Milestones, moments, and memories
#18: Phryges obsessions, Moby Dick reading marathons, hoop dancing champs, and the unsung charms of a former Portuguese colony...
Tales from the fringes of sport and society…
Do you have one abiding memory of 2024? One moment that will sum up the year when you look back decades on?
If you got married or had a baby, it’s an easy one to answer. Unfortunately, that’s also the case if you lost somebody, too.
The human brain has a habit of filing entire years into digestible chunks, condensing 365 days into one or two comparatively fleeting moments - wonderful or painful - for future recall.
It’s often only in the days after the Christmas mania, to a soundtrack of Jools Holland twinkling on his ivories, that we have a chance to consider what will be forged in our cerebral cortex until the day we die.
But, unless you’ve experienced some of the major milestones mentioned above, it might not be obvious what will stand out about 2024.
For me, there are no more babies to be had (2015 and 2017), and I trust my wedding (2021) won’t require a sequel. The grim reaper was dodged, although if you were there with me at the Great North Run in September, he probably felt a little too close for comfort (I’m fine. But it turns out Covid and half-marathons don’t mix well). Speaking of which, there was no pandemic to spread its ghastly spectre over the calendar like it did between 2019 and 2021.
So for many of us, it might be tricky to know what one thing will symbolise 2024. But I’m fairly certain what mine will be.
It’s a balmy August morning in Paris, sitting around a smouldering purple core that feels at that moment like it’s the centre of the Earth. There are 80,000 others in this global melting pot of languages and cultures. In a Stade de France drenched in flags, smiling Danes and giggling Swedes enjoy the noisy Mexicans in full voice. There are Brazilians in front of me, Swiss to my right, a smattering of orange-clad Dutch behind.
But what makes this most memorable, are the three people sitting to my left. They’re the three people I cherish the most and they’re smiling back at me, buzzing with excitement, waving their little Union Jacks with glee. On the track, we cheer for Josh Kerr, Dina Asher-Smith, and Daryl Neita. But there are just as many amazing things happening off it. The athletics at the Olympic Games has brought the world and its wonders to this small corner of Paris. And we’re sat right in the middle of it.
As I meet the giddy glances of my wife and two daughters I feel a moment of bliss. In their twinkling eyes, I see awe, incredulity, and adventure. This is what sport can do. I’ve known it for a long time. I’m lucky to have been to World Cups, European Championships, Ryder Cups. But this was the moment my nearest and dearest appeared to share my zeal. And if my youngest’s Olympic mascot collection is anything to go by (five Phryges and counting), then it might not be a one-off.
I hope you enjoyed many such moments in 2024, watching sport or indulging in another passion that fires that mutual glow of kinship. At Off-Field, we don’t judge whatever it is that fuels that flame.
It might be hoop dancing in Arizona or reading Moby Dick on the chilly beaches of LA. It might be finding the best pastel de nata joint in Macau, or enduring the pleasure-pain combo of another ultra marathon.
We're wrapping up the final newsletter of the year with a selection of our favourite reads from December. Our eclectic picks encompass yet more milestones, moments, and memories from the fringes of sport and society.
Enjoy the selection and we'll be back at the end of January with more from Off-Field, including news of a live event and an exciting new print project to share. Stay tuned, and happy new year!
If you haven’t done so already, we’d love your vote for Unsung in the 2025 Sports Podcast Awards. We’re delighted to be shortlisted in two categories: Best Sports Documentary Podcast and Best Olympics and Paralympics Podcast.
Simply click the buttons below and select vote next to the yellow Unsung logo.
The voting closes on January 13th, with the winners announced at the end of the month. Thank you for your support!
2024: The Unsung Year in Review
You’ll have already read, watched, or listened to dozens of 2024 reviews over the last few days, so apologies for throwing another one in your face. But we can promise that this will be the only one to clumsily segue between robot referees, ultimate frisbees, para guides, controversial kits, cold water rescues, and the two most charming sporting underdogs on the planet.
From the Barkley Marathons to San Marino, the 2024 Unsung Year in Review champions the year’s lesser-lauded pioneers, innovators, outsiders, and entertainers. Give it a listen for the alternative take on the sporting year.
“We worked on the England shirt that had the multicoloured crosses on it that was to represent diversity in modern England. Peter Saville said at the time, if I design something and show it to a hundred people, I'd rather 50 people love it and 50 people hate it than a hundred people think it's okay. Because nobody ever bought anything because it was okay.”
Macau: Behind the blackjack
This month marks 25 years since Macau's return to Chinese rule under a "one country, two systems" promise. The former Portuguese colony is the only place in China where gambling is legal, meaning its small population of just under 700,000 is regularly inundated with high rollers from the mainland.
But, as I discovered during a trip there over a decade ago, this quirky, culinary, and creative corner of China is more than simply a gambling mecca. Its hundreds of years of history bring a beguiling multicontinental clash that results in some of the most unique architecture, cuisine, and culture seen on the planet.
“The Ruins of the Church St Paul are the headline act, viewed as Asia’s greatest monument to Christianity. Built by Japanese exiles in 1602, only the facade remains following a fire in 1835. Viewed from the bottom of the steps, you’d be forgiven for thinking you’d travelled back in time. But climb those steps and walk through the large stone doorway that leads to nowhere, and upon turning around you’ll find a luminous 850-foot reminder of what century you’re in.
Over at the Fortaleza do Monte, the fortress found east of St Paul on Mount Hill, several of its 32 muzzle-loading cannons are even pointed at the Grand Lisboa. It may divide opinion among the present, but it seems Macau’s past has made up its mind.”
Endurance: How far is too far?
Glorious Sport
“Extreme events like the Gansu ultramarathon were meritocratic in this sense; an opportunity for average joes to be rewarded solely based on their talent. But the race took a deadly turn when the winds changed at the 20 kilometre mark. After being pelted with rain, hail, gale-force winds, and temperatures into the minuses, 21 runners were lost to the course – including Liang Jing. Following this, the government banned extreme sports events and it took another two years to resolve the bureaucratic conflicts of this case. From 2023, the Chinese government allowed extreme sporting events to take place once again.”
Inside my memorable week as a member of the Vikings’ grounds crew
Sports Illustrated
“After 10 years at Sports Illustrated, I’ve been given the chance to try a new job: a four-day, unpaid temp position as a member of the Vikings’ grounds crew. An immersive crash course in turf and paint and behind-the-scenes equipment.
After a scoreless first quarter, the Colts have just put six points on the board in about the most sudden way possible, and I am jolted into action as I hustle past the goalpost for one of the most exciting extra points of my life.”
The spectacular dance contest that brings nations together
BBC Travel
“Held over two days each February in Phoenix, Arizona, the World Championship Hoop Dance Contest is the most prestigious celebration of a complex Indigenous dance style that requires speedy footwork and skilful mastery of up to as many as 50 hoops. It's the Olympics of hoop dancing – and the 2024 contest drew a record 121 dancers, representing dozens of Indigenous communities across the US and Canada, including children from the nearby Navajo Nation and a senior (as over-40s are classed) from the Peguis First Nation in Manitoba.”
‘People are rooting for the whale’: the strange American tradition of Moby-Dick reading marathons
The Guardian
“The Venice beach marathon, held for 29 years, is a particularly surreal scene. Even in late November, the beach is crowded: French tourists on bicycles, the men of Muscle beach lifting weights, friends playing volleyball in short shorts. Far out on the sand, where the air begins to smell more like salt than weed or essential oils, the Moby-Dick readers sit in a circle, switching readers every chapter, as tourists and surfers eddy around them, drifting up to take photographs and then drifting away again. Occasionally, readers spot whales in the distance.”
Berlin 1936: Sixteen days in August
Oliver Hilmes
“The Quartier Latin is a volcano, and patrons dance on its edge. For a few hours, it’s as though the Third Reich doesn’t exist. Leon Henri Dajou is a daredevil who refuses to acknowledge danger. But the noose is already around his neck - and during the Olympic Games it will be tightened.”
Following a memorable sporting summer in Paris it feels apt that our final book of 2024 focuses on those five iconic rings. This book, a thoughtful Christmas gift (thank you Uncle Pierre!), is a captivating account of the 1936 Olympiad. Or the Nazi Olympics, as it's now known. Oliver Hilmes documents the Games chronologically, as told through the voices and stories of those who were there.
Much like Malcolm Gladwell's brilliant podcast series on the '36 Olympics that was out earlier this year, it reveals that many of the traditions associated with a modern-day Games - the torch relay, the athletes’ parade, the Olympic village, lavish opening and closing ceremonies - was a product of the Nazis penchant for pomp and PR. It’s an uncomfortable truth about its history but also pertinent to the event’s future in an era where sporting organisations seem only too eager to get into bed with authoritarian regimes.
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“Don't live the same year 75 times and call it a life.” - Robin Sharma