Photo of a sweat droplet is the best sports photo of 2021

World Sports Photography Awards has announced the winners of its 2021 contest. Among many great photos, one of them stood out and became the overall winner – it shows a single drop of sweat that symbolizes everything one must go through to become a professional sports player. Of course, there are plenty more photos in the selection, and we bring you some of them below.

The winning photo captures a moment of intense focus of Rafael Nadal at Wimbledon. Cleverly titled Focus, the photo was taken by renowned sports photographer James Gourley and focuses on the single bead of sweat between the famous tennis player’s eyebrows.

The World Sports Photography Awards saw entries from professional photographers from over 20 countries around the world. They submitted more than 5,000 images across 26 categories, including Football, Athletics, F1, Golf, Baseball, Cycling, Urban & Extreme, and so on. Because of the pandemic’s impact on sports events in 2020 and 2021, this year’s contest allowed photographers to enter any images taken during the last 25 years.

The jury selected ten winners in each category, as well as ten overall winners. The latter include images of sports players like Tiger Woods, Lionel Messi, Usain Bolt, Conor McGregor, and Simone Biles.

Speaking about the awards, co-founder Alan Whiter said:

“Sport and Photography have a long and powerful relationship. The emotion, athleticism, and focus that is at the heart of sport is uniquely captured and communicated through photography. These are an amazing collection of images across sporting disciplines and with all sorts of stories behind them.”

Take a look at the remaining top ten winners, plus a few photos from the Formula 1 category since it’s my personal favorite. Make sure to check out the contest’s website to find more stunning photos of your favorite sports.