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Is being a professional athlete even worth it?

According to our athlete of the week, the answer isn't an easy yes. + check out our 10,000 sq km venue, a skateboarding jersey, an ancient sport, and more.

July 22, 2025 • Estimated Reading Time: 7 minutes

Pre-match briefing

Welcome back! This summer has proven to be MASSIVE for women’s sports. For a few weeks in a row, we’ve had as many (if not more) women’s events in sports as we’ve had men’s events. You know what else is massive?

The record-breaking crowds showing up for the 2025 UEFA Women’s Euros this month. A personal favourite moment of mine is this wholesome wave in a completely packed stadium. We’ll unpack all the numbers in the Analyst’s Corner down below, but for now, let’s dive into Week 36 at The Gameplan.

Scout’s Overview
📡 🚨 Weekly Sports Radar: Kendo

Kendo is a modern Japanese martial art that means “the way of the sword.” It's based on traditional samurai swordsmanship and is practiced using bamboo swords called shinai and protective armor (bōgu). Two opponents face off in a duel, aiming to strike specific target areas: the head (men), wrists (kote), torso (dō), and throat (tsuki).

Matches typically last a few minutes, and the first player to score two valid strikes wins. Practitioners also engage in kata (pre-arranged forms) with wooden swords to master technique and spirit. It’s as much a mental and spiritual pursuit as it is a physical one.

🏋 Athlete of the week: Scottie Scheffler

Scottie Scheffler, a 29-year-old golfer from the United States, is currently ranked world number one with 15 PGA Tour wins, including four major championships: the 2022 and 2024 Masters, the 2023 PGA Championship, and the 2025 Open (which concluded this week).

His win comes with some interesting statistics, including becoming just the second player to win The Open as world #1, joining Tiger Woods, among other notable achievements. However, a big reason we chose him was this wholesome picture of Scheffler celebrating with his child.

After winning the cup, he was asked, “What does it mean to be world #1?” and had a really deep and fascinating 5-minute long answer, saying, among other things, “What’s the point?” and “This is not a fulfilling life.”

What do y’all think? Is being a professional sportsperson fulfilling? Shoot us an email and let us know.

🏟️ Venue of the week: Salar de Uyuni

Salar de Uyuni is the world’s largest salt flat, stretching over 10,000 square km in southwest Bolivia. This vast area of white salt crust makes it one of the most otherworldly places to bike on the planet.

🧤 Fit Check: Japan Skateboarding 2024 Olympics

© Nike

While football might be everyone’s favourite for jerseys, I think I’ve found my new favourite sport that has the best kits. Skateboarding. Look at this beauty.

Alexis Sablone, the designer of this kit, is also a renowned. Sablone has woven Japanese cultural motifs throughout the collection, eg, the koi fish, a recurring symbol, represents perseverance and transformation, the cherry blossom, another symbol that is used to depict the beauty and transient nature of life, mirroring the dynamic and ever-evolving nature of skateboarding.

From the bench
🗞️ In case you were injured:

  • While I’m all for positive news, we can’t brush past this one. Felix Baumgartner, our third-ever athlete of the week, passed away in a paragliding crash. I’d like to think he died doing what he loved.

  • As we mentioned previously, the women’s Euros are taking place right now. Another favourite story of mine from the tournament is of Ann-Katrin Berger. She’s not only one of the best goalkeepers in the entire tournament; she’s doing this after beating cancer twice.

  • Everyone knows Tour de France is taking place, but did y’all know about the L’Etape du Tour, where amateur cyclists can try racing the same track as the professional athletes?

🎯 In overtime:

  • We all saw what happened at Coldplay’s concert. Some employees may have been fired. The clip went so viral that fans at sports events were mocking that moment on fan cams this week.

  • Imagine swinging at the golf ball, watching it fly away, and then looking down and finding another golf ball in the same place. There has been a glitch in the matrix.

📊 Analyst’s Corner:

The group stage of UEFA Women’s EURO 2025 delivered on every level:

  • Attendance

    • This is officially the most attended Women’s EURO ever, and we’re not even at the final. Over 600,000 tickets were sold before the first kick, and 461,582 fans turned up for the group stage alone.

    • 22 of 24 matches were sold out

    • Average crowd: 19,233 per match

  • Fan Walks

    • Over 60,000 fans took part in Fan Walks

    • Biggest walks:

      • 8,000 (Wales & Netherlands – Lucerne)

      • 14,000 (Switzerland & Iceland – Bern)

  • Digital Engagement

    • 8.4 million social media engagements (↑ 55% from 2022)

    • 189.4 million video views (↑ from 113.7M in 2022)

  • Football

    • 89 goals in the group stage — a new record (prev: 78 in 2022)

    • Average: 3.71 goals per game

    • Every team has scored at least 2 goals

    • Jess Fishlock (Wales) became the oldest scorer in tournament history at 38 years, 176 days

🏆 Sports Calendar

Here’s a look at the ongoing and upcoming sports events this week:

If you enjoyed reading The Gameplan, consider forwarding it to your friends & family! If you have some ideas, email us at [email protected].

Signing out,
Wasay (brother #2)

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