March 7, 2014
I cannot get excited about men and women scooting along a landscape of dead trees and ice for an hour and a half.
February 7, 2014
Compared to the old resort towns in the Crimea, where the tsars made their summer homes, Sochi was cheesy.
Olympic Preview
January 15, 2014
Some player this Sunday may be planting the seeds of his future ruin by doing his job well. Is there a better way?
A Moral Equivalent of Football?
Human, Not Too Human
The athletes are too big. How big? Between 1963 and 1983, the average NBA player grew an inch, from 6’6” to 6’7”, but his weight held steady at 211 pounds. Since then, along with yet another half-inch of height, he has packed on fourteen pounds of muscle. The change shows.
Mavericks
Life and death surfing
Surfers have the odd habit of saying “I drowned” when they mean “I almost drowned.” Drowning, after all, feels like almost drowning until it feels like nothing.
August 9, 2013
This month, the n+1 podcast does Sports, with Alice Gregory on the Mavericks surfing competition in Northern California (the…
Episode 10: Sports
July 12, 2013
It’s simple, really: whoever gets to Paris with the lowest overall time gets to stand on the top of the podium.
Tour Diary
June 12, 2013
But it turns out there is a third Gopnik: hockey Gopnik. Did you not know that Gopnik writes about hockey?
Playoff Update
December 5, 2012
Basketball Diaries, Afghanistan
Living “outside the wire” meant being responsible for our own safety. Avoiding patterns was one of our core principles. We didn’t plan far in advance, and we didn’t advertise our movements ahead of time. Ten consecutive days of practice would constitute an unmistakable pattern. Therefore Rory and I decided to implement an experimental scheduling strategy.
August 23, 2012
Now the runners are gone, and the tennis lessons are no longer free.
After the Olympics
August 1, 2012
Federer bent into his serve, sapling-like, and made a collage of four groundstrokes with a micro-variety of spins.
Wimbledon Diary
June 30, 2012
Everyone used to love the Dutch. They were stylish and smart, they invented Total Football.
