The 8 Best Sports Stories of 2025 and What They Taught Us

Sports are an extraordinary mirror for the human condition. I’ve spent much of this year watching, reflecting, and writing about how sports can bring out the best in people.

For all that is wrong with the world, sport—at its finest—is an incredible reminder of something that is right: the extraordinary nature of the human spirit. It reminds us of the profound aliveness that comes from caring deeply and giving something our all.

Here are my 8 favorite sports stories of 2025, along with what we can learn from each:

Jalen Hurts: Resilience is an Ongoing Practice

In February, Jalen Hurts led the Philadelphia Eagles to a Super Bowl win.

Hurts had anything but an easy road to success. Seven years ago, Hurts was benched in the college football national championship. Five years ago, four quarterbacks were drafted ahead of him. Two years ago, he lost the Super Bowl.

People think progress is linear, but it’s not. It takes time to develop a craft. There’s no such thing as an overnight breakthrough. You’ve got to be patient and stay in the game long enough to break through the inevitable valleys and plateaus.

Resilience is not a one time thing. It’s an ever-present factor on the path to greatness. It’s not about how many times you get knocked down. It’s about how many times you get back up. It’s also about coming to respect what you do, coming to respect the people you do it with, and coming to respect yourself.

Rory McIlroy: Respond Not React

In April, Rory McIlroy became just the sixth golfer ever to win a career grand slam. It took him 11 years, 38 majors, and countless moments of heartbreak and near misses, playing on a course that had always gotten the better of him.

McIlroy entered the final round of the 2025 Master’s tournament in a position to win. He looked good until hole 13, when he made a terrible double bogey, losing his lead—a devastating unforced error. If that was the worst hole of his career, the second worst may have come just two holes later on 15, when he made more uncharacteristic mistakes. And yet, and yet. He responded instead of reacted and clawed his way back… only to miss an “easy” putt (though arguably no such thing exists) for the win, which forced him to compete in a sudden-death playoff.

He kept it together, played textbook golf in the playoff, and, after more than a decade of trying, he won the Masters. It seemed like the world celebrated with him.

The real game isn’t the one you practiced, hoped for, or wished for—it’s the one in front of you. The difference between those who collapse and those who rise is how you respond when things don’t go your way.

Yoshinobu Yamamoto: Let It Rip

Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s game 7 performance pitching for the Los Angeles Dodgers against the Toronto Blue Jays is one that will be remembered for decades.

After pitching a complete Game 2 in the World Series, Yoshinobu Yamamoto came back for 96 pitches and 6 innings in Game 6, and then threw another 34 pitches to close game 7. Most starters rest four or five days before throwing again. Yamamoto rested none. He took his team to the top of the mountain on sheer will.

Excellence isn’t about waiting for perfect conditions. It’s about giving it what you’ve got on the day—and being open to the possibility that you may exceed what you once thought were limits.

Carlos Alcaraz: You’re Never Out Until You’re Out

Carlos Alcaraz’s otherworldly comeback at the French Open showed us that you’re never out until you’re out.

Down three championship points (!!!) in the men’s French Open final—the ultimate back against the wall scenario in sports—he didn’t panic, didn’t flinch. He simply stayed with the point in front of him.

For five and a half hours, he traded blows with Jannik Sinner in what many have called the greatest Grand Slam final ever. No coach in his ear. No substitutions. Just grit, focus, and belief on the slow and unforgiving clay of Roland-Garros.

It was a master class in playing the point in front of you.

Not the point you wanted to happen.
Not the point that just happened.
Not the point you hope will happen.
But the point that is happening.

It’s true in tennis, and in life.

Scottie Scheffler: The Goal is the Path and the Path is the Goal

In July, Scottie Scheffler said in a press conference that winning major championships is “not fulfilling.” It sent the internet into a frenzy, some calling him jaded or ungrateful or worse. But Scheffler was absolutely correct.

“It feels like you work your whole life to celebrate winning a tournament for like a few minutes,” he said. “It only lasts a few minutes.”

99.99% of life is lived in the process. Results are mere blips in time.

There is no greater trap than thinking that the accomplishment of some goal will fulfill you. What will fulfill you is who you become in the process of going for it.

Sasha Digiulian: Keep Showing Up

After undergoing two total hip reconstructions and being told by countless doctors that no professional athlete has ever returned to an elite level, Sasha Digiulian made history in November by becoming the first woman to climb El Capitan’s insanely arduous Platinum Wall.

It wasn’t an overnight comeback. It was five years in the making. If you love what you do and keep showing up anything can happen.

What’s more is that during her climb, a massive unforecasted storm forced Digiulian to spend 9 straight days in her 4x6 tent. So not only did she do this insanely difficult climb, but she essentially completed a silent meditation retreat in the middle of it. She told me that she drew upon her hip surgeries for the mental fortitude to wait out the storm, not give up on the climb, not lose her mind, and not give up on herself.

Ken Griffey Jr: Embrace Self-Complexity

Rory McIlroy Masters’s win wasn’t the only awesome sports story to come out of that tournament. There was also what retired baseball legend Ken Griffey Jr. did: put himself on the map as a truly excellent sports photographer. After years of honing the craft, he got credentialed and captured some of the most iconic moments on the green.

Griffey is a 13-time baseball All-Star and 10-time Golden Glove winner. He could be retired on a beach somewhere. Instead, he developed a new passion that put him on the sidelines with a camera in his hands. He started again as a novice, a risk many professionals aren’t known to take, let alone take willingly.

Maybe it’s hard to abandon the spotlight of sport. Maybe he just loves the craft. But whatever the reason, it’s a powerful reminder of what it means to evolve and grow.

When we diversify our sense of self, we gain resilience. Just because we move on from something we love doesn’t mean we’re done. Life can have many seasons.

JJ Spaun: You Don’t Need Perfect Conditions to Perform Your Best

The night before winning the US Open, golfer JJ Spaun was up at 3 AM caring for his sick toddler. Any wearable or tracking tool would’ve suggested that he wasn’t ready to play golf the next morning. But he did it and won a major, proving to himself that you don’t always have to feel ready to perform.

Life is inherently uncertain. You can do everything to practice and prepare, and then stuff happens. And even when everything goes smoothly, it’s still no guarantee that you’ll perform at your best. The greats learn to accept this uncertainty, show up, and give what they’ve got to give.

You don’t always have to feel your best to perform your best. Sometimes things get out of control. You can still show up and give what you’ve got.

You never what will happen.