Sports

At the age of 50, I joined a women’s rugby football club and found a true sense of camaraderie.

I was a tennis warrior until the game wore out my knees; after surgery, I yearn to get back on the courts.

As part of the buildup to the PGA Tour’s ultimate contest, officials with the Tour Championship have described East Lake Golf Club’s course renovation by celebrated designer Andrew Green as a pivotal moment and new era not just for Atlanta and the Tour—but for the game of golf itself.

An Atlanta skater named Sweet ‘n Sour shoves her way past players from rival team Terminus like a human Tetris block. She pushes and jumps her way to securing the lead—only to fall. She’ll get back up and try on a future lap, because it’s just the beginning of the first bout of Atlanta Roller Derby’s 20th season, now in a new home at Agnes Scott College.

On Friday, the torch will blaze for the start of the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris. After years of preparation and months of qualifying, Atlanta athletes representing the U.S. and abroad will compete on the world stage in over a dozen sports. Here, a breakdown of just some of the many Atlanta athletes who have made this year's Olympics, their relationship with the city, and when to watch them with pride:

At Maven Baseball Lab, hitters and pitchers undergo a 12-swing or 12-pitch assessment under the eyes of 16 cameras, which produce data on biomechanics, spin rate, vertical break, and more. Maven’s client list includes Braves players Matt Olson, Max Fried, and A.J. Minter, along with other MLB stars like Nolan Arenado and Paul Goldschmidt.

50 high school baseball players of Native American descent, representing 23 tribes from 16 states across the U.S. and Canada, participated in the third-annual Native American All-Star Baseball Showcase at Truist Park. The players went through pro-style workouts with former Braves players as their coaches and talked to MLB and college scouts. On Sunday, they played a showcase game against one another, with many family members of the players attending and cheering for both teams.

On Friday, the Atlanta Braves opened up their Truist Park account with their first home game of the year. The game itself is just one of 162 and in the win-loss column, the result has little impact on the outcome of the season. But the experience for Braves’ fans matters more than any other regular season game in the year. 

It was 50 years ago this month—April 8, 1974—that Henry Aaron hit his 715th career home run off pitcher Al Downing in Atlanta, breaking Ruth’s 39-year record. When he finally reached that summit, it seemed less a cause for celebration for Aaron than reason for a long sigh of relief: The chase was finally over.

Truist Park: The home of the Braves is an enigma. It’s an artificial mecca of baseball that displaced Turner Field to the chagrin of many, but now draws some of the best crowds in baseball. The stadium itself is a beauty, with faux red brick that creates an old-school ballpark feel in a sea of corporate office parks. Let’s leave behind its contradictions for a moment to focus on Truist Park and the great baseball played there since 2017.