The story of how this contest came about is no less interesting than the photos. Here's how the organizers recount it: "we were at a sports industry event discussing how powerful the best sports images were. They contain so many stories in the moment; how did the athletes come to be there? What is happening? What happens next? And the implicit story of the photographer whose talent and skill captures a moment in time and turns it into art. We are so used to seeing sport as moving image, we wanted to get people to pause for a moment and reflect on the power of a still image."

The organizers were also happy with the number, the diversity, and the quality of the participants this year. "It’s great to see so many photographers enter the awards each year! This is the third edition of World Sports Photography Awards, and we had over 7,000 entries from over 600 photographers, in 60 different countries around the world. It’s fantastic to witness the awards growing and becoming more and more global."

They are very clear about how they pick the winners.

"We have a panel of international sports industry Judges from Federations, Teams, Media, Brands and Agencies. They are all expert in selecting sports images for a wide variety of purposes and they love being involved in the awards.Our panel of Judges select images based upon technical skill, diversity, originality, and creativity of composition."

If you wondered what sport was the most popular between the photographers, you might be surprised, or not surprised, to learn that it's soccer. "All our categories are popular with a wide variety of sports photographers; however, Football is the most popular category. We received over 1,000 fantastic entries in Football in this year’s awards."

What will the winners get? "Our sponsors, MPB, are generously offering prizes in the form of credit (to be spent at MPB) for the top 3 overall winners, as well as the winners in each sporting category."

The organizers encouraged all of those who would like to try their hand at sports photography to just "get started! Capture your local football team or kid’s sports day. Look at the angles and composition of the professional shots and try to replicate them. Still images are so powerful for catching an important moment in time and nothing captures the emotion of sports like photography."

The people at World Sports Photography Awards are hopeful for the future: "We are eager to see the awards grow even more in the future, so we’d love to see your entries in the next edition of World Sports Photography Awards!"

And, they have much more in store in the next years. "We are also launching an Amateur chapter of World Sports Photography Awards, with the support of our partners MPB. This is an opportunity for amateur photographers to showcase their best sports images taken in the last 12 months. You can find out more information about how to enter on our website and social channels."