i Page 5950 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Here Are This Year's Sloan Finalist Papers—And Their Biggest Issue
The eight finalists for the paper contest at MIT's Sloan Conference—the most prestigious and most branded sports analytics conference in the U.S.—were announced this week. They're a fascinating mix of creative problem solving and impresario number-wrangling, and if you read through them, you'll see ...

Help! My Girlfriend's Hair Is Everywhere!
Jolie Kerr is a cleaning expert and advice columnist. She'll be here every other week helping to answer your filthiest questions. Are you dirty? Email her....

Watch Russia's Greatest Sports Hero Get Wrecked By Team USA
Game recognizes game, so we'll concede that Vladislav Tretiak, who just helped light the Olympic cauldron, is one of the greatest goaltenders to ever skate the Earth. As we anxiously wonder when the hell Olympic hockey is going to start, let's also concede that the 1980 men's team had his number....

How The Opening Ceremony's Russian History Lesson Handled The Bad Stuff
Every Olympic opening ceremony is essentially the same—the host nation's history, by way of Cirque du Soleil. The real drama is in seeing how they'll whitewash the bad stuff. So, how did Sochi organizers cover the period between the Russian Revolution and World War II, the period of purges and famin...

The Beautiful Infographics Of Ted Williams's <em>The Science Of Hitting</em>
In 1971, Ted Williams and John Underwood released The Science of Hitting, the definitive treatment of the subject. Few great athletes have ever been so articulate about the mechanics of their greatness, which is one reason the book holds up even today, well into the analytics era. (A decade ago, Sci...

Randall Cunningham: The Author Of NFL's Greatest Individual Play
Excerpted from Deadspin's Big Book of Black Quarterbacks....

Lady Who Just Lit Olympic Flame Tweeted A Racist Picture Of The Obamas
The Olympic opening ceremony just wrapped up, and former Russian figure skater Irina Rodnina was the given the honor of lighting the Olympic flame. Rodnina is one of Russia's most successful figure skaters, and is currently a member of Russia's public chamber. She is also, it seems, pretty racist!...

Paper Tiger
Dig this excerpt from Stanley Woodward's classic memoir, "Paper Tiger." It concerns Red Smith and the great horse racing columnist, Joe Palmer:...

Death Of A Playmate
The good people over at Longform present Teresa Carptenter's 1980 Village Voice profile, "Death of a Playmate." First time it's appeared online:...

Model Predicts That The U.S. Is Going To Dominate Sochi
We're nearly past the Opening Ceremony, so it's time to get serious: Who's going to win the Winter Olympics? Based on an analysis of economic and geographic data from participating countries through Winter Olympic history, Dan and Tim Graettinger have built out a model for medal performance at the g...

Opening Ceremony Features 'Trololo Song'
Eduard Khil may have died two years ago, but the song he (and the Internet) made famous lives on—as evidenced by the presence of "I Am So Happy To Finally Be Back Home" (aka the Trololo Song) in today's Opening Ceremony in Sochi....

Sochi Opening Ceremony Features Scary, Blinking Robot Bear
Why, Russia? Why are you trying to ruin bears for us?...

Jamaica Is Here, Everyone
Get down! Get down! (No, seriously, get down. The stadium's ceiling might collapse at any moment.)...

1,000 High School Students Celebrate Olympics With Patriotic Flash Mob
So, we're not entirely sure what's going on here, but the person who originally uploaded this video to Facebook claims that it happened in a Kentucky hotel on Wednesday, and was done to mark the start of the Olympics....

Austria Is Having Problems
[A member of Austria's delegation lies on the ground after falling during the Opening Ceremony of the Sochi Winter Olympics at the Fisht Olympic Stadium. Photograph: Andrej Isakovic/AFP/Getty Images]...

Russian Olympic Beer Cans Are Dripping With Testosterone
The Washington Post's Rick Maese brings us this photo of Russian beer that can be purchased at the Sochi Olympics. As Maese points out on his Instagram page, that appears to be a Russian hockey player stealing a pretty ice skater from the defeated Canadian hockey team. You may question Russia's comp...

Zdeno Chara Got A Bed Extension
At 6'9", Slovak defenseman Zdeno Chara is undoubtedly the tallest Olympian at Sochi, and the most likely to struggle with the spartan living arrangements. But worry not. Organizers wheeled in what's described as an "extended bed," and appears to be an ottoman....

It Took 10 Minutes For The First Opening Ceremony Mistake To Occur
How very Sochi of things not to work properly. Good thing nothing like this happened in Vancouver....