Weekly Roundup 05.19.2024

The end of the English Premier League season arrives on a typically sunny Sunday. Unfortunately, there is very little riding on today's matches. YES, technically the championship could go to one of Manchester City or Arsenal and YES, Luton could overcome a huge goal difference to overtake Nottingham Forest but let's face it we all know City will beat West Ham and Luton will be relegated after a fantastic effort.

What is becoming less predictable, (maybe, hopefully) is the Formula 1 season. With Lando Norris' maiden victory in Miami–has there been a more popular winner in recent times?–and the field seemingly closing up to Red Bull is this the moment the championship springs into life?

I think it's fair to say we are going to be spoiled for sport this summer. Not only do the Euros in Germany look to be shaping up brilliantly but we have Olympic and Paralympic games on the horizon in which athletes have been able to properly prepare and train for without the fear of Covid and postponents hanging over them. And for anyone wanting to explore the events of the upcoming Paralympic Games in more detail check out this effort from Steph Blair. Each of the 22 sports has its own chapter and includes details on the general overview, history and what might happen in Paris in a little over 100 days. Fantastic work, Steph!

And if your visualisation preference is for something a little more novel and eye-catching then Steph has you covered! Featuring a wonderful radial tree diagram, she has mapped each of the 549 medal events across the 22 main disciplines. It’s a fantastic way to scan through the different levels of the diagram to see not only which sports have the most events but within that, the various classifications as well. For example, the almost 20 separate classifications for the discus throw. Incredible.

I love it when our regular contributors post updates of their vizzes, especially when the content is personal to them. We tick both boxes today with Adam Green sharing his updated running log to show the results of his efforts in April. The easy to view heatmap clearly shows an increase in activity over March and April and an impressive 275 miles covered already this year. Run Adam, run!

I always enjoy reading Adam’s snappy blog posts highlighting different graphing options, when and where they may be considered and always showcasing a fantastic example of his own. The 200 grand slam wins by Andy Murray is a great example of an ISOTYPE (or unit chart) and brilliantly highlights the progression of Murray’s career from early age promise to a period of time between 2011 and 2016 when he was rightly regarded as one of the best in the world alongside Federer, Nadel and Djokovic. It’s a shame that injury robbed him of at least a couple more years right at the top but what an achievement to come back from that and be able to compete on the big stage again.

I feel as though each of the vizzes showcased this week has an inspirational feel to them. Whether that be athletes going above, and beyond, the limits of human endurance to those dedicated to ongoing improvement. This next viz by Frederic Fery fits perfectly into this space. Charting the progress of his son’s (Elliott) incredible bike journey from France to China (that’s over 10,000 km!), Frederic tells us that Elliott is almost halfway through this epic and is currently cycling through Turkey. What an incredible effort for an equally incredible and worthy cause, the Limbs 4 Life charity.

That's a wrap for this week. I'm sure you'll agree some incredible work showcased once again. Enjoy what remains of your weekend and see you in the world of sporting visualizations soon.

Simon and the #SportsVizSunday team