Not knowing this guy's background, what do you have to do to become a "chess outcast"? Eat the pieces off the board during a game?
Chess outcast Hans Niemann says he was a top cyclist. Was he really?
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Re: Chess outcast Hans Niemann says he was a top cyclist. Was he really?
#12> That leads us to the end of Hans Niemann’s foray into cycling – his dalliance with the sport that is mostly remarkable for how unremarkable it is. And that’s fine. Kids start riding, and kids stop. Kids win races and kids don’t. Kids come up with brash stories on the playground. Sometimes kids are told they’re special at something, and some of them probably internalise it and let the lines between truth and fiction…
Actually that para jumped out at me too. But more for style. As a kid and late into my adult hood I really sucked at writing. The kind of suckiness where you are deluded about your prowess based on length of prose! Then I found Roy Peter Clark's Writing Tools book. Full of snack sized tips that can be used independently. Heavy curtains lifted for me. I felt regret shame and optimism all at the same time. Reason I bri…
Iain Treloar, the author of this story, is a fantastic journalist and writer. If you're interested in reading more of his work, I recommend the following:
- Exposed by a Strava KOM: The many lives of a fake pro cyclist https://cyclingtips.com/2022/04/exposed-by-a-strava-kom-the-... (similar theme to the original story, but a much deeper rabbit hole)
- The dictator, the oligarch and the UCI president https://cyclingtips.com/2020/11/the-dictator-the-oligarch-an... and The UCI just gave its highest award to this dictator https://cyclingtips.com/2020/06/the-uci-just-gave-its-highes... (Two stories on the sports-washing of human rights, possibly resulting in payback by the governing body https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2022/sep/24/cycling-journa...)
- The birth and death of a bike company: What happened to SpeedX? https://cyclingtips.com/2019/06/what-happened-to-speedx/ (covers the rise and fall of a crowdfunded darling)