Need help with today’s Connections: Sports Edition puzzle? You’ve come to the right place.

Welcome to Connections: Sports Edition Coach — a spot to gather clues and discuss (and share) scores.

A quick public service announcement before we continue: The bottom of this article includes the answers — and hints — for the four categories. So if you want to solve the board hint-free, we recommend you play before continuing.

You can access today’s game here.

Today’s difficulty

Game No. 605’s difficulty: 3 out of 5

Connections: Sports Edition hints for May 21, 2026

Scroll below for one answer in each of the four categories.

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Yellow: BAND

Green: BUMP

Blue: COMBINED

Purple: NORTH

Connections: Sports Edition answers for May 21, 2026

Scroll below for the full answers to each of the four categories.

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Yellow

Seen at a college sporting event: BAND, CHEERLEADERS, DANCE TEAM, STUDENT SECTION

Green

Pitching mound: BUMP, HILL, MOUND, RUBBER

Blue

Alpine skiing disciplines: COMBINED, DOWNHILL, SLALOM, SUPER-G

Purple

Charlotte _____: 49ERS, FC, HORNETS, NORTH

What is Connections: Sports Edition?

Connections: Sports Edition is The Athletic’s first-ever game, a daily puzzle designed for players to find connections between 16 words on the game board.

The game’s objective is to group words or objects into four groups of four based on commonalities within each group as quickly as possible. Find the groups without making four mistakes. Each puzzle has exactly one solution, so watch out for words or items that seem to belong to multiple categories!

Category examples:
Sports ____ : Fan, Car, Bar, Radio
U.S. Summer Olympians: Biles, Phelps, Ledecky, Lyles

Each category group is assigned a color, revealed as you solve, ranging from straightforward (yellow) to medium (green) to challenging (blue) to tricky (purple).

Who creates the puzzles for Connections: Sports Edition?

That’s me! My name is Mark Cooper, and I create Connections: Sports Edition and work as a managing editor for college sports here at The Athletic. I was previously The Athletic’s managing editor for breaking news.

The next puzzle will be available at midnight in your time zone. Thanks for playing — and share your scores in the comments!