Posts by Dermot Hunt
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The Biggest Winners and Losers of the Olympics, by Country
Here in the U.K., everybody’s going crazy over Britain’s Olympic Heroes, and with good reason. But Team GB’s performance wasn’t that surprising; they won slightly more golds than predicted, but a few fewer medals overall. A tremendous performance, but not an unexpected one. So, which nations did pull off a shock? Who exceeded their supposed […]
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Plagues, Poultry, and the London Nose: A Guided Tour of the Olympic Marathon Course
Marathons are always run on Sunday mornings. Race organizers will tell you that’s the most convenient time to close down the center of a major city, but last time I checked, the streets aren’t too crowded at 5 a.m. on a Thursday. Could it be that the real reason marathons take place on Sundays is […]
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The Nadeshiko Revolution: Japan’s Women’s Soccer Team Plays Tiki-Taka Without the Tedium
There’s a craze sweeping men’s football at the moment. Its name is tiki-taka, a tactical system devised to help skillful teams cope with physically dominant opponents. There are those who will tell you that it is nothing less than an evolutionary step for football. These people have seen the tremendous success of the principal exponents […]
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No Legs Good, Two Legs Bad: Does Oscar Pistorius Have an Unfair Advantage?
So, Oscar Pistorius — a man born without fibulae — is running in the Olympic Games. He qualified for the 400-meter semifinal on Saturday, and he’ll be on the South Africa team for the 4×400-meter relay later this week, an event in which he won a silver medal in last year’s World Championships in Daegu. […]
