This story originally appeared on WIRED Italia and has been translated from Italian. The 2024 Paris Paralympics have shown the general public how vast, extraordinary, and too often ignored the world of sports for people with disabilities is. Among the events that has garnered the most interest is blind soccer, …
Read More »John McFall, the Astronaut Flag Bearer at the Paris Paralympics, Is Ready to Fly
This story originally appeared on WIRED Italia and has been translated from Italian. John McFall’s sporting record alone would be enough to justify him being the flag bearer for the 2024 Paralympics. He won silver in the 100 meters (T42) and bronze in the 200 meters at the 2006 IPC …
Read More »The Paris Olympics Promised Flying Taxis—Here’s Why They Failed to Launch
In November 2022, Dominique Lazarski stood among a small crowd of people on the Pontoise airfield near Paris, watching a flying taxi trace wide circles in a clear blue sky after it took off for the first time from a working vertiport in France. Airborne, the vehicle looked like a …
Read More »Will the ‘Car-Free’ Los Angeles Olympics Work?
THIS ARTICLE IS republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. With the Olympic torch extinguished in Paris, all eyes are turning to Los Angeles for the 2028 Olympics. The host city has promised that the next Summer Games will be “car-free.” For people who know Los Angeles, this …
Read More »How to Watch the 2024 Summer Paralympics—and Why You Should
Usually held in the two weeks after the Olympic Games in the same host city, the Paralympics showcase the best athletes with physical disabilities from around the world competing for their home countries. (The Paralympics are not to be confused with the Special Olympics, which feature athletes with intellectual disabilities.) …
Read More »The Australian Breaker Who Broke the Internet
Before some of them were taken down, the memes about Australian Olympic breaker Rachael Gunn, aka Raygun, were all about poking fun. Videos of her flipping around or kangaroo hopping on the competition floor at the Paris Summer Games were accompanied by captions like “what my nephew does after telling …
Read More »NBC Sent 27 Creators to Paris. It Only Needed Snoop and Olympic Athletes
In mid-June, when NBCUniversal announced it was partnering with Meta, Overtime, Snapchat, TikTok, and YouTube to send 27 influencers to the 2024 Paris Olympics, it seemed like a big deal. These were huge content creators like Kai Cenat, Daniel Macdonald, and Zhongni “Zhong” Zhu, people with millions upon millions of …
Read More »How to Watch Billie Eilish and Snoop Dogg at the Summer Olympics Closing Ceremony
The Paris 2024 Summer Olympics will be remembered for a lot of things: drag performances, shameful allegations against some female athletes, swimming in the Seine, and, of course, incredible sporting achievements. On Sunday, the Games will add another memory to that list when Billie Eilish, Snoop Dogg, and the Red …
Read More »Olympic Drag Artist Nicky Doll Hits Back at Online Hate Mob
After the Summer Olympics’ opening ceremony, drag artist Nicky Doll felt she was on a cloud. Her makeup had survived 45 minutes of torrential rain as she performed on a bridge over the Seine River and she’d just witnessed waacking and voguing, both dance forms with queer roots, reach a …
Read More »Judging Breaking at the Olympics Is an Art, Not a Science
Back in 2017, when I was watching the breaking battles at the Silverback Open in the suburbs of Philadelphia, a B-boy drew up into a handstand. It’s a basic element, to be sure, but this dancer tweaked it by balancing on the back of his wrists, an innovation that excited …
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