Sport and Competition

Michael Oher was a poor black kid taken into the home of a wealthy white family. They fed him, clothed him, and tutored him, and helped him turn his life around.  Michael’s tested IQ went up 20 or 30 points, he went to college, and went on to become a highly payed NFL football player. The story is a celebration of positive psychology – of astounding acts of kindness, courage, and overcoming adversity. So what’s not to love about a movie that tells this wonderful story?--Coauthored by Douglas T. Kenrick Read More

At the close of the Winter Olympics 2010, I offer my top three picks for the most legendary games of international sports. Read More

I don't know Bode Miller personally, though I know athletes and coaches who know him well. I do know alpine ski racing. I competed internationally in my youth and have worked with ski racers, ranging from juniors to Olympians, on the mental side of the sport for 25 years. And I have followed Bode's career since he first stepped into those then-oddly shaped K2 skis back in the early 1990s. Read More

Apolo Anton Ohno's win in the 1000-meter short-track speed skating race on Saturday was all the more dramatic for the fact that he very nearly fell and lost it completely. Read More

It's refreshing that focus on Tiger's only child status as a root cause of Tiger's actions has been absent.  Read More

Perhaps it should come as no surprise that our voyeuristic society waits with bated breath for Tiger Woods’ apology.  There will be plenty of criticism.  Was his apology genuine?  Did he only do this because he wants to reclaim endorsement money that he has lost during his public ordeal?  Is he getting his money’s worth on the people that represent him and the public relatio Read More

Yes, their commitment to excellence is inspiring, their tenacity is beyond comprehension, their personal stories are (occasionally) fascinating. And there's that whole agony-of-defeat thing from which we seemingly just cannot turn away. Read More

Last week's luge tragedy highlighted the treachery of snow and ice for athletes at Winter Olympics: no performance on a frozen surface is ever more than a few milliseconds or a fraction of an inch away from catastrophe. But as they say in software, that's not a bug, it's a feature. Read More

The Olympic figure skating pairs shimmered with grace and talent, but I just couldn't help it: Every time I saw a man hoist his partner with one hand or toss her forward, I thought not of Mikhail Baryshnikov but of Fred Flintstone.

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