The Tokyo 2020 Olympics are over, but they can live on in our hearts and memories! Contributors Superfan Sarah and Book Club Claire join us to talk about our Top 5 Tokyo Olympic moments and what we’re looking forward to watching during the Paralympics.
We also have a “Where’s Marnie?” update. Marnie McBean – Chef du Mission for life!
And we have one final installment of “What’s Up with Mike and Maya,” where finally figure out whether Mike and Maya actually do go to the dance.
In news from TKFLASTAN, we have word on:
- DeAnna Price
- Connor Fields
- Randal Roark and Michael Dobbins – check out their talk at the Atlanta History Center.
- The dulcet tones of Jason Bryant
- Shiva Keshavan – a biopic in the making?!
Shout out to our Patreon patrons – we’ve got a big announcement about new features coming due to their financial support. Join them with your ongoing contribution today!
Prefer a one-time donation? Support our Kickstarter that will help us cover costs as we provide on-the-ground coverage at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics and Paralympics.
Thanks so much for listening, and until next time, keep the flame alive!
TRANSCRIPT
Note: While we make attempts to correct transcripts, they are computer-generated and do contain errors. Please use the audio file as the record of note.
Claire: [00:00:00] Athletics is the best guys. I don’t know what to tell you. End of.
Jill: Hello. Fans of TKFLASTAN and welcome to another episode of Keep the Flame Alive, the podcast for fans of the Olympics in Paralympics. I am your host. Jill. Jaracz joined by my lovely co-host Alison brown, Alison. Hello, how are you?
Alison: Hello? I am rested up and recovered.
I have done my ice bath. I have gotten my massage. I am ready to go back into training.
Jill: Oh, that would be nice. I’m still working on sleep. Catching up on sleep. Uh, but it’s always exciting to have a post Tokyo contributor round table, because that means we are joined by Superfan Sarah and Book Club Claire.
Hello, Sarah. Hello, Claire. How are you?
Sarah: Hello, great!
Claire: Greetings. I’m doing well.
Jill: All right. We will be talking about our thoughts on the Tokyo Olympics today. But before we get to the show, we want to give a shout out to our patrons, particularly those who signed up during the Olympics. Thanks to you. Joining our patron fold, we will be able to start offering AI generated transcripts for at least the next year.
Beginning with the Paralympics. So we are really thrilled to be able to do this because it will make our show a lot more accessible. And so thank you for those of you who did sign up. We really appreciate that. If you would like to become a patron and make an ongoing contribution to the show, visit patreon.com/flame alive pot.
All post Tokyo, Alison, where is Marnie McBean well, I
Alison: hope Marnie McBean is hiding and getting some rest, but before she, uh, got some sleep, she wrote a beautiful letter to all of her Olympians. And at the very end of it, she said, PS, reach out anytime just as you are an Olympian for life, I’m going to feel like you’re chef and miss Shion for life.
So we’ll put a link to that, into that letter, cuz it’s really beautiful. Aw.
Jill: I would love to have Marnie. McBean be my chef to Micone for, for life. .
Alison: I know you can’t do much better than that. You’re feeling down. She’ll go bang the drum for you. Say CA N a. I mean, she’ll be there.
Jill: did you have that in your head at all?
Because every once in a while I have some Canadian sunglasses team, Canada sunglasses, and every time I put them on I’d be like T C a
Alison: oh, all the time. LA, Canada. Oh, I had then in my head frequently and she. Pound that out. If you ever got to actually see an event and hear her, she would pound out that very particular rhythm.
So the Canadians knew it was her
Jill: Okay. Time for what is up with Mike and Maya, Mike and Maya of the Toyota first date commercial in which, uh, Mike asks Maya to the school dance, even though he is in the hospital, but he is able to be in the hallway with her. Thanks to being on a, uh, full sized, uh, computer robot, digital screen. So I think this is, this is really the final installment of this one.
And the question that has been posed to us on Twitter, do Mike and Maya actually go to the school dance?
Alison: Yes, because Mike is able to ride one of those little mini Toyota cars that we saw on the pitch, you know, possibly the ambulance version and roll to the dance.
Jill: All right. Now that was Alison. Sarah, what is your take on Mike and Maya and their, their longevity.
Sarah: Oh, they’re longevity. Um, well, you know, well,
Jill: their prospects are going to the school dance. Yes. And,
Sarah: um, I think, I think they make it to the school dance. I am with everyone. That’s hoping we have a, some kind of follow up during the Paralympics. I’m not holding my breath, but I would love to see it.
Jill: Claire.
Do you have thoughts?
Claire: Oh, I’ve got thoughts. Of course. I’m around, I’m around middle schoolers a lot. And let me tell you this relationship does not last through the dance. They go to the dance. Something happens that makes Maya angry. And Mike doesn’t Mike is, you know, dumb about it because that’s eighth grade boys for you.
They just don’t get it. And Maya storms off and that’s the end. And that’s how it ends. Uh, forever. Sorry guys. They do not have longevity here. They are just eighth graders.
Sarah: Okay. But they still made it to the dance.
Claire: Yes. [00:05:00]
Jill: Do you think if they are not making it through the dance? Does the pick me girl have a chance, even though we have been, we have a theory out there that pick me girl, isn’t really asking Mike to pick her.
Claire: No, Mike is, Mike is done with girls for a while. He, he reached out that one time. He had, you know, he had video screen roll up to her locker. He put all his eggs in this basket and then at the dance, she leaves him behind. So he’s just gonna back off until he hits high school. Okay.
Alison: All right.
Claire: I can listening to you guys for 17 days.
Talk about this. I’m gonna tell you how it’s gonna be .
Jill: Well, I say I, I will go with that. I, I, I don’t think they, well, I could take the unpopular road and go, I don’t think they make it to the dance based on our, one of our last conversations where Maya’s just being saying yes, to be nice in front of the whole crowd.
You know, I can see them going to the dance and I can see it being a disaster. Maybe punch spilled on a white dress. Maybe Heather getting involved, somehow stuff being put into Mike’s hair, like a spider or something. Not gonna be good. So, all right, Mike and Maya, it’s been fun being with you. Good luck at the dance.
Hope it’s not a disaster too much, and that your breakup is short, but, and, uh, So, we’ll see if there are any, any commercials at the Paralympics that really get in our CRA I, and we’re already there. There’s stuff coming on already. I can tell, but we’ll see. This has been fun. All right. So Tokyo is over.
It’s been, I think it was a great games, even though it was disjointed. It was great competition wise. Mm-hmm so. And it was great volunteer wise. I will say that the stories we are starting to really hear about the volunteers and different things they’ve done have been just, they, they get your, they get your heart.
So top five moments from the games we’ll go around, starting with number five, Claire, let’s start with you.
Claire: I thought that sport climbing was a great addition to the games. I know that some of the other additions. Might have suffered from the fact that they were broadcasted instead of people being there live, um, maybe the commentators weren’t that great for them, but both the commentators on the OBS feed.
OBS Olympic broadcasting services. Uh, and the actual event itself I thought was wonderful. And the only thing that confused me a little bit was the point system that helped to secure the goals. And the bouldering section in the middle did take a long time, but in the finals it did not. Um, they, they were allowed to go one at a time.
The time was reduced to four minutes, but just having them out there, the way that they transitioned, the 3X3. Court. I don’t know if you saw that video, but they actually took that court out and then they moved everything over to the wall. That was really cool to see. So they were able to, to reuse a section of the facility for something else.
Uh, the competition was great. Because you, you know, they’re hanging by their hands and you just can’t like your arms are getting sore just from watching them. I really liked sport climbing. I watched both the men’s and the women’s and I hope that it expands to more than just the, the men’s and women’s events, which was the combined all three that they can, that they can expand it to a few other events.
Jill: Sarah you’re number five.
Sarah: Let’s see, I have a big list here, so I have lots of options. all right. I am going to say number five, a med, he, the Tunisian swimmer that won the gold from lane eight.
Jill: That was also my number five. I will say that,
Sarah: ah, good thing. I’ve got plenty of options, but yes, I believe it was, uh, the 400 freestyle and winning from lane eight is difficult.
It is challenging. And just the sheer joy that he had on his face. He couldn’t believe it when he said I am an Olympic champion and not only thinking of how exciting that was for us to see, but knowing what that has the potential to do in Tunisia. For growing the Olympic movement and the sport of swimming,
Jill: Alison, what’s your number five.
Alison: I’m gonna stay with swimming and say the women’s a hundred meter breaststroke, which was, uh, Lydia Jacoby and, uh, Lily King ending up on the medal stand. Yeah, that was just so that’s Alaska’s first summer medalist in swimming and just the joy of the, both of them kind of that changing of the guard. From, from an older generation to a younger generation of the swimmers.
And I think that was very indicative of USA, swimming, swimming in general, as a culture and the whole swimming meet [00:10:00] overall. It was just such a joyful meat. Um, Australia did so well and, and the Sian swimmer, and there was a lot of joy at the pool, which was so great to.
Jill: Excellent. I will choose. I’m gonna stay in the pool and I will choose, uh, Japan’s UIO, Hashi winning gold, both the 200 and the 400 individual medley.
And you know, those were some of Japan’s first medals in the pool and she just had, uh, the 400 was first and she just had a commanding lead there and it was just so fantastic to watch her take those, take those event. Claire and, and Claire, I will say sport climbing was also getting to be one of my top five, cuz I really thought that was a great addition to the program.
Uh, Claire, what’s your number four.
Claire: I’m sorry if I’m gonna steal some thunder here, but I did have to go with USA wrestling every time an update came in. There was another us wrestler that was getting another medal. And I think when you guys were talking about the wrestling trials and the fact that Jordan Burroughs didn’t make the team and how, you know, what a surprise that was, I kind of was confused.
It’s like, well, isn’t he the best wrestler that we have? I guess everybody just kind of leaped over and they just worked so hard that they’re, they were surpassing and, and I know there’s different weight classes and things like that. So it, it wasn’t, it was just his weight class where he, he wasn’t able to, to get in.
But the fact that we did get three gold medals to Tamyra Mensah-Stock, David Taylor, and Gable Steveson, uh, all winning gold medals. And if you haven’t seen Gable Stevenson, Gold medal match. Please watch it. Or at least the last minute of it, because the way that he is able to maneuver himself around to get those fi final two points is incredible.
And it’s kind of unbelievable if, if you are watching it from where he is so props to USA wrestling, every time you wrestling got mentioned, another medal was being awarded to team USA. So hopefully they can keep.
Jill: You know, I heard on one of the NBC. I think maybe on USA when they had a wrap up show. Well, Jordan Burroughs was, was on talking with the host and he was talking about how this USA wrestling team was so different from all the others, because they had, because they were forced to be together all the time.
They could only cheer for themselves. They couldn’t really interact with other athletes and. I guess there was a whole lot of bonding that was going on and camaraderie that you Def wouldn’t necessarily have another game. So I wonder if that’s the way a lot of teams felt because they, they had to be together and be a team because otherwise nobody else was gonna cheer for ’em.
Sarah: I just wanna say I was looking up the, trying to make sure I had my numbers. Right. Did y’all see that because of the USA wrestling, living the dream fund, they’re actually awarding $950,000 in bonuses to their athletes. One gold medal. They’re giving 250,000. So all these athletes not only are getting their money from the us O P C, but I saw the perfect meme going around.
And some of the wrestlers, I think retweeted it where it said like, man USA wrestling decided to bankrupt. You like their fund or whatever, because I mean, it’s so significant, so significant. Um, what they’ve done and down here in Texas, I don’t know what it’s like throughout the rest of the country. We have some schools with wrestling, but it’s not as common as.
Football or basketball. And it makes me excited to think about the possibilities, um, of where this could go for our country.
Jill: Sarah you’re number four, number four.
Sarah: Well, now that I’ve had to take off Lily King and wrestling. I’m going to say as a group, women’s artistic gymnastics. And we know that everyone’s talked about Simone and there’s a few things I wanna point at if that’s okay.
First of all, I remember when we recorded our preview where I said, we don’t want Simone to get a positive COVID test because whoever wins in her place will always have a little asterisk by their name saying they. Or, you know, she would’ve won, had she not had a positive test? I wanna retract that as much as I can because who would’ve thought that we would’ve seen the events that we did, that it was the twisties.
And I know a lot of people are still trying to figure out what the twists are. I just want everyone to know. I talked with a elite gymnast last week, so hi, Megan, if you’re listening, um, where. Yes, it’s a mental health issue, but also it’s beyond that where gymnasts just get this where there have been Olympic champions that suddenly can’t do a flip without twisting and it’s not in their control.
So [00:15:00] just knowing. The physical element of that, that it goes beyond just being anxious. This is the girl that’s competed with kidney stones and all kinds of stuff. So anyway, I just wanna say it’s for the record, that Simone is amazing to get back on the beam, everything that she went through, and that was significant.
We can talk about Simone all day, but for her teammates to go with what they went through of their fearless leader, all of a sudden, not being able to compete and to bounce back the way they did. And then have Sunis Lee come away with the all around gold. I don’t wanna asterisk by her name. We know that if Simone is having the best day of her life, yes, she’s gonna end up on top, but there should not be an asterisk because.
Bottom line is that Simone was not capable that day. And that’s okay. Simone’s legacy goes beyond that, but Jade Carey, she does not need an asterisk by her name. Uh, Rebecca and Jay on vault does not need an asterisk by her name. These gymnasts were all phenomenal. And the reason that I wanna say women’s artistic gymnastics as a whole, is that.
From Brazil on tra she was able to get the first individual medal ever, which was silver all around and then comes back and gets a gold. So she not only got the first, she also got the second individual medal for women’s gymnastics ever in Brazil. Then you have Mera ma, um, who got the floor bronze. And that was amazing because she is the first woman since 1964 to end up on the podium.
But she’s the first individual because in 1964, they got the bronze in Japan. Um, so the. Japanese woman to be up there. And so I feel like there was so much excitement going on so much diversity in the medal haul. Um, but then the other thing I wanna say about that is kind of what y’all were saying with wrestling cheering for each other, the gymnasts from all across the world were cheering for each other.
And it was a unique comradery that I’ve just never seen before in any competition where yeah, they’re friendly, but it was totally different this year. Um, and I think that Simone withdrawing kind of really. Set the tone for that, to where they, they were reminded of how dangerous their sport can be and how scary it can be.
And it did humanize the sport. I think for all of us spectators myself included when I said, oh, Simone’s gonna win. And if she doesn’t, it doesn’t even, you know, it there’s always gonna be a. Cliff note there and, and there’s just not, that’s not the way it’s gonna go. So, um, I am proud of all of those women.
I think it was listener Don who tweeted at one point during the Olympics of watching the athletes, cheer for each other and how this kind of evolved into the athletes games. Because for the first time it was more athlete centered than ever before, in terms of them rooting for each other. And after that tweet, I just couldn’t look at the games the same way.
And I think we saw a great example of that with women’s artistic gymnastics. Rant over
Claire: we, we talked about that before the game started. We, we said, I, we hope it’s as good as, as like the softball team rooting each other on. And it was for the most part, there was a lot of cheering and support of each other and it was wonderful.
Alison: Alison, thank you, Claire. For that segue, my number four is the softball tournament. Particularly the gold medal match between Japan and the USA. This sport belongs in the Olympics. It should be staying in the Olympics. It is ridiculous that it ever left. And all you have to do is take a look at that gold medal match and see what amazing athletes these women are, how passionate they are about this sport, how you have.
Japan and the United States, you know, we’re not talking about everybody’s from Western Europe, very broad geographic spread here doing just amazing things and passion on both sides. And I just could not get over how much I love to this tournament,
Jill: but I, I still will say it’s interesting how we loved softball and were just not interested in.
Claire: I was interested in baseball.
Jill: Were you? Okay. Tell us what you thought of the baseball tournament.
Claire: Once I figured out it was double elimination, which I think they actually do in the college world series for both baseball and softball, they had double elimination. So after watching those and hearing it, it’s like, oh, this makes sense.
Once I figured it out, but it was great. I mean, you had an Israeli team, you had, uh, the team. Mexico, you had, uh, the Dominican Republic, you and then you had Korea and Japan and there’s another country, the United States. So there’s your, I think I got it all six. It, it was wonderful to see that that differentiation around the world and different styles too.
Uh, I know you guys talked about the Israelis with their be with, um, Was it their beds. Yeah. Yeah. But you still had a team from Israel playing in a baseball tournament who would’ve ever thought that. And I watched the game, the [00:20:00] baseball game and, and the, the gold medal game I should say. And I enjoyed it.
I thought it was great. Of course, I’m also a person that watches baseball regularly go tigers.
Sarah: Yeah, I, yes. Agreed. I loved baseball and especially Eddie Alvarez, uh, knowing that he is also a winter Olympian, it’s impossible not to get excited about his presence at the summer Olympics.
Jill: Very true. I will. I will give you that.
And I think, um, Israel’s playing Korea tonight. Moving on wait. Oh, my number, you still not done. my number four. I would have to say the women’s doubles, badminton match, gold medal match between, uh, Indonesians, uh, Raha U and Polley, and they defeated GIA and Chen from China. It was an amazing, amazing match to watch.
And I think everyone should go back to see it. It just. Even just, if you watched the last couple points and you see, just see the tears from these women, it, it, you, you just saw how much they went through to get to where they were and how momentous it was to defeat China. All right. Number threes. Uh, let’s start with Alison this time.
Alison: I’m gonna go with Carsten, Val homes, 400 meter hurdles. That thing was insane. I, I, I, I didn’t know, Norwegian could run that fast and the whole field was just so fast. So many records broken and they, what the best part about it for me was that none of them could believe it had just happened. They were all looking at each other, like, wait, you broke your PB, wait, you just broke your national.
Record it again. It was the joy of that. And, and we said a couple of shows ago, how there wasn’t enough joy in this Olympics. And that was such a joyous moment.
Jill: I, I also had that on my listed. Did either of you too, Claire. Sarah, did you have that on your list? I had
Claire: to cut some athletics out of my top five.
Sarah: Just remember I came in here with like a top 10 list that was on my top 10. Okay. Um, because for such a time as this.
Alison: And also we learned that those jerseys do not tear quite as easily as, as he assumed that they would,
Claire: well, he’s all practicing his, you know, he’s strength, training his legs. So he doesn’t really, you know, he has weak arms.
Let’s just, we’ll just say that.
Jill: all right, Claire, what is your number three?
Claire: I do I do. This is an athletics one. Um, but I need to give props to Elaine Thompson here. Because she doesn’t get enough respect for what she did. She won the 100 and 200 meters. Again, this was the second time she’s done it. She did it in Rio and nobody is giving her credit for it.
If she was from the United States, she’d be getting all the praise and glory. If she was as enigmatic, as you say, bolt, she’d be getting all the praise and glory, but because she’s a great athlete who doesn’t like put herself out there, like we know Usain bolt did. We’ll hear anything and it, I think that’s ridiculous.
And I think she deserves way more credit than the world is giving her for being as amazing as she is. And she came back from an injury. I think she was injured in between Rio and Tokyo and was able to come back and still be fast. So please give
Alison: her some praise and a relay medal.
Claire: Yes. So she got, she got three.
She did the three that, that bolted as well. And nobody’s talking about it. I think that’s
Jill: ridiculous in a way that’s kind of like Wyoming, TAs, who first won the 100 meters in Tokyo, 1964. And when she was the first woman to repeat 1968, nobody cared. So that’s, that’s a good one. Uh, Sarah, what is your number three?
Sarah: Let’s see, I’m gonna go with Molly Sidel, getting marathon bronze. I already knew I loved her, but I’m just saying if y’all want a good Instagram follow, she’s a good one. The stuff that she’s been posting is hilarious, such as best advice for a marathon, fake it till you make it, um, where she talks about running with all these legends, just hoping that she could keep up.
And she did, but just her whole story. If you look at her, I mean, yeah, she was a collegiate runner, so. Yes. She, you know, she is a professional runner. She’s been on the running scene for a while. I believe I read she missed 2016 Olympic trials because she was in rehab for an eating disorder, that, so to look at that and look at where she is now, that is incredible.
Just getting to the Olympics is incredible. And to be the third woman to end up with a bronze medal, it’s just, it’s all inspiring to me. So it made me wanna go out and run. She [00:25:00] runs probably three miles to my one and a half mile, but that’s okay. and so, yeah, I just, everything about her was inspiring and uplifting.
And I know a lot of people have been talking about her, but I hope they keep talking about her. I love running. I think that running is something that many people can do, even if you’re slow. And so I really, as I keep saying, one of my favorite things about the Olympics is seeing the growth within sports that people can participate in and.
Jogging running, signing up for a 5k. I’m excited to see what influence her bronze medal has on the running community.
Jill: Excellent. I’m going to take my number three as the archery tournament. Just kind of as a whole with Korea’s continued dominance and yet a slip. With, uh, the men’s side of the competition, Turkey winning the gold there. I, I do love watching archery and it was nice to tune into that every night for about a week.
And just to see some incredible action. Oh, number two. Uh, Claire, back to you. My number
Claire: two, uh, takes us back to the area where sport climbing was because we’re gonna talk about three X, three basketball. It was short, it was easy to follow. Good competition. And as something I mentioned earlier, it, it encompassed the globe.
It did not just limit itself to a certain area. It included many different countries from many different areas. I really enjoyed watching it. Uh, team USA had a women’s team and they ended up, uh, winning the gold and I just, I enjoyed it and I was supposed to go and watch it. So it kills me a little bit that I wasn’t able to, because it would’ve been, I was, you know, they had a four game session.
So you would’ve seen two men’s games and two women’s games. Where else are you going to experience that? I loved it. I loved the whole atmosphere and, uh, I look forward to seeing it.
Jill: So. What I, what I liked about three X three was that it was a good sport for the Olympics, much like rugby seven S you know, you could have, the Olympics is like going to a big smorgasboard and you get to choose a whole bunch of stuff.
And that made it an accessible sport to watch. With, if you, if you were there, you could see one, at least one other thing in a day, or if you’re watching TV, you could watch enough of it. So you got a feel for what the tournament was like and still not spend a whole bunch of time on it. That was one of the things I loved.
All right. Uh, Sarah, what is your number two?
Sarah: I still have many to choose from, but I’m going to say USA volleyball. Women’s indoor getting gold. We were in tears in our living room. And in case you all don’t know, I may have mentioned this before. I grew up playing volleyball. So that’s a sport that I love as it is, but to watch the USA women finally get that elusive gold medal that they’ve been working for for so long was.
Just incredible. Seeing Jordan Larson, get that final hit. And then her just collapsed to the ground. I mean, you could tell how much it meant to them. Um, it was everything about it. I loved it.
Alison: And Jill’s beloved arch
Jill: KARE.
Alison: I know if you didn’t love him before you better love him now. No, but what is wrong with you?
Sarah: Well, his postgame interview. I mean, I expected a lot more, like, because of like a lot more tears based on his semi-final interview, where he talked about getting on top, getting the women on top of the podium and he got all emotional and started crying and everything.
And then when they did it, he was just like, I’ve got nothing left to give Derek gold medalist. And bad asses, I believe, but ,
Claire: we
Jill: can’t say that that was game. That was a really
Claire: great game.
Jill: Yeah. Alison you’re number two, Evan
Alison: DFE bronze met in the, the 50 kilometer race walk that felt so personal. We spent.
What over two hours talking to him, we had such a long chat with him and I felt like we really knew him after we talked to him and then watching him stay in there, stay in there, stay in there. I walked away for a minute. He was out of the shot. And then all of a sudden they’re showing the finish line and here he is coming across third.
I’m sitting there eating my dinner and I start screaming. And my family’s just looking at me like I’m insane. And, and my daughter says to me, is this one of your guys? And I’m like, yes, this is my favorite guys. So it was, that was, you know, we talked about in the, in the pre-games round table, how I felt like our friends were competing.
And that was like, I felt like my friend won a medal. And that was just such a great moment. And we found out today he got a, his face on the box of a craft dinner. So if the bronze medal wasn’t enough,[00:30:00]
Jill: all right. My number two, I think will just be track cycling in general, something to take over. I, I loved watching the Kirin racing didn’t matter. Who was, who was cycling, loved watching the Madison. The omnium just was survival. Of the fittest really in, in terms of staying on the bike, not crashing into anybody, it was really fun to watch that whole sport.
It was nice that there were fans. It, it was weird because they were very good about clapping and not really yelling and cheering, but you could see how excited they were to be there. And that was really nice. So I. Might seek out, watching more track cycling, just cause I thought it was a fun, fun sport to do.
We have a Vero here in Cleveland. So you, you may see me try to get out on it. I’ve been told I should. Just ride around once or twice. I don’t need to be in a race. Just wanna come cheer for you.
Alison: yay. I’ll bring a bell. I’ll bring the cow bell.
Claire: this proves that the Olympics is for everyone because I did not enjoy track cycling.
I tried. I really did, but I was just so confused. So I will let you enjoy all the track cycling in the world.
Alison: See now that’s the difference between you and me? Claire. I love being confused in a certain way by sports. Like I don’t like being confused when it came to skateboarding. Like it, I felt like I should understand that, but the chaos of track cycling, I loved.
Claire: Now take me, take me 26.2 miles from point a to point B that’s that’s, you know, marathon’s my thing, cuz you know where you’re ending up and whoever crosses the line first wins.
Jill: So, so I’m guessing that, uh, your number one isn’t any of the artistic swimming or any of the rhythmic gymnastics. Cause those were confusing competitions.
Hey,
Claire: I will give med props to rhythmic gymnastics. I would just turn my brain off and enjoy it. I had no analyzing for me. Ooh, pretty ribbon. That was, that was all I did. And I loved it. I loved it, but it’s not my number one. Is this time to
Jill: reveal my number one. Yes. It is time to reveal your number one.
Claire: I have to say that whenever people have come that have been tweeting out.
Yeah. What was your favorite moment to the games? I always put this one in and it is men’s high jump. I did not expect to get so men’s high jump. I, those events that the high jump in the pole vault are very hard to watch because, uh, you have to watch them. Over and over again, as opposed to long jump or shot put where you’re just seeing who can go the farthest.
But I was able to watch this and I knew. I, I, I know Italy’s Jim Marco Berry. I know cutters Muhi cuz I’ve watched them for three years now on the diamond league, I subscribe to the diamond league back when it was a thing. Uh, and I watched them all the time. I know how Mason they are. I and being able to watch them do a clean jump all the way through.
And then at the very end, when they failed at, at their final Heights, both of them did. And for, you know, Berry was just excited because, you know, he had tied with bar and then the official comes up and says, well, it’s time for a jump off. And when bar just, you know, blurts out. Do we have to, can we share the gold and then, and just the joy and, and the, I felt the joy in my heart because both of these guys have been injured the past couple years.
Uh, Tom Barry actually did it right before Rio. He got injured. Barsi was a couple years later. They know each other, they know each other, I think since 2010, that’s a long amount of time to know somebody and compete against them and to see them just be so raptures about winning gold. It. The best. And I cannot think of anything else in the Olympics that would top it.
Although you’re all gonna tell me something different that, I mean, athletics is the best guys. I don’t know what to tell you.
Jill: End of story. Well a, I mean, we’ll get through everybody else’s but there’s like another 10 athletics moments that I could have put on my list for sure. Cuz that that competition was just unbelievable.
Alison, what is your number one moment?
Alison: This was hard because there were so many people that I loved. Valerie Adams, Carissa Moore. Uh, there were so many other people, but when we come to straight moments, it was the extinguishing of the CAD. It was everything that was beautiful about the design of Japan, you know, leading up to it.
We fell in love with the torch. We fell in love with the mascots. We fell in love with so many of the design elements and that casre was all of that pulled together and it had that beautiful closure [00:35:00] literally of that sphere that just felt so complete. And. Bittersweet and beautiful. And that will be, you know, we talk about the 92 lighting with the Archer.
I will remember this closing probably more than any other.
Claire: Okay. But that music, man, I love Claire Dulo because, I mean, it’s my name, but that was some spaced out clear Delo
Alison: as you would expect. Right. You know, so often, you know, just like they had the Tokyo Scott, like what was happening with that it, and, and the tap dancing and the opening ceremonies.
It was all these things that are familiar, but they made them Japanese. And that’s, that’s what I loved about. So much that we saw to the run up and so much that we lost by not being able to do the pieces in the city, not seeing people out there. And yet we still got that cadre and extinguish that was so beautiful and high tech and perfectly designed with insane music.
Jill: Sarah, what is your number one?
Sarah: In addition to. Sarah Robles getting the back to back bronze medal, which y’all know have a tie to her because she took my cookies to the Olympics and sent me a picture. And so Sarah’s a legend in my opinion. Um, but for many reasons, she’s the first American woman to get back to back weightlift medals.
Um, cuz she got bronze and Rio. In addition to that, I tried to thank Superfan. Sarah, what was I the biggest fan of, for the 2020 Olympic. And I’m just gonna say my top moment was the community that has been cultivated because of this podcast. So, yes, my number one top moment. As a super fan of the Olympics in general was connecting with other super fans, not only in the podcast group, but also on Twitter.
Um, seeing the Kickstarter actually have several backers at this point, we’re still rooting for you guys, um, still sharing with friends to, to contribute. And if you’re listening, here’s the super fan. Sarah reminder, my dog is on the mascot list. Um, I mean, I don’t know my dog, he like got on there and signed himself up.
It was not my fault at all. Uh he and Wilson they’re little nefarious ways, but. But no truly, uh, my number one moment, connecting with other fans, both Facebook, Twitter, even on Instagram. And I do think there was a lot of incredible dialogue going on in the Facebook group, whether it was about Mike and Maya or commercials or NBC, or just the magical things that were happening, were people asking questions and also getting to hear how the Olympics was being broadcasted around the world.
And what people were viewing, what they were experiencing from their homes. So I wanna say thank you to Jill and Alison, because I know a lot of work goes behind the scenes into this podcast, and I know it’s not easy and so as much of a suck up as it might make me my number one, connecting with other fans.
Jill: I will take your sucking up. Thank you. no, but that was, it was great. And a lot of people had fun. If you’re not on Facebook, it might be worth getting on Facebook for two weeks or four weeks in, in the winter to enjoy that experience of Beijing with everyone here. Yeah, that was really great. I will say, you know, Ryan crosser shop put was fantastic.
Japan’s judo team was amazing, but my number one is Fiji rugby. Mmm, men repeat gold women winning the bronze and the little automated car that brought the ball out. But that was great. It was, it made me happy. And also, you know, it it’s one of those small countries when medals, I also loved the fact that we had so many new first medal country or not even so many.
We had some really interesting new first medals, first gold medals, just so much celebration all around the world in different ways for these games. And that makes them so special. I think beyond the fact that there were, there was COVID so. We get it another week and then it’s Paralympics time. Do, do, do, do, do Alison, what are you looking forward to for the Paralympics?
Well,
Alison: Of course I’m looking to see McKenna Geer cuz now she’s my best friend we communicate on, on Instagram. So yeah, it’s, it’s again, the same thing from, we know so much more than we did five years ago watching Rio that this is gonna be so much more fun for me because I know what I’m looking at. I have some grounding in it and that’s just makes it better.
Makes me love it all the more as if I couldn’t [00:40:00]
Jill: Claire, what are you looking forward to? I
Claire: want to make sure that I am watching every event, even just this, just a little bit of it, because. It’s, this is not something that I am familiar with. I tune in every once in a while. And you know, you see the a hundred meters run over and over and over again, and you see different people winning, and you’re kind of confused cuz you just dropped in.
But in the past five years, So much has been released about the Paralympics about how they’re run. If you haven’t watched the documentary on Netflix called Rising Phoenix, please do. Because if it that doesn’t get you pumped, then you must not be breathing because man, especially that song at the end, you just, that song comes in and you’re just like, yeah, love the pearls.
Uh, so get, get educated. A lot of the. Like the social medias of basically everybody at this point are gonna be training people on how to watch the Paralympics, what to look for. I wanna watch the sports that aren’t in the, uh, Olympics, like goalball and boccia. And I just, I want to experience it and come at it from a new perspective, uh, and enjoy it just as much as I did the Olympic.
Jill: Sarah, what are you looking forward to?
Sarah: I am looking forward to what is supposed to be unprecedented coverage of the Paralympic games, uh, between Peacock and NBC. Um, they’re supposed to be getting much more air time than ever before. And I am thrilled about that. Um, for, I mean, for the very reason that Claire said of a lot of times, it’s easy to catch just snippets and you have to go digging for it.
So I am hoping that with it being more front and center, and in primetime coverage, that more people will be able to watch and learn and see that these athletes work just as hard as Olympic athletes. And they deserve to be noticed just as much as the Olympians. And then the other thing is, and this is much more team USA focused, but I am so excited that the, or the Paralympic athletes that win medal.
Will be given the same amount of money as the Olympic athletes, because that is not something that has happened before, but yeah, knowing that they are being treated equally in terms of financial reward for their medals is significant. So I’m looking forward to all around more awareness and visibility,
Alison: and that specifics are to the American athletes.
That’s USOPC. Yes.
Jill: I’m definitely I’m looking forward to a smaller program. cause I didn’t realize how overwhelming the Summer Olympics was. I kind of wanted the Paralympics first, so it would be like the warm up event. Uh, but uh, I’m looking forward to seeing, being able to watch every sport. I think that’s doable for this time.
I’m so happy that there’s way more coverage than ever before. I’m really excited for our shook Tani’s, uh, McKen gear and Millie Tapper will be back for the Paralympics. You know, Cindy Collier, maybe we’ll see her in the stands because she’s an alternate with the dressage team, but I’m also, I think specifically it.
I’m looking forward to understanding how these sports work, especially the ones we haven’t gotten to talk about, which is a lot of ’em. But looking forward to seeing how these sports work, one thing we are really gonna be watching in our house is a lot of wheelchair fencing. I can tell you that right now, Ben fences and I that’s how we met.
So I know a little bit about fencing, but he. Fascinated with and how they can create because fencing, a lot of it is about creating distance and able bodied fencers do that with their feet and moving backwards and forwards. But when you’re in a wheelchair, you’re strapped into the chair and the chair is locked into the floor and how you create that same kind of distance with your torso is pretty incredible to watch.
So we are looking forward to that and just, I’m looking forward to more incredible moments. I’m excited, super excited. So, Hey. Thanks for mentioning the Kickstarter before Sarah
Yeah, no, I appreciate that because it’s time to tell you a little bit more about it. We got off to a great start. We’re 30%, 36, uh, percent funded right now. Our goal is $10,000. This is going to help fund our trip to Beijing where we will have an on the ground presence. This was kind of a surprise that we got accredited.
We put our name in last minute. Like a, Hey, we know competition is fierce for these, uh, media spots, but, uh, Hey, they gave us one anyway for the Olympics and they gave us two for the Paralympics. So we get to go hopefully, [00:45:00] but, uh, it it’s expensive. I will tell you today that I spent a lot of time working with the hotel systems and we’ve paid for part of the Olympics hotel already, but, uh, 37 hotel nights.
Is on our docket and outstanding. We have a $5,300 bill, so that along with flights, along with technical gear, that’s where this Kickstarter money is going towards. And, uh, it’s nice to be an independent podcast. It’s nice to be a place where we can conf. Can cultivate this community of fans, but we also need your fan support to help get us the rest of the way to Beijing.
You can find out more about our campaign and check out our supporter bonuses. We are sending postcards from the games. We will have pins. You could be a producer and tell us what sports to cover on a day and much, much more. Check it out at kickstarter.com/profile/flame alive.
Alison: Welcome to TKFLASTAN.
Jill: Yes, it is time to check in with our Team Keep the Flame Alive. These are guests who have been on the show. Oh man. Alison. Injury update.
Alison: Yeah. So Deanna Price posted in Instagram that she had a bone bruise on her ankle going into trials. And that, that continued to bother her throughout the Olympics.
Uh, she also had a torn hip labrum that, uh, flared up again about two weeks before the game. So she couldn’t turn on her right leg. So when we were watching her and we were saying, she doesn’t look right, she doesn’t look right. We were, we were absolutely correct. So she, uh, apologized in her Instagram post for how poorly she had done.
And, you know, I, for all of us on the show sent a message going don’t you apologize for anything, Deanna, you did amazing to even be able to compete and make the finals with that kind of injury going.
Jill: Yeah, that made me really sad. It could, because we did see something was wrong and it made me sad cuz this was her second games that something happened where she was sick or injured and couldn’t compete to the best of her abilities.
So I’m hoping that games number three happens. Should she want to keep competing? It’s only three
Alison: years. That’s right. Connor Fields is going to be treated at the University of Utah. Craig H Nelson Rehabilitation Center in Salt Lake City. Uh, his dad was in communication with USA Today, Sports. He said that he expects Connor to be there about a month and quote, they’re optimistic.
He’ll be all right. They’re terrific. And Connor is doing well. So lots of love to con and hope he’s getting better soon.
Jill: Wow. Yeah, that’s a scary, scary injury, scary, but, uh, glad to hear that he’s getting good treatment and that he’s on the mend. He
Alison: has been posting a couple of funny things because people have been asking him about Paris and he’s like, um, I kind of had a brain injury, not sure when I’m having for lunch today.
So can we just hold off on talking about Paris?
Jill: Can you ask him what he is having for lunch today? I may
Alison: ask him how the hospital food is .
Jill: I would like to. Before Tokyo, our TKFLASTANI authors Randall Roark, and Michael Dobbins did a talk about their book on Atlanta 1996 at the Atlanta History Center. The talk is now available on YouTube.
So we will have a link in the show notes. If you’d like to hear more about their experiences planning the 1996 games, the dulcet tones of Jason Bryant won honors from the Peninsula Sports Club in Virginia for being awesome.
Alison: And this was the best thing to come across my feed right before the Olympic started, uh, actor director, KU Kaur is working with Shiva Keshavan on a biopic.
They’re
Jill: gonna have a movie. Oh my gosh. I think it’s Bollywood done the loose track.
Claire: If there is not at least one Bollywood number in that, uh, movie I’m quitting, I’m quitting, all, everything. .
Jill: Do
you
Alison: think they could do like a Bollywood ice skating number?
Jill: Hmm,
Alison: I don’t mind the two.
Sarah: I haven’t seen it done, but it doesn’t mean it.
It doesn’t exist.
Alison: Al call us we’d have ideas
Jill: for you. I do. Um, I imagine that you will have several scenes on top of the mountains as there are in some Bollywood films where all of a sudden you’re in Switzerland, Austria running around
Alison: well, Shiva does have an Italian mother. So there you go.
Jill: This gets better and better.
Ah, I hope that I hope, you know, it takes a lot of work to make a movie and a lot of, a lot of pieces have to fall into place to actually get it on the screen. I really hope this one does.[00:50:00]
We have a couple of little follow up things from, uh, Tokyo. One of our listeners texted us about the handover flag we were talking about. It’s a special flag with tassels all around it in the, the Olympic colors. So this is the flag that, uh, or our listener explained that this is the flag that will hang in city hall in the host city.
This flag is. You know, we talked about how old it was. Alison. Hm. And you said, oh no, no, no, it can’t be that old. Well, apparently. Okay. This is, this is from the Olympics itself. So the flag first came out at an TWRP and that’s the flag they had at the 1920 games. So at the end, they, they gave the flag to the IOC and they made a new flag for Paris, 1924.
But that flag was still called the Antwerp flag. So that was used. That flag was used in the handover ceremony all the way through 1980. And then they got a new flag that was presented to the IOC at 1988 Seoul. That was the soul flag and was used until the end of London, 2012. And then at the end of Rio, a new flag was, uh, given to the IOC as a replacement to the Seoul flag.
And that’s what they have right now.
Alison: Okay. That seems about right for, uh, textile preservation, especially if it’s on display.
Jill: Right. Okay. So in the winter side, the first flag handover took place at, uh, Oslo 1952. So that’s the Oslo flag and it was used until the end of Sochi, 2014. So the city of Cheang got a replacement for the Oslo flag and that’s the Pang flag is still in use today.
Okay. Uh, I did notice this on Twitter the day that ne Niraj Chopra won his historic gold medal in Jalin, which should have also been on my moment list. Like literally the whole athletics competition was just phenomenal this year, but he won Jalin became India’s second individual gold medalist in history that day, August 7th will now be national javelin day in India and they will, the athletics Federation of India will be celebrating.
Oh,
Alison: that’s fantastic. Spoil. Do you think like kids across India will just be picking up the javelin now? Yeah, I
Claire: bet. But come on. Athletics is always awesome. that is,
Sarah: that is true. That is true. But yeah, I’ve got friends that live in India, so I need to ask them. What it’s like right now, after Ben’s just a TA after seeing that airport video
Jill: that was incredible.
You know, I can only imagine what, like his life must just be momed 24 7 right now.
Alison: It doesn’t hurt that he’s young and handsome and very charismatic. So he’s got, even if he hadn’t achieved this, but to put those two things together, I mean, he photographs so well and he comes out so char and I mean, we’ve talked about this, you know, it matters and he’s gonna go out there and, you know, maybe he can be in the Sheva movie.
I mean, the kid’s adorable.
Uh, get, get him in a Bollywood shot. Come on. There you go. Throwing musically, throwing javelins, come on.
Jill: It would be a miracle. If nobody got. Stabbed by that.
Alison: Well, I’m not gonna be throwing them. I’m not gonna be involved in this look at professionals.
Jill: Okay. Well, as we go about casting our Bollywood movies, I think we’ll call it a show. I know there’s more, more Tokyo follow up. That’s coming out. We’ll have more of it after the Paralympics. That’s gonna do it for this week. Claire, Sarah, thank you so much for joining us again. It’s so much fun to have you on as always.
Uh, let us know listeners, if you have Tokyo Olympic withdrawals and what, uh, your favorite moments of the games were, email
Alison: us at flame alive pod, gmail.com or call or text us at (208) 352-6348. That’s 2 0 8. FLAME-IT. We’re @flamealivepood on Twitter and Insta and Keep the Flame Alive Podcast Group on Facebook.
Jill: Next week we’re taking a week off, still catching up on sleep. We are still prepping for the Paralympics, but we will be back on August 24 that’s Tuesday. We’ll have daily Paralympic recap episodes for you, just like we did for the Olympics. So as we go out to music by Mercury Sunset, thank you so much for listening.
And until next time, keep the flame alive.
Time
Alison: to think love
Jill: is just.[00:55:00]
Sarah: Rant over.