How Two Athletes Made the Best Deal of the Year
Athletic Interest Weekly #9 - The 2021 Awards đ
Thank you for your incredible support in 2021! Your views, comments, clicks, and likes not only motivate us but also help to get our stories to as many people as possible. We hope that you all have an amazing 2022 and we canât wait to share the exciting projects that we have in the pipeline.
From a delayed Olympics to a failed Super League, 2021 has been a rollercoaster year for sports, and with 2022 just around the corner we thought it would be a good time to take a look back at the most important sports business stories that not only shaped 2021, but also have the power to change sport as we know it.
Enjoy, see you next year!
Everyone at Athletic Interest đ đ§Ą
âïž Deal of the Year
The intense world of sports is not known as a hotbed of friendshipâŠjust ask Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen.
What we are trying to say is that itâs hard to be friends with someone when you are both competing for the same prize. Some people even feel that befriending a competitor may lead to them losing their competetive edge when it matters.
But these two would disagreeâŠ
Meet Mutaz Barshim and Gianmarco Tamberi, Olympic High Jump champions and very good friends.
The pair gained worldwide fame when they decided to split the Olympic high jump gold at the Tokyo Olympics.
With nothing seperating Tamberi and Barshim afer an intense two hour competition, the officials offered to give both jumpers a chance at a âjump offâ to decide the winner.
Thatâs when Barshim asked a very strange yet beautiful question:
âCan we have two golds?"
Before the official had the chance to finish explaining that this was possible, both athletes looked at each other and instantly agreed to share the prize.
While this may look like a rare moment of two athletes putting away their intense rivalry and agreeing to share the spotlight, this beautiful moment had been building for over 5 years.
In 2016, Tamberi was enjoying the form of his life, until he tore a ligament in his left ankle, an injury so serious that it ruled him out of competing at the Rio Olympics. Tamberi was devestated and spent the next five years recovering, both physically and emotionally.
Tamberi tried to make a return in 2017, but a failure to complete a single jump at the Diamond League in Paris saw the Italian retreat to his room in tears.
âThe day after, Mutaz started knocking on my room and he wouldnât go away," explained Tamberi in an interview with Spikes magazine. "First I just wanted him to leave. He persisted and was shouting: 'Gimbo. Gimbo, please I want to talk to you.' So I gave in and let him in.
âWe talked. I cried in front of him. He tried to calm me down, and told me what he had to say.â
â'Donât try to rush it,' he kept telling me. 'You had a big injury, youâre already back in the Diamond League. No one expected that. But now you need to take your time, donât expect too much too early from yourself. Just see what happens.'â
Barshimâs support was crucial in Tamberi making it to Tokyo, and Tamberi returned the favour in 2018 when Barshim suffered the exact same injury.
When the opportunity came for these two dear friends to stand together on the Olympic podium, they could not refuse.
The fact that these two athletes were able to create Olympics history, not just through their sporting excellence, but also with their incredible friendship, is exactly why this is undoubtebly the greatest deal of 2021.
đ± Social Media Madness of the Year
When Messi and Ronaldo Broke the Internet đš
There is one sure-fire way to break the internet⊠take your clothes off.
It worked with Kim Kardashian in 2014 and again in 2021 with Lionel Messi, although with Messi there were a lot more balls involved.
On 10th August 2021, Lionel Messi took off his Barcelona clothes and put on some PSG clothes. This simple action of Messi moving from Barcelona to PSG on a free transfer completely destroyed the internet.
In the very short amount of time between Messi announcing his intention to leave Barcelona and the day he signed for PSG, his name was mentioned a staggering 14.2 million times on Twitter.
After hearing about all the hype, Cristiano Ronaldo immediately stopped his seventeenth workout of the day, put down his unseasoned chicken, and came up with a plan to beat Messi.
After toying with the idea of stealing the affections of Messiâs father Pep Guardiola, Ronaldo decided to re-join his old club Manchester United.
The âWelcome Back Ronaldoâ tweet received over double the amount of likes than the Messi-PSG equivalent, with the Ronaldo news also attracting millions more likes on Instagram.
For the second time in one transfer window, the internet had been broken.
The Messi-Ronaldo craziness has to be the undisputed winner of âSocial Media Madness of the Year 2021. â
đ Story of the Year
The One Lap that Will Change Formula 1 Forever đ
Michael Masi strikes us as the kind of guy that would pour orange juice on a lasagne because he wants to make his life more entertaining. Michael âSh*ts and gigglesâ Masi gained this unwanted reputation after the chaotic events of the Formula 1 title decider in Abu Dhabi.
For those of you unfamiliar with the whole situation, feel free to check out the video linked above. Essentially, race director Michael Masi made a call regarding the race restart that led to Lewis Hamilton losing the lead of the race and the championship.
Many fans were convinced that Masi had made a deliberate decision to change how he dealt with the safety car in Abu Dhabi, with the sole intention of creating a more dramatic ending to the race.
Whether Lewis lost because of bad luck or a deliberate decision to prioritise entertainment, Formula 1 will be happy with the results.
Sky TV announced that the race set a new record for UK viewership of a Formula 1 race, with 7.4 million people tuning in for the last lap of the Grand Prix.
The controversey has created a huge buzz on social media and given the sport a new found reputation as a highly entertaining spectacle. This buzz is likely to translate into even more record breaking viewership figures in 2022.
The fact that this event had people such as Harry Kane and Samuel L. Jackson commenting on the same thing, shows that there can be only one winner of âStory of the Year 2021.â
đ€Ș Weird Deal of the Year
How Crypto Invaded Sports in 2021 đŸ
The life cycle of Cryptocurrency is weirdly similar to that of a nerd. In the early days all of the popular people dismiss you or laugh at you, but as soon as you are worth lots of money everyone wants to be your friend.
Crypto has had a strong 2021, with some virtual currencies enjoying sky high valuations. This new found confidence has caused celebrities and major investment firms to put large amounts of money into the likes of Dogecoin, Bitcoin and Ethereum.
Despite celebrity endorsement, some coins have crashed over the past 12 months, but most managed to recover quicker than Elon Muskâs hairline.
A vivid sign of the ever increasing acceptance of crypto in our lives was the surprising news that the world famous Staples Centre in L.A. was going to be renamed the Crypto.com Arena, after the online crypto exchange paid big bucks for the buildings naming rights.
Crypto.com will now have their brand front and centre during around 240 events each year, including the Grammys, the NBA All-star game and numerous NHL fixtures.
âWeâre very excited about partnering with AEG and investing long term in this city, starting with Crypto.com Arena in the heart of downtown, and using our platform in new and creative ways so that cryptocurrency can power the future of world-class sports, entertainment, and technology for fans in LA and around the world,â explained Crypto.com CEO Kris Marszalek in a statement.
Whether you think Crypto is the future or a fad, it is clear that virtual currencies have entered mainstream culture. Considering the widespread changes that crypto could have on the world, we have to see the Crypto.com Arena as one of the most important, if weirdest, deals of 2021.
đŹ Video of the Y̶e̶a̶r̶ Week
How One Man Changed the Transfer Business
January 2022 will mark the return of the transfer window!
The fact that such a statement is exciting for a lot of people shows how the world of football transfers has changed. It wasnât long ago that no one cared, so what has changed?
In this video we take a deep dive into how football journalism and social media have helped to make the transfer window one of the most important aspects of 21st century football. Look out for our special guestâŠđ€Ż
Here We GoâŠ
Loved reading this, thank you for making my '21 year a good one