Google has produced a list of individuals and events that people searched for in 2023. There were some surprises, particularly in sports, where Kylian Mbappe ranked second on the list of the most searched athletes.
So, who got featured in top spot, ahead of Mbappe?
Was it Mbappe’s former PSG teammate Lionel Messi that neutralized Mbappe’s outstanding performance in the FIFA World Cup final, motivating Argentina to victory while France was defeated? Or was it Cristiano Ronaldo’s decision to join Saudi Arabian club Al Nassr that sparked a transfer frenzy in the Asian country?
Nope, it didn’t! Indeed, neither Ronaldo nor Messi are among the top ten most desired athletes in 2023.
Damar Hamlin, an American football player, was the most-searched athlete in 2023. In fact, Hamlin was the year’s most searched-for person on Google.
Damar Hamlin is a member of the Buffalo Bills of the National Football League in the United States. The Bills selected the six-foot-two-pound athlete in the sixth round (212th overall) of the 2021 NFL Draft. Prior to the NFL drafting him, he studied at the University of Pittsburgh.
The 25-year-old is a’safety’ position player. The safety is in a defensive position that is similar to that of a linebacker or a cornerback. Safety is frequently the last line of defense in games. This simplifies their job description: don’t let the ball get away from you. It is the duty of safety to keep the other team’s wide receivers under control.
In January of this year, Buffalo Bills safety Hamlin collapsed during a game after making a tackle on wide receiver Tee Higgins during a Monday night football game between the Cincinnati Bengals and the Buffalo Bills.
Then he collapsed backwards on the field, lifeless.
Medics went to him and attempted to resuscitate him, administering medical treatment, including CPR. His teammates, some of whom were crying, surrounded him, and the medics attempted to cover him from public view. The medics treated him for twenty minutes. He was then rushed to the University of Cincinnati Medical Center in an ambulance.
The game was initially postponed, then canceled. With Hamlin still in the hospital, the Bills’ administration chose to fly the players home. The crew later stated that Hamlin’s heart stopped on the pitch before it was restarted.
Following the horrific injury, numerous NFL players spoke out in his support, while supporters held vigils in Cincinnati and outside the Bills’ home stadium in Orchard Park, New York.
The outpouring of sympathy for the player was so great that a GoFundMe page Hamlin set up for a toy drive for youngsters received about $5.5 million in donations in the first 24 hours after his injury.
It was later determined that commotio cordis, a condition that can happen when significant trauma to the chest disturbs the heart’s electrical charge and results in dangerous fibrillations (or irregular heartbeats), was the cause of Hamlin’s cardiac arrest.
Hamlin has subsequently returned to the Bills’ roster.
In an April interview, he stated, “I died on national television in front of the entire world.”
Meanwhile, only two cricketers made it to the top 10 of the most searched athletes: New Zealand’s Rachin Ravindra and India’s Shubman Gill.