Olympics
Story Stream
Merit, Inclusion, and Raygun at the Olympics September 04, 2024
This—¯_(ツ)_/¯—is what comes to mind when people ask me to explain how Australia ran fourth in the Olympics yet also entered Raygun—the Paris Olympiad’s Eddie the Eagle or Eric the Eel—into an event....
A Restored and Rejuvenated Games August 14, 2024
At some point, did Tom Cruise decide he wasn’t satisfied with playing death-defying secret agent Ethan Hunt, and that he would attempt to live out the over-the-top adventures of Hunt? Last night in Paris, the actor rappelled down from the roof of the...
No, Smoking Isn’t Back August 14, 2024
Is smoking having a renaissance? At her recent birthday party, brat du jour Charli XCX was gifted a bouquet chaotically arranged with cigarettes. Meanwhile in Paris, the Olympic golfer Charley Hull was prevented by le woke mob from enjoying her custo...
Ladies in Leotards August 13, 2024
Like so many other people, I tuned in to watch the Paris 2024 Olympics’ Women’s Artistic Gymnastics a couple of weeks ago. I’ve seen women’s gymnastics before—but I’ve never watched it having just finished teaching an intensive university course on f...
The Peculiar Joy of Watching Tom Cruise Jump From the Sky August 13, 2024
The most entertaining part of what we will call the Tom Cruise Movement of the Paris Olympics Closing Ceremony wasn’t so much the stunts. The live jump into the Stade de France was unremarkable for an event that had performers dropping from great hei...
How the USWNT Returned to the Top of the Sport August 13, 2024
The Olympic women’s soccer tournament is one of the most grueling events in the entire world of soccer, and the United States women’s national team looked every bit like they were playing their sixth game in 17 days during the opening 45 minutes agai...
America Deserves a Star Spangled Banger August 13, 2024
Over the last three weeks at the Paris Olympics, “The Star Spangled Banner” was played 40 times, once for every gold we’ve won. Our athletes have scored more medals than any other country, but when it comes to the music that celebrates those champion...
The Faith of Djokovic August 12, 2024
No bureaucrat at the IOC was going to steal this performance from Novak Djokovic. Teary-eyed, drenched in sweat, grateful, sprawled out on the clay, Djokovic rose from the Philippe-Chatrier Court at the Paris Olympics and made the sign of the cross. ...
US Women’s Soccer Team Silences Player August 12, 2024
Is it a new era for the U.S. women’s soccer team?On Saturday, the team will face off against Brazil in the gold medal match at the Olympics, after scoring wins over Zambia, Germany (twice), Australia, and Japan.For years, the U.S. women’s soccer team...
The Lost Arts August 09, 2024
There were both too many metal guitarists for a stately ceremony on the Seine, and yet, too few. When the broadcast cut to a wide shot of the Conciergerie, it revealed nothing, nothing—a vast expanse of beige wall with a few ant-like figures crawling...
The Spiritual Realm of Sydney McLaughlin August 08, 2024
There is the contest between the lanes and the contest beyond them. A pistol pops, cleats bite rubber, and for approximately 50 seconds, 10 sets of hurdles transform from stumbling blocks to the grounds for expression in Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone’s i...
The Bromance Between Anthony Edwards and Kevin Durant August 06, 2024
The second half of the U.S. men’s national basketball team’s final group-stage game against Puerto Rico on Saturday might as well have been a greatest hits compilation for Anthony Edwards: extra-mustard finger rolls, half-speed stepback 3s, hanging t...
Sha’Carri Richardson Did Not Fail August 06, 2024
On Saturday, at the Stade de France in Paris, the stage was all set for one of those classic Olympics redemption stories. After missing the Tokyo Games entirely due to a positive drug test and a controversial suspension, the American sprinter Sha’car...
The Legendary Katie Ledecky Just Keeps Swimming August 05, 2024
PARIS — Twelve years as a superstar athlete is an eternity, and in the United States, a shelf life that long usually comes with some level of public blowback or fatigue. Haters materialize to find flaws, inventing them if necessary. Or the superstar ...
U.S.A. Basketball Is Still an Awkward Fit August 05, 2024
Two weeks ago, just before the start of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, Nike began airing its major Olympic ad campaign. Typically, these spots are beautifully produced paeans to ambition, effort, and excellence—Olympic ideals on sale for a popular aud...
The ‘Grandma Gymnast’ Is Here to Stay August 02, 2024
In 2016, the two-time Olympic gymnast Aly Raisman was known for her incredible floor routine … and penchant for naps. Raisman, the oldest member of the team, took the chance to snooze whenever she could get it. Simone Biles jokingly called her “our s...
Olympian Obscenity August 02, 2024
Radical queer ideologues have long been willing publicly to profane Christ and Christian values. But before last week, they had never done so at an Olympic ceremony, which had historically represented our common humanity across nations and cultures. ...
Is Anyone Enjoying Olympic Ping-Pong? August 02, 2024
Amid the drama and excitement of the Olympics, an unfortunate truth emerges: there are sports that are fun to play and sports that are fun to watch, and the Venn diagram of these two things is by no means a circle....
Simone Biles Goes Too Big to Fail August 01, 2024
The human mind is an exceptional machine, although it does have some exceptions. About a million of them, or maybe it’s a zillion? Either way, one known weakness of our brains is that they aren’t designed to grasp huge numbers and other measures of e...
48 Hours in Paris for the Fanciest Olympics Ever July 31, 2024
In an abstract sense, I understood that the Paris Olympics would be a little different than editions held in years past. Paris would host the first summer games post-pandemic, to start—the fact that Tokyo 2020, delayed until 2021, was, for obvious re...
Sabrina Ionescu on Lessons From Kobe Bryant July 31, 2024
“We’re at a point in our society today where women finally have a voice, and the more we continue to fight for that, it shows in the sports world,” says New York Liberty guard Sabrina Ionescu, the 2020 number one overall WNBA draft pick, three-time a...
Against Olympics Cynicism July 30, 2024
Nothing quite brings history to life like losing a race at the site of the ancient Olympic Games in Greece. On a visit to Olympia in 2017, I managed this ignominious feat among friends on the very course of the Olympic sprint. In doing so, I joined a...
Brittney Griner Came Home July 30, 2024
Dozens of little girls in WNBA jerseys lined up to catch a glimpse of Brittney Griner. They screamed as Griner sprinted toward them with a giant smile, extending her hands to high-five as many as she could. The longtime Phoenix Mercury star even retu...
Céline Dion Goes On July 30, 2024
On Monday afternoon, a Bombardier BD-700 jet took off from a Las Vegas airport and landed in Paris at 11:11 A.M. Tuesday with Céline Dion inside. Hours later, the Canadian pop superstar was spotted at Le Royal Monceau hotel. “CÉLINE DION MAKES HER AR...
What Makes Katie Ledecky Great July 29, 2024
Katie Ledecky, far out in front: one of the most astonishing sights in sports and, by now, one of the most familiar. It was twelve years ago that Ledecky shot to an early lead in the eight-hundred-metre freestyle final at the London Olympics, and the...
