If you love soccer, you probably enjoy a good underdog story. Here’s Uruguay’s: a small country with a rich World Cup legacy, which Candace Rose Rardon lovingly retells in her illustrated essay on Longreads.

Team USA Paralympian Andrew Kurka writes on his hopes for PyeongChang: “There are so many responsibilities, so many thoughts, and so much good I want to do. When looking at it all, the journey, the sacrifice, the glory.”

Can the Canadian Men’s Olympic Hockey team bring home a medal? “They are not stars but they could soon be heroes. For the next ten days of their lives, they carry the collective hopes of the greatest hockey nation on earth.”

On #WorldMentalHealthDay, Canadian snowboarder and three-time Olympian Mercedes Nicoll shares her struggle with depression. “While I was depressed, I didn’t know I was depressed.”

“A year ago, I retired from football, but the effects of playing this game will likely never leave me.” Retired NFLer Eugene Monroe opens up about using cannabis to manage the chronic pain from years of sports-related injury.

“Mountains are one of the wonders of this world. They’re at their best when we interfere with them as little as possible, and ride them as nature intended.” At The Mountain Mutton, cyclist Jim recounts the three-day Haute Route Alpe D’Huez event.

With rules both explicit and unspoken and a complex etiquette all its own, professional cycling is not a sport for people who don’t like uncertainty.

Ashley Rae recounts landing the big one — a personal best carp on Lake Ontario: “One wrong move and this fish could be gone.”

“He kept to himself during the pre-game jostling and joking, doing his stretches and running silently, eyes fixed in the grass or in the darkening skies of the summer evening. He had a sense about him of ascetic dedication to his craft. He prepared for each game as a priest might prepare for mass.”

Kathy Karlo pens a love letter to climbing: “Nature becomes a great equalizer and through climbing, we’re able to channel emotions through something physical.”