Iconic Sport Photos
A picture is worth a thousand words. But in sports, a picture also can be worth a thousand emotions. Sport has the power to bring everyone together, sport can change your emotions at any given time and sport photos can capture those magical moments.
Photographs can evoke a whole host of emotions, from pure joy to heart-breaking defeat.
Here are some of the most iconic photos in sports history. Featuring Muhammed Ali, Michael Phelps, Tiger Woods and Michael Jordan.
Muhammad Ali Vs Sonny Liston 2 (Neil Leifer)
One of the most iconic, if not the greatest sport photo of all time. Sports Illustrated magazine named their first meeting, the Liston–Clay fight (Ali had not yet changed his name from Cassius Clay), as the fourth greatest sports moment of the twentieth century. Clay, the first bout when Liston gave up at the opening of the seventh round.
“Get up and fight, sucker!” Heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali stands over Sonny Liston, following a first-round knockout in a championship rematch on May 25, 1965.
Ali was The Greatest, the photo shows Ali at his brilliant best, standing over his opponent with raw aggression after a powerful KO within one minute and 44 seconds. Powerful overhead lights and thick clouds of cigar smoke had turned the ring into the perfect studio, and Leifer took full advantage.
“If I were directing a movie and I could tell Ali where to knock him down and Sonny where to fall, they’re exactly where I would put them,” Leifer later said in an interview with the American writer Dave Mondy to mark the 50th anniversary of the bout.
I was obviously in the right seat, but what matters is I didn’t miss. That’s what separates best sports photographers from the ones that are just good — you have to get lucky in sports photography.”
Tiger Woods 2001 Masters (Fred Vuich)
Fred Vuich captured Tiger Woods in mid-backswing on the 18th hole of the final round of The Master. The photo became an instant classic after it was chosen to be the Sports Illustrated cover for the April 16th issue highlighting Tiger Woods winning his fourth straight major.
The Championship marked the completion of the Tiger Slam, with Woods holding all four major titles, having won the U.S Open, Open Championship and PGA Championship in 2000. Woods would go on to win the Masters a further three times in 2002, 2005 and 2019.
“After I shot Tiger and Mickelson on the 16th green I left all my stuff with my film runner and took my Mamiya 7 to the tower at 18. It was an overcast day but by 17 green the sun popped out around 6:45pm, the light was perfect” Vuich said.
Muhammed Ali Vs Cleveland Williams (Neil Leifer)
Another brilliant photo again by Neil Leifer, this time one year later in 1966, Muhammed Ali’s 3rd KO against Williams.
Many experts and boxers, including Mike Tyson, regard Ali’s performance in this fight to be the finest of his boxing career.
In an interview with the Guardian, Neil expressed that this photo was the best photo he ever took.
“Everyone assumes the picture I took of Ali v Liston in 1965 is my favourite — it has even been called the greatest sports photograph of all time. But my favourite photograph I ever took is Ali v Williams, no question about it.
I gambled on Ali getting a knockout, fastening my camera to the lights way above the ring. And Williams landed flat on his back in a good spot,” said Leifer.
Sport is a matter of margins sometimes, it could be a last second winner, a close finish in a race or the ball crossing the line by millimetres, photography is a matter of margins too. “All Ali had to do was be one foot forward, or Williams could have fallen a yard to his right, and it would have been a lousy shot”, Leifer added, a testament to how close sometimes getting that right snap actually is.
To read Leifer’s full interview with the Guardian click below.
Michael Jordan 1988 NBA Dunk Contest (Walter Iooss Jr)
A fantastic photo showing Michael Jordan at his brilliant best. Jordan is regarded as one of the best basketball players of all time. He is 6 X NBA Champion with the Chicago Bulls, winning the NBA Finals MVP in all the finals.
Sports Illustrated interviewed Walter about the photo, Walter said: The problem with shooting the NBA slam-dunk contest was that you never knew how the players were going to dunk, especially Jordan. In 1997 he had twirled and dunked with his back to me. But by this time I knew him a little better. As he sat in the stands three hours before the contest, I said, “Michael, can you tell me which way you’re going to go, so I can move and get your face in the picture?” He looked at me as if I were crazy but then said, “Sure. Before I go out to dunk I’ll put my index finger on my knee and point which way I’m going.
On the next-to-last one he landed in my lap. On the last one I set up in the same spot. He looked at me as if to say, “Go left a little, give me some room this time.” And that was it, the picture was made: 1000th of a second frozen in time.”
Michael Phelps 2008 Olympics (Heinz Kluetmeier)
In the last paragraph I spoke about the matter of margins, but this photo and Phelps’ win was literally a matter of inches and seconds.
Phelps already had six golds in the Beijing Olympics coming into the 100-meter butterfly.
He edged out Serbia’s Milorad Cavic by one-hundredth of a second and he would complete his goal of winning eight golds in eight races.
In total from four Olympics, (2004 Athens, 2008 Beijing, 2012 London, 2016 Rio), Phelps won 23 golds, three slivers and two bronzes.
The photo details just shows how close this final was. While Phelps touched the wall with his right hand, there is a sliver of space between Cavic’s fingers and the wall.
Kluetmeier said: “In terms of Olympic photos, it is near the top for me because it defines a moment that a lot of people did not believe. Look, the Serbians even protested. People don’t trust things they cannot see and here we were able to see it. We worked our butts off, we did hard work to get it in place and we got lucky.”
These are just five iconic pictures but there are hundreds and hundreds of great sport photos. Jesse Owens salute at the 1936 games, American sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos raised gloved fists at the 1968 Mexico Olympics, Odell Beckham Jr. catch of the decade, England 1966 World Cup Winners and Usain Bolt at the 2016 Rio Olympics are some of the other iconic photos
What is your favourite Sporting Photo?
I have created a Instagram page SportPhotos365 which shows iconic sport photos each and everyday. Good sporting images and sport history is what the account is all about, so give us a follow!
