It’s been nearly two months since Paris 2024, but athletes who have spent years training for the Games are still processing what happened there. Today we’re talking with Canadian race walker Evan Dunfee about his Paris 2024 experience. Paris was Evan’s third Olympics and marked a radical shift in his race schedule–for the first time his marquee event–the 50K walk–was off the program, and he’d be racing the 20K as well as the race walk mixed relay, a new event for the Olympics.
We’ve talked with Evan before about the change in race distances, but how did it turn out? Evan joins us again to break down his 5th place finish in the 20K, which, if you loved our Paris 2024 Toilet Talk segments, this also has something for you. But in all seriousness, Evan’s experience is a story of adaptation, perseverance and dealing with a situation you can’t control.
We also discuss Canada’s 20th place showing in the mixed relay (and if you’re the type of person who writes off 20th place as not being success, listen to what Evan has to say about setting realistic race goals). As always, Evan’s frankness really sheds a light on the elite athlete experience, particularly coming from a small sport that gets little attention and little funding.
Be sure to follow Evan on Insta and X!
In Paris 2024 news, the Olympic Rings are no longer on the Eiffel Tower, but will they make a comeback? Jessica Long responds to the bullying situation at the Paralympics. The Organizing Committee has started recycling items from the Athletes’ Village–you might be able to score some sweet Paris 2024 deck chairs at Restlos online auctions.
We also have news from Milan-Cortina, which includes updates on the sliding track and budget; the Winter Games 2030, and the International Olympic Committee.
In our visit to TKFLASTAN, we have updates from:
- Curler John Shuster
- Track cyclist Mandy Marquardt
- Weightlifter Hampton Morris
- Shooter Kim Rhode
- Author Andrew Maraniss — get his latest book through our Bookshop.org site and support the show!
- Our Paris 2024 mascot Waldo
Thanks so much for listening, and until next time, keep the flame alive!
Photo: Isable Infantes, Reuters (courtesy of Evan Dunfee)
Note: Where possible, we use affiliate links. If you purchase something through one of these links, we may earn a commission.
TRANSCRIPT
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361-Race Walker Evan Dunfee’s Paris 2024
Theme Music
Jill: Hello and welcome to another episode of Keep the Flame Alive, the podcast for fans of the Olympics and Paralympics.
If you love the games, we are the show for you. Each week we share stories from athletes and people behind the scenes to help you have more fun watching the games. I’m your host, Jill Jaracz, joined as always by my lovely co host, Alison Brown. Alison, hello, how are you?
Alison: Hello, I am very confused because I took out my pins, and we’ll mention later why I’m going through my pins, and every time I pick up a pin, it’s either, Oh, I remember exactly who gave this to me and where I got it, and I didn’t know I had this.
There is no in
Jill: between. I totally understand what you’re saying. So yes, we will get into pins in a little bit, but first we are catching up with the race Walker, Evan Dunfee. Paris was Evan’s third games. If you remember, Evan was a 50 K specialists and after Tokyo 2020 World Day, I thought it was took the fifth.
DK off the Olympic program. So, which meant there’s only a 20 K left and Evan trained up to be competitive in that distance, made the games got fifth place in Paris. He was just five seconds out of bronze, 21 seconds out of gold. He was not thrilled with that result, but there is a good reason he was not in top form that day.
He will explain that to us. Evan also competed with Olivia Lundman in the racewalk mixed relay and they finished in 20th place. We talked with Evan about his Paris experience. Take a listen.
Evan Dunfee Interview
Jill: Evan Dunfee, welcome back. We always love it when you’ve, you’re able to make time for us. So how was your Paris?
Evan Dunfee: first of all, thanks for having me back. it’s so great to get to debrief and talk about Paris. I mean, it was. It was quite well done, I thought. Um, I was kind of blown away with just how easy everything was.
I mean, for me, having family and friends back obviously was a huge deal, compared to Tokyo. But then compared to Rio, my first games, I actually like got to go and see my family and see my fiancé and my friends because Public transport was easy to go hop on and, and everything was like 30 minutes away.
And so the city felt so small and, it felt like you could get anywhere, at any time of day. And, and so I love that. I just had a blast taking the trains everywhere, had so many great conversations with people on the trains, about the Olympics and, and meeting people from all different countries.
And, And, and that honestly ended up being one of my highlights was just taking public transport and, and chatting to people coming from the stadium, going to the stadium, going to other sports and hearing their experiences and, it was a blast.
Alison: Were you staying in the village?
Evan Dunfee: Yeah, yeah. Stayed in the village.
And I was actually there for quite a while. Um, so I raced the 20K on the first and then had the mixed relay on the seventh. And so because Canada had a 72 hour policy, so we had to leave the village 72 hours after our competition, having two races, was awesome. It meant that I got to actually stick around and stay in the village for about, ended up being there for about two weeks and, and so got to really experience the village.
I was quite sick when I, or coming, recovering from being quite sick coming. Into the village. So I’d gotten gastro in our training camp in Barcelona. Felt fine, but like had no appetite. So everyone was like, Oh, like what’s the food? Like, I’m like, I don’t know. I’ve tried the rice. It’s about it. Hadn’t, I wasn’t being too adventurous in the food.
So I did hear the village food. Wasn’t. outstanding. my counter argument to that is it’s free food. I’m never going to complain about free food. but I will say that I, I wasn’t too adventurous in, in the food options.
Alison: Okay. So what was, I did want to ask you about being sick cause you did post about that.
go through the timing of that versus when you were racing.
Evan Dunfee: It was so sad. Uh, so we were upset, um, seven, whatever, a week out from the race seven days before. So, so a week out, I had, uh, my big stock standard last hard workout, four times 2k with 400 meters of. You know, kind of a float with a 400 meter heart at the end to make a 10 K.
So, so 10 K workout, one of the best workers in my life was so thrilled with it, ended up after that workout, sticking around the track because, um, Charles Philibert Thibodeau and, uh, and Jean Simone de Gagné were doing a workout and Marco Aurore was running some 200s and they had a little gimbal out.
Um, that they wanted filming. So I was, after I finished my workout, I was running around the track, trying to keep up with these guys to, to do some filming for them. And it was such a blast. I had so much fun. It was, it was just in my happy place and, in the best shape of my life.
And that night I was talking to my sports psych and I said, Hey, Penny, like, we sit down and have a chat and she’s like, Oh yeah, yeah. What’s going on? And I was like, well, I have this like thing that I’ve like, I don’t really know what to do with it. And she kind of looked concerned at me, like, Oh no, like what’s wrong.
I was like, uh, I have this like self belief, you know, like that I might actually be able to win this thing. And like, I’m not too sure what. What to do with that. And so she kind of laughed and, and we ended up sitting down and chatting for 45 minutes or so, and coming up with a bunch of different strategies for that last week of, of how I was going to navigate that last week and, and, you know, kind of get to that start line honing in on that self belief that I had and, and, and channeling and using it.
And then 24 hours later, I was, getting ready for, I was thinking about it. Come, come back from dinner with texting Sarah, my fiance being like, Oh man, I’m really tired. Like, I don’t feel like amazing. A few people on our team have been sick. Like, I’m really hoping it’s not that it’s nine o’clock.
I’m just going to go to bed and like, hope for the best. And then woke up at 10, just violently ill and throwing up and threw up about twice in about eight minutes. And it was like, Oh, this is going to be, this is not going to be fun. So then I started to stopwatch to, to, you know, Time the intervals because I figured if I could see that the time between being sick was getting longer It would be like the one thing I could kind of hold on to And so yeah, I have I just started taking splits On being sick and yeah, I was about 12 hours just all like all through the night just awful like just just just awful Everything I had in my body came out of my body and spent the next few days just really struggling to, you know, no training, trying to get food in me and all that.
And like the body recovered decently. Well, the legs felt okay. Started training again. My stomach was completely destroyed, like bloated and. All that not fun stuff. And it was like, I felt like a fully functioning human. I felt like I could exist in the world. That’s a far cry from like, being at your, peak physical, physical form on the day that you need it.
And so, I really struggled. Like my confidence was just, wrestling with, with my own minds to get me to that start line, feeling somewhat, confident. But I’ll tell you like the biggest thing that. Worried me. So the morning of the race, I took my sodium, my bicarb and normally little graphic, but normally take that poop right away, get to the race or, before I warm up poop again, didn’t poop at all.
And I was like, Oh no, like, this is terrifying. So I’m like, it’s going to happen at some point. Like I’d really like for it to not be during the race. And so the whole, Time that we were there getting ready to warm up. Everyone else kind of warming up, getting ready for the race. And I was just like, I really hope I poop.
So I, to say I was distracted, would be a bit of an understatement cause that was kind of where my mind was at an hour before the race. And then luckily our race got postponed half an hour. I was like very excited about that. Cause it just gave me 30 more minutes to try to clear some, clear some of my system.
but I think that gives you a good idea of like where my head was at and, came out for the race and saw all my family on the sidelines, like ran over to them. And afterwards, my partner’s like, I thought something was like terribly wrong. Cause like you just looked. You didn’t look like yourself at all.
and so when you ran over to us, I thought like, I thought you were going to tell us that like, you’re not racing or something like, and then I see pictures from me on the start line. I’m like, oh, yeah, like I. I was not present at all, like, and so, yeah, so that was kind of where I was at when, when the gun went.
so, you know, not ideal.
Jill: Wait, so did you get to poop?
Evan Dunfee: I did. Yes. Yes. I did manage. I did manage. Not, you know, not, satisfactorily, I would say, but, um, yeah. But it was less of a worry. I wasn’t as worried.
Alison: Did you ever consider not racing?
Evan Dunfee: No. yeah, it wasn’t really thought across my mind. There was a, there was some time that I didn’t know if I’d be able to finish the race.
but not, there was never a thought of like not making it to the start line. it was just sort of what, what will that look like once I’m there? and in the end, like probably a bit of an overreaction. Like I, my body held up, my legs held up really well. like legs felt really good, had to stop taking on nutrition halfway through the race, just cause my stomach was still not happy at all.
So that was a bit of a, change on the fly, But yeah, the legs, the legs ended up being a, okay. It was really just the mind, the confidence that I let myself be a little bit too rocked by it. And, so the, the, the mantra after the race was. Proud, but sad. I finished fifth, like pretty outstanding, especially for an event that three years ago I thought I’d, finished towards the back of the pack and be one of the also also walked and, uh, and just kind of be there as a swan, a swan song.
but it’s one of those ones where you’re like, man, if I had been fifth and like 30 seconds back of the metal. I’d be thrilled with that given where I was at coming into the race, but being five seconds back of the medal and knowing that it was probably just a lack of confidence that, that put me outside of.
The chance to fight for it. You know, I can’t control getting sick, but I could have controlled better how I let it affect me. and so that’s, that’s the bit that we still carry a bit of a heavy burden with. It’s, it’s still pretty, pretty raw. it’s getting better every day. we’re coming up on, nearly two months since the race or no, two months, two months today since the race.
so it’s, it does get a little bit better. But still, I did my first event back when I got home, and I had my Tokyo medal. And, we were showing it off to some kids, and we were talking about, you know, asking that they’d watch the Paris Olympics and said, Oh, you know, this is my medal from, from the Tokyo Olympics.
It’s, uh, it’s a little out of date now and made myself tremendously sad. And I was like, Oh no, why did I, why did I say that? That was silly. , but that was kind of the mindset that, that I was in when we, when I got home.
Alison: Right. Because on the one hand, you know, when we, we actually, saw the end of the race on TV and, We’re talking about at the time, on the one hand, we were both saying to each other, he wasn’t even going to race this.
a few years ago, and he’s five seconds off the podium, how amazing to make that transition. And then to hear you say how frustrating that is for you. I could, I get that. Like, I can see both sides of that five seconds being like, such an exciting five seconds and such a heartbreaking five seconds at the same time.
Evan Dunfee: Yeah. And it’s so hard because like, you don’t want to feel for lack of a better word, ungrateful, right? Like, it was an amazing performance. It, it, it did a lot for me. It secured some funding for me for another two years to keep on doing this. If I, you know, as we go. And, and so there was a lot of good and, you know, top five, the Olympics is still amazing.
And so it’s always that like really tough when you go to try to express how you’re feeling to the people that the fans back home, the people that follow you, your community, who, you know, Are thrilled for you, rightfully, rightfully thrilled for you and, and trying to navigate how to explain how you’re feeling without saying like this sucked, like it’s, it’s such an interesting thing to try to do and like other athletes get it.
So you’re like, you’re when you’re in your little bubble and you’re in the village and, you know, your teammate comes over, gives you a big hug and says like, Hey, like, I get it. There’s that mutual understanding and then trying to express that on social media, trying to, parse out those feelings, can be really tough because you, you don’t want people to think that you’re just like metal or nothing.
Like, it’s, it’s not that idea that without winning that metal failed, but at the same time, like, and I think the way that I explained it was like, I’m not sad that I finished fifth. Yeah. I’m sad that I raced in a way that didn’t give myself the chance to fight for the medal. And so like finishing fifth, but having given myself that chance is very different than finishing fifth.
And not having that chance. And so it’s, it’s really interesting to try to explain that to, well, to adults and then, and then trying to pare that down and try to explain it to, kids, um, is, is even, you know, an even tougher ask. So, it’s, it’s a thing that I have to sort of had to sort of sit with and figure out how do I talk about this?
How do I, how do I express all of the different things that are going on in my mind in a way that is. Understandable and relatable and, conveys those emotions properly,
Jill: right? Because
I think at least for, for us on the podcast, we want to get away from the podium or everything sucks mentality that a lot of people have, but we also understand like, ah, Body wasn’t working ahead of time. So that’s frustrating. ’cause I know I could have done better. And then having the mental aspect of it also be like, not where you wanted to be.
And trying to figure out like what would’ve clicked better. Right,
Evan Dunfee: exactly. Yeah. the metal is kind of like this manifestation of a whole bunch of other stuff. You want to go right. And if all those other things go right and you don’t win the medal, it’s easy to be satisfied and happy with it still.
But it’s just like, it’s so much easier to talk about the medal in like objective terms. And just kind of throw all those other aspects into it. and then you have to kind of take that step back and be like, Oh, no, actually, I got to actually pull those things out of the metal and, and talk about like what the metal represents and, and all that stuff.
and at the end of the day, like I will say, like having a metal is just cool, it’s fun to, to have that big, heavy, Heavy physically, literally heavy, but metaphorically heavy thing that you can put into people’s hands. And, there’s so much power that comes with that, that like, it’s a bummer.
Like, you know, you get a certificate for finishing fifth, doesn’t have the same, you can’t go and put that certificate in people’s hands and have the same impact. so there certainly is like, there, there is that tiny little bit of like, oh man, like. A metal is just really cool to have. and then I, you know, I got to hold Eleanor, Eleanor’s fencing metal, uh, the other day and it was that, like, oh yeah, like this.
Damn. I really wish I had one of these like, ah, You do have to keep in mind that it’s like, it does represent more than that, but also like they are cool.
Jill: I don’t know. There’s a sports psychology book in there somewhere.
Alison: So after this race, now less than a week later, you got to race again and you have to be the grownup in the room because your partner, I did not realize how young she is and that you were coaching her as well.
let’s talk a little bit about that transition into the mixed relay.
Evan Dunfee: Yeah, Olivia did such a great job because, when we were in San Moritz doing altitude camp, you know, she was living with for most of the time for four guys. and so, you know, she did a tremendous job of just not going crazy, sharing her space with, with us and, I think things got a little bit better once, once Sarah, my fiancee showed up.
but,
Alison: um,
Evan Dunfee: but there was this hands on, like we would talk about training every single day. We would, there was a lot of touch points to, to connect. And then with, you know, on the one hand with me getting sick and going into quarantine for three days and, and not being Able to touch base with her.
and then also just that completely going into my own space, that kind of four or five, six days before the race, she did a tremendous job of, keeping herself on track, doing what she needed to do, like she’s, she’s really young, but she’s incredibly mature and she knows what she’s doing. and so that was awesome.
Like it just didn’t, it was just a weight lift off my shoulders. There was no stress in my mind with, What she was doing in those few in that week before the 20 K. and then after the race, like I feel like I did a very good job, despite how sad I was of switching that focus immediately to the relay and, and figuring out what we’re going to do there.
And I mean, it helped that our goals were, Very simple. Like our goal was don’t come last. you know, our like pie in the sky goal was, you know, top, well, we taught 20 we thought was like a really good goal at the stars aligned. We thought like a top 16 with, you know, we need, we need some help from the judges and, and this, that, and the other thing, but we thought like.
Maybe, maybe, maybe a top 16 could, could happen, but top 20 was what we thought was within our control. and so that was kind of what we were, we were kind of hoping for, but we were literally just like, if we don’t come last, this will be, we’ll have done well. and so there wasn’t much pressure, which was nice and I don’t think she felt an exceeding amount of pressure.
I, you know, she, she puts a lot of pressure on herself, as I did when I was that age. I didn’t see her more stressed for the Olympics than I did for our UBC open race, in the rain at home in March type of thing. and so we just went out there and she raced phenomenally. I kind of went out there this feeling of like, yeah, let’s just go see if I can screw up some other people’s races and so just went storming off the front.
yeah, why not? You know, let’s, let’s see if I can. Throw a curve ball at these guys who think they know how the race is going to pan out and, see if I can mess with some race plans. And, turned out top couple of guys they could just take whatever was thrown at them on that day.
So, they kind of dominated regardless, but it was a lot of fun. It was a lot of fun to kind of feel like I was in control of that race for, for the first. 10k or so. And, and then that second leg is just brutal. You’re by yourself, like it just spreads out and then you get handed off to, and you’re just like, well, I gotta go and try and walk sub four minute Ks.
And there’s no one around me. And I might catch in this 10 K out here, I might catch one person. And so it’s, Mentally, very, very, very tough. especially when you’re not fighting for a big place up at the front, you’re just slogging away towards the back. And so it was mentally very, very, very tough.
And, and then passed off to Olivia for her second leg. Her first leg was fantastic. She did so well. Her second leg picks up two red cards on like the first lap of her second leg gets a three minute penalty, still has like nine K to go. And is able to come out of that penalty box, fix whatever was, was getting her the, the red cards and even just start chipping away.
Like we were in 21st and the whole nine K was just like, there’s 20th. Like see, like the whole race became this, like it’s you versus that 10 second gap. And let’s see, like, you’re not doing it for anyone, but yourself, this doesn’t matter. You know, it does. Nothing changes. As if we come 20th or 21st.
But like, prove to yourself that you can do it. and so it was really, really fun to watch her that last, last eight K. Yeah. So seven, seven or eight K once I got back out to the race course and, and to see her just chip away and chip away and chip away and on like the last lap, get past that, that girl on 20th and move ahead of her, was really cool.
Cause again, it was. There was nothing in it other than, yeah, I can do this. and so that was, that was really, really cool and, just awesome to see her cross that finish line and, yeah, check that box at her first Olympics. Like, how cool is that?
Jill: Back to the village. I want to know, you’ve been on Cardboard Bed Version 1 and Cardboard Bed Version 2. Any difference?
Evan Dunfee: I didn’t get a ton of time on version one because we were in support, we were in Sapporo. so my only experience on version one is, was post 50 K, and I just don’t think it’s an adequate representation of how one is supposed to sleep.
so, but I will say in, in Paris, like they were, they’re fine, they’re great. I, I really, really see the value in them. Beforehand, if you had an athlete who was six foot eight and needed an extra long bed, you had to order that like months in advance and you’d show up and there’d be, you know, you’d have an extra long bed frame with an extra long mattress and, if for whatever reason rooms needed to be changed or whatever it was, it was a hassle.
And now it’s like you show up and they’re like, okay, yeah, we need an extra piece. And you get an extra piece, you slide it in. There’s a little insert mattress. That’s like the little, like extra bit that you can slide in. You got your extra long mattress. And so when you’re dealing with something like the Olympics with, you know, 11, 000 athletes of, from four foot 10 to, to seven foot 10, it makes so much sense.
And then team Canada, like we all had mattress covers or mattress toppers. So like little one inch foam pads. Like, so it was. Yeah. Tremendously comfortable team Canada got these, like, cooling sheets that were supposed to help you sleep a lot cooler and they were quite comfortable.
And I gotta say, I slept very well in the village. I will say though, the game changer for me, cause I hate silence. Don’t like sleeping in silence. I can’t do it. and so a game changer for me, the last couple of years, I have an eye mask that has Bluetooth headphones in it. And I sleep on my side, which I thought might be a problem, but the headphones are like flat.
So you can sleep on your side with them still have. Um, and so for me, for the last few years, like that’s been a huge game changer for sharing rooms with people and still being able to have, have my podcasts.
Alison: Very cool. I see an endorsement opportunity for you, Evan.
Okay. So favorite part of the email when you answered me was you said the IOC was being the IOC in Paris. So how was the IOC being the IOC?
Evan Dunfee: Oh, you guys were there, you guys know this well, so. let’s get the ball rolling with what, with what you guys saw, you know, like what was your, from our
Alison: perspective, our problems all came from the organizing committee, not the IOC. So that’s why I’m curious as to from the athlete’s perspective, what you were experiencing.
Evan Dunfee: And I mean, I could be conflating whose responsibilities are, are for what, but, I’m just trying to think back now of some of the stuff that I saw that was, laughable and nothing is immediately returning to mind quickly.
Alison: no, but that’s good because I, if it was really awful, it would have stuck with you. Yes. Like if something really upset you, it would have stuck with you.
Evan Dunfee: I mean, the things that I did see were, were like more like, huh? Yeah. Yeah. That checks out, you know, like, like that sounds about right.
You know, one of my favorite bits, and this was not IOC related at all, but, um, So my, my teammate, one of my, one of my really close friends and Yaki Gomez was there. He’s the WADA athlete. He’s in the WADA athlete commission. And so he was there as a independent observer, observing the ITA. And he was at the racewalk observing the drug testing at the racewalk.
Not my drug testing, but the drug testing at the racewalk. And he’s also very professional and good at his job. So we weren’t, we didn’t acknowledge each other’s existence at all while we were in that doping control room. But at the same time, we’re in like group messages with other people. And so like, I’m talking to like.
Jared talent in a group chat about the race. The NACI is also talking to Jared about the race in this group chat. And you’re just like, we’re 10 feet away from each other. Haven’t acknowledged each other’s existence at all. So that made me laugh quite a bit. and then I was also in that doping control room for like three hours.
I delivered two partial samples, which was devastating. and my first part, this is, this was fun. And this is very in the weeds for, for your listeners. But, my first partial sample, and this is the first time has ever happened to me. milliliter.
I was a little optimistic, I think.
Alison: Okay. So you should know that during, during our daily shows of Paris, we had a whole segment devoted to toilet talk because we had bathroom problems throughout the entire city. So now there’s a whole followup that involves Evan Dunphy and his samples.
Evan Dunfee: Yeah. Having to, having to seal up, You know, a container sign off on it, seal it up, put it in the fridge.
Knowing that it had one milliliter was quite the process and just, just a real, like. just, it hurt deep inside of me knowing I just wanted to go out and be with my family so bad. And it was just like, come on.
Jill: So then you have to stay there and keep pumping fluids until. Yeah.
Evan Dunfee: So, so I think it was like another hour until I was able to try again.
And then I only got another 40 or 50 mils. and then of course, like finally, I don’t know, after like Two and a half hours I finally finished. But then, then you just, you just end up peeing the rest of the day. it’s such an insult to injury at that point. You know, it takes you three hours to lift a sample.
And then literally, I, by the time I got from the doping control room back out to the warmup track, I had to pee again. I was just like, come on. Really?
Alison: Because you, you had pumped yourself with every liquid available. I’m sure.
Evan Dunfee: Yeah, yeah, it’s just so annoying.
Jill: Did they have a variety of drinks for you?
Evan Dunfee: They did, they actually had, we had, um, Coke in glass bottles, which was really nice. Um, sparkling water, regular water. Yeah. Our selection was, was, was quite nice.
Jill: Do you have a favorite souvenir from Paris?
Evan Dunfee: Ooh. I mean, I got my, I got my little guy right here. My little, um, hat. Oh, you got the hat. Yeah. his name’s escaping me right now and I couldn’t pronounce it even when I knew what it was. would have preferred it. Yes. There we go. Thank you.
Would have preferred it to be metal colored. but I can add him to my collection. I, of mascots up on the wall from all the different competitions that I’ve been to over the years. so that one’s up there, but, I stole about seven of the post race towels.
Alison: Are those the pink ones?
Evan Dunfee: The pink ones. Yeah. They have like the little, like the corner of the Eiffel Tower on them and say Paris 2024. And, so it’s quite the process cause they really only wanted to take one. And I was like, well, these would actually make like some, these would be easy gifts You know, to give some people.
So yeah, I managed to sneak about seven, off of them. I almost got Olivia in trouble at one point. Cause I told there’s like a bucket of them after the race. And I just told her, let’s go grab another one. Like give it to, you can give it to someone. She went over and was holding one. Some security said, no, you can only have one.
So I was like, okay, well, give me your towel. She gave me her towel. I waited until that guy left. I was like, okay, go get another one. And then I tried to stop her again. She was like, I don’t have one yet. I was like, yes. Okay.
Alison: You are initiating Olivia into your life of crime, Evan. Yeah.
Evan Dunfee: Yeah. We all lived. They’ve been great little, like, dished towels to give to people and or gym towels. so those those have been really good.
Alison: What’s next?
Evan Dunfee: you know, after Tokyo it took a year and a half to like, find the motivation to Keep going, or, you know, I was training, but I didn’t really, I wasn’t training with motivation.
Paris took about an hour and a half to decide that I wanted to keep, keep going that I wasn’t done yet. you know, I, I more to prove I want a medal over 20 K, whether that’s at the worlds or Olympics, I think I can still, still get one of those. so yeah, we’re training, training for our Tokyo world champs next September, going to race in Japan, later this month to try to qualify for the 35k, at worlds. And then, yeah, we’ll kind of go from there. So trying to figure out financially how to make it all work and, you know, it’s, it’s One thing being 28 and not making much money. it’s another thing thinking about being 38 and not making much money.
so yeah, so yeah, gonna try and figure out how all that works and How we finance our way to LA, but, yeah, all the right, right now, all the signs point to giving it one more go trying to get to LA having Olympics where friends can drive down from Vancouver. uh, would be, yeah, pretty cool. Not relying on making people stay up till 1 o’clock in the morning to watch me race.
Would also be nice. So, yeah, there’s just, so much like it feels like it’ll be a, a home Olympics pretty much.
Jill: Excellent. Excellent. Do we have
Alison: a wedding date?
Evan Dunfee: We are narrowing it down. Okay. Cause we talked about this the last time we talked. Yeah. So, so, um, yeah. My, my brother and his partner got engaged in Europe this summer when they were over for the Olympics, which was fantastic. Sarah and I had talked about September, October of 2025. So after worlds next year, we actually have a race in San Diego at the end of September.
And so a couple of the friends that I would like to come to the wedding, there’s the opportunity for them to use their like athlete budgets to get from Europe to San Diego and race. And then they’re, only on the hook for the San Diego to Vancouver bit of it. And so it kind of seemed perfect.
And so we’ve, we had been thinking about October. Um, and then my brother and his partner were like, well, we want to get married in October. So you actually have to like commit to it and do it or we will. Um, and so that’s kind of, that’s kind of like, okay, yeah, I guess we can start actually planning this and deciding that we’re going to do it.
So the ball is steadily rolling down the hill now and we’re picking up steam.
Alison: Or Jill and I fully endorse October weddings. Yes.
Jill: Definitely. endorse a Dunphy double wedding?
Evan Dunfee: Mom did not. She was adamant that they, that there were, were not to be two weddings in the same month. that was very clear from the beginning.
Although now she, now she’s, thinking that she has to get a summer dress and a fall dress. So she’s kind of shot herself in the foot with this one.
Alison: Mom, we’re trying to help you here. Well, excellent. That’s all. I’m glad you’re sticking around. That makes me happy.
Evan Dunfee: yeah, just going to be one of the old guys.
I mean, I already felt like one of the old guys in Paris. So, one of the guys I train with just training with German guy, Chris Like he set a world master’s record this year. And we’ve all been, we’ve been making fun of them ever, ever since. just like, oh yeah, yeah, that’s going to be us. We’re just going to be out there.
With
Alison: your walkers.
Jill: Get on that podium. what would 50 K racer Evan Dunphy think of? Today’s Evan on fee.
Evan Dunfee: Oh, that’s a good question. I mean, today’s Evan, today’s Evan is still very much bitter about the 50 not being around. I don’t know. I feel like maybe 50 K Evan would find me lazy. My mileage is quite a bit lower than it used to be. So I feel like if anything, that might be. that might be it.
There might be a sense of, of laziness that, uh, 50kEvan would, would look down upon 20kEvan for.
Alison: Man, don’t talk badly about my friend, Evan. My goodness.
Jill: Excellent. Well, Evan, so much for making some time for us and for, uh, stopping by the show and we’ll keep, Touching base with you all throughout. Always, always
Evan Dunfee: love, always love catching up.
So, so great to see you both.
Jill: Thank you so much, Evan. You can follow Evan on Insta and X at Evan Dunphy. We’ll have a link to that in the show notes.
Meet us at the Olympin Show in November
Jill: And we’ll also have a link to Olympin.
Alison: Speaking of pins, the reason I’m sorting through my pins is we will be at the Olympin show in Atlanta in November.
Jill: This is very exciting. Olympin is, uh, the big club for pin traders uh, and really collectors of Olympic ephemera and memorabilia.
And the shows are a lot of fun because the pin collector people are tons of fun. It’s Friday through Sunday, November 8th through 10th at the Marriott Atlanta Buckhead Hotel and Conference Center in Atlanta, Georgia. Friday and Saturday it’s 10 to 5, Sunday it’s 10 to 3. It’s open to the public, free of charge.
So come on down, we’ll have a table, you can talk with us and look at, we’ll have stuff for trading. We’ll have stuff there. We’ll have the
Alison: https: otter. ai
My NBC Andrea Joyce pin.
Jill: No, no, not at all.
Alison: Well, we hope to see you there anyway, even though you can’t even touch my Andrea Joyce pin.
Jill: Yes, so we’ll have plenty of stuff. There might be some cups there from Paris off my cup collection. There will definitely be
Alison: water bottles.
Jill: Yes. If you need a water bottle, come on down, see our table and see what we’ve got.
But yeah, we would love to say hello to you if you are in the area. So again, that is November 8th through 10th at the Marriott Atlanta Buckhead Hotel and Conference Center in Atlanta.
Paris 2024 News
Alison: Oh, Mandu! Yes.
Jill: I don’t know why, now we have, like, it’s a fight, but it’s not really a fight, but it’s a fight over the Olympic rings on the Eiffel Tower. The set that was up there for the games have been removed because it was a pretty heavy set. It was only intended to be temporary.
And now Mayor Anne Hildago wants to put up a lighter, less prominent set. And guess what? She’s getting some pushback. Well, the French have gone back to being French,
Alison: but I think what’s funny was there was discussion as is this appropriate to keep the rings up when you’re no longer the host, you’re a former host and that question, the descendants of Gustav Eiffel are the ones who are pushing back, basically saying, this is not the tower that he envisioned, envisioned, keep the rings off my tower.
Jill: Right. Yeah. But I mean, there are Olympic rings in many cities that have hosted the games or have facilities. So this is not unusual. I mean, when I was at the 1924 swimming pool, there’s rings on that outside and there, you can kind of see them on the inside too. And I remember
Alison: when you went to Rome, there was rings in various buildings and, and sites that had, hosted.
Events. Right,
Jill: right. Montreal has them. Yeah. A lot of host cities have this stuff. so now with the, the grumbling from the descendants of Gustave Eiffel, conservation groups, other Parisians are grumbling about this. So now the, the tactics is maybe put up a lighter new set of rings that will stay up until LA 2028.
We’ll see. And, and also they expect the IOC to pay for this.
Alison: The IOC pays for nothing that it doesn’t have to pay for. They ain’t getting a new lighter set of rings out of the IOC. Come on. Who are they kidding?
Jill: So yeah, we’ll, we’ll keep an eye on that story and see if it, if it actually comes to fruition.
Also follow up, we talked about, Paralympian and Shukla Stani Jessica Long, not allowed to go to the Paralympics closing ceremony in response to a, bullying allegation. And she had a very long post on Instagram to respond to this. And this includes her saying that her name’s been associated with bullying, which is not representative of who she is.
She strongly opposes bullying, doesn’t believe there’s a place for this in this world. It continues on and she says she remains devoted to upholding the integrity of the Paralympics and advocating for positive changes for the next generation and seeking modifications that will only be positive and for the betterment of us all.
Alison: Okay.
Jill: What else is she gonna say? Right, yeah, yeah. She didn’t
Alison: address any of the specifics. It was a generic, I don’t bully, bullying is bad statement. Which, honestly, I’m not criticizing her for saying that. What else is she gonna say? She can’t get into the details because it’s an ongoing investigation.
Right. So let’s put out the generic feel good statement.
Jill: The parish organizing committee has started its recycling program for the athletes village equipment. This includes 54, 000 pieces of furniture, 9, 000 mattresses, and 11, 000 pillows. Which way did they have twice as many pillows and how much did the athletes walk away with
Alison: you?
Where did the pillows go?
Jill: Some of this furniture is going to a place called Emmaus which takes donations and this is they say it’s according to Franck’s Joux. This is one to two years worth of furniture donations for them Mattresses some are going to the army. Some are going to the Paris Opera School.
Some are going to the Tsuji Total school, so people can practice making beds. Maybe, maybe, there’s a legacy program for construction materials used in temporary facilities, like the catering hall. So, uh, company is working on recovering those materials and the transformation of apartments and public spaces has begun in the village.
That’s expected to take 14 months to finish, which is not surprising because I mean, we were there and saw the temporary structures come down in plus to the Concord and. By the end of the Paralympics, even, they weren’t very far into it. No, it takes time. You got to do it safely. I mean, you can’t just knock it down
Alison: because you’re reusing a lot of the stuff.
Jill: Exactly. So hopefully new residents can move in, in the fall of 2025. There’s also an auction house in Germany that’s selling some of the Paris 2024 stuff. Listener Steffi tipped me onto this. Looks like you had to be in a EU country to be able to bid and Get your stuff. They have a lot of deck chairs. Do you remember all those chairs that were sitting out in the village?
Yes That’s what they’ve got for sale right now. Those were
Alison: nice. Those were nice.
Jill: They were, they’re very cool and they have a big Paris 2024 thing on them. Weren’t they white? Most of them were white and pink? Pink, white, gray. There’s a lot of gray ones on the, on the website. We’ll have a link to that in the show notes if you are in Europe.
If you could, Bid for one of these, let me know. So you can come over and sit in it? Yeah. Or I can convince you to bid one on one or two for me and we’ll figure out shipping later. That kind of thing.
Alison: I brought my own chair.
Milan-Cortina 2026 News
Jill: Speaking of Olympic rings, the Olympic rings have been installed at Antwerp’s Omterselva, which will be the biathlon venue. So that’s exciting. We are getting closer and closer to, Milan Cortina. So the accoutrements are starting to show up around the region. Confident that the sliding track will be completed on time.
The International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation has scheduled an international training period in November next year, followed by the first World Cup of the 25 26 season.
Alison: So they’re going to try and do a test event, just a few months ahead of time, but still a test event.
Jill: Exactly, exactly. Why
Alison: do you even sigh when this comes up?
Jill: Because I’m still kind of stunned that everyone believes this is going to be pulled off. I mean, maybe it will, but I just feel like this is going to be another Torino mess of content. It’s good enough for the games, and then not much afterwards, and we’ve dumped billions of euros into this project.
Speaking of billions of euros, to no one’s surprise, maybe, the game’s budget has increased again per franc choux. During their bid, Milan Cortina said they could do the games for 1. 362 billion euros. In 2018, that went up to 1. 553 billion, and now it’s up to 1. 362 billion. 1.
Alison: 628 billion. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that this went up after we were in Paris.
I think there may be some money to contain us alone. Like there’s, they’re hiring a whole police force just to make sure we don’t break things.
Jill: Oh, we have to build special toilets for those Americans who can’t figure it out. See,
Alison: and they know they can’t throw me out of the country. They can’t just solve the problem.
Jill: I would imagine inflation does play into this. That is not surprising. but We’re still a year and a half out. What’s this, what is this going to cost? That’ll be fun to see.
Winter Games 2030
Jill: I gotta work on getting a sounder for 2030 now. I know, now that we know it’s gonna be in France.
Alison: And we can’t recycle the Paris one, because that’s the Paris one.
We need, we need French ALP music. Do you yodel in French?
Jill: Maybe. I don’t know. We’ll find out. We’ll put that on the list. So the International Paralympic Committee has announced the six sports that will be at French ALPS 2030, because I think that might be the working. Title or working location of the games, para alpine skiing, para biathlon, para cross country skiing, para ice hockey, para snowboard and wheelchair curling same as it, as it has been, what’s not on there is para bobsleigh, which has been trying to get into the Paralympics for a while.
But they’re
Alison: just not getting the international competition. I don’t think so. For the same reason that they’re having trouble with the bobsled track, for Cortina. It’s expensive. It’s expensive. And then if you have to modify things for Paralympians, it gets even more expensive. So the only countries that can participate this are people who have their own bobsled track and have the money to modify the sled itself.
That ain’t much.
Jill: maybe we put them on the, on the list too, to figure out what they’re hoping for, because Salt Lake City is also an option. We’ll see what happens with the sport for them. On the Olympic side, the International Ice Hockey Federation plans to propose an additional event, which would be 3×3 hockey, this was at the last two Youth Olympic Games.
the deadline to make proposals is end of January and the IOC will decide the program near the end of March. So we might see another hockey event.
Alison: And this goes into the same reason they created 3×3 basketball to get other countries, right? where you can’t field a full team. The country doesn’t have that depth of talent.
Let’s get some, and it’s a faster game, so it’s a different style. This would be interesting to see because certainly men’s ice hockey is so international as it is, you don’t have the U. S. Canada domination anymore, or probably ever, so what countries would emerge in 3×3 that don’t exist? Are we trying to get to Oceania and South America and some things that would never have a a full size hockey,
Jill: right?
And we were talking offline about the impact that having pro players in the hockey tournament will make on the sport. And what does that do for different countries who may not have a strong pro presence in the, NHL? So maybe this is an outlet to keep that pipeline going in federation based hockey.
I don’t know. It’ll be interesting to see if they add that to the games
International Olympic Committee News
Alison: No more mike
Jill: and maya, that’s true. Oh, that’s a bummer toyota is officially dropping its top sponsorship, which means They can no longer also sponsor Olympic and Paralympic team Toyota athletes. However, they’ve said, uh, and this was from our friend, , Rich Perlman over at the sports examiner.
They’re going to continue to sponsor team Toyota athletes for as long as they remain Olympians and Paralympians. the global team is 277 athletes. 179 of them went to Paris. I would imagine that another chunk of them is Winter athletes are orange. Our
Alison: Erin Jackson is a Team Toyota athlete. That is correct.
So there are, definitely a good number of winter athletes who are going to lose the support.
Jill: Yeah. also not renewing their top sponsorship is Bridgestone because they would like to focus on motor sports, Panasonic not renewing its top sponsorship, which means that all of the Japanese based top sponsors are now out of the program.
Alison: So it’ll be interesting. That is a huge shift to losing all your Japanese companies. I mean, I realize a lot of them had their eyes on Tokyo, but Toyota and Panasonic have been around a lot longer than. Tokyo being, a host,
Jill: right? So now the top program is down to 12 members for the 20 to 25 to 28 Olympiad.
It was 15 for the previous quad. So I’m not sure what that means for IOC sponsorship money, what that means for other sponsors in the program who may be looking at not renewing or whether or not they’re getting their money’s worth out of it. We shall see. T Bach came to the U. S. Did you see this? I did not.
Oh, so he came to the U. S. to visit Salt Lake City and check on how it’s doing and also went to L. A. to check on how it’s doing, which is curious, I think, because, like, T Bach, you’ve got like six months left. Are you just doing, like, the grand world tour of everything to get one last trip in? Or are you Was this a scheduled, like, oh, we have these regular interval visit kind of things?
Alison: Well, this doesn’t surprise me because Salt Lake City was just named while they were in Paris, so he hasn’t visited since they were officially named. So that makes sense. And then going to the next host right after the Summer Games close. This feels very normal. This doesn’t feel like a boondoggle to me.
Jill: Okay. Okay. But the fun fact that I like out of this whole visit thing is that Teebok met with leaders of the Latter day Saints church in Salt Lake City. And as their little exchange of gifts, Teebok gave president Holland from the LDS church, a set of Olympic rings,
and they gave him a four generation chart of his ancestors, along with a leather bound copy of the Book of Mormon.
Alison: And not the musical. Well, this, you know, of all the, whenever we hear about these diplomatic gifts, it’s always so strange, but doesn’t this make perfect sense because the LDS does all that ancestry.
I mean, that’s one of their things. So yes, in case you didn’t know where you came from, Teebok, we know.
Jill: But I’m curious at how much he knew. It had to be kind of an interesting thing to pour through.
Alison: Also, speaking of Teebok’s victory tour.
Jill: Yes, so one of the candidates to succeed Teebok is Juan Antonio Samaranch.
And he was at the European week of sport and told the AFP there that once the reasons for Russia’s suspension disappear, the IOC would have to work very hard to bring them back into the fold. And also said that Russia was on the outs for violating the Olympic truce, not because it invaded Ukraine, to which I say, do you not understand why Russia violated the Olympic truce?
Alison: See, I read the same article and I understand why Ukrainian officials got upset because anything that diminishes Russia’s sort of criminal behavior in Ukraine, we don’t want to see that, but he’s not wrong. I mean, we’ve talked about this, that Russia was not being banned because it invaded Ukraine.
It was being banned because it invaded Ukraine. in violating the Olympic truce. So that’s what I mean. I didn’t think his his statement was that controversial though. We have other problems with the Russian Olympic Committee, doping. So we’re going to work very hard to get them back into the fold. Well, they have to work very hard to fix themselves.
Fix yourself first, before we welcome you back in.
Jill: Right, which makes me wonder about, uh, Samaranch presidency potential, and what that would mean. Russia, of course, likes Samaranch as a candidate, so But they can’t
Alison: vote. No, I, but, but still still. Yeah. So he lost the Ukrainian vote and it’s not like he got Russians that will vote for it.
But, you know, we know on the IOC, there are some very pro Russian representatives that will just eat this up.
TKFLASTAN News
Alison: Welcome to Shooklastan.
Jill: Now is the time of the show where we check in with our team and keep the flame alive. These are past guests and listeners of the show who make up our citizenship of Shooklastan, our very own country. First up,
Alison: Team Schuster is back on the ice. They’re in the Hearing Life Tour Challenge through October 6th in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island in Canada. They have two losses, which has put them down into the C event.
Jill: Cyclist Mandy Marquardt competed at the Collegiate Track Cycling Nationals and won a bronze in the 500 meter.
She was thrilled with this because it has been a very tough year for her with injuries and coming back for them. She’s still in the process of healing up and getting back into full form. So this was a great win for her.
Alison: Weightlifter Hampton Morris competed at his final juniors meet because he’s only 12 years old.
The 2024 World Junior Championships, he won three medals in the men’s 67kg snatch, clean and jerk, and combined totals. In the days after he won, he served as a loader on another session of the event. Which is kind of cool. It’s like he’s he’s yeah, I’m an Olympic medalist, but I can still just load bars like everybody else
Jill: He said that is a volunteer job that I would want to do and made it happen Shooter Kim Rode won the USA shooting skeet Nationals title in a shoot off against Sam Summerton.
She’s also a I did not know this, , Kim Rode is also the vice president at the International Shooting Sports Federation. And I know she’s been trying to get onto the board of the NRA. She was petitioning people to, nominate her. So, we may see her name on that board as well.
Alison: Andrew Maranis has published his latest book in the Beyond the Game series.
This one is about pro football player turned military hero, Pat Tillman.
Jill: And condolences to listener Cindy on the passing of her cat Waldo, who was one of our Paris mascots. So we’re very sad to hear that Waldo is no longer on this planet. He’s in the Shukla Stan house in the sky.
Get in Touch and Coming Soon
Jill: And that’s going to do it for this episode.
Let us know what you think of Paris 2024. And if you watched the race walk, let us know what you think of those results.
Alison: And we love hearing from you. You’ll find us and other listeners on our Facebook group, Keep the Flame Alive Podcast. You can email us at flamealivepod at gmail. com. And the voicemail and text line is always open.
That’s 208 422 4224. 3 5 2 6 3 4 8 2 0 8, flame it, and be sure to check the show notes for how to get our weekly newsletter and follow us on socials to get all our content.
Jill: Next week we will have more stories from Paris 2024 because a lot of our Shukla Stanis are getting back in touch with us and we’ve been talking with them.
So , we’ve got some really fun, good fun facts to share with you and things you may not have known have happened at Paris. Thank you so much for listening and until next time, keep the flame alive.