It’s Day 13 of the Beijing Winter Olympics! Our TKFLASTANI Clare Egan had her last Olympic race today. How did the US women fare in the biathlon relay? Also, it’s man vs. mountain again on the slopes in Yanqing. Who wins today?
Sports on today’s competition schedule:
- Alpine Skiing – Men’s slalom
- Biathlon – Women’s relay
- Cross-Country Skiing – Women’s and men’s team sprint classic
- Curling – Men’s and women’s round robin
- Freestyle Skiing – Men’s aerials
- Ice Hockey – Women’s bronze medal game and men’s quarterfinals
- Short Track Speed Skating – Women’s 1500m and men’s 5000m relay
This show does cost money to produce, and while our listeners have been extremely generous in supporting us through the Kickstarter campaign that got us to Beijing and also through Patreon patronage, we’re coming up on 2 ½ years until another Olympics, so to celebrate the Lunar New Year, we’re asking for donations of at least $8 — in China the number 8 is a lucky number symbolizing good fortune — to help us get through to Paris 2024. Go to flamealivepod.com/support to donate.
Thank you so much for listening, and until next time, keep the flame alive!
TRANSCRIPT
Note: While we make efforts to ensure the accuracy of this transcript, please know that it is machine-generated and likely contains errors. Please use the audio file as the record of note.
Beijing 2022: Olympics – Day 13
[00:00:00] Jill: Ni Hao and welcome to day 13 coverage of the Beijing 2022 Olympics on Keep the Flame Alive, the podcast for fans of the Olympics and Paralympics. I am your host, Jill Jaracz joined as always by my lovely co-host Alison Brown. Alison, ni hao. How are you?
[00:00:22] Alison: Ni Hao. I can’t remember what day it was in Tokyo; I think it was actually like day 10 where we both hit a wall and we just sorta lost it a little bit. This may be my day. I woke up this morning and I was dragging and I was struggling. So we’re going to do our best to hold me together for the show.
[00:00:41] Jill: Oh, well, I ended up having a good day and I welcome you all to the magical hour of vacuuming here in the Media Center.
When I walked in after a curling, I usually go to a desk that has a pillar in front of it to help block out the noise. Well, somebody was sitting in the exact seat I wanted. I chose another pillar and another seat, but it’s cold over there. Because I found where they, I found where warmish air blows on you.
It’s not necessarily warm. It will feel warm at times because when you’re really cold, anything feels warm and it happens to be right where the vacuumers are at right now. So we’ll have a little bit extra vacuuming and I understand that people weren’t hearing it before today. I worked hard to reduce the noise factor. I might reduce the noise a little bit because it’s loud.
[00:01:30] Alison: Because people in the Facebook group were kind of excited to hear the vacuum. So I have something I want to show you. And I realize everybody can’t see it, but I got my Paralympic credentials yesterday so they’re letting me into the country. I do need to publicly apologize to my UPS driver because I got the notice that it was out for delivery. And my desk is in the front window, and I saw that truck pull up and I ran out there. A little too excited. He comes here and he handed me the envelope and then edged back on to the truck.
So thank you for tolerating my excitement. It was a very, very big deal to get this envelope yesterday. So thank you UPS. And thank you to my driver whose name I don’t know.
[00:02:26] Jill: He probably likes a better that way.
[00:02:29] Alison: Probably true. And I have actually chased the same driver around the block once because he left me a little signature thing. So he worries every time now, when he sees the address come up.
[00:02:42] Jill: You know, we’re going to jump right to, since you’ve got your accreditation and we’re on the topic of accreditation.
[00:02:48] Alison: You’ve got a beef.
[00:02:50] Jill: Oh, do I have a beef today in accreditation. Oh yes. I have an accreditation beef. So I have been wondering what happens to me in the period between the Olympics and Paralympics, especially when I found out that the Main Media Center shuts down for an entire week.
And I asked about it and got an answer. It, we actually, we got a document because other people were asking about it too. They’re all like, Hey, we’re in your boat. What happens is that on February 23rd my Olympic accreditation is no longer valid. Now that would be great if I had my Paralympic accreditation in my hand, but this is not in my hand, it is with the USOPC representative who is currently in New York with Paralympic people and will be coming to Beijing arriving February 27th, which means I probably wouldn’t get it until February 28th. So I don’t know how I’m going to get my tests registered to the right number, my health monitoring I can do because it’s in the app and they’ve already switched me over to my Paralympic number. I’m not allowed to use the buses anymore after the 23rd.
They’ve said in this document that the, if you want transportation, you can take the game’s taxi and you have to pay for it. And I said, right back, I don’t think this is fair because I’m here and you sent my accreditation to the United States. You could have just left it here for me. And I’m sure everybody else who, I don’t understand why.
Are they not talking? I just, I do wonder if the Paralympics and the Olympics people do not talk to each other. I don’t know if the main people involved change hands or what’s happening, or if Paralympics accreditation and Olympics accreditations were two in two different silos and nobody said, oh, hey, some people might be covering both of these. Why don’t we cross reference our lists and put those aside? And figure out how to get them to people here, but no, mine went back to the United States only to sit there. And now it’s got to come back here and I don’t know if I’ll be sitting in my hotel room. What I’d like to be doing is taking one of those private tours Listener Dan hyped, just my other Beijing beef right now.
[00:05:14] Alison: So there was an NPR article where an NPR reporter who like you is in the closed loop, got on this secret closed personnel tour of the Great Wall.
[00:05:28] Jill: Yeah. They blocked off part of the Great Wall so that these people could go and some journalists got to go. I’ve got, I guess they’ve had multiple tours and you have to be in the know to find out how to get in this one.
So now I’m going to work on doing that too. Like I really thought maybe during the time between the Olympics and Paralympics they’d have somebody who go, oh, hey, if you’re staying, we can organize a tour. We can figure something out instead of letting you fester in your hotel rooms for a couple of weeks.
But yeah, I’m not thrilled today about the organization. So hopefully they can make some changes because they have made positive changes in other areas like transportation. So there’s that in the mountains, they put in bus shelters. They do have announcements on the buses now to tell you what stop this is. Sometimes they run them. Sometimes they don’t out in the mountains. It was great because they’ll say the next stop is, and then a list of acronyms. And none of that sounds like National Biathlon Center, not even the acronym. It’s all ZBT, ZCZ, V421, whatever, but you still have to look out the window to go, “Where am I in the grand scheme of things?”
Anyhow, that’s enough beef for right now. Do you have feed beefs to go with this or no?
[00:06:57] Alison: I do not have feed beefs, but because I have figured out the NBC feed issue.
[00:07:05] Jill: Oh, okay. That’s good.
[00:07:07] Alison: So I will share this with everyone. If you are watching something and it ends and they kick you out of there it is because it seems to be a different technical side for when it’s a replay versus when it’s a live feed.
So if it finishes and you’re not finished, you can go back. You got to wait a few minutes until it turns over into a replay and then just go back and scroll over and go back to where you were. It happened to me yesterday in figure skating. And I said, I can’t believe I’m going to miss the final group. I went out. I could not get into the replay. I waited maybe two or three minutes, and then I could get into the replay. So if you get kicked out of a live event, you have a couple minutes to reload the page, and then go back in. This is of course only in the United States. The same issue may be true of other broadcasters because it seems like it’s a technical issue rather than truly an NBC issue.
[00:08:12] Jill: Yeah. That makes sense. Once you say that, it’s kind of like, oh, they probably have to stop the tape, process something, and then reload it into the system as a replay. So that makes perfect sense. I’m glad you figured that out. I’m sure that’s across the board.
All right. Let’s move on to what officiating or volunteer job would you like to do? What do you have here?
[00:08:38] Alison: So in all the Alpine races, when somebody crosses the finish line, they get a little fanfare and Book Club Claire pointed this out to me, it’s this little automated trumpet do, do, do do.
And everybody gets it. It doesn’t matter if they’re in lead or if they’re in last place, everyone gets this little fanfare for crossing the finish line. And you know what that means? That means there is a volunteer, hitting a button on a soundboard, which we’ve discovered I love. So I want to be hitting that soundboard button for everybody’s fanfare.
[00:09:12] Jill: I just love the fact that they have a fanfare for getting down the mountain amuses me to no end.
[00:09:19] Alison: When we get to men’s slalom, people deserved that fanfare today.
[00:09:24] Jill: Oh boy, man versus mountain somebody who’s not winning today.
All right. How is our, oh, wait, what I would want to do? I would say if I was working in a volunteering in a venue, I would like to be the people in charge of the mixed zone assignments.
So what happens is, you have to go to a special desk and say, I would like to get into the mixed zone and they take your name and your publication down and what country you’re from. And then they say, and they have so many slots in the mixed zone and maybe 30 minutes before the race starts, the list gets posted. Like you went to an audition for a high school theater, community theater production, and you go, and you see if your name’s on the list. It takes several university students some effort to put this list together. So there’s reading the name, you know, of course, or reading English and spelling English stuff and trying to find it on the keyboards. And it’s very much, you feel like you’ve gotten behind the wall or something once you get into the mixed zone. So I would like to be in charge of that.
[00:10:39] Alison: What I thought was also funny, and you posted a picture of this on Twitter, and then we reposted it on the Facebook group, the sticker you get for getting in the mix zone is just a handwritten “Hello, my name is” name tag. It is, pretty much. It’s not like artsy or printed. It’s just, someone took a Sharpie and said, oh yeah, you, you win this lottery this week.
[00:11:04] Jill: And then the mixed zone there’s slots, but they’re usually for the press part, the front row is always broadcast and they’re set up way ahead of time. And I got to tell you, okay, because I’ll forget this later in the mountains, it’s like four degrees Celsius. It’s really cold today. And the broadcasters are out in their front line. And I look in front of me because I was in the second line of mixed zone people and we’re organized by country and there’s a guy wearing shorts and I just thought, how can you possibly be wearing shorts in this weather? But you know, it’s one of those people, if they run hot.
[00:11:48] Alison: I see he is a middle school, boy.
[00:11:51] Jill: He looked like he could have had a big growth spurt.
Okay, let’s move on to fantasy league. Where are we at?
[00:12:02] Alison: Okay. RAF Q is still on top at 284. FF Chelsea IC and Schollestan are tied at 278. Monkey cat is 275. The early leaders from last week psgola, Einarsen, and DLN are still in the top 10, but they can make a comeback. I have slipped slightly to 18. Jill. I know you said you forgot to put in your theme yesterday, but you are still holding at 40.
[00:12:28] Jill: I will take it. I’m happy with that. How are you doing against your sister?
[00:12:32] Alison: I’m beating her.
[00:12:34] Jill: Okay. Well, that’s, you know, even though you fall, if you’re, you’re still reaching your goal, that’s pretty good. Uh, We have a little bit of followup file today.
[00:12:42] Alison: Yes. So yesterday shockingly, I got my Russian girls confused and I said, true, Sova stumbled and Shcherbakov fell.
It was the opposite. So Sova. And share Bacopa stumbled. So I wanted to correct that. I also wanted to add too. We talked a little bit about how Tara Lipinski and Johnny Weir, the American commentators have been responding to the valley, Ava doping scandal. And it seemed at first higher with being a little soft yesterday.
She was not being soft at all. He came in. Very strongly saying positive. Positive test is a positive test. We should not be seeing value of escape.
[00:13:30] Jill: Was that the Mike Terico interview, like they had a nine minute clip on Twitter. You don’t put nine minute clips on Twitter.
[00:13:37] Alison: Yes. So before the short program, they did a studio session with Terico Tara Lipinski and Johnny Weir and Johnny and Tara just unloaded.
They are angry. They are hurt. They are. Confused Terry used all those words. Neither one of them.
Any comment during valley Eva’s her a performance. It was almost like they took a knee and didn’t commentate for lack of a better word to, they did not comment during the program. And at the end, Johnny Weir said. All I can say is that was the Olympic short program of Camilla valley. Ava.
[00:14:22] Jill: Wow.
[00:14:23] Alison: Absolutely pulling no punches.
And in the American press skaters from around the world are just coming out. Firing Adam Rippon of course has always been outspoken. He’s Mariah Bell’s coach and an Olympian himself he’s furious. And he said, so. The skaters themselves are talking about how angry they are, how wrong this decision is, how much of a joke this competition has become cause value of us on the ice.
And usually especially the female figure. Skaters are very demure. They don’t get political and they are just coming out on this. And it’s been pastor.
[00:15:09] Jill: Well, good for them. Now you have to tell me, because I haven’t been online very much today. And in the sense of being able to look up other stuff, I’ve been tweeting and being on the book, but what’s the deal with her grandfather’s medication.
[00:15:26] Alison: So what was claimed in the hearing? Was that something she told me. That is legal became contaminated with her grandfather’s heart medication, which is the illegal substance. It makes absolutely no sense unless they’re claiming that she took it in error. Like all my grandfather takes this medication.
It’s a little yellow pill. I take this vitamin, it’s a little yellow pill and I took the wrong thing. Only problem is now they have found three heart medications in her school. Whoa, two are legal. One is illegal, but they all do the same thing. They increase oxygen in your blood would all enhance endurance.
So the idea that this is contamination or a mistake is getting less and less viable.
[00:16:27] Jill: Wow. Okay. So two legal heart medications, one illegal. It sounds almost like there’s a cocktail effect going on where we could just layer these on together to give you more endurance in the legal limits.
[00:16:42] Alison: Yes. And a Listener Meredith, who is our resident skating expert was telling me a story yesterday.
We were communicating on Facebook. This is nothing. You knew that there were rumors that Elena’s, a gold medalist from 2018 was also getting dope. So this is nothing new, just like with the Corollas. The stories have been around for years. And I think that’s why everybody is so angry. We all knew this was happening.
Nobody got. But here’s something the IOC came out with today and I loved this one. They have announced that if valley Ava is on the podium, it will be considered a provisional result. So in their official report, it will have an asterick.
[00:17:40] Jill: Wow.
[00:17:42] Alison: So the IOC, unfortunately has its hands tied because of the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
They made a decision and the ISU and the IOC are doing what they can to say. We are not okay with this decision.
[00:17:59] Jill: Wow. Wow.
That’s just, it’s just bananas the whole situation.
Okay. So you asked yesterday what they would say in the papers here today about the skating. Right? So I just ran and grabbed the China Daily. That’s what we get here for. They lay it out every day. We have an English language version and there’s a Chinese language version as well. So I pulled those for today in the English language version.
There is no mention of the figure skating at all.
[00:18:32] Alison: Wow.
[00:18:33] Jill: Yeah. In the Chinese language version, there are some pictures of the top three and there’s also a picture of Lee’s you the Chinese. Is that her name? Did I get it right?
[00:18:45] Alison: Yes.
[00:18:45] Jill: Okay. Thank you. She also because she’s from China, they said something about her, but it looks like I’ll, I’ll try to do a little Google. On the text, but it kind of looks like it’s a recap more so than it. Cause it looks like the pages, the word they have laid out, it looks like recapping the action. Not necessarily talking about the issue. So this is very interesting bringing some paper home. Anyway
[00:19:14] Alison: Was I early?
[00:19:17] Jill: That’s okay.
[00:19:19] Alison: I get excited for hitting.
[00:19:21] Jill: So the saw a note that there has been word of a positive test here in Beijing. This is for cross country skier, Valentina commence, gov from Ukraine. She has tested positive for Alabama Anik, anabolic androgenic steroid on also a stimulant. She is provisionally suspended until the resolution of the matter. That means she’s prevented from competing training, coaching, or participating in any activity during the rest of the Olympics, she is allowed to appeal this. So I do not know much more about this. It’s just something I saw quickly came across the boards today. So we will keep our eyes open for any other information.
Let’s move into today’s action starting with Alpine skiing. Men’s slalom competition took place today. Gold went to Claremont, Noel from France. Silver went to Yohanna Stoltz from Austria and bronze went to Sebastian. From Norway. You watched this,
[00:20:24] Alison: I watched this and you know, we talk about men versus the mountain. This was men versus the course.
[00:20:31] Jill: Really?
[00:20:32] Alison: This was a tough course. People weren’t crashing, they were straddling gates. They were sliding out. I’m not sure if it was because of the conditions, but I will say. There was a lot of snow flying around when they would hit the edges. So a lot of times slalom, skiers, what Tom Kelly told us, like a, harder course, an icier course that they can really carve into this looked like it was soft.
So I think that caused a lot of the sliding out. So there were 36 skiers who are out on run one seven on run two, then there was
[00:21:16] Jill: somebody were left at that point?
[00:21:18] Alison: I knew there were a lot, there were a lot of skiers in this race, and then there was a whole bunch who finished the course, you know, got back on. They bounced out or they slid out and then got back on and finished the course. Okay. So that those numbers don’t even quite give you the whole story of, there were top ski. Who were nowhere near the mix.
[00:21:41] Jill: Wow.
[00:21:42] Alison: But here’s the one I wanted to mention for Sterling snare Sorenson from Iceland, he got hit with a gate in an unfortunate spot. No. And the poor announcer said, oh, he seems to have gotten hit in the mid drift there.
And what’s so upsetting was on international television. This poor man is sprawled out on the snow and we all know what happened to him. There’s a universal facial expression in this kind of accident happened. Wow. The poor guy.
[00:22:25] Jill: So what we see this on Olympics, funniest home videos.
[00:22:28] Alison: It would definitely be the trailer for it.
[00:22:30] Jill: Oh, well, what a shame. This is the mountain, man. It’s really getting.
[00:22:38] Alison: These courses, the way they are laid out are extremely difficult and the skiers are not familiar with this mountain or these conditions. And it is absolutely showing.
[00:22:49] Jill: And that’s really tough. And in a way it’s a test of how well they can navigate a new course versus what they’re used to in all of the other stops on the tour.
But in another way, It doesn’t seem right. That so many people are not able to do this just because of lack of knowledge of this particular geography.
[00:23:11] Alison: And what will be so fun in 2026 is it’ll be at Cortina, which is a World Cup stop. All the skiers will know that mountain very intimately. So I think we will get much better racist.
Four years from now, just because the conditions may be tough, but these are people who are going to new that mountain.
[00:23:35] Jill: Okay. Moving over to biathlon, we had the women’s four by six kilometer relay today. Gold went to Sweden. Silver went to ROC and bronze went to Germany. Oh man, this was tough. I went out for this race and it was, you know, it got there and it was, it’s a beautiful sunny day.
Feeling great. The mountains are nice and I’m thinking, okay, I think the us can get bronze today. I really have that feeling like we can get bronze, we can do it. And Susan Dunkley starts off and she is doing great. The U S started in like 10th spot, I think. And she, after the first shooting, she was. And left the shooting first.
She was first out of the prone and then in the standing shooting, she was clean again and was within the top five. And then she skied past me in my where the press Tribune was. And there’s a small hill that you have to go up and she just balked and she just could not move and could not move. And. Skiers or flying pastor. And it’s just like, oh no, what happened?
So she takes off the Claire and like 18th place. And Claire of course is. Putting the pedal to the medal, trying to catch up and she does better and catches them up and skiing for her shooting was pretty abysmal. And she, she was not happy with her shooting because she ended up in this race.
What happens is you get your five shots there in a magazine. Then if you miss any, you get three extra bullets that you have to handle load. So that takes a little bit of time. If you go through all three of those bullets and you still haven’t knocked down your 15. Then you go to the penalty loop and she ended up in the penalty loop for one of her rounds of shooting.
And so she actually went through the mixed zone. I was I’m impressed that she did this and was very honest and blunt with me about how she felt that tape might be on the end of this episode. We’ll see if I’ve got, I can pull it together. She did send another a message to, to me, both on Twitter and through email apologizing, because she didn’t mean she was didn’t mean to sound rude, but she was just like, that’s the way I felt right then.
And she was very hot and very upset. She was upset about how her Olympics ended. It started really great ended, not where she wanted to be. And this is the second one that’s happened. And. It’s made me sad for her and sad for the same. They ended up finishing 11th, which was nice, but it’s still, that were, they could have been and not worth.
Obviously they want it to be. And this really team has been really good.
[00:26:31] Alison: The altitude and the conditions have affected the cross-country skiers and the biathletes in ways that they expected, but could. But could not train for a lot of them did high-altitude training. They did extreme cold training, but it seems like the number of days, the number of races in the altitude and the conditions are wearing on them in a way that they couldn’t prepare for.
[00:27:01] Jill: Right. And I, and I wonder if even the Chinese. Are prepared for this because of course they’re on the World Cup circuit. So they’re not necessarily at home. And they’re finishing about where they usually finish, which is actually not that bad for a country that is relatively new to the sport. And. If you hear them talk, the, the athletes talk about losing finger, dexterity, guns, not working bullets, getting stuck.
Ha how many layers can we put on? What else can we wear? You know, do we have special gloves that we can use? And they’re all bundled up. They’re all wearing mole skin. And I know when that mole skin comes out, it’s not a good thing. It’s a tough, tough day. And just, I can’t imagine me standing out there is cold and I know that they’re getting warm.
They’re really warm cause they’re working, but like once they stop, they guys probably freeze really quickly because they’re all sweaty
[00:27:57] Alison: And the announcers on the fee today, we’re talking about how they’ve spoken to several of the top athletes and by athletes are forgetting their races. Oh, really. In other words, they are not getting enough oxygen while they’re racing.
And after the race, they have no memory of it.
[00:28:20] Jill: Jeez alleles.
[00:28:21] Alison: So this is not, we were worried about this. We were worried about conditions throughout, but I hope we take this into consideration. As we keep awarding these winter games. This was not an appropriate location for a Winter Games. We know that the athlete’s health at risk.
[00:28:43] Jill: And I would definitely agree with you on this. I think the weather, whatever these acceptable conditions are, and maybe that’s something to put on our to-do list for understanding it. They aren’t acceptable to be out here and having close to zero degrees Celsius or below. Having windshields that are really bad.
It, you can’t put people in this and expect them to have express them to have a good time, but even expect to have like the best condition of race that you want, even though the course is really lovely. And from a spectator’s point of view, it’s great. It’s not good to have these races and have all of them be in freezing conditions.
Well, I mean like really super, super cold conditions dangerous.
[00:29:40] Alison: And obviously it’s the Winter Olympics. We’re going to be cold. It’s going to be snowy. It’s windy, but there’s appropriate and there’s inappropriate. And it’ll be very interesting to see with the Paralympics because they have much narrower parameters for temperature.
And when conditions that are allowed for the athletes. If we see a lot of postponed races, a lot of moved races and having to make these changes that they probably should have done for the Olympics, because they were talking a lot about the IBU parameters and temperature ratings, and they were just kissing the edge and the Paralympics play when it comes to protecting its athletes.
And it’ll be interesting to see what the outcome of that for relief biathlon. I want to put a little happy note on there yesterday. You mentioned the Oberg sisters and Alvera has been doing so well. And Hannah has been kind of a a non-factor. She had a great race today. She was very instrumental in Sweden getting that cold.
Party in the Oeburg house!.
[00:30:58] Jill: Very true. Hey, back on that the health thing, one other bid this is something I haven’t been able to follow up on yet. Switzerland pulled out in the first leg of the race because of circulation issues, blood circulation issues, and. That’s something you don’t normally see.
[00:31:17] Alison: So, Hey, maybe a valley. If I can help them with that.
[00:31:20] Jill: Oh, snap. Okay. Let’s move on to cross country. We had the men’s and women’s team sprint classic final races. For the women gold, went to Norway. Silver went to Finland and bronze went to Roe.
I don’t have anything on this. We’ll have to look because I heard that this is, was a doozy of race, but I don’t have any details on it. So
[00:31:45] Alison: Yeah, I was just watching it before we came in and I know it was close and the U S sent Jesse Diggins were in it, but didn’t end up on the podium, but yeah, I think this is definitely one to go back and rewatch, if you haven’t caught.
[00:32:00] Jill: Moving over to curling. We had more Round Robin today. All right. For the, we had men’s and women’s Round Robin in the men’s side, China defeated Switzerland six to five. Great Britain defeated ROC eight to six and Italy beat Denmark. 10 to three. Italy is come back out of nowhere cause it were just losing most of their first games.
And now they’ve just been roaring back. That’s a resounding wind for them. So in the men’s standings Great Britain and Sweden are seven in one. Canada is five and three. Those three teams have qualified to move on to the knockout round. S is foreign for China is, and ROC are both four and five Italy and Norway and Switzerland are three in five, and Denmark is one end seven
Okay. And then we had the women’s Round Robin. They had two sessions today. So in the first Canada beat USA, seven to six Switzerland beat Korea, eight to four, China defeated Great Britain, eight to four. And then in the second Korea beat Denmark eight to seven, Japan beat USA, 10 to seven in nine ends are OCB Sweden, eight to five.
And China, B Canada. Let me look up the. This one to extra, and it was super exciting. China, one 11 to nine, and you’ve got the standings.
[00:33:25] Alison: I have the standings for the women’s tournament. Switzerland is on top seven, wins one loss. Sweden is at six and two. Japan is at five and three Korea and Great Britain.
And Canada are all four and four. The United States and China are four and five. Denmark is two and six and ROC is one end seven.
[00:33:48] Jill: So I did get to go to the last session. I was a little bit late, but I got in, I got to see the Garlic Girls play. That was great. It was great that they won and their game was really back and forth.
It’d be one for one team was ahead tied the other team get ahead. And it really came down to the last rock and having the hammer. And then. Really sealed the deal for a Korea.
Japan. Ooh. Wow. Did they do a number on the USA then? I think they had one with a five and 5.9. Yeah, it was one of those games where they just, and then the USA would come back and then Japan would just blow them away again.
And I was sitting next to a Japanese journalist who kept clapping a little bit during the thing I knew who around me, who was like, oh, you’re watching that game. Huh? I’m here for Korea.
[00:34:43] Alison: The journalist, he can’t help it. You know, we’ve talked about this before at some points. You do become from your country. Again,
[00:34:55] Jill: Moving over to freestyle skiing, we had the men’s freestyle free ski slopestyle. Today. Gold went to Alex Hall from USA. Silver went to Nick Gebert from USA and bronze went to Yesper. Tjader from Sweden. And then they also had the men’s aerials today. Gold went to a G Guam pu from China. Silver went to Alexandre, a Bronco Abra Minko from Ukraine and Bronwen to Elliot borough from R O C.
[00:35:28] Alison: So now China has won both the women’s and the men’s area. And we talked yesterday about how we hope that spurs China on to use that facility more.
And that is a continuation of kind of their diving and gymnastics traditions. So you can’t do better than winning both aerials competitions. They didn’t win the team. The U S won the team, but I believe they meddled in the team. So you’ve got the heroes for the Chinese kids to emulate. You’ve got a man and a woman.
Pick pick your poison, so to speak, and it would be great to see that facility get utilized.
[00:36:10] Jill: Yeah. So, yesterday was the women’s slopestyle and sure enough, the replays were all Eileen goo and that competition because she just, you know, she got silver and. That’s her second medal of these games. She’s got another event coming up and she is just now getting to be everywhere there she’s in tons of commercials.
So she’s there just playing those in heavy rotation and now her a slopestyle. So it’ll be interesting to see. I bet tomorrow morning in my repeat, before the daily coverage begins I will be watching aerials for breakfast.. Moving over to ice hockey. We had the men’s playoff quarterfinals hall. Boy, you know, I was in the biathlon venue media center when the Slovakia USA game finish.
And there’s all these people from the Czech Republic glued to the TV and I’m sitting there and I kind of watch and then doing some editing and I guess a USA Biathlon press attache was behind me. Cause, cause they were like, oh, Hey, I’m the only one cheering for the U S in this room. And everyone’s kind of looking at me like, wait, I’m there, I’m there too.
But USA was up two to one. And within the last minute Slovakia got a goal to tie it. So it went to overtime. No score. Went to a shootout. Slovakia, got a goal in the fourth shootout and then shut USA down after that. So tough break. Tough break for the USA. I will say it’s countered by the fact that one of the people I interact with the unfilter, it might’ve been a listener.
John posted a video of little kids in Slovakia at their early morning hockey practice wa glued to the TV and then going bananas when Slovakia one, I will take that cause I bet that means a whole lot to them to have. Their country advanced fr so, other games in this or ROC defeated Denmark at 3, 2, 1, and Finland beat Switzerland five to one.
What happened in the Canadian game? Oh, Canada, Canada lost Canada. Lost a Sweden two to zero. Yes, two to zero men. This happened, it ended right before we got on the line and that second goal was an empty net goal. And Canada’s just did not have anything in the tank today. That was a shock.
[00:38:53] Alison: So that women’s USA, Canada game takes on that much more importance since both the Canadian men and the Canadian and the American men are out of the competition.
[00:39:07] Jill: Yeah, it really does. So I am looking forward to seeing that tomorrow for sure.
[00:39:12] Alison: And then in the women’s bronze medal game, Finland defeated Switzerland four to zero. So Finland and I was in talking about the fins are going to be on the medal stand.
[00:39:25] Jill: Good for them. Good for them.
[00:39:28] Alison: You know what? That means?
[00:39:31] Jill: Cake cake. I will have a Swiss roll cake in their honor.
[00:39:38] Alison: You can’t have a Swiss roll for the fins. Come on.
[00:39:41] Jill: It’s the only cake I have access to. They had like cheesecake and tiramisu. And I haven’t seen that lately. Well, I also, haven’t been in the dining hall, but there’s not much, there’s not much cake around here.
[00:39:55] Alison: Should we talk about.
[00:39:57] Jill: We should talk about red envelopes. So it is our red envelope campaign going on. This helps fund the show to get us through to Paris 20, 24 right now all of your generosity has been so kind and we really appreciate it. The we are getting close to covering operating costs for a good chunk of the two and a half years.
That leads up to Paris. That will help us find the, give us the resources to find ways to make the show better and do more things with it. So we really appreciate your generosity so far. If you haven’t given and you appreciate what we’ve done for you these last couple of weeks you can donate FMLA, pod.com/support and find more out.
Find out more there we are asking for. Multiples of $8 or, sorry, we’re asking for at least $8 in donations, because eight is a lucky number here in China. Symbolizing. Good fortune. So thank you all for your.
Moving over to the short track for speed skating. We had the women’s 1500 meter competition today, as well as the men’s 5,000 meter relay for the relay gold went to Canada.
Silver went to Korea and bronze went to Italy. And then in the women’s 1500 meter who gold went to a Ming junk choy from Korea. Silver went to Ariana Fontana from Italy and bronze went to a shoes, Suzanne shul, things from Netherlands. Whoa, this must have been good.
[00:41:40] Alison: It was a good race. Suzanne Shelton as the defending world champion at this distance
[00:41:48] Jill: and your girl, Ariana Fanta.
[00:41:50] Alison: Another medal for this woman. She’s she’s the best there ever was in short track to be sure. And it’s Ming’s young Choi, the Koreans cry when they win. And I love that.
I think because Korea has this very strong tradition in short track, they feel the pressure the way the Dutch long track speed skaters feel. Where they’re expected to win, they’re expected to achieve. So the pressure must be enormous on the Korean short track speed skater. So to see her get that gold medal was a lot of joy.
It was again, a very joyful podium.
[00:42:32] Jill: Very nice. Very nice. Well, what’s going on with
[00:42:37] Alison: okay. So Team Schuster in curling will be facing Denmark in the last Round. Robinson. And then also tomorrow, Devin Logan will be competing in women’s free ski half-pipe qualification. That will be on late, very late Wednesday night here in the United States, even though it’s actually Thursday in China,
[00:43:00] Jill: We are looking forward to that and seeing Devin compete once again.
And we’d like to thank today’s Kickstarter, Location Scouts, Andy Roberts and Daniella.
[00:43:11] Alison: And we’d also like to thank our beautiful mascot for this week. Millie and Millie. I could really use a nice little puppy, hot water heater to snuggle with and keep me warm during my naps. I know she would like that.
[00:43:30] Jill: And she’s the perfect size.
[00:43:32] Alison: She is. She. Tuck in right here. I could cut with her and you know, she still got that puppy hair. So she’s super soft.
[00:43:42] Jill: Very, very cute. Thank you Millie for being our mascot and that will do it for this episode. Tune in again tomorrow for another day of competition here from baby.
[00:43:52] Alison: And celebrate the Games with us on our, Keep the Flame Alive Facebook Group. It’s the place to hang out with us and our other listeners. Jill is on Twitter and I am on Insta. Both are at flame alive pod. You can email us@flamealivepodatgmail.com or call or text us at two zero eight three five two six three four eight two zero eight.
Flame it.
[00:44:18] Jill: We will catch you back here tomorrow. This is the longest that the magical hour has lasted because they’re still going. So I think maybe we need to do the over-under on how long the magical hour of vacuuming lasts every night. So I can’t see him, but I can hear him.
So we will catch you back here tomorrow. Thank you so much for listening and until then, keep the flame alive.
But you had a good leg.
[00:44:52] Clare: Um, I disagree that I had a good, um, I shot poorly and profit and then I shot really poorly and standing. Um, so just one of my worst relays in the last and just another terrible race. Oh really disappointing Olympic. So, um, I’m really excited that this is almost over and that can be done soon.
And I was kind of dreading coming here after a really, really, really tough experience with the last Olympics. And these were definitely just as hard. I glad I had one race, good race in the mixture life, but I’m really, really ready to put this all behind me and never think about it again.