Former Canadian and World Champion Elvis Stojko on what ails men's figure skating: There's been a lot of discussion about masculinity and figure skating recently. Do you think the discussion has been productive?

It basically started about one year ago, when Skate Canada said that they weren't getting enough young boys enrolling in skating. People tiptoe around the topic, and I was like, "You know, I'm just going to say it: Effeminate men's skating is not my style of skating. In men's skating I like to see power and strength." [....] Some guys get into the sport because it's difficult the spins, the speed and they like to showcase that within the music. When you're not appreciated for that, it takes its toll. And then when people call them effeminate, they get pissed. People call them gay, and some people don't like to be called that.

posted by rumple to olympics at 07:07 PM - 16 comments

Can a gay football (soccer) player ever come out?: Includes a link to an anti-homophobia video commissioned, and now delayed, by the FA.

posted by rumple to culture at 10:54 PM - 1 comment

Fourth down and freakonomics: A football is often referred to as a “pigskin,” though it’s been a long time since that term was accurate. Modern-day footballs are made from cow leather, made from the hides of slaughtered cattle. That got us wondering: What are the odds a given cow will make it to the Super Bowl?

posted by rumple to football at 12:14 PM - 0 comments

Is the rise of the super-athlete ruining sport?: From Usain Bolt to Rafa Nadal, top sports stars are fitter, faster and stronger than ever. But how long will it be before the pursuit of perfection takes all the drama out of sport?

posted by rumple to general at 03:41 PM - 4 comments

Japanese Baseball Cards: & More Japanese Baseball Cards. All from the collection of John Gall, author of Sayonara Home Run!: The Art of the Japanese Baseball Card. These are markedly different from their North American equivalents.

posted by rumple to baseball at 10:48 PM - 4 comments

Either/Or: Sports, Sex and the case of Caster Semenya: a long, thoughtful piece on gender from the New Yorker.

posted by rumple to olympics at 04:22 PM - 4 comments

Malcom Gladwell compares and contrasts dog fighting with the NFL: "A dog that keeps charging at its opponent is said to possess 'gameness,' and game dogs are revered. In one way or another, plenty of organizations select for gameness. [.....] This is why Michael Vick's dogs weren't euthanized. The betrayal of loyalty requires an act of social reparation. Professional football players, too, are selected for gameness".

posted by rumple to football at 01:15 PM - 2 comments

FlipFlopFlyball: is designer Craig Robinson's collection of the sports graphics he does for fun. Mostly about baseball, these range from whimsical to silly to interesting to simple. He also has a baseball flickr set.

posted by rumple to culture at 02:10 PM - 3 comments

30 dirty players in 30 days: "I have finished my 30 Dirty Players in 30 Days feature. Over the month of August, we featured the all-time dirtiest player from each NHL Team - From Anaheim to Washington."..... 18. CHI Bobby Hull - Nice guy on the ice. Too bad his wife didn't play hockey. 22. VAN Todd Bertuzzi - In this case, one cheapshot does make you a dirty player. 29. FLA Brian McCabe - This "Flying Ass" was the inventor of the "Can Opener". 30. COL Steve Moore - Of course he didn't deserve it, but his hit on Naslund was dirty. And 26 others ...

posted by rumple to hockey at 12:33 PM - 19 comments

Monica Seles talks about her hair, her fridge, her body, and being stabbed in the back: The former teenage prodigy won eight grand slam events before being attacked at age 19 by a deranged fan. She came back to win a ninth, but was never the same again. In this interview she reflects on her career, and on being a teenage girl under the spotlight. "My generation was the last when you were marketed really as a tennis player - Graf, Hingis. But when Anna Kournikova came along, there was this whole other thing - suddenly it was all about looks. Tennis is pretty unforgiving if you are carrying weight. You are expected to wear short skirts, and you are compared to all these 16- and 17-year-olds.

posted by rumple to tennis at 03:21 PM - 8 comments

Sunday Flash Fun: Little Master cricket is an extremely simple, yet surprisingly addictive, flash game. Control a loose-limbed batsman, defend your wicket, and hit for 1, 2 ,4 or 6. As in real cricket, starting stance and bat angle are crucial. Unlike real cricket, the balls pile up if you play with too dead a bat. Game resets extremely quickly, which is good, because it is tricky to score well and you only get one out!

posted by rumple to other at 02:27 PM - 6 comments

Formula 1 at the Big Picture blog: in wet and dry conditions.

posted by rumple to auto racing at 05:11 PM - 5 comments

Two can't misses, who missed. Todd Marinovich: a familiar story, compellingly told with a new interview, and Mike Harrington: drafted 5 times, turned down a 5 million dollar contract, changes tires at Costco.

posted by rumple to culture at 08:38 PM - 4 comments

Soviet Hockey Cards: from the 1970s glory era.

posted by rumple to hockey at 10:58 PM - 3 comments

Stats Guru Bill James dissects the BCS: A precise encapsulation of all that is wrong with College Football rankings.

posted by rumple to football at 01:13 PM - 2 comments

It's not every day you pick up 15,000 games in the standings. : But last fall a man hardly anyone's heard of went from the losingest team of all time to the winningest team of all time....

posted by rumple to basketball at 11:07 PM - 0 comments

Basqueing in Glory:: Athletic Bilbao is Europe's most exotic football club. For 80 years, the legendary club has managed to keep itself in Spain's top division, fielding players recruited exclusively from the Basque region. But how long can the fiercely independent club continue to resist the trends of globalization?

posted by rumple to soccer at 02:35 PM - 13 comments

Profile of Asafa Powell,: who has run the five fastest 100 metre sprints in history and is still based in a run-down training facility in Jamaica. Photo Gallery

posted by rumple to other at 01:33 AM - 1 comment

Football Filter: is a new "online community a la digg that concentrates on quality links on the world of football (soccer)". via Metafilter Projects.

posted by rumple to soccer at 12:54 AM - 15 comments

ZEUS: is a computer program that analyses NFL coaches based on the plays they call across the season. Belichek's notorious 4 & 13 call in the superbowl was the right choice, but coaches lose their teams 0.5 to 1.5 games a year on blown calls. Interesting interview with the programmers. via kottke

posted by rumple to football at 08:30 PM - 3 comments

White men can't jump: 10 myths about race and sports.: A quiz from the American Anthropological Association.

posted by rumple to culture at 02:54 PM - 2 comments

All the Super Bowl Logos, from I to XLII.: An implicit mini-history of American design, good and bad.

posted by rumple to culture at 11:55 AM - 24 comments

The Joy of Six: The six worst sports movies ever. "Stumbling around seemingly high on botox, Stallone spends his time mulling over snippets of cod philosophy - "The world ain't all sunshine and rainbows, it's a very mean and nasty place" - and comes to the conclusion that, by losing, one can actually become ... wait for it ... a winner". The ensuing comments are lively.

posted by rumple to culture at 01:59 PM - 74 comments

Flights of Fancy:: "In pursuit of a childhood dream, one man packed in his job to see if he could make it as a professional sportsman. Well, darts player, anyway. After a year at the oche, he tells his humbling story of growing obsession, drinking Guiness before 10am, and learning some hard lessons." What? No "darts" category? Gosh.

posted by rumple to other at 02:04 AM - 5 comments

The gambler who didn't know when to quit:: "Gary Bettman, the smooth-talking commissioner of the NHL, is the most disliked man in hockey, and justifiably so." A punchy column from The Guardian assesses Bettman's role in the current state of the NHL, from a U.K. perspective.

posted by rumple to hockey at 04:44 PM - 1 comment