The year 2023 is almost over, so in Wednesday evening’s review – about everything most important in sports, both in the world and in Latvia. This year has been particularly rich with excellent achievements in two very popular team sports in Latvia – hockey and basketball. First, the Latvian hockey team won bronze medals at the world championship for the first time in history. Later, at the end of the summer, the Latvian men’s basketball team won the fifth place in the final tournament of the World Cup, losing to the future champions Germany in the quarterfinals in a real drama. This is also an excellent and unprecedented achievement, and already next year Latvia will claim entry into the Olympic Games tournament in Paris, the last qualification will be held in Riga. These two are undoubtedly the biggest events in the context of Latvian sports in 2023, they are the biggest even in the last decade. The success of hockey and basketball, as well as the factor of coaches Harijas Vītoliņas and Lukas Banki, will be given a lot of attention in the annual review.
Sports does not end with these two types and successes, there were also many other events, especially in individual sports, including athletics. Latvian athletes have had success in several sports and disciplines, there have also been prolonged failures, which mainly concern the national football team and its performance, the country still does not have a single football stadium that really meets the European standard. The plans for the new stadium have finally become more realistic, the team itself has parted with the head coach and will look to find another candidate for this position.
In 2023, several important international competitions will be held in Latvia, for example, a partial tournament in the world hockey championship, as well as the first world championship in running. Successes, failures, peculiar incidents, also a return to sports after the growth of the family (Anastasija Grigorjeva, Baiba Bendika, Anastasija Sevastova) – more about everything in the annual sports review.
