Olympians and Paralympians talk about the post-Olympic blues–and they’re real. Both Alison and Jill are experiencing some malaise post-Paris 2024, and they share what they’re doing to combat it–you’ll have to figure out whether Alison is being a 90-year-old or not, and you can do so while listening to our Paris 2024 playlist.
Another way to combat it is to talk with someone who’s been there. We’re excited to welcome para cyclist Samantha Bosco back onto the show. Samantha competed in both para track and road cycling at Paris–and made her Paralympic return after a horrific crash ahead of the Tokyo 2020 Games. We both saw her compete in track, which was a lot of fun, but she was really aiming for the time trial, which was her event. She got the bronze at Rio 2016, and this time around, she got the gold medal. We talked with her at the end of September, just when she’d gotten home from Paris. She tells us all about her gold-medal race, plus what it was like to have to compete at a world championships not long after the Games.
You can learn more about Samantha at her website and follow her on YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram. Also check out her lightning round with us!
In Paris 2024 news, the French economy improved, in part due to the Olympics, but the bills are starting to come in the Opening Ceremonies, and let’s just say they’re not small. RFI reports that the initial costs (not including the massive amount of security that was at the event) are €100 million. Le Monde notes that total public spending (not total spending) on the Games has gone from the initial €1.47 billion to at least €2.8 billion. Not that this should be a surprise–the cost of the Games is always way higher than anticipated (though when we saw the amount of support that media got, we thought that they were being budget-minded. Turns out, no).
In other Opening Ceremony news, seven people aged 22 to 79 have been charged with cyberbullying Ceremonies director Thomas Jolly, per Le Monde and AP. The accused could face some pretty heavy penalties if found guilty.
One institution that’s also done well in the Paris 2024 department is the Olympic Museum. We’ve got a rundown of some of the 200-plus artifacts they got from athletes and organizers. How they got them is worth a read.
In our visit to TKFLASTAN, we hear from Team Keep the Flame Alive members:
- Sled hockey player Monica Quimby
- Author Warren Perrin
- Artistic swimmer Jacqueline Simoneau
- Curler John Shuster
We’ll be at Olympin in Atlanta next week, November 8-10! The show is free, so come out and see us and some of the pin collectors who have been on the show! Find out more about location and hours here.
Special thanks to our Patron of the Week Lorry Luscri, who keeps our flame alive with financial support throughout the year. If you’d like to support the show, please check out all of the options here.
Thank you so much for listening–and until next time, keep the flame alive.
TRANSCRIPT
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365-Paris 2024 Paralympic Gold Medalist Samantha Bosco
Theme Music
Jill Jaracz: 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 Brown: Hello. So you posted a very lovely Spotify playlist for songs that we heard in Paris. So I was listening to it. And looking through pictures, like some 90 year old woman reliving her heyday. It was like
Jill Jaracz: three months ago. I know, but I was like, oh, that was a fun day. I remember that so well.
Well, it helps combat the blues, because we’ve talked with people about the blues you get. I kind of have the blues right now.
Alison Brown: It’s true. And, and of course now we’re getting into, seasonal affective disorder season. We’re about to have the time change here in the United States. So it’s about to get dark at five o’clock.
So we definitely need to reminisce about happier, brighter days.
Jill Jaracz: Right? And we’re coming up on a non Olympic year, even though there will be Olympic prep for 2026, since that happens early in 26. But boy, I’m really feeling it. I’ve been watching some Peacock. Replays. We’ll tell you what. See,
Alison Brown: that’s a little more normal than sitting there looking at the pictures, listening to music.
Jill Jaracz: Oh, I don’t think so. I mean, to each their own. You celebrate. You celebrate and reminisce in different ways.
Alison Brown: I was glad nobody saw me doing this, because then I’d be like, Oh, get out of here, you little whippersnapper. Let me enjoy my memories.
Jill Jaracz: Well, I’ve been putting some more memories on Patreon. So thank you to our patrons, who support the show financially through our Patreon account.
That’s patreon. com slash flame alive pod. The members at the 5 a month up and up. Get a special bonus content. And during Paris, they got a bunch, they got a daily pitcher and they got audio content and maybe video content when I could do it. And then I had a backlog and now I’m working my way through the backlog to help you fight your Paris 2024 blues.
Yes. So I have a little audio postcard from swimming that went up yesterday. We’re going to have some, volleyball. Audio content, which I have been watching the women’s Olympic gold medal match. Oh my gosh. Because I wanted to hear if you could hear on TV, how much fun it was in the volleyball venue and you kind of, but not exactly, it wasn’t quite the same.
Boy, did Italy dominate that game and it wasn’t that the U S played badly.
Alison Brown: Italy was so, so good. I mean, we saw a bunch of different, games and matches and things where it wasn’t that the silver medalist lost. It was just the gold medalist won.
Jill Jaracz: Yes, and that was the case here, but boy, man, it was, uh, I believe Italy’s 1st volleyball medal and as a country, both men and women and the women were the 1st to bring something home.
And if it wasn’t their 1st medal, it was definitely their 1st gold. boy, what a team can’t wait to see what they do in 2028. but also back to Patreon patrons.
Patron of the Week
Jill Jaracz: We would particularly like to thank. Lorry Luscry, who, uh, this is the time of the year when we give a shout out to our Golden Committee member level patrons.
We’ll be celebrating a new patron every week for a while. So Lorry is our patron of the week this week. Thank you so much, Lorry, for all that you do. Lorry, uh,
Alison Brown: Lorry’s a special friend. She emails us. She’s very active in the Facebook group. So it’s like, Oh, we got a note from Lorry. Yes.
Jill Jaracz: Loves basketball. So I get to keep up on my basketball stuff by, following her.
So thank you so much, Lorry, for all that you’ve done for the show and for being one of our Shooklastanis and patrons. We couldn’t do the show without you.
Samantha Bosco Interview
Jill Jaracz: Today, we are excited to have back para cyclist Samantha Bosco on the show. Samantha competed in both para track and road cycling at Paris and made her Paralympic return after a horrific crash ahead of Tokyo 2020, which if you remember when we talked to her before Paris, she told us all about that.
And that was just amazing that she has made the comeback that she has. We both saw her compete in track cycling. Okay. Results. Congratulations, Samantha. But she was really looking forward to the time trial, which was her event, and she got the gold medal that she had been working for, for years and years.
Thrilled. We talked with her at the end of December. We talked with her at the end of September, just when she’d gotten home from Paris, like the day before.
Alison Brown: Because she had, she had world championships right after. So she stayed in Europe.
Jill Jaracz: Yes. So she told us all about a gold medal race, plus what happened after the competition.
Take a listen.
Jill: Samantha Bosco, welcome back and congratulations. so much. Oh my gosh. It was so much fun to see you make the podium, not in person because it was really hard to get to the road race, but we’ll get to that.
Samantha Bosco: Okay. Yes. Yes. Thank you very much. It was very fun to stand on top of the podium. Yeah. Very surreal moment for me.
Jill: Did you like having track first in the schedule? Cause you did a lot of stuff in the Paralympics.
Samantha Bosco: I want to say yes. Yeah. But I feel like there’s a percentage of me that’s like, Mm, no.
Alison: And also another percentage of me that wonders why I even touched the track this year.
Samantha Bosco: Because the focus was the time trial, right?
So it was a long time to wait and anticipate and stay focused on the time trial, especially when there was the focus that needed to be put on the track. And also the team camp. in Mallorca that led up to going to Paris in the first place.
Alison: So what was that schedule like in terms of where you were when?
Samantha Bosco: Yes, so I left August 16th for team prep camp in Mallorca, and then we transferred to Paris on the 23rd, started racing on the 29th, and then the time trial was September 4th, which I guess was the Three weeks, but felt like three months.
Jill: you’re in Mallorca. How much of the Island did you bike around?
Did they just say, go on bike the whole thing?
Samantha Bosco: Yeah, I wish we spent a lot of time on the, on the track there, to get prepared for the track races in Paris. So there were a few days that I got to go for a longer ride. Around the island, but I didn’t get to explore it as much as I would have liked. It was my first time there, and I didn’t really know what to expect, and I loved everything about it.
I love the warmth, the roads, the people, the food. So it would have been nice to get to explore it a little bit more, but we also had to focus on getting track sessions in and getting prepared for the track races in Paris.
Alison: So it’s a good thing you like warmth because holy cannoli that velodrome is hot.
Samantha Bosco: That velodrome was real hot.
Alison: Okay, so is was that atypical?
Samantha Bosco: No, for big events they try to warm up the velodrome and keep it optimal for fast times and fun races to watch. So you’re ready for the heat because you know that it is going to be hotter come race day, but when you’re not training in that heat.
Leading up to it. It definitely feels hotter than it needs to be. Yeah, but it was very hot for a lot of people in the stands. I know because everybody there that was watching that I knew commented about the heat of the velodrome for sure.
Jill: How do you feel about the track side of the, of your schedule? Cause we, we, both of us talked to you after track races.
Samantha Bosco: I mean, it felt as good as I could have. I, my focus. for the games and for this year. And really, I guess for the last three years, gosh, eight years, maybe was the time trial. It’s always been the time trial.
That’s always been my number one event, the one that I love the most. So I felt good about the schedule because I liked that it was the first two days of competition. And then I could focus on the time trial solely. And I liked that the 500 was first because it’s not my, a race on the track. Yeah. So it was a good way to experience the first day of competition and experience a packed velodrome.
Cause we don’t typically get a pack velodrome and honestly a good way to get the race day jitters out so that I wasn’t as nervous for the 3k individual pursuit the next day. And then I liked that I could have basically an opening day to prepare for the race. That was the focus for the track portion for me.
Alison: How was that switch in terms of, okay, now you’re done with the velodrome. You’ve got a few days. did you move or were you still in the village?
Samantha Bosco: We were still in the village. Yeah.
Alison: And how the heck did you get out there? Cause we couldn’t get out there that they just bust you out.
Samantha Bosco: Yeah. And it was crazy because the day we had official training for the course, the day that it was closed so that we could actually ride it. Like we were racing the time trial, at least. We had got on the bus thinking, you know, it might be up to an hour to get out there because you don’t know how to get to the venue when all the roads are closed.
But we ended up getting a police escort and it was so legitimate. I think five of us recorded portions of it because there were at least three motos and couple cars. And so we got on the freeway even and the lane that we were supposed to be in was blocked. So the police literally stopped traffic so that the bus could go all the way from the right side of the freeway to the left side so that we could have a clear lane.
And they’re honking and getting cars to move. They’re even getting cars to move once we got closer to the actual venue and getting us through red lights. The work. So we got there in like 30 35 minutes. It was incredible. I wish I could have that kind of escort all the time. We didn’t have it on race day, unfortunately, but at least the bus driver knew where to go for the time trial.
The one for the road race took us on a little bit of a scenic route, but eventually we got there. you weren’t sure how long it was going to take to get there, but you also were prepared that it could take anywhere from 35 minutes to an hour and five minutes. So it was a little bit interesting to navigate, but also gave you time to like, wake up, think through how you were planning to warm up, how you were planning to execute the race and kind of be in that headspace once you got to the venue so that you could be ready to show up for the race itself.
Alison: Well, they couldn’t start without you because you had all the, they
Samantha Bosco: could,
Alison: they could, but they had half the athletes on the bus, right?
Samantha Bosco: Gosh. Yeah. Yeah, and you know, it kind of gives you pause, because like, I’ve heard stories about people getting stuck in elevators and missing their competition in Rio, and like, just weird things happening.
I think somebody might have even missed a competition because of the bus in Paris. But we kind of planned accordingly, and we actually ended up getting on earlier buses than even our staff told us to get on, just to not be nervous about missing an event. So like I think one day we were there three hours early.
Which is better than missing the start. So I’ll take it.
Jill: How did that compare to the trip to the velodrome? Because that was in the opposite side of the city slash burbs.
Samantha Bosco: I think where the village was situated worked out for both venues because it took roughly the same amount of time to get to. the velodrome that it did to get to the road race.
I think the velodrome was easier because most of it was freeway. So we had the dedicated lanes, whereas the road race, once you got into town, it was a little bit more difficult to navigate and a lot more lights on that main street. So I think from a transportation standpoint, it was easier to get to the velodrome.
But both options, both routes and options had scenery that you could look at and ways to like, forget that you were on a bus for 35 minutes. So it wasn’t terrible. I think Rio was a little bit easier because you could ride to at, to the, at least to the road stop. Actually, you could ride to both, because they were slightly in opposite directions, but they were close enough that you could ride.
And like the time trial and road race courses in Paris you could ride to, it would just take longer. So we never did.
Alison: Let’s talk about time trial day because that’s the best day of all. What did that look like for you? How did it start beside your bus ride? What does that prep of Paralympic Day look like?
Samantha Bosco: Gosh, it feels like it’s been forever ago now. I know. Struggling to remember. I was nervous leading into the time trial.
Obviously, it was like the biggest race of my career. And something that I had been looking forward to with anticipation and a little bit of anxiety for years at this point. So waking up, the first thing that I focused on was just making sure I could have food because waking up that early and that nervous, it’s hard to eat.
It’s almost like you feel like you’re waking up for a 4 a. m. flight and you just have that like, oh, I just woke up. I feel nauseous. I don’t really want food or anything. But then you have to race, so then you also have to make sure that you’re getting enough food in and you can actually do the race. So the focus was that, and I feel very proud of myself because I was able to eat and didn’t have like that nervous like, I can’t really eat this food, so let me eat my adult baby food, I call it, which is basically just mashed up fruit and vegetables.
But like, you do what you gotta do, right?
Jill: How early are we talking that you have to get up?
Samantha Bosco: Our shuttle that day was 5 30. So we got up pretty early that day. I think I set my alarm for 445 because I didn’t want to get up any earlier because I didn’t want it to feel weird. Like I was traveling and that I would have like the nauseous feeling and I wanted to make sure I got a good amount of sleep.
So I went to bed even earlier the night before, but you do all of these things to try to be your best on the start line. And we had early mornings for both the time trial and the road race. And with the bus shuttles. We had to also make sure that we got there with ample time. And for me, I like to get to the venue at least two hours before the start of my time trial so that I could get there, have my stuff in a certain spot and get into the mode of warm up and here for racing.
Because you kind of try to do that when you wake up, but getting to the venue is one thing. Cause you have a little bit of stress of like, am I going to get there with enough time to do my warmup and be ready? So then once you get to the venue, you kind of have a moment of like, okay, I can catch my breath.
So we got to the venue and I did all my stretches and activation before the warmup, did my set warmup. I have a set warmup for every race that I do the same each and every time, or at least try to, because sometimes you have to be a little bit more flexible because you might not have enough time to do the full thing.
So you kind of have to shorten it a little bit or you might have so much time that you’re Waiting around then you forget to start on time. Start your warm up on time anyways. but yeah, I think as nervous as I was there was also a sense of confidence so I was able to eat the food, have all the electrolytes and stuff I wanted at the times I wanted, do the full warm up and get to the start line.
ready to go. And it was really cool because once I got to the start line, I could see Andrew, my parents and my friends there. And it was just really fun to have that experience. So it also calmed me down so that I could focus on doing the race as best I could.
Alison: As the race is going on, how aware are you of how well you’re doing?
Samantha Bosco: Oh, I have a follow car. So I was able to get a sense of where I was at the intermediate time check, which was before all the hard parts of the course really truly started. so I kind of went into the race knowing that the hard parts were later in the course. So I didn’t want to go out too hot because I also know that when I have that energy of like, Oh, we’re here to race.
This is a big race. Let’s go for it. I can go out too hard. And then not do so well towards the end if I’ve gone out too fast. So I got to the intermediate checkpoint and heard that I was down by three seconds and promptly thought to myself, okay, let’s go, we have to do this now, like kick it into overgear.
So I just focused at that point on just executing the next part of the course as best I could, because I knew that there were certain, certain checkpoints that I had to hit personally. To feel confident, but also at the same time, like I’m racing this race as best I can and giving it as much as I can, that I can’t do any more than what I’ve done, if that makes sense.
Alison: Absolutely. How long did you have to sit around before, where were you in the, in the lineup?
Samantha Bosco: I started a minute ahead of the person that was first at that intermediate checkpoint. Okay. So I had to wait for at least a minute and I crossed the line and I turned the corner and I lay down on the ground and I was just like, how long does a minute take in my head?
Just thinking like, I just need to know. And it felt like it was 15 seconds and it felt like it was forever at the same time when my high performance director came over and was like, you won, you got it. And I just like cheered on the road. Cause I couldn’t get up. And then I hugged everybody and then I was like, I need to find my husband.
Yeah. So I, I mean, it was a minute because we were a minute apart, so I at least had to wait to see what that was. But everybody seemed to know the second that she turned the last corner because they knew the distance that she had to cover and they knew what the gap was and they knew that she wasn’t going to get there within the gap that she needed to.
So. They kind of started to celebrate a little bit early and then it was even so much so that like I found out later that Our Swanee looked at our high performance director when he told me and was just like you better be right You better not like this. This isn’t official yet. Is this official like she had that moment of like This better be official.
Don’t tell her this without it being true because, oh my God, you’ll devastate the crap out of her. Thankfully it was true.
Alison: Yeah. Whenever it’s those races where you have to wait for other people to finish when do you celebrate, you know, you got to wait for everybody else.
Samantha Bosco: Oh yeah, exactly.
And it was kind of, it was bummer because like, I didn’t get that chance to like have that celebration with the flag behind me. Because at the point that I knew that I won, like at that point, I’m just thinking I just want to see my family. I just want to give hugs. And I’m bawling, and of course, oh my gosh, the photos.
I mean, I’m not a good crier for photos. I’m not very photogenic with alligator tears, but it is what it is. I just wanted to find everybody and celebrate and cry, and we were all crying and hugging, and oh, it was great. It was so great. That was, that Is more than any photo of, like, having the flag behind you.
Cause, like, the flag behind you is an iconic photo. Everybody wants that photo, right? But, getting to see Andrew, and run up, and give him a hug, and have him pick me up, and spin me around, and cry, and see my mom, and my dad, and my friends, and they’re all crying, and having a good time, just That just made the gold feel 10 times better.
Alison: Well, Jill and I had a little celebration ourselves. We were at different venues and it came through and I can’t remember if I texted her and she texted me, but we both were just like trying to be respectful at the events we were at, but we were just like, have a little Samantha party.
Samantha Bosco: I love it. I love it.
And I, I kind of heard that in the recap podcast and I just smiled from ear to ear. Just like, Feeling like I was celebrating with you girls at the same time.
Jill: Good.
Samantha Bosco: Great. Yeah.
Jill: So were your husband and family able to get from the start to the finish in order to see you finish?
Samantha Bosco: Yeah. Cause we started at, we started and finished at the same spot.
Our start line was slightly in front of the finish. So yeah, they were there, for the start. And then they went a little further. In front of the finish line to try to cheer. I think my mom was at the last corner, like right after the last corner to cheer, because she said there was more time for me to go faster.
Andrew and my dad were a little closer to the finish line. So they got to celebrate because they could also see the last turn. So they knew when the other competitors came through what the gaps were and if they could finish in front of me or not. So they celebrated, they celebrated early too.
They were hugging each other and crying before I even knew.
Alison: So now probably best, best moments, certainly of your career. And now you just have to put it aside and go race again.
Samantha Bosco: Oh, my gosh. Yes. Yeah.
Alison: How does that work mentally? How does that work physically in terms of what you have to do that day?
Samantha Bosco: Oh, it didn’t.
I mean, you kind of go into every race, especially at the games, knowing that there’s other races. So you kind of have the celebration and then the decompression and then you have to pick it back up for the race. And like, thankfully, the schedule matched what we typically do at World Cups and World Championships.
So I was ready in that sense, because my body knew what to do from muscle memory and mental memory. but gosh, I think I didn’t even realize how much stress and mental preparation I had put in for the time trial until it happened, because there was so much relief and release of energy that I think it took a little bit more focus to be ready for the road race.
Because it was just like, okay, I did what I came here to do. Like I achieved what I wanted. My biggest goal of the year. Oh, we have another race. Okay. And so I kind of went into the road race, like no pressure, no expectations, just have fun riding bikes and do what I can and whatever the results are or what they are.
And I just get to enjoy myself because it’s their last race of the competition. So that’s exactly what I did.
Alison: And that road race ended up being kind of wild. The weather was crummy. And then you had this little breakaway and breakaway. So let’s, let’s talk through that race a little bit. Cause that was wild.
Samantha Bosco: Yeah. So I didn’t expect to be in a breakaway that day, but I just kind of had a feeling that I was just gonna play it by ear and just race with my instincts more than anything and just ride bikes. The weather was a little cold. It looked like it could rain, looked like it couldn’t rain, so you weren’t 100 percent sure what was going to happen.
And
the way the course was designed, there were a couple spots where you could kind of take both sides of the road, but there was either a median in the road or you had to go around. so you just kind of fight for position in the pack to have a good spot before the more technical portions of the race.
And there was one section where we were coming up to a roundabout and everybody wanted one person’s wheel and they were fighting for it and I found myself not in the best position I wanted to be in. So I went around the roundabout on the opposite side of everybody else and was able to move up, which turned out to be great because I could see Sarah’s story starting for a breakaway.
And knew I had to get in front of people that weren’t turning as well as I would like them to because it causes a little bit more of a gap which makes it a little bit difficult to stay connected if people start to lose wheels. And so we went around this roundabout as we’re going downhill and then there was a left turn and then a right turn that you could take a and Sarah started to have a gap between those turns and capitalized on it. And there was a breakaway that happened with her and Heidi from France. And I just knew the second I saw a gap from those two to the rest of the group, that that was the break. And I did everything I could to get on a wheel and I brought another competitor with us.
So there was a break of four and it just, the gap between us and the group just kept growing. Along with my excitement of the fact that I made the break and there was potential that I could get on the podium so much so that I had to stop myself. Like, okay, Sam, race your bike now. So I was just like, oh my God, I made the break.
I made the break. This is great.
And so the rest of the race was just like trying to stay in the break. and trying to make my legs cooperate because I definitely dug deep in the time trial and my legs were more tired than I anticipated them being for that race.
Jill: in the finish of that, you were a little, like two seconds over podium. Does that gap feel huge? Oh yeah. I mean, when you’re looking at it on the road.
Samantha Bosco: Oh yeah. and like the way everybody else was riding, On certain parts of the course, like you could tell how it was going to go and then you think in your head, like if this happens, then I’ll do this, or if that happens, then I can do that.
And none of the things that I was thinking worked out, but I knew that an attack was coming on the bigger climb of the course with yeah, on The last second, the last lap, and I just couldn’t hold wheels. My legs were just done at that point and I did everything I could.
And I fought like heck to get up to the rest of them by the top of the climb and I couldn’t do it. And then I was just holding pace, hoping and thinking maybe if somebody else gets dropped, there’s potential for a bronze, so let’s keep going. But then by the time the last lap happened and the gap was so severe that I knew there was no catching back up.
I just. then focused on just getting to the finish line and getting fourth. So by the time we came to the last climb, I asked my coach, who was on the side of the road, what the gap was. like, Oh, it’s fine. You got like, no worries about it. So then I just ended up celebrating with everybody that was there and high fiving all the students that came out and the kids that were watching and had a good time finishing up the race by just enjoying the moment.
Alison: But your party wasn’t over.
Samantha Bosco: Oh, no.
Alison: Because you were movie star in the L. A. handover film.
Samantha Bosco: I was.
Alison: How did that come to be?
Samantha Bosco: Oh, man. I mean, I like to think it’s because I’m famous, but I’m actually part of the L. A. 28 Athletes Commission and also friends with Janet, who’s on the board for L. A. 28. and got a text message from her saying, Hey, we’re working on this cool project.
Want to know if you’re interested, can’t really tell you much else, but we think it’s really cool. Would you like to be a part of it? And I said yes, because I like saying yes more than I like saying no. And like anything with LA 28, like I will say yes in a heartbeat and found out that it was a commercial shoot and that it was going to be used as part of a handover and just.
Got super excited at that point. So yeah, I guess it was a surprise and organic But at the same time like secretly hope it’s because people want me to be part of really cool things And that I will always say yes
Alison: When was that filmed?
Samantha Bosco: few weeks before I left for Mallorca.
Jill: So I understand that you’ve named your medal.
I have tell us its name and the story behind it. And do you talk to it?
Samantha Bosco: Ah, good ones. Um, her name is Vole, I think if I’m doing it correctly with the French accent, it’s Vole Vite, which means fly fast. And I’ve nicknamed her Vivi because both Vs. So she’s Vivi. And I have been away from her for two weeks because I made Andrew bring her home so that she was safe and sound because I ended up staying in Europe after the games because we had road world championships in Zurich just this past week and I thought it was silly to go home and then fly back out so I stayed but I sent Vivi home with Andrew so I haven’t gotten to talk to her but I’ve been reunited.
Got to see her yesterday, got to hold her. Got to show her off. She’s more popular than I am, but I have a feeling that we will have plenty of conversations. Yes. So yes, I will talk to Vivi. We are good friends. How about your friege? Cause you also get a nice gold friege. I did get a friege. Yes. And it was very exciting to like have the gold shoe and the gold prosthetic leg on it.
I have not named, I have not named it. But I feel like it should be a he so that. He and Vivi could be a couple together. I don’t know. I’ll take suggestions from anybody at this point. Yes. Let’s name, let’s name the
Alison: Frige. I was very upset that they did not give the Frige names
You know, the, the mascots didn’t have names. So I said, this is so obvious. the Olympic one is Olivier and the Paralympic one is Pierre. I mean, how obvious is that?
Samantha Bosco: Right? It’s Pierre now. Perfect. We got a name.
Jill: And now you have Vivi and Pipi.
Samantha Bosco: I hope you were saving that one.
You did go to the World Championships right away. No, no, she went to Disneyland. I did, I did, I went to Disneyland first. Wait a second. Did Vivi go to Disneyland? No, but Pierre did.
Mickey got to meet Pierre. I even have a photo.
Did you get a fast pass for everything? Did you just show Pierre and just say You know, I’m a Paralympic champion. I wish, I wish. Yeah. I should have brought my medal for that one, but I was, I didn’t want to bring Vivi because I was too afraid to lose her. She goes flying off in space mountain never to be seen again.
Oh my gosh. Yes. Oh, could you imagine? I would have been devastated. Devastated.
Jill: And then road champs weren’t too bad either.
Samantha Bosco: They were not too bad. Although when I got to Zurich. I got sick because, I mean I was sick, I started to get sick after the games ended, so I got to Zurich full on sick and it was cold and raining and I’m in this Airbnb, kind of in the middle of nowhere, by myself, which didn’t feel the greatest, so it was, it started off a little rougher than anticipated, but yeah, it was also fun.
Alison: Didn’t end too badly.
Samantha Bosco: It did not end too badly, which was great because mentally, mentally, it was harder to be at this world championships because like your season usually finishes on your a race. And for me, my a race was the games. Like I didn’t even focus on anything for worlds. I was just like, I’ll go because I’ll already be there.
And it gives me a chance to defend my title, whether or not I’m fully prepared to be there. And I wasn’t as prepared on a fitness level as I would have liked to have been. But also, who likes getting sick in between race weeks? So, I was very happy to finish off the year with a silver and a gold at Worlds for sure.
Alison: Do you feel like you’ve processed the Paralympics yet? Because you did go straight into competition again. Does it feel like you’ve gotten a chance to absorb this?
Samantha Bosco: Not at all. Not at all. In fact, I think I might have been a little envious of Andrew because when he went home from Paris. He had VV, because I wanted to make sure it was protected.
I was like, this is in your backpack at all times. You don’t want it out of your sight. We even put an air tag in the box. But he got special treatment. Like, he got to the airport and he even had a police officer following him because the police officer wanted to get a pin. So he got to give him a pin. He got great treatment when he checked in for the flight.
He went to Board and he got to show the medal to people that were waiting to board also He showed medals to people on the plane and the flight attendant and he got a free bottle of champagne And I was just like I’m here in Zurich and it’s raining and I have to go ride my bike in the rain And I hate riding in the rain and you got a bottle of champagne and special treatment for a medal that You were part of, yeah, but it’s my medal!
Yeah, so no, I haven’t processed. I’m staring at the bottle of champagne because he is the best husband in the world and didn’t drink the champagne and wanted to celebrate with me. So I’m currently staring at it.
Alison: Do you know what’s next? Have you thought about it yet?
Samantha Bosco: I mean, I thought about it the second the time trial stopped. I know what’s next. I want LA 28. I mean, the fans were Electrifying any time a French cyclist was on the velodrome or on the road. Being in the break for the road race with a fellow, with a fellow competitor who was French was amazing because the cheering on the sidelines of the road race was incredible.
And I don’t know that we would have had that the same if there was not a French athlete in that break. And I want that. I want that feeling. I don’t care what the results are in 2028. I mean. Obviously, I hope to defend my title because that would just be amazing, but just to be at home with not just family and friends that have been part of the whole journey, but the community of cycling, the community of LA, all of it, just screaming their lungs off for American athletes.
I can only fathom what that’ll feel like. And I want to know.
Jill: So in France, the French were just not for French fans and they didn’t, this was one of those, again, we don’t really know what the Paralympics are, but Oh, now that we see them, they are amazing. Like how do we, we got four years to. Help educate the public to make them want the Paralympics and not go. Oh wait.
I like this Olympic stuff Let me get a Paralympic ticket to what is la 28 doing? Or what are you working on to like help promote that? are cool. If not cooler than the Olympics
Samantha Bosco: I personally agree that they’re cooler.
Jill: Um, They’re, they’re, they’re fun. I mean, like we had so much
Alison: fun.
Samantha Bosco: They are so much fun. Yeah. I think it’s, it’s like Disneyland California and Disneyland Paris. They both have a different vibe, right? And both are equally amazing on their own. And I think together are just absolutely extraordinary. I think that’s the biggest hurdle though, of the exposure for the Paralympics and LA.
Is doing a really great job trying to increase that exposure, having Olympic athletes and Paralympic athletes show up to events, show up to schools, talk to people, get the word out, be on social with Olympians and Paralympians and share stories. But it’s difficult. I think that there’s not enough exposure in between games for the Paralympians and the Parasport like there is for Olympians and Olympic sports.
I think if there was more coverage of Parasport in general on TV, on social media, that it would continue to be talked about more. Because I think that people were so excited to watch. The Paralympics in Paris that it was almost like, Oh, now what do we do? How do we keep the movement of para going? Where can we watch more?
And all of the things that they just don’t know, because there were so many people on social media. Okay. Now, what do we do now that the Paralympics are over? It’s like, there’s still more events you could watch. There’s events that you could stream. It’s just not advertised as much. So you have to look a little deeper.
I think that’s the struggle that we can try to help overcome by making it more accessible to all of the people to see it, to watch it, to be a part of it, to share stories. I also think like the Olympians sharing the stories for the Paralympians could help with the exposure because then it’s like, Hey, we’re here, but also look at these guys.
Because we don’t get a lot of it. We don’t, for cycling, we don’t have any fans show up to velodrome races or road races. Like we do at the games. You’re only used to a pack velodrome because it’s such a big event. And I think that if the smaller events got more attention, it would be more common and more talked about, but it’s difficult.
I mean, People talk about the Tour de France, Tour de France, because it’s such a big and iconic race. They talk about the Olympics because it’s such a big and iconic event. Paralympics are becoming a big and iconic, iconic event as far as its exposure. But I think little things could also be celebrated and become iconic as well.
And it’s kind of fun because like, Championships for us this year, we were combined with able body. So there was more exposure, more of our races streamed to the general public. And that keeps the conversation going and keeps people interested in talking about it. And I think if people just talked about it more, it would become a bigger thing.
And I’m hoping that with it coming to LA in 2028, People will be excited because it’s also like they now get to start being a part of an athlete they might actually get to see in person compete at such a big event.
Alison: Iconic Samantha Bosco.
Samantha Bosco: I mean, that would be amazing.
Alison: Kind of already is, let’s just say.
Samantha Bosco: Thank you, thank you.
Alison: Paralympic champion and everything. Yeah,
Samantha Bosco: that hasn’t sunk
Alison: in
Samantha Bosco: yet. Yeah. Yeah, definitely, but getting to see my face on the big screen, because they showed the handover commercial on the big screen for closing ceremonies, and it was just Amazing to see it and to already start feeling the feelings of potentially getting to race in LA on those streets with a home crowd.
Yeah, I definitely, I definitely felt iconic.
Jill: Excellent. Samantha, thank you so much for taking time to talk to us right when you came home.
Alison: Yeah. But,
Jill: uh, we’re so excited for you and your, not just your Paralympic, but your world championships, achievements, but seriously, we’re so excited to follow you, and keep, cheering for you as we move on to LA in whatever capacity that may be.
Jill Jaracz: Thank you so much, Samantha. You can follow her at sambosco. com. And on YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram, she is at sammicranks. We will have links to all those in the show notes.
Alison Brown: And she and a few other of our Shook Flastanis were at, I believe it was called the Women in Sports Foundation Celebration. Ooh, she got to go to that.
And let me tell you something. She looked hot. So check out her Instagram. She looks
gorgeous.
See us at Olympin!
Jill Jaracz: Also something to check out is that we will be at Olympin, uh, In a week, a week from today, we get on. Oh my God, I got a pack. Olympin is a free memorabilia show where you can buy and trade pins and other cool Olympic and Paralympic souvenirs and ephemera.
We have talked to many of the pin collectors who are part of Olympin on other shows. So they are a fun group of people. As you know, the show is. In Atlanta, Friday through Sunday, November 8th through 10th at the Marriott Atlanta Buckhead Hotel and Conference Center in Atlanta, Georgia, Friday and Saturday, the show will go from 10 a. m. to 5 p. m. Sunday is 10 a. m. to 3 p. m. We will have a table there. It is free. Please stop by and say hello. And to those of you who have already told us you’re coming, we are looking forward to seeing you. You can find out more at olympianshow. org and we’ll have a link to that in the show notes.
Paris 2024 News
Alison Brown: The economy, a grand
Jill Jaracz: What they don’t see, because we don’t do a lot of video, is the, the face you made as you said, that ,
Alison Brown: it’s my French face. I do it every time. I do a different face when I try and do Italian. Have you noticed that .
Jill Jaracz: I’ll kind of hope for Milan Cortina to put out some more news so we can see your Italian face.
Alison Brown: And there’s a hand motion as well that goes with when I speak French. It is ridiculous. I’ve been doing this for years. I mean, the whole time we’ve talked about Paris 2024, I make the French face and I do the French hand.
Jill Jaracz: Well, Paris 2024 has helped boost the French economy. So there’s been preliminary data from Statistics Agency in C, I N S E E, and they’ve estimated that the country’s economic growth has been 0. 4 percent in the third quarter of 2020.
24, that is 0. 1 percent higher than estimated and up from 0. 2 percent in the second quarter. So tiny numbers all around, but it’s still growth. And that’s thanks a lot to the games, games, tourists, , boosted consumer spending that grew 0. 5 percent in the third quarter, but the bills are starting to come in.
Oh boy, RFI reports, uh, it’s rfi. fr. They report that the Olympics opening ceremonies cost a hundred million euros and they got this in an annex to France’s 2025 finance bill and in that annex, you get public funding on sports activities, a hundred million dollars, a hundred million euros on the opening ceremony alone.
That’s That could go up because it could go up to as much as 120 million euros when you start factoring in the cost of security, which was super high, and they needed a lot of it since they had to cover 10 kilometers of ground, if not more .
RFI noted that London 2012, 30 million euros on its opening ceremony. So this is quite a bit of difference even, even when you factor in inflation. Le Monde has reported that total public spending has increased from 1. 47 billion euros to at least. 2. 8 billion euros during the time when they have had, when, when Paris 2024 has had its budget.
This isn’t what the Olympics actually cost. That seems to be in the range of 4. 4 billion euros because, the IOC and sponsors and ticket sales, and I’m guessing merch as well, also provided funds for covering the cost of the games. It’s a lot of money for an opening ceremony. So that turned out to be okay.
I mean, it was, it was great. In a way, it wasn’t worth
Alison Brown: a hundred million euros. No,
Jill Jaracz: it could have been shorter, chopped off at least two segments.
Alison Brown: But yeah, that was,
Jill Jaracz: especially when I watched it on TV and you noted that the ceremony did take place in different sections of the river, but then they use that section for 10 minutes and then moved on and you could have chopped it down, maybe used less of the river,
maybe not had so many video segments.
Alison Brown: This feels like a throwback to the nineties Olympics where we just kept getting bigger and bigger and bigger and it had to be new venues and we had to spend more money and now it feels like we’ve gotten into the open opening ceremony arms race where every opening ceremony needs to be grander, more impressive, more outrageous.
When, in essence, the opening ceremony does nothing, you know, it doesn’t enhance the experience truly for the athletes or for the attendees. It’s just a show. So can we please, L. A., dial this back to something fun and flashy, but not so expensive?
Jill Jaracz: Right. I think they, once they got the idea to have this on the river, and then we brought in Tomasho Lee.
Who as a director did it was fine. I just wasn’t impressed. And it did seem to be like, we’re going to be outrageous for and and provocative for the sake of being outrageous and provocative. Maybe he didn’t punch seem to punch some buttons. He didn’t intend to punch. Because people read things a different way, but.
I think after some of the segments, people got up in arms and they just started seeing stuff where there wasn’t anything to see, but it was like they couldn’t tell him no at some point.
Alison Brown: It feels like, I’m sure we’ve all had this experience where you go to a really, really fancy expensive restaurant and it’s fine.
And then you go, and then the next day you go home and your friend, who’s so good on the grill makes you the best hamburger ever. Right? So it’s kind of like. You spent all this money, but you’d be so much happier with a burger and a really good burger and fries. Our opening ceremonies need to scale back to a really good burger and fries.
And I don’t know where the pressure is coming from. I don’t know if the pressure is coming from the IOC to make these shows bigger and bigger. If it’s coming from within these organizing committees to say, we have to be more impressive. You know, you look at some of the old Opening ceremonies and sure we make fun of them because they’re so dated, right?
But they were so much fun
Jill Jaracz: So you’re saying bring back the flip cards that are at everybody’s seat. Yes I mean that was so silly and so fun. I think For that era. There is also an element of audience participation That made it even more special and we talked a little bit about how there was no opening ceremonies.
Bag or kit of stuff that we both got in Beijing. You had different clappy hands and you did have some like for Beijing, they gave us a lap blanket and some gloves and a hat and things like that, which were very helpful because you were outside and they wanted to make sure you were covered just in case you forgot somehow that you were going to be in the cold, but there were elements that brought it into play.
Or we’ve seen little flashlights that have come in And that makes it fun because the audience gets to participate and they get to be part of the show. This was, you know, jam in there, folks. We’re going to have the biggest crowd ever. And the biggest doesn’t necessarily equate to the best.
Alison Brown: Think about the moments that we, and I don’t want to belabor this point, but I’m going to.
Think about the moments that we remember from opening ceremonies. We remember the flying guy from Los Angeles 84. We remember the arrow, you know, the lighting of the cauldron, right? Kathy Freeman from And that was from, sorry,
Jill Jaracz: that was from Barcelona. Barcelona, 1992. Probably the best cauldron lighting, ever.
Alison Brown: Kathy Freeman and, and the delay of the cauldron from Sydney.
Jill Jaracz: Yes, which was probably a very expensive cauldron that did not do well. Right. Very cool. But that was, that, that I would call another example of
Alison Brown: got too big. So it’s kind of like the best moments that we remember that struck us in Salt Lake City when Miracle on Ice team came out to light the cauldron, cheap moments are actually what the heart,
- I’m
Jill Jaracz: curious what this cauldron cost, you know, the balloon with the electric light. A lot, a lot. It had to, it was big. And it was far away.
Alison Brown: And it needed its own. structure, like it, not physical structure, but like it needed its own infrastructure. It had a whole line set up to go see it, a whole set of security, a whole staff, a whole computer program to get ticketing to go see it.
Jill Jaracz: Scale it back, Ellie. Take it down a notch.
Speaking of the Olympic ceremonies, Lamond with AAP have reported that French authorities have charged seven people, aged 22 to 79, with cyberbullying Olympic ceremony director Thomas Chaldi. They face counts of death threats, aggravated insults, and cyberbullying, which could result in prison time and heavy fines.
What is wrong with people? Nobody likes a troll. let’s cut that down, too. Take that down a thousand notches. I
Alison Brown: mean, we had a lot of not great things to say about Thomas Shelley, but threatening his life and harassment Over a
Jill Jaracz: ceremony! Over a ceremony!
Alison Brown: Come on! Come on, people. Geez. And then you wonder why people Turn against the Olympics because it breeds this insanity.
Jill Jaracz: Well, let’s talk about something more fun related to Paris. The Olympic Museum in Lausanne has acquired 209 items from the Paris Olympics from 27 of the 32 sports on the program This includes donations from athletes and the ceremonies. Athlete items include gym gymnast Rebecca Andraja’s leotard, sprinter Julian Alfred’s outfit, she won the 100 meter dash, a marathon runner Sifan Hassan’s jersey, wrestler Mijan Lopez’s shoes because he retired after winning a historic number of gold medals, a Leon Marchand swimsuit, and the ball from the basketball final signed by gold medalists team USA.
They also got the Golden Voyager outfit from the ceremonies and we’ll link to the article because it gets into the acquisition process, which involves three full time people asking for stuff. And they spent hours in the process of trying to get donations for the museum. One of them had to wait hours outside the tennis locker rooms waiting to get Novak Djokovic’s racket.
Which is one of the other items that will be in the museum’s collection.
Alison Brown: And Djokovic is known for abusing rackets. So thankfully, I hope this full time employee was not injured in this process.
Jill Jaracz: And that story came from Swissinfo. ch.
TKFLASTAN Update
Alison Brown: Welcome to Shukfustan.
Jill Jaracz: It is the time of the show where we check in with our team, Keep the Flame Alive. These are past guests and listeners of the show who make up our citizenship of Shukfustan, our very own country.
Alison Brown: Monica Quimby and the USA Women’s Para Ice Hockey Team won gold at the Women’s World Challenge.
Jill Jaracz: Congratulations. Author Warren Perrin announced on Facebook that the Acadian Museum that he is on the board of and helped run, they will have its fundraiser on November 15th. Also involved with the event are some raffles. They’ve got two autographed posters of two time Olympic pole vault champion Mondo Duplantis to raffle off because Mondo is from the region.
So they’ve got that. The museum did suffer a lot of damage during Hurricane Beryl, so so the fundraiser will help with much needed repairs and building upgrades. We will have a link to where you can find out more in the show notes.
Alison Brown: Jacqueline Siminoe was reelected to the Canadian Olympic Committee’s Athletes Commission.
Jill Jaracz: And John Schuster and team are competing for the U. S. in the Pan Continental Curling Championships. They are currently tied for second in the round robin and have qualified for the playoffs. Those start today, October 31st, and they last until the through the weekend. So good luck to Team Schuster.
Alison Brown: Speaking of old people. Oh, John Schuster.
I mean, holy cannoli. Still going.
Jill Jaracz: Still
Alison Brown: going and still, and still at the top of the game.
Jill Jaracz: Yes. And that’s, that is very nice.
Alison Brown: Unbelievable.
Get in Touch!
Jill Jaracz: And that is going to do it for this episode. Let us know your thoughts from Paris 2024.
Alison Brown: And we love hearing from you. You can chat with us and other listeners on our Facebook group. Keep the Flame Alive podcast.
Email us at flamealivepod at gmail. com and the voicemail and text line is always open at 208 352 6348. That’s 208 FLAME IT.
Jill Jaracz: Next week. We’ll be back with more stories from the Olympics, specifically Paris 2024.
We will have somebody who’s new to Choclistan, but will tell us how her Paris was. It is Sajan Madalena, who was a shooter. at Paris and won a silver medal in one of her events. that’s exciting because we get to hear what it was like in Chateauroux since we could not get there ourselves.
be sure to tune in for that. Thank you so much for listening. And until next time, keep the flame alive.