American opulence is expected at the Olympics. So even as U.S. athletes were racking up medals at the Tokyo Olympics, much of the conversation seemed to dwell on why we weren’t winning more. Indeed, according to the FiveThirtyEight medal tracker, Team USA was projected to win 16 more medals than it did, with its gold […]
Why do some countries flourish at the Olympics and others founder? It’s a question that’s been studied for years. In general, rich countries fare better than poor ones, healthy countries better than sick and countries well connected with roads and bridges better than those lacking basic infrastructure. Harsh geopolitical and material inequalities don’t disappear when […]
Professional golfer Alena Sharp started getting “the yips” whenever she would try to putt. She experienced severe anxiety and physical tension that crept up her arms and into her jaw. So she started using a technique called “quiet eye,” which not only improved her aim but also helped her calm her body and mind. In […]
Men’s Olympic sprints traffic heavily in machismo and self-assurance, so an incredulous victor is a rarity on the track. Rarer still is the bewildered champion who hails from a country with no record of producing an event finalist. But there was Italy’s Lamont Marcell Jacobs on Sunday night, telling reporters, “I think I need four […]
When American gymnast Jade Carey hurdled toward the vault during Sunday’s apparatus final, something was off. She took a little extra shuffle or stutter step as she went into her roundoff onto the springboard. And in the post-flight phase of the vault, we saw the impact of this small misstep: Instead of doing her planned […]