It’s the first full day of competition at the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics! We already have our first Olympic champions, which means we’ve seen a medal ceremony and have thoughts!
Jill had a cultural morning, with a visit to Winter House and a walk through the Alfa Romeo/Lancia/Fiat pavilion. She checked out the crowds at the Official Fan Zone and Coke’s The Peak, and then got a closer look at the lit cauldron.
Alison watched a lot of sports today, including ice hockey, speed skating and an Italian gold medal in person. Jill went to figure skating and saw the next stages of the team event.
Plus, our Cortina correspondent Doug Hill from The Sports Fan Project reports in with his experiences (good and iffy) with the Olympics on the other side of the region.
Sports on today’s program:
- Alpine skiing
- Cross country skiing
- Curling
- Figure skating
- Ice Hockey
- Luge
- Ski jumping
- Snowboard
- Speed skating
Team Keep the Flame Alive starts competition tomorrow! We let you know who to cheer for!
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 Do not quote from the transcript; use the audio as the record of note.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 one, coverage of the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games. I am your host, Jill Jaracz, coming to you from house joined as always by my lovely co-host, Alison Brown. Alison Chao Kata.
Alison Brown: Chao. It has been a day of sports and sports and sports.
Jill Jaracz: It has. And culture.
And culture.
Alison Brown: We have both been a lot of places today
Jill Jaracz: that we have, that we have,
What did we forget to say on the last episode?
and we have a new segment that I don’t love. [00:01:00] But it’s called what do What? We forgot to say last night,
Alison Brown: you know, considering how late it was last night, it’s a miracle. We got a show put together.
The newsletter was late yesterday because I fell asleep before you finished the show and could put the link in. I went to sit down and that was it. So first let me, when we get to things we forgot, I forgot to send the newsletter until this morning.
Jill Jaracz: The, the big performance that we forgot to talk about last night was Andrea Bocelli, who was
Alison Brown: fantastic.
It, it’s almost like we just expected him to be an emotional high point, so we almost didn’t realize how important the moment. It was in, in talking about the show, but yes. What, what a beautiful, incredible moment again, since he did it at Torino, uh, the closing ceremony. What a nice connection between those two winner [00:02:00] games.
Jill Jaracz: Yes, yes. And uh, one other encounter that I had waiting in the mob trying to get into the train
Alison Brown: because we’re all in this together.
Jill Jaracz: That’s right. Except for the, the German who wants us to cue in the back. So I’m standing by this couple and, uh, uh, and I think they’re their friends or they, they work together in some capacity, but they’re here together.
And, and the woman was holding a, uh, a couple of little like portfolios that unfolded and had something in it. I’m like, oh, were you at the hospitality suite? ’cause I thought it was the, a hospitality gift. And she said, oh, no, no. And uh, then she said, oh, I was at the. Red carpet party at La Scala. I’m like, oh, are you an Olympian?
And she said, no, I’m an actress. And I left it at that because I, I can tell you why I don’t know who this is
Alison Brown: because you have, you did not spend years [00:03:00] watching re on repeat high school musical.
Jill Jaracz: That is correct. Standing next to Monique Coleman, and then she was with Michael Weber and they had gone to the party and what they had been given was a preserved snowflake.
Alison Brown: What they should have been given was a car and a ride home from the opening ceremony.
Jill Jaracz: That’s That’s very true. That’s very true. But they did look fabulous. I will say that. Um, alright.
What officiating or volunteer job would we want to do?
Onto what officiating or volunteer job would we want to do today?
Alison Brown: Well, today I went to speed skating among other places, and I am definitely going to be the person putting down those little red dots.
Jill Jaracz: Oh yeah. Yeah.
Alison Brown: So not only did he have to set the dots, he had to sit on the infield in case anyone crashed and moved the dots. But here was the best part. At the end of the session, he had a basket sweeper that scooped up the dots to return it to the pale that it lives in, in between races.
Jill Jaracz: My, that’s fantastic.
Alison Brown: [00:04:00] Ice floor maintenance coming together.
Jill Jaracz: I would like to be in the stuffed animal collection. At figure skating and there haven’t been very many stuffed animals thrown or stuff is, it’s early. It is early and I think they’re coming. But what happens is there are is a big crew of sweeper children and they are dressed in bright pink and they like to clap ’cause they were clapping for some people all excitedly.
And uh, then they run out and get the stuffed animal and bring it back. And there was a woman there with a giant garbage bag. Collecting the stuffies and I would like to be that person.
Alison Brown: I think she also has to wrangle the children though. And I’m,
Jill Jaracz: I can do that with one look. Have you met my mother?
Alison Brown: This is true.
You do have that Midwestern look that says, no, you are going to behave or you will not get any of the hot
Jill visits Winter House, an official fan zone and a sponsor pavilion
Jill Jaracz: pot. [00:05:00] Oh, okay. We had, I had a lot of cultural moments today.
Alison Brown: You are so cultured.
Jill Jaracz: Gosh, you don’t what to do
Alison Brown: with
Jill Jaracz: yourself. My, so I managed to get up.
Alison Brown: I don’t know. When I got up this morning, I was so confused that you were con I was looking around like the apartment is big, like you were something, like you were hiding someplace.
I’ll pop out of the closet one day. I know it took me like half an hour to remember that You had plans.
Jill Jaracz: I did have plans. We got invited to Winter House, which is hockey and skating. Speed skating, figure skating. They have a house for friends and family really, and the athletes so they can go and hang out and they can watch NBC on feed and there are little rooms and Brian Boy’s lounge is there. And they can just sit and have a good time.
So we got an invite each to go, and I, mine was 10 to 12 [00:06:00] today. Not an easy day, although I think Christine Brennan came in after me, so that’s good.
Alison Brown: She managed to roll herself in as well.
Jill Jaracz: But, uh, I mean, it’s clubby, it’s. Cozy it. We’ve also been watching a lot of Rotella Fortuna, which is Wheel of Fortune, and if you are old, you know, of the early Wheel of Fortune.
Alison Brown: Oh. Where they would have the room set up.
Jill Jaracz: Yes. And you would buy stuff and you would always end up not with, uh, like the last hunk of money you had, would only buy the big ceramic animal.
Alison Brown: And then you could put the rest on gift C certificate.
Jill Jaracz: Well, yeah. And, uh, oh boy. Some of the stuff in this, this place is a little like the Wheel of Fortune things.
There are, there is a ceramic animal, but there’s like books and, and knick-knacks of plenty. There are some games there that they could play if they wanted to. And, and [00:07:00] it, it does, it’s very stylish. It looks very Instagramable. That kind of thing. But I also, Brian Bo was talking about the drinks and the menu he put together and there’s wine that I was not drinking wine at 11 o’clock in the morning for sure.
They gave us a little snack. There was some, some, uh, shark cutie tray and uh, little kind of quesadilla with spinach in it. It was nice, nice. But I, and, and there was a hockey player there getting interviewed, but I, I honestly felt like I did not belong there.
Alison Brown: That’s not good. ’cause I’m supposed to go on Tuesday.
Jill Jaracz: Oh, you’re a talkie. You’re more talkie than I am. But I did, and I, I was, I tried to talk to Brian Boitano, but he had very many people in line and so I just, after a while, I can only sit there and, and look weird for only so long. But I heard him say that Kirsty Coventry speech was spot on. He [00:08:00] really loved it.
Alison Brown: Nice. I I’m glad to hear that. Somebody way smarter than us also, like this speech.
Jill Jaracz: So that was that. I will, I’ve got a bunch of pictures. I’m gonna, I, I know I’ve been telling you mega store video’s coming. I’m gonna try to put this one together first ’cause it’s. Just some snapshots. Um, I, on the way back from there, this was also in like the Navi Naly area, which is by the canals.
So I wandered around there for a little bit. And, uh, also on the way back went to the, I looked this up too. It, it’s the pavilion with Alpha Romeo and Fiat and the, the middle brand car at the
Alison Brown: Costella.
Jill Jaracz: Yes. And um. That wasn’t very crowded. So I popped up and saw what were they doing, and uh, you got a little lanyard with a scavenger hunt game on it.
Oh, so you were at the start. And then you stay in that [00:09:00] pavilion and you take the quiz, you go by one of the cars that you want to care about, and you take the quiz and it’s a six question quiz. Some of it is about sports, some of it is about the car that you are by. And um, all the sports were very spectacular in the English translations.
Alison Brown: So thankfully the quiz was in English. ’cause imagine if you were trying to take a quiz in Italian.
Jill Jaracz: I know. Well, I’d be guessing. I will take a and, uh, then you get a little sticker and, uh, a pin if you do well enough on the quiz. And also because the people in the booth handing out the, the lanyards really liked my pins.
They were like, hold on. And they gave me a special pin and they were like, put this in your pocket. Yeah. And then I gave them some, keep the FLA lipids and they got all excited. Yes.
Alison Brown: Excellent.
Jill Jaracz: So then the, the next activity is you have to go, uh, smile. So I think that’s something involving a photo, but you have to do that at the, the live site, the fan [00:10:00] site.
And I went over there ’cause it’s right, right there. And, uh, that line was bit long, not for today.
Alison Brown: I was going to say, can you do this over multiple
Jill Jaracz: days? Yeah, I think so. I mean, they didn’t write a date down or anything. They just give you a sticker to put on your lanyard.
Alison Brown: We’ll be back there. Yeah,
Jill Jaracz: exactly.
Alison Brown: ’cause it’s close to club, uh, 26 as well, isn’t it?
Jill Jaracz: Yes. And um, fan zone was hopping
Alison Brown: Oh good.
Jill Jaracz: And they had cross country on the big screen, so I saw a tiny bit of that. They had a big, uh, inflatable Milo and Tina, so that was cool. People were taking their pictures, of course. And then, like I said before, the little domes were just hopping. So the Kiko Dome has something, um, uh, there was like an L or an air and they had a.
Like a virtual snowboard run or ski run. It was snowboard. ’cause you were, I saw
Alison Brown: that picture you posted. I was very confused.
Jill Jaracz: So you were, uh, on a contraption that [00:11:00] allowed you to swing side to side, and you had to be on a screen. You were looking at a screen and you had to swing the way the course was going.
So you were doing a downhill
Alison Brown: Oh, that would end badly.
Jill Jaracz: Yeah. I’m, I’m sure. But it looked really cool. And then, uh, you
Alison Brown: didn’t try this.
Jill Jaracz: That also hit a huge long line. Oh, okay. Because we only had one machine. So all these, every little hut there was crowded. Good. That was good. So people are going Coke pavilion, which is right across from that, the peak.
Oh my gosh, the line was so long.
Alison Brown: I saw the photo you took of the line. That was a good 40 people deep.
Jill Jaracz: Oh, minimum. It could have been more.
Alison Brown: Really? Yeah. That was just what was in the photo?
Jill Jaracz: Uh, yeah, I mean, it, it went back and forth.
Alison Brown: Oh,
Jill Jaracz: like three times or so. Yeah. So it’s a long line. Uh, but it’s weekend, so maybe on the weekday.
When people are at work, it’d be a little bit easier to get in. [00:12:00] Ilunga Pavilion also had a little bit of a line down the stairs, but I was busy trying to get my smile on to get my other Oh, because what you get when you get the whole scavenger hunt done is a little sticker book with the, uh, athletes and stuff in winter games.
Yeah, it looked kind of fun.
Alison Brown: Pins and stickers.
Jill Jaracz: I know this
Alison Brown: is perfect for you.
Jill Jaracz: Right. And then I walked past the cauldron.
Alison Brown: And said, hello, cauldron.
Jill Jaracz: I did. The circles are not, were not lit up at the daytime. Okay. It was just the flame, I don’t know what to call it. It’s. Bigger than the snow flame.
Alison Brown: Excellent.
Jill Jaracz: And it looks cool, but it’s small.
Alison Brown: Yeah,
Jill Jaracz: it’s small. And um,
Alison Brown: it’s the little flame bowl.
Jill Jaracz: Yeah. So we’ll need to go see it at night and hopefully it looks better.
Alison Brown: Okay. Well we
Jill Jaracz: do
Alison Brown: have a, an event for that.
Jill Jaracz: Yes, we do
Alison Brown: that. We do have planned. So we’ll get to actually see the whole show.
Find of the day!
Jill Jaracz: Yes. Oh, and then the other [00:13:00] thing I found when I was walking around, uh, navig.
Remember when we were talking about the Prosecco, the official Prosecco? Did you get the official Prosecco nine Euros. 90. That’s it. That’s it.
Alison Brown: Wow.
Jill Jaracz: So that comes in white, which I bought in Rose, which I did not yet. But cracking them baby open. I’m excited. I was so surprised it was that cheap.
Alison Brown: I, that’s, that is cheap just for a regular, decent bottle of Prosecco.
Jill Jaracz: Mm-hmm. So I am
Alison Brown: excited. Never excited
Jill Jaracz: about Milan. Cortina 2026
Alison Brown: Prosecco. So we’ll have to chill that baby.
Jill Jaracz: Oh, it’s chilled.
Alison Brown: Well, you have to keep it chilled. Once it’s chilled, you gotta keep it chilled.
Jill Jaracz: Did you do anything cultural today?
Alison Brown: I did not do anything cultural today.
Jill Jaracz: You were very sporty.
Alison Brown: I was very sporty today.
What I did cultural was I slept. I slept until I [00:14:00] was a human again, and that was my Italian culture.
Our Cortina Correspondent checks in
Jill Jaracz: Well, uh, we have another take on culture. We have a new correspondent who is in Corina for part of the Olympics, and that is Doug Hill, who we were on his show, confessions of a Sports fan. And, uh, Doug’s got some stuff to say about Cortina.
He’s our kind of guy. So take a listen to, to Doug’s report today.
Doug Hill: Hello, this is Doug Hill from the Sports Fan Project, serving as a special Cortina correspondent for the Keep the Flame Alive podcast. Today our traveling party had tickets for the men’s luge first and second round heats. But before I get to discussing what it’s like watching grown men hurdle themselves in excess of 60 miles per hour down a sheet of ice while laying back down on a sled, I’d like to provide my impression of Cortina.
It is what my vision of the Winter Olympics used to be. I’m [00:15:00] 58 years old and the winter games I recall from my childhood and younger years were located in what appeared to be quaint little villages like Innsbrook, lake Placid, Sarajevo Li Hammer. And Albertville Cortina meets the mark in my estimation, an idyllic and walkable downtown area filled with shops and restaurants and bars teaming with people from all over the world.
Most like me, are wide-eyed, trying to take it all in. Working on the perfect angle for the photo of the Olympic cauldron in Piazza Angelo. Debona. I’m sure there is some nightlife to be found in Cortina, but as I noted, I’m uh, 58 years old and my nightlife days are long since passed. What I also found interesting about Cortina is that it’s still very much an active ski resort community.
I saw countless helmeted folks toting boards or skis around the village on each of the days that we’ve paid a visit visit thus far. Silly me, I always thought these tiny mountain communities just sort of shut down for a [00:16:00] couple of weeks every four years. How about the luge? The Cortina sliding center is located about T uh, 20 minute walk from downtown and about 30 minutes from the transportation center for us commoners without credentials.
We arrived about a half an hour before the scheduled start time of 5:00 PM and we’re greeted with a sea of people attempting to navigate the entry gates. As near as I could tell, there were really only four people actively scanning tickets for the several hundred of us waiting to enter. Mercifully, there was a queuing system once you move past the blob of people and the line moved fairly quickly, all things considered.
From there, it was several hundred yards uphill and stairs the whole way before fans arrived at the main plaza. Where a giant video board provided live footage and commentary about the losers on the track and afforded glimpses, uh, of them in the final portion of the course. As they sped by, we ventured a bit further up to the next level where [00:17:00] oddly, the only toilets I found were located.
This track was the most treacherous of the night as the snow pack was beginning to ice over and grow slick, and the hill was steep. No straw or any other traction material was being added, and we saw a few people take a spill. I was beginning to grow nervous about my own descent. Later on. My wife and I did make our way up to one more level to the finish area where the rider, uh, provided some spectators, a good view of the losers exiting their sleds.
I’m sorry, risers provided some spectators, a good view of losers exiting their sleds. That’s the spot I finally felt like I was attending the Winter Olympics. The cowbells horns and other noisemakers rang out as each racer finished his run, the stuff I’d seen and heard on TV my entire life. It was way cool about that descent was pretty rough.
Um, as noted before, slick, steep and [00:18:00] um, that I mentioned that I’ve got a gimpy knee from, uh, some arthritis thanks to an ACL reconstruction from 33 years ago. My wife and I took it slow and lingered for the start of the second runs in the main plaza where it was a full on party vibe. Kids were sliding down the hills, though they probably shouldn’t have been.
The DJ was playing all the hits and the crowd was in fine form singing and dancing along. Tina, one of the mascots from the Olympics. We took our time exiting as again, it was steep and slick. The Swiss house caught our eyes. We headed back into town and the four of us got a table. Enjoyed a couple of bottles of wine as well as some good eats while we watched Switzerland take down cheche and mixed doubles curl.
Our scroll back through town in the evening was just as lovely as it was in the afternoon’s overcast. The caldron looked spectacular, and everyone seemed to be in a festive move until we arrived at the transportation center. I don’t mean to serve as a correspondent for Jill and [00:19:00] Allison and get all grumpy, but the bus transportation organization for those of us staying fairly close to Cortina, we’re in San Vito.
It is abysmal. At every major sporting event that I’ve been to, and it’s been a lot, there are people stationed at the transportation center to monitor the queue, keep track of the number of patrons on the bus, and basically keep the whole thing organized. None of that exists here. People line up when they get there, like civilized adults do.
And they wait. And as soon as dola Media Bus number 30 arrives, it is a stage rush to the doors in an effort to secure a spot on the bus that is supposed to cycle through about every half hour. We didn’t make the first one though our traveling companions did. And following a short wait and seeing the crowd grow larger by the minute, we decided to throw caution to the wind and walk about a half mile up the main road to grab an inbound bus where we waited for about [00:20:00] 45 minutes and climbed on a bake vacant bus 30.
Whose next stop was the sea of humanity, uh, trying to secure a spot from back at the transportation center. We sat smugly in the front row knowing that our gambit had paid off. But should we have even had to have done that? I believe the answer is no. So in short. Cortina is idyllic. Picturesque. I hope to see it bathed in sun before I head to Milan on th on Tuesday.
The competition is spirited and festive, and the transportation system has plenty of kinks to work out. I’ll just say that for Keep the Flame Alive in Cortina. I’m Doug Hill from the Sports Fan Project.
Jill Jaracz: Thank you so much, Doug. I hope the transportation works itself out.
Alison Brown: That story of the going down the mountain reminded me of a little adventure I had in Beijing. I started getting flashbacks and they’re not good. I [00:21:00] see the good thing about being in Italy is I don’t have to worry about. The, volunteers being Italian sized, like that’s normal so that they can hoist me when needed and I won’t take them down like I did those poor two girls in Beijing.
Keep our flame alive!
Jill Jaracz: Alright, we’re gonna get to results in a second, but before that, we would like to take a moment to thank everyone who donated to our fundraiser to get us here. If you’ve just found the podcast, we’re doing 32 daily episodes from Milano Cortina over the course of the games. That is expensive to produce.
if you heard about the Washington Post yanking its reporters after they had already paid $80,000 just in hotel costs and they have an office here, which ain’t cheap either. You can imagine what it costs for two little podcasters. It’s not that much.
Alison Brown: No, we, we, we are not an expensive budget. We, we travel cheap.
Jill Jaracz: We do travel cheap. Not, not, uh, Paris Hotel Cheap. If you, if go back and listen to the [00:22:00] Paralympics, you’ll hear some horror stories and, but it still costs a lot of money. And we are one of the few podcasts to publish episodes year round. So we do need help in. We do need help in keeping our flame alive, so you can go to flame alive pod.com/support.
We have options for one-off donations, and if you’d like to become an ongoing patron, we do offer special patron only exclusives throughout the games. All paid patrons get an exclusive photo of the day. Silver medalists and up. Also get some video and gold members and up, get some extra audio content. And if you appreciate the independent voice we bring, please consider supporting us today.
You can go to flame alive pod.com/support and thank you to all of you who have donated so far. We really appreciate it and that helps keep the show going. Especially we, prices are going up for us and we have a trademark to Reregister. Whoop boop.
Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics: Day 1 results
Alpine skiing
Alright, let’s get to some results.
Alison Brown: Yeah. Let’s start with Alpine.
I, this [00:23:00] was what I woke up and watched this morning was men’s downhill and it was this course. He is insane. Tom Kelly told us it was long and it was difficult and it was technical. He didn’t warn us how fast. And there’s this one jump where they fly like 50 meters off the jump in the middle of this course.
It, it’s insane. Not cra no crazy crashes, which was shocking to me that that people weren’t flying off left and right. I mean they really knew how to handle it ’cause they’re very familiar with this mountain. But. This is men’s downhill as it’s supposed to be, just pure insanity.
Jill Jaracz: Excellent. So the gold went to, uh, Fran Van Alman from Switzerland.
Silver went to Giovanni Franzo from [00:24:00] Italy, and bronze went to Dominique Paris from Italy.
Alison Brown: The name you didn’t say is, uh, Marco Orman, who, uh. Tom had said was the name to watch, and he ended up fourth off the podium. Just did not have a good day. He, aw, he was never in the lead. Uh, he came down and just was second right off the bat.
So we knew it was, it was only a matter of time for him to just sit and wait and see if he was gonna get knocked off, and he knocked off pretty quickly.
Cross-country skiing
Jill Jaracz: Ah, another one. That happened similarly, a favorite not getting to the top of the podium. Women’s ski alon in cross country.
This was, uh. 10 K skied in classic style, and then 10 they switched skis and then skied, uh, free skate, uh, style and, uh, gold for this went to Frida Carlson from Sweden. SW Silver went to Abel Anderson from Sweden and bronze went to Heidi. [00:25:00] Vng from Norway and bib number one, Jesse Diggins
Alison Brown: fell in the first kilometer, took another skier out with her, managed at one point she was down 15 seconds and managed to claw her way back to end up, uh, in eighth place.
And that was, she was fighting the whole way and the announcers kept saying, oh, she’s out of it, but she’s not. Kept trying.
Jill Jaracz: Wow.
Alison Brown: So it was, it was just not her day, you know, she, she took a fall early on and was never able to recover. The Swedes, on the other hand, took off at the beginning, within the first two kilometers or so, and never relinquished the lead.
Jill Jaracz: Wow. Amazing. Well. When you see this, it’s like a mass start and they’re in like four lanes basically. Yes. Four sets of tracks that you stay and ski and, [00:26:00] and people are switching back and forth between lanes to try to get a a little advantage, but it’s hard to pass. People get tied up easy.
Alison Brown: Yeah. I think that’s what happened to Diggins.
It wasn’t on camera when it happened, and then all of a sudden there were sort of skis and snow flying and, and at first they didn’t even realize who had gone down and they said, oh no, was that Diggins? So it was, it was a real shock.
Jill Jaracz: I, I would be curious to hear how Chad Samala called that one.
Alison Brown: Yeah, unfortunately I was getting on the Eurovision, so I didn’t even get to hear Chad sc scream, you know, he was yelling his head off.
Jill Jaracz: Yeah, exactly.
Alison Brown: Down went Diggins.
Jill Jaracz: Right. And, uh, our Shuk Anii, Julia Kern, part of team keep the, the flame alive. She finished 24th.
Alison Brown: She had a photo finish, so I was sitting there waiting to see where she ended up and it was provisional, but yeah, it ended up at 24th.
Curling
Jill Jaracz: Uh, let’s move over to curling. We had more round robin action for mixed doubles.
So here we are [00:27:00] with the standings right now. Great Britain, clearly in the lead undefeated,
Alison Brown: and they have qualified out of the round robin already.
Jill Jaracz: Oh wow. Holy cow. They’re at seven and oh, Italy and the US are tied at four to two. So US had a a not great day. Um, Italy did have a good day. So,
Alison Brown: but still they have two losses.
Jill Jaracz: Mm-hmm.
Alison Brown: Which is a bit surprising for them.
Jill Jaracz: Uh, right behind is Sweden at four and three. Canada and Switzerland are ti are tied with, uh, tithe record three and three each. Estonia and Norway are two and four and Czechia and Korea are one and five. And, uh, Korea got their one win against the us.
Figure skating
Let’s move over to figure skating.
This is where I went today for my sport action. It was the, uh, men’s short program. We’re still in the team competition, so it’s the men’s short program. And then we moved over to the dance, the free dance. So we ended the [00:28:00] shorts and we moved into the long program.
Alison Brown: Right. And they cut the number of teams in half.
Jill Jaracz: Yes. Once you hit all the short programs, top five teams go. Um, so I noticed that the, the venue media center. Is in between the IOC hospitality and the on location hospitality lounge.
Alison Brown: Now, we did not see the lounge the last time we were there.
Jill Jaracz: No, it’s, I mean the media lounge or,
Alison Brown: yes.
Jill Jaracz: I mean, it’s, it’s. Four folding tables and a a, a concession stand.
There’s not much to see. And we had peaked kind of in, they had the curtains open for the hospitality lounge and, um. Uh, they’ve got couches, I think in there and, and nicer tables. And then of course there are people, volunteers manning the IOC hospitality lounge
Alison Brown: because goodness gracious, if you even sneeze near there,
Jill Jaracz: right, you’re out,
Alison Brown: you are in trouble.
Jill Jaracz: Um, [00:29:00] I did get. Kind of lost in the stadium a little bit because I went to the bathroom in between and, and was in the public line. And I thought, well, A, we were, I was in the public line. I just joined a line of women and we were in line for the men’s bathroom, and one of the volunteers was not thrilled about that.
And you hear women going, well, there’s a couple urinals in here, and. Here we go. And then I was like, wait a second, I’m media. I need to find my own bathroom. We have to have one. So I did. And um, on that journey I saw Johnny Weir and Tara Lapinski
Alison Brown: wandering around
Jill Jaracz: as they will
Alison Brown: do
Jill Jaracz: That’s right. As they will do.
And they looked fabulous and all super decked out. Tara was wearing a, uh, feather dress.
Alison Brown: She star early for a team event.
Jill Jaracz: You gotta bring it. Go big. Yes, go big. And, and Johnny was all in black. It was, it was. And it was very structured [00:30:00] black, as you would tell. Um, the announcers for the in-house, for the dance were Ben Augusto.
Ben Augusto, and, uh, six time National champ. Val Valentina.
Alison Brown: Marsha,
Jill Jaracz: Marsha. Thank you. They were the host for the evening. They were okay. They tried, and then somebody else was the host for the men, and I don’t think they ever said their name. There was a K-pop star in the attendance tonight, but uh, Ben Augusta was like, introduce yourself.
And he said his name and I couldn’t understand it. So,
Alison Brown: but he didn’t sing, so who cares?
Jill Jaracz: Right. But not full venue. It was, it got like maybe 80, 85% full.
Alison Brown: That seems to be the running.
Jill Jaracz: Yeah.
Alison Brown: Load.
Jill Jaracz: It fills in a bit. I wonder because Italy is in the metal running, if the rest of the seats will be snapped up mm-hmm.
For the rest of the finals. ’cause I assume there’s tickets available. [00:31:00] Um, that’s kind of a bummer to see, to be quite honest. But what are you gonna do it? I don’t know. You’ll have to say when you get to your sports, but there is not much. In house entertainment. There are quizzes. We got a little karaoke of an Italian song.
We did not sing. Milano and Corina. Oh, oh oh, oh. Oh.
Alison Brown: No. But I know what you did sing.
Jill Jaracz: Oh, I
Alison Brown: did. Did you sing re
Jill Jaracz: No,
Alison Brown: no.
Jill Jaracz: It was an Italian song that I did not know, and I’m, and, and people knew it. So it’s pop, it’s, it is a known song here. Hmm. It sounded a little like Abba. But it wasn’t a Nova song. It was, it was an Italian, uh, yeah, quizzes, some replaying of videos they have already made and published.
So like the how the Sport Works video [00:32:00] came on and some other stuff I had recognized from months, years earlier. So, uh, and there’s not much in the way of projection when. When they start the event. So they, uh, put the logo and it’s your vibe and figure skating on the ice and lights and that was like it.
Alison Brown: Hmm.
Jill Jaracz: And it, it feels a little low energy.
Alison Brown: Yes. I, it’s funny you say that ’cause I’m gonna say the same thing when we get to the sports. I was at
Jill Jaracz: it, it’s kind of like they don’t know how to entertain a crowd.
Alison Brown: Yes.
Jill Jaracz: So it’s, it’s a little bit of a bummer. So if you had gone to Paris, ’cause we know some people who’ve been to Paris and are like, well, what’s gonna happen here?
Because Paris was all about
Alison Brown: all about the hype. I mean, even though we were terrified of the videos they created, of the singing 19, uh, 24, [00:33:00] uh, athletes. And, but they had a whole host of rotating live entertainment Yes. Pieces. They had the sweeper dancers. Yeah. They had the can can dancers. They had several, um, break dancing acts.
Jill Jaracz: Yeah. And I’m, and
Alison Brown: we got nothing.
Jill Jaracz: And I’m guessing that they just don’t do a whole lot of that stuff. I mean, they have basketball. They have,
Alison Brown: but maybe that’s just not part of the sports culture.
Jill Jaracz: I, which surprises me ’cause the Italians
Alison Brown: love to entertain, but in a different way maybe.
Jill Jaracz: I don’t know. We’ll find out.
We’ll see how, how this evolves. Um, there was a person, uh. Uh, with an American flag that I caught this right at the end of the men’s warmup and held it up and said it had on one side it’s like, go team say, or something like that. The other side [00:34:00] it said, apologies for our bad behavior, we will fix ourselves.
Alison Brown: Wow.
Jill Jaracz: Yeah, and I don’t know if that got on TV at, I doubt it got on tv.
Alison Brown: Oh, I doubt it got on American television,
Jill Jaracz: but yeah. I just, I just caught it and he didn’t show it again. I did see, you know, when he’s messing with the flag. I did see it, but like, oh wow.
Alison Brown: I have an addendum for that.
Jill Jaracz: Okay.
Alison Brown: When we get to my story.
Jill Jaracz: Alright, um, for the men, the crowd was here for that.
Alison Brown: Oh, good.
Jill Jaracz: Oh yeah. Yeah. It was, it was a little nuts. Uh, two groups of men skated. Uh, the worst we had in terms of, uh, mistakes was, uh, Korea’s, uh, cha Jois popped a jump, and that was it. Outta the first group.
Alison Brown: Yeah. You know what the, the, the women short was the same thing.
Yes. It was nice, clean. I mean, a couple little under [00:35:00] rotations, you know?
Jill Jaracz: Yeah. Maybe
Alison Brown: a
Jill Jaracz: little, but not like falling.
Alison Brown: Yeah. No big, big mistakes.
Jill Jaracz: Yeah. So people could be pretty happy with what they did. Um, they went nuts for Ilya in a, in a rockstar kind of nuts way.
Alison Brown: Yeah. That’s what happened last year at World Championships too.
Yeah.
Jill Jaracz: He’s just in a. Level all of his own. Um, Kevin Amos from France, the Judas section of his short program, got the crowd going. What I didn’t like is that he is plaing to the judges and not to the crowd. And I know that that. Skaters do that, and you see it, but you also see some more, like more emoting around.
And he seemed to emote in one direction.
Alison Brown: Hmm.
Jill Jaracz: And that was it. But, and that, that may show up in the scores, but Yuma came to [00:36:00] play.
Alison Brown: This was unbelievable.
Jill Jaracz: Oh my gosh. You have to go back and watch it if you have not seen it already. I, I loved him at Beijing. I love him more now. That short program was, it was fun.
It was funky. He had dance music, like
good, regular, I have to look it up
Alison Brown: because I didn’t put it down.
Jill Jaracz: He is skating to, I wish, the figure skating remix, which I, that makes no sense to me, but it is. Fun. It is dancey. He’s having a blast doing it. All of his jumps were fan, phenomenal. His step sequence phenomenal. Everything was so good, and then he and the team are sitting in the box for the score and he gets a 1 0 8 0.67, which is 10.10 off of his season’s best, and he just loses [00:37:00] it.
He is so excited. The team is thrilled. Like he came to play.
Alison Brown: It’s so he struggled some in last year’s world championship and apologized for his performance and promised to go back and work on himself, which is heartbreaking to hear ’cause he’s such a beautiful talent skater. And to see that and to see him this season.
Succeeding is such a joy. ’cause when he succeeds, man, we all win.
Jill Jaracz: Right, right, right, right, right. And then Ilya was the last skater. Did not do so well.
Alison Brown: Had some struggles.
Jill Jaracz: Yeah. And not like falls or anything, but under rotations, um, looks a little tooty, a step better. Yeah. Looked and it just wasn’t. You could tell something was off
Alison Brown: in
Jill Jaracz: a
Alison Brown: way.
Well, it’s his, it’s his first time on Olympic ice, and I think sometimes the team can help. Certain skaters a [00:38:00] lot, the team event, and I think Ilea is one of those kind of skaters who coming to the Olympics has been such a long, I mean, I know he’s a baby, but it has been such a long journey for him because he really believed he was, he should have been chosen for Beijing and that didn’t happen.
So being here is big in his mind, and because he’s so young, I can see the nerves getting to him.
Jill Jaracz: Yeah. Which is odd because he, when he came out, he was confident when he was warming up, everything looked fine. And just these little flubs, uh, it, it was very uncharacteristic. Yes. The crowd didn’t mind.
Alison Brown: No crowd doesn’t care.
Crowd adores him.
Jill Jaracz: Yes. But he had, uh, scored a 98. Well below his season’s best of 1 0 8 0.87. And, you know, you’re talking about nearly 10 points behind Yuma,
Alison Brown: which is, you know, most of the time it’s the other way [00:39:00] around,
Jill Jaracz: right? And so he, he said, you know, he wasn’t expecting to walk in and win the competition.
Uh, he wanted to focus on himself. Feel how you know and how he was feeling. Overall, he’s pretty happy. He said it was just 50% of my full potential. Overall, I’m very proud of everything I’ve done so far, which is right, because he should be good. He should be, yeah. He has really pushed the sport and he, I mean, pushed it again tonight and then, um, he hasn’t decided if he’s gonna compete in the free skate.
Alison Brown: Yes, he did.
Jill Jaracz: Oh, did he?
Alison Brown: Yes.
Jill Jaracz: This ’cause I’m reading flash quotes.
Alison Brown: Yes. He hadn’t decided and then about half an hour ago we got the email.
Jill Jaracz: Oh, okay.
Alison Brown: I had question that said he is going to do the long program.
Jill Jaracz: Not surprised.
Alison Brown: Not a surprise. Yeah. Amber Glenn is being swapped out for Alyssa Lou.
Jill Jaracz: Oh.
Alison Brown: For the long program.
Jill Jaracz: Oh. So
Alison Brown: that’s the swap [00:40:00] they’re choosing to make.
Jill Jaracz: Oh, interesting. So Amber Glenn will not be skating?
Alison Brown: No. Amber Glenn will be skating.
Jill Jaracz: Oh, I’m instead of Melissa Lou. Oh, I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I thought, yeah, I just, in my brain was like, well, Amber Glenn’s gonna skate this. So I thought you were swapping them out.
In third place was Steven Gev from Canada, who was in the first group and blew the roof off the joint. And Canada’s uh, team went. They went nuts.
Alison Brown: Yeah. Canada’s really in the hunt for that bronze medal with Georgia and Italy. It’s gonna be a real battle. So when you have a state skater like Golov who can pull it off, but can sometimes like mad skiis be a little inconsistent when they have a, a blow the roof off kind of performance in a situation where you’re fighting for a medal.
It’s a big deal,
Jill Jaracz: right? So, uh, his performance being so good and Kevin Amos being slightly not so good [00:41:00] meant Canada moved up in the rankings and got, made the cut to go into the finals and France went home.
Alison Brown: France, so not.
Jill Jaracz: So,
Alison Brown: which is a bit of a surprise.
Jill Jaracz: So it shook out, uh, for the end of the short programs.
US was in the lead 34 points to Japan’s 33. Italy had 28, Canada, 27, and Georgia 25.
And so then we, uh, get to the team free dance. And just before the team Free dance, the US sent an email going, well, chalk and Bates are gonna perform. And I went, oh yeah. No, really? No kidding. Really? No kidding. Because they can see the writing on the wall. And if I think everyone’s counting on IA to get that.
10, you know, that first place and those first place points because the women’s can go either way, Japan or the us and then [00:42:00]
Alison Brown: pairs.
Jill Jaracz: Pairs is not strong. Could go to
Alison Brown: Japan.
Jill Jaracz: Yeah. And we’re not that strong in pairs, so we could go way down. So it’ll be interesting to see. But yeah, I was like, of course they’re gonna put chalk and baits in now.
And, uh, make sure they get that first place, those
Alison Brown: 10 points.
Jill Jaracz: And, uh, oh, they did.
Alison Brown: Oh, they, they got the 10 points,
Jill Jaracz: hands down the best of the night for the free dance. And, beyond that, the other pros were the, Japanese pair
of, Yoshida Yana and Marita Messiah, they did quite a lovely program. It’s not the technical difficulty of other programs, but boy, they did really good.
Alison Brown: They are not competing in the ice dance competition, right? They only got a spot to, because Japan got a team, so you have to have one of every discipline, but it’s nice to see that they can grow.[00:43:00]
Jill Jaracz: Yes,
Alison Brown: let’s give them some time. Let’s give them the right kind of coaching. And you could have a four team sweep in Japan, which, or rather, a four discipline sweep.
Jill Jaracz: Yes.
Alison Brown: Given the skill that these skaters could develop.
Jill Jaracz: Yes. So that was very exciting. Uh, uh, chalk and Bates did the Matador program. She brought back the red undercoat of the skirt, which I loved.
It is a strong performance. Very, um, there’s a lot of emotion in it.
Alison Brown: I still have a visceral reaction to that costume.
Jill Jaracz: Yeah, that’s okay. But the, the, I think it’s, it, it has gotten the skirt, which is a high, low thing that is supposed to look like, uh, a matador’s cape. And, uh, uh, Evan Bates plays the bowl and, uh.
It has transformed over the season. It has, it’s been, it’s very manageable now.
Alison Brown: Yeah. Yes. I would [00:44:00] agree that the, the program that we saw in October is not the program we’re seeing now or the costume that we’re seeing now. Correct. It is in fact, I believe the third iteration of this costume. That still makes me angry.
Jill Jaracz: Well, but, but hands down because we did not see the French pear. Cone and bore, bore and cone. We did not see them compete in their free dance because, uh, France did not make the cut. But boy, it’s gonna be hard to beat chalk and Bates if they pull something out like that in, in the, in the free, in the ice dance competition.
Alison Brown: Yeah, it’d be fun.
Jill Jaracz: And that was figure skating.
Alison Brown: Are you exhausted from it?
Jill Jaracz: Oh, no,
Alison Brown: no,
Jill Jaracz: no.
Alison Brown: There’s a lot of emotion.
Jill Jaracz: It, it was, but it, it was, you know. Five teams of emotion after at the second one, and the first one’s only a short program, so it’s really like five teams, just fair enough, they swap out for a full [00:45:00] program.
Ice hockey
Alright, we’re gonna go over to ice hockey where you were at today.
Alison Brown: Yes. I did not see the group B. So we’ll start with that. So Germany, beat Japan five to two. Sweden beat Italy six to one. So group B standings are Sweden, two and O Germany one and one Japan one and one Italy one and one and Franz Owen two.
I saw the two games of group A, so I saw most of the USA. Finland, uh, match. And then again, most of the Swiss and uh, Canadian match, the fins have recovered enough from their norovirus to play, haven’t really recovered enough to compete.
Jill Jaracz: Oh, that’s sad.
Alison Brown: It, they seemed slow. They should have been better than they were.
They got beat by the US five. Nothing hurt. A lot of Freebird. Oh,
Jill Jaracz: oh, that’s right.
Alison Brown: And towards the end of the, the [00:46:00] game, it seemed like the fins were just worn out.
Jill Jaracz: Oh, that’s
Alison Brown: too
Jill Jaracz: bad.
Alison Brown: So I’m glad they’re able to play. I hope they’ll continue to. Recover. Uh, I, I know it was a lot of players went down, so, and it was their first game, whereas the US has already had a game.
Jill Jaracz: Mm-hmm.
Alison Brown: So that also, I think, I think played into it, like you were saying, the crowd was a little lulled.
Jill Jaracz: Mm-hmm.
Alison Brown: But it helps when it’s team USA and there’s a ton of team USA fans there. So they sort of did it for themselves.
Jill Jaracz: Oh, okay.
Alison Brown: As a USA crowd will, as did the Canadian fans in the, in the Swiss Canada match.
Now the Swiss Canada match got very physical, very quickly. Whoa, unexpected to me. ’cause I don’t know the Swiss team at all. I expect it from, I expected this from say a, a Canada USA, [00:47:00] not Canada Swiss, but the Swiss are. Better than I think they are. I, I, I, I think is what the real issue is, and better than the score shows.
Canada beat them for nothing. And there was a lot of penalties. There was a lot of penalties in both games. Huh? Everybody was getting very short tempered. So I don’t know if there’s actually just early on in a, in a, in a round robin tournament, it, it seems like everybody’s a little shorter. I mean, it is the Olympics, but still, it, it, it, it just seemed more physical this early in the process for me.
Jill Jaracz: Well, and I could be getting used to the rink too. I’ve seen some quotes going like, oh yeah, the rinks a little smaller. Than we’re used to. So that could be as well. And people are getting in each other’s way. Uh, I mean, I know people get, it’s physical sport, it’s hockey. But I think maybe when, when you don’t expect to or you’re like, wait, I gotta figure this out again and get used to something new.
What is Canada [00:48:00] Song?
Alison Brown: I wrote it down. Hang on.
You ain’t seen nothing yet.
Jill Jaracz: Wow. Okay.
Alison Brown: Bababa baby.
Jill Jaracz: Oh boy. Oh boy.
Alison Brown: Gosh.
Jill Jaracz: Oh boy.
Alison Brown: Earworm. So Group A standings are, USA is two and oh, uh, the Swiss are one and one Canada’s one. And oh, Finland is oh and one, and Czech is oh and two.
Jill Jaracz: All righty. We have, uh, over in luge, out to Cortina there. The men did their first two runs of the singles tournament. So the standings after two runs are, uh, max Lehan from Germany in first. Jonas Muer from Austria in second, and Dominic Fish Naer is in third. He is from Italy.
Alison Brown: None of these are a surprise.
Ski jumping
Jill Jaracz: No, not at all. In ski jumping. We had a [00:49:00] medal today. And, uh, the women’s normal hill individual medals were awarded gold.
Went to Ana Oa Strom from Norway. Silver went to Nika Previ from Slovenia, and uh, bronze went to, uh, Mari Mariama Noomi from Japan.
Snowboard
And we had the men’s big air medals in snowboard we’re also awarded today. Gold went to. Uh, Kimora Kira from Japan. Silver went to come out of Oma from Japan, and bronze went to Sue, y Ying, Sue Ying from China.
Alison Brown: I did see some of this in between the two hockey games. Okay. And landings were getting very messy. Really? Yes. I was quite surprised at, at how messy this was, uh, as a, as a, an event. So it was the people who won, had the. We’re just the cleanest, which, you know, always happens in snowboard, but this seemed like they [00:50:00] were going for bigger and bigger and bigger.
So higher risk, higher reward, bigger disasters when it doesn’t hit
Speed skating
Jill Jaracz: Right. Right. And then moving over to speed skating, which you were also at conveniently located across the hallway from hockey.
Alison Brown: Oh my goodness. Speed skating. So let, let’s start at the very beginning of when I got there.
Jill Jaracz: Oh boy.
Alison Brown: This will take when you go be prepared that the entrance is all the way at the end of the building, around the back through the, the, the, the flings of trucks and police lease.
Jill Jaracz: Is this everybody’s entrance?
Alison Brown: No,
Jill Jaracz: just the media.
Alison Brown: Just the media entrance. Oh, good. So this is an old school media entrance. It’ll make you feel like you’re back in Paris.
Jill Jaracz: Oh my gosh.
Alison Brown: No signs. Thankfully. Lots of helpful volunteers who just kept telling me to keep walking. [00:51:00] Geez, you do Walk through a garbage bag again.
It is also garbage. Bag did, and it is small. I was shocked. And how small this arena is. The ice is huge. I mean, I’ve never seen a long track before in person struck by how big it is. But struck at how small they, uh, they made the seating and it was a good 90% full.
Jill Jaracz: Oh, good.
Alison Brown: Probably 50% of that was Dutch.
Jill Jaracz: Shocking.
Alison Brown: The whole, so when I was walking from the train, I saw a whole bunch of people in orange. So I knew I was walking in the correct direction. Just follow the tall people dressed in orange and you will get to speed skating. No problem.
Jill Jaracz: Was the king there?
Alison Brown: I did not see it. He was not put on the jumbo, the jumbo tron.
Talk about a small tron. It was like a TV screen. I couldn’t even call it a bigot tron. [00:52:00] It was like a pocket-sized micro tron. But I did have entertainment. They had a Dutch horn ensemble.
Jill Jaracz: Okay,
Alison Brown: like an MPA band. Playing all the hits like Sweet Caroline.
Jill Jaracz: Oh my goodness.
Alison Brown: And living on a prayer and going for audience participation, which was hard and slow incoming.
Jill Jaracz: We’ve gotta break ’em in apparently.
Alison Brown: Uh, yeah, the, there were a good number of Italians at this race, which was a good thing. Because the Italians won.
Jill Jaracz: Yay.
Alison Brown: And it’s one of my favorites from Beijing, Francesca Lola Brida, whose great aunt Gina. Lola Brida was a screen siren of the [00:53:00] 1950s, but more importantly, Francesca got an Olympic record.
She was, I believe in the seventh pair. So she just had to hang out. For two more pairs and she won the silver at Beijing in this race. So this was, she’s 35 years old. This is the,
Jill Jaracz: today, it was her birthday. Today,
Alison Brown: yes. Her, uh, son was there. He’s about a year and a half old, and I think this is Olympics five.
It’s at least Olympics four. So this has been a long time incoming for her. And so she’s the first Italian medal of the games here in Italy.
Jill Jaracz: This is games number four.
Alison Brown: Okay.
Jill Jaracz: So she has, uh, got a silver and a bronze at 22.
Alison Brown: Well, now she’s got a full set. Of in her possession, so this is gold for her. So gold went to Italy, uh, to Francesca, Lola Brida with an Olympic record. Silver went to Norway’s Rodney Wick and, uh, [00:54:00] bronze is Valerie Malte from Canada, who kissed the podium.
Oh, really? And she, she sort of padded and, and blew a kiss to the podium as she climbed up.
Jill Jaracz: Aw.
Alison Brown: So she was really thrilled. With being there.
Jill Jaracz: So speaking of podium, you saw a, A metal ceremony,
Alison Brown: saw a metal ceremony.
Jill Jaracz: Talk us through it. What’s going on?
Alison Brown: Okay, it there is the dramatic music not as good as Paris.
But on the other hand, I think, here’s the problem we are going to see as Betty metal ceremonies probably as we saw in one session of swimming in Paris.
Jill Jaracz: Hmm. Okay.
Alison Brown: You know, there’s just so many fewer medals and so many fewer medals that we’re gonna be able to see.
Jill Jaracz: Okay.
Alison Brown: So we’re not going to get the same affinity to that music ’cause it’s not, we’re just not gonna have enough time.
Jill Jaracz: Well, I, I think they also played a lot more music in Paris,
Alison Brown: but I mean, the music,
Jill Jaracz: yeah, I [00:55:00] know the music, but they play it here and there.
Alison Brown: That’s true. But still, this is not that. But metal outfits much better in person.
Jill Jaracz: Okay. ’cause I saw this on, on the screen and it didn’t look good.
Alison Brown: It looks, the biggest problem at speed skating is they had the same color as the carpeting of the infield.
So it was hard to distinguish them on a screen, but in person, I could really see them.
Jill Jaracz: Okay.
Alison Brown: And in person it looked much better, but it did look a little 1970s. Italian drug movie,
but a metal ceremony is a metal ceremony. Yeah. And to have all the Italians in the, in the crowd singing their anthem and having her so emotional about finally being Olympic champion. And so I was sitting next to a whole bunch of medical personnel, the emergency med techs who were waiting for her to win.
So she takes the lead. And they’re all waiting there with [00:56:00] beta breath and each skater going by. Oh, oh, oh. So I, I had a lot of Italians around me that were screaming and cheering their anthem, which got me a little emotional too.
Jill Jaracz: Wow. That’s, that’s exciting. I gotta say on the, the speed skating coverage.
They have a new camera angle.
Alison Brown: Oh, I forgot to tell you this. It’s a drone.
Jill Jaracz: Is it a drone? Because it goes
Alison Brown: around the curve. There is a drone that flies behind them.
Jill Jaracz: It’s a great angle. They have, and we’ve had this on the Facebook group. People are loving the new alpine, uh, angles and drones. The, and the, the, the sliding stuff also has drones going on.
Alison Brown: Drones. And at first I thought something really bad was happening.
Jill Jaracz: Oh, ’cause you hear it.
Alison Brown: Because I heard it. And then I realized, oh my goodness, this is now to get the, the better angle on the curve. So you’ve got the long. [00:57:00] Straightaway camera that shoots up and down. Mm-hmm. You’ve got the one in the infield that hangs on the wire.
They have one in the infield on the floor that moves around mm-hmm. As a robot, and then you’ve got the little drone flying behind them.
Jill Jaracz: It’s fantastic. All right. And then the end of competition for today,
TKFLASTAN Watch
uh, we’ve got some Shuk Stanis competing tomorrow. Team Keith, the flame alive getting started.
Alison Brown: Yes. So Deja Irwin will be competing in the biathlon mixed relay, and Gus Schumacher will be competing in the Skiathon
Jill Jaracz: for Crush Country.
Alison Brown: Yes.
Shout Outs
Jill Jaracz: And we have shout outs.
Alison Brown: Yes. Eugene Kim from Luck. La Creta, California. Eugene says he’s currently training as a visually impaired skier in Park City,
Jill Jaracz: which is exciting ’cause we talked about that with Eugene after Paris 2024, right when we had our,
Alison Brown: when we had our call-in show, he called us in.
Jill Jaracz: So we’re excited to hear that Eugene, and surprisingly, there are no Eugenes.
Alison Brown: Eugene, which is Eugene. Shocking Eugene. ’cause Eugene is [00:58:00] such a popular name from, you know, the early days of of the Olympics, you would’ve think, you would’ve thought
Jill Jaracz: exactly, but there is the famed Eugenia o Monte, the Italian bobsledder who competed at 19 56, 64 in 68. He is considered to be the best sled driver in history.
We will be hearing more about him later this year on one of our Cortina 1956 history shows. So Eugene, you are in good company.
Alison Brown: And our second shout out is to Hailey from Kansas City, Kansas, who tells us to stay warm, which I have to tell you, Hailey, not a problem here in Milan. I am sweating all the time.
Jill Jaracz: Well, I think I lost a glove, so I do have a backup here. That’s good.
Alison Brown: No.
Jill Jaracz: Somehow in the mix of last night getting home.
Alison Brown: Yes, in the, in the mayhem,
Jill Jaracz: but uh, you never know when something will show up. ’cause I can’t find anything already. I was actually a little chilly today, but I only had one sweater on so that, that, but then I wore my coat [00:59:00] for figure skating and I was a okay.
I, um, for your Olympian, Haley, there is a same search. There is a same church, same Pew Olympian, Hailey American Hailey Johnson who competed in biathlon at Vancouver 2010,
Alison Brown: which is a surprise ’cause there’s so many spellings of Hailey.
Jill Jaracz: Yes.
Alison Brown: That we found that you found an actual Hailey. Hailey.
Jill Jaracz: Yes. So that was very exciting and we are excited for both of you.
Mascots
And we have some mascots.
Alison Brown: Yes. We need to mention Jill’s mascot Abby, who apparently is very fond of Producer Ben.
Jill Jaracz: Oh yeah. Yeah. He’s a sucker.
Alison Brown: Shush. No, he, he loves the cat and there’s nothing wrong with that, especially not a cat who’s our mascot. So thank you, Abby. And thank you to Abby’s mom, Charlotte,
Jill Jaracz: All right, and that’s gonna do it for this episode. If you want even more of the most fun coverage of the games, we do have options.
Alison Brown: You can join our Facebook group. Keep The Flame [01:00:00] Alive Podcast. You can get our substack newsletter for free at flame Alive pod.substack.com. We are on Insta, Facebook and YouTube at Flame Alive Pod, and we can.
Use your help at Patreon, flame alive pod.com/support.
Jill Jaracz: And we do love hearing from you. 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, that’s 2 0 8 3 5 2 6 3 4 8. Uh, country Code one. And we may read your note or play your voicemail on the show.
And we’ll be back tomorrow with day two action from Milano Cortina. And we’re both here in Milano again tomorrow.
Alison Brown: Yes.
Jill Jaracz: So
Alison Brown: all Milan. All the time.
Jill Jaracz: Oh yeah. ’cause you were supposed to go out to the mountains today and that didn’t happen.
Alison Brown: I, I, I’m afraid to go out to pronounce to be honest.
Jill Jaracz: Thanks, Doug. I think it’s Doug’s report.[01:01:00]
Alison Brown: I’ll just slide down and you’ll never see me again.
Jill Jaracz: Well tune back in tomorrow to see if that happens. So I’m glad to for listening.
Alison Brown: And until next time, chow and keep the flame alive.