Science

Dan Peterson and his blog Sports Are 80 Percent Mental: A Look Inside the Mind of the Athlete
Here are some representative posts: Winning Olympic Gold with Sport Science, Federer and Nadal Can See the Difference, See the Ball, Be the Ball—Vision and Sports, Does Practice Make Perfect?

Natalie Angier, Learning from a Muddy Muscle Master
Lessons on strength training and muscle from the master of excessive muscular activity, the male toadfish

Bryant Park Project, Do Top Athletes See the World Differently?
NPR show on vision and athletes

Gina Kolata, Is Stretching All It’s Cracked Up to Be?
Studies of stretching collide with conflicting goals for stretching—an update from two ongoing studies

David Edwards and colleagues. Intercollegiate soccer: Saliva cortisol and testosterone are elevated during competition, and testosterone is related to status and social connectedness with teammates
Abstract for a 2006 Physiology and Behavior article, looking at social status, athletic prowess, and hormone levels

Training

Gretchen Reynolds, Faster, Higher, Stronger: An Olympic Cyclist’s Level-Headed Advice
Christian Vande Velde provides training tips, including substituting interval training for hills through “power bursts”

Arianne Cohen, The Making of an Olympian
Triathlete Andy Potts tops his rivals through an “unorthodox, highly scientific training regimen”

Karen Crouse, Torres Is Getting Older, But Swimming Faster
Dara Torres, her training, and the related controversy

Sarah Lorge Butler, Secrets of the Olympians
15 US Olympic runners share snippets of advice, tips, and insight into what they do and why

Richard Williams, Motor Sport: The Brain Rewiring and Supercharging That Makes Hamilton a Master
Brain training for Lewis Hamilton, the Formula One racing phenom

Profiles

Daniel Coyle, That Which Does Not Kill Me Makes Me Stronger
Jure Rubic, the world’s best ultra-endurance athlete. Pain, motivation, and refusing to stop.

Elizabeth Weil, A Swimmer of a Certain Age
Dara Torres, the 41 year old who won the 50 and 100 meter freestyle at the US Olympic trials and now will race for gold.

Charlie Shroeder, From Golf Hustler to PGA Pro
Al Duhon, pioneering African American player of golf

Corey Binns, How It Works: The Dolphin Kick
Michael Phelps cracks his body like a continual whip for a big advantage

Jonah Lehrer, Phelps
Swimming phenom Michael Phelps, just ordinary on land

Reflections

Doug Glanville, Doubleday and Darwin
A baseball player reflects on skills, rules, and the changing nature of the game. Click here for the full series by Glanville.

Stuart Stevens, Thank God, This Will Only Get Worse
How to endure those long races from a first-person perspective

Timothy Egan, Mountain Madness
Reflections on mortality and mountain climbing

Trailer for the documentary “Bigger, Stronger, Faster”
A documentary on athletes who have embraced steroid use and show it off. Plus the movie producers answer readers’ questions on performance-enhancing drugs.

General

Anthropologist about Town, More Than Just a Sport
Profile of Susan Brownell, an anthropologist studying sports and politics in Beijing. Includes link to online work by Brownell. Scroll down a bit to see this particular entry.

Marketa Hulpachova, With Luck, A Rocky Landing
Rock jumping, the newest extreme sport—jumping crevasses and assorted gaps between towering rocks

Louisa Lim, Boarding Schools Generate China’s Sport Stars
China grooms its gymnastic athletes from a young age

Graham Bowley and Andrea Kannapell, Tragic Toll After Chaos on Mountain
K2 claims 11 lives on the great Himalayan peak—today’s real Everest

RTFM Sports, Chess Boxing
The newest sport combining chess and boxing, complete with great You Tube video

Carol Pogash, A Personal Call to a Prosthetic Invention
Flex Foot—building a better prosthetic leg through flexibility

Jonica Newby, The Extreme Sports Brain
A forensic psychiatrist and extreme sportsman discuss why he jumps off 70 meter cliffs

Exercise and Brain Health

Pascale Michelon, Physical Exercise and Brain Health
Sharp Brains gives us the latest on how exercise affects cognitive function

Robin Nixon, How Your Inner Athlete Makes You Smarter
Exercise protects and stimulates your brain