It’s Day -1 of the Milano Cortina 2026 Paralympics, and we’ve made it up to the mountains! We’ve got the details of our trek to Cortina d’Ampezzo and our first foray to the Cortina Curling Stadium (which also involves a case of “Accesso Denied” and a surprise blood pressure check) to see TKFLASTANI Steve Emt and teammate Laura Dwyer in their second match of the wheelchair curling mixed doubles tournament.
Plus, we tool around Cortina to see what the scene will be like once the Paralympic cauldron is lit.
And if you’ve got feed beefs, we’ve got some potential workarounds.
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TRANSCRIPT
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Milano Cortina 2026 Paralympics: Day -1
Jill Jaracz: [00:00:00] Juan Journo and welcome to Keep the Flame Alive, day minus one coverage of the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Paralympic Games. I am your host, Jill Jaracz, coming to you from Shook Stan House. Veia. Misre joined us always by my lovely co-host, Alison Brown Alison chao com. I, well, we made it to Corina and we made
Alison Brown: it home
Jill Jaracz: and, and.
It’s 9:40 PM
Alison Brown: It’s not the middle of the night. So I guess that’s all, [00:01:00] all good. It’s been a good day then.
Jill Jaracz: It has been a good day.
Alison Brown: Little worried. Well, we’ll get to it when we talk about our, our trip to Cortina.
What we forgot to talk about yesterday
Jill Jaracz: Alright, because, ’cause we have a whole section of what I forgot to talk about yesterday. I have a lot of things to talk about.
Alison Brown: So let’s go. Let’s go man.
Jill Jaracz: Um, when I was in, uh, Lauzen, I forgot to mention that I went and found Pier to Cooper Town’s grave body minus heart. ’cause that’s in. Olympia.
Alison Brown: Yes.
Jill Jaracz: Graves nice. A little graveyard, which has like every little section. There’s like little like the size of a garden plot if you were in a community garden, kind of okay is is the size of a lot of these sections of graveyard in the cemetery.
Understand, and they’re all kind of understand surrounded by bushes. So it’s like going through a maze. Almost, but it’s very pretty.
Alison Brown: I was gonna say that actually sounds quite nice. Mm-hmm. That everybody’s, it’s not a mausoleum, but everybody’s area is, is [00:02:00] spread out and
Jill Jaracz: it’s, well, it’s
not
Alison Brown: off, it’s
Jill Jaracz: tiny.
Alison Brown: It’s also, it’s tiny. I say spread out as you’re not on top of one another.
Jill Jaracz: Yeah. The you get seclusion.
Alison Brown: Yes.
Jill Jaracz: So you get some privacy there. So that was nice. And then I went to see Olympic House, which I
Alison Brown: didn’t even know what that meant.
Jill Jaracz: The new headquarters. They call it Olympic House.
Alison Brown: That’s right.
Jill Jaracz: Okay. So we have seen pictures of Olympic House, right?
Yes,
Alison Brown: we have.
Jill Jaracz: It looks beautiful. Oh, on a sunny day, it looks beautiful. And this was, it was nice. I will not lie. It was not the bright blue, sunny day.
Alison Brown: Well, yes.
Jill Jaracz: That you get. Um, but it looks expansive. Right.
Alison Brown: I was
Jill Jaracz: gonna say
Alison Brown: it looks
Jill Jaracz: enormous. Grass guard. Yes. So it is a big building and the pictures are obviously taken from one side that abuts a park, a beautiful park that is, um, on the waterfront.
So think of Chicago and all the lakefront stuff. So you had the lake, you had the park, gorgeous. And then there’s [00:03:00] Olympic house. And then. On the other side of Olympic House is a highway.
Alison Brown: Oh dear.
Jill Jaracz: And then on the other, other side, the, the, not the long side of the building, the narrow side of the building is a campground,
Alison Brown: which could be beautiful depending on what’s there.
Jill Jaracz: Uh, your RVs. It’s an RV campground.
Alison Brown: Okay. Not so beautiful.
Jill Jaracz: It was just such a shock to see like this really beautiful building and like, oh, they take the pictures from the other side.
Alison Brown: Well, don’t we all know in real estate photography, use what you’ve got, make the most of it.
Jill Jaracz: Yes. So it was after hours when I was there, but I did notice they had a gym.
And the first floor,
Alison Brown: as you would hope.
Jill Jaracz: Yes. Plenty of bike racks. So it was nice. There’s a little, a little Olympic house garden. There’s Olympic house bees. Oh, so they had the, like the bee, hi. It’s not a hive thing, but it’s one of those [00:04:00] little houses that’s got the little scrolls in it To encourage. Yes.
And of course it’s got the rings on the house. It’s so funny. So I wonder if they do harvest any Olympic honey.
Alison Brown: That would be special because I think maybe it’s in the gift shop. That was too expensive.
Jill Jaracz: Maybe, maybe. But it also could be for in the cafeteria. ’cause I believe they have a ca cafeteria inside as well.
Oh. So, uh, that was also quite nice to do. Uh, Anne, if you go, it’s good for your glutes.
Alison Brown: Well, let’s just put it that way.
Jill Jaracz: Some way, uh, some kind. Got you. Ready for the
Alison Brown: mountains
Jill Jaracz: around, around Olympic, around the museum. 25% grades.
Alison Brown: Oh, no, thank
Jill Jaracz: you. It was, it was, it was a tough. Good, good prep for, for here.
The first International Paralympic Committee press conference of Milano Cortina 2026
So, but we have a, a lot of news from, from what we do today, we do, there was a, uh, the IPC opening press conference,
Alison Brown: so Andrew Parsons and our friend Craig Spence, who actually is our friend.
Yes. They don’t make fun of me. [00:05:00] And, um, Giorgio Malaga, who didn’t really have much to say.
Jill Jaracz: No,
Alison Brown: no, he, he spoke in Italian in his first statement, and that sort of shut everybody down it felt like.
Jill Jaracz: Yeah, because the, the crew that comes to the Paralympics is quite interesting and different, I think from, uh, other, from the Olympics.
So the Olympics has an several thousand journalists and photojournalist, and here we have a lot of photographers as well. Uh, but the. Reporters mainly come from like Japan.
Alison Brown: Japan is very
Jill Jaracz: big, huge
Alison Brown: for the Paralympics.
Jill Jaracz: Uh, Britain also very big, obviously. Uh, there’s some Canadians here and, um, us
Alison Brown: and not a heck of a lot of American reporters, that’s
Jill Jaracz: for sure.
No, no. So it, it’s very interesting. And we’re in, there’s no main press center for the Paralympics. It’s, it’s small and we [00:06:00] get that. However, I. I would really like organizing committees to stop thinking French Alps 2030. I’m looking at you. Stop thinking that the Paralympics is too tiny because what they do is they have an enhanced venue media center at the curling stadium, which is fine.
And it was the media center for curling and all the sliding sports for um. The Olympics. Cool. I’m okay with that. But that’s also where the main press conference room is and the main press conference room is, it’s a giant like outdoor. If you had a big outdoor tent thing and you put walls on it, that’s what we got here.
Temporary building. And we are in like a quarter of it is the press conference room
Alison Brown: and we are very cozy.
Jill Jaracz: Yes. I thought if anybody came in with a wheelchair, they wouldn’t fit first off, they wouldn’t even, the, the rows [00:07:00] were so close together,
Alison Brown: we were on each other’s knees. It was, it was a little too intimate for strangers, to be honest.
Jill Jaracz: Yeah. And, and I do think it, it feels a little like the Paralympics have more coverage than maybe Paris because the workroom was very full. It was. And, uh, which was encouraging because in Paris, the work, well the work workroom was jam packed, but the workroom was also probably half the size
Alison Brown: right
Jill Jaracz: of what we have right now.
And, uh, granted everybody’s gonna spread out and go to different events, but it’s, it’s, uh, really frustrating when. You realize, yes, it’s a smaller event, but you’ve realized that you’re not being taken seriously.
Alison Brown: That’s how it felt today in that, in that press conference, it was really low budget and could have been done in, in a much classier way to give, I mean, this is the president of the IPC and the president of the organizing committee give them [00:08:00] a proper table.
And, and proper press conference.
Jill Jaracz: Yeah. So that’s, it’s a little frustrating and I think that’s gonna be a frustration that I will have throughout the Paralympics. But, you know, hopefully we’re getting French Alps. Make the room a little bigger. Okay. Little bit bigger give because really, I mean, we were so, so shoved in there that it was nice to have a full room, but at the same time, if you wanna expand the press.
There’s nowhere to go.
Alison Brown: It felt like a high school gym, didn’t it?
Jill Jaracz: I felt smaller than a high school gym.
Alison Brown: Well, I’m saying a high school gym, like when they set up an event in a high school gym where like the chairs are all wonky.
Jill Jaracz: Yeah.
Alison Brown: And you’re, they’re all shoved together and it’s not very organized. And,
Jill Jaracz: you know, speaking of a high school gym, it makes me feel like when, when I was in high school there was, um, a new gym and an old gym, also known as the boys’ gym and the girls’ [00:09:00] gym.
Alison Brown: Yeah, I’m
Jill Jaracz: sure. And we are in the girls’ gym for sure.
Alison Brown: Yeah.
Jill Jaracz: So anyhow, hopefully we won’t complain too much.
Alison Brown: Well, this is probably gonna be one of the only press conferences we get to.
Jill Jaracz: Yeah, that’s true. That’s
Alison Brown: true. So we won’t have that experience again.
Jill Jaracz: Yes. Yeah. Um, news from the press conference.
Alison Brown: Yes. So they talked a lot about some things in the opening ceremonies.
Now there are countries who have announced they are boycotting the opening ceremony for political reasons, mostly because Russia and Belarus have been reinstated to full status. Uh, by the vote from the IPC, so Ukraine, Czechia, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland are officially boycotting the opening ceremony now, because the opening ceremony is in Verona, which is far away from.
Any competition, there’s going to be very few athletes who are there. That does not mean that those countries are boycotting, it’s just [00:10:00] logistics. So Craig Spence made a real point of saying these countries are boycotting all these other countries. Canada, Germany, he mentioned by name, are just not really going to have people there because of when the competitions are and where the opening ceremony is.
So let’s talk about this for a second, because you’re having an opening ceremony with very few athletes.
Jill Jaracz: Yeah.
Alison Brown: Who’s the opening ceremony for, right? Is it for, um, the organizing committee to show off? If you’re gonna put it in a place. Where nobody can go. Enjoy the actual opening ceremony. I mean, it’s one thing where in Milan you had half of the people in Milan and obviously everybody up in the mountain, and they tried to make an effort to have something for them in Corina.
It’s one thing in Paris where the sailors and the shooters. And the [00:11:00] surfers are very far away, but 80% of your athletes are within shooting distance of the opening ceremony. Just not the shooters. Right? Just not the shooters. But yeah, some people are always gonna choose not to go if they’ve got a competition at nine 30 the next morning, snowboard.
Right. But this feels like. We are not gonna have many athletes there,
Jill Jaracz: right? And they’re not doing what they did for the Olympics, which was have satellite opening ceremonies. They are having watch parties. For these athletes and it, it does feel, it feels like they’re doing a disservice. And granted, the, the Verona venue is beautiful and Craig Spence did wax poetic about it as well.
And, and yeah, it’s beautiful. But if you have a ceremony and nobody can come, is that a
Alison Brown: real opening ceremony? So they’re in fact, having volunteers be the flag bearers for [00:12:00] everybody because so few of the officially named flag bearers could come. Right. So
Jill Jaracz: now you take away that opportunity from the people who got this honor, and it’s a huge honor to get to do it,
Alison Brown: right.
Jill Jaracz: So it’s it that is also a frustration.
Alison Brown: So this is that games spread apart that we sort of joked about where it’s really sprawling and. Not cohesive, nevermind what we are gonna be going through. I’m ready. Ready to give up to be perfectly honest and fly back home and just watch it on Peacock. But
Jill Jaracz: if you can watch it on Peacock,
Alison Brown: if I can watch it.
We’ll get to feed beefs in a second, but just this whole idea of is it much of a Paralympics when nobody can get together? Yeah.
Jill Jaracz: Very, very true. Um, one of the things they [00:13:00] did that Craig Spence did say that those who are not boycotting, they’re going to have short videos played for those teams, which will be nice, I will say in the venue.
It’s a bigger tron situation.
Alison Brown: Understood.
Jill Jaracz: Um, but hopefully it translates on TV if you can see it, but I believe that NBC will be showing it, at least in the US and I’m sure C, B, C, and Sky. The BBC and or the BBC will be showing it for sure in, um, the, in Great Britain. So
Alison Brown: yeah. I think in the US a lot of it is being shown on USA network.
Mm-hmm. One of the NBC channels. So it may be there rather than on the main NBC channel, which is a whole other story.
Jill Jaracz: Right, right, right. Uh, feed beefs because we came home. Okay, so here’s, here’s beef again. Again. ’cause I really almost asked. Giovanni Mogo, like why did you, why did the Organiza Organizing Committee [00:14:00] have transportation and competition in two different silos?
Schedule wise, I didn’t, didn’t
Alison Brown: talk to each other
Jill Jaracz: and I didn’t want to go there necessarily. ’cause it wasn’t gonna, it just gonna, it wasn’t that kind of
Alison Brown: press
Jill Jaracz: conference. Yeah. It was gonna, and it was gonna make me look bad.
How we get to Cortina d’Ampezzo
We have to leave our hotel at on the seven 30 bus.
And that gets us up to Corina around 10 o’clock.
Alison Brown: Yes,
Jill Jaracz: ish. And then we have a little hike to get to the curling stadium. Not bad. It’s nice. It’s a nice little walk after you. Sad thing for three hours and, um. Then we are at curling now. Curling starts at 9 35 in
Alison Brown: the morning. Uh, today it started at 9 35. That will not always be the case.
Jill Jaracz: Oh, well that’s good.
Alison Brown: The, the schedule does change, not necessarily to our advantage, because then a lot of it goes to 7 35.
Jill Jaracz: In the morning,
Alison Brown: in the evening.
Jill Jaracz: Oh, well, no. Well there’s, there are evening matches that we just can’t go to because the last bus
Alison Brown: is
Jill Jaracz: at five for the evening is at, is at five 17 [00:15:00] and we get, the nice thing is we get home around 8:00 PM That’s great.
If we happen to miss it, there is. A midnight bus.
Alison Brown: We are not missing that five o’clock bus if it kills us.
Jill Jaracz: So yeah, you don’t wanna be on the midnight bus. Uh, just, I just don’t understand how you can go from five to midnight with nothing. You’ve got. Yeah. I mean, you would think some volunteers would need to go part of the way.
’cause we do make stops along the way.
Alison Brown: We do.
Jill Jaracz: Uh, to after the session’s over, but whatever. Um, that’s just how it goes. So we’ll see if there’s a, if it’s a three session day, we’ll get to see the middle one.
Alison Brown: Yes. Part of the first one, and then definitely the middle one. Um, we have discovered we cannot watch, we cannot get to an entire, uh, hockey match.
Jill Jaracz: True.
Alison Brown: Uh, you miss part of the early game. Well, you miss the entire early game. [00:16:00] You miss part of the second game and you have to leave before, like right when that second game is over. If it goes at all over, you’re missing the end of it. So honestly, I don’t even know if it’s worth trying. Oh,
Jill Jaracz: I’m trying. I’m
Alison Brown: trying.
Jill Jaracz: You’re gonna try. I’m trying. I’m trying. Um, we can get to snowboard. And Alpine skiing. Yes. Which is good. ’cause that is,
Alison Brown: and Alpine, just don’t get too excited about Alpine. ’cause we can only get to Alpine when they have a two run day.
Jill Jaracz: Right. Because we can’t get there early enough. Right. So why they’ve started that really early, I don’t know.
Unless there’s just snow issues with the sun, um, and then probably not getting to cross country or. Biathlon, right. Um, just ’cause that’s in a totally different place and it starts early in the morning as well. And of course you cannot get there until probably like 11 o’clock and then you get, I guess, maybe an hour’s worth of racing.
So this is gonna be another [00:17:00] games of frustration. We’ll see. And I don’t want games of frustration 2030, even though it sounds like it’s going that way.
A potential workaround for your feed beefs
Alison Brown: Right. So feed beefs, we’re gonna say. We were struggling to find where to watch anything on the TV and on feeds because originally during the Olympics we were given the uh, HBO pass that had all of the broadcast here in Europe.
So we could watch any sport, any feed, no problem. We have nothing. So it’s just what’s available. So it seems like the Paralympic YouTube channel does have a good number of feeds that we are not geoblock from. We found the commercial station, which of course is an Italian, so we only can get
Jill Jaracz: Italy
Alison Brown: so much out of it.
You know, we get Italy showing and more importantly, we don’t get the, the broadcasters explaining. Yeah, anything to us, which can be helpful with, with athletes [00:18:00] we don’t know very well, so we found some broadcast.
Jill Jaracz: So yes, if check YouTube, Paralympic Games channel, if you’re lacking in some stuff, they, they might have it, but they did have four sheets of curling tonight, so that was nice.
Alison Brown: Yeah, the ca, when we went to curling today, there are cameras on every sheet. So
Jill Jaracz: can you find their output? Can you find their output?
Alison Brown: Exactly.
Another curling scandal at Milano Cortina 2026
Jill Jaracz: Alright, well, so there’s been some hullabaloo about curling.
Alison Brown: I know you found this last night
Jill Jaracz: where, uh, two curling stones were stolen. And we have no news on this.
Alison Brown: We have no updates on this. Uh, Devin Harrow from the CBC was reporting on this, and he has not followed up as yet. Doesn’t mean we won’t hear something soon,
Jill Jaracz: but the, the stones have been replaced, but it is, uh, wild how you can get to like 45 pound stone. Out of there with [00:19:00] nobody seeing you and who would want them?
Right? I mean, just the shipping alone.
Alison Brown: I mean, it’s gotta be a local who’s gonna slide it down his ice track?
Jill Jaracz: Yeah, maybe. Maybe. Or just wants it for a doorstopper or something. Some prank. Some prank. But okay. So we’re not gonna be all beefy. We did go out to Cortina. We did partake in some cultural stuff.
Alison Brown: We did.
What’s Cortina like?
We got to Cortina, we took the bus. It was long, but not as. Rough as I thought it was gonna be. The only problem I had this morning. I was getting a little nauseous in the mountain, but that’s only ’cause he had the heat up too high. I had no problem on the bus ride home on that same mountain.
Jill Jaracz: Okay. Okay.
Alison Brown: So we have to be aware if the bus is hot to ask him to make it not so hot.
I’ll have to figure out how to say that in Italian. No, caldo.
Jill Jaracz: Um, the, the day this morning was really gray and hazy here in, in Venice, and it was like, Ugh, what’s it gonna be [00:20:00] like up there? And then at one point you went through a tunnel and you came out and there were mountains there, and then the sky got clearer and it was just, it was, it’s really beautiful.
Up in Cortina. So, uh, the, it
Alison Brown: really felt like Lake Placid, didn’t it? It had that same small mountain town feel to
Jill Jaracz: it? Yes, except European. European and bigger mountains. Yes. Much bigger mountains. Bigger and more stately, but just
Alison Brown: that same kind of field where we had one main drag
Jill Jaracz: Yes.
Alison Brown: With everything on it and, and the bell tower.
And everyone was kind of walking around though we did almost get run over by many a car because the, there aren’t a lot of sidewalks.
Jill Jaracz: Not a lot of sidewalks. A lot of construction.
Alison Brown: Yes.
Jill Jaracz: Which is killing me because it’s like, oh, it looks like you’re building a hotel. Didn’t you realize that the game seven years ago, that the games were coming and this won’t be done until next year.
Come on. Um, but there, and I wonder if some of it is [00:21:00] traffic’s getting shuttled around. Mm-hmm. Or if traffic’s really that heavy. There are a lot of buses and, uh, that’s, that’s fun to, to get around as well as construction vehicles going all over the place. Um, but there is that. Really nice Main street, pedestrian zone, fancy shops.
So you got your Prada and your Dior and your Todd’s and all, and all these Armani is there of course, uh, as you will in the fancy ski village, but it does feel super. Winter sports.
Alison Brown: Yes. Super. And did feel cozy. And I could see during the snowstorms of, of a few, a couple weeks ago when it was where we couldn’t get anywhere because of the snow, but Cortina was covered in snow.
How incredibly beautiful that that must been been
Jill Jaracz: so much fun. But it is, if you’re imagining what a games is like for the winter. Yeah. This court team, it, this is it. [00:22:00] Um. Uh, we did. Okay, so you get off the bus by an info point, which they did. They, the nice thing is they had, uh, they have a tourist information shop front, but they also had two stands at least outside, and so they pointed us in the right direction.
Signage Okay. Not
Alison Brown: bad.
Jill Jaracz: There’s pillars that have signage and they, she, the, we were just told curling stadium, just go straight and they were
Alison Brown: right.
Jill Jaracz: That’s, that was great.
Accesso denied adventure
And then we get into the curling stadium.
Alison Brown: Well, no, we got into the, we got onto the curling stadium grounds.
Jill Jaracz: Yes. And we’re into the, uh, accredited entrance.
Yes. And you have to, uh, you know, you get your bag checked and you get wandered, and you also get your accreditation scanned. Well, you got in,
Alison Brown: I got in
Jill Jaracz: and my accreditation was SO denied. And I went, what? [00:23:00] Because it’s accredited.
Alison Brown: I mean the,
Jill Jaracz: it’s
Alison Brown: real. It’s not a big
Jill Jaracz: phaco. Yeah, exactly. It’s not
Alison Brown: a Chinese fake.
Jill Jaracz: It’s not a Chinese fake, like everything in Venice. Uh, so the, the guy told me in his. Good for you for knowing more English than I know Italian. Uh, he’s like, it’s okay. You gotta go back the way you came basically. And it’s like the second right. And I, and he told me what hotel the accreditation place was at, which I immediately messed up and I forgot that I had, at the time.
I forgot that I have a bag full of maps. From the info point. I should have pulled one out and said, where? Or write this name down for me.
Alison Brown: Yes.
Jill Jaracz: So I start walking and, and I’m walking. I can’t figure out which is the second right. ’cause there’s all these little kind of side streets
Alison Brown: and driveways.
Jill Jaracz: Driveways, yes.
Alison Brown: That sort of look like streets. Yes. Yes. The streets are quite small and a cob and cobblestone. So how do you tell a cobblestone [00:24:00] driveway from a cobblestone street?
Jill Jaracz: Right. So I end up at the info point desk ’cause I thought, oh, I remember that info point. Stair storefront, I will just go there. And so I found the info point outside desk and said, where am I going?
And I pulled up my map and they said, okay, this is the hotel. And the reason why I missed it was because the big tall pillar that told you where to go had the. Accreditation center on the opposite side.
Alison Brown: Oh.
Jill Jaracz: So when I was going back, they didn’t tell me accreditation this way, but if I was Oh, you
Alison Brown: had to look on the other side of the pillar?
Yes. And you would’ve seen it.
Jill Jaracz: Yes. Like you of course. Like you.
Alison Brown: Well, you weren’t gone long.
Jill Jaracz: No, but then on my way back, as you pointed out, the big blue dome. Tent? Yes. Well that’s a medical tent. That’s like medical education and Oh, stuff like that. So, uh, the lady who was manning, it was some kind of local or [00:25:00] regional government, uh, healthcare kind of stuff, and they were doing blood pressure checks.
Alison Brown: Did you get your blood pressure done
Jill Jaracz: while you were walking? There is nothing more than I love than a blood pressure check because. It is the one good thing about my body. I have,
Alison Brown: you always have a good healthy blood pressure.
Jill Jaracz: I have amazing blood pressure, like 100 over 60. It’s fantastic.
Alison Brown: And honestly, I’d be surprised given the stressful nature of this, this little side quest.
Jill Jaracz: Well, well, okay, so we have a few things working against me. I’ve been walking and I’m hoofing it. Two, I don’t know what I’m doing. Three. I’m excited that blood pressure checks are coming because this is a thing in our house. ’cause I will say Producer Ben. Does not have as good blood pressure as I do. And it is the one thing, he’s faster than me.
He can reach taller than I can. He can, he can do a lot more things than, than this little body can.
Alison Brown: But he [00:26:00] can’t get one 10 over 70.
Jill Jaracz: No, he can’t. Uh, so I’m very excited to prove my Italian blood, blood, blood pressure in Ital in Italy. And I, I also have to go to the bathroom pretty badly and that will affect your blood pressure as well.
So I, as she’s, you know, I’m taking my sweater out of my arm, outta my sweater so she can get a more accurate reading and like, Hey, can I have video this? And she’s like, okay. Yeah. So I’m, my arm’s out. I’m getting pumped up. I’m taking a video. 1 47 over 85 and I went, no, this is never like this. But I did have like, I would have sat and I also didn’t sit like, you should sit for five minutes.
Oh, you should sit. I like sat down and immediately we went into blood pressure mode. So there was a lot of stuff going up against me and I said, how long are you here today? Because now I’m upset, said my blood
Alison Brown: pressure was not good.
Jill Jaracz: She said, two o’clock. And I [00:27:00] said, well, if you’re back. Other days I will be here and every time we go past that tent and there’s blood pressure to be checked, I will be checking my blood pressure.
’cause at some point it will be back to what I call normal. I will impress the Italians, but I did get marked down on the sheet ’cause she has the tally of all the blood pressures she’s taking.
Alison Brown: I think I got in the bad side. I think you did.
Jill Jaracz: So then I,
Alison Brown: no bueno,
Jill Jaracz: but it was a lot of fun and. As much fun as, it’s so
Alison Brown: much fun getting your blood pressure
Jill Jaracz: taken.
I know this is so, it’s not, it’s, it’s really not weird people. Not weird about our blood pressure obsession. Maybe you should try it. Go to CVS
Alison Brown: and try the little auto
Jill Jaracz: cuff. Not as accurate, but also good. That’s also a fun talk.[00:28:00]
This is what happens when we’re on a bus for six hours a day. Okay, so, so then I did find the venue accreditation center.
Alison Brown: Yes.
Jill Jaracz: And of course, because the signage told me to go there and I’m trading pins along the way. You did
Alison Brown: a lot of good pin trading. Today’s
Jill Jaracz: Yes, a
Alison Brown: great day. I was unprepared for such things,
Jill Jaracz: such a great day for penetrating and uh, got my.
Accreditation, bing, bam, boom, go back in and, uh, to the curling stadium, to the accredited entrance. The guy wands me. They check my bag and the guy to check my id, my my accreditation scan it, not hanging around. So I just walked in.
I never got scanned in. And the first time when it was like, I got my bag checked first and I’m like, I should just walk in. And then I was like, no, you should probably scan just in case. And that’s when I found excessive denied. And then I got [00:29:00] angry. ’cause then I had to deal with it, but then I realized I would just get denied someplace else.
Exactly. So
Alison Brown: at least Right. And this was a convenient time ’cause we were not under time pressure. We were not, it’s not like the opening ceremonies. And we took the, the whole train over to Verona. Yes. And you couldn’t get in.
Jill Jaracz: Yes. Um, so, uh, yeah, that was a, a fun. Time.
Where’s the press tribune?
And then the next fun bit was trying to find the Press Tribune, because you say Media center to any volunteer or Press Tribune to any volunteer, and they look at you like, what two, you know, horns do you have on your head?
Alison Brown: So I walked. The entire breadth and depth of the building. I walked all the way around. On
Jill Jaracz: the outside or the inside?
Alison Brown: On the outside.
Jill Jaracz: Okay.
Alison Brown: Trying to find my door.
Jill Jaracz: Mm-hmm.
Alison Brown: We’re back to, we can’t find the door. I ended up going through an emergency door ’cause some guys were waving at me and all they were waving at me to do was close the door, but.
I said, I’m gonna take advantage. I’m like, where do I go? He says, go out into the left. And I said, they just told me to go out into the right. So finally [00:30:00] I found a door that was the spectator entrance and I just said, RESO. And he says, yeah. So he just let me in and then I figured out where I was supposed to sit, and then I sat in the wrong place.
I sat in the broadcast area and some other reporter came over and said, who are you with? I said, they told me to sit here. It was okay. No, it was not. Okay. Wow. So I got into the right spot.
Jill Jaracz: Wow. Well, I saw you in there once I got, well, when I started looking at the, the different entrances, because of course media entrance, not anywhere, but I did see the little, uh, letters on the.
The signage and I thought, oh, I look for E. That’s me because I saw an E on one of the things and they’re like this way. And then I saw the next sign and there was no E anymore. And I went, well, I’m not going up there ’cause that’s just gonna take me [00:31:00] someplace else. So I did finally go in. And just random inference and nobody’s there.
So you just walk in and, uh, I’m wandering around and then I see like pictures from 1956 on the wall. Yes. And getting, you know, caught up in that magic and, uh. Then I see you sitting in the table, press seats at the end of a curling sheet, and I walk around there and I couldn’t figure out how you got in.
So I walked all the way around again and then got stuck and then it was like, well, you gotta go to the bathroom. So I figured out how to. Go to the bathroom and, uh, it sounds worse than it is.
Alison Brown: You found the bathroom
Jill Jaracz: easier, easier than you found. The Press Tribune, I found like the third bathroom because what it is, is it’s just toilets and you, you go in the door and there’s one stall for men and one stall for women, and sometimes they’re accessible and you think that there’s no sink, but there’s not necessarily [00:32:00] a shared sink.
There’s a sink in your stall. At least that’s
Alison Brown: better than what I did.
Jill Jaracz: What? Oh, when? Before we left. When you went outside or?
Alison Brown: Yeah, I went in the men’s room.
Jill Jaracz: Oh,
Alison Brown: again,
Jill Jaracz: I saw that because How big was your stall?
Alison Brown: It was not big enough for me and my bag.
Jill Jaracz: Yeah. Okay. So I had the same thing and I, I will post a picture because there was, uh, again, we had the signs with the lady with her crossed legs and the man with his crossed legs and then the wheelchair with speedy lines off the back,
Alison Brown: like racing to get to the bathroom.
Yeah.
Jill Jaracz: Racing to
Alison Brown: get the bathroom. Yeah. I went, I went into the men’s room and there was a man.
Jill Jaracz: Oh,
Alison Brown: okay. In there. When I came out and I said, oh dear, have I gone in the man’s room, the men’s room? And he says, don’t worry, we’re all friends here. And I said, that’s what I keep telling them that I’m friends with Eric Hayden.
He would let me use the men’s room.[00:33:00]
Jill Jaracz: So yeah. Um, but then like,
Alison Brown: but we did actually get to watch
Jill Jaracz: Curly, which was lovely. Yeah. So I ended up just saying. Screw it. ’cause I, I gotta watch some curling at some point. So I went in and just sat in non tabled seating, which was also basically spectator seats too. And I ended up sitting next to, uh, Laura Dwyer’s family, who is our Shukla, Steve t.
We have interviewed him several times. He’s part of Team Keith, the Flame Alive, and uh, his partner for mixed doubles is Laura Dwyer. So I sat with her family and had a lovely time.
Alison Brown: You were just chatting it up
Jill Jaracz: over there. I was, I was, it was great. Maybe I’ll find out by the end of this Paralympics how to get into the table seating.
So, yes. And then it was a, an adventure to find the mix zone, which is you go outside and down some ramps,
Alison Brown: but
Jill Jaracz: we
Alison Brown: did.
Jill Jaracz: Yes, we did. And an adventure to find the media center, which is [00:34:00] outside again as well,
Alison Brown: the enhanced media center. But we managed,
Jill Jaracz: yes,
Alison Brown: we actually, considering this has really been the first venue that we’ve been to in Milan, where we’ve really struggled to find things.
Jill Jaracz: That’s very true. So.
Alison Brown: We will do better next time. ’cause we’ll be back there.
Jill Jaracz: True.
Alison Brown: We still don’t know where the door is.
Jill Jaracz: That’s
Alison Brown: okay. But we’re just gonna go with Ingreso wherever they let us in.
Jill Jaracz: Yeah.
Alison Brown: And I will show you where the tabled seating is. Okay. ’cause it is hidden behind the boxes.
Jill Jaracz: Okay.
Alison Brown: I only found it because Louis showed.
Jill Jaracz: Okay.
Alison Brown: And he pointed and he kept pointing and I just kept saying, I don’t see it. And so then he walked over and I, and I just said, well, I just went in the men’s room, so you can tell how intelligent I am.
Jill Jaracz: So yes. And then. We were told how to get to Tatani, which is the downhill and Paris snowboarding. And so
Alison Brown: we are hopeful.
Jill Jaracz: We are hopeful [00:35:00] because somebody pointed us and, and we were like, and I started writing it down and he’s like, you don’t have to write it down. Like, I will forget this in like two minutes. So that is the, it’s a bus from the curling center area. Should be a quick ride there. And the bus always goes, so don’t worry.
We’re
Alison Brown: we’re hopeful.
Jill Jaracz: So that is gonna be Saturday’s adventure.
Alison Brown: Okay.
Jill Jaracz: At least for me.
Alison Brown: Okay. Because I know Saturday I don’t think is actual medals.
Jill Jaracz: I don’t care.
Alison Brown: You don’t
Jill Jaracz: care. It’s, it’s on the schedule.
Alison Brown: Okay. Then we’ll, we’ll get a shot. It’s
Jill Jaracz: on the
Alison Brown: schedule. I’m, I am not. I learned my lesson in Beijing. Do not go to the mountains by yourself.
Oh, okay. Because you may not survive. Alright. And I still thank God for the, the Swedish photographer and those nice two volunteers and, and the French Forward team that got me home because without them I think I still might be there. So whether you like it or not, Jill, where you go. I go, [00:36:00]
The Cortina official store and The Peak experience
Jill Jaracz: alright. Well, where also we went was the mega store.
Well, it’s not a mega store, it’s just store, mini store. It’s a mini, it’s a mini store in Cortina. The town there is a store at the curling venue, which did not get to go into yet. We’ll get there. The, the little store in Cortina was disappointing.
Alison Brown: Oh, I didn’t think it was disappointing. It didn’t have anything different.
Jill Jaracz: Didn’t have anything different. But more importantly, it doesn’t have any mascots. Yeah, because they are sold out. And I think that’s a horrible thing that agree that you did not plan and you had the para you sold outta your mascots before the Paralympics begin. And maybe you enjoy having that success, but you also have told all of the people who come in for the Paralympics that they don’t get a mascot.
Alison Brown: Yeah, that’s not cool.
Jill Jaracz: Especially their mascot. So not thrilled about that. Hopefully a shipment comes soon. Um, we also found the fan zone.
Alison Brown: We found another peak Coke experience, so now we have. [00:37:00] Two etched cans with our faces on ’em. Exactly. So we each have two. So we actually have four. But I gotta say I don’t look very good in my etched cans, so I may drink it.
I, I, I look a little. Scratchy. Let’s just,
and not in a good way. Mm.
Jill Jaracz: So, yeah, no line. So that was great. And they talked to us in Italian because my chow was so good. They thought I spoke Italian. So I’ve, I’ve crossed the, I have a good hello line that is important. It gets me in trouble every time. Um, so the, we saw the cauldron as well, and the countdown clock, which flips back and forth between Olympics and Paralympics.
So that was a little freaky when all of a sudden it went to zero and then you notice the rings and went, oh, okay.
Alison Brown: It’s just the countdown for the Olympics is over, but it’ll flip back. I, I guess they didn’t have that [00:38:00] quite setting right. They needed to reset their clock.
Jill Jaracz: Yes. And, um, the, the cauldron is just kind of on.
A stand, I guess a tripod. It’s like a tripod type
Alison Brown: thing. It’s very close. Well, it’s right outside the big church in Cortina, so it’s in the main square. Makes sense where it is. Mm-hmm. But it is very up close and personal, which I guess is really nice because the, the one in Milan is so far away from anybody.
You know, it’s in the, the Ade Apache, and you can’t get that close to it. Whereas this one you can get extraordinarily close.
Jill Jaracz: Yes. Except for the polizia. And, and the Cary
Alison Brown: will probably scold you, but they didn’t. We got very close and there, and there was plenty of Cary and they didn’t, they didn’t have work for us.
But you weren’t like
Jill Jaracz: touching it.
Alison Brown: No, I wasn’t gonna go touch it. I wasn’t gonna go stroke the cadre.
Jill Jaracz: I dare you. I dare you.
Alison Brown: No, because then I will get in trouble and they’ll
Jill Jaracz: [00:39:00] rest me and that’ll be a problem. Alright, so the cauldron will not be lit till tomorrow morning, but we, uh, keep the flame alive are already here.
Keep our flame alive
And it requires financial fuel to keep our flame alive and keep the show going. If you go to flame Alive pod.com/support, there are a variety of options available. If you appreciate the independent voice we bring, please consider supporting us today. That is flame alive pod.com/support, and we’d like to give a big shout out.
And thank you to everyone who donated to our Milano Cortina fundraiser to get us here. And uh, also to our Patreon patrons who keep our flame alive going all year round. And, uh, more bonus contents on your way. Because you know what I can do on a three hour bus ride?
Alison Brown: You can edit video,
Jill Jaracz: I can edit video and post pictures.
So watch out patrons. Stuff’s coming your way.
Day -1 Results: Wheelchair curling
Alright, we do have results today.
Alison Brown: Yes, it was all mixed doubles curling. That’s all we’ve got going until Saturday [00:40:00] actually. Then everything kicks into high gear. So for the next couple days we’ll just be talking about mixed doubles curling. So first, uh, Chana.
Chana, is that a new country that I just made up?
Jill Jaracz: Maybe, maybe
Alison Brown: China beat Latvia. 10 to two and seven ends and China had two three point ends. And that was just it for them.
Jill Jaracz: Wow.
Alison Brown: Um, Estonia beat Italy six to five. And this I loved because Estonia’s, uh, Kaitlyn Riback said she listens to podcasts to keep her calm. And to manage her emotions.
Jill Jaracz: Oh, we should find her in the next zone.
Say, how about listening to this part? We heard
Alison Brown: guys,
Jill Jaracz: we heard you like podcasts. Here you go.
Alison Brown: Here you go sweetie pie. Um, Japan unfortunately beat the US seven to five and it originally, so this was the match that I was watching when we were there. ’cause I, I. Sometimes you can watch multiple sheets. I can’t, I gotta watch one sheet at a time.[00:41:00]
Um, and Steve and Laura were down six to one, and then they had a four point end and they were right back in it, but Japan hung on, uh, to beat them seven, five. But Steve is Steve and Laura’s a talker, so they, they are quite a pair. I was, I was enjoying them.
Jill Jaracz: So that, that was their first match of the day.
Alison Brown: Yes.
Jill Jaracz: Came
Alison Brown: back later
Jill Jaracz: on.
Alison Brown: Yes. We’ll, we’ll go back to that one. This was the, the wild match of the day. Korea, who you mentioned yesterday, is the world number one. Yeah. They beat Great Britain. 14 to three in seven end. Wow. It’s like a football score that’s not a curling score. And then we have the evening matches where the US did beat Estonia, eight to four and seven ends.
So you noticed something about Yes. One of the rocks
Jill Jaracz: right at the, the last rock that Estonia threw, um, it like wiggled on the ice, like bobbled up and down a little [00:42:00] bit. So, so the force that came off the, um. Stick almost made it bounce kind of thing. So it totally, one end would come off of the ice and it just, that really messed up.
Once it settled down, it, it, it slid. But, uh, boy, it was, it was a tough way to end. But they, they, uh, they had to concede ’cause they weren’t gonna win us wins. Eight, four. Um, one thing Steve said, like we noticed. You can see this much more in person, how the ice is just different all the time. That’s one thing we talked to Steven Lore about afterwards ’cause you’re constantly watching the ice and we see stuff slide over the second hog line and you could see this better on the side than you can from the table seats where it almost seems like it’s sped up once.
It crossed that hog line and the ice was just a little bit different, right? Like uh, a wheelchair curling is so much more difficult. Because you only have control with that stick
Alison Brown: you
Jill Jaracz: And
Alison Brown: there’s [00:43:00] no sweeping, yeah. There’s no adjustments at the other end. It’s, you shoot it and that’s it. Yeah. Good luck to you.
Jill Jaracz: Yeah, exactly. And it’s amazing how accurate these throws are. Uh, and we saw on TV tonight, the Italians in China were on and uh, they had to go in and do an extra end. There were some shots. Oh, we heard Alii Mo.
And I do love watching the Italian TV ’cause it’s like the French. They’re like, thank you, thank you
Alison Brown: all the day. They get very excited though. Unfortunately the Chinese beat the Italians eight to seven. Yeah, that was a tough one. But they, as you said, needed an extra end. The Koreans also had a lot of fun in the evening and beat the Japanese nine to zero.
Jill Jaracz: Wow.
Alison Brown: Yeah. And, and this I thought was really funny on one of the flash coats, uh, quotes, Lee, uh, young Souk has said that she was struggling with sleep, um, since she’s been in Cortina. But, you know, once, once she, uh, uh, caught up this [00:44:00] morning, she was fine.
Jill Jaracz: That’s
Alison Brown: funny is jet
Jill Jaracz: lag. Yeah.
Alison Brown: Yeah. But you know, I’m thinking, well you beat Great Britain, 14 to three and then Japan, nine to zero.
I think your sleep is good.
Jill Jaracz: It’s incredible. Incredible. And
Alison Brown: then last match was Great Britain, uh, beat Latvia six to five.
Jill Jaracz: Very nice, very nice. So it’s a good tournament so far. It’s a lot of fun to watch it. You know, we talked about the Chinese curlers who yell at the stones and tell them to move. Uh. In person.
It got annoying on tv. It got, it was quite endearing. I
Alison Brown: thought, oh, on tv, I thought it got quite annoying.
I said, no, we’re not having the yelling at the stones again. What do you think they’re gonna do? Do you think you’re breathing on them will help?
Jill Jaracz: Maybe. Maybe, maybe.
Alison Brown: Maybe it’s mental, like they have lasers coming out of their eyes. Just like the Canadian n touched it with his [00:45:00] finger. They’re just touching with their breath.
Or not. Maybe not.
Jill Jaracz: Anyway, we’ve got some shout outs.
Alison Brown: Yes. So starting with Peter Lineman from Leipzig, Germany, uh, his message was, let’s go Germany, keeping our fingers crossed,
Jill Jaracz: and that as Peter, you know, we’re going paralympians, we went Olympians for our, our show shoutouts, uh, for the first round in the Olympics.
Looking for Olympians. There’s probably gonna be a lot of first names. Just warning you. Shout outs. Uh, this is like Peter Zako, who is a wheelchair curlier from Slovakia, who is on the mixed team for Slovakia. This is his third Paralympics, finished ninth and 2018 and fourth in Beijing, and he is the fourth one on the team.
So if you watch P, that’s your buddy. Uh. Second up.
Alison Brown: Second up is our sh Ani, Sean Callahan from Norwood, Massachusetts,
Jill Jaracz: uh, like Sean O’Neill from, who is on Team USA’s wi [00:46:00] wheelchair curling team, mixed team. Sean was born in Worcester, mass.
Alison Brown: Oh.
Jill Jaracz: And he currently lives in Forestdale Mass. And he curls at the Cape Cod Curling Club.
And he is a lawyer in Boston.
Alison Brown: You think he should, he rooted for Tommy.
Jill Jaracz: Of course he rooted for Tommy. Who doesn’t root for Tommy?
Alison Brown: I know. And last up, save us from ourselves, pat Noon from College Park, Maryland. And she always listens on her morning walks and often laughs out loud at your stories. Keep the magical hour of vacuuming alive.
We, which, you know, we’re not gonna have too many magical hours, but we may have a magical train hour tomorrow. Yes. Hopefully not.
Jill Jaracz: Well, we’ll see. Um, I did, there are vacuums here in the hotel where we’re staying at. I have noticed them immediately. So it always makes me very happy when I’m around a vacuum.
Um, so that it, pat, I first found Patricia Waltz from New Zealand, but she goes by [00:47:00] Trish. So she was out and then I found Brazilian, Patricia Perra, dos Santos, who was a swimmer, but then she had a doping violation and that’s out. That’s out. And so we’re going with Patricia AKIs from Switzerland who does long ch long distance wheelchair racing and competed at London 2012, Tokyo 2020, and Paris 2024.
Her hobby is visiting medieval markets.
Alison Brown: I didn’t know medieval markets were a thing that you could visit.
Jill Jaracz: Oh, I guess so. Maybe it’s like going to a renaissance Fair.
Alison Brown: Okay. ’cause I would like to go to some medieval markets.
Jill Jaracz: Alright. Get yourself a, a suit of armor. Some chain mail,
Alison Brown: just a sword would be nice.
All right. I’m friends with fencers.
Jill Jaracz: You could go across the island. Remember we went by the sword
Alison Brown: booth? We did. We did go by the sword booth, but they were Chinese fakes, so we don’t want that.
Jill Jaracz: Alright, and we have a mascot today.
Alison Brown: Yes. So for the length of the games listener, Charlotte has shared the beautiful Abby Kat with Jill.
So she is her bascott for the [00:48:00] games.
Jill Jaracz: That is gonna do it for this episode. If you want even more of the most fun coverage of the, of the Paralympics hit us up. We are@flamealivepod.com. You can get our socials and newsletter and direct ways to contact us there. Join our Facebook group, uh, keep the Flame Alive podcast.
That is where we are posting things first and where we are chatting people with people. So if, if you want to. Be in on stuff. It goes first there. So be part of our group. It’s a lot of fun, a lot of fun people Hang out there and be sure to tune in tomorrow for what we forgot to tell you about today, although I think
Alison Brown: that’s what you say every
Jill Jaracz: day.
I know, I know. I think I feel pretty good about today. Uh, never know. You never know. Alright, gra
Alison Brown: and until next time, chow And keep the flame alive.