Athleta is one of those photography magazines that takes its time. Focusing on the emotive aspects of athleticism, each issue zooms in on half a dozen or so stories, carefully capturing every minute detail and transferring it the printed page.

This is a sports magazine for any reader that knows intimately the experiences of glory, defeat, strength and pain.

In this issue:

• In a small synthetic field in Piraeus, Athens, the city that was historically the cradle of European culture, football inspires boys from the Skaramagas refugee camp
• Atalanta, the virtuous and tireless model of the modern champion, is revived in the ink drawings of illustrator Alfred Basha
• On the circuit of San Mauro a Mare the riders are under 10 years old, but they ride ferociously because speed doesn’t frighten them
• Filippo Simeoni against Lance Armstrong: the story of a lowly rider who challenged the cycling emperor
• The slow flow of time bonds the billiards halls of the London suburbs and the wait for the waves off the Pacific Northwest Coast
• And three stories from completely different arenas: the adrenaline of monster trucks, the eternal Stars and Stripes passion for baseball, and the dramatic Plaza de Toros