The Milano Cortina 2026 Olympics are officially open! We look at the competition of day, including our trip to the figure skating arena to see the women’s short program part of the Team event.
Then it was time for the big show: The Opening Ceremony. We share what it was like from both the media and fan perspective.
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TRANSCRIPT
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Milano Cortina 2026 Olympics-Day 0
[00:00:00] And welcome to Keep the Flame and Lives Day Zero coverage of the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games. I am your host, Mitchell Jarris, coming to you from Shuk Stanhouse. Joined as always by my lovely co-host, Alison Brown. Alison Chow Commo, I,
Alison Brown: I don’t know how you say, tired and Italian.
Jill Jaracz: And we’ve only just begun.
Alison Brown: It’s been a long day. It
Jill Jaracz: has been a very long day. It is two o’clock in the morning, [00:01:00] and I got home from the opening ceremony approximately 15 minutes ago.
Alison Brown: Yeah, just about, oh, that was a, that was a show.
Jill Jaracz: That was a, that was a commute home too.
Alison Brown: I think your commute home was almost as long as that show, and that is saying something
Jill Jaracz: felt like it, that’s for sure.
Alright, we are gonna get to that opening ceremonies as quickly as possible. But first, what officiating or volunteer job would you like to do?
Alison Brown: I’m gonna be a purple coffee maker.
Jill Jaracz: A purple coffee maker.
Alison Brown: So in the opening ceremonies there was that section where everybody was different colored things. Oh, right, right, right.
And one of them was a little espresso pot.
Jill Jaracz: Oh, I didn’t realize that.
Alison Brown: I wanna be the purple one.
Jill Jaracz: I, uh, pulled out my binoculars and forgot my binoculars. So there’s only so much I could see. Um. I would still like to be actually plaque woman first choice.
Alison Brown: Well, you [00:02:00] would’ve gotten a fa a fabulous puffer outfit.
Jill Jaracz: Oh my gosh. We’ll get to that too. Or one of the traffic moving volunteers. They were
Alison Brown: a lot
Jill Jaracz: of fun.
Alison Brown: They were. They were really moving them along. ’cause at one point the Canadians stopped to take a picture and the poor volunteer almost had a meltdown just jumping in there saying, oh my goodness, you cannot stop.
The parade of nations must continue at all times, no stoppage.
Jill Jaracz: Oh, boy, boy, boy. Um, uh, before we get to today’s results, we would like to say thank you to all of our patrons and donors who help keep our flame alive. Uh, it does take money to get us to Italy. It also takes money to produce the show every week for the entire year.
So we appreciate your financial support if you are enjoying the show so far. Please, uh, consider giving back. We are@flamealivepod.com slash support. There are several different ways You could be a one-off donor, you could be an [00:03:00] ongoing donor through Patreon. Patreon, patrons get, uh, extra bonuses like photos and videos and um, sometimes audio.
So. Flame ipod.com/support. Thank you so much for keeping our flame alive. Let’s do, uh, there was competition this morning, so let’s get some results done really quick. Uh, curling. Lots more, uh, mixed curling, going mixed. Lots more mixed doubles curling going on today. So after two more sessions of Round robin play, uh, great Britain and US are the only undefeated teams so far.
Uh, great Britain is five and oh, US is four and oh, Canada is three in one, as is Italy. Uh, the Swiss are two in two. Sweden is two and three. Estonia and Norway are one and three, and Czechia and Korea are windless so far. Tough times for them.
Alison Brown: Yeah. We’re still concerned about Norway. [00:04:00]
Jill Jaracz: Yeah, that’s, that’s, that’s a tough one too.
That’s a surprising one, but
Alison Brown: there’s a lot more play.
Jill Jaracz: Yes. And you’re Italian.
Alison Brown: And my Italian hunk of hunk of burning in love is just burning up the ice. Let’s just say
Jill Jaracz: figure skating Started the team event today. So they did the ice dance rhythm dance, the, the pairs short and the women’s Short program today.
Alison Brown: Yeah, and the Japanese won two of those, but are not in first place.
Jill Jaracz: No,
Alison Brown: the US is in first place in the standings and Japan is only two points behind and Italy two points behind them. So we’ve still got a lot more, uh, pieces to go through on this competition.
Jill Jaracz: Exactly. So, uh, um. Madison Cho and Evan Bates from the US won the ice dance rhythm dance section.
Uh, Rico Inchi from Japan won the pairs and Kaari Sakamoto won the [00:05:00] Women’s Short, and Alyssa Lu from the US got second. So this is why the US gets edged up a little bit more and we were able to get there for the women’s part. We had an interview to do this morning and then hustled down to the ice skating arena, which.
Is a huge looking building on the outside, nice sized arena on the inside for figure skating.
Alison Brown: It is a little Soviet.
Jill Jaracz: It is a little brutalist. Yeah.
Alison Brown: You know, you, you come in and there’s nothing around it. When you see it from the train station, it’s just this arena in the, in seemingly the middle of nowhere.
But the other side of the road, when we came back, we saw that there’s a big shopping center close by there, so it wasn’t quite, so we put arena in field, you go ski, you know, it wasn’t quite so
Jill Jaracz: cold. And, and the walk, the walk from the train to the arena, not. As bad as, uh, the. Hockey and speed skating is, I think
Alison Brown: I,
Jill Jaracz: I would
Alison Brown: agree.
Jill Jaracz: You know, and if it could be the same, but I think when you see that you have to [00:06:00] cross over a highway. They have a bridge over a highway. You go over and we have to go around and up some rickety stairs to get to the media entrance,
Alison Brown: rickety stair count. Two.
Jill Jaracz: Right. It’s, it’s infinity. Really. We did see Jackie Wong hard at work.
Alison Brown: Yes. Didn’t wanna interrupt his flow.
Jill Jaracz: So, uh, but the, the skating was lovely.
Alison Brown: It, the arena is really, really nice. It’s not. Big, bigger than women’s hockey, which is good. Mm-hmm. But it’s a very personal feeling arena. Mm-hmm. I don’t know. The boards aren’t particularly high. It’s not particularly cluttered, so we had a great line of sight.
I don’t think there is a bad line of sight in that arena, which is. You know what you want when you’re, if you’re gonna dish out the big bucks to go see figure skating at the Olympics.
Jill Jaracz: And everybody we saw, we, we came in right when the first skater was finishing up her program, but the other [00:07:00] nine that we saw all clean, clean, it was so nice.
Everybody was doing so well. I did get a little misty-eyed on you
Alison Brown: Did not
Jill Jaracz: on Cow’s last spin. It just got me. It just got me. That short program is just beautiful.
Alison Brown: She’ll do that to you.
Jill Jaracz: She will, she will. But, uh, fun competition so far. The teams get really into it, and that’s nice to do to see as well. .
After the men’s short program tomorrow evening, the top five teams move on to the free skate portions of the team events. We cut down from 10 teams to five, then it gets serious. That’s right. We also had some, , women’s ice hockey, , Japan, beat France three to two. That had to be exciting. And same with, uh, SW Switzerland.
Beat Chea. 4, 2, 3.
Alison Brown: Nice tight games.
Jill Jaracz: Yeah. And now we had the opening ceremony,
Alison Brown: which will involve the next seven hours of your life with lots of dancers and lots of flashing lights.[00:08:00]
Jill Jaracz: Flashing lights that you did not get?
Alison Brown: I did not get. So Jill was there as a fan in, in real people’s seats. Yes. Yes. And I was there in the media seats. We did not get a program, we get, did not get one of the sparkly lights, LED lights to participate. In the light show, which I was extraordinarily disappointed about.
Jill Jaracz: Right. Because now the thing is you get a little wristband with a light on it and they’ve got a Bluetooth and so it changes color, it goes off randomly. It, it’s got a great effect
Alison Brown: and it’s continuing to glow.
Jill Jaracz: Yeah. Ours, mine is continuing to glow right now. It just won’t turn off and it’s glowing yellow.
Um, so where was your, so we were at San Stadium, the. Iconic Sanrio Stadium, which is celebrating its hundredth anniversary and is also going to be closed.
Alison Brown: Thank goodness. ’cause those seats are tiny.
Jill Jaracz: Oh my gosh. Oh, you know, my producer Ben, [00:09:00] would never, ever fit in San.
Alison Brown: I barely fit.
Jill Jaracz: Yeah, I barely fit too.
Charlotte barely fit. Um, tiny close together rows, uh, plastic seats that they no arms, and I’m, that’s fine, but they’re a little tiny as well. And of course, you cannot get people in and out without standing up and barely f. Staying upright and we had people going in and out of our row all the time.
Alison Brown: Well, that’s the one good thing about being in the press section.
When somebody comes and sits, they come and sit and they don’t move.
Jill Jaracz: Right, right. And we did not move. So where, uh, we get off the, the metro right at San Zero, you get out of the, uh, metro station, you have to go through a turnstile gate. Yes. This is different. A new thing for us. And that will come into play in a moment.
Alison Brown: Yes, it will.
Jill Jaracz: Um, so, and then San is right there.
Alison Brown: Yes.
Jill Jaracz: So we go [00:10:00] in the first place we can go. And where do you go from there?
Alison Brown: I went to entrance B.
Jill Jaracz: Okay.
Alison Brown: So I didn’t have to go very far. And then from there I went in between number six and number seven tower. So it was actually quite easy for me. Shocking to find the Media Tribune because all along the way there are volunteers and several of them have little signs.
Jill Jaracz: Oh,
Alison Brown: you know, this way to the Media Tribune, or ask me if you’re a journalist, you know, things.
Jill Jaracz: Wow, this is, this is new.
Alison Brown: This is amazing. This was the, the best gift they could have given me. I only weighed, made one mistake in my venturing up. I went up the wrong staircase. So I went up four flights, had to go down four flights.
Then back across and up five flights. But it was really minor inconvenience because every other spot, there was two or three volunteers who showed me where I needed to be. So I had an [00:11:00] incredibly easy time finding my seat.
Jill Jaracz: And you were sitting in facing the front. So you saw the rings from the front,
Alison Brown: correct?
Jill Jaracz: You were, um, uh, below you were the dignitaries?
Alison Brown: Yes.
Jill Jaracz: Okay. So Charlotte and I went around to get E, which is on the side. So we walked around a long way, went up our four flights, and this was the second time of the day after hoofing it to figure skating that I, and from figure skating that I kept saying to myself, you trained for this, you trained for this.
’cause those stairs were bad. But when we got up, we had this amazing view of the mountains from the balcony. Oh, outside out, they are spectacular. So that was bonus number one. Uh, we decided to get something to eat and, uh, the line was not bad for the concession at that point. [00:12:00] At, yeah. I, I don’t know. And there were several stores, official stores in and around the complex, all with massive lines.
Alison Brown: Yes.
Jill Jaracz: Which was unbelievable. Um, so. Get in line, uh, at this particular type of concession stand. You, uh, got in line and you ordered and paid, and then you had to take your receipt to get the food pickup. And the poor man doing food pickup was a little overwhelmed by beverages because if you were in Paris, you remember you got a cup.
If you ordered any kind of beverage. Uh, it usually came in a plastic bottle and they would open the bottle and pour it into a cup for you because. That was Paris’s sustainability model. So here they are pouring beverages into metal cups. Which I have put a picture of that on our Facebook group. And, uh, I, I’m excited about the metal cup.
It’s very cool. It will keep your beverage cold and by the end of the night, your hand is [00:13:00] also cold.
Alison Brown: I, I drank my beverage quite quickly once I realized how cold. This metal cup was going to become as we went along.
Jill Jaracz: So there’s that. We also had, uh, the calzone, which was not very good.
Alison Brown: Oh, I’m
Jill Jaracz: sorry. It was, uh, we got tomato because we figured that would be safe and there was not much filling to it, but it was at least something because we were starving by the time.
Yeah. And I have done nothing but be hungry all day today. I cannot get enough food in my body.
Alison Brown: That’s ’cause you’re doing the steps.
Jill Jaracz: Yeah, well I’ve trained for that. I have not trained for no eating again already. And I like packed a sandwich today. I didn’t get that until like four o’clock and we eat good breakfast and all that stuff, but Oh my gosh,
Alison Brown: just this wasn’t your food day,
Jill Jaracz: it was not a good food day.
So, uh, get the stuff. And, uh, so we each got the calzone and, uh, a coke [00:14:00] and a water because we were thirsty. And did you get
Alison Brown: two cups each?
Jill Jaracz: Yes, we got two cups each. What are you gonna do? They’re not gonna give you a bottle, you gotta have the cup. So we’re trying to balance cups and calzones and people wandering into our row and not, it’s not, not great.
So we chit chat with other, so I am on the side. I am like. At if you are six o’clock? Yes, I am at nine o’clock.
Alison Brown: Okay.
Jill Jaracz: So I cannot see the front of the rings ever. Okay. I really wanted them to rotate.
Alison Brown: Yes.
Jill Jaracz: But that’s okay. That is okay.
Alison Brown: Other things rotated.
Jill Jaracz: Yes, that is, that is correct. So, um, the show itself
Alison Brown: started so strong.
Jill Jaracz: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I would, I would agree on that. And I, I give it to, uh, hand.
You gotta hand it to Marco. Beli and his team, they know how to do a show.
Alison Brown: And in many ways it was an old school throwback. It was [00:15:00] dancers and light up costumes and color and pageantry, and not a lot of.
Uh, ai.
Jill Jaracz: Yeah. Not a lot of technology really. The, the, the lights on the stage, it was a kind of a swirly spiral stage. Um. Lights made a spiral. The center was round and there were four ramps coming off of it at, uh, kind of swoopy angles. And that lit up with like, it wasn’t rope lights, but it was a, a light runner kind of thing.
Alison Brown: It was very simple.
Jill Jaracz: Yes.
Alison Brown: Not simple, I’m sure to execute, but in terms of you could have done this show 30 years ago with that technology.
Jill Jaracz: Yes. Yeah.
Alison Brown: Which I loved. I was. So excited to see kind of this throwback style show, yet it didn’t feel dated.
Jill Jaracz: No, it didn’t because there are ma many, many segments. But I, [00:16:00] I thought about it later and I thought it was so nice to have a simple set design and simple things to execute because the complexity of what they had to do was enormous because they did have four different.
Ceremony type places. And there was more in Corina, but also in Lavino and, uh, PRSO. Prso, they had the Parade of Nations.
Alison Brown: Yes. Which
Jill Jaracz: is so coordinating all of that was so complex.
Alison Brown: Keep it simple. Stupid.
Jill Jaracz: Yeah. So it was great. Um. They came out and and got the rings up pretty quickly,
Alison Brown: very quickly. And how they did it was again, quite traumatic.
They had people inside the rings who then. Threw themselves out of the ring, suspended from, uh, wires in the sky. I gasped as if they’re, they’re [00:17:00] going to have some suicide as part of their show. They, the, the two people jump outta the rings into each other’s arms. It was so dramatic, and I’m sure much more dramatic in person than on the screen, simply because we could see how incredibly high they were.
Yes, off the ground.
Jill Jaracz: Yes, but the, the ring theme kind of played through in the set design because Yes, uh, there were rings with the bottom arc cut out to make an arch, and that led, that was the arch that the athletes walked through for the Parade of Nations. And there was one in each location, which I loved that,
Alison Brown: because on the screen, I wonder.
If at home, you could tell if you weren’t paying attention to the little piece in the corner where you were mm-hmm. Because it would tell you, you’re in Corina, you’re in Lavino when you saw the parade.
Jill Jaracz: Mm-hmm.
Alison Brown: But if you weren’t paying attention, [00:18:00] it all looked the same.
Jill Jaracz: Yeah. Basically. I mean, the, the, the arch thing you.
Some places I wonder if, uh, PSO and Lavino had much in the way of spectators, but you could see spectators and cortina ’cause they had stuff there. It was like a whole little thing that you could go to. Um, oh, it just slipped my mind. But, uh.
Oh, you know what else I liked because they didn’t do a whole lot of video content. They did a couple of videos. One I thought would be like, was a, a commercial break kind of thing. But I’ll tell you, San Cero also does not have great jumbotrons.
Alison Brown: Very tight. They’re, they’re sort of like. Biggest trons, right?
They’re not very jumbo. They’re quite small.
Jill Jaracz: I feel like I’m Americanized in my jumbo nest.
Alison Brown: We needed bigger seats. We needed bigger jumbo trons. We needed more footpaths. We we needed more space everywhere,
Jill Jaracz: right? So [00:19:00] much. If you had a ton of video content, it was difficult for the in-house audience to see.
So they didn’t have much. They had a little thing in the beginning. That had somebody famous because people around me cheered. And um, then they had another segment that se segued into a live action Yes. Portion. We’ll get there.
Alison Brown: Let’s talk about the parade of Nations.
Jill Jaracz: Oh, we gotta talk about Mariah Carey.
She was before parade nations.
Alison Brown: Do we have to talk about Yes,
Jill Jaracz: we do. She was big, big deal.
Alison Brown: So was her hair.
Jill Jaracz: Yeah, she had a lot of hair. Big dress. And a big, uh, teleprompter
Alison Brown: and a big entourage. She had four guys helping her with that dress to get on and off the stage.
Jill Jaracz: Do not blame them. So she sang Vale and then she sang some kind of song in English and.
The only reason I know ’cause I was watching the teleprompter more than
Alison Brown: her. Yes. And the funny part about the teleprompter that you showed me was it was, uh, phonetic.
Jill Jaracz: Yes.
Alison Brown: The Italian was written out [00:20:00] phonetically, which, you know, honestly, she doesn’t speak Italian. She’s singing in Italian, even though it’s re and everybody knows re
Jill Jaracz: but you know, re That’s true.
And you know, you go do, do,
Alison Brown: do, do. Yeah. Yeah.
Jill Jaracz: Um, she did well. I, I thought all of the big name performers were good. Except, except for, uh, Gilly.
Alison Brown: That was a little weird.
Jill Jaracz: That was weird. We’ll get to that ’cause he’s at the end. Um, but she was like the biggest name to you and me.
Alison Brown: Yes.
Jill Jaracz: Up in the front. Um, and then we had the Parade of Nations pretty quickly.
Oh wait, no, we gotta talk about the big heads. There was a, I
Alison Brown: don’t wanna talk about the big heads ’cause I don’t have nightmares about those big heads.
Jill Jaracz: So I’m not sure who they were. They were three big heads and I’m assuming they were, had something to do with art. And were big names in Milan. And by big heads, I mean, if you watch baseball in the US at all, and you have [00:21:00] seen a hotdog race or, uh, the, you know, a, uh, Parro Iran or the, or the, you know, the, the Washington Nationals had the president’s race and I think.
Seattle Mariners have a salmon run kind of thing. They look like those and they kind of really look like the presidents from the nationals.
Alison Brown: Well, yes, because they, I, I think one may have been verde. Okay. Yeah. That, that’s, that’s a total guess because it was part of the segment that was about music and art.
And, uh, the idea of Milan being a center of
Jill Jaracz: Yes.
Alison Brown: Music, art, and dance.
Jill Jaracz: Yes.
Alison Brown: Great with these, but then you had giant heads.
Jill Jaracz: Oh, but they were fun and, uh, bigs and they danced. Tube, big tubes of paint. Paint were staged on top of the, the roof. And then they got lowered down. And then, uh. Streamer fabric came out of them to represent paint and that was just a cool effect.
Alison Brown: So simple. Yes. And yet so effective.
Jill Jaracz: Yes.
Alison Brown: And I think [00:22:00] effective on the screen as well.
Jill Jaracz: I hope so.
Alison Brown: I hope so. ’cause that part of it was really good. And the, and the human music notes.
Jill Jaracz: Mm-hmm.
Alison Brown: Trying to dance with these giant cleft notes hanging off their shoulders. That was, that was some impressive dancing.
Jill Jaracz: Um, let me, let me check my program to see what else was here.
I did get, we got a little program. If you were a fan,
Alison Brown: you got a little program
Jill Jaracz: if you were a fan. Um, and it’s not, not huge, it’s, it’s just a few pages, but it does tell you all the different sections that are gonna happen. And then they do have in here a, uh, uh, read the complete program after 7:00 PM Oh, they had an embargoed thing, which I tried to click on and, and it didn’t work.
Alison Brown: Yeah.
Jill Jaracz: Um. But they talked about beauty, they talked about fantasy, all of this stuff that relates to arm armonia, which is huge theme. Um, Italian flag and National Anthem, which was lovely.
Alison Brown: Yes. Oh, that was [00:23:00] really beautiful. The, how they had the, the, how they honored Giorgio Armani was they had. Models walk in with these very sharp Armani style suits in red, green, and yellow, and walked in as white, great.
Excuse me, red, green and white. And walked in as a human Italian flag.
Jill Jaracz: Yes.
Alison Brown: Oh my gosh. And then Lara Parisi sang with. As much emotion, I think as I’ve ever heard a national anthem be performed.
Jill Jaracz: Yeah.
Alison Brown: With the exception of like Whitney Houston and and her national anthem. It had that kind of effect. And I don’t even know the Italian national anthem
Jill Jaracz: don’t say that.
Alison Brown: Well, I don’t know the words.
Jill Jaracz: Okay, well there you go. Well, we got a whole couple weeks to learn ’em.
Alison Brown: I’m sure we will. But
Jill Jaracz: it was stunning.
Alison Brown: Beautiful.
Jill Jaracz: Um, uh, then we had the city and mountain. Oh, we found out the song that we’re gonna be singing for the next two weeks, which just
Alison Brown: ano
Jill Jaracz: manano
Alison Brown: Cortina. Oh, [00:24:00] oh, oh, oh,
Jill Jaracz: yeah.
And, and you have a little dance that goes with it and you stiffer Milano, you stick up your, um, your left arm and then your right arm. And then when you say Cortina, you make your arms into a mountain shape over your head. And then when you sing oh oh oh, you, you like thump your heart three times
Alison Brown: or if you’re the big heads you have to put them out in front of your big face ’cause they were in fact doing the dance.
Jill Jaracz: So parade of parade of athletes.
Alison Brown: Went on forever.
Jill Jaracz: It was long in some aspects. I bet it was better on tv. I wish it would have been a little snappier.
Alison Brown: Yes. So the problem was that because you’ve got this four location Parade of Nations, that on the television screen, they would switch to every. So if a country had athletes in all four places, they gave each place as much screen time as you would give [00:25:00] one country.
So a country, say like Norway, that had athletes everywhere would get the same amount of screen time as four different countries, right? So in the stadium, we would just sit there and wait.
Jill Jaracz: Right. And so the other thing was if you, wherever your flag bearer was, that’s who held the flag. So you would have nations parade in Milano with no flag
Alison Brown: or in other areas?
Yes.
Jill Jaracz: With no
Alison Brown: flag. With no flag. And then sometimes there were nations that didn’t parade in Milano because they didn’t have any athletes here. So it was just the placard bearer.
Jill Jaracz: Yes.
Alison Brown: And announced the country. And then this poor lonely woman would just walk along in her beautiful silver puffer dress.
Jill Jaracz: That was something, it was, okay.
So she wore a silver puffer dress with a train kind train with a puffer [00:26:00] train, uh, like wrap around black glass sunglasses. So you couldn’t see her face. And the thing had a hood on it. Yes. So you really couldn’t see. And then she carried the, the plaques looked like they were big blocks of ice.
Alison Brown: I hope they weren’t having,
Jill Jaracz: I don’t, I hope, I don’t think they had to be Lucite or something, something light, but they were stunning.
Alison Brown: Yes. And dramatic.
Jill Jaracz: Yes. Yes.
Alison Brown: So, and even when the teams would walk in, it felt like they were walking so slowly,
Jill Jaracz: right. ’cause they kind of spiraled around the spiral until they got to where they had to go. So the other problem I ended up having was. For almost every nation, there would be a cheer at the beginning and then ha partway through their walk, like you’d get quiet again
Alison Brown: because it was so long.
You can’t possibly cheer for every nation and the entire time.
Jill Jaracz: And well, you could if [00:27:00] you’re Italy.
Alison Brown: Well that
Jill Jaracz: was just different. Yes,
Alison Brown: that’s one nation the entire time.
Jill Jaracz: And um, the other problem was because you didn’t have. A lot of nations in your location, then there’d be like a cheer. Sometimes they would cheer for like the Jamaicans who are not in Milan, but they were in other places.
There were other countries like that as well, where they’d get cheered on the TV screen. We would cheer them on the TV screen, but they weren’t there in person.
Alison Brown: Right? So most of the time it was if the athletes were, in fact, in Milan, the crowd would cheer because they were so happy to see somebody.
Jill Jaracz: Right.
Alison Brown: Actually walk in,
Jill Jaracz: right? And if you were a nation in another location, you didn’t get a puffer lady, you got a, uh, your sign on a stick, and somebody in your delegation carried that. So it, it might’ve been more helpful if they had done a multiscreen of the other [00:28:00] locations.
Alison Brown: They needed to move it along more quickly.
Jill Jaracz: So that was tough because this show was supposed to end at 10 30 and it was way after 11 o’clock.
Alison Brown: Yes.
Jill Jaracz: When we were out of there, um, after Parade of Nations, we went through, uh, the a hundred years of Winter Olympics. Part of that was a video, which was a woman in a dream. Yes. And then she appeared in real life.
Right below where I was sitting. So I saw the backstage and I saw everybody do their costume changes.
Alison Brown: I couldn’t see much of that ’cause that was sort of to my left and almost behind my shoulder. Okay. In a way, it was so far to the left mm-hmm. That I could see some of the side of it.
Jill Jaracz: Mm-hmm.
Alison Brown: But I really watched that on the screen.
Jill Jaracz: Okay. I, it looked really cute.
Alison Brown: Very cute. Very good for tv. Don’t think it did much for us.
Jill Jaracz: No, it wasn’t another segment, that’s for sure. Um, then we [00:29:00] had the Italian gestures, which was only a video, well, no, somebody came on to the stage to open up an envelope and the mic, quote unquote, wasn’t work breaking.
And so she did all these gestures, but you needed to see the video screens because they were teaching you all of the different meanings of Italian gestures and you needed the video to help you, which. Didn’t have a great effect in the stadium because of the big arons.
Alison Brown: It was a little silly. Mm-hmm. And could have been easily cut.
Jill Jaracz: Yeah.
Alison Brown: Somebo, that was somebody’s pet.
Jill Jaracz: Oh yeah.
Alison Brown: Segment.
Jill Jaracz: Yeah.
Alison Brown: That they didn’t wanna cut the, but it really should have.
Jill Jaracz: We will teach you Italian culture kind of thing. At least they didn’t do the history of Italy.
Alison Brown: Yes. They, they talked about focusing on modern Milan.
Jill Jaracz: Mm-hmm.
Alison Brown: And in many ways that they, they, they did a nice job of bringing in the history of the arts and the culture without making it feel like, oh, let’s give [00:30:00] you the 3000 year history of the country.
Jill Jaracz: Right, right, right. Time for opening speeches. Yeah. Um, so, uh, the president of the organizing committee. Giovanni Malago gave a speech, which basically said, yeah, we spent a lot of money on this one. We’re all,
Alison Brown: and it’s, and it’s been tough.
Jill Jaracz: Yeah.
Alison Brown: But, you know, we wanted to do this. It’s very important to us.
Jill Jaracz: It’s exciting. Uh, then Kirsty Coventry gave a speech,
Alison Brown: her first one.
Jill Jaracz: First one. Wow.
Alison Brown: Knocked it outta the park.
Jill Jaracz: Wow. Wow, wow. And she really related to. The athletes and said, I know exactly what you’re, you know, this is your time. I know what you’re feeling like. And it was just so caring and athlete first, and then also a, Hey, the games are about peace and getting along, and all of that stuff.
Alison Brown: [00:31:00] She struck a really nice balance between focusing on the athletes, but projecting a larger message.
Jill Jaracz: Mm-hmm.
Alison Brown: Without sounding trite.
Jill Jaracz: Yeah. Yeah, it was nice. Really, really good. And, and you know, and I don’t wanna knock Teebo or Jacques Rogue who are also Olympians, but they, you really felt it from the heart, from her.
Alison Brown: I think it’s just a different generation that she’s of a generation that is much more willing to put that heart on the sleeve.
Jill Jaracz: Mm-hmm.
Alison Brown: That you don’t have to be stoic. That showing it actually is a strength. And I think that’s gonna reflect a, a lot in how she runs her, her administration.
Jill Jaracz: It’ll be interesting to see, but it was very good first speech.
Good. Nice job. Yes. Um, then, then the, uh, flame came through.
Alison Brown: The flame came through, didn’t recognize any of the flame bearer. Flame bearers, [00:32:00] any of the torch bearers. Uh. I’m sure they’re all big Italian mm-hmm. Athletes that I did not know. Crowd reacted to most of them.
Jill Jaracz: Yes.
Alison Brown: So,
Jill Jaracz: so that was good.
Alison Brown: Yes.
Jill Jaracz: And, and basically, I applaud this move because what happened in Paris was that the flame came through.
Yes, all on its own and had to get down the entire Sen River and then to the, uh, res where the cauldron was. And it took a long, long time now, so this time, yeah, we were in San, the cauldron is going to be at the Ade Apache, which is a ways away. Yes. So instead of doing it all at once, the flame came through and then we still had.
Show while the flame made its way to the Archdale Apache. So
Alison Brown: what was really funny was, I don’t know if, if this was only in the stadium, but they said to us, say farewell to the flame [00:33:00] as it continues on its journey. So they wanted to make sure that everyone knew the flame was not going to be lighting a cauldron.
If you didn’t realize it, say goodbye, say farewell to the flame as it goes on.
Jill Jaracz: So, but I really liked that use of time. That was a smart move to do that, especially when you’re gonna have a cauldron that is somewhere else. Um, and then we had, uh, the tribute to peace, which this made this the best ceremony ever because they did not play a man.
Instead
Alison Brown: they played a new song.
Jill Jaracz: They, well, but the main gist of it was Charlize Theron came out and with her
Alison Brown: teleprompter
Jill Jaracz: with, she had a teleprompter too, but that’s, you know, whatever. Um, but she gave a message, a piece, and I thought it was very interesting that the tapped a South African.
Alison Brown: Yes.
Jill Jaracz: Also, you know, same with Kirsty Coventry, also from South Africa.
And, uh, she gave a little message and then they projected the [00:34:00] image of a dove and. I liked that better than the song.
Alison Brown: The song was a little confusing.
Jill Jaracz: Oh, well, I don’t remember the song they played tonight, to be quite honest. I just know it. I realized they aren’t doing Imagine
Alison Brown: that’s all and that’s all that mattered.
That’s, and then all the humans laid down in the shape of a dove, which actually I think is one of the more creative ways.
Jill Jaracz: Mm-hmm.
Alison Brown: That we’ve done the dove in the past few, few cycles.
Jill Jaracz: So that a plus. And then we had the, the Olympic flag came out. Uh, with a lot of flag bearers that, well, actually I don’t think anyone was really Italian related.
Alison Brown: The point was they’re all ambassadors of peace. Mm-hmm. In some way. All have served their communities some in very, very large ways, some in smaller ways. But these were all people who. Made a, a difference mm-hmm. In, in the idea of peace.
Jill Jaracz: Mm-hmm.
Alison Brown: Not [00:35:00] Italian.
Jill Jaracz: Right. And, uh, while the flag went up, Lang Lang played the piano and, uh, Cecilia Bartoli.
Sang the Olympic anthem
Alison Brown: and sang the heck out of the Olympic anthem
Jill Jaracz: and he played the heck out of it. This is the best version of the Olympic anthem I have ever heard.
Alison Brown: It was beautiful. It was moving. It wasn’t boring. ’cause sometimes the Olympic anthem can get very doldrum. Yes. You know, very dge like.
Jill Jaracz: Yes.
Alison Brown: There was no durge in Lang Lang.
Jill Jaracz: No, no. There was lots of high hands and flourishes. He, it was beautiful. It was simple. Because it didn’t have a huge, you know, trumpet fanfare to go with it. No
Alison Brown: orchestra.
Jill Jaracz: Uh, the children’s choir from La Scala was, uh, there.
Alison Brown: Small choir.
Jill Jaracz: Yes. It was just beautiful.
Alison Brown: Some, some really different touches this time that made a big difference and made it very Italian.
You know, I love time and [00:36:00] place and this was very Italian and I wouldn’t even go so far as to say very Milanese.
Jill Jaracz: Ooh. Ooh, going out on that limb,
Alison Brown: I am.
Jill Jaracz: No, but it, it was lovely. And then we had, uh, one more segment, which is the Armonia of the future. And this is a child, of course. They brought last segment, they brought on the kids.
Yeah. I could
Alison Brown: have done without this one.
Jill Jaracz: I could have done without this one either, except for I got the whole. Light and solar system, but she’s playing with the model of the solar system and reflects on a shared, uh, responsibility of caring for the planet
Alison Brown: and an astronaut comes out.
Jill Jaracz: Somehow I missed
Alison Brown: that because I, no, the, the woman who came out to help her with the, uh, the model.
Jill Jaracz: Oh, okay. I couldn’t see that very
well.
Alison Brown: Oh, okay. So on the Big Tron it said that she was actually, I, I, I, I apologize for not remembering her name, but she’s an Italian woman who is in fact an astronaut. With the European Space Agency.
Jill Jaracz: Oh, that’s [00:37:00] cool. Because I was kind of looking at the planets, which looked like rings and because they were different colors like the the Olympic rings and the solar system, and I’m making other connections in my brain to what’s going on and not what they intended.
But that’s okay. ’cause I’m bringing my own self to it. That’s okay. I couldn’t tell you what that is now because it’s late and tired. And then we get to the cauldron. Uh, and we have two cauldrons. One is in Corino, one is in Milano. Oh, we didn’t talk about the parade. Okay. Back to the Parade of Nations.
Alison Brown: Okay,
Jill Jaracz: because
Alison Brown: I was about to give you a big pat on the back.
So let, let’s go back to the Parade of
Jill Jaracz: Nations. Oh yeah, no. Okay. Parade of Nations, a couple things. Massive cheering for Ukraine, almost all the way around the stadium.
Alison Brown: Biggest cheer outside of Italy for Italy.
Jill Jaracz: US, a big cheer at the front. Sounded like booing when they went around the corner.
Alison Brown: I can explain that.
Jill Jaracz: Yeah.
Alison Brown: They [00:38:00] put JD Vans on the bigot tron.
Jill Jaracz: Oh,
Alison Brown: so the booing was not for the team at all. The booing was if you had a dignitary in the box.
Jill Jaracz: Oh, right.
Alison Brown: They show your dignitary when your team comes through. JD Vance and his wife were there. They showed them on the bigot tron, and that is when the booze. Started when he was off the screen.
That is when the boo stopped. It was not for the US team.
Jill Jaracz: Okay. Well that’s good because it was, it was a little freaky in the stands because I was really watching the athletes versus the bigger Trump, because they’re big. You don’t notice ’em as much.
Alison Brown: The little trons
Jill Jaracz: and, well those were in the corners. They had tinier space.
Alison Brown: Yeah, they had the tiny little ones. It was like my size. I don’t know what was happening.
Jill Jaracz: So when they rounded that corner, ’cause I’m watching Aaron Jackson with the flag and going to town. Yes. And uh, I heard the booze and it was shocking and [00:39:00] just really unsettling.
Alison Brown: You see, I was not unsettled by it because I saw what, what
Jill Jaracz: they did.
Alison Brown: Okay. The booing was at.
Jill Jaracz: Mm-hmm.
Alison Brown: So I said, okay, that they were not booing the athletes.
Jill Jaracz: Yeah.
Alison Brown: Even though I’m sure some of the athletes did not realize that. And I hope we’ll get that information that it was being directed at the, you know, a representative of the US government that is not terribly popular in Europe right now.
Jill Jaracz: So, yeah.
Alison Brown: Yes.
Jill Jaracz: Okay. Uh, French team was second to last, US was third to last because Utah is hosting in 2034. Yes. French team was second to last. Of course. People went wild. People went wild. They had some French people behind me who were going to biathlon, so it was like, oh. Uh, and then going nuts for Italia, of course, as they should.
Yes. That was lovely. It’s always nice to end on the host country,
Alison Brown: and the host country was so pumped. You know, even though they [00:40:00] don’t have their whole team there, they have a lot of people in a lot of places. Yes. ’cause they get entries into everything. But it, it filled the stadium.
Jill Jaracz: Yes. More so than the crowd filled the stadium.
Alison Brown: Because there were a
Jill Jaracz: lot of ENT seats.
Alison Brown: Yeah. I would say what, two thirds fall?
Jill Jaracz: Oh, no, no, no. It was more than that. But there were chunks of. Empty seats of empty seats. So I would say they it 85 at the worst. Okay. I would, I would put it at that, uh, 85% full. And I bet there’s some people who’ve got FOMO and you should Italy have FOMO for missing this ceremony?
You missed out. Um, uh, but okay, we’re gonna go back to call the mighty. You’re caught
Alison Brown: on the back.
Jill Jaracz: Albert,
Alison Brown: you now He was, he was not alone.
Jill Jaracz: No, he was not alone.
Alison Brown: Uh, but you had said Alberto Tombo was going to light the, the cauldron, and
Jill Jaracz: he did.
Alison Brown: There he was.
Jill Jaracz: Um, uh, when they cut to the cauldron, Enrico [00:41:00] fabrics got the, the torch.
Alison Brown: Yes.
Jill Jaracz: And if you are enjoying the new version of the. Show or the, the theme song that we have, uh, that is the record dea, record dea, that is his race from, uh, Torino. So that, that I was very excited. And then of course, yes, Tumba Baba and then, uh, Sophia Gia
Alison Brown: lit it in Corina. Corina, which I can’t believe we didn’t think of her.
I know we were talking about current athletes that we didn’t immediately go to Sophia Gja, but. Well, well deserved. Yes. All, all the, the torch light. The cauldron lighters.
Jill Jaracz: Yes. And the cauldron looked kind of cool.
Alison Brown: It did. I, I’m gonna reserve judgment until we see it lit in person. ’cause it looked really cool in person.
And then on the screen it looked kind of sad.
Jill Jaracz: Oh, you think? No, I thought because they, [00:42:00] they made it all orange, all those links and concentric circles. Everything was orange, so it was a giant big fiery orb.
Alison Brown: It, it looked a bit like the eye of soran Okay. To me, because it was that orb glow. So I wanna see it in person before I, I,
Jill Jaracz: right.
Alison Brown: Am critical of it. That’s unfair. It serves many purposes. And, and the, the big Tron, I think by definition creates a disappointing appearance.
Jill Jaracz: It does
Alison Brown: in your cauldron.
Jill Jaracz: And, uh, you know, speaking of fire, did you notice what they could do with lights? Because when they. Around the stage in Milan?
Alison Brown: Yes.
Jill Jaracz: They flick.
They had lights all around the stage, but they’d flicker ’em. So it looked like the stage was on fire. Yes, a little bit. It was beautiful. What? Orange glow? Yeah, it was a beautiful touch, but yes. And then fireworks. No. Only at the Ade Apache,
Alison Brown: [00:43:00] I was so disappointed. Not a single firework. The only thing we got was sparklers coming out of the rings.
Jill Jaracz: Yes.
Alison Brown: Twice. Yeah. Which is not a firework you need
Jill Jaracz: No.
Alison Brown: A firework at san. Even just a few little poof off the stadium. No, we got nothing.
Jill Jaracz: Nothing. And the arc, of course, I get it at the ar de Apache. You’ve got the cauldron there. But yes, you gotta end it. Bam.
Alison Brown: And
Jill Jaracz: we,
Alison Brown: I didn’t know the show was over ’cause there was no fireworks.
Jill Jaracz: Well, the lights came on and then as we’re moving out, they told, they said, Hey, if you’re in the green seats, which we were, why don’t you sit for 20 minutes
Alison Brown: and let, I heard that out. So the show ends. It was all beautiful. By that point I was in fact cold.
Jill Jaracz: I was getting chilly as well.
Alison Brown: I was chilly. I actually got colder once we got up and started moving.
My teeth started chattering I think because of the blood was finally flowing [00:44:00] and my body realized it was very chilly. But we got out super fast. So we were in a, the first bunches to get to the station.
Jill Jaracz: Okay.
Alison Brown: So it was still very full, still very crowded. We had to wait several rounds. To go into the station because there was a counter
Jill Jaracz: Yes.
Alison Brown: That of how many people could be in the station at once and when it got close, people would start cheering. And so as it counted down and if you got in, you would cheer. And if you didn’t get in you would boo. But I did very well apparently. ’cause I got home a good, I don’t know, hour before you.
Jill Jaracz: Yes.
Because. When we were going down the stairs and, uh, the stairs were really rick not rickety ’cause they were stone stairs, but there were no railings anywhere. So, uh, going down our tier was [00:45:00] not fun. And then, uh, crowding down the stairs was also not fun and you couldn’t go down the ramps. So there’s that and we’re down.
Alison Brown: Why couldn’t you go down the ramp? They
Jill Jaracz: were blocked off.
Alison Brown: I got a ramp.
Jill Jaracz: We did not.
Alison Brown: Well, that’s why you got the flashing light. But I got a ramp.
Jill Jaracz: Okay. So, but we had maybe some ingenuity, some, maybe some ingenuity because when we got down to the ground. Um, we went to the left because that was moving a little bit better than going to the right and not that means anything to anybody ’cause I don’t even know where we were in the grand scheme of things.
And then we’re crowded up again and we’re trying to, we’re waiting for, to get through like a gated, gated area, big entrance area. And all of a sudden I hear you hear metal moving on concrete. And then the crowd starts to move a little faster and we follow [00:46:00] along and all of a sudden we’re ducking underneath the ramp, under the concrete ramp so we could get out the out out hole and into the open area around the stadium.
So that is how we got out. We got out of part one. Then the lovely volunteers told us to get out basically the first exit possible. And we get out there and we’re like, where’s the metro? And what there weren’t. Were any volunteers with signs saying the metro is this way?
Alison Brown: Did you not see the guys with the flashing green lights?
Jill Jaracz: What guys with flashing green lights? They were not at my exit.
Alison Brown: All along the path to the metro from where I got out, there were people standing with giant poles with flashing green lights. On top of them. And if you followed the green lights, you ended up at the metro station.
Jill Jaracz: Well, they should have put those people on the other side of the stadium where they were forcing people to go out.
Because we get out and we don’t know [00:47:00] where we are. Oh. And I am also on low battery at this point, so, and I know that I need to have my phone with battery so I can get into and out the train. So, um, we’re walking and we’re kind of following people and, uh, we. Say, looks like we’re going this way, and we go down kind of a dark, very pot holy street that has a, it could have been an a, a side alley kind of thing because we have like fields on either side of us and then we get to a, a main street and there’s police there and they don’t want anybody doing any, you know.
Don’t go here, don’t go there. And I’m asking them, where’s the metro? Where’s metro? And one guy finally is like, go this way. So we keep walking and we are walking far away. And finally somebody speaks enough English and says, oh, you go, you just go down here and you turn left, and [00:48:00] then you turn, you know, the first left.
Um, I’ve got 4,200 steps that count toward tomorrow because we just kept walking because the first left was a long ways away and then the second left was another long ways away. And, uh, we are not thrilled ’cause we are a little worried we’re not gonna find where we need to go. But I, I do see, I saw the metro and where the Big M was to go in.
It was uh, like a staircase and an escalator blocked off, and there is a giant line to use the elevator and we’re like, is this the only way people are getting into the metro station? This is gonna take forever. And then we realized, oh no, there’s the other main entrance that we came out of with the turnstile gates.
And so we joined that mob, which is on the side of that structure.
Alison Brown: Yes.
Jill Jaracz: Huge mob. Somebody has a medical [00:49:00] emergency while we were in the mob. Uh, we get into, uh, towards the corner to make that u-turn into the turnstile gates only to see another giant mob that is going straight out. It was, and then I’m gonna say German woman starts yelling at us that.
Where we were when, because we’re trying to merge in and she’s like, that’s not the queue. The queue ends right. Uh, goes way back there. ’cause she is now angry that people are pushing her further back in line and we’re just trying to merge, man. So. If we get to the turnstile gates finally, or close to, and we’re going in, we’re going in, going in.
Charlotte gets through and it stops at me
Alison Brown: because just so people understand, the turnstiles physically stop.
Jill Jaracz: Yes.
Alison Brown: You can’t go through when the counter has gone to zero, right. You have to then wait several minutes probably until a [00:50:00] train pulls out, because that many people cannot be in the station.
Jill Jaracz: At
Alison Brown: once, at any given time, which is, it’s much safer for you to be out on the street in the mob.
Jill Jaracz: Right. ‘
Alison Brown: cause at least the mob has a place to go.
Jill Jaracz: Yes.
Alison Brown: Sideways if there is some.
Jill Jaracz: Yeah,
Alison Brown: if there is a need to. But this was an awful,
Jill Jaracz: it was tough because,
Alison Brown: yeah,
Jill Jaracz: because when you realize that 450 people are going to get through probably a good eight turnstiles. I would say, and you wanna be one of those four 50, so there’s a little shoving going on.
Alison Brown: Yes.
Jill Jaracz: And And there’s
Alison Brown: no place to go.
Jill Jaracz: No. And and I was trying to stick with Charlotte and I kind of moved a couple people out the way, and I think they ended up, Charlotte got through. I did not. I said, save yourself. I did say save yourself. And these other two, they got in the gate next to me and I think they turned around and said, ha ha.
We got in. And I don’t know, it was not speaking my language, but [00:51:00] they turned back and looked and I was like, I don’t know if you’re looking at me or not, I don’t care because I am next in line and I know, I know I will get on a train that is for sure, which I did. And, and of course once you’re through the gate, you were running down the stairs.
Just anything to get out of there and keep moving and not have a crowd behind you.
Alison Brown: Yeah,
Jill Jaracz: it was rough.
Alison Brown: I am never going to a European soccer game.
Jill Jaracz: Oh my gosh.
Alison Brown: Because that’s what this functioned as. I mean, it’s a soccer stadium and this is how they run it, which was fine. There was nothing
Jill Jaracz: And,
Alison Brown: and it’s, it’s crowd control.
I, I get it. But no, thank
Jill Jaracz: you. Can you imagine what happened to get to that crowd control process?
Alison Brown: People died is what happened.
Jill Jaracz: Oh my gosh. But the calls are in split
Alison Brown: and we’re still alive.
Jill Jaracz: And we are still alive. Yes. But
Alison Brown: barely awake, but
Jill Jaracz: we’re still alive. Yeah. I alive. I know. But great opening ceremony.
Good job, job. That is for sure. [00:52:00] Good. Good job. Good job, Milan. I am excited. So we’ve got some shout outs today.
Alison Brown: Our first shout out today is Pat Noon from College Park, Maryland. Pat writes, I always listen on my morning walks during the Olympics and often laugh out loud at your stories. Keep the magical hour of vacuuming alive. We’ll have to just bring a vacuuming.
Jill Jaracz: Well, we have a vacuum. Oh, great. Shut townhouse.
Alison Brown: I’ll just turn it on when we’re, when we’re finished.
Jill Jaracz: Yeah, because, uh, I’ve seen sweepers. I’ve not seen any vacuuming yet, and the hard thing is we are usually not around. The press center during prime vacuuming hours, I’m sure. Uh, a pet there is a, uh, there are a lot of pets who are Olympians, but there is a poppy, noon.
From Australia who competed at the 2024 Winter Youth Olympics in three on three ice hockey.
Alison Brown: And our next shout out is to Erica Corwin of Lincoln, Nebraska. For each Olympics, she organizes a crafting competition that runs [00:53:00] from the opening ceremony to the closing ceremony. And I think we’ve seen some of these little crafts
Jill Jaracz: created
Alison Brown: by Erica.
Jill Jaracz: We have been the beneficiary of some lovely key chains and uh, crafters. Craft on your, your cauldron has been lit too. We wanna see what you make this year. And, uh oh. We also got pot holders because I see them. Oh, I love
Alison Brown: that pot holder
Jill Jaracz: that I have. Yes. I, I see them every day. They’re right up displayed prominently on my counter.
They make me happy. So, thank you. Erica. There are no cor when Olympians, but there isn’t Erica competing here in Milano. Corino. And that is Erica. Uh. Sorry, Manu, I’m really sorry. Uh. P, pka, linein, Erica pka, linein from Finland, who is going to compete in Allen Pine skiing. That’s Erica with a K. So same church, different pew.
But that’s still chewable, I think for Erica.
Alison Brown: I think so.
Jill Jaracz: All right. And we’ve got mascots.
Alison Brown: We’ve got mascots [00:54:00] today. So our mascots for the day are Sunny and Sadie. Our favorite Guinea pigs, they have served as our mascots in previous Olympics, so we’re glad to have them back. They like to hang out with the fridge when they’re watching the Olympics.
Jill Jaracz: I do love. Good, good Guinea pig. These are our favorite Guinea pigs until our next Guinea pig mask. That’s right, because I’ll say that Don, you got competition this year, so thank you so much and that’s good to do it for this episode. If you want even more of the most fun coverage of the games, we have options.
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Jill Jaracz: and we do love hearing from you as well. You can hit us up on our social channels, hang out in the Facebook group because we are there too. You can email us at Flame Alive [00:55:00] pod@gmail.com. Send us a voice memo or call our voicemail line at plus 1 2 0 8 flame it, that’s 2 0 8 3 5 2 6 3 4 8.
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Alison Brown: few hours apparently
Jill Jaracz: with day one action from Milano Cortina 2026
Alison Brown: and until next time, chow. And keep the flame alive.