Sporting Highlights for 1998
Here are the sporting highlights of the world of sport in 1998. See the Top Earners for 1998. There were a few major world sporting events this year, such as the Winter Olympics, FIFA World Cup and the Commonwealth Games.
The year of the Winter Olympics saw the debut of two events, women's ice hockey and snowboarding. The Olympics which saw the Germans win 12 golds and 29 total medals had a few newsworthy moments. Bjørn Dæhlie of Norway won three gold medals in cross-country to make him the first-ever to win eight gold medals in the Winter Olympics. In an embarrassing display of bad conduct, the US men's hockey team destroyed their hotel rooms after being eliminated by the Czech Republic. The US women team did their best to undo the damage and negative publicity by winning the gold medal in the women's event.
It was also the year of the 16th World Cup. France, the host nation and huge underdogs, held the defending champions Brazil scoreless to win the match 3-0. French great Zinedine Zidane provided the momentum scoring the first two goals of the match en-route to the first-ever world cup win for France. In English football, Arsenal won the league title and the FA Cup double for the second time.
There were also some significant performances in athletics that year. Haile Gebrselassie was unbeaten and set four world records that year, and was awarded the Athlete of the Year by IAAF. The currently disgraced Marion Jones, who was an emerging star at the time, won the 100m and 200m in the IAAF World Cup event in South Africa and was named the best woman athlete of the year by IAAF.
In golf, in an era which was dominated by Tiger Woods, Vijay Singh was able to make a mark of his own by winning his first PGA Championship which was the beginning of his run towards eventually reaching the world no.1 ranking in 2004.
Below is a timeline of some significant results in the world of sport for the year 1998.
| Date | Results |
|---|---|
| Jan | Tennis Australia Open won by Petr Korda and Martina Hingis |
| Feb | Super Bowl held in San Diego won by Denver |
| Feb 7-22 | Winter Olympic Games were held in Nagano, Japan |
| April | Golf Masters won by Mark O'Meara |
| May | Tennis French Open won by Carlos Moya and A. Sanchez Vicario |
| June | Golf US Open won by Lee Janzen |
| June - 10 - July 12 | FIFA World Cup (Football) tournament was held in France, won by France. |
| July | the Cycling Tour de France was won by Marco Pantani |
| July | Tennis Wimbledon won by Pete Sampras and Jana Novotna |
| July | Golf The Open Championship won by Mark O'Meara |
| Aug | Golf US PGA won by Vijay Singh |
| Sept 10-20 | Commonwealth Games held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. |
| Sep | Tennis US Open won by Patrick Rafter and Lindsay Davenport |
| Oct | The Baseball World Series won by New York Yankees |
Please note that the dates for past events are not always known, and are sometimes just placed in the month that the current event is held. If no exact date is listed, then it is just an estimated month that it was held.
If you have a correction or know of events that should be included here, please let me know.
Related Pages
- Ballon D'or Winners for 1998
- Timeline (all years) in the world of sport
- For future sporting events, see the Calendar of Major Sporting Events
- More about the World of Sport
Any comments, suggestions, or corrections? Please let us know.
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