Name: Top 10 Iconic Sports Photos and What Really Happened
Uploaded: 2026-01-15T17:18:44.000Z
Duration: 10 min 4 s
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Adverbs of degree

today we're counting down our picks for the most recognizable images ever captured in the history of sports.

I feel sad for the kid up there doing that because I know he didn't want to do it, but

he had to do it because he was put there through divine spirit.

If you look at the pictures right after the race and he was in the water, I thought, wow, he is really tired.

At the very peak of athletics, the margins are so slim that lives can change as a result of the most minute of distances.

For the legendary Michael Phelps, the 100 meter butterfly.

With his fierce rival Milorad Kovic leading the race.

After Phelps kind of botched the opening stages, it looked like Kovic was clearly going to win the gold.

But Phelps somehow fought back to second place and in the final meter launched himself forward to beat his opponent by 100th of a second.

Fans and commentators alike could not believe that Phelps was able to claw his way to first place, and

You see here, he's picking his head up before he's finishing, so it's acting as like a speed bump.

So he's coming up and then trying to lift his head up before he touches the wall.

Then I figured out that I want to be one of the best.

Now that I've gotten here now I feel amazing.

Is there a more apt display of athletic superiority than this photo of Usain Bolt very casually smiling at his competition as he comfortably outpaces them at the 2016 Olympic Games?

It's one thing being the best in the world at your craft, but

the true superstars have a level of nerve and charisma to go with it.

Thankfully, what could have been a split second moment that was missed by the live TV cameras was instead captured by Getty Images photographer Cameron Spencer.

The image was immediately declared as one of the greatest Olympic photos ever taken.

I can always tell myself, especially when I'm training and I don't want to do anymore.

This is how I thought to myself, like number eight.

New York Yankees pitcher Don Larson managed to pull off one of the rarest feats in baseball, throwing a perfect game against the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1956.

He didn't just do this in any old environment, though, he did it in game five of the World Series.

The image of the elated Larson embracing the similarly thrilled Yogi Berra remains one of the most famous famous photos and the sport's history.

Larson to this day remains the only player to ever pull off a perfect game in a World Series match.

And Larson will throw out the first pitch of this game in commemoration of 1956, when Larson pitched this perfect game, the only one ever pitched in World Series history.

Zahed Scott goes before in Argentina, with my hand, it was a goal that I couldn't reach it and Schiltung was already there so I couldn't head it.

We won't deny that his hand of God goal was a razor close second place.

Even when outnumbered, the Argentine legend is the man who holds all the power here.

It's a photo that sums up his dominance in a nutshell.

It was taken in the 1982 World cup, not in his amazing performance in 1986, as some might suggest.

Belgium actually went on to win this game 1 0.

The photo was taken after an Argentina free kick showcasing the split of the Belgian wall shortly before Maradona lost the ball.

He would dominate Belgium four years later in the 86 World Cup.

You know a catch is good when it is literally still referred to as the catch decades later.

With 58 seconds left in the 1981 NFC Championship game, the 49ers faced third down.

Quarterback Joe Montana found the perfect pass, launching the ball forward to Dwight Clark, who somehow managed to catch it for the touchdown.

Montana led the San Francisco 49ers through an 83 yard game winning drive.

And it basically signaled the end of the Dallas Cowboys spell of dominance in the NFL.

The photo itself of Clark leaping towards the ball is just about as good as American football photography ever got.

What a play by Dwight Clark, number five, Air Jordan.

We easily could have gone with the photo of Michael Jordan's final ever shot for the Bulls, but

we couldn't pass up our eventual pick MJ's 1988 dunk contest winner was one of the most insane feats of athleticism NBA fans had ever laid eyes on.

He had been in the league long enough for people to know that he could get some wild hang time.

However, seeing him soar through the air from the free throw line to the basket was was a different level of impressive.

Jordan earned a perfect 50 score with the dunk and the photo remains one of the most famous shots in basketball history.

Bear Barra swears that he tagged him before.

This play in the 1955 World Series wasn't just an incredible baseball moment.

Robinson was making waves in a time when racial divides were a very real thing in baseball and also in general American life.

He became the first African American in the MLB and he immediately wanted to make an impact.

In Game 1 against the Yankees, Robinson showed his boldness, stealing home to narrow the deficit to the Dodgers being down by one.

The photo captures his tenacity vividly becoming one of the most important sports shots of the 20th century.

Robinson used the form of the hook slide, a technique that is rarely seen in the modern game and is designed to minimize the surface area available to tag three.

A team composed mainly of amateur and collegiate level players should have never had a chance against the most dominant team in hockey.

However, right at the height of Cold War tensions, the United States team managed to shock the Soviet Union at the 1980 Winter Olympics.

The US team, very young, average age, 21 years old.

Some of them have been playing together for the last 15 years.

The win represented something much greater than a mere sporting victory.

It was a statement of hope to an entire nation.

Now regarded as one of the most unlikely upsets in the history of the Olympics.

It was immortalized through the now iconic images of the American team celebrating as they achieved the unthinkable.

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Top 10 Iconic Sports Photos and What Really Happened

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