What do pimples have to do with table tennis? Australian Olympian and Paralympian Melissa Tapper explains all — and what she says about the sport will have you glued to the screen during the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
Milly competed at the London 2012 Paralympics in the Women’s Singles Class 10, where she placed 4th, and in the Women’s Teams Classes 6-10.
At Rio 2016 Milly made history by becoming the first Australian to compete at both the Olympics and Paralympics. At the Paralympics, she made it to the bronze medal match in the team event but lost out to the Brazilian team on their home turf. On the Olympic side, she played in both the Women’s singles and team event.
At Tokyo 2020 she’ll compete in the Mixed Doubles and Teams events with partner Heming Hu and then in Women’s Singles at the Paralympics. If you haven’t watched a Mixed Doubles table tennis match, be sure to tune in — if you thought the singles action was fast, add in two more players!
Milly tells us more about how the sport works, including why table tennis paddles (or bats) have customized rubbers that are either red or black; what shoes are best for the sport; and whether she’s smacked herself in the face with the ball.
In news from TKFLASTAN, we have updates from:
- Lauren Gibbs
- Marnie McBean (check out Xander’s Podcast here)
- Evan Dunfee
- Sydney Collier
And news from Tokyo 2020, including a tidbit about an Opening Day event.
Thanks so much for listening, and until next time, keep the flame alive!
Photo courtesy of Table Tennis Australia.
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 Do not quote from the transcript; use the audio as the record of note.
195- Olympian and Paralympian Melissa Tapper on Table Tennis
Melissa Tapper: [00:00:00] I think if I had a dollar for every time, someone, when they found out that I played table tennis said that they are, yeah, I reckon I’ll be able to beat you. You wish you’d play. I’ll definitely be raking it all in at the moment.
The greatest festival of our contemporary society, the Olympic games is about the biggest.
Jill Jaracz: hello. Fans of shook Lilliston and welcome to our first Monday 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 co-host. Alison brown, Alison. Hello, how are you? I am very well. Did you have a nice weekend? I did. I did a little Olympic day, well post Olympic day [00:01:00] celebration.
Cause that’s when I did my sporty stuff and I got my team USA Oreos, so it’s all good. Can’t get better than that. Right. Did you have a good week? I had a very
Alison Brown: lovely weekend weather was a little iffy, but we made it work.
Jill Jaracz: Excellent. Excellent. So yes, we are doing, uh, twice a week episodes from now up to the start of the Tokyo Olympics.
Melissa Tapper on table tennis
Today, we are starting off with a table. We are talking with Melissa Tapper at Rio 2016. Uh, Melissa Tapper became the first Australian athlete to participate in both the Olympics and the apparel Olympics. She is qualified for both once again at Tokyo and at the Olympics, she’ll be competing in mixed doubles and team event with hemming who and at the Paralympics she’ll be in the singles.
We talked with Melissa about how table tennis works. Take a listen. Melissa. Thank you so much for joining us table tennis. Explain the basics of a match, you know, beyond [00:02:00] hitting a ball across a net and on a table. How many, how do you win?
Melissa Tapper: I guess, um, Oh, I’ll take it back to more. So what it involves. So the best way to describe table tennis is it needs the speed of a hundred meter sprinter.
You need the poise of a golfer, uh, and you also need the mentality of a chess player. So I guess once you put all of those things together, it’s a very highly complex sport and incredibly tough because you’re in. Several meters apart from your opponent. So it’s very confronting as well. You’re face-to-face with them.
I guess the biggest aim is though that you need to be able to serve. Uh, it’s very important because if he can’t do that, you kind of cannot start the point and you also need to be able to receive, because if you can’t put this back over, then you’ve straight away, lost the point as well. So, um, [00:03:00] It’s an incredibly difficult game.
I think, I think it’s one of the world’s most difficult games to play, but it’s incredibly fun and addictive as well. And I, I reckon that majority of the population has played table tennis at some point in their life.
Alison Brown: Right. So most people have. I know you’re not supposed to say ping pong, but when it’s me playing it, it’s definitely ping pong, not table tennis.
And I think that almost makes people think it’s easier than it is. Oh, that’s just something we play in my basement, but it’s so much different when we get to the table tennis elite level. So talk about some of those differences.
Melissa Tapper: Yeah, that’s definitely, um, a very common thing that does happen that if you’ve played in your backyard or, you know, the garage or something like that, that’s a whole lot of fun.
But once you do take it to an international and professional level, A little bit of a different ball game, I guess. Um, [00:04:00] I do find that a lot of people, when they have seen it, whether it’s been on YouTube or do see it played in, in real life, that then they’re incredibly amazed by what they’re seeing. A lot of the time though, they see clips where the athletes like at the far back of the court and they’re hitting these massive forehands and.
Which looks amazing, but it doesn’t, it’s not something that necessarily happens all the time though. And you not particularly in a great position, if that is where you end up, but if you were to watch table tennis being played live and at an Olympics, it’s incredibly fast. Everyone’s very powerful.
There’s quite a few differences between the male and female matches, but they’re both amazing to watch and. I think if I had a dollar off every time, someone, when they found out that I played table tennis said that they are, yeah. I reckon I’ll be able to beat you. We should play. Oh, I’ll definitely be raking it all in at the moment.[00:05:00]
Jill Jaracz: What are those differences between the men’s and the women’s game?
Melissa Tapper: Uh, between the male and females? Yeah. Uh, so males tend to be more powerful. Um, so. Rallies can be shorter because they’re sort of hitting the ball harder to get POS their opponents. Uh, whereas you watch the female game. It’s not as much power, but they’re insanely quick.
Um, and the rallies are quite long. So some of the rallies, particularly in the female side, uh, absolutely epic with how, how fast they are and how long the rally will go for. But yeah, both still definitely amazing to watch.
Jill Jaracz: So for Tokyo, you’re playing mixed doubles. How do you get like the best of both games then in one match?
Melissa Tapper: Yeah. Yeah. That’s actually a really good way of looking at it. It can be difficult because [00:06:00] H H set, you have to alternate who you receive and play to. So there’ll be one set. The, the male will play to me. And then the next set, the female will play to me. So you keep alternating and there can be a bit of strategy in terms of when you start the match and you find out who, whoever gets to serve, gets to choose whether they serve or not.
And then you can also have strategy around with the first set who. Everyone receives from. So yeah, there’s a bit that goes into it, but mixed doubles is a lot of fun. My doubles partner and I having have played since we were juniors and yeah, it’s, it’s really nice. If you’re going to be out there on the world stage, it’s nice to have someone by your side and enjoy yourself while you’re doing it.
I have
Alison Brown: a quick question on scoring because so many of the terms of table tennis borrow from regular tennis, but the scoring looks very different to me. So how, how do you win a point when as set, [00:07:00] when
Melissa Tapper: the match? Yeah, so I set is played up to 11, uh, and so it’s like one. Each time. Every athlete gets two serves though.
So you keep alternating every two serves, but if it gets to 10 all, then you keep juice and then you get, go by one, serve each until someone wins by two points, uh, and to win a match it’s best of seven sets. So the first one to win four sets. So these can go
Jill Jaracz: pretty long
Melissa Tapper: can’t they? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, matches can go in.
You know, plus one hour type, depending upon the styles as well, that are playing there’s. If anyone knows of like a defensive style. So it’s like a, a chopper, um, if it’s a chopper via chopper then or defensive versus defensive, then you’re looking at quite a long match ahead of you. Yeah. How do those
Alison Brown: different styles look to the casual viewer?
What [00:08:00] would be.
Melissa Tapper: So a chopper yeah. Is what you would call defensive. So they’re just always, they just keep getting the ball back regardless of how hard or where the other person is playing them. Um, very impressive to watch. Whereas an attacker, you know, takes on the attacking form sort of heats a bit harder, moves what looks like faster.
Yeah. So it’s a good combination to sort of see a little bit of both.
Alison Brown: Now does the ball spin? Like, can you put, spin on, on the.
Melissa Tapper: A crazy amount of spin, um, which makes it really fun. Actually, someone who hasn’t played table tennis before, the first thing I enjoy doing is throwing a bit of spin. Cause then they sort of realize, oh, okay, what just happened there?
And it is another element that you have to consider in the split of a second to make a [00:09:00] decision on how to play it back as well. So like, you know how we’re saying our sport is really difficult. It has so many different variations in there and yeah. And so much different spins. So you could have backs being Tufts, being sawed, spin.
Yeah. And you gotta be able to see it and then account in your brain, how you supposed to play it back. So there’s a lot going on in a very short space of time. So speaking of
Jill Jaracz: spin, I noticed that the paddle has two different colors, depending on what side. So you’ve got the red side and the black side.
What does that? What’s all, what’s
Melissa Tapper: that all about? Yeah. So you have to have two D you have to have a red and a black, but the way that the rubber is that you have can be made up, however you like. So. You can have smooth rubber. So that’s where you can generate a lot of different types of spin, um, when you play a stroke, but you can also have what’s called a pimple.
And that is quite common, I guess, for someone who may have brought their bat from like [00:10:00] a sports store or, you know, um, and it looked like the little dimples in the side. Yeah. So they, they actually change the speed. When you’re, when you’re applying to them and the confusing parties, you can have three different lengths of them.
So you can have short, medium and long, and they will all play a different role in the kind of spin that they will produce back. So it is quite complicated, but you can, you could have a bat that has two smooth rubbers. You could have one that has. Um, pimple one could be a short pimple and a medium pimple one could be a smooth rubber with a long pimple.
It’s really up to the athlete, their playing style as to how they make their bat. But yeah, again, there’s a whole lot that goes into it. Yeah.
Alison Brown: So are you spinning the paddle mid point?
Melissa Tapper: I would say no. So like probably 98% of the population. It doesn’t, they, they will hold it. Um, they’ll have one rubber for their [00:11:00] forehand run rubber for their backend, but one of the top Australian females, actually, she is incredible.
She plays with a long pimple, one side and a smooth rubber on the other side, but she will Tweedle. During a point, depending upon what she wants to play back with it. So, uh, I think the talent that she possesses to be able to do that is incredible, but, um, you don’t really see very many Yvonne around the world that able to do that.
Jill Jaracz: Why does one have to be red and one has to be black? Is it just.
Melissa Tapper: Um, in terms of why the, those colors, I’m not sure, but you need to be at a, uh, the athletes need to be at a distinguish between each side. So for example, how I’m saying that there is a pimple robot and it, it changes the spin. So you need to be able to identify when they played with that rubber and when they played with the other one, because if you have two black rubbers, for example, [00:12:00] and they have two different rubbers.
Like, it’s impossible to know what they’ve just played with. So yeah. Does that, if that makes sense, like,
Jill Jaracz: so it’s kind of like, oh, I see they’re playing with their red side or they just hit with the red side. So I know how to kind of counteract that. I know how to hit it.
Melissa Tapper: Yeah. Yeah. So, so if, for example, long pimple, it’s, uh, an amazing rubber.
So if I was to play topspin to a long pimple rubber, they play it back with that. It’ll give me back. So it reverses the spin that I give. So if I’m playing a match against someone that has that and they Twitter, they may have that on the red side and smooth robot on the black side. So I top spinning the playing with the black.
So it’s like, okay, okay. Uh, the red, rubber. All right. Backspin I know that I can play it back with like push it back. So if you don’t have that, then you’d, you’d actually have no idea what what’s going on. [00:13:00]
Alison Brown: Okay. So besides twiddle, what other terms would we hear the announcers use?
Melissa Tapper: Like you can be back lobbying you back, smashing yeah.
On the spot. I’m not really sure. Now
Alison Brown: I know. So it tells a lot of tennis terms will still be used
Melissa Tapper: in table tennis as well. Quite similar.
Jill Jaracz: Do you have like 25 paddles and different configurations?
Melissa Tapper: Nope. No, I I’ve got, I got three.
Jill Jaracz: Okay. So do you like, okay. I like this length of pimple. I
Melissa Tapper: don’t even this
Jill Jaracz: Twitter’s going through my head,
know your pimples.
Melissa Tapper: So I, I don’t play with pimples. I play smooth rubber. So I have three, three bats that are [00:14:00] made up. Um, I have my main playing, but, and then two spare bats, but they’re, they’re configured exactly the same. So the theory behind that is I have my main one that, that I like. Something that may happen to that.
I may play a forehand, hit the side of the table and split my Robar before a match. So then I’ll have to go to one must be, um, and you don’t want it to be any different because it wants, you want it to feel like the one you always play with. Yeah. So I’ve, I’ve got the same racket basically made up three times.
Alison Brown: Can you put anything on your hands because I would assume your hit your, your paddle hand gets very.
Melissa Tapper: Um, I mean, you could myON it. Doesn’t get that sweaty though, that it feels like it’s going to fling my basket and filling out of it. Um, but we, a lot of players have a habit of walking to the table and wiping their hand, you know, close to the net or at the back of the table.
And it takes off the sweat. [00:15:00] We’ve kind of had to retrain our brains because of COVID you can’t be touching the table like that anymore. So it’s now trying to figure out something else to do with your hand to get rid of the sweats.
Jill Jaracz: Yeah, you
Alison Brown: have to hang the towel off your pants. Like the Americans, April
Melissa Tapper: players. That’s not a bad idea. Actually.
Jill Jaracz: Let’s talk about the table for a second because I’ve been wanting to talk to a table tennis this player for like a year and a half ever since I went into the sporting goods store. They had three different types of table tops available and you could feel the quality, but I couldn’t, I didn’t understand what the different quality meant.
So at the elite level, like what is it surface of the table?
Melissa Tapper: Yeah. So the table surface varies dependent upon the brand and which one that you’re using. So you can have one that feels quite grippy, and then that means the [00:16:00] ball’s going to hit it and then basically just stop and go straight up. So that’s what you consider a slow table.
And then it will range from that to then one that’s quite shiny and the ball will just skid straight through and there’ll be quite fast. So dependent upon which tournament you’re at what event it is, what, what sponsor the tournament has is to what table’s going to be. So yeah, you need to be able to adapt to everything, really
Alison Brown: the table and the ball change as either the tournament progresses or the single match
Melissa Tapper: progresses.
No, no. So for an entire tournament, the table and the ball will be exactly the same.
Alison Brown: And as you’re playing on that table, will it change? You know, does you know, after you’ve been on it for half an hour, it gets hot or it softens up or any sort of weird changes along the way?
Melissa Tapper: Not, not necessarily. You probably, you can potentially notice a [00:17:00] little bit of change from the table surface from the beginning of the tournament to the end though, maybe just the.
Little change because generally at a major event as well, they’ll bring in brand new tables that haven’t been used, but then once they’ve been practiced on and trained on and then played on the surface, we’ll alter maybe just slightly and it may not be. As slow, for example, like I might not group at just as much.
So it come the back end of the week. You may see that it’s the ball sort of moves through a bit more normal. But yeah. Other than that, though, not, not too much of a change.
Jill Jaracz: Do you know what they’re using table wise
Melissa Tapper: at Tokyo? Uh, they’ve got Sinai tables, quite SIM similar to what we had in Rio.
Jill Jaracz: Okay. And is that a fast table or a slow table?
Melissa Tapper: It’s sort of probably mid it’s a bit, it’s a bit slower than what I normally train on, but it’s definitely not the slowest table [00:18:00] I’ve ever played on. So yeah, sort of mid range, I would say, what
Alison Brown: kind of shoes are you wearing?
Melissa Tapper: They’re considered an indoor shoe. So they’re like got a thin sole, but enough for like a bit of stability.
Yeah, I guess, cause we need to be able to, we have to be quite agile and move laterally, laterally quite, quite quickly. Um, so yeah, they’re an indoor shoe, but sort of quite thin. So they’re, they’re not as bulky as a tennis shoe though, for example. Yeah.
Jill Jaracz: Speaking of moving laterally, you have crazy amounts of hand-eye coordination and agility to play this.
What do you do
Melissa Tapper: to train that? Uh, I guess the best improvements you can do are always on court, so you can either do, um, like set up a drill with your [00:19:00] partner. So then they’ll block certain positions. You can help it by. Another form of training, that’s called multiboard. So the coach will stand at the side of the table and have like a big box full of balls, and then they can just feed it.
So it doesn’t matter if you get the ball on or not, for example, because a whole new ball will be fed to you and you can play around with the speed of that. So you can do a pace that’s quicker than what you will actually. And you can do a pace that’s slower, um, and so forth, but that’s a good way to be able to train speed and movement, but then also, obviously in the gym.
Yeah, I do quite a, quite a bit of work as well in terms of strength and then plyometric training to get a little bit faster.
Jill Jaracz: How do you and your doubles partner stay out of each other’s way? Cause that’s part of, it’s just like, it’s your turn, my turn, your turn, my turn.
Melissa Tapper: Yeah. We don’t always stay out of each other’s way.[00:20:00]
So our, our combination is I’m I’m left-handed and Hemings right-handed. So it’s quite ideal for doubles the way that it’s set up that, you know, we’re sort of positioned to be able to cover the whole table. I have to run around one another, but yet there’s still, at times you can get caught out. And there’s some funny things that ended up happening trying to get out of the way.
Alison Brown: So in your partnership, are you big talkers? Do you communicate a lot during the match or is there a very subtle, how do you work
Melissa Tapper: together? Yeah, we communicate quite well, probably just very briefly between most points, whether, you know, whether it’s a celebration and a bit of encouragement of something that we did really well, or whether it be tactically for the next point, what are we going to try and do?
Or what’s the next person person sort of need to be prepared for because what we think might come back, but yeah, you don’t have a whole lot of time, so it’s just very short [00:21:00] and precise and then on to the next call, but. Yeah. I remember playing in 28 and the Commonwealth games that were on the gold coast in Australia with hemming, and we had an awesome match against Singapore.
And, but yeah, I just remember after every point, the rallies were just awesome that we were just celebrating and like it was, yeah, it’s a, it’s a really nice, uh, environment and I guess to play doubles and be out there with someone else’s really. So
Jill Jaracz: Paralympics, because you did both in Rio, are you trying again to do both for Tokyo?
Melissa Tapper: Uh, yes. Yep. So I qualified my spot on the Olympics, uh, two, two weeks ago now. Um, and that means that I’ll head over for the Olympics and then I’ll stay in Tokyo during, um, until the Paralympics.
Jill Jaracz: Are there any, besides classifications, is there any difference in the
Melissa Tapper: para [00:22:00] game? No. So yeah, the only differences are dependent upon the classification of what you are to, I guess, what limitations are placed on you within the match?
So for example, I’m a class 10, so my disability, um, I’ve got brachial plexus in my right arm, so I can’t, I don’t have much, uh, I don’t have much. Movement finger movement. So it’s my serve. Um, so when I go to serve, I can’t do, what’s considered illegal serve, which is, um, open like this. I can’t do that. So I just put the ball in my right hand and throw it up and then serve.
But then after that, everything else is the same. But then if you were to look at some of the athletes that are in wheelchairs, So wheelchairs though, serve rules is completely different to the athletes that are standing. So you have the table and you can only serve, has to go [00:23:00] straight off the end of the table.
So you can’t play the angles. So if it bounces off the side of the table, it’s considered a fault. But yeah, so it has to go regardless, straight off the end.
Alison Brown: So when you reached the elite level of Olympic play, was there any controversy in that you weren’t serving what was considered illegal serve? How did that develop in terms of your eligibility?
Melissa Tapper: Yeah, to be honest with you, everywhere has been very good with it. Um, In, in the Paralympic world, I got, I have like a little card that has my exemption on it. And internationally when I’ve competed in able-bodied events, no one has evolved. Um, yeah. Keeps it off without it. Yeah. Yeah. Yep. Yep. I mean, occasionally an umpire may not be aware of.
And they will be like, [00:24:00] thinking about faulting me, but then either explaining or showing them the card and then, and then it’s fine. So, yeah.
Alison Brown: Okay. Now you mentioned the empires. What, what’s the relationship between players and umpires what’s allowed for players to argue in points or, or that, that whole behavioral.
Melissa Tapper: Yeah, there, there’s definitely a few athletes that love a good umpire argument. Um, I don’t know that they often win though. Cause you can still get carded. You can be Yellowcard and then red carded and then be out of there out of the event. But generally, um, yeah, I think, um, umpires do a great job. And then if there’s any discussion over something, the referee will come in as well.
But yeah, it’s definitely, always provide some good entertainment when some athletes start deciding to question the. Decisions. [00:25:00]
Jill Jaracz: Are there any other officials like, like linesmen or anything to see if it bounced on the table or is that pretty much the empire can
Melissa Tapper: see. Like having a bit of Hawkeye. So you can replay a point to say that we, uh, we don’t have, uh, anything like that, that I’m aware of, but you never know.
Tokyo might bring something out like that. The only time though, in Paralympic sport, you may have a bull boy. So at the end of each point, they might collect the ball and bring it back. But yeah, other than that, you’ve just got the two athletes and then the two umpires out on court.
Alison Brown: I wanted to ask about Rio, just how has that experience both the Olympics and the Paralympics.
Melissa Tapper: Yeah, it was a, it was amazing. It was my first Olympic experience. My, um, my dad and my father-in-law headed over for it. So I had them up in the stands amongst a sea of 5,000 [00:26:00] Brazilians. So that was, that was a lot of fun. My dad thought it was a fun game to try and cheer louder than them, but I mean, two people to 5,000 was pretty difficult.
But yeah, no, it was absolutely awesome. Then I flew home for two and a half weeks, and then I flew back for the Paralympics. But again, my dad did the same thing he flew back for, for both as well. So yeah, no, it w it was, it was busy. It was good as a whole lot of fun. Tokyo was going to be potentially a much better scenario because the flight is a lot closer back to Australia, time differences minimal.
But yeah. However, I’m going to have to stay in Japan now in between the two, but yeah, that’ll be fun.
Alison Brown: So we have gotten word that there will be some fans allowed it Tokyo and I would expect Japan to be a pretty big table. Tennis hall. So, [00:27:00] what are you expecting from, from
Melissa Tapper: Tokyo? Yeah, I think that was probably one of the biggest things for me as well.
Originally thinking about Tokyo, that the crowd and that environment would be absolutely amazing because table tennis is probably one of the main sports as well. And I’ve been to Japan a couple of times for, um, world cup events and the crowds that they draw in and, and the enthusiasm and the way they go about their cheering and stuff.
He’s absolutely awesome. Like it’s an awesome atmosphere. So. I, I was a little surprised that they were going to be spectators, but nonetheless, I think that that adds to giving a little bit more of the experience to an Olympic games, which, which will be nice. And also for our sport that generally, I guess, in terms of crowds and everything like that, doesn’t [00:28:00] always get the biggest crowds.
But I think in Tokyo where we’re going to do okay, which is really.
Alison Brown: Okay. I want to know, have you ever just gotten clocked right between the eyes with the ball?
Melissa Tapper: Yeah. Yeah, the ball. Sometimes I hit myself with my bat in the head. I click my knee. Don’t even ask me how I do that. But yeah, I don’t really happen just a couple of weeks ago as well.
And I was like, I’m 31 and I still managed to hit myself in the head. So we’re doing well.
Alison Brown: I feel better now.
Jill Jaracz: Thank you so much, Melissa, you can follow Melissa on Facebook, Insta and Twitter at Millie Tapper. That’s Millie with a Y. And then her website is Melissa temper dot. You know, we only had it for half an hour, but we could have done like two hours with, with Millie,
Alison Brown: so many table tennis questions and so many things I don’t know how to do on
Jill Jaracz: table tennis.
Right. [00:29:00] Well, and I’m kind of meant to take a screen shot of this because I don’t know if she noticed, but I noticed that when she started talking about pimples on the, on the bat, both of our eyes just got big and we turned into like 12 years. Bri Bri deans, just wanting to laugh about pimples on a pet.
Alison Brown: I mean, this is why we do the show.
We get so excited about all these little nuances that they never talk about on the TV broadcast. I think viewers want that stuff. I think they want to know about the paddle. I think they want to know twiddle. I think they want to know what the shoes are like, because that makes it more interesting. It makes it not.
Wow. They hit that ball real hard. It gives it some depth and flavor, and I wish the announcers would get into it, which when we’ve been watching here in the U S we’ve been watching swimming and diving and both [00:30:00] rowdy Gaines and Cynthia Potter are really good at doing both.
Jill Jaracz: Yes. I will say that. I feel like the announcing is taking a step up because the wrestling trials were the same, the person who was the expert, uh, color commentary was doing a great job of saying why points were being scored because that’s something you don’t understand.
So, but not
Alison Brown: talking over your head.
Jill Jaracz: Right. Right. I,
Alison Brown: I liked the balance of. You need to explain to me, but not be too, we’re demanding a lot, but not be too repetitive. So the people who do know the sport, aren’t like, oh no, going through this again, but also be excited for the athletes. It is, it is hard. I’m not saying it’s not hard, but I think Cynthia Potter, who does the diving in the U S is one of the best
Jill Jaracz: at it.
That NBC has learned. And I’m curious to hear what, what it’s like in other countries, but because it very much used to be the repetitive either. They said [00:31:00] nothing. So you didn’t know anything about what you were looking at, or it was so basic that any kind of even casual fan knew what they were doing and repetitive in a way that was just kind of a turnoff, but I think they’re doing better than.
Educating broadcasters or training broadcasters, and how to announce in a way that’s informative and, and kind of spontaneous in a sense of little moments to look for. And it is getting better, but I mean, we still do the show because there are things that we’re curious about that I think that once we start talking with an athlete, we’re like, oh, what about this?
And it kind of preps us for. Going in to watch and things to look for. And yet
Alison Brown: we still can’t get decent gymnastics announcers. I’ll just have to watch the stream with the, uh, the British announcer.
Melissa Tapper: Oh, right, right. That’ll be good. So much better.
Jill Jaracz: Well, you [00:32:00] noticed something about the Australian teams as they get announced for each sport.
That is very cool on in a silver Fern kind of.
Alison Brown: Yes. So I had been seeing several pictures from the Australian Olympic committee on Instagram, and they give them a Komono style robe in the Australian team colors. And so they’ve got this, this green row with yellow trim and they take a picture of the new Australian Olympic team members with a giant Quantis plane ticket to Tokyo.
Like those giant checks that you get at an event, which is
Jill Jaracz: awesome.
Alison Brown: Which is great. So they’ve got the robe and the ticket, which is just, I think it’s the same ticket. I don’t think each of them are actually getting these giant tickets. I think it’s a prop like a photo booth, but even if it’s a prop, it’s a, it’s a great photo and they do all get to keep the robes clearly.
Jill Jaracz: Very cool. Very
Alison Brown: cool. As we love kit, this is an even better part of kit.
Jill Jaracz: Uh, before we move on to [00:33:00] our, uh, team, keep the flame alive news. Uh, we’d like to thank our Patrion patrons who support the show financially and help keep us going. If you value what the show does for you. Check out our Patrion site.
That’s patrion.com/flame alive pod. We’ve got different levels and different bonus gifts for our supporters. Uh, the money we earn from Patrion helps support the show ongoing, but also in the run-up to Beijing where we will have on the. Coverage. We also love it. If you could tell a friend about the show because we love finding more of our people.
Thank you so much for your support. We can’t do this show without you.
TKFLASTAN News
Alison Brown: Welcome to
Jill Jaracz: shook fluffed on yes. Time to keep a check in with our past guests who are citizens of our country shook flustered on. Starting off with bobsledder Lauren Gibbs, who went up to Carmel, California to do a talk with her teammate, Nick [00:34:00] Cunningham, and his track team when collide. And it’s very.
Alison Brown: Canada’s chef to Michigan. Marnie McBean was on Xander’s podcast. And so Zander is a little kid on doing the podcast, and it’s really sweet to have a link to the YouTube
Jill Jaracz: video of that. And also in Canada, uh, race Walker, Evan Dunphy shattered the Canadian record for both the 5,000 to end 10,000 meter race walks.
And, and it’s pretty incredible how much he shattered these by the 5k race walk record was 1845 and he did it in 18 39 0 8. So congratulations, Evan. It looked like it was tough one, but man, you are getting primed in the run-up to Tokyo or the walkup to Tokyo for you.
Alison Brown: Para dressage athletes, Sydney Collier competed at the try-on para equestrian event.
And in her three events, she did really
Jill Jaracz: wow. Looking good at the team announcement is July [00:35:00] 5th. So fingers crossed. Good luck, Sydney. Yes.
Tokyo 2020 News
Our news from Tokyo 2020 Kyoto news reported that on the day of the opening ceremonies, the Japanese air forces blue impulse air, our aerobatics team is set to trace the five Olympic rings in the sky with colored smoke. So that team also gave performances at the opening ceremonies of the 1964 Olympics and the 1998 winter Olympics.
And not. Very excited about that. The athlete’s village was opened to the media in the last week. So if you’ve seen pictures of the rooms or little videos, uh, you can see the cardboard beds. I had forgotten about those, the
Alison Brown: card we had, the beds made a cardboard that can be recycled.
Jill Jaracz: So hopefully they’re comfortable.
I’m very curious to hear what athletes think of.
Alison Brown: And I hope they have the add on piece for the basketball players.
Jill Jaracz: Exactly. All alive sites [00:36:00] are scrapped. So there were going to be several sites throughout the city in parks, where they’d put big screens up so that people could gather together and watch the events together outside.
But those have. Discontinued the organizing committee has decided to cancel those, to prevent the spread of COVID. So several of those have been turned into mass vaccination sites already. And then the last of the playbooks have been released. Now these are the, the manuals that will guide different, uh, segments of the Olympics and Paralympics.
It’s not the family it’s scoring like the attendees who are population. Yeah. Who will be there. So these were for the workforce, the Olympic and Paralympic family, the marketers and the international federations. So,
Alison Brown: Hm. Was it was the playbook, just a single sentence. It’s a don’t come. No,
Jill Jaracz: you cannot tell the Olympic family not to.
Alison Brown: [00:37:00] It’s like aunt Joanne is going to show up at the wedding no matter what invitation or not.
Jill Jaracz: Well, they are hoping to aunt Joanne does not come same with your, your family, your immediate family. Don’t come. Some of the things they’re all quite similar. The a couple of weeks ago, the first round of the last version of playbooks was released.
And there there’s not much different in these. They did say that. Border measures. They, they reserve the right to make changes for countermeasures in the future. And they could strengthen borders if, if things get worse and the government of Japan could implement additional restrictions on gains participants from designated countries, if that was necessary to do so.
That’s a little interesting tidbit. The other thing I thought was really interest. Was that they do say, make sure you have enough, you have access to enough masks to last throughout your stay in [00:38:00] Japan. Your responsible organization is responsible for providing you with masks. The first time I noticed this was in the Olympic and Paralympic family playbook, and then it was just kind of repeated in the other ones, but I thought, you know, the people in the Olympic family.
Well, not to mention the fact that every party probably already has a whole wardrobe of masks that they should just pack them all. But I would think that the people who are in members of the IOC would have the means to provide their own masks. I mean, this is part of their DNA per diem, you know, that crazy expensive per diem that they get.
Alison Brown: Right. And so many of these people are prominent public figures. In some way business leaders or diplomats or government officials or in various countries, royalties that they’ve been making public appearances. So you would think they would already have [00:39:00] a mask to match each
Jill Jaracz: suit.
Melissa Tapper: Right?
Jill Jaracz: I do kind of wonder if there’s going to be an element of, oh, we need branded masks.
And so the IOC may provide the IOC members. Uh, an Olympic branded mask, the Paralympic committee could provide the, their board members with Paralympic masks. Uh, I don’t know. Will
Alison Brown: they be, I mean, I’ve been to graduations where I get the. Logo to mask. Oh, you do? Oh, yes. I’ve got a few of those from
which, you know, I was grateful to be able to go to the graduation and a bonus. You get a mask with the school logo. So I think if a high school can pull this off, the IOC could pull it off.
Jill Jaracz: And, but, but then yeah. Would you want with the IOC one Olympic branded masks for every event or are they going to say, well, you know, the international Federation you come up with.
But it would be a way to identify, like if you were an athlete [00:40:00] and you had the athletics mask on, or you had the gymnastics mask on, I mean, somebody might be able to look at you and go, you might be a gymnast because you’re all of four 10, but you never know.
Alison Brown: I mean, generally you’re going to recognize the gymnast versus the weightlifters or basketball players.
And I mean, all of this certainly team USA has been selling. For months, right. You know, branded masks. And I don’t know. Did you notice if they had branded masks at the different trials? I,
Jill Jaracz: you know, I did not notice. I have not noticed that.
Alison Brown: Which probably means that they did.
Jill Jaracz: Well, we’ll have to keep an eye on that at, at Tokyo and see what they do well on that note, that will do it for this episode.
Let us know what you think of cable tenants.
Alison Brown: Email us@flamealivepodatgmail.com. Call or text us at (208) 352-6348. That’s 2 0 8. Blame it where flame [00:41:00] alive pod on Twitter and Insta and keep the flame alive podcast group on Facebook.
Jill Jaracz: Join us on Thursday for a another. As we go out to music by Archdale.
Thank you so much for listening. And until next time, keep the flame alive.
Melissa Tapper: Sometimes.[00:42:00]
Alison Brown: I feel better now.