Pictures of the Day: Nigeria and Elsewhere

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Photos from Nigeria, Syria, Mexico and Israel.

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The Images of 2012: Sports

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The year started triumphantly for New York sports fans as the Giants won Super Bowl XLVI with a narrow last-minute victory over the New England Patriots. In addition, the Nets moved to Brooklyn and returned major professional sports to the land the Dodgers had forsaken.

Despite the concerns of a United States presidential candidate, the 2012 Summer Olympics in London were successful, producing stirring moments like the U.S. women's soccer team's defeat of Japan for the gold medal. The swimmer Michael Phelps increased his career total to a record 22 medals, including 18 golds.

Darryl Dyck/The Canadian Press, via Associated Pres s Mike Bolt, keeper of the Stanley Cup, retrieved it from the ice after a surprise visit to a youth practice game Dec. 7 in Vancouver. During the N.H.L. lockout, five hockey teams in Canada were randomly chosen to receive a surprise appearance by the Stanley Cup as part a hockey sponsorship program.

Usain Bolt doubled down on the gold and emphatically demonstrated that he is the fastest man ever.

But the biggest story in American sports was not on a field, but in a courtroom. On June 22, Jerry Sandusky, a former assistant football coach at Penn State, was found guilty on 45 counts of sexual abuse of young boys. In July, an independent investigation concluded that the most senior officials at Penn State, including the legendary coach Joe Paterno, failed for more than a decade to take any steps to pro tect the children victimized by Mr. Sandusky. Mr. Paterno died last January.

“Our most saddening and sobering finding is the total disregard for the safety and welfare of Sandusky's child victims,” said Louis J. Freeh, the former federal judge and director of the F.B.I. who oversaw the investigation.

On July 23, the N.C.A.A. imposed penalties on Penn State, including a four-year postseason ban.

Despite Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg's original insistence that the race must go on, the 42nd New York City Marathon was canceled after Hurricane Sandy killed 97 people in the metropolitan area and ravaged the coastlines of New York and New Jersey. Some marathoners ran the course anyway, passing long lines of people waiting to buy gasoline for their cars and generators.

Daniel Ochoa De Olza/Associated Press The Spaniard Juan Jose Padilla during a bullfight in Olivenza, Spain, on March 4. Padilla, who lost sight in one eye and sustained partial facial paralysis after a terrifying goring, returned to the bullring five months after his injury.

Hockey fans are still waiting for the N.H.L. season to start after 100 days of a lockout by the owners over a labor dispute with the players union.

R. A. Dickey became the first Met to win 20 games since 1990 and the first to win the Cy Young Award since 1985. So, of course, the Mets traded him - and his knuckleball - to the Toronto Blue Jays in December. As fans used to say in Brooklyn, “Wait till next year.”

Laurent Cipriani/Associated Press Competitors in the men's ski cross World Cup event in Val Thorens in the French Alps on Dec. 19.

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