Paralympic para powerlifter Louise Sugden returns to talk about her experiences at the Paris 2024 Paralympics. Paris was Louise’s fourth Games, and her second competing as a para powerlifter. She competed in the 79kg weight class this time around and finished 5th — and she was the oldest competitor in her weight class!
This Games marked a big shift from Tokyo 2020, as Louise opted to go down a weight class. We discuss that decision and the process of what it takes to successfully move down–and whether it was the best choice for this competition.
Follow Louise on Instagram, Threads, TikTok and Twitter!
Also on this episode, we discuss the Court of Arbitration for Sport’s (CAS) recently announced 10-year-ban on Russian runner Tatyana Tomashova, who was discovered to have doped during London 2012 (yes, you read that right, a Games that took place 12 years ago) in the women’s1500m, which is widely considered to be the dirtiest race in history (even worse than the one we discussed in book club!).
The CAS decision changes the finishing order again, and we’ve got the break down of all the violations and podium changes. While the results have changed with the CAS finding, we do not yet officially have a new podium. It’s up to the International Olympic Committee to reallocate the medals.
Speaking of doping, the International Testing Agency released its final report on its pre-Paris initiative. This report details how many athletes and potential Olympic qualifiers were tested ahead of the Games, with the ITA reporting that it tested more athletes than it did ahead of Tokyo.
Plus, there’s other news from Paris 2024, Milan-Cortina 2026, and TKFLASTAN.
Thanks so much for listening, and until next time, keep the flame alive!
Photo: Paralympics GB/Same Mellish, courtesy of Louise Sugden.
TRANSCRIPT
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368-Para Powerlifter Louise Sugden on Paris 2024
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 have 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 Jarris, joined as always by my lovely co host, Alison Brown.
Alison, hello. How are you? Hello.
Alison Brown: I was watching, um, Mrs. Doubtfire. Okay. Which is like, you know, I don’t even know how old that movie is and I finally saw it for the first time. And so now I’m just like, hello
to everyone I see.
Jill Jaracz: All right, well,
Alison Brown: I will not be putting meringue on my face for the show though.
Jill Jaracz: All right, that’s good. I appreciate that.
Patron of the Week
Jill Jaracz: Well, before we get started, we would like to say a thank you to our patrons , this is the time of the year where we give a shout out to our golden committee member level patrons And we’ll be celebrating a patron every week for the foreseeable future Thank you today to a listener Joe Osterberg, who is a longtime listener from the couch days and who became a patron during Paris 2024.
Alison Brown: If I remember correctly, Joe was one of the winners of maybe PyeongChang Fantasy Olympics. I could be giving him credit where that he doesn’t deserve, but I seem to remember that he has been involved when we used to be able to do fantasy Olympics and did very well in the past. Oh, well, I take credit anyway, Joe.
Jill Jaracz: I miss the fantasy games.
Alison Brown: I do too.
Jill Jaracz: They were a lot of fun. And of course, a third party source put them together during Pyeongchang. And I don’t think they did it during, after that. I wonder if they got the kibosh. But then the IOC took over during the COVID games and they had some for Tokyo and they had another one for Beijing.
And then we heard nothing for Paris. Nothing for Paris. Which was a bummer because it was so much fun to play. Did you know, listeners, that you can now gift Patreon memberships? So with the holidays coming, shopping for others can be difficult, especially if they don’t want any more physical stuff. Do you need more stuff, Allison?
Alison Brown: I do not need more stuff. I
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Ask a friend or two or a family member to get it for you for Christmas. We’ve got a great theme for next year that we’re going to be talking about in the coming weeks for our Patreon special bonus episodes that we are very excited about. And, uh, you can find out more at, patreon.
com slash flame alive pod and scroll down until you see the gifting option.
Louise Sugden Interview
Jill Jaracz: Okay. This week we are checking in with para powerlifter Louise Sugden. Louise competed at her fourth Paralympics in Paris for Paralympian for Paralympics. That’s amazing. She’s no
Alison Brown: joke, man.
Jill Jaracz: No. And in multiple sports. Yes. that’s the other amazing thing.
She, uh, was originally a wheelchair basketball player and then, , her, abilities deteriorated to the point that she could not do that sport anymore. Correct. Yes. And then, uh, she took a pair of powerlifting and now she has competed in two Paralympics in that sport. And so, this year she finished fifth in the up to 79 kilogram weight class.
She was the oldest competitor in her final way to go. And we spoke with Louise about going down a weight class. This is a wild story. I will say, we also talk about her experience in Paris and what her competitive future looks like. Take a listen.
Alison: Louise Sugden, thank you so much for coming back. We appreciate seeing you again. Thank you for having me. I didn’t realize this until you mentioned it on Instagram, you changed weight classes.
Louise Sugden: I did. I went down a weight class for the Paralympic Games.
Alison: Okay. When in the cycle did that happen?
Why and how?
Louise Sugden: so initially we were just looking at the qualification or the potential qualification for each of the weight classes. And, I made the decision to sit myself so that I could go either way. because. The 86 kilo class on paper looked mental. There’s no better way to put it. It looked crazy.
what ended up happening was because it looked crazy, everyone moved either way. so it actually ended up at the games being the easier of the two classes that I could have picked. but, We didn’t know that, we couldn’t know that, and we based it literally on the information we had, when we had to make the decision about which way I was going to go.
so it was always in the back of our minds throughout the whole cycle, , and then when it came to Conj time we decided to go for the lighter weight class, which was the 79 kilo class. Um,
Alison: what does that mean in terms of what’s happening with your body? Because that’s, that’s not a joke to significantly change classes like that.
Louise Sugden: No. so I mean, the theory is that mass moves mass and the heavier you are, the more you should be able to lift. obviously there are many other factors that go into it, but, Losing weight, you will generally lose weight off of what you compress. especially when you’re training. it feels horrendous if you’re training in a calorie deficit.
And, um, I can say that there are a lot of times where it felt horrendous. You don’t realize the effect that those calories have until you’re starting to reduce them in your training. so I think, yeah, it has a huge impact on the day to day stuff. And then because we’re 24 hours before competition weigh in, I did have time to refuel, which was beneficial, for me.
yeah, it’s just a kind of a constant trying to fuel yourself for training, but also maintaining your body weight and making sure that it’s not. going up when you’re fueling for training. Too much . It’s just another thing to think about really. so at the Tokyo Paralympic games, I weighed in at almost 85 kilos and in Paris I weighed in at, 78 6 I think it was.
So it’s a good amount of body weight. and I think when. I think about what I went and lifted in Paris, to think that I got an all time PB at a lighter body weight is, um, is not insignificant.
Jill: How did your body like the adjustment in terms of like, what kind of weight is your body more comfortable at?
Louise Sugden: Do you know what? I think my body likes sitting or did like sitting around 81, 82 kilos. I did have so
Jill: nice and right in between.
Louise Sugden: Yeah, absolutely. Perfect. I actually had to work quite hard to get up to 85 for, for Tokyo. My body was just going, Oh yeah, calories. I love these. These are great. And then the first time I cut down to 79, it was hard, really hard.
But then the two times after that, because I didn’t go back. Much over 79. it was obviously a lot easier. I’d done it before and I kind of had figured stuff out along the way. so yeah, I mean, I think a lot of it was a learning curve and I think the more I’ve done it, the better I’ve got at it.
and I think that kind of shows in the amount of weight that I was able to lift, even at the light body weight. Going into Paris, how are you feeling? pretty good. I was lifting well in training, going into it thinking, God, this is quite a weight class I’ve ended up in here, but, I just got to go out there and do what I can do because I can’t change that now.
I can literally go out there and just lift as much as I can lift. So, I was aware of the challenge ahead, but training was going pretty well. And, I was confident that I would be able to do more than I’d done previously, even at like body weight. And obviously I went out and did that on the day.
Um, it just wasn’t good enough in the whole competition to come home with a medal. So it’s always.
Alison: Since the last time we talked to you, you have, now have a robotic shoulder. You got rebuilt. What was the timing of that in terms of, because that was right after Tokyo, wasn’t it?
Louise Sugden: It was early 2022 when I hurt myself, well, I say hurt myself, it was an ongoing kind of thing, um, the crunch time was, I want to say June, July 22, where I was like, okay, I can’t take this anymore.
We need to get this looked at. so I pulled out the Commonwealth Games, I pulled out the European Championships and I had shoulder surgery in September 2022. , I was told that If I could make it back to competitive lifting, it would be two years before I was able to, do what I’ve done previously.
and I was without any shoulder use for three months. Very, very limited training for another three months after that. So I basically had six months where I did nothing. Other than recover, and then we were back into return to training, which was very, very slow and very, very, challenging in a lot of ways.
And, so that took us to a year out from the games and, a hell of a qualification period. to try and make up for the fact that I’d essentially had almost a year out of training.
Alison: I don’t know. I’m sure there were the, why am I doing this to myself? I almost want to say, how often did you think of quitting and not coming back?
Louise Sugden: do you know what? I think I only thought about quitting while I was waiting for shoulder surgery. well, things were so up in the air and while I didn’t have a goal, I didn’t know when my surgery was going to be, I was really battling to try and get a surgery date and to get the care that I needed because, I mean, I only have two working limbs anyway, so to take another one out of the equation is quite a significant thing in my world.
So, yeah, it was, um, a lot of challenges, but actually once I’d had the surgery. I was like, well, I’m going to do whatever I can. to get back. And if it then doesn’t work and I know I’ve done everything, then I can have no regrets. Um, so that’s kind of the approach I took. I mean, there were a couple of times where I’d had a bad week and I was in a lot of pain and, I definitely went, wow, this is hard.
this is maybe too tough for me. But then the positives in that, Time really outweighed the negatives and that sounds crazy because I’ve just gone through this major shoulder surgery. but I think my support team was phenomenal. the team around me was phenomenal. And I think that knowing that they had my back the whole way, absolutely made it a million times easier.
Alison: So you get to Paris. what was your mindset? What was the atmosphere? What were you experiencing when you, when you finally get to the village?
Louise Sugden: we were actually in prep camp for over a week before we went to the village, which was a lovely introduction to France. I was just trying to enjoy it, enjoy every moment because I didn’t know if I was going to make it, genuinely.
It was so up in the air for so long, and it wasn’t really until the last qualification event that I kind of let myself believe that it was happening. until that point I was just focused on what I needed to do to get there. I think, yeah, just enjoying it, just, you know, Soaking up all the atmosphere.
the crowds were amazing. Um, for us being so close to home, it was almost like a home games. I’m never going to say it was as good as London because London was just exceptional for me as a home athlete. but it was as close as you get to a home games. because it’s like a couple hours on a train.
From where I live to get to Paris. So that was just phenomenal to have my friends and family there, was. I mean, just such a contrast from Tokyo.
Alison: Now Max Whitlock had posted about the GB Olympic team, and I want to know if this is true of the Paralympic team, that you’re supposed to wear this same color t shirt each day?
Louise Sugden: so they didn’t do this for Paris. Okay. Okay. Bye. Um, but they did for Tokyo, and I get it, it kind of unites the team, but it does mean that you’ve got to remember what colour day it is, and you’ve got to make sure you’ve got that clean, um, which is definitely a challenge in those scenarios.
so we just ended up wearing whatever colour we wanted. We felt like on the day, but I do think that within the whole Paralympics GB team, some teams did have colored days. So like, I believe the swimming team had still got colors. we were given a little bit more free reign. Yeah. Cause I immediately said I would never have a white t shirt clean.
On the right day. It’s true. Yeah. The white, I mean, we had quite a few whites, but I mean, yeah, and instantly eat got a dinner badge. You know how it is.
Jill: We talk with. Team USA athletes a fair amount about processing because that’s a big deal where you get all your kit and all that stuff. What was that experience like for you with Team GB?
Louise Sugden: Um, so we had a whole afternoon, they made it all very fun. And, um, we had a welcome from the shift to mission. And, then we got taken to a whole getting out process, which was really, really nice because, , I, we couldn’t do that for Tokyo because of COVID restrictions. So it was really nice that the effort had been made and they made it into a whole event, especially for those guys who were going to their first games.
Cause I think made it really, really special for them. and then they had a whole load of other things there and, games and sponsors and that kind of thing. So, yeah, it was a, it was a whole afternoon, of basically just celebrating. Our place on the team. And I really liked that. They just made a big deal out of it.
like they do for the Olympians and like you say, for team USA, cause we don’t always get the same treatment as the Olympic side. so it’s lovely when we do get the same. Coolest thing you got in your kit? Coolest thing, or nicest bit of kit? Whichever! so the nicest bit of kit we’ve got, , is a bright blue crew neck jumper.
I live in it, to be honest with you. It’s the most comfortable thing, that I own. We got some really nice water bottles, like big insulated jobbies, that was pretty cool. Dreams gave us a pillow and throw in one, which was cool. , just loads of little bits, just make it all special.
And then obviously once we got out to the games, we got our Samsung phone, which I’m a big Samsung fan. So yeah, very happy with that.
Alison: Okay. Competition comes around, you’re towards the end of the cycle. So how, is that hard for you to be there? And then just kind of hanging there in the village for so many days.
Louise Sugden: Yeah, it was hard. It was really hard. I watched all my teammates compete as well, within the powerlifting team. It was just me and Liam on the last couple of days. And, uh, I think by that point I’d probably been there maybe a few days too long. I was feeling like, okay, I want to get this done. I wanted to get this done a few days ago.
Like, I felt ready then. It is just what it is, you just have to deal with it, but, tough, really tough, and there’s not much you can do other than just ride it out and enjoy it and just focus on the process, but being On the day before the closing ceremony was difficult because I mean, we were people like, Oh, when are you competing?
I’m like, Oh, it’s a week on Saturday or whenever that, Oh, I’m finished. Oh, wow. Okay. That’s nice for you. I’d love to be finished, but yeah, it’s, it was definitely a challenge because in Tokyo we were in the middle, of the competition. So we were like maybe five, six days in. whereas this time I was on day 12 of 13, so yeah, difficult, very difficult.
Alison: But what a venue and what an arena for the day of your competition. The crowd was amazing.
Louise Sugden: It really was. And I was like, Oh, this crowd’s amazing. And then someone said to me, Oh yeah, there’s a French guy in your session after you. I’m like, doesn’t matter. I don’t care why they’re here. It’s full
Alison: and it didn’t matter.
They were just as loud for everybody.
Louise Sugden: It didn’t matter. It didn’t matter. And I love that. Did you feel that?
Alison: Yeah.
Louise Sugden: Yeah, definitely. I felt that. And I, I really, I like the atmosphere was just brilliant. And what I really liked was the, stage being in the middle. We’ve never seen that before in power, power lifting.
And I thought it was brilliant to just have everyone all the way around. I think it’s definitely something they could do more of in the future. I mean, obviously you have to have the right space for it, but it just meant that you were just engulfed in the actual. The atmosphere, rather than it just kind of coming at you from one direction, it was surrounding you.
Alison: Okay, about the stage, the way you came off the platform was kind of this fun little twisting ramp. Okay, please tell me that was fun to go down in the wheelchair because that is how
Louise Sugden: it looked. Do you know my biggest worry? At the very bottom of the last bit of the ramp, there was quite a steep drop. So I was just really worried about hitting that and then just face planting.
And I didn’t want that to happen because there were Quite a few people watching. and luckily I didn’t. I managed to ride it out successfully, but every time I went down that ramp, I was like, Oh, there’s that drop.
Alison: I survived guys. I survived. You did a lot better than survive. You lifted quite well. So I do have a couple of technical questions about the competition itself.
How are you deciding? What weight is next? Because it was constantly changing. It would be one listed. Your starting weight changed from the first announcement. And then as you went along, it kept changing.
Louise Sugden: Yeah.
Alison: How are you making those decisions and how soon do you have to make those decisions?
Louise Sugden: If I’m honest with you, my coach does a lot of that for me.
I I went into the athlete presentation thinking I was opening up at 126 or 128 and my coach comes up to me after we’ve been presented and goes, I’m opening you at 130 and I need to get you to get your head around that really quick. And I was like, okay, that’s fine. So I went out the back and I lifted 125 and probably one of the best lifts I’ve done.
done at that weight ever. and just took a second to get my head around opening at 130, which is the heaviest I’ve ever opened that at any competition. so that was quite something. and I think from there, it’s just a case of, okay, what am I capable of today? , what are my competitors lifting? And after the second round, me and my coach had a conversation.
He said to me, what do you want to do? Because I had a couple of options. I could have gone for Hail Mary at 140 and had a shot at a medal. or protect my position a little bit more. and my decision, I said to him, I’d rather finish fourth than seventh. So it was my decision in the end to not go for that 140.
It wasn’t there. It was a waste of a lift. I’m really disappointed. I didn’t get one 34 because I actually thought I should have got it on the, like I didn’t press it on the day, but I felt that I was capable of pressing it on the day. and something about my left arm decided it didn’t want to do very much once I got out on the platform, which is something that we will look at in more detail, And it’s really fascinating because left side is the, the shoulder injury side is the rehab side, and.
It has never shown any weakness until then. There has not been any point where it’s dragged like it did in every single one of those lifts on the day in Paris. So I wonder if it’s just that we’ve not taken it that close to failure before, or the demand’s just not been there for, That injured side to have to respond to.
And again, more conversations that I have to have with my coaching team. But there was definitely something different about my lifting that day. than I’ve seen previously, because I pride myself on my technical ability and watching my lifts back. they were still legitimate lifts. They just weren’t as good as I would want them to be.
Alison: There was a lot going on in your weight class that day. How aware are you of, um, what the other competitors are doing. Are you hearing it? Or, I mean, you’re not, are you seeing it? Do you step out and watch?
Louise Sugden: So there’s actually screens in the back so you can watch. I try not to focus on them too much. I try to just stay in my own kind of lane in my zone.
but when the Egyptian hit 139 that I saw that and that, that was kind of me going, Okay, we’re not fighting for a medal now. We’re fighting for something else. We got a re evaluate what we’re doing here. because I knew I didn’t have anything to compete with that on the day. fair play to her. It was good lift.
I think I was just then trying to get what I could on the bar. and unfortunately when I finished fifth, which is never going to be good enough in my world, but also if you look at. The two years prior, then it is a good achievement, but I’m a bit too much of a perfectionist to, to accept that and just go and, and just go, Oh yeah, that’s fine.
so yeah, we’ve got to reevaluate, reassess and figure out what’s next to be honest with you.
Alison: We’re going to get to that, but I do want to ask a rules question because we were both confused. We both watched some power lifting when. Is the fourth attempt allowed?
Louise Sugden: So the fourth attempt is allowed when, you are going for a Paralympic record or a world record and you have to have had a successful lift within 10 kilos of that record.
So I don’t know the, the example I think would be the women’s 86 where the gold medal was won on a power lift. the Chinese lifter missed her last lift, which meant that she wasn’t been within 10 kilos of the record, which meant she couldn’t go out for a power lift, but the Brazilian hit hers. So she could.
it was a phenomenal competition, to be honest with you, I was really gutted I wasn’t in it. Um, but I really enjoyed watching it because I mean, yeah, there’s a lot of kind of nuances that people won’t understand about that kind of thing. But I think when you just see people going out there and lifting records, it’s cool.
So it’s always cool. Okay,
Alison: so
we’re about a month. out from competition ending. How are you feeling about it now? I hear you saying no, not good enough. But how are you feeling about it now?
Louise Sugden: Um, I mean, it was still a fantastic achievement. I think looking back, I mean, it was almost two years to the day since my shoulder surgery. And they told me that I might be back within two years and I’m lifting at Paralympic Games and I’m top five in the world, you know, it’s pretty cool.
Like I, I think if you told me that the day of my shoulder surgery, I’d have taken it, but I am super competitive and I’m not in this to finish fifth. Um, so it is still frustrating. I think more frustrating because of how. The 86 class went and the fact that the medal zone was 134 and if I could lift 132 as a 79, then theoretically I should be able to lift 134 as an 86.
I say theoretically, you don’t know what’s going to happen. I think that is more of frustration is that we picked the wrong class. we couldn’t have known that we picked the wrong class, but we did. Yeah, I mean, can’t change it. Just got to learn from it. So, uh, that’s what I’m planning on doing.
Alison: I said this to somebody yesterday and it, it, is applicable today. You don’t sound like a woman who’s retiring.
Louise Sugden: No, I don’t think I am. I also haven’t really got back into training yet. So ask me again in six months. Um, I, I don’t know, four years seems a really long time to the next Paralympic games, but, I don’t feel like I’ve stopped progressing.
Like I feel like I’m still getting better. And while I’m still getting better, then I need to keep trying. when I start like losing weight on the bar, that’s when maybe I need to think about, is this the right thing for me? Or is this, you know, is it time to, to give it up? I don’t think like I could probably retire and be quite content, but also I think, uh, I owe it to myself to, to give it a bash and see where we get in the next couple of years and, um, Yeah, you know, just see how we get on.
I might go down another weight class. You never know. It’s always fun.
Jill: I’d like to torture myself some more.
Louise Sugden: See how strong I can be at every weight class.
Alison: No, Louise, no! What was the decision to not go right back to training? Was that just scheduling? Was that letting yourself heal?
Louise Sugden: I just need some time. It was very intense for two years. post shoulder surgery, getting back in training. I didn’t really have a break. Um, not, not a proper break in that time.
So yeah, it’s just given my brain time to recover as well, as well as my body, which isn’t getting any younger. So, uh, we need more recovery time now, . but to be honest with you, I’ve been enjoying. Just doing other things in the gym rather than just lifting weights. I’ve signed up for this thing on Sunday, which I’m very much going to regret, which is basically a CrossFit.
So I may or may not survive that. Um, but I think it’s just interesting to try these things because I’ve been so limiting on myself. for the last couple of years on what I can and can’t do. I want to, while I can still do these things, give them a try. so yeah, Adaptive CrossFit is essentially where I’ve ended up at the weekend.
Alison: Well, they can’t make you do burpees. No. I’m sure they’ll find
Louise Sugden: other methods
Alison: of
Louise Sugden: torture though.
Jill: But it is interesting that, like, I, I’m not sure regular people realize, like, Athletes do limit themselves in what they do because you don’t want to hurt yourself doing something random and totally throw off a game plan.
Louise Sugden: Hugely. And like when I’m doing stuff, I’m thinking, is it going to benefit me? Is it going to, is this going to contribute towards my performance?
Is it going to affect a training session? Like I’ve turned down going for a push or a walk with friends because I don’t want to affect my Monday training session or stuff like that. Yeah. That, that, that is that kind of level of detail that goes into, especially the last bit of a Paralympic cycle. I think, I don’t think people realize the thought process and all kinds of stuff that goes through my head.
I’m still a basketball coach and honestly, I’ve been wanting to play basketball so much in the last six months and it’s like, I can’t, I can’t risk it. There’s no, no benefit to what I am trying to achieve. Try doing basketball at the moment. , and I think, yeah, it’s just, you just have to think about it on such a minute kind of detail.
and like I hired a device for my chair so that I didn’t have to push around the village, so that I could still get around and see stuff, but I wasn’t expending that extra energy. I think I heard one of the Olympians, they said that, you know, If you don’t have to walk somewhere, don’t do it just before a race.
And it’s the same thing because they’re trying to save their legs. It’s the same for me. I’m trying to save my arms, but my arms do everything. I don’t have the option of just getting up and going for a walk. So yeah, it’s, there’s a lot that goes on in my head.
Alison: Given how late your competition was, did you get to have any fun while you were in Paris?
Louise Sugden: I had a great time at the closing ceremony.
Alison: You went in the rain?
Louise Sugden: Yes, I sat in the rain. I got absolutely soaked. And you know what? Once I got over the fact that I was absolutely soaked, I just danced in the rain. And it was fun. It was really good fun. it was a great party. I really enjoyed it. but unfortunately we had to get up really early the next day to get home.
So that was a bit disappointing. But yeah, no, that, to be honest with you, we went around the village and we did all the stuff that there was to do in the village on like off training days and, or lighter training days. And so I got to see it. I got to see the village. I maybe didn’t have as much fun as some people because I was still focusing on comp, but yeah, post, post comp and um, went out for a meal with my family, which was lovely.
and then yeah, closing ceremony was big old party.
Jill: Did you have the chocolate muffin? I did. We have to ask. Yeah. Yes, I did. And, and what are your thoughts? We’ve heard American’s thoughts on it. We have a different palette. So what do you think?
Louise Sugden: I really liked the muffin. I really liked the muffin. I think that the cookies were better
in the village. So every day they had muffins and cookies and some other desserts. And I would have picked a cookie over the muffin. But you had to try the muffin, didn’t you? Because of the hype. So, a muffin as big as your head. It was the gooey bit in the middle. That was the bit that I think got a lot of people caught out and they were like, Oh, this is a nice muffin.
Then they got to go a bit in the middle. Do you know what? It’d be exceptional if you put it in the microwave for maybe like 10 seconds just to get that little bit really gooey. See, now you can’t go down a weight class because we’re talking about gooey chocolate. I didn’t have one until after weigh in, which was challenging.
Another challenge to add to the, add to the collection.
Alison: any cool things you’ve gotten to do since you got back?
Louise Sugden: Um, so I got invited to Downing Street. Downing Street. which was a very nice experience. We were out in the garden, um, with the prime minister and a selection of athletes from the Paralympics and the Olympics.
So that was pretty cool. , our homecoming event was really awesome. I really enjoyed that. And just being back with the whole team, and they put on a big show, I don’t know if you saw, but basically it was basically a concert, and we were at the front, and then there was a crowd behind us, and yeah, it was just a really nice celebration of the whole team, yeah, those are probably my highlights since I’ve been back.
Alison: Has the reaction, now you’ve done this a few times, so has the reaction this time. been different than previous Paralympics?
Louise Sugden: I do think there’s a lot of interest this time around. it’s a difficult one for me because coming back from Tokyo, obviously I was a medalist and there was a lot of interest because I was a medalist.
And I do think that there’s a different kind of interest when you don’t get a medal. I think that’s crazy because I’m still fifth in the world. Like I’m, I’m still, you know, but they want the bling. Everyone wants the bling. so yeah, I think that there’s definitely been a lot of hype. There’s a lot of, other events.
I know that Paralympics GB are working on a couple of things. Like they’ve got their equal play thing, which they’re doing at the moment to try and get more disabled kids in school doing sport in PE. And genuinely, I didn’t do sport up here in PE at school. I got put. You know, I did, I did the odd bit here and there where they could figure out how to include me.
so I think that’s really important and, they’re doing also a change makers thing. So I actually went along to, an event down the road from me, just to be there and so people could meet me and chat to me and, hopefully inspire a couple of people to do a little bit more. I think that’s the most important thing when you get back from these events is to get your face out there and, and just encourage people to, to be active in, I mean, they call it the Paralympic and Olympic effect, but if it helps people, if it helps one person.
Then it’s doing a good thing. I think
Alison: thank you so much, Louise, for taking some time with us and
Louise Sugden: we will, we will
Alison: stay in touch. We want to see you in LA.
Louise Sugden: Well, my family are very keen because they do like the idea of going to LA so I said then we could just go on holiday No pressure
Games in you. Oh, yeah number five brilliant. I’ll see what I can do perfect
Jill Jaracz: Thank you so much, Louise. You can find Louise on Instagram and threads at lulusuggers on TikTok.
She is at lulu. suggers and Twitter, because she refuses to call it X. She is at lulussuggen13.
A Great Way to Support the Show
Jill Jaracz: Talked about the holidays earlier if you are into physical stuff books books we will have a book club next week and that was a really good book and if And we’ll also have the titles that we’ll do for 2025 on the list so you can put those on your shopping list as well Through the holidays you can support the book club The show and independent booksellers by shopping at bookshop.
org slash flame Bookshop. org slash shop slash flame alive
Alison Brown: pod and we’ll have a link to that In the show notes.
Doping News
Alison Brown: I just hear the sound and I get mad. This is wild though, because the article that I read about this called this the dirtiest race in Olympic history.
Jill Jaracz: Yes. And we had read a couple of years ago, we read the dirtiest race in history, the book about the 100 meters in Seoul 1988, which is an extremely doped up race or quote unquote doped up because they didn’t really do testing back then.
Oh wait, but there was testing, not effective testing. Yeah, there were, there was testing though. And, um, that was a fun conversation. We’ll have to link back to that one. If you have not heard it yet, but boy, I am looking for the book on this race because it is amazing. This is a doping situation from, wait for it, London 2012.
We are back to the women’s 1500 meter finals. Previously, four of the 13 finalists were hit with doping violations, along with three runners in the heats. And, now we, we got number five finalist caught for doping and this is a really good story. And I did. Did you watch the race? I did not. I had to go back and watch this race.
original podium was Asli Cekir Alptekin from Turkey, won gold that day. Kamza Balut, also from Turkey, won silver that day. And Maryam Yusuf Jamal from Bahrain won bronze. So the two Turkish runners were found dead. two have doped in 2015 and 2017 they got disqualified. Jamal moves up to gold. Tatiana Tova from Russia moves up to silver and ETAs.
Abebe. A agai moves up to bronze.
Alison Brown: But
Jill Jaracz: wait,
Alison Brown: there’s more.
Jill Jaracz: Yeah. Since then, the 7th place finisher, Belorussian Natalia Koryevo and 9th place finisher, Russian Yekaterina Martinova were also found to have biological passport doping offenses and they were disqualified from this race as well.
Alison Brown: But wait, there’s more. I
Jill Jaracz: know. And, and, We’re missing here in this race, the pre Olympics favorite, who was Moroccan, Mariam Aloui Selsouli, who was not in London because she tested for, positive for a diuretic ahead of the games and was not at London at all.
Now, this September, Court of Arbitration for Sport has found that, Russian Tatyana Tomashova’s was also doping. They gave her a 10 year ban, which stripped her of the results in this race. So she had originally finished fourth, moved up to silver, Now, she’s out. We will likely see another podium change with Aragawi moving up to, second place and Shannon Robery from the U.
- moves up to third. But We don’t have an official IOC medal real allocation yet.
Alison Brown: Wow. Wow. I mean, this feels like weightlifting. Where you just wipe out all the finalists.
Jill Jaracz: I know, it’s just incredible how many people from this race were gone. And I did go back and watch it.
Shukla Stani, Jeff Whiteman said on X, he called that race. He was in the stadium. He was working the 2012 Olympics. He chose to call the 1500 meter finals over the 1800 meters. And they were the only events where the crowd was subdued and indifferent in the closing stages. They knew what they were watching.
A great shame for those. playing fairly and disdain on those games.
Alison Brown: And there was controversy at the time because there were athletes in this race calling out other athletes, saying, this is not a fair race, I’m not doping, everybody else is.
Jill Jaracz: They weren’t far off. They
Alison Brown: were not wrong. They were not wrong.
This is, you know, how heartbroken I am over this stuff. So,
Jill Jaracz: and it’s, it’s not a fun race to watch either. And now that you, when you have the knowledge that almost half of the field is doping, that’s not fun, but the race starts off really slow and People just weren’t running fast. I don’t know what they were waiting for or why they decided that was going to be the, the tempo, but almost instantly, you know, that we’re not going to set any kind of records here with this race.
It’s going to be a game of not cat and mouse, but like, see who’s going to make the next move. And it’s just not fun to watch people run slowly. They were waiting for the drugs to kick in. I guess so.
Paris 2024 News
Jill Jaracz: Speaking of doping, the International Testing Agency released its final report on its pre Paris 2024 initiative.
Alison Brown: Which we talked about, during Paris 2024 because I went to the ITA, press conference. Right, right. So we talked about that whole thing. system that they put in place.
Jill Jaracz: Yes. So 90 percent of potential Olympic athletes were tested at least once in the six months ahead of the games. That compares to 85 percent for Tokyo 2020.
And then if you looked at just the medalists, 97 percent underwent testing at least once ahead of the games. This report doesn’t look like they talk about any, results of the doping tests. It’s mostly just, how many people we tested, where, what countries we tested, which basically every country, but how what the level of testing was in each country and different sports.
Alison Brown: And in a separate spot on the ITA website, The people that they list being banned or provisionally banned from, Paris 2024 are ones that we talked about that were mostly announced during the games.
Jill Jaracz: Okay. So, pretty good. So, upping their levels of testing, so we, hopefully. don’t get these retroactive reallocations like we’re seeing for 2012.
But, It’ll be interesting to see what comes down the road in terms of what tests they develop to uncover other types of drugs. Hopefully we won’t uncover anything. But speaking to Uncover Stuff, uh, we are getting close to having more financial information from Paris 2024 in terms of how much it costs to run those games.
Franck Joux noted a report from Le Monde that, uh, spending on security looks to be 1. 14 billion euros per a French Senate report. Apparently this is higher than anticipated. Really? You don’t say.
Milan-Cortina 2026 News
Alison Brown: Bonjourno!
Jill Jaracz: Bonjourno! So, Milan Cortina 2026, the Associated Press, has an update on the sliding track. It is taking shape. I’ve seen a picture. There’s, , concrete. There there’s some frames government agency, uh, said that the top part of the track is being finalized and they are paying a special attention to the refrigeration system.
So they will be working all winter long. They’ve got, I think, like, 150 people working on this project and. Apparently the refrigeration system can be like reversed to provide heat.
So that’s one way they’ll keep the workers warm during the winter.
Alison Brown: Well, the refrigeration system is what failed in Torino in terms of why that track doesn’t work anymore. So that seems to be the big factor in whether these tracks are successful or not. So I hope you’re paying special attention to the refrigeration system.
TKFLASTAN Update
Alison Brown: welcome to Shooklastan.
Jill Jaracz: And it is the point in 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 our very own country, Shooklastan.
Alison Brown: At the ISU Four Continents Championships in Japan, speed skater Erin Jackson won the women’s 500 meter for the second straight year.
Jill Jaracz: And, uh, boccia player Alison Levine took bronze at the Canadian National Boccia Championships. So, kind of slow times for shufflestown right now. It’s that time of year where it gets quiet. Quiet until the calm before the winter storm. I’m looking forward to winter sports, for sure.
Not on the sliding track in, not yet, in Milan, not yet. Well, they know they got to get it done by March, like the beginning of March because it’s got to get, checked and approved and so that they can start running tests and things. Ugh.
Alison Brown: Why do I suddenly hear that classical music flight of the bumblebee in my head?
And I’m seeing these furious Italian workers just, you know, chipping away at everything in cartoon speed.
Jill Jaracz: I hope somebody’s taking like a double, a slo mo video or something that they’ll, be able to show very fast. Time lapse photography there. Oh man, hopefully, hopefully they’ll get it done and they’ll get it done right.
That’s what I’m really hoping because they’re spending a ton of money on that.
Get in Touch
Jill Jaracz: That is going to do it for this episode. We had some good stories from Louise Sugden, and some Paris 2024 moments. Let us know your favorite moments from Paris 2024 as well.
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. If you need more Olympics and Paralympics in your life and who does not sign up for our newsletter at flamealivepod. com. We’ll have a link to that in the show notes.
Coming Soon
Jill Jaracz: Next week, book club Claire, we’ll be back for a discussion of Richard Asquith.
Today, we die a little, a biography of Emil Zatopek, who many feel is the greatest Olympic runner of all time. Did we die a little while reading it? Find out next time. Thank you so much for listening. And until next time, keep the flame alive.