Culture
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...
Culture
Who 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...
Culture
London’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...
Culture
Can Team America Conquer Croquet?
If the dearly departed World Cup left you hankering for international sports in which the United States can play the role of scrappy underdog,...
Culture
The 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...
Culture
Is 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...
Culture
Let 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...
Culture
The 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...
News
Picture Show: Everyday South Africans and Their Bikes
Stan Engelbrecht and Nic Grobler's Bicycle Portraits is an ongoing project to photograph everyday South Africans and their bikes. Earlier this...
Culture
Why 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...
Culture
America’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:...
Culture
Is 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....
Culture
Taking 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...
Culture
Prepare 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...
Culture
Summer: 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...
Culture
Octopush—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...
Culture
Picture Show: Surfing the Icy Waters of the Oregon Coast
With rugged tree-lined mountains that plummet directly into its oceanic waters—which tend to hover just over 50 degrees Fahrenheit—the Oregonian...
Culture
Quidditch 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...
