We’re getting close to the end of the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics, which, for those of us based in Milano, means there are some slim pickings for events to see.
That doesn’t matter though. Jill went to IOC president Kirsty Coventry’s end-of-Games press conference, and walked away with something she never thought she’d get her hands on.
Alison went to ice hockey and saw the set up for what will be some fantastic medal matches. Meanwhile, Jill went to the last night of short track speed skating, where TKFLASTANI Corinne Stoddard rose from several disappointing finishes to land on the podium.
Sports on today’s program:
- Biathlon
- Bobsled
- Curling
- Freestyle
- Ice hockey
- Short track speed skating
- Speed skating
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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 Do not quote from the transcript; use the audio as the record of note.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 14
Jill Jaracz: [00:00:00] And welcome to Keep the Flame Alive, day 14, coverage of the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games. I am your host, Jill Jaracz, coming to you from sh Townhouse. Joined as always by my lovely co-host, Alison Brown. Alison Chow Commo.
Alison Brown: Ciao. I’m so confused.
Jill Jaracz: Why?
Alison Brown: Because I don’t know what day it is.
Jill Jaracz: I don’t know what day it’s either, although I know it’s ramping down like big time.
You felt it today. Like this
Alison Brown: is where,
Jill Jaracz: at the end I agree.
Alison Brown: Yeah, I agree. I was over at the, uh, the media center today, and [00:01:00] it just felt like. People were shutting down their offices. People were, there was a lot fewer people there. The energy was just that, oh, we’re coming to the end. But you know what else was there?
Was snacks.
Jill Jaracz: What?
Alison Brown: I know they had little packaged snacks. They never had snacks at the beginning.
Jill Jaracz: Wow.
Alison Brown: They even had a whole box of gluten-free snacks.
Jill Jaracz: Wow. Was this on the. Coffee table.
Alison Brown: It’s on the coffee table.
Jill Jaracz: Oh, it makes me wanna go back just to like, see for myself.
Alison Brown: Trust me, they’re
Jill Jaracz: not, what is going on?
Alison Brown: They’re, they’re not worth taking the trip for. I’m, if you’re
Jill Jaracz: going over there anyway. I’m sure. Okay. I, I, you know, I was in the grocery store and I saw a box of, uh, corny. Granola bars. And I went, I know those. And then I was like, oh yeah, they’re, they’re not good.
Alison Brown: Don’t, don’t get those.
Jill Jaracz: Uh, did you forget anything from yesterday?
Alison Brown: Uh, not that I remembered.
Jill Jaracz: Okay, great. ’cause I forgot two things. First off, uh, hockey metals given out by our favorite, one of our favorites. Granola, Lundberg. [00:02:00] Lindberg, sorry. From, uh, Sweden, one of the IC members IOC
Alison Brown: members that we love. Yes.
Jill Jaracz: So it was nice to see her. Also, I forgot a toilet story and I know people are up and down about toilet talk, but this is a good one.
So I was at speed skating yesterday and I was like, I, then I had to hoof it to hockey and I thought I should probably go to the bathroom first. And the first time I found bathrooms in. Uh, the speed skating venue. I walked around ’cause I saw the signs for toilets this way, and I’m like, where are they? And I asked a, a volunteer and they’re like, you’re standing in front of them, basically.
They’re right here. But it’s a convention center, so all of the toilets are kind of in a row on the outside. Edge of the building and because it’s a convention center, you have a lot of toilets. So it’s a nice facility and they keep it pretty clean, so it’s always a bonus getting to go to the [00:03:00] bathroom. I don’t know why it’s a bonus to get to go to the bathroom in places, but when you go to the bathroom in enough bad places, you get excited about the good ones.
Alison Brown: Because it’s funny you say that in the convention center because in uh, the women’s hockey arena, those bathrooms were terrible. They were the temporary. Prefab bathrooms. So when you’re saying the speed skating ones were so nice, now I’m disappointed because I never experienced them though. Speaking of bathrooms to experience, I did experience a bathroom today at the new hockey arena at Santa Julia.
It’s not quite finished,
Jill Jaracz: but are you I’m not done with my story, to be quite honest. So I, I go to the bathroom, I come outta the bathroom. There’s a man standing there.
Alison Brown: Oh no. Did you go in the men’s room like I do?
Jill Jaracz: He went into the ladies’ room. Oh no. He looked at me and went, uhoh, am I in the ladies’ room? It was, I, I felt good about myself and like, yeah, it’s the [00:04:00] ladies’ room.
And then I had to go check myself when I left. I’m like, I did go in the right place and then it was success.
Alison Brown: Because it would, if that were me, I would’ve been convinced I went in the men’s room.
Jill Jaracz: Yes. I, I know I went into the bathrooms once at Santa Julia and I can’t remember what they were except for maybe it was up in the concourses somewhere and you went in and there were like two stalls and I thought, how are they gonna have big events here with two stalls?
Alison Brown: You, you know, I was down in the media center in the venue media center and it has like. 40 stalls.
Jill Jaracz: Oh, okay.
Alison Brown: It had a tremendous number of stalls because it had the rows on the outside and then a row on the inside. Oh,
Jill Jaracz: okay. That now we’re talking
Alison Brown: two, two rows on the outside, a row on the inside, but the paint is definitely not.
Done in there. And not all the soap dispensers had soap. And uh, so it was a work in progress, but it was a very pleasant bathroom, I must say. Oh, that’s good. The very tiny stalls for me in my [00:05:00] bag.
Jill Jaracz: Oh, yeah.
Alison Brown: You know, but I guess if I had been at a concert and just had my little handbag, I wouldn’t have noticed that.
Jill Jaracz: Exactly. Um, what officiating or volunteer job would you like to do?
Alison Brown: Well, we’ve talked about the carving out of things. Mm-hmm. There’s also a machine that carves out the ski. Track on ski jump.
Jill Jaracz: I have seen that in our Facebook group,
Alison Brown: yes. But the people that I loved were the sweepers behind him.
Jill Jaracz: Oh, right, right, right.
Alison Brown: Not the blowers. Oh, not
Jill Jaracz: the
Alison Brown: blowers. I don’t want a blower. ’cause I’m afraid that if I have the blower that’s a big machine and I’ll fall over on the track
Jill Jaracz: or hit a skier like Ben Loomis got almost hit. Or did get hit.
Alison Brown: I like the delicate sweepers.
Jill Jaracz: Okay.
Alison Brown: That’s, that’s more my speed.
Jill Jaracz: Excellent. Excellent. I would, uh, you know.
I was at short track tonight and for a while I thought I would want to be fire extinguisher person, but that’s also track maintenance and, and that gets kind of covered. I would like to be, uh, boards, blade guards bins. That’s what I’m [00:06:00] calling this one. So when the short track people come onto. The ice for a regular heat, not the finals where they’re coming through the, the big door and had their picture on the video wall and all that stuff.
This is basically somebody is standing on the back straight going into turn three and there’s a small opening and the pads, and they push the pad out and the skaters can go out and they lead their blades. Or the blade guards on the top of the pad and then the guy pulls the pad back in and they put all the guards in the bin.
And somebody’s job is to go take that through some kind of doorway that’s got the slats in it so you, you know, it’s like a curtain and they must have to run it underneath the stands to where the skaters exit. At turn, turn two, which is another Push the pad out.
Alison Brown: Yes.
Jill Jaracz: So that would be,
Alison Brown: so that goes along with [00:07:00] the swimmer boxes?
Jill Jaracz: Yes, exactly. Exactly. Very same
Alison Brown: idea.
Jill Jaracz: Yes. I love that job. Um, culture. Did you do anything cultural today?
Alison Brown: No, I did not. Oh, I was very uncultured today.
Jill Jaracz: I, I, I thought I went to the Kirsty Coventry Press conference. Yes. ’cause the, the IOC has a daily press conference and always the last one is the president of the IOC comes by.
I thought you were going to that and I thought, I don’t want to go to that. And then you came back and that’s not what you tried to go to.
Alison Brown: Right. I tried to go to the Andrew Parsons Road, to the Paralympics conference, which did not happen and does not seem to be rescheduled.
Jill Jaracz: Oh, okay. Well’s a bummer.
Alison Brown: It just went poof off the schedule.
And so her conference was supposed to be immediately after his
Jill Jaracz: Mm. Okay.
Alison Brown: So I would have stayed. For both. Mm-hmm. I had that happened, but then I had an hour and a half
Jill Jaracz: Oh, okay.
Alison Brown: With nothing to do there and [00:08:00] things to do here.
Jill Jaracz: Okay. So I decided to go and it was, it hour long. It was interesting. Interesting to see her in person.
I have to pull this up ’cause it’s a New York Times story from today. , There were a lot of things she was asked that she did not know the answer to and would have to ask her team kind of thing, except for this New York Times article, which,
uh, Dateline, February 20th. Uh, Juliet McClure wrote in, uh, reported in the. New York Times that the World Anti-Doping Agency was told by a whistleblower that the current head of Russia’s anti-doping agency, Sada had participated in the government sponsored doping scheme uncovered after the 2014 Olympics.
So of course that reporter was there and asked Kirsty Coventry for comment on that. She’s like, I was not aware of this. Nobody on my team told me about this. Maybe somebody should be dismissed. She was [00:09:00] not happy to hear this story.
Alison Brown: Secondhand,
Jill Jaracz: yes, secondhand. And she said, I will talk to you afterwards.
Like basically we’re gonna learn about this. But overall, she is very happy with these games. The athletes are loving it. She has been to all of the locations. It took her a while to get back from the mountains the other day ’cause it was snow,
Alison Brown: snow.
Jill Jaracz: Um,
Alison Brown: e even the IOC president cannot control the weather.
Jill Jaracz: Yes. And, uh, said all of the athletes villages were the same, which I have heard otherwise. Not exactly
Alison Brown: true.
Jill Jaracz: And, uh, that I guess the fans were loving stuff too. So. They, she seemed quite bullish. She said, well, we’ll have to gather the data afterwards. And, but seemed very, very bullish on this idea of using existing venues, even if they’re spread out to Timbuktu, which works and it doesn’t work.
I mean, I can tell you listener, Patrick, I’m very, very jealous of you ’cause he’s here and [00:10:00] he has been to, he really got a circle going. Yes, he has been around, but you know, he also doesn’t have to go in like. Report, report and do a podcast every night. So that’s, it’s just really frustrating for that. I did talk to another reporter tonight and who did go out to Cortina from Milan and, and basically was up for like 37 hours and was there for maybe five or so, but gotta see skeleton, got to see curling and made it back somehow, but took like a one o’clock bus.
Out of Cortina 1:00 AM bus Yes. Out of Cortina. And it just sounded horrible and then slept most of the rest next day and we can’t afford to do that.
Alison Brown: Yeah.
Jill Jaracz: So, um, that was frustrating, but a lot of up and up, uh, it’s a lot of what you expect, people asking questions that can’t get answered where she doesn’t know the answer to.
Um, and. Pretty happy with her first games.
Alison Brown: Okay.
Jill Jaracz: And then I left. And as I [00:11:00] left, there were gifts being given.
Alison Brown: You got a gift.
Jill Jaracz: And I’m not, I’m not saying it’s a gift for the press because if it was a gift for the press, we would’ve gotten it early. I’m thinking these are leftovers we are getting rid of because I have a, uh, a session badge that they were to the session.
Alison Brown: Nice.
Ah.
Jill Jaracz: And I got the pasta.
Alison Brown: You did not?
Jill Jaracz: I did. I grabbed the box and I’m like, I don’t know what this is. And then I saw it was the pasta and I was very happy. I went, you should
Alison Brown: be
Jill Jaracz: very excited about this. Wow. I did not know that they had enough. I’m guessing they had enough for. A lot of people and they just gave us some, I’m really surprised that like you didn’t get that as a welcome gift or something if they, I, because it seemed like they were not making them beyond whatever social media purposes they had.
Alison Brown: Right. But I guess they produced enough [00:12:00] for the village and, and for some handouts.
Jill Jaracz: Yeah.
Alison Brown: So Nice.
Jill Jaracz: Pretty, pretty excited about that.
I don’t remember. You might have mentioned Elsa Violinists. Yeah,
Alison Brown: she
Jill Jaracz: did.
Alison Brown: I did the, the punk rock violinist with the glow in the dark violin.
Jill Jaracz: Yes, She was there tonight at at Short Track. Very odd. So were Breezy. Jan Breezy Johnson and Dan Jansen, they were the interview people.
Alison Brown: Oh, I was gonna say, were they performing
Jill Jaracz: with El also violation?
No, I wish. That was awesome. But I mean, she’s very, you know, she’s very excited about what she does. It’s just very odd to me. But, you know, at least we had entertainment and, and again, projection mapping on the, on the ice with scenes ahead happen earlier, earlier in the games for which I’m just constantly blown away by.
Oh, we finally get this.
Alison Brown: It’s like we could have done this from the beginning there. You know, there there is video from Old Olympics
Jill Jaracz: Yeah.
Alison Brown: That you can use for [00:13:00] projection mapping.
Jill Jaracz: There. There is a, an. An, I don’t wanna call it an ad, but it’s a video that they play ahead of time in the, the long string of videos that you know that they produced about two, three years ago.
But this is one where they show old film from Cortina and from Rome 1960. And it’s really cool to see the old stuff interspersed and then, then once they get to the actual message, you’re like, yeah, this is a repeat from, you just pulled this out as something to put on the jumbotron, but. Yeah, it was a good day for getting stuff.
Alison Brown: Yeah.
Jill Jaracz: And, and, and when I saw the pasta, I’m like, I will never complain about this again. And then I realized this was probably leftover, but that’s okay. I will not complain about the lack of a backpack.
All right. Before we get to today’s results, we’d like to say thank you to everybody who’s donated to our fundraiser to get us here and to our efforts to keep the flame alive all year round. This show does have expenses and uh, we are a [00:14:00] listener supported, primarily listener supported show. So, uh. We need some help keeping that flame alive.
You can go to flame ipod.com/support and, uh, show your appreciation if you have, uh, appreciated the coverage that, uh, we’ve been giving you throughout Milano and throughout Milano Cortina these last 29 days. No, we haven’t even been here 29th, these last 15 days. 16 days.
Alison Brown: Well, this is day 14 of the show. So day 15.
’cause we, or no. And 16. 16, because we did minus two.
Jill Jaracz: Yeah. So it’s been a, it’s been a while.
Alison Brown: Two and a half weeks.
Jill Jaracz: Yeah. Of daily shows. So if you’ve appreciated that and you had the means, please, uh. Donate at Flame and life pod.com/support also. And if you don’t have the means, tell your friends. ’cause we’re going for the Paralympics too and they’re a lot of fun to watch.
So hit your friends to us and we can increase that community of Shuk Stanis. So thank you very much. We have results. We have biathlon. [00:15:00]
Alison Brown: And geez, it was snowing again.
Jill Jaracz: Yes, snowy, windy. It was tough. Uh, this was, uh, ahead of time. I saw these fun facts of if Quinton FF May had won, he would’ve won gold in every biathlon event throughout his career.
As an Olympian.
Alison Brown: Nice.
Jill Jaracz: But he did not win gold. No. That will come Also found that, uh, Italian Lucas Hoffer started his 28th Olympic race. Now he is in the lead. He has the record for the most number of Olympic biathletes races started. So that’s good. He had a bad day. He finished 25th. There were. People who missed all five targets on a round.
That’s how crazy this was. And, uh, somebody did chew clean, and that was Johannes d from Norway. Uh, best race of his life. He said it’s his favorite discipline, one of his favorite den venues. Um. [00:16:00] He has had a wild year because he became a dad in September and he started the season on the IBU Cup circuit, which is like the junior varsity and now he’s an Olympic champion.
Alison Brown: Nice job.
Jill Jaracz: Uh, silver went to stir the home law greed from Norway. So he has five races, five medals,
Alison Brown: zero girlfriend.
Jill Jaracz: That is correct. And bronze went to Ton, it’s his ninth Olympic medal. He is the most decorated French Olympian, winter or summer. So,
Alison Brown: and he and, and QFM is one of those names that just keeps coming back.
We can’t get rid of him. Not that we want to, but he just is at such a high level for such a long period of time.
Jill Jaracz: Yes. It’s, it’s, uh, pretty impressive. So. Does he stick around four years for French Alps? Don’t know he’s considering it. Because, because that’s a
Alison Brown: home. Home [00:17:00] games.
Jill Jaracz: Home games. Uh, fellow Frenchman Emilion, Jacqueline, it sounded like he was not going to be around that quite that long.
He’s like, maybe I’m out watching the penalty loops or something with a clipboard. Um, he was, uh, am Shalon was wearing a. Italian sake Italian. Italian cycling. Great. Marco Pan’s earring today. I think he’s been wearing it throughout the games like the family has gone to, and he, his good luck
Alison Brown: charm.
Jill Jaracz: I guess so.
Oh, a lot of the, the press I was trying to find out about this was an Italian and also Payal, so I couldn’t quite figure out what was going on, but it was kind of a fun fact there. Um, we are saying goodbye to some big biathletes, uh, Phil porn horn from Germany. He finished fourth, got passed by QFM near the end, and Horn Horn said he just didn’t have the strength.
To keep it up, but he is retiring after this. And then tomorrow we will be saying goodbye to Dorothea Vera from [00:18:00] Italy and Francisco, proce from Germany. They will be racing their last, which is sad passing of the guard.
Alison Brown: So are they retiring? Like they’re not finishing the season?
Jill Jaracz: I don’t think so. Francisco Poise said this is gonna be her last race.
Wow. So I don’t think there’s much left in the season anyway.
Alison Brown: Right.
Jill Jaracz: Um, and I don’t think they’re doing a world championships on top of this, but, um.
Yeah, there’s like three World Cups left, so there’s no championships and. You mean you’ve worked for this, so,
Alison Brown: yes. Yes.
Jill Jaracz: Probably just take the rest off if you’re not gonna come back.
Alison Brown: If you’re stepping down. Yeah. Oh yeah. That’s some big names to lose. Big names
Jill Jaracz: going. It’s always tough. we had bobsled tonight,
Alison Brown: two women started, Ruth runs one and two.
So we have standings, uh, Germany. Germany, but not Germany. Germany. Germany. Germany, Germany, USA.
Jill Jaracz: That USA pilot would be
Alison Brown: Callie arm, Brester Humphreys. [00:19:00] So Laura Nte is in first. Lisa Buckowitz is in second, and Callie arm, Brester Humphreys is in third arb. Bree Walker is in 10th. Elena Meyers Taylor is in 12th.
She had a rough second run. She was in fifth after the first.
Jill Jaracz: Mm-hmm.
Alison Brown: And then dropped down to 12.
Jill Jaracz: Wow. I saw that on the data and I didn’t have a chance to pull it up on the, the feed. Um, that’s, Ooh. But you never know. Two more runs, anything can happen.
Alison Brown: Yeah. As we’ve seen with the mono bobb, things got swapped around a few times and, and surprises happen.
That is for sure on this track
Jill Jaracz: over and curling, were the tournament’s winding down?
Alison Brown: Amazingly
Jill Jaracz: so the women had semi-finals today. Sweden beat Canada six three, and Canada said they just weren’t as sharp today and they didn’t play a great game. So that can help explain that. Switzerland beat the US seven, four US.
Got to off to a slow start. Got better in the second half, but that [00:20:00] didn’t have enough time to really catch up. So the gold medal game will be Sweden versus Switzerland, and bronze will be USA versus Canada. This is a theme on USA versus Canada and some team events here. Uh, Sweden’s on a hassel board said it’s going to be a battle for gold.
Alison Brown: Yeah, well, Sweden was undefeated through most of the tournament, and Switzerland was always right there behind them with one loss. So it, it feels like the two best teams in the tournament did end up in the gold medal game.
Jill Jaracz: The men had their bronze medal game and Switzerland demolished Norway nine one.
And it was one of those, uh, the Norwegian Skip did the kneel and spin around and then released the, the, uh, stone to concede the loss. They just, they also did not wear fancy pants, which I think is part of the problem.
Alison Brown: Yeah. So they had originally worn the fancy PR as a a, an homage to Thomas Allred. [00:21:00] And did very well in that match.
So maybe they need to just accept that. To do well, you need the fancy pants.
Jill Jaracz: In freestyle skiing, we had the women’s ski cross gold. Went to Daniella Meyer from Germany, silver went to Fanny Smith from Switzerland, and bronze went to Sandra Niland from Sweden, who was the defending champion. But uh. Had a tougher day.
Still got on the podium though. Uh, so gold and silver, they got individual medals this time around because in Beijing they shared a bronze.
Alison Brown: I remember this now
Jill Jaracz: that, remember that you brought
Alison Brown: it up.
Jill Jaracz: Uh, Smith was given a yellow card for prop improper contact on the final jump. Of the ski cross in Beijing, both skiers protested this.
There was a long appeals process cast, made a final decision in December, 2022 just to award two bronze medals
Alison Brown: because I remember it. This person was the bronze and then this person was the bronze. And it went, the [00:22:00] decisions kept going back and forth. Um. So I did not, resol did not know the result of, of the cast decision or that there even was a cast decision, but that’s kind of amazing that it carried on for so long.
Jill Jaracz: It is, and this is Smith’s fifth games and her third medal. So in men’s free ski halfpipe, gold went to Alex Ferrera from the USA Silver went to Henry Soro from Estonia and Bronze went to Brendan McKay from Canada. So, uh, Alex Ferra now has a. Career full set.
Alison Brown: Love a full set.
Jill Jaracz: And
Alison Brown: he’s also the most dec, he’s tied with David Wise now as the most decorated US male free skier.
Jill Jaracz: Oh, nice, nice. And it was funny because we get the team U, well we get a lot of press releases from different places, but Team USA sent around that he, uh, was the 10th gold medal for team USA and it that matches the gold count from Salt Lake City 2002, which was the last time we got 10 gold medals.
Alison Brown: And [00:23:00] people are complaining about how the USA is doing.
Jill Jaracz: Yeah, I know, and I understand there have been more events. And I went back and, and basically from Torino to Beijing, we got nine gold medals and the medal totals ranged from, uh, 23 to 37.
But, uh, I, and I don’t know the metal totals now, but it’s funny how things have changed and, and yes, there are more metal opportunities, but there, so there would be a lot of analysis to do.
Alison Brown: So percentage wise, how many medals did the US
Jill Jaracz: actually
Alison Brown: win?
Jill Jaracz: Yes, exactly. Exactly. But,
Alison Brown: but Norway is still killing it on the metal table.
Jill Jaracz: Uh, always will.
Alison Brown: Yeah.
Jill Jaracz: And we had, uh, men’s aerials today. Uh, gold went to Juan Jing D from China, who is the husband of the women’s aerials champion.
Alison Brown: I can only imagine what their house is like.
Jill Jaracz: I don’t know. Apparently she wants to go for Olympics number six.
Alison Brown: Oh, good for her.
Jill Jaracz: Yeah. So, uh, it’s must [00:24:00] be just intense.
Can
Alison Brown: you just imagine them going in between rooms and they just run and flip across the doorways?
Jill Jaracz: I bet they jump on mattresses at every hotel.
Alison Brown: Absolutely.
Jill Jaracz: Uh, silver went to NOI Roth from Switzerland, who is the reigning world champ, and his mother won bronze in women’s aerials at Nagano 1998.
Alison Brown: Was she ever erling when she was pregnant?
’cause then, you know, maybe he got the idea. I don’t, before
Jill Jaracz: he was even born, I don’t know. Well, you know, if she was, her uterus would’ve been left on the track or in the pool or wherever, you know?
Alison Brown: Fair enough.
Jill Jaracz: So, probably not. And bro went to Lee Tian, ma from China. We had ice hockey tonight.
Alison Brown: Yes. I was at the first game and part of the second game because I, I didn’t like.
The bit of a blowout, and some of the American fans were getting a little snipy and I, and I was tired and I couldn’t handle Snipe when I was tired. But the first [00:25:00] game was Canada, Finland, Canada won three to two, and it was a barn burner of game, really close, and I don’t wanna say it’s closer than the square portrayed.
But it was because Finland was leading most of the game.
Jill Jaracz: I saw that
Alison Brown: they, they scored on a power play first and then scored again. So they were up two oh for quite a while, and then Canada just stormed back towards the end of the game.
Jill Jaracz: That’s wild. Wild. Amazing how Canada almost didn’t make it.
Alison Brown: Yeah. Had it been a two and a half period game, Finland would’ve won.
Jill Jaracz: Wow.
Alison Brown: Really fun in the stands. Mostly Canadian, but a good number of fins. We had the abominable snowman. Oh, we had, we had Santa Claus, we had the sparkling Mounties. They were back. Oh,
Jill Jaracz: they were back.
Alison Brown: Good. They were back in, in hockey. They, [00:26:00] in my area, there was a dad who kept saying to his daughter, who was maybe five, do you see that Canadian flag?
That’s the most beautiful thing you’ll ever look at. And the Canadian players didn’t seem to wanna leave the ice. You know, they always leave the, the winning team always leaves second. Mm-hmm. And salutes their fans. But the Canadian players didn’t really seem to wanna leave.
Jill Jaracz: Aw.
Alison Brown: They, they wanted to hang out and, and enjoy that moment, which was really nice.
Jill Jaracz: That’s nice. Was was, uh, Sidney Crosby back?
Alison Brown: You know what? I didn’t notice. Okay. Because I was too, you know, the press seating, you really can’t see. Mm-hmm. Um, I, I wanna say I don’t think so. He certainly didn’t score and, or assist.
Jill Jaracz: Okay.
Alison Brown: So if he was there, he might, he might have dressed and not played much.
Jill Jaracz: So tough break for Finland. Who is the defending gold medalist? ’cause that game when they beat Russia. Oh, that was amazing. Uh, that was Beijing 2022. I’m imagining that having the [00:27:00] NHL back. Put them at a bit of a disadvantage. I’m not, I, I would imagine they have N-H-L-N-H-L players on their team, of course, but maybe not to the extent that Canada and the US do.
Alison Brown: You would be surprised how many fins are in the NHL.
Jill Jaracz: Really?
Alison Brown: Yes.
Jill Jaracz: Excellent.
Alison Brown: Just like the Slovak, you would be surprised how much of that team is NHL.
Jill Jaracz: Hmm.
Alison Brown: And then the USA, and speaking of the Slovak, the USA kind of demolished Slovakia six to two. Ugh. It just dominated and it was never much. I mean, it was a good game, but it was never much of a contest.
Jill Jaracz: Okay.
Alison Brown: So we’re gonna see us and Canada in the gold medal game, Finland and Slovakia, in the bronze medal game, which will be first tomorrow.
Jill Jaracz: Okay. In, uh, short track speed skating. I, I was there and, uh, let me tell you, I looked at the clock. I’m like, it’s 10 o’clock already. That’s how wild this night was. So we had, uh, the women’s 1500 was quarterfinals and semi-finals and [00:28:00] finals, and the men’s 5,000 meter relay was kind of tucked in between, pretty much fin, uh, semi semi-finals and finals to give the women time to rest.
Uh. Uh, for the Relay. Netherlands won gold, silver went to Korea, bronze went to Italy, defending champions. Canada finished fourth and Netherlands won by like a couple of seconds. They had a little gap there. They were thrilled. It was super exciting and super thrilled, and, and relays are just chaos all over the ice.
Alison Brown: There are just bodies everywhere.
Jill Jaracz: Right? Sp speaking of bodies everywhere. That was all over the Women’s 1500. Oh, no. Oh my goodness. So, uh, you know, in the quarterfinals we had some wild stuff going on. So in Quarterfinal three T, uh. Tanika Dul from Belgium. She decided to do this strategy where she instantly sped off and then lamped the pack.
Alison Brown: Yes, that is a thing, [00:29:00]
Jill Jaracz: and, uh, she was wiped out at the end. You could tell she was really, really tired. She almost got caught by everyone else, but still managed to get through to the to the semis. Corinne was in quarterfinal four, looked very good. One handily because Corinne has had a very, very tough Olympics.
Alison Brown: Yes.
Jill Jaracz: And then, uh, quarter final six, grizzly,
Alison Brown: oh no.
Jill Jaracz: Kristen Santos, Griswold’s in this one. So is Ariana Fontana. And there’s a point in like turn four where there are three skaters wide. It’s, it’s USA on the inside, Italy on the outside. And, uh. A woman from Poland, uh, Camilla, er from Poland is in the middle.
So they slip, they go down. Kristen Santos, Griswold’s skate [00:30:00] clipped ER’s face, like the back tip went into her cheekbone. She goes down, slams her head on the ice. Oh, and just goes in the corner and is not moving. So they stop the race. For medical, like medical enough where they bring out the sheet to cover everybody.
Alison Brown: Oh
Jill Jaracz: yeah. And they pulled her out on a stretcher and there’s, there’s blood and neck brace and it was not pretty. Hopefully they took her to the hospital. I hope she’s doing all right because it was just a grizzly, grizzly accident. Uh, Kristen Santos Griswald got a penalty and disqualified for that. Um. Ana Fontana got through to the semi, well, she got through to the final too.
Um, but they were like massaging her hip while they were waiting for the restart to happen because she was, uh, in tough situation. Uh, one of the semi-finals had at least three different crashes in it.
Alison Brown: Oh [00:31:00] no.
Jill Jaracz: Which was mostly people slipping of their own accord. It was just wild, wild. Corrine qualified for the A final.
So there we go. You’re back. Corrine. Or as the announcer called her Corto, it was like, who is that? I’m like, oh, you mean Corrine? Okay. So that made me feel good about my own name pronunciations.
Alison Brown: He is not consulting the name, pronounce or provided to him. Guess
Jill Jaracz: I guess not. So, um. Then while we’re waiting for the finals guy next to me who is either, I think probably from Korea, it could have been from China, starts getting talking to, because he is videoing and the volunteer manager comes over and they start talking in English and then it switches to Italian and the, the.
Manager is very [00:32:00] upset because you are not supposed to be filming the play. It’s in the media handbook. And this guy is like, I can film 10 seconds for my personal stuff. And he is like, yeah, but you’re not here for your personal stuff. Let’s, it’s kind of be real. And they went on for quite some time, back and forth, back and forth.
And finally the journalist calmed it down. Hmm. And uh, it was not quiet, but it was, it was heated. There was a lot of yelling and we had an argument that was not going anywhere with this volunteer manager.
Alison Brown: Good for her,
Jill Jaracz: him.
Alison Brown: Oh, even better.
Jill Jaracz: Yeah. Yeah. It was, it was not pleasant, but it was fun. ’cause it drives me nuts when it, it drives me nuts because we’re not supposed to.
Alison Brown: Follow
Jill Jaracz: the rules. Just follow the rules. And, and the volunteer manager was like, this is, you can’t take video because it’s for the broadcast rights holders. And this guy was like, but it’s uh, we can take like 10 seconds. And he wasn’t [00:33:00] taking 10 seconds. No. Let’s be honest here.
Alison Brown: Yes.
Jill Jaracz: A lot of video was happening.
So, uh, that was fun. And uh, then the final for the women’s 1500 meters happened and Corinne got out to the lead first. But then, uh, two Koreans, Kim Gilly and Choi Ji, they had been drafting her and. Popped into the lead in front of her and she said, I went down to the mix zone and waited for her to come out.
And she had said, basically, somebody has to take the lead and you get to that point where I will do this. And then she knew somewhere along the way that there wasn’t gonna be, they, the people behind her would have more in the tank because it’s so much easier to draft. And then you get into the, well. Why doesn’t everybody just hold back?
Well, then you would’ve to race first off, but then there’s a real factor of if you stay [00:34:00] back and try to draft like that, you could get stuck. So, and
Alison Brown: you can, that’s where the crashes happen. The crashes don’t happen. And the person
Jill Jaracz: Yeah, yeah. Up
Alison Brown: front by herself. It’s in the melee behind her.
Jill Jaracz: Yes. Or in if you’re Steven Bradbury in the way back.
Alison Brown: Exactly.
Jill Jaracz: So yeah, it was one of those, I will take this and you see what you can do. And she was thrilled to win bronze because she proved to herself. What she could do and that this whole week goes in bed. I have to go through all of my audio that I have, so hopefully some of hers, uh, turnout, uh, she talked with Jalen Cough, like kind of, I think the team set up ’cause Jalen Cough had had a not so great beginning to her games too.
Right. And so just talking with her and knowing that this happens to other people, it was, I think it was really helpful. But, but, uh, Corinne was. Pretty stoked
Alison Brown: as she should be.
Jill Jaracz: That’s it’s an
Alison Brown: Olympic medal in
Jill Jaracz: her pocket, and it was so cute because. [00:35:00] Uh, she was talking with the lower echelon press because in the mix zone there’s hierarchy.
You have to go through broadcast first, and then you get to the box that is like Reuters and a FP and a couple of other outlets who pay for access to be upfront first, because then sometimes they get tired and they don’t want to come to the rest of us who are, you know, clumped around trying to. To get a few words, and the, the Dutch relay team came by and they were giving her hugs and they were so happy for her.
And it was just so nice that everybody was just thrilled that she,
Alison Brown: she got
Jill Jaracz: it, she got it done.
Alison Brown: Yeah.
Jill Jaracz: So good for you. And, and it’d be interesting to see how she processes it, all of this and figures out like, what can. Help. ’cause she did say she spent like most of the day crying after a thousand. It was, it was really tough.
I felt bad. And that’s it for [00:36:00] short track. We’re all done and short track.
Alison Brown: Unbelievable. She pulled it out on that last day,
Jill Jaracz: didn’t I know. Good job. Good job, Corinne. And then finally we had speed skating. Did you go to this?
Alison Brown: No.
Jill Jaracz: You didn’t do the double huffing?
Alison Brown: No. ’cause I went to the early hockey
Jill Jaracz: and then
Alison Brown: the, some of the late hockey.
Jill Jaracz: Okay. Uh, women’s 1500 happened today. Uh, 30-year-old Antoinette Rema de Young from Netherlands won gold. Uh, this is her fourth game. She also has a full set for the career.
Alison Brown: My favorite thing,
Jill Jaracz: uh, Ragland from Norway. One Silver said she made a few mistakes on her last 100 meters, so she understood why she did not pull out a better time.
And then Valerie Maltes from Canada won bronze. This is her first medal at, ever at this distance. And she won the, the Gold Team Pursuit just the other day.
Alison Brown: Nice collection for her.
Jill Jaracz: Exactly. Brittany Bo got her third, fourth place of the games. [00:37:00]
Alison Brown: Oh.
Jill Jaracz: But yeah, she said it’s been, that’s been heartbreaking for her.
But the, the Dutch gave her in a standing ovation, so she, and she appreciates the Dutch fans a lot. And
Alison Brown: she also picked up a fiance while she was here. I know. So I think, I don’t think she will look back at Milan with, with, uh, heartbreak.
Jill Jaracz: No, no, no, no, no, no. Oh, we still have. Action going on, and we still have Shukla competing tomorrow.
Alison Brown: We have sliders going wild. So Elena Myers Taylor and Bree Walker will finish the two women bobsled and Frank Duca and Josh Williamson and Adam Lin will begin the four bobsled.
Jill Jaracz: And we have mascots.
Alison Brown: Yes. So today we have Ozzy, and please take a look at this picture that’ll be in the newsletter. We have him on socials.
Ozzy is a hyperactive young Guinea pig who likes to stand on his tiptoes to reach a full height of. 16 inches.
Jill Jaracz: Wow.
Alison Brown: That is a, that
Jill Jaracz: is a long Guinea pig.
Alison Brown: [00:38:00] Yeah. He luxuriate in neck scratches, throwing his head back at a 90 degree angle. He holds a speed eating record.
Jill Jaracz: Good for you.
Alison Brown: Gold medal for Ozzy for speed eating.
And he goes by other nicknames like Ozzy Chicken Zu. Chicken butt.
Jill Jaracz: I’m very curious how that delineation happened
Alison Brown: because all of us who have animals have multiple names.
Jill Jaracz: Oh yeah, of
Alison Brown: course. And the, the evolution is, is. Quite a story. So special thanks to Ozzy’s family for sharing him with sh on and for supporting the fundraiser.
Jill Jaracz: Thank you so much. And we have shout outs.
Alison Brown: Yes. So first up is our, one of our absolute favorites, Terry Hedgepath from Newport, New Hampshire, and she says, you guys rock.
Jill Jaracz: Thank you Terry. And it’s Terry, like a USA shot putter. Terry TKs, who competed at Sydney 2000. I wonder if you ever got something for the archives from Terry Toks.
Terry Hedge Beth,
Alison Brown: and [00:39:00] said, wow, this person spells it correctly.
Jill Jaracz: And that’s gonna do it for this episode. We are close to the end.
Alison Brown: Two more days.
Jill Jaracz: Two more days, with not much to do in Milan. Let’s just put it out there. Not much to do in Milan. But we will find stuff to do and report back to you tomorrow.
’cause it will be exciting.
Alison Brown: I I have a big cultural moment tomorrow.
Jill Jaracz: You do.
Alison Brown: I gotta go to the train station and get my ticket to the airport.
Jill Jaracz: Oh, that’ll be fun. That’ll be
Alison Brown: fun. This, this is an adventure. We’ll see how this goes.
Jill Jaracz: I, I have heard, uh, because I will be going to the closing ceremonies in Verona.
Uh, there has now been directives of. You can just get on the train back first come first serve. Because I would imagine we had to get tickets through the ticketing app to go there. And then on the way back it was like, well get a ticket from the games desk at the train station. And it looks like now just.
Show up
Alison Brown: and hope for the best.
Jill Jaracz: Right. And it’s, it’s, [00:40:00] I have heard rumblings of people like, when that cauldron’s out, I’m out of there. That’s it. I’m not staying for what’s next. I’m getting skip the fireworks because it’s, it’s a, get outta the arena. B, you gotta walk 15, 20 minutes to the train station and the, you know, the trains go.
Every so often, so we will see how I get home.
Alison Brown: Good luck.
Jill Jaracz: Thank you. But that’ll be interesting and that’s gonna do it for this episode. If you would like even more of the most fun coverage of the games hit us up. We are@flamealivepod.com. That’s your source for our socials and newsletter and direct ways to contact us.
And be sure to tune in tomorrow for what we forgot to tell you about today. Perhaps, maybe not.
Alison Brown: Maybe we remembered everything.
Jill Jaracz: Let’s hope so. It’s one of these days.
Alison Brown: We only got two left.
Jill Jaracz: I know, right. Uh, thank you for listening
Alison Brown: and until next time, chow and keep the flame alive.