China's Su Bingtian etched his name in history when he clocked 9.83 seconds in the men's 100-meter sprint semifinal at the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics, setting a new record for Asian runners.

Su, 32, became Team China's flag bearer at the closing ceremony of the Tokyo Olympics for his remarkable breakthrough.

As one of the brightest stars among Chinese Olympians this summer, Su went through ups and downs over a six-year long stretch, battling with self-doubt posed by accidental injuries time after time. His most recent injury happened in 2019, breaking his confidence of tying the then Asian record of 9.91 seconds. Behind the record breaking milliseconds was a wait of two years and eight months.

China's Zhang Yufei concluded her Tokyo Olympics trip with four medals, two gold and two silver, the biggest Tokyo medal haul for a Chinese Olympian.

Zhang won a bronze medal in the 16th International Swimming Federation (FINA) World Championships at 17 and has since been considered one of the most promising swimmers in China. However, she fell short on her first Olympic pursuit in Rio, finishing sixth in the women's 200-meter butterfly final.

She struggled with unstable performances from 2017 to 2020 due to adjustments in her techniques and movements. Her coach made a bold decision in the spring of 2020 to withdraw her from 200m events in all competitions to focus on the 100m to boost her confidence by achieving stability.

The efforts paid off when she narrowed the gap between her personal best with women's 100m butterfly world record to 0.14 seconds in September 2020 at the nationals.

Almost a year later, Zhang went on to prove that she and her coach were right by breaking the Olympic record to win gold in the women's 200m butterfly at the Tokyo Olympics.

Sun Yiwen won China's first Olympic gold medal in women's epee individual in Tokyo, defeating world No. 1, also five-time Olympian, Ana Maria Popescu of Romania in the final.

For both Sun and Popescu, it was a battle for the first Olympic title. The veteran managed to level the score 10-10, but then in the last three seconds of the match, Sun scored the winning point in the deciding period and established herself as the first Chinese woman to win at this event in Olympic history.

China's Ma Long became the first male Olympian to defend the table tennis singles title by defeating compatriot Fan Zhendong 4-2 in the final at Tokyo 2020.

With this victory, 32-year-old Ma set the record of most gold medals in the table tennis event in Olympics history.

Similar to Su, Ma's victory was a tough comeback after a long struggle with injuries. He had no choice but to receive a knee operation in August 2019, followed by 15 months of struggle, during which he did not win any title and constantly lost to teammates and opponents who were much younger than him.

"Sometimes when I reached the finals, I'd be scared," recalled Ma.

Though Fan had been out-ranking Ma most of the time since April 2018, according to the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF), the veteran clinched the vital victory in Tokyo.

Worldwide, Giannis Antetokounmpo dropped 50 points to clinch the FMVP (Finals Most Valuable Player) award while helping his team, the Milwaukee Bucks, to win their second title in the NBA history, 50 years after their first victory. 

Antetokounmpo, 26, won the MVP award back-to-back in 2019 and 2020, but fell short on the team's title pursuit both times. 

He became the third player in NBA history to pocket regular season MVP, Finals MVP and Defensive Player of the Year Award, with the other two being the great Michael Jordan and Hakeem Olajuwon.

Lionel Messi won a record-breaking seventh Ballon d'Or following his dramatic move from Barcelona to Paris Saint-Germain. Messi also won in 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2015, and 2019. 

Messi helped his country, Argentina, win the Copa America this summer, which ended his longstanding title drought with the national team. He was also named the best player of the tournament and won the Golden Boot.

Despite the shocking exit from Barcelona in August 2021, Messi ended the last season with the La Liga giants in style, scoring 38 goals in 48 games with the victory at Copa del Rey.

At the 2021 Wimbledon Championships this year, Novak Djokovic leveled the record of amassing 20 Grand Slam titles with tennis giants Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal. 

The men's singles world No. 1 has been in good shape since the start of this year, despite testing positive for the coronavirus in 2020. He won three Grand Slams in 2021 in Australia, France and the UK, and is looking to set a new record in the beginning of 2022 at the Australian Open, as two of the "Big 3" are still recovering from injuries and COVID-19, respectively. 

Max Verstappen's moment came later than all the other stars who made history, as his F1 showdown with seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton came to the last Grand Prix of the year in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. 

Hamilton led all but the final lap in the race, but when the safety car came out due to an unexpected clash, Verstappen seized the golden opportunity to overtake Hamilton to become the first Dutch man to win an F1 title.