TED and sports. It may not seem like the most obvious combination, but here at TED we’ve long understood that the world of sports has crucial ideas worth spreading. We’ve had Serena Williams on the TED stage talking about competitive edge, heard from Billie Jean King on perseverance and saw Alex Honnold teach us to […]
Serena Williams starts her interview on the TED2017 stage with a confession to journalist Gayle King: the photo that let the world know she was pregnant? She posted it by accident. “I was on vacation, taking time for myself, and I have this thing where I’ve been checking my status and taking a picture every week,” […]
“Bobby Riggs was one of my heroes. I admired him,” says Billie Jean King. “That’s one of the reasons I beat him — because I respected him.” King’s Q&A on the TEDWomen stage begins with a discussion of one of the greatest sports moments of all time: the Battle of the Sexes, a tennis match between […]
The most important rule in our safety briefing on the “Bobsleigh Sport Experience”: Put your gloves on, hold on to the wire inside the sled walls, and DO NOT LET GO.
In his TED Talk, published last week, Sports Illustrated reporter David Epstein asks, “Are athletes really getting faster, better, stronger?” The short answer is ‘yes,’ but it’s not just a matter of talent improving. He shows the nuance of how it’s also about changing technology that allow for faster speeds, rising expectations that enable athletes […]
The Olympic motto is “Citius, Altius, Fortius,” or, in English, “Faster, higher, stronger.” And as sports science reporter David Epstein points out from the TED2014 stage, “Athletes have fulfilled that motto — and they’ve done so rapidly.” Epstein investigates why it is that, year upon year, runners, swimmers, gymnasts, basketball players and so many others […]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HkEX0eb2eBo&w=586&h=440] If you’ve ever seen grainy old sports footage—for example, a boxing match from the late 1800s, a Princeton/Yale game from 1903, or Babe Ruth’s famous home run from 1932—you probably noticed something: how different the game looks, compared to its modern counterpart. The equipment looks too clunky, the uniforms impossibly baggy. Even the bodies […]
No one is exactly sure who invented thumb wrestling. According to Wikipedia, Julian Koenig — the advertising copywriter who helped coin the slogan “It takes a licking and keeps on ticking” for Timex — claimed to have invented the game in 1936 while at summer camp. Meanwhile, author Paul Davidson says that his grandfather was […]
The world of athletics is brutal. Athletes put themselves through grueling workout schedules and intense competitions, pushing their bodies and minds to the limit. But because part of being an athlete is constantly going up against (and sometimes with) faster, stronger and/or younger competitors, by far the hardest test any athlete faces is their internal […]
On Sunday in New Orleans, the San Francisco 49ers will face off with the Baltimore Ravens in Super Bowl XLVII. For the first time in Super Bowl history, the head coaches of the two opposing football teams are brothers. John Harbaugh, the older of the brothers, has been the head coach for the Ravens since 2008. […]
Close your eyes and listen to the grunts and jostling, the smack of rubber on cement and triumphant high-fives. You could be listening to a pickup basketball game anywhere. But you’re in Afghanistan and this is much more than just a game. It is the country’s very first wheelchair basketball tournament and the players are […]
The Opening Ceremony for the XXII Olympic Winter Games in Sochi takes place today, which means that — over the next few weeks — we’ll all be watching a steady diet of hockey, skiing and figure skating. To get you in the Olympic spirit, watch these powerful TED and TEDx Talks from Olympians and Paralympians. We […]
A week ago today, the John R. Wooden Award was given to the best college basketball players of the year. Back in 2001, Coach Wooden (the namesake of the award and former UCLA basketball coach) gave a touching TEDTalk which proved why he is so revered and respected in the basketball and academic communities. The […]