The Best Articles in Sports
The most useful articles and videos in Sports from around the web—beginners to advanced—curated by thought leaders and our community. We focus on timeless pieces and update the list whenever we discover new, must-read articles or videos—make sure to bookmark and revisit this page.
Top 5 Sports Articles
At a glance: these are the articles that have been most read, shared, and saved in Sports by Refind users in 2023 so far.
Videos
Watch a video to get a quick overview.
Inside Magnus Carlsen's mind: How he visualizes the chess board
Lex Fridman Podcast full episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ZO28NtkwwQPlease support this podcast by checking out our sponsors:- Shopify: https://shop...
Qatar's World Cup legacy
The FT looks at what the football World Cup means for the country, and what will happen to the stadium infrastructure and the future of the Fifa tournament.#...
Trending
These links are currently making the rounds in Sports on Refind.
Breakdancing will soon be an Olympic sport. These guys designed a system to score it
Breakdancing will soon be an Olympic sport. These two guys designed a system called Trivium to score it
The Cowboys Have Plenty to Think About This Offseason—but Not Their QB
Dak Prescott has received criticism for his up-and-down season, and his play in the divisional round. But he is still a top player in the NFL—and the Cowboys’ chances are much better with him than…
How the Bills and Bengals led the way in the hour after Hamlin collapsed
While NFL officials insisted all week that they never intended to restart the Bills-Bengals game, interviews by ESPN with coaches, players, union officials and team executives have told another story:…
He Was the 31st Pick in the NBA Draft and a Millionaire. Two Years Later, He Walked.
Tyrell Terry had a spot on a promising Dallas team at 20. But life in the league was taking a toll on his mental health. Now he’s given up pro basketball and has no interest in ever going back.
The Sports Scandal Almost Nobody Is Talking About
The UFC’s Dana White faces almost no consequences for publicly slapping his wife.
Short Articles
Short on time? Check out these useful short articles in Sports—all under 10 minutes.
Fox Sports’ US World Cup coverage is an unmissable abomination
The broadcaster has offered up a feast of gaffes, stupidity, and unconquerable on-air awkwardness for American viewers to enjoy
Lionel Messi Rewrote Soccer History in the Best-Ever World Cup Final
The Argentina-France showdown wasn’t just the greatest World Cup final of all time, it was one of the most thrilling spectacles in sports, period, and a fairytale ending for the game’s best-ever…
Chartbook #180: Do you ski? The political economy of snow, slopes and skiing
The ski business worldwide. Source: Vail Do you ski? As a matter of lifestyle and recreational distinction, it is a question up there with “do you play golf?” or “do you play chess?”. Of course, if…
This Secret Society in Washington, D.C., Has One Agenda: Fly, Eagles, Fly
The most passionate fan base in D.C. political media belongs to the NFL’s league-leading team
The Agony and the Ecstasy of Argentina’s World Cup Victory
Suffering is an essential part of the story that we Argentines tell about ourselves.
Long Articles
These are some of the most-read long-form articles in Sports.
The 19th-Century Hipster Who Pioneered Modern Sportswriting
More than a century before GoPro, Thomas Stevens’ around-the-world bike ride vaulted first-person “sports porn” into the mainstream.
How the story of soccer became the story of everything
Oligarchs, private-equity moguls, and petro states took over the sport—and the world.
Welcome To Your World Cup Winter
Buckle up and get ready for this year's edition of a tournament we've been raised to love.
Life After 7'6": Shawn Bradley, Paralyzed in a Bike Accident, Knows ‘It’ll Never Be the Same’
The frame that brought him NBA fame is now a challenge without medical precedent.
I've Got Some Things to Say
People in football love to talk about mental strength. Well, I’m the strongest dude you’re ever going to meet.
Thought Leaders
We monitor hundreds of thought leaders, influencers, and newsletters in Sports, including:
Defector
The last good website.
John Burn-Murdoch
Columnist @FinancialTimes | Stories, stats & scatterplots | Senior fellow @LSEdataScience | john.burn-murdoch@ft.com | Mastodon: jburnmurdoch@econtwitter.net
Kirk Goldsberry
NBA Analyst at ESPN, NYT Best-selling author of Sprawlball, Professor at University of Texas. Formerly VP at Spurs, IG: @kirkgoldsberry
Andscape
Black And Everything, In Full. Formerly The Undefeated.
Sara Ziegler
Deputy editor for strategy and operations, @NYTSports. Previously: @FiveThirtyEight @Law360 @OWHNews. @DJNF alumna. South Dakota native. Cyclone forever.
Publications
We monitor hundreds of publications, blogs, newsletters, and news sources in Sports, including:
The Ringer
Sports. TV. Movies. Pop Culture. Music.
Andscape
Black And Everything, In Full. Formerly The Undefeated.
FiveThirtyEight
Data-driven news and analysis from ABC News’s FiveThirtyEight
kottke.org
Something interesting every day from one of the oldest & best independent sites on the Web. Est. 1998. Also at https://botsin.space/@kottke.
Sportico
Sportico is a high quality digital content company providing sports industry breaking news, data, information, strategies, leadership and insight.
What is Refind?
Every day Refind picks 5 links from around the web for every user, tailored to the user’s interests. Picking only a handful of links means focusing on what’s relevant and useful. We favor timeless pieces—links with long shelf-lives, articles that are still relevant one month, one year, or even ten years from now. These lists of the best resources on any topic are the result of years of careful curation.
How does Refind curate?
It’s a mix of human and algorithmic curation, following a number of steps:
- We monitor 10k+ sources and 1k+ thought leaders on hundreds of topics—publications, blogs, news sites, newsletters, Substack, Medium, Twitter, etc.
- In addition, our users save links from around the web using our Save buttons and our extensions.
- Our algorithm processes 100k+ new links every day and uses external signals to find the most relevant ones, focusing on timeless pieces.
- Our community of active users gets 5 links every day, tailored to their interests. They provide feedback via implicit and explicit signals: open, read, listen, share, add to reading list, save to «Made me smarter», «More/less like this», etc.
- Our algorithm uses these internal signals to refine the selection.
- In addition, we have expert curators who manually curate niche topics.
The result: lists of the best and most useful articles on hundreds of topics.
How does Refind detect «timeless» pieces?
We focus on pieces with long shelf-lives—not news. We determine «timelessness» via a number of metrics, for example, the consumption pattern of links over time.
How many sources does Refind monitor?
We monitor 10k+ content sources on hundreds of topics—publications, blogs, news sites, newsletters, Substack, Medium, Twitter, etc.
Which sources does Refind monitor in Sports?
We monitor hundreds of sources in Sports, including The Ringer, Andscape, FiveThirtyEight, kottke.org, Sportico, and many more.
Who are the thought leaders in Sports?
We follow dozens of thought leaders in Sports, including Defector, John Burn-Murdoch, Kirk Goldsberry, Andscape, Sara Ziegler.
Missing a thought leader? Submit them here
Can I submit a link?
Indirectly, by using Refind and saving links from outside (e.g., via our extensions).
How can I report a problem?
When you’re logged-in, you can flag any link via the «More» (...) menu. You can also report problems via email to hello@refind.com
Who uses Refind?
100k+ smart people start their day with Refind. To learn something new. To get inspired. To move forward. Our apps have a 4.9/5 rating.
Is Refind free?
Yes, it’s free!
How can I sign up?
Head over to our homepage and sign up by email or with your Twitter or Google account.