How much does a hotel room cost during the World Cup? We tracked the prices at hundreds of hotels in host cities! Rates on game days are ~50% higher than they are at other times. And those prices are falling. Some variation from city to city but the trend is similar everywhere.

How much will it cost to attend the most expensive World Cup in history? www.nytimes.com/athletic/731...

I’ve joined The Athletic as a data reporter!  I’m super excited to be part of a talented and ambitious data + visuals team. I feel so lucky that I’ll get to keep doing work I enjoy and learn new things!

In 2010, men's figure skaters attempted a combined 11 quad jumps in the free skate at the Olympics. The gold medalist didn't do any. That number has been increasing over the past few Olympics. And Ilia Malinin has done as many as seven in his free skate. wapo.st/4asxnVy

Which places in the U.S. give people the most opportunities to participate in Winter Olympic sports? (Spoiler: The cold places. But it's more interesting and nuanced than that!) We mapped it! And you can look up your city and see which sports are nearby. wapo.st/4qlkAKf

More jumps, more difficulty: Olympic figure skating keeps upping the stakes An analysis of every men's and women's figure skating element performed at the Olympics since 2006 — and how Ilia Malinin's free skate compares: wapo.st/4asxnVy

Do you sometimes watch the Winter Olympics and think ... who even does these sports? We analyzed the locations of more than 2,500 training facilities for Winter Olympic sports. Check to see what's near you — and which sports are hard to find. wapo.st/4qlkAKf

The past eight years at The Washington Post have been a dream. I am so sad but so grateful.

The Jordan Chiles Olympic bronze medal case is going back to the Court of Arbitration for Sport: Swiss Federal Supreme Court determined "new evidence may justify a modification of the contested award" & has "referred the case back to the CAS for it to re-examine the situation."

Indiana football compiled a .384 winning percentage in the 25 seasons before this one. No national champion performed worse during the stretch preceding its title, according to a Washington Post analysis.

Indiana football compiled a .384 winning percentage in the 25 seasons before this one. No national champion performed worse during the stretch preceding its title, according to a Washington Post analysis.

How rare would Indiana football’s turnaround to a title be? We analyzed data, comparing Indiana to – every national champion – every team with a perfect record – every team in the history of top-level CFB The answer here, in the form of seven charts: www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2026/...

You can also use the map in the story to look up vaccination rates in your local schools! This was a HUGE data lift: we reviewed and mapped tens of thousands of individual schools’ data, assembling the most comprehensive public database. And we published this data here: github.com/washingtonpo...

Really incredible work

How happy *should* the fans of every major college football team be based on performance over the past five years? 1. Georgia 5. Oregon 38. Iowa 66. Auburn 70. Stanford Full rankings: wapo.st/49iK71p

The Washington Post (dream team of @emilygiam.bsky.social, @katiperry.bsky.social & @arturgalocha.bsky.social) has created a metric to calculate precisely how happy — or miserable — fans of each major college football program should be based on their team’s résumé. See how your school fared:

How happy (or miserable) should you be about your favorite college football team? We came up with a foolproof formula (of course you'll all agree with it). Georgia fans should be ecstatic. Stanford fans? Well, you went to an excellent academic school.

The preseason college football rankings were really, really wrong See how each team over or underperformed the average regular season winning percentage for teams that have earned the same preseason ranking. story w/ @jessedougherty.bsky.social: wapo.st/3XCOM7U

The preseason AP poll was really, really wrong this year, which was even more notable because the preseason AP poll is often pretty predictive. Story with @emilygiam.bsky.social, who dug up a lot of fun data on this: www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2025/...

As preseason No. 1 Texas underachieved, No. 2 Penn State flopped, and No. 9 LSU and No. 15 Florida fired their coaches ... I wondered: Has the preseason college football poll ever been *this* wrong? We figured out the answer! Gift link: wapo.st/3XCOM7U

Monarch butterfly tracks in today’s NYT. Gift link: www.nytimes.com/2025/11/17/s...

Data journalist @jeremybmerrill.com analyzed 38,000 ChatGPT conversations and found AI has gotten less formal -- dropping some words and adding contractions -- while clinging to the EmDash and some cliched constructions. w/ @emmakumer.bsky.social & SzuYu Chen: www.washingtonpost.com/technology/i...

USA Gymnastics looks to soccer executive Kyle Albrecht as its next leader He hasn't worked in gymnastics, but his background is in sports marketing and player development. In an interview with the Post, he said he wants to "elevate the profile of the sport." Story: wapo.st/3LADIFy

Yesterday we counted +900 flight cancellations across the US: tinyurl.com/3sddyscd –One of the most affected was Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA) with 17% of its flights cancelled ✈️

Uhh not great!

When you think of college football, you think of Saturday, right? Then there are teams like ECU, which played four of its first seven games on Thursday night. "You don’t need a map and a compass to find our games on TV." (w/ @emilygiam.bsky.social) www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2025/...

College football is a Saturday sport. But then there are those Thursday and Friday and sometimes Tuesday games you turn on because why not? A fun story with @jessedougherty.bsky.social on how teams from smaller conferences try to grab TV eyeballs on weekdays. wapo.st/47W6Q1J

The great @dtkeating.bsky.social is retiring after 25+ years as a data reporter at the Post. He published his last story today, and true to form, it was a banger. With reporting from @arianaec.bsky.social, @lmelgar.bsky.social & Jahi Chikwendiu: www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/...

The U.S. women's gymnastics program won just two medals at world championships this week — their fewest since 2001. What happened? Analysis of the state of the U.S. program: wapo.st/3JuJl7s

The Russians are back. And Angelina Melnikova is the world all-around champion. Winning gymnastics medals just became more difficult for everybody else — including the United States. www.washingtonpost.com/sports/olymp...

Angelina Melnikova, the Russian back at worlds for the first time since 2021, wins the all-around gold. She was just one-tenth ahead of American Leanne Wong, who had an excellent performance after qualifying in ninth.

Time for the women's all-around final at worlds! Angelina Melnikova, an Olympian and world champion, qualified with the top score. (This is her first major competition since 2021 because Russians were banned.) More on Melnikova here: www.washingtonpost.com/sports/olymp...

She's an Olympic gold medalist & world all-around champion. Earlier this year, she won a primary held by United Russia, the party that supports Putin (then withdrew from the race). Now she's a "neutral" athlete & could win the world all-around gold tomorrow. www.washingtonpost.com/sports/olymp...

U.S. gymnasts advance to each individual final at world championships, but medals are far from guaranteed. All-around: Dulcy Caylor (5th best qualifying score), Leanne Wong (9th) Vault: Joscelyn Roberson (8th) Bars: Skye Blakely (7th) Beam: Caylor (6th) Floor: Caylor (8th)

Climate change is coming for D.C.’s trees, and the city won’t look the same wapo.st/43ijIxq

October is the most popular month for weddings. And it's the heart of college football season. Last year, we analyzed wedding data to see if it actually made a difference: It kind of does! In major CFB markets, especially the SEC, bye weeks were more popular wedding dates than game-day Saturdays.

How America’s favorite sports bet is fueling sportsbook profits Parlays are becoming more popular, accounting for an increasing share of the money wagered on sports, according to a Post analysis of betting data. Bettors lose billions a year on these bets. www.washingtonpost.com/sports/inter...

The @wpdatateam.bsky.social used hundreds of real people's TikTok data to show how the app sucks people in and keeps them there. In 5 months, the lightest users doubled their time on TikTok (to over an hour a day!), swiped faster and opened the app more: www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/int...

Sportsbooks generate far more revenue per dollar wagered on parlays than straight bets. And yet the popularity of parlays is soaring. Sportsbooks heavily promote these bets — and many people probably never bother to do the math to understand why they're such a bad deal. Story: bit.ly/47hUFwJ

Terrific work here on parlays, replete with data on just how lucrative they are for sportsbooks. Craziest stat to me: In Maryland, parlays have made up 36% of sports bet spend this year -- and 67% of sportsbooks' revenue.

This story was the brainchild of sports data reporter @emilygiam.bsky.social, who collaborated with @katiperry.bsky.social and @asteckelberg.bsky.social to allow you to try parlay betting yourself. It's often not pretty

Parlays have become incredibly popular, with many betting apps encouraging these high-stakes multi-leg bets. But as legs are added, the chance of winning drops faster than the growth of the potential payout - which means sportsbooks have the advantage. Explore the math and and try your own bets:

How America’s favorite sports bet is fueling sportsbook profits Parlays are becoming more popular, accounting for an increasing share of the money wagered on sports, according to a Post analysis of betting data. Bettors lose billions a year on these bets. www.washingtonpost.com/sports/inter...

🤳EXCLUSIVE: We analyzed real data from over 800 U.S. TikTok users to reveal how the app transforms casual users into power users. Extremely proud of this one, over a year in the making w/ @richardsima.bsky.social Leslie Shapiro @asteckelberg.bsky.social @ence.bsky.social wapo.st/4obueib

update: this U.S. worlds team kind of feels like an advertisement for the University of Florida gymnastics program

Introducing: The 2025 U.S. Women’s World Championships Team presented by Xfinity ⭐️ Skye Blakely ⭐️ Dulcy Caylor ⭐️ Joscelyn Roberson ⭐️ Leanne Wong Non-Traveling Replacement Athletes: Jayla Hang & Ashlee Sullivan

Wow! Dulcy Caylor wins the all-around at the U.S. selection event and earns a spot on the worlds team. A big surprise but she hit today.

U.S. national all-around champion and 2024 Olympian Hezly Rivera will not compete at the world championships selection event due to an ankle injury, she said on Instagram.

The Washington Commanders, who have the oldest roster in the NFL this season, tonight face the Green Bay Packers, who have the youngest team in the league.

The Washington Commanders are *super* old (i.e. 28.6 years old, on average) — older than every team this season & all teams since 2007. story with @tomschad.bsky.social wapo.st/4gp9NM2