Named the best magazine of 2022 by Alta . Presenting The Believer 's first-ever sports issue! Inside this special edition, you'll find a close read of Steph Curry's legendary Paris Olympics performance by Kiese Laymon ; a series from Jenny Odell on the athletic routines of four writers and artists; Laura van den Berg reporting ringside from the final Katie Taylor-Amanda Serrano bout; Joseph Bien-Kahn 's profile of retired Hall of Fame NBA coach Don "Nellie" Nelson; and Rob Curran and Andrew Nelson tracing the sojourn of Amane Dramera, a West African soccer player who, as a sixteen-year-old, was trafficked into Europe by one of the sport's many nefarious agents. The issue also includes interviews with NFL analyst Mina Kimes , fly-fisher and writer Thomas McGuane , WNBA coach Natalie Nakase , open-water swimmer Amy Appelhans Gubser , and professional racket stringer Roman Prokes ; plus Chris Almeida writes about the history of cricket's "Little Master" and Chris Feliciano Arnold reports from a data-driven soccer academy. Elsewhere, Elvia Wilk examines the art of making top-quality fake snow; Will McGrath competes in the national Ultimate Frisbee championship; Jennifer Kabat dissects a passage from Oakley Hall's The Downhill Racers ; Beatrice Loayza reconsiders a football drama by Oliver Stone; and Belinda Huijuan Tang annotates Michelle Kwan's transcendent exhibition skate at the 2002 Olympics. The issue also encloses our regular columns, but with a sports-themed twist, featuring contributions from Nick Hornby and Carrie Brownstein ; a schema on ball design through the ages; and recommendations from fifteen writers--including Elisa Gabbert , Niela Orr , and Monica Datta --on the subject of their favorite sports books.