Memorable moments from across the sporting globe in 2025

Source: Radio New Zealand

Whether it was a watershed moment for a team, or an iconic individual performance, 2025 had its fair share of memorable sporting moments.

RNZ sport looks at this years more unforgettable moments across the globe.

Rory McIlroy cements place with greats

In April, Rory McIlroy cemented his legendary status in golf history when he won the 2025 Masters Tournament, fulfilling a lifelong dream after years of near-misses.

The emotional win marked his 17th attempt at Augusta National to finally secure the coveted Green Jacket and achieve a career Grand Slam, after a dramatic playoff win over Justin Rose.

The Northern Irish golfer shed tears of joy, calling it the best day of his golfing life after a rollercoaster final round that included a double-bogey but ended with a playoff birdie on the 18th hole.

When McIlroy ended his long wait for a fifth major title he joined the legendary club of Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods, Ben Hogan, Gary Player and Gene Sarazen as the sixth golfer to achieve the Career Grand Slam.

McIlroy was eight years old when, in a resurfaced BBC interview, he stated his ambition to “turn pro and win all the majors”.

Virat Kohli finally wins IPL crown

Indian legend Virat Kohli announced his retirement from Test cricket in May, bringing the curtain down on a career that spanned 14 years and included 123 Tests, in which he scored 9230 runs at an average of 46.85.

Having achieved just about everything in cricket, the one thing that alluded Kohli was an Indian Premier League (IPL) title.

But that changed in June when the Royal Challengers Bengaluru and their talisman ended a 17-season drought by winning their maiden IPL title after beating Punjab Kings by six runs in the final in Ahmedabad.

Kohli was in tears once he realised Bengaluru were about to shed the underachiever’s tag that has stuck to them since the inaugural 2008 edition of the league.

“This win is as much for the fans as it is for the team,” Kohli said after the game.

“It’s been 18 long years. I’ve given this team my youth, my prime and my experience. I’ve tried to win this every season when I come, and I gave it everything I have. And to finally have this moment come it’s an unbelievable feeling, I never thought this day would come.”

Kohli said the IPL triumph was “right up there” with all his other triumphs, while professing his love for Bengaluru and the franchise that “stood behind me”.

“I’ve stayed loyal to this team no matter what. I’ve had moments where I thought otherwise, but I stuck to this team. I stood behind them, they stood behind me. I’ve always dreamt of winning it with them.”

Duplantis soars high

Armand “Mondo” Duplantis was named the World Male Athlete of the Year for 2025 for his dominant pole vaulting season, where he remained undefeated in all competitions.

He also secured titles like the Laureus World Sportsman of the Year and European Athlete of the Year for 2025, capping a historic year in pole vaulting.

The high-flying Swede shattered his own world record four times in 2025 and stole the show at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo in September, where he set a new world record at 6.30m during the final.

The 25-year-old two-time Olympic champion has a habit of breaking his world record one centimetre at a time and certainly draws a crowd wherever he competes.

Duplantis recently told a L’Equipe journalist that he likes to share the moment of breaking a world record with spectators in the stadium.

“They just want to see something that’s never been done before, and pushing the barrier, even if it’s just by 1cm. It allows me to share and create these moments with the fans and spectators.”

Red Roses take women’s rugby to new levels

England fulfilled what many saw as their destiny by winning the 2025 Women’s Rugby World Cup in front of almost 82,000 fans at Twickenham, London.

That record crowd for a women’s 15s game was a watershed moment for the sport and the tournament’s success was as much about the number of fans who packed out the stadiums.

It will be fascinating to see where women’s rugby goes from here with the Red Roses arguably the most dominant force in the sport.

The Black Ferns won six of the last eight Women’s Rugby World Cups, but what is remarkable about England was a historic run of only one defeat in 63 matches leading up to the World Cup final.

It’s no secret that England are the best-funded team in women’s rugby and they delivered off the back of that, but other teams now need to catch up.

Having partly crowd-funded their way to the tournament in the first place, Canada simply being in the final was a win in itself.

It will require significant and sustained investment in professionalism and development pathways for other nations to compete with England.

Pitch perfect Shohei Ohtani

Japanese baseball superstar Shohei Ohtani made history with his bat and arm in 2025 as his team claimed a second consecutive World Series title.

The Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher enjoyed another successful MLB season, in which he posted 55 home runs during the regular season.

It was his post-season performance in October that many now regard as one of the best ever when he became the only player in league history to hit multiple home runs in a game he also pitched.

In that National League Championship Series game, he hit three home runs and threw six scoreless innings, carrying the Dodgers to a sweep of the Milwaukee Brewers to reach the World Series.

“If you think about it in terms of a single game, I’d say that’s probably true,” he said of his achievement.

Ohtani secured his fourth National League Most Valuable Player award and was recently named the Associated Press Male Athlete of the Year for the fourth time, a record he now shares with sporting greats LeBron James and Tiger Woods.

At 31, he is gearing up to help defending champions Japan at next year’s World Baseball Classic and already has an eye on baseball’s grand return to the Olympic stage at LA28.

India’s historic Women’s Cricket World Cup win

Cricket-mad India has well and truly woken up to its women cricketers after the national side claimed their maiden 50-overs World Cup title.

India stunned seven-times champions Australia in the semi-finals and outplayed South Africa in the 2 November final in front of a delirious capacity crowd in Navi Mumbai.

The brand value of India’s top women cricketers has also gone through the roof following their fairytale World Cup triumph on home soil with top sports marketing experts calling it a “watershed moment” for the sport.

Since that victory, the phone has not stopped ringing for 36-year-old captain Harmanpreet Kaur and her team-mates.

Within hours of the final South African wicket falling, Kaur was beaming from the front pages of newspapers after being unveiled as brand ambassador for a real estate developer.

“It’s a watershed moment for women’s cricket and also women’s sports because now all these girls have become household names,” managing director and co-founder of Baseline Ventures Tuhin Mishra told Reuters.

Mandhana’s social media footprint is 14 million and climbing.

Cristiano Ronaldo turns back the clock

Portugal football superstar Cristiano Ronaldo rolled back the years in November with a spectacular overhead bicycle kick for his side in the Saudi Pro League.

The 40-year-old kicked one of the goals of the season with his 96th-minute wonder strike for Al Nassr FC.

“Best caption wins!” the five-time Ballon d’Or winner wrote on X after his side’s 4-1 win.

The stunning strike was Ronaldo’s 954th career goal and was similar to his iconic bicycle kick for Real Madrid in a UEFA Champions League quarterfinal match against Juventus in 2018.

Ronaldo, who is also the top men’s scorer in history with 143 international goals, is set to feature at next year’s FIFA World Cup.

Assuming he takes part, Ronaldo would become the first player in history to play in six World Cups.

New F1 champion crowned

McLaren’s Lando Norris sobbed tears of joy and relief as he won the Formula One championship for the first time in early December, ending Max Verstappen’s four-year reign.

Norris became Britain’s 11th Formula One world champion at the age of 26, with a nervy third place at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

Red Bull’s Verstappen, who ended the campaign with the most wins (eight), triumphed in the season-ender with McLaren’s Oscar Piastri second.

Formula one bosses would have been thrilled that three contenders were still in the hunt at the final grand prix of the year.

Norris went in the favourite in the three-way showdown, 12 points clear of Verstappen and 16 points clear of Piastri.

In the end just two points separated Norris from Verstappen, who finished the season strongly and threatened to spoil the Brit’s party.

McLaren, who secured the constructors’ championship in October for the second year in a row, won both titles in the same season for the first time since 1998.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand