Sports Illustrated

ON THE COVER SYDNEY SWEENEY Hair by GLEN OROPEZA at PRTNRS using KÉRASTASE Makeup by MELISSA HERNANDEZ for A-FRAME using ARMANI BEAUTY Styling by MOLLY DICKSON Top by UNDER ARMOUR Boxing shoes by VIRTUOS Hand wraps by SUPERARE Necklace by BRILLIANT EARTH CHRISTY SALTERS MARTIN Hair and makeup by SOPHIE ONO using MAC, MARIO BADESCU and BIG SEXY HAIR Styling Creative Direction by KESHA MCLEOD for KMCME Wardrobe Styling by ERIKA NUÑEZ for KMCME Assistant Wardrobe Styling by ISABELLE YOUNG, HONESTI GITTENS and JESSICA AHIALEY for KMCME Tank top and bralette by HANRO Boxing shoes by SUPERARE Hand wraps by TITLE BOXING Earrings by YAEL DESIGNS Necklace by EFFY Photographed at TRINITY BOXING CLUB, New York City…

SUPER BOWL LIX Cooper DeJean (left) celebrated his 22nd birthday with his first NFL interception, which became his first touchdown. The Chiefs kept the Eagles’ other Feb. 9 birthday boy, star RB Saquon Barkley, out of the end zone that day, but it didn’t matter. Philadelphia won, 40–22. U.S. OPEN Women’s Singles After falling short in the 2025 Australian Open and French Open finals, Aryna Sabalenka finally broke through in Queens. She defeated American Amanda Anisimova, who had ousted her in the Wimbledon semifinals earlier in the summer. FRENCH OPEN Coco Gauff dropped the first set to Sabalenka in Paris, but stormed back to win her second major title. WIMBLEDON A month after losing to Carlos Alcaraz in the French Open, Jannik Skinner won the rematch at the All-England Club.…

REPEAT ASCENDER Japanese authorities rescued a 27-year-old Chinese climber near the peak of Mount Fuji, then rescued him again four days later when he returned to look for his cellphone. BALL BOOSTER An enraged woman who demanded a home run ball from the man who retrieved it in the bleachers at a Phillies-Marlins game in Miami—then watched as he took the ball from his young son and gave it to her—was instantly immortalized as “Phillies Karen.” NEVER MIND Ejected from a game against the Giants for arguing an obstruction call, Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo in turn theatrically ejected all four umpires before conceding, postgame, that the call was right: “I stand corrected.” DEEP INTO EXTRA TIME In March Bulgarian soccer team Arda Kardzhali held a televised moment of silence to…

THERE’S NO shortage of fly-on-the-wall sports documentaries whose appeal is the access they provide—even as the result has been carefully curated by the subject itself. What sets Saquon, the Prime Video film about Eagles running back Saquon Barkley, is how long the fly has been hanging around. Barkley began having his confessionals professionally filmed five years ago, around the time he tore his ACL as a member of the Giants, compiling 700 hours of raw footage. As a result, the show (which is a single, 101-minute episode as opposed to a multiparter) has a much more traditional narrative arc. It’s also executive produced by Martin Scorcese, a noted non-fan of sports—though Saquon doesn’t display any of Scorcese’s cinematic flourishes. Still, it’s refreshing to see a character truly evolve without simply relying…

Calling a book about a sport The American Game—or really, calling a book about anything The American [Something]—is a bold move. It implies you’re going to get a broad, meaningful epic. S.L. Price pulls it off masterfully. A former SPORTS ILLUSTRATED writer, Price covered the Duke lacrosse scandal for the magazine, and he’s also written about the Iroquois Nation, who’ve been playing the game for a millennium. Those two groups—the Native Americans who invented the sport and the lax bros who have become most associated with it—serve as tentpoles in Price’s book. But he touches on so much in between, including the contributions of women and Blacks (notably Jim Brown). With the sport making its Olympic return in 2028, Price is able to spin his story forward, addressing the issue…

THE LATEST hurdle the NCAA faces in maintaining its eligibility rules: keeping former professional athletes out. Frontiers explored in lesser-followed sports like tennis and hockey were thrown into the spotlight when a trio of former NBA G League players committed to play college basketball this fall. The first to make such a move, wing Thierry Darlan, had spent one year in the NBA’s now-defunct G League Ignite program, then a second season splitting time between two teams before enrolling at Santa Clara. The 21-year-old Darlan, who was born in the Central African Republic and joined the NBA Africa Academy at age 16, was granted two years of college eligibility by the NCAA. London Johnson, another former Ignite player, followed suit, committing to Louisville. The point guard spent three seasons in…