| | | | | | | | | | | Axios Sports | | By Kendall Baker ·Feb 25, 2021 | | π Good morning! Let's sports. Today's word count: 1,713 words (6 minutes). | | | | | | 1 big thing: π The high-performance lifestyle |  | | | Illustration: Eniola Odetunde/Axios | | | | A new fitness and wellness vertical has emerged amid the pandemic. Dubbed the "high-performance lifestyle" (HPL), it combines physical health, mental health and technology. Why it matters: HPL aims to track and optimize human performance. Athletes have been doing this for decades; now, thanks to data democratization, anyone can. The state of play: From wearables and wellness apps to personalized nutrition and at-home gym equipment, HPL has given rise to a wide variety of products and services. - Fitness: After gyms closed in 2020, home fitness — which was already on the rise — exploded. Examples: Tonal, Peloton, Mirror, Strava.
- Health trackers: What began as counting steps has now expanded to monitoring sleep, recovery, heart rate and more. Examples: WHOOP, Oura Ring, Apple Watch.
- Nutrition: The keto diet is popular with high-performers, and demand for personalized nutrition is gaining traction quickly. Examples: Athletic Greens, Bulletproof.
- Recovery/Sleep: There are now beds designed to optimize sleep, and the number of companies making recovery equipment grows by the day. Example: Hyperice, Eight Sleep ("the first sleep fitness company").
- Mental health: The mental health conversation accelerated in 2020, as we experienced death, isolation and more. Examples: Calm (partnered with LeBron James), Talkspace (partnered with Michael Phelps).
Between the lines: Professional athletes have played a key role in HPL's acceleration by promoting products and living the lifestyle themselves. Our sports superheroes used to be "strong" or "fast." Now, they're "healthy." - "10 years ago, the trend was 'Can you exercise more. Can you put more stress on your body.' The pendulum was just fully on the side of 'more is more.'" says WHOOP founder and CEO Will Ahmed.
- "Our point of view back then was that sleep and recovery might actually be the missing piece. And that was a somewhat contrarian view at the time. But 10 years later, it's front and center."
- "You've got a 43-year-old winning the Super Bowl because he takes insanely good care of his body. That's the new story in sports."
The big picture: Digital fitness investment surged during the pandemic as consumers placed a greater emphasis on their health and lockdowns created new daily routines. Public companies like Peloton saw their valuations skyrocket, while countless new players emerged. - "With the pandemic, there was this willingness to experiment with new products," says Chloe Steinberg, partner at Sapphire Sport, an investor in Tonal.
- "Now, these companies need to figure out how to uniquely tap into what motivates consumers. For some people, that's community. Some want data. Others just want entertainment."
- "It's really important to note that gyms are not dead. We're in such an obsessive era of connected fitness, but the future is going to be a combination of physical and digital."
What's next: Corporate America has taken notice, and an increasing number of companies are now offering HPL-related benefits — both as a recruiting tactic and as a way to improve work performance. "HPL is becoming a part of the benefits package. ... That's really going to power companies from a revenue standpoint and create bigger players in the space." — Steinberg |     | | | | | | 2. π₯ Hot pandemic-era sport: Pickleball |  | | | Playing pickleball on the street in Charlotte, N.C., during the pandemic. Photo: Streeter Lecka/Getty Images | | | | At a time when safe, outdoor recreation options are at a premium, pickleball is going increasingly mainstream — as are related noise complaints, Axios' Jennifer A. Kingson writes. What's happening: A cross between tennis, badminton and ping-pong, pickleball is played with a paddle and a plastic ball with holes on what looks like a miniature tennis court (how to play). - USA Pickleball says it has 40,000 members who play in all 50 states. There's also a growing roster of tournaments and corporate sponsors.
- "If you ever slung any sort of a racquet before, you can become competent in an hour," Stu Upson, CEO of USA Pickleball, tells Axios. "It's so social, it's almost a lifestyle for so many folks."
Driving the news: While the Sunbelt states are the biggest pickleball hotbeds, demand for public courts is exploding everywhere. - According to my colleagues at Axios Charlotte, "every park update and new 55+ community has a pickleball team/designated space."
- In San Luis Obispo, California — where there's typically a 20-minute wait for a court — the city is spending $120,00o to build its first permanent pickleball courts, per the SLO Tribune.
- New England's first dedicated indoor pickleball complex is about to open in Hanover, Massachusetts, with six tournament-sized courts.
The other side: The thwack of a wiffleball against a paddle is resonant, and condo and homeowner associations are being flooded with pickleball-related noise complaints. - "I can't live with this constant 'pong, pong, pong' every morning," one resident of a South Florida retirement community laments.
- USA Pickleball has a task force on the noise issue, Upson says: "We're doing some research on sound barriers, and looking at equipment" that's less loud.
Flashback: The sport was invented in 1965 on Bainbridge Island (near Seattle) by three dads — including future U.S. congressman Joel Pritchard — "whose kids were bored with their usual summertime activities." - By one account, Pritchard's wife coined the name because the sport reminded her of "the pickle boat in crew where oarsmen were chosen from the leftovers of other boats."
- By another: "The game was officially named after the Pritchards' dog Pickles who would chase the ball and run off with it."
| | | | | | | | 3. π NHL snapshot |  | | | Auston Matthews. Photo: Minas Panagiotakis/Getty Images | | | | The NHL season is roughly one-third complete, Axios' Jeff Tracy writes. The state of play: Teams have played a wide range of games due to postponements, with the All-Canadian North division the least impacted. - North: 20.3 games played per team
- Central: 18.25
- West: 17.75
- East: 16.5
Top 3 players: - Connor McDavid (C, Oilers): The point-scoring machine (league-leading 38) has paced Edmonton to the second-best record in the North.
- Auston Matthews (C, Maple Leafs): He has 18 goals in 20 games, five more than second place, and has failed to score a point just twice all season.
- Marc-AndrΓ© Fleury (G, Golden Knights): He leads hockey in average goals against (1.55), save percentage (94.218) and goals saved above average (10.29) for a first place team.
Top 3 teams: - Maple Leafs (15-4-2): They're both top-heavy (two of the top-five in points) and deep (nine players with at least 10 points), leading the NHL with 15 wins.
- Lightning (12-4-1): The champs stay winning, with a league-leading +23 goal differential despite playing just 17 games.
- Bruins (11-3-2): David Pastrnak missed the first two weeks recovering from surgery, but has shown no signs of rust, leading the team in goals (nine).
Milestone watch: - Assists: Capitals C Nicklas Backstrom (698) and Ducks C Ryan Getzlaf (697) are just shy of becoming the third and fourth active players with 700 assists.
- Goals: Capitals LW Alex Ovechkin (712) is five goals shy of matching Phil Esposito for No. 6 all time and 19 shy of cracking the top five.
| | | | | | | | A message from Axios | | The day's latest business news delivered to your inbox | | |  | | | | Stay in the know with Axios Closer, a daily afternoon newsletter that tackles the day's biggest business news. Delivered daily on weekdays to your inbox. Why it matters: See the trends that will shape the economy tomorrow. Subscribe for free | | | | | | 4. ⚽️ USA wins SheBelieves Cup |  | | | Photo: Gregg Newton/AFP via Getty Images | | | | The USWNT won the SheBelieves Cup with a 6-0 victory over Argentina on Wednesday night in Orlando. - Goals: Megan Rapinoe scored twice, while Carli Lloyd, Kristie Mewis, Christen Press and Alex Morgan (first USWNT goal as a mom!) added one goal each.
- The backdrop: The U.S. shut out Canada in the round-robin tournament opener, then downed Brazil 2-0 on Sunday. Earlier Wednesday, Brazil beat Canada 2-0 to finish second.
π₯ The streak ... The USWNT extended its unbeaten streak to 37 games overall and 53 on American soil. The team's last defeat came in a friendly against France on Jan. 19, 2019. π₯ Watch: Highlights (Fox Soccer) | | | | | | | | 5. π Baseball is obsessed with this book |  | | | Courtesy: Farrar, Straus and Giroux | | | | "Thinking, Fast and Slow," a psychology book by Nobel Prize-winning author Daniel Kahneman, has become a must-read in MLB front offices. - The book has nothing to do with baseball, but its lessons about bias and decision-making have changed the way players are scouted, teams are built and organizations are run.
The takeaway: "The central thesis of Kahneman's book is the interplay between each mind's System 1 and System 2, which he described as a 'psychodrama with two characters,'" writes NYT's Joe Lemire. - "System 1 is a person's instinctual response — one that can be enhanced by expertise but is automatic and rapid. It seeks coherence and will apply relevant memories to explain events."
- "System 2, meanwhile, is invoked for more complex, thoughtful reasoning — it is characterized by slower, more rational analysis but is prone to laziness and fatigue."
- "When System 2 is overloaded, System 1 could make an impulse decision, often at the expense of self-control."
Buy the book. | | | | | | | | 6. π NCAA survey: Student-athlete activism |  Data: NCAA; Chart: Axios Visuals Black student-athletes in 2020 were more engaged regarding racial justice — both publicly and privately — than their non-Black counterparts, according to an NCAA survey, Jeff writes. The backdrop: The spring and summer of 2020 saw nationwide protests, and college athletes — empowered by social media — routinely spoke out on social issues. | | | | | | | | 7. π Look: World Sports Awards nominations |  | | | Lewis Hamilton and Iga ΕwiΔ
tek. Photos: Peter Fox/Getty Images; Clive Brunskill/Getty Images | | | | Over 1,000 sports journalists around the world have selected the nominees for the 22nd annual Laureus World Sports Awards. Nominees: - World Sportsman of the Year: Armand Duplantis (Pole vault), Joshua Cheptegei (Running), LeBron James (Basketball), Lewis Hamilton (Motor Racing), Rafael Nadal (Tennis), Robert Lewandowski (Soccer).
- World Sportswoman of the Year: Anna van der Breggen (Cycling), Breanna Stewart (Basketball), Brigid Kosgei (Running), Federica Brignone (Skiing), Noami Osaka (Tennis), Wendie Renard (Soccer)
- World Team of the Year: Argentina Men's Rugby (Rugby Union), Bayern Munich (Soccer), Chiefs (Football), Liverpool (Soccer), Lakers (Basketball), Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team (Motor Racing)
- World Breakthrough of the Year: Ansu Fati (Soccer), Dominic Thiem (Tennis), Iga ΕwiΔ
tek (Tennis), Joan Mir (Motor Cycling), Patrick Mahomes (Football), Tadej PogaΔar (Cycling)
- World Comeback of the Year: Alex Morgan (Soccer), Alex Smith (Football), Daniel Bard (Baseball), Kento Momota (Badminton), Max Parrot (Snowboarding), Mikaela Shiffrin (Skiing)
- Sport for Good Award: Boxgirls (Kenya), FundaciΓ³n Colombianito (Colombia), KICKFORMORE (Germany)
| | | | | | | | 8. π Feb. 25, 1964: One night in Miami | | Photo: Bettmann/Getty Images 57 years ago today, Cassius Clay defeated Sonny Liston by TKO at the Convention Center in Miami Beach, Florida, winning his first heavyweight title at the age of 22. The fight: Clay was a 7-1 underdog against the 29-year-old Liston, who'd compiled a 35-1 record and hadn't lost in nearly a decade. In a pre-fight poll of 46 writers, only three picked Clay. - Still, even as a kid, Clay was his brash, confident self, and he used his youth and speed to set the tone for most of the fight.
- In the sixth round, Clay pummeled Liston to the point that the latter didn't answer the bell for the seventh, resulting in a TKO (highlights).
Photo: Focus on Sport/Getty Images Later that night ... Clay spent the evening with Malcolm X, Jim Brown and Sam Cooke discussing life as influential Black men in America. - Their conversation was (fictionally) chronicled in Amazon's recently-released "One Night in Miami..."
- Two weeks later, he changed his name to Muhammad Ali.
The rematch: 15 months later, Ali knocked out Liston in the first round, which produced one of the most iconic photographs of the 20th century. Photo: Bettmann/Getty Images | | | | | | | | 9. π NBA trivia |  | | | Photo: Albert Pena/Icon SMI/Icon Sport Media via Getty Images | | | | During the 2015-16 NBA season, the Mavericks' starting PG, backup PG and third-string PG were all born on the same day: June 26, 1984. - Question: Can you name all three players?
- Hint: Two played against each other in the 2005 NCAA title game.
Answer at the bottom. | | | | | | | | 10. π₯ Wednesday's top plays |  | | | Photo: Julian Finney/Getty Images | | | | Another day, another bicycle kick leading Top Plays. Keep it up, lads. - ⚽️ Dele Alli!
- ⚽️ Lionel Messi!
- π Dort call game
- ⚾️ What a grab
- π Posterized
Watch all 5. | | | | | | | | A message from Axios | | The day's latest business news delivered to your inbox | | | | | | | | Stay in the know with Axios Closer, a daily afternoon newsletter that tackles the day's biggest business news. Delivered daily on weekdays to your inbox. Why it matters: See the trends that will shape the economy tomorrow. Subscribe for free | | | | Talk tomorrow, Kendall "I Am the Greatest!" Baker Trivia answer: Deron Williams, Raymond Felton, J.J. Barea π Thanks for reading Axios Sports. Follow me on Twitter for updates throughout the day, and refer friends using your link below. | | Invite friends to follow Axios Sports Use your personal link to track how many readers you bring into the community  You currently have 00 referrals. Share with a friend For questions email referralsupport@axios.com. Participation in the Axios Sports Referral Program constitutes your acceptance of the Axios Terms and Conditions of Use, which can be viewed here. | | | | Axios thanks our partners for supporting our newsletters.
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