It’s time for another edition of Movie Club! Film Buff Fran is back to discuss the 2013 French biopic “Jappeloup,” about the two-time Olympic show jumper Pierre Durand and how he and his horse Jappeloup managed to come to an understanding to [SPOILER ALERT] defeat the competition at Seoul 1988.
We do talk about Durand’s final ride at Seoul, which thankfully is on the internet. This clip dispels one of the very “Hollywood” elements of the movie. In the film, as the actor is going over the final jump, he holds both hands over his head. True to life? We’ll let you be the judge:
Christian Dugay directed this film, which stars Guillaume Canet as Durand. Canet actually competed as an equestrian when he was younger and took it up again for the role. Check it out:
Our next movie is “Zero to Hero.” Here’s a trailer:
In our Seoul 1988 history moment, we stay in the world of equestrian. Jill looks at the dressage competition and the emergence of Nicole Uphoff and her horse Rembrandt. Uphoff ushered in an era where women dominated the sport, and Rembrandt–not unlike Jappeloup–was a very particular–and very special–horse:
We travel to TKFLASTAN to get some news from:
- Shooter Tim Sherry
- Wheelchair curler Steve Emt
- Short track speed skater Ryan Shane
- Beach volleyball player Kelly Cheng
- Our listeners!
Paris 2024 has closed its first ticket lottery–results will be announced mid-February. The Paralympic schedule is now live. Tickets will go on sale this fall.
The International Paralympic Committee also announced the Paralympic sports program for LA 2028. The organizing committee gets the option of adding on two sports as well. Will we see the debuts of para climbing and para surfing?
Thanks so much for listening, and until next time, keep the flame alive!
TRANSCRIPT
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Film Buff Fran on Jappeloup
[00:00:00]
[00:00:00] Jill: Hello, and welcome to another episode of Keep the Flame Alive, the podcast four 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 am your host, Jill Jaracz, joined as always by my lovely co-host, Alison Brown.
Alison, hello, how are you?
[00:00:46] Alison: Apples and sugar cubes. So I am ready for today’s.
[00:00:50] Jill: Yes, this is a big equestrian themed day. I’m very excited about it cuz we don’t often talk about equestrian. It’s not one of our strengths, but it’s always fun watching. And we do know, I, I
[00:01:03] Alison: do love the horses. I do love them. you know, I’ve only ridden horses like a half a dozen times in my life and I don’t know anything about them, but I love them.
[00:01:12] Jill: Well, we are back from Pod Fest Expo. We actually got to hang out in person. I know it was a couple was a little strange strange but awesome and we got to learn a lot from Pod Fest Expo. We talked there as well about How we organized our time in China. So that was very cool and we learned a lot of new stuff.
So you may be seeing some changes on the show coming up. We’re very excited.
[00:01:36] Alison: Maybe we’ll get a horse.
Well, we’ve talked about having mascot, so maybe we need, maybe Clifton needs an official horse along with its official Fox.
[00:01:46] Jill: Put that on the list. Okay, so horse talk part one. We are talking movie club today. film. Buff Fran is back with Aja, the 2013 French film, set in the world of equestrian show jumping. Take a listen.
Film Club Conversation: Jappeloup
[00:02:03] Jill: Fran, welcome back. We are talking Jappeloup movie about , the horse that took Seoul 1988 by Storm. Tell us all about it.
[00:02:13] Fran: Well, this is a a foreign language film, which is a little deviation from us. I think the last one we did was gold. and we loved gold. this movie was made in 2013.
It is directed by Christian Dugay and it’s Stars Guam Cane as Pierre Duron, who is the equestrian, who ends up buying Jappeloup from their owner and turning him into an Olympic champion. You know what, I didn’t know what to expect from this movie.
I didn’t know anything about the equestrian. I purposely didn’t look to see what happened in both the 1984 Olympics. Angeles and the 1988 Seoul Games, just so I could just kind of enjoy the movie and see how it all plays out. And I thought this movie was really well done.
It just had a lot of heart, it had a lot of feeling. it, it seemed like it had a very dense core. It just wasn’t a sappy. Movie. And I really, you really felt for all the characters, I think they, they gave very, Different nuanced performances and you really knew how each of them felt. We start out with Pierre as a young boy and you see him doing a different type of equestrian event and he falls off his horse and his mom is petrified.
And then she tells her husband Sege to switch him to equestrian jumping cuz it’s safer and she doesn’t want her son to get hurt. . And so that starts pier’s, lifelong enjoyment of horse riding and he actually stops riding and decides to become an a lawyer. But then he’s pulled back by his love of the sport when they decide to buy Jappeloup.
What did you both think?
[00:04:08] Alison: I loved it. . It had all the tropes that we always talk about, the training montage. Oh. the romance, the, you know, underdog, the come from behind the tragic death of the father.
[00:04:25] Fran: Oh, horrible.
[00:04:26] Alison: Oh, the losing in 84 to come back and win. And yet the way they put this film together, like you said, the performances were very good.
The heart was solid. It did not feel schmaltzy.
[00:04:39] Fran: And it had George Michael
[00:04:41] Alison: and it had some wild music. Was background music, ? Yeah, we had, we had some, George Michael, we had some talking heads. I did not understand why that
[00:04:50] Fran: was there. . And we had Donald Sutherland. What more could you ask for ?
[00:04:54] Alison: Random cameo by Donald Sutherland as the grizzled American.
And the other thing that [00:05:00] this had, which we seem to have forgotten as a trope when we go to European movies, Namely Chariots of Fire, the obnoxious American athlete, ,
[00:05:11] Fran: who yet has a
good,
[00:05:12] Alison: you know, Has a good heart and trying to, takes it up. So this reminded me in some ways of Chariots of Fire in that it has all the tropes and yet it came together.
Mm-hmm. to be a really, really enjoyable film.
[00:05:25] Jill: I would have to agree. when we got to the end, I was like, oh, I really enjoyed it. Really well done, really good biopic. Mm. I have some issues with the timelines, and what, what’s going on. But, you know, I have a lot of little nitpicky details where I spent a good chunk of the first section of the movie wondering.
How old he was. And I did a lot of math as, as the dates came up to try to figure out how old is he now? Wait a second. How old was he then?
[00:05:54] Alison: Yeah, nobody aged. the main body of the film, there’s the flashback to 74 and then up to 78 really. So there’s about 10 years that this film really covers and nobody ages.
Except their baby, Lisa , who between two scenes seems to
[00:06:13] Fran: age.
[00:06:13] Alison: A year, like all of a sudden she’s a bald baby and then in the next scene she’s a toddler with a full
[00:06:19] Fran: head of hair. Right.
[00:06:20] Jill: Well, okay, so in 1974 when they did the original young Pierre doing his eventing, he looked like he was about nine or so, and then all of a sudden in 1978, he’s getting a law degree
And I was like, wait a second. How old is he? And it turned out when I did the math, he was supposed to be about 20 in 1974. Huh? Cause I believe he was born in about 1955. So it was closer to 20. And then, then that made sense when he was getting the law degree and he was in his mid twenties, late twenties.
by 1980, you know, six years after the, Race. he’s a lawyer and he quit jumping cuz he was mid twenties and he was college and there wasn’t like, no money in it. I, I also wondered how long was his wife pregnant and when was he pregnant?
[00:07:10] Fran: Cause because they had
[00:07:12] Jill: the, that scene, you know, where he said, I’m late.
And she goes, so am I . You know, And you’re like, oh, she’s pregnant. But then it looked like they went to the next scene was their wedding and then, A while later, I, I don’t know how long it was until she tells him that she’s pregnant, she’s quitting writing, she’s gonna quit writing for nine months.
Mm-hmm. . And so she’s been pregnant for a while because she knows, and she tells him he’s all excited and then like she’s. Pregnant through the press conference for LA 84 and pregnant. Very, very pregnant and in Los Angeles. And I thought, well, this is the eighties. How did they let her fly? But okay, then, like she was pregnant after that and after LA 84 they went to the beach and she’s still very pregnant and they’re back in France, I think at this point in time.
Like how much more pregnant? She was pregnant for a little while longer. And then she had the baby .
[00:08:11] Alison: Well, I can tell you that sometimes when you are pregnant, Fran knows this better than I, it feels like it’s
[00:08:16] Fran: 14 years.
Mm-hmm.
[00:08:18] Alison: it feels like. But yes, I have to agree the the pregnancy timeline and then the baby’s aging timeline because then 88 comes and the baby’s kind of at.
Toddler, but she should be like
[00:08:31] Fran: four. Four. Yeah. It was very,
[00:08:34] Alison: it was very odd. And then the baby also disappeared. It was like,
[00:08:37] Jill: yes. For long. It’s like she goes to these races like, where’s your baby? You just left it with grandma all the time. Like the little kids. A little, I mean, she’s tiny. Baby. Shouldn’t be away from mom.
Well, grandma,
[00:08:47] Fran: I don’t know. Did not want to go to the races. Grandma was not watching. She wanted to be home. She peeled
[00:08:54] Alison: potatoes cuz it eased her stress.
Can we talk a little bit about how gorgeous that horse was? Oh, beautiful. And just the beautiful, just the character of Jappeloup. I, I did like that they did not give the horse too much human personality. They gave it a personality. It was a feisty horse. You had to handle it a certain way, but there weren’t a lot of long.
Loving shots into the, the horse’s eyes. Mm-hmm. . Mm-hmm. . Just a couple. And they were quick. So you got a feel of who this horse was. Mm-hmm. , but it wasn’t so anthropomorphized. Mm-hmm. As we’ve seen in some other, you know, Black Beauty and National Velvet and kind of those other horse movies. But I thought it was great.
I had to cheer for the horse because the horse was.
[00:09:38] Fran: They did make a big deal about how he was only like 15.2 hands high, and he was a little feisty, tiny one. But I really, felt for Pierre because I think the actor Yam Kane really, he really gave us the friction between his love of the sport and the feeling like, [00:10:00] oh, this was like a childhood dream and I need to, figure out what I’m gonna do with my life.
And then when he is doing it, he’s happy, but not, he, and he wants to go back and, he almost doesn’t go back. I feel like because he doesn’t. Want to seem like he’s giving up, you know, his profession. , then there was also that conflict between him and his dad. Like was he doing it for his dad more than himself?
And you know, I thought it was really sweet when they showed, the father and son getting in the trailer with the horse to all those shows and showing the real bond between the two men and then they finally went back into the trailer to have the heart to heart about, him coming back to the sport.
And the father says to him, you. Gimme a break. You’re doing this for you, you know, you’re doing it for me, but you’re also doing it for yourself and own up to it. You wanna come back, not just for me.
[00:10:52] Jill: Right. For the first good chunk of the movie, maybe through LA I wasn’t really getting it because.
Pierre and Chalo didn’t seem to have that connection or more so Pierre did not have that connection with Chalo and I was really upset. I’m like, where is this connection with the horse and the rider? Only to realize that in the actual story that was part of the problem is that he didn’t connect and I thought that was a really.
they did a really good job with that. Mm-hmm. And I mean, they made Pierre look like a very much a jerk. Everyone was telling him, you are a jerk. And he’s like, I’m no good. And like, you got to the Olympics buddy, right? What? What do you mean you’re no good? but it was really interesting to see that kind of transition from a very selfish writer who didn’t try to connect to somebody who understood.
Or who finally got the message, oh, I need to do something different. And that difference was the way he became the champion.
[00:11:51] Alison: I thought the only somewhat wasted character was Rafaella, who was the trainer, who was the only one who could work with Jappeloup. She was the one who could speak his language and connect, and she is the one who tells Pierre.
You don’t love this horse. You’re not connecting with this horse. You have to connect. And that’s why the horse refuses to jump for you. And she had a few moments, but I did want a little bit more of her.
[00:12:21] Jill: Yeah. You saw her like in the stable, but you didn’t see her out there really, like with the horse and the horse really going to her versus, or, having those moments between the bond.
I would agree. And also Raphael. Did not age beyond like 16 . Again,
[00:12:37] Alison: another non aging person.
[00:12:40] Fran: But you know what, they showed it at the beginning, like I thought in the beginning they, they showed that bond really well because she was the original owner of the horse and then her father. Made the hard decision to sell Jappeloup to Pierre, and you really saw her being so crestfallen like this was her best friend, and then he was going away.
And then when, Pierre saw that, you know, the only one to really get through to this horse was her. And then giving her the job of being his caretaker, she really lit up, and then the only other thing we really saw about her was when she was a wild. at the cafe Giving, which was great.
[00:13:22] Alison: so much smoking in this movie, .
[00:13:27] Fran: Like the teammate who would smokeless Oh my gosh. In the hotel.
[00:13:32] Alison: and yeah, like you were saying, Jill, the, the teammate is smoking as he is riding the horse.
[00:13:38] Jill: I, I love Raphael’s grandfather who says, oh, she has gypsy blood. Like, oh boy.
[00:13:45] Alison: But he also had one of the best lines in the movies where he starts complaining about the Americans and someone says, no, that writer’s German. And he says, , same thing. .
[00:13:55] Jill: So he’s a man after your own heart. Alison.
[00:13:58] Fran: I know. I said,
oh,
[00:13:59] Alison: he also reminded me of the brother from Cutting Edge.
You know the smart, the smart Alec in the bar , there always has to be a smart alec in the bar,
[00:14:10] Fran: the movie had enough. Poignant moments to really keep you almost on the edge of your seat. When they went to the first Olympics and, they were doing really well and it came down to Pierre and then the horse causes Pierre to fall.
and he just loses all the chance to do anything, that was pretty shocking. I think they did a really good job portraying that episode really well. And also the fire, I mean, the fire was really crazy. I mean, when the, stalls that the horses were in were at a gas station and, the, all of a sudden they were driving by in a different car and saw that there was, it was on fire, and they had to get all the horses.
do we know if that
[00:14:53] Alison: really happened? Because it feels like they would not have included that incident. Without that having actually [00:15:00] happened, it seems
[00:15:01] Fran: so specific. I was trying to look at some background information before we started and I couldn’t find anything, but it seemed like it may have happened
[00:15:09] Alison: because how horrific that, they’re trying to get the horses out of the trailer and he gets the horse out, but then Jappeloup runs into the highway.
But of course the point of that scene being that Pierre is then able to talk giallo down and they’re connected and they are one, they are a team, which was
[00:15:30] Fran: beautiful. Oh, we also forgot the trope of the bad coach.
I have to say that coach, that
[00:15:38] Alison: didn’t bother me as much simply because it was such a tiny part of the story. It’s basically two scenes and then he’s done. It’s, and, he’s just a bad coach. I don’t know how. Evil. He is.
[00:15:52] Fran: Well, I had the question because when they showed Aloo getting injured potentially at one of the meets, and then they threw up the, Thought that one of the other competitors on his same team saw the coach map out the course, and he kind of almost indicated that he mapped it out incorrectly. And then the question was, was it done on purpose so that Jappeloup would not succeed? Or was it just, he just screwed up. So I thought that was kind of interesting that they almost pointed out that, the coach was actually.
Against Pierre and Giallo, and I thought it was also interesting that, the reason I think that Pierre stayed with Giallo that long was because he owned the horse. Because other riders, if they weren’t gelling well and performing well, if they didn’t own their horse, they would’ve just got moved to a different horse.
Where Pierre, because he owned the horse, he dictated who rode. And if he wanted to ride ’em, he was gonna keep riding him. So I thought that was really interesting. that was a major component I thought.
[00:16:57] Alison: I hope horse people like the riding scenes because as a non horse person, I thought they were shot very, very well, and I got a sense of what the tactics are.
And are you gonna be aggressive on time? Are you going for clean? How many strides between obstacles? I thought that was very well done and I learned something about the sport, which I always love to do with a sport movie.
[00:17:26] Jill: Right. And one of the things I also liked is the different angles they shot the jumps from.
So sometimes it was underneath, sometimes it was from a side, sometimes it was from the back end. It was, nice and it changed it up so it didn’t always feel like the same
[00:17:40] Fran: competition.
And I think the most important thing with that too is that the most of the people involved in the movie were horse people.
So the director wasn’t equestrian, Guam Kane was a horseman, so was the woman who played his wife Nadia. So there was so many equestrians. On this film that I think that’s probably what helped make the equestrian scene so vibrant and true to life. Guam Cane had actually given up on his equestrian co career way before the movie, and then he had to get back in shape before they started filming.
And he did all his, he did all his jumping. And you could see that, I mean, they didn’t cut away. You could tell it was him doing all the jumping, which was really interesting. And it it just seemed very lifelike, you were there with him in the moment when he was doing everything.
[00:18:35] Alison: And on that note of lifelike, I thought the Olympic scenes were very well. . they obviously had permission. They used the rings, they used the official Seoul emblems, the official Los Angeles emblems, and it felt like those Olympics did, like when they showed the LA crowd, it looked like the LA crowd.
When they showed the Seoul crowd, it looked like the Seoul stadium. So that I thought was very
[00:19:00] Jill: good. And they did a good recreation of the actual jumps in Seoul, They’ve got some clips on YouTube of him doing that final round and you’re like, wow, they really replicated those jumps
[00:19:14] Fran: very well.
Yeah, I read an article online before we started and it said that they painstakingly recreated that course. So it looked like it did.
[00:19:26] Alison: Thankfully it did not have the Tokyo obstacles. And the sumo wrestler
What would Choppa Loop have done with that
[00:19:34] Jill: and if we can go back to accuracy. What I’m curious about is the story of him deciding, okay, I’m gonna sell Shop Loop. We’re not working out, and the Americans want to buy him. Enter Donald Sutherland again. Then the sale falls through because the horse has
[00:19:55] Fran: he had a blood he had like
[00:19:56] Jill: a tick blood disease.
Mm-hmm. , wait, I wrote it
[00:19:58] Alison: down. It’s [00:20:00] EP is the abbreviation.
[00:20:01] Jill: Yes. Yes. So he’s living with EP and I, I did go off on a little tangent with what is this and. you know, it was enough to the Americans to go, yeah, we’re not buying this horse, and Pierre was just like, that’s not, not a big deal.
He’s
[00:20:17] Alison: living with it.
[00:20:18] Fran: Well, when you’re spending that kind of money, I guess the whole point is, you wanna have a clean, healthy animal because maybe, mm-hmm. , it’s not as cut and dry that he could live with. Moving forward,
[00:20:30] Alison: I made a very strange jump with that. I thought there was a problem bringing that horse into the United States because of that.
Once you know, a horse has that contamination, for lack of a better word, was there issues, but then he was allowed to go to Korea for the Olympics. So I don’t know if that was really true or if it is like Fran. If you’re gonna pay 400 K for a horse, you want imperfect.
[00:20:54] Jill: Right? Cause I thought that as well. I thought that traveling would be an issue.
And then I was like, well, but he went to Seoul, so that would be an issue. Anyway, I didn’t quite understand that. I think I, it also felt like, They needed a convenient out for him keeping the horse, and that just happened to fit whether or not it was true. I’d, I’d love to find out.
[00:21:16] Fran: I believe it was in my research he did have it.
Okay. Yep. And what I’ve read, he did have it. So, and that’s what made the Americans Wow. Decide not to purchase him. in light of the fact that he had it. The question really becomes, would Pierre have. stop the deal anyway and had a change of heart if he didn’t have that, escape route, I don’t know.
he said it himself, he was completely embarrassed and ashamed on, worldwide TVs, they, everybody showed how, miserably. He ended up, so he really was, in a place to continue moving forward with the sport. He was really ready to give it up. But you know, the really question was would he have continued if, the Americans didn’t give him an easy out?
It’s a good question.
[00:22:05] Alison: I thought it was very interesting when they were doing the scene with the press and Pierre was talking about how the press was just attacking him for all these losses and I was thinking to. You’re an equestrian. How much of a big deal is this? And then I found out that Chapo had a retirement
[00:22:27] Fran: party at the Eiffel Tower.
Oh yeah. He was a big deal. It was a big, big
[00:22:33] Alison: deal. So the story that they show of him just being vilified in the press was probably
[00:22:40] Fran: accurate. Yeah. I mean, I think, okay. Well, who was the retirement party at the Eiffel Tower? There was a statue of him at the Olympic Museum for a long time too, until they brought it back to Pierre’s home.
But yeah, it’s, being in the United States, you know, where we have so much emphasis on different sports, for us in the Olympics, you think in the Summer Olympics, you think track and field, you think swimming. , you think gymnastics, unfortunately the equestrian events kind of take a backseat, whereas I don’t know how they fall, you know, with Europeans.
I mean, Europe has had such a long history of equestrian events and people have been riding horses in Europe way longer than they’ve ever had in the Americas that we know of. So, you wonder how I. , the sport is to certain cultures. I mean, it, it sounded like it was a big deal to the French.
I mean, they did not like losing at all.
[00:23:36] Jill: Right? And when you look at the metal counts in Seoul France only won 16 medals, the whole games, and six of them were gold, and one of them was for bl. And then the US who finished third in the medal table, they got 94 medals, 36 of them gold. in our country, we’re so used to winning.
So I, I wonder if it’s a, we have a champion for once in a. and who knows how long, and we are just trying to rally all behind that champion.
[00:24:08] Alison: And it’s a perfect little horse, ,
[00:24:11] Fran: And Pierre too, he was such a flawed individual. He was so complex and flawed, yet you wanted a root for him. You wanted him to succeed, you know, he was likable enough that you wanted to see him do his best. , with his horse, where other characters, we’ve seen, you know, you could care less, you know how they do, but for him, I was like, come on man. Get with it. , find some communion with your whos, you have to bond with the wars so you can win.
[00:24:38] Alison: I wonder how many horses they used in the film, because I had, I didn’t notice. . Oh, that horse looks a little different. I mean, it was a very distinct
[00:24:49] Fran: looking horse.
Yes. And I just read an article before we went on and they used, I believe, five or six horses. They were all different breeds. So they were a little [00:25:00] concerned because they said they used a smaller horse that looked more like giallo for the more close shots.
But then they used a larger Andalusian horse in the jumping because the one that looked the most like Giallo was older. So they didn’t want to stress the horse too much. So I thought that was really interesting that they did use a couple of horses as jolo during the film. So spoiler alert, at the LA games, he has such a, rotten fall and does not place in the metal count.
So he goes back to Seoul and the team from France actually plays his third in the team equestrian jumping event, and then Pierre, and actually take the gold. For their last ride in the individual equestrian jumping event. And what I thought was very sweet and also true to life, was that after he received his medal, he did place it in the horses’ the strappings and had Jappeloup actually ro wear his gold medal as they trotted around the rink when they won.
[00:26:09] Jill: But can we talk about that last jump where , where he,
[00:26:13] Alison: where he had scaled the Grand Canyon across the jump
[00:26:18] Jill: with his arms in
[00:26:19] Alison: the air like.
[00:26:21] Jill: Done it and I had to watch the real race a couple of times. Like, huh, he’s not doing it there. . how would you let go of your horses
[00:26:31] Fran: reign? ,
he knew control that, he knew he had it when, The power of the thighs. Yeah. Really great thigh muscles. That’s where it’s at,
[00:26:40] Alison: That was probably the only schmaltzy moment that they really just leaned in.
[00:26:46] Fran: But yeah, actually overall, un fact. Go ahead. I looked up Pierre in another article, and him and Nadia are divorced.
[00:26:55] Alison: No.
[00:26:57] Fran: And then I was trying to find some information on Nadia and I, and she really didn’t come up on online, so, and Lisa was indeed their child. They only had one child. So I wonder what happened.
but we, we do know what happened to . three
[00:27:16] Alison: months after he retired to the farm,
[00:27:20] Fran: he had a heart attack and died. Yeah. at 16, yeah,
[00:27:25] Alison: so that was a little sad. He didn’t get a very long retirement.
[00:27:28] Fran: No, I don’t know. They left that part out to sire Moore horses. They don’t really say in any of the articles that I read, I would assume that they would’ve just to continue that good jumping line.
I don’t know if they had a
[00:27:42] Alison: chance, if he was only retired for three months.
[00:27:44] Fran: True. I don’t know how many
[00:27:46] Alison: stud options he had. . And also he wasn’t genetically, he should not have been as good a horse as he was, and that was what they were saying so often. his temperament was not good. His size was too small.
Mm-hmm. , there was so much about this horse that was wrong, and yet there he was with the gold medal. So I don’t know how I, again, I’m not a horse person, so horse people, correct me, but would he have been in demand as a.
[00:28:14] Fran: you would think just from the medal, all the medals, all the success he had, that somebody would’ve said, you know what, we wanna put him to stud.
[00:28:23] Jill: the tough thing about doing a language or a French movie is that it’s harder to do the research because probably so much of it is in French and so much of the articles that would’ve talked about him or in French and that it’s just a tough to
[00:28:37] Fran: find.
Oh, another a fun fact is that Guim Cane actually started horse jumping again after the film. Oh. Nice. So he actually went back into competitive horse jumping. I don’t know how long he did, but he actually went back and tried his hand at it again. So I thought that was kind of interesting too.
[00:28:58] Alison: it’s a nice movie filled with tropes. You know what’s going to happen when you sit down and start, and I did not.
[00:29:06] Fran: I really, really enjoyed it. No, it was a pleasure to watch from start to finish. It really was. I mean, and some people may say, oh, well it’s a foreign film and you have to rely on subtitles, but it didn’t feel difficult to watch.
It just was a very enjoyable film, and who doesn’t love a winner?
[00:29:25] Alison: Exactly.
[00:29:27] Jill: Exactly. I would agree on both of those counts but the way they put the movie together isn’t heavy handed. No.
And, and that I think made they, they just got the right touch with it. All right, Fran, thank you so much. What’s on tap for our next movie?
[00:29:44] Fran: So our next movie is called Zero to Hero and . It is about the first para Olympian from Hong Kong to win a gold medal in track and field.
So I look forward to watching that as well.
[00:29:59] Jill: Excellent. [00:30:00] Thank you so much Fran. We’ll see you next time. Great.
[00:30:02] Fran: Sounds good.
[00:30:03] Jill: Thank you, Fran. Our movie club featuring Zero to Hero will be later in the spring.
History Moment: Seoul 1988
[00:30:14] Jill: That sound means it is time for our history moment all year long. We are featuring soul in 1988, as it is the 35th anniversary of those games. My turn for a story and because we did I wanted to stay in the world of equestrian and I wanted to talk a little bit about the dressage competition. and West Germany was the defending champions. They weren’t at Moscow 1980, but they had one gold in 1976. So they are kind of a powerhouse team in the making. Maybe we’ll find out, but leading the team is the veteran. Writer, Reiner Klim, who is in his sixth Olympics.
He started competing in 1960 when he competed in the inventing competition in Rome. He switched to Dage which is actually how he got his career start in the sport, and he did dage for 64, 68, and 76. There’s a little gap in there, and I’m not quite sure why, but this is one of those careers that is, so long lasting.
It’s amazing. at LA in 1984, he rode the horse helic. They won double gold and they were hoping to repeat in 1988. at Seoul they had a new competition format. The Grand Prix was shortened to seven minutes, which made the PF and pass elements more important. and the top 18 and anybody who tied them advanced to the final round.
But there was a stipulation that countries could only have three writers in the final. So Reiner kka placed seventh in qualifying, but he was the fourth rank. Oh, Reiner German. So no finals for him? No repeat for him in the individual competition. who rose to the top that would be. 21 year old, first time Olympian, Nicola Upk.
She was riding the horse of Rembrandt, which was her very own horse. Much like Shop Lube. I mean, we have a lot of in interesting horses in this competition. Rembrandt was a gelding who was a handful, and he was very unpredictable. He would either win or he would come in last place.
So the family thought about selling. Much like the movie situation. she did hang on to him. He started grand Prix level events in 1987. Oh. So brand new brand new here. Got a first place on this first one. This is my kind of horse. also might be your kind of horse because, well, not because he was tough to deal with cuz you were not tough to deal with.
But he would only practice when he was relaxed. and that made team prep difficult because other people on Team West Germany didn’t understand her situation. So
[00:33:03] Alison: Rembrandt had a little bit of a, so a personality
[00:33:06] Jill: Exactly. So the other teammates didn’t understand what was going on. Got upset with her. She got angry, almost left soul, but her friend, Rener Kka persuaded her to stay. Oh, he was kind of
[00:33:22] Alison: fatherly with her, wasn’t he? Oh, I like that. Mm-hmm. . Exactly.
[00:33:27] Jill: At Seoul, , Rembrandt, became a sensation.
He wasn’t perfect, but he showed himself impressively and Uff handled him really well, so well that they didn’t look like he, they were working. And Rembrandt truly danced in a way that no horse had ever done before. I know, I see this look on your face. I wish, I wish the listeners could see it because it reminds me of Tokyo, where you just fell in love with
[00:33:51] Alison: this house.
I did. I, beautiful, beautiful. And just, you know, it is really beautiful and that, his name is Rembrandt and he was particularly beautiful. it is like a movie. Why haven’t we made this movie? We mean more horse movie movies apparently.
[00:34:05] Jill: So up wins the individual gold in the team competition.
We also have a new format, four writers, but only the top three count towards the final score up gets the best score on the team, followed by Monica Teo Zku on edis and on Karin Linhof. On Karaage clamp’s score is the one that’s draft, yes, but he
[00:34:26] Alison: was still the most important person there because he seems to have kept the team cohesion going.
[00:34:31] Jill: Yes, I would agree. The team wins the total event. has double gold. Her victory starts at dominance by field dressage writers in the sport. And even with that, she in Rembrandt sets new standards in the sport that no one can touch. They are just amazing and captivate audiences and judges for years to come.
They went on to repeat double gold at Barcelona 1992. They did compete at [00:35:00] Atlanta 96, but he was really on the decline. Then. After the preliminaries. He was in eighth place and he did not pass the inspection. So decided to retire from competition. Rebrand. The horse retired later that year and passed away in 2001.
we cannot underestimate what a popular and extraordinary horse Rembrandt was according, especially like when he died, just the accolades kept pouring in.
Much like for Shop Loop people were just enthralled with this horse. F e I, judge Nick Williams judged them both at Soul and Barcelona, at the Olympics, and both times he gave them a perfect. . And when Rembrandt died, he said in horse and hound quote, I have had the privilege to judge many great horses, but Rembrandt was a special horse and an exhilarating horse to judge as he epitomized in Pulsion with absolute lightness.
Within two strides, he was in maximum extension and in within two strides in maximum collection with lightness. But you can never see Nicola doing anything. They had an amazing telepathic. that soul was really the start of the West German team or, and that which became the German team really dominating the sport since 1988.
The only time Germany has not won gold in this event was in 2012 when they were upset by team gb.
TKFLASTAN Update
[00:36:24] Alison: Welcome to
[00:36:34] Jill: it is the time of the show where we check in with our Team, Keep the Flame Alive. These are past guests of the show who make up our citizenship of . What’s going on in this week?
[00:36:46] Alison: So rifle shooter, Tim Sherry competed in Austria at the Maiden Cup, had the second and third highest scores in qualifying and finished the finals in fourth and fifth place.
He went on to Germany for the H and N Cup, a little bit of a tougher time there, but he adjusted his warmup for the Mix team event, which helped him start the match better and finished less than a point out of the finals. And he is very happy with the start of his competitive season.
[00:37:13] Jill: Yay, wheelchair curler.
Steve Empt was named to Team U S A for the World Championships, which take place in Richmond, British Columbia. March 4th through the 12th,
[00:37:23] Alison: Ryan Shane won bronze in the relay at the ISU Junior Short Track World Championships, and he’ll be ke competing at the Senior World Cup event in Dresden, Germany.
This.
[00:37:35] Jill: Also competing this weekend are VO Beach volleyball player Kelly Chang and partner Sarah Hughes. They will be at the Doha Elite 16 Beach volleyball event,
[00:37:44] Alison: and we’ve got some listener updates as well. Listener Manu has been at the European figure skating champs and posting some great video footage on our Facebook group.
[00:37:54] Jill: Listener Dan went to the Winter University ed games in Lake Placid,
[00:37:59] Alison: and listener Meredith has been glued to the US figure skating champs this year and next year has noted that they’ll be in Columbus, Ohio. this could mean a meetup. So keep an eye on the Facebook group for information on.
[00:38:14] Jill: Super fan. Sarah and her son went to a team u s a sled hockey exhibition in Dallas.
[00:38:20] Alison: Did we get him on the sled and just with, and had him laughing the whole
[00:38:24] Jill: time? Oh my gosh. He was waving and waving to all the athletes, but I would love to see him on a sled. I bet he would just love tooling around on the thing with the sticks
[00:38:35] Alison: and listener, Nick, who worked making.
Floats at Rose Bowl, spotted our Shk Fasani John Neighbors while decorating the Rose Bowl Tournament of Rose’s Parade Float.
[00:38:49] Jill: So if you do anything sports related, let us know. Wear your, keep the Flame Alive shirt and snap pictures and share them with us. You can post them in our Facebook group or tag us on instant Twitter.
You can also email them to us and we will possibly share them on the show and in our newsletter.
[00:39:05] Alison: So the tag is Flame Alive Pod and the Facebook group is Keep The Flame Alive Podcast, group.
Paris 2024 News
[00:39:12] Jill: All right. The sign up for the first round of the Paris 2024 ticket lottery has ended. The organizing committee President Tony Esten Gay has announced that over 2.5 million people have signed up for this, and results from the lottery will be announced in mid-February. 3 million of the 10 million tickets will be available in this first round, and because, Going to get a three pack.
Obviously not all 2.5 million will get to get tickets in this round. There’s still more chances, so don’t worry if you do. But if you do get in the the round, let us know cuz we’ll be very excited for anybody who gets tickets in this first round.
[00:39:59] Alison: [00:40:00] And speaking of buying your tickets, the organizing committee has launched a partnership with the charity Siho Popa, and it encourages ticket buyers to donate an additional two Euros, which will be used to pay for tickets and travel expenses for families, young people, senior citizens, and people with disabilities who could not otherwise afford to go to the competition.
So if you’re selected in the first round, there’ll be a little option to add two euros to your purchase. .
[00:40:29] Jill: I love this concept, but as we have talked offline, we don’t love the idea that this concept is being funded for by o other attendees, and that the organizing committee is not making a donation for this.
[00:40:41] Alison: Right. Just. Donate the tickets. Oh no. You pay for them for other people, which I guess, you know, they gotta make their money somehow and then you can feel good about having donated your
[00:40:52] Jill: money. There you go. And hopefully, I mean, the thing is that it does provide opportunities for people to go who would not normally be able to go to the games and you never know what could happen.
We were at Pod Fest and one of the speakers there, grew up in the projects in Brooklyn and then somehow got introduced to table tennis. and became a very competitive table tennis player. So it opens doors for people. Also exciting, the paralympic schedule is out, so they’re gonna be lots of finals in the evening on France time.
So swimming, bacha, gold ball, blind football will all have their finals in the evening, which for Europe will also be great cuz you’re on prime time and probably a good chunk of Africa too. , they’ll be in the same time zone. the US we’re looking at what
[00:41:38] Alison: afternoon, late morning, which is not bad.
No. I mean, it’s better than what we were dealing with with China and Tokyo. When you and I were up at three o’clock in the morning, right. Sorry, Australia. It’s our turn this time,
[00:41:51] Jill: right? the last day of competition is also going to feature mainly women’s events, so that will be really exciting. They’ll use it as a way to celebrate female athletes.
Tickets will go on sale this fall prices are going to be as low as 15 euros, so we will have a link to the schedule in the show notes.
LA 2028 News
[00:42:10] Jill: Also exciting Paralympic news for LA 2028. They have selected the sports for the Paralympic program. It’s going to be all the sports that are going to be at Paris, and then the host has the option of adding para climbing or para surfing if they want.
and maybe both. We’ll find
[00:42:28] Alison: out. Yeah. When I was looking at the schedule, I was thinking, what’s different ? And it really wasn’t very different, which I guess is nice that these sports have become established enough that we have this consistency in the program.
[00:42:42] Jill: but also it seems like they’re getting into the host city is allowed to, Add a few sports if they want to. It’s just that the I p C has narrowed down the ones for them. If they took both para climbing and para surfing, it would have a 24 sport program, 33 sports applied to be at LA 2028. So it’s exciting that there’s so much activity in the parasport world.
it’ll be interesting to see how that program expands, especially with trying to keep athlete numbers not at bay, but trying not to make it be such a huge event. But I think the, the summer games probably still has a lot of room to grow
[00:43:19] Alison: and all the classification changes cuz they’re coming out with a new, a whole new classification system for la So this is gonna be fun to keep
[00:43:26] Jill: an eye.
And that will do it for this week. Let us know what you thought of
[00:43:31] Alison: JLo. You can email us at flame alive pod gmail.com. Call or text us at (208) 352-6348. That’s 2 0 8. Flame it. Our social handle is at Flame Alive Pod. And be sure to join the Keep the Flame Alive Podcast Group on Facebook and if you wanna hear more from me, be sure to.
Be sure to sign up for our weekly newsletter, which is filled with other fun stories about this week’s episode. You can sign up@flamelivepod.com and
[00:44:07] Jill: if you don’t get that newsletter, get it cuz it’s always entertaining. I never know what’s in it and I get excited every time it shows up every week. All right, next week.
I’m so excited about this. I mean, I know I’m excited about every interview, but this was one where we had no idea this existed and it’s. Incredible to topic to talk about. We’re talking with anti-corruption lawyer Andy Spalding, about the efforts being made to get corruption out of hosting the games.
Fascinating conversation. Be sure to join us for that next week. Thank you so much for listening, and until next time, keep the flame alive.