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Welcome, everybody to another weekly round-up from the world of sport. The top-level sport continues to come at us thick and fast and there is no let up in sight. What treats we have in store over the next few days/weeks:
Premier League - Arsenal vs Manchester City. Early in the season, yes, but an early opportunity to obtain a psychological edge over a potential championship rival.
International football fixtures - Following the aforementioned premier league clash, international fixtures commence and England have a big one, against Italy. Victory or avoiding defeat would most likely guarantee qualification to the next year's European Championship finals in Germany.
Cricket World Cup - In its early stages but with a huge variety of climates and pitch conditions each of the group matches seems to have greater importance than in other tournaments. I'm hopeful England will bounce back from their crushing defeat to New Zealand but Bangladesh certainly shouldn't be taken lightly.
Rugby World Cup - After what seems like an eternal age, the World Cup in France is reaching the latter stages. England have by and large been comfortable in progressing through as group winners but tougher challenges await. I fear for their prospects of advancement.
Formula One - Yes, the season in terms of the top honours is over but there is still plenty of excitement among the teams not called Red Bull. Can Mercedes, McLaren or Aston Marton claim a maiden victory this term? Who will come 2nd in the Constructors and Driver's championship standings? This weeks race in Qatar might provide additional clues to these questions.
Onto the real action now with the round-up. Starting with this cool view from Anastasiya showing the lengths of time Formula 1 drivers spend with their teams. There are some periods of exceptional loyalty on view here but also those more 'journeymen' drivers that seem to spend a couple of seasons before moving onto pastures new. Thanks for sharing Anastasiya!
Next up, we have the Olympics and this absolute stunner of a design from Lydia Wren which focuses on 'Women at the Games'. My personal favourite visual is the left-hand combo chart showing the number of events men participated in through the ages (blue bars) versus the line representing women. It's staggering to see the disconnect between the two until very recently. It's great news to see the upcoming Paris edition of the games will have an equal number of events for the first time. Great work, Lydia.
A viz to generate a debate if ever I've seen one! Luca Frazzoni takes a look at ESPNs ranking for sports skills and visualises them with this clever heatmap. So, what do you think? Is Boxing the toughest sport in the world? Is Basketball harder than Wrestling, Tennis than Football/Soccer, Baseball than Rugby? Much to discuss here I think!
I'm certain I've seen this before (maybe a draft view, Adam?) but however I've come across it originally I'm glad it's back. There's something almost hypnotic about the similar but ever so slightly different black and white kits of Grimsby Town through the ages, and Adam Green has written an easy to read blog post summarising the main chapters of progression. Great viz, great blog, check it out!
Last up in the round-up this week, Peter McKeever creates this brilliant percentile graph to show the performance of NFL receivers. Do check out the link provided to read up more on how these calculations were modelled and further explanations. Fascinating stuff, Peter!
Finally, it would be remiss of me not to mention the recent #Ironviz feeder announcement. This season's topic is Viz What You Love.
WE LOVE SPORT
WE LOVE VISUALISATION
I'm anticipating, and thoroughly looking forward to, an avalanche of #sportsvizsunday / #ironviz compilations in the coming weeks!
That's it, folks. Enjoy your weeks and looking forward to seeing you all in the sporting visualisation world soon.
Simon & the #SportsVizSunday team