Sports

Prison Island

Bahrain has badly botched its local version of the Arab Spring. And there seems to be no way out.

BY TOM MALINOWSKI | MAY 7, 2012

China Goes Linsane

The phenomenal rise of NBA wunderkind Jeremy Lin is sweeping mainland China -- even though he's Taiwanese.

BY DAVID YANG | FEBRUARY 16, 2012

Big in Beijing: China's Sports Stars

With Linsanity sweeping the nation, here's a look at other sports stars -- both foreign and Chinese -- who have made it into the spotlight.

FEBRUARY 16, 2012

The Harvard of Hong Kong, and 8 Other Great International Schools

Didn’t get into the college of your dreams? Don’t want to bankrupt your parents? Here’s where to go.

BY LOIS PARSHLEY | JANUARY 31, 2012

Bloody Sunday

Scotland prepares to celebrate Easter in traditional fashion -- by participating in a bigoted, sectarian, and violent soccer match.

BY ALEX MASSIE | APRIL 22, 2011

How Cricket Explains Pakistan

Forget England and its bold Test series victory over Australia. If you cared about cricket this year, you were watching Pakistan's slow implosion, played out on pitches from Islamabad to Dubai.

BY RAHUL BHATTACHARYA | JANUARY 7, 2011

These Terrorists Aren't Playing Games

All India is abuzz over New Delhi's incompetent planning for the Commonwealth Games. But it's the return of terror that the city should be most worried about.

BY PRAVEEN SWAMI | SEPTEMBER 22, 2010

Soccer Explains Nothing

Stop looking to the World Cup for history lessons. It’s just a game and, frankly, that’s good enough.

BY SIMON KUPER | JULY 21, 2010

How Soccer Defeated Apartheid

As South Africa prepares to hosts the World Cup, it is also coming face to face with its own history.

BY NICHOLAS GRIFFIN | JUNE 7, 2010

The Russian Game

Why is the Kremlin meddling in international chess elections?

BY CARL SCHRECK | MAY 18, 2010

The Dark Side of Cricket

From apartheid South Africa to Bollywood financiers, the sport of cricket boasts a storied political history. Here's a look at some of the game's most controversial moments.

BY ANDREW SWIFT | MAY 14, 2010

How Pakistan Fell in Love With Bollywood

The history of a culture clash.

BY ANUJ CHOPRA | MARCH 15, 2010

Russia's Agony of Defeat

A country looks for someone to blame after a dismal Olympic performance.

BY MIRIAM ELDER | FEBRUARY 25, 2010

China's Golf Obsession

Green lawns and sand traps are now replacing ancient villages and tropical forests on Hainan Island, one of China's most pristine spots. Necessary development, or destructive clear-cutting?

BY DAN WASHBURN, PHOTOS BY RYAN PYLE | FEBRUARY 24, 2010

Korea's Golden Girl

Meet Kim Yu-na, the world No.1 in women's figure skating and -- really -- the hope of a nation.

BY KIBUM KIM | FEBRUARY 23, 2010

Olympic Outliers

Forget the Jamaican bobsled team. This year, there’s a pack of Olympic underdogs from countries that aren't well known for cold-weather sports.

BY KAYVAN FARZANEH, ANDREW SWIFT | FEBRUARY 10, 2010

Afghanistan's Ultimate Sport

What do you call men on horses fighting over a headless goat carcass? Buzkashi -- Afghanistan's national sport, which also just happens to be a powerful metaphor for the country's politics.

BY KAYVAN FARZANEH, ANDREW SWIFT | JANUARY 29, 2010

Soccer Wars

Last week's attack on the Togo national soccer team's bus in Angola resulted in the deaths of the driver, a press officer, and an assistant coach, and led to Togo's withdrawal from the Africa Cup of Nations. But the tragedy is hardly the first time that ugly political tension has invaded the beautiful game.

BY ANDREW SWIFT | JANUARY 13, 2010

Why Brazil Won

How Lula brought the Olympic Games to his rising power.

BY EDUARDO J. GÓMEZ | OCTOBER 2, 2009

Why Is Obama Going to Copenhagen?

By lobbying to bring the Olympic Games to Chicago, the U.S. president may only be playing to the IOC's worst tendencies.

BY JOHN HOBERMAN | SEPTEMBER 29, 2009

Futbol Tragedy

Sooner or later -- and probably sooner -- Mexicans are going to lose one of the few things they have left to brag about: their soccer dominance over the United States.

BY ANDRÉS MARTINEZ | AUGUST 11, 2009

LiveStrong for Make Benefit of Kazakhstan?

Why one of the world's most bankable athletes is competing for an autocratic former Soviet republic.

BY JOE LINDSEY | JULY 14, 2009

The Battle of Beijing

What happens when an authoritarian government and thousands of activists go head-to-head at the Olympics? China is about to find out.

BY MOISÉS NAÍM | OCTOBER 11, 2007

The Center of the World

The NBA understands the power of an icon. When Michael Jordan retired from basketball, the league's ratings began to fall. To bounce back, the NBA expanded overseas and lured foreign talent to the game. And there is no one who is as big an ambassador as Yao Ming. The NBA sees its salvation in the 7-foot, 6-inch Chinese sensation -- and in 1.3 billion hoops fans.

BY BROOK LARMER | AUGUST 30, 2005

How the Game Travels

BY BROOK LARMER | AUGUST 30, 2005

A Sporting Chance

NOVEMBER 1, 2004

Fair Trade Soccer

BY FRANKLIN FOER | JANUARY 1, 2004

Soccer Vs. McWorld

What could be more global than soccer? The world's leading professional players and owners pay no mind to national borders, with major teams banking revenues in every currency available on the foreign exchange and billions of fans cheering for their champions in too many languages to count. But in many ways, the beautiful game reveals much more about globalization's limits than its possibilities.

BY FRANKLIN FOER | JANUARY 1, 2004

A Red Card for England?

BY ANDREI S. MARKOVITS | JULY 1, 2003