Andy Murray’s annus mirabilis

In the moments after beating Milos Raonic in straight sets to win the Wimbledon singles title for the second time in July, Andy Murray glanced up at the royal box and saw David Cameron beaming down. Murray, whose politics lean towards Scottish independence, observed for the benefit of Sue Barker, an enthralled Centre Court and those watching worldwide, “A huge thank you to everyone who came out to support me. The prime minister’s here, as well, I see. Playing in a Wimbledon final is tough, but I wouldn’t want to be prime minister. It’s an impossible job.”

Who knew then that within two months Cameron would have left politics completely and Murray would be adding a second Olympic title to his second Wimbledon championship? He then capped the most impressive season of his 11-year career by beating his long-time bete noir, Novak Djokovic, to win the ATP World Tour Finals at the O2 Arena in Greenwich last month, sealing his position as the world’s number one. At 29, he was the oldest player to do so since John Newcombe in 1974.

Photograph: @bbctennis

In 2016, Murray not only established his status as Britain’s most outstanding athlete, but he finally won a permanent place in the affections of an audience that was once reluctant to embrace the sometimes angry Scot. Just about everything went his way this year, both on and off the court. He and his wife, Kim, celebrated the arrival of their first child, Sophia, in February; and once he found a rhythm with the racket after an uncertain start to the season, including defeat by Djokovic in the French Open final, Murray returned from Rio to win five tournaments and 25 matches in a row.

He is back with coach Ivan Lendl, after the surprise departure of Amélie Mauresmo earlier in the summer, and finished the season free of the injuries that have plagued him in previous years. There are strong rumours of a knighthood in the New Year’s honours list.

However ill-equipped Murray might be to run the country, Cameron would gladly have traded places with him that July Sunday, and certainly thereafter. Murray might not have been so keen. Kevin Mitchell

Michelle Obama does James Corden’s Carpool Karaoke

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Singing star Michelle Obama with James Corden. Photograph: Late Late Show

Where to start with Michelle’s Carpool Karaoke? Well, first of all, imagine any British PM or PM’s spouse doing this. So in your car with James Corden you’ve got, say, Theresa May or that fella in the specs she’s married to, Call Me Dave Cameron or Sam Cam, Gordon Brown or Sarah, Tony or Cherie, Maggie or Denis? Imagine just what teeth-clenchingly, bottom-wrigglingly uncomfortable viewing that would make.

But this was positively joyous. Michelle is funny, smart, gorgeous, caring and cool. She is the antidote to everything we despise about the political class. And what makes it even better is that she did it in a year when we’ve never despised them more.

All credit to Corden, who has created a wonderful slot on his Late Late Show. But there was only one star this time: this is all about Michelle. While most politicians would look lost, weird, desperate, unhinged (possibly all four), Michelle is just having a great time, singing her heart out, car-seat boogie-ing while enjoying a jaunt around the White House lawns. It’s impossible not to love her.

There are so many highlights, from Michelle’s first words (“Hey there, you wanna go for a spin?”), to giving up their secret service codenames (hers is Renaissance, Barack’s is Renegade), to Missy Elliott’s surprise pop-up appearance in the back seat. And then there’s the music: Stevie Wonder’s Signed, Sealed, Delivered I’m Yours, Beyoncé’s Single Ladies and Missy’s Get Ur Freak On. Michelle knows all the words and every move.

At the same time, she manages to promote her scheme to get every girl in the world educated, drops in the astonishing fact that 66 million girls are not in school, and gets properly political: “So much could be corrected in the world if girls were educated and had power over their lives.”

This is already a reminder of everything we will miss over the next four years. (And no, I won’t ruin it all by saying his name.) Perhaps Barack wasn’t the transformational politician many had hoped for, but as a family there has not been a finer role model than the Obamas in the White House. Gracious, dignified, warm and, most important of all, human. Never has a first family appeared so normal, or to enjoy life so much – and not at the expense of the others. If you’re still not convinced, just picture Philip May rapping along to Get Ur Freak On. Simon Hattenstone

Misogyny gets official recognition as a hate crime

This year, I was tasked with training Nottinghamshire police to recognise a new category of hate crime: misogyny. We added it to the existing list of disability, race, religion, homophobia, and transphobia. Our definition of it is “incidents against women that are motivated by an attitude of a man towards a woman, and includes behaviour targeted at a woman by men, simply because she is a woman”.

When the policy launched in July, most headlines disappointingly framed this definition around wolf whistling. But we were not inundated with reports of whistling; actual reports included pregnant women being assaulted, girls being harassed in their school uniforms, and one incident that was recategorised as abduction.

If something happens to a woman that makes her uncomfortable, and she feels that it happened because she is a woman, she can now call 101 anywhere in the UK and report it as a hate crime. The difference in Nottingham is that instead of that report going into the “hate crime: other” folder, such incidents are now recorded in their own category, just as “hate crime: disability” would be. Women in Nottingham are guaranteed a specially trained officer to deal with their case. Investigations are launched, and if perpetrators are found, they are warned and hopefully enlightened. In serious cases, public order offences can be given. Where warnings are either too late, or insufficient, this hate crime allows us better to track offender behaviour.

Nationally, 64% of all women have experienced sexual harassment in public places; that figure rises to 85% of women and girls under 25. By reporting, we can begin to identify hotspots, repeat offenders and women who are high risk for victimisation. It’s hoped that by taking these cases seriously, women will feel encouraged to disclose other gendered crimes.

In May, I began training every response officer, beat manager and police community support officer in Nottinghamshire, along with the control room. One focus was safety techniques women can use: avoiding certain areas, wearing silent shoes and carrying keys between their fingers. Female officers would often turn to each other, shocked to realise they did all these things unconsciously. Some officers were taken aback by the statistics and stories that were shared. I found it easy to sympathise. After all, if you’re a man who does not commit misogynistic hate crime yourself, it would be largely hidden from you. Perpetrators rarely harass women who are accompanied by men.

Violence against women needs to be understood as a continuum. We must challenge what’s taking place in the streets alongside our homes, campuses and the workplace. I hope this will become the national standard; the training is now available to all forces. I believe that we will look back in 20 years and wonder what took us so long. Martha Jephcott, campaigner

Rafaela Silva wins gold for Brazil

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Brazil’s golden girl, judoka Rafaela Silva. Photograph: Reuters

It is hard to imagine a more perfect antidote to the resurgence of misogyny, homophobia and racism in Brazil than the Olympic victory of Rafaela Silva. The gay black judoka from the City of God favela won the host nation’s first gold of the 2016 Games, lifting the spirits of a population mired in economic gloom and political crisis. The buzzer at the end of the final bout could hardly be heard above delirious cheering as Silva sank to her knees and raised her arms to the rafters. She then ran into the arms of her coach, sobbing with joy, as celebrations erupted across the country.

It was a triumph against adversity, and not just because Silva overcame world number one Sumiya Dorjsuren of Mongolia, who had beaten her on all four of their previous encounters. On her right bicep, Silva has a tattooed reminder of what she has been through: an image of the Olympic rings and the words “Only God knows what I suffered to get here”. She thought about quitting the sport after she was disqualified from the 2012 London Games (for an illegal hold), while furious critics back home posted hate-filled messages on Twitter and Facebook.

But the 24-year-old does not give up easily. Growing up in the City of God, Silva has seen friends and family members shot and arrested for drug dealing. The street games she played as a child were often interrupted by gunfights. At times, gangsters would forbid residents to leave because they were planning an ambush.

Silva credits her father with helping her find a way out: it was he who insisted she take up a sport. Initially she wanted to become a footballer, but boys dominated the community pitch and wouldn’t let her play. “So I had to do a sport I didn’t like – judo,” she tells me, grinning.

The day after the Olympics, Silva went on a victory parade through the favela on top of a fire engine. Her community was delirious. It was the best thing that had ever happened to the City of God, and she is all too aware of the significance: “I’m a black woman and I grew up in this community. I didn’t have big dreams, because there aren’t many opportunities. People here think they have nowhere to go beyond drugs and bullets. But I showed that you can achieve great things even if you don’t have much money.”

The timing was apposite. Shortly before the Olympics, the country’s first woman president, Dilma Rousseff of the Workers’ Party, was ousted in an impeachment plot and replaced by the more conservative Michel Temer, who appointed an all-male, all-white cabinet.

Silva, who is a sergeant in the army, is reluctant to talk politics; she is just glad she was able to inspire people at a time when hope was in short supply. “People come up to me and say thank you, that their children have taken up sport because of me, and that I helped give them a lift. It has been a difficult year for Brazil because of the politics, and violence in the community. Many people doubted we were capable of pulling off an Olympics. But we did it, and we got some medals as well.”

Victory has changed her life, too. She is thinking of getting another tattoo: “I’d like something to mark the victory, but I haven’t decided on the best way to do that.” More significantly, she has paid for an extension on her parents’ home, and bought new houses for her sister and herself. As she says: “That’s a big thing for a girl who grew up in a family who couldn’t afford even to buy a new bicycle.” Jonathan Watts

Everyone falls for Team GB, again

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Gymnast Max Whitlock, winner of two gold medals. Photograph: Xinhua/Rex/Shutterstock

The fact that the shortlist on this year’s BBC Sports Personality of the Year is 16 as opposed to the more regular 10 is testament to the embarrassment of golden performances from Team GB at the Olympics and Paralympics in Rio this summer.

Olympic and Paralympic sport gets into our hearts, it brings us to tears, to the edge of our seats – and all for people we’ve never heard of before. Every four years, the shot at glory is there. Screw up, and your chance might never come again: you may not even get selected next time. Sure, there are world championships and other titles in the cycle, but it’s the Olympics every athlete wants.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Cyclists Jason and Laura Kenny celebrate their wins. Photograph: Patrick Semansky/AP

Gymnast Max Whitlock is a man who didn’t just manage to peak at the right time within that cycle, but who peaked twice in 90 minutes, bringing home two gold medals for Great Britain in a sport in which there had previously been none. A history-maker, Whitlock will inspire the next generation of gymnasts to reach higher.

On a global level, the 2016 Olympics gave us moments to savour; we are blessed to be alive to watch Usain Bolt run, to have seen Michael Phelps swim and to watch Simone Biles tumble and twist. But it was a South African called Wayde van Niekerk who brought me to the edge of my seat. From lane nine, he ran a new world record on his way to Olympic gold in the 400m – and the man who held the record, Michael Johnson, was sitting by my side throughout. Talk about drama. Johnson’s reaction was as cool as you’d expect: “I have held that for 17 years. It’s time someone ran faster.”

Women’s sport still gets just 10% of all sports media coverage – except when the Paras and Olympics are on. The likes of the incredible gold-medal-winning women’s hockey team, Laura Trott (now Kenny), Jessica Ennis-Hill, Kadeena Cox and Dame Sarah Storey help to redress that imbalance and boost the column inches. If you are a young girl with sporting ambition and you don’t see these women, how do you know what’s possible? This year’s Games gave us a better idea.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Britain’s women’s hockey team. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

Who would have thought, 12 months ago, that a female hockey player would make it to the last four of I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here? Great Britain’s hockey gold has given these women a platform and a voice, and Sam Quek used her elimination night interview very well: “Sport is fun, and that’s what I wanted to show young girls,” she told Ant and Dec. You did that, Sam.

Rio illustrated that we are truly in a golden age when it comes to the Olympics and Paralympics. There was a point at which we overtook China on the medal table, when I thought, “This is all a bit uncomfortably peculiar – such an unfamiliar feeling.” As a keen student of Olympic history (and a failed Olympian wannabe: I was a Commonwealth Games gymnast), I still remember the low of Atlanta 1996 well (one gold and 36th in the medal table). How far we have come. Gabby Logan

‘Umbrella movement’ protester Nathan Law is elected in Hong Kong

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Nathan Law: ‘People want me to carry on the fight.’ Photograph: Anthony Wallace/AFP/Getty Images

When he became the youngest person ever elected to Hong Kong’s legislature, Nathan Law felt the city’s hopes for democracy resting on his shoulders. Two years ago, the 23-year-old was a student leader during months of street protests that saw thousands occupy the former British colony’s financial centre.

“There’s a symbolic meaning to my seat, showing the spirit of the movement continues,” Law says in his new office above the harbour. “It gained a high moral ground and people want me to carry on the fight.” His election victory in September has helped motivate others to become more politically active: his staff are almost all refugees of the 2014 “umbrella movement” protests.

Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement has long fought an uphill battle, consistently outnumbered in the city’s parliament, where only half the seats are directly elected; the others are returned by professional associations and special interest groups. Law hopes the support he received will translate to more than just votes, and says it is critical to maintain pressure on a government responsible more to Beijing than to Hong Kong citizens.

“People shouldn’t just lay their expectations on me, then go home to play video games, back to their ordinary lives,” he says. “I have to convince people to walk with me on the frontline, and use my position to facilitate civil disobedience and resistance on the streets. Even though we’re up against China, the strongest tyranny in the world, we can at least support human rights and freedom.” Benjamin Haas

The Church of England gets its first gay bishop

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Bishop of Grantham Nicholas Chamberlain. Photograph: CofELincoln

As the CofE continued to tie itself in knots over whether same-sex couples could wed in church, or gay priests could marry, the bishop of Grantham publicly declared he was in a long-term relationship with a man. Nicholas Chamberlain told the Guardian he hoped to be “judged by my actions as a parish priest, a bishop – and by the Lord, ultimately. My sexual identity is part of who I am, but it’s the ministry that matters.” He did not want to become known as “the gay bishop”, he added.

Justin Welby, archbishop of Canterbury and leader of the worldwide Anglican church, said he had known about Chamberlain’s relationship when he appointed him. To the fury of conservative Christians, Welby said, “His sexuality is completely irrelevant to his office.”

While Chamberlain says he has abided by the church’s requirement for priests in gay relationships to be celibate, Gafcon, a group of conservative Anglicans, said his appointment was a “major error”. But to campaigners for LGBT rights within the church, the first serving bishop to declare he was gay was a major fillip. Harriet Sherwood

Pikpa refugee camp comes to the rescue

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Efi Latsoudi at Pikpa: ‘I was very proud.’ Photograph: UNHCR/Gordon Welters

At 7.30pm on 19 September, all was peaceful at Pikpa, a small refugee camp on the Greek island of Lesbos. Most of the volunteers had gone home, and founder Efi Latsoudi was winding down for the day. Then the phone rang: the island’s main camp was on fire and children needed to be evacuated immediately.

Within 10 minutes, 20 volunteers had returned and started preparing to rehouse 98 children. The camp already hosted 150 refugees, mostly families, so they had to improvise, quickly assembling huge tents and setting up beds in the communal kitchen. “The refugee children here were very excited and helped a lot,” Latsoudi says. “I was very proud.”

The new arrivals were terrified at first: “We told them there was nothing to fear – it’s an open camp and they were welcome. They soon relaxed.” Latsoudi laughs: “It was like a holiday for them.”

Pikpa is a former children’s holiday camp with wooden cabins, shady pine trees and play areas. Compared with the two major camps on the island, which routinely flood or catch fire, it’s paradise. The children stayed for three days before being taken back, and on the last night, the whole camp had a big dinner and dancing.

Latsoudi says those three days were among the happiest of her life. “Everybody was running around, working together – it was amazing. In all this mess, suddenly something worked out.” Helen Nianias

• Where did it all go right? For a more positive view of the world in 2017, follow the Guardian’s Half Full online series, with reports on innovative ideas and solutions to the challenges of the day. Wishing you all a happier new year.