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Sports

A new study shows that children who play individual sports, like tennis, may have more mental health issues than those that play team sports or don’t participate in sports at all.

The Future of Mental Health

Should Parents Worry About New Research Linking Kids’ Mental Health and Individual Sports?

According to the study, children who played team sports had fewer mental health difficulties than those who didn’t play sports

This is how you really sweat to the oldies.

Want to Work Out Like Walt Whitman or Henry VIII? Try These Historic Fitness Regimens

Travel through time by lifting like passengers on the Titanic or swimming like the sixth U.S. president

Jackie Robinson, seen savoring a 1956 win over Pittsburgh, debuted in the major leagues on April 15, 1947, as Brooklyn’s first baseman.

How Baseball Put Its Stamp on the American Psyche

An exhibition at the National Postal Museum examines the history of the nation’s favorite pastime

Photographer Jeff Schultz and painter Jon Van Zyle have co-created a series of artworks capturing Alaska and the sled dog community.

For 50 Years, Dogsled Teams Have Been Testing Their Mettle at the Iditarod

Three men who have lived and breathed the Alaskan race for much of its history recall how much has changed—and what has stayed the same

South, by Joan Mitchell, 1989.

Women Who Shaped History

A New Appreciation for Artist Joan Mitchell

The painter was also a formidable presence on the ice

Every wall, table and shelf in Elizabeth Meaders' three-story Staten Island home is crammed with pictures, posters, signs, statues, medals, sports memorabilia and military gear.

Women Who Shaped History

Why a Schoolteacher Spent 70 Years Collecting Thousands of Black History Artifacts

Elizabeth Meaders’ acquisitions include sports memorabilia, civil rights posters, military paraphernalia and art

Inventor Jean-Yves Blondeau demonstrates his roller suit in 2007 in Beijing.

Seven Fitness Inventions That Were Dropped Like New Year’s Resolutions

From roller armor to a weight helmet, these patented pieces of exercise equipment came and went

Ski jumpers use aerodynamics and physics to overcome gravity – at least for a while.

The Beijing Winter Olympics

The Freaky Physics of Ski Jump

Olympic ski jumpers do everything they can do counteract the effects of gravity and fly as far as they can down hills

Rams know how to use their heads, but tigers are strategic attackers.

Who Would Win in a Real-World Battle: A Bengal Tiger or a Ram?

The big cats are stealthy predators, but the mountain-climbing ungulates are agile defenders

Bobsled, luge and skeleton athletes descend twisting, steep tracks at speeds upward of 80 mph (130 kmh).

The Beijing Winter Olympics

The High-Speed Physics of Olympic Bobsled, Luge and Skeleton

In these sports that send humans hurtling faster than a car on a highway, tiny motions mean the difference between gold and a crash

A ram's thick skull protects its brain from serious injury.

Ten Reasons Rams Might Be the Perfect Football Mascot

They’re light on their feet, and they aren’t afraid to butt heads

In the 2010 Winter Olympics Games in Vancouver, the USA's Hannah Teter (above: in action during the women's snowboard halfpipe competition) took home silver. Her boots are now in the collections of the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History.

The Beijing Winter Olympics

Meet the Trailblazers in Women’s Olympic Snowboarding

The careers of Shannon Dunn-Downing, Kelly Clark, Amy Purdy and Hannah Teter are recognized in the Smithsonian collections; learn their stories

Snowboarder Shannon Dunn competes for Team USA in the 1998 Winter Olympics, where she won the bronze medal in half-pipe.

The Beijing Winter Olympics

A Brief History of Snowboarding

Rebellious youth. Olympic glory. How a goofy American pastime conquered winter

(Top) Leila Strickland, Michelle Egger, Toby Kiers, Colin Averill, J. Richard Gott (Middle) Leslie Jones-Dove, Devshi Mehrotra, Prisha Shroff, Iké Udé (Bottom) Tim Farrelly, Omar Salem, David Deneher, Victor A. Lopez-Carmen, Doris Sung

Innovation for Good

Sixteen Innovators to Watch in 2022

These trailblazers are dreaming up a future with cell-cultured breastmilk, energy-saving windows and more

Dozens of Smithsonian Institution professionals share their favorite reads from this year.

The Best Books of 2021

Smithsonian Scholars Pick Their Favorite Books of 2021

The writings of many fine authors support the research and ambitious undertakings of an Institution rising to the challenges ahead

The black-and-white stills represent the spirit rendered by King Richard, the new film starring Will Smith as the Williams sisters’ father, coach and mentor.

Based on a True Story

These Vintage Photos of Venus and Serena Williams Reveal the Truth of ‘King Richard’

Seen as preteens, the future tennis sensations loved each other as much as they loved the sport

Poised on a Nevada salt flat, Alan Case, one of the world’s top practitioners of flight shooting, aims his custom-built bow, which requires so much strength to draw he must use his legs.

The Quest to Shoot an Arrow Farther Than Anyone Has Before

In dogged pursuit of an exotic world record, an engineer heads to the desert with archery equipment you can’t get at a sporting goods store

Tinker Hatfield’s game-changing design for the Air Jordan XIII in pen and crayon, dated 1996.

What Made the Air Jordan a Slam-Dunk Design

The world is bonkers for sneakers. This pivotal 1996 concept for basketball superstar Michael Jordan is a big reason why

The second ski was better preserved than the first, perhaps because it was buried more deeply in the ice.

Cool Finds

Archaeologists Extract 1,300-Year-Old Wooden Ski From Norwegian Ice

Seven years after finding the first half of the pair, researchers have finally reunited the ski with its mate

Aaron Bolds, a former college basketball player, graduated from medical school in 2018. He’s now a doctor at Mount Sinai Health System in New York, specializing in rehabilitation medicine.

To Boost Black Men in Medicine, Advocates Turn to Sports

High-performing athletes possess many of the skills and attributes that physicians need, supporters of the strategy say

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