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This is Defector, a new sports blog and media company. We made this place together, we own it together, we run it together. Without access, without favor, without discretion, and without interference.

Defector

Tom Ley

Kash Patel watches the gold medal hockey game

Olympics

Internal Schedule Confirms Kash Patel Went To Olympics To Be World’s Most Special Little Guy

Lauren Theisen

The U.S. Olympic men's ice hockey team arrives for U.S. President Donald Trump's State of the Union

The U.S. Hockey Men Spoil The Fantasy

Ray Ratto

Casey Wasserman speaks at a 2028 Olympics event

The Winter Olympics’ Sour Ending Was Just A Preview For Summer 2028

Kash Patel Thinks He’s On The Team

Patrick Redford

Silver medalist Gu Ailing of China poses for photos after the awarding ceremony of the freestyle skiing women's freeski big air event at the Milan-Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games in Livigno, Italy, Feb. 16, 2026. (Photo by Wang Peng/Xinhua via Getty Images)

Eileen Gu Will Never Be The Traitor JD Vance Wants Her To Be

Michael is a writer who has worked with The Atlantic, The New Yorker, WIRED, Vox, The New York Times, and other publications. His first book, The Other Olympians, which uncovers the stories of several European athletes who transitioned gender in the 1930s, is now available for purchase.

Michael Waters

Officials in hazmat suits remove a medal around an olympian's neck

Chromosome Testing Will Take Sports Back To The Dark Ages

Staff Writer
Find me on Signal @DefectorChris.19

Chris Thompson

Journalismism

The Washington Post Lays Off A Third Of Its Workforce, Is Dead

Israel Daramola

Photos of Nicole Good (L) and Alex Pretti are placed among flowers at a makeshift memorial in the area where Pretti was shot and killed by Federal immigration agents in Minneapolis, Minnesota

Politics

How Much Longer Can The Politics Of Grievance Sustain Itself?

Séamus Malekafzali is a New York-based journalist and writer primarily focusing on the politics of the Middle East.

Séamus Malekafzali

Donald Trump looks on as Lindsey Graham talks in the foreground.

Lindsey Graham Has Waited Decades For The Chance To Obliterate Iran

Women's Basketball

“Disgusted” Breanna Stewart Holds Up “Abolish ICE” Sign Before Unrivaled Game

Alex Pareene

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Commissioner Gregory Bovino with his security team while a group of citizens opposed to the country's immigration policies protested him in Minnesota on January 21, 2026.

I Have A Great Idea For Retraining ICE Agents

Vikings play-by-play guy Paul Allen talks into a microphone.

Media Meltdowns

Oops! Vikings Play-By-Play Moron Chooses Yesterday’s Right-Wing Lie For Wisecrack About Minneapolis Protesters

Albert Burneko

Protesters take cover behind overturned trash containers as a line of federal agents forms a barricade across a downtown street during clashes following the fatal shooting of a demonstrator earlier in the day, on January 24, 2026 in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Federal Agents Kill Again; Gunmen Still At Large

Justin Ellis

How Do You Justify Abducting A Child?

Gavin Newsom, looking like a gross sleazeball

Gavin Newsom Has Nothing To Offer

Samer Kalaf

Azeez Al-Shaair wearing "Stop the Genocide" eye black before the Texans' game against the Patriots

NFL Sends Mixed Signals In Its Stance On Genocide

Michele Tafoya Won’t Rest Until She Finds A Bigger And Better Way To Annoy Everyone

charismatic megafauna (they/them)

Sabrina Imbler

WASHINGTON, DC - JANUARY 08: U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. unveils the department's new dietary guidelines food chart during a policy announcement event at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on January 8, 2026 in Washington, DC. The Trump administration announced new dietary guidelines on Wednesday including an emphasis on proteins and full-fat dairy, and limits on processed foods. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

Food

In The War On Protein, We Have Been Humiliatingly Defeated By Protein

David Roth

Masked ICE agents and demonstrators face off as protests broke out following the shooting of a Venezuelan man by a Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on January 14, 2026.

Podcasts

What It’s Like When ICE Invades Your City, With Arif Hasan

A single bullet hole can be seen on the driver’s side of the windshield of a vehicle that a woman was shot and killed in by federal officers on Portland Ave. in Minneapolis, Minn. on Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2026.

CBS News Is The Trump Administration’s New Laundromat

Federal Agents arrest a man during an Immigration Enforcement Operation in Minneapolis, Minneapolis, MN, U.S., January 13, 2026.

Fascists Are Pathetic

Let Your Buyers Become Your Criers When You Pull The Rug Out From Beneath The Table Of Success

CBS Anchor Tony Dokoupil Is Stuck In An Endless Loop Of Humiliation

Giri Nathan

US Vice President JD Vance speaks during a press briefing in the Brady Briefing Room at the White House in Washington, DC on January 8, 2026. (Photo by Mandel NGAN / AFP)

JD Vance Is A Hog That’ll Eat Any Slop

Tommy Craggs is an editor and writer, late of Game Theory With Bomani Jones on HBO, Mother Jones (no relation), HuffPost, Slate, Gawker Media, and Deadspin. He&#8217;s part of the <a href="https://flaminghydra.com/">Flaming Hydra</a> cooperative of independent writers and artists, and one of the many founders of the <a href="https://www.oaklandreviewofbooks.org/">Oakland Review of Books</a>.

Tommy Craggs

Bari Weiss seated onstage at a Free Press event in 2024.