The New York Times Magazine: The Enthusiast's Guide to the Winter Olympics

The hidden beauty, incredible danger and unique skills behind this year's games in Pyeongchang View in [Browser]( | Add nytdirect@nytimes.com to your address book. [The New York Times]( [The New York Times]( Friday, February 2, 2018 [NYTimes.com »]( If you’ve ever seen competitors [pushing granite stones across the ice]( or [shooting at targets during a cross-country ski race]( — never mind all the twisting and turning and crashing that comes from flying upward off ramps or downward on frozen surfaces — you know that the Winter Olympics call on combinations of the most particular (and maybe peculiar) skills. In this week’s special issue, devoted to the 2018 Games, in Pyeongchang, South Korea, we bring you the intensity, the artistry, the allure, the crazy behind the event’s 15 sports. Meet the [first team from Africa to compete in bobsled](. Check out (and imagine doing) [Lindsey Vonn’s exercise regimen]( which helps her avoid, and also recover from, ski-racing wipeouts. Marvel at the [Indian luge pilot]( who has dominated the Asian circuit despite having to max out his credit card to pursue his passion. And as befits a sporting spectacle like the Olympics, the issue also brings some spectacular new perspectives to the Games: Nick Veasey [X-rays hockey equipment]( Giles Price gives us a [bird’s-eye view of cross-country skiing]( Idris Khan layers [images of speedskaters into arresting compositions](. Happy reading, Jake Silverstein Editor in Chief Dina Litovsky/Redux, for The New York Times [The Workout That Saves Lindsey Vonn From Wipeouts]( By DINA LITOVSKY AND STEPHANIE PEARSON In the gym with the skier as she fights the weights and the rotational forces. [A composite of separate X-rays of a goalie’s equipment, including helmet, chest-and-arm protector, blocker, glove, leg pads, stick and skates.]( X-ray by Nick Veasey for The New York Times Winter Olympics 2018 [The Remaking of the Hockey Goalkeeper]( By WM. FERGUSON AND NICK VEASEY How equipment changes turned the players from artists into technocrats. A new view of the goalie’s gear. [Solo skaters at the International Skating Union World Cup in Kearns, Utah, in December.]( Photo illustration by Idris Khan for The New York Times Winter Olympics 2018 [The Hidden Drama of Speedskating]( By KARL OVE KNAUSGAARD Near-identical athletes taking lap after lap around a frozen oval is not much of a spectacle. But there is real beauty in the sport’s cold, hard numbers. Diagnosis [Tests Indicated His Infection Was Getting Better. Why Did He Feel Worse?]( By LISA SANDERS, M.D. Normally a workhorse, he began feeling strangely exhausted. Then he ended up in the intensive-care unit. The Ethicist [Is It O.K. to Surprise Someone With a Negative Reference?]( By KWAME ANTHONY APPIAH The magazine’s Ethicist columnist on what you owe someone who has asked you to recommend them or otherwise testify on their behalf. ADVERTISEMENT Photo illustration by Alvaro Dominguez [Where Does the N.F.L. Go After a Season of Division?]( By MARK LEIBOVICH A year of protests, backlash and presidential interference has exposed fault lines between the league’s players and its management — and even between the team owners themselves. Photo illustration by Cristiana Couceiro On Medicine [A Doctor’s Painful Struggle With an Opioid-Addicted Patient]( By SIDDHARTHA MUKHERJEE What happens when the therapeutic alliance turns into a disturbing dance of deception? [Ngozi Onwumere, Akuoma Omeoga and Seun Adigun (left to right) training at the University of Houston’s track-and-field complex in December.]( Benjamin Lowy for The New York Times Winter Olympics 2018 [The First African Team to Compete in Bobsled]( As told to JAIME LOWE The driver Seun Adigun left Team U.S.A. to represent her home country, Nigeria. Winter Olympics 2018 [The Unabashed Beauty of Jason Brown on Ice]( By PATRICIA LOCKWOOD His spins and jumps defy the increasingly muscular norms of male figure skating Winter Olympics 2018 [‘Big-Air Snowboarding’ to Make Its Big Olympic Debut]( By JOHN JEREMIAH SULLIVAN Dangerous thrills accompany a new competition this year. Prepare to shred the gnar. ADVERTISEMENT If you enjoy our newsletter forward this email to a friend and help the magazine grow. Getting this from a friend? [Sign up to get the magazine newsletter](. Let us know how we can improve at: [newsletters@nytimes.com](mailto:newsletters@nytimes.com?subject=Newsletter%20Feedback%20NYT%20Magazine) Check out our [full list of free newsletters]( including [C]( Today]( The news and stories that matter to Californians (and anyone else interested in the state), delivered weekday mornings. 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