Sports Decade: Cinderella moments
A collection of images from the past 10 years from some of the most surprising sporting results
Carol Huynh -- The daughter of Vietnamese boat people was nowhere to be found on the short list of medal favourites heading into Beijing, but there she was on Day 9, on the top step of the podium after winning the 48-kilogram Olympic freestyle wrestling tournament for Canada’s first gold of the Games.TOSHIFUMI KITAMURA/AFP / Getty Images
In only its ninth year as a major Division 1A football school, the Boise State Broncos upset perennial powerhouse University of Oklahoma Sooners – including stud running back Adrian Peterson – at the 2007 Fiesta Bowl in overtime, using a trick play to run in the winning score.Ross D. Franklin
Former supermarket-shelf stocker Kurt Warner completed one of the biggest rags-to-riches stories in the history of the National Football League in January, 2000, when he was named Super Bowl XXXIV’s most valuable player after leading the St. Louis Rams to their first championship in his first year as a full-time starting quarterback.MORRY GASH
Hot on the heels of countrywoman Anna Kournikova, 17-year-old Maria Sharapova showed she was more than just a pretty face at Wimbledon in 2004. After coming from behind to beat Lindsay Davenport in her first ever grand slam semi-final, the 13th seed stunned world No. 1 and defending champion Serena Williams in the final to become the third youngest Wimbledon winner.DAVE CAULKIN
In just its second appearance in the tournament finals, Greece stunned soccer’s established order as a 100-to-1 rank outsider, beating hosts Portugal twice as well as defending champion France on its way to being crowned king of Europe.KAI PFAFFENBACH
Australian long-track speed skater Steven Bradbury was the last man standing in the 1,000-metre final in Salt Lake City in 2002, capitalizing on a four-man collision on the final turn to coast home in first place, securing his country’s first ever Winter Olympics gold medal in the process.DAVID GRAY