NYT Connections Sports Edition #457: Hints and Answers for December 24

Each day at midnight, a small ritual renews itself: sixteen words appear on a screen, waiting to be sorted into four groups by anyone willing to sit with the puzzle long enough to see the hidden order. The New York Times and The Athletic have built Connections Sports Edition as a meeting place between sports knowledge and linguistic intuition, where a word like 'stout' or 'way' quietly carries a second life as an athlete's surname. It is a modest but genuine invitation — to think carefully, to hold multiple meanings at once, and to find satisfaction in the moment a pattern finally reveals itse