Best sporting moment you have witnessed in person: share yours

[Glenn82]

Not a news thread, just a good one. I have been thinking about this because the World Cup starting has me in a nostalgic mood about stadiums and live sport. Something specific about seeing sport in person that television genuinely cannot replicate, even with the best screens and audio setups.

I have a couple of candidates for my own answer. One is a football match I attended about ten years ago where the atmosphere in the second half was unlike anything I had experienced before or since. Another is a smaller event, a local athletics meet, where someone I had never heard of broke a record nobody expected to fall and about 200 people in the stands went completely silent before erupting. The scale was tiny but the emotional impact was not.

Would love to hear people's genuine answers, big or small event.

[Anvil79]

Rugby international about 12 years ago. Late comeback, last minute score, the entire stand shaking. I have replayed it in my head hundreds of times and it is still just as good.

[Priya_39]

My daughter's first swimming competition. She was 8. She came fourth in her heat and was absolutely delighted. Not a famous sporting moment by any measure but one I will carry for the rest of my life.

[ECWAlex98]

An away end in a stadium I should not name in a city I won't specify, watching us score a winner in the 94th minute. The next five minutes were completely unhinged and I have not been that happy since.

[Oscar73]

World Snooker Championship final at the Crucible years ago. The tension in that room is unlike any other sport I have watched live. The quiet is as loud as any noise.

[Dave]

A boxing match I attended almost by accident because a friend had a spare ticket. I had never watched boxing live before. The violence of it hit me physically in a way I was not prepared for. Came away with enormous respect for the sport even while feeling complicated about it.

[Rapid Ava]

County cricket on a quiet summer afternoon. Not a big match, not a big crowd. Just perfect. Sometimes the atmosphere of a sporting event is in the peacefulness not the noise.

[RomanReigns26]

Saw a horse race where the outsider won at very long odds and half the crowd had apparently bet on it for sentimental reasons. The noise that went up was genuinely euphoric in the strangest collective way.

[Brandon18]

Local non-league football in winter. Mud, no crowd, terrible food, and the most committed playing you will see at any level. Nobody is there for the money. Pure sport.