As Americans, we’re used to Team USA being a major force at any Olympics, but what’s it like to represent a small country? Today we’re talking with swimmer Felicity Passon, who will compete for the Seychelles at the Olympics. Felicity tells us about the few resources she has access too, how her National Olympic Committee is trying to improve sport within the country, and how she hopes to make it better for the next generation of athletes.
Felicity’s qualified for the 200m backstroke, so we also talked about how that event works and some things to look for as you watch it.
Plus, lots of updates from TKFLASTAN, including news from:
- Mallory Comerford
- Dawn Harper-Nelson
- Michelle Carter
- DeAnna Price
- Samantha Schultz
- Ginny Fuchs – watch “Mysteries of Mental Illness” here
During our Tokyo 2020 update, we talk about the spectator situation, who’s shown up and tested positive for Covid-19, and the Tokyo Organizing Committee’s mobile app release with one month to go!
Plus, we’ve got a big announcement about upcoming episodes of the podcast!
Thanks so much for listening, and until next time, keep the flame alive!
Photo courtesy of Felicity Passon.
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 Do not quote from the transcript; use the audio as the record of note.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 194-Felicity Passon
Felicity Passon: [00:00:00] Going back to, you know, coming from a small island, like it goes to the Olympics. It’s a huge dream. Something that’s like out of reach for so many people.
The greatest festival of our contemporary society, the Olympic games is about to begin. This is going to be
Jill: Hello, fans of shook Louiston and welcome to another episode of keep the flame alive. The podcast for fans of the Olympics and Paralympics. I am your host. Jill Jaris joined as always by my lovely cohost, Alison brown, Alison hello, happy Olympic day. Happy one month to Tokyo. So
Alison: much to celebrate
Felicity: today.
It’s very exciting and
Jill: intense. It’s just like [00:01:00] everything. Like Olympic day seemed to creep up on us.
Alison: It did. And, and what was funny was I had scheduled some social media announcements earlier, did a whole bunch of, of pre pre posting. And when it popped up today in my own feed of my own post Olympic day, I was like, wait, I posted that.
Alison: So I got to be excited about the same post, more than once, which was great. So thank you, Olympic day. And then of course, everyone is posting about 30 days to go.
Jill: You know, it’s kinda like, oh my gosh, it’s here. It’s almost a year. There’s still a lot to do, but I can’t wait for it to get here so that we can stop dealing with all of the hand-wringing and worrying and speculation about what could happen at these games.
Alison: You know, it’s all
the anxiety ahead of time because we don’t know what we’re dealing with in many ways. And once we get there [00:02:00] and we’re dealing with it, we’ll
Jill: all feel better. Exactly. Exactly. So everybody keep their, keep their hands on, have a good Olympic day and in the U S it’s Olympic and Paralympic day, which I get what the USO PC is doing.
I also wish there was a separate Paralympic day. Oh yeah. You know, IPC. Or we get on it and
Alison: see, I know the letter to Andrew Parson and let them know what we think, because it listens to us so much.
Jill: Oh man. Uh, yeah, but no, I think it would be nice to have a separate one. Sometimes I F I L I love the inclusion that’s happening here in the U S but I also think. Uh, sometimes it feels like, oh, we’re tacking on Paralympics to make sure they’re included. Whereas sometimes we need to celebrate the Paralympics separately and not have them always lumped in with the Olympics.
Alison: Right. To [00:03:00] get the recognition as its own event that it deserves. Right. And not
Jill: just for the two weeks that the event is on. Anyway, we’ve got a little housekeeping before we move on to the day’s interview, because if you heard a fourth. In last week’s interview with Ben, Ryan, and thought you were hearing something odd, you weren’t.
It was book club, Claire, who was also on the interview. And we just forgot to mention it ahead of, of last week’s interview, but she was there for that and chimed in when she, uh, had some questions and it was great to have her around. So, Claire, we’re sorry. We forgot to mention you on last week. If you missed Ben Ben Ryan’s interview, go back and listen to it after this show because it was a really great listen, especially if you need advice about proper sunscreen, for sure.
He
Alison: knows though, what was really funny as he was posting Ben, Ryan was posting this week, encouraging Fijians to get the vaccine vaccine, but he had a sunburn. So [00:04:00] obviously that wasn’t on purpose, but I could think of his Fujian plus. As he said, made fun of him a lot because of his pale skin. So I said, yes, the Fijians will respect the bird on their little ginger.
Jill: Also keep listening to today’s show. We have a big announcement that we will. Well later on, but first, uh, we’d like to thank our Patrion patrons for their financial support. If you value what this show provides you in terms of information and community, we’d love to have your support as well. Financially, you can do that by becoming a Patriot on patron.
That’s at patrion.com/flame alive pod, and you’ll get a special patron only bonuses. And if you. Uh, swing that right now it tell a friend about the show because we love finding more and more of our people. Uh, there’s more people joining the Facebook group and conversations are really heating up. Cause it’s a lot of fun around an Olympics.
Felicity Passon Interview
So please join us there and tell your friends. Today, [00:05:00] we are talking with a swimmer Felicity pesante who competes for the African island nation of the Seychelles. Felicity has qualified for the Olympics in the 200 meter backstroke, which is her main event. We talked with her at the end of may. So at that time she hadn’t competed in over 14 months and was hopefully hoping to qualify for a couple more events at UN.
Meet in Barcelona that she talks about in the interview. She did not start at that meet, but hopefully she’ll be competing again. Before Tokyo happens. We talked with her about swimming and we also talked about what it’s like to have represent a small country at the Olympics. What is race practice?
Because I, I noticed, uh, American swimmers are starting to come back. So we’re looking at some of their times and I noticed stuff has seemed a little bit slower, but also I’ve heard a little bit about getting back into race mentality or race form. What, what is that? I
Felicity Passon: mean, yeah. I mean, [00:06:00] I guess that is what it is really like other basics of, yeah.
That mentality is a huge thing. I mean, I guess it to really be in that environment and know how to focus yourself, but also, you know, not let you psych yourself out, get too nervous. Those are things that I feel like I’ve probably forgotten how to do. And I just have to like, you know, really get into racing mode, I guess.
Uh, but also physically, I mean, You know, I have, I guess your mind and body ready to get going, like you should in a race. Um, I haven’t done it in a really long time. So for me to then now go next week and be in that environment, it’s going to be kind of a weird feeling, you know? Um, so yeah, I guess race practices just, you know, And knowing how to race your event, the little things as sort like, so going from the dive turns, finishes just those little things that really do add up and can mean whether you win or come second, [00:07:00] or, you know, shave off a little bit of your time.
All those little things matter. And the only way to really improve on those is to practice. And, um, I guess a racing environment is the best way to do.
Alison: Now, during the pandemic, have you been in the Seychelles the whole time because you are in college here in the United States?
Felicity Passon: Yeah, so I’m actually right when the pandemic hit, I was actually in the middle of my gap year, so I had done two years at university.
And then because of the Olympic year, I wanted to take a year out to really focus on my training and focus on being able to qualify for the Olympics. So. I took a gap year from, uh, 2019. So September, uh, that would have been my junior year and I decided to go to South Africa to train under a coach called Rockwell meringue.
He’s got some really great swimmers there. And so I guess, In February, or actually it was beginning of March. That’s when the pandemic really started to [00:08:00] propagate and things were getting really bad all around the world. It wasn’t so bad in South Africa yet, but things had started to go into panic mode in the Seychelles.
And my mom was obviously really worried, like what if it does get worse? And then I’m stuck in South Africa by myself without any family. So. And we just, I guess, kind of monitored everything and Seychelles then announced they were going to close their airports and closed their borders completely. So I’ve got on the last flight back from South Africa to the Seychelles and the next day they like completely shut down the airport.
So ever since last year, March, I’ve been in the Seychelles unable to get to America because I was unable to. Get to anywhere that would help me do my student visa. And so sadly, yeah. I mean, it’s been really nice to be with my family, but yeah, I’ve been studying remotely now. Um, so I had to start again last year, August, um, for my junior year.
So yeah, I’ve been here in the Seychelles ever since, and I’m hoping now to be able to get back in [00:09:00] August for my senior.
Alison: How much access to coaching and training facilities do you have in this? I mean, the Seychelles is not a big country. It doesn’t have a very long, uh, certainly Olympic history or even sporting history.
So what kind of facilities and coaching can you, can you get.
Felicity Passon: I mean, yeah. The Seychelles is really, really small and we are so completely isolated. I mean, we’re a small group of islands off the coast of Africa. There’s literally not much around us. So our facilities are really, really limited. I mean, our population is only about 90,000 people.
So I think that gives you an idea of what we have access to and what we’re capable of doing. Um, so yeah, I don’t actually have much access to great coaches. I mean, we have some coaches here who do help me out. I’m still getting programs from my team in Arizona. So on their side, they’ve been super helpful to just make sure that, you know, to get me through this year, I [00:10:00] have my coaches here who do help me as well on the side, but we only have one swimming pool.
And so it’s sometimes it’s, it is a little difficult there. Despite the small population, there are a lot of kids, you know, coming to swim. Um, so in terms of timing, it’s quite hard. I submit odd hours with a day just to avoid like busy times because we only have one swimming pool and our facilities.
Aren’t great, but I mean, it’s been okay to work with, um, it’s not really optimal going to the Olympic games, but. I guess it is what it is and that, you know, try to make the best out of a bad situation. And it’s not all that bad. I mean, it really could be worse. So in that sense, I am lucky. And I’m also lucky that, you know, I’ve been able to have access to a swimming pool.
I guess for the last year where I know a lot of countries, you know, they’ve gone to complete log downs where a lot of athletes weren’t able to get to their practice environments, which is, you know, obviously you don’t want that. And they, you know, the year where you’re having that a [00:11:00] big games. Um, but yeah, I mean, we don’t have a long Olympic history.
Um, we don’t have an Olympic medal. I’m not even sure we’ve ever had a finalist, maybe a semi-finalist, uh, from a boxer. But, um, I mean, we are slowly investing more in sports here and I’m hoping to see a lot more for, you know, the younger athletes who are coming up. Um, I want them to have, you know, more opportunities than the rest of us have had, so yeah.
Pretty excited for the future. What kind of
Alison: support have you gotten from the Seychelles Olympic games?
Felicity Passon: Um, so they’ve actually been really supported and supportive and we’re actually quite lucky. So as a smaller country, not exactly as of financially able, as you know, other countries, we’re given the. Uh, Olympic solidarity scholarships, which quite a few countries in Africa awarded are awarded.
So they give a handful of athletes, uh, [00:12:00] basically a grant, you know, like some scholarship money to use in any way. They’d like that’s gonna get them to the Olympic games or help them qualify for the other big games. So I was one of the lucky athletes. I think there were only six of us and all the sports.
And I think I was the only summer actually. Um, so I’ve been able to use this money to help, you know, finance training camps, uh, throughout the last few years, or sending me to competitions, which has been really helpful. It’s just a shame that obviously the pandemic stopped us from being able to travel and use that money in, you know, in a beneficial way.
Um, so now I’m able to now obviously find compete. So I’m trying to use that, but they’ve also been, I guess, support. You know, morally trying to keep us going. It’s not, you know, especially in the didn’t make, I mean, I guess that’s what everyone’s talking about now. Um, you know, they’ve even when we had a lockdown, they made sure we all, all the Olympic potentials had [00:13:00] access to our training environment, which was really nice.
Um, so in that sense, they were really supportive and obviously understand that you can’t just, you know, stop training. It does. It’s not easy to it’s doesn’t work that way. So. I’m curious
Alison: where you got the idea to be an Olympic swimmer when there’s only one pool in the entire country. When you’re a kid, obviously in an island, everyone’s going to learn how to swim.
But yeah, it go from I’m swimming. Cause I live on an island to
Felicity Passon: the Olympic. I mean, yeah, I’ve been swimming, I guess, like my whole life, my mom had been the water really, really young. And you think actually being from an island that swimming is really popular here. And, um, it’s actually not, we actually are only now like really started to encourage water safety with like our kids.
So yeah, despite, you know, being from an island and being surrounded by water swimming, isn’t very popular here. [00:14:00] Uh, something many people in our population find themselves gifted in or even comfortable with. So we’re trying to change that now, but yeah, I’ve been in the water, I guess. I don’t know my whole life.
My mom really encouraged it. I don’t know. I guess it’s just something I stuck with throughout like school, like swimming up in the after-school clubs with my school and then. Um, some coaches, I guess, scouted me from like these little competitions we used to do and took me to the junior national squad and then obviously moved my way up from there.
But I guess it’s never something I sat down and like decided, oh, I want to swim. And I want to go, like, I want to swear to make it to the Olympics. I kind of just, you know, swam and swam and got a little better and better. And then I guess found myself at a stage where I was like, okay, you know, qualify for the.
Olympics is definitely possible. And so that’s kind of where I guess the dream came alive and that’s what I, then when I really start to work towards that. And I would say I was about like [00:15:00] maybe 15
Jill: and my questions about being from a smaller company, a country. What is the view of the Olympics or what do people think about the Olympics in the safe.
I mean, cause you’ve also lived in the U S so you, you get like, we get very gun, we’re going to have all these girls, but you have a small delegation, a small country. How do people care? Or what do people think?
Felicity Passon: Yeah, I mean, definitely. I mean, like you said, being at school in America, I know how big your fixed can be for you guys.
And it’s the same for us. And I think, but maybe in a, in a different way, I guess you got. Go see, and then mix obviously with, you know, like dreams of like, uh, getting loads of metals, of being at the top of the metal table and obviously, you know, like putting up a fight. Whereas for us, it is a little different.
It’s not to say that we’re negative or we’re just being realistic and pessimistic. And it’s not that, you know, athletes here don’t [00:16:00] have dreams of, you know, getting an Olympic medal one day. But yeah, obviously we have to be realistic. You know, our facilities and, you know, the limitations from coming from a very, very small country, but the Olympic is, is huge here.
I mean, people get really excited by it, even if we don’t have a huge delegation that, you know, we get to go to it. But I think people get a little more excited because we are a small country. And when we do have the few athletes that qualify. And make it on the set Olympic standard. It is a huge deal for us because just that, you know, means so much.
And I think for the population, the public who do support us, it’s it’s I think for them, they’re so proud to know that we do have that, you know, small representation from the African continent that could get to go to these Olympic games. And so I think in that sense, it is really exciting. Given that
Alison: the population is so small.
Does everyone know you? You know, do they know who you are and [00:17:00] stop you on the street and say,
Felicity Passon: hello? And I shoot. Yeah. I mean, in that sense. Yeah. We we’re we’re that small, you know? I mean, yeah. Like I said, the handful of athletes, you know, who do we do make a name for ourselves here on the African continent.
It is kind of like that it is, I guess I don’t want to say it being like a celebrity here, but we really do get that support. And I think in some sense, I am really grateful that I’m from a really small country, not because of all the praise that we get, but because of how, you know, how. With our sports and like things we achieve F it’s just, we’re so little, everybody comes together to support it.
And it’s actually, it’s such a great thing. And it’s really heartwarming. And I know for a fact, I mean, unless obviously you’re an amazing star in the U S you might not necessarily get the same thing from the public or. It maybe won’t be as visible. I don’t, I’m not really sure to be honest, but it’s just really great here to [00:18:00] see, you know, the support you get from the public.
And it’s, it’s actually incredible. I mean, you know, despite, you know, political differences, racial differences, or, you know, any differences we might have in terms of sports and, you know, supporting our athletes and they are really great here. So it it’s it’s, it’s actually, sometimes it is really nice to be from a small, small place.
Alison: Now you have gone to school in the UK as well as the U
Felicity Passon: S correct? Yeah. Yeah. So
Alison: what was that like training in those kinds of environments, especially with, in an NCAA team going from sort of this, you know, a couple coaches kind of thing, and the one swimming pool to this much more rigid and established.
Felicity Passon: I honestly, like it’s been a great experience. I mean, yeah. Coming from, you know, my little Seychelles to like, you know, having the treat, the bare basics, kind of just doing little bits to keep us fit. Not really learning very much. Um, so then going out to [00:19:00] the UK where then I was really exposed to, you know, some really fast, so as in some amazing cultures and it was great there, I actually really liked it.
Um, I would say that’s where I really started to, I guess, you know, open up to my potential and then going to the U S and being in the NCAA system, the division one system. And it was just so incredible. I mean, I could not believe the facilities like you guys have. Have available to all your athletes and the support and the financial support, the moral support, everything is just so readily available.
It’s it’s no wonder you guys make some of the best, best athletes in the world. And I’m so grateful to have, you know, to be able to experience that. I mean, I’m hopefully, you know, going back this year for my senior year and hopefully for a fifth year after that as well. So I really excited to be able to, you know, benefit from your amazing system.
And I just wish. I hope that, you know, for the younger [00:20:00] athletes that are coming off to me in the Seychelles, know that there is that opportunity out there, you know? So, yeah. But it’s, it’s just been amazing.
Alison: So I know I have a very specific swimming question, so I want to get some swimming questions in
Felicity Passon: here as well.
Yes. So you
Alison: do backstroke and butterfly when you specialize in a stroke, is it because you’re good at the stroke or because you like the stroke? What comes
Felicity Passon: first? It’s usually because they’re good at it and you probably end up not really liking your stroke, just cause you’re doing. So much and over and over again.
And like, let’s say for example, yeah. I specialize in bachelor from butterfly, my dream, or my wish is that, you know, I look at the breast show cause I’m like, wow, I wish I could serve restroom. And it tends to be that way with every stroke, you know, a freestyle wishes, you know, she, or he could do butterfly or a breaststroker wishes, they could do freestyle.
And it’s, it’s like kind of, I guess, you know, we want what we [00:21:00] can’t do. Um, but yeah, normally it’s because you’re good at a stroke. I have a love, hate and love, hate relationship with backstroke and butterfly is doing it so much. You really do get fed up, but I guess you love it at the end of the day. So what
Alison: makes you good at backstroke, particularly because that’s obviously the only stroke that
Felicity Passon: you do the other way, for lack of a better word, but it makes you good at.
I mean, I guess it’s like body composition. That’s like plays a huge role, you know, like broad shoulders, really strong quads and legs. And yeah, I guess like, I dunno, I guess, you know, I’ve obviously you to be a competitive swimmer. You’re usually, you know, have some gift or. Talent to an extent. Um, I guess then we, you know, even more specifically, we’re talented between the four strokes, you know?
Um, but yeah, I would say probably body composition plays a huge role in what [00:22:00] what’s stroke. You’re really good at. I mean, I am not a breaststroker. That is the one stroke I cannot do. And I CA I can’t seem to figure out why. I mean, I’ve put an hours and hours of training just to try and figure the stroke out, but I just, I just don’t seem to have it in me.
And I think it just might be the way my body is, or I just don’t seem to move in the way of breaststroke I should. So I think that has a huge thing to do with it. Yeah.
Jill: Does the broad shoulders help with butterfly? Because when I was a kid, I was a breaststroker and butterfly was my worst and I still will try it occasionally and be like, oh my gosh, I’m glad I got to the end of the pool because it’s it.
I don’t think, I mean, when you watch it on TV, it looks so smooth, but I don’t know if you’re not a swimmer, you don’t necessarily understand the effort it takes to get both of your arms out of the water. I mean, it’s, it’s
Felicity Passon: an. Yeah, no, it butterflies a special one in that sense, but yeah, [00:23:00] I’d say really strong and broad shoulders, usually a long torso as well.
Uh, seems to be quite helpful and they say, yeah, longer arms and shorter legs. Um, obviously, you know, you, everybody’s different. You do have the ones that totally stray away from, I guess, the stereotypical norm or. That one stroke, but yeah, every stroke I would say has, you know, a specific body composition requirement.
However, I don’t think it’s necessary, but I, I do think it does help. How, how good you are at the stroke? Yeah. I was
Alison: never physically able to do butterfly, like at my car. I never could get my
Felicity Passon: arm. Yeah. It’s a hard one. It’s it is a hard one. Yeah. It’s no fun when you’re
Alison: doing. I always wonder, can you really see?
Cause a lot of times they have the flags up to give you
Felicity Passon: a guy. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. I mean, I guess when you’re doing it for. You [00:24:00] just, you kind of know what everything feels like. So for me, like I know what a 50 feels like. I know how many strokes I do from one end of the pool to the next. I know where the flags are at this point.
You know, when we’re younger, we’re told, you know, you need to count your strokes from the flags to the wall. It does get to a point where a lot of summers, like actually don’t have to, you just kind of know from seeing the fight, you know, Okay. There it is. You know, you don’t have to count anymore, but yeah, you just, you really just know how your stroke fields, what your speed feels like.
Um, but yeah, but bachelor, it really depends. I mean, when you swim outdoors and you have. So the glare from the sun in your eyes, it does make it really difficult. And that’s kind of one of the issues I’m having with here in sunny Seychelles. But other than that, usually, yeah, you have a pretty good peripheral vision as well.
So it’s actually not as bad as if it would see for
Jill: backstroke. You’re allowed to do a flip turn, like turn a turn over and do a flip turn. Yeah. [00:25:00] When are you allowed to turn off?
Felicity Passon: Um, so you’re only, so basically, so you count your strokes from the flag or, you know, you know, your social, in fact, you’re only allowed when you, once you turn on your phone, one freestyle stroke into the wall, and then you flipped her it, and then you’re back.
And I, I realized
Jill: that the Olympic level people don’t miss the wall likely, but there is a chain.
Felicity Passon: Oh yeah. I mean, I’m sure if someone’s having a really off day, you probably could, but like you will have actually, even at the Olympic games, a lot of athletes who say they turned too early, or they turned a little too late, so.
Their legs were a little more compressed towards the wall and not bent at a 90 degree angle. So you do have like, you know, a little bit stops here and there, but I doubt you’d have an athlete that completely misses, uh, um, at that level. Anyway, unlike me,
Alison: I smacked my hand on the back. Oh, no.
Felicity Passon: Realize I’ve hit the end of the war.
Yeah. [00:26:00] Oh yeah. This is why I’ve stopped swimming. No.
Jill: For both strokes at the end of the race, where do you decide? Oh, I’m going to glide it in versus I’m going to take another. Do you know what I’m do you know what I’m saying?
Felicity Passon: I would say probably at about the flags. So like, I guess five meters from the wall, you kind of know what’s going to happen.
You know, you’re like, you’re even kind of like, oh no, like I’m not going to make the wall. And so then you kind of adjust your stroke, whether you don’t take a breath or you do take a breath to give you that extra, you know, into the wall. So it is a little tricky sometimes. Like you really do have to be good at judging your stroke and judging your swim into the wind, your speed as well.
Um, it is really easy to, you know, make a mistake, especially with butterfly. Yeah. Like I said, you really do have to be good at judging, you know, the length of your stroke and the speed you’re going at. And yet, like I said, like, I guess about five meters from the wall, that’s where you’re kind of like, okay, [00:27:00] What am I going to do?
And you have to really think about it’s super fast. Obviously you’re coming in really fast. You’ve got about probably like a second and a half to like, you know, change what you’re going to do or change the speed slightly. Or like I said, breathe or not breathe. So yeah, you kind of just from practice, you just get good at it.
I guess when we’re watching
Alison: swimming on television, obviously, especially for Tokyo, we’re all going to be watching it on television. I think the TV loses the speed of how fast you’re actually going.
Felicity Passon: Yeah. Do you know, you
Alison: know, kilometers per hour, how quickly you’re actually moving?
Felicity Passon: Yeah, I don’t, but I know, I remember that.
I think it was the last Olympics in Rio. Now with technology, you know, they’ve got so many cool things going on. Like when you’re watching it on TV, you can now see, like, they have like a little, you know, record pace, like world record, pace, Olympic record pace, which you could follow the TV, which is cool.
And even, I know for so [00:28:00] many now, I’m not sure if they had it in Rio, but I know it. World championships. They actually do put how fast you’re going. I think it’s like meters per second, or I’m not really sure how they manage to calculate it, but it’s really cool. And you get to see the speed like into the wall and like out of it as well.
So it’s really cool to actually be able to follow it. I mean, you know, thanks to technology. Um, but yeah, I guess like it is different watching on TV than when you are watching it live. Uh, yeah. So it’s pretty cool. When they get
Jill: smellovision, they’ll have to learn how to pipe in.
Felicity Passon: I don’t know if we’ll be thankful for that though.
Alison: That’s what you know, that you need that
Felicity Passon: steamy in the query. I’ve had enough of that stemminess chlorine and I don’t think anybody would be too happy with that.
Jill: Okay. So you’ve swum in a variety of. And I know just from swimming and also [00:29:00] swimming in a variety of pools, I just go, oh, this pool is faster versus this, you know, could I, I, I used to Munich, so I would go to the Olympic stadium and it’s a beautiful pool and swim very fast compared to my white MCA pool at home.
Cool. Faster or slower.
Felicity Passon: So it tents. So basically I guess yeah. How the pool is built. So the depth of the water is really important. Obviously you don’t want it to be deep or too shallow as well. So basically the way I’ve read about it as well, I’m not an expert though. So obviously when you’re swimming in swimming, swimming, and.
Towards the wall and you flipped her. And a lot of the, the waves and the energy of the waist obviously bounce off the wall and like go underneath. So the depth of the pool is so important, so that the energy created from the surface waves has somewhere to go, that isn’t going to get in the way of the swimmer itself themselves.
So the depth of the pool is [00:30:00] really important as well. So if you have a swimming pool, which I think most recreational pools tend to be built like this, it’s kind of like, like, I guess like obviously a box or like a cube where the water doesn’t flow out, um, into, you know, where it gets generated. I mean, over and over again, it kind of.
It’s it’s stuck in if you hunt. I’m not really sure how to explain it, but the water has nowhere to go on the sides of the pool. So obviously then again, that brings us back to like all the weights and the energy, just kind of coming back to the middle of the pool and creating even more waves. So basically all the energy generated by these waves has to have somewhere to go, which is usually on the sides and the gutters.
So that’s usually how, like a really fast pool would be built. And then again, you have. The temperature of the pool plays a huge role, a warmer pools. You’re not going to be swimming very fast just because you know, your body then is a little too warm. You [00:31:00] do want to like, you know, a little colder. And I think also they say, um, the stadium that the pool is being built in, or the building has a certain shape or, um, not racial coverage as well for like the oxygen that’s going to be inside.
The arena. I think a lot of factors do play a role in like how fast the pool is. Um, I’m not an expert on it. I just know some of the basics. Yeah. And what you like yeah. What makes
Alison: a good stadium or competition
Felicity Passon: pool for you? I’d say like, I really like a pool that isn’t crowded, like has a huge area. It just, for me, it feels like even if it might be bigger, it does feel less overwhelming because you do have that area of just kind of.
You know, empty space around you. Whereas when you’re in like, Uh, more, you know, packed environment. There just seems to be so much going on around you. And for me, it creates like this little inside city, which I really don’t like to have [00:32:00] before my race. I don’t like to be fidgety. I don’t like to be distracted by so many things around me.
I kind of just like. You know, like a quiet space, I guess maybe like a distance from, you know, where all the action is happening and you know, where all, I guess all the other athletes will be like warming up or getting dressed or, you know, cheering for their teammates. And it’s all great to have that.
It’s just when it’s it’s too, pack this all too much, going on
Jill: the strategy of heat versus a finals or heats versus semi-finals versus finals. How do you.
Felicity Passon: I mean, I guess for more, most athletes and I guess it also depends what competition, you know, you’re competing at. If it’s a really high level, you obviously want to give it your absolute most in the heat to make it to the next round with whether it’s semi’s or straight to the finals of that evening.
But you add stuff. I also do like to give every swim. I swam by my absolute best shot. I don’t, I’m not really someone [00:33:00] who saved my energy, just because even if I know I’ll make the final or whether I won’t make the final, I want to be able to get a best time. So I will give my absolute best. And then in the evening, if I’m able to better that, then that’s obviously a bonus.
Um, but in between. He’d said finals or semi-finals definitely taking a nap, seems to be a ritual between, um, amongst swimmers just cause we tend to wake up quite early for heat and know that we have to go back in the afternoon to swim, you know, so many events. So taking a nap, you know, either after your lunch or depending on how much time we have between the sessions.
Yeah. Taking a nap tends to be a huge thing amongst some of us. And I’m not sure if it’s the same. Um, and other sports, but yeah, it’s very popular. And so, I mean, what will
Alison: be a successful Olympics for you in terms of your
Felicity Passon: swim? Um, honestly for me to just, you know, being there and like being [00:34:00] able to participate in the games is such a huge thing already.
I mean, going back to, you know, coming from a small island, It goes to the Olympics. It’s a huge dream. Something that’s like out of reach for so many people here. I mean, I guess it’s the same, you know, in a bigger country where obviously your population is much bigger, so it’s a lot more competitive, but just coming from a really small island being, being able to be at such a huge event.
I mean, that’s already so amazing, but I guess my goal is to obviously hit a best time. Hopefully this time around anywhere. If I’m still around for the next Olympics, which I am definitely working towards. And I hope to be, I will definitely aim, you know, to make it to, you know, a semifinal or a final. Uh, but yeah, this time around, I’m just really grateful to didn’t give him the chance to qualify and qualified and now, you know, hopefully the games do go on and I get to be there.
So. [00:35:00]
Jill: I mean, like, because you’ve been to some of these big events, like the African games and the Indian ocean island games. And that’s exciting because you still have that whole multi-country experience, but this just is a whole
Felicity Passon: different. Yeah, it’s huge. I mean, I really do feel like I’m going to be, you know, like a number of amongst millions when I’m there, but like just, you know, that feeling of knowing I got here and like all the hard work you put in, I’m sure every athlete of this experience is that it just to be there.
Like, I, I don’t even know what it’s going to feel like, but I feel like it’s going to be great. You know,
Jill: has your Olympic committee talked about how you will get there and how long you get to stay? You know.
Felicity Passon: Yeah. I think they’re actually in the middle now of like coming up with our own protocol and, um, obviously dates of arrival in Tokyo and dates of departure.
We’ve told, we’ve been told, we probably won’t be able to get there more than three [00:36:00] days prior to when the opening ceremony was going to be, which I think was something that was set by the IOC. But yeah, I mean, all of our sports have, we’ve been told. Once our sport finishes, we’ll be leaving the next day.
So I think they’re yet to confirm flights and dates and all the nitty-gritty stuff. But yeah, it doesn’t sound like we’ll be there for very long, which I guess, like, I guess it’s not going to be the same experiences. You know, some other athletes I’ve had previous Olympics, but just the fact that it.
They’re really diff determined on having these Olympics this year. I’m really grateful. So either way I get to be there, I get to compete. I get to do what I love. So I’m not complaining too much, but yeah, it’ll definitely be different. Are you
Alison: planning to March for the opening ceremony since swimming’s the first one?
Felicity Passon: I mean, I’d love to, um, based off the schedule, um, I don’t swim until a few days after actually swimming begins to like the third [00:37:00] day. So, which is actually good for me. So if there is an opening ceremony and they do, you know, have a March, I would definitely love to be there. I mean, there’ll be a first for me and I would love to experience.
Jill: In April, you did a long distance swim the queen, a couple of in the Seychelles. Yeah. What, tell us a little bit about that and what you were raising money. So
Felicity Passon: basically it was, uh, I guess a 50 kilometer swim from two of our smaller islands in the Seychelles. So I started on one island that was called and I saw them to another island called and then I swapped back.
So it was a total of 15 kilometers and it was just so back in December, January, we had, we went into our second lockdown and I was lucky enough to be able to swim, but as the only person. The swimmer who’s qualified to go for lamping. So I’m the only one who’s, you know, I’m going from the Seychelles. I was able to, you know, have [00:38:00] access to us.
So being poor when nobody else was, which I’m so grateful for, and I’m really lucky, but it was a little sad. To go there every day and it was just completely empty. It’s just me and a huge eight lane pool. And it just, it got, it did get really boring after a few days. And it went on like this for quite a, uh, I think it was like eight weeks.
Um, so I’m really grateful. I got to swim and it was great being able to train, but it was just really sad and lonely and I would just I’d get bored. And I hadn’t competed in so long. Like I said, Over a year now. And so I just felt like I really wanted to do something. And I just thought about this crazy idea, which I don’t know to me, it seemed feasible, but a lot of people thought first, he like, what are you doing?
Like this is the open water. And then I thought about. I’m not just going to, you know, do this swim just for the sake of ad. I would want to, I want to tie it with, you know, a good cause and mental health is something that is so dear to me, I mean, it’s something I’ve struggled with in the past. [00:39:00] And I know so many other athletes who have, and especially now with the pandemic, you know, being stuck at home and not being able to do things that we’re used to.
Um, it’s been really hard on people. So I decided to reach out to a few. Um, non-governmental organizations and see if they had any mental, uh, mental health projects that, you know, needed, you know, financial health. And so I reached out to a couple of people and that’s where I found an EA counselor.
Platform that was being set up because of the pandemic, but against Andy, with Seychelles, we don’t necessarily get the financial backing for a lot of things. And they actually set up this, this project last March. So over a year ago, after our very first locked down, but they were unable to just, you know, get it going because they didn’t have the financial backing.
And so I guess I decided to, you know, I thought that was something that was really important. We don’t know. If we’re going to go into another lockdown now with the [00:40:00] pandemic and social distancing, I thought, you know, an E counseling, psychosocial support platform is something that’s so important now. And so from there, I guess I started organizing this event and I called it mind over matter.
And so, yeah, I saw between these two islands, uh, 50 kilometers to raise money for mental health and also raise awareness. And so we managed to come up with a sum of, I think it came up to about $41,000, which is way more than I was expecting. You know, these are really difficult times financially. So I guess I wasn’t expecting to, you know, raise that much money, but it was so amazing, like the amount of people that came together to donate and not just sensationals, it seemed to reach a lot of places around the world, which I thought was really cool.
Um, so yeah. Um, that’s basically what I did. Do
Jill: you think marathon swimming is now an option or was that like, oh wait, this is a lot. This [00:41:00] is hard.
Felicity Passon: Oh, it was not easy. It was hard. It’s not something, you know, I trained for specifically, I did alter my training at all for this open waters. I don’t think it’s something I will do competitively in any way.
I take my hats off to all the open water and marathon servers out there, because while that was actually quite hard and I did take it quite easy. Cause I didn’t know what 50 kilometers was going to be. Like. I’ve never done that before, but yeah, I do take my hats off to marathon swimmers. Good on you guys.
Like it’s really hard. But, I mean, I, I’m definitely planning in the future, you know, to do something similar, uh, maybe for different cause or different project, maybe a different distance, maybe a little longer or less. I’m not sure, but not competitively. No. Wait, did
Jill: you get stung by anything?
Felicity Passon: I was actually, that was my biggest fear was actually.
I was really scared of sharks. And I went in there still that morning and I was like, oh [00:42:00] my God. Like, if I don’t get you to today, this is like a miracle. Like, I will be thankful. Um, but I did get stumped by a lot of planted. It was kind of like a little mini jellyfish and I could see them as well. And they were just all over my body and it actually, it started within the first five minutes of the swim and I thought, oh my goodness.
Like if I haven’t done. Four hours of this is not going to be fun. And it went on for a really long time. And I guess after a while, I just, I got used to the stings and I just told myself, you know, don’t think about it. Just keep going. Uh, but yeah, that, it wasn’t fun. And I had a huge rash all over my body when I was finished.
So that wasn’t very nice. I
Jill: think this should be like an annual thing, like just two different islands. Okay. Check them all off.
Felicity Passon: Oh, my gosh. We’ve got, we’ve got 150 15 items. I mean, that would take me a really long time.
Alison: Yeah. [00:43:00] Olympics swim all the stations.
Felicity Passon: I mean, it makes sense. That makes sense. All right. Anything
Jill: else else?
Alison: Well, I have to ask the embarrassing question, Phyllis. Your hair is gorgeous. And how do you keep it like that? When you are swimming every
Felicity Passon: day? I get that question all the time. First of all, thank you very much.
Alison: It’s not a joke
Jill: here,
Felicity Passon: actually. I really don’t do very much, to be honest. I don’t wash it with shampoo very often. Cause apparently that is bad for your hair. I do use a lot of conditioner though. So once I finished washing my hair, I leave the conditioner in just overnight. And because apparently, oh, by hairdresser, you know, I mean, it makes sense.
She kind of just thought, you know, if you condition it, because then it acts as a mask against the chlorine, which I think has really helped my hand the last few years. But I also. Use coconut oil, [00:44:00] which obviously is really popular here on the island. But I use coconut oil, which I think really makes it, gives it that extra curl and volume.
So I definitely recommend coconut oil. All right. All right. Yep. That’s the secret.
Jill: Thank you so much. Felicity. You can follow Felicity on Facebook. She is filter the pass on and on Instagram, she is Felicity underscore PEs on. Oh, I learned so much.
Alison: Oh, I know. And if hearing her name wants to make you start singing the song from the little mermaid, which I will not say since we don’t have rights, I discussed that with Felicity and she said it was totally okay,
Jill: but she makes me want to talk to other nations that have smaller delegations than what the us puts together.
So, uh, thank you Felicity for taking the time and giving us a. And if you have a small country that you’d like to hear about, let us know, and we will see if we [00:45:00] can make that work, especially after one spacing is over. We’ll have a little bit of time before Paris to kind of explore more topics in depth that are a little bit different.
So we’d love to hear what countries you want to learn about. Email us at flame alive pod at Gmail.
TKFLASTAN News
Alison: Welcome to shook. FLIs Don. Yes. Speaking of small countries at the Olympics. That’s right.
Jill: Although Chicago sounds getting pretty bad. I know we keep having babies. We have not us, but the citizenry, our citizens birth rates getting high that’s right. Uh, so we are checking in with our team, keep the flame alive.
This is our roster of past guests. Starting off with a swimmer Mallory calm referred, who unfortunately will not be going to the Olympics this year. Uh, the w the U S swimming trials was this past week, and she did not get into [00:46:00] the top two of any of her events.
Alison: So a lot of flips down. These have been very busy at the USA track and field trials.
Dawn Harper Nelson placed fifth in her heat. One spot out of qualification for the semifinals, and she placed 21st in the overall heat. And shot put her Michelle Carter dropped out because she is recovering from having a tumor removed from her ankle. Thankfully, her tumor is benign and she’s planning to be back for world championships next year.
And hammer thrower. Deanna price is competing today, Thursday, and she also extended a long-term contract with Nike. Good for her.
Jill: I’m glad Don Harper Nelson competed again. I mean, her event is so tough there that yes, so much talent. So I’m really sorry. She didn’t go further on, but it was great to see her race again, bombed about Michelle Carter,
Alison: you know, literally two days before her event.[00:47:00]
Right? What happened? So that was scary, but thankfully not serious.
Jill: And, uh, the nice thing for American listeners is that. Well, the athletics world championships is in Eugene, Oregon next year. So she definitely plans to compete for that. And, uh, uh, you know, it might be, uh, keep the flame alive meetup because I want to see that stadium so much.
It looks beautiful. I’m
Alison: not sure how beautiful it’s been this week at 120 degrees
Jill: on the track. Well, you know, it’s still pretty on the TV, on the TV. It’s pretty. Uh, modern pentathlete Samantha Schultz is having a bonfire, clothing, fundraiser. Get your team Sammy modern pentathlon shirts and hoodies by the end of this weekend and help fund her trip to Tokyo.
It is at bonfire.com/team Sammy, and we will have a link to that in the show.
Alison: Boxer Jenny Fuchs is featured on PBS is two part mysteries of [00:48:00] mental illness docu-series which premiered this week. Uh, it’s at pbs.org/mysteries of mental illness. And we will have a link to that as well.
Tokyo 2020 News
Jill: Last Tokyo, 2020 news, not surprised. The organizing committee announced that spectators will be allowed at Tokyo 2020. So venues will be allowed to be at 50% or maximum 10,000 people. This reduces the number of tickets they have sold by 910,000. So, you know, when you, when you think about tickets, they’ve sold 2.72 million tickets, total.
So for eight sports and the opening and closing ceremonies, there’s going to be a ticket lottery, and those are kind of big sports or in bigger venues, or have a lot of people already. They sold a lot of tickets already. So athletic. Baseball football, golf, modern [00:49:00] pentathlon. Interestingly enough, rugby sevens, softball and surfing are going to have a ticket lottery.
Alison: The people who have already purchased those tickets. And now you’re going to go into the lottery because only for 50% capacity is allowed. Exactly,
Jill: exactly. The Kyoto news reports that there are going to be no alcohol sales at the. Earlier this week, they’re going to allow alcohol because, uh, Asahi breweries is a major sponsor.
And then there was a lot of criticism about that. So organizers reversed that decision, which not surprising, but, uh, I’m sure one sponsor is very bummed. Fans are going to be required to wear masks at all times. No cheering high-fiving or linking arms with others. Uh, Kyoto news reported that due to the heat.
Spectators can remove their masks outdoors if they can ensure they have two meters of distance from other people. So, and then the other [00:50:00] thing is that you have spectators are asked to keep their ticket stubs or ticket information for at least two weeks after they’ve gone to an event, because if anyone tests positive, the organizers will post on the website and social media, the date of the infected person’s attendance and their seat number, so that, you know, if you were.
Kind of proximity to that person. So the announcement of spectators is I want to say happy cause it’s going to be nice for the athletes to have people to cheer them on. It’s going to be nice to hear that crowd clapping going on as well. But Tokyo 2020 president Seiko Hashimoto’s said that this is not a done deal.
If COVID 19 cases spike, they could ban spectators to. In one way, that’s a concern because, uh, today, which is Wednesday, the 23rd Tokyo reported 619 new cases, which is the highest single day spike in about a month. So that’s a little concerning, but hopefully they can reign that back [00:51:00] in vaccinations.
We’re up to about 7% of the population. I got to say it was pretty quick given that just a couple of weeks ago, we were at like 2%, but it’s still not a whole lot of people who are vaccinated. So hopefully they’ll be able to bring that in. And spectators will be able to be at the games for the Paralympics.
Spectator capacities will be decided on July 16th. So hopefully they will be able to have spectators as. The Asahi Shimbun reported that, uh, more officials have been cut from the games. And this is also kind of inline with all of the concerns that they’re going to be too many people from outside Japan at the Olympics.
So before the original postponement, they were going to have. 180,000 officials and family members. And they’ve now brought it down to about 53,000 people and that breaks down even further. So just 41,000 officials will be [00:52:00] for the Olympics and 12,000 will be at the Paralympics. And the big part of that is don’t bring your family members.
Alison: Yeah. And half of those officials will be covering tennis. Well, tennis has what? Like seven or eight linesmen. Yeah. On every match.
Jill: Yeah. Because, because they have like the, the sidelines on either end and then the back line, and then you had the empire and the
Alison: net guy, so, and there’s going to be at any given time at the beginning, 13 matches going on at the same time.
Wow. So I’m telling you, they’re going to have like a thousand tennis officials.
Jill: Delegations are starting to arrive. We talked about the Australian softball team got there to Japan already. A team from Uganda has arrived, and unfortunately they had an athlete and a coach who have tested positive upon arrival.
The interesting thing that was that both of them were vaccinated and tested [00:53:00] negative when they left Uganda. So it’ll be interesting to see how, if this is going to be something that happens a lot, that you test negative, you have a vaccine. Or even if you test negative and aren’t vaccinated, just the act of traveling spurs, a positive test.
So we’ll keep an eye on that too,
Alison: or just the time, because it takes time for the positive test, right? So if you were exposed, say on Thursday, you travel on Friday. On Friday, you tested negative, you arrive Saturday because it’s a long trip and you test positive. And then there’s the issue of quality of tests.
Jill: That’s true as well. And with one month ago, uh, the Tokyo 2020 organizing committee has released its mobile app, which I have to update my login. Cause I can’t remember my password.
Alison: There’s an app for that.
Jill: I [00:54:00] think it’s going to have a lot of things that are on the fans. Portion of the website. So, and then, uh, you’ll be able to, uh, so far I was able to tell her what my favorite sports were, so it can send me notifications about how, oh, I like that. Yeah. So you can, you can do up to eight sports for the Olympics and Paralympics separately.
So that’s. But I will be digging into that over the next few days, that will do it for this week. Let us know what other small countries you’d like to hear.
Alison: Email us@flamealivepodatgmail.com. Call or text us at (208) 352-6348. That’s 2 0 8 playmate for. Pod on Twitter and Insta and keep the flame alive podcast group on
Jill: Facebook.
Big announcement from us. We have so many pre Tokyo interview scheduled that we will be adding a Monday show to the lineup from now until the games we’ll kick that off next Monday with Australian table tennis, Olympian and Paralympian, [00:55:00] Melissa Tapper. As we go on to music by. Thank you so much for listening.
And until next time, keep
Felicity: fighting the lights.[00:56:00]
oh my God. Like if I don’t get you to today, this is like a miracle. Like, I will be thankful.