The Olympics is the world’s greatest athletic event. Men and women run, swim, dive, lift, vault, serve, swing, kick and play against one another until a champion is crowned, in sport after sport. But what separates each champion from his or her competitors, who are all elite athletes themselves? To answer that and many other [...]

Lance Armstrong’s confession to Oprah Winfrey earlier this week that he’s been a drug cheat throughout his illustrious career was a mixed blessing for the sports world. On one hand, key questions have been answered and a perpetrator has been caught. We now know that cycling’s preeminent athlete over the past two decades managed to [...]

U.S. swimmer Dana Vollmer’s record-setting performance in London in the 100-meter butterfly is sure to be a model for aspiring Olympians. Vollmer’s edge in butterfly competition comes from her uncanny ability to closely mimic the underwater undulation and kick of nature’s greatest swimmer—the dolphin. The 24-year-old Syracuse, N.Y., native worked with a team of motion-capture [...]

This summer’s Olympic games in London feature 14 different freestyle swimming competitions, by far the most races for any type of stroke. The world’s elite swimmers can traverse a 50-meter pool in 22 to 26 seconds, yet they are divided over which of two variations of the stroke are more effective: the more powerful “deep [...]

When Olympic champions are crowned at this year’s winter games in Vancouver, these elite athletes will be taking home more than just gold, silver or bronze medals—they will be playing a role in Canada’s efforts to reduce electronic waste. That’s because each medal was made with a tiny bit of the more than 140,000 tons [...]

When Olympic medals and multi-million-dollar contracts are at stake, athletes and coaches have been known to resort to drastic measures to strike gold. But as the steroid era evolves amidst increased testing and public hectoring, what other performance booster will enter the ring? Gene therapy, say a host of researchers, three of whom call for [...]

With the 2012 London Olympics drawn to a close, so starts the task of breaking down parts of the 500-acre Olympic Park that housed the world’s finest athletes for the past two weeks. But, the London 2012 Organizing Committee and the Olympic Delivery Authority are already two steps ahead. In their effort to keep this [...]

In Tyson Schoeber’s class at Nootka Elementary School in Vancouver, 15 fourth through seventh graders struggle to read, write or do math at a level near that of their peers in other classes. Ten-year-olds have entered Schoeber’s program, called THRIVE, virtually unable to read independently (see “One Man’s Mission to Save Struggling Students”). Yet Schoeber [...]