Most of them happened off the courts and playing fields, when the competitions were over and the athletes were at their most human.
We asked our reporters to write about the most memorable sports moments of 2021 — not the grandest or most historic events, just the moments they think of first when they look back on the year.
You’ll see a theme emerging here.
At a time when sports are painstakingly packaged and sold and many athletes zealously guard their public images, our writers gravitated to the quiet moments when the competitions were over and the stars seemed a little more like the rest of us.