“What attracted me to figure skating was the space it granted me to be the boy I was meant to be, which is not the boy the world wanted me to be, or thought I could be if I was to thrive.”

Open-water and long-distance swimmer Donal Buckley, alone in the ocean, finds himself: “Only the sea. Lakes and river and pools are small and pale. They are shadows and revenants. They are not big enough to fill me. I need an ocean to pour into me.”

At ESPN’s The Undefeated, journalist Timothy Bella tells the story of Akyra Murray, the youngest victim of the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando, and how her high school women’s basketball team in Philadelphia is honoring her memory.

Did you know that the very first game of basketball took place 125 years ago today, played by a group of “incorrigibles”? Learn about the history of the first game and team at the Library and Archives Canada blog.

“In the end, the curse is broken. One hundred and eight years of bad luck have ended at my bidding.” The Chicago Cubs won their first World Series in over a century, so Murphy the goat decided to chime in on the historic event.