Lindsay Sarah Krasnoff, PhD

When the 2019 World Cup’s final matches kicked off this week, the pulse of the tournament shifted to Lyon—a city once known as the silk capital of the world.
Earlier matches were held in cities that boast a strong pedigree for the women’s game, including Reims, which was the crucible of its mid-1960s resurgence, and Montpellier, which was where ex-president Louis Nicollin created the country’s first professional women’s team in 2001. But no other place has become as synonymous with world-clas...

France and the United States will square off in the World Cup quarterfinal today. The oddsmakers have the United States as a narrow favorite, but regardless of who wins the match, France has already won the tournament.

By age 29, Louisa Necib-Cadamuro had crafted a sparkling career. She was a mainstay on the French national team and accumulated several French Division 1 and Champions League titles with dominant professional side Olympique Lyonnais féminin. She was one of the best players on the planet; cunning, skillful, and equipped with a wicked long-range shot. Had everything gone like most careers like her’s, she’d likely have been playing a role on the French team looking to make a run in the knockout ...

France’s Delphine Cascarino is recognized for her speedy wing play, the fact that she is the twin sister of fellow footballer Estelle and her love for her hometown club, Lyon. It is also notable, but less widely known, that she is one of the first members of France’s women’s team, Les Bleues, to pass through the country’s famed National Institute of Sport, Expertise and Performance (INSEP), where many of the country’s Olympians train but also where elite teenage athletes in most sports discip...

In the end, Argentina celebrated while Japan somberly thanked their fans. The scoreboard read 0-0 at full time, but the Albicelestes’ draw against 2011 World Cup champions Japan was much more than the result indicated. The team won their first ever point at the World Cup after a 12-year hiatus, a victory in spirit if not on the pitch.

French influences in U.S. soccer scene

Changing weather patterns are reconfiguring ski racing in gritty, noticeable ways, drawing stark contrasts to how things were a decade ago. From shrinking glaciers and inadequate snow cover to tempestuous storms and too much of the white stuff, racers on the World Cup circuit are having to adapt in myriad ways.

One hundred years ago in mid-November, the guns went silent as an armistice ended four years of grueling, total warfare. It was a cruel conflict that devastated Europe, and in the wake of the destruction, modern society came into being. Looking back, the First World War was a watershed that unleashed a series of forces that continue to shape today’s world, including popular entertainment and the global soccer scene.

Let’s make a little wager: when you think of a superpower and sports, you probably think of the epic Cold War conflicts between the United States and the Soviet Union immortalized in popular culture by “Rocky IV,” the controversial 1972 Olympic gold medal US-USSR basketball final, or the “Miracle on Ice” at the 1980 Lake Placid Games.

But what about the less noticeable, but still important relationship between sports and diplomacy?

Sold-out crowds, electrifying contests and the announcement of Kobe Bryant as the competition's Global Ambassador have stoked excitement about FIBA Basketball World Cup qualification around the globe. Six countries have already clinched berths for next summer’s tournament in China. It’s an amazing testament to the game’s resonance across languages and cultures, and just one illustration of how far basketball has come in a relatively short period of time.

The actions spearheaded by U.S. diplomats—and American citizens—in France during 1914 significantly strengthened Franco-American relations in unique, unparalleled ways. This digital timeline outlines the three main storylines, while also providing full access to digitized documents describing what daily life was like on-the-ground for those involved.

Basketball is not what comes to mind when you think of France. But as the home of the world’s oldest basketball court and the biggest basketball tournament in the world, France boasts a unique interaction of basketball history, art, and street culture.

In this episode of THE WAY WE BALL, we trace the country’s rich legacy within the sport and how it’s getting this generation’s best European basketball players, like Sekou Doumbouya, to the NBA. Narrated by A$AP Twelvyy. Look out for Lindsay Sarah Krasnoff

Champion. Activist. Legend. These words line the walls leading into "Billie Jean King: The Road to 75," a photo exhibition that opened last week at the New-York Historical Society in New York City, marking the icon's 75th birthday (Nov. 22, 1943) and impact upon American society and culture.

When soccer news from outside of Europe penetrates the global consciousness, it is often some outlandish item, a curiosity of the can-you-believe-it variety. Two of the more famous incidents to come from West Africa since the turn of the millenium include the February 2002 arrest of Cameroon head coach Winfried Schafer at the Africa Cup of Nations for allegedly planting an amulet on the field and, in the summer of that year, the wild ride of Senegal’s team at the World Cup, where their success was rumored to be aided by the country’s marabouts, which are similar to shamans.

They stood united on the Olympic podium, heads bowed, black-gloved fists raised in the Black Power salute while the "The Star Spangled Banner" rang out to honor athletic achievement. The gesture by US athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos at the 1968 Mexico Olympics became one of the century's most iconic sports images, one now celebrated in popular memory as a progressive moment.

The reality, however, was quite different, and this week's 50th anniversary falls at a time when athletes, s...