Sam Riches
Sam Riches is a writer and a journalist living in Canada. His work has appeared online at the New Yorker, Wired, Salon.com, the Classical, and elsewhere.
Finding Ross’ Gold
With marijuana legalization on the horizon in Canada, Pacific Standard catches up with Ross Rebagliati, Olympic athlete and prohibition poster boy from the ’90s.
Playing as If the World Mattered
A Q&A with athlete, activist, and author Gabriel Kuhn.
What's the Greatest Record in Sports History?
A new study says it belongs to Barry Bonds, but probably not for the reason you think.
When Pressure Is Privilege
How National Hockey League officials deal with deafening crowds, tough players, and big moments. A Q&A with veteran NHL linesman Scott Driscoll.
Finding Canada’s Team
What does fandom look like in the home city of Canada’s only Major League Baseball team?
Fit Athletes, Fat Fans
When it comes to the obesity epidemic, athletes are part of the problem.
Fear and Football
The unionization movement, social media bans, and the disempowerment of student-athletes.
Going Pro
Hopeful athletes fight for roster spots in Canada’s budding basketball league.
Building a Strong Man
How attempting the improbable, and chasing the past, led one man to find a community—and himself.
The Cost of Legacy
In Toronto, the most expensive Pan Am Games ever just ended. Were they worth it?
The Great Wayne Gretzky Heist
What happens when the things we use to define ourselves go missing?
Donald Trump and the Environmental Cost of Luxury Golf
“Brown Is the New Green”—unless you’ve got deep pockets.
The World's Most Progressive Sport: Quidditch!
How one alternative sport is helping further gender equality, in athletics and beyond.
The Small-Town Advantage
Athletes from outside major city centers dominate professional sports. Why?
Taping It and Making It: The Rise of Kinesiology Tape and the Power of Placebos in Sports
Just because several studies have failed to find any significant benefits to using Kinesio Tape doesn’t mean it can’t still be effective.
Power, Pucks, and Parity: The Ongoing Discrimination of Female Collegiate Coaches
Shannon Miller is out a job, but the reason why is not yet clear.
Want to Be the President? Start Playing Sports
How politicians use athletics to their advantage.
Growing Up and Burning Out
It takes more than basketball skills to make it to the NCAA tournament.
The Leader of the Pack
Stories about athletes with flawed character are endless, but what about those who exceed our expectations?
Jason Collins, Revisited
A new study explores how newspapers and social media framed a historic first.
The Activist Athlete in the Digital Age
Could platforms like The Players’ Tribune usher in a new age of activism among athletes? The answer is up to us.
The First Death of an Athlete
By choice or by circumstance, exiting sport is inevitable. What happens after is less certain.
Even in Sports, You Are What You Eat
To cheer for a team, or a sport, is to become part of a larger social phenomenon. Food is another—important—part of that shared identity.
The Commodification of Marshawn Lynch
Image and authenticity in the world of celebrity sport.
Everybody Knows NBA Players Smoke Marijuana
Athletes, the media, and marijuana: On organizational authority and racial framing in sport.
Imagining an America Without Sports
What if we eliminated the institution of sport—from the high school level to the pros? Ten academics from around the country weigh in.
When Sport Defines a Nation: Hockey in Canada
The shifting relationship of sport as a cultural signifier.
The Case for Studying Sports
This introductory column is the first in a new running series, where each week a current event in sports will be examined from a sociocultural perspective.
Why I Lived Alone in a Cabin for Six Months
Sam Riches went looking for solitude in nature, hoping to find his Jack London moment—but after half a year, he came back with a slightly different conclusion: self-reliance is overrated.
The Worst Free-Throw Shooter
Why do some of the greatest basketball players ever struggle with an uncontested shot from just 15 feet away?
The Woman Who's Teaching the NHL How to Skate
As one of the only female coaches in all of the four major professional sports, Barb Underhill is carving out an important legacy, both on and off the ice.
How We Set Up Our Professional Athletes to Fail
For every Michael Jordan, there's at least one Keon Clark. Or an Allen Iverson. Or a Junior Seau. The machinery of professional sports churns through its athletes and spits them out on the other side.
Inside the World of Competitive Laughing
Sam Riches went to the Canadian competitive laughing championship. He met a 103-year-old man, a one-eyed person named Eyeborg, and a bunch of people trying to elevate the pursuit of joy into a sport.