Leicester City were quoted at 5,000-1 to win the Premier League in August 2015. They finished ten points clear, and the conditions that allowed it closed almost immediately.
Nadal beat Federer 9-7 in the fifth at Wimbledon in 2008, twice interrupted by rain and completed in light too poor to continue much longer.
Usain Bolt ran the 100 metres in 9.58 seconds in Berlin in August 2009, taking eleven hundredths off his own record. Nobody has been within a tenth of it since.
ClavecinPublic domain
Djokovic beat Federer 13-12 in the fifth in 2019, the first year a final set tie-break existed at Wimbledon. Federer served for the match at 8-7.
Simone Biles withdrew from five finals in Tokyo after losing her spatial awareness mid-air. She came back and won again, which is the part the sport is still learning from.
Barcelona lost 4-0 in Paris and won the return 6-1, the winner arriving in the ninety-fifth minute. No side had overturned a four-goal first-leg deficit before, and none has since.
Emma Raducanu came through three qualifying rounds and seven in the main draw at the 2021 US Open without losing a set. Nobody had done it before.
Dr. John Kelley, NOAA/NOS/COOPSPublic domain
The United States beat the Soviet Union 4-3 in the 1980 Olympic ice hockey tournament. It was a medal-round game, not a final, and it was not shown live.
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Serena Williams beat Venus 6-4 6-4 in the 2017 Australian Open final. She disclosed months later that she had been pregnant throughout the tournament.
Milan led the 2005 Champions League final 3-0 at the interval and lost it on penalties. The side that had been the best in Europe for three years never quite recovered its authority.
Michael Jordan scored 45 in game six of the 1998 NBA Finals and won it with a jumper in the final seconds. It was his last act as a Chicago Bull.
