One week from Tokyo 2020! Today we’re learning about Greco-Roman wrestling from SPC Alejandro Sancho of the U.S. Army World Class Athlete Program. Alejandro will be competing for Team USA at Tokyo 2020 in the 67kg weight class. We talk about how to distinguish Greco-Roman from freestyle wrestling and what it’s like to drop someone on their head.
Alejandro is slated to compete on August 4, so be sure to tune in and watch him wrestle!
What are our TKFLASTANIs up to this week? We’ve got news from:
- Evan Dunfee
- Roy Tomizawa – here’s his latest TV appearance
- Jacqueline Simoneau – here’s here latest radio appearance
And we’ve got the latest from Tokyo 2020, including:
- TBach’s Uncle Yoshi moment
- COVID-19 troubles
- VIP updates
- More Opening Ceremonies uniforms!
- Medal Ceremony changes
Thanks so much for listening, and until next time, keep the flame alive!
Photo courtesy of the U.S. Army World Class Athlete Program
TRANSCRIPT
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200-Alejandro Sancho on Greco-Roman Wrestling
Alejandro Sancho: [00:00:00] You lift a 250 pound man and throw him on his head. It’s, it’s something it’s beautiful to me. I love seeing that. And that’s the sport of Bruck, Roman wrestling. That’s why a lot of people like it to see, to watch it.
Theme Music: Mid the greatest festival of our contemporary society. The Olympic games is about to begin.
This is oh, they’re oh,
brilliant, brilliant, brilliant. But that is an Olympic champion. Ready?
Jill Jaracz: Hello, fans of shook, Liston, and welcome to another episode of keep the flame alive. The podcast, four fans of the Olympics in Paralympics. I am your host. Jill. Jarris joined us always by my lovely co-host. Allison brown, Allison. Hello, how are you?
Alison Brown: We got one week to go. We got one week to go[00:01:00]
got one week to go to go one week to go, please. Don’t anybody be stupid in one week to go
Jill Jaracz: yeah. They’re oh my gosh. I can’t believe just like one.
Alison Brown: like, there’s that little part of me that still feels like Tokyo is not going to happen. Mm-hmm , there’s that little panic. Mm-hmm and yet I’m like, how could it not happen now?
Jill Jaracz: Right.
Alison Brown: But, Hmm. We’re still, you know, we’re hearing little stories of this person tested positive and this group’s trip was delayed and this, so that pessimist in me still feels the panic.
Jill Jaracz: And that optimist in me hopes that once events start going off and they see the competition that somebody in charge will just say, oh, we’re gonna allow some spectators to come in. I don’t know how they would manage that, but it would just be like, oh, you know, show up at the surfing venue. It’s okay.
Alison Brown: Maybe. Well, I’m more [00:02:00] interested. Can we go back to talking about the heat again and just not COVID 24 7
Jill Jaracz: I don’t know. You know, because I do wonder like, oh, heat talk would be great, but I would be complaining about heat talk too. Because every time we talk with somebody and we ask them about the heat, everyone is just like, uh, yeah, we’ve been, uh, duh, we’ve been preparing for this.
We know it’s hot in Japan at this time of year. And it it’s like the journalists don’t understand that athletes are a little smarter and are working with people and, and figuring out what the weather conditions are like, where they’re gonna be. This isn’t a mystery.
Alison Brown: You know, this isn’t 1742, where you suddenly show up in a country.
I do not speak your language. like the missionaries showing up in Japan, on their boats and, and not knowing where they are.
Jill Jaracz: I don’t know. I, I just, I, I want them to [00:03:00] happen. I want them to be good and happy times, and I want them to be safe and I want them to, it’s not that I want them to be over. But I want them to, I, I, I kind of want to get beyond all of the gloom and doom that we’re getting these days.
Alison Brown: Agreed. I mean, something we talk about. So, so often is we wanted to be about the athletes. So let’s get to where we’re talking about this amazing performance, this new record. Story. We didn’t know that part of it, not heat and COVID, and everybody’s worried and it’s scary and overwhelming and who can’t be there.
Let’s talk about the kids.
Jill Jaracz: Exactly. Let’s
Alison Brown: talk about the kids.
Jill Jaracz: The, some of those kids are in their forties and fifties.
Alison Brown: shut up. They’re all my kids. .
Alejandro Sancho breaks down the sport of Greco-Roman wrestling
Jill Jaracz: All right. So, uh, speaking of being focused on the athletes, let’s get to [00:04:00] today’s interview. We are talking with a specialist, Alejandro Sancho, who is a Greco Roman wrestler at the 67 kilogram weight class.
And he’s also a member of the us army world class. Athlete program. We talk with Alejandro about how Greco Roman works, whether or not manicures would make a difference who to watch in Tokyo and what it’s like to dump someone on their head. Take a listen specialist, Sanho. Thanks so much for taking some time for us.
The differences between Greco-Roman and freestyle wrestling
We’re talking about Greco Roman. So Greco Roman compared to freestyle Greco, Roman’s upper body only. What else? Distinguishes Greco Roman from freestyle.
Alejandro Sancho: So freestyle, you could attack the legs. You could do inside trips in Greco, Roman it’s, it’s more of close contact, a little bit closer than freestyle.
You know, legs are gonna touch, but you’re gonna get penalized. If you do, do any types of trips or [00:05:00] leg fouls or anything like that, um, Greco is more upper body. So you’re, you’re, you’re grabbing onto the guy getting into your hooks and, uh, throwing the guy from, you know, feet to. And that’s four points. And then we do a lot of parter, which is like ground game, where you, you know, you get on top of the guy and you try to turn him to his back.
And that’s two points. So it’s, it’s a little different than freestyle and it’s more, I think it’s more physical, I believe.
What triggers the parterre position in Greco-Roman wrestling
Jill Jaracz: Okay. You brought up the parter. Does that happen at specific points in the match? Cuz that was when I was doing some research on that. That’s one thing I didn’t understand why parter got triggered.
Alejandro Sancho: So parter usually gets triggered. If, uh, you take somebody down, uh, when you’re wrestling him and then you, you have, you can get your chance on top of parter. It’s usually 30 seconds, 20 seconds on top of him. And then if the, the match is zero, zero, the referee [00:06:00] would put somebody down, two parter and the guy that’s being more active throughout the match gets a chance to score from parter position.
Jill Jaracz: and matches are, make sure I have this correct. Two periods of three minutes each, except for if there’s like a, such a big scoring differential.
Alejandro Sancho: Yes. Uh, there’s two periods each three minutes, three minutes, each period. So it’s it’s six minutes.
Jill Jaracz: Is there kind, some kind of mercy rule with scoring. If you, if you reach a certain score or you are so far apart in score that they just end the match.
Alejandro Sancho: Yes. If you’re, if the opponents has eight points more than you do, then it’s called, uh, tech fall. So the match is over. So if it’s the score is two to 10, the match would be over the guy that has 10 points would win the match.
What’s up with the slapping in wrestling?
Alison Brown: So one of the things I see a lot when I watch wrestling is all the slapping . [00:07:00] Is that more a free or they just sort of standing there and start slapping at each other, like two kids in a, uh, playground.
And what is, is that more a freestyle thing or, or how does that work? Inre Roman. And, and why is that? Is that sort of just feeling out the situation? .
Alejandro Sancho: Yeah, so it’s, it’s more of feeling the opponent out. We call the, we call the slapping snap, uh, collar ties, where we, we tie up with the person and, and pretty much show the guy, you know, we ha we can control him, you know, from a collar tie.
Uh, there’s a lot of snap downs and grackle Roman as well, but there’s, there’s a lot more digging. So the guy it’s more of chess, chess game. Where your chest is on the other guy’s chest. And you’re trying to off balance him. You’re trying to dig in for, for an under hook, you know, your arm, trying to go into his armpit.
There’s a lot of that in grip.
Jill Jaracz: I’m sorry. I just had the visual of the arm and the armpit a lot. not being very
Alejandro Sancho: popular. Push. I wish my [00:08:00] camera would work. I would like show you guys, but oh, camera doesn’t work. It’s
Alison Brown: it’s okay. We’re we’re a podcast.
Where Greco-Roman wrestling is popular
So is Greco Roman more popular in one area of the world versus because it seems like more us and certainly more us colleges focus on freestyle.
Alejandro Sancho: Yes. Uh, Greco Roman is a lot more popular. I think overseas, especially in European countries. Because overseas, there is no, there is no collegiate folk style. There is no high school folk style. Um, so a lot of, a lot of athletes overseas, they stick to one style. They stick to either freestyle or Greco throughout their whole entire life.
Ever since there was a child, while here in the us, we start off, uh, wrestling folk style, which is more like freestyle, but it’s more scrambling, which transitions well for freestyle, but not GRE.
Jill Jaracz: what then what attracts you to Greco?
Alejandro Sancho: Uh, so I started at a very young age, uh, judo. I don’t know if you guys are familiar with judo, but [00:09:00] it’s, it’s very similar to Greco, Roman wrestling.
Uh, we have a Gion and, and we’re, we’re, it’s more of upper body. We’re trying to throw the guy with, with arm throws and, and head in arms and stuff like that. And it’s, it’s very similar tore Roman and use your hips a lot. and I transitioned very well from that into Greco Roman, cuz I had that background.
Jill Jaracz: Yeah, I was, I was curious about how much of the judo skills transferred over to wrestling and that, that answer. What, what other kinds of judo skills do you end up using that maybe your opponents don’t necessarily have with that, your background?
Alejandro Sancho: So I had, I had pretty much all the basics down for like throws and stuff like that.
While, like other kids here in America, they start off as folk style wrestling, folk style, and it’s more of double legs, single legs, you know, attacking the legs while judo. I had, I had the fundamentals down of, of actually grabbing somebody and throwing them and using [00:10:00] my hips and body locks and stuff like that.
So it transitioned very well. into that Greco Roman style.
What’s up with the hand grabbing in wrestling?
Jill Jaracz: Allison talked about the slapping earlier. I, I wanna know a little bit about, there seems to be a lot of hand grabbing. Yes. When you’re first feeling out and you know, a, why do you do that? Is it mostly to lock up each other’s hands? So they can’t do anything.
And B how, how good your grip, strength and C do you break a lot of fingers?
Alejandro Sancho: So in Greco, Roman it’s, it’s frowned upon to, to grab the fingers. The referees will literally, uh, so they, they, they would caution you in a match if you’re grabbing too much fingers, but in Greco, Roman, it’s, it’s very utilized. You, you try to grab onto somebody’s, it’s called the two on one, where you grab his fingers and then you grab his, his tricep or his bicep.
And then you control the match from. Yeah, it’s very, it’s very crucial in the sport to, to have [00:11:00] really good grips strength.
Alison Brown: See now I want Greco, Roman wrestlers to paint their nails, like really elaborately .
Alejandro Sancho: Oh yeah. so that we
Alison Brown: can see it. I mean, you know, don’t get acrylics or anything, cause that would play to a whole other level of injuries, but like to make it really pretty, so, oh, I see what he’s doing. That’s
Alejandro Sancho: what a YouTube channel. When you’re grabbing fingers throughout the match, I’ve seen some kids break their fingers.
It’s. . Yeah, it’s pretty brutal sport.
Developing a game plan for a wrestling match
Jill Jaracz: one of the things I wondered you. How much do you know your opponents going into that and how, how do you develop game plans? Because it seems like this is a challenging sport, not just physically, but mentally, cuz you’re just trying to find that one little one little week link that will take your opponent, that you can use to take your opponent down.
Alejandro Sancho: [00:12:00] Yeah. Especially in my level, the senior international level, most matches are, are scored 3, 2, 5, 3, you know, it’s, it’s very low scoring. It’s it’s if you talk to a lot of guck or woman wrestlers, it’s a, it’s a chess game when you’re wrestling, you know, tough guys, cuz everybody’s at the same level. Yeah.
It’s it’s it’s, it’s a chess game. Um, you gotta, you gotta make sure you study your opponents, especially for the world championships. You know, me going to the Olympics right now, I’m pretty much have everybody already studied. I know what everybody does and what their specialty is. So I try to capitalize that to win the match.
Who to watch in Greco-Roman wrestling at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics
Alison Brown: So who else obviously, besides you, so we be paying attention to what other countries, what other wrestlers are gonna be interesting to watch in Tokyo?
Alejandro Sancho: Uh, in my style, in my weight class, we have Barre, which is. Cuban [00:13:00] Olympic champ, world champion as well. Um, he’s a really tough guy in my weight class. Um, Coff.
He’s a Russian really tough guy as well. My weight class, he’s a, he’s a pass world champion everybody. my, my weight class is pretty stacked. Everybody’s a world champion in my mm-hmm how class we have Egypt. Russia. Cuba. Yeah, we have, we have a lot of tough guys world week class, but anything could happen in this sport.
Making weight in wrestling
Alison Brown: So talking about weight class, we read Fox catcher and they talked a lot about cutting weight and making weight. And a lot of those stories were really a little gruesome. So how does that work for you and how does that work at the Olympics in terms of when you weigh in and are they making changes so that the wrestlers aren’t doing these really dramatic cuts,
Alejandro Sancho: they did, they did, they did make a change a couple years ago, about three, four years.
They used to be weighing and then take the [00:14:00] whole entire day off, eat as much as you possibly can and then wrestle the next day. Uh, so now, uh so now we have weighing the same day and we wrestle the same day. So it takes that burden off of the wrestler, you know, cutting off, cutting a lot of weight before the tournament and then, you know, making it unhealthy weight cuts.
So. I don’t know, I never had a problem with my weight cut. I usually I’ve been doing this for my whole entire life, so I know how to eat well before tournament and get my weight down and run and sauna and do all that stuff to, to make sure my weight’s good before for a tournament.
Alison Brown: And how much of a difference is there between your InSHAPE training weight versus your competition weight?
Alejandro Sancho: Um, not that much of a difference is about six, seven kilos, which is about 12, [00:15:00] 14 pounds. And that’s not a big deal to me. Um, cuz I have a lot of water weight that I carry. I drink a lot of water throughout my training and that makes it easier for me when I have to cut weight.
Jill Jaracz: I’m like that’s dinner for me.
Alejandro Sancho’s specialties in Greco-Roman wrestling
You talked a little bit about learning other wrestler specialties. What are your specialties?
Alejandro Sancho: My specialties in, in a match would be getting to my, to my, my under hooks, my under hooks, my, you know, pushing the guy, making sure the guy gets tired, getting hired, getting to my, my positions, which in turn, lead me to my throws, uh, and just scoring.
And my part here once, once. Get the guy going throughout a match. He’s gonna start getting tired. The referee’s gonna see that he’s gonna put him down in parter and that’s when I finish a match right there. I have really good parter
Jill Jaracz: in parter. Somebody is on the bottom. Why do we see [00:16:00] them crawling around a lot?
Alejandro Sancho: Um, so they’re crawling cuz they don’t want to get scored on . I’m trying to get my lock. I’m trying to get my lock. I’m trying to lift the guy off the mat. I’m trying to gut wrench him and the guy is doing everything in his power to not use his legs, to. But just a crawl uses chest to break my lock. It’s a lot of, it’s a lot of movement down there.
Jill Jaracz: So in Greco, Roman, there’s a lot of throwing people. There can be throwing people on their heads. What is it like to both throw someone on their head or get thrown on your head?
Alejandro Sancho: Oh, it’s, it’s an adrenaline rush. that’s why I fell in love with this sport. I threw some kid on his head. Freshman year of high school.
And I, and I, I fell in love with it. , you know,
Jill Jaracz: I mean, I it’s part of the sport
yeah, cuz I mean [00:17:00] there’s video out there. Alexander Corll who’s obviously different weight class, but just the, the fear that people had when he would just dump them on their heads. Oh my goodness.
Alejandro Sancho: You lift a 250 pound man and throw him on his head. It’s, it’s something it’s beautiful to me. I love seeing that.
And that’s the sport of Brucker Roman wrestling. That’s why a lot of people like it to see, to watch it,
Alison Brown: but is it beautiful to your mom?
Alejandro Sancho: Yeah, she’s the one that encourages me to do it. So she’s been around this sport for a while now.
Alison Brown: yeah, I was gonna say the, the, the moms of professors I find fall into two categories either. They’re the ones, you know, Terrified I would fall into and couldn’t watch or they’re the ones screaming, kill him.
Alejandro Sancho: Yeah.
Alison Brown: So
Alejandro Sancho: that’s my mom. That’s my mom right there.
Alison Brown: I like
Alejandro Sancho: mom. See my grandma, my grandma, my grandma’s different. My grandma would never, ever go to one of my tournaments. She doesn’t like to see that. My mom, yeah, my mom’s totally a [00:18:00] fan.
The U.S. Army’s World Class Athlete Program
Alison Brown: So you are in the us army. How does that work with your training and your professional commitments?
How does that all come together for you?
Alejandro Sancho: It’s, you know, it’s the best program. I think in the world, the best record Roman program we have right now is in the army right now. And, you know, I can’t thank of enough. I was, I was struggling before I, I, I came in into the army financially and found out about this program.
When I actually, actually, before, before I found out what the world class athlete program was, I actually wanted to join the army cuz. Right after college, I was at the Olympic training center for about a year, and then, uh, didn’t really know what I wanted to do in my life. And I wanted to get into law enforcement cuz I was a criminal justice major at, uh, Northern Michigan university.
So I thought joining the army and, and pursuing a, a military police at MOS would be a, a good choice for me. And then I [00:19:00] found out about the world class athlete program. And so I could be doing both those things and. Signed up right away.
Jill Jaracz: What does it take to get into that program? Do they have a selection process or how does that work?
Alejandro Sancho: I believe any soldier could do it. Um, you know, it’s definitely, you have to be an elite athlete to do it and you have to be specific to your craft. So if you’re a boxer and you’re in the army and you want to do it, I think there’s all army camps that we do every year. Where it’s like more of a, a camp, a two week camp where they do like a recruiting process.
We do that in the, in the, in the wrestling program. And, uh, they actually, I, I found the world class athlete program when I was training at the OTC, they came up to train there and then I met the coaches there and they explained to me the process of joining. And I ended up enlist after that.
Jill Jaracz: Yeah. One of our, uh, past guests who’s does modern [00:20:00] pentathlon is, is also, I believe part of that program, cuz she is also in the army, but it, it seems like such a, a beneficial program and a very good structure to allow you to both get the training you need and not have to worry so much about other elements of li like I IE finances in healthcare, which is a problem for athletes in small sports.
Alejandro Sancho: mm-hmm yeah. You know, I went through the basic and I went through AIT, so I’m, I’m I’m my specialty is military police, and I know I’ve gone through all that. And you know, I’m a soldier athlete. It benefits both me being an athlete and me being a soldier. So it’s a great program, great program to have.
Jill Jaracz: So being an elite athlete, how was basic training?
Alejandro Sancho: It was fun. I had, I had a great time of basic training. Actually. I learned a lot, the drill sergeants found out who I, who I am through the [00:21:00] internet. And, uh, You know, I was, I was, I was taking care of basic training pretty well.
Alison Brown: right. And if anybody got a line, they would just say, oh, excuse me, could you just come throw somebody on their head?
They’re they’re causing trouble in the barracks again?
Alejandro Sancho: Yeah, I was, I was, I was the number one, combatives. The, I was doing all that stuff and it was, it was a great time. I had a great time basic training.
Wrestling: A lifelong sport
Alison Brown: I wanna ask what didn’t we ask about Greco, Roman, that you want people to know?
Alejandro Sancho: Greco Roman. I don’t know.
It’s, it’s a great sport to watch. Um, I’m I’m not sure. I it’s, it’s a, it’s a broad question. I’m
Alison Brown: good question. That’s fine. No, so, you know, whenever it’s a sport that we’re not terribly familiar with, mm-hmm sometimes we don’t even know what we don’t know. And so I, I like when it’s a, a sport, I really don’t know to say mm-hmm did we miss something super important about watching it or about the competition or about something.[00:22:00]
Is so exciting for you as an athlete that we as spectators would miss otherwise.
Alejandro Sancho: Yeah. So in, in the sport of Brucker Roman, you have to, you know, this, this is a lifelong sport. You know, these athletes that, that are in this sport have, have committed their whole entire life to this sport. They’ve made so many sacrifices and you see it at these tournaments.
You know, there, there is highs and lows in this tournament. And when, when I won the Olympic trials, I had my teammate, unfortunately at Ellis Coleman that was in the finals with me as well. And, and I ended up beating him and, you know, it was a very high for me, but very low for him cuz he ended up losing.
We were both teammates and it’s, it’s a beautiful sport. I think. I think the techniques that we, that, that we show during a match and, and all that stuff. It’s it’s it’s I don’t know. I can’t really explain it too well, but it’s, it’s beautiful. I love, I love watching gr Roman wrestling. I love watching wrestling in [00:23:00] general, freestyle folk style, all those sports.
Jill Jaracz: One thing that I, that is so exciting about wrestling too, is this, it can look like it’s very slow while you’re feeling each other out. Once you find the weak link in an opponent or the, the opponent just Ks for a second and you can take advantage of it. It’s very fast. And, and if you blink, you missed something super big.
Alejandro Sancho: Mm-hmm .
Jill Jaracz: How do you develop that speed and balance it with such strength?
Alejandro Sancho: It’s a lot of repetitions. So I’ve done over a thousand armed throws. I’ve done over a thousand. Head in arms, I’ve done a thousand body locks. It’s all muscle memory and Al Roman wrestling and, uh, developing that quick, that quick touch, you know?
So that’s, that’s all, that’s all done in practice. You know, you’re in there doing repetitions. You’re in there [00:24:00] lifting you’re in there, working out every single day, twice a day. And it’s, it’s, it’s a lifelong, lifelong commitment. You know, you gotta be doing this for. For about 10, 12 years to, to actually start figuring out what Greel Roman wrestling is and how to wrestle
Jill Jaracz: when, when yeah.
When you put it in that context, there’s some sports where you can pick them up very quickly, but learning that technique and building that strength just takes years and years to, to get on up. So this is a nice culmination of, of the work you’ve put.
Looking ahead to Tokyo 2020
So when do you head over to Tokyo and what is that process like in wrestling?
Cuz I know in other sports they’re like staging things to kind of mm-hmm get over there at stages.
Alejandro Sancho: Yeah. I believe team USA, Greco leaves. Um, July 17th do Tokyo. Uh, we’re gonna have a two week acclimation camp there. Pretty much getting our weight down. We’ve done all the wrestling already. It’s pretty much getting acclimated to the, [00:25:00] to the environment, getting our way down and, uh, pretty much the mental, the mental game.
You making sure you’re mentally prepared for the big stage. The Olympics in August. My, my, my, my tournament will be August 3rd, I believe August 3rd and August 4th,
Jill Jaracz: getting prepared mentally. How, how do you do that? Is it more shutting out the rest of the.
Alejandro Sancho: Pretty much, it’s making sure you’re you’re, you know, shutting out the world.
Yeah, that’s a, that’s a good one. Uh, you know, doing meditation, uh, studying my opponents, uh, pretty much mentally seeing myself at the Olympics, wrestling these guys and just making sure I’m mentally prepared, making sure everything’s right. I’m eating right correctly. My conditioning’s right. That’s all.
That’s all part of the mental. Mental mindset game.
Jill Jaracz: Now you compete indoors, but the heat [00:26:00] in Tokyo is, well, there’s a lot of heat and humidity in Tokyo, but you’re from Florida. Mm-hmm so this is not a pro you’ll be at home, right?
Alejandro Sancho: Yeah. It’s just like home. it’s it’s gonna be somewhere over there. It’s gonna be humid, you know, that’s, that’s my type of environment.
That’s where I thrive. It’s all. It’s all looking pretty good for me. it’s looking pretty good. I don’t
Alison Brown: know if the bugs
Alejandro Sancho: are quite
Alison Brown: as big in Tokyo as they are in Miami.
Alejandro Sancho: I’m not sure. I’ve never, I’ve never been over there. So it’s gonna be a first time for me. So hopefully not, I don’t like bugs.
Alison Brown: how can you not like bugs and be from Miami?
Come on.
Alejandro Sancho: I don’t mind the mosquitoes when the bees and the Hornets and. They’re really spiky things. I don’t like .
Alison Brown: I just wanna say, though, I do want to, um, possibly watch your match on a live feed with your mom, cuz that would [00:27:00] be fun.
Alejandro Sancho: that would be awesome. She be
Alison Brown: and your grandmother and, and the whole plan.
Cause I’m sure they’re gonna all get together and watch at like three o’clock in the morning or whatever time the time difference is gonna be mm-hmm that would be a, that would be.
Alejandro Sancho: Yeah, they’re probably gonna be doing a whole, a watch party yet in Miami with the whole entire family and all my friends down there in Miami.
Jill Jaracz: Nice.
Alejandro Sancho: Would be fun.
Jill Jaracz: Nice.
Alejandro Sancho: Mm-hmm
Jill Jaracz: well, thank you so much for your time specialist Sano. We really appreciate it. Uh, I know it’s, it’s tough taking some time out, but, but thank you for helping explain your. Thank you so much Alejandro Alejandro competes on August 4th. So be on the lookout for his competition.
Uh, you know, when he, we were talking about cutting again, because that is one of the things we like to talk about with weight class sport athletes. And he said he doesn’t have to cut that much. It’s like just like [00:28:00] six to seven kilograms, which to me is a lot. But then he is like, well, it’s mostly water.
Which
Alison Brown: makes, I would love to have six to seven pounds of water weight that I could just, you know, let go of
Jill Jaracz: right
Alison Brown: in the bathroom. So to speak,
Jill Jaracz: sit in a sauna and have that all just come on out.
Alison Brown: I don’t, I mean, speaking of Tokyo, if he needs to cut, wait, he can just sit outside.
Jill Jaracz: Yeah, that’s true.
Alison Brown: Sweat it out, man.
Jill Jaracz: Right before we get onto our other segments today, we’d like to thank our Patreon patrons. They are the ones who help us keep this show afloat financially, because we do have a lot of bills to pay. And we do have some on the ground coverage in Beijing, 2022 to cover money wise. So if you would like to support us as well, check us out at patreon.com/flame live.
TKFLASTAN Update
Alison Brown: Welcome to shook Luan.
Jill Jaracz: It’s time to [00:29:00] check in with our team. Keep the flame alive. These are our past guests who make up our roster O Shani. First off race Walker, Evan Dony has a new sponsor.
Alison Brown: Speaking of not cutting weight.
Jill Jaracz: Oh, this is the best. His new sponsor is craft dinner. If you’re not familiar with craft dinner, you might know it better.
ASRA Mac and cheese, which I think is just the best thing. Because as Evan said on Twitter today, I got a sponsorship with craft dinner and then got a 15 kilometer personal best in training. There are no coincidences. I mean, if you’re, if you’re walking 20 or 50, K you probably need some craft dinner in you.
Alison Brown: And here’s the thing. Evan Dony is a ginger, a ginger
Jill Jaracz: mm-hmm
Alison Brown: craft, macaroni and cheese. Is the food equivalent to a ginger. I see the connection.
Jill Jaracz: There we
Alison Brown: go. As Evan says, there are no coincidences.
Theme Music: Roy to ZAWA is featured on a CBS Sunday morning piece about
Alison Brown: recapturing the magic from [00:30:00] the 1964 Olympics.
Jill Jaracz: And we will have a link to that in the show notes
Alison Brown: and artistic swimmer Jacqueline semio was on radio Canada to talk about her preparations for Tokyo. I think they’re there now. I think they’re in, in Japan. Ah,
Jill Jaracz: so exciting. Just a reminder that, uh, even though Tokyo 2020 is going to happen, book club is still coming up and it’s a great time to get our next selection called seven, seven by sh Tani and Ryan.
It’s about the, uh, Fiji men’s rugby sevens team and their quest for gold at Rio 2016. And it’s, it’s an excellent read. I. Mostly through it. I am so excited to watch Fiji compete at, uh, Tokyo. And you will be two. You can get seven, seven at bookshop.org/shop/flame live pod. We get a commission from books purchased through our link that helps us pay those bills that we keep talking about.
So please support the [00:31:00] show that way with your book purchases.
Tokyo 2020 News
So tach is in. Tokyo. And
Alison Brown: it’s like that the, the atmosphere sunk into his POS.
Jill Jaracz: Exactly. Because he did have an uncle Yoshi moment as we like to call them. When you go, oh, uncle Yoshi, I cannot believe you said that because he slipped up during a speech and he called, uh, the Japanese people, Chinese. That did not go over.
Well, the associated press reported this and he said, our common target is safe and secure games for everybody, for the athletes, for all the delegations. And most importantly, also for the Chinese people, Japanese people tee box said, well, he caught his, he
Alison Brown: slipped over the word. Hey, I am totally giving tach a pass on this for two reasons.
One he’s speaking. [00:32:00] Not a native language of his own. And two, he’s talking about Beijing 20, 22 at the same time. So he’s got Japan and China on his brain.
Jill Jaracz: So the interpreters did not interpret the mistake, but people enough people who were in the know caught it and of course found its way to social media where it was a big thing.
So hopefully this is just the only time that there will be a slip up like that. A Tebo has also met with prime minister SGA and, and they apparently had a very nice meeting. And additionally, the, uh, the IOC reported that the Tokyo organizing committee said there have been about 8,000 people who have come into the country between in the first half of July.
Only three have tested positive for COVID 19 after arrival and we’re immediately isolated. And I think that’s the, you know, those, those are the stories we hear about like the Serbian rower and [00:33:00] the Uganda, uh, athletes and coaches that, that had that happen to them. So I think the IOC is trying to say, Hey, yeah, we’re hearing about all these people who are showing up with COVID, but know that a lot of people are showing.
With no, COVID I, I think they’re trying to keep a perspective on that. That’s really hard to keep in a time of social media and we all wanna have the bad news lead, but that doesn’t mean that people aren’t still getting exposed. So the Asai Shinbo reported that the south African rugby sevens team has been exposed.
The refugee team got exposed. And where, where were they exposed? No
Alison Brown: two coaches tested positive before they left Qatar.
Jill Jaracz: Oh, okay. Uh, the Brazilian team members were exposed as a hotel by hotel staff who were positive and, and kind of like, what do you do with this now? Because I there’s no real way to keep everyone in a bubble [00:34:00] unless you have every staff member suddenly not be able to go home for two weeks, if they have to quarantine.
And there’s just no space for that. I think it’s gonna be tough.
Alison Brown: We just gotta hope. We gotta hope. Keep our fingers crossed. Hope people are doing their jobs.
Jill Jaracz: Mm-hmm uh, the Kyoto news reported that the Olympic village is open and athletes have begun to arrive. They don’t have the usual fanfare. Welcoming ceremonies that they used to get, which is kind of, you know, that’s one of those things that I understand why it has gone by the wayside for this Olympics.
It’s still kind of, it’s, it’s really, it’s sad that, that doesn’t doesn’t get to happen. I’ve seen pitchers where different balconies are decorated with flags for different countries. So that’s really cool. Or if they there’s one for Japan and they have several floors, so. The whole look of the balcony is the, the rising sun of the flag [00:35:00] is that yes.
I
Alison Brown: saw that.
Jill Jaracz: That is very cool. I, I do wanna know we still have one week to go and I, I understand that some sports kick off before the opening ceremonies starts, but as we are taping, we are still more than five days away from any sports happening and athletes aren’t supposed to. Until five days before.
So what’s up with that.
Alison Brown: Oh, you mean who the athletes are that are arriving in the village?
Jill Jaracz: Yeah, but, but it doesn’t even matter because the, the Q news reported and also, uh, inside the games reported, the athletes were arriving. The inside the game story came out on Tuesday, July 13th. And that is more than five days before the softball tournament starts or the football tournament starts.
Why are there athletes in the village? because they’re not
Alison Brown: supposed to
Jill Jaracz: be.
Alison Brown: Yeah. Interesting. I hadn’t even done the math as you know, I have trouble with math, so, well, I was comfortable with time zones, so I clearly don’t know what [00:36:00] day is happening.
Jill Jaracz: yeah, but still it’s just one of those, like, huh. So what, you know, I, I do wonder how much of what’s going to happen is theater and we’re telling a nice story versus what’s going to actually happen.
So we shall see, I kind of wonder if some of these ceremonial things are, or different events will sneak back in. We’ve got opening ceremony, news, Japanese emperor NATO is likely to attend the opening ceremony according to the Kyodo news. And he should be declaring the start of the games, but lots of foreign dignitaries don’t plan to come.
Alison Brown: Good.
Jill Jaracz: In a way that’s kind of interesting. I know you have opinions on this because, uh, the us has said that a doctor, Jill Biden may be the UN the USA representative at the games. Thoughts.
Alison Brown: If fans can’t be there, why can VIPs be there? Because Jill Biden as vaccinated as [00:37:00] she is, is bringing a staff. She’s not coming by herself.
Flying coach. Right. She’s gotta bring her staff. She’s gotta bring her secret service detail. That is a lot of unnecessary people. And I understand the importance of VIPs showing support, but Dr. Biden and her entourage should stay home
Jill Jaracz: well. And, and it’s not like. The other VIPs who will be there don’t have entourages either.
I mean, my, my
Alison Brown: appropriately, so right. You know, they’ve gotta travel with security. They have to travel with the staff. I mean, that’s appropriate, but it’s not appropriate for them to go when all the Japanese fans can’t even go to see the events that are happening in their own city.
Jill Jaracz: Right. It is. I, I do agree with that.
It’s, it’s interesting because this is also a missed opportunity for. Diplomatic meetings to happen with Japan and other countries. So you lose that as well. More fun news, that team USA revealed its [00:38:00] opening ceremony outfit and our shook Connor fields appeared on the today show to model the flag bears outfit, which did you see this
Alison Brown: team USA?
Kendall
Jill Jaracz: the team USA opening ceremony uniform has a blue blazer and the, the flag bears has a white denim jacket.
Alison Brown: With a fan in it.
Jill Jaracz: Oh,
Alison Brown: There’s a fan in the jacket.
Jill Jaracz: Oh, okay. Cause
Alison Brown: so that it cools them off. No, I mean, I didn’t mean like a person that they’re hiding to cheer for them. like actual cooling device.
Jill Jaracz: I actually, well, I thought you meant like a paper fan. I’m like, how are they gonna hold the flag? And then just like whip out this fan to fan themselves off?
Alison Brown: No, in the back in the center of the denim jacket, there’s the silver. And it apparently is some kind of cooling device because the outfits have jeans, a niche shirt, a scarf, and a jacket.
And I’m thinking that is hot and it’s dark. It’s all dark blue in the regular [00:39:00] uniforms. Oh, team. I mean, thankfully not too many team USA will be marching cuz they’d be passing out. It’s a hot outfit.
Jill Jaracz: Uh, there are other opening ceremony, uniforms that have been released, but we have not talked about on the show.
But they are very exciting. So first up is check Republic, which not
Alison Brown: hot.
Jill Jaracz: No, not hot. It it’s reminiscent of a folklore costume.
Alison Brown: It’s a white skirt. It’s a blue top or white pants.
Jill Jaracz: The blue is indigo that’s dye in a Japanese tradition. And the blue portion of the uniform has a print on it, which is
Alison Brown: a flower.
The check symbol for gymnast, which is supposed to be Vera Slaka, who was the gold medal, uh, at that time CCHO, Salva, and gymnast who won in 1968.
Jill Jaracz: And they have a little fan with the same print on it. It’s very nice.
Alison Brown: It’s a beautiful combination of [00:40:00] traditional check things and Japanese cultural references.
More importantly, it looks much cooler
Jill Jaracz: and denim.
Alison Brown: Oh.
Jill Jaracz: And we’ve also seen them. Have you
Alison Brown: ever worn jeans when it’s really hot?
Jill Jaracz: I don’t wear jeans when it’s really hot because they’re hot and it makes me hotter. Although, you
Alison Brown: know, and then you, well, there you go. You cut weight.
Jill Jaracz: Yeah. We’ve also seen Mexico’s uniform, which is Navy and it’s, uh, kind of a, the women have a skirt and the men have, uh, pants and there’s a blazer, but the blazer, one of the lapels on the blazer has four flowers on it.
And it’s very, looks very folkloric and traditional and vibrant. And then the lining of the jacket is also in this flowered pattern. It’s very cool looking. I’m very excited to see the opening ceremonies costumes. I’m also excited to see who gets to March.
Alison Brown: What kind of numbers you mean?
Jill Jaracz: Mm-hmm, also in news, there are changes to the Olympic oath that, [00:41:00] uh, I think we talked about this when we talked about rule 50.
So the, the, that will include an anti-discrimination clause to. Inside the gains reported that the metal ceremony is going to be a little bit different this year, where usually a dignitary puts the medals around, uh, the athletes next and gives ’em a little handshake and maybe a little cheek kiss. But, uh, this year the athletes will give the medals themselves.
Which, okay. So somebody’s going to have them on a tray and that person will be wearing gloves and everything will be disinfected. And they’ll present the tray to the athletes and the athletes will pick up the metal and put it on their own necks, but there’s still gonna be proximity with the person on the tray.
Alison Brown: This just made me think of, talk about obscure historical reference Napoleon crowned himself, emperor . And I just feel like it’s going to have that bit of. Self aggrandizement to it. When you put the metal on yourself, though, a lot of [00:42:00] events have done that this past year.
Jill Jaracz: Right.
Alison Brown: But it still looks strange.
Jill Jaracz: And, and it’s been kind of, it’ll be interesting to see what teams do because I I’ve seen metal ceremonies that have been very nice where maybe the captain or one person of the team presents the rest of the medals to the other team members. And that’s really kind of neat, but I’ve also seen where the medals have been.
They’ve been kind of walked in by. The traditional people who would be presenting the medals and they’ve been put on a table or the table is already staged. And then the athletes just walk off and take the metal off the table and put it on themselves. I, I feel like it’s the whole more of the theater.
Again,
Alison Brown: this is the perfect opportunity for Japan to show, show off its robotics. Prowes mm-hmm have a metal robot
Jill Jaracz: would be fantastic.
Alison Brown: Have a robotic T B oh. His little glasses and his little Olympic tie.[00:43:00]
Jill Jaracz: Can you imagine what that would be like?
Alison Brown: That would be fantastic is what it would be like. What are our opening ceremonies outfits gonna be?
Jill Jaracz: I’m good. I have probably my team Sammy shirt on
Alison Brown: excellent choice. I’ve gotta work on that. I’m not quite sure I need, I need thoughts. I don’t know.
Jill Jaracz: Hmm. You know, speaking.
Getting ready for the Olympics. We are putting the finishing touches on an ebook that is our viewing guide for watching the game. So it’ll have a day by day schedule at a glance as to what time things are on. And when, if it’s a, a regular competition versus a metal competition, we also have. Most of the matchups up there and, uh, a little bit about the sports.
So look for that on Amazon, we will be promoting that over the next week and that’s gonna do it for this episode. Let us know if you’ll be watching wrestling during Tokyo,
Alison Brown: email us@flamealivepodgmail.com. Caller [00:44:00] text us at 2 0 8 3 5 2 6 3 4 8. That’s two zero. Flame it, we flame alive pod on Twitter and instant and keep the flame alive podcast group on Facebook.
Jill Jaracz: Monday is the 25th anniversary of the opening ceremonies of Atlanta 1996. So we’re going to have a discussion on the impact of those games on the city. As we go out to music by mercury sunset. Thank you so much for listening. And until next time, keep the flame alive.
Theme Music: Radiation of what’s inside.[00:45:00]
So time to.
Are,
Jill Jaracz: we are looking at gro wrestling with a specialist. Whoa, what did I say?
Alison Brown: Gro record .