The sporting review of the year Issue 01: Looking back on 2024
Cover #3 of 5
Monday 5th August 2024: Simone Biles competes at Paris 2024. She ends the Games with three golds and one silver to become the most decorated US Olympic gymnast in history
Welcome
Lee McKenzie, award-winning journalist and sports presenter, is this issue’s guest editor
What an exciting moment it is to have the first edition of The Final Whistle. I have been writing for newspapers and magazines since I was 15 years old and even though I am fortunate enough to have presented some of the biggest sports events in the world live on television, there is nothing like seeing your words in print. What is also so special about this magazine is that the writers are all young budding female journalists, as I once was. There is no doubt the written media in terms of sport is male dominated so I welcome talented females. And let the focus be on the word talented. Male or female, there is a responsibility to be good, to be professional and prepared. Gender is not enough. Excelling is what will set you apart and you will see plenty of examples of that in our inaugural edition.
Lee McKenzie, guest editor
Collect all five covers
For this inaugural issue we’ve created five different covers celebrating sporting moments of 2024
Cover #1
Tuesday 9th
July 2024: Jasmine Paolini serves during her Wimbledon quarter final
Photo by Daniel Kopatsch/ Getty Images
Cover #2
Sunday 14th
July 2024: Spain celebrates victory in the men’s Euro 2024 final
Photo by Edith Geuppert – GES Sportfoto/ Getty Images
Cover #3
Monday 5th
August 2024: US gymnast Simone Biles competes at Paris 2024
Photo by Carmen Mandato/ Getty Images
Cover #4
Thursday 29th
August 2024: Team GB’s wheelchair basketball team compete at the Paralympics
Photo by Naomi Baker/ Getty Images
Cover #5
Sunday 8th
December 2024: Lewis Hamilton celebrates his final race with Mercedes in Abu Dhabi
Photo by Clive Mason/ Getty Images
The sporting review of the year Issue 01: Looking back on 2024
Guest editor:
Lee McKenzie
Initial cohort:
Lara Alsaid, Eva Cahill, Saffron Carroll, Elizabeth ComoyRichardson, Honor Dench, Lottie Donegan, Eszter Gurbicz, Emma Haresign, Grace Laidler, Lorena Lobo Machado, Malavika Manoj Anoopa, Cait Page, Sophie Smith, Stacey Smith, Polly Starkie, Ciara Steward, Murshida Uddin, Eleanor Wingfield, Alice Wright
Art director:
Christian Tate
Project team:
Vicky Burgess, Matthew Lee, Beverley Milner, Rob Orchard, Jessica Parry, David Phillips, Marcus Webb
hello@thefinalwhistle.co.uk
Published by the Slow Journalism Company, slow-journalism.com, © The Slow Journalism Company, January 2025. Unless otherwise stated, all images are supplied by Getty Images
While every effort has been made to ensure accuracy, The Slow Journalism Company does not accept liability for any errors or omissions. Reprinting of any articles or images from The Final Whistle without permission of The Slow Journalism Company is expressly forbidden.
Printed and bound by Park Communications, parkcom.co.uk
The Final Whistle is printed on paper from well-managed, FSC®-certified forests, on presses powered by 100% offshore wind electricity, using vegetable oil-based inks.
What is the Final Whistle Project?
This magazine is part of a project which is tackling the huge gender imbalance in sports journalism. J ust ten percent of sports writers and five percent of sports editors are women: we want to help aspiring women sports journalists to break into the industry. To that end we are providing them with training, contacts, mentoring, access to sporting events and a platform for their work in the shape of this magazine, so they can begin to build up a professional portfolio.
Who is involved?
The programme is being run by The Slow Journalism Company (SJC), publishers of Delayed Gratification , the world’s first Slow Journalism magazine ( slow-journalism.com ) and Picklejar Media , a boutique content agency and consultancy. The project is being supported by insurance company Howden with advice from a network of journalists, editors, presenters and industry professionals.
What’s happened so far?
Working with university journalism course tutors certified by the National Council for the Training of Journalists (NCTJ) we identified a cohort of talented women writers in summer 2024. They were invited to join a training and mentoring programme, including workshops with sports journalists, editors and photographers including Sarah Mockford , Sirayah Shiraz , Molly McElwee , James Montague and Morgan Harlow
Who wrote this magazine?
Members of the first cohort were invited to pitch feature ideas for the first issue of The Final Whistle magazine. Those that were successful were paid at professional rates to produce the magazine you are holding in your hands, working alongside senior editors.
What happens next?
We are looking for members of the next cohort of journalists and photographers, who will enjoy the same opportunities as the initial group. We are also actively seeking partners who can help grow the distribution network for the magazine and provide financial support in the form of sponsorship and advertising.
How can I get involved?
If you would like to apply to be a member of a future cohort, become a supporter of the Final Whistle Project or join our distribution network please email hello@thefinalwhistle.co.uk
Contents
P04 Lee McKenzie’s sporting diary
This issue’s guest editor selects her most memorable sporting moments of 2024
P12 The big interview
Double bronze medallist Amber Anning on how she realised her Olympic dream last summer
P18 Everyone’s a winner
The bragging rights of every team at Euro 2024
P20 The AI team
How machine learning technology is helping find the future stars of sport
P28 Paris 2024
The summer’s Olympics and Paralympics in infographics
P38 “There’s a place for you in this industry”
Motorsport’s diversity problem –and Lewis Hamilton’s ambitious bid to promote greater inclusion
P46 Back on the ice
Joining the Nottingham Panthers a year on from a tragedy that shook the ice hockey world
The sporting digest 2024
P52 The sporting digest
A look back at all the key moments of 2024
P64 The last word
Lee McKenzie on the likely highlights of 2025’s sporting calendar
Lee McKenzie’s sporting diary
The
Six
Lee McKenzie, award-winning journalist, sports presenter and this issue’s guest editor, tells us about five of the sporting moments of 2024 that really stood out for her
Interview: Polly Starkie
Nations Championship concludes Saturday 27th April 2024
In 2024 Lee McKenzie travelled the world from Singapore to Sao Paulo reporting on everything from motorsport to tennis, but her first sporting highlight of 2024 took place a little closer to home. “For me, one of the great sports events, not just rugby events, is the Six Nations,” she says. “It is such a huge part of the sports calendar and, coming near the start of the year, gives everyone something to look forward to. It is one of those rare events where people come together in pubs and homes and stadiums around Britain, [France, Italy] and Ireland to watch a match – even if they aren’t huge rugby fans.”
This year Ireland triumphed in a tight men’s tournament, while England took their sixth consecutive women’s title. The fact that those they defeated can get revenge in 2025 only makes the competition better in McKenzie’s eyes. “So many [international sporting events] happen every four years, but with the Six Nations, the fact that it’s an annual championship makes it even more special.” And does the Scottish-born presenter ever let herself get caught up in the patriotic rivalry? “I have friends who play for most of the nations which adds another dimension when presenting and reporting,” she says. “But ultimately the only thing that should let people know my country of birth is my accent.”
Ireland supporters celebrate their side’s fourth try, scored by Tadhg Beirne, during the men’s Six Nations match against Wales in Dublin
Andy Murray bows out
Thursday 4th July 2024
This summer marked Lee McKenzie’s tenth year covering Wimbledon – and it was one to remember, with British tennis legend Andy Murray making his final appearance at the London tournament. Withdrawing from the men’s singles and mixed doubles, in which he was set to play alongside Emma Raducanu, Murray only featured in the men’s doubles with older brother Jamie, with the pair beaten 7-6 (8-6) 6-4 by Australians John Peers and Rinky Hijikata in the first round. Murray’s legacy, however, is much bigger than his final summer, with three grand slam singles wins and two Olympic gold medals to his name. The final years of his career had been shaped by a brave determination to continue playing after major hip surgery in 2019.
“The hip, the resurfacing, everything he went through would stop most people from leaving their house,” says McKenzie, who has known Murray for years. “I don’t think people really appreciated the amount of pain he was in.” She was pleased to see his warm send-off from the crowds on 4th July, when he received a standing ovation after a montage of his career was shown on big screens.
“To get a farewell at Wimbledon and then at the Olympics, that’s hugely important,” says McKenzie. “A lot of people shared in the highs and the lows and the emotions. Andy is a really nice guy, he’s battled on and been tough, it has given him an opportunity to show who he is… He’s got a brilliant sense of humour, you can see it on social media.” Murray chose a typically understated way to announce his retirement, posting that he “never even liked tennis anyway.”
Ben Stansall/AFP via Getty Images
Britain’s Andy Murray arrives on Centre Court with his brother Jamie for their men’s doubles tennis match against Australia’s Rinky Hijikata and John Peers on the fourth day of the 2024 Wimbledon Championships
Lewis Hamilton wins Silverstone
Sunday 7th July 2024
Lewis Hamilton celebrates his win with fans after the British Grand Prix at Silverstone
While McKenzie covers many sports, she has a particular love of motorsport and has even competed as a co-driver in the World Rally Championship. She has covered Formula One since 2009, first for the BBC and then for Channel 4. Ahead of the 2024 Formula One World Championship, Lewis Hamilton had announced that this would be his last year with Mercedes, and that he would be joining Ferrari from 2025. The seven-time world champion had been through a prolonged dry spell which had reportedly left him doubting himself. And then on 7th July, on home territory at Silverstone, he stormed to victory, ending a 31-month period without a win.
“I was so happy for everyone at Mercedes, but also for Lewis,” says McKenzie. “I think Formula One is different for me because I know everyone in it, I’ve grown up in it, I fly with Mercedes, we tend to sit in
the same area on the plane. It meant so much for Lewis to win a Grand Prix after such a long time but to be able to do it at Silverstone, it was a fairytale.”
“With Formula One, you can never prepare for who is going to win because there are so many variables,” McKenzie says. “You can know your stats but [at a certain] point, no one gives a toss about stats any more.” When Hamilton, 39, was enjoying a victory lap, McKenzie was at work landing the perfect testimony. “I was messaging Lewis’s father Anthony, I could see that he was on WhatsApp,” she says. “I said ‘I want to interview you. We’re live on Channel 4.’ I was presenting one bit and then checking my phone. Eventually I ran round into the paddock and I spoke to Lewis’s dad and that was really lovely because that’s what it’s about in those moments. It’s pure human emotion.”
Vince Mignott/MB
Team GB jump to Olympic gold
Friday 2nd August 2024
“Equestrian is my passion,” says McKenzie who is a keen rider and launched the horse racing channel At the Races in 2002. When it came to the Paris Games she followed the British equestrian team with increasing joy. “In Paris, the eventing team got Team GB’s first gold medal of the Olympic Games which set the perfect tone,” she says. “Laura Collett also got an individual bronze. The dressage riders got the team bronze with Lottie Fry adding an individual bronze too. But it was the show jumpers who really wowed me.”
The show jumping team – Ben Maher, Harry Charles and Scott Brash – produced a near-perfect performance to bag Great Britain its first Olympic team jumping gold since London 2012. “It was something that many thought was against the odds,” enthuses McKenzie. “A few weeks before the Olympics, Harry [who is 25] fractured his wrist in
Team GB’s Harry Charles and Romeo 88 in action at the 2024 Paris Summer Olympic Games
a fall from his horse at a show in Europe. He put everything into ensuring he would be fit to ride in Paris and his two rounds were faultless.”
“What makes it even more special is that his father, Peter, had won gold in the 2012 London Olympics alongside Ben and Scott. They are only 40 and 38 respectively, so not exactly old, but for them to win with both father and now the son is an incredible story.” But Team GB weren’t done yet, with further success to come late in the summer. “What many people don’t realise is that in the Paralympics all four of the para-dressage riders brought home a medal, which means that equestrian is the only sport in which every single British athlete won something,” says McKenzie. “Such [enormous] effort goes into [Team GB’s] training programme and talent-spotting and it shows it is really paying off.”
Elsa/Getty Images
Kadeena Cox triumphs at the Paralympics
Sunday 1st September 2024
Lee McKenzie spent much of the summer in Paris, reporting on the Paralympics for Channel 4. One of the moments that really made an impact on her started with a tough day in the velodrome on 29th August, when four-time para-cyclist champion Kadeena Cox slipped and fell on the first corner of the medal race. “It was heartbreaking,” says McKenzie. “I’d known that Kadeena had been ill in the run-up… She wasn’t well… [but she] still came to talk with me, which she didn’t need to do. She gave a very emotional interview.”
It was unclear whether Cox, who has multiple sclerosis, would be able to continue and take part in the C1-5 mixed team sprint three days later on 1st September. “I’d seen her training a little bit, and I wasn’t sure if she would do the team pursuit with Jaco van Gass and Jody Cundy,” says McKenzie.
But after the low came the high: the team not only took part in the sprint but also emerged triumphant. “For them to come out and then win the gold on the last day was brilliant because they’re all fantastic individuals. It showed the mental resilience that they have as well, which I think is hugely important. The boys were nervous for Kadeena, but they were also nervous for themselves.”
It was just one magical moment in a Paralympics that McKenzie – who also covered Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020 – says was exceptional. “It was amazing. The buzz was fantastic,” she says. “I was in five different venues, each one was sold out, people had travelled especially from across Europe. This was really the first ‘proper’ Paralympics we’ve had in a long time because families couldn’t go to Tokyo so everybody wanted to be in Paris.”
Kadeena Cox, Jaco van Gass and Jody Cundy after winning the Para cycling track – open C1-5 750m team sprint final on day four of the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games
Saturday 3rd August 2024: Amber Anning celebrates Great Britain winning bronze at the 4 x 400m mixed relay final on day eight of the Olympic Games at Stade de France, Paris
The big interview
“You
can speak about winning an Olympic medal all your life”
Britain’s fastest female 400 metre runner, Amber Anning, tells us about her record-breaking, Olympic medal-winning year on the track
Words: Honor Dench
Amber Anning travelled to Paris in summer 2024 for her debut Olympics and two weeks later she flew home a double bronze medallist with success in both the women’s 400m relay and the mixed event, not to mention a British record in the individual 400m race. While the 24-year-old reached new highs in the French capital, she’s only just getting started – having recently graduated from university in Arkansas, the London-born sprinter has now turned professional, and she’s set her sights on the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo in September 2025 and beyond that the 2028 Olympics in LA.
Who are your athletics idols?
I grew up watching Usain Bolt. My mum’s family is Jamaican, so he’ll forever be an inspiration to me, just seeing his dominance in the years that he was at the top of his game. Christine Ohuruogu [who won 400m gold at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing] has been an inspiration to me too. Having the same coach, the late great Lloyd Cowan MBE, and seeing her train and having the success she had, I looked up to her a lot and knew I wanted to achieve what she achieved. I’ve been very grateful to have her as my mentor and to be coached by Lloyd. It was a blessing to have both of them in my life.
“The fourth leg carries a lot of pressure. When the baton came to me, I was thinking, ‘Amber, you just need to go!’”
What did it mean to you to make Team GB?
Everything. All the anxiety, stress and hard work had paid off. It was an honour to cross that line at the UK Athletics Championships in Manchester in June and know I’d booked my spot in Paris. As athletes, we talk about wanting to be Olympians and medallists, but actually doing it involves a lot of hard work, dedication, time and effort. It was a very special moment, my mum awarded me my medal on the podium at the British trials for winning – that’s a memory I’ll never forget.
What is it like running the last leg of an Olympic relay final? What’s going through your head as you’re waiting for the baton to come to you?
It’s very nerve-racking – all I was thinking was ‘I’d better not mess this up’. Sometimes I think it’d be nice to be the first leg so I can get it out of the way, set them up well and watch everything unfold. Being the fourth leg carries a lot of pressure as you’re closing the show, it’s on me to continue the work of the other athletes, finish strong and get us a medal. When the baton came to me, I was thinking, ‘Amber, you just need to go!’ When I run I don’t hear anything – I’m just trying to get the stick from A to B in the fastest way possible.
In the mixed relay final, you were up against some talented athletes including a very strong USA team and Femke Bol, who ran an extraordinary final leg that helped the Netherlands win gold. What were you thinking during that race?
It was funny because the American team [who ended up winning the silver medal] was ahead of us, and Kaylyn Brown was running the last leg. I’d been in the University of Arkansas team with her all season and now we were racing each other to the finishing line, it’s a fun rivalry. I knew Femke Bol was coming, everyone knows she’s coming, but I went out to chase America down. That was my goal. In athletics anything can happen, so I never think about other people in a race. It’s about what happens on the day, you’ve just got to go out there and run your race.
What’s it like racing someone like Kaylyn Brown who was once a teammate, and is now a rival?
It’s actually really cool. We trained together the entire year, I was at the American trials when she made the team, and she watched me make the British one. At the ceremony for our medals it was great that we were both there. I was able to hug her and say, ‘Look, we did it, we both got a medal’ which was a great feeling. The beauty of our mindsets is the ability to shut down and go out and be competitive, then, when the time comes, off track we can have fun.
Did the medal in the mixed relay take the pressure off for the women’s relay final a week later?
I wouldn’t say it eased my nerves, it made me more hungry. Going into the final leg [the USA had a big lead] and it was between us, the Netherlands and Ireland for the other medals. When I got the baton, I thought, ‘This is your last race of the year, you have a holiday booked, you’re going to see friends and family, you’re going home after five years of barely being in England – just run!’ I felt my earlier races in my legs, but it was faith, heart and God that got me through.
Between the two relay finals, you also made the individual 400m final where you came fifth, breaking the British record, previously held by your mentor and idol Christine Ohuruogu in the process. How did that feel?
I was so proud of myself. I’d spoken so much about breaking the record, but I wasn’t sure if I truly felt I could do it because it had been a long year. I was in the mindset of ‘let’s make the final, and then anything can happen.’ I’d been so close to it all season, I knew if there was any time to break this record, it was at the Olympics, it was the perfect opportunity.
Tim Clayton/Corbis via Getty Images
Amber Anning set new national records in the individual 400m and both of her relay finals at Paris 2024
Was winning a medal or getting the British record more of a priority going into the Games?
You can speak about winning an Olympic medal all your life. Having a medal, whether it’s relay or individual, is something very special. Not many people can say that. To be honest at first I wasn’t happy because although I got a British record in the individual 400m I wanted that medal. It took some months for me to finally sit back and be like, ‘Wow, look at what you accomplished! This is only the beginning, and it was your first Olympics’. If anything, it has made me more determined to do better and continue to excel. To use all the experience I learned from the Games and continue to push into the future. I was just so grateful for the opportunity, and it was a dream come true – a near perfect first Olympics for me.
“If I had a little bit more faith in my abilities, I would’ve been even happier with the outcome. It’s a feeling I don’t want to have again”
What did you learn at the Games that you are going to take into future competitions?
Belief. That was a big thing for me, and maybe something I lacked a little bit. Being around my teammates and in the Olympic Village, everyone’s worked hard to reach this point. We’re all very talented to even be here. It comes down to who actually has total faith that they can get the job done. I feel if I had a little bit more faith in my abilities in that [individual] final, I would’ve been even happier with the outcome. It’s a feeling I don’t want to have again.
What are the challenges facing athletes today?
Injuries are always going to be a big issue for athletes, they’re inevitable in any sport at this level. Some athletes might have a down year just because they were hurt, which can be really tough as contracts can get cut and less money is coming through. Funding is challenging to a certain extent. You’d think track is cheap, but you need facilities, equipment or
travel expenses for competitions across the country; everything adds up. Luckily, there are ways people can apply for funding such as the Lloyd Cowan Bursary, which my mum Christine and others set up in honour of my coach. That’s a prime example of help to support coaches and athletes who need more money to help fuel their athletics career. It’s great because it gives opportunities to people who might not necessarily have had them without funding. I was funded a lot when I was younger, I’ve been blessed to have organisations feed into me. It was nice to be able to see them after the Games and thank them for helping me to get where I am.
What’s the most important thing you’ve learned so far in your career?
Patience. In this sport, you show up every day and sometimes you’re not going to see the fruits of your hard work, but later down the line you will see a reward. That has been the biggest thing for me; sometimes it’s hard to see that light at the end of the tunnel, but playing the long game is the most important thing.
What is it like being a woman in British athletics? Would you consider yourself a role model to girls? It’s very powerful being a female athlete, especially in these times. Seeing Keely Hodgkinson win Sports Personality of the Year, the fourth woman in a row to do so, it really shows where women’s sport in Britain is at right now. It’s very exciting. I think anyone who’s out chasing their goals, doing what they need to do is a female role model. I’m grateful I’m in a position to inspire, because I’ve been inspired before. It’s why I do track – as much as we love the medals and the glory, being able to inspire a kid or anyone brings so much joy to my heart. That’s something I’d love to continue post track: being able to give back.
What would you say to a young female athlete who wants to race like you?
Never set limitations on yourself. Never let anyone tell you that because you’re a girl you can’t do it or you’re not fast or strong enough. I’m very big on body image and body empowerment and being happy with the body God gave you. Everyone has a gift, use it to your advantage and enjoy it.
What are your goals for 2025?
The World Championships are in Tokyo at the end of the year and I want to be an individual medallist. It would be silly for me to not have that goal in mind. That’s my main goal, but really it’s to be consistent and enjoy it.
Albania
Quickest off the mark
Fastest goal: 23 seconds
Croatia
Most kicky
Highest number of fouls committed per match: 15.3 (Tied with Austria)
Eliminated at the group stage
Czech
percentage of shots on target: 43.2
Highest number of fouls suffered on average per match: 13 Poland
Best blockers
Most blocks per game: 14
Everyone’s a winner
The 2024 men’s UEFA European Football Championship ended on 14th July 2024 with Spain beating England to add the Euros title to the World Cup its women’s team won in 2023. But everyone’s best at something (even if it’s not always something to be proud of): here are each team’s individual bragging rights
Research: Emma Haresign
The rules: Teams are grouped alphabetically within the stage at which they were eliminated ( ) from the competition Sources: CIES Football Observatory, ESPN, FBref.com, Fifa, Uefa
of
at
Scotland
Best in the air
Most aerial duels won on average per match: 22.3
Serbia Tallest
Squad with greatest average height: 186.5 cm
Ukraine Youngest
Lowest average age of players: 25.5 (Weighted by minutes played)
Eliminated at the round of sixteen
Austria Liveliest games
Most goals for and against per match: 3.25 (Tied with Georgia)
Eliminated at the round of sixteen
Belgium Biggest flops
Highest ranked team not to make the quarter finals: Rank #3
Denmark
Best at set pieces
Most goals scored from dead ball situations: 4
Georgia Busiest goalkeeper
Most saves per match: 7.5
Semi-finals
Italy
Most influential
Most-represented nationality of managers across the 24 teams: 5
Romania
Most optimistic Longest average shot distance: 21.5 yards
Slovakia
Oldest
Highest average age of players: 29.8 (Weighted by minutes played)
France
Best defence
Most clean sheets: 4
Netherlands Unluckiest
Most shots to hit the woodwork: 3 (Tied with England)
England Hardest working
Most minutes played over the tournament: 690
at football Uefa Euro 2024 winners
At the aiLabs mobile unit, run by tech company ai.io, football teams can do the equivalent of several weeks of testing and data analysis in a single session
The AI team
Is artificial intelligence about to revolutionise how sport discovers its future stars? From a mobile app promising to identify tomorrow’s footballers to Senegal’s attempts to use AI to find its next Olympians and the potential impacts on horse racing, we explore how virtual thinking got physical in 2024
Words: Elizabeth Comoy-Richardson
AI football
Archie O’Brien’s story about how he came to have a trial at Burnley FC isn’t as dramatic as you might expect. “I walked down to my local park,” says the 17-year-old from Stanstead Abbotts in Hertfordshire. “I spent about 45 minutes doing [some prescribed drills and exercises] which were fairly simple and straightforward and then went home.” The fact that O’Brien’s neighbourhood kickabout could alert the talent hunters at a football club more than 200 miles away is down to aiScout, a new app designed by tech company ai.io to level the playing field when it comes to uncovering talent.
O’Brien’s father videoed his son completing the drills on his mobile phone before uploading the footage to aiScout. The app tested various skills: a figure of eight and diamond dribble to assess agility and ball control, a double leg jump to measure coordination, rebound jumps to test speed and a ten metre
sprint to evaluate athleticism. The app’s artificial intelligence compared the results against professional benchmarks and alerted Burnley to O’Brien’s potential. The club then sent scouts to watch him play for his local team before inviting him to the club for a trial.
“Without aiScout, it’s unlikely that Burnley would have come to watch me, with the club being so far away,” says O’Brien, who has also had trials at Premier League club Chelsea thanks to aiScout. Although the trials didn’t lead to contracts, O’Brien rates their impact highly. “The trials helped me recognise things in my game that I needed to improve on and have definitely made me better overall,” he says. “After the trials, I went back to the club I played for before, but they’ve also helped me gain more opportunities at other professional clubs”. O’Brien now plays for Hertford Town in the Southern League Division One Central.
“Historically, scouting has depended on being in the right place at the right time. We aim to widen that funnel”
For Dr Chris Howe, research and lab manager at ai.io, O’Brien’s story is an example of why aiScout is needed. “Historically, scouting has depended on being in the right place at the right time,” he explains. “We aim to widen that funnel, ensuring that players who wouldn’t normally be seen by scouts are given a chance to stand out.”
Having started in 2019 with the aiScout app, in 2022 the company created aiLabs, a mobile unit which, its founders claim, can condense weeks of testing and data analysis into a single session, providing immediate feedback and helping players and coaches to make informed decisions quickly.
I travelled to Burnley FC’s Barnfield training grounds to see the setup in action. The sleek, glass-walled lab unit, illuminated by digital dashboards and coloured lights, and with music pumping, feels more like an Ibiza lounge than a sports assessment facility. Inside, players move quickly through a series of testing
stations. Force plates measure physical development, hip abduction and adduction strength tests pick up on imbalances, while Blaze Pods put participants’ reaction times on trial with unpredictable light signals.
Real-time leaderboards flash up results, driving competition between players, whether it’s a group of U10 boys or a senior women’s first team. Behind the scenes an algorithm crunches the data, comparing results to previous scores and general averages. It highlights areas for improvement and potential injury risks, giving coaches clear, actionable insights.
O’Brien experienced the aiLabs mobile unit first hand when trialling at Burnley, and found its testing methods fascinating. “It was interesting how they analysed the data, especially the parts with the cognitive elements — the reaction and decisionmaking bits. Before taking part, I didn’t think there would be a test to measure those sorts of areas in football,” he says. “It would be great to have that level of testing where I play. It could push everyone to improve and give players like me even more exposure.”
But can an algorithm really replace the expert eye of a professional scout? Matt Portas, Head of Talent ID Pathways at the FA, is unsure. On one hand, he says, letting data lead the way “helps broaden the pool” of potential players by overcoming traditional biases, such as those favouring early maturing athletes. “Look at the academy system in the boy’s game in England; you’re still getting between 40 and 50 percent of the kids born in the first quarter of the school year… So, despite what the science says, football still favours the bigger and taller boys for their age.”
While AI can help overcome such bias, however, Portas is cautious about the unintended consequences of purely data-driven systems which will be unable to spot players who don’t fit the mould. “[With AI scouting] we probably are losing some of the big personalities,” Portas reflects, citing past footballing icons such as Paul Gascoigne and Roy Keane, as hugely influential players unlikely to be spotted by an algorithm.
O’Brien also worries that clubs’ pursuit of efficiency, aided by new artificial intelligence-driven technology, means there is a danger of football sacrificing the qualities that make it so enjoyable for its fans. “Instead of having exciting and entertaining players, they’re more functional and robotic, primarily focusing on winning games,” he says. “It would be good to have some more entertaining players.”
aiLabs works with Chelsea and Burnley football clubs to generate data-driven insights on players that can help clubs on the pitch
A unique AI tool was used by a team of sports scientists working with Olympian Amy Sène, the International Olympic Committee and tech company Intel to help identify young sporting talent in Senegal
AI the Olympics
Senegal, the host nation for the 2026 Youth Olympic Games, has become the testing ground for an innovative AI-powered talent identification programme led by Intel and the International Olympic Committee (IOC). Much like the methods used by ai.io to scout football talent, this initiative aims to uncover and nurture athletic potential in regions where traditional scouting methods might fall short.
According to Sarah Vickers, head of Intel’s Olympic and Paralympic programme, the project reflects the IOC’s growing interest in AI applications across the sporting ecosystem. “The IOC saw AI as an opportunity to enhance talent identification in a way that’s both scalable and accessible,” she explains. “Senegal was chosen not only because of its role as the upcoming host nation but also because of its potential to showcase how technology can reach athletes in previously overlooked communities.”
The programme tested more than 1,000 children across five regions in Senegal. AI-powered algorithms analysed key performance markers such as power, speed and agility, collected via video submissions. By comparing participants’ abilities to a vast dataset of professional athlete metrics, the system could identify high-potential candidates almost instantly. According to Vickers, this AI-driven method dramatically streamlines the scouting process, which often involves extensive travel, countless hours of analysis, and reliance on networks of local talent scouts. “The technology works on devices as simple as a mobile phone or PC, enabling talent identification even in remote areas,” she says.
The testing in Senegal saw that principle put into action. Brightly coloured buses travelled through the country, stopping at often remote towns and villages, where children gathered in excitement to showcase their abilities, with no need for elaborate sports kits or specialised venues. Light-sensor-equipped timing gates and smartphones captured their movements.
Vickers believes the programme has the potential to level the playing field for countries lacking the infrastructure for traditional talent scouting. “In countries like the US, junior sports programmes are well-established and heavily funded,” she says. ”But in other parts of the world, those opportunities may not exist, especially for young girls. AI offers a way to identify talent wherever it exists.”
Senegalese Olympian Amy Sène, a two-time hammer throw competitor who helped coordinate the programme, welcomed the initiative. “I got started in sport because of the Olympics, watching with my dad,” she says. Reflecting on the first trials over summer 2024, she says she was particularly impressed by the simplicity and accessibility of the tools used. “When I saw the telephones and tablets, I said ‘Wow!’ This is something truly making sports accessible. I’m so pleased to see how this technology will bring great opportunities to the young people of Senegal.”
“The technology works on devices as simple as a mobile phone or PC, enabling talent identification even in remote areas”
While the initiative is still in its early stages, its impact is already evident. Of the 1,000 children tested, 40 were identified as having significant athletic potential. The next steps involve working with Senegal’s National Olympic Committee to explore their pathways for development, whether in athletics, gymnastics or other sports. The programme’s potential reach is enormous, but the costs are still considerable and questions remain over whether the resources would be better spent on grassroots coaching or improving access to sports facilities.
For Intel, this project isn’t just about discovering the next Olympians — it’s about demonstrating the potential of AI to transform sport on a global scale. “Ultimately, we want to see this technology used across all sports and in every corner of the world,” says Vickers. “It’s about making sport more inclusive, accessible, and impactful for everyone.”
The true test of the programme’s success will come at the 2026 Youth Olympic Games and in subsequent tournaments, where Senegal’s athletes, some identified through AI, will hopefully take centre stage. If the technology really can open up a sporting future for those previously overlooked, Sène believes the investment will be worth it. “Sports are great, they can change your life,” she says. “They changed mine.”
A horse auction in County Kildare, Ireland. AI is helping trainers make better informed decisions about horses’ racing potential
AI horse racing
Horse racing has long been an industry driven by tradition, intuition and years of expertise passed down through generations. But Spencer Chapman, co-owner of Equine Match, believes the future of the sport lies in a powerful combination of AI and data analytics.
Chapman, whose family has been involved in horse breeding for generations, has seen the industry evolve in recent years. He recalls how horse breeding and training used to rely heavily on the instinct of experts who could spot potential in a horse that others might miss. However, Chapman believes that the wealth of data now available can allow for better predictions about a horse’s future performance.
“AI is changing the way we understand and predict a horse’s future in the sport,” he says. “By analysing not
“There’s a natural resistance to change in any industry, but the truth is artificial intelligence is here to stay, and those who embrace it will have a competitive edge”
just the horse itself but its entire bloodline – including sires, dams, and progeny – we can make highly accurate predictions about its potential performance.
This goes beyond what even the most experienced trainer could guess.”
Equine Match uses a data-driven approach to predict a horse’s potential by examining the racing history of its ancestors. By analysing thousands of data points, the system can supposedly forecast with up to 95 percent confidence how a horse will perform at all levels of racing. It’s a tool that helps industry professionals make decisions based on robust data rather than relying solely on the often subjective opinions of agents and trainers.
One of the key features of Equine Match’s approach is its ability to incorporate a horse’s lineage into the prediction model. Chapman explains that this isn’t just about looking at the horse’s parents, but understanding the broader family history – how past horses in the bloodline performed and how that might translate to future success.
“There’s a natural resistance to change in any industry, especially one as steeped in tradition as horse racing. But the truth is, AI is here to stay, and those who embrace it will have a competitive edge,” Chapman says. “We’re seeing that with some of the more forward-thinking companies who are already reaping the benefits.”
One of the major challenges, however, is balancing technology with the human element that still plays a crucial role in the sport. Chapman acknowledges that while AI and data analytics are powerful tools, they are not enough on their own.
“There’s no replacing the expertise of a seasoned trainer who knows their horses inside and out. But AI allows them to make more informed decisions, helping them spot patterns and opportunities that might otherwise go unnoticed,” he explains. “It’s about using technology to enhance human judgment, not to replace it.”
With companies like Equine Match leading the charge, AI may swiftly revolutionise how the racing industry approaches talent identification. It’s part of a quiet revolution that may see the most accurate identification of future champions of the sports world coming from algorithms instead of bookmakers or scouts. As Chapman puts it, “This is just the beginning. The more data we gather, the more accurate our predictions will become. And that means better horses and a brighter future for the sport.”
Pushing the boundaries
Three other examples of how artificial intelligence is making an impact on professional sports
AI in team selection
The England women’s cricket team has embraced AI to refine its selection process. The technology developed by London-based PSi uses advanced simulations to evaluate player performance in varied scenarios, helping coaches with data-driven insights, which are especially valuable for borderline selection decisions. England’s head coach Jon Lewis credits AI insights as a factor behind the team’s improved performances, including the dramatic Ashes series draw in 2023.
Smart mouthguards
AI-powered smart mouthguards are making a difference in the fight against brain injuries in contact sports such as rugby and American football . These devices track the force and frequency of head impacts, providing real-time data to teams so that concussion protocols can be improved. Coaches and medical staff use this information to tailor training methods and influence equipment design, with the goal of prioritising player safety.
AI-assisted gymnastics judging
Fujitsu ’s Judging Support System uses AI and 3D modelling to ensure fairness and reduce human error in gymnastics scoring . It tracks athletes’ movements with precision, providing real-time, objective assessments. Backed by the sport’s global governing body the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique , the system was first used at the 2023 Artistic Gymnastics World Championships in Antwerp in Belgium.
Monday 5th August 2024: Bryony Page of Team GB poses with her gold medal in individual trampoline at Champions Park on day 10 of the Paris Games
Paris 2024
This summer the greatest sporting show on Earth came to Paris. We’ve taken a synchronised dive into the data to answer the big questions about the summer Olympic and Paralympic Games 2024
Research: Eva Cahill, Murshida Uddin
How does Paris compare?
The 2024 Games’ place among the all-time highs of the Olympics and Paralympics
Sources: IOC, POC
spectators
Who came out on top?
While the US headed the Olympic medal table and China ruled the Paralympics there was plenty for other teams to celebrate
The rules: We divided the total number of medals or gold medals for each country by both its population and the number of athletes it sent to the Games. The countries with the highest ratio of people to medals are listed. If tied, the country with the highest total of gold medals ranks higher, then silver, then bronze, then the country with the largest population size.
*NPA = Neutral Paralympic Athletes, the name used to represent approved Russian and Belarusian athletes. EOR, RPT = Refugee Olympic/ Paralympic Team
Tuesday 3rd September 2024: China’s Hua Jin crosses the line to win gold during the men’s 1500m T54 final at the Paris Paralympic Games
Who broke their duck?
Teams that won their first ever medal in 2024:
Who topped the medal table?
The final medal table ordered by total number of medals
Naomi Baker/Getty Images
Getty Images
How many world records were broken?
The new all-time highs set at the 2024 Games
The rules: New world records are colour-coded by sport:
*South Korea’s Lim Sihyeon shot her world record 694 in the women’s ranking round of archery on 25th July, the day before the official start of the 2024 Olympic Games
Sources: IOC, POC
The highlights
An impressive 126 world records were set across the 2024 Paralympic and Olympic Games. At the Olympics South Korea’s Lim Sihyeon 1 shot a record score in the qualifying rounds
of the archery before the Games had even officially begun and Sweden’s Mondo Duplantis 2 broke his own pole vault world record for the ninth time. Meanwhile para
powerlifter Onyinyechi Mark 3 of Nigeria broke the world record twice in her debut Games and Jaydin Blackwell 4 of the USA ran the men’s 100m - T38 in 10.64s.
How old were the winners?
The number of Paris 2024 gold medal winners by age bracket
The rules: People who won multiple golds are only counted once. In team events all medallists are counted Olympians Paralympians Gold medal winners in their teens:
Who
completed a clean sweep?
Countries that won 100 percent of the gold medals available in a sport at Paris 2024
China
8 out of 8 golds
South Korea
5 out of 5 golds
China
China
Which greats added to their tally?
The most decorated Olympians and Paralympians to make the podium in Paris this summer
The rules: We’ve listed the athletes with the most Olympic or Paralympic medals over their career to make the podium in 2024. *Storey has competed in both swimming and cycling events. **Boki has represented both the Belarus and Neutral Paralympic Athletes teams. Katie
Ledecky
Isabell Werth
McKeon
How did Team GB do?
Great Britain had another stellar Games, claiming a total of 189 medals in Paris this summer. Here’s how they won their silverware
The rules: We’ve illustrated the total number of medals won by Team GB at the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games, grouped by skill type: Sources: IOC, POC
Fighting, using weapons or performing acts of strength: Including archery, boxing, fencing, judo, shooting, taekwondo, powerlifting and weightlifting
Olympics
G S S B B 5 Paralympics
Impressing judges: Including artistic swimming, diving, gymnastics and skateboarding
10
Paralympics 0
Moving quickly on land: Including sports climbing and all forms of track athletics
Olympics
Paralympics
10
16
13
Moving quickly through water: Including canoeing, kayaking, rowing, sailing and swimming
Riding a bike or horse: Including BMX freestyle, dressage, equestrian, mountain biking, road cycling and track cycling
Olympics
Throwing or hitting things: Including badminton, basketball, boccia, golf, javelin, shot put, table tennis and tennis
Olympics S 1 Paralympics
Doing lots of different things: Including heptathlon and triathlon
Olympics G S B B 4
Paralympics
The highlights
Matching the total medal haul from London 2012, Team GB enjoyed its joint-third-highest tally at an Olympic Games, behind Rio 2016 (67 medals) and London 1908 (146), while the
Paralympians matched Great Britain’s total for Tokyo 2020. Among the medallists in Paris were Katarina JohnsonThompson 1 who won silver and her first Olympic medal in the
heptathlon, Keely Hodgkinson 2 who ended her wait for a global title by taking gold in the 800m and 19-year-old Toby Roberts 3 who became GB’s first-ever
sport climbing Olympic champion. Gordon Reid and Alfie Hewett 4 , who had previously lost the Paralympic doubles finals at Rio 2016 and Tokyo in 2021, also took gold.
Lewis Hamilton meets with members of the first cohort of the MSc Motorsports Scholarship at Silverstone
“There’s a place for you in this industry”
In 2024 the first cohort graduated from an ambitious scholarship programme co-founded by Lewis Hamilton. Eszter Gurbicz looks into a grand plan designed to tackle the chronic under-representation of black people in UK motorsport
Words: Eszter Gurbicz
One of the few occasions Laila Fadli Dokkali’s family used to spend time together was on Sundays when they gathered to watch Formula 1. As such, those times still hold a special place in her heart. “As a little girl, I saw those cars going very fast and the team working together, and I just wanted to be part of that,” she says. But she swiftly noticed something about the engineering teams that appeared on screen. “No one looked like me. No one.”
Fadli Dokkali’s feeling that people like her – a female engineer from a mixed black ethnic background – were missing from motorsports is borne out by the facts. A report by the Hamilton Commission on the diversity of the UK motorsports industry, published in 2021 after ten months of research, included the estimate that the proportion of black people in Formula 1 is less than one percent.
The MSc Motorsports Scholarship, run by Mission 44 – Lewis Hamilton’s charity, named after his racing car number – and the Royal Academy of Engineering in London, aims to carry out one of the report’s recommendations, by helping students from black and mixed black ethnic backgrounds to further their studies in engineering, bringing them closer to working in F1 and other forms of motorsport. The first cohort graduated in the summer of 2024 and Fadli Dokkali was among them.
Launching the scholarship
Hamilton is one of Formula 1’s most successful drivers, with seven world championships and 105 Grand Prix wins and counting to his name. But he has done more than just win races. As the only black driver in Formula 1 history, he has been a powerful advocate for diversity in motorsports and a role model for many. In recognition of the way he has inspired interest in engineering among young people, the F1 driver was elected as an honorary fellow at the Royal Academy of Engineering (RAE) in 2019. Soon after, he approached the Academy with an enquiry.
“Hamilton has done more than just win races. As the only black driver in Formula 1 history, he has been a powerful advocate for diversity in motorsports”
“He was seeing the paddock, he was seeing the factory in Mercedes and he often said that he would see the end of year team photograph, where he was very often just the single black face in a sea of white faces,” explains Dr Rhys Morgan, director of engineering and education at RAE. “He wanted to understand what was happening, why there were so few black people coming through the education system into motorsport.”
The question led to the launch of the Hamilton Commission, with Morgan becoming the principal researcher and writer of its landmark report. Hamilton didn’t just lend his name to the project, Morgan says, but was also an integral part of the commission, attending every meeting. “He wasn’t just doing this as a PR stunt,” the academic explains. “He was so engaged in it and he spoke very, very personally and very passionately about the barriers he had felt and experienced as a young boy in school growing up in the UK.”
One of the key areas the commission looked at was recruitment processes and why these might hinder people from more diverse backgrounds such as Fadli Dokkali from entering the motorsport workforce. When talking to the Formula 1 teams, Morgan found that on the whole they didn’t know what the issue with their hiring processes might be. Yet when he looked at their graduate recruitment, he found it is mostly centred on a few elite universities that require students to achieve A* grades in physics and maths to gain admission.
In 2019, Morgan found that only two percent of the black student cohort in the UK achieved an A* grade at physics A level, compared with eight percent of their white British counterparts who took the subject. This equates to just 23 black students in total. “So, that’s the entire pool, and that’s a problem right there. Your talent pipeline is too narrow,” Morgan says. The report also found that those from black ethnic backgrounds have a harder time securing jobs in the motorsport industry once they graduate with engineering degrees. They are less likely to progress into engineering roles (at 35 percent) than their white counterparts (at 57 percent), and are twice as likely to be unemployed (14 percent compared with seven percent).
The competitive nature of the industry only exacerbates the issue. Morgan says that Formula 1 is considered the “pinnacle of engineering”, and graduate jobs attract lots of students – sometimes more than 10,000 applicants. “So, we said, ‘Look, we need to have some mechanism for these black students to stand out in the crowd of all of those 10,000 applicants,’” Morgan says. These insights led directly to the MSc Motorsport Scholarship.
The idea was to help talented students from black and mixed black backgrounds enrol in specialist master’s degrees that would give them valuable skills in the motorsports industry. For this, Morgan and his colleagues chose a select number of programmes across various UK universities after consultation with the Formula 1 teams. They allocated funding of £25,000 for each student, to cover tuition fees as well as their living costs, eliminating the financial barriers to entry.
They also designed the programme to enable students to “speak the language of motorsports” when they graduated. They organised networking opportunities at motorsport events and with Formula 1 teams, and gave students access to employment support through the Graduate Engineering Engagement Programme at RAE. “We got them to go and visit different teams,” says
Clive Mason/Getty
Lewis Hamilton poses for a Mercedes team photo in the pit lane ahead of the F1 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on 5th December 2024
MSc Motorsports scholar Benjamin Woodhouse (right) meets Calum Nicholas, senior engine technician at Red Bull Racing
Morgan. “They had CV writing technique and interview technique sessions with motorsport teams, [we] got them to meet senior engineers to find out what life is like there and to ask lots of questions, just so they can have a bit more ‘motorsport capital’, if you like.”
The scholarship launched in 2023 with five students on board. Morgan says the first cohort left a deep impression on him. “They already wanted to be ambassadors for the sport, the scholarship and for the next cohorts,” he says. “They wanted to help engage more young black people into the sport.”
From students to engineers
Laila Fadli Dokkali studied aerospace vehicle design at Cranfield University as part of the first cohort of the Motorsport Scholarship. Reminiscing about her childhood, she says that Formula 1 has always been an important part of her family life, but also an inspiration for her future career. “My dad still remembers it. I looked at Hamilton for the first time and I was like ‘Dad, he looks like you.’
So, he kind of stuck with me since then as my favourite driver,” she says.
Benjamin Woodhouse, another member of the first cohort, shares Fadli Dokkali’s admiration for Hamilton. It was through the driver’s Instagram that Woodhouse initially discovered the scholarship opportunity. Despite thinking it was “too good to be true,” he completed the application the day before the deadline, leading him to study for an MSc in advanced mechanical engineering at Cardiff University.
For both students the scholarship was the only way they could afford to continue their studies, despite having the passion – and knowledge – to become engineers. For Woodhouse, just finishing his undergraduate degree in Physics required lots of sacrifice. Talking about that period of his life, he tells me that he had to balance his part-time job with his studies, working over the weekends and evenings to get by. “Physics is no joke of a degree,” he says. “And to balance the two really just to effectively put food on my plate, it was very hard.”
But almost as important as the financial help was the reassurance the programme gave the students about their abilities. For Fadli Dokkali, it was lifechanging. “It gave me the confidence that there are people that believe in what I’m doing and can see my potential, which is, as a mixed black woman, something I struggled a lot with,” she says. “It gave me the confidence to put myself out there, to share my story.”
For Woodhouse, who is originally from Winchester, the scholarship opened doors to new career aspirations. Before the programme he always thought that getting into motorsports was unrealistic and imagined settling for a “mediocre” job. This opportunity didn’t just give him the knowledge and skills required for working in the field, but also the drive to aim high. “Getting the scholarship in the first place is a massive achievement, and it motivates me to carry on and just do it,” he says.
Over the course of the scholarship programme, he also talked to people in the industry, including Calum Nicholas, senior engine technician at Red Bull Racing, who has been a big inspiration. “He has the background that I have,” says Woodhouse. “He’s worked his way up, he’s just worked hard. He’s got this job, he’s also black, and there’s not really many of us in the sport. He gave [me] some really good advice on how I should go about things, and it really just made it seem very realistic more than anything. Like, if he can do it, why can’t we? And we’ve got more backing than he did at the time.”
Ultimately, what helped Woodhouse and the other scholars get into the programme was their passion for the sport and their desire to be a force for change. “We’ve experienced a lot of racism in our lifetime and I think we’re all fed up with it. It’s just an honour to be in a position where we can make a change,” he says. Since graduating, Woodhouse has started work as a vehicle testing engineer at Aston Martin Lagonda.
While the scholarship is a good step towards increasing access, Fadli Dokkali says it is not enough on its own and that the motorsport industry is still a long way from being reflective of wider society. “There are only five of us in the programme,” she says. “Are we going to be representative of society? Are we going to be representative of the black people in the UK? Or people of colour in general around the world? No.”
Echoing what Morgan and the Hamilton Commission found, Fadli Dokkali believes the barriers to entry begin much earlier in people’s lives, and that change needs
“There were people who told me on this journey that I was not going to make it. So, I want to be in a position where I can make a difference”
— Laila Fadli Dokkali, F1 simulation engineer
to start from within the education system. “We know what the situation of state schools is in the UK, it’s so underfunded, so it’s easy for students not to have that support they need to thrive in their interests,”
“I had a very rough childhood. I had a very rough time with the education system. There were people who told me on this journey that I was not going to make it. So, I want to be in a position where I can make a difference and make sure that others don’t have to go through that,” says Fadli Dokkali, who is now working as an F1 simulation engineer at Mercedes-AMG High Performance Powertrains.
The second cohort of Lewis Hamilton’s MSc Motorsports Scholarship, who began their master’s degrees in September 2024
Into the future
The Motorsport Scholarship seems to have achieved its initial goal, with all the graduates from the first cohort having found a job in the industry. The second cohort expanded to eight students, who started their master’s degrees in September 2024. And as of November 2024, the Hamilton Commission can also mark a new achievement: the FIA – the governing body of motorsport – and all ten Formula 1 teams have signed a diversity and inclusion charter.
“There’s a moral imperative for any sector, any profession, to be representative of the society itself. But there’s also a very strong business benefit as well,” says Morgan. “There’s lots of evidence to show that more diverse companies produce better, more profitable outcomes, and better-quality products and services, because a diverse workforce brings different
perspectives, different ways of thinking about the problems that you’re trying to solve.” Morgan believes that the responsibility for making the charter work lies with the teams: “It’s up to them to choose what they do. We’re not going to be draconian and dictate ‘You have to do this.’ They have to go on that journey themselves, it is part of their own learning to develop their own processes.”
For any people of colour who are considering joining motorsports, Fadli Dokkali has a strong message: “Don’t let people’s prejudices in any way stop you! There’s a place for you in this industry, and we’ll make sure to make room for you and you’ll force that room for yourself too. It’s a very demanding industry, very competitive. It requires a lot of skills, so make sure to have that technical bit, but then don’t give up and keep pushing.”
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Players and officials observe 47 seconds of silence in remembrance of the late Adam Johnson prior to the memorial game between the Nottingham Panthers and Manchester Storm
Back on the ice
As the Nottingham Panthers began their new season, a year after they were shaken by unthinkable tragedy, Stacey Smith found out how the ice hockey team has rebuilt and refocused itself for the fight ahead
Words: Stacey Smith
On Saturday 9th November 2024, the Motorpoint Arena in the Lace Market district of Nottingham was packed to capacity. The fans chanted their support as they piled into their seats before the game and the lovable mascot Paws, an outsized plush panther, revved them up for the game ahead.
The Nottingham Panthers is one of the oldest and most successful teams in British ice hockey history. Founded in 1946, it has a rich legacy, a dedicated fan base and has enjoyed significant success, claiming multiple league titles and playoff championships and currently competing in the Elite Ice Hockey League (EIHL), the highest level of the sport in the UK. The club’s vibrant atmosphere during its home games, combined with its commitment to community engagement, has made the Panthers a key player in British ice hockey and a source of pride for Nottingham’s sports culture.
As the Panthers raced out, the crowd roared their delight, Their opponents, the Sheffield Steelers, joined them on the ice and the game began. The Panthers came out strong in the first period, holding the better opening exchanges. Their opponents couldn’t get near the puck for a time and excitement
coursed around the rink. However, the visitors took the lead 17 minutes into the game, setting the stage for an intense battle.
But in this game the stakes were higher than normal. When these two teams met in the last season, just over a year ago, the game ended in a tragedy that was reported around the globe. The Panthers were playing not just for themselves but for the memory of a fallen teammate.
The lives of the Nottingham Panthers changed forever on 28th October 2023 when their teammate Adam Johnson was struck in the neck by a Steelers player’s skate during a collision. Johnson, who had only joined the club in August, began to bleed out, and was surrounded by players who gathered around him in a protective ring, locking arms as he was treated by paramedics. He died in hospital shortly afterwards, aged just 29.
The news sent shockwaves across the sporting world, with thousands in the wider ice hockey community paying tribute to Johnson, 47-second silences being held at games (Johnson’s jersey number was 47) and people in Nottingham organising memorials for the fallen player. In response to his death, the EIHL
“I think the way we got through it was having a focus that we are going to do this, we are going to get back on the ice”
— Jordan Kelsall, Nottingham Panthers player
announced the temporary suspension of all fixtures and the Panthers confirmed they would pull out of the Challenge Cup, the competition that runs alongside the EIHL.
The team took a month out of playing to regroup and process the tragedy, playing only one game, a memorial match for Johnson against Manchester Storm. Special jerseys worn by the Panthers at the game were sold to raise money for a fund set up to help Johnson’s family and charities in his home town. The Panthers ended the 2023-24 season in ninth place, missing out on the playoffs for the first time in EIHL history.
Panthers player Jordan Kelsall was there on the day his teammate died. Legal proceedings relating to the incident are ongoing, so he couldn’t talk about the specifics of the day itself. “No one is talking about the situation so I’m not going to speak about it directly,” he said. But he did talk to me about how he and his teammates dealt with the aftermath.
“Everyone who was involved in the situation had an awful experience of course, but I think you have to focus on trying to get back to where we were. Ultimately you need to be strong minded [but] that sounds easier than it is… I think the way we got through it was having a focus that we are going to do this, we are going to get back on the ice.”.
Rebuilding took time and was not a smooth process. “Everyone was on different timescales,” said Kelsall. “So some days people would be good and some days people would be bad and there was no rush, everyone was completing their own timescale and it just ended up getting to the point where everyone was just kind of in the same situation and then we started playing again. So that’s how you get through it.”
Kelsall highlighted the work of the Panthers’ management, which organised counselling for the entire team in the aftermath of Johnson’s death. “The organisation did an amazing job keeping everyone focused,” he said. “Of course it was difficult but you get your head down, you’re working hard and, yeah, we had a bit of a break from the ice but we were trying to stay in shape to get ready for when we came back. If people wanted to leave, they had the opportunity to, but 99 percent of the team stayed and we got back on the ice and started playing again.” In September 2024, as a mark of respect and a part of the healing process, a ceremony was held to retire Johnson’s number 47 jersey, with former teammates and coaches giving emotional speeches.
Johnson’s death has changed the sport of ice hockey. In reaction to the fatal incident, in December 2023 the International Ice Hockey Federation announced a mandatory rule requiring all hockey players at every level to wear a neck guard, a move echoed by the UK’s Elite Ice Hockey League. Previously, the EIHL had strongly encouraged players to wear neck guards during games but they had only been mandatory for under-18s. The new rule was scheduled to begin at the start of the 2024 season but could not take immediate effect due to the limited supply of neck guards at the time.
The New York Rangers and Carolina Hurricanes hold a moment of silence for Adam Johnson before their game at Madison Square Garden on 2nd November 2023
“It’s now in the rulebook,” Luke Fisher, media and communications manager for the EIHL told me. “You can’t play pro hockey [in the UK] without a neck guard, you can’t go on the ice without one.” North America’s NHL, the pinnacle of the sport, still does not mandate the use of neck guards, although they are enforced in the lower American leagues.
Johnson was born and brought up in Minnesota in the US. He caught the ice hockey bug at school and went on to play with NHL team the Pittsburgh Penguins before moving to Europe.
Nottingham-born Kelsall got into hockey at an even younger age than his former teammate. “My parents would take me to skate at the national ice centre,
they’d put a lot of toys on the ice and parents would take their tiny little kids, so I was on the ice from two years old and then from four years old I started trying to put the equipment on and skate around trying to play. My parents had season tickets to the Panthers so when I was old enough to go they took me along, and I was hooked. It’s a game that’s really exciting to watch, it’s fast paced, there’s skill and also the physicality of it which is different to most sports.” He became part of the team full-time in 2019, was named British Player of the Year for 2023-2024 and is a firm favourite among fans.
As the 2024-2025 season began, the first since the loss of Johnson, Kelsall and his teammates were determined to come back and fight for a victory.
Bruce Bennett / Getty
A fan wearing a number 47 jersey at the Adam Johnson Memorial Game on 18th November 2023 in Nottingham
The Sheffield Steelers taking on the Nottingham Panthers on 9th November 2024
On 1st September they beat Lausitzer Füchse 7-2 to win the GM Memorial Trophy, following up with wins over the Cardiff Devils, Manchester Storm, Guildford Flames and Coventry Blaze.
One factor in the team’s recovery and its strong start to the new season, Kelsall said, is the fans. “We had a great support [from them] last year, we really value that,” he said. “They helped keep the club together during such a difficult time, it’s something that will never be forgotten.”
Kelsall also noted that attendance has been exceptional this season, with many games selling out as fans turn up to show their support. “Our attendance has been through the roof,” he said. “Last weekend we had just over 6,000 on Saturday and almost 6,000 again on Sunday so the attendance is up for sure across the season compared to last year. We didn’t have a lot of success last year but people still turn out to watch us play and we appreciate that.”
He noted a shift in the team’s mindset since last season. “Every game is really important [to us], it’s like a playoff run. Whereas last season the objective was just to be on the ice and competing but ultimately it was different circumstances, we had different objectives as a team.”
He was unequivocal about the Panthers’ aims for the rest of the season. “We want to win everything we’re playing for,” he told me.
Back on the rink at the Steelers game on 9th November 2024 and the Panthers weren’t holding back against their rivals. A backhand pass from Kelsall set up Ollie Betteridge to fire top shelf across Matt Greenfield for an extraordinary equaliser 22 minutes into the game. The stadium erupted with cheers. But in the 36th minute, the Steelers went ahead again securing their second goal, leaving the Panthers trailing once more.
Nottingham Panthers fan Keira Edwards was watching the game with anxious concentration. “I got into the sport because my parents were into it,” she told me. “The first hockey match I went to was when I was seven days old.” She stopped attending for a few years, but when she moved to Nottingham for university, she decided to revisit her old love for the sport and attended a Panthers game. “I had forgotten how good it was, and I’ve been back ever since,” she said.
The fateful game in which Johnson died took place soon afterwards. “It was probably only a few weeks after I started getting back into ice hockey,” she said. “It was a shock.” Edwards told me how the local community surrounded the team during their difficult time and in the memorial games. “It was difficult for everyone,” she said. She recalled the 2023-2024 season playoffs, held at the home of the Panthers on 21st April 2024, and featuring a showdown between the Steelers and the Belfast Giants. “Everyone came together, and it was just the nicest event,” she said. “There was a Panthers block for fans to sit in even though the team wasn’t involved in the match.”
The Panthers couldn’t have been more involved in the game we were watching, however, and the final third was intense as the teams battled it out for the win. The Steelers were on top form, but the Panthers were hitting back at every opportunity. Sam Herr fed a shot to Tim Doherty to score in the 48th minute but Steelers swiftly regained the lead with a finish by Sacha Guimond a minute later. The Panthers pushed for an equaliser to draw the game, but the Steelers secured their win with their final point thanks to an empty net goal to effectively end the competition in the 58th minute. Final score: Panthers 2, Steelers 4.
“We didn’t have a lot of success last year but people still turn out to watch us play and we appreciate that”
Kelsall was sanguine about the result, but determined to get back on a winning streak. The EIHL regular season runs until April 2025 and Kelsall believes the Panthers can make the playoffs, and maybe even take the title that has eluded them since 2013. The final for what would be a fairytale ending is scheduled to be held in the Motorpoint Arena on the 19th and 20th of April. “We play for a big club at the end of the day and we’re expected to win and we haven’t won for a good few years in terms of major trophies but it’s not through lack of trying,” said Kelsall, before pausing and acknowledging Johnson and the extra impetus that is driving them this year. “I think fans appreciate the things we have had to go through.”
Sunday 28th January 2024:
Jannik Sinner (left) on course to victory over Daniil Medvedev in the men’s singles final of the Australian Open in Melbourne
The sporting digest 2024
The sporting year in brief
Written by: Lara Alsaid
January
1
Luke Humphries 1 kicked off the sporting year on 3rd January by winning his first PDC World Darts title at London’s Alexandra Palace, defeating 16-year-old Luke Littler in the final. Trailing 4-2, Humphries went on to make a stunning comeback, winning five straight sets.
Meanwhile over in Melbourne, the Australian Open became the first tennis Grand Slam to attract over a million spectators. The tournament saw 22-yearold Jannik Sinner of Italy defeat tentime champion Novak Djokovic in the semi finals, before coming from two sets down to claim his first major title against Russia’s Daniil Medvedev. Belarusian world number one Aryna Sabalenka successfully defended her women’s singles crown, beating China’s Zheng Qinwen in the final having not lost a single set throughout the tournament.
February
The World Aquatics Championships took place in Doha, Qatar, and saw 36 countries win medals across the disciplines.
Laura Stephens became the first British individual female champion since 2011 with victory in the 200m butterfly, while Chinese teenager Pan Zhanle broke the 100m freestyle world record. Ireland’s Daniel Wiffen and the USA’s Claire Curzan were named the best male and female swimmers of the championships respectively.
2
Super Bowl LVIII saw defending champions the Kansas City Chiefs 2 defeat the San Francisco 49ers 25-22 in overtime, overcoming a 0-10 deficit to lift the Vince Lombardi Trophy in Las Vegas. On the same day Ivory Coast won the Africa Cup of Nations, despite an unpromising start to the tournament which saw them lose two of their three group stage games before sacking manager Jean-Louis Gasset
“It is greater than a fairytale”
— Ivory Coast’s team coach Emerse Faé on winning the Africa Cup of Nations
Faé had taken the job after the sacking of previous coach JeanLouis Gasset mid-tournament
March
Ireland clinched back-to-back titles in the Men’s Six Nations, winning four of five games. They dominated France in a 38-17 win on the tournament’s opening night and outclassed Italy in a 36-0 victory. England, who finished in third place, ended Irish hopes of a perfect season with a narrow one-point win at Twickenham. However, Ireland bounced back to beat Scotland 17-13 1 on 16th March and seal the 2024 championship in front of their own fans in Dublin.
State of the union
In 2024 Ireland celebrated their second successive men’s Six Nations crown while England won their sixth consecutive women’s title. But which country comes out top across the history of rugby union’s premier annual international tournaments?
Source: sixnationsrugby.com
April
The month began with 16-year-old Jamaican sprinter Nickecoy Bramwell breaking Usain Bolt’s 22-year under-17 boys 400m record by 0.07 seconds at the Carifta Games in St George’s, Grenada.
In Augusta, Georgia, meanwhile, American golfer Scottie Scheffler claimed his second Masters title with a four-shot victory over second-placed Swedish rookie Ludvig Åberg
Two days later, I Am Maximus, ridden by Paul Townend, won the Grand National at Aintree, storming to victory by seven-anda-half lengths, while Corach Rambler, last year’s winner, unseated its rider at the first fence.
2
Kenyan brilliance was on display at the London Marathon 2 on 21st March, with Peres Jepchirchir setting a new women’s world record and compatriot Alexander Mutiso
Munyao winning the men’s race.
On 27th April England won their sixth consecutive Women’s Six Nations Championship title and third Grand Slam in a row by defeating 14-player France 4221 in Bordeaux.
The rules: The men’s tournament began in 1883 between the home nations — England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales — before being expanded to include France in 1910 and then adding Italy in 2000. The women’s tournament began with the home nations in 1996, adding France in 1998 and Spain in 2001. Italy replaced Spain in 2007. England’s men’s team was excluded from the 1888 and 1889 tournaments. Spain did not win a tournament and Italy are yet to do so.
England
David Rogers/Getty Images
Bob Bradford/CameraSport via Getty Images
Saturday 20th April 2024: Megan Jones of England scores a try against Ireland during the Women’s Six Nations 2024
Total: 40
Total: 32
Total: 26 Scotland
Total: 25
“I just haven’t got any more to give”
— Emma Hayes, outgoing Chelsea manager, reacts after her team win the Women’s Super League for the fifth time. Chelsea beat Manchester United 6-0 on the last day of the season to win the title on goal difference
Clash of the titans
May was a good month for two of the most successful managers in England. Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City secured their fourth straight Premier League title while Emma Hayes’ Chelsea won the Women’s Super League for the fifth year in a row in Hayes’ last game in charge. We compare the managers’ impressive records in English football
Emma Hayes vs Pep Guardiola
Games managed: Win rate*
English league titles FA Cups
Champions League titles:
League manager of the season awards:
Overall score:
May
Kyren Wilson won his first World Snooker Championship on 6th May with a dominant 18-14 victory over Jak Jones at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield.
Over in Saudi Arabia on 18th May Tyson Fury suffered his first loss in his 16year professional boxing career. His opponent in Riyadh, Oleksandr Usyk, became the first ever four-belt undisputed heavyweight champion
Also in May, Chelsea wrapped up their fifth consecutive Women’s Super League title at Old Trafford, thrashing Manchester United 6-0 in manager Emma Hayes’ final
8 years)
The rules: We’ve compared the managerial records in English football of Emma Hayes and Pep Guardiola as of 31st December 2024. Only matches in charge of Chelsea FC Women and Manchester City FC respectively are included.
*Remarkably over the course of their long careers in England both Hayes and Guardiola had an identical win percentage as of the end of 2024 so the point is shared. Sources: Chelsea FC, GQ, the Independent, Manchester City FC
game after 12 years with the Blues. In the men’s game, Manchester City secured their fourth straight Premier League title with a 3-1 win over West Ham.
1
On 23rd May Luke Littler avenged his January defeat 1 by beating Luke Humphries 11-7 in the Premier League Darts final, becoming the youngest ever winner of the title.
Two days later Barcelona became backto-back titleholders of the Uefa Women’s Champions League, defeating Lyon 2-0 in the final in Bilbao, Spain. On the same day, Manchester United enjoyed a 2-1 victory over Manchester City in the FA Cup final
“They don’t win like that here”
— Derrick Smith, co-owner of Bedtime Story, after the racehorse’s nine-and-a-half length win in the Chesham Stakes at Royal Ascot
June
June saw Spanish football giants Real Madrid win the Champions League final for the 15th time, beating Borussia Dortmund 2-0 at Wembley. Their coach Carlo Ancelotti made history by reaching a record sixth final.
A tournament marred by unpredictable weather, the French Open in Paris was won for the first time by Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz after defeating German Alexander Zverev in the men’s final. Poland’s Iga Świątek secured her third consecutive women’s singles title by defeating Italy’s Jasmine Paolini
In Massachusetts on 17th June, the Boston Celtics defeated the Dallas Mavericks 106-88 on home court to win a record 18th NBA title, their first since 2008.
At Royal Ascot five days later, Bedtime Story, ridden by Ryan Moore, won the Chesham Stakes in only her second career start, triumphing by nine-and-a-half lengths, leaving many pundits in awe. Finally, India secured their second T20 World Cup title with a seven-run victory over South Africa in Barbados. Virat Kohli, player of the match for his 76 off 59 balls, announced his retirement after the game.
Whistle-stop Tour
A brief journey through the Tour de France’s history-making moments
The first Tour, 1903
Winner: Maurice Garin (Fr) Entrants: 60
Course length: 2,428 km
Average speed: 25.68 km/h
The
slowest Tour, 1919
Winner: Firmin Lambot (Be)
Entrants: 69
Course length: 5,560 km
Average speed: 24.06 km/h
The longest Tour, 1926
Winner: Lucien Buysse (Be) Entrants: 126
Course length: 5,745 km
Average speed: 24.28 km/h
The busiest Tour, 1986
Winner: Greg LeMond (US)
Entrants: 210
Course length: 4,038 km
Average speed: 37.02 km/h
The
fastest Tour, 2022
Winner: Jonas Vingegaard (Den)
Entrants: 176
Course length: 3,343.8 km
Average speed: 42.03 km/h
Sunday 21st July 2024: Slovenian rider Tadej Pogačar of UAE Team Emirates celebrates his overall victory after the 21st and final stage of the 111th edition of the Tour de France cycling race
July
Wimbledon saw Czech player Barbora Krejčíková win the women’s singles title by ending the fairytale run of Italian Jasmine Paolini, who had never won a match at the London tournament before this year. Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz defeated Serbia’s Novak Djokovic in the men’s final for the second year running.
1
There was further major sporting success for Spain on 14th July when the country beat England 2-1 in the Uefa Euro 2024 final Lamine Yamal 1 , at 17, became the youngest man to play in a Euros final,
although as one chapter opened another ended as Gareth Southgate resigned after eight years as England manager.
2
France’s Euros run ended in the semifinals, but it was still a spectacular sporting summer for the country. It staged a dramatic Tour de France, in which Slovenian Tadej Pogačar completed the first Giro d’ItaliaTour de France double of the 21st century, while the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics saw athletes sailing along the River Seine. Breaking grooved its way onto the Olympic stage for the first time, while in the pool American swimmer Katie Ledecky won her ninth gold and gymnast Simone Biles 2 earned three golds, marking a comeback after a disappointing Games in Tokyo three years earlier.
Marco Bertorello/AFP via Getty Images
Andy Murray’s smashing career
Charting the singles career of Andy Murray, from the highs of victories at Wimbledon, the US Open and the Olympics, to the lows that followed a 2017 hip injury
The rules: Each coloured block represents the round Andy Murray reached in the four Grand Slam tournaments and the Olympic Games he entered during his career: R#
Rounds 1-4 QF
Quarter-final
Tournaments are colour-coded as follows: Australian Open French Open Wimbledon US Open Olympics
World ranking: How Murray’s official ATP ranking changed between 2005 and 2024
“This medal is for all the refugees”
— Zakia Khudadadi after securing the first ever medal for the Refugee Paralympic Team
August
There was a fond farewell at Paris 2024 on 1st August as British two-time Olympic tennis champion Andy Murray retired from the sport after being defeated in the men’s doubles quarter-finals.
1 The Paralympic Games kicked off in France on 28th August, where the host country claimed its first ever gold medal in Paralympic blind football, defeating Argentina 3-2 in a penalty shootout in front of the Eiffel Tower. Meanwhile, the Refugee Paralympic Team made history by winning their first two medals – Zakia Khudadadi 1 in para taekwondo and Guillaume Atangana in para athletics. China’s Olympic debutant, Guo Jincheng, won four golds and two silvers in the pool, helping China top the para swimming table with 22 golds. Thailand’s Saysunee Jana triumphed in all three fencing events, while Brazil’s Gabriel Araujo became a crowd favourite with three remarkable victories in the swimming pool, not to mention his dance moves on the podium.
2
The final tennis Grand Slam of the year, the US Open in New York, saw Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka 2 win her third major singles title on 7th September, defeating American Jessica Pegula having dropped just one set in the tournament.
The following day, Jannik Sinner became the first Italian man ever to win the title, when he beat Taylor Fritz of the US. Meanwhile, Novak Djokovic suffered his earliest US Open loss since 2006, falling to Australia’s Alexei Popyrin in the third round.
The rivalry between the US and Europe delivered several fabulously dramatic moments at the Solheim Cup 3 on 15th September, as the Americans lifted the trophy on home soil in Virginia, winning 15.5-12.5 to reclaim the women’s golf trophy after seven years.
Lemus/NurPhoto
Friday 18th October 2024:
before the start of race eight against
Ineos Britannia in the 37th America’s Cup in Barcelona, Spain
Unequal footing
While cricket’s World Cup has taken steps to address the prize-money gender pay gap, the world’s most watched tournament still lags behind…
Total prize pool for football’s Fifa Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand, 2023
Total prize pool for the Fifa Men’s World Cup in Qatar, 2022 $110m $440m
October
In Barcelona in October New Zealand retained the America’s Cup, defeating the UK, who were competing in their first final since 1964. New Zealanders were celebrating again a day later when the country’s women’s cricket team defeated South Africa by 32 runs in Dubai to win their first-ever T20 World Cup. The competition marked a major milestone in gender equality, as it was the first year both the women’s and men’s ICC tournaments offered equal prize money.
Crew from Emirates Team New Zealand
Team
November
1
At Fight Night at Texas’s AT&T Stadium on 15th November, Katie Taylor 1 retained her undisputed lightwelterweight title in a controversial 95-94 victory over Amanda Serrano, despite a point deduction for causing a severe cut above her opponent’s eye. Later that night, in a much-hyped but ultimately underwhelming comeback, former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson stepped into the ring for the first time in 19 years but was defeated by YouTuber Jake Paul in a unanimous decision after eight rounds.
On 20th November, Italy won its fifth Billie Jean King Cup title in Málaga, Spain, with a commanding 2-0 win over Slovakia in the final. Jasmine Paolini, who had a breakout year, wrapped up the victory with a 6-2, 6-1 win over Rebecca Sramkova
2
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen 2 secured his fourth Formula 1 World Championship at the Las Vegas Grand Prix on 24th November, after finishing fifth. British driver George Russell won the race while Lando Norris finished sixth, ending the McLaren driver’s title challenge.
The F1 Academy, which aims to create opportunities for female drivers in Formula 1, saw 21-year-old Brit Abbi Pulling win the 2024 championship in Qatar. Pulling will receive a fully-funded role driving for Rodin Motorsport for the 2025 GB3 Championship, seen as the next step towards a career in Formula 1.
December
On 11th December, Fifa announced Saudi Arabia as host of the 2034 World Cup, reigniting debate over human rights issues in the country. Four days later Norway 3 secured its tenth Women’s European Handball Championship title in Vienna, Austria by defeating Denmark 31-23 to claim the title. In Saudi Arabia, boxing’s heavyweight rematch ended the same way as the May bout, with Oleksandr Usyk defeating Tyson Fury on a points decision.
“You may see me fight again, you may not”
— Boxer Tyson Fury speaks after his second defeat of the year to Oleksandr Usyk
Attila
Kisbenedek/AFP via Getty Images
The last word
This issue’s guest editor, Lee McKenzie, tells us what she’s looking forward to in 2025
I really hope you enjoyed the variety of sports and articles in our first edition of The Final Whistle . I tried to involve sports that I don’t present and I loved learning about them, as I hope you did too. My 2025 is mapped out now and whilst 2024 was a huge year, this one isn’t exactly quiet. If you are a rugby fan then you have a feast in front of you with the Six Nations , the Women’s Rugby World Cup 1 and the British and Irish Lions Men’s Tour to Australia. In Formula 1 we have another 24 race calendar and I expect the battle between Red Bull and McLaren to be even closer. Who knows, maybe Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari will throw their hat into the ring too. By the time you read this, tennis will have had one Grand Slam completed already. Only Novak Djokovic remains of the ‘Big Four’, but even with young blood coming through in force, you’d never rule him out. As for the women, Aryna Sabalenka , Iga Swiatek and Madison
4 look set to take the headlines.
However, what makes sport great is that we have no idea what the stories will be. But you can be sure that the next edition of The Final Whistle will have everything you need to know, and I for one cannot wait to read it.
Founding the Future
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