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Australian Sporting Highlights in 2022

The sports world is slowly coming back to 'normal' after a couple of coronavirus impacted years. Major events in 2022 were the Winter Olympics and Paralympics in Beijing, the FIFA World Cup, the Commonwealth Games, and an Ashes cricket series for both men and women.

Carlton v Dockers, Optus Stadium, Western Australia Carlton v Dockers, Optus Stadium, Western Australia

The year did not start well for Australian sport. The Australian Tennis Open was all about Novak Djokovic who was detained at the border, his visa canceled and he was subsequently deported. If only he had got himself fully vaccinated, as all other tennis players were happy to do.

It was not all bad news for tennis in Australia. Ash Barty became the first local player to claim the Australian Open women's singles championship in 44 years, the last was Chris O'Neil in 1978. The Australian fans were in for a treat, with crowd favourites the Special K's, Thanasi Kokkinakis and Nick Kyrgios, winning the men's doubles tennis title in an all-Australian final against Matthew Ebden and Max Purcell. They became the first all-Australian pair to win the title since Todd Woodbridge and Mark Woodforde in 1997.

Serena Williams failed at beating Margaret Court's grand-slam winning record. It was an Australian, Ajla Tomljanovic, that knocked her out of the tournament on her last attempt at the US open.

At Wimbledon, unseeded Nick Kyrgios was defeated in the Wimbledon final by Novak Djokovic. Kyrgios became the first Australian man to reach a major final since Lleyton Hewitt at the 2005 Australian Open, and the first to reach the Wimbledon final since Mark Philippoussis in 2003.

Matthew Ebden and Max Purcell won the Wimbledon men's doubles final over defending champions Nikola Mektic and Mate Pavic. They are the first Australians to win the event since Mark Woodforde and Todd Woodbridge won the last of their six Wimbledon crowns 22 years ago. Ebden also made the final of the mixed doubles with Samantha Stosur.

At the top of her game, and just when she has the highest adoration from the Australian public, Ash Barty retired from tennis. Australian are now waiting to see where else she takes her sporting talent (is it on the golf course?).



At the Winter Olympics, it was Australia’s best ever showing at the  2022 Beijing Games, the team coming home with a gold medal, two silvers and one bronze. A gold medal for Jakara Anthony in moguls, plus Australia's first medal in sliding sports was won by Jaclyn Narracott, winning silver in the women's skeleton event. Australia finished 18th on the medal tally.

At the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, Australia sent its second largest ever time (behind Gold Coast 2018), and the athletes again topped the medal table, only just pipping England in total medals won.

A major highlight of the year was Australia's football (soccer) team qualifying for their 5th FIFA World Cup in a row. Australia were drawn in Group D, against France, Tunisia and Denmark. It was Australia's best result at the World Cup, making the round of 16 with two wins in the group stage.

This year two big international sporting events took place in New South Wales, the 2022 UCI Road Cycling World Championships in Wollongong and the FIBA Basketball Women's World Cup at Sydney Olympic Park.

The Sydney Kings defeated the JackJumpers in game three of the NBL grand final series, denying Tasmania a title in their maiden season.

Cyclist Jai Hindley won the Giro d'Italia, becoming Australia's second ever Grand Tour champion (joining Cadel Evans who won the Tour de France in 2011). In the Tour de France, Michael Matthews has won stage 14.

Ange Postecoglou silenced doubters with superb debut season in Europe, claiming Scottish Premiership with Celtic. He also became the first Aussie coach to lead a team to the UEFA Champions League

In AFL news, Lance Franklin kicked 1000 goals, becoming the sixth players to reached that target.

Soccer star Sam Kerr had a stellar year, cementing her place as one of the world's greatest footballers. She came second in the Ballon d'Or awards, after previously finishing 3rd (2021 & 2022), 5th (2018) and 7th (2019).

Lauren Jackson made a comeback aged 41 to help the Opals to a World Cup bronze.

Eleanor Patterson claimed the gold medal in the women's high jump at the World Athletics Championships in Eugene, Oregon. She became the second Australian woman to leap over 2 metres, and just the tenth Australian to achieve an athletics world title, joining athletes such as Cathy Freeman, Dani Samuels and Sally Pearson.

The Australian women’s Rugby Sevens team is the pick of Australian rugby, winning the World Cup, to go along with their Commonwealth Games gold and World Series title this year.

Jess Fox was crowned women’s K1 World Cup champion for the fourth time.

Australian table tennis team won all 28 gold medals at the Oceania Championships.

Steph Gilmore went on an astonishing run in California to win her eighth (eighth!!) world title.

Australia’s Neil Robertson made a rare 147 maximum break at the world snooker championships held at the crucible, but still crashed to a 13-12 defeat against Jack Lisowski on Tuesday (AEST). Robertson recorded only the 12th 147 in the history of the tournament 

John Coates's tenure as president of the Australian Olympic Committee came to an end.

The Australian men's cricket team beat England 4-0 in the Ashes series held in Australia. The women's team also beat England in an Ashes series. The women Australian women won the ODI world cup, defeating England in the final by 71 runs in a very high scoring match.

Australian golfer Minjee Lee won the Women's US Open. Lee became the third Australian to win multiple major championships, with her four-stroke victory.

The 2022 Don Award, which recognises the sporting achievement of the year which has inspired the people of Australia, was awarded to Ash Barty, for a second time, becoming just the third athlete to claim the gong more than once.

Notable deaths in Australian sport for 2022:

Below is a timeline of some significant results for Australians in the world of sport for the year 2022.

Date(s) Sport Event Location Results
Jan 17-30 Tennis Australian Open Melbourne, Australia Australian Ash Barty won her first Australian Open title.
Jan 21-23 Extreme Sports Winter X Games 26 Aspen, Colorado, USA Scotty James' gold in the Men's SuperPipe was Australia's only medal.
Feb 4-20 Multi-sports Winter Olympics Beijing, China Jakara Anthony won Australia's only gold medal in the freestyle skiing women's moguls. Australia also took home 2 silvers and one bronze, to finish 18th on the medal tally.
Mar 4-13 Multi-sports Winter Paralympics Beijing, China Of the 9 Australian competitors, the only medallist was Ben Tudhope in Snowboard cross.
Mar 4 - Apr 3 Cricket ODI World Cup for women New Zealand Australia beat England in the final by 71 runs
Apr 7-10 Golf Masters Augusta, Georgia, USA Cameron Smith finished in a tie for third
May 19-22 Golf US PGA Southern Hills Country Club, Tulsa, Oklahoma The best performing Aussies were Cameron Smith and Lucas Herbert who tied for 13th place.
Jun 16-19 Golf US Open The Country Club Brookline, Massachusetts The best performing Aussies were Marc Leishman and Adam Scott who tied for 14th place.
Jun 17 - July 3 Swimming World Aquatics Championships Budapest, Hungary Australia finished 4th on the medal table behind USA, China and Italy.
Jun 27 - Jul 10 Tennis Wimbledon London, England Novak Djokovic defeated Nick Kyrgios in themen's final. Ash Barty was the reigning ladies' champion, but did not defend her title after retiring from professional tennis earlier in the year.
Jul 1-17 Field Hockey Women's FIH Hockey World Cup Terrassa, Spain and Amstelveen, Netherlands Defending champions the Netherlands won the tournament for a record 9th time, defeating Argentina 3–1 in the final. Australia finished 3rd.
Jul 7-17 Multi-sports World Games Birmingham, Alabama, USA Athletes representing Australia won 3 gold medals, one silver medal and two bronze medals finishing 23rd on the medal table.
Jul 14-17 Golf The Open Championship Old Course at St Andrews St Andrews Fife Scotland 150th event was won by Australian Cameron Smith
Jul 15-24 Athletics IAAF World Championships Eugene, Oregon USA Australia had two gold medal winners, Kelsey-Lee Barber (javelin) and Eleanor Patterson (high jump)
Jul 28 - Aug 8 Multi-sports Commonwealth Games Birmingham, England Australia led the medal tally, over England and Canada. 25 of Australia's 67 medals were from swimming.
Aug 29 - Sep 11 Tennis US Open New York, USA Australians Storm Sanders & John Peers won the mixed doubles. The best perfoming Australians in the singles were Ajla Tomljanović and Nick Kyrgios who each made the quarter-finals.
Sep 9-11 Rugby 7s Rugby World Cup Sevens Cape Town, South Africa The Australian women won the women's tournament, the men lost their semi-final
Sep 18-25 Cycling UCI Road World Championships Wollongong, Australia Australian Michael Matthews finished 3rd in the men's road race and Grace Brown was 2nd in the women's time trial.
Sep 18-25 Rowing World Rowing Championships Račice, Czechia Australia finished with 8 medals, but no gold
Sep 22-Oct 1 Basketball FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup Sydney, Australia Host country Australia finished 3rd, behind the USA and China.
Sept 24 AFL Grand Final Melbourne, Australia Geelong beat Sydney by 81 points, for their 10th VFL/AFL premiership
Oct 2 Rugby League NRL Grand Final Sydney Penrith, the defending champions and minor premiers, beat Paramatta 28–12
Oct 8 - Nov 12 Rugby Womens World Cup New Zealand Australia was beaten by England in the quarter finals. England went on be beaten by NZ in the final.
Oct 12-16 Cycling World Track Championships Montigny-le-Bretonneux, France Australia's only gold was in the men's team sprint.
Oct 15 - Nov 19 Rugby League World Cup England Australia won both the men's and women's events
Oct 16 - Nov 13 Cricket ICC World T20 (men) Australia In the final at he MCG, England beat Pakistan by five wickets to win their second title. Australia did not make the semi-finals.
Nov 1 Horse Racing Melbourne Cup Victoria, Australia An upset victory by Gold Trip
Nov 21-Dec 18 Football (Soccer) FIFA World Cup Qatar Following a 3–3 draw after extra time, Argentina defeated France 4–2 on penalties. Australia made the round of 16 with two wins in the group stage, their best performance ever at the World Cup.
Dec 5-16 Weightlifting World Championships Bogota, Colombia Australia won 4 medals (no gold). China led both the men and women medal table.
Dec 13-18 Swimming FINA World Swimming Championships (25m) Melbourne, Australia Australia finished 2nd on the medal table behind the USA.

If you have a correction or know of events that should be included here, please let me know.



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