That obstacle course for people who want to pretend they are Gerard Butler is back with spear-throwing, wall-scaling, and more heroic feats. The Spartan Race comes in varying levels of intensity: the “sprint” is suitable for all levels (so they say), spanning a 6km distance, with 20 obstacles, while the “super” is more intense at 13km and 29 obstacles. It’s all going down this Saturday in Pudong with start times from 8am to 3pm. Prices start at 439rmb. Get tickets here.

If you’ve been keeping up with Serena Williams’ catsuit-tutu drama, you may be painfully aware Grand Slam season is almost over. However, your chance to watch your favorite players in the flesh is coming up quick. Shanghai Rolex Masters, our own ATP Masters 1000 Tournament, begins at the end of the October Golden Week. Expect the best in men’s doubles and singles including Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, and last year’s victor, Roger Federer. The finals have already sold out, but there are still tickets for the first few rounds on SmartTicket.

Two athletes enter. One athlete leaves. A winner. I'm saying one leaves as a winner, the other one still leaves, they're fine, it's not the Thunderdome here. But it's pretty close! The China Squash Open, which this year has been upgraded to the "PSA World Tour Gold Tournament," is on next weekend (*cough* tickets). Read on

Shanghai International Marathon is on for November but registration will close at 5pm today. The main event will have 8,000 runners, 10,000 for the half-marathon, 7,000 for the 10k, and 10,000 5k. So yeah, it will be huuuge, and there are still spots left for the commitment-phobes. If you want in, head to Shanghai Marathon's official website and create a profile to begin your registration. Reps there say register ASAP by 4pm today as the site will likely be slowed by heavy traffic. The clock's ticking.

Purveyors of kiddie fun parks Jump 360, aka "that trampoline thing we wrote about you'd go to if it wasn't a million miles away" have opened a brand new springy funtopia near Yili Metro Station on Line 10. That's... not a million miles away! We went to expand our rubber grippy sock collection. Read on

Are you ready Shanghai? It’s ON. The first match is Thursday night at 11pm. Russia versus Saudi Arabia. Feel good match of the century! And then three matches Friday, four on Saturday and three on Sunday. If you’re looking for the exhaustive list of basically every venue in Shanghai screening the World Cup games, click here. We should have just done the listical on where NOT to see this thing. (Hello C’s, keep being your wonderful self). However. All World Cup parties are not created equal. Some are going the extra distance with stadium seating, huge movie screen, and alcohol flowing like… well, a lot of alcohol flowing. Click through for the five biggest World Cup openings for Thursday night. Read on

Suck it, Arsenal, PSG's already opened their bar! ... On the third floor of a mall that isn't open yet. You have to creep in via a door down the service road at the back. But don't let that sell it short; Paris St. Germain's dedicated "fan experience center" has like five cage-match pitches, seven TV screens, a couple Xboxes, a merch store and, naturally, a bar. We stuck our head in. Pics and deets after the jump. Read on

Fans of world class tennis, tickets are now available for the Shanghai Rolex Masters, returning to our fair city October 6 to October 14. Not for a while, sure, but the cheaper categories tend to go pretty quickly. Tickets are starting at 160rmb -- available here -- for China's premier pro tennis event, taking place again at the Qizhong Forest Tennis Center.

There's a big FùTBOL game happening on Saturday night (Sunday morning technically). The "UEFA Champions League Final". Sounds serious. Have you heard of that? Is that something you're invested in? Click through for places around town showing said sporting confrontation. Try to find yourself in front of a screen at 2.30am or so. Read on

Gooooooaaaaaaaal. Ronaldo Luís Nazário de Lima or 'O Fenômeno', will be live in Shanghai at Kerry Parkside in all his post retirement glory this Saturday from 2-4pm. It'll be a meet and greet, that's free and open to the public. No autographs will be signed, but you'll be free to bask in the presence of a soccer/football deity. Ronaldo's doing the important work, here to promote the World Cup which will kick off mid-June. Check out details and a flyer with Ronaldo's face (circa 2002) on it here. Go, go, go...but if you're going maybe get there like decently early to line up. Boa sorte!

The 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics has its Opening Ceremony tomorrow night and then its three glorious weeks (or something like that) of all my relatives wringing their hands about how Canada is doing in the hockey. Sports bars around town will have their TVs tuned in to the Games but cabaret club The Pearl is going the extra mile with it, so we'll pay that information forward. The Pearl is showing the Winter Olympics, in their entirety, starting from 9am daily till late night, on their big 8-meter screen -- with happy hour prices throughout. So that's a tip for you if you want to catch one or several Olympics events on a big screen and get some cheep booze to go with your gauche nationalism. Opening Ceremony is Friday night.

Shanghai just re-elected Ying Yong as its major but that's not important. What's really important is Kris Wu recently became the first Chinese star selected to perform at a Super Bowl event. This Guangzhou-born, Canada-raised 27-year-old singer is probably the hottest Chinese celebrity now, supported in the pocket by an army of fangirls. Wu's career truly took off when he left the K-pop boy band EXO to be a solo artist in 2014 and launched his acting career. He appeared in Chinese hit movies Mr.Six, The Mermaid and also Hollywood blockbusters like xXx: Return of Xander Cage (that really happened) and Valerian. Last year, his song 'Deserve', a collaboration with American rapper Travis Scott has landed at #1 on the U.S. iTunes store. Not a bad tune, especially good if you listen to it with Beats headphones (his brand). Read on

NBA name-about-town Tracy Murray's showing up in Shanghai this week. Let's reel off some achievements? Ex-UCLA Bruins, left as their #5 All Time Top-Scorer, spent 12 years in the NBA, ex-shooting-coach of the Lakers, he once scored 50 points in a game with Washington Wizards. Puts him up there on the Washington honor roll with the likes of Michael Jordan. We caught up with him on the phone as he was stuck in traffic on the way to the Chinese consulate. It was LA traffic, so we spent an easy 20 minutes chatting CBA, NBA, coaching the Lakers, the woes of big feet and Yeezys. Read on

Parents, if you're stuck in Shanghai over the holidays and are looking for something to keep your kids active and occupied during the school break, there's a few sports camps that are going on for that period for your consideration. Details after the jump. Read on

They’re coming. It was only a matter of time. Orangetheory, the it-girl of HIIT franchises is set to open their first Shanghai studio on Maoming Lu mid-November. Apart from the Traceys, Staceys, and Brendas of the world, the New York Times accredited them as having the ‘best one-hour workout in the U.S.’ So what can you expect? Details after the jump. Read on

Muscles! Spandex! Heavy things! These are just a few things to expect at this year’s China Throwdown. Set up at the foot of The Pearl Tower, this multi-sport festival has grown to include more than Crossfit. There'll be 11 competitions, a slew of free work-outs, games, and international guest speakers this weekend from August 26-27. Read on

Like squash? The game where you're locked in a room with another person batting a dense rubber ball at the walls as hard as they can? Good news; the fourth annual China Squash Open is on from Aug 31 to Sep 1 (psst tickets available here). Top-ranking squash players like last year's champ Mohamed El Shorbagy, as well as current World Number 1 Gregory Gaultier, Laura Massaro and Raneem El Welily will be placed in a glass box on the 11th floor of The Peninsula to duke it out in full view of the Pudong skyline. Which is just sort of rad, no matter which sport it is. Last year saw Mohamed El Shorbagy avenge his younger brother's 2015 China Open loss at the hands of long-time rival, Gregory Gaultier. Will he be able to repeat his success? Or will Gregory squash (hah!) his dreams. In the game of squash, you win or you... lose I guess. In a glass box.