Culture

Performance-enhancing vices

Selfishness channels ambition, envy drives competition, pride aids the win. Does it take a bad person to be a good athlete?

Sabrina Little

Drop into London’s eclectic skate scene, where newbies and old-timers find community

5 minutes

The moral risks of fandom

Players, coaches and team owners sometimes do terrible things. What, if anything, should their fans do about that?

Jake Wojtowicz & Alfred Archer

A unique project frames college football as an intricately choreographed mass ritual

7 minutes

The brutality and beauty of the West African martial art of ‘dambe’

15 minutes

Bodies, bikes and groovy music propel this stylish classic film from 1965

17 minutes

After a day’s toil in California’s fields, labourers let loose in street races

9 minutes

You’ve likely never heard of the only woman drafted into the NBA – and that’s fine by her

22 minutes

Love is a hold’em game

While some keep their cards close to their chest, others try raising the stakes. What can poker teach us about dating?

Suki Finn

‘I feel the weight of everyone’: Keeth Smart foiled death to make it to the Olympics

19 minutes

Behold the invisible swoosh and swirl of athletic movement in digital art

2 minutes

Experience the thrills – and major chills – of scaling a frozen waterfall

16 minutes

Invisible tattoos

Many athletes are propelled by childhood trauma to succeed, but it’s a toxic myth that healing the wounds blunts the edge

William D Parham

Grab bags, café raids and booze – how Tour de France cyclists refuelled in the 1960s

3 minutes