Each year, the sporting world remembers the passing of current superstar athletes and long-retired legends, each of whom impacted their respective sport in unique ways.
Al Jazeera chronicles the sporting life of five of the highest-profile names who departed in 2024:
Franz Beckenbauer (September 11, 1945 – January 7, 2024)
Germany’s football great who won World Cups for his country as both player and manager, died at 78.
Born in Munich just four months after World War II, Beckenbauer is widely regarded as Germany’s greatest footballer of all time.
On the field, he transformed the game in Europe. While still a teenager with Bayern Munich, he pioneered a highly innovative playing style which is now widely referred to as “total football”.
At the international level, he captained West Germany to a memorable home World Cup win in 1974.
Beckenbauer is one of only nine players to have won the FIFA World Cup, the European Champions Cup, and the Ballon d’Or.
As a manager, he enjoyed similar success, taking Germany to two consecutive World Cup finals in 1986 and 1990, winning the cup for his nation on the second attempt in Rome.
In his latter years, Beckenbauer is fondly remembered as one of the game’s greatest global ambassadors.
Kelvin Kiptum (December 2, 1999 – February 11, 2024)
Kenya’s marathon world record holder died at 24.
Kiptum exploded onto the marathon scene in October 2023 when he ran a scintillating two hours and 35 seconds in Chicago, taking 34 seconds off fellow Kenyan Eliud Kipchoge’s previous world record.
The death of the 24-year-old, who was driving in western Kenya in February when his car rolled over, left the athletics world in shock. Kiptum was expected to be one of the track superstars of the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Kiptum was born in Chepkorio, a village in the Rift Valley that is the heartland of Kenyan distance running; in a strange twist of fate, it also happened to be the place where his tragic death occurred.
His funeral service was attended by thousands of friends, relatives and fans. Kenya’s President William Ruto was among those who paid tribute to one of the most gifted running talents of all time.
OJ Simpson (July 9, 1947 – April 10, 2024)
The former Hall of Fame NFL football star and actor turned celebrity murder defendant, died at 76.
Nicknamed “The Juice”, Simpson was one of the best and most popular American athletes of the late 1960s and 70s.
During nine seasons for the Buffalo Bills and two for the San Francisco 49ers, Simpson became one of the greatest ball carriers in NFL history. In 1973, he became the first NFL player to rush for more than 2,000 yards in a season. He retired in 1979.
Simpson parlayed his football stardom into a career as a sportscaster, advertising pitchman and Hollywood actor in films including The Naked Gun series.
All that changed after his former wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend, Ronald Goldman, were found fatally slashed in a bloody double murder scene outside her Los Angeles home on June 12, 1994.
Simpson quickly emerged as a suspect. He was ordered to surrender to police but five days after the killings, he fled in his white Ford Bronco with a former teammate – carrying his passport and a disguise. A slow-speed chase through the Los Angeles area ended at Simpson’s mansion and he was later charged with the murders.
What ensued was one of the most notorious trials in the 20th-century US and a media circus. Prosecutors committed a memorable blunder when they directed Simpson to try on a pair of blood-stained gloves found at the murder scene, confident they would fit perfectly and show he was the killer. In a highly theatrical demonstration, Simpson struggled to put on the gloves and indicated to the jury they did not fit.
Simpson was later acquitted of the murders on October 3, 1995.
On October 3, 2008 – exactly 13 years after his acquittal in the murder trial – he was convicted by a Las Vegas jury on criminal charges, including kidnapping and armed robbery related to a 2007 incident at a casino hotel.
Simpson was released on parole in 2017 and moved into a gated community in Las Vegas. He was granted early release from parole in 2021 due to good behaviour at age 74. Three years later, he died after a battle with cancer.
