Sports
Games
Meet “Darbian,” a master “SpeedRunner” with the credentials to prove it. A dedicated classic Nintendo video game whiz, he sprints through classic releases with the goal of establishing time records. It only
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took him 6,607 tries to set the record in Super Mario Bros.
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Category: Sports
Keywords: Time | Video games
Since the 1980s, the Rubik’s Cube has captivated the minds of puzzle solvers around the globe. But how did one of the world’s most addictive and prolific puzzles come to be? It all began in the beautiful city of Budapest,
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in the beautiful mind of Ernő Rubik, a design and architecture lecturer looking for a tactile way to teach his students about three-dimensional space. But the story’s real “twist” came when the creator had to engineer a solution to his self-made conundrum. Think you have what it takes to crack the code? Take it up with the master himself.
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Category: Sports
Keywords: Inventions | Playing
You know Mario—who could forget the cheery “woo-hoos!” of Nintendo’s most beloved video game character? Now meet Charles Martinet, the voice behind the iconic mustachioed man. It turns out, Martinet not only voiced
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Mario, he also created the voices for Wario, Luigi and even Donkey Kong!
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Category: Sports | Technology
Keywords: Video games | Voice
Sports
Myron Rolle is a man of many talents. After graduating high school, he was considered one of the leading prospects for the NFL. Recruited by some of the biggest names in college football, he went on to become the starting
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safety for the Florida State Seminoles, eventually drafted to the NFL by the Tennessee Titans. But Myron’s ambitions didn’t end there. Now, he’s a Rhodes scholar on his was to becoming a world-class neurosurgeon.
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The legendary boxer Muhammad Ali shares some of the wisdom that he has acquired.
Category: Psychology | Sports
The victory of the underdog. The last minute penalty shot that wins the tournament. The training montage. Many people love to glorify victory on the field, cheer for teams, and play sports. But should we be obsessed with
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sports? Are sports as good for us as we make them out to be, or are they just a fun and entertaining pastime? Leah Lagos and Jaspal Ricky Singh show what science has to say on the matter.
Lesson by Leah Lagos and Jaspal Ricky Singh, animation by Kozmonot Animation Studio.
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The 2018 World Cup football is a nod back to an iconic design.
When you think of a soccer ball, you probably imagine a classic black-and-white paneled ball. It’s known
When you think of a soccer ball, you probably imagine a classic black-and-white paneled ball. It’s known
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as the Telstar ball, and it was created thanks to TV.
The 1966 World Cup in England was broadcast live across the globe and it was at this point that television became a huge part of the sport. Thanks to the BBC, it was seen by four hundred million people. But spotting the ball was a bit challenging.
Back then, soccer balls looked more like reddish-brown volleyballs. And on black-and-white TVs, it didn’t really stand out from the green field.
By the 1970 World Cup, the soccer ball had changed to that classic Telstar. The contrasting panels made it stand out on TV. Plus, the players loved it because the 32 panels brought the ball closer to an actual sphere.
This year’s World Cup ball is called the Telstar 18, a nod to the original design. While the panels have changed to just six propeller-shaped pieces to make the ball even more spherical, the black-and-white checkered design is back.
The 1966 World Cup in England was broadcast live across the globe and it was at this point that television became a huge part of the sport. Thanks to the BBC, it was seen by four hundred million people. But spotting the ball was a bit challenging.
Back then, soccer balls looked more like reddish-brown volleyballs. And on black-and-white TVs, it didn’t really stand out from the green field.
By the 1970 World Cup, the soccer ball had changed to that classic Telstar. The contrasting panels made it stand out on TV. Plus, the players loved it because the 32 panels brought the ball closer to an actual sphere.
This year’s World Cup ball is called the Telstar 18, a nod to the original design. While the panels have changed to just six propeller-shaped pieces to make the ball even more spherical, the black-and-white checkered design is back.
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Brian Shaw is 6’8 and weighs 400 pounds. He eats a dozen eggs for breakfast. He can lift a car. But he’s too wide to sit in an armchair. See what life is like for the World’s Strongest Man.
Category: Sports
Ashima Shiraishi can scale boulders and rock faces that most people twice her age simply can’t. The 14-year-old New York native started climbing boulders in Central Park when she was just six years old and hasn’t looked back
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since. Keep going Ashima!
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Category: Sports
Young You started skating when she was 6 years old. She still remembers her first time on the ice. Simply standing was difficult. Today, the 15-year-old is a three-time South Korean national figure skating champion. Her
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ultimate dream is to win gold at the Olympics. And she’s putting in the hard work it will take to get there.
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Category: Sports
Keywords: Competition | Sports
Annie Londonderry gained infamy for being the first woman to bicycle around the world—all in only 15 months. But the story is a little more complicated than that. During a time when very few women rode bicycles, legend has
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it that Annie accepted a wager to circumnavigate the world on two wheels. As the story goes, she traveled the globe, hunting tigers in India with royalty, sustaining a gunshot wound to the shoulder, and even being interned in a Japanese prison. But her incredible tales are more myth than truth …
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Category: Geography & Travel | Sports
Andrew Jones jokes that he’s “the best looking zombie you’ll ever see.” The fitness model and body builder technically has no pulse, and has built an impressive physique on an artificial heart. Until he receives a donor
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match, he keeps a constant supply of batteries on him. Heart or no heart, he hasn’t let anything stop him from staying active and living the life he wants.
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Category: Sports
Keywords: Exercising | Heart
Golf’s distance debate, explained.
These days, pro golfers are hitting the ball far. Really far. And it’s creating a problem: because modern
These days, pro golfers are hitting the ball far. Really far. And it’s creating a problem: because modern
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golfers can reach the hole with fewer shots than before, older courses — like Augusta National Golf Club, Oakmont Country Club, and others — are becoming obsolete. Now, professional organizations, like the United States Golf Association, are struggling to find a solution for big powerful golfers like Dustin Johnson, Bubba Watson, and Tiger Woods. While the jump in distance is due to lots of factors, conversation is centering on the controversial possibility of redesigning the golf ball to reduce distance. It’d be the latest turn in the ball’s long history: Golf balls have evolved from “featheries,” to gutties, to balata balls, and eventually dimpled modern balls. But the biggest, and most recent change? The almost-instantaneous switch from wound balls to solid core multilayer balls like the Titleist Pro V1.
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Category: Sports
Keywords: Celebrities | Sports
At the Salt Lake City Olympic Games in 2002, the world saw one of the most surprising gold medals in Olympic history when Australian short track speed skater Steven Bradbury defied the odds in his unlikely gold-medal
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winning race and became “The last man standing”.
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Category: Sports
The constant thud underneath your feet. The constrained space. The monotony of going nowhere fast. Running on a treadmill can certainly feel like torture, but did you know it was originally used for that very purpose? Conor
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Heffernan details the dark and twisted history of the treadmill.
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Category: History & Culture | Sports
The Toronto Raptors have only been around for about 20 years, but Nav Bhatia has never missed a game. This super fan left his native India to resettle in Toronto, and when the NBA came to the frozen north, Bhatia bought his
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first two tickets. That was all it took to hook him. Now Bhatia sits courtside and hangs with the team and Canadian royalty (ahem, Drake). He also represents the changing face of basketball fans, both in Canada and around the world.
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Category: Sports