American flyweight boxer Ginny Fuchs joins us to tell us more about how boxing works. Ginny is also coping with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), and as May is Mental Health Awareness Month, she tells us how OCD manifests for her and what sort of treatments she goes through to better manage it.
Follow Ginny on Facebook, Insta and Twitter.
Book Club Claire also joins us for a preview of our next Book Club book, Sevens Heaven: The Beautiful Chaos of Fiji’s Olympic Dream (affiliate link). She chats with author Ben Ryan about bringing this story to readers.
What are our TKFLASTANIs up to this week? We’ve got news from:
- Tom Scott
- DeAnna Price
- Dawn Harper Nelson
- Evan Dunfee
- Kelly Claes
- Roy Tomizawa – published in The Japan Times
- John Register
Throughout 2021 we’re revisiting great stories from Atlanta 1996! For our Atlanta 1996 moment this week, Alison tells us about the boxing tournament, Floyd Mayweather’s bout, and (surprise!) questionable officiating.
We also have Games Updates from Tokyo 2020, including the release of more Playbooks, a call for volunteer doctors and nurses (how popular is this request during the COVID-19? pandemic?), a Paralympic vlogger competition, some maranovela news and the winners of the Olympic Village dining hall recipe contest.
Plus, the International Olympic Committee gave its website a facelift!
Thanks so much for listening, and until next time, keep the flame alive!
Photo courtesy of Ginny Fuchs.
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 Do not quote from the transcript; use the audio as the record of note.
Episode 187: Ginny Fuchs
Ginny Fuchs: [00:00:00] So in the boxing gym, I’m able to control those OCD thoughts, way better than I am just in my normal day life, because all in focus is on getting better, you know, winning this gold, um, being the best. So I might touch something and I might think about it for a minute, but then I get right back to focus on, you know, working on the bag or the MI, whatever I’m doing
Theme Music
Jill Jaracz: Hello, fans of Chi Costan. And welcome to another episode of keep the flame alive. The podcast four fans of the Olympics in Paralympics. I am your [00:01:00] host. Jill. Jarris joined as always by my lovely co-host Allison brown, Allison. Hello, how are you today?
Alison Brown: I’m a little tired from running up the steps of the Philadelphia art museum and beating up sides of beef.
Jill Jaracz: Oh .
Alison Brown: And if you get that reference, you are old
Jill Jaracz: and there is a Rocky statue at the art museum.
Alison Brown: That’s true.
Jill Jaracz: But that does mean we are talking boxing today. Very excited to learn a little bit more about the sport in a non ABA.
Can’t get their stuff together and, and put on a, a tournament without controversy sort of way, but
Alison Brown: don’t worry. We won’t go a whole show talking about boxing without getting to some of that later.
Thank you, patrons!
Jill Jaracz: But first we’d like to thank our Patreon patrons for keeping our flame alive with their financial donations.
This week, we’ve put out our patron exclusive episode for may, which features Dominic Jones and moments from the team USA media summit. Find out how you can become a patron at [00:02:00] patreon.com/flame alive pod.
Ginny Fuchs interview
Today we are talking with flyweight, Ginny folks, Ginny won bronzes medal at the world championships and a silver medal at the 2019 PanAm games at Rio 2016.
She was the us Olympic boxing team captain one interesting thing may is also mental health awareness month. So Jenny also suffers from obsessive compulsive disorder or O C D. So we wanted to learn more about her sport, but also understand how she manages her disorder. Take a listen boxing. You are a flyweight.
What. is that and what are the characteristics of flyweight? Boxers.
Ginny Fuchs: Okay. So yeah, I’m the number one flyweight for the us USA, which is 112 pounds or 51 kilos, cuz we do kilos in the Olympics and I’m the second, um, lightest weight out of all the 10 weight classes. But I’m the lightest weight out of the Olympic, [00:03:00] uh, weight classes.
Cause there’s for women, there’s only five weight classes that can compete in the Olympics and that’s fly weight 1 12, 1 25, 1 32, 1 52 and 1 65. So those are the five way classes for women at the Olympics and I’m delighted.
Jill Jaracz: Okay. So that means you’re fly weights are pretty fast boxers then too, correct?
Ginny Fuchs: Yeah. Yeah. Cause we’re kind of little so yeah, we we’re, uh, our pace is, is fast when we’re fighting.
Alison Brown: Little and scrappy
Ginny Fuchs: a little scrappy. Yeah.
Jill Jaracz: uh, okay. So other technical terms, let’s talk about the different types of punches. What are, when we’re gonna listen to commentators, we’re gonna hear like jab and cross and hook and what is all of that?
Ginny Fuchs: Right. So he, a, a jab is I call it my bread and butter. And so I’m south Paul. So my jab would be my right hand. And [00:04:00] that’s well, if you know how a boxer stands, it’s the lead hand is your jab. Okay. And that’s what is mostly thrown in a fight. Cause it sets up the other punches.
Alison Brown: Okay. So wait, you’re throwing a jab with your non-dominant hand.
Ginny Fuchs: Well, so yes you are, but for me I’m actually righthand person so I am actually throwing it with my dominant hand, but, but traditionally. When you start boxing, your, your jab is not your dominant hand, you’re cross or you’re straight, or number two, they call it two is, uh, your dominant hand, which is the power, which is the power punch.
So for me,
Alison Brown: you, you box left handed.
Ginny Fuchs: I boxed lefthanded, but I’m. Yeah, but me personally, I’m a right-handed person. So traditionally, if when I started, I would be an Orthodox. So [00:05:00] my, in that case, my left hand would be my jab and my right would be my power, my cross. But when I started boxing, I didn’t know the difference between south Paul or Orthodox.
And the coach I started with, he didn’t tell me, he just said, which feels better for you this hand to jab with, or this hand to jab with. And of course, I was like, oh, well, my right hand feels better with the jab. So he’s like, alright, that’s how you’re gonna fight. And I didn’t even realize I was in the left hand, stands.
Like a year later so
Jill Jaracz: it’s kind of funny. It’s like other, like shooting sports. You have like, I’m, Crossey dominant if I tried to do archery or, uh, do any kind of shooting a gun sport, but this sounds like similar in boxing you, yeah. Okay.
Ginny Fuchs: Yeah. In a, yeah, in a way, very rare. Like there’s very few boxes out there that fight the opposite way of their, of, you know, their dominant side.
Jill Jaracz: So what are the benefits of being a soft, soft paw? [00:06:00]
Ginny Fuchs: Well, nowadays I wouldn’t, I wouldn’t necessarily say there’s a benefit, but back when I started there, cause most people or Orthodox fighters, right. Hand fighters, obviously. So back in the day when I started and I came out south Paul, um, all the girls I thought were telling me, like, I’m very awkward.
They’re not used to fighting south Paul. So it was, it was, you know, I was awkward for them. So that kind of gave me advantage because there weren’t that many, um, south Paul boxers out there. So when I came into the game, um, I was confusing most of the girls, or it was difficult for them to figure me out.
So that was the advantage I I had. But nowadays I’d say the playing feels kind of, even now, I feel like, of course there’s still more Orthodox spiders, but there’s now there’s a whole lot more south paws.
Jill Jaracz: Okay. Uh, alright. So we have a jab and we have a cross. What are some of the other, uh,
Ginny Fuchs: right
Jill Jaracz: hits
Ginny Fuchs: and then there’s the classic hook, which is a three.
So a [00:07:00] one, I don’t know if you’ve heard combinations that go throw a 1, 2, 3. So one is a jab. The two is the cross, your power hint. And the number three is your hook. And again, in my case it would be my right hook and an Orthodox stance. It would be the left hook. So, um, that’s a basic one, two, three’s a basic combination that is used obviously.
Worldwide in the, in this game. And then you might hear a 1, 2, 3, 4, but there’s different people that the four can be another straight in my case left, or a four can be a left upper cut. So the, when it, when it gets beyond three people change what a four, what the four punch is, but, but a 1, 2, 3 for everybody is a dab cross in a hook
Jill Jaracz: when you’re in the ring.
Is there a lot of like relying on muscle memory to figure out what combinations to throw or, or I, I’m always curious because if I [00:08:00] think that I stood in the ring, I would just kind of freak out and go, I don’t know what to hit. I’m just gonna wa but you know, there’s a lot more Finese to actual boxing,
Ginny Fuchs: right?
Well, you, you always, that’s why I always say my jab is my bread and butter. Cause usually everybody goes out there and just throws the jab out there to keep their opponent distracted and just give yourself time to figure. Your opponent. So you, most people always start with the jab, but it’s, and that’s why they call this, you know, the sweet science, like a chess game.
Cause you go cause everybody, you fight fights differently. So you gotta go after the first time and kind of be like, figure out your opponent, see what they’re gonna do. And then, so yeah, muscle who does play in effect in the sense that, you know, you, you you’re to figure out your opponent and then, um, adjust immediately.
And that adjustment is obviously, you know, like, okay, I see that they’re, they’re moving to my left a lot. So I’m gonna set up. [00:09:00] So that’s like my game when I’m in the, when I’m in the middle of a fight, that’s kinda like how I’m, that’s how I’m interpreting the fight. Now the like time, you know, when I throw the left and, or my combinations, that’s where kind of the muscle muscle memory comes into play.
Jill Jaracz: Okay.
Ginny Fuchs: If that makes sense.
Jill Jaracz: yeah. Yeah, it does make sense. And. Olympic boxing, uh, matches how many rounds and how long are the rounds?
Ginny Fuchs: So for both men and women, it’s three minute, three rounds.
Jill Jaracz: Holy cow. So how are you feeling at the end of that third round?
Ginny Fuchs: Uh, well actually, I, I always feel like my third round’s always my best.
Cause that’s, I actually feel like I don’t get start. Like, I feel like I’m gonna be better as a pro because I, I feel like I, I get better as the rounds go on. That’s why I always say my, the last round’s always my best and I that’s where, you know, I just feel takes me a while to warm up. I’m always, I’m always warmed up by definitely warmed up by the second.
But the third route is when I feel like, all [00:10:00] right, you know, where I really got my rhythm going and, and I’m feeling good.
Alison Brown: What other differences between pro boxing and Olympic boxing? Should we be paying attention to?
Ginny Fuchs: Okay. Well, pro boxing, they don’t have the headgear. Now men, the men don’t have headgear in Olympic foul boxing, so that’s the same, but for women it’s, that’s.
Um, we fight in 10 ounce gloves, the professional fight in eight ounce gloves. And then, well, this is both for men and women. Um, the round, the amount of rounds is different. That’s obvious for us. We always do three rounds for the pros. It can go up to 12 when it’s for a world title, fight 10 for women, when it’s a world title fight, but men go to 12.
If they’re fighting for a, a belt women do 10, if they’re fighting for a world, world title belt, and then the only difference in the ti the timing, the three minutes is the same for us in the men, in the women’s professional boxing, they do two minutes. So that’s different, [00:11:00] which I know makes kind of doesn’t make sense how we go longer and the professionals go shorter, but that should, I’m assuming that’s gonna change real in the professionals,
Alison Brown: but in terms of punches that are allowed and footwork,
Ginny Fuchs: that’s allowed, that’s
Alison Brown: all
Ginny Fuchs: gonna look the
Alison Brown: same.
Ginny Fuchs: Yeah. There’s no, yeah, yeah. The scoring, the way they score the fights is the same. The 10, the 10, nine systems is the same. Yeah.
Jill Jaracz: I, I know the answer is two ounces, but what’s the difference between 10 ounce gloves and eight ounce gloves when you’re actually wearing and using
Ginny Fuchs: them? Uh, well, I’ve never actually fought an eight ounce gloves, but my best friend, Michaela Mayer, whose professional noun was on the Olympic team with me in two 16.
Well, her ankles, they say the eight ounce gloves is, feels similar to like getting hit, uh, in the head with a brick is a little, it’s just, yeah, it’s a little more compact of a punch than the 10 ounce gloves.
Jill Jaracz: And so is getting hit with the 10 ounce gloves, like getting hit with a pillow.
Ginny Fuchs: No, [00:12:00] Wednesdays getting hit, like hit like a pillow, but not as hard as a brick.
That was the best way I could explain it. Yeah. Cause I, again, I D know I’ve D hit with eight ounce gloves, so I can’t really.
Alison Brown: Something they’ll look too. It’s gonna call us back in a couple years and be like, let me explain yeah. Be slightly less hard. Right?
Ginny Fuchs: Slightly
Alison Brown: let’s talk a little bit about O C D.
Ginny Fuchs: Okay.
Alison Brown: You were diagnosed with O C D very young for mm-hmm obsess compulsive disorder. I also have O C D myself, and I think it’s probably one of the most misunderstood mental disorders out there.
Ginny Fuchs: Oh, very much
Alison Brown: so, huh. Everyone thinks it’s about, I like things neat and I like things clean, but that’s not what we talk about.
So how does it manifest for you?
Ginny Fuchs: And that’s funny, you, you actually say that. Cause I was trying to explain to my teammate the other day about that. So for me, it’s with contamination fear. And [00:13:00] so my, when with me, it’s a lot about, you know, like cross contamination and, you know, looking at that part.
Sturdiness. It’s not necessarily how things look. It’s what I see, touch, whatever, you know, it’s what I see touch as something else. That’s kind of what my thoughts are focused on. Um, and this is what I was told my teammate the other day. I was like, look, I, I might be a clean person. Like I like being clean in the feeling of clean, but if you go in my room, I’m not organized.
I’m messy. Like it doesn’t look like I’m when you walk into my room, it’s like, okay, wait a minute. Thought you’re like a clean freak, but that I, that’s not what that means. That means like I will, if I think, no, I’ll just give an example if like, I think so, like a piece of my arm touches something contaminated, then I go and then I’ll go to the bathroom and I’ll wash that one spot on my arm for, I mean, I have done this before for like 40 minutes trying to get that [00:14:00] contamination off my arm.
So, so that’s where. People get, or that’s what people misunderstand about what I personally struggle with. It’s not necessarily like everything has to be in the right position, in the right place and look perfect with me. It’s more of a feeling and of getting this grossness off, whether it’s me, my belongings or something.
So that’s what I obsessed with. That’s why if I clean, when I actually clean things, it takes me a long time to actually clean one part of whatever I’m cleaning. And, um, that’s why this disease is very debilitating to me because it takes a huge amount of my time focus on one certain thing and, you know, and, and it’s like, I can’t move on with what I’m doing or with my day until I get that contamination, you know, gone or clean.
And, um, so you get
Alison Brown: the
Ginny Fuchs: ruminating
Alison Brown: thoughts with it as well.
Ginny Fuchs: Well, yeah, like I will. Like, I will like notice something, [00:15:00] touch something else and be like, oh, you know that the germs have spread to that. And then I’ll focus on that specific thing, whatever it is and, and be like, oh my God, I need to clean that.
Or when can I make sure nothing else touches that I don’t wanna spread the contamination? So yeah, the, the thoughts and that’s, you know, that’s like a constant thought obviously, because it’s impossible to not let things touch each other in this world. So , um, but yeah, the thoughts, uh, are, are constant with that.
Alison Brown: So how does,
Ginny Fuchs: and those thoughts are, what are, what, um, drives me to do these behaviors, these compulsions of over washing, or, or just obsessing about one little thing and continuously cleaning it over and over and over again.
Alison Brown: So how does that affect you in a contact sport?
Ginny Fuchs: So I know if you asked me that and, uh, this is why boxing is, uh, Help me actually with my OCD in a way I actually kind of tell people boxings like, uh, therapy for me.
[00:16:00] Cause when I step into the boxing gym, of course, those thoughts obviously pop up in my head, those OCD thoughts. But because my focus with boxing is, you know, that’s, that’s like my purpose, you know, like I’ve worked 12 years to get to the Olympics and win a gold medal. Like this is my, this is my value.
This is my desire. This is what I want. So, uh, so in the boxing gym, I’m able to control those OCD thoughts, way better than I am just in my normal day life, because all in focus is on getting better, you know, winning this gold, um, being the best. So I might touch something and I might think about it for a minute, but then I get right back to focus on, you know, working on the bag or the midst, whatever I’m doing.
And I’m able to be like that the whole time during training or competition and stuff, like I’m able to be locked in on my boxing. It’s when I leave the gym and I go back to my room, my house [00:17:00] or whatever is where my OCD thoughts controlled my, like more of my behavior.
Alison Brown: So how has the pandemic been for you when people are truly talking about contamination and germs and touching one another?
Ginny Fuchs: Well, to be honest, it kind of confusing me. Like I was like, man, oh my God, I’m doing, I was doing everything right. All along. And I told my therapist, I was like, so maybe I shouldn’t change my rituals. And she’s like, oh, okay, hold up. You know, don’t let this get in your head too much. Um, yeah, everybody needs to be extra clean right now, but , don’t, don’t, don’t make it seem like you were doing everything right.
But, um, so, and. It actually, I was actually more comfortable going out to the store and stuff when the pandemic hit, because everybody was more cautious and, and aware of, you know, things [00:18:00] cross contaminating. So everything, you know, they were constantly cleaning counters. Everybody was wearing gloves. So I was actually more comfortable going out to the store, but it, it was hard for me and the fact that, um, I was stuck in the house all day.
So the, and like the, like being in the house alone or just having no like schedule or, or, or, or, yeah, pretty much having no like, uh, routine for the day is what’s hard for me because then all my, all my focus, all my thoughts all my time is like OCD, OCD, clean this, clean, this, clean that. So that’s where the pandemic really hurt me, which was because I was stuck in the house all day.
So it allowed me to do my rituals. You know, times 10, cause all that’s all I could, you know, I had nothing else to do. And that’s what my time was spent. That was, I had free time to do OCD rituals. So that’s where it came hard for me. Plus, plus I would go to the store and never buy, took all my [00:19:00] late ice gloves and Clorox wipe that I’ve, that I buy almost every day.
Anyway. So that was another hard part. everybody took my supplies.
Alison Brown: Does your O C D lead to anxiety or depression or both
Ginny Fuchs: lead? Well, it’s, it’s more of the anxiety I get from the observation of the cross contamination or me feeling discussed that anxiety is what leads, I guess, to the OCD, thoughts and rituals.
But me doing more of my OCD just causes more anxiety too. So it’s like it’s vicious cycle. I get this anxiety and I do the rituals to, uh, bring down my anxiety, which it does at the moment. But in the long run, it’s just building more anxiety in me from having to do these rituals. Does that make sense? No,
Alison Brown: it makes perfect sense to me.
Yeah,
Jill Jaracz: it makes perfect
Alison Brown: sense. But
Ginny Fuchs: yeah,
Alison Brown: the question is doesn’t make sense to Jill cause Jill doesn’t have brain in this conversation.
Jill Jaracz: No, it makes perfect
Ginny Fuchs: sense. [00:20:00] Do you? And that can, and so that, and that can all the, all that and all of it can lead to depression because which it has in me personally, when it’s gotten really, really bad.
Cause I look at my life and I’m like, I don’t wanna live like this. I don’t wanna like, I’m constantly. And stress anxious in that like fight or flight stage. And I, you know, it’s like, it’s like, I can’t live a peaceful, like, like my mind’s always riled up. I just wanna peace of mind and it’s hard to get that.
And so I, and so I’m like, I don’t wanna live like this, so that can, that can lead to depression.
Jill Jaracz: Do you think about, or do your therapist work with you on like it’s, it’s so interesting that in the gym, there’s the, the focus and the ability to not have to stop everything and, and clean, but how do you translate that to the rest of your life?
Ginny Fuchs: Well, so in, in treatment and therapy, we do exposure therapy, which I don’t know what you guys heard of. [00:21:00] So, and this has been the most effective treatment with OCD. Patients is exposure therapy plus medication. And I used to take medication back in high school. And then when I got to college, decided to get off it because I never.
Really agreed with it, or it was up forward. I kind of was forced to take it in high school and I haven’t taken it. Well, see, in two 19, I went back into inpatient. I put myself in back into inpatient treatment because it, it got to points where it’s never been before. It was really, really bad. So I made a choice and put myself back into, in inpatient right before, you know, everything got serious for the Olympics.
And I, I got back on treatment maybe for like two months, cause I was in there for a month. And then right when I got out, I continued it for another month, but it started making me feel nauseous and sick. And so I didn’t want anything to change. Um, I guess like body chemistry wise before [00:22:00] going to the Olympics.
So I, so I decided to stop taking it. And wait til after the Olympics, but I have continued with EPR exposure therapy, which I do with my therapist still today. And that is so exposure therapy is, so my therapist will make me go touch dirty things like inside of a trash can or just the ground. Anything that’s G that I feel is contaminated.
And then she’ll make me, which is still hard for me today and took me a while to do it. Once I touch that with my hands, she’ll make me rub my hands all over my body, over my face to cross-contaminate, you know, all the germs all over my body. And then I have to sit with that for a while. And then, so let me go wash my hands, but it’s only.
For, so in, I’ll just give an example in pace. And I only got five squares of soap and I got three minutes to wash my hands. And that was, I know, that sounds like what three minutes is a [00:23:00] long time, but for me that was very hard. So that’s just an example of the kind of, um, exposure therapy treatment I do with my therapist and, and that a lot of people with the university do.
And that’s been specifically the most effective treatment so far, and I’m still doing it and I’m gonna be doing it for many, many years. Cause I still got a long ways to go to get it in a manageable state. Again,
Alison Brown: honestly, Jenny, no wonder you wanna hit people.
Ginny Fuchs: Yeah. and that’s another reason why I say it’s like therapy.
Cause it gets my it’s another it’s it’s a way to get my anger and stress out about with my anxiety and about my OCD.
Alison Brown: well, I wanted to ask a quick question about the training in the department store.
Ginny Fuchs: Oh.
Alison Brown: So the, so the us boxing team didn’t have space during the pandemic. So they took over an empty department store.
Was it just a big empty space or was there still remnants of the [00:24:00] store that you could recognize?
Ginny Fuchs: So we, yeah, so I have lived in trained of the Olympic training center in Colorado spring since the end of 15. So once the pandemic hit, you know, they kind of closed down the Olympic training center and it’s opened back up and we used it for camp back in last eptember I believe.
But then we had a couple of positive cases in the camp. So the Olympic training center got scared and it was like, all right, no more the boxing team can’t train here. . So the last camp before this camp I’m in now, they were trying, deciding what to do, and we gotta deal with this hotel and the people that owned the hotel apparently own the old Macy’s department store at one of the malls in Colorado Springs.
They made a deal and was like, all right, you can use the cause it’s no longer, you know, Mac’s anymore. The mall, it’s just kind of empty. So we took that over and, and everything was out of the department store, but [00:25:00] like, you could still tell the ring, the place that I put the rings was obviously the place where the shoes were.
You kinda see like the shelves that on the wall, like it was like shoe rack shelves. Um, you could still see the checkout counter, obviously all the equipment and everything was gone, but you could tell that that was like a checkout. So you could definitely tell still was a, it was an old department store.
There’s nothing in it, but the setup of the story was the same.
Alison Brown: And you probably had some nice dressing rooms to change in.
Ginny Fuchs: And I was gonna say that and you know, we had, we, we had, we, after we trained, we’re all sweating away. We wanna change. It’s like, oh, perfect. I’ll just go to the fitting room and change
Jill Jaracz: So what is going on with qualifications? Cuz last I saw another qualifier got canceled for boxing.
Ginny Fuchs: Okay. So this is, I was gonna gonna say, so y’all are the first [00:26:00] journalists that I’m about to tell y’all this. So yes, it got canceled. The qualifiers got canceled, which means they are going to go to the rankings to fill the spots for, to which means I have qualified for the games now.
Cause I Woohoo. Yeah. Well we celebrate
Alison Brown: that. Absolutely.
Ginny Fuchs: Yeah. Mm-hmm
Alison Brown: oh,
Ginny Fuchs: so exciting. And I, and I can’t officially announce it because they like the IOC and the boxing task force for Eva. They have to like. Go through all the points in, then send out the letters to all the NGB, you know, all the countries, blah, blah, and tell them your boxer has qualified, blah, blah.
But I already know from what they’ve said, how they’re gonna do it, that I qualified
Alison Brown: sweet. Well, not to worry. This is not this week show
Ginny Fuchs: couple weeks
Alison Brown: ago. Yeah. They’ll be official by the time we air.
Ginny Fuchs: Okay. Well tell, yeah, I’m saying y’all can y’all can say that’s all.
Jill Jaracz: excellent. That has to be a relief [00:27:00] though,
to,
Ginny Fuchs: oh yeah, no, it’s, it’s kind of, I mean, it’s it weird? Cause it hasn’t really fully hit me because it’s not how I saw any qualifying for, for the Olympics, but yeah, no, I’m in, it’s awesome. I’m in, I don’t have to go through the whole. Cutting weight and actually fighting to get the spot.
I can bypass that part. So
Jill Jaracz: man. Oh, wait. Okay. So cutting weight. We’ve oh, we’ve been talking about Fox catcher, the wrestling movie and book lately, and they talk about cutting weight a lot. How much weight are you usually cutting?
Ginny Fuchs: Oh, I guess. And that’s another difference between professional and Olympic style boxing.
So I walk around at like 1 25, 1 23.
Jill Jaracz: Okay.
Ginny Fuchs: So I start cutting weight like a month out of competition. Cause for, for Olympic style boxing, you have to weigh in every day you fight. So I go to a tournament, I fight four, five days in one week. I have to weigh in four or five times. And the, and you also weigh in the day of you [00:28:00] fight.
So you weigh in that morning. You’ll fight in the afternoon or the evening time. So, um, that’s with, with professionals you weigh in once and it’s the day before you fight. So you get a full over 24 hours. Replenish and regain your weight back. We don’t have that luxury because we weigh in. We fight, we win.
We have to weigh in the next day. So I might have to go do another workout. So I make to make sure I make weight the next morning. So on average for like during camp, I cut, like, I’d say like 13 pounds most the most 15, but on the week of competition, I, you know, I weigh in probably I would usually weigh in at like 50.9 kilos.
And then by the time I’m in the ring, that that night I’ll be around 53, 54 kilos. But I, during the fight, I’ll lose about a kilo and a half sometimes I’ll, you know, sometimes I’ll lose, like [00:29:00] after the fight I’ll weigh in at like 52 or 51.8 and I can sleep that off, but usually I’ll have to go do a workout or I just take a, like a really hot bath.
To make me sweat the, the rest of the kilos off so I can make weight the next morning.
Jill Jaracz: Wow. I, I just, oh man.
Ginny Fuchs: Yeah, that’s tough. That’s yeah. That’s that’s another, I’d say that’s the biggest difference between professional and Olympic style boxing is the weight cut process. It’s much harder in the, uh, in the Olympics than it is in the professional game.
Jill Jaracz: Thank you so much, Jenny. You can find Jenny on Facebook at gin folks, it’s F U C HS. She is a gin F USA on Twitter and Insta and her website is Jenny f.com. We will have links to all of those in the show note. She was really interesting. I really appreciate
Alison Brown: it. And now everyone knows I have OCD too.
Jill Jaracz: Yeah, well, you know, it’s tough, which I, you know, it’s really tough.
Alison Brown: You know what? I talk about it pretty openly in my life. So it’s not [00:30:00] like my mom is listening to this and being like, I never knew this about you. No, everybody knows. And I don’t have the germ thing,
Jill Jaracz: which is interesting. But it manifests. It’s interesting how it manifests itself in so many different ways.
Alison Brown: Yes. But I can tell you that I have wasted so much time thinking things over. That’ll make you crazy. I rehearse phone calls before I make them,
Jill Jaracz: you know, I have, I do stuff like that too. I’ve spent mornings. I, I don’t, I haven’t had a diagnosis of OCD, but I have spent mornings where I’ve had imaginary conversations or practice conversations over and over and over again.
But I chalk that up to me, not talking to very many people throughout the day,
Alison Brown: right. Because there’s, there is shyness and that’s,
Jill Jaracz: mm-hmm,
Alison Brown: some people have a hard time making phone calls or things, but the, the compulsive rumination goes to the point where it’s, it’s another level. And it gets in the, the real question when you come to disorders.
And, and since we’re talking about mental health awareness month, is, [00:31:00] is it getting in your way, is doing the rituals and dealing with AR ruminations. Jenny talked about how much time she spent on it.
Jill Jaracz: Mm-hmm
Alison Brown: and the damage she did to her skin. That’s the difference.
Jill Jaracz: Right? Right. It’s just is a whole different level.
Alison Brown: Right. Right. Now we’ve all been super Germa hoes.
Jill Jaracz: Mm-hmm
Alison Brown: in a way, but is it keeping you from living your life?
Jill Jaracz: Right. You know, do you, do you spend three hours a day cleaning one section of the sink? It’s tough.
TKFLASTAN News
Why don’t we check in with our team? Keep the flame alive.
Alison Brown: Welcome to shook. Luan.
Jill Jaracz: Our karate athlete, Tom Scott competed in Lisbon. So he’s got a whole weird journey. Like a lot of athletes still do because in karate, uh, he does the Kuma section, which is the fighting. And there are so many spots that are [00:32:00] automatic qualifi or, you know, you rank so high and you automatically go to Tokyo and, uh, the host gets an automatic spot and then, but there’s also regional spots to be had.
But ideally you just wanna qualify in rankings. Tom is the first spot below all of those automatic qualifiers right now. Right. Do you remember this? Cause he told he just stuff hasn’t moved. So in, he competed in Lisbon Portugal in his pool, he won three matches, but he lost in the last round of his pool.
And then he lost in the first Reise match. So he still ranked sixth. In the Tokyo qualifications, but he he’s gotta get continental representation because there there’s at least one spot for the Americas. And he is by far the top ranked person in north and south America.
Alison Brown: I mean, if, if number six fulfills a geographic requirement, how can you not go there?
Right. So we’re gonna be, we’re gonna be very optimistic on that one.
Jill Jaracz: Exactly. [00:33:00] Exactly.
Alison Brown: At the S a TF grand pre Deanna price placed second in the women’s hammer throw and her best throw was 76 point 15 meters,
Jill Jaracz: Dawn Harper Nelson competed at the Drake relays a couple weeks ago, and she finished seventh in the 100 meter hurdles with a time of 13 point 28, not great, but it was her first competition back in a long time.
So the, you know, nowhere to go, but up
Alison Brown: and race Walker, Evan Dunphy set a new world record for the treadmill. 10 K with a time of 39. Oh.
Jill Jaracz: Congratulations.
Alison Brown: I couldn’t even do a treadmill. 10 K nevermind. A record holding treadmill. That must be just boring though.
Jill Jaracz: I don’t know if you have, if you have enough stuff to listen to or watch, maybe it’s okay.
Alison Brown: And it’s only 40 minutes when he does it at, you know,
Jill Jaracz: world record, time, beach, volleyball, player, Kelly Clay, and her teammate. Sarah spon competed in Cancun. At the [00:34:00] end of April, they won several matches, but lost in the third round of the main draw to, uh, the number one ranked team in the world, Canada, Sarah Pavan, and, uh, Melissa Pardy, who, uh, hum Kelly and Sarah are tied for 14th in the overall rankings.
Among the us rankings, cuz that’s actually, what’s more important for them on their journey to Tokyo because only two teams per country can go to Tokyo. They are in fourth place, but there is still hope. They are not far behind the third place team and not super far behind the second place team. So if, if a lot of things align, they could go.
If they went, they’d be the youngest team to qualify. So 2020 may not happen, but 20, 24 could be very realistic for them.
Alison Brown: And maybe they’ll move beach volleyball to my venue in French Polynesia.
Jill Jaracz: There you go.
Alison Brown: You know, I’m trying to, you know, if we’re gonna have events in French Polynesia, let’s make it a little [00:35:00] mini village.
Like in the winter games, they always have a mountain site and a, you know, a city site
Jill Jaracz: mm-hmm
Alison Brown: let’s go, man.
Jill Jaracz: So, so you’re saying put beach volleyball there. Put, what else would you put there?
Alison Brown: Well, open water swimming.
Jill Jaracz: Oh yeah, that would be a good one to put there.
Alison Brown: Some of the, maybe some of the sail.
Jill Jaracz: Maybe
Alison Brown: surfing is already there.
They’re talking about cross country running, being put in, run across the island, have a little mini village.
Jill Jaracz: It’d be fun.
Alison Brown: I could be the village mascot. I’m ridiculous. And small right off the bat.
Jill Jaracz: There
Alison Brown: you go. Roy Toma published an article in the Japan times about Tokyo 1964, and we’ll have a link to that in the show notes.
Jill Jaracz: And our par, uh, Paralympian John register was featured in the Colorado Springs business journal for his work with soldiers. We’ll have a link to the, to the article in the show notes, but it is behind a paywall, just so you know,
Alison Brown: and happy mother’s day to all our [00:36:00] Shani moms, both on our team and out there in our listeners.
Atlanta 1996 Olympic History Moment: Boxing
Jill Jaracz: Uh, that sound means it’s time for our Atlanta 1996 story. This year is the 25th anniversary of the Atlanta 1996 Olympics. So every week we’re looking back at some of the stories from these games, Allison, I is your week. What do you have for me
Alison Brown: as promised boxing and judging controversy, they go together like peanut butter and jelly don’t they
So in 1996 in Atlanta, the big controversy came in the lightweight. Or flyaway division. It seems to be referred to in both ways for 1996, Floyd Mayweather, who has become since very famous as a professional boxer, lost in the semifinals to sever FM, to off of Bulgaria in a 10 to nine decision. Obviously the crowd was very partisan for the United States, but even most boxing experts thought that Mayweather had won [00:37:00] the, uh, referee actually raised Mayweather’s hand in victory.
Oh, When they were announcing the decision. So it was clearly problematic. We all know that Floyd may Mayweather has gone on to an undefeated professional career. And he is estimated now to be worth 280 million.
Jill Jaracz: Wow.
Alison Brown: So the defeat certainly didn’t help his, uh, didn’t hurt rather his professional career, but what happened to the man who won that match Sarah FM to off?
So he, uh, was a three time Olympian in 96. He also is a three time world champion. So he was no slouch going up against a very young, 19 year old Mayweather, but in the gold medal match, he became the victim of some questionable judging
Jill Jaracz: really,
Alison Brown: and lost that match in a match that people thought he should have won.
And he blames what happened to him later in his career [00:38:00] because the Bulgarian boxing Federation lost all faith in. Because of losing the gold medal match. So he lost financial support. He lost coaching support and he attempted to switch to fighting for Turkey. The Bulgarian Federation refused to allow this.
So he retired and there was an article in the New York times that caught up with him, I believe in 2019. And he is unemployed and living in a small apartment in a small town in the south of Bulgaria. And he said in that article, that beating Mayweather was the worst thing to ever happen to his boxing career because he was always tainted with this judging controversy.
Wow. So the judging controversies in boxing don’t even just hurt the people who lose the matches. It ends up hurting the boxers [00:39:00] who win the matches.
Jill Jaracz: Wow. That is amazing and sad. I mean, because it’s kind of like that shortterm gain long-term pain feel
Alison Brown: and not for any of his own fault. Right. Wasn’t his fault that the judging was crooked.
Jill Jaracz: Right. Unless he knew the fix was in, but we don’t know that.
Alison Brown: No, it was never a question of him being involved. It had to do with the head of the Bulgarian boxing Federation. That was always the accusation. Never that the boxer himself was involved
Jill Jaracz: when he couldn’t fix the gold medal match too.
Alison Brown: We know there’s issues in ABA and there have been issues in ABA, certainly back to 96 and a lot further than that.
Jill Jaracz: Right. Oh man. Crazy. Crazy.
Tokyo 2020 News
Oh, we got a bunch of Tokyo, [00:40:00] 20, 20 news.
Alison Brown: as we spoke about, I think a couple weeks ago, Tokyo, and I think all of Japan did put in the state of emergency and we told everybody not to panic that they were gonna do this. It happened
Jill Jaracz: mm-hmm
Alison Brown: still don’t panic.
Jill Jaracz: Yeah. And they’re talking, they, they haven’t made a decision on whether they will allow spectators at all.
And they’re pushing that decision back till June. But in the meantime, the media still says, there’s a lot of it. It just feels very anxiety inducing. When you read the news about
Alison Brown: yes,
Jill Jaracz: Japan and their COVID cases and the slow rollout of a vaccine, although they are now up, I don’t wanna say, I know this is gonna sound bad.
Like, well, they’re up to 2% of the population vaccinated, but just last week they were at like 1% and they’ve got a lot of people in Japan. So that’s, I, I see progress. I am a glass half full person on this 2020 Olympics in 2021 happen.
Alison Brown: [00:41:00] Or a glass 2% full .
Jill Jaracz: How about a glass? 2% empty
Alison Brown: but it’s doubly full from last week.
Jill Jaracz: That’s right. I’m going with it. So the rest of the version, two of the playbooks came out and they’re pretty much the same. These are for like broadcasters and marketing partners and Olympic family members.
Alison Brown: The short answer is stay away, stay far, far away.
Jill Jaracz: Yeah. Be prepared to test before, test it during quarantine.
When you get there, have a plan stick to your plan and broadcasters. So this was the one, one tidbit I thought was interesting from the broadcaster playbook under no circumstances, should any broadcaster or member of its staff approach an athlete for autographs and pitchers, which I thought that was fascinating, but there’s a lot more coordination of interviews.
And [00:42:00] access so rights holding broadcasters. Apparently there’s, there’s a media section within the village and there’s going to be a residential zone. And if you’re a broadcaster, you have to coordinate more with the national Olympic committee or Paralympic committee that you’re trying to get your interview with the, the athlete that you’re trying to interview, but you cannot go into that residential zone at all.
And the members of the press have to book access to the venues every day. And nobody, you can’t be a, a spectator at any venue. If you’re a broadcaster or member of the press, you cannot. Say, oh, I have a ticket. I’m going to watch as a spectator. So they are trying to do their best to keep everybody separate from general public and keep the athletes separate from all of the people who have to help them out.
The organizing committee is, this was a, this was a little bit of a hooo. This was a little tone. Deaf. Uh, the organizing committee is looking for 200 volunteer sports medicine doctors, and [00:43:00] 500 volunteer nurses and boy all over the, the Japanese press. The nurses are not happy about don’t
Alison Brown: take our nurses.
Jill Jaracz: Yeah, exactly. They’re busy with C and apparently, you know, they’re very worried about the prevalence of coronavirus in the country. So they’re also, and they’re also having to work hard. Maybe organizing committee, the medical staff, maybe you don’t provide, or you start asking the national Olympic committees who are bringing staff to, Hey, can you chip in,
Alison Brown: I mean, because who is giving the shots.
To make that 1%, 2% it’s nurses.
Jill Jaracz: Yeah. Depending. And, and they’re also busy caring for people who have COVID plus whatever other sicknesses and problems are happening in the country. You know, you have an accident, you need a nurse. I am curious how they will staff this situation. It’s, that’s a lot of nurses.
It’s a lot, it’s a big medical staff to have, and I get that they’re working in shifts, but
Alison Brown: [00:44:00] right. But given how few spectators and how few staff
Jill Jaracz: mm-hmm
Alison Brown: do we really need 700 volunteer medical officers?
Jill Jaracz: Yeah. I don’t know. Unless they were like, oh, we need, we need this many because everybody’s gonna take one or two shifts.
That’s
Alison Brown: possible,
Jill Jaracz: you know? But, uh, we’ll, we’ll see what happens with that vaccination wise, uh, the Japan news reported that the IOC estimates 60% of overseas athletes will be vaccinated before the games. I think most of the us athletes will have VA vaccinations, a a lot, a good deal of the south Korean team, I think will have vaccinations.
Australia has announced that they will vaccinate their athletes. I think in some countries, the vaccine rollout is working in their favors. So by the time July hits or by the time an athlete needs to go to Japan, they will have the opportunity, not that case in every [00:45:00] country, but at least you’ll have some you’re you’re not dealing with a, a zero base there.
So that’s good news. Little bit of me, Noella.
Alison Brown: I feel like I should. Hum
Jill Jaracz: they had the test event up in, uh, Sephora with a few foreign participants, but mostly Japanese runners. They ran along the half marathon route to test it out. Uh, Sebastian co was there to give his stamp of approval. They were not supposed to have spectators, but there were few, there were a few along the route cuz they, they had signs up saying people stay home, but some spectators, some protestors, but nothing huge, but they had a pretty good event
Alison Brown: and it wasn’t hot in Sapporo.
Jill Jaracz: No, it was not hot. No, it was not hot Canadian grocery empire company, which operates under the store banners. Sobey’s IGA, Safeway, Foodland, thrifty foods, and voila is team Canada’s first ever grocery. [00:46:00] So they have started the feed, the dream movement, which if you’re one of our Canadian listeners, you will start seeing some more in-store marketing about this.
We would be very excited to hear about said in-store marketing. If it is cool or not. Uh,
Alison Brown: are they letting us back into Canada yet?
Jill Jaracz: No, not yet.
Alison Brown: Oh. Cause I would totally go to feed my dream.
Jill Jaracz: I’m gonna feed my dream after we finish taping
Alison Brown: voila lunch.
Jill Jaracz: But part of the, part of this deal is that they’re giving Olympic qualified athletes, grocery cards to use for purchasing healthy food, which is very nice.
Alison Brown: You know what. Some of those athletes spend a ton of money trying to get the right nutrition. So those grocery cards and, and we know they live on poverty wages,
Jill Jaracz: right? So
Alison Brown: of them grocery cards can make a huge difference.
Jill Jaracz: Mm-hmm so that’s, [00:47:00] that’s a, that’s a really cool partnership that I wanted to talk about.
The Paralympic committee is announcing a Samsung Paralympic vloggers competition. And I think they had something like this for Rio as well. They may have had both Olympic and Paralympic. They chose some of the athletes to be vloggers during the games, and they will use those to, uh, show different feats and performances that the games delivers.
They’ll have four vloggers total who will produce content for their own channels and, uh, during the games. So that’s something cool to look out for, or they did this, they might have done this during PPY Chan. Because I do remember that. And lastly, I thought this was cool. The Kyodo news reported the winners from a recipe contest that the Tokyo organizing committee held last year.
The top five dishes out of 700 plus entries will be served at the athlete’s village. [00:48:00]
Alison Brown: Now, did this article include actual recipes? Like can we make these at home for our viewing pleasure?
Jill Jaracz: Sadly? No.
Alison Brown: Oh, that’s disappointing.
Jill Jaracz: Right? And, and a lot of the recipes seem to be variations on something traditional.
So, uh, the first one was cold Soman noodles, and usually that is served in a light soup stock with condiments. But instead these will be served with chicken and vegetables in a tomato broth to give extra nutrition for athletes. Uh, the second one is Odin, which is usually a hot pot, but this time it’s going to be a chilled soup with tomatoes, summer vegetables, and what they call typical ingredients like processed fish cakes for dessert.
They will have ZDA to pan akata with, which
Alison Brown: does not sound Japanese, just, just a thought
Jill Jaracz: with, with, uh, sweetened mash green soybeans. And that’s used in Northeastern Japan. Uh, the fourth dish will be Zygi, which is deep fried [00:49:00] salmon. That is from the Northern most main island of Hoka. And finally there will be toasted bread with peaches, ham and cream cheese.
Alison Brown: Huh? Interesting.
Jill Jaracz: I wonder if the peaches and ham combination is kind of like the Hawaiian pizza with pineapple and ham.
Alison Brown: Yeah. Like I was going, oh, they’re doing the creamy salty sweet
Jill Jaracz: mm-hmm
Alison Brown: altogether.
Jill Jaracz: I’m very, I would be curious to test,
Alison Brown: I mean cuz cream cheese and peaches sounds fantastic.
Jill Jaracz: It is one of the few things that they can still do that they had planned to do before them.
Pandemic,
Alison Brown: we can make food. We can feed you.
Book Club Claire previews Sevens Heaven with author Ben Ryan
Jill Jaracz: We have a new book for book club. It is called sevens heaven. The beautiful chaos of Fiji’s Olympic dream by Ben Ryan who coached the Fiji team to victory in rugby’s return to the Olympics at Rio 2016, we had the opportunity to interview Ben this past week and book club.
Claire [00:50:00] was able to join us as well. And she asked us Ben some questions about the book. Take a listen.
Book Club Claire: All right. We have Ben Ryan author of seven’s heaven. The beautiful chaos of Fiji’s Olympic dream. He’s gonna tell us a little bit more about the book so that you guys get inspired to read it for our next book club selection.
Ben, thank you for joining me today.
Ben Ryan: That’s great to be here.
Book Club Claire: Uh, what led you to write about your experiences in this book?
Ben Ryan: I guess it, it was from finishing my time in Fiji and coming back to London, um, I started telling people about some of the stories and some of the friends that were close to me kept telling me that this was a, this was a story that needs to be written down and remembered and shared.
And that’s, that’s exactly what happened. And, uh, along with a mate of mine, that I went to, came to university with called Tom for D um, he kind of ghost wrote the book and, uh, and we produced a book that we’re really proud of.
Book Club Claire: What do you want readers to learn about the [00:51:00] Fiji heritage and culture, especially for those that might not know anything about the country?
Ben Ryan: Yeah. I think, I think the book don’t be put off by thinking, oh, this, this is a book about rugby that I’ve, I have zero interest in that. It’s about people and it’s about, um, it’s about trying to help people become their best versions and, and how Fiji helped me become my best version, I guess. Um, it’s about me moving from first world to third world.
It’s it’s about me going from a very rich, um, sporting body in, in the UK to, um, a bankrupt one in Fiji. It’s going to, to, to talking about, you know, people following their dreams and getting the first medal ever in Olympic history for, for a Fiji. And, um, and it’s all wrapped around friendships and, um, people really.
So, um, I think if you have zero interest in rugby, zero interest in professional sport, you’ll find it a good read.
Book Club Claire: What do you think could be done to bring more Olympic successes to [00:52:00] smaller countries like Fiji?
Ben Ryan: Gosh, that’s a good question. I mean, it often, um, you know, I it’s the same, but different when I’m working, mentoring in, in, in London and, and helping kids try to, um, become their best versions.
It’s about opportunity it’s providing, uh, opportunity and resource and support, um, for these smaller nations and then finding a niche, maybe. So, so for, in, in Olympic terms, the niche for Fiji is rugby sevens at the moment, you know, that that’s a sport that they can, they could rightfully say they’re, they’re the best in the world at.
Um, and for, for other nations, you know, there might be, there might be other sports that there might have an opportunity for Fiji’s next sport really should be, um, track and field 400 meters. You know, we have incredible athletes. It’s one of the biggest, um, athletics events in the world for it’s actually the biggest for, for, for, for.
Um, schools, you know, it’s live on TV. It’s 45,000 people in the, in the national stadium. [00:53:00] It goes bonkers. It’s crazy. It’s bigger than the Jamaican national athletics, um, championships at school boy level schoolgirl level, but then it all stops. Then there’s a ceiling. There’s nothing else for them to go to.
You know, I was helping out one of our athletes. It was a 400 meter hurdler that, that had qualified for the, the previous Commonwealth games and was trying to qualify for the Olympics. And I said, who’s your coach? And he said, it’s the internet. So, so I was like, okay. Yeah, you know, it’s, it’s there that it’s lack of resource.
And I think given the opportunity, you know, there definitely would, there’d be more medalists out there in, in the south Pacific islands.
Book Club Claire: You’re kind of speaking my language when you bring up track and field like that. , that’s my favorite, uh, sport.
Ben Ryan: Me too. Hey, look, I’m crazy about track and field. Um, watched every day that I could, I could, after the, uh, after our events in Rio and the same in London, um, my dad was a, a just on the edges of international athletics as well.
And, um, used to remain me stories about, you know, the forties and fifties and, uh, of athletics and, and all [00:54:00] of those people I’ve got. The programs from every day at the London Olympics and 52 HKI, my dad was at both of those games in the Olympic village. He kind of said he was a reserve, but I don’t actually think that exists, but he somehow managed to get himself into the village and stayed there.
Um, and he was a, you know, a national standard javelin thrower. So he would tell me all those stories and now used some of those, um, in my coaching herb earlier, who I’m sure you’ve heard of who was like a middle distance star in from Australia. You know, I used some of the concepts that his coach Percy CTI used in running up and down sand dunes with his, with herb in the fifties, that was something the Fiji boys used to, you know, for their quest to get Olympic gold medal.
Book Club Claire: Awesome. Well, that’s, that’s my portion. So thank you very much.
Ben Ryan: It’s just worth mentioning maybe that the book, the rights for the book have been sold now. So there is a film that’s, that’s in progress at the moment. Um, a script has been written and it’s based loosely on the, on the book and, and the Olympic story for Fiji, but it’s, you know, it’s a, it’s a big budget [00:55:00] feature film.
Book Club Claire: That is gonna be exciting. Do you, uh, do you get any information about the movie as it’s being developed or because you sold the rights, it’s kind of off your plate.
Ben Ryan: no, I get a little bit, I’m kind of classed as executive producer. That, that, that means absolutely nothing. But, um, it does mean I get to hear a few things.
Not a lot. All I know at the moment is that, you know, the funding’s there and the script’s being written and the, the kind of in a long queue of films that are waiting to be filmed when COVID allows us.
Alison Brown: Okay. So I had heard this, I saw you mention this in an interview and I’ve already made a list of who should play you.
Ben Ryan: Okay.
Alison Brown: So my, my first choice was Damien Lewis,
Ben Ryan: right? Yeah.
Alison Brown: Right. Okay. Makes sense. You know,
Ben Ryan: I’m
Alison Brown: going ginger hair. Uh, my second choice was Owen hunt. I
Ben Ryan: hunt, I don’t know another hunt. I dunno.
Alison Brown: Yeah, he was in, he was in Grey’s anatomy here in the states, but he is Scottish actually. And then my, my favorite choice was actually to Tony Curran.
Who’s another Scott
Ben Ryan: again, DT know
Alison Brown: there’s a lot of, of Brits on Brit [00:56:00] TV. So, you know, I’m
Ben Ryan: gonna know this out
Alison Brown: there.
Ben Ryan: Yeah, no, they, they, I’ve not heard of two of those. That’s terrible. I know, but I’ll have to, I’m sorry. I’m just, well, you’ve been a, I saw Tony Karen last night. I tele he’s in, um, the looming towers.
Yeah, he’s very ginger. I mean, he’s Uber, ginger. . You’re like beyond, he’s like, yeah,
Jill Jaracz: okay. What’s very ginger as opposed to regular ginger.
Ben Ryan: Well, well, when I was, when, I mean, I, I, I, my mom and my dad were both redhead, so, you know, there was, and my, both my sisters are very bright red hair as well. Um, and, but when I was younger, it, it was super bright.
I mean, you know, luminous almost, and, and he’s got that with the beard still. So it is kind of double hip. Um, it’s um, certainly a very, uh, said, look that’s for sure. So yeah, uh, that would be what our class is super ginger, but Hey, he’s in, he’s in employment. He’s got work.[00:57:00]
Jill Jaracz: Thank you so much, Claire, you can get your copy of seven, seven at bookshop.org/shop/flame alive pod. We get a commission from books purchased through our link, and that goes toward funding our on the ground coverage at Beijing 2022 book club will happen after the Paralympics. So you’ve got plenty of time to read it, but you don’t wanna miss it.
I have started it and it is an entertaining read so far. I’m very excited. We will have been on the show in June, uh, talking to us about how rugby works and also his experiences coaching the Fiji team. So do not miss that conversation coming up in June.
Alison Brown: And if the book is half as charming as the author, we are gonna have fun in book club.[00:58:00]
Jill Jaracz: quick little bit of news from the international Olympic committee. They have relaunched their website as olympics.com. And it’s a little cleaner. I haven’t had a ton of time to dive into it, but it looks a little cleaner than it has been. Has a lot of videos has a lot of past games, information together with old clips and, uh, athlete sports and news that,
Alison Brown: so basically it’s just one big, giant rabbit hall that they’ve created for us.
Jill Jaracz: Exactly.
Alison Brown: Okay.
Jill Jaracz: and I think they’ve combined, they’ve combined things because like, it’s, it’s easier to find information about the museum and, uh, other elements of the IOC and future games as well. So that is something to dig into when you have, you know, like five hours to. That will do it for this week. Let us know what you think about boxing.
Alison Brown: Email [00:59:00] us@flamealivepodgmail.com. Call or text us at (208) 352-6348. That’s 2 0 8. Flame it we’re flame alive pod on Twitter and Insta and keep the flame alive podcast group on Facebook.
Jill Jaracz: Join us next week to learn about para dressage with Sydney Colier. And if you think dressage is a boring sport, think again, you will be fascinated by Sydney’s story and how she describes the sport.
So as we go out to music by Archdale. Thank you so much for listening. And then until next time, keep the flame alive. It’s
Closing Music: time.
What?
Sometimes[01:00:00] you love just a,
Alison Brown: they go together like peanut butter and jelly. [01:01:00] Don’t.