The Believer

Named the best magazine of 2022 by Alta.

Presenting The Believer’s first-ever sports issue! Inside this special edition, you’ll find a close read of Steph Curry’s legendary Paris Olympics performance by Kiese Laymon; a series from Jenny Odell on the athletic routines of four writers and artists; Laura van den Berg reporting ringside from the final Katie Taylor–Amanda Serrano bout; Joseph Bien-Kahn’s profile of retired Hall of Fame NBA coach Don “Nellie” Nelson; and Rob Curran and Andrew Nelson tracing the sojourn of Amane Dramera, a West African soccer player who, as a sixteen-year-old, was trafficked into Europe by one of the sport’s many nefarious agents.

The issue also includes interviews with NFL analyst Mina Kimes, fly-fisher and writer Thomas McGuane, WNBA coach Natalie Nakase, open-water swimmer Amy Appelhans Gubser, and professional racket stringer Roman Prokes; plus Chris Almeida writes about the history of cricket’s “Little Master” and Chris Feliciano Arnold reports from a data-driven soccer academy. Elsewhere, Elvia Wilk examines the art of making top-quality fake snow; Will McGrath competes in the national Ultimate Frisbee championship; Jennifer Kabat dissects a passage from Oakley Hall’s The Downhill Racers; Beatrice Loayza reconsiders a football drama by Oliver Stone; and Belinda Huijuan Tang annotates Michelle Kwan’s transcendent exhibition skate at the 2002 Olympics.

The issue also encloses our regular columns, but with a sports-themed twist, featuring contributions from Nick Hornby and Carrie Brownstein; a schema on ball design through the ages; and recommendations from fifteen writers—including Elisa Gabbert, Niela Orr, and Monica Datta—on the subject of their favorite sports books.