‘Front-row seats to something amazing’: 2024 had unforgettable moments in sports

“Nuit nuit”

Stephen Curry, the Golden State Warriors’ superstar sharpshooter, made his Olympic debut one to remember and saved his best for last. He hit four 3-pointers in the final minutes, each shot more dramatic than the last, to seal the U.S. win over host France for gold.

Curry’s signature celebration is the “night night,” where he puts his hands together at the side of his face, as if it’s time to go to sleep. In Paris, he brought shirts that made it perfectly clear to the French what that meant — yes, the message written on the shirts was “nuit nuit.”

A Super walk-off …

Kansas City’s Patrick Mahomes did something no one has ever done: He threw a Super Bowl-winning touchdown pass on the final play of the title game.

San Francisco kicked a field goal to open overtime of Super Bowl 58, and Mahomes had 75 yards to go to try and answer. He scrambled for eight yards on fourth-and-1 to keep the drive alive — a huge play that probably very few remember. He went 8 for 8 on passes in overtime, engineering a perfect drive.

The finale: a 3-yard toss to Mecole Hardman with 3 seconds left in overtime, and the Chiefs were back-to-back champions.

… and an Olympic walk-off

OK, technically, the U.S. women’s rugby sevens team won the Olympic bronze medal with a kick (a conversion, they call it).

But the real moment was Alex Sedrick, running the length of the field and into history.

Sedrick got the ball with about 8 seconds left, ran through three Australia defenders and took it all the way down the field for a try that tied the game at 12-12 with no time left. Her kick won bronze for the Americans, a result that made star Ilona Maher — the undisputed face of the sport in the U.S. — an even bigger name and breathed new life into the sport in a country where it still has tons of room to grow.

The women’s Final Four

In this case, let’s make three games — Iowa vs. UConn, South Carolina vs. N.C. State, then South Carolina vs. Iowa for the title — one moment.

Maybe a movement is the better word.

Caitlin Clark’s record-setting year, South Carolina’s undefeated run to the national title, UConn’s return to the Final Four, they were all part of a scintillating year for women’s basketball. The WNBA saw enormous growth — Clark, its rookie of the year, helped fuel that in a big way — and more eyeballs were on the game than ever before.

On the track

Everything at an Olympics is a moment for someone; a lifetime of work typically coming down to a few seconds.

But in Paris, a few stood out more than others.

Start with Sifan Hassan, trading elbows in the stretch of the marathon to win her third distance medal — this one gold. Or Cole Hocker, looking like Forrest Gump in coming from nowhere to beat the two favorites in the men’s 1,500-meter run.

The highlight, of course, was Noah Lyles’ .005-second victory in the 100-meter dash. He ran the fastest time of his life and didn’t take the lead until the absolute last instant, a finish that even had commentators guessing wrong about who actually prevailed.

The big swings

Of the 346,000 swings taken by batters in Major League Baseball this year, three probably jumped out more than the rest.

There was Freddie Freeman, hitting the first game-ending grand slam in World Series history to move the Los Angeles Dodgers a step closer to beating the New York Yankees and winning the title.

There was Pete Alonso, saving the season for the New York Mets with a home run to lift them past the Milwaukee Brewers in the deciding game of an NL wild-card series.

And then there was Shohei Ohtani, a night like none other in a season like none other. On the night in Miami when he joined — created, really — baseball’s 50-homer, 50-steal club, he hit three home runs, stole two bases and drove in 10 runs on a 6-for-6 night.

From way downtown

Cleveland’s Max Strus lived every kid’s hoop-in-the-driveway fantasy … down by one, time running out, let-it-fly … a 59-footer to give the Cavaliers a 121-119 win over Dallas.

But the buzzer-beater of the year: Take a bow, Sabrina Ionescu. From just inside of the logo, her 3-pointer with 1 second left gave the New York Liberty a win over the Minnesota Lynx in Game 3 of the WNBA Finals — and the Liberty would win the title in five games.

Scheffler’s year

World No. 1 golfer Scottie Scheffler had a year of moments — most of them great (nine wins worldwide), one of them bizarre (the arrest at the PGA Championship).

But the signature moment of 2024 for Scheffler might have been weeping as “The Star-Spangled Banner” played in honor of his Olympic golf gold medal in Paris. He rallied from six shots back with a final-round 62 to win the gold.

A ‘Bobbery’

On the way to winning the Stanley Cup, Florida Panthers goalie Sergei Bobrovsky had a save he’ll never forget.

Bobrovsky — out of “desperation,” he’d say later — dove backward across the goal mouth, reached out blindly with his left wrist and somehow got his glove side in the way of Tampa Bay’s Matt Dumba’s shot to keep the game tied at 2-2. It wound up being a game-saver; the Panthers got a goal from Carter Verhaeghe 2:59 into overtime for a 3-2 win.

Saquon goes up, up and away

Philadelphia Eagles running back Saquon Barkley used a spin move — and a leap — on the same play. The 180-degree hurdle was one of the signature moves of 2024 in the NFL.

It made a 14-yard reception unforgettable. “Best play I’ve ever seen,” Eagles coach Nick Sirianni said.

A prayer answered … and not answered

They call it a “Hail Mary” in football, the desperation pass into the end zone with no time left to try and win a game.

The Wahington Commanders pulled it off against the Chicago Bears, Jayden Daniels’ throw going into team lore. And Virginia Tech thought it had pulled one off against Miami, only to have officials — who originally said the Hokies won — overrule the call after replay review, sealing a win for the Hurricanes.

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AP sports: https://apnews.com/hub/sports

Tim Reynolds, The Canadian Press

by Canadian Press