2025: The sports year in pictures
CBC
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I always get a little sentimental around the holidays, thinking back on all the memories I made over the past year. And, to (mis)quote one of my favourite movies, how can you not be sentimental about sports too?
So, here are 12 photos — one for each month — and a few words to help us celebrate some of the best athletes and moments of 2025.
January: Philly special
The incredible Saquon Barkley rushed for 205 yards and two long touchdowns, including this 78-yard score in the fourth quarter, to power the Philadelphia Eagles past the Los Angeles Rams in the second round of the NFL playoffs. Barkley, who became just the ninth player ever to run for 2,000 yards in the regular season, went on to help Philly batter Kansas City 40-22 in the Super Bowl.
February: Elbows up
At the height of Canadian fury over Trump's tariff war, Brandon Hagel fired up his country by brawling with U.S. star Matthew Tkachuk in one of the three fights in the opening nine seconds of an electric 4 Nations Face-Off matchup in Montreal. The Americans won that preliminary-round game, but Canada exacted its revenge five days later in Boston when Connor McDavid scored in overtime to win the final.
March: Alexander the great
Washington Capitals star Alexander Ovechkin celebrated a goal against Philadelphia that moved him closer to Wayne Gretzky's all-time NHL record. Ovechkin would surpass the Great One with his 895th regular-season goal in early April before reaching the mythical 900-goal plateau this season.
April: Masterstroke
Rory McIlroy birdied Augusta's 18th hole to win a sudden-death playoff against Justin Rose for his first green jacket, completing a rare career Grand Slam. The Northern Irishman added another emotional victory in September, helping Europe retain the Ryder Cup by beating the United States at hostile Bethpage in New York City.
May: The Cats came back
Panthers forward Carter Verhaeghe celebrated his critical overtime winner in Game 3 of a second-round playoff series against Toronto. Florida trailed two games to none before rallying to eliminate the Leafs in seven and later defeat Edmonton in the Stanley Cup final for the second straight year.
June: Maple Jordan
The Vancouver Canucks announced Friday that they have traded captain Quinn Hughes to the Minnesota Wild.
Canada's Kevin Drury battled his way to a gold medal that left him in tears at a World Cup ski cross event on Friday in Val Thorens, France.
Soccer fans have accused FIFA of a "monumental betrayal" after latest prices for World Cup tickets began to circulate on Thursday.
NHL commissioner Gary Bettman is “disappointed” that the main arena slated to host ice hockey at February’s Olympics isn’t yet completed with less than two months to go before the Games are scheduled to be played.
A two-year suspension from competitive swimming has forced Penny Oleksiak to answer questions about drug use, train by herself in public pools and defend her legacy as Canada’s most decorated female Olympian.
Hockey, one of the premier events at the Winter Olympics and one that is welcoming NHL players back for the first time in more than a decade, will take place on ice shorter than NHL-regulation size.
Summer McIntosh capped swimming’s U.S. Open with the event record in the women’s 200-metre butterfly on Saturday in Austin, Texas.
Some bronze medals are worth their weight in gold. Valerie Grenier's third-place finish in women's giant slalom at the Mont-Tremblant World Cup certainly fits that category.
The men’s World Cup draw in Washington D.C. was going well for Canada until Pot 4.
The draw for the 2026 World Cup takes place Friday at 12 p.m. ET at the Kennedy Center in Washington, for the purpose of dividing the 48-team field into 12 groups of four. Once the tournament starts, 32 teams will advance from those preliminary groups to the single-elimination knockout rounds.
The Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., buzzed with activity and speculation on Thursday in advance of Friday’s all-important draw for the 2026 men’s World Cup.
By the time the management group for the Canadian men’s national hockey team emerges from marathon meetings on Tuesday, as much as 80 per cent of the roster going to Italy next February should be written in pen.
Canada’s ski mountaineering athletes have their Olympic dreams on the line this weekend at a World Cup event in Solitude, Utah.