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My colleague Gisela Salim-Peyer put it bluntly final weekend: “Many ladies love sports activities, however I’m not one in every of them. I don’t need to play any sports activities, and I definitely don’t need to watch.” I’m personally fairly aligned with Gisela right here, however this yr, I’m discovering myself invested within the Olympics. Like Gisela, I’m discovering that this worldwide spectacle of athletic excellence will be the exception to my sports-averse rule. Perhaps that’s as a result of the Olympics have a approach of exhibiting us what sports activities needs to be about: camaraderie, competing with oneself to surpass previous targets and set new ones, and the enjoyment of well-earned success (additionally, nice outfits and glitter).
Consider right this moment’s publication as a sports activities reader for the sports-averse or sports-ambivalent. I’ve rounded up a set of Atlantic tales that remember what makes athleticism a deeply human endeavor, one which’s value exploring even in the event you don’t see your self as a “sports activities particular person.”
On the Pleasure of Sports activities
Why I Hate Sports activities however Love the Olympics
By Gisela Salim-Peyer
It’s the one time that feminine athletes get equal billing—however that’s solely a part of the reason.
A Skeptic Attends the First Fashionable Olympics
By Stephanie Bai
The video games didn’t at all times encourage international patriotic fervor.
Sports activities Are Nice As a result of They’re Pointless
By Arthur C. Brooks
Essentially the most trivial issues can construct the strongest relationships.
Nonetheless Curious?
- The unintended spectator’s information to enhancing sports activities: “Bearing witness to sports activities with none actual emotional attachment, I’ve seen a number of issues endemic to baseball, basketball, soccer, and soccer—and like a McKinsey guide at a metal mill, I’ve developed concepts for find out how to treatment them,” Juliet Lapidos wrote in 2014.
- The enjoyment of glory-free sports activities: Final winter, Lora Kelley recounted the pleasures of her mediocre-squash period.
Different Diversions
- How M. Evening Shyamalan got here again from the useless
- Nervousness is like train.
- What adults misplaced when children stopped taking part in on the street
P.S.
I not too long ago requested readers to share a photograph of one thing that sparks their sense of awe on the planet. Heidi A., 27, from Philadelphia, wrote:
“I took this image from the highest of the cable automotive on Mont Blanc in France. The buildings and platforms up there have an interesting combine of standard vacationers like me and severe alpinists. There are units of footprints and teams of alpinists seen within the background of the picture, climbing towards the summit. The opposite vacationers and I clapped when the alpinist within the midground made it again to his associates, who have been managing his rope from the platform. I used to be blown away not solely by the fantastic thing about the world, but additionally by the individuals round me!”
I’ll proceed to function your responses within the coming weeks. In the event you’d prefer to share, reply to this e mail with a photograph and a brief description so we are able to share your marvel with fellow readers in a future version of this text or on our web site. Please embrace your identify (initials are okay), age, and site. By doing so, you agree that The Atlantic has permission to publish your picture and publicly attribute the response to you, together with your first identify and final preliminary, age, and/or location that you just share together with your submission.
— Isabel
