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The Greatest Auto Race on Earth Features Live Pigs
It’s deep August—a season of forgetting, a time when we’re all at the beach, at least mentally. No surprise that major sporting events slip past...
Read & DiscussWho Will Win Roller Derby’s Greatest Crown?
My tenure as Into the Good Wide Open correspondent is coming to an end. The rules of the Weird Sports Writers Guild require that I file at...
Read & DiscussLondon’s Ping Pong Revolution
So I’m watching some Entourage extras last night, and I stumble upon a behind-the-scenes look at the new season’s ping-pong episode, in which...
Read & DiscussThe Kamchatka Project: Is this the Wildest Place on Earth?
Oh, Kamchatka Project, how do I envy thee? This just-completed kayak expedition, based out of Hood River, Oregon, ventured deep into Russia’s...
Read & DiscussIs This the Most Amazing Streak in Sports?
Among the many things they love for irrational reasons (free all-you-can-eat buffets, Anna Kournakova, the National Football League), sports...
Read & DiscussLet Us Salute the World’s Craziest Marathoners
No concept in the weird world of sports freaks me out quite as severely as ultramarathon running. Thanks to a personal close encounter with the...
Read & DiscussThe International Tree-Climbing Championships
Ah, to climb a tree. Treeclimbing might seem like the sort of faux-naïve, arcadian adventure that modern kids disdain in favor of video games...
Read & DiscussWhy the Iroquois Can't Win the Lacrosse Championship
As North Korea’s reported move to hire Chinese actors to play “fans” during the Thousand-Mile Horse’s triumphant march to the World Cup (I’m...
Read & DiscussAmerica’s Jousting Renaissance! (Must Be Stopped!)
Last Sunday, a much-discussed (among alt-sports nerds such as myself, at least) The New York Times Magazine feature posed a pressing question:...
Read & DiscussIs Bike Polo the Next Big Sport?
Bike polo—or, to be precise, the streetwise variant known hardcourt bike polo—is easily one of the coolest underground sports stories right now....
Read & DiscussTaking the Blood out of Bullfighting
I have mixed feelings about bullfighting. On the one hand: Man. Bull. Danger! Death! Beauty! Romance! Tradition! I can’t think of a more pure...
Read & DiscussPrepare Yourself for the World Cup Finals
The last match of World Cup 2010 is upon us. On Sunday at 2:30 p.m. eastern time, Spain and the Netherlands, arguably the two nations with the...
Read & DiscussSummer: Time to Get Your Cornhole On
The recent simultaneous pile-up of Grade-A sporting spectacles—the World Cup, Wimbledon, the Tour de France, Major League Baseball’s perpetual...
Read & DiscussOctopush—Underwater Hockey—Will Haunt Your Dreams
You know, it’s not easy, this obscure-sporting-activities-journalist thing. I often feel my chosen subjects go out of their way to keep...
Read & DiscussQuidditch Sweeps the Real World
It’s a beautiful season to be outside. So I, of course, have spent an unreasonable amount of time crouched indoors, bathed in the warm glow of...
Read & DiscussIntroducing Some Competitive Spirit to Conservation
The obsessed birders in the audience (you know who you are) will be familiar with the “Big Year” concept—essentially, a relentless effort to...
Read & DiscussLongboard Hockey: They Use a Beer Can as a Puck
Still on a bit of a buzz after writing about pato, Argentina’s indigenous hybrid of polo, basketball, and soccer, I found myself wondering: What...
Read & DiscussArgentina’s Weird, Awesome “National Sport”
If you’re following the Argentinian World Cup soap opera featuring the wolfish Diego Maradona and the waifish Lionel Messi, you’re forgiven for...
Read & DiscussChallenging Racial Boundaries in the Great Outdoors
Quick: Imagine someone hiking. Quick: imagine someone skiing. Quick: imagine someone kayaking. Okay. If you actually completed this exercise, I...
Read & DiscussThe Greatest World Cup Highlight Footage You Will Ever See
The 2010 World Cup is off with a bang. Well, actually, the football has been sort of dire so far, in my opinion—not to come off like a shallow...
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