Few things in sports are purer than youth athletes celebrating a hard-earned win. The athletes are not famous, and millions of dollars are not on the line. The purest, most unbridled victory celebration in Detroit high school sports history may have occurred on a lacrosse field in Auburn Hills, Michigan, on 26 April 2021. It was not a rivalry game, and no championship was won.

Some prisons are trying to reduce recidivism by offering organized sports programs. These programs go beyond one or two hours of daily recreation by introducing volunteer coaches from outside the prisons, as well as rules to remain in the program. Through sports such as baseball, running and rugby, inmates are finding structure, learning social skills and building self-esteem.

As a professor and biomedical engineer at Arizona State University’s School of Computing, Informatics, and Decision Systems Engineering, Jorge Caviedes conducts research in medical imaging and artificial intelligence for medical diagnosis. Caviedes is developing a wearable system of sensors to monitor physical therapy patients’ spines while they perform exercises

From Major League Baseball to Olympic sports, athletes who test positive for PEDs serve suspensions and may have to pay fines, return medals, or have records erased, but they often return to competition without losing corporate sponsorships or having to pay back salaries, endorsement earnings, or prize money. They often walk away richer because they chose to use PEDs.

How can athletes excel despite having an atypical body for their sport? Kevin Alschuler, a psychologist at the University of Washington School of Medicine, has worked with sports teams and conducted sports-related research on pain, discomfort and adaptation to extreme physical distress. He believes that athletes with atypical body types who succeed at elite levels do so because they have optimized everything else.

Body image issues are not unusual for athletes. Even elite athletes with bodies that the general population would love to have can have poor body image. Athletes across all levels and sports are speaking up.

Programs like Michigan’s Athletes Connected, Colorado’s Psychological Health and Performance program, and Colorado’s Bolder Buffs are trying to reduce the stigma of mental health through education and mental health services for athletes.

Eating disorders are often seen as a female issue, but many male athletes struggle with eating disorders that can go unnoticed and have serious health consequences.

With five Great Lakes, thousands of inland lakes, forests, rivers, and a growing number of running groups in larger cities, Michigan is a great state for running. From Lexington to Marine City, the Blue Water area is no exception, providing local runners with plenty of trails and running routes.

A runner from a storied program such as Oregon winning a championship normally would not be a surprise, but Trujillo’s story was far from typical. Despite winning four events at the Idaho high school state track and field championships during his senior year, he was not recruited by any colleges. Oregon’s varsity coach wasn’t interested when Trujillo tried to walk on as a freshman.