The New York Times’ Connections: Sports Edition for December 30th (#463) presented a challenging puzzle, testing players’ knowledge of both mainstream and niche athletic terms. Published through The Athletic (a New York Times subsidiary), this daily word association game requires identifying four groups of four words linked by a common theme.
For those struggling with today’s edition, here’s a breakdown of the answers:
Category Breakdown
The puzzle is structured with difficulty tiers: yellow (easiest), green, blue, and purple (most difficult). Each category demands a different level of sports knowledge.
- Yellow: The theme centered on basketball terminology. The words were drain, drill, sink, and swish – all slang terms for successfully making a shot.
- Green: This group tested knowledge of cricket. The answers were bail, ball, bat, and stump, all essential pieces of cricket equipment.
- Blue: Players needed to recall the last four FIFA Men’s World Cup winners. The correct answers were Argentina, France, Germany, and Spain.
- Purple: This was the most obscure category. The solution required recognizing famous gymnasts while intentionally removing one letter from each name: bile (Simone Biles), chile (Jordan Chiles), le (Suni Lee), and mille (Shannon Miller).
Accessibility and Context
Connections: Sports Edition is available on The Athletic app or directly online for free, though it doesn’t appear in the main NYT Games app. The game’s difficulty often hinges on familiarity with international sports and wordplay, making it a unique challenge within the New York Times puzzle suite.
The puzzle’s structure encourages deductive reasoning, with hints designed to guide players toward the correct associations. If you are struggling, starting with the easiest (yellow) category can often provide momentum.
