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What was 2012 like? Each Olympic year is dominated by that summer event, more than anything else. Yes, we had the New York Giants winning the Super Bowl, LeBron James winning his first NBA title while Chelsea made history in the Champions League and Sergio Aguero made his own history in the Premiership. Still, this was the year of the Olympic games in London.

Bradley Wiggins won the Tour de France, but carried on to win more gold as the Brits dominated the cycling events. Oscar Pistorius both lost and won with his historic performances for South Africa in the 400 meters, both individual and relays, but Kirani James from Grenada was the true sporting sensation in that distance.

Old heroes from Beijing rose above the rest: Usain Bolt took three gold medals for the second consecutive time, and put behind any talk of his career being close to over. Michael Phelps had a slow start, but eventually took four more gold medals and 22 in total. The most decorated Olympian in history, by miles and miles.

How can we forget Andy Murray, who finally ended all the talk about can he and could he. He won gold at Wimbledon against Rodger Federer and followed that up with a win at the US Open against Novak Djokovic, ending more than 70 years of waiting for a British Grand Slam champion.

Spain continued to be the nation in football, winning an unprecedented second consecutive Euro and third major tournament. It was the year Eli Manning become a bigger champion than his older and better brother Peyton Manning, as hard as it is to believe. Sometimes the universe does throw us curve-balls we just don’t know how to handle. Luckily for Tom Brady, the New York Giants didn’t make the playoffs this time.