👙 The Most Controversial Bra in Wimbledon History

I don’t get political in this newsletter (that’s what TikTok reposts are for), but gamblers recently realized that tucked away in the Big Beautiful Bill was a provision that no longer allows them to deduct 100% of their losses from their taxes.

The Congressional Budget Office estimates that this will generate approximately $1 billion for the federal government over the next 10 years, but sports bettors aren’t too happy about the prospect of having to pay taxes on money they already lost.

In today’s newsletter:

🗞 The Big Story: Why Women Are 8x More Likely to Tear Their ACL

📉 Biggest Loser: The Most Controversial Bra in Wimbledon History

🏆 Winner’s Circle: How Oakley Turned a $6,300 Donation Into $41M

🗞 The Big Story

The craziest story in sports right now is one you probably haven’t heard of, but it could help prevent the most common injury some athletes face.

ACL Injuries: It’s no secret that ACL injuries are on the rise, and while they already account for over 50% of all knee injuries. According to one study, the annual number of ACL injuries specifically is predicted to more than double by 2030.

But there’s one group that’s going to get hit harder than most.

Not only are they 8x more likely to tear their ACLs in the first place, but when they do, they’re 25% less likely to return to their sport and 15% more likely to require a second surgery.

And the worst part is we’ve known the reason why for decades, but haven’t done anything about it — until now.

Women and ACL Tears: If you haven’t picked up on it by now, I’m talking about women, who have recently seen a sharp rise in ACL injuries at the professional level. And while, historically, this increased injury risk has been attributed to factors such as:

• Wider hips

• Weaker muscles

• Worse training resources

Scientists have now realized that there might actually be a different explanation.

The Findings: A study published in June 2024 followed 26 professional women’s soccer players in England for three seasons, tracking their menstrual cycle data and time lost due to injury.

Now, when a woman is on her period, her hormone levels can change by over 100% in just 24 hours, which can have a massive effect on the strength and performance of her muscles, tendons, and bones.

And after tracking:

• 593 cycles

• 74 injuries

• 13,390 days

These researchers found that players were anywhere from 5-6x more likely to suffer an injury while on their period. Which, apparently, is something female athletes have known anecdotally for decades:

And while it’s a good start that organizations like FIFA are finally now funding studies to examine this link even further, without increasing the resources that professional female athletes and teams have, there won’t ever be any meaningful change.

📉 Biggest Loser

This is the most controversial bra in sports history, but not for the reason you might think.

Wimbledon’s Prestige: When Wimbledon first started in 1877, it was the pinnacle of class and nobility, not just in sports, but around the entire world. From the Royal Box, which has been reserved exclusively for members of British Nobility since 1922, to the fact that the iconic Centre Court has never contained an advertisement, everything Wimbledon does is steeped in almost 150 years of tradition.

But that’s not always a good thing.

Wimbledon Dress Code: In 2017, a 37-year-old Venus Williams was in the midst of a first-round match at Wimbledon when tournament officials noticed a pink sports bra starting to peak out from underneath her all-white top.

For most people, seeing the bra strap of a tennis player isn’t that big of a deal, but for Wimbledon officials, it was cause for concern. That’s because, according to tournament rules established in the 1880s, “competitors must be dressed in suitable tennis attire that is almost entirely white.” The rules even state which shade of white it should be.

Now, this dress code was originally established to hide sweat marks on players, which were deemed “unseemly” in the 20th century; however, even 148 years later, players are still having issues catching on.

Fineable Offense: For example, in 2013, Roger Federer was fined for wearing shoes with an orange sole since they contained more than a centimeter-thick band of color.

Another player even recalls a story where he was fined for wearing blue underwear, as the color became visible after he sweated through his white shorts.

But maybe the most egregious use of this rule was during Venus’ first-round match in 2017 when she was forced to change out of her pink sports bra during a 30-minute rain delay, only to win the match in two points after play resumed.

And while it’s unclear whether she was fined for this, let’s just say no one has made the same mistake since.

🏆 Winner’s Circle

One of the smartest moves in sports marketing history actually had nothing to do with sports, but it still earned one company $41 million.

Background: In 2010, a copper and gold mine in northern Chile collapsed, trapping 33 men over 2,000 feet underground. For 17 days, the world wasn’t sure if any of these men had survived, but after a note was relayed to the surface confirming that all of the men were alive by rationing tuna, cookies and water, a global rescue mission got underway.

NASA was consulted on nutrition and mental health in extreme confinement; meanwhile, companies from around the globe started digging a narrow mine shaft and designing a specialized 21-inch rescue capsule to bring each man to the surface one by one.

However, even with a plan in place, one question still remained: what would happen to the men once they reached the surface?

Potential Side Effects: Not only were they likely to suffer from respiratory issues and PTSD from being trapped 2,300 feet underground for 69 days, but after over two months in near-total darkness, doctors were worried that sudden exposure to sunlight could cause them extreme eye pain or even permanent vision loss.

That’s why one Chilean journalist reached out to American sunglasses manufacturer, Oakley, to see if they could help outfit each miner with the proper sunglasses to protect their eyes once they reached the surface.

Still, I’m not sure anyone could have predicted what would happen next.

Oakley’s Donation: On October 13, 2010, the day all 33 miners were finally rescued, an estimated 1 billion people around the world tuned in as each man emerged from the rescue pod wearing a pair of Oakley Black Iridium sunglasses.

These glasses were recommended for the miners because they use proprietary coating on the lenses that blocks out 100% of all UV light, and at $180 each, it only costs the company about $6,300 to donate 35 pairs.

However, according to CNBC, the media exposure they got by having their logo on the face of each miner was worth a whopping $41 million.

Not a bad deal for such a last-minute campaign.

⏱️ In Other News

• What do you call reverse nepotism?

• The Savannah Bananas ranked #1 in prime time

• Ouch.

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