Brazil is No 1
Winning the World Cup was the year's top sports story
Brazil's World Cup victory was No 1 this year, leaving Michael Schumacher, Tim Montgomery, Lennox Lewis and the Olympics as distant also- rans.
That was the conclusion of a worldwide poll of Associated Press subscribers from 30 countries who picked Brazil's unprecedented fifth World Cup title as the top international sports story of 2002.
The vote wasn't close.
Of 63 ballots from sports editors on every continent -- excluding North America -- Brazil received 48 first-place votes, with the 15 other first-place choices scattered around.
Schumacher winning his fifth Formula One title was second.
The German had the greatest year in F1 history, claiming a record 11 victories and combining with Ferrari teammate Rubens Barrichello to win 15 out of 17 races.
Montgomery's 100-metre world record was third. The American sprinter ran 9.78 seconds, shaving 0.01 seconds off the previous mark held by Maurice Greene.
The World Cup also produced the fourth-place story: the poor showings of defending champion France and former champions Italy and Argentina, and the surprising runs of South Korea, Turkey, Senegal, Japan and the United States.
Fifth went to Lennox Lewis' knockout victory over Mike Tyson, which left the former heavyweight champ bleeding and flat on his back in the eighth round.
Points in the AP poll were awarded on a sliding scale, with 10 for first place down to one for 10th place.
Brazil's World Cup victory received 548 points, followed by Schumacher (283), Montgomery (276), World Cup surprises (231) and Lewis (194).
The 2002 World Cup showed soccer's old guard changing everywhere but at the top. Ronaldo scored both goals in the 2-0 victory over Germany in the final as the world's greatest striker redeemed himself and his nation from the bitter flop in the '98 final loss to France.
South Korea and Japan staged a near perfect World Cup as first ever co-hosts. The Koreans and Turkey stunned the powerhouse teams to reach the semi-finals. The United States and Senegal got to the quarters to make it a truly global tournament.
But the finalists were World Cup giants, with seven titles between them. Brazil's "Three-R" attack of Ronaldo, Rivaldo and Ronaldinho wiped out memories of the defeat in Paris, when Ronaldo seemed to play in a trance after being hospitalised hours before the match with convulsions.
Well organised by two nations which provided colourful backdrops to the competition, the World Cup lifted the spirits of soccer fans everywhere. Yet it also had its negative moments.
Some of the referees were guilty of blunders, notably denying Spain a match-winning goal in a quarter-final loss on penalties to Korea.
Ireland's top player, Manchester United captain Roy Keane, was thrown off the team during preparations in Korea after a blowup with coach Mick McCarthy, who managed to guide the team to the second round without him.
In a divisive election, FIFA President Sepp Blatter survived accusations of mismanagement and corruption to win a second, four-year term, beating African soccer leader Issa Hayatou. Blatter fired his chief accuser, Secretary-General Michel Zen-Ruffinen.
The figure skating scandal at the Salt Lake Winter Olympics was sixth in the voting with 167 points.
The allegations of vote-fixing in the pairs event -- which led to the unprecedented awarding of duplicate gold medals -- overshadowed the well-run games and the doping scandals in cross- country and Alpine skiing. A reputed Russian mobster was arrested in Italy over the summer on charges of conspiring to fix the pairs and ice dance events.
Lance Armstrong's fourth straight victory in the Tour de France was seventh with 161 points. Armstrong has overcome a well-publicised battle with cancer and a fifth title would link him with four legends -- Bernard Hinault, Eddy Merckx, Jacques Anquetil and Miguel Indurain. Only Spain's Indurain has won five in a row.
Eighth place (134 points) went to Pete Sampras' victory at the age of 31 in the US Open, where he beat Andre Agassi in the final for his 14th Grand Slam title. It was Sampras' first Grand Slam title since Wimbledon in 2000.
Yugoslavia's victory in the World Basketball Championships and the abysmal showing of the United States (losing three times and finishing sixth) ranked No 9 with 108 points.
The domination of the Williams sisters was No 10 with 98 points. Serena Williams beat older sister Venus in three Grand Slam finals and took over the No 1 ranking.
The distribution of first-place votes was idiosyncratic and reflects varied reader interests from Brunei to Belgium, South Africa to Sweden, and Japan to Jordan.
After 48 votes for Brazil, the first-place ballots were distributed wildly. The story of the World Cup surprises got four. Lennox Lewis and the Olympic doping scandals in skiing earned two. So did the European victory over the United States in the Ryder Cup, a story that failed to crack the top 10.
Other first-place votes went to Schumacher, Armstrong and the American basketball debacle in the World Championships on home soil in Indianapolis.
Tiger Woods failed to crack the top 10 this year, an example of memorable moments lost in the sweep of the World Cup and Schumacher.
After winning the first two majors of the season, the American faded at the British Open -- shooting a wind-blown 81 in the third round -- and losing his bid to claim all four majors in a calendar year. He finished 11th in the poll with 94 points.
