The Tokyo 2020 Olympics are almost here (we hope)! We sit down with contributors Book Club Claire and Superfan Sarah to talk about what we think will happen during the Olympics.
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Thanks so much for listening, and until next time, keep the flame alive!
TRANSCRIPT
Note: This transcript has been machine-generated and contains errors. Please use the audio file as the official record of note.
Sarah: [00:00:00] I mean, I hold no secrets. That my favorite part of the Olympics is always watching people’s streams come true.
Jill: Hello. Fans of TKFLASTAN and welcome to another episode of Keep the Flame Alive, the podcast for fans of the Olympics and Paralympics. I am your host. Jill. Jaracz joined as always by my lovely co-host Alison Brown.
Alison. Hello? How are you today?
Alison: Good day, mate. oh, yeah.
Jill :Right. you’re you’re practicing 11 years early.
Alison: Honey, it’s gonna take me 11 years to not embarrass the entire country of Australia.
Jill: Oh. Uh, we’ll get to that. Exactly. Exactly. So, yeah, we’re referring to the fact that Brisbane is officially going to host the 20, 32 summer Olympics, but, uh, there’s more on that later on in the show first off.
Oh my gosh, because we’re Tokyo has started the, the pre-opening ceremonies competitions have started. So we’ve had day minus two as we’re taping day minus one is about to start in Tokyo. So we’ve got news on what’s happened there and, uh, we’ve got a contributor round table talking about what we’re looking forward to in the games with our friends book club, Claire and superfan, Sarah.
But first we’ve got everything we’re doing for Tokyo in one handy. Website page go to flame alive pod.com/tokyo. And you will find out how to play opening ceremonies. Bingo, how to get in on our fantasy league and fantasy bracket series, where how to get the daily newsletters, which will not have spoilers, but you’ll at least know what we’re gonna cover in the show.
And you can find out more about our ebook and how to order it. It’s a viewing guide for both the Olympics and the Paralympics in one big ebook. So get your viewing guide on and start prepping. Now you can find that link in the flame alive pod.com/tokyo. All right. We always love having our contributors on with us.
So we are happy to have superfan Sarah team USA’s number one fan, and also book club Claire with us to talk about what we think is going to happen in Tokyo. Take a listen. Ooh, welcome Claire and Sarah. Good to be here.
Sarah: Yeah, it’s great to
Jill: be here. It’s excellent to have you actually, Tokyo has really started even though it’s it’s Tuesday night here in America, but the first softball game started, you all have it on what’s the score so far?
Uh, the
Claire: score is Australia one, Japan, zero, uh, they’re in the, uh, first ending, still bottom of the first.
Jill: Okay. So we have plenty of time here. Plenty. So today, what we’re gonna talk about, uh, what to look for in Tokyo, what we think was, is gonna happen. One of the things that did come out today was another one of those stories of, oh, the games could be canceled right up to the start of the games.
What do you think about that? It’s
Claire: something that happens. Every Olympics something’s gonna go wrong. Something’s gonna happen. Uh, it is just this time because they were postponed. You have that extra incentive of, oh, we need to keep writing about it because you know, maybe it just won’t be postponed.
It’ll be canceled. And then we really have this scoop and it’s just overblow getting clicks for, for your articles. And after a while, you just have to stop sharing them and saying how wrong they are and just ignoring them because
Alison: maybe they’ll go away.
Sarah: I don’t think it’s gonna be canceled. There’s we all know.
A driving force of all of this is money. And at this point they’re seeing that all the broadcasting rights and all the money is right there in front of them and they’re gonna, it’s gonna happen. And I hate that there’s a lot of athletes that are probably gonna get pulled out because of COVID test. But no, that they’re gonna go on.
Alison: I’m still worried that we’re gonna get started. There’s gonna be a super outbreak and they’re just gonna shut it down. That will be four or five days in. And they’re just gonna say too many athletes have test positive. And I don’t know at what point that becomes a tipping point and I still have the great fear that the para’s gonna get canceled because of what happens at the Olympics.
Because obviously if the Olympics [00:05:00] become a super spreader event, there is no way that the, the Japanese government will allow the Paralympics to go on. So I am. Like a good Italian grandmother going to worry the entire time.
Sarah: Yeah. I’m certainly worried for athletes and especially my husband and I were just having the conversation about gymnastics, which we can get into that later.
But, you know, say that Simon Biles gets a positive test and can’t compete. Whoever wins is always gonna have a little note, you know, like, oh, she won, but Simone had a test. So anyway, we, we can get into that later, but I will say that I’m more concerned when it comes to cancellations that they’re gonna cancel the Paralympics if this becomes too outta control.
Um, not as me as they expected. And, um, I will say. I feel a little ignorant quoting this because I didn’t actually read the article, but I, there was a really good Twitter explanation where someone talked about the way that people were saying today. Oh, it could be canceled up till the last minute. Um, that with Japanese culture, a lot of times, um, if you ask a yes or no question, the response is usually, well, maybe, um, and I’ve lived that I’ve experienced that over there and it’s true.
So the idea that in a press conference, someone may have just said, well, maybe that could happen. Of course it gets taken way to the extreme of, yes, that means it will happen. Um, and like Claire was saying that, you know, click bait sensationalism. We know that that’s gonna be a huge deal.
Jill: What COVID supplanted as the thing to write and talk about was the heat.
It’s very hot. And as Sarah noted today, before we started taping, Sapporo recorded its highest temperature in 31 years. And Sapporo is a place where they’ve moved the marathon and race walks because of the heat that would be in Tokyo. How do you think the heat is going to affect the games?
Claire: I think very little.
I think if you’re smart, if you’ve trained for it, Then you’re gonna be fine. I know a lot of people took the advantage of, okay, we’re we gotta practice in humidity. We gotta practice, uh, in extreme temperatures or get ourselves acclimated to the extreme temperatures. They who. Train well do well. And those that decide to wing it are going to suffer.
These are not idiots. They know what they’re getting into. They’ve experienced it before. I mean, if you’re a track and field athlete, Doha was very similar to this with, uh, their conditions for those, for the race walk and for the marathon. And it it’s just, it it’s infuriating that people are convinced that athletes can’t cope when they have been doing things scientifically advanced that people don’t even realize at this point.
Sarah: Yeah. And to kind of piggyback on that. I remember a track and field Olympic trials. Of course, the heat on the west coast was outrageous at that time. Uh, but many of the athletes were saying that they were just so grateful that it was kind of mimicking. The Olympics and what they would be up against. And, and maybe they weren’t necessarily grateful cuz who really enjoys that.
But, but, you know, they were seeing it very much in the positive light of this is good practice for Tokyo. So kind of like what Claire was saying that we knew the Olympics were coming to Tokyo. They know the conditions, the humidity, it, it is very high there. Um, and it could be tough for someone who’s not used to humidity just to walk there.
I think the media’s probably gonna struggle probably more than the athletes, honestly, you
Alison: know, who does enjoy that wrestlers, trying to make weight.
Claire: Yeah. Need to, need to lose some pounds. Just step outside. You’ll be fine.
Alison: I wonder if we’re gonna hear less about the heat because there are no fans. We’re not gonna hear about fans collapsing. We’re not gonna hear about any spectators having a heart attack. So. That may actually diminish the talk,
Jill: but to, to Sarah’s point, the media probably will struggle.
And what do they have a platform to write about that?
Claire: I will always be kind of irritated that the IOC or whoever’s planning it needed to have these games in the summer where Tokyo 1964 was in the fall. And that took care of the heat problem. I would’ve been totally cool waiting until September or October for these games.
I would’ve had no issue with that, but they insisted we have to do this in July now. And I don’t get why, who cares. It it’s called the summer Olympics. They were in Rio in 2016, and Rio was experiencing their winter. So it, to, to say that we have to have it in June, July or August is just
Jill: preposterous. Well, and, and they usually do that [00:10:00] for television schedules.
But it’s interesting. When you think about Tokyo was awarded the games in 2013, Life was a lot different in terms of television. We didn’t have all the streaming that we have now. So you really could, I think, put the games in the fall and yeah, you’d have to get around NBC wanting baseball if they had the baseball, uh, world series that year and playoffs, or get around, uh, NFL football coverage.
But really, you know, you’re not dealing with a primetime schedule anymore the same way you really thought about it in 2013.
Claire: and something else, a along those lines, uh, if you are watching the Olympics in, in NBC prime time, then you’re watching the Olympics rock. We’ll probably get to this later, but do not watch that eight o’clock Eastern time broadcast, cuz you’re just gonna be seeing repeats and interviews and you’re not gonna see anything live except for, for swimming cuz they ed it that way.
I just ignore it. If you are able to watch the live streams go onto any other NBC channel, do not watch.
Jill: You will miss my boyfriend, Mike Tirico and I
Alison: actually love watching the prime time. Oh, I
Claire: cannot stand
Alison: it. I love watching the prime time, especially for the swimming. Well, first of all, cuz I adore rowdy Gaines.
So I love hearing his call and yes, of course, for a lot of the sports that you truly wanna see, you need to watch the stream. You need to watch it live because you’re not going to see the majority of the event swimming. I just like to see the finals. I don’t need to see the heats in the Emmys. And I like the nighttime coverage because they just give me race after race, after race.
So I like that. But then of course I complain about all the Team USA, heaviness of it, the Mary Carillo stories, you know, all those things. But then I also like watching the NBC coverage just to see what they’re doing. So I can yell at the TV. So it’s kind of a very different if you’re really trying to watch the sport.
No, if you’re trying to watch the Olympic experience, I like the NBC broadcast for that, which is a different. Angle on what you’re doing.
Claire: Yeah. I could see that. Uh, I don’t know if, if it there’s a, an age difference here where, you know, I am all, or if it’s just a preference that I love to see the sports I’ve been watching the sports for five years now.
And I, I haven’t really had that break that everybody else has where now this week it’s like, oh, I need to go see what the archery people are doing. No, I’ve been watching that for quite a while. Now. I wanna see it. I don’t, you need don’t need to tell me all of the fascinating stories. You don’t need to show the gymnastics and only show Simone Biles.
And that’s it. Even though there’s three other gymnasts that are currently on an apparatus and you’re not gonna show them at all. I wanna see that I wanna see all those athletes. So once they started showing the, um, Olympic feeds on their streaming, I was sold and I said, forget it. Goodbye,
Jill: NBC. I’m done.
Sarah: For me, I enjoy the human interest stories, but kind of like what Claire was saying. I’ve been following a lot of these storylines for five years and obviously before then, too, so a lot of the human interest stories, I go out and find on my own . And so while I do think there are great stories that need to be told.
So I’m okay with them being included in the primetime coverage. Yeah. If I’m wanting to just watch the sports and things that I’m looking forward to with technology is that we have access to streaming all of these different things. I’m very grateful for that. And also feel like commentators, some commentators I really, really, really enjoy.
And then there’s other commentators that are better on mute, but I won’t say.
Alison: You know, I wonder it’s so funny you say that Claire, because I did grow up with wide world of sports and that one block of sports two hours on a Saturday. And I think that’s part of how I think of the Olympics is that communal event for certain sports, I will watch the, the streaming for dressage, for rhythmic gymnastics.
Um, obviously for all our shook list Downes to see it live. But I like that everybody who’s watching the prime time is seeing the same thing. And there’s something about that element of the Olympics is why I love the Olympics. That everybody’s kind of watching the same thing, even though I know we’re not,
Claire: that’s the kind of thing you wanna share that experience.
You’re like, oh, I that’s how I reacted. When I saw that for me, I grew up on sports center where sports was all the time and I wanna watch the sports when. I wanna see them. So that’s why that’s, that’s kind of my thing. Um, I’m excited though. I need to figure out how it all works, cuz it’s different from Pyong Chang, which is unfortunate because I had that down like a science, but I’ll get there and I’ll try and watch as much as I can [00:15:00] maybe on Japan time.
Alison: Yeah. So this is a perfect segue to say, how are you approaching? You’re watching because there’s a significant time difference. Summer games have many, many more sports and athletes than . I know we’re all sort of shaking our heads. So what, what are some strategies to see what you want and see what you don’t wanna miss?
Sarah: I’ll be honest. I’m still trying to nail down my calendar of seeing things that what is a priority to me. Like obviously I wanna see, uh, Sarah Robles do weightlifting, so that is. Gonna be something that I watch. Um, there are several athletes that I wanna see how they do, not only from the United States, but across the world.
I’m excited for Japanese athletes to compete at home, even though it’s so sad that they can’t have spectators. So all of that to say, I’m still trying to narrow down exactly what is gonna be a priority for me. So I can either have a late night or an early, early morning, but there’s gonna be a lot of coffee flowing in our home and I can function on little sleep.
So good luck to my husband because I’m probably gonna be screaming at the TV at 1:00 AM. I don’t know.
Claire: My question was I, I have my entire, what I would’ve gone to, uh, ticket plan in my regular planner. So every time I’ve had to whip it out for work, I open it up. I’m like, Oh, so I’m wondering, do I wanna watch all those events?
do I wanna kill myself in that way that I force myself to watch things I should have been watching in person, but that aside the number one of course is every single track and field event. So’s, I’m unapologetically a, an athletics freak and number one shot put, of course it is the best sport in the world bar.
None, no questions, no
Alison: arguments. It starts at 7 35, thankfully. Yes. Not at four, which was my original schedule.
Claire: Yes. So gotta get those in for those morning, our morning, their evening sessions, for sure. And then everything else, like it’s harder because in Pyong Chang, you could basically watch everything. Um, maybe not all of the team round Robin competitions, but if you wanted to watch something, you could get it all done in a day.
And I, I have done that for summer. Forget it, you just, you just gotta pinpoint some stuff and I’m still trying to figure out, okay. When do things start? I usually avoid the team events like basketball, softball, soccer. I don’t watch those at all. I try to stick to the things like things that I know are quick and easy archery, any kind of shooting.
Although sometimes it is hard to watch shooting events, uh, just because I don’t know what’s going on sometimes. Um, but anything that can be done, oh three on three basketball. Oh, sorry. Three X, three basketball. I’m excited to see that very short rugby sevens. I wanna watch that cuz that’s like a half an hour.
So those kinds of things I think are what are gonna take up most of my time. And of course swimming, gymnastics, the, the normal,
Sarah: yeah. One of the things that’s nice is track and field. We have a few days to kind of train and prep for it. so that was one thing that I was very relieved about.
Claire: Yeah. Oh yeah.
And, uh, the thing is with, we’re gonna be so trained for swimming in the evenings and all of a sudden track field gonna be in the mornings and we’re gonna go, oh no, this is that
Jill: this is not working. yeah. I don’t know. I have a binder. I thought today as I got my cos sport refund for the tickets that did not, I’m not gonna go see anything.
I thought about like, oh, do I wanna see everything that we would’ve seen in person? But I don’t know if I wanna sit through early rounds of epi fencing. I would’ve sat through it in, in Tokyo, cuz that would’ve been exciting, but I don’t think I’d want to sit through it today. I’m more of a, a finals person and I wanna see as many sports as possible.
But there are days where there’s like 29 sports going on and there’s just no way you can watch everything. So yeah, it it’s gonna be teen sports get, oh, what’s happening in the, in the pools. I just wanna know the scores, maybe a highlight or two. Thank you. Prime time coverage for that. Uh, versus, uh, something like sport climbing.
I wanna watch that because that’ll be quick, rugby sevens, super quick, three X, three basketball, all that kind of stuff. That’s really quick. But then, I mean, I, I saw that, you know, podium training for gymnastics is going to be streamed kind of wanna watch that too, but you know, it’s gonna come. I, I don’t know.
Alison: I don’t wanna discourage people from just dipping. You know, we’re talking about having binders and having schedules and having plans, but a lot in the past, what I have done. Was dip, you know, what’s on this channel right now. Oh, I don’t like it. I’m just gonna [00:20:00] jump over here. And that can be a really fun way.
Number one, to discover something you haven’t watched before and two, just get that feel and not be too scheduled about it. Oh, I’ve got an hour. Let me just see what’s on. I mean, that is how I got so excited about Olympic swimming, because it was always on when I could sit and watch it. It was like in the evenings feed, the, you know, feed my daughter, sit down.
I could always watch that. And during the day I not necessarily could. So that’s not a bad strategy either. Just kind of what channel is is here. Okay. Let’s look at this and discover
Jill: a whole new sport and, and maybe that’s generational, cuz it’s back to the broadcast thing where they shove seven sports into a five hour block.
And you’re going to get snippets of everything. You’re not gonna get whole coverage. So again, it is like a, oh, I don’t know about the sport. Well, it’s gonna be on a part of, it’s gonna be on, uh, a broadcast stream. Okay. I’ll watch that versus sitting down to watch a full game of something.
Sarah: When we talk about the prime time coverage, I really like what Alison said about dipping in and whatnot, because we’re all die hard fans.
We know this we’ve been following the Olympics for, I mean, as long as I was capable of it, I mean, I was like the five year old going to the public library, reading Olympic books. So, you know, if that’s not on brand, I don’t know what is, but not everyone is like that. So I do like the idea that maybe it’s a prime time on Wednesday in the middle of the Olympics.
Maybe there’s a highlight that someone sees that suddenly catches their attention and that is what catches them into the Olympic movement. And then they start looking for a podcast and end up finding you guys and. So, yeah, and I think about, you know, my daily routine is that in the evenings, we have family time and my 20 month old, he actually really enjoys watching track and field.
Um, he had a tantrum that during Olympic trials, when it went to a commercial, so , so I think about what families maybe are doing that. And I can see prime time being a great opportunity for there to be more than one sport going on in such a little amount of time, like a swim race. Maybe you have a kid that’s in a swimming or a kid that likes shot put, and they’re showing the highlights of the day.
So, um, whether it’s just the prime time coverage, whether it’s dipping, you know, switching channels, I’ve totally done that when. I’ve been at work, watching the Olympics and was limited on resources. But yeah, so I, you know, I think no matter what happens with people’s strategy, as long as people are watching and getting excited, that that to me is really exciting because I’ve got so many friends that don’t care about the Olympics.
I invite ’em to a party. They do get excited. And then they’re like, Hey, did you see that one thing? There was that girl named Simone? And I’m like, yeah, of course, of course I know Simone, but to some people she still knew, which is really cool.
Claire: Something that you kind of mentioned watching it work? Uh, because my, my schedule is a little easier than it.
It used to be when it came to doing stuff at work. I think a lot of the things that I’m gonna be doing, I’m actually going to kind of lay off of social media and news reports and try and watch replays of stuff that happened during the day. I think that’s going to number one, it’s gonna help my work day go faster because I, I can enjoy that as I’m working.
Uh, and number two, it, it allows me to enjoy those things that it’s still gonna restful night’s sleep, which I think my body would be very thankful for. And they have in the past, like I said, I don’t know what NBC is gonna be doing this year, but hopefully as soon as those events end, they’ll archive them and allow them to be, to be viewed later.
Mm-hmm I know they don’t do that. Like for the opening ceremony, they didn’t do that for pong Chan, but basically everything else. It was like, okay, once we finish, give us 10 minutes and then you can watch it from the start. And I, I really like that. And I’m gonna take advantage.
Sarah: Yeah. And I know you said that you’re gonna say off social media, but one thing that was really cool is even when here in Fort worth, we went to us championships for gymnastics.
Um, and as you know, if you go to a gym, meet multiple events are going on at one time and Nick and I would see something and think, oh, wow, that was really cool. But what happens at our foot? Come on, you know, like we were analyzing it and then we could get on our phones at this live event. And this is, uh, it’s such 20, 21 things, but we would get on our phone and within five minutes, NBC Olympics would be tweeting Simone’s fault or something.
So it’s, I’m curious to see if that same level carries through the Olympic games where, I mean, we’re gonna have videos pretty, pretty fast after the events.
Alison: So given the time difference, given that a lot of things are gonna be happening and shown on replay, or how do you feel about watching things that you already know the result of.
Jill: I’m fine with it. I’ve heard
Claire: an article about this. If it’s something that I’m not terribly, like, I, it [00:25:00] wasn’t a priority. I will gladly watch it again to get that experience and see it. But if it’s something that I really was looking forward to watching, let’s say, uh, the a hundred meter butterfly, uh, finals, and they tell me who won NBC sports, Twitter, uh, which has happened before.
I, I still hold a grudge for a couple of those times in Py Chang. Then I get a little disappointed. It’s like, well, why bother watching? But if it’s, if it’s, and for a lot of these sports, a lot of these events, they are not priority. So I can be like, Ooh, that sounds interesting. I’d like to watch, I’m kind of pulling for Brady Ellis and to do well in archery.
And so if, if he does win the golden, I just missed it. It’s like, oh, I’m gonna watch it because it sounds like a really cool thing, but don’t spoil my swim in don’t don’t spoil my track and field, please.
Alison: Okay, this will come as a surprise to no one who has listened to the podcast. I actually like watching things sometimes when I know the results, I can enjoy it a lot more, cuz I’m not worried.
I already know if something bad has happened and then I can deal with it and then I can actually enjoy it because all of our CHLA Danis are my children now
Jill: well, you know what was funny today? I was listening back to pong Chan coverage, cuz I wanted to know how we did some stuff production wise and it was the, uh, I had watched some L and I said, oh, you gotta go back and watch this.
And you’re like, oh, why? I’m like, uh, the, the person who was favored to win gold actually got forth. And I had seen the last run and saw him get forth. But I wanted to know like how he got there, because that was a really shock, a real shock. So I think with a lot of this stuff, I’ll look at results sometimes to go, oh, how did that happen?
And then go back and watch a little bit, little bit more.
Sarah: Yeah. Yeah. I’ll prioritize certain events, but I also, it’s one of the things, if I get on Twitter during the Olympics, I know that I will see spoilers. So I’ll turn off social media. If I need to, if that’s really, really important to me and I’m not getting to watch it live, but yeah, I’m the kind of person that if I’m gonna go see a scary movie or something, I Google the plot and I wanna know how it ends.
I wanna know who dies. I wanna know if the dog dies before I watch any kind of movie. And so it, it doesn’t really bother me. If I see a spoiler I’m still gonna love watching it.
Jill: so new sports. What are you? Okay. So the new sports on the schedule are, uh, karate, surfing, sport, climbing, skateboarding, baseball, softball, which we’re all watching now.
And new discipline is three X, three basketball. What are you excited about?
Claire: I am excited for sport climbing. I’ve seen, uh, profiles done on athletes and, uh, how the game, how the, the sport works. Uh, and my, I was just down in Houston and my niece was at a playground and was doing kind of the little rock climbing wall.
And I said, if you watch the Olympics, they actually do this. And she had all these questions about it. I’m like, you’re just gonna have to watch because they do it super fast. She’s like, is it like this fast? And she’s like, and she goes, I’m like, yes, it’s just like that. . So I think sport climbing and three X, three basketball are, are my, uh, go-tos.
Sarah: Yeah, I think that’s really cool. One of the things I’m excited about with sport climbing is that we have all these climbing gyms around us in the Dallas area. And I love that the Olympics can inspire kids to get active and to try new things. So skateboarding surfing, all of it. I’m excited, but, um, I’m very excited to see karate even though.
You know, who knows if, when we’ll see it again. Um, but Tom Scott, Brian earth, they’re local guys. So it’s, you know, I have a lot of bias in rooting for them. And of course, Tom Scott’s story of how he got there and that whole, uh, situation. I’m just really excited. He’s going, he coaches my kid, uh, my friend’s kid.
So we have that personal connection. And then Brian, ER, goes to church with us. And so we just we’re like, come on karate, let’s go like, get this into the games and keep it. And of course the sentimental of, if that’s even a word of karate being a Japanese sport,
Alison: I wanna watch surfing. And we had made a lot of fun surfing.
And then we went to the team USA media summit, and we heard two American surfers talking about the sport. and the sport as competition. And it was so interesting. And I’m curious, I’ve never watched a surfing competition and I’m wondering how are they gonna film this and is it gonna get lost the way sailing gets lost?
So I’m definitely curious to see, and I need to prepare for my trip to French Polynesia.
Claire: Hey, Japan just hit a two run home run. They’re up three to one. Now [00:30:00]
Jill: it’s very exciting. You’re in the top of the fourth, it is weird to see it with no fans. I will say that I’m excited about three X, three basketball, because I did, I’m sorry that team USA will not be there.
Cause I did watch a bunch and the atmosphere is really exciting. And if they have a as in-house announcement who I think they have, he does an amazing job and he makes it a lot of fun to watch. And it’s one of those sports that I think should be taking off in the us. It’s really taken off in Europe, but I, I think it should be.
Doing well around this country and it just isn’t. Um, so I, I hope people get excited about that. I’m curious to see surfing. I tried watching a little bit of it and that’s one of those sports. I need to spend some time watching a full session to understand it. And yeah, I’m, I’m, I think out of all the other real new sports that come in that are trying to attract the youth sport climbing does appeal to me, not just for the fact that there are climbing gyms in a lot of places, but I really liked it when we talked with Josh Levin and talked about how, uh, bouldering that, that discipline is like solving problems.
Uh, moving on to today’s news, that the IOC has changed the Olympic motto from TIUs Altius Forus, which is faster, higher, stronger to TIUs Altius Forus communes, which is faster, higher, stronger, together. And it’s very specific that there’s a dash between stronger and together. So thoughts on that, Sarah, we’ll start with you.
Sarah: I mean, it’s cool. I know that their big motto or not the official motto, but I know one of the big things in the Olympic village is, um, United by emotion. And so, you know, all these athletes they’ve waited this extra year. There is a lot of emotion that only they can understand as elite level athletes. So there’s definitely that component to it.
Um, I think it’s ironic that , it’s faster, higher, stronger together when they still have to maintain a lot of distance. So I know it means unity. I know that that’s what they’re going for. I don’t know. It just still makes me a little bit sad that they can’t actually mingle with the other athletes that you know, all the, all the Olympic experiences.
But I think, I think it’s a cool motto. It’ll be interesting to see how much unity sticks around. But yeah, I mean, it’s fine.
Jill: I think it’s interesting to have it be like they’re pushing this togetherness. I think when the IOC has been very criticized as of late for not really taking care of athletes and the IOC has really never been set up that way, been set up more because it’s a bunch of rich white guys who wanted a, a little competition and now they want a big party.
So I, I wonder if it’s a baby step to better optics or even better. Treatment of athletes within the Olympic movement. Claire, what are your thoughts?
Claire: I, I just wonder if, uh, we’re gonna have to contact John Williams and he’s gonna have to add that to his, uh, what was that salt lake city called the champions.
They, they sing suit and he had a fourth one in there, but it’s like John Williams. There’s actually a different fourth one. You’re gonna have to rerecord the whole thing. 18 years later, or 19 years later, I, I don’t care. I, I think that working together is a great thing for not just the Olympics, but for everybody, if everybody worked together all the time, we’d be in a lot better place than we are right now.
So trying to emphasize that I think is a good thing, but honestly, I don’t mind that it was changed. I didn’t mind when it existed as just the.
Jill: Alison, you got opinions.
Alison: Why do you ask the question? Do I have opinions? I think it’s BS. I think it’s total window dressing. I think it’s, I don’t have a problem with them changing the motto.
I think the idea is great, but I think it’s the IOC saying let’s change the motto and not do a darn thing. I don’t see them taking responsibility for anything in terms of financial supportive athletes, protecting them, protecting the cities that they choose as hosts. So I don’t know who they’re together with, but it’s not the important players in the Olympic movement,
Jill: which thank you for bringing that up because if there is one thing I would like people to know, especially like casual fans of the Olympics is that.
When people talk about blaming the Olympics for something the, the Olympics should treat the athletes better. The Olympics should, you know, they shouldn’t allow fans of Tokyo. They, they should, they should do something about the fact that there’s a transgender athlete in the weightlifting competition.[00:35:00]
You gotta understand the International Olympic Committee is like the best Teflon pan ever created. Nothing sticks to it. And they are not responsible for anything related to the Olympics, except for making sure that their little brand stays intact and their party happens. They don’t pay for the party.
Anything that’s respo that’s going on with Tokyo. That’s the Tokyo organizing committee’s fault. Anything that goes on with the sport, all the sporting competitions, those are arranged by the international federations. That’s the international Federation’s fault. The IOC. Doesn’t have much responsibility.
They’ve set it up that way. It’s worked for them for years, a hundred years plus, but that, that doesn’t make it right. But you know,
Alison: One of the first episodes that we did or certainly within our first year was the family tree and how the Olympics. And we did an entire episode trying to explain international federations national governing bodies.
So the casual fan, like you were saying, Jill says the Olympics. Well, the Olympics is not a thing that makes decisions. It’s a few decisions. Are the IOC, a few decisions are the organizing committee. Some decisions are the sport federations. So the Olympics is a movement. It’s an idea. And can we get angry at an idea?
No. Which is how the IOC has set it up.
Jill: Right. And the decisions they make are ones to bring money in, like who to award broadcast rights to. And the decisions that they do not make financially are spending the money on their big party, which is a host city’s fault. So it’s a very, like a very good Telon pan, but, you know, tough plant death, lump pans, when you get a scratch in ’em, they are not healthy for you.
So I think the IOC really, and we, we saw this with, when Teebo said a few months ago at the last session, I think where you said we have to change or be changed. And I think he sees a little bit of the writing on the wall, but changing an organization that’s as old as the IOC and as. Stodgy as the IOC or as elite as the IOC, that’s gonna be tough to do.
So I, I think we’ll see at the end of this, or maybe around December, when they CLO, when Tokyo 20, 20 closes all the books and we find out how much this cost people will be very upset and angry and the IOC will be like, well, you know, that’s that’s, we have nothing to do with it. So do you think we’ll see much doping?
Sarah: Oh yeah. Oh, there’s gonna be doping. Just, are we gonna hear about it when COVID is lingering over everything?
Jill: How fast do you think there will be a doping situation in the weightlifting competition? One day?
Sarah: I think it, I think it already happened. What? Oh yeah. Somebody else. Yeah. I was looking it up well today, the guy from Brazil mm-hmm uh, I was reading about it.
And so he was supposed to be there and he’s already banned. And then I think some Russian swimmers have already, yeah.
Jill: RO uh, some Russian rowers have been pulled out. And I know Claire Egan, our by athlete had pointed this out because I think in Rio, the same event also had doped rowers from Russia. So that’s a problem.
Sarah: Yeah. When is Russia gonna actually get in trouble? But I mean, there’s gonna be tons of doping. We might hear about it since we intensely follow the development of the Olympic games, but it’s not gonna be the major headlines that it’s been in years past, because everything’s gonna be focused on COVID testing more than steroid testing.
I think.
Alison: Well, we’ve seen a lot of different institutions issuing how many tests they’ve been doing during COVID and the numbers have been good in terms of all the out of competition testing. I know Fe’s been able to keep up and a lot of the other sports have been able to keep up with what they should have been doing.
So I’m hoping, I’m hoping, and I’m stupid because who are we kidding? That a lot of it was caught ahead of time and we’re not gonna see like what we’re still seeing from London, entire podiums wiped out and replaced.
Jill: Well, let’s go onto something happy. What are you looking forward to watching?
Claire: I am excited, even though it made me sad for the past couple months, but I’m very excited just to hear.
The NBC Olympic themes coming on, that’s always brought me happiness. It doesn’t matter what sport is on, but just hearing it in its [00:40:00] entirety or whatever clip they show, it just makes me happy. And the fact that Olympics will finally be on. I never thought that three years could take forever, but after you get used to every two years, you add that third year.
It’s like these Olympics are never gonna happen. And I just want to see stuff so that even though there’s that cloud of worry, that, that, uh, Alison was talking about that you, you never can quite shake it. I just wanna watch the Olympics. Maybe the thing I wanna watch the most is the opening ceremony, because regardless of the fact that there won’t be any fans, I wanna see how they, how they pull it off.
Sarah: Yeah, Claire I’m with you. There’s something about when you hear the Olympic music and, you know, we got a little taste of it. Not, not quite the full fanfare theme, but we got a little taste of it during Olympic trials. Um, when you would hear the familiar music and yeah, that’s just always been a signal to me that something magical is happening ever since I was a kid, I am excited to see the athletes that are just there.
I mean, I hold no secrets that my favorite part of the Olympics is always watching people’s streams come true. And so knowing what they’ve been through thinking about the past year, I’ve seen so many athletes talk about it on social media, where they’re like, yeah, it’s kind of a rock and a hard place because if the Olympics don’t happen right now, they’re not going to happen.
Um, and so they’re just grateful to be there. They’re grateful to compete. And some of them have had an advantage from the past year. Some have been at a disadvantage from the past year, um, and having an extra year of training. But I’m just like, I, I think opening ceremony is gonna be really special and I know not all athletes will be there, but I am optimistic that overall it’s going to be a good thing for so many athletes.
Um, I’m like there. Yes, I’m worried. But when you look at the numbers, like so far, we’re still doing okay with smaller cases. Um, and knowing that most people are vaccinated. No, it’s not foolproof, but you know, I I’m cautiously optimistic and I I’m excited for the surprises. I think we’re gonna have some surprise victories and that’s always fun to watch an underdog win.
Alison: Alison, you know, we’ve been interviewing a lot of, uh, the summer athletes since PPY Chang ended. And I joke about how I think of them as my children and how I love them all, but I really have such an attachment and an affection to the people that we’ve spoken to. And I think about watching Dean price, especially because we spoke to her multiple times and Jacqueline semio, who he spoke to multiple times and who I’ve stayed in touch with over social media and, and we, and it feels like a friend is competing at the Olympics.
And it’s such a strange feeling because these were always people who were very distant, who seemed very superheroes. And to have them be such real people to me is gonna make this Olympics very different. I’m gonna be worried and I’m gonna be nervous and that’s. Fantastic and such a wonderful experience because they’re such great people and such lovely people.
And to see them, like you were saying, Sarah, to have their dreams come true is, is just it’s
Jill: breathtaking. Um, I too am excited to watch all the people we interviewed who get to go and their dreams come true and they have goals. And for some of them, the, the goal is getting there. And for some of them, the goal is a medal, but it I’m really excited to watch them.
I’m really excited to watch the Japanese based sports and events. I’m this is another one where no fans is really sad cause I do wanna see karate and judo. And, uh, I found out recently that Qin cycling, which is part of track cycling. That’s a huge sport in Japan as well. So I am really excited to see all those things.
I kind of hope that. We can get more of the local flavor with them and somehow local flavor can be, can, can sneak into this in a safe way.
Sarah: Yeah. I, I will say I’m excited to watch Ko UCI compete in gymnastics. And I remember we were trying so hard to get tickets, to watch him specifically, because I remember him saying the reason that he kept going was he wanted to compete at home.
So I don’t know. I mean, yeah, anything can change at the last minute, but you know, he’s probably not gonna have any family there, like he wanted to compete in front of his son and yeah, I, I am curious that okay. To segue into kind of piggyback on this. I think one thing I am excited for is the innovation of how.
Just how people do it with no spectators are the coaches. I know [00:45:00] that they have to focus on their athlete, but are they gonna cheer louder than normal? The media is supposed to be unbiased by can American media cheer for the athletes because no other people can. And I mean, not, and not just the Americans, but any, any media, you know, I’m the trainers, the staff that’s allowed to be inside the venue.
I am very curious to see how that goes. Cuz I feel like they, they carry a big weight on their shoulders just by being allowed to be there. So anyway, I went down a rabbit trail and I apologize, but that,
Jill: that reminds me
Claire: the first sport that we’re watching is softball. Do you know who has the greatest cheering section within the team?
Is softball. If you watch college softball, you can’t hear the spectators. All you hear is the Dugas. Yeah. So maybe if people are watching this, they get, I, I can’t hear it cuz we’re it’s on mute, but hopefully that kind of cheering on your teammates kind of thing, something I always associate with men’s gymnastics as well, that that will catch on and you will get a lot more team loud exclamations and we’ll be able to hear it on the broadcast.
That’s I would love
Jill: to see that.
Sarah: Yeah. You know, and when you talk about the men’s gymnastics, like yeah, they’ve gone to college. Most of them have gone to college at this point. And college gymnastics is a whole different animal when it comes to cheering. Um, so the guys bring that in with them at this level.
Uh, the women have not, they’ve either gone pro or they’ve not competed college yet, but McKayla’s skin at, but Mikayla Skinner who she’s on the team, she’s in the individual spot. If you watched her at trials and nationals, she was full on cheering for herself. And I was like, you go girl, like I wanted her on this team to bring that dynamic to the women’s team.
So even though she’s in the individual spot, I know at least in qualification, she’ll be rotating with the rest of the team. And I’m hoping that that’s something that she’s able to bring as well.
Alison: You know, who else will hear cheering rowdy Gaines during the swimming. And I love it. There
Jill: goes love
Claire: when he gets excited
Alison: about watching the swimming cuz it’s, and now maybe they’ll actually hear it, which will be
Jill: fantastic for the swimmers.
Well, uh, you know, it’s gonna be exciting. 17 days on that note, the score on the baseball game is somebody just got hit by a pitch. Uh, one of the Australians, uh, batterers got hit by a pitch, uh, top of the fifth, Japan, six Australia, one, they hit another two run home,
Claire: run in there. And then, uh, NBC decided to show what’s the mercy rule.
like, ouch. That’s just a, it’s a little on the
Jill: nose there. Wow. Really? Yeah. All right. Will Claire and Sarah, thank you so much for joining us. We’re super excited to have you on talk about the Olympics. We’ll have you back after the games are over. They’re gonna happen. They’re gonna happen. Very excited.
Yeah, it’s gonna be great. All right. Get some sleep. We’re all gonna need it. Thank you so much, Claire and Sarah, you can follow Claire at caldron light and Sarah at Sarah Patton. TX, we will have links to those in the show notes.
Alison: Welcome to shook
Jill: Luan. Yes. It’s time to check in with our team. Keep the flame alive. These are past guests of the show. Everyone’s still doing all their Tokyo stuff. So there’s a lot just follow all of our, our athletes on social. You’ll get nice glimpses of what’s happening in the village and what’s going on with training.
We’ve got other news that we wanted to point out. Uh, our friend, Roy, Tom ZAWA appears in the NBC special entitled journey to Japan dreams on hold airing this week
Alison: and Herr, Don Harper Nelson had to have knee surgery. She actually had it, uh, earlier today and she, I checked. She’s doing well. She has recovered.
She had two major injuries this year, and that was a problem leading up to the trial. She kept trying to put off the surgery, but finally caught up with her. So speed, speedy recovery to
Jill: Dawn. And artistic swimmer Jacqueline Sumo was featured in a LA press after Tokyo. She’s going to start her studies in, uh, podia medicine, but she has not ruled out a third Olympics.
That’s what she revealed in that article. So that we’ll have a link to that in the show notes as well. We’d like to take a minute to thank our Patreon patrons. These are people who support the show financially and really help us out in keeping our flame alive, due to the costs of producing this show. If you would like to make an ongoing donation, check out patreon.com/flame alive pod.
If you are interested in supporting the show, but do not want to make an ongoing donation, we’re gonna have [00:50:00] a Kickstarter going on during the Tokyo Olympics in Paralympics. So be sure to check that out and, uh, support us that way. Thank you so much for being there for us patrons. We can’t do this without you.
All right. Day minus two is in the books. And, uh, the competition started off with softball and women’s football. So in softball, Japan, beat Australia in, they had to invoke the mercy rule. And then, uh, the USA be Italy to, to zero and Canada beat Mexico four to zero cat
Alison: Osterman.
Jill: Oh man. I did watch, I was a softball.
I watched that game and just watching her pitch. Oh my goodness. Ken Oman’s pitching was just incredible. She
Alison: has not lost a step.
Jill: No, it’s at all. It is amazing. So one thing I learned from the broadcast that I didn’t remember from our conversation with Laura Berg was that the ball is bright yellow in softball, and it has red stitching so that they can see better see the ball spin because it’s so remember how Laura said the game is a lot closer.
So the ball moves a lot faster. It’s really hard to judge. And that’s the, the commentator said look for the yellow ball. Well, what
Alison: I will tell you was softball should have never left. Oh yes. Oh God. Even watching it with no fans. I was already yelling at the TV going, oh my God, cat Osterman. . So if that’s any hint on what the softball tournament is gonna look like, oh man, I know they are making, they are making their case for keeping that sport in.
Jill: Right. And Japan looked amazing too. Hitting some home runs. It was really good. Uh, so I’m looking forward to, I, I will tune into more of that competition. Women’s football also took place it kind of in the American overnight. So I didn’t watch any of that, but we did have players who took a knee for their rule, 50 allowed protests that happened in two different games.
The first game was great Britain and Chile. They took a knee, Sweden and USA, all starters on both teams. End of referee took a knee ahead of the game on that one. So we’ll see. I’m, I’m kind of wondering if it’s just gonna be like, somebody’s doing a tally of how many protests there are going to be during the games.
Interesting results in this one Team GB beat Chile. Uh, two to nothing, Brazil beat China, five to nothing. Sweden drowned the us three to nothing and Japan and Canada played to a one in one tie. We thought the us getting interesting already. I know you thought the us was going to just walk all over everybody, but no, they did not have a good outing.
And you have to wonder if fans in the stands affected that and made it feel like, oh, it’s kind of another practice or scrimmage. Uh, a little COVID test alert. They, uh, Tokyo 2020 is still announcing daily counts of how many people in the games universe are, have tested positive for COVID today. The total is 75 across athletes game concerned, personnel, media, Tokyo, 2020 employees, contractors and volunteers.
So it’s going up a little bit, but it’s still pretty low.
Alison: If you have to play this every day for the next 17 days, I’m, I’m just gonna cry.
Jill: Uh, I, I would too. It would be disappointing if I had to play this every day for this next 17 days. And today why I’m playing it is stupid. This is really, really stupid. So Australian equestrian show jumper, Jamie Kerman, uh, tested positive for cocaine.
He took it recreationally during a social event, which had no connection to sport at all and tested positive. He, uh, got pulled from the team, the, uh, guardian reported that they don’t have a reserve for the team because Rowan Willis, the country’s top ranked jumper also pulled out. So now Australia is forced to explore what it can do to get a three person team in Japan because
Alison: Jamie Carman was snorting his stupidity mm-hmm
At least he wasn’t like the guy who dopes his horse too. Oh. So I guess that’s something
Jill: always trying to find a little bit of the bright side in the stupidity.
Yes. The IOC has had its latest session meeting, which is the entire IOC membership getting together. They’ve been, [00:55:00] were able to do it in person for the first time since the pandemic started, though,
Alison: a lot of members did chose not to come. Yeah. There were a
Jill: lot of virtually. Yeah. So, um, that was, that was very interesting.
Uh, a lot of what they talked about will get into in later a, after Tokyo’s over, because it’s gotta take a little digging and processing and, and analysis. So they did release their financial report for 2020. Uh, they. Said they lost money. The IOC did so their revenue after investment gains was 55 million, but they have assets of 5.7, 1 billion and they have a reserve fund.
That’s 2.4, 7 billion. So yeah, they lost money one year, but boy did, they got money in the bank. They also noted that they’ve got contracts in place for the 29, 29 through 32 Olympic quad that are worth 4.1 billion. So I think they’re doing okay also. I don’t think he’ll
Alison: be digging in the couch
Jill: coin. No, no tee backing.
Coaty pulling out coins in the cushion. Dick found you’re the doin. There’s gotta be something in those books in your office.
Fork it over man, little bit of personnel news, Anita de France’s term as a vice president in the executive board is over. So she was, uh, replaced by Nicole Hertz, who is a former artistic swimmer from Aruba. That was an election also elected to the elect. Uh, executive board were my new favorite Christian cluster, OIN, Dennis Oswald, and Robert Robin Mitchell.
Uh, Kirsty Coventry is going to end her term as chair of the athletes commission. After Tokyo 2020, she’ll then transition into becoming a regular IOC member. So that is also interesting.
Alison: And Kristin, we know that Kristen Claus, Austin could transition into the executive board because it
Jill: seems her old job is done.
Yeah for now, for now, she is chair of the future hosts commission, and boy, they, they, you know, it must be that Scandinavian efficiency cuz band, they decide they put a commission in place and boy, did they choose a city quickly? So the, the IOC membership did elect Brisbane to host 2032. It’s very weird to have this.
Now it’s 11 years ahead of time. The tradition has been seven year, seven years out. You have your, your bid, but LA kind of turned that on its head. And you’ve got Teebo who, there were some interesting profiles on tach and codey in the New York times, uh, talking about how tach has kind of wielded some power in a way there.
I, I can see their, their point because this is kind of unprecedented to say, okay, We had a bid for 20, 24 and it was down to two people. So let’s just make 20, 24 and 2028 happen. And now it’s, let’s just make 30, 32 happen too way earlier than we really needed to. And so they developed this feature hosts commission and got rid of the whole bid process, which has been kind of an uproar in people on the outside saying that this takes away transparency, which, you know, what cities are bidding.
The problem with that transparency is that bids were very, very, very expensive. They took a long time and the potential for corruption or actual corruption happening was huge. Right?
Alison: So the last time we talked about this, I said, oh, I really can’t imagine they’re gonna pick it so far in advance. And after they did.
I was kind of happy. They did really? Yes. For a couple reasons. Number one, one of the things that you and I had talked a lot about was the IOC needs to stop picking totalitarian regimes mm-hmm . And now, if you look at the next four that have been named after Beijing, we’ve got France, the United States, Italy and Australia, all Western
Jill: democracies, all very safe places to have games for the most.
Exactly. You
Alison: know, pretty stable governments. These are not emerging countries. These are, um, all previous hosts who have been extremely successful in hosting the games. So they’re doing what we’re asking them to do in a way, even though it’s so far in advance, but being so far in advance prevents the Athens problem.
Prevents the, we have to spend so much money just to finish problem mm-hmm . So they’re also addressing a budgeting
Jill: issue. And, and I think with Brisbane’s pitch, [01:00:00] they have to also do a lot of transportation work in the area. Brisbane is one of the, our, our friend rich Pearlman, and at the sports examiner noted that Brisbane’s a pretty small Metro area.
They only have, they have over 2 million between two and 3 million people right now. So it’s a pretty small compared to most recent host cities going back quite a ways. So some of the, the transportation needs, I think, will take a long time to do. And as we talked with Randall Rourke and Michael dins about Atlanta, the Olympics is a good excuse to have a set deadline where things have to get done.
Alison: I’m thrilled that Australia’s getting the games. I know, I mean, Sydney was so good. And then when we talked about Melbourne, Melbourne was so good, even though we’re going back half a century. It’s like when the games have gone to Australia, they have always been great games. And, and I mean, not just good games, Sydney honestly is probably up there with Vancouver as the two best in like the last
Jill: 30 years.
Yeah. Sydney was of very special games,
Alison: you know, and special for the reasons that we like it. The athletes talk about how good Sydney was for them. Mm-hmm and anyone that we’ve spoken to in our pin trips, how much fun it was, how easy it was, how nice everything was. So, you know, I don’t know if I’m gonna be able to get on a plane for 24 hours though.
Oh,
Jill: it’s not that bad. You can do it. Take something to fall asleep. Well, I have 11 years. Yeah. You have 11 years to train. Yeah, I know. I’ve really, I love the idea of Brisbane as a city, cuz Brisbane is a lovely city. I love the idea of Australia hosting. Again. I don’t love the fact that this seems very railroaded through.
Agreed. That’s that’s my beef.
Alison: Do you, do you think this was a little bit a gift for John Coates? Like thank you for your service. I’m gonna give you the games in your host country.
Jill: Maybe they can talk about all the paper walls that they had between people, but everybody, you don’t really know what happened.
Everybody knows
Alison: John Coates. I mean, everyone in the Olympic world knows John Coates. You know, sort of like London felt like a little bit of a gift to princess Anne a little bit. I mean, they did an amazing games as well, but there was a certain amount of Hmm. But the, the other thing I wanted to mention is that.
I know there was cities in India that were talking about bidding. There were cities in the middle east, and I think they learned the IOC learned its lesson in Rio. We’re going to use the youth games to try out new regions. And then if you prove yourselves, then maybe you’ll get a games later down the line.
Mm-hmm , that’s how they’re going to up the diversity with the youth
Jill: games that could be. And I mean, the Olympics is just huge compared to the youth games. So who knows if 15, 20 years down the road, 12 they’ll decide to have a different format or they’ll realize that nobody can sustainably, it’s not sustainable at this size anymore.
And they’ll figure out something else, whether that’s, they could do a whole bunch of things. But yeah, some of the, the countries that we’re Bandi about you go, oh, I don’t, I don’t know about that. Especially with. The world cup, the FIFA world cup being held in the middle east next year. That’s one of those like, let’s wait and see.
That was one of those also just with how quickly this happened. It’s one of those like, well, you’ve got 11 years. Did you really need to choose it now? I think
Alison: the timing of the announcement, cuz we’ve never had a selection nevermind right up against an Olympics, even in an Olympic year. So why are you naming this on the E of the Olympics?
Because every newspaper in Australia and possibly around the world will say Brisbane, 2032, not COVID 19. So now you just bought yourself 24 hours of news cycle, and then you have the opening ceremonies.
Jill: I think you’re. Getting
Alison: a little jaded because, but I’ll go. Just watch Cat Osterman, throw some pitches again.
Jill: Well, and I think it’s time. I think it is time to tune in too. What is going on on day minus one? So we will leave you with that next time you’ll hear from us is after the opening ceremonies, it’s only a day away. Not ready. We’re gonna be ready. I’m not ready. We’re gonna be ready. So that will do us for this episode.
Let us know your thoughts and what you’re anticipating happening during Tokyo [01:05:00] 2020.
Alison: Email us@flamealivepodgmail.com. Caller text us at 2 0 8 3 5 2 6 3 4 8. That’s two eight flame it we’re flame alive pod on Twitter and Insta and Keep the Flame Alive Podcast Group on Facebook.
Jill: We will catch you back here on Friday for our post opening ceremonies recap.
As we go up to music by Mercury Sunset. Thank you so much for listening and until next time, keep the flame alive.
That’s
what’s inside.
Some time to
Tokyo was awarded the games in 1993 and they probably came up with the dates. No, I’m sorry. Tokyo was awarded the games in 2013
Alison: in the wrestling.