“Imagine a Martian trying to make sense of this world and the only available data are the Summer Olympic medal tables from the past century. How much would that explain? Quite a lot, it turns out. In fact, it would be challenging to find anything else so concise that says so much about the past century.” How The Olympic Medal Table Explains The World.

+ Simone Biles has withdrawn from the Individual All-Around Gymnastics Final. “Gymnasts have described the twisties as a kind of mental block. In some sports a sudden mental block – like the “yips” in golf – may cost you a missed putt, or a lost game. In gymnastics, it can cause a person to lose their sense of space and dimension as they’re in the air, causing them to lose control of their body and do extra twists or flips that they hadn’t intended.” What are the twisties in gymnastics?

+ Is the lack of an audience hurting the athletes’ performance?