In 2024, Shohei Ohtani did more than just live up to the hype in his first season with the Los Angeles Dodgers in producing a historic individual campaign that was capped off with team success as the Dodgers won the World Series over the New York Yankees.
In Paris, Japanese athletes triumphed at the Summer Olympics, backing up a record medal haul at the Tokyo Games in 2021 with its best-ever performance on foreign soil.
Outside of Ohtani and the Olympics, Naoya Inoue, Onosato and Yuka Saso were among the stars to shine for Japan in a banner tear for the nation’s athletes.
Shohei Ohtani and his Dodgers teammates celebrate after beating the Yankees to clinch the World Series on Oct. 30. The triumph in the first year of Ohtani’s 10-year, $700-million deal with the club capped a remarkable campaign for the Japanese star.
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Brazil’s Gabriel Medina points skyward after catching a large wave during the Olympic surfing competition on July 29 in Teahupo’o on the French Polynesian island of Tahiti. Medina went on to finish third in the competition, which was best remembered for this viral image.
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Americans Simone Biles (left) and Jordan Chiles (right), who would later lose her bronze medal after an appeal, bow toward Olympic floor exercise gold medalist Rebeca Andrade of Brazil on Aug. 5. The Games marked a triumphant return to form for Biles, but it was Andrade who got the better of her in a close battle on the floor.
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Coco Yoshizawa, then 14, celebrates after her final run of the women’s street skateboarding final at the Paris Olympics on July 28. Following the team’s dominant performance at the Tokyo Games, Yoshizawa helped lead Japanese skaters to the top of the medal table in Paris.
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Uta Abe is consoled by her coach after a shock loss against Diyora Keldiyorova in her women’s judo 52-kg bout at the the Paris Olympics on July 28. Abe, the defending Olympic champion, was heavily favored in the event. The news wasn’t all bad for the Abe family, however, as Uta’s brother Hifumi defended his title in the men’s 66 kg.
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Naoya Inoue battles Luis Nery at Tokyo Dome on May 6, the first boxing match at the Big Egg since 1990. After becoming the undisputed super bantamweight champion late last year, “The Monster” defended his titles twice in 2024 with a victory over Nery and another over TJ Doheny in September.
| Jiji
Kirishima (left) is shoved out of the ring by Onosato during their bout at the Summer Grand Sumo Tournament on May 16. Onosato, the sport’s breakout star of 2024, went on to win the tournament to claim his first Emperor’s Cup and put the sumo world on notice.
| Jiji
BayStars manager Daisuke Miura is thrown into the air by his players after the club upset the Hawks in the Japan Series to cap a Cinderella run for the third-seeded Central League squad and clinch Yokohama’s first title since 1998.
| JIji
Yuka Saso lines up a putt on the 10th green during the final round of the U.S. Women’s Open in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, on June 2. Saso earned her second major with the win and her first while representing Japan. Saso also won the U.S. Women’s Open in 2021 while representing the Philippines.
| USA Today / via Reuters
