The Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Paralympics is officially underway! We’ve got the scoop from the Opening Ceremony from our inadvertent live on location show, complete with guests!
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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 Do not quote from the transcript; use the audio as the record of note.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 Paralympics – Day 0
Jill Jaracz: [00:00:00] Juano and welcome to Keep the Flame Alive, day zero coverage of the Milano Perina 2026 Winter Paralympic Games. I am your host, Jill Jaracz, coming to you from Rio Quatro at the Verona train station because we have to wait an hour for our train.
Alison Brown: So let’s record a show.
Jill Jaracz: That’s right. Get this. Done, and I’m joined as always from my lovely co-host, Alison Brown.
Allison Chow.
Alison Brown: We’ve [00:01:00] done some strange things on this show. I’m gonna say recording an episode in a train station. This is our. First out, out in the wild. So you’re gonna have, you’re gonna have the magical hour of trains,
Jill Jaracz: right? Right. And, and luckily there’s not many people on this platform that will come and look at, I guess we’re doing a live show.
We’re doing a live show.
Alison Brown: I dunno what the heck we’re doing, but we’re doing it anyway. All
Jill Jaracz: right.
Alison Brown: So come on for the ride kids, you’re getting on the train with us.
Jill Jaracz: That’s right. Okie doke. Um, uh, first up is usually what we forgot, but so much has happened right now is setting this up that I have forgotten what I was gonna mention yesterday.
Alison Brown: Oh, I remember. Oh
Jill Jaracz: yeah, what
Alison Brown: you said. That we, we’ve. You’ve forgotten to mention it all show all came long. Oh yes, that’s right. That’s is the plethora of Jehovah’s Witnesses, right? We have encountered both in Milan and in Verona, Venice, and now in Verona.
Jill Jaracz: Yes, they are everywhere. It’s amazing. And I know that a [00:02:00] lot of religious affiliations will send people to the Olympics ’cause it’s a big gathering of people and they wanna reach out with their messages, but.
It’s been phenomenally weird. I’ll say to just see the stands of literature.
Alison Brown: It’s, it’s exactly the same as we see in the United States, except in Italian.
Jill Jaracz: Yeah. And, and other languages sometimes. I don’t know if they’ve done well. I kind of wanna ask how you doing, but I don’t want to get into it.
Alison Brown: Right.
Jill Jaracz: So, um,
Alison Brown: cultural moments.
Well, we’re having a cultural moment right now. I don’t know what kind of culture this is
Jill Jaracz: exactly,
Alison Brown: but it’s a cultural moment, that’s for sure.
Jill Jaracz: Alright. We had some wheelchair curling this morning and, uh, mixed doubles of results are in Yes. Uh, Japan beat Italy. Six five. Whoa. Nailbiter, great Britain beat us five four.
China beat Korea ten six and Latvia beat Estonia. Nine six. So the standings are, China is undefeated at 4.0. [00:03:00] Estonia, great Britain, Japan, Korea, and the US are all at two and two. And Italy and Lavia are at one and three. So, oh, go lavia, because they were at oh and three,
Alison Brown: so there you go. Not, not bad. And yeah, that whole two and two, everybody’s still in the mix right now.
Yes, exactly. It’s still early.
Jill Jaracz: Exactly. Anybody’s game.
Alison Brown: Alright, why you wanna join the show? We’re doing a show.
Jill Jaracz: Nobody. What? The more beautiful thing is that nobody seems to care. They’re just like, is my train here? I don’t know. Alright,
Alison Brown: so the big event of the day, of course opening ceremony, we just. Came back, yes, we’re still here in Verona,
Jill Jaracz: but we managed to get out of the stadium,
Alison Brown: which was a challenge because they wouldn’t let anybody out.
They, they had the largest volunteer I have ever seen, both height and width standing in front of the door saying, no, you must wait. Okay. That was the
Jill Jaracz: second door we went to. ’cause again, I like to stay till the end of things.
Alison Brown: [00:04:00] Right.
Jill Jaracz: And then I forget, oh, we got a scramble. And then I also forgot that. They want you to sit in your seat for 10 minutes to let the athletes out, to which I did kind of get into it with one of the volunteers.
’cause he goes, oh, five minutes. Something like, it’s Italy, it’s not gonna be five minutes. Come on. I know. So we went to a different door that got us out into a totally different place that I did not recognize.
Alison Brown: But you know what? Because we had walked. All the way around the inside from our entrance. Yes.
Whichever door, unless we walked all the way back, we were gonna be confused.
Jill Jaracz: Yeah.
Alison Brown: But somehow you just had a sense of where the shuttles were going to be
Jill Jaracz: because they were in the same place for the closing ceremonies at the Olympics. Oh,
Alison Brown: I knew that.
Jill Jaracz: I was gonna be
Alison Brown: really impressed.
Jill Jaracz: Oh, well thank you. But no, I just, I knew that they were there and that there were, there were going to be some, I just also didn’t know, like for the closing ceremony of the Olympics, it was.
Like, get outta here. You know, get on the bus. The bus gets here and we just made a train kind of thing,
Alison Brown: right?
Jill Jaracz: And, and now we have just not made a [00:05:00] train. We don’t even know when the, the train
Alison Brown: before supposed go. No, they said before it was this platform and this is the deck, the next train to Venetia. So we just hang tight.
And do a show.
Jill Jaracz: Well, they didn’t tell us to do a show. We’re just making a show
Alison Brown: happen. But if they had known, they would have, ’cause they were very supportive and encouraging. Right. Our volunteer was very lovely and he’s still there. Maybe we’ll get him on the show before the end of this
Jill Jaracz: maybe. Where’s train going?
Oh, the train to Trento is gonna be leaving soon. So,
Alison Brown: yeah, the train to Trento is really loud
Jill Jaracz: one.
Alison Brown: Sure. No.
Jill Jaracz: Um, alright, so we did make it to Verona for the opening ceremony.
Alison Brown: Yes, we did. So I got to see the Verona amphitheater, which was really impressive. It
Jill Jaracz: is very cool.
Alison Brown: It’s very beautiful, very impressive.
The stone seats are hard, but it wasn’t too bad ’cause it wasn’t too cold tonight.
Jill Jaracz: Oh, I was very glad I had my Beijing [00:06:00] 2022 blanket too. You
Alison Brown: were a little chilled.
Jill Jaracz: Yes, because I have a fat butt. My butt does not fit on this cushion that they gave us. If you wanna call it that, it is the thinnest piece of foam.
It’s
Alison Brown: a place mat at best.
Jill Jaracz: Yes.
Alison Brown: For a small fleet.
Jill Jaracz: So yes, I had some augmentation.
Alison Brown: But let’s, let’s get right into the ceremony, okay? Because that was an amazing ceremony on the one hand.
Jill Jaracz: Mm-hmm.
Alison Brown: See, he agreed with me and the saddest athletes parade I have ever seen.
Jill Jaracz: Oh my gosh. I, I was stunned. I was angry and I was sad all in one ceremony.
Alison Brown: So. What I loved about the ceremony that Paris got so wrong.
Mm-hmm. We really complained about the Paris ceremony, and I wanna, and so I, I, that’s
Jill Jaracz: right, that’s right. We did,
Alison Brown: we did complain about it because it was all about [00:07:00] inclusion. Mm-hmm. This ceremony wasn’t about inclusion, it just was inclusive.
Jill Jaracz: Yes, yes, yes.
Alison Brown: It was the, the different performers were just integrated into the show.
Jill Jaracz: Just keep talking
Alison Brown: and. There were dancers of different abilities and dancers in wheelchairs and dancers with prosthetics and performers of all different physical abilities, and nobody made a big deal about it. It just was
Jill Jaracz: right, which then made me angry because why weren’t those same performers in the Olympic ceremony and, and LA just let’s not pat ourselves on the back for having inclusive performer or inclusive being inclusive.
Just during the Paralympics. Right. Make it inclusive all the way around. I mean, you could have put some of those dancers, it, you know, in the Olympic opening ceremonies, which totally could have had people with disabilities do some of those roles.
Alison Brown: [00:08:00] Absolutely. And what was nice was, again, I loved how Italian it was.
Jill Jaracz: Oh yeah, yeah.
Alison Brown: It definitely had the, the, the interpretive dance. And they did a little Romeo and Juliet segment.
Jill Jaracz: Oh, we’ll get to there.
Alison Brown: Oh, sorry.
Jill Jaracz: Don’t worry. I got a rundown.
Alison Brown: So love lot, love the overall theme. Love the overall execution, except that sad, sad athletes parade with no athletes.
Jill Jaracz: Yeah, let’s get to that in a minute.
But the, the opening ceremony was based around five words. They were, uh, vibes
spaces.
Love sharing and together. And those love the sharing and together were not really announced the same way vibe, spaces, and Love were. Yes. They just happened. And, um, that, that got a little convoluted to me, [00:09:00] the theme that started feeling long. Yes. With those five themes.
Alison Brown: Okay.
Jill Jaracz: Okay.
Alison Brown: Not our train.
Jill Jaracz: Um, this stage w this show was way more about the projection afternoon ccia. Why? Another, when, another, hi, you wanna come over? We’re recording a podcast. What? The paralympic opening ceremony. Oh, wow. Yeah. Yeah. Really,
Alison Brown: really? We really are. Yeah, we’re doing it on the train.
Italian friend 1: Nice to meet you.
Alison Brown: Nice to meet you,
Italian friend 2: Jessica. Nice to meet you,
Alison Brown: Jessica. And where are you from? You’re from here. Excellent, excellent. And you’re
Italian friend 1: going back to
Venice.
Alison Brown: You’re going
Jill Jaracz: back to
Alison Brown: Venice.
Italian friend 1: Yes, we are. And we are going to Massland now, but yes, but we have to arrive to Santa. Luckily we are two, so Yeah, that’s hard problem.
Alison Brown: Yeah.
Jill Jaracz: Well, this is good for us because then we [00:10:00] will make sure we were on the right train. We have problem, we’re old. We have problems with a lot of things where.
Alison Brown: No, we’re going to Venicia. Esra. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So we follow you and we’ll be fine.
Jill Jaracz: Yes.
Italian friend 1: We just need to wait.
Alison Brown: Yes. That’s Hence we’re doing the show now and not when we get back.
Where are you from now? The us. The us? Yeah. Only Americans would be this insane. No, no.
Italian friend 1: Which is your, sorry. You went for the
Alison Brown: Yes. We were just at the opening ceremony. Wow. Did you like it? I, I did. I liked the show very much. Where
Italian friend 1: you seated? Oh, thank you. Thank
Alison Brown: you. We were in the press area, so we were sort of tucked away up high. They, they don’t let the press people, you know, too close.
Italian friend 1: You have, you know, this is my second p
Jill Jaracz: Oh yeah.
Italian friend 1: That I’ve received.
Jill Jaracz: That’s us You’ll be on the, she’ll be on the show tonight. We [00:11:00] do shows every day. Wow. We did shows every day during the Olympics, and now we’re doing them every day during the Olympics.
Are you
Italian friend 2: also been for the
Jill Jaracz: Olympics? For the Yes. Yes.
Italian friend 2: Nice.
Jill Jaracz: It’s very
Italian friend 2: exciting. Where, where were you like, uh, around
Alison Brown: Milan? In
Italian friend 2: Milan?
Jill Jaracz: Yeah.
Italian friend 2: Okay.
I’ll put it right away.
Jill Jaracz: Yeah.
Italian friend 2: This is my second thing.
Jill Jaracz: Oh, good.
Alison Brown: Excellent. Good, good. How.
Italian friend 2: Olympics. It
Alison Brown: was a lot of fun.
Yeah. Milan was nice. We had a good time.
Italian friend 2: Yeah. Feels so busy there. Like
Alison Brown: Yes. People, uh,
Italian friend 2: like I was working for like Venice Airport
Jill Jaracz: Oh, okay.
Italian friend 2: During the Olympics and now I’m during the Paralympics, so. Oh,
Jill Jaracz: nice.
Italian friend 2: Okay. Yeah. As a like, airport, uh, assistant. Oh, nice. And she’s a volunteer?
Italian friend 1: I’m a volunteer, yeah. And still at the Olympic, uh, sorry, at the airport in Venice.
So we’re welcoming athletes and delegations and Okay, chef. And so, yeah.
Jill Jaracz: And hi. And the day after the closing ceremony, you might see [00:12:00] me at 4:00 AM ’cause I have to leave at six.
Italian friend 1: No.
Jill Jaracz: Yeah, but that’s in a week. That’s in a week. We have time. We have time. We have a very early flight out. So
Italian friend 1: you
Italian friend 2: leave from Van?
Jill Jaracz: Yes.
Alison Brown: Yes. Okay.
Italian friend 1: Yeah. And do you remember the day did day? And which day is
Jill Jaracz: Monday 16th? Monday 16th.
Italian friend 1: 16th. Ah, okay. Unlikely. I have the afternoon shift, so I’ll not be there. You’ll, I’ll see you. Perfect. But wait, we don’t know your names.
Alison Brown: Oh, Allison and Jill.
Jill Jaracz: Jill. Alison
Italian friend 1: and Jill.
Jill Jaracz: But, but you’ll look up the podcast and then you’ll be like, oh yeah, we know you
Italian friend 1: we’re, we’re all
Jill Jaracz: friends.
Italian friend 1: Podcast. Yes.
Jill Jaracz: Perfect. That’s perfect.
Italian friend 1: Famous.
Jill Jaracz: Absolutely.
Italian friend 1: Yeah. Wow.
Jill Jaracz: Well, so did you like the opening ceremonies?
Italian friend 2: Yeah, I think it was like, uh, really nice. And I was also talking with her about it, uh, like, uh, about the decision, you know, about some countries did not carry the [00:13:00] flag and we were discussing a bit about it.
But it was still nice that they let the volunteers carry the flag instead of like just not doing it. And I think like the other parts like, were really nice. Uh, I mean also like the, you know, the dancing and the. Also like the lights, uh, and oh, she was saying like about, you know, when they put like the flame and then like the glitters, the confetti all around, fatty all around.
It was like really original, uh, choice.
Italian friend 1: Yeah. We were thinking, we were thinking that baby vie the, the Oh we love
Jill Jaracz: baby.
Italian friend 1: Yes. So do we would’ve, uh, somehow turned all the center up up, like. Uh, plane. Yeah. And we were thinking that all that circle that was mm-hmm. You know, going down, going up was, uh, about to light lighten up.
Yeah. So we were thinking about that, but then it was confetti and I think it’s very, probably [00:14:00] much more original because it’s more, um. How to say it, like it made an eff in effect more than fire. Yes. Yesterday they flew for thousand of times in a second. They did fly all around. I
Jill Jaracz: feel bad for who has to vacuum that up.
Italian friend 1: Yeah, exactly.
Jill Jaracz: Yeah.
Alison Brown: Yeah.
Italian friend 1: They made gold then. Um, silver, then blue. So there will be thousands of confetti all around and yeah, I I have some Do you want some for memory?
Jill Jaracz: No, that’s
Italian friend 1: confetti
Italian friend 2: in our hand
Italian friend 1: lying towards us and then said, okay, we, we’ll catch it Fued for, for me, for memory, you know. That’s fantastic.
Jill Jaracz: Very nice. Very nice.
Italian friend 2: Like, uh, opening ceremony for the Olympics?
Italian friend 1: Yes, we did.
Italian friend 2: Okay. What did you think about it?
Jill Jaracz: That was cool. That was amazing. It was, it was much better than Paris. Really?
Italian friend 1: Yeah.
Alison Brown: Yes.
Italian friend 2: [00:15:00] We’re Italians, of course, of course. Italian. Of course we can, we,
Italian friend 1: we can do better than French people.
Italian friend 2: I mean, there was like some, um, I think some like discussions about, you know, the, the Olympics opening ceremony, like some parts.
Some people did not like them.
Italian friend 1: Like what? Mariah
Jill Jaracz: Carey?
Italian friend 2: Yeah. Maybe also her, like the choice of the singers. Like, uh,
Italian friend 1: yeah. Initially we had a lot of, lot of discussion for Laura Pini, the singer. Oh, okay. Because some guys, and some people just, uh, didn’t like her performance because they thought it was too showing.
She was too much showing off.
Jill Jaracz: Oh,
Italian friend 1: okay. Her singing skills more than. Feeling it because the anthem is something that you feel in your belly, in your stomach. So some people said that, that her, uh, performance was not something that you felt here in the stomach. It was something to show off, you know?
Jill Jaracz: Interesting.
Italian friend 1: Some people, [00:16:00] others said, no, she was amazing. She was amazing. She just showed the word. How good is she? Uh, only her could have done something like that. And so we have like perfect division somehow. Yeah, yeah. About her.
Alison Brown: She made, she made me cry.
Italian friend 2: Such an event cry. I think that there are always like discussions about, okay, this could have been done better, this could have been worse.
Uh, but I think it was overlap, like overall, uh, nice.
Jill Jaracz: Yeah. Yeah. It was a good, uh, we really liked it compared to earlier ones because it wasn’t so fancy, you know? It didn’t have like. So much digital stuff. It was just like old school performance and artistry and it was really nice
Italian friend 1: dance. The dances, the fact that you saw Italy.
Jill Jaracz: Yeah.
Italian friend 1: You know, you saw the power of city Italian citizens there because we are all together. Uh, you could, you you felt us, you know, somehow. [00:17:00] Yeah. Yeah. Fantastic.
Alison Brown: Thank you ladies. Kristen,
Italian friend 1: I
Jill Jaracz: get a
Italian friend 1: picture. We’ll let you work.
Alison Brown: Well, first we just take a quick, a picture, quick picture,
Italian friend 1: ah, ah, of us.
Alison Brown: Yes. Thank you ladies.
It was good to meet you. Yes.
Jill Jaracz: Take a picture of us doing this
Alison Brown: because you know, that’s what we do. We take pictures. You’re wrong.
Italian friend 1: Yeah.
Jill Jaracz: I’m really, really, really into it.
Italian friend 1: I don’t know if you noticed that there was the sign interpreter. Yes.
Alison Brown: Yeah. That was
Jill Jaracz: really
Alison Brown: cool. Yes. Yeah. And she was into it. The, the sign interpreter was really Dr.
Dramatic,
Italian friend 1: they were alive. Like live. Oh,
Jill Jaracz: were they, were they down, down on the stage
Italian friend 1: kind of thing? No, sometimes they were on the stage. For example, for the Italian anthem, there was the signs episode in, on the stage?
Alison Brown: Yes.
Italian friend 1: For the, uh, speeches. They were, uh, maybe in another place, but they were live and one of them, one of the two interpret episode.
They, the, [00:18:00] the guy. It’s deaf. Just one
Alison Brown: to three. Oh, oh, nice. Nice, nice. Excellent.
Jill Jaracz: You know,
Italian friend 1: put some stuff because I’m studying sign language, so, oh, I looked at it all the time. They were good. And I don’t know it, I know it’s not, it’s an issue that it’s not so, uh, widespread as it should be, so, yeah, just to.
Put some into it to talk about.
Alison Brown: Perfect. Thank you. Thank you
Jill Jaracz: so much. You welcome.
Alison Brown: Thank you. Ladies,
Italian friend 1: catch eye us so,
Jill Jaracz: okay.
Alison Brown: You know Chinese?
Jill Jaracz: Yeah.
Alison Brown: Perfect. Thank you. Roving reporters.
Jill Jaracz: Very true. Very true.
Alison Brown: We get an Italian perspective when we record on the train.
Jill Jaracz: Alright, so The setup was slightly different than the Olympic closing ceremonies because the dignitaries were down on the floor instead of being kind of up in stands a little bit, and they had a [00:19:00] wall in front of them. We wondered if they could see over the wall. It
Alison Brown: was a low wall, but it was a wall.
Jill Jaracz: But everybody cheers so much. For the president.
Alison Brown: Everyone loves the Italian president. He’s so, he’s, uh, a bit of a figurehead. He really doesn’t have political power. So he can be well loved in, in a way that the Prime Minister probably is not. But that has happened now at every ceremony. Yes. He is received with so much affection.
Jill Jaracz: Yes, yes, yes. So, uh, they had, we had gotten a whole bunch of press releases. About who was performing what was happening. And we heard about this flyover that was going to happen with all, uh, pilots who had disabilities.
Alison Brown: Yes. But the flyover happened earlier in the day, so they showed a video of the flyover
Jill Jaracz: on the bigots on the
Alison Brown: bigot.
Jill Jaracz: Let’s, let’s not underestimate how small these bigot trons are.
Alison Brown: I, I think you’re even being generous calling them bigot trons. Now that I have [00:20:00] seen them, they’re, they’re little trons. Medium trons.
This is the show we’re submitting for all the awards. I just saying that right now.
Jill Jaracz: Special. It’s 11 o’clock at night. How many announcements do you need? Trying to tell you, it’s not even a full moon. We can now see the moon rising. It’s quite beautiful though. And it’s beautiful. But it was full the other night and like tonight a full moon would be just about perfect at the train.
Alright, so, um, the flyover happened on the bigot for [00:21:00] us and then they brought out the pilots
Alison Brown: Yes.
Jill Jaracz: And spoke to
Alison Brown: them.
Jill Jaracz: Yes. Um, and this was all like pre-show too? Yes. Which, which frustrating? Um, a lot of projection mapping on the Oh,
Alison Brown: yes. But more light effects than projection mapping.
Jill Jaracz: Yes. Although I wanted more projection mapping of different things that were only on the bigots, if you know what I mean.
There was some stuff that.
Italian friend 1: With scheduled departure, 2350. Today is running as train. 34
Alison Brown: 3 2.
Jill Jaracz: Okay. That’s not our train. Um, but there were some points, and I, and I am sorry I didn’t, I don’t think I wrote those down where things were happening on the screen, and I thought they should also happen on the floor.
Alison Brown: Mm. ‘
Jill Jaracz: cause the screens were so small or you didn’t, they’re so small you don’t think to look at [00:22:00] them.
Alison Brown: You just watch the costume change, so to speak. The, the set changing and not really watching the, the screens.
Jill Jaracz: Yes. And there was a lot of set changing.
Alison Brown: Yes.
Jill Jaracz: That I noticed because I’m like, where are these performers? It was, but there was why they were outside.
Alison Brown: Then there was a set of performers outside the amphitheater performing live, but we couldn’t see them inside, but they were outside and.
On television, you wouldn’t have been able to tell the difference. They switch it to outside so that they could do a set change inside. I mean, they gotta do something during the set, change inside. So having live performers better than filming and at least it then continued the idea. We’re in Verona, we’re at the, uh, arena to Verona this amphitheater, and we’re gonna give you the full effect and shoot the outside of it.
Jill Jaracz: Right, right, right. Uh. One of the, the performers, they touted Stewart Copeland drummer, barely saw him.
Alison Brown: I didn’t see him at all.
Jill Jaracz: He was up. And, [00:23:00] and the other drummer, whose name I don’t have, because I didn’t see it very quickly on, they also did not keep the names on the bigot Trons long enough?
Alison Brown: No.
Jill Jaracz: Um, it was a, a drummer who, uh, had.
Partial arms, I think.
Alison Brown: Yes.
Jill Jaracz: And, uh, they were playing together, but they did not play very long.
Alison Brown: They played at the beginning and then they played at the end in the big
Jill Jaracz: grand finale style.
Alison Brown: Grand finale. Yes. Which I loved.
Jill Jaracz: Um, then we had a dance troupe with wheelchairs
Alison Brown: Yes.
Jill Jaracz: In it and, and
others
Jill Jaracz: and other
Alison Brown: disabilities as
Jill Jaracz: well.
The, the, the wheelchairs were more, more visible than a, then there seemed to be a protagonist character and the stage split.
Alison Brown: It rose up
Jill Jaracz: and, but then there was that light that went through the entire
Alison Brown: and split it in half.
Jill Jaracz: Yes. And I thought that was gonna be a storyline throughout the whole thing.
Alison Brown: No, there was no,
Jill Jaracz: and then I was bummed.
’cause when that thing happened and it so dramatically split with lights and it was such a [00:24:00] cool, cool effect, I thought, agreed. I was like, I am here for this.
Alison Brown: But then we never saw her again until the
Jill Jaracz: big finale. Right. Until the grand finale, which I have in the note says grand finale. Madam Perot style, who is my.
A Monster Academy of Dance Owner and every dance recital we had the big grand finale where every class came out and like sang over the rainbow or tomorrow, this is what that reminded me of. But it was fantastic.
Alison Brown: It was ’cause all the performers were skipping around a little bit, but all the performers came out at the end and, and we’re singing altogether re.
Yes. In their own different ways.
Jill Jaracz: Yes.
Alison Brown: Yeah. Different languages, different mu uh, instruments, different styles. So that was pretty fantastic way to end. Exactly. So
Jill Jaracz: we will, we will get to, to those different styles and think very. Dramatic Italian flag raising an anthem.
Alison Brown: Yes. Everybody got a little, I got a little emotional with this one.
It was, it was incredibly beautiful with the anthem, and Mimi [00:25:00] was the singer, not somebody I’m familiar with. Mm-hmm. But what a beautiful voice she had. Yes. Yes. And we were just saying how Laura Pacini went over the top Yes. With her performance. This was very quiet in, in, in a way, but. Passionate. Just passionate, but just as dramatic as doing the, the, the full throttle.
It’s sort of that quiet passion.
Jill Jaracz: Yes,
Alison Brown: that was incredibly beautiful
Jill Jaracz: Lights in the background in the Italian flag. All the projection stuff had in the, in the stage, which has kind of like a partial dome on the, the back of it that has a projection screen or a video screen, uh, that was green. There was a very dramatic.
Women in gold glitter dresses, transferring the flag to each other across the stage.
Alison Brown: They were very sparkly
Jill Jaracz: and, uh,
Alison Brown: foreshadowing for the sparkle
Jill Jaracz: Yes. Was to
Alison Brown: cauldron.
Jill Jaracz: Yeah. But it was, it was really something. And then, um, then we had the parade to nations and I, I actually cried. I I, [00:26:00]
Alison Brown: but not for the normal reasons.
Jill Jaracz: No, I, because here’s the deal. So we had, uh, several nations boycotting the opening ceremonies because of Russia and Belarus being allowed back into the Paralympic games competing under their own flags. Again, this was a membership decision that, uh, went to a vote. And so that is how the International Paralympic Committee works.
It’s a democratic process. The vote went that way, and so they’re allowed to come back and compete. Several countries did not like this, Ukraine included. They did not come or send anybody to the opening ceremonies. Okay? Yes. And then there’s the fact that competition starts at like nine in the morning tomorrow.
So people, if you’re wheelchair curling or if you are, uh, skiing many different kinds of skiing or playing hockey, you’re in a very different location because nothing is happening in Verona. And it’s hard to [00:27:00] get here for many play many players except for hockey. It’s not that bad. But still, if you’re
Alison Brown: weak, but still the game starts at 9 35 tomorrow, so,
Jill Jaracz: so you can’t come.
And they finally said, okay, two representatives, poor athletes come. We’re gonna have volunteers carry every flag. So even if you’ve selected flag bearers, which a lot of nations do, they won’t be allowed to carry the flag in. Uh, sorry. 22. Two. Oh, we’re also 50. Today is running is
Italian friend 2: train 34 3 2.
Jill Jaracz: Oh, great. So the train to Trento is running as a different number.
Oh, just to confus people. Yes, exactly. And then, so, uh, back to the opening ceremony, ’cause the train announcements are gonna kill me. Um, uh, the. [00:28:00] So we have volunteers carrying the flag and the placard and you have like two representatives behind them and up to two officials.
Alison Brown: Right. And very few countries sent four.
Jill Jaracz: Yes.
Alison Brown: And only Italy actually had a delegation.
Jill Jaracz: I, I will get to that. But, but if you had a, if you were participating in the opening ceremonies and there were athletes elsewhere, they took videos of them cheering in their respective places. So they would show on the video screen cortina and whatever delegation was there and, and to Sarah and Milano, and they’d be cheering and it was very cute.
They’d have Milo and Tina with them. And waving the flag, their flags and little props for what sports they did. Very cute. A nice touch throwing you a bone,
Alison Brown: but it, but it wasn’t a parade of nations. No. The parade of Nations is the highlight of the opening ceremony. It is. The purpose of the opening ceremony is to welcome the athletes [00:29:00] to these games, not a show for the delegates.
Jill Jaracz: Right, and, and then when Italy walked in with a very
Alison Brown: large
Jill Jaracz: delegation, that made me angry.
Alison Brown: Right. Because what did they do to allow those athletes to be able to come that they weren’t offering to anybody else?
Jill Jaracz: Mm-hmm.
Alison Brown: Or. Something about their schedule was different. I don’t know. They must have gotten police escorted cars from everywhere and they’re zooming them in at the last minute and zooming them right back out.
Jill Jaracz: I, I don’t know, but it, it, it made me angry that other countries were not afforded that, and I appreciate that. Italy, the host nation, wants to do that for their athletes and it’s nice that they get the big cheer, but nobody else got that same. Experience in the same way.
Alison Brown: I mean, the United States had three people there,
Jill Jaracz: [00:30:00] right?
One official, two athletes.
Alison Brown: It’s a huge delegation. Germany had nobody, Canada had nobody, and those are big delegations.
Jill Jaracz: Yeah.
Alison Brown: And that’s wrong.
Jill Jaracz: So,
Alison Brown: so let’s not do this in Verona again.
Jill Jaracz: Yeah, yeah. Let’s that, that was really upsetting to me and I actually, I had to. Pull out some Kleenex ’cause I was really upset about that.
Alison Brown: Yeah.
Jill Jaracz: Um, so we get through the Parade of Nations, which ended up being kind of short and snappy.
Alison Brown: That is one thing about this. It was very quick.
Jill Jaracz: and uh, then we get to. the DJ with one arm who’s got like sensors in his arm Yes. To be able to spin, which is really cool except for, because we have big arons.
You can’t really see what’s going on. Yes. You just have a person standing at a DJ booth. ’cause there were a lot of DJs. Let’s just get through. We had a lot of DJs tonight, [00:31:00]
Alison Brown: but you couldn’t see his special. Uh, a accommodation.
Jill Jaracz: Right.
Alison Brown: And to be able to dj.
Jill Jaracz: Yeah. At least not here. Maybe you saw it on the tv, so because you could see it closer.
Yeah, exactly. This is where the bigot Trump was showing sports and their locations during this. And it was kind of a, a big topographic map situation where they show Milan. Did you, do you remember this?
Alison Brown: I didn’t, I wasn’t, I guess I wasn’t watching the bigot trons at the time
Jill Jaracz: because it was really cool the way they showed the different locations.
I just wanted to see it on the floor as well. ’cause I thought that would’ve been more special than the topographic map. So there we go with that. Then it was time to make the atos in ponchos
Alison Brown: in poncho people. It was the poncho people. I loved that
Jill Jaracz: it was, it was very effective, but I, it had tones of maji.
Alison Brown: I, you cannot dismiss the poncho people to me. I loved them.
Jill Jaracz: It was, but it made the Aidas vibrant [00:32:00] and alive and
Alison Brown: vibrate
Jill Jaracz: and, but it was really cool. And then we moved on to the spaces section. And we had stuff taking place outside the dance, and then it was like. All this fog showed up in the stadium.
Alison Brown: You know, there was a lot of fog at the beginning of the show and then there was a second fog release
Jill Jaracz: and it was like unnecessary fog.
I have no idea why we had all this fog.
Alison Brown: I don’t know why we had fog.
Jill Jaracz: And then there are bubbles all around us and I fi I’m like, why are there bubbles around? And I don’t see them anywhere else. I finally see a little kid not that far down from us. Who was blowing bubbles, which that’s cool and everything, but they took my coke of zero at the, at the check-in and then my, my brand new bottle of water, my brand new bottle of water.
They took all that from me, and yet this child got bubbles in What is up with that?[00:33:00]
Like seriously.
Alison Brown: I enjoyed the bubbles. Maybe
Jill Jaracz: I didn’t enjoy them. I would’ve enjoyed them more if I could have had a swig of my Coke A zero.
Alison Brown: What happened
Jill Jaracz: next to Tenne? We had DJ dus, and Dus is the stage name of the man who, uh, wrote the theme of this. He co. Who composed.
Oh,
Alison Brown: that’s
Jill Jaracz: right. He composed the music from Milano Cortina. And what did he not play
Alison Brown: the music from Milano, Corina, or the Milano Corina song?
Jill Jaracz: No, we did not get the Milano.
That’s because apparently they only got the rights to that for one event, one
Alison Brown: performance.
Jill Jaracz: Which was not a good thing, but he did his thing. And, uh, you know, while we’re on to like DJ number three, yes. Out of maybe four or five at this point, I, I get to tell you, watching DJs perform is boring. It is boring.
It’s boring. Even though he [00:34:00] was in some kind of contraption and he was pretty, uh, dramatic in doing his DJ stuff. Um, then there was that, uh, I think it was a bigot tron performance. Where there was like the, the musical, I thought it was a quartet, but it turned out to be more instruments.
Alison Brown: Oh,
Jill Jaracz: yes, yes. And the dancer who kept like,
Alison Brown: like
Jill Jaracz: pulling things
Alison Brown: out of her
Jill Jaracz: mouth.
Oh, okay. ’cause I thought that was throwing up.
Alison Brown: Oh, I thought that was yelling. Like she
Jill Jaracz: was
Alison Brown: yelling and not being heard.
Jill Jaracz: She could have been those Italian. I don’t remember the Italian hand signals that we learned at the opening ceremonies for the Olympics, but I did was like, is she trying to throw up?
Alison Brown: No, she was not trying
Jill Jaracz: to throw up.
Okay. Exactly. Um, and then. Like the music was really cool, but it turned into hooked on classics. It did and, and I was so happy about that. I don’t know why, but it filled me with joy.
Alison Brown: It filled you with hooked on classic joy
Jill Jaracz: because [00:35:00] that will just permeate the world for a little while to God.
Alison Brown: You put, you put hooked on classics out in the world and only joy comes from it.
Jill Jaracz: Exactly. Which led into our speeches time.
Alison Brown: Yeah,
Jill Jaracz: so, so
they
Alison Brown: were good.
Jill Jaracz: They were, they were good. They were
Alison Brown: snappy.
Jill Jaracz: Organizing committee, Giovanni Mogo, and Andrew Parsons. President of the IPC was pretty passionate. Again,
Alison Brown: as he is
Jill Jaracz: ference referenced, the war or the conflicts
Alison Brown: broke out a lot of Italian.
Jill Jaracz: He did break out a lot of Italian.
Alison Brown: That was impressive. Yeah. He didn’t just, you know, do chow. He did full sentences, multiple sentences. Yeah, he did. I was impressed, Andrew.
Jill Jaracz: But he did reference the fact that he would prefer to not know. Countries by their leaders and would rather know them by their athletes.
Alison Brown: Yes.
Jill Jaracz: So I think that was a nice little veiled reference to a little
Alison Brown: a, a nice appropriately worded touch.
Jill Jaracz: Yes. Because he got very passionate at Beijing.
Alison Brown: He was very upset at Beijing. That was a very different circumstance and that was very difficult.
Jill Jaracz: Exactly. So [00:36:00] he, uh, I do like him. I like, I like Misam. Andrew Parsons.
Alison Brown: Yeah. Wow.
Jill Jaracz: So that goes without saying, which, uh, then the games got opened and we go into the love section.
Alison Brown: This is the Romeo and Juliet montage?
Jill Jaracz: Yes, exactly. Which was a very lovely dance.
Alison Brown: Yes.
Jill Jaracz: With, with the people on a contraption that kind of went back and forth and there was also like, and flew them up in
Alison Brown: the air.
Jill Jaracz: Yeah. And uh, kind of two. Sides of people. You got to see like the Montagues and the caplets on the floor.
I thought they would, you know, it got a little overwrought. I was hoping they would bust out some West Side story instead of the music that they did.
Alison Brown: Don’t
Jill Jaracz: be disappointed. Oh, it, it was beautiful. It was like, but it, you know, it was long.
Alison Brown: Yeah.
Jill Jaracz: But the, what, what I was very impressed with were the dancers on wires in the air.
Alison Brown: Yes,
Jill Jaracz: because they got a wheelchair up there.
Alison Brown: I know.
Jill Jaracz: That was cool. [00:37:00] That was really, really cool. But, uh, very, very nice. And uh, then it was time for the Paralympic flag to come in. And we got the anthem in like local instruments.
Alison Brown: Yes. There was the horns,
Jill Jaracz: the
Alison Brown: very long Alpine. Alpine. Horns. Horns, which was a nice touch.
Jill Jaracz: The man, uh, playing the glasses filled with water.
Alison Brown: Yes. And then the, I forget what that thing, Thein. Yes, the thein. Yes. I was like the Thermador. No, that’s something else. The thermin where they play the air. Yes. What an interesting way to do that. Yeah. And it made it very, very beautiful. Um, and again, quiet, but with an incredible amount of passion and feeling
Jill Jaracz: and, and ethereal
Alison Brown: Yes.
With, with a, that’s an excellent word.
Jill Jaracz: Voice of, um, we got, the oath came kind of in a montage
Alison Brown: because all the athletes are someplace else, right? So there’s nobody there to take the [00:38:00] oath.
Jill Jaracz: Um, then we got a video about the flame. And it made me happier that we went to the we, we found out about the flame ceremony in Venice because we saw more flame in Venice than we did tonight.
Alison Brown: So Bebe Veo brought in the actual torch, which was a
Jill Jaracz: awesome,
Alison Brown: I know you’re a big fan of Bebe, VE, and then she passed it. Passed it, quote unquote, to dancers who held light in their hands and passed it around in this dance montage, which was incredibly beautiful and a very clever way of dealing with this.
The fact that you have a cauldron in Milan, you’ve got one in Corina, but your ceremony’s in Verona. Yes. What are you gonna do? Yes. Well, we’re going to change the light from a flame to a light that we all pass around in this beautiful dance, and then we’re gonna throw the light into [00:39:00] that part of the stage.
That was an open hole, and then gold confetti in the shape of a flame came shooting at. It was a brilliant way to handle a very difficult logistical nightmare.
Jill Jaracz: Absolutely agree. It was stunning in
Alison Brown: person. So clever and so huge. I, I hope you could see how much confetti was involved and how big that hole in the stage was because you know, we’re so getting used to unfortunately, these tiny cauldrons, these cauldrons.
This felt like an old school cauldron, like, we’re gonna blow the place up and fry some pigeons, which I am here for.
Jill Jaracz: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I gotta, I absolutely right. Like that was a beautiful way to deal with the situation. Beautiful. It looked amazing.
Alison Brown: I wonder if this is going to usher in a different view of the [00:40:00] cauldron, because we did have a different view of the cauldron with Paris, where it wasn’t flame, it was a light.
Mm-hmm. And this again, is a new view of the cauldron. Just like now you don’t have the doves, you have some representation of dove. Will we change that torch and that cauldron to a representation of it, which. Depending on how it’s done, I would not be against,
Jill Jaracz: I don’t mind that in the ceremony as long as there’s a cauldron and a flame
Alison Brown: somewhere.
Jill Jaracz: Somewhere.
Alison Brown: Okay. Fair enough.
Jill Jaracz: So I’m gonna put that in the back of my mind to discuss, to discuss later. ’cause I can’t think about it right now. But, but I, I, I don’t want the cauldron to turn into like a confetti machine.
Alison Brown: No, agreed. But something else. That ’cause they’re so concerned about the environmental issues of burning all that propane.
I know. Don’t roll your eyes at me. Sorry
Jill Jaracz: I roll on this. [00:41:00]
Alison Brown: But I, is there an easier way to get the magnitude of the old school cauldrons with much less flame?
Jill Jaracz: I, I, you know, is there a way to make a giant flame with much less fuel?
Alison Brown: Well that too,
Jill Jaracz: huh? Maybe. Um, then we had some space greetings.
Alison Brown: That seems to be a new thing.
They did this at the Olympic opening ceremony too, where we had an astronaut involved.
Jill Jaracz: So, uh, we had an astronaut who had been in a wheelchair and or who is in a wheelchair and had, we had an astronaut who’s in a wheelchair who had been in space and was the first person in a wheelchair to go up to space, and she gave a big, nice greeting.
It was really cool. We had another greeting from somebody who’s in space right now.
Alison Brown: Yes.
Jill Jaracz: And, uh, Guo. Um, and that just in a way, it was weird because we had this magnificent cauldron and you’re like, Ooh, de no, [00:42:00] and then we gotta calm back down for greeting some space.
Alison Brown: It was oddly placed. I figured the cauldron, the cauldron lighting should be the end.
Jill Jaracz: Yes, exactly.
Alison Brown: That should be the end Exactly. Except for the grand finale performance.
Jill Jaracz: Yes, exactly, because once they were done with that, um, we had the grand finale of re with like hip hop, afro pop coming in, and then all the performers from earlier in the joined in throughout the show, including a very sexy sax that I don’t remember being there that was.
That was
Alison Brown: part of the pre-show.
Jill Jaracz: Oh, okay. So many things and, and a whole little marching band from the pre-show came in too. And I, I was, I was bummed that I was bummed that the audience at home did not get the pre-show, because that was a fun band.
Alison Brown: They were fun
Jill Jaracz: because they had us do re in [00:43:00]
Alison Brown: like karaoke style with, with call and, and answer.
Jill Jaracz: Yes, yes, yes. Oh, oh. Except for it was just like. Four lines of the song.
Alison Brown: Well, that’s ’cause anyone only knows four lines of the song.
Jill Jaracz: That’s fine. That’s fine. Um, just put it up on the bigotry, man. We’ll, we’ll follow along.
But it was so, it was so cool to see all of the callback and to see. People like the, the alpine horn players waving their hands around outstanding and dancing. It was so much fun. So that was a great end to it as well.
Alison Brown: Agreed.
Jill Jaracz: So, overall good, I don’t, I, I. I think this leaned heavier on digital than the Olympic ceremony did.
Alison Brown: Yes, it was much, there were many fewer performers.
Jill Jaracz: Yes.
Alison Brown: But it was also scaled to the venue.
Jill Jaracz: Yes. You, yeah. You could not have a ton of performers everywhere. Oh, you know what? We forgot. We forgot that little bit [00:44:00] where they had all the different ramps and the trampoline and like
Alison Brown: Oh yeah. The, the whole idea of being included.
And spaces can be welcoming or spaces can be not welcoming and you can be included or you can be excluded. And that was all represented with spaces.
Jill Jaracz: Yes. I’m glad we did not exclude that. ’cause it was pretty cool.
Alison Brown: That was fun. And I love a good trampoline performance.
Jill Jaracz: Exactly. That always gets you, always get you going.
Alison Brown: Always hit you right in the trampoline. Three.
Jill Jaracz: All right. Well. Our train’s coming along soon, so we should pick up, we hope. Um,
Alison Brown: we got shout outs.
Jill Jaracz: We do have shout outs,
Alison Brown: and we have a mascot tonight, which I remember who it is. It’s Millie, the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel. Who is just the cutest thing ever all I have a picture of her in the newsletter.
So thank you to Millie’s family for supporting the fundraiser that got us to the train station in Verona.
Jill Jaracz: And uh, we do have Chu on Watch. Our team, Keith, the Flame Alive, [00:45:00] uh, members are competing tomorrow. Steve Ton, Laura Dwyer. Continue. In the robin, round robin of the wheelchair curling mix doubles oxana masters and Aaron Pike race in the para biathlon sprint sitting.
Is Kendall gr doing that one or no?
Alison Brown: I don’t know because we still don’t have the
Jill Jaracz: Oh, start list. Great. The start
Alison Brown: list. So I, I had to go with who I knew was competing in that one.
Jill Jaracz: We do know that Jacqueline Farmer, Malik Jones, Jack Wallace and team USA start prelim games and pair of ice hockey against Italy.
Uh, uh, well, A, they’re gonna do well because they’re really good. But b, I think Italy’s ice hockey team had a late night. Hmm. And, uh, Mike Schultz and Noel Elliot will compete in snowboard cross seeding rounds. Alright, we’ve got shout outs, hold on.
We’ve got, can you read.
Alison Brown: Yes, I can. What do you mean? Can I read?
Jill Jaracz: Well, yes, you can read, but
Alison Brown: can I read something that small? Yes, yes I can. I’m not that old yet. So Erica in Lincoln, Nebraska, Erica hosts an online crafting competition during each Olympics.
Jill Jaracz: And I, Erica, you gotta [00:46:00] report back in on how everybody did during your crafting show.
Yes.
Alison Brown: That’s what we wanna know. During, yes. I wanna see some pictures. Oh, post them in the, uh.
Jill Jaracz: Facebook,
Alison Brown: Facebook group, which is Keep the Flame Alive Podcast. Get in that group so we can see what Erica created.
Jill Jaracz: Exactly. And is Erica like Erica Scarf, skit scarf, who is a Canadian para can Doist and she competed at Rio.
Alison Brown: That’s impressive that you found her.
Jill Jaracz: Her Rio 2016 and Paris 2024.
Alison Brown: Nice.
Jill Jaracz: All right. And secondly, we’ve got.
Alison Brown: Oh, we’ve got Eugene Kim from La Creta, California, currently training as a visually impaired skier in Park City, and also trains, uh, puppies to be guide dogs. Yes, he’s involved with that as well. So Eugene is a big fan of Awesome, of puppies like I am.
Jill Jaracz: Awesome because I, I want a skiing update now that we’re gonna see some skiing. Let’s get an update, Eugene, how you’re doing and what you think. And it’s Eugene, like Eugene Rimer, who’s a Canadian. Who competed in athletics, swimming and table [00:47:00] tennis, because those go together. Five golds, four silvers, and one bronze through a career that spanned Tel Aviv, 1968.
Heidelberg. 1972. Toronto, 1976, and Arnheim 1980.
Alison Brown: Nice.
Jill Jaracz: And lastly, we have.
Alison Brown: Hailey from Kansas City, Kansas, and she told us to stay warm, which is a little hard when you’re recording at the train station. I am starting to get a bit chill.
Jill Jaracz: We’ll be inside a train soon. Yes. And uh, that is like Hailey Berenbaum at same church, same cue.
On the Hayley’s and, uh, she was a swimmer at Rio 2016. She’s from the us So that is 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 is your so source for our socials newsletter and direct ways to contact us. Join our Facebook group.
Like Alexon said, that’s where we’re posting things first and we’re chatting with people there. Um, we probably forgot some things. [00:48:00] Oh, I, right now I’d like to give a shout out to the donors. Also like people, we shot it out who got us here to Milano Cortina so that we can sit on a train platform and record this show for you.
And, uh, those, uh, and our Patreon patrons who also keep our flame alive all year long, if you would, uh, like to support the show Finance Chili and uh, you could do so@flamealivepod.com. Be sure to tune in tomorrow for anything else we forgot to tell you about today
Alison Brown: and hopefully have a show not in a public transit situation.
Jill Jaracz: I think our first live show was pretty good. We had, we had an audience for a little while.
Alison Brown: We had guests who knew
Jill Jaracz: exactly. Alrighty. Listeners, Patsy
Alison Brown: and until next time, chow And keep the flame alive.