Amy Bass

This past Saturday, history thundered down the stretch at Churchill Downs, Golden Tempo’s come-from-behind thrill fest stunning pundits and fans alike, holding off favorite Renegade to be yet another longshot winner, and making Saratoga Springs native Cherie DeVaux the first woman to train a Derby winner.

Going to an Olympic Games is always about more than sport. It’s about immersing yourself not just in the culture of the host country, but of fans from around the world.

So, here’s the thing about the Winter Olympics. They can take over your life.

I have a mantra that I often spout in moments like these, moments when finding clarity, finding space to think, can be hard. Listen to athletes for a change.

In a week when the news felt unbearable, I found myself clinging to something seemingly small and yet luminous: rooting for American figure skater Max Naumov to make the U.S. Olympic team.

Napheesa Collier’s recent public rebuke of WNBA leadership, which came after a hotly-debated no-call in the last minute of the Lynx’s semi-final game against the Mercury that left Collier with an ankle injury, Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve with a one-game suspension and league-record $15,000 fine (and then two other coaches were fined $1000 each for agreeing with her!), and Phoenix forward Alyssa Thomas with the ball, has launched an abundance of conversations about the state of the league and, especially, its leadership.

The last few weeks of any college semester are manic and chaotic, exciting and emotional, and this spring has been no different. Amidst the rush to finish courses and calculate final grades, I have been toasting students at award ceremonies and banquets, cheering our baseball and lacrosse and softball teams across the playoffs, attending the senior recitals of our students in the performing arts, and saying “yes” to any student who stops by my office to offer a farewell hug. Indeed, some of the best moments of being a professor are right now.

This fall at Manhattanville University, I am launching a new course, an honors seminar entitled THE GOAT DEBATE. For several months, in my spare time, I have been moving things around on the draft syllabus, thinking about conversations that move thematically through sport, art, music, film, literature, television, and, well, humanity writ large.

In the midst of the madness that is March, meaning so many eyes are on college basketball, including mine, I want to talk about soccer. But I don’t want to talk about the US mens’ national team’s historically dismal loss to Panama in the Nations League semi-final because seriously: how many times can we call something a so-called much needed wake up call?