A history maker, a grave error and a nutty scandal

There was a multitude of great sporting stories in 2024, with as many column inches being dedicated to what went on off the field of play, as on it.

Here are six sports stories that weren't all about the sports:

Super Swift

Kansas City Chiefs may have taken a third Super Bowl in five years, but the NFL thriller seemed to take second billing to the presence of Travis Kelce's girlfriend in the crowd — Taylor Swift.

The songstress superstar was performing in Tokyo the night before, but hopped on a private jet to make the NFL championship spectacular in Las Vegas.

At one point, she delighted the internet by chugging a beer — she clocked in at 6.6 seconds.

"Thank you for making it halfway across the world," said Kelce after the game before offering what might be a Swift lyric. "You're the best, baby. The absolute best."

A few days later, Swift donated $100,000 to a fundraiser supporting the family of a woman killed in a mass shooting at the Chiefs' Super Bowl victory parade.

A man of influence

Top flight Argentinian club Deportivo Riestra drew the ire of the country's soccer community after selecting an influencer with no professional experience in its starting lineup.

Riestra selected a streamer known as "Spreen", who has some 15 million followers on his social media channels, for their match against Primera Division leader Velez Sarsfield, before substituting the 24-year-old off after 78 seconds. He had not touched the ball.

His selection caused a backlash, with former Argentina international Juan Sebastian Veron saying it showed a "total lack of respect for football and footballers", but it worked wonders for the club.

The announcement that Spreen — the pseudonym of Argentine influencer Ivan Buhajeruk — would be playing racked up 3.4 million views, compared to the several thousand for a typical match.

Death is no excuse

When dope testers turned up at the Norwegian soccer team's training base, they had a list of stars they wanted samples from: Manchester City's Erling Haaland and Leipzig's Antonio Nusa... as well as Einar Gundersen and Jorgen Juve.

Gundersen and Juve are Norwegian legends, but both have been dead for decades — Juve scoring the goal that beat Germany in 1936.

Coach Stale Solbakken thought he was being pranked, while Anti-Doping Norway struggled to explain its mistake. "It's hard to say what happened," a spokesman said.

Baseball double

Boston Red Sox catcher Danny Jansen carved out a unique piece of baseball history after becoming the first player to officially appear for two teams in the same game.

The 29-year-old's unprecedented stint of double-duty arose due to a freak confluence of events stemming from Boston's abandoned game against the Toronto Blue Jays.

The match began on June 26 with Jansen in the middle of an at-bat for Toronto when it was called off for rain in the second inning.

A month later, Jansen was traded to the Red Sox, and, when the game was resumed at Fenway Park in August, he was on the field playing against his former team — and technically catching his own at-bat.

"Everybody keeps saying history is being made," he said.

"It's such a strange thing. I never would have imagined myself in this situation."

Bonkers conkers

Scandal struck the UK-based World Conker Championships when the men's champion, "King Conker", was accused of cheating after he was found to have a steel chestnut in his pocket.

Eighty-two-year-old David Jakins, who has been competing since 1977, said he kept a steel conker on him for "humor value".

His vanquished opponent, however, made the accusation that he had switched his genuine conker — a horse chestnut threaded with string — for the far more destructive steel version.

After an investigation, Jakins was cleared by the organizers and allowed to keep his crown, although he was beaten for the overall title by "Queen Conker" — 34-year-old Kelci Banschbach, originally from Indianapolis, Indiana.

Sun power

Hats off to a team of Belgian students and engineers who won a solar-powered car race in South Africa, widely considered the most challenging test of the technology.

Over a dozen teams competed in the eight-day race, which spans 4,000 kilometers from the northeast of the country to Cape Town, with varied weather and altitude extremes adding to the complexities for designers.

"Innoptus claimed victory after breaking their own record not once, but twice during the competition," said the organizers of the Sasol Solar Challenge.

The Innoptus car had a flat surface decked with photovoltaic panels and a white exterior, with narrow driver's seat sporting the number plate "SUN 08".

AFP