Issue 7 - August 1, 2024
covering nontraditional, emerging and niche sports with a focus on women and LGBTIQA+ people
Hello and welcome to the seventh issue of Beyond the Big 5’s newsletter! It’s summer, and I’ve been spending as much time outside as possible. I wanted to send a quick email out about the Olympics and Paralympics. I’m mostly fangirling over on Instagram and watching events on Peacock. By the way, if you’re advertising adverse and in the US, I recommend watching the replays on Peacock versus the packaged coverage. There are significantly less ads! Women’s soccer still has them, but other sports like fencing, triathlon, and beach volleyball don’t.
Recent BB5 Features
Nerd Sports at San Diego Comic-Con: my first person reflections on the quadball programming I did at Comic-Con from 2015-2022
Later this month, I’ll be releasing another podcast episode about quadball and the gender rule, and an article about college ultimate players who also compete professionally. I’ll also have a bonus podcast episode about quadball in Uganda!
2024 Paris Olympics
On July 30, Team USA won its first medal in women’s rugby, beating Australia 14-12. The bronze medal match was electric! Australia was dominating at first, and until the very end it looked like they were going to win. With eight seconds to go, captain Naya Tapper passed the ball to Alex “Spiff” Sedrick. Sedrick took off, sprinting over 90 yards from one side of the pitch to the other to score a try, and then a conversion kick, which won the game for the US. It was an incredible moment!
New Zealand took gold, and Canada got silver. I recommend watching both these games on replay; New Zealand especially put on a flawless performance.
Besides rugby, I’ve been enjoying gymnastics, soccer, triathlon, fencing (eee Lauren Scruggs), and beach volleyball! I’m looking forward to next week, when nonbinary runner Nikki Hiltz races the 1500m.
2024 Paris Paralympics
Mark your calendars for wheelchair rugby at the Paralympics, August 29-September 2! Wheelchair rugby is a high contact, mixed gender sport. Sarah Adam is the only woman on the US roster this year. Learn more about the sport and Adam in this podcast interview from NBC.
In Closing
Happy summer!
Beyond the Big 5 is written by Mary Kimball.