Society
Sports
Since the dawn of the Olympics, sports have been a contest of global powers. Today, how are sports used as a means of conducting foreign policy — for better and for worse?
Female athletes seem to get faster and stronger every year, thanks to more sophisticated sports science, improved training techniques, and the growth in competitive opportunities made possible by greater public and sponsor interest. Yet the bias towards studying male athletes endures, women earn less than their male counterparts, and the hurdles of sexism, racism, ageism,...
American pro sports make a lot of money. Had it not been for the pandemic, the industry in North America was projected to generate $75.7 billion per year in revenue, a tally that includes ticket sales, television contracts, concessions, and advertising. Less easy to calculate — but also significant — is the impact of sports on communities. Sports have a profoundly positive...
Olympian Eileen Gu and WNBA Washington Mystics team owner Sheila Johnson know firsthand the power of Title IX, and their careers are testament to why it’s been called one of the world’s most powerful laws. Though its purpose is to make sure that American girls and women can enjoy all the benefits of sport, it has changed the way women compete all around the world — and not...
Charles Adams, a 20-year Minneapolis police officer, built a powerhouse football program at North High, in one of the city’s toughest neighborhoods. With a group of cop-coaches, they forged a bond with the community on the way to the state championship. But winning didn’t resolve the conflict of being black and blue, magnified when Adams was called to the front lines in th...
Excelling as an elite athlete isn’t just about performance — it’s also about not getting hurt. In this session, two Stanford researchers discuss how DNA data can help athletes predict propensity for injury. From genetic tests of 100 NFL linemen and collegiate cross-country runners, the researchers are using DNA sequencing, algorithms, population data sets, and evidence of...
Williams, Jordan, James, Brady. They’re among a growing class of the superstar athletes delivering career-best performances well past what's been considered peak age for their sports. As this phenomenon becomes more common, it begs the questions how and why now? How are experience and maturity winning out over inevitable, natural physical decline? Athletes in the 30s and 4...
The ability to endure is the essential trait in every extreme athletic endeavor. Hundred-mile races, Himalayan Mountain expeditions, and cross-continental treks all require humans to push harder and achieve more than we ever thought possible. How important is the delicate interplay between mind and body in the struggle to keep pushing despite an agonizing will to stop? Wha...
Earlier this year, two gifted NBA stars, Kevin Love of the Cleveland Cavaliers and DeMar DeRozan of the San Antonio Spurs, each publicly discussed their challenges with mental and emotional well-being. Their honesty started a national conversation about breaking through the stigma and fear of openly discussing mental health issues in professional sports. In this very perso...
Pick your issue: academic achievement, drug use, female empowerment, race relations, obesity, mental health, medical costs. Engaging young people in sports can help communities tackle all of these, and many more. What’s more, it can yield benefits like community cohesion, citizen engagement, economic productivity, urban development, and help foster social-emotional skills...
For decades, diet and exercise fads have promised to shrink waistlines, build muscle, detoxify, and so on. But evidence is mounting that there’s no one diet or routine that works for everyone. Researchers are experimenting with AI to determine personalized nutrition algorithms based on an individual’s health, lifestyle, physiology, and immune system. Christie Aschwanden, a...
The NFL was long-considered the final frontier for women in sports. But with landmark hirings of women in the league, is the playing field finally starting to even out? Two trailblazing female NFL coaches share what it’s like to hang with the boys and open up about what it takes to overcome stereotypes and gender discrimination for the sake of girls everywhere and for the...
On June 3, 2017, Alex Honnold became the first person to climb the 3,000-vertical-foot granite face of Yosemite’s El Capitan, alone, without ropes, a feat that was chronicled in the Academy Award-winning documentary, Free Solo. In his New York Times op-ed column, Bret Stephens wrote that with that act, “Honnold gave an extraordinary gift to everyone who believes that the l...
Artificial Intelligence is appearing in practically every facet of our lives, and Olympic sports is no exception. The US Olympic Committee is employing new technologies to supplement athletic ability and coaching intuition, from innovations in psychology, to the radar technology that helped propel one USA team to gold in Rio, and to cutting-edge motion capture technology b...
With advances in testing and technology, the world of professional sports is beginning to use data to evaluate athlete health and to predict — and ideally, prevent — injury. Experts equipped with 3D motion capture technology are now essential members of team training staffs. Are these new technologies and recovery interventions increasing player longevity? Will cost-effect...
Concussion is a dramatic thriller based on the incredible true David vs. Goliath story of American immigrant Dr. Bennet Omalu, the brilliant forensic neuropathologist who made the first discovery of CTE, a football-related brain trauma, in a pro player and fought for the truth to be known. Omalu’s emotional quest puts him at dangerous odds with one of the most powerful and...