The Sporting Scene
Tim Walz and the Lessons of High-School Football
The Vice-Presidential nominee was the defensive coördinator for a team that won the state title. His players say that he taught them more about togetherness than tactics.
By Louisa Thomas
Armand Duplantis, the Timothée Chalamet of the Pole Vault
The American Swedish heartthrob showed his mastery of the strangest of sports, setting another new record.
By Sam Knight
High-Pressure Hope at the Paris Olympics
Cheers, howls, and the occasional boo have brought joyous cacophony to the City of Light.
By Anthony Lane
A Universe in Ten Seconds
At the Paris Olympics, the drama of the women’s hundred-metre races culminated in swift, decisive endings.
By Hanif Abdurraqib
U.S.A. Basketball Is Still an Awkward Fit at the Olympics
The team probably has too much talent to lose. Still, turning twelve superstars into a selfless whole may be an impossible task.
By Louisa Thomas
How Simone Biles and Team U.S.A. Gymnastics Came Soaring Back
A sense of doubt had plagued the sport since Biles’s withdrawal from the Tokyo Games. The team’s success in Paris should definitively quash it.
By Eren Orbey
What Makes Katie Ledecky Great
The preëminent swimmer is unique not only for winning races by body lengths but also in her emotional and psychological approach.
By Louisa Thomas
The Unexpectedly Hopeful Paris Olympics
The Games have never lived up to all their ideals—some of which were dubious to begin with. And yet this year’s iteration, for all its flaws, has already inspired some positive change.
By Louisa Thomas
The Upstarts at Wimbledon
Despite a run of stability at the top of the game, women’s tennis is still open to surprise.
By Louisa Thomas
Élite Gymnasts Are Aging Up
It used to be assumed that a gymnast’s peak came around sixteen years of age. So why will the Olympic team be stocked with women in their twenties?
By Louisa Thomas