Whether they know it or not, all sports fans, even casual ones, have probably encountered data analytics, from Sportsnet graphics to a player’s batting average or save percentage. The sheer amount of data used in sports analysis can be intimidating for someone unfamiliar with analytics, but gaining a basic understanding[Read More…]
Articles by Zoe Babad-Palmer
The ‘Tribune’ wins ‘Best Sports Section’ at McGill Journalism Awards
This weekend, The McGill Tribune was presented with the award for “Best Sports Section” at the first annual McGill Journalism Awards ceremony. The awards, which are voted on by a committee of McGill students, administrators, and random bystanders plucked off the street by Roddick Gates, were held in a closed ceremony[Read More…]
Proposed restrictions in U.S. sports legislation are openly transphobic
The beginning of 2021 has marked social progress for queer rights in the United States: Democrats have taken steps to pass the Equality Act, a bill that would include sexual orientation and gender identity in civil rights protections, and U.S. President Joe Biden signed two executive orders to combat anti-2SLGBTQIA+[Read More…]
Sylvia Sweeney: Trailblazer, leader, visionary
Montrealer Sylvia Sweeney has had a career that is nothing short of extraordinary. As a member of the Canadian Basketball Hall of Fame, World Championship MVP and bronze medalist, an original board member of the Toronto Raptors, member of the Order of Canada, and Canada’s “First Lady of Basketball,” Sweeney[Read More…]
The many exclamations of professional sports commentators
Any sport can have its defining moments, be it a buzzer-beating shot or a record-breaking win. While some moments are more awe-inspiring than others, many of the most popular are defined by the sports commentators that bring them to life. The McGill Tribune highlights its favourite sports commentator moments to celebrate[Read More…]
The creative realms of fictional sports
In many long-running TV or book series, there is a game or sport that is wildly popular in-universe, but does not exist in real life. They range from one-off mentions, like Velocity in Star Trek: Voyager, to plot-central activities, like podracing in Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace. Calvinball[Read More…]
McGill men’s hockey team celebrates 144th anniversary
Jan. 31 marked the 144th anniversary of the first McGill men’s hockey game. Not only was this the beginning of McGill’s men’s hockey program, which now boasts 22 championships, it was also a crucial development in hockey itself: McGill men’s hockey is believed to be the first-ever organized hockey team.[Read More…]
The looming issue of McGill athletic games attendance
McGill Athletics has seen a decline in attendance in recent decades. Staff Writer Zoe Babad-Palmer explores the reasons behind this.
10 things: The most inspirational sports moments of 2020
WNBA supports Warnock The 2020 U.S. elections have remained heated in Georgia, with Republican Senator Kelly Loeffler facing off against Democrat Raphael Warnock in a runoff in January 2021. Among the groups who helped Warnock advance are WNBA players, including several from the Atlanta Dream, of which Loeffler is part-owner.[Read More…]
The wild world of the balisong
The terms “bite handle,” “live blade,” “aerials,” “Loctite,” or “Squid Industries” mean very little to most people. For enthusiasts of balisong—the art of manipulating butterfly knives in different tricks and combinations—however, they are key vocabulary. A butterfly knife, also known as a balisong or a Batangas knife, is a folding[Read More…]
CrossFit Games crown “Fittest on Earth”
Opinions on CrossFit range anywhere from people who think it is a fantastic way to work out to those who see it as seriously sketchy. Others have raised concerns about CrossFit’s ties to the U.S. military. The fitness regimen combines weightlifting, aerobics, and calisthenics for a high-intensity workout that has[Read More…]
The seven spookiest curses in sports
Superstition and sports go together like tricking and treating. Over the years, various fan bases and players have had luck bad enough to make them look beyond the grave in search of the source of their sports woes. With Halloween right around the corner, The McGill Tribune lists seven of the[Read More…]
Know your athlete: Nick Kleban
Anyone looking for an expert on Montreal’s cycling paths needs to look no further than Nick Kleban, U3 Science and the president of McGill Cycling. Kleban has been making the most of lockdown, riding his bike as frequently as he can while rocking out to 2000s music. “I’ve been fortunate[Read More…]
Hockey away from home
From Hall-of-Famers like Teemu Selanne and Peter Forsberg to young stars like Patrik Laine and Andre Burakovsky, Finland and Sweden have produced their fair share of successful NHL players. The frozen lakes that cover the two countries probably play some role in this success. Their Nordic neighbor Norway, however, has[Read More…]
McGill kicks off intramural lawn games tournament
It’s time for McGill sports fans to prepare for a new season. It’s not U SPORTS, it’s not the RSEQ, it’s McGill’s Intramural Lawn Games. While U SPORTS and the RSEQ have cancelled their fall championships and seasons respectively due to COVID-19, McGill Athletics has organized new intramural events to[Read More…]
Style Seminar: Russell Westbrook
While the Houston Rockets’ Russell Westbrook was incredibly inconsistent in the 2020 NBA Playoffs, his pre-game outfits have never failed to impress. When it comes to bold and flavourful ensembles, nobody else in the league can compare. As many mourn the Rockets’ second round playoff exit to the Los Angeles[Read More…]
10 things: The best nicknames in sports history
A March 4 Jeopardy contestant hilariously, and incorrectly, guessed that the nickname of Philadelphia 76ers All-Star Joel Embiid was “Do a 180.” In honour of this mixup, The McGill Tribune sports section compiled a list of some of our favourite sports nicknames of all time. Shaquille O’Neal: The Big ____[Read More…]
Impactful female athletes you may not know
Allyson Felix You may be familiar with American world-class sprinter Allyson Felix, but she remains incredibly underrated. At 34 years old, Felix holds 18 IAAF World Championships medals and nine Olympic medals, and is tied for first place in IAAF career medals in any discipline and the leader in Olympic[Read More…]
10 things: The best animals in sports
Sports are known for many things: Upset victories, legendary players, and championship glory. But what really matters are the cute, loveable animals behind some of the greatest moments in sports history. Here are The McGill Tribune’s picks for the top 10 best animals in sports. Atom and Humber Chilean footballer[Read More…]
10 things: Impactful sports moments this decade
As the decade comes to a close, The McGill Tribune looks back in chronological order on 10 of the most impactful moments in sports that helped shape athletics and the world. From incredible upset victories to social movements, the 2010s will go down as a decade to be remembered. LeBron[Read More…]
Professional sports after McGill
From March Madness to the Frozen Four, sports fans often follow tournaments in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA)—the organization in charge of American college sports—as fiercely as they follow professional leagues, keeping track of draft prospects and filling up 100,000–seat stadiums. But U SPORTS, the Canadian university sports governing[Read More…]
An open letter to female sports fans
Dear fellow female sports fans, It has been a mixed couple of decades for us. We’ve seen the enactment of Title IX and the success of Bianca Andreescu. Interest in sports is growing among younger women: In 2014, 48 per cent of women under 50 reported being interested or very[Read More…]
How to be a sports fan
So, you want to be a sports fan. If you were not born wearing the jersey of the team that your family has followed for decades, beginning to follow sports can be intimidating, but it’s not as daunting a task as you may think. To help you on the journey,[Read More…]
Vert et Or defeat Martlets with strong offence
The McGill Martlets’ (2–4) volleyball game against the Université de Sherbrooke Vert et Or (2–3) on Nov. 1 did not go as planned. The Martlets, ranked eighth in U SPORTS’s national ranking for the week of Oct. 22, fell in five sets, 2–3. The beginning of the first set was[Read More…]
McGill Swimming takes second at season-opening meet
McGill Swimming excelled in their first meet of the season on Oct. 26. The men’s team came first of the six teams competing, while the women took second. McGill finished second overall, only 37 points behind Université de Montréal (UdeM). The meet is McGill’s only home competition of the season;[Read More…]
10 Things: Creative sports Halloween costumes
Halloween is an exciting time for everyone, but finding a costume that is affordable and unique can be challenging. This year, The McGill Tribune’s sports writers put together a list of costumes for fans looking to do something more interesting than just wear their favourite athlete’s jersey. These ideas turned[Read More…]
In conversation with Denbeigh Whitmarsh
Third-year French Literature major and author Denbeigh Whitmarsh has always had strong opinions about women’s hockey. Two summers ago, Whitmarsh’s great-aunt—and women’s hockey pioneer—Rhonda Leeman Taylor asked for help writing a memoir. Taylor organized the first Women’s Canadian National Hockey Tournament in 1982 and was the first woman to sit[Read More…]
Martlet Basketball falls in centennial game
Martlet basketball made a valiant effort in their first preseason game on Oct. 5, but careless fouls and missed rebounds got the best of them. They suffered a 77–55 defeat to the Queen’s University Gaels. This game marked the 100th anniversary celebration of Canadian university women’s basketball, which began with a[Read More…]
10 Things: Sports misrepresented on-screen
Stranger Things – Basketball Indiana is renowned for its Hoosier basketball; however, the battle of Steve “the Hair” Harrington and Billy Hargrove wildly misses this mark. Rather than a 1980s callback to the likes of Larry Bird, this poorly executed game inexplicably features multiple beyond-the-three-point-line postups and a ridiculous through-the-legs[Read More…]
Know Your Athlete: Dana Silerova
Martlet rugby’s third-year fullback Dana Silerova is certainly not one for staying in one place. Silerova, who intends to continue studying geology after she graduates in 2021, spent last semester studying abroad in Glasgow and has travelled to Nevada and France for fieldwork classes. “I’m not quite tired of school[Read More…]
2019 IAAF World Championships preview
Women’s Distance Running Canadian Gabriela DeBues-Stafford is ranked fourth in the world in the women’s 1,500m. Having medalled in four of her last five events, Debues-Stafford has a good shot at ending her season on top of the podium. Since 1997, only Kenyan and Ethiopian athletes have won the Women’s[Read More…]
Women’s hockey players stand up, sit out
On March 29, the board of the Canadian Women’s Hockey League (CWHL), an organization that previously consisted of six teams, voted to disband the league due to its financial inviability, irreversibly changing the state of women’s hockey in North America. The United States-based National Women’s Hockey League (NWHL) thus became[Read More…]
Charting the history of les Canadiennes de Montréal
On March 24, Les Canadiennes de Montréal, affectionately nicknamed the Fabs, lost 5-2 to the Calgary Inferno in the Clarkson Cup championship game despite McGill alumna Ann-Sophie Bettez’s two goals. With four Cups, more than any other team in Canadian Women’s Hockey League (CWHL) history, the disappointing loss does not[Read More…]
10 things: Female athletes who inspire us
Angela James Zoe Babad-Palmer Few hockey players embody perseverance like Angela James. Despite opposition at every stage of her 20-year professional career, James has left a monumental mark on the hockey scene. Along with Cammi Granato, James was one of the first two women inducted into the Hockey Hall of[Read More…]
Point-Counterpoint: Paying NCAA student-athletes
On Feb. 20, Duke University basketball star Zion Williamson suffered a knee sprain, reminding the basketball world that one major injury can jeopardize any college athlete’s future earnings. The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and its member schools, meanwhile, make over a billion dollars a year off of the backs[Read More…]
Martlets conquer Citadins in first game of RSEQ playoffs
On Feb. 22, the McGill Martlets volleyball team (17-3) defeated the Université de Québec à Montréal (UQAM) Citadins (10-10) in three sets. Before the game, several Martlet players and coaches received RSEQ awards: Third-year power-hitter Claire Vercheval, the RSEQ Player of the Year, was named to the first All-Star Team[Read More…]
Tremblay scores twice in men’s hockey quarterfinal win
On Feb. 16, the McGill men’s hockey team (17-11) defeated the University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT) Ridgebacks (14-14) in an exciting 6-2 win to advance to the OUA semifinal round. In the rough-and-tumble affair, 12 players—including both teams’ goalies—received penalties. McGill dominated the game from the start. Just[Read More…]