Year in Pictures: Sports and competition

The best snaps of the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat, from our Week in Pictures series

<p>The New Zealand rugby team dance after winning the Hong Kong Sevens rugby tournament against England in Hong Kong, Sunday, March 30, 2014. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)</p>

The New Zealand rugby team dance after winning the Hong Kong Sevens rugby tournament against England in Hong Kong, Sunday, March 30, 2014. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)

Every week, our photo editors curate the Week in Pictures series, a collection of some of the most stunning, moving, vivid, adorable and heartbreaking photos in any given week. As part of our Best of 2014 web series, we’ve assembled galleries of some of the best of those snaps. Here’s the most remarkable photos from a great year in sports, which featured both the World Cup and the Winter Olympics:

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Related reading:

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Hockey night in Stittsville
No storylines, no superstars: Germany simply wins it all
Argentina’s soccer gift—and economic curse
How Lebron James fixed his legacy