The Sporting Scene
What Qinwen Zheng Could Mean for Tennis, and for China
The player known as Queenwen won Olympic Gold, and is moving through the early rounds of the U.S. Open.
How the Women of the N.W.S.L. Got Freedom That Their Male Counterparts Don’t Have
In its new collective-bargaining agreement, the pro soccer league has eliminated the draft. Free agency “was always the players’ power to begin with,” one executive said.
The Italian Renaissance in Men’s Tennis
Italy boasts the No. 1 player in the world, and has as many players in the Top Forty as the United States. It’s not an accident.
Paul Skenes Is a Heroic Figure in Baseball’s Antiheroic Age
The tall, young, mustachioed pitcher throws hard—so hard that his team, the Pittsburgh Pirates, is doing everything it can to be careful with him.
Tim Walz and the Lessons of High-School Football
The Vice-Presidential nominee was the defensive coördinator for a team that won the state title. His players say that he taught them more about togetherness than tactics.
Armand Duplantis, the Timothée Chalamet of the Pole Vault
The American Swedish heartthrob showed his mastery of the strangest of sports, setting another new record.
High-Pressure Hope at the Paris Olympics
Cheers, howls, and the occasional boo have brought joyous cacophony to the City of Light.
A Universe in Ten Seconds
At the Paris Olympics, the drama of the women’s hundred-metre races culminated in swift, decisive endings.
U.S.A. Basketball Is Still an Awkward Fit at the Olympics
The team probably has too much talent to lose. Still, turning twelve superstars into a selfless whole may be an impossible task.
How Simone Biles and Team U.S.A. Gymnastics Came Soaring Back
A sense of doubt had plagued the sport since Biles’s withdrawal from the Tokyo Games. The team’s success in Paris should definitively quash it.