The Guardian and Observer sport photographer Tom Jenkins selects his favourite images from the thousands of frames that he shot during 2021 and recalls the stories behind them
![Tom Jenkins’s best sports photos of 2021](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/6c7529d4c70191804c8903ee1c57125605884fe3/1600_1076_3789_2272/master/3789.jpg?width=1200&height=630&quality=85&auto=format&fit=crop&overlay-align=bottom%2Cleft&overlay-width=100p&overlay-base64=L2ltZy9zdGF0aWMvb3ZlcmxheXMvdGctZGVmYXVsdC5wbmc&enable=upscale&s=9b26ff85ef9e3d9a72e2475de8c51920)
Normally the summer Olympics are the pinnacle event for me to cover, but this year was not at all normal and I decided to give Tokyo a miss. Not only did my family not want me going, there were other factors to discourage me, not least the new rules that meant I might have very limited access. So instead my year was dominated by
Football, the peak being the final of the Euros at Wembley, a game that brought the country to a standstill and became one of the most-watched moments in
British television history.