Becca Murray, a two-time gold medal winner in wheelchair basketball, balanced the demands of being an elite para-sport athlete by waking up at 4 a.m to train, working eight hours as a clinic assistant, and then returning to the gym. Though she was planning on competing in the 2020 Paralympics, the pandemic postponement forced her […]
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 […]
The 2020 Tokyo Games introduced viewers to skateboarding, surfing and climbing — new Olympic sports that have become fan favorites. On this episode of Debate Club, FiveThirtyEight staff members argue over which other sports deserve a spot in the Olympic lineup. Regardless of how convincing we are, chances are that none of these will make […]
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 […]
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 […]