Sports & Socs – The Orbital

Spotlight on Beth Mead’s Return to Arsenal

16Nov

By Beth McCowenNo Comments

Sports & Socs

Spotlight on Beth Mead’s Return to Arsenal

By Beth McCowen Arsenal have been at the forefront of women’s football in the UK since the team was founded in 1987, with an astonishing 60 trophies to the club’s name, and an admirable commitment to the advancement of the women’s game at all levels. The 2022/23 season, however, presented the team and its management with unprecedented challenges, largely in the form of an injury crisis which saw four players (Beth Mead, Vivianne Miedema, Leah Williamson, and Laura Wienroither) suffer Anterior Cruciate Ligament ruptures, an injury which is devastating to any footballer, and concerningly common in female players. In addition, captain Kim Little experienced a significant hamstring injury in late-March which saw her miss the rest of the season. Photo: @arsenalwfc on Instagram. ...

‘A Place for Everyone’: An Interview with Kiera Joyce

16Nov

By Carmen Vallejo AndersonNo Comments

Sports & Socs

‘A Place for Everyone’: An Interview with Kiera Joyce

By Carmen Anderson Given the nigh-on meteoric surge in worldwide interest in women’s rugby, we spoke to the president of Women’s Rugby here at Royal Holloway, Kiera Joyce, to understand a little bit more about her, the sport and her commitment to it. Kiera is a third year English Literature student. Aside from sport, she is passionate about the performing arts, involved with many societies. She previously played hockey and is planning to start playing polo. She had never watched or played rugby before starting her studies here, but on first introduction, Kiera “immediately fell in love with the game!”. Rugby is a contact sport, a highly physical game requiring top levels of fitness and can be deemed high-risk, with 1 in 4 players injured each match. What does Kiera find a...

16Nov

By Liberty SimonsNo Comments

Sports & Socs

Keep It Moving

By Liberty Simons Progression wasn’t just being part of the 60,063 strong crowd as Arsenal took on Wolfsburg at the Emirates after selling the place out for the first time in their history. Nor was it watching Matilda’s fans break Australian attendance records at the Women’s World Cup. Or watching the Roses reach the Netball World Cup finals for the first time. It was in the smaller moments. It was in taking my lifelong Gooner Grandpa to his first Women’s North London Derby. It was when he accidentally called Vivianne Miedema ‘quite good’ not realising the scope of a player that she was. Or when I went to visit my grandparents and we had a 30-minute discussion about whether Alessia Russo would be joining the Arsenal. Or texting various family members and friends to tell them how they ...

15Mar

By Peter VighNo Comments

Sports & Socs

Fall Forward

“Nothing in life is worthwhile unless you take risks. Fall Forward” – Denzel Washington This is what the graduates of University of Pennsylvania received as departing wisdom from Denzel Washington. Interesting that he chooses to cast an image of the unknown at a time when the unknown can be seriously unsettling. But this mentality. It creates risk takers. Personalities. People that others might call reckless or bold. To be bold you must take risks and to take risks you must be brave. Brave. That is a word that continues to rise in the world of sport. Whether that’s through standing against discrimination, standing proud within the LGBT+ community or through sheer determination. Bravery is something that radiates from the quietest to the wildest among the bold. It i...

Nostalgia, Sport, and Parental love- the raw emotion of nostalgia

31Dec

By Peter VighNo Comments

Sports & Socs

Nostalgia, Sport, and Parental love- the raw emotion of nostalgia

Nostalgia is such a personal overwhelming experience. A yearning to experience what is no longer obtainable. For many, sports evoke a strong sense of nostalgia. Whether that be for the better or for the worse. However, it remains to be said that sport has its own unique way of conjuring up memories and emotions that just can’t stop you from smiling. Why is that? Usually, it’s a sense of carefree fun or high moments of success and happiness. Perhaps more unusually, it’s the embodying of emotions, which a lot of the time we do not feel anymore or don’t get to enjoy. That’s why that feeling of nostalgia hits so hard. A time when things just felt right in life. Pure. And, if you dig a little deeper into that emotion, you realise that the background feeling of parent...

The leap of faith: the mess that is sport politics

31Dec

By Peter VighNo Comments

Sports & Socs

The leap of faith: the mess that is sport politics

Fear, adrenaline, and the deep sea. Nothing exerts a bigger sensory overload of feeling alive. This raw emotion is as unwritten of an experience as one can feel and unknown every time. Like a fresh wound, familiar but always different. This is the feeling that I imagine surfers experience when confronted with the great Nazare. Nazare has been somewhat of a mecca for surfers since its commercial boom after Garrett McNamara’s world record run on its waves. Its unique large waves are accredited to the largest submarine canyon in Europe present just off the shore of Nazare. This acts like an amplifier for the incoming ocean swells forcing record breaking waves to form near the coast. In other words, surfing heaven! But why should I care about Nazare? I hear you ask. ...

The journey of ‘self-discovery’ in sport

22Jun

By Peter VighNo Comments

Sports & Socs

The journey of ‘self-discovery’ in sport

Who are you? A question often asked but rarely answered. One which is simple in theory, complex in nature and, dare I say it, feared in discovery. It’s cringe, I know, but the journey to discovering the ‘self’ begins with solitude. What’s better solitude than swimming up and down a pool alone? It's lonely; solo sports frequently are. Boxing and swimming are considered the loneliest sports, haunting you with the process of self-reflection. I know because I have been haunted by that ghost. As a swimmer, I know the mental challenge a lonely sport can throw upon you. It’s a rollercoaster of emotions, from love to hate and everything in between. A journey which makes you struggle to love the sport you pour your life into. Nobody can skip this journey. Michael Phelps and...

Street Racing: The middle finger to motorsports

17May

By Peter VighNo Comments

News, Sports & Socs

Street Racing: The middle finger to motorsports

The Midnight Club, Drifting, Fast and the Furious, NASCAR, and booze. Yes, booze. The staple ingredient to university life and the warm friend when life all goes south. This legal drug is weirdly responsible for arguably the most outlaw of sports– street racing. Between the 1920s and 1930s, during the Prohibition era, a cult emerged of bootleggers, otherwise known as moonshine runners. They were the alcohol transporters, who drove like mad men to outrun the cops when smuggling alcohol. Sounds like a blast if you ask me. These moonshine runners would buy the latest and greatest cars of the era, modifying them to give them that extra bit of umph to outrun the police. This was the accidental birth of street racing, and believe it or not, would later ...

13May

By Accalia SmithNo Comments

Opinion, Sports & Socs

Cash is King

Is Formula One an Elitist Sport? At the start of 2020’s season, Lewis Hamilton reminded us that ‘cash is king’ in the world of formula one. The paddock is full of millionaires, each race a glittering spectacle of celebrity, champagne spray and the sound of multi-million pound engines. Each team is vying for sponsorship and the driver that can give them that all important sponsorship deal - if there’s no money, there’s no competitive car out on the race track. Take Haas, for example: with limited money behind them the past few years and a lack of points to go toward a constructor championship, the Haas cars have often been left floundering at the back of the grid. 2021 saw a critique of Haas’s new rookies: Nikita Mazepin, son of Dimitri Mazepin, owner of Urakali, Haas’s former ...

Sexuality, Movember, and Spiking in Sports

1Feb

By Lee MillerNo Comments

Features, Sports & Socs

Sexuality, Movember, and Spiking in Sports

Photo by Jeffrey F Lin via Unsplash I interviewed three anonymous members of sports societies to determine their stances on sexuality in sport, Movember and spiking in a bid to see how sports can tie these topics together. Sports have a huge voice to be heard, especially when the topics at hand require vocal stances. Speaking openly on such is the first step to provide an increased awareness, with the conclusive aim to positively affect these subject matters. Sexuality in sport On the 27th of October, Josh Cavallo marked a significant breakthrough for gay footballers, powerfully coming out as gay. He became the first footballer in a top flight division to do so. This raised awareness of the LGBT+ side of football; for many years light has not shone amongst this side o...