Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes (15) smiles while greeting fans and giving them high fives following the Chiefs’ 27-19 victory over the Houston Texans on Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024, at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium. Emily Curiel ecuriel@kcstar.com

The best sports photograph taken in 2024 anywhere in the world was of Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes.

During the Chiefs’ 26-7 win over the Miami Dolphins in an AFC Wild Card game at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium, Mahomes was tackled by Miami safety DeShon Elliott. A brutal cold snap saw the game start with a temperature of negative-4 degrees, and the frigid air was to blame for Mahomes’ helmet cracking after the hit.

A chunk of Mahomes’ helmet broke off, and The Star’s Emily Curiel was the only photographer that night to capture the moment perfectly.

Curiel won first place in the sports action category in the 82nd Annual Pictures of the Year International competition. Pictures of the Year International is the oldest photojournalism competition in the world.

Finalists for the award included journalists from Getty Images, Agence France-Press, the Independent and Reuters. Those photos were from the World Series, the Tour de France, the World Aquatic Championships in Doha, Qatar, and a European soccer match.

Other pictures that received an Award of Excellence were from ski jumping, tennis and speed skating.

But Curiel’s photo of Mahomes was deemed best of all. She described getting the shot in a first-person story shortly after the game.

“I fired off a sequence of photos that captured mostly the grass on the field as I worked to lock in on Mahomes scrambling with the ball,” Curiel wrote. “My 400mm lens worked at locking in its focus on Mahomes while he scrambled toward me. The players were closing in and I struggled to adjust myself in the short 40-second long play. Amid the chaos of the moment my ADHD led me to focus on Mahomes’ facial expression more than anything else.

“When the play was over, I didn’t think there was anything extraordinary about it other than it was a good scramble by Mahomes.

“While selecting photos to send to my editor from the sideline, I saw Mahomes switching out his helmet. I thought: Hmm, that’s odd. I wonder why he switched out his helmet? At this point I didn’t realize that his helmet had cracked.”

But Curiel had captured the moment the helmet broke and it has earned her worldwide recognition.

 

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