Viking Volume XIV Issue 4

Volume XIV, Issue 4 April 2021

Viking magazine

Top of the rock, p. 20 @vikingsportsmag

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Viking magazine

would like to thank our sponsors...

Deborah Bundy

The Ramkumar Family

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Yisong Yang and Jian Li

Kit Gibbs

The Gu Family

The Comey Family

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on the cover:

Tara He (‘22) climbs at Panther Beach in Santa Cruz. “Rock climbing takes my mind off of stress and slows everything down,” He said. Read more on page 20.

Cover photo courtesy of Wenxin He. 2

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LINEUP

Zooms

4

Intro Package

12

Rise & Grind

16

Guns for Guns

18

Top of the Rock

20

Naomi Osaka: The New Face of Women’s Tennis

25

All About the Look

28

Across the Sea

30

Technological Trading

32

Power Couples

34

International Sports Powerhouses

36

The New League

38

Viking Tries: Fishing

40

2021 Summer Olympics Preview

42

The Final Word

47 Damon Schultz (‘22) fires at the cage during a scrimmage against Cupertino.

Photo by Jenna Hickey. @vikingsportsmag

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Season One Star Grant Morgenfeld (‘24) was a standout runner during the cross country season as a freshman.

Morgenfeld won his first four meets and placed second at his fifth behind a committed senior from Monta Vista. At his fourth SCVAL meet, Morgenfeld broke the boys freshman course record which was previously set in 2015

by Henry Saul (‘19). Both the Paly boys and girls teams finished first in SCVAL. Photo by Jenna Hickey.

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Season Two Starts In their first game of the season, Paly field hockey beat Valley Christian 5-0. Phoebe Kim (‘22) scored three goals all in the fourth period. Currently, the field hockey team is undefeated.

Photo by Jenna Hickey.

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Davante Adams

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Surprises Team One of Paly’s most famous athletic alumni is Davante Adams. Adams graduated from Paly in 2011 and was part of the 2010 football team that won states. Adams now plays in the NFL for the Green Bay Packers. Adams came back to Paly to surprise the varsity football team with new uniforms, cleats and shoes. It was a time of joy in a long year of uncertainty. Photo by Jenna Hickey.

@vikingsportsmag

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Sliding into Season

The Paly boys soccer team fell to rival Los Gatos 2-1. The only goal scored by Paly was from Soham Narang (‘21) who scored during a penalty kick.

This was the first goal of the season.

Photo by Jenna Hickey.

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Friday Night Lights

Due to a power outage, the first home football game had to be moved to Mountain View.

Even though the team was not technically at home, the cheer team was able to perform their routine in front of students and family members.

Photo by Jenna Hickey. @vikingsportsmag

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Viking

Volume XIV, Issue 4 April 2021

Viking Magazine Palo Alto High School 50 Embarcadero Road Palo Alto, CA 94301 650-329-3837 Email contact: vikingeds@gmail.com Follow us @vikingsportsmag or go to vikingsportsmag.com for current game updates/scores.

Viking, a sports magazine published by the students in Palo Alto High School’s Advanced Magazine Journalism class, is an open forum for student expression and the discussion of issues of concern to its readership. The Viking is distributed to its readers and the student body at no cost. The staff welcomes letters to the editor, but reserves the right to edit all submissions for length, grammar, potential libel, invasion of privacy and obscenity.

Advertising in Viking The staff publishes advertisements with signed contracts providing they are not deemed by the staff inappropriate for the magazine’s audience. For more information about advertising with The Viking, please contact the The Viking by email at vikingeds@gmail.com Printing Services 2,500 copies of The Viking are printed, six times a year (barring restrictions due to remote learning) by Folger Graphics in Hayward, Calif.

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Logo Font Courtesy of Måns Grebäck

vikingsportsmag.com

From the

EDITORS Hey Vikings, After a chaotic year running the show at Viking, we have come to the end of our journey as editors. While this isn’t the last issue of Viking for this school year (we hope to send you guys off into summer with a banger coming up in May — stay tuned), this is the last issue with us as editors since next year’s talented leadership team will take over for the final issue.

If you follow this column, you know that we keep it fun in here and try to get you guys excited about the magazine. But

with us saying goodbye, we would like to take a more serious tone to thank you, the readers. Thank you for supporting us all year long. You are the reason we work hard every day to produce the best magazine we can. Writing about the sports we all love and sharing our joy with you is at the heart of everything we do here, and we could not be more grateful to have had you along for the ride.

And above all, we would like to thank the athletes and students here at Paly for sharing your unique stories with us over the last year. We hope that telling those stories made the past year better for you, and are grateful that you have continued to share your talents through these difficult times.

With that out of the way, allow us to present you our last issue as editors.

Our cover story gives a glimpse into the world of rock climbing, and shares the experiences of a couple of rockstar climbers we have here at Paly. Check

out page 20 to read more. As summer approaches, we preview the longawaited Tokyo Olympics, reviewing some notable team USA athletes before the games begin later this summer.

We also cover a couple new additions to the growing sports world: a new football league entirely by fans of the game (page 38), and a new platform that allows fans to purchase NBA highlights of their favorite teams and players (page 32). If that doesn’t reel you in, you can read about us trying our luck at fishing in this issue’s Viking Tries. This may be the last chapter of our time as editors, but it’s the first page in a rocking issue. Enjoy.

Sko Vikes!

James Fetter Sophie Kadifa Luke Thieman

Staff View:

A Year Later It feels crazy to say it, but it’s been over a year since COVID forced us into shutdown. For the past year the Paly campus has been mostly silent—no bats cracking, crowds cheering, swimmers splashing, players celebrating—so many sounds that we didn’t notice until they were gone. It took life to return to a semblance of normalcy for us to appreciate how much it means to play the sports we love.

For us as a staff, it’s no secret how much sports mean to us. Many of us are athletes who love to cover the games we know and love, and so this past year has been especially tough finding ways to write stories. Obviously with the existence of a deadly virus, there are more important things to worry about than high school

athletics, but as a sports magazine, it’s harder to keep up this attitude. The toll of this pandemic dwarfs the significance of high school sports, but there’s something to be said for tuning out the big picture and living in the moment of your game or practice.

This is especially true when the big picture is bleak. With COVID rates ramping up again in some parts of the country, school reopening plans constantly changing, the long list of assignments on schoology, the uncertainty of college admissions, the feeling that you’re missing out on the “best years of your life” that you will never get back — the future is scary right now.

The uncertainty and disillusionment

about the future makes the return of high school athletics all the more meaningful.

It’s the little things that remind us of how much we’ve missed normal life. To come to campus and hear the crack of the bat, cheers from crowds, splashes from the pool, players celebrating— these sounds let us forget our feelings of disillusionment about the future and simply enjoy the moment.

It’s hard to put into words how grateful we are for the return of sports, for the return of normal life. Hopefully this return to normalcy will slowly bring us closer together, letting us share these last moments together as a staff and as a school.

@vikingsportsmag

-Viking

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Pop Culture Grid Pregame Snack or Drink Rachel Ellisen ‘22 Lacrosse

Favorite Sports Shoe Brand

Secret Talent

Hype Music

Celebrity Crush

Nike

Can lick elbow with tounge

Kendrick Lamar

Zac Efron

Nike

Can Play TSwift songs on the guitar

Drake

Adidas

Juggling

Rock

Nike

Can lose all his money in poker in minutes

Apples

Smoothie or Protein Bar William Dike ‘22 Track & Field Snickers

Bar

Protein Bar or Bananna

Drill

Caroline Mostofizadeh ‘23 Basketball Justin

Bieber

Joe Biden

Emma Watson

Aidan Rausch ‘21 Basketball

Class of 2021 Reflects

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“For lacrosse this year, it feels as if we are less of a team in a way because we don’t have the opportunity to take the bus as a team and really get to know each other in close corners. This makes a difference on the field because we don’t have as much of a personal connection.”

“As a basketball player, the toughest thing will be the lack of fans. The atmosphere the student section creates is always electric and I was looking forward to seeing my friends at my senior year games. However, I’m still happy that we are allowed to have a season.”

- Laney Henry (‘21)

- Ziggy Tummalapalli (‘21)

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“What I miss the most was having the team spirit activities, like dressing up for team lunches, forming intramural spikeball and volleyball teams to play during lunch, bus rides to games, and the pregame dance parties. The water polo season wasn’t the same without it.”

- Lulu Gaither (‘21)

10 Questions With

Kaella Peters

Viking Magazine had the chance to ask Paly girls’ basketball player Kaella Peters (‘23) 10 Questions.

We then asked her coach (and dad), teammate, and friend what they thought she said. Here are their responses...

as told to EMILY NEUMANN and ELIF TURGUT

Kaella Peters ‘23 Basketball

Scott Peters Coach/Dad

Itzel Torres ‘23 Teammate

Carly Martin ‘21 Friend

Questions Vivian Wu

Quietest Teammate?

Jess

Vivian

Vivian

Doesn’t Listen to Music

Favorite Song?

Doesn’t listen to music

Doesn’t listen to music

Doesn’t have one

Spicy

Sweet or Spicy?

Sweet

Sweet

Sweet

Los Gatos

Favorite Team to Play?

Los Gatos

MA

Los Gatos

Reading

Hobby?

Reading

Basketball

Reading

The Wrath and the Dawn

Favorite Book?

Fantasy

Doesn’t know

The Wrath and the Dawn

Stay In

Stay In or Go Out?

Stay In

Purple

Favorite Color?

Takis

Salted Caramel

Stay In

Stay In

Blue

Blue

Purple

Hot Cheetos or Takis?

Hot Cheetos

Takis

Hot Cheetos

Favorite Ice Cream?

Vanilla

Salted Caramel

Salted Caramel

40%

50% @vikingsportsmag

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Crossword Puzzle 1 2 3

4

5

6 7

8

9

10

Down: 1. This sport has the most league wins in Paly history 2. Newly added sport at Paly four years ago 4. Ms. Bowers played division 1 _______ at Stanford 5. This sport competes inside a circle

Across:

4. Softball 10. Golf

5. Wrestling

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3. Cross Country 9. Lax

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2. Field Hockey 8. Baseball

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Ritter Amsbaugh (‘21) hits a single during their game against Homestead. Boys baseball started their season off strong with a win over Homestead 13-2 and defeated Santa Teresa 8-7. They had a tough loss to Valley Christian 3-1 in a close game.

Photo by Jenna Hickey.

Answers:

1. Girls Swimming 6. Girls Volleyball 7. Shot Put

3. Miles and more miles 6. State champions in 2010 7. Track and Field event 8. The sport Vice Principal Mr. Berkson played in college 9. Nickname for game with netted sticks 10. Girls team who won state champs in 2020

Vikings back in action...

Contact sports are returning to competition, and we here at Viking could not be more excited.

Athletes have been grinding for months awaiting league seasons and are finally getting the chance to compete. In the wake of SCVAL’s decision to withdraw from CCS playoffs, teams are striving to make the most of their shortened schedules, and are ready to bring the heat every time they take the field. Photos by Jenna Hickey.

“With all of the speculation around whether or not we were going to have a season, it was nice to finally be able to compete even though it wasn’t the season that we dreamed of. It was nice to finally be with the team that I hadn’t seen in over a year.”

-Catherine Reller (‘21)

“Being outside with other people is so refreshing and a nice change. I did get some sort of a senior season even though we aren’t going to be competing this year because there aren’t any competitions.

I had given up hope on that, so having that surprise senior night was really nice. ” -Libby Spier (‘21)

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Rise & Grind

by HAILEY BECK, ANIKA CHANG and CAYDEN GU

Morning practices have long been ingrained in Paly athletics. In the pandemic, more and more teams are forced to hold morning practices due to limited field or court availability. We take a look at the overview of Paly morning practices and the associated pros and cons.

M

orning practices are notorious among studentathletes. Some love them while many hate them.

Regardless, decisions to incorporate morning practices are popular. On top of balancing a heavy school workload with sports, being a student athlete often entails rising early and getting out of the house for a practice before school starts.

Similar to how coaches can set practice times during vacations, coaches decide to hold morning practices depending on their availability or preference.

Coaches of youth and high school sports often have work outside of parttime coaching, and must coordinate with their own job schedules when organizing practices. Interferences between work and afternoon practices may result in coaches moving practices to the mornings. This can be more convenient for their own schedules.

For early risers such as JV basketball coach Pete Colombo, morning practices are convenient and one of the best parts of his day.

“I’m an early guy, up at 6:30 a.m. every day anyway, so it fits my schedule perfectly,” Colombo said. “I get very, very fired up when we get on the baseline ready to start practice at 7:30 a.m. and I see 13 hungry wolves staring at me ready to get after it!”

Another common reason for holding early morning practices is facility availability; certain teams may not have access to courts or fields during the afternoon when other teams have home games. Especially now that all Paly sports have been condensed into shortened seasons, there are a lot of different sports practicing at the same time, so they must share court and field space.

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“We have morning practices now because gym space is very limited with all the seasons in session,” Colombo said. “Right now we have girls volleyball going on with badminton, and some boys volleyball along with boys and girls basketball.”

Compared to traditional afternoon practices, morning practices can be very

“

I feel actually pretty accomplished after morning practices and I feel refreshed.

— Reilly Bruff (‘22)

”

tough, but fulfilling for athletes. Some common themes of morning practices have a greater focus on conditioning and strength training rather than drills.

But, each coach has their own goals in mind for the team, so it varies with what the coach decides to do. Paly sports that have held morning practices in the past include football, lacrosse, soccer, field hockey, cross-country, track, and swimming.

This year, girls field hockey has been one of the first sports to have morning practices. These practices occur once or twice a week and are usually run for an hour. Reilly Bruff (‘22) shares her thoughts about the overall effect morning practices have had on her.

“I generally like morning practices as long as they are not everyday and aren’t too early in the morning,” Bruff said.

Morning practices have certain pros and cons. Arguments for morning practices include having more alertness during the day, building team unity, and teaching time management skills. Going

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to practice in the morning can give you a fresh start to your day, instead of rushing to arrive at school on time and struggling to wake up during the first period of the day. Some athletes even find that they are more alert throughout the day if they go to morning practice.

“I feel actually pretty accomplished after morning practices and I feel refreshed,” Bruff said.

Most school extracurricular activities, such as academic competitions, take place in afternoon, and morning practices allow athletes to continue to participate. If morning practices are the athlete’s only practice for the day (some sports like swimming have both morning and afternoon practices), then they have more time after school to focus on homework and other extracurriculars.

“I like that it leaves the rest of the day open,” Bruff said.

Also, morning practices can build character and teach time management skills. Rolling out of bed early in the morning to work out can initially be hard, but over time, it can build mental toughness. Coach Colombo believes that morning practices are useful for teaching student athletes about life.

“Morning practices [are] important for kids because they teach commitment to the team first concept and individual

“

These morning practices force the kids to get comfortable with being uncomfortable which is a major life skill.

— Pete Colombo

”

Day in in the the Life Life Day

Potential morning routine of a student-athlete

7:00 AM

6:30 AM

☀ Go to Practice️

⏰ Get Up

8:30-9 AM

7-8:30 AM

🎒Prepare for School 👟 Drills + Conditioning 10:30 PM player,” Colombo said.

“These morning practices force the kids to get comfortable with being uncomfortable which is a major life skill. Successful and happy people understand that life is not always fair or comfortable, but that the key to life is learning to make adjustments in life when faced with hardships or challenges.”

Despite the benefits of morning practices, there are several disadvantages. The clearest drawback of morning practice is causing a lack of sleep and a potential to feel exhausted during the day. Having the ability to wake up early in the morning can be tough, and if students fail to get enough sleep, their academic performance in the classroom may suffer. Cross-country runner Kyle Chang (‘24) finds that he is sometimes mentally unready for the day after a morning practice.

“You can’t perform your best because you’re just tired and not prepared,” Chang said.

Besides academic performance, morning practices also impact an athlete’s mental readiness for the day.

When in-person school started at 8:20 a.m. last year, athletes with morning practices finished practice without much time to get ready for their school day.

Some athletes found that they did not have enough time to shower or prepare for class.

💤 Sleep

“It’s helpful to leave enough time between the end of practice and beginning of school,” Bruff said.

Finally, exercising in the morning carries some potential health risks.

Due to the early start time, athletes are sometimes forced to skip breakfast, and

“

You have to wake up early and most of the time you’re really tired. Doing sports shortly after you’ve woken up is pretty difficult.

— Kyle Chang (‘24)

”

the lack of nutrients can cause athletes to feel sluggish or light-headed.

“You have to wake up early and most of the time you’re really tired,” Chang said.

“Doing sports shortly after you’ve woken up is pretty difficult.”

The reasons for holding morning practices vary for each coach. Whether it’s for extra conditioning and teaching time management, or for the sake of convenience due to conflicting schedules, many athletes can relate to the experience of rising a few hours before school to hustle to practice.

Morning practices are what studentathletes make of them, and many athletes recognize both the positives and nuisances that arise with them.

Photos by Cayden Gu @vikingsportsmag

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GUNS

for

GUNS

by JOSH BUTLER, JUSTIN BYER and LIAM NAGESH

Theraguns, such as the popular Hypervolt, are becoming increasingly more prevalent among athletes looking to perform at their best. This new technology aids athletes and trainers with recovery, but such tools can also be pricey.

T

Art by James Fetter

he road to recovery for some, is easy. Some people never struggle with injuries and seem to recover in no time. However, for others, recovery can be a road of pure pain and hard work.

Within the last couple years, there have been countless remedies that have come out to handle pain/recovery.

Many recovery m e t h o d s work better than others.

And to make matters worse, it happens that some of the methods that work the best dig deep into your pockets. A lot of people are familiar with rolling out, icing, and stretching. But if you are a serious, determined athlete, sometimes

that you require additional tools to help recover. This is where applications like the Hypervolt come into play.

These tools are designed for a rapid percussion style massage with different speeds and heads that can be changed with the push of a button. This is intended to relieve muscle pain as well as any stiffness or soreness presented in the used area.

It does this by increasing the range of motion of said muscle groups, and helps promote general blood flow and circulation throughout the area that the tool is used on We turned to Stacey Kofman, a PE teacher and athletic trainer at Paly to

“I found the hypervolt and it changed the way I practice” —Mariana Kessinger

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answer our questions. We talked about how the use of the Hypervolt help her everyday.

“Well whenever you can save your hands, typically that is good,” Kofman said. “The Hypervolt will do a lot of the same things that those other remedies will do, but in the process it will save your hand and that is very helpful especially when you are handling so many athletes at a time.”

Another one of the athletic trainers at Paly is Justine Iongi, who works closely with the football team and covers a wide range of sports. Iongi finds that the Hypervolt is very useful in helping athletes recover from practices and games.

“Pretty much whenever you can make the muscle vibrate and shake you are setting it up to recover, “ Iongi said.

The percussion style of the Hypervolt or Theragun is the sole purpose of the technology.

“It goes back to soft tissue mobilization, which is just a fancy word for focusing specific muscle groups,” Iongi said.

“These tools are considered for use to help when your muscles feel tight, for

example mild fascial tightness, which are the sheets surrounding the muscle, or it could be muscle tightness in general.”

It seems that the use of certain recovery tactics like the Hypervolt are not only beneficial to the athletes themselves, but to the athletic trainers as well. This left us with the question if buying these expensive, new age technologies is worth it.

“I believe it depends on how active you are as an individual, if you’re a recreational athlete that’s a pretty expensive investment,” Iongi said. “But then if you have a history of muscle tightness or you’re really invested into a sport and making sure that you’re healthy it could be worth it.”

Kofman agrees that the Hypervolt technology is not a must-have for every athlete.

“While these tools are nice to have, there are other options out there,” Kofman said. “You can stretch and roll out to deal with aches and soreness, but also there are knock off Hypervolts that go for much less which I like to use on my athletes.”

Other knockoffs seem to split the once expensive price to a fifth of what they normally are. Knowing this, why wouldn’t you buy the cheaper one? ”As long as it works, it will do the job,” Kofman said. “It just might not last as long as the real thing.”

Some Paly athletes love the Hypervolt and it is part of their daily routine. Mariana Kessinger (‘22), a varsity soccer player, finds the tool crucial to her performance each week.

“After hard soccer practices and my own training afterwards, my legs feel very stiff and to excel, I needed to find a solution and stretching alone was not working,” Kessinger said. “I found the Hypervolt and it changed the way I practice. I feel one hundred percent all of the time and I am ready to support my team when my name gets called.”

It’s clear that accross all sports recovery is key, and the Hypervolt seems to help athletes quickly get back to their best.

But the price may be too much of an obstacle for some, and with so many alternative recovery methods out there, the HyperVolt is just one tool of many available to athletes and trainers.

“I feel like every athletic trainer has their own philosophy,” Iongi said.

All Hypervolt photos by Josh Butler.

Paly athletic trainer Justine Iongi puts the Hypervolt to the task.

Photo by Josh Butler. @vikingsportsmag

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by DAVID GORMLEY and MADHU RAMKUMAR

TOP of the

ROCK Photo courtesy of Tara He 20

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W

ith her hands white from chalk and feet crammed into climbing shoes, Tara He (‘22) looks up towards the rocky terrain she is about to scale, visualizing her plan of attack. As she starts to climb, her hands find the tiny crevices in the rock and her feet strain to balance on the ledge that protrudes out from the rocks surface.

Hanging 20 feet above the ground, she makes the final push to the top and swings herself onto the flat surface.

The climb is complete, and as He looks down at the height she scaled, a feeling of satisfaction spreads over her face. She hops down steadily from the top with her harness to protect her, ready to try it again.

Today, rock climbing has attracted many climbers like Tara who perform the sport as a hobby or even competitively. However, the original purpose of rock climbing was one of survival, with people climbing as a means of exploring new places, and finding new homes and food sources.

The gradual progression of rock climbing from a necessity to a sport began developing in the 19th century.

As the years progressed, climbing tools such as ropes, belay devices, and harness systems were developed, making it easier for climbers to scale taller and taller mountains. As more people began practicing rock climbing, the popularity grew, and the activity was soon being recognized by many as a true sport.

There are many different types of rock climbing that people perform.

Mountaineering, one of the oldest forms of rock climbing, requires an immense amount of skill, as climbers must safely navigate the rock on top of dealing with harsh weather conditions such as snow and ice. Trad climbing is a form of climbing where climbers use gear such as pitons and rope to protect against falls.

More recently, the Olympics introduced a form of race climbing, where climbers race against one another to reach the top of a climbing wall. Perhaps one of the most dangerous forms of climbing is free solo climbing, where a climber scales a face without the use of any harnesses and ropes, meaning that there is nothing to protect them from a fall.

The recent rock climbing feats involving free climbing only further catapulted the sport to center stage. In 2017, climber

Alex Honnold made history when he completed the first free solo climb of El Capitan, a 3000 foot granite beast that is one of the toughest conquests for climbers. The subsequent documentary, “Free Solo”, illustrated his journey on the climb and pushed rock climbing into the mainstream.

Tara He is one of the athletes who was swept into the sport during this spike in popularity. She simply lives and breathes climbing.

It not only provides her with a physical outlet, but also mental health benefits and a thriving community.

“I got into climbing in middle school, when I did an obstacle course at a summer camp that had a climbing wall, and I found that I really liked it.

So when I got back home, I signed up for a membership at the climbing gym,” she said.

From then on, her love of the sport has only grown.

To facilitate her passion, she joined a competition climbing team.

The team trains indoors in a climbing gym, where they work on different types of climbs and drills.

Unfortunately, due to COVID, she has been unable to practice as consistently as she used to.

With climbing gyms closed

Rock climbing

takes my mind off of stress

and slows everything down.

- He ‘22

since the start of the pandemic, the sport has become less accessible as it is often hard to visit distant outdoor areas with weather constraints. As a result she has spent substantially less time on the wall.

“I know that I, along with lots of my teammates, have definitely become out of shape, or at least less in shape, due to the lack of practice,” she said.

Although open indoor rock climbing gyms are scarce, He hasn’t let that stop her from pursuing what she loves. She still makes the far trip to outdoor rock climbing spots whenever she has the chance.

“My favorite places to climb are Castle Rock and Joshua Tree National Park.

Something about outdoor climbing is just so nice, especially when you go with friends and spend the entire day outside together,” she said.

She frequents Castle Rock when looking for an outdoor climbing spot and has countless experiences that she has garnered from climbing there over the years.

“One time... my friend and I climbed

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Photo courtesy of Emma Joing | APRIL 2021

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to the top of Castle Rock...., and then we [sat] there at the very top, watching the sunset. You have to use rope to get up, but we didn’t have any so we just climbed up, and then we couldn’t get down. It was really dark because we spent a long time at the top watching the sunset, but... we managed,” she said.

Though rock climbing proves to be an

she said.

The wall provides her with a wide breadth of benefits and experiences that form a part of her character.

“A lot of really deep memories I have are of going climbing and being with people who I climb with… it’s just become a really central part of my life,” she said.

Junior Emma Joing, a teammate of He’s, has found her niche in Photo courtesy of Tara He the community that the sport provides. effective physical outlet, the sport also While the concept of a team dynamic in provides a mental respite. She believes a personal sport sounds counterintuitive, that spending time in nature and rock the community comes not in spite of, but climbing with her friends has had a as a result of its individualistic nature. positive effect on her mental health.

Each competitor understands the mental “It takes my mind off of stress and and physical duress of being slows everything down a bit. I also feel isolated on the wall and the like it makes me very in tune with myself, bond that climbers share because a big part of climbing is mental,” comes from that common

Rock Climbing Lingo

Lead Climbing

A longer climb where the athlete hooks themselves into clips at they ascend

Bouldering

A short climb where the athlete is not harnessed

Send

To finish a climb

Isolation area

Beta

A space to keep climbers from seeing the wall that they will face

Advice or instruction on how to do a climb

Crux

To figure out how you are going to complete it before you try it

Most challenging part of a climb

Dyno

A dynamic move where the climber leaps off the wall to a new hold

Sequence

Smear

The climber pushes upon a smooth surface of the rock to gain propulsion Art by Greg Laursen

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experience. the wall once they leave the isolation For Joing, the community is most area, presenting an interesting trade off present during competitions: a direct between time spent planning and time contrast to the cutthroat and isolated spent on the wall. environment between competitors “What you’d want to do is step back during competitions in other sports. from the wall, take a look at the whole “I’ll be really stressed… and someone thing. … But it’s I’m going to be competing against will actually pretty tricky be warming up with me and joking to even figure out around…

[In climbing] even your how you’re supposed competitors are your friends,” Joing said. to do the climb…

Joing also believes that the sport [so] I spend about 30 attracts a certain type of individual. to 45 seconds, just “Everyone’s so good and so talented looking at the climb,” but they’re still so down to earth,” Joing Joing said. said.

Despite the limited Whether this is because the sport time per attempt, captivates these types of people or fatigue also plays a creates them is beside the point; those factor given the razor-slim margins in the who climb are a certain mental and sport; a few extra millimeters of traction physical breed and that unites the between a finger and a hold is often the community. difference between a successful climb The competition cycle for Joing is just and a fall. as unique. She spends six months of each “Every single time you try the climb, you year on bouldering and the other half have to be really deliberate with what on lead climbing. Oftentimes climbers you do,” Joing said. compete in both disciplines, but they While lead climbing is a less dynamic pose remarkably different challenges. discipline, it poses its own set of Bouldering climbs are 20 feet or less challenges. The climbs are far longer and often include highly explosive and technical movements while lead climbs are typically far taller and require more endurance.

Prior to competitions, climbers wait in isolation rooms, areas that inhibit the athlete from seeing the wall that they will face, to prevent them from gaining an advantage by knowing the layout of the wall beforehand.

In lead climbing, the timed viewing occurs prior to the competition in which all climbers study the wall s i m u l t a n e o u s l y.

However in bouldering, athletes are given five minutes to Photo courtesy of Emma Joing study and scale

than bouldering climbs, sometimes approaching 75 feet tall and requiring dozens of holds.

Spending minutes on the wall requires tremendous endurance because many of the most critical rock-climbing muscles are some of the weaker muscle groups in the human body, such as the forearms.

There is no timed component in typical lead competitions, but the ability to perform as the seconds dwindle by is still a crucial part of the sport. Go too fast and you risk missing a hold and falling, but go too slow and forearm fatigue presents a significant challenge.

Competitions are scored by a system that weighs how high climbers get on a series of climbs. While Joing prefers bouldering, some of her best results, including placing 35th at age-group nationals, have come from the longer

[In climbing] even your

competitors are your friends - Joing ‘22

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format of lead climbing.

Despite this remarkable success, Joing takes even more pride in her training perspective. ‘[Success is] always just trying to get better. Every time I’m in the gym, I’m trying harder, climbs, harder moves, [and] pushing myself more,” Joing said.

Perhaps the most unique aspect of Joing’s climbing journey is her introduction to the sport. Her early career followed the path of most young athletes: trying a flurry of different sports and seeing what sticks. However, just a few months prior to trying climbing for the first time in fifth grade, Joing had a major hip surgery that sidelined her from most sports.

“I was in a wheelchair for two months and then on crutches for a while... right after I first started climbing,” Joing said.

The operation forced her to relinquish

many of the sports that she had been engaged in.

“I was told that I wasn’t ever allowed to run; climbing was kind of one of the only sports I could do after my surgery,” Joing said.

While she was medically cleared to climb, the surgery still presented challenges in the sport by limiting her leg strength and f l ex i b i l i t y.

Oftentimes, p e o p l e perceive climbing to be an arm based sport, and while upper-body strength is certainly key, the best climbers keep their hips as close to the wall as possible to maximize power from their legs.

Undeterred, Joing compensated by increasing her upper-body capacity.

Despite these challenges, Joing believes that the sport chose her as

Every single time you try the climb, you have to be really

deliberate

with what you do - Joing ‘22

much as she chose climbing.

“I settled for the only thing I can do but I loved it,” she said. “It was really good for me.”

While the sport has grown in size dramatically in recent years, the climbing community remains tight-knit. A common challenge, whether a short bouldering climb, a technical lead ascent, or a rocky overhang up in the hills, unites climbers.

Some, like Tara He, find solace in the mental aspect of the sport. Others, like Emma Joing, turned to the climbing community when few other options presented themselves.

H u m a n s no longer climb rock walls out of necessity, but the primal connection between the body, the mind, and the stone remains all too appealing for the rapidly growing number of climbers.

I settled for the only thing I can do but I

loved it... it was

really good for me - Joing ‘22

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the new face of

WOMEN’S

TENNIS

by AIDAN BERGER, HAILEY CALLAN and SOFIA LEVA

Art by SOFIA LEVA

Naomi Osaka has gained recognition in the tennis community as she has rapidly climbed to the top at such a young age. The tennis star has reached many milestones while also inspiring those who have witnessed her career take off.

T

BACKGROUND

wo tennis masterminds go head to head in the US Open Finals.

Tensions are high on the court and in the stands as Serena Williams, the long-time tennis champion, is challenged by the rising star, Naomi Osaka. Osaka has been dreaming of this moment ever since she was a little girl.

By the time she was three years old, Osaka was already on the courts playing tennis. Now, two decades later, the 23-year-old has won four grand slam titles.

Osaka was born in Japan on October 16, 1997, to her Japanese mother and her Haitian father. Her father wanted her and her sister to follow a similar path as the Williams sisters. Similar to them, Osaka skipped out on the junior tournaments and went directly into professional playing.

BEATING SERENA

Serena Williams was a significant rolemodel for Osaka when she was growing up, so when the two players faced each other in 2018, it was a very nerve-racking experience for Osaka.

She was able to start off strong in the first set, advancing to 1-4 in her favor.

Osaka then gained set point at 5-2 and won it over in the last point. She left little room for error and was always able to match Williams’ energy on the court.

Later in the second set, a coaching violation was called on Williams by the chair umpire, after he claimed to have seen her coach make a gesture from the player’s box. This type of offense was not taken lightly by Williams or the crowd, and it struck up a lot of controversy in the tennis world. Williams was then given another violation, causing her to lose a point in the game. The disbelief of the crowd had them longing for a third set, pushing Williams back into the match.

Even through all the chaos happening, Osaka was able to quickly close the second set with a score of 6-4, bringing

to her first-ever grand slam title, and a second victory over her long-time idol.

The outcome opened the doors for Osaka and essentially launched her career, as it led her to become the first Japanese American to win a Grand Slam title. This victory is what put her on the radar, even if the match itself did not leave Osaka feeling like a winner.

Kamila Wong, a junior at Paly, enjoyed watching the two athletes engage in the

Photo courtesy of Creative Commons

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match.

“I think that [Osaka] played a really great match, and she never really lost control,” Wong said. “They have similar game styles, with a big serve and big forehand, but Naomi just played better than Serena.”

Noelle Burwell, a senior on the Paly tennis team, believes that every time Osaka beats Williams, it’s a bitter-sweet moment since Williams will always be Burwell’s favorite player.

“I truly want Serena to win another Grand Slam, and I honestly think that Osaka is the only player that may be able to prevent her from getting there,” Burwell said.

Although Burwell favors Williams, she loves watching the two women face one another, even if Williams does not always win.

“It is always amazing to watch them play against each other, and I am glad that Osaka is getting the recognition she deserves,” Burwell said.

Osaka also played Williams this year in the Australian Open, again resulting in victory in two sets for Osaka.

She has become so successful that she passed Serena Williams and became the highest-paid female athlete in history.

HERE AT PALY

“Naomi Osaka is an amazing athlete who is beginning to be recognized for her great tennis game,” Burwell said.

“You can tell that every time she plays she puts all of her effort and heart into the game, which makes her a strong competitor and makes her fun to watch.”

Burwell believes that her strategic thinking is what has led her to defeat such strong opponents.

“She is an extremely strategic player, and carefully thinks out each of her shots,” Burwell said. “I think that this was the main skill she needed to utilize in order to attain each of her Grand Slam Championship wins.”

Along with Burwell, Wong also looks up to Osaka.

“My favorite thing about Naomi as a player is her ability to dominate the point and dominate the match,” Wong said.

“She has a deadly serve and forehand, and she is a very talented player.”

Anyone who has watched Osaka play

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has most likely noticed her serenity and fluidity on the court. These factors are often what lead her to success.

“I would say that the biggest thing is that she handles the pressure very well,” Wong said. “At the highest level, it becomes a question of who can best handle the pressure, and Naomi is one of the best at handling that pressure.”

Osaka’s powerful strategy and controlled mindset on the court have allowed her to thrive in her tennis career.

AS SHE SAID, SHE WANTED TO ‘MAKE PEOPLE START TALKING,’ AND I CERTAINLY THINK THAT MORE PEOPLE STARTED TALKING. - KAMILA WONG (‘22)

ACTIVISM

Osaka has been very involved with activism, specifically the Black Lives Matter movement.

During the US Open tournament, Osaka wore a different face mask each day with the names of Black people that were killed due to racism in America. These names were Breonna Taylor, Elijah McClain, Ahmaud Arbery, Trayvon Martin, George Floyd, Philando Castile, and Tamir Rice.

“I admire how she stands up for what she believes in,” Wong said. “The world saw she wore seven different masks with

”

OSAKA’S TO DO LIST AS A

TENNIS CHAMPION: ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓

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Become ranked No. 1 by the Women’s Tennis Association Beat Serena Williams (two times) Win a grand slam (four times) Be the first Asian player to hold the top ranking in singles

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Photo courtesy of Creative Commons

the names of seven black victims of racial injustice each round of the US Open last year to raise global awareness. As she said, she wanted to ‘make people start talking,’ and I certainly think that more people started talking.”

By using her voice, Osaka has helped raise more awareness and has helped create more conversations about issues regarding social justice around the world.

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hope to all aspiring young athletes.

“As a Japanese woman also, I feel great pride when I see her accomplish so much in global c o m p e t i t i o n s ,” Mies said.

Mies believes that Osaka is not only a phenomenal player, but she is an ideal role model for other players.

“She uses her platform to speak about social injustice and topics beyond the world of tennis,” Mies said. “She is a good example of a young person taking action and I think that is very motivating for young athletes like myself.”

IT IS INSPIRING TO SEE SOMEONE SO YOUNG ACCOMPLISH SO MUCH AND STILL BE SO RESPECTFUL. - KYLIE MIES (‘21)

IMPACT

Throughout her career, Osaka has become a role model to many, specifically young female athletes.

“She is an incredible player and an incredible person,” Wong said. “The way that she conducts herself on and off the court is very admirable.”

Kylie Mies, a senior at Paly, also highly respects Osaka.

“I look up to Naomi as a fellow athlete because of the way she is so humble and is so hardworking,” Mies said. “It is inspiring to see someone so young accomplish so much and still be so respectful.”

Even though she was raised in the States, Osaka and her parents decided that they would represent Japan. Osaka has become a huge role model for her home country and acts as a symbol of

”

BUTTERFLY-EFFECT During Osaka’s second round of the Australian Open, a butterfly interrupted the contest and landed on her leg. She quickly reached down, collected the butterfly, and calmly carried it off the court. The butterfly flew around her and ended up landing right on her nose. Osaka once again captured it and safely returned it to the sidelines. The crowd burst into applause and cheered her on as she jogged back onto the court. Osaka went on to win the match against No. 27 Ons Jabeur. @vikingsportsmag

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Column Trigger Warning: This story contains topics such as eating disorders, diet culture and body image.

All about the

Look

by JENNA HICKEY and VICTORIA SOULODRE

Social media and the fitness industry have influenced the standards for people’s bodies for as long as we can remember. From young girls to professional athletes, women feel pressure from society to look a specific way.

In the Professional World crolling through Instagram, there is no shortage of posts advertising teas that make you lose belly fat, waist trainers will slim down your waist, or supplements that will immediately make you jacked. These “methods” are promoting an unrealistic body standard.

However, being an athlete and having this ideal body is next to impossible. In a study done by ESPNW, it was found that 68% of 201 Division l female athletes felt pressure to be pretty. Remarks are often made about female atheltes’ appearances.

During a promotion for a gymnastics meet on Valentine’s Day, basketball analyst Barry Booker made this comment during an SEC Network broadcast of a men’s basketball game.

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He called the event “a good Valentine’s Day date night idea” and also said, “I wanna go see some scantily clad girls!”

During the Ostrava Golden Spike Meet, Citius Mag and Sports Illustrated writer Cris Chavez made a comment about one of the pacers. Zdenka Seidlova, a Czech sprinter, was the pacer for the women’s 1,500 meter. As she went to the front to take her spot, Chavez pointed her out and said, “You can actually tell, just by looking at the way they’re built, that they’re the pacemakers. Much more muscle mass on our two pacemakers.”

Tennis player, Serena Williams has been very open about her struggles with body image. Even as a professional athlete, she still feels pressure from societal norms. According to an article

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by Good Morning America, Williams compared herself to her sister Venus Williams who she felt looked more “acceptable.” Williams always knew she had a different body type than other professional tennis players.

“Venus looked more what is really acceptable: She has incredibly long legs, she’s really, really thin. I didn’t see people on TV that looked like me, who were thick,” Williams said.

Williams explained that it took her years to finally accept her body and now she tries to be an advocate for women who feel different.

“Someone in my position can show women and people of color that we have a voice, because Lord knows, I use mine,” Williams said.

Paly Athlete Experience aly student Gabi Winer (‘22) shared with us her experience with body image issues and disordered eating.

Back in middle school, Winer began to struggle with self-confidence and found herself falling into some unhealthy habits in order to “look like everyone else.” In order to get the body she wanted, she slowly started to eat less and less in combination with intense cardio.

“It’s like there’s this strong emphasis

P

for men to be strong and women to be super lean,” Winer said.

Once she got into high school, she joined the track and field team.

Fortunately, there wasn’t a ton of pressure from her coaches to look a certain way yet the overwhelming sense of wanting to do well took over.

“I felt this need to be small and skinny to succeed,” Winer said.

After the end of her sophomore year, she bounced back and eased her way

into a difficult recovery. This is when she found her love for weightlifting and led to being an essential role in her journey to recovery.

“Once I started lifting weights, my relationship with exercise shifted,” Winer said. “I realized it wasn’t supposed to break your body down to the smallest it could be but made to build your body up to the strongest version of yourself.”

Social Media Destruction

uring the summer of 2020, during quarantine, many girls were trying Chloe Ting’s 2 Week Shred challenge and her “Get Abs in Two Weeks.” Ting’s video titled “Do This Everyday to Lose Weight” has gained 145 million views while her two-week ab video has garnered 318 million views. It’s not just Ting posting these videos. With just a couple of clicks, anyone can find unlimited workout videos.

There are many things wrong with these workouts. The first is that these workouts focus on spot reducing which means these videos are claiming that one can eliminate the fat in a certain spot. This is a myth. For example, in a study with 24 people, participants who completed abdominal exercises for six weeks found no reduction in belly fat.

Similarly, a 12-week study that included 104 participants showed that an upperbody resistance workout found a slight weight loss to the entire body instead of the arms.

The second thing wrong with these workouts are the titles. The titles of the videos often focus on very specific aspects of women’s figures and how to conform to societal ideals. Instead, women should be working out for their own pleasure to make their mind and body stronger.

On the other hand, there are many people trying to help make social media a more body positive place.

D

One such advocate for body positivity is Victoria Garrick. Garrick is a former Division 1 volleyball player from the University of Southern California. Garrick shares her story about getting an eating disorder as a D1 athlete and the challenges she has overcome through Instagram, Tiktok, Youtube, and her podcast, the Real Pod. Garrick shared her story in a video titled My Eating Disorder Story: Binge Eating. According to Garrick, she was obsessed with her appearance in high school. She counted calories, went on diets, and measured her body. She then went to college with this mindset.

“That is where the pieces were in place for a problem, a real problem to happen,” Garrick said.

Going into college, many freshmen are scared of the “freshman 15.” Garrick was terrified. As a Division l athlete, Garrick was already training more often and burning more calories. She noticed she was eating more food than she was in high school and started to restrict her intake. Garrick said that new foods, being away from home, stress, and living with strangers all contributed to the problem.

It also didn’t help that the media was feeding her pictures of slim models while she was gaining muscle from volleyball.

In a video by the Players Tribune, Garrick was featured alongside seven other USC athletes to talk about body image in college sports.

“We’re facing pressures from society

and Instagram and magazines to look a certain way and then we have pressure from everyone else to look a certain way for our sport,” Garrick said.

After practice, she would come home and would eat whatever she had in her pantry. She called this mindset the cycle of restricting, “caving”, and shaming.

“It literally consumed my everyday life.

Just food and calories and my weight,” Garrick said.

One night she called her mom after a binge crying and just had her mom talk with her. That was the first step to her recovery. Admitting to someone that she had a problem and asking for help.

Her mom gave her a book where Garrick learned about intuitive or mindful eating.

This is something she strongly preaches to her followers.

“It doesn’t stop. People telling us what to eat, when to eat, how to eat, how much to eat,” Garrick said. “Had never let myself have a voice and say ‘No. This is whatI want’ or ‘that doesn’t sound good to me, I want to eat this thing.”

To this day, Garrick is still a mindful eater and tries to be upfront with what she went through to show other girls that they are not going through this alone.

Garrick often posts Instagram posts or Tik Toks about the false reality of instagrammers and how poses can manipulate one’s body. Garrick teaches her followers how to have a healthy relationship with food and their bodies.

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ACROSS THE SEA

by PARKER BATES and GRACE LI Art by GRACE LI Professional rower Jasmine Harrison’s record-breaking journey across the Atlanic Ocean stunned the rowing community and the world.

I

magine being alone on a small 23-foot long boat in the middle of one of the largest bodies of water in the world.

Waves crash sporadically up against the boat’s frame as you paddle for twelve hours in different weather and ocean conditions, from the heat of the sun to the cold winds and rain. The amount of time and dedication needed for this challenge is immense. Rowing for 70 days, three hours, and 48 minutes across the Atlantic Ocean is no simple task, but for 21-year old Jasmine Harrison, it was worth every second.

But before Harrison embarked on her j o u r n e y across the Atlantic,

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she was only a young swim instructor longest distance I did was 11k... She’s an from Northeast England with little amazing role model for anyone who is rowing experience. She heard about either doing the sport or thinking about the Talisker Whiskey Atlantic Challenge picking it up,” Zscheitzschmann-Meek from a participant in a bar on Nelson’s said.

Dockyard a while before. The Talisker Building off of what ZscheitizschmannWhiskey Atlantic Challenge is an event Meek said, many women in the rowing that was sponsored community feel and started by the inspired by Talisker Whiskey Harrison and “Shes an amazing Brand. To complete look forward to role-model for this test, participants more women must row across the anyone who is either accomplishing Atlantic Ocean within o t h e r doing the sport or a year. It starts in prominent San Sebastian in La thinkin about picking feats in rowing.

Gomera, the Canary Rowing is a it up.”

Islands in Spain and predominantly participants row for male sport, Olivia approximately 3,000 and a number Zscheitzschmannmiles to their final of women in destination: Nelson’s rowing faced Meek (‘23) Dockyard, a harbor bias because in Britain. Harrison of it. Harrison’s was intrigued and decided to participate. accomplishment can help prevent bias Harrison rowed not only in record- against women in rowing and allow breaking time, but also was the first these women to explore the adventures solo woman rower to accomplish of rowing more freely in the future. the journey.

Harrison’s Zscheitzschmann-Meek is not the accomplishment became a only Paly athlete who was wowed by famous event among the Harrison’s accomplishments. rowing community and Sophomore Nathan Pazmino has rowed especially for the women since he was around nine years old, in rowing. Sophomore and for the past three years, has rowed Olivia Zscheitzschmann- competitively. His team, the Redwood Meek, an ex-competitive Scullers, was established in 2002 and rower, compares her previous consists of middle schoolers and high experience with Harrison’s. schoolers. The team participated in a “I think Jasmine Harrison is number of competitions each year and incredible, when I did row, the practice vigorously five days a week. On

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those mornings, Pazmino would wake up were men and that would not be before school at 5:00 a.m., go to rowing changed until 2016, when a few more practice, attend school, go home, try to women started to participate. Since then, finish homework quickly so he can go the number of participating women has to sleep early, and then wake up at 5:00 grown steadily, and now with Harrison’s a.m. again the next day. amazing record, it can further encourage “It is… hard more women to to stress how participate in not remarkable Harrison’s only endurance “Nothing Nothing I’ve accomplishment was,” rowing, but Pazmino said. “She is endurance sports in heard of in the the youngest of only a general. rowing world few hundred people to “I am hopeful row across the Atlantic. that this sheds quite matches It was amazing she had some more light the initiative to decide on women’s rowing what Jasmine to undertake such an and will increase Harrison did.” arduous task without interest directed months or years of towards it. Too -Gavin Sun (‘24) planning and see it often women’s through to the end. For sports never reference, in one go really receive the she traveled a distance same mainstream pretty close to everything I’ve done in attention as men’s, rowing sadly being no the last 3 years.” exception… it should show the world that Freshman Gavin Sun is a part of women’s rowing is every bit as legitimate Pazmino’s team and has also participated as men’s,” Pazmino said. in competitions state-wide and nationPazmino sees how wide. Like Pazmino, Sun also admires women’s rowing is Harrison’s accomplishment: “Nothing “underestimated” I’ve heard of in the rowing world quite compared to men’s matches what Jasmine Harrison did… rowing and looks The amount of determination needed to forward to seeing pull that off is amazing, water and wind how Harrison’s conditions are incredibly variable just impact will day to day, but making it around 3,000 heighten the miles over 70 straight days out there is respect and just amazing,” Sun said. legitimacy of Before 2013, most of the participants of the Talisker Whiskey Atlantic

women’s rowing to others in the future.

After the accomplishments of Harrison and other professional rowers, endurance rowing has begun to gain more recognition in the sports world.

Rowing takes dedication, time, and resilience, but the outcome helps breed mentally and physically strong athletes who can really accomplish amazing feats.

Although no Paly students have been reported to row 3,000 miles across the Atlantic Ocean like Harrison, there’s a chance they will accomplish some amazing rowing feats as well in the future. Maybe in the next ten years, you could possibly see the names of Nathan Pazmino or Gavin Sun on the cover of the New York Times for rowing across the Atlantic Ocean in record time.

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Technological Trading

How the NBA digitized basketball card trading, and how some are using the platform to get filthy rich.

by HENRY BOLTE, VIJAY HOMAN and TYLER STOEN

I

n the sports world, highlights are fairly are they talking about? Essentially, fans easy to come by. Every day, sports are posed with a simple choice: they can news from groups like Sportscenter either buy packs or individual highlights. and Bleacher Report makes it onto Packs vary greatly in cost, and each one millions of people’s social media pages. gives you a chance to receive a highlight A game winner from Lebron, a trick shot that is worth much more than you paid from Ronaldo, all of it recorded and for the pack. However, the majority of digitized for a better fan experience. Yet, packs result in a net loss, which is why a new system called NBA Top Shot has opening them is such a gamble. On the combined highlights with investing, so other hand, buying individual highlights that people can enjoy and make money from the marketplace usually results in off of highlight reels. you getting your money at face value, and NBA Top Shot is done mostly highlights are if someone has similar to digital an attachment baseball cards, Since the Top Shot highlights to a team or where certain player, or if are online, the NBA and its highlights they think the associate, Dapper Labs, can are worth value of the comparatively highlight will control not only the rarity of more based over each card, but the rarity of the increase on what the time. packs the cards come in. highlight At the heart of consists of, this creation is a and how many subtle, creative of them are utilization of produced. If it is an NBA Finals game supply and demand. People want the winner, it will be worth thousands of rarest highlights, the coolest plays, much times more than a fast-break layup from like sports fans want limited edition a regular season game. sneakers, and autographs from players.

When you go to nbatopshot.com, you Yet, the NBA takes this a step further. are instantly greeted with an array of black See, for basketball cards (the physical and white prompts that advise you to “add alternative), the supply is essentially to your collection”. But what collection endless. You can go to any Target or

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Walmart and buy as many packs as you like, although you have an extremely small likelihood of getting anything valuable. However, since the Top Shot highlights are online, the NBA and its associate, Dapper Labs, can control not only the rarity of each card, but the rarity of the packs the cards come in. As of March 27, every pack on the website is sold out. This limited availability only makes the consumers want packs and cards more, which boosts sales of Top Shot packs.

The purchase of an NBA Top Shot is seen as a financial investment to many buyers, as many believe it is the future of sports collectibles. Their hope is that the value of these highlights will increase with time, much like old baseball cards did to rise to the incredibly high value they have today.

This type of digitized collectible item has seen a massive increase in demand over the past few years, with the emergence of NFTs in the modern art world. NFT stands for non-fungible token, which can represent any photo, video, audio file, or other digital asset.

They are more popularly associated with expensive online art, some of which have sold for nearly $70 million. What makes NFTs revolutionary is that they allow the purchaser the satisfaction of knowing that what they are buying is

entirely unique. There isn’t a possibility of purchasing a forged painting or knock off item, because NFTs are always 100% original.

The technology isn’t set in stone; people can still download and look at the same media file that someone else bought without incurring a fine or warning, which has prompted many to question whether it’s worth it to buy NFTs in the first place. Yet, as is the case with anything, if people will pay a lot of money for it, it must be worth something.

In this case, people aren’t paying for the actual highlight. They’re paying for the bragging rights that come with being the owner of a limited availability highlight.

While the concept is very futuristic and interesting, there are some drawbacks of purchasing NBA Top Shots. For one, their value has not yet been proven. For all we know, every one could be worthless in as little as a years time. Some are hesitant to buy them because they don’t see a real difference between an NBA Top Shot highlight and a regular highlight on Youtube or Instagram. Although the main incentive to buy them is that you will have an “official” copy of the specific highlight, it is hard to define what an official highlight may look like.

Are highlights on other sites no longer “official”?

The creation of such a booming market has led to incredible revenue for the NBA and Dapper Labs. The April 14 restocking of packs had an astounding 325,000 pre-orders, which brought in almost $3 million. Yet, as the Notorious BIG once said, “mo’ money, mo’ problems”. And for the Top Shot community, there has been no shortage of problems.

Part of the reason for the increase in demand of Top Shot highlights was the opportunity to profit off of the marketplace. People would make multiple accounts to be able to buy more packs, or gift highlights to friends and get paid through a third party app to avoid

fees. And as the NBA began releasing patches to fix these loopholes, people started ditching cards fast. The market begun to crash, which led to uncertainty amongst collectors. And here inlies the major issue with the Top Shot market: at the end of the day, they’re only worth money if enough people want them.

Right now, they top-of-the-line content, worth hundreds or even thousands of dollars. But a year from now? Ten years?

No one really knows how much they’ll be worth, and anyone who tells you differently is either lying, selling them, or both.

All graphics courtesy of NBA Top Shot Press Package @vikingsportsmag

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POWER

Couples

These super star athletes in loving relationships are Viking’s top picks as the cutest couples in professional sports.

by EVE DEGERONIMO, HANA ERICKSON and ANNIKA SHAH

Photo

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by efc

ons

m e Com reativ

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Megan Rapino e is a profes sional soccer player and a tw o-time gold med alist with the U.S. Women’s Na tional Team, an d Sue Bird is a professiona l women’s bask etball player, holding four WNBA champi onships. The two met during the 2016 Olympi cs, and got engaged four ye ars later. Both of them are known as some of the greatest to ever play their sports.

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35

International Sports

by JACK ELARDE, GREG LAURSEN and ROEI ZIV Art by GREG LAURSEN

Jamaica Women’s Track and Field

United States Men’s and Women’s Basketball

124 Total Olympic Medals

Combined 23 Olympic Gold Medals The women’s team has dominated the sport since it was adopted into the Olympics. They are currently ranked number one in the world, according to the FIBA rankings. The women’s team has a 99% win percentage in the FIBA World Cups and in 2018 had an average margin of victory of 35.5 points per game.

Brazil Men’s Soccer 5 World Cup Titles 9 Copa America Titles Brazil has been home to some of the best players the world has ever seen, including the likes of Pele, Ronaldinho, and more. They have some of the most passionate and dedicated supporters in the world, and a strong young core with players suchas as Vinicius Jr. and Rodrygo. Their veteran core includes one of the best players in the world: Neymar.

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Jamaica’s domination in the track world became most noticeable in the early 2000s, where they have consistantly been on the Olympic podium.

The star of their small nation, six-time medalist Shelly-Ann Fraser, is going into her fourth and likely final Olympic games, but Jamaica has no shortage of promising up-and-comers such as Briana Williams.

Powerhouses

Sports are so much more than a ball, a race, or a trophy. They are about bringing people together.

That is especially true for international sports, where a single team can bring an entire country together. The most effective way of doing so, of course, is to win. Winning is never easy, but here are some teams that make it look that way.

China Women’s Table Tennis 12 Olympic Gold Medals Some of the more notable players of all-time are Ding Ning, who has three Olympic gold medals and eight world titles, Mima Ito, and Guo Yue. They don’t only have great players from the past, though. They have four of the top five players in the world at the moment, including the world’s top ranked singles players, Chen Meng and Sun Yingsha.

HONORABLE MENTIONS AUS

New Zealand Men’s Rugby 13 Rugby Seven Series titles 3 Rugby World Cup titles The “All Blacks,” as they are called in the sports world, are the most iconic team in international rugby.

Their traditional pregame cultural ritual, “the Haka,” is known worldwide due to its uniqueness and the intimidation it puts on their opponents.

CRICKET

WATERPOLO

SRB

ICE HOCKEY

CAN @vikingsportsmag

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37

The New

League

A new and exciting twist on football has emerged, drawing attention from fans and players looking for a second chance. But how did this league of outcasts form, and how can it possibly exist in the shadow of the NFL?

A

by IAN COMEY and RYAN LEONG

lthough 2020 is now over, the odd and wacky moments it produced has seemingly lingered. The latest example of this is the Fan Controlled Football League, a ragtag group of former NFL players and coaches. Boasting a unique take on the classic rules of football, the FCF heavily emphasizes the role of fans during a football game through the creation of an online voting system where fans can choose what plays to call.

One might assume that the FCF’s choice to diverge from traditional football would lead to little interest from fans given the longstanding success and popularity of the NFL. However, in a time where many fans find themselves at home craving football with the NFL in the offseason, the FCF has carved out a niche of its own where it can flourish.

One of the first differences that viewers will notice is how the game starts and how many players are on the field at one time. Firstly, to start the game, two players from their respective teams meet in the middle of the field and participate in a game of rock-paper-scissors, with the winner deciding if their team would want to start with the ball or defer to the other team. Since the main premise of the Fan Controlled Football league is to encourage quick, fast paced, hard hitting football, the number of players on the field is reduced from eleven to seven, and is played on a 50 yard field 38

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rather than the traditional 100 yard field.

Another glaring difference that viewers will be quick to notice, and possibly appreciate, is the fact that most games will only last about an hour split into two 20-minute halves with a running clock that only stops when there is a score, and at the one minute warning. Compare this to an average NFL game which will run about three hours, viewers can still participate in watching exciting football while not having to sacrifice a large portion of their day.

Paly student and avid football fan Thomas McGall (‘21) voices his opinions on how long NFL games have gotten recently.

“When I first started watching NFL games they were definitely more enjoyable because of less commercials and TV timeouts.

However as of recently, it’s started to feel kind of slow and long compared to other sports like basketball,” McGall said.

Another issue that McGall raises is that games that maybe seem to end sooner, but can actually run on for much longer.

“There might be a couple minutes left in the game but you could be there for way longer whether it’s a close game or not,” McGall said.

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Some other peculiar rule changes that the FCFL offers are that each team is given three “power ups”, which comes in different forms like being able to get a fifth down (one more compared to the traditional four downs), a “flip the field”, which moves the ball back to the offensive team’s 10 yard line, and finally the “power play” which forces the other team to play with only 6 players for one play.

However, the most interesting rule change that FCFL has is that each week team rosters are reset and changed in a draft, with the exception of two franchise players that are given protection throughout the whole season.

While the majority of the Fan Controlled Football League players are relatively unknown, big names like former college football star Johnny Manziel and NFL pro bowl wide receiver Josh Gordon have found themselves playing alongside each other, both with the common goal of winning the championship for their team, the Zappers.The Zappers are just one of the four teams

in the league, and is owned by MLB pitcher Trevor May, NFL running back Dalvin Cook, and instagram personality Bob Menary. Surprisingly, these three aren’t even the most random set of owners in the league, with the Glacier Boyz taking home the title, owned by

superbowl champion Richard Sherman, world renowned rapper Quavo, and YouTuber Deestroying.

The FCFL’s greatest strength lies in its unconventionality, the pure randomness and confusion is something unlike in any other league, and the FCFL will

continue to capitalize on that market. Its excitement and entertainment comes from moments that would be unlikely to happen in an NFL game. The FCFL is distinct in its rules and games, which may offer a fun alternative for NFL fans in the years to come.

Regular

Season Standings Beasts (3-1)

The Beasts finished first in standings, but they failed to deliver in the playoffs. They received an early round exit from the Glacier Boyz. Owned by former NFL star Marshawn Lynch, the Beasts finished with a 3-1 record.

Wild Aces (2-2) The Wild Aces are this year’s playoff champions. Led by Wide Receiver Raphael Leonard, the team blew out the Zappers and beat the Glacier Boyz in the Championship 46-40. finishing with a 2-2 record, they are partially owned by the Chargers star running back Austin Ekeler.

Zappers (2-2)

The Zappers split their regular season games with 2 wins and 2 losses, but didn’t do much better in the playoffs. Boasting talent like Heisman winner Johnny Manziel and NFL wide receiver Josh Gordon, the Zappers were sent home after losing to the Wild Aces in the first round, 32-6.

Glacier Boyz (1-3)

Though they started out with a disappointing regular season, the Glacier Boyz found their groove in the playoffs, making it all the way to the championship against the Wild Aces. Quavo’s team took home second place in this year’s playoffs.

(46-40)

Beasts

Wild Aces

Wild Aces (38-20)

Glacier Boyz

(32-6)

Wild Aces

Glacier Boyz

Zappers @vikingsportsmag

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39

VIKING TRIES:

FISHING Of the many things that Viking has tried over the years, we had somehow failed to give fishing a go.

To rectify this glaring mistake, three members of the staff, Adar, Phoebe and Justin, attempted to tackle Viking’s newest challenge.

F

by JUSTIN GU, PHOEBE KIM and ADAR SCHWARZBACH ishing. It’s society’s favorite idyllic, slow-paced, outdoor pastime.

Here at Viking, we are always up to trying something new, so we set a plan to go catch some lake monsters.

Or more aptly, try and catch some lake monsters.

The three of us together hold minimal to no fishing experience. So we enlisted the help of some of Paly’s best fishermen and women.

Following their

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advice, we narrowed down a list of some of the best local spots to land a catch.

We nailed down the logistics of our trip, borrowed some rods and bait, and set off to Portola Valley with big dreams of catching even bigger fish.

Unfortunately for us, our trip did not start off as planned. We arrived at our destination and were met with the sight of just about everything but a lake. Cattle, barns, rolling hills, “NO TRESPASSING” signs, you name it. We quickly enlisted the help of our fishing advisory board via FaceTime. Much to our dismay, we had parked at a site more than a mile from the lake.

Undettered, the team packed our fishing gear back up and headed towards a more suitable spot.

At last, we had made it to somewhere at least a bit closer to the lake.

Unfortunately, our destination was still unknown to us. Utilizing common sense and google maps, we realized that we were going to have to make a bit of a hike over a hill seemingly in between us and the lake. As the sun began to set over the coast, Viking’s fishing squad began our ascent towards the lake. With morale still high, the team trekked

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through brush, over a barbed wire fence and at long last down an embankment to the edge of the lake.

Our first order of business was to figure out how to bait our hooks and cast our lines. The former was quite easy, but the latter proved to be more difficult. We stopped our synthetic worms with the fish hooks (fish hooks are quite sharp, as we found out). Yet our first attempts to cast into the lake were futile. Eventually we discovered a clasp that needed to

be flipped down on the rod in order for the line to go. With several throws going nowhere, we eventually were able to get our lines at least a few feet into the lake. Wildlife was abundant around us, the chirps of crickets, quacks of ducks on the lake, and our own screams when a bat flew a bit closer to us then we might have preferred. All that was lacking were fish. The bright orange home depot bucket we had brought for our catches sat alone and sad, as if calling out for us to bring some aquatic friends.

As the three of us waited, the natural peace of the lake was disturbed by the ring of an iPhone. Startled from our reverie, the team answered the call only to find out that the parking lot was closed and the park ranger was waiting for us, mad. Hastily, the team began to retrace our steps. A second call, adding that the police had now arrived, only increased our pace.

At long last, we made it to the parking lot where we found the call to be a false alarm, packed our trunks, and hurried home.

Although our dreams of 12 pound bass were shattered, the unforgettable experience of fishing was one that our team would not trade for anything. Unfettered by any of our shortcomings, we worked towards our goal tirelessly, all while experiencing the glorious nature that surrounds our home of Palo Alto. And what’s life if you can’t enjoy the journey.

@vikingsportsmag

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41

2021 Summer Olympics Preview

by JAKE FOSTER and ZACH HAYWARD

T

he countries. The athletes.

The events. The fans. These components and more make up a sporting event seemingly as old as time: the Olympics. After a five year hiatus as a result of last year’s games being postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Summer Olympics are back in 2021. Over 11,000 athletes and thousands of coaches, trainers, officials, and media from 200 different countries will travel to Tokyo, Japan to participate in the Games, scheduled to take place from July 23 to August 8. Despite the world being entrenched in the pandemic, this year’s Games, although very different than normal, will prove to be the biggest worldwide sporting event for years to come.

The Location Previously hosted in Rio De Janeiro in 2016, the upcoming Summer Olympics will be held in Tokyo, Japan. This is the fourth time the Olympics have made their way to Japan, and only the second time for the Summer Games. In preparation, the Tokyo Olympic Planning Committee constructed an all new $1.43 billion stadium. Designed by renowned Japanese architect Kengo Kuma, the stadium features various woodwork designs surrounding the outside to match the earth’s tone, as well as natural greenery enveloping the surrounding campus.

While Tokyo’s brand new stadium has been all the craze in recent news, the city itself has an incredible

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amount to offer to those who seek it. From the unique culture, to all the food and shopping, there is so much to explore in Tokyo other than the fancy new stadium. Unfortunately, fans, players, coaches and their families no longer have this luxury due to the gravitas of the Olympic bubble.

The Handling of COVID-19 While organizing an Olympic Games always serves to be a daunting task, the Tokyo planning committee is faced with an additional, monstrous obstacle this year: handling COVID-19. Having been postponed a year ago, the 2020 Games will still be heavily affected by the coronavirus. Japan has only experienced around 6,000 deaths so far, but a rise in infection rates has threatened the prospect

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Art by ZACH HAYWARD of the Games occurring. However, guidelines and restrictions have already been developed, and will continue to be updated, regarding the safety of the thousands of athletes, coaches, and media slated to travel to Tokyo. The basis of these guidelines is to avoid close-contact, close spaces, and crowded areas, beginning with travel. It has already been announced that participants will not be required to be vaccinated, but they must test negative within 72 hours of their flight to Japan. Once in the host country, participants will be tested and confined within the Olympic Village, prohibited from using public transportation, visiting tourist locations, and eating at bars and restaurants.

In terms of spectators, fans from overseas will not be allowed to travel to Tokyo. It is still uncertain whether fans will be allowed to attend competitions, but there will most certainly be mask and social distancing mandates in place. Fans will also be barred from attending the famous Olympic torch ceremony, but will be present along the torch bearing route. Torchbearers will be highly monitored and restricted, as over 1,000 people will be handling the iconic Olympic idol. Despite the uncertainty and concern brought about by the pandemic, Tokyo will look to maximize its opportunity to successfully execute the Games at a high level, all while prioritizing the safety of the athletes and locals.

Gymnastics

One of the most popular Olympic sports, gymnastics will look slightly different when the competition comes to Tokyo this year. In a similar trend to the past few Games, the sizes of the Olympic gymnastic teams have been shrunk to four competitors, with each nation having two additional spots for gymnasts competing separate from the team. This move was made in order to hopefully even the playing field and improve the chances of smaller nations.

When competition opens the very first week of the Olympics, all eyes will be on gymnastics powerhouses Russia, China, and of course, the very successful United

Basketball

States. These teams will be accompanied by nine other nations in the battle for gold, silver, and bronze. The deadline for each country to finalize their squad is in June.

Once in Tokyo, the US will look to continue its recent trend of Olympic dominance.

23 year-old Simone Biles, widely regarded as the best gymnast in the US and the world, will be leading the Americans. Biles possesses a combined total of 30 Olympic and World Championship medals, and is coming off of a dominant five individual medal performance in Rio in 2016. She will likely be joined by four-time USA gymnastics champion and 2017 all-

Ever since it became an Olympic sport in 1936, basketball has been an extremely popular Summer Olympic event. The main reason for the popularity of this event is the worldwide influence of the NBA, as several players don the colors of their home countries to fight for the gold.

W h i l e

around world champion Morgan Hurd, who will be competing in her first Olympics.

Gymnastics competition will consist of 14 medal events, the men’s and women’s teams, men’s and women’s individual all-around, and ten “apparatus” competitions.

With three exciting phases leading up to the event finals phase, gymnastics fans will have their plate full of the best gymnasts in the world battling it out for their countries.

many nations boast talented athletes on the court, this year’s tournament is looking to be a repeat of the past few Games: the United States, three-time defending Gold medalists, enter as the overwhelming favorite to run the table. The US will be competing against seven other qualified countries, Argentina, Australia, France, Iran, Nigeria, and Spain.

While Spain and Australia have notably strong teams, all eyes will undoubtedly be on the boys from America.

Many premier NBA players, including LeBron James, Steph Curry, K e v i n Durant,

Kawhi Leonard, Anthony Davis, and others have indicated that they intend to rep the stars and stripes in Tokyo.

Due to their star-studded roster, other countries will have a very difficult time dispatching the Americans, as this year’s team could possibly be the best since the 1992 Dream Team that featured Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, and Larry Bird. In the women’s tournament, the US is also the heavy favorite to take home the Gold, as the team consists of top players from the WNBA. Olympic veterans Diana Taurasi and Sue Bird will be looking to lead a team full of talent such as A’ja Wilson, Breanna Stewart, and Britney Griner. The US will be contested by 11 other teams, with the biggest competition likely coming from Australia, Spain, and Canada. 2021 Olympic basketball is a must-watch for NBA and WNBA fans, or basketball fans in general, as all indications point to the exciting US teams bringing home gold.

@vikingsportsmag

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Soccer

Officially deemed the world’s most popular sport, soccer has been a part of the Summer Olympics since 1900. With an expected 28 teams in competition every four years, it’s no surprise that four out of ten people around the world consider themselves soccer fans. As far as world standings go, Team USA men’s soccer is ranked 22nd in the world whereas the women’s team dominates the scene as the number one ranked women’s soccer team in the world. As of March 24th, 14 out of 16 men’s soccer teams have qualified for this summer’s games, including: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Côte D’ivoire, Egypt, France, Germany, Japan, Korea Republic, New Zealand, Romania, Saudi Arabia, South Africa

and Spain. The U.S. men were recently eliminated from Olympic competition for the third consecutive Games. As for the women, so far 10 out of 12 nations have qualified, them being Australia, Brazil, Canada, Great Britain, Japan, Netherlands, New Zealand, Sweden, the United States and Zambia. Just like the men, a tournament will be played to determine the last two teams.

Track and Field

Since 1928, track and field has been one of the most popular and competitive individual Olympic sports. With an expected 48 medal events, it is easily the largest Olympic sport in terms of attendance, second most being swimming with only 12 medal events. The most popular of these 48 events are the short distance sprints, the 100m and 200m. Some of the biggest competitors in these sprints include Usain Bolt of Jamaica, Tyson Gay of the United States, and Asafa

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Powell of Jamaica.

As for the women, there is Florence Griffith-Joyner and Carmelita Jeter of the United States, as well as Elaine Thomposon of Jamaica. All six of these track stars were the best of their time and some still hold world record times that are yet to be broken. Deemed the world’s fastest human being, Usain Bolt still holds the world record for the fastest 100m time (9.58 seconds), the 200m (19.19 seconds) as well as the 4x100 accompanied by

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teammates Nesta Carter, Michael Frater, and Yohan Blake for a record time of 36.84 seconds.

Unfortunately, Bolt’s last Olympic race came to a tragic end at the London games when he tore his hamstring during the 4x100 in the race for gold. However, his legacy and world records continue to live on and push racers to be their fastest selves. This year’s track and field events will be played at the newly refurbished Olympic stadium. Racers will be running on today’s modern track which is made out of finely grained pieces of rubber, bound together by latex or polyurethane, designed to provide runners with the most comfort and speed possible throughout a race.

Track and field fans will most certainly have their hands full during these upcoming games as young track stars from around the globe meet to battle it out for a gold medal as well as seek to put their names next to a world record title.

Volleyball

The first Olympic volleyball game was played in Tokyo back in 1964. Fast forward 57 years, volleyball is one of the most popular Olympic sports after the addition of beach volleyball at the 1996 Atlanta Games.

Fans can expect to watch the 24 volleyball teams battle it out at the Ariake Arena, while the 48 beach volleyball teams play at one of Tokyo’s newest installations, Shiokaze Park. Taking a dive into the fast paced six versus six game of volleyball, some power house teams to watchout for on the men’s side of the spectrum include Brazil, Italy, the United States, Poland, and Russia.

After they took gold at their home court over Italy during the Rio Games, Brazil will certainly be looking to defend their title in the upcoming tournament

Swimming

One of the biggest draws of the Summer Games always comes in the pool. An Olympic sport since 1896, swimming never fails to captivate viewers in-person and on the television.

This year’s swimming events will take place the first week of competition, at the Tokyo Aquatic Center. With the greatest Olympic swimmer of all time, Michael Phelps, officially retired from the sport, this year’s swimming competition may feel a little different.

While countries such as Hungary, Japan, Australia, and Germany will send world-class swimmers to Tokyo, the United States swimming juggernaut will look to continue its dominance in the sport. Led by Greg Meehan, a Paly parent and head swimming coach at Stanford University, the US national team is sending many Olympic veterans across the Pacific. On the women’s side, all eyes will be on Katie Ledecky, widely

as well as collect their third Olympic gold medal for men’s volleyball. Moving over to the women’s league, this year’s top contenders include China, Serbia, the United States, Brazil, and Italy. Over the course of the Olympic off season, China has dominated the women’s volleyball scene, and without a doubt they will also be seeking to defend their gold medal during these upcoming games. As for beach volleyball, it is played as a two versus two matchup on sand and is slightly slower pace than indoor volleyball however is arguably more exhausting given the work is split between two players as opposed to six.

As of April 5th, preliminary competitions to determine the Olympic roster for beach volleyball have not yet come to an end, however for the

regarded as the best female swimmer in the world. She is slated to swim four races, including the newly added 1500 meter freestyle. Joining Ledecky will be fellow Olympian and Stanford graduate Simone Manuel, as well as Olympic hopefuls Reagan Smith and Lilly King. The American women will be faced with Sweden’s Sarah Sjostrom, a holder of ten W o r l d

women’s some powerful duos who are expected to play include Laura Ludwig and Kira Walkenhorst of Germany, Ágatha Bednarczuk and Bárbara Seixas of Brazil, as well as April Ross and Kerri Walsh Jennings of the USA. For the men, some powerhouse duos include Alison Cerutti Bruno and Oscar Schmidt of Brazil, Daniele Lupo and Paolo Nicolai of Italy, as well as Nick Lucena and Phil Dalhousser of the United States.

Impressively, for both the men and women’s competitions, Team USA was able to bring home the bronze medal for volleyball and beach volleyball. The four teams plan to make a return to the 2020 Olympics and hopefully see better if not the same results as four years ago.

Championship gold medals, along with a strong team from Australia. For the men, American Caeleb Dressel will look to continue his journey to becoming the next Michael Phelps. A favorite to win gold in three races, he currently holds world records in four swims. All signs point to Dressel being the key to American dominance at this year’s Games. Dressel and the US will be challenged by a strong team from Great Britain led by Adam Peaty and Duncan Scott, as well as powerhouses Germany and Australia. With so many big names flying into Tokyo, swimming is sure to be the mustwatch event of the Summer Games.

@vikingsportsmag

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w

The

Best Olympic Moments of All Time

On the doorstep of World War II, Nazi Germany hosted the 1936 Summer Olympics. During this time, the chancellor of Germany, Adolf Hitler, was re-mobilizing German troops all over the Rhine River and Eastern border of France, a direct violation of the Treaty of Versailles, creating tension across Europe. Hitler promoted various outrageous claims, one of which being that the German Aryan population was the superior race to all others. However, leave it to none other than Jesse Owens to prove these beliefs utterly incorrect. Owens, an American athlete and only the second African American man ever to compete in the Olympics, provided a near perfect performance on the track in Berlin. He participated in four different events: the 100m, 200m, 4x100m relay, and the long jump, winning a gold medal in each. Through his performance, Owens effectively shattered world records and Hitler’s claims regarding the superiority of the Aryan race.

A neck and neck race between two teammates for Gold.

These teammates: Tommie Smith and John Carlos of the United States. The two were racing at the 1968 Mexico Summer Olympics for the 200m gold medal when Smith pulled ahead during the final 30 meters, setting a world record of 19.8 seconds. However, that is not the significance of the story. During the medal ceremony Smith (1st place) and Carlos (3rd place) each raised a fist wearing a black glove, and bowed their heads to represent unity and solidarity among the oppressed. This became known as the Black Power Salute. By doing so, the two Olympians brought global attention to the civil rights movement which was at the time peaking in the United States. The salute is still commonly used during protests to this day and inspired the logo that is the face of the Black Lives Matter movement.

Perhaps the single greatest swimming performance in history came in 2008 at the Beijing Olympics. The swimmer? None other than 23-year old Michael Phelps. The alreadydecorated US swimmer competed in 17 races over the course of nine days, breaking seven world records and walking away with eight Olympic gold medals. Heading into his final race, Phelps was tied with American Mark Spitz for the world record of seven gold medals in a single Olympics, which Spitz had set at the 1972 Munich Games. Swimming the butterfly leg of the 4x100-meter medley relay, Phelps led the US to a record-setting performance over Australia that won them the gold. This marked Phelps’ record eighth gold medal in Beijing, a record that has yet to be broken.

United States swimming has had an extensive history of Olympic dominance, largely to the credit of Michael Phelps. However, at the 2016 Rio Games, a new Olympic swimmer began penning her name right next to Phelps in the history books: Katie Ledecky. At 19 years old, Ledecky was the youngest swimmer on the US national team for the second straight Olympics. In Rio, she took her game to the next level, winning four gold medals and dominating her competition. She took first place in the 200 meter, 800 meter, 4 x200 meter freestyle, and the 400 meter, in which she broke her own world record. In the 4x200 relay, she helped anchor the US squad, pulling off an impressive comeback to bring the gold back home.

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Olympic gymnastics has seen a host of incredible athletes and performances over the years. One such performance occurred in 1976 at the Montreal Olympic Games, courtesy of 14-year old Romanian gymnast Nadia Comaneci. In her first Olympics, Comaneci accomplished what had never been achieved before: a perfect “10” score. She received the previously unreachable score for her routine on the uneven bars, a performance that made history and changed the perception of the capabilities of female athletes at the time. After her perfect 10, Comaneci went on to get seven more perfect scores, winning gold medals in the uneven bar, balance beam, and individual all-around events. She also won a bronze medal for her floor routine, and helped lead the Romanian national team to a silver place finish in team competition.

The Final Word

why

Moneyball was a FAILURE

by VIJAY HOMAN and JACK ELARDE

The concept of Moneyball has taken MLB in the 21st century by storm. Being able to win the same number of games at a substantially lower cost was not only good for baseball, but a good story as well. However, since Bennett Miller’s film came out, the A’s and Billy Beane have struggled to actually turn their phenomenon into World Series rings.

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rowing up, Moneyball was a movie that I watched religiously. The best-selling book turned film revolves around the Oakland A’s and their general manager Billy Beane (played by Brad Pitt), who tries to reinvent his team over the course of the 2002 season. Through statistical analysis and disregarding quirks, Beane is able to form a team that wins about as much as the large market teams, for a fraction of the cost. Although they never ended up winning the World Series, the accomplishments achieved by that 2002 team appeared to be proof that it is possible to overcome the payroll problem in baseball.

Towards the end of the film, Beane is given the opportunity to become the Director of Baseball Operations with the Boston Red Sox, in what would’ve made him the highest paid front office worker of all time. Yet, Beane turned down the opportunity and chose to remain with the A’s, in an attempt to win the last game of the season with the organizations that first took a chance on him.

While the decision to stay with the A’s and give up a notable pay raise was certainly an honorable one, it never really amounted to much. The methods that Beane used were adopted by the other 29 MLB teams, and the rich teams went back to their winning ways. 18 of the past 26 World Series winners have had payrolls in the top 10 of the league, with the most recent winner (the Los Angeles Dodgers) sitting at number one.

And interestingly enough, as renowned as Beane is in the sports management world, he has never won a World Series (or gotten close).

With reports that Beane was looking to move out of the baseball world and

focus more on his special purpose acquisition company RedBall, I thought it was important to revisit a man who is regarded by so many in the baseball community as someone who changed the game. And while Moneyball certainly helped small market teams compete during the regular season, it’s not hard to see why so few of such teams made it all the way.

The art of winning an unfair game is predicated around averages: Beane structured his team to never have to bunt, steal, or play defense, three traditionally vital aspects of baseball. He did it this way because on average, these types of plays aren’t viable. Yet, once a team gets to the postseason, averages are thrown out the window. It comes down to one game, one at bat, one stolen base, that a team like the A’s is almost always unequipped to deal with it. As stated in the movie “you have to steal, you have to bunt, you have to sacrifice”, and the A’s never did.

So why are they a failure? Well, Billy Beane’s ultimate goal was to win a championship. Even after the A’s won 20 games in a row and broke the then American League record, he still said that the accomplishment felt empty. His bar was to bring a championship to Oakland, and he never could. On top of that, his methods were almost immediately recreated by other teams, who began to take the players that otherwise would’ve gone unnoticed.

2002 was undoubtedly a special season for the Athletics. Hell, it made people who didn’t even know the rules to baseball watch a two-hour movie about it, because the story was just that inspiring. But the fundamental flaws in the theory, and the lack of World Series rings to show for it, all point to one reasonable conclusion: no one to date has figured out the art of winning an unfair game.

@vikingsportsmag

| APRIL 2021

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