We love catching up with our counterparts from across the pond! John Cushing and Michael Weadock from Anything But Footy join us for a rousing look ahead at the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympics.
Alison got to meet up with John and Michael in person at Paris 2024, which was a real treat. John and Michael were part of the award-winning coverage for talkSPORT in the UK, and we hear some of their adventures in Paris, including everything going haywire during the Opening Ceremony.
Both of our shows will be at Milano Cortina 2026, so we’re all curious as to what will happen at these Games. We discuss the announcement of Mariah Carey as an Opening Ceremonies performer, the still-under-construction ice hockey venue and how sports need to work on the broadcasting of their events.
***Are you a Milano or a Cortina?*** Let us know by helping us raise funds to cover the production costs of our Milano Cortina 2026 coverage, which includes at least 32 daily episodes (and probably 100+ escapades that only your favorite Olympic and Paralympic aunties can get into). We need your support to make this coverage happen. Please make a contribution here.
TRANSCRIPT
Note: This is an uncorrected machine-generated transcript and may contain errors. Please check its accuracy against the audio. Do not quote from the transcript; use the audio as the record of note.
423-Anything But Footy Crossover
Theme Music
Jill Jaracz: Hello, and welcome to another episode of Keep the Flame Alive, the podcast for fans of the Olympics and Paralympics.
If you love the games, we are the show for you. I am your host, Jill Jarris, joined as always by my lovely co-host, Alison Brown. Alison, hello, how are you? Merry Christmas.
Alison Brown: Merry Christmas. I am feeling quite festive. Might have had a few cocktails before the show. No, I didn’t.
Jill Jaracz: And that’s because we’re taping ahead of time. ’cause we’re not taping on Christmas. [00:01:00] No,
Alison Brown: that would, that would be a sad life if that’s how we were spending our Christmas. Oh man. Taping the show, man. Not that taping the show is not one of my favorite things to do every week.
Jill Jaracz: I know. But we need holidays from each other.
You need holiday from me. I think I know that I, people need holidays from me. I just assume everyone hates me, so we’re fine. Alright, well we are having a little party here for this episode if you need it. If you are celebrating Christmas and maybe need to sneak away from the family for a while and, and take a break, come to our party that we ha are having with our friends, uh, and counterparts from across the pond.
The, anything but footy lads, can we call them lads? I think we should call them lads. All right, We got together with John Cushing and Michael Weed, duck from anything but footy, the British podcast that covers the Para Olympics and Paralympics. We look ahead to what we can all look [00:02:00] forward to in Milano Cortina.
Take a listen.
Alison Brown: John and Michael from anything but footy. Thank you so much for being back. It’s the best time of the year when we get to visit with you.
John Cushing: What you mean? pre-Olympic year.
Alison Brown: That too.
John Cushing: They come around really quick. These Olympic years, don’t they?
Alison Brown: Especially that summer to winter swap is quick.
John Cushing: Yeah. Yeah. I, I thought that, I thought the one between Tokyo and Beijing was quick, but this one feels even quicker between Paris and Milan. and weirdly having been in Milan already, which, uh, we’ll probably discuss as we go on. It feels quite similar to Paris there. There seems to be lots of ideas that that are taking from Paris, including getting some nineties has been to a perform at the opening ceremony.
Alison Brown: Ouch. Wow. Wow. Let’s just wipe out the entire segment of certain aged female singers at once. We’re not talking Lady
John Cushing: Gaga here are either, are we? That was just turned [00:03:00] off from Mariah.
Michael Weadock: We are now all of us, I think, really looking forward to the winter games. What’s it like stateside? How’s the buildup? How’s the anticipation for it?
Alison Brown: What seemed to turn the corner that I saw in the press was Lindsay Vaughn winning the World Cup race over the weekend.
Somehow that seemed to turn all the American press on to the fact that we’re having a winner Olympics in, you know, 50 whatever days. Mm-hmm. Before that it was very quiet
Jill Jaracz: and also the development of the. Hockey arena. Yeah. Not be done because, the NHL being involved is pretty big deal for us and a lot of countries.
And everyone just now getting hit to the fact that the construction’s, well, it’s probably gonna be done. It won’t be finished. what will we have in this new arena? That will be interesting now, John, you saw it in the fall?
John Cushing: [00:04:00] Yeah. I spoke to a few Italians while I was there, as you can imagine, in, in Milan.
And I was like, well, what is going on with these, with this arena? Because it’s, as you say, it’s a brand new arena. the ice skating is happening in Milan as well, so the figure skating, but then there’s this whole arena just for the hockey, for the NHL as you say. and they were like, it’ll be ready.
It’ll be ready. just don’t worry about it. and every time you push it, and I think even the organizers have said. We don’t have a backup plan. This is it. This is what they have to get ready. And, and as you say, there’s a, there was a December, test event that they put through to January.
January is the month before the Olympic starts, as you say, in about 50 odd days. but this is how Italians are. This is how very much some European countries are that just chill. Just relax. It’ll be fine. it’s ice. Cool. it’ll be all great. Now, whether you believe them or not is, is entirely up to you.
And that’s what one of the questions we wanted to ask you guys was, what is the feeling over there? Because as you say, it’s the first time the NHL are here. What since? Since Satchi. Since that, just nearly 20 [00:05:00] years ago, isn’t it?
Alison Brown: Yeah, it was. Sochi was the last time. And the pundits here among the hockey people have a lot to say about it, and none of it is good.
Though they, did come out with a joint statement, the NHL and the International Hockey Federation saying, we’re gonna be fine. We’re gonna play, and the arena’s gonna be done. But it’ll be interesting to see what that actually means. And we joke about how, yeah, the ice may be done, but I can tell you right now the press room is not gonna be done.
So we’ll be sitting on benches and scaffolding and hoping for the best.
Michael Weadock: And what about this story that. The players won’t come if they feel the ice is unsafe. Are you confident then, like you said there, that the, the ice will be safe and be ready?
Alison Brown: I think so, but man, if they don’t come, that’ll be the story of the games, won’t it?
Jill Jaracz: I think that maybe mindset may be helped by the massive amounts of. Sports talk [00:06:00] media that are out there that can fan these flames. I mean, the NHL was at Torino, the ice hockey arena got done. It wasn’t finished, but it got done. And I think that’s the thing when John, when you say, oh, chill, it’ll be, it will, it’ll be fine.
It’ll be worry. Don’t, don’t worry about it. I think that’s when we get sloppy. ’cause they wake up and go, oh, we have to get this done. But done doesn’t mean finished, so it’s not gonna be necessarily what they’re used to. Maybe it’s gonna be like an old stadium that’s gotta get renovated and you think, oh, but this is supposed to be a new, shiny new stadium.
It’s just not done. And I think that they’ll have ice. That’ll be a priority. but I think, well, one thing, the hospitality room will probably get done and they’ll have seats. I think the concessions kind of stuff is gonna be horrible. I would assume that backstage is gonna be not so great either.
But I, I, you know, I haven’t [00:07:00] really dug in to see what the reactions were from Torino, but I’m sure the players are not gonna notice maybe as much as. The media will,
John Cushing: I’ll let Michael tell you his tale about the Rio Velodrome in a moment. But on, on Milan and, and I mentioned it slightly earlier about how maybe it’s looking at the playbook from Paris and using that as some kind of way of, of running the games.
Actually, when you think we all we’re all in Paris, as Michael said, we all caught up. It was, I don’t think we actually saw Jill in the end, but we saw, anyway, We all caught up and it was all lovely, but actually behind the scenes it wasn’t very good. And, and lots of people have said to us, it was really shiny for the viewers and for the pictures, but actually behind the scenes and for the athletes, it wasn’t that good.
And so what you are saying actually. For the media, it might be tough for the spectators, it might be tough, but on the screens and for the players, actually this ice is gonna work and it’s gonna be a great [00:08:00] tournament and no one will be talking about it in two years time.
Jill Jaracz: I’ll be talking about that in the Paris Media Center in two years time.
Oh, yeah. Did you know, okay, so during the Paralympics, I walked through the Pele to Congress and they had this big wall covered with a sign that said, oh, we were proud to have hosted the world’s media. And like, really? Were you proud because you didn’t show it?
Michael Weadock: I guess that I didn’t spend a great deal of time there, to be honest. I was. Most of the venues, most of the time. So it was using some of those sort of offshoot media sense, but do you think that it’s maybe a little bit of a problem? And we’re probably four people that are more guilty of it, that than anyone, is that we look and we magnify these problems or these so-called problems, these challenges that they have at Olympic games.
And there’s the bingo card that you can always go through. Pregame, there’s always a security issue. There’s [00:09:00] always a ticketing issue. There’s always a transport issue. There’s always a venue issue. But actually when it comes down to it, if our media center’s not that great, does it detract from the spectacle
Alison Brown: when it makes it hard for us to do our jobs?
That’s when it detracts. Yeah. If there’s not a lot of snacks, if the coffee’s not there, that’s fine. I can live with that. But when, you know, in our hotel in Paris, we couldn’t use our wifi. We weren’t safe, you know, and that was a media hotel. That’s a real problem. And that’s not nitpicking.
Michael Weadock: And I think we heard, and John mentioned it as well, that for the athletes as well, which ultimately I guess is, is the most important thing about any games is the athletes, is that actually they were experiencing issues. I think food was a, a massive thing in Paris, wasn’t it? In transport Again, I think. was a bit of an issue and I mean, I’ve been talking today to UK Sport who are [00:10:00] like the government agency, that, that fund elite sport in this country and they’re looking at the transport logistics of Milan and Cortina and a kind of a six hour travel time between venues and actually just like, it’s gonna be a really difficult.
logistical, machine to just get people around, and that’s athletes, coaches, support staff and, and everything else
Jill Jaracz: we’ve said, said
Alison Brown: the same things for ourselves.
Jill Jaracz: Yeah. Well, yeah, but it’s, it’s also interesting, from the organizational side, from the Milano Corina Organizing Committee side.
It makes sense to use the venues that they use regularly, the fact that they’re spread out. Uh, okay. Well, whatever that works for us. When you’re talking about National Olympic committees or national Paralympic committees who suddenly have to stretch themselves across the entire northern part of [00:11:00] Italy.
They don’t have a ton of money either. So you are suddenly saying, athletes, you don’t matter. We can’t get you the support you need.
Michael Weadock: Mm-hmm.
Jill Jaracz: And that message, I think is not great not to mention that transportation’s just gonna be a nightmare. I think. I, I don’t know. I keep hoping that it’s gonna work out, but, I think for athletes who are maybe, uh.
In a region where you don’t have, when you’re hoping to have support and you can’t get it because your National Olympic committee’s like, well, sorry, we have 10 athletes competing on the same day, and they’re, we can’t, we don’t have the money to send enough people for them to help everyone at every different venue.
Alison Brown: This is the fi. Now what is UK telling you? Because you obviously have a, a much smaller winner team in US and that’s what US is telling us.
John Cushing: I think once the athletes start being affected, as Michael said, I think is a huge concern. And we only got told that our team, GB [00:12:00] swimmers were really struggling in that first week in Paris, six months after the games.
they weren’t saying anything at the time. Everything’s shiny, everything’s, they’re fine and everything’s well, and they’re never gonna tell you that. It’s, that it’s bloody awful. I think it’s interesting that the Winter Olympics, that this is the first one across two cities or across two regions.
I mean, there’s a huge mountain range between Cortina and Milan. you’re talking five or six hours to get between the two. So from a journalistic point of view. You pick one and, and you plunk yourself there. And yes, there may be the odd opportunity for where for one day you might be able to go up and see maybe the men’s downhill, which is not the other side of, of the mountain range.
It’s, it’s further north from Milan, but it is incredibly spread out. But this goes back to, and look, we may well have had this conversation in our, the podcast we did before Paris. This is cost. This is how much it is costing these cities, these countries, these people don’t wanna put on a shiny brand new event in Milan for all of the winter games, or in Corina where they, I think it was [00:13:00] 1968, wasn’t it?
Or something where they last had it. They didn’t wanna build more things there. They just want to put on the games as best they can. And as long as it looks all right on the telly and on TikTok and on Insta, does it really matter? for anybody apart from, I think it matters to the athletes, but does it matter?
And that’s the question that we have as Olympic fans. I think moving forward, because this is why cross country or Cycl, Ocross may come into the Winter Olympics. ’cause it’s gotta, you gotta create these sports where there’s, there’s more opportunity, but also more interest and more drive to keep Winter Olympics relevant because.
You know, as you said at the start, some people didn’t even know this is happening. I mean, I pretty much, I could walk down my street and nobody in this country would know that Winter Olympics happening in February.
Michael Weadock: Mm-hmm. I get asked all the time, where is it? Like I, it’s, you know, it’s, it’s been in my calendar.
It’s been in our diaries for forever. Forever. But yeah, people say to me, where is it? And we’re just in that situation at the [00:14:00] minute now where. We’re getting some of the team announcements. So from a team GB point of view, we had the figure skating team announced in in the last week or so. And this is a really interesting thing, I think from a British viewpoint, because for the first time in, in over 30 years, great Britain has a genuine chance of winning a medal in figure skating.
Now, I could walk down the street today and say to everyone, where’s the next Winter Olympics? And no one would be able to tell me. But if I said, who won? Gold skating to Bolero in 1984, everyone would know Tova and Ding. So from a British point of view, the fact that we’ve got Louis Gibson and Lila Fair who have won a medal at the World Championships could win a gold medal at the Europeans, which are in the UK just before the Olympic Games, and they are a genuine chance of winning an Olympic medal.
I think that that’s, that’s huge for them. Huge for the sport, huge for winter sport in this country. But that actual team announcement where they named [00:15:00] the eight British skaters, which is the biggest team that, that Great Britain has taken for figure skating in a, a long time. Isn’t John 88? Barely 88.
Barely made a little a ripple in the news. And you know, I think if, if Lila and Lewis were to win a medal, it will cut through in this country because. Everyone will say it’s the first one since Tova and D and Lila and Lewis to their credit, and they get asked about Tova and D in every interview they’ve ever done.
I’m pretty certain about that. And to their credit, they don’t shy away from it. They don’t roll their eyes after it. They embrace it. They went on Tova and Dean’s farewell 40th anniversary tour last year and, and got involved. and they, you know, as I said, I think embrace it is the right phrase, but it didn’t, just didn’t have the level of coverage, that team announcement that, uh, you know, I think it should have had.
Alison Brown: And GB has. A decent number of middle prospects. It feels like this time [00:16:00] around. Yeah, we said that before Beijing. It’s okay. Fair enough.
Michael Weadock: John and I, I’ve got, John and I have got a planner that, you know, if it all go, all goes. If it all goes to plan every other day, we could be talking about, about something.
You know, it’s, it’s not gonna be the, the metal rush of like a, a Paris or Rio or, or a London. we know that, but I think what’s. What they’re trying to do in, in this country is that they are trying to create medal opportunities across a diverse range of sports and within that, a diverse range of disciplines within those sports as well.
So certainly I think some of the like freestyle skiing and snowboarders. you know, there, there’s medal opportunities there. we know that in Beijing, the medals came down to the curling team. I think the team moat, Bruce Mur, who’s the skip, who won the medal in Beijing, but not the gold that the women won.
I think they are a really [00:17:00] good medal shout, but I’m not sure that the women’s curling team this time around. Are in the same position going into these games as, as Eve Muirhead and her team were in Beijing. That Eve Muirhead thing, I think just felt to me like the culmination of the story, the fairytale we were building to this point.
And I remember speaking to them after they won the gold medal, I said, you know, I had no right to win that gold medal. And they all looked at me and I thought, well, maybe I’ve, you know, stepped outta line a little bit there. But they, they understood what I meant. ’cause they went down to like the. Penalty shootout, sudden death, didn’t they in, in getting through.
but they got there. It was like the perfect final page to the, the Eve Muirhead story, which incidentally, she’s, she’s written and there’s a very good book.
John Cushing: on the skeleton front, the sliding front. If you can beat the Germans. If we can beat the Germans we’ll have a chance.
I mean, Matt, we has had a and, and Marcus Wyatt, uh, in the top three from a [00:18:00] men’s skeleton point of view, we’d never won a men’s skeleton medal before, despite having various, female, Olympic champions of course. So I think there are lots of opportunities for team GB as. As Michael said, but it’s gotta go.
And that’s the beauty of the winter games, isn’t it? It may just be the turn of the ice. It may, it may be the slip on the snow. No one really knows. It’s not like running on a track, which ultimately is the same for everybody. You could be early, you could be late, and you, you could be lucky. You could be unlucky.
and Allison, I know you are a huge, ice skating. I know both of you’re are huge ice skating fans and, and figure skating fans. Does, do you think Lila and Lewis have a chance? ’cause we all think they do. Oh yeah.
Alison Brown: Absolutely. And they have been getting the scores in the, the Grand Prix events this year.
it’s gonna be interesting, the, the I stands because it could go the old fashioned way where it’s, if you didn’t earn it, but they’ve earned it. They’ve been around, they’ve put in the time. So the big thing is, will the French [00:19:00] upend everything with gu Cone with a new partner. And will the Italians, ARD and and Fabry have that Home Ice advantage?
But Fi and Gibson have two really good programs. There’s questions about their levels, but it’s two really good sellable programs and they’re a lot of fun to watch. So it’s, easy to cheer for them.
Michael Weadock: Hmm. How easy is it to follow? Figure skating and like the, the recent Grand Prix final, for example, in Japan.
How easy is that to follow in the media? In, in the US because there was a time in this country when we had ice skating on the TV every weekend. Now even the world championships and the European championships are tough to find.
Alison Brown: The grand events have been on a main network every weekend that they’ve been on.
Wow. So you don’t get everything. It’s not the stream, which you can find, but It’s there and it’s, not hard to, uh, to come across if you wanna watch
Jill Jaracz: Oh, I would, I would argue differently. Okay. I mean, [00:20:00] I have seen it, I have turned it on the TV and found like a recap version that’s on for an hour or so.
That’s not gonna show every skater, but obviously in the US. NBC wants the viewers to tune in and so they’ve been, they work very hard to try to build interest in the sports, so they will have different sports on their network of channels. They’ll have probably figure skating on peacock, although I have, I mean, I get Peacock, their streaming service, but I haven’t looked for figure skating there.
I have this year. Generally gone to YouTube to try to find programs later because I don’t have necessarily the time when the, the event is on to watch it. And it’s really hard to find. And I’m sure that’s because of music stuff. So if I know things and, and because. We follow it a little bit more.
I’m more in tune to it and I’ll listen to [00:21:00] different podcasts about figure skating, but I have found that it’s hard to find programs that I want to see after the fact.
Michael Weadock: Mm-hmm. I think we, we are in a, from a broadcast point of view in this country, we’re probably in the worst situation that, that we’ve been in, in, in a long time.
I think in terms of obviously the BBC is the main rights holder, the television broadcaster, and. They just seemed to have stepped back, over the years from what you said, that storytelling aspect before the games. So, I mean, in years gone by, you would always have a, some kind of landmark documentary series in the buildup to an Olympics.
So, you know, it would be called something like going for gold and would be a kind of fly on the wall thing following Steve Red Grave or. Following, whoever, the Brownley brothers in triathlon had, a big documentary following those guys, I think in the buildup to 2016. Just don’t get that anymore.
And actually [00:22:00] even the coverage they used to do to events on some of those summer sports, I mean, just the triathlon struggle to get anything. The big drive now. In the UK is that the national governing bodies themselves are staging their own events. So that’s what British cycling are doing. That’s what aquatics GB are doing and broadcasting it themselves on YouTube because it just doesn’t seem like the broadcasters are massively.
And I figure skating’s a perfect example of just something that you just wouldn’t know was on,
Alison Brown: is it that football has taken every over everything. So if there’s sports on tv, it’s football, right?
Jill Jaracz: Yeah. Yeah. Well, and, and our football too. And F1, formula One has really taken hold here, other kinds of auto racing.
You might get some tennis, but basketball is in there and so. A lot of the sports networks who used to showcase more sports. I [00:23:00] find it’s easier to just have four people talking at a desk and somebody has to do something spectacular in order for it to get on that recap show. Otherwise, they’re gonna sit and talk about American football.
Or what Formation. Yeah,
John Cushing: what formation they’re playing or, yeah.
Jill Jaracz: It’s just
John Cushing: Oh, so boring. Yeah.
Jill Jaracz: For, for days. For days. And that’s what, you know, people want to tune in for and, and we hear all the time, people just wanna be super served, their content so. We’ll just keep showing the content they want to see versus they may not know they want to see this Exactly Right.
And it’s really cool and they should watch.
John Cushing: I agree. I totally agree with that. I totally agree with that. And I think Mic Michael mentioned it there, the BBC, I mean, obviously we’ve got Discovery and, and Warner Brothers who own the rights across Europe now. So they are, they’re like the NBC now for the whole of Europe.
They own everything. So you, you, so the BBC have only got a little bit, but they’ve also told the federations that they’re not interested in results. [00:24:00] It’s like, results don’t really matter. for me, I just don’t understand how. A sport. If you’re covering any sport, the result is the all important thing, isn’t it?
it’s the thing we all want or it’s the thing we watch. We want to know who wins or who loses. And for them to say, this is the head of BB, C Sport, the result isn’t, it’s not about results. It’s like, ah, if you can’t tell a story. On a result, it shouldn’t even be in sport, in my frankly opinion.
I find it absolutely flabbergasting and I, I hope that NBC you say that they’re, you know, they are still telling the story. ’cause of course they spend all this money to buy the Olympic rights that that can continue for another three years to LA because if not. If football is just gonna take over the whole world, you’ve got the World Cup there next year.
I know your president’s looking forward to it. in, in full, Lord,
Jill Jaracz: I’m sorry, our, this, our peacemeal winning President. Yes. Peace loving.
John Cushing: Peace loving. Mr. Trump is very much looking forward to it, [00:25:00] but. Don’t let it take over you. I couldn’t believe it when he said that he might change American football because it, it’s not football and I, I just don’t let it take over.
’cause you’ll have to come up with a podcast called anything but footy. If not,
Michael Weadock: and, and we already own the website for that one. Yeah. Shooting What, what about Team USA? I mean, my feeling is that. Team USAO is super strong in winter sports. is that gonna be the case this time for our listeners in the uk, the anything but footy audience? Who, who should we be marking our cards about?
Jill Jaracz: Well, I mean, Lindsay Vaughn winning a win World Cup this past weekend was incredible and it just shows how much she’s worked to come back, how well her surgeries worked to allow her to ski at that level. It’s, it was incredible to watch her go down as and attack the slopes the way she did. So [00:26:00] I think that has only boosted her confidence and she loves the Cortina.
Slopes. So she’s gonna be gunning for it. I think Mikayla Schiffrin will be, have more confidence after her surgery as the season progresses. you know, she had a really rough time in Beijing, but I’m sure that the Italian slopes are also more suited to her style, so I’m, I’m sure she’ll go for that too.
Yeah, I mean, it’s a cross country skier, Jesse Diggins last season. So that’s gonna be big news for, uh, those who follow cross country. I don’t, I mean, again, that’s huge news to us, but we are in this space every day. So I don’t know what regular people think, but that, that will get play.
Alison Brown: Um, and then women’s hockey.
You have USA Canada who, you know, it seems like that’s the gold medal. the really fun thing about women’s hockey is that France and Japan and some of the other teams are really coming out to play. [00:27:00] So I, I still think the gold medal game is going to be USA Canada, but some of those earlier matches.
May go a little bit unexpectedly, which will be fun to watch.
Jill Jaracz: And I will say, uh, there’s a USA Canada Women’s Rivalry Series every year and, uh, USA swept the whole thing this time, which is generally unheard of, especially when they move up to Canada. So it’ll be interesting to see how well Canada comes out playing in Milano.
We’ve got a huge. Speed skating star, Jordan Stoltz. he could win six golds, potentially. Wow. He’s back. Good. I’m making notes here, by the way. Yeah. Um, Erin Jackson, who we’ve talked to before, she could repeat as gold. She’s a little, she’s got a hamstring pull right now, so she hasn’t been skating the last couple weeks, but she could repeat if she’s healthy.
Michael Weadock: Gosh, what sort of size team will USA have for the, the [00:28:00] Olympics?
Jill Jaracz: Couple hundred
Alison Brown: at least. Wow. I don’t know why the number 2 65 sticks in my brain. That can be totally a made up number, but somehow maybe I heard that at the, at the, team USA media summit that we went to in October.
But yeah, it’s a big team. As it always is. And now I’m wondering if they will once again be the largest, since we won’t be seeing Russia. Yeah.
Jill Jaracz: But at least Italy will have a huge contingent since they get quotas for everything.
John Cushing: they, they’ve got a really good charge with, as I think Alison mentioned it, some home nation, uh, opportunities as well, just on the men’s hockey, ’cause we talked about that.
I can’t believe that the USA in men’s hockey have only won it the same time as men as Great Britain. It’s just once, I mean, come on, what are you talk? this is a game where they said, well, the ice is too small and it may be danger. Bring it back to the us. I was like, well, I don’t think you own Olympic hockey.
Not from what I can see.
Alison Brown: Well, I think that came from, because the one of [00:29:00] the plan, the main plan B for the sliding center if that didn’t get finished was Lake Placid. So I’m wondering if they kind of had that in the back of their heads of plan B. But I mean, that’s the fun thing about men’s hockey to me is that the NHL is so international and you can have, I think eight of the 12 teams are completely NHL players.
I could be wrong again about that, but it’s. So many teams can have such a shot at the medal. And you see the players really love playing for their country. Mm-hmm. I mean, we saw it at four continents, or four country last year where it got chippy. And I love a, I love a good chippy hockey game.
John Cushing: Because, from our, from our point of view, we look at it and go, oh, it must be like the basketball where you just, the, you know, the superstars turn up and you, and you win it. And of course, in men’s basketball, you do tend to win, the USA win win Olympic Golds, but it, it really isn’t like that. Even Canada have got a much better record, haven’t they, than the USA in Oh yeah.
Jill Jaracz: In men’s hockey. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Well, you [00:30:00] know, it, I mean, I don’t think hockey is as exclusively American. As basketball is, and even now, you know, other teams are starting to make a headway into that space to be competing competitive against the US and basketball. But you know, us is kind of in there with everybody else in the mix.
I mean, that’s is the great thing about having NHL players is that it brings up the level of so many countries. Versus having Canada who’s gonna always have a deep roster no matter what. And, you get the players playing at the. Pinnacle of sports who are at the pinnacle of their game as well.
Mm-hmm. Which normally you don’t get.
Michael Weadock: You are gonna leave the curling to us though. Yeah,
Jill Jaracz: well we’ve got a new curling team going this year on the mens side for the first time since Torino. John Schuster will not be at the Olympics. And that’s pretty amazing. So, I [00:31:00] mean, it’s kind of, I don’t know if it’s necessarily a changing in the guard because I don’t know, maybe John Schuster will come back.
But. It’ll be interesting for us to see, uh, a team who kind of scraped into the qualification. They had to go to the final qualifying tournament and they came out by the skin of their teeth, I think getting in there. So, uh, it’ll be interesting to see how we fare in curling, wheelchair curling, different wheelchair curling.
Alison Brown: I was gonna say that the mixed pair in curling, Is also a great shot for the Italians to repeat as gold medalists. So that’ll be a fun tournament. Mm-hmm. So here’s what I want to ask you about, about curling, and this came up earlier when we had a curling show. What happens? If a poor Welsh kid really wants to curl,
Michael Weadock: ah, well, I don’t, you know,
Alison Brown: do they just have to move to Scotland?
Do they,
Michael Weadock: they dunno what it is to,
John Cushing: they dunno what the sport is, to be fair.
Michael Weadock: But yeah, there is a [00:32:00] possibility that we might have at the Paralympics, some English curlers this time around. So, breaking developments
John Cushing: here, you’ve got breaking news.
Michael Weadock: that team hasn’t been officially announced, um, as we record it is due to be announced shortly.
we were told that there may well be English curlers. Now the issue is obviously that the curling center of excellence in the UK is in, is in Scotland. It’s, it’s in Sterling. And essentially I think you need to go and. Relocate to Sterling to get yourself on the program. What it does do curling in, in this country is really capture the public imagination.
And it, it’s one of those things about, again, going back to that conversation we had before, I wonder why we don’t see a bit more curling. We’ve just had a European championships where both the men and the women won medals and you know, I think again, that was quite hard to find. And I think to myself, here we are.
Few weeks out from the Winter Olympics when we’re gonna be [00:33:00] expecting people to get behind these colors and history’s told us. The public in this country will get behind the curlers and we will become experts and we will all know the intricacies of the draw shot challenge and everything else. Why we didn’t see a bit more coverage of the fact that the men and the women both won European medals.
So. Yeah, it answers your question. If you’re growing up in the valleys of Wales and you want to be a curler, I think there’s limited opportunities for you. But, we had this discussion on the podcast recently, John. There is more opportunities to get on the ice in this country now. Rinks have made.
A bit of a comeback, should we say, and certainly this time of year now, the kind of festive city center ice skating, I think we nicked it from the Rockefeller Center, but we finally, finally got it in the in, in the uk. Now that they’re in all the cities, you know, these Christmas markets now up and down the country, so.
My daughters went the other week. They loved their opportunity to get on the [00:34:00] ice. So I, I think it’s an improving situation.
John Cushing: Can I, can I ask a, a question because as you guys are Olympic offic nos, how much of a difference will it be with the president being a female in Kirsty Coventry staging these games, and what, what have you made so far of her presidential reign?
Alison Brown: I like where she’s going. I think it is definitely different than Teebo, which is what you want, which was the point. I don’t know if it’s necessarily that she’s a woman or that she’s of a generation younger. I think that’s more the difference, and obviously that she had such a long athletic career and saw several different.
Eras of Olympic sport. I don’t know if we’re gonna see it much in Milan other than her kind of being around and that will be different because she hasn’t had that much time. I think we’ll see it more when we get to LA and then French Alps.
Jill Jaracz: [00:35:00] Yeah. I think her being an athlete really helps an athlete across multiple games.
I do. Also think that she is more in tune with women’s rights in a way that suddenly the eGames are no more. Because that was a deal with Saudi. And I wonder if that had anything to do with, not only IOC leadership being female, but Kirsty Coventry probably looking for better women’s rights and more opportunities for female athletes.
On the flip side of that, we have this conversation really brought to the forefront about what is a woman and protecting women’s sports, which I. Just don’t like, you know, I, it’s going to end badly in some way, shape, or form. And it’s gonna be kind of a dark mark again, where we had all of the dark marks before on [00:36:00] sex testing taking events away from women.
I, I. Don’t like that. I can see why she’s intrigued with it, because in at least the US swimming is one of the big sports where people have been discussing it, and that’s Kirsty Coventry Sport.
So. I can see where she’s more interested in that. Mm-hmm. So, I don’t know. It’ll, it’ll be interesting to see how she leads. I do think, like Alison said, being of a different generation will help. I think being younger will help. But I, I think as we watch this unfold, it will be a different kind of IOC when we look at the end of her first term,
John Cushing: because the, the Russians are gonna be back for la aren’t they?
That, that it’s
Jill Jaracz: looking that way now. Yeah. It’s looking like they get, they’re getting beat down,
John Cushing: mainly because she’s already said with DACA for the Youth Olympics, they want them back. She was pretty clear about that last week and there was always, she’d already hinted at that anyway, when she took over.
And then of course you got [00:37:00] Donald Trump as well want I assume, will want his mate, Mr. Putin there the way that, that, that’s going as well. So how does she deal with Donald Trump? I mean, you’ve seen him with Infantino. I mean, he’s, he’s like his little puppy, but how does she as a woman deal with Donald Trump?
Or does she leave it to somebody else, or does she just go with the organizers? How is this gonna
Alison Brown: pan out? I think she’s actually a perfect person to deal with Donald Trump because she has that, she’s a strong woman, but she is not a. Overly, at least in public, that kind of aggressive, nasty woman that he likes to talk about, you know?
Which is such words, I can’t say ’cause we’re a clean show. Absolutely. But she has that teebo diplomacy and kind of that elegance that I think will work [00:38:00] well that she will. Get what she needs out of the, I think she’s gonna play him to be perfectly honest and get what she needs.
Jill Jaracz: And I’m not sure how much she will deal with him.
You know, she may do, courtesy visits now and again, but I don’t necessarily see her coing up to Trump the way FIFA has.
Michael Weadock: Hmm.
Jill Jaracz: And you know that there’s backroom deals involved somewhere with fifa. But maybe, maybe Kirsty Coventry’s like, okay, LA 2028, you do what you need to do to get them on board.
But I mean, she also may be looking and going every day is something different. So I don’t need to react until I absolutely have to deal with them. And, we’ll see what happens in two or three years time. Things could be totally different in America in either direction. In two
Alison Brown: or three days time.
Yes. Yes. [00:39:00] Let’s be honest. That’s, that’s the way it’s going
Michael Weadock: and I think
Alison Brown: she’s playing the long game.
Michael Weadock: Yeah. And is your impression of the IOC through successive presidents is that they don’t make knee jerk quick decisions? they do only make decisions when they are really, really forced into it.
And if they can try and palm that decision off on. An international federation or instead then that that’s, that’s what they would choose to do. So as you say, maybe she just doesn’t need to show her hand on the current president and LA 28 yet.
Jill Jaracz: Exactly. I have a question. I wanna go back to this. Why aren’t Olympic sports featured in the media as much anymore?
And I wonder, a, we’ve talked about the fact that media outlets tend to be strapped for cash, [00:40:00] so they are looking to NGBs to put on the show, and B, do n GBS need to start worrying about, well, not worrying, but. Pay attention to how their sport is shown and how to show it better, because they’re the ones that are gonna have to drive interest.
You know? They have to sell it to other people. And I wanna ask, because I went to my local bar the other week and the World Darts Championship was on. That was surprisingly entertaining. Allison, there were cheerleaders, there were crowds dressed up as stuff packed ballroom or wherever they were. It was packed.
People were excited. It was fun to, and I had the sound off, I was just totally mesmerized by what was going on.
Michael Weadock: Is a, is a fun event and I, I speak as the son of an [00:41:00] international darts player, so my, oh, my father represented England at darts back in the day. So, yes, traditionally a kind of a pub.
Sport if you like. I mean, if you, if next time you’re on YouTube, go back and, and look at kind of 1980s world championship darts and their smoke chain smoking all the way through it. They’re drinking pints at the pins. They won’t talking. And Dean
John Cushing: put it like that.
Michael Weadock: You need to look up a guy called Jockey Wilson, um, and Jockey Wilson.
Write that down. Um, if you’ve not already heard of Jockey Wilson, Eric Bristow was the. Kind of imperious champion of the eighties. And darts is, I mean, darts is a lesson, I think for a lot of these sports that, that we’ve mentioned in how to create a product and brand yourself because. This country goes potty, [00:42:00] um, at this time of year for the World Darts Championships.
And there used to be two World Darts Championships, so that when, when John and I were growing up, there was an organization that ran the World Darts championships. It would always happen early in January. In the late eighties, early nineties, there was a spinoff. So what’s known now as the PDC Dots.
And they started their own world championship, and that’s the championship now that everybody is excited about and watches. The other one carried on for a while. So we did have this situation in the country where we used to have two world dance champions, but it’s the one that you were watching with all the fancy dress and the raaz and the lights that’s really dominated and that story.
And the, the guy behind it is a guy called Barry Hearn. Who’s a big promoter. He is been involved in soccer. Uh, he’s been involved in boxing. He’s very heavily involved in snooker. But what he and his son and the other guys at, at the mat [00:43:00] company, which is what, what’s behind it, what they have done, for darts.
I mean, if, if you could try and create. Gymnastics, triathlon, cycling, diving, swimming and equivalent. And, and that, to be fair though, the other NGBs are, are trying to do that, aren’t they, John?
John Cushing: They are. And I think I’ve written a blog about it, and I’m sure we’ve talked about it on the podcast, but for me, as Michael said, the darts is the thing that you show.
Everyone go, well, this is what could happen. And I think there are a number of reasons for it. So a as, as Michael said, the World championships ends the year, but they created what they call a premier league of darts. It’s on every Thursday night, goes around the whole country in arenas. Every Thursday night it’s on the telly, on sky and in, in this country, which is, which is one of the, the big, um, kind of cable broadcasters in, in your terms.
They’ve created an event every Thursday night. You know it’s on the telly and you’re gonna watch it, or you go and see it in your city. And then what [00:44:00] invariably happens, it’s called the Premier League. It’s a bit like football. They know what it’s like. The second thing is that they’ve got kids playing and actually the kids who are coming through are really interesting and.
They’re not very fit. I’ll be, I’ll be brutally honest, I don’t really like them eating pizza, but, but they work hard. They know their maths, and they’re coming through and they’re changing the, the narrative of it. And then I think for me the key thing is they.
Really show a way where sports like athletics could get back into that kind of that coverage because it’s. Same time, same channel. What did they used to say? Batman? Same time, same bat channel. Everyone knew when it was on and you tune in and it was the same with the darts and for me. Yeah, athletics could do it.
Now look, I know that athletics, they can’t compete week in, week out, and you have to pick and choose what you’re gonna do. And the Diamond League, well, sometimes I go to China, sometimes I’ll come to Eugene, I might come to London. But actually [00:45:00] if you knew when it was on, it would help. And, and nobody knows when the Diamond League is on.
And, and that’s why the Olympics. Still the pinnacle because well, at least we know when the athletics is on. Although in LA they’re changing it. It’s gonna be the first week. But anyway, but yeah, it’s, it’s all over the shot all the
Michael Weadock: way through, isn’t it?
John Cushing: Yeah. but that, it’s you, you are right Jill.
Jill. It’s a great story for any sport that wants to make an impact.
Jill Jaracz: And you know, I think the International Biathlon Union does a really good job because. Most Americans have never heard of Biathlon, but we can watch, Eurovision Eurosport for free to see the biathlon coverage and a lot of other stuff I think too, ’cause you just create an account, but they have learned how to shoot their sport.
So it’s exciting. They have made some kind of event. I mean, biathlon fans are nuts and in a great way and. There’s a lot of money in that sport. [00:46:00] If you’re a good athlete, you can make a great living off a biathlon. And I think most Americans, and maybe British people too, would be very surprised to hear that.
But I mean, that’s another sport that’s really exciting and I think they’ve managed to figure out how to make all the pieces work, and now they’re trying to figure out how to branch out into other countries. A little bit better, especially with Utah hosting in 2034. And they’ve got, one of their lead commentators is an American man named Chad Samala, who is just phenomenally exciting and brings so much life to the sport that you, I think he is one of those rare people who helps transcend or, you know, make that connection between viewer and really falling in love with the sport, even if you’ve never done it.
Mm.
Michael Weadock: Biathlon in this country. And I mentioned this on a recent podcast, and John rolled his eyes and probably do again, it, it’s mainly known for the [00:47:00] James Bond movie for Your Eyes Only, which was set in Corina, of course, uh, with, with Roger Moore, right. There’s a whole biathlon storyline in that, in that film.
So I know as a huge James Bond fan, I will be making my pilgrimage to 14 in it. A lot and, and
Alison Brown: the girl from Ice Castle
Michael Weadock: with a, with a lot of for skis on the back and a and a blue. I think I said in the previous podcast, it was a yellow snowsuit. I was mixing my James Bond movies up, I think in fur eyes only.
It’s a blue one.
John Cushing: Don’t worry, no one picked up on it.
Michael Weadock: We were not inundated with emails correcting my, my James Bond knowledge.
Alison Brown: Oh, now Sheena Easton ringing in my ears. How could you do this to me? Michael? Alison.
Michael Weadock: Alison, you are singing from my song sheet there. I just quickly, I mean I, we, before we, we wrap up where are you guys gonna be in, in Italy and, [00:48:00] and from our point of view, will l la be be as, uh, good as John And I remembered it was in 1984 when we both got hooked on this great jamboree.
Alison Brown: I think LA’s gonna be amazing. I, I, I just don’t see them. Not coming through with just something really, really spectacular.
Jill Jaracz: Yeah, I, I agree. It’s gonna be a phenomenal games. It’ll be with five new sports may be a little chaotic, but they know how to do it and I, I think the confidence, hopefully not arrogance that they were the games that turned it around the first time they can do that.
And not that the movement needs turning around. They know how to make a buck, and they’re really showing that already with getting naming rights to stadiums and pushing that boundary a little bit more. So I, I just think that they’re gonna make a, a great games. It’s gonna be really fun to be [00:49:00] there.
I think so. and of course, I’m. Biased ’cause I live here and it’s gonna be fun to have a games where you don’t have to try to scramble to learn the language and you know, the ins and out. it’s interesting to be in a place and learn another culture, but it’s also from a work perspective.
Nice to be able to go, oh, well I know what the government type stuff is so I can go, I know where to look for different things or know how something is gonna get set up versus having to try to work through whatever structures they have and. In different countries.
Alison Brown: And not doing currency exchange in your head.
Right. Every time you go to the grocery store. That’s, that was surprisingly exhausting for the months in Paris. How much does this cost? I have to do math again, but for Milan, we are gonna be based in Milan. We’re hoping to get up to the mountains. A little bit like you mentioned earlier, kind of day, tripping it to as much as we can.
We’re gonna keep our fingers crossed on the [00:50:00] trains and hope we get there and, and get back and see what we can bring everybody every day on the show. Right. And that’s gonna be the adventure.
John Cushing: I’m looking, I’m looking forward to the, I’m looking forward to the overnight one when you’re stuck in the middle of nowhere on a train.
Jill Jaracz: Oh, and that’s gonna happen, happen, happen, happen. No, it’s gonna happen because there’s gonna be a Jill, a future Jill who goes. I can do it. I can get to and Salva and get to the biathlon venue and this Jill present. Jill knows that it’s not gonna happen, but there’s gonna be a future Jill who’s gonna be on the side of the road waiting for Giuseppe to finish his break.
Going, I just missed by Alon, but I’ll get to the venue and,
Alison Brown: and future Allison is not gonna stop her because future Allison wants a good show, tell you that right now.
Jill Jaracz: Right. And then we’ll, we’ll be there for the Paralympics too. But the Paralympics will be actually based in Venice near the main train station because Cortina is tiny and has very expensive accommodation.
Yeah. Which is out of their [00:51:00] little podcast budget. So we’ll be there, but that’s also kind of a good. Way to shoot across to Milan to get to, sled hockey as well.
John Cushing: and the serious question to finish are you really interested in Mariah Carey?
Michael Weadock: No, no, no.
John Cushing: I was a bit, I was a bit disappointed.
Me too. Yeah.
Jill Jaracz: I mean, I get what they’re doing is kind of grasping as Josh Celine Dion at least had a connection.
John Cushing: With shout the language.
Jill Jaracz: Yes. Speaking the language in nuts. Yeah. When, and I don’t know where you were, where I was on the opening ceremony. I mean, people across the river were going crazy ’cause they were sitting at a cafe and they just went nuts when Celine came on.
Yeah. It was, it was phenomenal. Like, I don’t, I don’t know if Mariah Carey has that same kind of global appeal and I’m looking forward to being surprised if she does.
Michael Weadock: It answers the question. I dunno where you were. I think John was in McDonald’s at that point because his, his commentary position for the opening [00:52:00] ceremony was the start of the athletes’ parade cement the cement work.
It was cement.
Jill Jaracz: Oh, we were probably right next to each other because I was also at the start of the athletes’ parade. And
Michael Weadock: I, I was at the end desperately trying to stay on the radio to X million people, whatever, listening back in the uk with tech that was dying, left, right, and center due to the weather and the rain and everything else.
Obviously we couldn’t have anything plugged in, so we were reliant on batteries and we had a relay of people bringing their bits of kit that they now, no, no longer needed because the ceremony. Been in their area and trying to get it to me for the end. I think we just about stayed on end, managed it. And, and Kelly Holmes, who was with us, Dame Kelly, double Olympic champion, absolutely adored Celine Dion.
it was the highlight of the games, I think, but we didn’t, we didn’t
John Cushing: know that three months before the games, or 50 days before the games. So I’m hoping it’s gonna be a, a bigger name than Mariah Carey. That’s, [00:53:00] that’s what I’m hoping for.
Michael Weadock: 2006, it was Pavarotti sadly no longer with us.
Jill Jaracz: No. Right, right, right.
Um,
Michael Weadock: I went to Pavarotti’s house on holiday in the summer and there was quite a lot there about the winter games in 2006. So I think there’ll be some opera. I think there’ll be some opera.
Jill Jaracz: Hope so. Hope so. Where, where are you going to be based?
Michael Weadock: We’re gonna be in Milan, so we have the, , anything but footy apartment, which, we are looking forward to staying in.
And then John’s gonna ditch me in the middle of the games to go and stay in a more glamorous. Hotel location with his family for a few days and then he’ll come back a change man, as he did in Paris.
John Cushing: I tell you, having, having the family visit was the best thing that ever happened in Paris. It, it gave me a second wind.
If you, uh, if you pardon the expression.
Jill Jaracz: Very nice. So before we wrap up, Michael, you alluded to a Rio Velodrome situation. We need this [00:54:00] story.
Michael Weadock: Oh, well, just when we talk about, as we do ahead of every games, venues not being ready. And I really hope actually for LA that this is not something we talk about because everything’s existing and they only have to build a 1500 meter rowing lake.
2000 meter one as we know. So that should take them only three quarters of the amount of time. But in Rio, I went to do a little recchi of the Velodrome the day before the track cycling program started because Team gb, great Britain, Northern Ireland, track cycling, big sport for us knew that there was gonna be lots of medals there.
And as I went into the Velodrome, they were literally sticking. The track down would take. and, and there were buckets collecting rain, water and, and leaks. And I honestly, the, the evening before the track cycling program, I, I wandered around, I thought, there’s no way in the world that they’re gonna have [00:55:00] cycling in here tomorrow.
But they did. And as we said earlier, It went ahead. They got all the races away. There was some brilliant action and it looked great on the tele. And ultimately, and it’s still a leg
John Cushing: and it’s still a legacy venue. They still go after the it’s legacy venue. The Paris were there, um, the para cycling was there just a few weeks ago, so yeah, they’re still going.
Michael Weadock: Tape is holding. Yeah, the tape. Well, yeah. I wonder. It was it and, and I think if memory serves, they, the branding at the Velodrome improved as the track cycling program went on. Like the first day they just got the cycling and the second day they had some other Rio 2016 branding at the finish line. They, they sort of got a chance to add to that on, so yeah, look, I think we always get these stories and we wouldn’t be doing our duty and job as.
Olympic fans, Olympic reporters, Olympic Ficano, Fidos. if we didn’t go, go through that [00:56:00] bingo card that I mentioned earlier.
Jill Jaracz: Excellent. Well, Michael and John, thank you so much for coming back on the show. It’s always fun to chat with you and we really appreciate it. We’re looking forward to meeting up in Milano.
Michael Weadock: Alison and Jill, likewise. It’s always good to get your perspective on things We love listening to your podcast from across the pond, and we will see you in Corina,
Jill Jaracz: . Thank you so much, John and Michael. Look for anything but footy in your podcast app and we will have links in the show notes too there. And we’ll have links to their show in the show notes. It’s always fun talking with them.
Alison Brown: I was so excited. ’cause I get to, I did get to meet them in person in Paris, lucky, which was just a great moment for me.
And so now this will be your turn. We gotta find them in Milan when we’re all together. That we do, that we do maybe get a
Jill Jaracz: cocktail that we should and we can only get to Milano Cortina. With your help, we are having a fundraiser to help cover the costs [00:57:00] that it takes to produce 32 plus ish daily episodes on the ground in Milano Cortina, bringing you what it is like to be at the Olympics and Paralympics.
It’s almost like being there friends.
Alison Brown: And I think it’s important for everyone to know we’re a totally listener supported show. We don’t have a lot of other sources of income, for the show. So everything you give is what? Gets us to do these shows, gets all the production done and the travel and all those pieces.
It’s not like we have this great, extensive staff that’s doing the logistics for us. Right. It’s us. Right. And it’s you, the listeners that make this show happen.
Jill Jaracz: Exactly. And I tell you, I just priced travel insurance the other night. Whoa. Little more expensive than I had anticipated. Luckily, our Paralympics hotel is very.
Affordable. So hopefully that will balance things out in the budget, but it, it really depends on how much we can raise as to [00:58:00] what we can afford to do. So, uh, thank you to everybody who has donated, who has helped keep our flame alive all year long, and we really appreciate, all that you have done for us this year.
And you can donate by going to flame a live pod.com. There will be a popup that shows up. There’s also a little banner at the top of the page to, , take you directly to our fundraising page. We have a ton of great gifts that we are sharing and, uh, we’re really looking forward to mascots of all persuasions.
Animal, human, whatever I want,
Alison Brown: I want them all. I want all the mascots.
we Are looking forward to that. I am looking for, I love sending mail, so I’m looking forward to sending postcards and all kinds of other fun things on our show page. So check that out. Flame life pod.com and look for the Milano Corina fundraiser.
Jill Jaracz: And [00:59:00] that’s gonna do it for another year of this show.
Alison Brown: Somehow we just keep chugging along. And that’s thanks to the listeners and, and I’m so grateful for them. And I’m so grateful for our community. Yes, definitely. So thank you so much for listening,
and until next time, keep the flame alive.