rolled into the back of the net against the USA.

The European Athletics Championships

The 2010 European Athletics Championships was held in Barcelona, Spain and saw the best track and field athletes from 50 European nations compete in 47 events. Russia topped the medal table winning10 gold medals with 24 in total, second was France with 8 golds and 18 in total.

Great Britain secured third place in the table with 6 golds and a total of 19 medals; the most a Great Britain team has ever won at the European Championships. The team GB gold medals were won by Mo Farah (5,000m and 10,000m), Phillips Idowu (triple jump), Andy Turner (110m hurdles), Jessica Ennis (heptathlon) and Dai Greene (400m hurdles).

Memorable moment:

The men’s 100m final won by France’s Christophe Lemaitre came down to an extraordinarily close photo-finish, with just six one-thousandths of a second separating the sprinters in second, third, fourth and fifth place.

The US Open

Tennis history was made at the 2010 US Open, played at Flushing Meadows, New York. The world number one tennis player Rafael Nadal became the youngest ever player to win a career grand slam at just 24 years old.

To win a career grand slam a player has to win all four major events; the Australian Open, Roland Garros, Wimbledon, and the US Open. The US Open was the only grand slam that Nadal had not won going into the tournament, and he completed the historic feat by beating Serbian Novak Djokovic in the men’s singles final. It was the Spaniard’s third slam of 2010 having won Roland Garros and Wimbledon earlier in the year.

Swiss world number two Roger Federer won the other men’s singles grand slam title of 2010 after he defeated Britain’s Andy Murray in the Australian Open final at the start of the year.

Memorable moment:

Novak Djokovic sensationally saved two match points on his way to defeating Roger Federer to reach the men’s singles final.

The Ryder Cup

In golf, Europe was victorious in the 2010 Ryder cup against the USA. It ended 14 ½ to 13 ½ in favour of the European team captained by Scottish golf veteran Colin Montgomerie. His team won the event that was held at a rain soaked Celtic Manor Resort in Newport, Wales. The wet weather caused the event to go into an extra day for the first time in its 83-year history.

Memorable moment:

With the score level at 13 ½ points to both Europe and the USA, Northern Ireland’s Graeme McDowell held his nerve to sink a birdie putt on the 16th. The putt put him two shots up with two holes to play in the decisive singles match.

The Ashes

England’s cricketers enjoyed success at the end of the year as they retained the Ashes in the 2010-11 tour of Australia. The fifth and final Test match of the series is still to be completed in Sydney, but with England winning the fourth Test in Melbourne the team could celebrate retaining the Ashes for the first time in Australia for 24 years.

After drawing the first Test in Brisbane an impressive all round team performance by England saw them beat Australia in the second Test in Adelaide. They lost the third Test in Perth but a brilliant win in Melbourne in the fourth Test means they just need to avoid defeat in Sydney to win the series.

Memorable moment:

England bowled out Australia for 98 runs in the first innings in Melbourne; it was Australia’s lowest innings score against England since 1968 and their lowest score against England in Australia since 1936.

Words by Jack Ross