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sports writing

A horse training in a lake, with a man holding onto his neck.
Posted inUncategorized

The Skeleton, the Meat, and the Bones: A Chat With the Writer and Editor Behind The Atavist’s New Issue

by Brendan O'Meara August 18, 2022November 9, 2022

In this excerpt from The Creative Nonfiction Podcast, host Brendan O’Meara talks to Jana Meisenholder about writing “King of the Hill.”

Posted inEditor's Pick

Gary Smith, Master of the Sports Longform, Left at the Very Top. Why?

by Peter Rubin July 12, 2022October 19, 2022

The latest in SI‘s “Where Are They Now?” series covers longtime staffer Smith, arguably one of the finest profilers the journalism world has ever known. His portraits of Mike Tyson, Andre Agassi, and other icons cut through the insularity of sports fandom to become the stuff of magazine legend. Now, Joseph Bien-Kahn heads to South […]

A portrait of a man in handlebar mustache on a bicycle, in front of a collage of images of the same man on his bicicyle in different locales
Posted inStory

The 19th-Century Hipster Who Pioneered Modern Sportswriting

by Robert Isenberg April 26, 2022October 18, 2022

More than a century before GoPro, Thomas Stevens’ around-the-world bike ride vaulted first-person “sports porn” into the mainstream.

Posted inEditor's Pick

It’s Triller Night, Marv!: Trump’s 9/11 MMA Fever Dream

by Peter Rubin September 22, 2021October 19, 2022

“What do I care for seeing these legends (insofar as MMA even has “legends”), in a sport not their own, at ages that seem criminally old? It’s sadder than any strung-out rocker strumming bloated and hoarse-throated to a braying audience. You can’t, in good conscience, want these men to play their hits again.”

Posted inEditor's Pick

Wrestling in Paris

by benhuberman June 7, 2018October 19, 2022

A pilgrimage to the 2017 World Championships makes Andrew Kay wonder: is wrestling a metaphor for current global politics, or have global politics become increasingly wrestling-like?

Posted inFeatured, Nonfiction, Quotes

The Swan (Mascot) that Would Not Be Tamed

by benhuberman April 4, 2017October 19, 2022

The story of a football team’s mascot, the man inside the costume, and the town that rallied around its local hero.

Posted inFeatured, Nonfiction, Reading List

Longreads Best of 2016: Sports Writing

by Longreads December 16, 2016October 20, 2022

We asked a few writers and editors to choose some of their favorite stories of the year in various categories. Here, the best in sports writing.

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