As the sun beats down one sultry summer afternoon in Nagpur, India, something in the air is amiss. The roads are barren, devoid of the daily bustle that so regularly consumes the city. The crowded country of 1.2 billion people is as quiet as it will ever be, huddled indoors, Read More…
Cal won 17 medals at the London Olympics, but what if it turns out that number increases? What if Cal actually won 22 medals — 15 golds — and we didn’t even realize what was going on? What if the London Olympics really solidified Cal as the No. 1 school at which to be an Olympic athlete — instead of No. 2 or 3 — blowing Stanford, USC and every other American school out of the water? What if Missy Franklin comes to Cal? Read More…
The Summer Olympics are essentially to the rest of the world what the FIFA World Cup is to America: an excuse to adopt some crazy fanaticism about sports one knows absolutely nothing about. There are, of course, countless “hell yeah!” moments in any given Olympics — most of which involve Team USA. But for every “hell yeah!” moment, there’s at least one that takes you by surprise and makes you stammer, “What the hell?” Read More…
Sarah Attar, who is eligible to compete for Saudi Arabia because her father was born there, is one of the first two Saudi Arabian women to ever compete in the Olympics. Judo competitor Wodjan Shaherkhani, born in Mecca, is the other. In the first Olympics since the Arab Spring began two years ago, Brunei, Qatar and Saudi Arabia are all sending women for the first time. A female athlete will represent each of the 204 countries in the Olympics for the first time in the history of the competition. Read More…
Bonfire as we know it won’t happen this year. Even backstage at the Greek Theatre, the heat from the Bonfire cracks toward you like a whip and makes your eyes water. Even in the midst of a torrential downpour — as has been the case for the past two years, at least — the dying embers can still steam dry your clothes if you stand close enough in the pit. Read More…
There’s been a lot of talk lately about how football has replaced baseball as America’s sport. Football dominates television ratings as baseball’s pace lumbers in today’s overstimulated society and a younger audience of fans dies off. In spite of all of the backlash, baseball may have found its saviors. Read More…
The dust grows thicker as you dig deeper into the past, as the dates on the thick blue volumes tread slowly back from the start of the 21st century and into the decades of the century preceding it. Two dank flourescent bulbs shed just enough light on the pages to Read More…
You can smell the chlorine before you even step on the deck of Spieker Aquatics Center. The potent smell wafts over you well before you walk toward the grandstands by the pool, a captivating mix of sterility, purity and pure, water-muted athleticism. Only a select few people at Cal recognize Read More…
The trial of Jerry Sandusky is about more than Jerry Sandusky. Oh yes, the venom spewed on Sandusky in the wake of his sexual abuse trial is well deserved. The former Penn State assistant coach, who was found guilty of 45 of 48 charges of sexual abuse of young children Read More…
I don’t know if you’ve heard, but the former BCS system sucked. Let me ascribe some more sophisticated vocabulary to this statement. The system was bloated, inefficient and capitalist. The endurance of such excess was a testament to the mindlessness of modern entertainment, something that would make Aldous Huxley nod Read More…
