Sports! We're#1 Archives – THE PAGE TURNS

January 28, 2026January 28, 2026

Nordic! Alpine! Extreme! Look Back and Forward to Milano-Cortina

Author’s Note: Some of my musings below were shared before Beijing and Sochi, but I’m recycling a bit because it’s good for the planet.

The original International Sports Week! later to be called Winter Olympics I. Photo from wikimedia.

The XXV Winter Games start next week! Opening Ceremonies are Friday, although preliminary heats in Mixed Doubles Curling start on Wednesday. Most of America’s curling athletes come from Minnesota, including Team USA’s mixed doubles team, and Minnesota could use some extra cheering right now, so get in there! Fun Fact: All of Team USA’s Mixed Doubles athletes are named Cory (Cory and Korey)… those long winter nights must just fly by. How can you not watch a team where people have the same name? Mixed Doubles Curling is to Curling what Rugby Sevens is to regular Rugby—half the people but the same size of the field.

Since I brought it up, let’s just look at what we can expect in Mixed Doubles. You may recall that the plucky team from Italy surprised the favored Norwegians with the first ever curling medal for Italy in Beijing 2022. That same pair went 9-0 to win last year’s world championships, and the female half of the team, Stefania Constantini, hails from…wait for it Cortina! Guess where the Curling stadium is… Cortina! The Mixed Doubles Italian gold-winning pair will also be the flagbearers for Italy in Cortina. So you can think of Constantini and Mosaner as the Simone Biles of Mixed Doubles Curling: the ones to beat. Boy, the Cory/Korey’s are going to have an uphill battle against that powerhouse Italian team.

I hear you scoffing, my friends, but you have to remember one of the Kajmeister Olympic Rules: All sports are interesting if you know the rules and the backstory of those competing. Curling started at the Games back in 1924—more on that shortly. But let’s briefly recall how these winter games all got started.

July 4, 2025July 5, 2025

Ascending to Ballhalla

The WNBA announced this past Monday that the professional women’s basketball league will expand to 18 teams. Nearly two years ago, when they announced a Northern California franchise, it was shrouded in mystery. It would be a year before they announced the next franchise to Portland or the team name. However, this week, four more teams were confirmed. The timing of this sudden bloom of teams is no accident.

The Valkyries can claim some credit, though that credit should be shared. It’s definitely due to the players; absolutely the coaches; partly the owners; unquestionably to the growing fan base, in the Bay Area, and in general; to the WNBA of today; to all the US Women’s Olympics teams back to 1976; and to all the women’s basketball players, across the six professional leagues that did not survive; in the industrial leagues that lasted for years before, during, and after the wars, in dimly lit, humid gymnasiums with cramped locker rooms, where the locals cheered madly for their wives and daughters and sisters and neighbors. For this success story, there are a lot of shoulders to stand on.

Perhaps you don’t give a fig about basketball. You have plenty of company. However, you don’t have to enjoy basketball to appreciate the success of the Valkyries, a bunch of no-names, who play fiercely with such joy, in front of fans who have yearned for a team that represents them. It’s good for basketball. It’s good for women. It’s good in general. Let me tell you why, with a little history, business, and sociology. This is not (really) about basketball.

April 21, 2025April 22, 2025

R is for Rubber

Aztec ballplayers playing “hip ball” in a typical state of undress, as depicted by Christopher Weiditz (1528) in a book on Mesoamerican customs.

Rubber isn’t an Ancient Invention, is it? Wasn’t rubber invented by Charles Goodrich (or was it Goodyear?) Or the Michelin Man? Historians seem to think so. A 2021 textbook on material culture history starts: “Rubber began its global bouncing career in the late 15th century.” Another says : “Columbus discovered rubber!” (Columbus discovered a prison cell is what Columbus discovered. ) Or: “Goodyear invented vulcanized rubber!” (Goodyear.com seems to think so.)

Some encyclopedias rightly credit the Mesoamerican cultures with discovering the properties of rubber, though usually they get two sentences, while Anglo-Europeans like Joseph Priestley, Charles Condamine, and Goodyear get several paragraphs. Let’s be clear. The Olmecs , Mayans, and Aztecs, starting as far back as 1600 BCE, cultivated and used rubber. They understand how to use it, what to use it for, and how to improve it. They were proficient with polymer chemistry–vulcanization–to extend its functionality They also invented sports in ways that would seem eerily familiar to us.

Given that we use rubber every darned day, I thought the Mesoamericans deserved a little more credit than always being the fifth oh, and... culture that I include. I thought they deserved their own post.

This post, therefore, deserves its own three questions: