Weekly Roundup 06.22.25

Welcome to another week of Sports Viz Sunday! I’m particularly excited today — Wimbledon is just around the corner, which is one of my favourite times of the year.

In the build-up, I’ve been watching the Queen’s tournament, and it was great to see Jack Draper doing so well, especially considering he played the semi-final with tonsillitis. Just playing tennis in 30-degree heat is a feat in itself, let alone doing it while sick. I’ve got a good feeling about Jack’s chances in the Championships.

There’s plenty of other sport happening too. The Lions are currently preparing for their upcoming battles against Australia. I seemed to hit a bit of a nerve in our recent #sportsvizsunday May highlights roundup with my thoughts on the Lions Tour — but hey, I’m always open to giving things a chance. I’ll be watching and seeing how it plays out, and may become a converted Lions fan by the end!

Meanwhile, the Club World Cup in football is progressing, although I’m not sure what to make of it. There have been concerns about empty seats and poor (hot) weather, which is especially relevant considering the World Cup is set to be held in the same region, at a similar time of year. I think FIFA has a few things to iron out as the competition develops.

But now, let’s move on to the roundup — and we’ll start with that aforementioned Lions Tour and a couple of fantastic collaboratory entries from two of my most vocal critics in last week’s comments: Chris Westlake and Rob Taylor ;-) Let’s take a look.

Both designs focus on Australia’s performance since they last played the Lions. That’s 152 games ago, and they’ve only won 45% of those, which I found surprising.

The radial display shows Australia's world ranking with a yellow ring running around the radial chart. Australia’s wins are shown as vertical orange bars sticking outward, and the higher the bar, the bigger the win (or the greater the score differential). I imagine the inward lines represent the teams they played. The beauty of this design is that there’s a lot you can pick up intuitively from this view, but there’s also a handy key that explains everything clearly. Beautifully designed by Rob and Chris.

Or, if radials aren't your thing. How about this? A very different view of the same data, again from Rob and Chris. Visually, it’s stunning — definitely something that draws you in.

I really like the use of small multiples to divide the data year by year — it makes the whole thing easier to follow. Each spiral represents a game Australia played, with the outcome encoded by colour (orange = a win for Australia) and a number of elements of additional information. Finally, the surprising drop in ranking, to 8th, is represented with the white line running through the middle.

Another original and creative view — brilliantly built by Rob and Chris.

We turn to Japanese basketball now, and this is the story of the playoff final from yasushi_ishikawa. It’s a brilliant design that follows the action between the Brex and the Golden Kings. In the top left, we can see how the scores progressed, including that dramatic catch-up shown in the top right, where the Brex (or more precisely, the Utsunomiya Brex) managed to level the game and then take the lead in the final moments.

There are loads of different aspects covered — the types of shots, fouls, and a zoomed-in look at that final two-minute stretch. Then, we even get a breakdown of the last few seconds. It’s a fantastic story. I love how it starts with the big-picture overview and then zooms into those intense final moments. It really captures the drama of a playoff final.

Great job!

As Mo Wootten mentioned in his tweet, inspiration was taken from Dennis Kao, and the stunning maps he produces, as he explores QGIS Co to create this view of the Isle of Man and the historic TT motorbike race. I love the neon colour palette here (neon colours are notoriously tricky to get right, but Mo’s nailed it.). Beyond that, the blurred effects and sharp contrasts really convey a sense of speed, perfect for showcasing the Isle of Man TT course.

A nice, simple design that's hugely effective.

We’ve seen a number of “self-quantified” visuals recently, and this one from Donna Coles is a fantastic example. In this design, Donna has visualised the performance of her daughter Mia, who wore a GPS tracker during her match days playing football.

The visual includes a variety of metrics including: calories burned, playing time, sprints, accelerations and much more. It's packed with insights and all presented in a brilliantly designed layout. And, of course, there is plenty to explore in the interactive version too.

A great viz from Donna.

And last up this week, here is a selection of our favourites from the latest #B2VB project, which tasked participants with creating a rank over time chart using the world golf rankings during 2025. There's some great use of icons and line styles within our gallery below. Check it out!

Raisa Hannus

Kyeongseok MIN (みん)

Hideaki Yamamoto / Chasoso

yasushi_ishikawa

That's it for this week. Thanks for reading and looking forward to seeing what you share next.

Simon & the #SportsVizSunday team.