5 worst sporting moments of 2023 from Rubiales kiss disgrace to tragic deaths
While there were several sporting moments that got us off our seats in 2023, there were also those that shocked and saddened us.
These are five of the most devastating sporting moments of the calendar year.
Adam Johnson dies after accident in ice hockey game
Ice hockey and the wider sporting world was shocked by the death of Nottingham Panthers player Adam Johnson in what the club described as a freak accident. The 29-year-old American died on October 28 after being hit in the neck by an opposition player’s skate during a match at Sheffield’s Utilita Arena. Minnesota-born Johnson played for Pittsburgh Penguins in the National Hockey League before spending the 2020-21 season in Sweden with the Malmo Redhawks.
WTA Finals leaves top players feeling ‘disrespected’
For the third year in succession a late decision was made about the venue for the season-ending showpiece, with Cancun in hurricane season unsurprisingly proving a poor choice. World number two Aryna Sabalenka easily won her opening match but then took to social media to criticise the arrangements for players, who were only able to practise in the temporary arena for the first time the day before matches got under way.
“I am very disappointed with the WTA and the experience so far at the WTA Finals,” Sabalenka wrote. “As a player, I feel really disrespected by the WTA. I think most of us do. To be honest, I don’t feel safe moving on this court a lot of the time.”
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Sabalenka hit out at conditions in Cancun (Getty Images)Sir Bobby Charlton dies
Tributes flooded in from the world of football following the death of Sir Bobby Charlton in October at the age of 86. He was a key member of England’s victorious 1966 World Cup team and also enjoyed great success at club level with Manchester United, who became the first English club to win the European Cup in 1968.
That triumph came 10 years after the Munich air disaster, which Charlton and team manager Sir Matt Busby survived but which claimed the lives of eight of Charlton’s team-mates. Charlton played in the World Cup final alongside his brother Jack – who died in 2020 – and won 106 caps for England, scoring 49 goals. His death means Sir Geoff Hurst is the only surviving member of the side from the World Cup win.
(Getty Images)Luis Rubiales overshadows Spain’s World Cup triumph
Spain’s victory over England in the Women’s World Cup final in Sydney was overshadowed by the actions of Spanish Football Association president Luis Rubiales, who celebrated his nation’s victory by grabbing his crotch while standing alongside Spain’s Queen Letizia and 16-year-old Princess Infanta Sofia in a VIP box and then kissed Jenni Hermoso on the lips during the trophy presentation ceremony. Hermoso said the kiss was not consensual and, after a long-running saga which included his mother staging a brief hunger strike, Rubiales eventually resigned and was banned by FIFA from all football-related activity for three years.
England were dismal at the Cricket World Cup (Getty Images)England’s Cricket World Cup defence
England arrived in India as reigning champions and well fancied to cement their legacy as the premier white-ball side of their generation. They departed after six long and chastening weeks with tails planted firmly between their legs, having conjured a calamitous cocktail of muddled selection, tactical naivety and rank bad form in the middle.
Captain Jos Buttler personified their struggles as they endured their worst-ever sequence of results at the tournament, unable to make a dent with the bat as his side were humbled by Jonathan Trott’s Afghanistan and a Sri Lanka side helmed by sacked England coach Chris Silverwood. A seventh-placed finish somehow flattered them.
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