The Five Things We Learned Most About Sports In 2021

Sports tend to teach us incredible lessons on any occasion throughout a year, but what we learned in 2021 may have been the most taught to us in a long time. If there's anything I took away from sports this year, it's that not everything is what it seems, and anything is beyond possible. Below are the five things we learned most from watching sports in 2021.

At the beginning of our relationship with sports, we were constantly presented with images of what dominant athletes looked like-- all in great shape and deemed "perfect." But in 2021, the likes of Tyson Fury and Nikola Jokic showed you could achieve dominance in your field even if that weren't the case.

Fury, the undefeated world heavyweight boxing champion, and Jokic, the reigning NBA MVP, dominated their opponents with their unique blend of size, mental toughness, and intelligence despite lacking in other areas that some fans, and even their peers, believe are the most important to have.

While positions in team sports will always exist, this past year really proved there are simply labels for the identification of players. In sports such as basketball and soccer, we watch everyone possess a similar skillset and push the boundaries for where the game is going next-- a reality that was incomprehensible for some even a decade ago.

Despite the Tokyo Olympics being delayed a year because of the initial start to this ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the world's most significant athletic competition was back in action this past summer. And among the various things we witnessed, it was the dominance a multitude of countries had in any sport.

As the United States maintained its lead in sports such as basketball, Great Britain excelled in boxing, and China shined the most in diving, with an extensive trail of countries putting the world on notice in their respective sports.

While naysayers will continue to hate women's athletics in any way possible wrongfully, this was an excellent year for women's athletics. Sports such as basketball, gymnastics, and tennis saw their talent level get advanced on every level. A new wave of exciting talent got introduced in mixed martial arts and softball.

But most importantly, a majority of women's athletics utilized their platforms to highlight issues in race relations, pay disparity, and equal rights.

Earlier this year, sports fans marveled (or groaned) at the sight of quarterback Tom Brady winning his seventh Super Bowl title. At the age of 44-years-old, Brady is balancing the act of dominating his competition and still improving, a situation 37-year-old LeBron James is going through in the NBA.

This is a massive development as the narrative around an athlete's prime and longevity is revised. It will get accepted that their "prime" is much longer than everybody else for some players.