Sometimes all of the training and preparation in the world doesn’t get you to the Paralympic podium. Boccia player Alison Levine experienced that firsthand during the Paris 2024 Paralympics, when tournament bracket design forced her to face the other top player early on in the elimination rounds. Play didn’t go her way, and she didn’t get the results she wanted.
It didn’t get better in the mixed doubles tournament, when she and teammate Iulian Ciobanu lost to Thailand in the bronze medal match.
Even with the disappointment, Alison’s Paris experience was, on the whole, a good one. Along with talking about the tournament and how she regrouped after the Paralympics, Alison tells us about life in the Athletes’ Village, how accessible design made life a lot easier for a couple of weeks, and the infamous Paris 2024 chocolate muffin.
Learn more about Alison at her website, and follow her on Insta and X.
This week, we’re also celebrating one year to go until the Milan-Cortina 2026 Paralympics! Tickets for the Paralympics go on sale March 6.
We have another installment of our Milan-Cortina 2026 slidingnovela–this time, with good news! Workers have started icing the track, and the project is on time and on budget. This track uses a new innovation for cooling, as well as a way to use waste heat. We have more details in the episode.
The International Olympic Committee has recognized World Boxing as the international federation for boxing. While the International Boxing Association might not be thrilled, this is a step toward boxing being added to the LA 2028 Olympic sports program.
The World Games is only a few months away, and Chengdu 2025 will have the first torch and torch relay at a World Games. The torch design is called Zhumeng—Dream Chaser, and was selected from over 270 submissions. This first relay looks like it will be small, but even the first Olympic torch relay was a smaller affair.
Photo: The World Games
Plus, we have news from our Team Keep the Flame Alive! We’re wrapping up another winter sports season, which means big competitions for our sliders, Nordic skiers and wheelchair curlers.
And finally, this month, we’ll have a special feature on our Patreon for all members, free and paying. Check it out and join us there!
Thanks so much for listening, and until next time, keep the flame alive!
TRANSCRIPT
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Alison Levine’s Paris 2024 Paralympics and One Year to 2026
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. Each week we share stories from athletes and people behind the scenes to help you have more fun watching the games. I am your host, Jill Jaracz, joined as always by my lovely co host, Alison Brown.
Alison, hello, how are you?
Alison Brown: I have been watching, I feel like you, I’ve been watching some Biathlon. And, and going back with, because they had world championships and all the, the different pieces, because I missed it originally, so I’ve been catching up. And I remember how much I love Biathlon whenever I watch it.
It sucks you in every time. It really does. Every time. And the fans are so great. And the traditions are so wonderful. And I’m just Talk about more cowbell! I just Oh!
Jill Jaracz: biathlon, the sport, and I’m sure this happens at alpine skiing, too, when you didn’t realize how big cowbells could get.
Alison Brown: Oh, I know. I am not a very large person, and I realized there is probably a cowbell that is the size of me, and I would like it, and I would like to try to ring it. So if anyone has a five foot cowbell hanging around.
Let me know. Squad goals. Alright. I could be the little ringer and just stand inside and ring it for you.
Jill Jaracz: Oh, another squad goal we have is thanking all of our Patreon patrons and donors who keep our financial flame alive. This show does have real costs outside of going to the games and podcasting from there to bring you what it’s really like to be there. Every year we have a lot of ongoing costs as well.
Our patrons and donors really help keep this show going because of that. You can find out more at patreon. com slash flame alive pod. If you’re interested in making sure that our flame stays alive for years to come. Now, Patreon accepts paid members. but it also has free memberships and we don’t always have a lot of content for free members, but this month we’re putting up a conversation I had with Contributor Ben after watching the movie September 5th, which is about the ABC news coverage of the hostage strategy at Munich 1972.
It’s going to be a free episode and give you some insight as to how some of our bonus content works. Again, free episode going up this month on patreon. com. That’s patreon. com slash flame live pod. Now I am in a hotel room. Contributor Ben is sitting across from me. I just got an evil eye. Oh, Producer Ben.
Oh, I’m so sorry. Oh, that’s why you forgot his promotion. Oh, that’s right. Oh, I totally forgot his promotion to producer. Oops. He’s going to put you inside the cowbell and ring it while I’m in there. So yes, the producer Ben and I will have some really cool bonus content going up for everybody who’s a member at our Patreon site.
You don’t have to be paid for that one, but check out that patreon. com slash flame alive pod.
Interview with Paralympian Alison Levine
Jill Jaracz: All right. It is one year to go till Milan Cortina.
Alison Brown: I know, we’re getting, so we had our one year to go for Olympic celebration, now we’ve got our one year to go for Paralympic celebration. And this is great because this gives us a chance to re experience the Paris Paralympics.
Jill Jaracz: Exactly. And we are welcoming back Canadian boccia player Alison Levine. After coming off a really good season, Alison had a tough Paralympics, placing fifth in the BC4 individual and fourth in the mixed pairs with teammate Julian Chobano. Alison talks with us about those competitions and how bracket design can make or break your tournament, which was a really sad factor here.
We also learn about the Lululemon Alison pants Life at the Athletes Village and how much accessible design can be life changing for disabled people. Take a listen
Alison Levine on processing tough results
Jill Jaracz: Alison Levine, welcome back. Paris 2024, two tough tournaments for you. How has it been processing that?
Alison Levine: not gonna lie, hasn’t been easy. when I got back at first, I didn’t want to think about it. I didn’t want to talk about it. I didn’t want to have anything to do with boccia. so I took some time off and, uh, got back to training about two weeks ago.
Now, we had our Canadian championships last weekend, but last week, so getting back into the swing of things and starting to feel more like, uh, Like myself again.
Alison Levine’s Paris 2024 Boccia competitions
Jill Jaracz: how was the tournament for you?
Alison Levine: The tournament was actually really, really good. One of my things is that I wanted to make sure that I came home and I, I didn’t have regrets. You know, I didn’t want to say, Oh, if only I had done that, or I wish I had done that or anything of that matter.
And I can truly say that even right when I came back and the emotions were really raw, I never felt that, truly I did everything that I could have done. To, perform well. And I did perform well. And, I was able to, I guess, represent myself the way I wanted to be seen and represent my country proudly, as an athlete with good sportsmanship and all those things, that we, we want to, um, portray on the world stage.
And I can, I can say that I a hundred percent did. That crushing moment of, of finishing fourth, losing bronze in, in pair play, That sucks because, the month prior we had beaten them for gold in Portugal. so it’s not a question of, Oh, we can’t, it’s just a question of whose turn it is. You know, we know that in pairs we are the best in the world and, You know, we have, we had the pool of death as we called it.
we were like, okay, there are only 2 teams that we kind of want to avoid having in our pool and we got both of them. So we were challenged right from the start and we had. An incredible comeback against China in the pool play. so we played extremely well in the second game. We still really needed to win.
We went, we won all our pool play games. Like that was the plan we executed that well. and then it was just that. That semi final against Hong Kong that we had some things that we were able to later identify. but yeah, overall, if we look at our tracking statistics and everything, we did really well, and it really could have gone either way.
when it comes to individuals, which happened right before pairs, I’m not going to lie. Our sports structure is, is broken and needs to be changed in no other sports that I can think of. Is it set up? So number one in the world and number two in the world meet up in the quarter finals. So to play a gold medal game in the quarter finals and lose that way is ridiculous and it’s not right.
I know we had presented this to our International Federation many months ago and they had said, yep, it’s an issue. And that we’ll look at it after Paris. So that just hurts even more because, Lady chica, chica, and I were on the same level, uh, last three times I’ve beaten her. It was her time to beat me.
Why did it have to be at the quarterfinals at the Paralympic games is, is beyond me. So that one, that one hurts because it was completely out of my. Control, but saying that even through the difficult defeats, I feel like I was still on the court gracious and, very sportsmanlike and congratulated my opponents.
And that’s what I wanted to come home. Feeling proud of was despite what I was feeling on the inside. I want it to be like, that’s a gracious loser.
Jill Jaracz: Okay, so I have an actual play question. I was at your individual match where, uh, you were, facing, Nur, Mat Salim from Malaysia, and I couldn’t get down to the mixed zone fast enough to say hello, but, I wanted to know, there was one end where I believe you threw the jack but the drag was thrown very, very shallow, and I believe it was on, if you’re facing the court, the right side of the court.
Do you remember the send at all? Honestly, the minute I finish a game, I tend to forget it. You don’t, okay. Well, I wondered, I wondered what the strategy was in throwing short. Very, very, very shallow.
Alison Levine: Oh, yeah, I mean, there’s different strategies when it comes to who you’re playing as your opponent, how you’re feeling physically.
It’s a whole complex kind of decision type thing. Maybe you should have thrown a little bit further. But, you know, that’s not really what, what made the difference in that game. So, yeah.
Jill Jaracz: Oh, yeah. I just, because there was a beautiful shot and I can’t remember. I think. Believe you did it where you like threaded two balls.
And I was just like, Oh, it was, it was really beautiful to watch that. I really enjoyed watching Bacha in person because I was just mesmerized by all of the different, it was hard to have so many matches going on because I just wanted to pay attention to one, but it was very, very mesmerizing to watch and see the strategies kind of like watching curling, which I love watching as well.
I wondered, I don’t know if you know, you had the longest. match duration average of anyone in the individual tournament. Did you know that? I did not know that. How did you know that? We find things, Alison . Yes, I magically, I was smart enough for the Paralympics, I was not smart enough for the Olympics, to download the results books.
And there’s all kinds of stats in there. So you had the longest match duration of anyone with 44 minutes an average per match. How does a long match? affect you versus a shorter match?
Alison Levine: I know why that happened. And it was because I had one game that there was a very long interruption in the middle.
So that bumped the average up. I’d say on average my games are, I’d say they are pretty average normally and I think that one game where there was, I think it was maybe like at least 12 Where we were just sitting around, um, and that was just our court too. So that probably bumped it up, but. Yeah, definitely.
Um, I mean, we can talk so long about problems in the sport and things trying to be fair for everyone, but I and individuals had a very, very, very rough pool. I would have been advantaged having gone into the tournament ranked 3rd instead of 2nd, but. you know, I’m not going to the competition prior.
I’m not going to not go for the medal, you know, that wouldn’t be right. And it wouldn’t be within the principles of true sports to not do well to get a better advantage seating wise. So when you do have a pool where there are no, I’m not going to say easy games, but there are no, you know, normally when you’re higher ranked, you’re supposed to start off having an easier path to the finals.
And those tend to be quicker games because your opponent is maybe less experienced, doesn’t go on court much to see the situation, maybe throw their balls a little too quickly. People start playing boccia, they tend to just like rocket their balls, you know, just boom, pick it up and throw, pick it up and throw.
Um, so maybe that’s why, um, it’s a little bit longer as well. I also like to just take my time, I won’t like wait for it to get down to 10 seconds or anything, but. I will make sure that I take that extra second to take a deep breath and stretch out before each shot. So, yeah.
Jill Jaracz: Does it differ for pools play?
Because it’s, it was kind of interesting in the, the mixed pairs, you had the same 44 minute match duration average, but it was on the shorter side of the whole tournament. Those ranged from 40 to 57 minutes.
Alison Levine on communication and teaming in Boccia-pairs
Alison Levine: Yeah. Uh, Julian and I are very efficient in our communication. Um, and I think that’s why it goes, uh, pretty fast for us.
Yeah. Yeah.
Alison Brown: So I saw your first mixed doubles, with, Julian against China. And I was so struck with how the two of you communicated in comparison to some of the other teams and how fast it was. So I D it’s, it’s noticeably different. than other teams. do you notice how different it is?
Do you realize it?
Alison Levine: We do. Yeah. you know, we always say that kind of our chemistry on court and our communication and whatnot is one of our strengths when maybe it used to not be. but one of the big differences we see, from us and other teams and what we think is probably one of our strong points is it’s not one athlete.
Telling the other what to do or saying what they see. And then the other athletes saying what they see and then deciding on a shot. Julian sees what I see and I see what he sees like through his eyes. And I already know what he’s thinking and he already knows what I’m thinking. Um, and then we have each other’s backs for when I have one of those moments where I just completely don’t see the obvious shot, cause that happens too.
You know? so it’s kind of like we skipped that step of. One athlete turning to the partner and being like, well, I have this shot and then the other one going, well, I have that shot. We already know and we know we know each other so well that I know which one Julian prefers. He knows what I’m gonna want to go for.
So we just kind of completely skip that step of first analysis.
Jill Jaracz: Was that something you worked on off the court?
Alison Levine: Well, not directly. What we worked on mostly was Our kind of, I wouldn’t say trust, yeah, our trust of one another, our trust of ourselves, and more the things that were maybe holding us back, such as, oh, I don’t know what he’s thinking of me, or what, if I don’t do the shot, he’s going to be disappointed.
all those kind of intimate parts of having a teammate that you don’t have individually that was creating hesitation and creating even friction at times when you have misconceptions about what you think someone’s thinking. and until we were able to work that out. now it’s just kind of open, free conversation like you would almost with a family member and that you know that there’s no judging or anything like that.
Alison Brown: When you have a disappointment like you had in the, that mixed doubles competition, how are you working that out together? Are you working it out separately and then coming back together? How is that working when you have two people sort of dealing with this, this hard thing together?
Alison Levine: Yeah. Yeah. It’s pretty separate right now.
there may be a time, probably when we start competing together that it’ll probably come to the surface. but Julian and I are two very different people and deal with things very, very, very differently. I cannot stress that enough. and this is one of those things that we, we, we talked, just him and I through text, because that’s how I work the most.
Best, and we’re both able to kind of express how we were doing. We are both. We immediately we’re both doing so differently and are still doing so differently that it would be really hard to have kind of an open conversation about it without. Us not feeling without us each feeling heard because we’re just not on the same we take things very differently.
So it’s kind of hard to explain the dynamic, but like, I don’t see it being beneficial to either of us to just talk about how we’re feeling and be feeling two completely separate ways and feel like you don’t understand or you don’t understand because we’re not the same people. We’re not in the same parts of our lives.
We don’t have the same. Challenges and whatnot, although we share very similar, very similar paths, they are very different. So it’s more individually, us processing, you know, Julian, I think the day after he was already good. Well, that’s what that’s what he was showing externally. At least, you know, I’m sure that there is disappointment as well, but it’s a very.
different kind of emotion and, and everything that comes along with the emotion from him than it is for me.
Alison Brown: I did read an interview, right before the Paralympics, where you talked about when you first got together, you did not like each other.
Alison Levine: It’s not that we didn’t like each other. It’s that we couldn’t, we couldn’t see how our differences were going to become a And it was just frustration.
It was just, Well, that’s not the way that I think, so you’re wrong, versus these are my values, you have different values, that’s why you’re thinking that way, it’s nothing against me, that’s just the way you function, and that’s okay. Like, in the past, having Yulian be okay after defeat, would have hurt me, because to me it would have meant, no, you don’t care, when I know that that’s far from the truth.
He does care. It’s just a different level, and it’s just a different way than I do. So there’s no animosity of me between, you know, between me and him being like, oh, you know, he doesn’t care when we lost bronze at the Paralympics, like, it’s different, you know? Yeah, at first it was very difficult to work those things.
We also, you know, there was the, the, the kind of deeper feeling of, oh, he’s replacing Marco, who’s like, you know, my best friend and my mentor and all that stuff that I had to deal with as well. And coming to, you know, realize that it’s not a replacement. It’s nothing personal and it’s not, that’s just the way sport is and we have to do what’s best for results and whatnot and learn to love all the things that I didn’t like about Julian at first, but now, I’m able to just laugh and shrug it off and like, really doesn’t affect me at all.
I would take things personally and yeah, it’s, it’s been interesting and, and I think him as well, learning to understand that. I, have different thoughts than Hiten as well and, and him learning to accept those as well. you know, we still have times where, where I lock eyes with my coach when Julian’s talking and talking and talking and trying to explain this and that and that, or we just look at each other and be like, deep breath, it’s Julian, that’s the way he is.
You know, he, he talks and he wants to explain and he wants to get into depth and he wants this and that. And it’s like, I asked a simple question, you know, but I love him for it now because that’s Julian and his capacity to see things and to go into depth like that has helped our game, excel and, and help us when we strategize and plan and decide different things and whatnot.
So it’s a good mix. but yeah, it’s funny thinking back to what’s at the beginning and sometimes it’s funny seeing us now, too, because you can still see that we’re very, very different, but it works.
Alison Levine’s Paris 2024 experience
Alison Brown: On a happier note, what were some fun things and best parts of the Paris 2024 experience for you?
Alison Levine: Um, simply, it was not Tokyo. You know, Tokyo was the anti Paralympics, France, Paris did everything wonderfully. there was only a few things that I say, okay, that, that didn’t turn out the way they wanted to, or that wasn’t great, but our venue spectacular volunteers always make every single games.
And this was no exception. village was perfect. Food was great. anyone who was complaining about all the little things, I don’t know what competitions they normally go to in their sports, but. I mean, it was above what most of the time we deal with. So, just the, the joy in the village and, you know, it’s something absolutely remarkable that every single time it’s actually hard to describe of being in a village of people with disabilities and you’re just fitting in and everything is thought about accessibility and made to be accessible.
Just to be surrounded by people that are just happy is just incredible because we don’t get that a lot in our society.
What accessibility achieves
Jill Jaracz: when you’re in a village where all of the accessibility needs have been thought about and put into place, what kind of load does that take off of your mind in terms of thinking, how do I get from here to there or things like that?
Alison Levine: Oh, it’s so much. It’s not just stress that’s lifted.
It’s like. You don’t feel pressured to figure things out yourself. You know that it’s just going to be okay. And you know that, like, if there are a few things that maybe may not be super accessible that they will have someone there to help you through it. and it’s just such a time saver, you know, to be able to take a shower and then go to bed within an hour instead of it taking two because you’re in a really inaccessible hotel room and you have to do like four transfers to get to your shower bench and whatnot.
Just the energy that it saves, the time that it saves, knowing that you’re safe and you’re at less risk of injury, and that, you know, one of the biggest things is when we travel and our risk of injury during travel. And then while we’re at competition is so much higher than our everyday lives, just because things are not set up for us.
And then knowing that, oh, I’m going to be okay here. I’m not going to have that problem, is something that is just like, it’s freeing for the mind.
Alison Levine’s take on the Paris 2024 chocolate muffins
Alison Brown: You mentioned food. I want to ask about the very famous chocolate muffins chocolate muffins
Alison Levine: Okay, go ahead go ahead tell us okay So at first I’m not a huge chocolate lover like I like chocolate, but I’m not one of those people That’s like chocolate. I need chocolate, right? so I was like, okay, it’s gonna be a chocolate muffin and like muffins for me I’m like Take them or leave them, right?
So I take a bite and I’m like, I get it. 10 on 10. This is an amazing muffin. This is not, it’s chocolatey, but not overly chocolatey. It’s not bitter, but it’s not too sweet. it’s fluffy and it’s light, not like one of those like brick muffins, and I’m like, okay, 10 on 10 muffin. Definitely great. And then I got to the Fudge Center, and it immediately shot up to a thousand out of ten.
Like, that was just the muffin that kept on giving. And so, like, I limited myself to, like, I think I had five the whole time I was there. And I was there for two and a half weeks. So, not too bad. Is it sad to say I still think about them? You and Mackenzie Cohen.
Jill Jaracz: Mackenzie Cohen
Alison Levine: had a similar. We um, we were at Canadian Championships uh, last week and for lunch, for the dessert, they had some muffins there and one was a, it looked very similar and I took, and I swear a tear like escaped.
I was like, it’s not the same, it’ll never be the same. Yeah, it was really good.
Alison Levine’s work with Lululemon on the Team Canada uniforms
Alison Brown: I do want to ask you about your work with Lululemon and the clothing accessibility that, how did that come to be and what was that relationship like?
Alison Levine: You know, it was all Lululemon and I give them full credit for it because they wanted to make a uniform for everyone.
And so they did what they actually had to do to make that happen was to speak to the people that were going to be wearing it. You know, a lot of companies, it’s often just. Words of saying, oh, we’re going to do this. We’re going to do that. but to include anyone who wanted to provide any type of feedback for the design of how they were going to, you know, design these uniforms.
They had that open and anyone, That was a potential for Paris was able to join in on these many. focus groups that they had, and those of us that, gave specific feedback. We were contacted again later on just to, you know, give more, detail and, and, you can tell that they were actually researching, like they weren’t just jotting things down.
They were actually looking to see, okay, what can we do to make this the way it should be made? and yeah, I mean, they delivered, to be able to see the, A product that has something that you specifically requested to this huge company that, you’d think, well, why would they care about the few disabled people?
You know, they’re not going to end up making money on this adapted line, right? It’s few and far between. It’s not mass market, but they didn’t care. They listened and they did it anyways. that to me is real inclusion and just, you know, You know, I’m so proud to wear their stuff and, and keep bringing that up of being like, look, they, they did do this.
they should as every company should, but did they have to not to this extent, but they did anyways.
Alison Brown: And when the Canadian uniforms were unveiled, you got to be a fashion model. How was that experience?
Alison Levine: I was so out of my comfort zone, but in the best way, like. I’m not a fashion person. I don’t even buy clothes.
Like all my clothes are just old uniform. I’m like, well, why would I buy clothes? Like they’re given to me for free. Right. but no, like I don’t, I never wear any makeup. I don’t do my hair. I don’t do anything. And to go into having the full model experience of hair and makeup for like two, three days in a row and, you know, having fittings and making sure everything was good.
and to be, You know, a person with a very, very visible physical disability in a motorized wheelchair, and to be someone that’s plus size as well, to be able. To be treated like every single athlete that was up there, you know, Olympians and, you know, you have Phil Wizard is doing his breakdancing on the runway and then we just like rolling through and got the same, maybe not the same amount of applause, but hey, he did like spin on his head.
Come on. and it was almost like they were thanking me for helping them. When I wanted to be, thanking them for helping me in a way. but yeah, it was just an incredible experience and I was so like, you see the, the interviews that I do and I’m like showing off the pockets that are on the, on the shins that like I kind of brought up and I’m just like beaming and sticking my hands in them being like, look, I have pockets, you know, like it was a great experience and I hope, uh, I hope in the future that, They’ll, you know, reach out to me again so that I can continue to, to promote their stuff.
Alison Brown: Listen, every girl gets excited about good pockets.
Jill Jaracz: Yes. Right. were there other elements that you, recommended that got put in?
Alison Levine: Yeah. So like the, uh, seated carpenter pant pretty much was, um, she was calling them the Alison pant because a lot of the, Things particular to that pant or what I suggested one of them being the pockets on the shins, but the other one being the breathable, uh, wick away material on the underside.
So the whole back, bottom, and under the thighs is that really, you know, sport material that the sweat just completely wicks away, which I always say as a wheelchair user, if you know, you know, because wheelchair bun is a real thing. And, um, you know, the loops inside so that we can pull them on and off ourselves.
The lower, cut in the front, but the higher cut in the back so that when you lean forward, you’re not showing off to the world. the magnetic zippers, those are all things that I said, look, not everyone with disability needs these, but it’s a very common issue of the way pants fit and not having, um, you know, it looked like it had a zipper and a button fly, but it did, it was all elastic, you know, all those things that just.
blew my mind away that, I have now to wear in my daily life too. I
Jill Jaracz: hope they gave you enough kit to last for a while.
Alison Levine: They gave us so much. Like so much and I am so grateful because that’s the thing with Lululemon too, is that their stuff is good quality, you know, like in the past our uniform shirts have maybe lasted like six months to a year until the decals are falling off and God forbid you put one in a dryer, um, this stuff is going to last and we have so much of it too that like, You’re going to be seeing me like in 2028 being like, isn’t that from 2024?
And yep, still
Jill Jaracz: looks new. Yep. So I have one quick question about the clothing along the lines of being in a village that’s accessible. How much time does it save you to have accessible clothing?
Alison Levine: not only does it save me time, it saves my assistant time. because while she doesn’t need to be helping me pull up my pants, she could be preparing other stuff.
for those of us that have assistants, it’s nice to be able to get back some independence for a bit. and just the, the comfort, and you know, we, when we were talking about the accessibility, we were talking about that kind of burden on your, on your mind of things being accessible and whatnot.
clothing is one of them, because as weird as it seems, clothing can be dangerous for people that can’t shift their weight, you know? Um, like wrinkles and, and seams and all that, cause problems. And we have to spend time doing checks of our skin to make sure that we don’t have any pressure sores developing or material cutting into areas.
So like, just that alone. You know, after a few days of being like, okay, these things seem to not have that issue, you don’t have to anymore, you know? So it’s just a time saver, it’s a, it’s a relief on the brain, and it’s nice to have, to have some independence.
What’s next for Alison Levine
Alison Brown: So, with our last couple minutes, what’s next?
what’s looking forward for Alison Levine?
Alison Levine: I don’t want to stop playing Bacha, so I’m going to continue playing Bacha. If you ask me to look forward years down the road, I cannot, if you ask me to look when you’re down the road, I can’t either, because of the nature of my health.
Unfortunately, I don’t have the privilege of making a long term plans. so for me, as long as I’m enjoying what I’m doing, I’m going to continue doing it. And if that leads me to, 1 competition or 10 competitions, or all the way to, Los Angeles, then that’s what I’m going to do. But as for right now, it’s as always one day at a time and just.
Keep on keep on doing it.
Jill Jaracz: Excellent. Alison . Thank you so much for taking some time to talk with us and letting us know how Paris was We’re really sorry. It was not a more fun outcome for you, but Hearing the the other parts and hearing What it’s like to have that accessibility addressed and how much how important that is is just really good for Everybody to hear so we appreciate that.
Alison Levine: Yeah, it’s my pleasure.
Jill Jaracz: Thank you so much, Alison. You can find Alison on X and Insta at BachaAlison and her website is AlisonLevine. ca. We will have links to all of those in the show notes.
Milan-Cortina 2026 News
Jill Jaracz: I never know what you’re going to say there, and it’s always, it’s a happy language.
Alison Brown: You know what? It is a happy language, and I feel the spirit of my ancestors coming through me when I make the attempt, and they smile at me, and it makes me feel better. There you go. No, I’m not sure this would make them feel better.
The sliding novella? The sliding novella, because once again, I feel like I should yell, sabotaggio.
Jill Jaracz: Well, we have not had any sabotage in the last week, which is good. we are recording a couple of days earlier than our normal record day, but on February 27th, the refrigeration plant for the sliding track was turned on and they have started to ice the track.
This is on time.
Alison Brown: I think this may be the first time in all of Italian construction that something is delivered on time. So
Jill Jaracz: they have been creating the surface. It’s taking several days to do so. I’m sure there’s probably layers and layers and layers of ice that they had to put on, and it takes quite a bit of time to get that initial track laid down correctly.
They are prepping for the pre homogulation, which will take place on March 24th. Now, if you are an engineering or surface or chemistry geek, this will be the first time that a sliding track will be made with glycol. Glycol will be cooled in this refrigeration plant, then it’s pumped along the track.
There’s 33 different pumping stations at various points along the track. various points along the track to regulate the temperature of specific sections. And then there are 77 different zones of the track based on the weather and the level of sunshine. So they can basically section off a piece of track that is getting more sun than others.
And maybe that part of the track is melting. They can pump more glycol to that specific section. I think it’s pretty cool.
Alison Brown: This is the coolest point though. This is the best part of the whole story.
Jill Jaracz: The waste heat produced from the pumping process will be used to heat the buildings that are part of the sliding complex.
It’s a green track. It is a green, it’s icy green, icy green. so we’ll see how well this works. It’s a lot of stuff to put together and in a short amount of time. So I’m, I’m curious to know how it is going along the way. Of course we will keep an eye on it because there’s nothing like a novella. We have a ticket sales update.
There are 613, 000 tickets sold so far. That is close to half of what’s available for the Olympics. this includes tickets sold, for hospitality packages and tickets stakeholders. The most in demand sports have been hockey, biathlon, cross country ski, and figure skating. Paralympic tickets go on sale March 6th.
International Olympic Committee News
Jill Jaracz: we have a little bit of International Olympic Committee news this week. The IOC has granted provisional recognition status to World Boxing. This is the alternative or breakaway international federation to the International Boxing Association, which the IOC had de recognized because it had Many problems.
Alison Brown: Oh, you’re
Jill Jaracz: being diplomatic today. Well, you know, this is the IOC news Many
Alison Brown: problems
Jill Jaracz: So many nations broke away from the IBA and formed their own Federation Now it meets IOC qualifications for International Federation recognition. That’s a there’s a Laundry list of things they have to follow but a lot of it is having members in many countries many regions of the world.
So this recognition is a big step towards boxing being put back on the program for LA 2028.
Alison Brown: So yeah, to remind listeners, it’s boxing right now is not happening in LA 28 according to the official program. So we will see how this looks, in the months to come. Be interesting to see what the new president, I’m surprised a little bit that they did this before.
The new presidential elections, but it also feels like this is a little bit of a, a checklist thing. Like you have this number of federations, so now you’ve got to check, but we’ve still got a lot of ways to go before boxing gets back on that LA 28 program.
Jill Jaracz: Yeah. And maybe. How does that checklist coincide with the presidential race?
Because do you leave that for a new president or things just got to keep moving because you’re looking at three years to go for LA soon and they have to make some final decisions on the sports program at some point pretty soon so that competitors know whether or not they’re going to have qualifications coming up.
good news for world boxing. Not so good news for the IBA.
Alison Brown: Oh, poor babies. They’ll have to go back to their corner and spit in the bucket. What?
You know how boxers go and sit in their corner?
No sympathy for the IBA.
World Games 2025 News
Jill Jaracz: We also have some World Games news. I will work on getting World Games music, but For the first time in World Games history, there will be a torch and torch relay. the torch design is called Zhu Meng, Dream Chaser. It is inspired by the bamboo forest of Sichuan, with green and silver arched sides to represent Chengdu’s dedication to sustainability and innovation.
Uh, there will be jade elements that represent purity and fairness in sport. The Games logo is on there. Of course, the panda mascot is etched in there as well, as well as a phoenix shaped holy bird to embody the soaring aspirations of athletes striving for greatness. So there will be a torch relay.
The press release is not very clear, but at At the very least, it’s going to be a one day thing with 12 torchbearers, but it could go on longer.
We don’t know. But it’s a really pretty torch.
Alison Brown: It’s beautiful. That green is that, that fantastic acid green that shows up so well in photographs.
Jill Jaracz: very classic. So, another step for making the World Games more of a spectacle, I would say. We’ll see how this goes for future games.
Team Keep the Flame Alive News
Jill Jaracz: Welcome to Schluckflastan. Now it’s time for the show where we check in with our team, Keep the Flame Alive. These are past guests and listeners of the show who make up the citizenship of our very own country of Schluckflastan. First up,
Alison Brown: Anika Malasinski placed 25th at the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships. In the mixed team event, she partnered with her brother Nicholas, Ben Loomis, and Alexa Braback. The team finished ninth.
Jill Jaracz: In the last ISU World Cup of the Speed Skating season, Erin Jackson won a bronze and silver in the 500 meter races, but she took the overall season title in the 500.
This is the third consecutive title in this distance for Erin.
Alison Brown: I wonder if this is going to be even more special to her because she struggled so much with her health at the beginning of the season. So this is, this is a big deal that she came back so strong. And speaking of world championships, the world sliding championships are this week, March 6th through 9th in Lake Placid.
Bob Sledder’s Bree Walker, Josh Williamson, and A. J. Edelman, and skeleton slider Shannon Galea will all be competing.
Jill Jaracz: Also competing is Steve Emt in the World Wheelchair Curling Championships this week through March 8th.
We’re taping this on Monday, and so far they are currently two wins and three losses, and have played five games total, so they are tied for eighth so far, but there’s still a long ways to go in this tournament. Do not count them out. there are 12 teams playing 10 teams will be at Milan Cortina 2026, including Italy as host.
So champs helps finalize the quotas for 2026.
Alison Brown: and more babies in Shiklistan. Congratulations to BMX racer Elise Willoughby and her husband, Sam, who announced they are expecting a baby this summer.
So as she said, she’s going to be taking a little time off of racing.
Jill Jaracz: excellent reason to do so.
Get in touch and coming soon
Jill Jaracz: And that is going to do it for this episode. Let us know what you are looking forward to at the Milan Cortina Paralympics.
Alison Brown: And we do love hearing from you. You can chat with us and other listeners on our Facebook group.
Keep the flame alive podcast. Email us at flamealivepod at gmail. com. The voicemail and text line is always open at 208 333 4255. 3 5 2 6 3 4 8, that’s 2 0 8. Flame it, and if you need more Olympics and Paralympics in your life, And who doesn’t? Sign up for our newsletter at flamealivepod. com. We’ll have a link to that in the show notes.
Jill Jaracz: Also, do not forget to sign up for our free Patreon offering at patreon. com slash flamealivepod. Next week, we will be back with another installment of our history series on Sydney 2000, when Alison takes on All of the debacles from the artistic gymnastics competition, and there are many say that. Thank you so much for listening.
And until next time, keep the flame alive.