Sports Doping Crashes in 'Icarus'

This is Extra Point: A guide on what to watch, listen to and read in the world of fitness culture.

Watch

Icarus. In this award-winning documentary, director Bryan Fogel explores cyclist Lance Armstrong’s doping scandal by taking his own regimen of performance enhancing drugs to prepare for an amateur race.

If that isn’t crazy enough, halfway through the film the man guiding Fogel through the drug treatment, Grigory Rodchenkov, confesses to leading a massive Russian doping program that has ties to the highest level of the Russian government. The extreme pivot takes the film from a crazy personal experiment to a geopolitical thriller involving a whistle blower in fear for his life. Icarus is streaming on Netflix.

Listen

Optimal Health Daily. Hosted by Dr. Neal Malik, Optimal Health Daily is what happens when a podcast meets an audiobook. Malik, who is both host and narrator, reads short articles on fitness, nutrition, health and wellness. Recent episodes cover brain health research, fitness myths, the physiology behind muscle growth and macros. Daily installments are typically under 10 minutes, making for a fast and easy listening experience when you’re short on time.

Read

Lasso-ing Chelsea FC? Why super-rich US sports owners are looking to buy a London soccer team. Stefan Szymanski, Professor of Sport Management, University of Michigan, explores American investors’ interest in English professional soccer and the risks and rewards that come with owning a team in this article from The Conversation.