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Invictus: Mandela presented the Webb Ellis Trophy to Francois Pienaar in 1995. Ross Kinnaird/EMPICS Sport
Well read

'In sports, the dream of the Rainbow Nation became flesh': some of the week's best sportswriting

Stick on the kettle and enjoy these Sunday sports reads.

1. That the late Nelson Mandela was a great man and a great leader can hardly be doubted, but what can be overlooked is what a great politician he was. He saw the value of sport and, in two key moments, used it to bring a sense of togetherness to South Africa. In sports, the dream of the Rainbow Nation became, however briefly, however illusory, flesh: it offered a glimpse of something transcendent.

Among the many tributes to Nelson Mandela was this, written by Jonathan Wilson for Sports Illustrated, on the 1995 World Cup and the unifying power of sport.

2. Fingers on buzzers, no conferring: which of Europe’s major leagues has the lowest percentage of long balls this season? The answer – by some margin – is England’s Premier League.

We love a good stat and this piece, by Sean Ingle in the Guardian, has plenty to prove that England is not just a nation of long-ball hoofers.

3. Ten years ago, we got our pro football news from pretty straightforward sources. A blogger named Mike in West Virginia reported trades and rumors. A New Jersey über-scrivener sipped craft beers as he cruised on his endless road trip. There was a Fox play-by-play man named Joe who was claiming his birthright. An ex-quarterback named Terry who was laughing and laughing until we just wanted to scream, “Terry, what is the joke?” Soon, things began to change.

Rolling news coverage on the NFL Network has changed everything. Everything. Grantland’s Bryan Curtis writes on the “eventising” of America’s game.

4. Show people a disabled athlete and you can almost hear the soft trumpets and swelling violins, the hushed voice-over recalling tragic loss and gritty resolve. Regard a man with a melted face and stumps where others have elbows and feel pity. Watch him mount a bicycle and be filled with awe. Watch him race that bicycle, and reconsider your puny problems, your petty melancholy. Vow to change your life. That’s the way these stories usually work. This one’s a little different.

Unless you have a subscription to Bicycling magazine, you might have missed this — the story of Cuban Paralympic cyclist Damian Lopez Alfonso.

5. Cricket, a sport so genteel that white sweaters are part of the uniform and the players break for tea, has a dirty little secret. It is called sledging—which is just a fancy word for the most vicious trash talk in sports.

Cricket is a gentleman’s game — so why all the trash talk? Joshua Robinson writes for the Wall Street Journal.

8 pictures and videos that prove Nelson Mandela was a sporting icon