Ciao from Milano, where it is one day before the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympics Opening Ceremony, yet competition has already begun! We have more action from Mixed Doubles Curling, where Alison’s favorite Italian curler Amos Mosaner and partner Stefania Constantini started their competition.
The women’s ice hockey tournament also started up. Four games were scheduled for the day, but just three took place. The Finland v. Canada match was rescheduled due to multiple Finnish skaters contracting norovirus. We hope they get well soon.
We did make it out to the Milano Rho Ice Hockey Arena to see most of the USA v. Czechia game. Getting to the venue is a hike, as the hockey rink and the speed skating rink are at the end of this gigantic complex of convention halls, which is a good 15 minute walk from the Metro exit.
We understand that temporary venues are a way for organizers to save money. Venues are a big strain on resources, particularly if you don’t have a use for them after the Games. Milano Cortina already built one hockey venue; it did not need two.
That makes sense, but when you want into the women’s venue, it looks like you have to walk into a garbage bag. The thick vinyl sheeting is to help maintain temperatures and keep the ice stable. If you go around to one side, you do see a couple of banners, but they are not enough to hide the garbage bag look.
That banner is trying so hard to make the black walls of the hockey rink look nice!
USA was in control for the entire match, winning 5-1, but it was a chippy game, and Czechia hung in there. We were also excited to see TKFLASTANI Rory Guilday get some ice time. Our friend Nick Zaccardi wrote a great profile about Rory, so it’s nice to see her getting to tell her story to the world.
Rory Guilday on the ice vs. Czechia in Milano, February 5, 2026
Delightfully, each team seems to have their own goal-scoring song. Unhappily, the temporary arena leaves a little to be desired, and we wonder if the organizers didn’t think people would come and see women’s hockey, because it’s a fairly small space.
Big Air qualification also got underway this evening, with two Japanese competitors in the top three.
We got to have a cultural moment this afternoon at the YesMilano Media Center, with a taste of cake. La Provvidenza, created by the Don Lisander restaurant, is making a case for becoming the official cake of Milano (the renowned panettone, although cake like, is really leavened dough).
Inspired by Vienna’s Sacher torte from the Sacher Hotel, restaurant owner Stefano Marazzato wondered why Milano didn’t have its own cake (read: a special cake that drove lines of customers to buy it). In 2024, he had his culinary team set about creating one. The recipe they created pays homage to Alessandro Manzoni, the writer for whom Don Lisander is named after. During Manzoni’s time, he was known to have eaten carsenza de bombon, a cake made from whatever there was in the house–dried fruit, figs, pears, etc.
A cake with a taste all its own. That taste is Milano.
The restaurant’s version includes a bit of chocolate, but tastes like nothing we’ve ever had before. It’s warm, with a hint of chocolate and bits of dried fruit–would taste excellent with a little bit of fresh whipped cream or vanilla gelato!
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Thanks so much for listening, and until next time, keep the flame alive!
TRANSCRIPT
Note: This is an uncorrected machine-generated transcript and may contain errors. Please check its accuracy against the audio. Do not quote from the transcript; use the audio as the record of note.
Milano Cortina 2026 Olympics-Day -1
Jill Jaracz: [00:00:00] One, and welcome to Keep the Flame Alive, day minus one coverage of the Milano Corina 2026 Winter Olympic Games. I am your host, Jill Jaracz, coming to you from TKFLASTAN House. Joined as always by my lovely co-host, Alison Brown. Alison Cuomo, esta ciao,
Alison Brown: ty. That’s the only way I know to respond to that question.
So that’s the only answer you’re gonna get. I’m going to have to pick up some more phrases.
Jill Jaracz: Hopefully that will work out. [00:01:00] I, I’ve gotta learn how to say it in the right order, but we’re still working on our setup here in c On house it’s a little, a little tough.
Alison Brown: Uh, it’s, it, it wasn’t set up for us. No, let’s put it that way.
We’ve had to make some adjustments, but we’re working it out and it’s very comfortable, so we’re gonna make it work. Exactly and we’re gonna be happy. I do wanna mention, I do sound nasally and know I’m not. Getting sick, I’m actually getting better. So I did not, uh, this time around get sick on the trip. I came with a little bit of a cold.
So Italy is healing me, as you would expect.
Milano’s La Provvidenza Cake: A new gastronomic draw for the city
Jill Jaracz: Okay, well we have had a cultural experience today.
Alison Brown: Italy yet again is healing me
Jill Jaracz: with cake.
Alison Brown: With cake ’cause you know, there is nothing that will make me feel better faster than cake.
Jill Jaracz: So our friends at the Yes. Milano, uh, city Press Center [00:02:00] had a little event today to talk about the cake, LA Provenza, which, uh, is kind of a new creation of a restaurateur, so to speak.
And he, he and his wife went to Vienna. And in Vienna you get the soccer tour and he’s like, why doesn’t Milan have a cake? So he made one.
Alison Brown: Right? And some people must say. But Penoni, and actually we’re gonna talk about that in the newsletter today, why that is not the official cake of Milan. So we tried it.
They had slices of it for us, and it was incredibly unique.
Jill Jaracz: It, it was,
Alison Brown: and like nothing else I had ever tasted, we kept trying to find things to compare to, you know, we’re saying sticky toffee cake or spice cake or a, a cake brown. But it didn’t taste like anything else. It was wonderful.
Jill Jaracz: No. So, uh, thank you very much for that.
YesMilano’s Olympic city pin scavenger hunt
They also talked about the city pins that are going to be out and about, so, um. [00:03:00] The Yes Milano office created a set of Milan neighborhood pins and then like distinctive Milan things, uh, like pannetone. And, uh, there’s gonna be kind of a scavenger hunt throughout the games where people can go to certain locations and pick up pins.
You can find that, uh, information at the ES Milano office. We got. Gifted a pin,
Alison Brown: a pen, a tony pin.
Jill Jaracz: Oh, I’m so excited to get that one. I did did find a couple of the pins for sale in, uh, one of the stores. So I picked up a couple and, uh, I’m not gonna be able to do the scavenger hunt, I think
Alison Brown: Yes, because they reveal where the pins are at eight in the morning and then they start distributing them in a particular place at noon.
We did get the impression from one of the reporters that they were expecting a rush on this pin that people are very excited about this scavenger hunt of the neighborhood pins. So I don’t think we’ll be beating down the doors of, of the stores, but maybe in, in our [00:04:00] adventures, you never know. If we see a crowd yelling, pin pin,
Jill Jaracz: you just join.
Alison Brown: Just join in. Why not
Toilet talk revived
Jill Jaracz: Also cultural. Sad for some of you. Uh, we did not mean to have toilet talk this Olympics. We had toilet talk every day in Paris because the, the toilets were there were something. But we have a couple of situations that happened today. They will also be in the newsletter. We will save you listeners from Toilet Talk this games,
Alison Brown: but if you want toilet talk, check out the newsletter.
It’s flame alive pod.substack.com and I’ll be throwing in some toilet talk for those that love it.
Jill Jaracz: Exactly. And that is free. I know Substack some charge. We have a free Substack and daily during the games.
News from TKFLASTAN (Team Keep the Flame Alive)
News from Shuk Stan. So we are keeping tabs on things all team keep the flame alive. So if you are just finding us as a podcast, guests and listeners are part of what we call team Keep the flame alive.
But that does not acronym well. So, uh, if you [00:05:00] put STA on the end, we got a country. So it’s the country of Shuk Stan, uh. Aaron Jackson and Frank Duca will be Team USA’s Flagbearers. They were selected by their teammates. Um, Jackson has become the eighth speed skater in US history to, uh, earn the honor of team USA flag bearer.
And Frank Del DCA is the, or Frankie as the Milano, uh, media zone intranet system called him. Uh, he becomes the sixth bobsledder to carry the flag.
Alison Brown: Very excited that we, we got ’em both.
Jill Jaracz: It was so cool. Uh, shorts, track speed skater, Ryn Stoddard will be sporting a fox helmet and her teammate Kristin Santos Griswald will be wearing a wolf helmet.
Corinn said we had the di idea of a DY dynamic duo. Her dogs look like wolves and a fox is more similar to my dog. So we wanted to make more that, more obvious and draw the crowd’s attention to us. So I’m looking forward to, I
Alison Brown: [00:06:00] know we’ll get to check those out when we see them at Short Track, because Short Track is one of the sports we can see very easily here in Milan, which is great.
One of Milano Cortina 2026’s more unusual legacies
Jill Jaracz: Yes. And, uh, a side note, perhaps one of the most interesting press releases we got in all, we get in a lot of press releases every day from, uh, a number of, uh, uh, national governing bodies, country teams. Milano Cortina, different tourism offices, but we got one with that was a joint declaration between the UN Secretary General’s special Envoy for Road Safety, the Milano Cortina 2026 Organizing Committee, uh, Coney, which is, uh, the Italy National Olympic Committee and the the Paralympic Committee from Italy.
And the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport and the Ministry for Youth and Sport and, and the, the joint declaration is to improve road safety.
Alison Brown: I mean, you start wondering what could all these people want to say to us at the same time? And it’s don’t kill [00:07:00] people on the streets,
Jill Jaracz: right? So, uh, road safety, improve awareness of safe driving practices, especially in the case of mass gatherings, tourism and international events.
And Milano Cortina 2026 is the first. Olympic organizing committee to organize a safe driving course for 3000 drivers.
Alison Brown: You know, I, I have to say, I have not noticed crazy driving here. You know, we’ve been walking around quite a lot in several different neighborhoods, and I haven’t noticed a, a, a problem, but it must be if they’re, if they’re creating this program, I mean, every city has a problem, right?
Let’s, I mean, every city, there’s always a safety, but. I, I’ve, I’ve felt more at risk in many other places, Paris being one of them.
Jill Jaracz: So, uh, I don’t know, maybe it’s the highways. We’ll, we’ll see once we, uh, start getting out in the open. But, uh, the ministries and, uh, Coney and the Paralympic Committee intend to continue [00:08:00] this training after the games as a legacy.
What officiating or volunteer job would we want to do?
So, uh, we’re bringing back a beloved segment from past games. This is what officiating or volunteer job would we want to do? What do you choose? We did go to a sport today.
Alison Brown: Yes. And I think you chose the same one that I did because I wanna be wheelbarrow man.
Jill Jaracz: I got the other one then.
Alison Brown: Okay. Because, so during the, the games they, during the hockey game, they did a human Zamboni bit.
In between, you know, during the period. Yes. So they would have a power break to clean up the ice a little bit, and about six or seven skaters would go out and, uh, smooth out the ice, but also scoop up all the snow and push it to the exit. And then they would scoop all the snow into a wheelbarrow and this man would just stand there with his wheelbarrow and then roll away with all the snow.
Jill Jaracz: Right. And we couldn’t, that was kind of directly below us, the wheelbarrow. But, but before the wheelbarrow, when they, when the power [00:09:00] break, skaters shovel their snow and ice over to the edge of the rink, the door. And uh, there’s a couple of volunteers there who squeegee it. Off the ice totally. So that the other shovelers can scoop it into the wheelbarrow and I would take squeegee.
Alison Brown: Okay, we’re, we’re a team here.
Keep our Flame Alive
Jill Jaracz: So before we get to today’s results, we’d like to take a moment to thank everyone who donated to our fundraiser to get us here. If you just found us, we are doing 32 daily episodes from Milano Cortina over the course of the games, which is expensive to produce. And we are also one of the few podcasts to publish episodes year round, a few Olympics and Paralympics podcasts.
Let’s. Caveat that, and we need help in keeping our flame alive, particularly this year as our trademark registration is up and lawyer fees are expensive. And, and if you don’t know about our trademark situation, go back to [00:10:00] like early 2020 and you’ll find out the fun story, how we almost got shut down. So, uh.
We have options for one-off donations and uh, ongoing donations@flamealivepod.com Support. If you are an ongoing patron, we offer special patron only exclusives throughout the games. All paid patrons. Get an exclusive photo of the day, silver medalists and up. Also get video and gold members and up get extra audio content.
If you appreciate the independent voice we bring, please consider supporting us today. That is Flame Alive pod.com/support.
Milano Cortina 2026 Olympics: Day -1 results
All right. We got results.
Curling – Mixed Doubles
Alison Brown: More importantly, we have the Italians curling. So this morning, the, the mixed doubles curling started yesterday. There was only one session, so not all the teams curled, one of which was the Italians.
And then this morning I woke up. First thing I got to do was turn on the television and [00:11:00] see Amos Ner curling, and he shaved his head.
Jill Jaracz: That was amazing.
Alison Brown: That was fantastic. He looks. As if he could not look more fabulous. He does in fact look more fabulous. So I got to enjoy Constant and Ner as I did four years ago.
I have not fallen out of love with them, and they had a fantastic day, so I’m not gonna complain.
Jill Jaracz: And you got to watch Ner in bed. So that’s not, that’s not bad either.
Alison Brown: Not a bad way to start your day. Let me tell you.
Jill Jaracz: So we had like three sessions of mixed doubles round robin curling. Today we had some commanding wins, a couple of very close matches, but after session four of round robin play standings are Canada and Great Britain on top at three and oh.
Then followed by the USA who is two and o, Switzerland and Sweden are both two and one. Italy is one and one. Estonia is one and two, and Czechia, Korea and Norway are o and three. I’m surprised about Norway.
Alison Brown: Yeah, Norway I [00:12:00] believe was a silver medalist in Beijing, so this is a really rough start for them.
Ice Hockey – Women’s tournament
Jill Jaracz: Uh, then we had some hockey, so we had something going on in Milano,
Alison Brown: so we got to go to a hockey game, which was great fun. But there were a couple of games before us before we got there.
Jill Jaracz: Yes. So it started off Sweden, beat Germany four one Italy, beat France. Seven two, which I saw, we saw a little of this on when we were in the Yes.
Milano office having cake and Italy was going gangbusters
Alison Brown: and the Italian fans were riding right where with them they were really enjoying themselves watching that game.
Jill Jaracz: Exactly. And then we made it, uh, to, uh, middle of second period for USA versus Czechia. Let’s talk about the arena.
Alison Brown: Okay, so it’s not an arena, first of all, it’s a convention center section that they have converted into an arena, which makes sense in the sense of [00:13:00] you need three or four ice skating rinks for an Olympics.
No one city could possibly support that many ice arenas. So having a temporary arena makes sense.
Jill Jaracz: Well, let’s talk about the convention center because this is Ro, uh, Fiera. Fiera Milano, and it’s not just a convention center, it’s a convention center on steroids. I think WA should come in here for that center because it’s not just a con.
You know, a hall, it’s like 20 halls.
Alison Brown: It, it is a convention center complex. You could have multiple convention cent, uh, multiple conventions going on at the same time. So we mapped it. So from the, the subway stop that is for the convention center to the actual place, the building that is the temporary ice cream, uh, ice rink.
It’s three quarters of a mile, and that’s just walking. Through the [00:14:00] convention center.
Jill Jaracz: Yeah.
Alison Brown: That whole three quarters of a mile,
Jill Jaracz: it just never ended. And there were moving walkways. Some of what,
Alison Brown: some moved,
Jill Jaracz: yeah. But, um, it, it, and getting out of the metro was actually quite a long walk as well. So you’re talking about close to a mile here till you get to both.
F the ice hockey and the speed skating rink. ’cause they are kind of across from each other. So it is a hall, there’s a store on the way. There are a couple of restaurants on the way too,
Alison Brown: which you may need to fortify yourself on this walk.
Jill Jaracz: This is absolutely a, we built this rink and it is in the middle of a concrete convention hall.
And to keep the cold in, I’m assuming. There is a floor to ceiling surround of the rink in the stands, black heavy [00:15:00] plastic tarp.
Alison Brown: It, it looks like black garbage bags in sheeting form hung up around, and the entrances are created by cutting slats, like mm-hmm. A, a car wash. Into the arena, and that’s how they presented their ice skating arena.
There’s some signage, there’s some draping, but they could have done so much more to make it less Garbage bag looking.
Jill Jaracz: Yeah. It just, it looks pretty junky because, and because where we went in. Was all garbage bag. We did not see, we had to walk around to see banners, but where we also went in was like where the Corona hut is and another couple of concession stands.
So people do see this. Lackluster you had come inside the garbage bag, little kit,
Alison Brown: and we got to experience our first set of janky stairs.
Jill Jaracz: Yes. That go up and down,
Alison Brown: that go up and down and all [00:16:00] around. And we had to do the up and down and all around to get to the Press Tribune as per usual, but at least it was well marked.
And there were, uh, volunteers who pointed us in the correct direction. The volunteers, by the way, we haven’t commented yet so far, no have been. Really a plus. Really top notch. And
Jill Jaracz: shout out. Shout out to Marco who answered some weird questions for me today. One of which will be in toilet talk.
Alison Brown: So we have been really lucky so far. So our first experience at a venue, we found the Venue Media Center very easily. We found the Press Tribune very easily. We found our door pretty easily and amazingly, it wasn’t in the back alley, it was just downstairs from the main entrance. That was pretty awesome.
So that was pretty sweet.
Jill Jaracz: Um,
Alison Brown: but we were inside a garbage bag.
Jill Jaracz: We were inside a garbage bag. And, [00:17:00] um.
Alison Brown: Small
Jill Jaracz: it, it, yeah. The arena is really small. It’s like they didn’t think people wanted to come out and watch women’s hockey. And I don’t know what the crowds were like for the earlier matches, but this one was almost full on day one.
And Granton’s USA and there are a ton of USA fans here, but there were a good number of Czech fans as well. They had flags with names on them.
Alison Brown: Yes. And I, as we saw the Italian uh, game on television. It looked pretty full. I mean, the Italian team is playing. So you didn’t think that people were gonna wanna come and cheer the Italian team?
Jill Jaracz: Yeah, I know like they, it, this is one of those, we’re gonna discover what hockey is, but really only a few thousand people fit in this arena. And it’s really low because of the convention center ceiling. So it, it just feels,
Alison Brown: it felt a bit like a col, even not, I’m being generous, calling it a college arena size.
Yeah, it, it was more like a high [00:18:00] school arena size. Yeah. It was small.
Jill Jaracz: Yeah. It was not, it was depressing to be quite honest, because the quality of play is outstanding. It, it deserves better, it deserves more. Um, the audience gotta treat tonight ’cause. JD Vice President, JD Vance and Secretary of State, Marco Rubio were in attendance.
Alison Brown: So all of a sudden, by the press Tribu Tribune, there were all these men in black suits. Yes. That just sort of swarmed in and you noticed Yeah, because, and said, oh, somebody’s here.
Jill Jaracz: Because I noticed many camera people with their cameras pointed at the stands. I was like, who’s here? And I saw a blonde woman and I thought, is that Kirsty Coventry?
Because we couldn’t quite see it. They were maybe 20 feet away from us and a couple rows down, but they’re, it’s packed. The Press Tribune was packed. We were lucky to get seats. Um, don’t even think about a table. Um, we’ve, we’ve learned a thing or two about timing your entry [00:19:00] for, for this, but uh, yeah. All of a sudden.
We realized that we were in the presence of the vice president
Alison Brown: who was there for about, what, 10 minutes
Jill Jaracz: probably.
Alison Brown: So this was definitely a show up. Mm-hmm. Get your picture taken. Mm-hmm.
Jill Jaracz: Right.
Alison Brown: Leave.
Jill Jaracz: But I am happy to say that our shuk, Ani Rory Gilday got to play today. And I talked to her a little bit just for a couple seconds in the mix zone afterwards, and she was thrilled to have made the team.
And uh, uh, our friend Nick Ardi, wrote a really good article about her, so we’ll link to that in the show notes. Um, and US was dominating, basically.
Alison Brown: It was a very physical game. I mean, I do love a chippy. Hockey match. This got a little personal,
Jill Jaracz: you think?
Alison Brown: I thought it was a, it got a little more physical.
The, the refs were having some chats.
Jill Jaracz: Oh, they, yeah.
Alison Brown: They were with, with several players. So I think it was getting a little, uh, [00:20:00] beyond the chippy,
Jill Jaracz: which you wouldn’t think when you look at the final score, which was USA five Check one. I, I am looking forward to going to other hockey games because there was a goal song.
For each team?
Alison Brown: Yes. The US had Freebird, so every time the US scored, they played Freebird. They played a different song when Czechia, uh, scored. I don’t know if that was a Czech song. It was like, boom, I don’t, boom, boom, boom. Literally, I don’t, I don’t quite know any of the other lyrics, so I wasn’t sure if it was Italian or if it was Czech.
People seem to know the song in the arena, and I don’t know that if that was because we did have a significant number of check fans
Jill Jaracz: could be. I’m looking forward to hearing what other songs are.
Alison Brown: What do you think Canada’s is?
Jill Jaracz: I don’t know. Tragically Hip. I don’t know. Um,
Alison Brown: some Brian Adams, maybe
Jill Jaracz: we’ll find out.
Um, the other, they’re trying, if you, if you wanna know about ambiance, they’re [00:21:00] trying with the ambiance.
Alison Brown: I think it’s one of those, this was early days. Mm-hmm. I think if we go back, well, we will go back next week. I think we will see the fans. We’ll get it.
Jill Jaracz: Mm-hmm.
Alison Brown: How this arena’s gonna work and be into it a little bit more.
I mean, and this crowd was pretty hyped, but I could see them sort of feeling it out.
Jill Jaracz: Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So we had a, a hostess and we had a dj and they would do, they would be like quizzes here and there on the jumbotron, and then they would do the, the fan cam type stuff. But they did do a police strike, a pose and they wanted.
You just strike an ice skating pose
Alison Brown: and people did not understand this.
Jill Jaracz: Yeah.
Alison Brown: Until they got to the last guy who sort of did ballerina things, which they considered close enough and got really excited.
Jill Jaracz: Yeah. So don’t know. And then we had the, the US guy who I. Lifted up a shirt for everyone.
Alison Brown: You know, there’s always gotta be one in every crowd, but it [00:22:00] was appreciated.
He got the biggest roar of the crowd.
Jill Jaracz: Well, yeah, because you know, you gotta do, you gotta learn how to do goofy stuff, so
Alison Brown: you got, you gotta do what you gotta do when you’re at a hockey match. Exactly. Now speaking of hockey match, there was supposed to be a fourth hockey game and it was canceled for the worst.
Possible reason. So it was supposed to be Finland versus Canada. Apparently several players on, uh, the finished team are down with Norovirus.
Jill Jaracz: I cannot imagine how A, that’s not fun to go through, but b. The, the fact that a chunk of your team is under the weather, and what does that mean going forward?
Alison Brown: So this game has been scheduled for, uh, rescheduled rather for February 12th, which was supposed to be an off day
Jill Jaracz: mm-hmm.
Alison Brown: For the tournament at the end of the, uh, group stage. The group stage. So we’ll see if the fins can come back with a a, a full. It’s team and you know, safely [00:23:00] skate. It’s funny, one of, uh, my daughter’s friends e uh, texted me and said, be careful if you’re going to women’s hockey. Norovirus is going around. So I was safely at a distance from the players, you know, and I think I was okay.
Snowboarding – Big Air
Jill Jaracz: We also had some snowboarding tonight. It was big air qualification for the men and 12 competitors qualified through to the finals. 12 competitors qualified through to the finals. They are led by Hiroto Oggi from Japan. He’s qualified in first place, followed by Ian Mat, uh, Mateo. Ole from Italy and Kira Mura from Japan.
Alison Brown: Oh, the Italians must be thrilled about this.
Jill Jaracz: I bet they are. I bet they are. And uh, for those of you in Cleveland who follow Red Gerard, who is hometown hero, even though he left Cleveland, like when he was seven, he moved out to Colorado’s to, uh, do snowboarding. He was the 2018 gold medalist. [00:24:00] He’s in his third Olympics.
He finished 20th in this and did not move on to the final. And that is it for competition today.
Alison Brown: I know. Short and sweet, but we’re getting warmed up. You know, this is like a little, little taste to get us ready. Not a taste of Norovirus, please.
Shout Outs
Jill Jaracz: That’s right. But we have shout outs.
Alison Brown: Yes. We have Shuk, Sani, Sean Callahan from Norwood, Massachusetts.
Jill Jaracz: And that is, uh, you know, there Sean is a Cortina.
Alison Brown: Yes.
Jill Jaracz: So when we, uh. Did our fundraiser, we asked if you were a Milano or Corina.
Alison Brown: Yes.
Jill Jaracz: And um,
Alison Brown: so Milanos are more city people. They like fancy clothes and fancy food, and they like to get dressed up and Cortinas are mountain people and they’re like a good cozy sweater and going skiing and things like that
Jill Jaracz: Yesterday we, we forgot to mention about our listener Pager. Pager. He is a Milano, so [00:25:00] we have, uh, a little rivalry going on. Within Stan as we speak,
Alison Brown: we welcome all kinds,
Jill Jaracz: right? So, uh, Sean, there are no Callahan Olympians, but there are Seans.
Alison Brown: I’m surprised there’s no Callahans.
Jill Jaracz: Well, winter Olympians, I, oh, I, I am trying to narrow it down to just winter.
Alison Brown: Okay.
Jill Jaracz: Since we are at a winter games. But you, there are plenty of Seans like our own, Sean Dougherty by Athlete Shuk Lesi. Another Sean to cheer for is American Sean Fitzsimons, who is competing in snow, big air, and, uh. Slope style. Well, he was competing in big air ’cause he finished 25th, so he didn’t make it through to the finals.
What slope
Alison Brown: style
Jill Jaracz: you do have a a Sean to cheer for and we also have mascots.
Our mascot
Alison Brown: Yes. So Jill got a mascot for the whole games. And that is Abby, the sweetest looking cat from listener Charlotte. So we’ll be giving you little bits and pieces about her throughout and some pictures [00:26:00] that you can look for. But she’s gorgeous.
Jill Jaracz: She’s a sweetie. And, uh, that’s gonna do it for this episode. If you want even more of the most fun coverage of the games, we have options.
Alison Brown: Yes, you can get on our Facebook group. Keep The Flame Alive Podcast. As we mentioned, our substack newsletter is flame alive pod.substack.com, or on Insta X, Facebook and YouTube at Flame Alive Pod.
And you can always help us out on Patreon, flame alive pod.com/support.
Jill Jaracz: And we do love hearing from you as well. You can hit us. Hit us up. You can hit us up on our social channels. Email us at Flame Alive pod@gmail.com. Send us a voice memo or call our voicemail line at two zero eight Flame it. That’s 2 0 8 3 5 2 6 3 4 8.
We may read your note or play your voicemail on the show and tomorrow it all starts
Alison Brown: opening ceremony.
Jill Jaracz: Oh, we are so excited.
Alison Brown: We’ll both be there.
Jill Jaracz: Yes. I will be there [00:27:00] as a fan
Alison Brown: and I will be there in the Media Tribune. So we’ll see how our, uh, experiences compare.
Jill Jaracz: Exactly. So, and, and there’s some more competition in the morning before the show gets started.
Alison Brown: Yes, we have team competition starting in figure skating.
Jill Jaracz: Very much to look forward to.
Alison Brown: It’s a busy day.
Jill Jaracz: Alright, so we will get some sleep. You do as well.
Alison Brown: And until next time, ciao and keep the flame alive.