South African Wayde van Niekerk’s Olympic gold medal and beautiful world record in the 400 meters could hardly get any sweeter. Out of lane eight—few win out of lane eight, much less set a world record, because other competitors are behind the lane eight runner until they hit the last straight, when it’s often too…
Michelle Carter’s sixth and final throw in the women’s shot put final went 20.63 meters, smashing the U.S. record and earning her the first Olympic gold for an American woman in that event:
A Kenyan track coach was caught yesterday using a runner’s accreditation, apparently to get a free meal in the Olympic Village, and booted from the Olympics. He’s an idiot, yes, but he wasn’t the only idiot. This story resonates.
Getting exercise is good, allegedly, and there are good and bad people who enjoy every form of exercise. Some forms of exercise, however, collect far more bad, obnoxious, horrible, insufferable people than others. These are those forms.
Lance Armstrong was a very good cyclist, perhaps the best the greatest who ever lived. Anyone who says otherwise is ignoring history.
This is the story of two Olympians wearing hijabs. One is U.S. fencer Ibtihaj Muhammad, who is one of the faces of these Olympics, and a vocal stereotype piercer for black Muslim women. The other is Sarah Attar, an under-the-radar Californian who will cover her head, arms, and legs when she competes for Saudi Arabia…
Physics figures large in high jump. Converting horizontal energy into vertical energy, torque, angle, and center of mass. But the most important concept, the one that’s helped Chaunté Lowe make four Olympic teams and set the American record, is balance.
The three priestesses of the high jump—the American reps in Rio—are an unconventional and disparate bunch, whose ability to launch themselves over a 6'6" bar is almost less interesting than how they made it to the Olympics in the first place.
The 2016 Tour de France ended similarly to the last four Tours: the eventual champion grabbed the yellow jersey early and smashed the field for the rest of the race, with the help of their dominant team. The yellow jersey hasn’t changed hands in the last week of the race since 2011, and—save Vincenzo Nibali’s odd,…
Russian athletes will be allowed to compete in Rio despite the massive, government-sponsored doping program in that country after a decision released today by the IOC that outlines the specific conditions under which athletes will be qualified to compete.
The 100 meter hurdles world record of 12.21 seconds stood for 28 years until being smashed yesterday in London by American runner Kendra Harrison—who didn’t learn until about a minute after the race that she’d broken one of track & field’s most impenetrable barriers.
The last summit finish of the 2016 Tour de France came and went, with the general classification race shaken up by a series of crashes more than anything. Chris Froome’s overall lead looked unassailable even before he won yesterday’s time trial, but the rest of the top ten has been a jumbled mess. This morning’s stage…
Less than a month ago, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) suspended its accreditation of the Brazilian Doping Control Laboratory, which was supposed to handle all drug tests related to the Rio Olympics. WADA—which is as inept and corrupt a sporting body as you’ll find on this planet—cited a vague and unspecified…
The hubris and planet-sized egos of lunatic sports owners is a core Deadspin beat, from Joe Lacob’s horniness for the Larry O’Brien trophy, to Stan Kroenke’s dead raccoon hair, to Dan Gilbert’s simpering evil. When the Panthers’ owner gets a dang statue of himself with two actual panthers built out front of his…
By any standard, it was warm in Eugene, Oregon on July 2, game-changingly so for the 24 women who shook their legs and jumped at the start of the Olympic Track Trials 10,000 meters.
Chris Froome appeared to have the Tour de France by the balls through most of this afternoon’s mountain stage up to Mount Ventoux, parrying away Nairo Quintana’s first attack and dropping everyone who posed a threat to his Tour on the final climb. While distancing Quintana and the rest of the general classification…
Highlights are hard to come by at the Tour de France. Cameramen are always on the lookout for weird little moments, like Taylor Phinney playing one of those weird shell helmets like a drum or Alejandro Valverde reading the newspaper. However, sprint genius Mark Cavendish stopping for a pee break isn’t exactly the best…
Heading into the first rest day of the Tour de France, Chris Froome holds the yellow jersey by a slim margin. Nairo Quintana, Adam Yates, and a few other plucky challengers are right there with him, but Froome and Team Sky have done what they do every year: wring the life out of every vaguely hilly stage until…
The U.S. Olympic track & field trials continue to pace the sports periphery, and here’s a clip from today’s javelin event for the heptathlon qualifying. This is Utah State’s Chari Hawkins—a former MWC champion in the event—struggling mightily. Given that it’s javelin, it could have gone worse.
Spanish sprinter Bruno Hortelano placed second in the 200m at this week’s European Championships in Amsterdam, setting a new national record for Spain in the process—but a post-race inquiry revealed the runner who placed first in the final, Dutchman Churandy Martina, would be disqualified for leaving his lane. Here’s…
