The month of January was a busy time for sports and if you haven’t been able to keep up, don’t worry because I’m here to catch everyone up.
First up, the Australian Open finished up on the weekend in Melbourne. It’s the first big tennis tournament of the year and the matches started on January 18th and the finals consisted of Carlos Alcaraz beating Novak Djokovic 2-6, 6-2, 6-3, 7-5 in the men’s final, which was a significant event because Djokovic had won all 10 of his previous Australian Open finals. Alcaraz became the youngest man in tennis history to complete the career Grand Slam at 22 years old, which means that he has won all four major tournaments. On the women’s side, Elena Rybakina won her second Grand Slam title by beating Aryna Sabalenka 6-4, 4-6, 6-4.
Venus Williams became the oldest player to compete in the women’s singles at age 45. And in the quarterfinals, Jannik Sinner beat Ben Shelton and Elena Rybakina defeated Iga Swiatek. But there was also some drama when Lorenzo Mussetti had to retire with a leg injury while actually leading against Novak Djokovic, which had to feel terrible. The whole tournament had over $111 million Australian dollars in prize money which is 16% higher than last year’s total of $96 million, so the stakes were very high for the players.
The Winter X Games went down in Aspen from January 23-25 and it might have been the coolest sporting event of the month. Some of the highlights were mind blowing. Japan’s Hiroto Ogiwara landed the first ever 2340 — that’s 6 and half rotations— in the men’s snowboard big air. Your brain can’t even process spinning that many times in the air.
Canada’s Mark McMorris won his 25th career X Games medal, which makes him the most victorious winter athlete in X Games history. There was also a 16 year old from Vermont named Jessica Perlmutter who dominated the women’s knuckle huck, and Japan’s Kokomo Murase became the first woman ever to land a 1620 in competition. The event was a preview for the Winter Olympics coming up in February in Italy and it has significantly heightened the anticipation.
Another exciting event is the NFL playoffs. We started with 14 teams back on January 10th and now we’re down to just two teams heading to the Super Bowl.
The conference championship games happened Sunday, January 25th, and the matchups were set. The Seahawks beat the Rams 31-27 and the Patriots took down the Broncos 10-7 in a snowy battle in Denver. This past Sunday, the Seahawks beat the Patriots in Super Bowl LX, 29-13.
This was actually the second time these two teams met in the Super Bowl in the last 12 years, and the Patriots made their record extending 12th Super Bowl appearance, even without Tom Brady.
Overall, January was a busy month for sports and there’s been a lot to keep up with. February looks like it’s going to be just as packed with the Olympics and the continuation of basketball and hockey as they gear toward playoffs.
