It’s Day 10 of the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympics! Curious about those On Location Olympic hospitality packages? We experience one of the suites at the figure skating pairs final competition and have the details! Plus, Jill has a spa experience and discovers that much like our Friends of Eric Heiden Club, there’s a FAB club for friends of Alison Brown.
Sports on today’s program:
- Alpine skiing
- Bobsled
- Curling
- Figure skating
- Freestyle skiing
- Ice hockey
- Ski jumping
- Short track speed skating
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Thanks so much for listening, and until next time, keep the flame alive!
TRANSCRIPT
Note: This is an uncorrected machine-generated transcript and may contain errors. Please check its accuracy against the audio. Do not quote from the transcript; use the audio as the record of note.
Milano Cortina 2026 Olympics: Day 10
Jill Jaracz: [00:00:00] Puo and welcome to Keep the Flame Alive. Day 10 coverage of the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games. I am your host at Jill Jaracz, coming to you from Shook Stanhouse. Joined as always by my lovely co-host, Alison Brown. Alison Chao, Como I, I feel
Alison Brown: very pampered.
Jill Jaracz: Oh, you do? Oh, that’s good.
Alison Brown: I feel like I’ve been treated like a very special VIP
Jill Jaracz: and we have, so we will get to that story in a little bit.
it’s been another good day here in Milano. but I [00:01:00] do have a ton of stuff. I forgot.
Alison Brown: I know. I’m sorry.
Jill Jaracz: That’s okay I forgot to mention that I saw on the Metro news ’cause some stations have news TV screens. Italy is paying some of the most money for, uh, metal bonuses.
Alison Brown: Nice.
Jill Jaracz: They are getting, uh, 180,000 euros for. 90,000 for silver and 60,000 for bronze.
Alison Brown: That’s not bad.
Jill Jaracz: Not bad at all. And uh, they believe that the games will have a 6.1 billion impact on the economy, billion euros.
And I think at least point, one of that is the change in prices at the mega store.
Alison Brown: So nothing in the mega store has a price on it.
Jill Jaracz: Well, actually the mega store is, I don’t, there are people that just put prices on stuff. That’s all they’re doing. But like a lot of other stores don’t.
Alison Brown: Do not. And you don’t know what something costs and you bring it up to the register to ask.
It is the strangest environment for a capitalist country. [00:02:00]
Jill Jaracz: You
Alison Brown: know, I’m, it works
Jill Jaracz: for them because
Alison Brown: it works for them. ’cause they keep changing the prices of things based on demand, which I guess is the right way to do things in a capitalist society. But we’re so used to, oh, I know what this cost, I don’t have to ask anybody, but I’m wondering if they’re actually losing some sales because people don’t know what the items cost.
Jill Jaracz: Right. And it’s so crowded in a lot of places a lot of the time that you’re just like, well, I don’t know, so I’m just gonna move on. Um, also forgot to mention, I went to my little tiramisu stand the other day
Alison Brown: and the tiramisu allegedly at the village is the hit. It’s the chocolate muffin.
Jill Jaracz: Oh, well that’s good.
Alison Brown: Of, of the games.
Jill Jaracz: This was kind of a, I don’t know if it’s chain or not, but it, it felt like, like the Auntie Anns of pretzels. Or Cinnabon of, of tiramisu. But it came a little tiny box. So it was a, a nice size portion and it came in different flavors other than tiramisu. So I had a salted caramel one.
Alison Brown: Well then that’s not [00:03:00] tiramisu.
Jill Jaracz: Says you.
Alison Brown: Yes. That salted caramel dessert,
Jill Jaracz: um, I mentioned on Facebook about an NBC commentator. It, it was weird because at speed skating. All of a sudden I hear this NBC voice that I recognize. I don’t know who’s doing commentary. It’s not Joy Sheik. It’s the main guy, and loud is a bell over me. I’m like, where did he come from?
And I heard, oh, she’s definitely getting a medal. It’s just what color? And I thought he mentioned Aaron. Jackson who had yet to skate, and so that’s why I asked it on the Facebook group and they said no, he was talking about Utah.
Alison Brown: Oh,
Jill Jaracz: okay. Same with producer. Ben went and did some legwork for me, so
Alison Brown: Oh, okay.
Good.
Jill Jaracz: I was a little freaked out that NBC was doing something weird. Um, I know there’s Feed Beast going on on the Facebook group, so if you’re, if you’re not having a good time with your feeds, you’ve got some, some people to [00:04:00] commiserate with.
Alison Brown: Right. The big one being one that we have complained about for the past.
Three or four how long, however long we’ve been doing this show, however many Olympics it is, is the breaks in the feed make no sense. They’re put in at set time codes, not a natural break in the, in the competition. So for example, you’ll have a break in the middle of a race,
Jill Jaracz: which is so frustrating.
Alison Brown: Yeah,
Jill Jaracz: and I, I hope, I mean, I would put that on priority to figure out.
It’s.
Alison Brown: I cannot believe it is that difficult, but apparently it is to fix just not a priority for them to fix it.
Jill Jaracz: Yeah, because they gotta put in in the ads and doing it automatically makes life so much easier. But I mean, you’re turning off, if you turn away viewers enough, that’s not good.
Alison Brown: Very true.
Jill Jaracz: Uh, we have a little bit of follow up file.
Alison Brown: Yes. So you mentioned the man in the Matador costume.
Jill Jaracz: Yes.
Alison Brown: [00:05:00] Yesterday at, uh, figure Skating. Turns out it was Ice Dancer Tim Diek, who was there to support his girlfriend, Italian skater Sarah Conti, who skated a Spanish themed program. And also Tim, uh, represents Spain.
Jill Jaracz: Oh, okay. Nice.
Alison Brown: Himself. So it all came together.
Jill Jaracz: Very nice. Maybe just you have that in your costume, or not in your costume. You have it in your closet.
Alison Brown: He might, you know, Tim Diac and I rode the elevator together. Oh, at the,
Jill Jaracz: oh wait, you didn’t mention this?
Alison Brown: Well, not now.
Jill Jaracz: Oh.
Alison Brown: Back at Worlds.
Jill Jaracz: Oh, okay.
Alison Brown: Last year when I was at the World Figure Skating Championship and he was very charming, sitting on his little roller suitcase rolling around the elevator.
Jill Jaracz: I remember
Alison Brown: that. Can see him just whipping out the Matador costume. Right.
Jill Jaracz: Um, yesterday, great Britain won some gold medals and a listener Patrick from Chicagoland mentioned that Great Britain has never had a multiple Olympic gold medalists at a single winter Olympics. Now they have three.
Alison Brown: [00:06:00] Wow.
Jill Jaracz: But it’s not yet their best overall finish because they got five medals in 2014.
Alison Brown: Okay, here we go. Gb, let’s go.
Jill Jaracz: Thank you Patrick for that. Fun, fun fact. What officiating or volunteer job would you wanna do?
Alison Brown: I wanna be Tina.
Jill Jaracz: Oh, well, hey,
Alison Brown: I might be a little short though.
Jill Jaracz: You know, it might not matter because she could be, you know that that head actual could be low and she’s just tall and sticks above you.
Alison Brown: I can bounce ’cause Tina seems to just be bouncing and flopping her arms. I could handle that. I can jump up and down in my floppy feet.
Jill Jaracz: Wait now, but, but you are a delicate flower.
Alison Brown: Well, that’s only when it comes to stairs.
Jill Jaracz: Oh, okay.
Alison Brown: Stairs are what seem stairs and hills. Well, no, let’s explain. You wanted me to climb down a muddy rocky hill that I have done once.
And I didn’t make it. I almost didn’t make it out alive. I thought I was gonna turn an [00:07:00] ankle and what would happen if I turned an ankle and I was stranded here at Shook Stein house? You would have to help me bring that suitcase to the airport. And you don’t wanna do that. That suitcase is heavy.
Jill Jaracz: It’s on wheel.
You could roll it, you could ride it like Tim Diac. I mean, it’s your own personal, you know, just stick your leg up on the back and ride it like one of those, uh, those, uh, boot trolley things.
Alison Brown: Fair enough. But still, I am only a delicate flower. When you insist on going down the mud hill,
Jill Jaracz: which is a, uh, a speed skate track, short track slash figure skating situation,
Alison Brown: it’s one of the escape routes to the train station.
But I, I would like to be Tina.
Jill Jaracz: Alright, um, I, we were at figure skating and we had a different angle tonight than from the Media Tribune and by golly I saw those Omega timekeeper jackets and I want one.
Alison Brown: There’s so often where I wish I worked for Omega just to get their cool swag
Jill Jaracz: [00:08:00] right and it keeping time would be good too.
But they do look sharp.
Alison Brown: They do always look just. On time for everything.
Jill Jaracz: Yes.
Alison Brown: Can you imagine though if you worked your Omega, you could never be late for anything ’cause people would make fun of you re relentlessly
Jill Jaracz: Probably.
Alison Brown: That must be hard,
Jill Jaracz: huh?
Alison Brown: And you. Oh. And people are always asking you the time and be like, oh, you don’t know what time it is, omega man.
Like that would,
Jill Jaracz: maybe it’s time for you to get a watch. I got a line on one. I wonder if they have different watches in that jacket and just open it up when people need it.
Alison Brown: You wanna buy an eight?
Jill Jaracz: Yeah. Right. Alright. Oh, cultural time.
Alison Brown: We had some culture moments today. We did, but you get to start first because you, you had a spa experience.
Jill Jaracz: Yes. I had Wellness Day with the Es Milano lounge. Had a, a trip for a, or a special time for a wellness experience, [00:09:00] and I ended up having time and I signed up for it. I was so excited to get this, didn’t know what it was going to be. Got the address of the place and looked it up and I said, oh, I know where this is exactly, because Charlotte and I walked right past it when we were trying to find the metro station after the opening ceremony and wandering all over the sans area.
Alison Brown: Well, that worked out well.
Jill Jaracz: Then it did work out well, so that made me feel, feel good about myself. Well, this turned out to be. A thermal bath place.
Alison Brown: Oh,
Jill Jaracz: which, oh my gosh, I love thermal bath. And I’m looking at the website late last night because they have given us no information beyond the fact that this is supposed to be 10 to one, and it’s a wellness experience.
And here’s your ticket and here’s the address. And I’m looking at the website and I’m digging through the facts and I see, yes, you must wear a swimsuit. [00:10:00]
Alison Brown: Oh, do you have a swimsuit
Jill Jaracz: on the plane? I realized I forgot to pack my swimsuit. You know what else I forgot to pack my shame. So I remembered that I had a, a clean set of black underwear and I said, that’s what I’m wearing because I am not missing out on thermal bass.
Alison Brown: Good for you.
Jill Jaracz: This is a place called Del Manal. Terme Milano, and it is a big thermal bath. Kind of park area. Nice. And I gotta look up a little bit of the history. I haven’t had time to do that yet. They, they said it’s only been open like a year. It’s really swank. It has tons of pools, uh, with different kinds of jets in them.
Uh, a pool that has a rain shower overhead, a pool that has a little waterfall in it that you can sit under or behind. Um, it’s got. Different multiples of different saunas, uh, Russian and Banya, which I had the, uh, [00:11:00] oh, what do they call it? The, the natural experience or something. I had an experience in there, which I’ll get to momentarily.
Plus cold plunges for that. Outdoor pools, indoor pools, salt water pool, so you can kind of float. They had salt, like a salt sauna in a way. So you sit in a little, it’s semi-warm, but it’s got salt all over the floor and you couldn’t breathe that in. There’s a Haman that I couldn’t get into because that area was closed for a private event, and, uh, they also had, uh, a quiet room and, uh.
With lounge chairs and beds. So I went and took a nap.
Alison Brown: Excellent.
Jill Jaracz: And they had a little lounge room that had reading in it. They had water. There’s a little bistro in there, but I didn’t have anything to eat ’cause I wasn’t in the mood for eating. It was just a fantastic day going from place to place in the, the Russian, uh, banya.
They had a. Uh, I don’t wanna [00:12:00] call it, did
Alison Brown: they beat you with sticks?
Jill Jaracz: No. Uh, I didn’t want, I don’t wanna call it a sauna, sauna performance, but if you are a person who likes to sauna and knows what an Alf goose is, this is something I learned in between Olympics and Paralympics at Paris, uh, that is kind of a sauna performance, and they have a soer and he’s got these big, uh.
Ice balls that are, uh, like the, the, the chipped ice. Mm-hmm. And it’s kind of pushed together into a ball and it’s got essential oils in it. And they do a whole thing where they put the ice onto the sauna and uh, they smash it and then they wave big fans, different kinds of fans all over you. And this banya is, it could hold like 50 people.
It’s huge. And this experience was similar to an Alf goose, but, uh. They dump some water on the sonar rocks. Then you put the ice cube on. Or ice ball, [00:13:00] smash it up. It’s got essential oils in it. So one of ’em was Eucalyptus and I think another one might have been more citrusy. And then another step of the process, oh, he took a big fan, then he did towels, then he did a flag.
And he is just waving it all over and making sure everybody gets like a whoof of heat over them. And, and
Alison Brown: a oomph of essential smell
Jill Jaracz: as
Alison Brown: well.
Jill Jaracz: Yes, yes. And then there was also, uh, new to me was the birch branch, which was soaking in water. And he’d whip it outta this bucket of water and fling it over you.
And that was fun. And at the end, uh, once he had done both balls, there was still some crushed ice. In the bottom of the bucket and he threw crushed ice on everybody.
Alison Brown: Oh geez.
Jill Jaracz: It was awesome. It was so good. And there’s music playing and it’s a whole, it’s a whole thing. And then you go outside and then you jump in the cold pool and then you, uh, go crazy ’cause you’re like, oh my gosh, I, this cold pool is really cold.[00:14:00]
So excellent day at the Wellness Spa. 10 outta 10 would highly recommend if you’re going to Milano, this is a really nice place to spend a day even, uh, a few hours just relaxing.
Alison Brown: Bring your swimming costume.
Jill Jaracz: Oh, yes. Okay. And then the other part of it is when I checked in and they were like, oh, what outlet?
Two lovely women helping everybody out. Oh, what outlet are you with? Oh, only keep the flame alive. Oh, Alice on. No. Allison. Oh, she’s coming. I’m like, I don’t think so. No. She signed up. Allison is coming. Allison is coming. I’m like, oh, okay. I never saw Allison come. But it’s like there’s a fab club now, friends of Allison Brown.
You, you apparently have a reputation with the Yes. Milano people.
Alison Brown: I’m terrified.
Jill Jaracz: It was, [00:15:00] it was actually quite, it was charming. And yet, like she has coming, she’ll not disappoint us.
Alison Brown: Well, I did not have a swimming costume.
Jill Jaracz: Did you know that you needed a swimming costume? Oh, wait, because, because I was on the train.
On my way there and then opened up my email. Uh, I was on the train by nine 30. The email came in at nine 15. Oh, don’t forget your swimsuit.
Alison Brown: Right. I saw that email, but I already had decided I was not going on the wellness.
Jill Jaracz: Disappointed your fans.
Alison Brown: I disappointed my fans. Well, I did sign up for another experience, so apparently I’d better show up to that.
Or I am in big trouble with my fan club.
Jill Jaracz: You are, are the fab club. I can’t be disappointed anymore.
Alison Brown: You know who else is in the fab club?
Jill Jaracz: Who?
Alison Brown: Eric Heen?
Jill Jaracz: No, he’s not in the Fab Club because he doesn’t know you exist. It’s not a two-way friendship In the Friends of Eric Heen Club,
Alison Brown: what was our other cultural [00:16:00] moment today, Jill?
Jill Jaracz: We had an on location experience.
Alison Brown: We had an on location experience. So on location was very kind. They offered, uh, for us to come and, and go to the suite for the pairs finals. So we got to go and actually be on location guests, like normal people are when they go to an event,
Jill Jaracz: see what it’s, yeah, and see what it’s like to have a hospitality package.
Alison Brown: And so we got treated to Prosecco and food and a private entrance and a special elevator and a whole little sky box. It was lovely.
Jill Jaracz: And, and there were about 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, uh, like five other people in the sky box, plus a couple of on location people popped in and out. , So not a ton of people.
Alison Brown: No,
Jill Jaracz: the, the sky box had a good angle.
Because this is the first time we saw judges’ table.
Alison Brown: This is true. The, we didn’t have a great angle to the back [00:17:00] corner of the rink.
Jill Jaracz: Mm-hmm.
Alison Brown: But everything else was better than the press box.
Jill Jaracz: Yes, yes. And Meredith, I finally saw what you were talking about in the Facebook group about. The, the second and third place winners where they sit, because some, uh, you had asked what, what the deal was with that.
When you look at the first place winner or who’s, who’s the leader? The leader, they’re on a couch next to the kiss and cry.
Alison Brown: Correct.
Jill Jaracz: And then the second and third place ranked people at as of that moment are kind of in the corner tucked away. So you can’t necessarily see them from the rink. Depending on where you are sitting, but they’re there for tv.
Alison Brown: They’re perpendicular to the kiss and cry.
Jill Jaracz: Mm-hmm.
Alison Brown: But behind, uh, the wall. So they’re kind of tucked in sideways.
Jill Jaracz: Mm-hmm.
Alison Brown: So you can’t really see them in the arena. But like you said, there’s an, it’s angled for television.
Jill Jaracz: [00:18:00] Exactly.
Alison Brown: There’s a camera there.
Jill Jaracz: Um, our on location. A server yelled at us because we weren’t drinking enough.
Prosecco.
Alison Brown: Yeah, we, so we both had a glass of Prosecco to start and he was very happy with us. But then we switched to Coke Zero and he was very disappointed. Us, also very disappointed that we weren’t eating quickly enough, so he made plates for us.
Jill Jaracz: Yeah.
Alison Brown: But what was really funny was he didn’t put the same things on both of our plates.
So you apparently looked like someone who would like pizza, the little pizza. And I looked like someone. Who would like the salami, which I am not, but I guess I look like a salami person.
Jill Jaracz: So the, the food was quite good.
Alison Brown: Food was lovely. It
Jill Jaracz: was very
Alison Brown: good. Russian salad.
Jill Jaracz: Russian, which I, it has tuna in it, and that’s not my jam.
So, uh, uh, less than lovely for me on that. Nicely decorated. Suites had pictures of different athletes. Ours was more speed skating or short track skating, uh, themed. Um, and then like we [00:19:00] were in a row of suites and lounges. There were some places that were bigger lounges for people and some that were private suites and uh, other skybox type areas.
And it was really fun. Yeah, it was a
Alison Brown: great experience.
Jill Jaracz: Made friends with Ryan who was hopefully gonna be listener. Ryan. So if you’re out there, Ryan, thank you. For putting up with us. Crazy ladies.
Alison Brown: We had a grand all time talking figure skating
Jill Jaracz: with
Alison Brown: Ryan
Jill Jaracz: and, and Ryan showed us what he got as a gift. ’cause most regular people got gifts.
And, uh, it was a little hockey puck that was, it
Alison Brown: wasn’t a little hockey
Jill Jaracz: puck, it was a regular sized hockey puck,
Alison Brown: but Lucite.
Jill Jaracz: Mm-hmm. It was
Alison Brown: fancy
Jill Jaracz: in a, in a little presentation box. It was quite nice.
Alison Brown: Yeah.
Jill Jaracz: So it was a good time.
Alison Brown: It was. It was a lot of fun and I would, I would definitely go back if they invited us again.
Jill Jaracz: Oh, well, of course, of course. I think the one thing is like we had a row of seats that was right on the edge of our box so that we could see, and then there was a table [00:20:00] behind us. And some high chairs at that table. If you sat at a high chair, your visibility was not great.
Alison Brown: No.
Jill Jaracz: Unless you were tall, maybe,
Alison Brown: yes.
’cause that one gentleman was sitting and he seemed to be fine or he might not have cared as much about why he was there. He was there, it looked like with his wife and daughter. They were very interested in what they were seeing. So we had to play musical chairs a little bit.
Jill Jaracz: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Alison Brown: To get a good view,
Jill Jaracz: but, but ultimately, nice little thing.
Alison Brown: Yeah. Fun experience.
Jill Jaracz: Yeah. So,
Alison Brown: and fun to go to an event. Well first of all, we don’t usually get to go to events together,
Jill Jaracz: right.
Alison Brown: So that was fun. We got to go to an event together. We should try and do that again before we’re done.
Jill Jaracz: We might have to.
Alison Brown: We might have to. But I would like to do that anyway. ’cause that was fun.
And. To go through the normal door and go through the normal entrance.
Jill Jaracz: Well, wait, this wasn’t, well, we went through the regular
entrance.
Alison Brown: The regular entrances? Yeah. No, we had a special door. Yeah, we had a special secret door
Jill Jaracz: with the red. The red carpet. [00:21:00]
Alison Brown: I know there was like red tiles leading up to the special door for the sky boxes.
Jill Jaracz: So very nice sky. A lot of walking again, because I went down to the mix zone to talk to Spencer Howe and Emily Chan, uh, because of course they’re part of t Keith, the Flame Alive, and I ran down before they got their scores because I didn’t know how fast they would make it through. The mixed zone and it didn’t wanna miss ’em ’cause I knew there might’ve been some US reporters but not a ton of press.
It was probably gonna get there. And I get all the way down there, it’s five floors and five arena size floors. And we get the word that they’re in first place. They have to be on the leader’s couch. Until they’re off the, the, the podium couches,
Alison Brown: which took quite a while. ’cause that was an ice, [00:22:00] uh, maintenance break.
Jill Jaracz: Yes.
Alison Brown: That they were then being put on the couch.
Jill Jaracz: Yes.
Alison Brown: And then they also stayed on the couch for a couple of skaters.
Jill Jaracz: So then I, I walked back all up the stairs. And because the elevator was not working for where I wanted to go.
Alison Brown: Right.
Jill Jaracz: And that’s, maybe they disabled it during the, the, the event, but I don’t know.
Alison Brown: Well, I think the elevator only goes down all the way to the bottom and you weren’t going all the way to the bottom. You were going to the, where the mix zone was. Right. So I don’t think it stops in between. I think it’s a one to five.
Jill Jaracz: So all the way back up to a very comfortably warm sky box area, then all the way back down again.
And the way back up. But I did see Nick Ardi our friend, so that was nice too.
Alison Brown: That’s always a bonus.
Jill Jaracz: So yeah, a fun night at figure skating, uh, having a little different experience. So thank you very much on location. Before we get to today’s results, we would like to take a moment to thank everyone who’s donated to our fundraiser to get us here.
If [00:23:00] you have just found the podcast, we are doing 32 daily episodes from Milano Cortina over the course of the games, uh, that does come with some bills and we are a primarily listener support. Podcast. So if you do appreciate what we’re doing and if this is enhancing your games experience, uh, we would appreciate a donation to keep our flame alive so that we can do this again throughout the years ’cause we are year round and, uh, into LA 2028.
You can go to flame alife pod.com/support to learn more, and we do have some exclusives that are for our patrons, so check that out. Flame alife pod.com/support. And thank you to everyone who’s donated so far, you’ve, it really touches our heart when we have, you know, three hours of sleep and you’re like, oh, wow.
Alison Brown: It’s like, oh, thank you. This is why we do the show.
Jill Jaracz: Exactly, exactly. Alright, let’s get to some results.
Alison Brown: Alpine started, [00:24:00] or rather alpine is finishing. But today for the
Jill Jaracz: men? Yes,
Alison Brown: for the men. So we had a wild men slalom, because this is, this is my favorite piece. 53 skiers did not finish.
Jill Jaracz: Whoa.
Alison Brown: 39 skiers managed to get through both runs.
Wow.
Jill Jaracz: Wow. Holy cow.
Alison Brown: It was, it was quite a day.
Jill Jaracz: Um, what I did not know about. The slalom is that they reset the course for the second run
Alison Brown: and different teams get to set the course. So the second, uh, setting was done by France.
Jill Jaracz: Oh, interesting.
Alison Brown: I don’t know who did the first setting.
Jill Jaracz: Okay. So, uh, and, uh. One of the athletes said that it was really different from the first run and the first run was very, uh, the second run was very turny and it switched a lot.
So it was kind of like a hairpin. And it obviously got a few, uh, skiers.
Alison Brown: 53 of ’em. Yeah. ’cause only [00:25:00] a handful went out on the first run. It was all second run.
Jill Jaracz: Oh,
Alison Brown: it was craziness.
Jill Jaracz: Boy, boy. So gold went to, uh, Loic Millard from Switzerland, who’s got a full set now. He’s had, uh, three races, three medals ending with that gold and silver.
Went to Fabio Rine from Austria, and Bronze went to Henrik Christofferson from Norway.
Alison Brown: Fun little fact about Henrik was he had won the same medal, the bronze in Sochi 2014, when he was 19.
Jill Jaracz: Wow.
Alison Brown: He was fourth in Beijing. So. He’s been doing this a while.
Jill Jaracz: That’s incredible. So, uh, one of the favorites was Atla Lee McGrath from Norway.
Alison Brown: Yes.
Jill Jaracz: And, uh, he led after the first run, was leading in the second run, straddle the gate, and then that was it.
Alison Brown: So he is out and then proceeded to have the gold medal meltdown [00:26:00] that I have seen. He stomped over, he took his poles and he threw them over one side of the fence.
Jill Jaracz: Mm-hmm.
Alison Brown: And then he stomped over and stomped out of his skis.
He climbed under the fence and just started walking away from the course. He fell a few times
Jill Jaracz: and then he just like laid down
Alison Brown: and then he just laid down in the snow and. Cried and stomped his feet and. You know, probably wanted his mommy. I don’t know what was happening there. I mean, I understand being upset, but this little tantrum was,
Jill Jaracz: uh, it was tough.
And it also probably didn’t help that the Swiss coaches were, happened to be where he turned out and straddled the gate. So they’re cheering because they know their guy won,
Alison Brown: right. They’re not cheering that he failed, they’re cheering that their skier won. But it certainly came off as they’re cheering in his face and kind of rubbing his nose.
In that mistake that he made.
Jill Jaracz: He did say he wanted to get [00:27:00] away from everything, but he didn’t because photographers and police at which, I mean I think medical, they found him, and this has been kind of a tough game. His grandfather died on opening ceremony day.
Alison Brown: Oh,
Jill Jaracz: so he’s going through some stuff?
Alison Brown: Yeah.
Jill Jaracz: Over in bobsled. We had the first two runs for the men’s two man. Germany is in the top three spots. Germany’s Lochner and Fleisch Showerer, are in first right now. They set a track record in the first run. Uh, the German team of Friedrich and Choler are in second place. They’re going for a Threepeat, and the German team of Alma and Scholler are, they’re in third,
Alison Brown: but guess who’s in fourth?
Jill Jaracz: Stan.
Alison Brown: Ch Stan’s team, Frank Del Duga and Josh Williamson are only one 10th of a second out of bronze medal position,
Jill Jaracz: which is pretty awesome.
Alison Brown: Yeah, this track is wild. We were watching this today and I thought it was me [00:28:00] that was thinking it was very narrow, both with wise and height, height-wise, and that’s why the women yesterday were bouncing off the top left and right. But then you watched it and said the same thing. No, no, no. It really is quite narrow.
Jill Jaracz: It looks that way on tv. Maybe it’s not in person because remember Chris Vo said they couldn’t reuse the old track because it was too narrow for today’s big bobsleds, and it looks too small in some places.
Alison Brown: It really does. It really looks like the bobsleds don’t quite fit.
Jill Jaracz: So we might have to do some investigation on that.
Alison Brown: And our Shuk Sani, Adam Edelman for competing for Israel is in 26th.
Jill Jaracz: We also had the women’s mono bobb last two heats.
Alison Brown: Yes, we did.
Jill Jaracz: How’d that go?
Alison Brown: That went pretty well for Shuk Stan.
Jill Jaracz: So gold went to USA’s, Alana Myers. Taylor Silver went to Laura Nolte from Germany, and Bronze went to Kaylee [00:29:00] Arm Brewster Humphreys, also from the USA.
In the third run, Alana and Kaylee try tied for a new track record. So that’s the, you know, that really set the tone for the rest of the event. Uh, Alana Myers Taylor now has six Olympic medals. This was her first gold. She ties Bonnie Blair for the most medals by a US female winter Olympian. And Ilana Meyers Taylor said that at her first games in 2010, Bonnie Blair was one of the people who welcomed them into the Olympic family.
So she’s like, oh, this is such a wild starting point that she was the one who brought me into the games, really welcomed me in. And now I equaling her record
Alison Brown: and she’s got a chance to break that record ’cause she’s still racing in the two women.
Jill Jaracz: Uh, over in curling, we had, uh, the women had the most games of the round robin tournament today. Sweden beat Switzerland, six four, and Switzerland’s ranked number [00:30:00] one in the world currently. So trying to figure out how this all stacks up, this was a big win for Sweden. Canada beat China, ten five. Great Britain, beat Denmark.
Seven two. Italy beat USA seven two, which also a big win, seeing as how the Italian team has been doing so far. Um, Korea beat China. Ten nine. That must have been a game. Switzerland beat Great Britain ten six and Canada beat Japan. Nine six. So the women’s standings are, Sweden is undefeated at six and oh.
Korea and Switzerland and the US are all four and two. Canada and Denmark are three and three. China and Great Britain are two and four, and Italy and Japan are one in five.
Alison Brown: That Great Britain is quite a surprise as well. I mean, I realized the team turned over evening, had retired and they have a new skip and it’s new players, but still for Great Britain to be two and four.
That’s a, that’s a bit of a shock.
Jill Jaracz: Mm-hmm. [00:31:00] In the. Men’s round Robin Norway, beat Great Britain. Seven six Canada beat Czechia. Eight two. Germany, beat Sweden seven three, and China beat Italy 11 to four. And that was tough. That was a tough loss for Italy. And they said, even though they’ve had other losses in this tournament, this is the one that, the first time they played really badly, they felt so they made mistakes early on.
Suddenly they’re down four, nothing. And it’s really hard to claw your way back.
Alison Brown: Oh, so does my, does my Amos need a hug?
Jill Jaracz: He does. I’m sure.
Alison Brown: I can hug him around his knees.
Jill Jaracz: That’s, that’s true. ‘
Alison Brown: cause he’s like nine foot six
Jill Jaracz: and the men standing, Switzerland is in the lead. Five. Oh, Canada is at five and one Norway and the US are at four.
Two. Great Britain is four and three. Italy and Germany are three in three. China and Sweden are one in five and Czechia is still winless at [00:32:00] o and six. So moving over to figure skating, we’ve got the pair free.
Alison Brown: It was a wild night over in the pairs, let me tell you. It was all about, once again, who could skate clean, and pretty much, uh.
Uh, everybody said, I don’t feel like doing that. I feel like making lots of mistakes. Not that they feel like it, that that was harsher than I intended, but it was not clean skating tonight, really, the only ones who went totally clean were our gold medalists URI and, and, uh, Kihara from Japan, which. Pulled up from fifth place after the short program.
We were talking about the shocking results last night, and here they are pulling off the gold medal with a powerhouse of a long program.
Jill Jaracz: Keep talking, I’m looking something up.
Alison Brown: Okay. And so gold went to Japan, Mira Ku and Keara Ucci Silver went to Georgia, and I believe this [00:33:00] is gonna be Georgia’s first.
Olympics figure skating medal to metal Anastasia, metal Kena and Luca Barro lava and bronze. Went to Germany, who we thought after last night were gonna come out with the gold, but they came out with the bronze Minerva, Fabian Ha and Nikita Velo. Our Spencer Howe and Emily Chan finished seventh, which is quite an achievement for them coming out in the top 10 sway.
And Han ended up finishing fifth. They had quite a nice program. Little bit of a mistake, uh, I believe in the side by sides. Uh, but yeah, they ended up fifth and then my pregame pick conzie and matchy admittedly ended up sixth.
Jill Jaracz: Pretty good.
Alison Brown: Pretty good, but not. Where they should have been.
Jill Jaracz: Um, I went down to the mixer and I talked with, uh, both Spencer and Emily [00:34:00] and also, uh, cam and osha, the, the, and, and I gotta say, you know, cam and O’Shea both.
Oh, OSHA is just smiles. Mr. Smiles.
Alison Brown: Yes. He is
Jill Jaracz: so happy to be here. And there was a moment in their program where they kind of relaxed, they got through a lot of stuff and didn’t have the cleanest of programs, but got
Alison Brown: through it. Yeah, they had trouble in the side by side, then they had trouble in a throw.
Jill Jaracz: So this is the first time I have noticed long fingernails on a skater.
Alison Brown: Hmm.
Jill Jaracz: And I don’t know if this is typical for skaters. To have long figure nails,
Alison Brown: generally no, because of a hand grit.
Jill Jaracz: I, I would think, but I, I wanted to know a little bit about that without pointing it out and making it weird. But, uh, that was interesting to me.
It was nice to see Deanna Stellato, doic [00:35:00] and Maxine Damp skate. Not cleanly, but they skated.
Alison Brown: So she managed to pull it together with whatever the injury was from that accident a couple weeks ago, and they made it. They got here and they skated, which is, which is kind of an achievement. I do wanna say that this gold is a bit of a Stan Gold by extension, because Megan New Hamill is one of their coaches, and we spoke to Megan probably in the first year or so of the show.
Yeah.
Jill Jaracz: And her husband’s, uh, their coach, Bruno Mart. Yes. And said that, uh, Japan’s performance is his vision of what pair skating should look like. So it was beautiful.
Alison Brown: It was powerful, which is, which is what you want from that pair.
Jill Jaracz: And one more competition left for figure skating.
Alison Brown: It’s the women. It’s the big guns coming out.
Jill Jaracz: That’s right. That’ll be fun. Freestyle skiing. The women had the free [00:36:00] ski. Big air gold went to Megan Oldham from Canada. That’s, uh, she got the gold before the third run was done. Silver went to Eileen Goo from China. This is her second medal here. Her fifth Olympic medal total. She’s the most decorated Olympic uh, woman in Olympic freestyle skiing.
And then bronze went to Flora Elli from Italy, and she’s the first Italian woman to win an Olympic medal and freestyle skiing. It looked really snowy out there. They moved a lot of stuff.
Alison Brown: A lot of events have been moved around time-wise and day wise because there was getting this, uh, this storm coming through.
So it was not a great day up on the mountain.
Jill Jaracz: In ice hockey, the women had their semi-finals, uh, USA beat Sweden five zero, and then Canada eed out a win against Switzerland two to one, although it seemed like Canada, it was, when you look at the numbers, I believe Canada had way more shots on goal than Switzerland.
And Switzerland. [00:37:00] Got lucky getting one through. Uh, Marie Philippe Polan from Canada both scored both of their goals and she has now broken the Women’s Olympic scoring record and has scored 20 goals in Olympic play. Thank you, listener, Brian, for sending us that fun fact,
Alison Brown: right? And Polan for a while there was day to day, but she came back for the court of finals and no big surprise that she would come back during the eliminations and just pull out some goals.
Just that’s what she does.
Jill Jaracz: Goldmund match will be USA versus Canada, and the bronze will be Switzerland versus Sweden,
Alison Brown: both of which can go either way, which makes the medal match exciting.
Jill Jaracz: In ski jumping. We had the men’s super team competition.
Alison Brown: Why is it a super team? Why isn’t it just a regular team?
Jill Jaracz: Uh, the official of Milan, Corina.
Definition doesn’t even make sense to me in the men’s super team, this [00:38:00] is from uh, olympic scout com. Their Milano Cortina pages In the Men’s Super team competition, each nano National Olympic Committee lines up four athletes divided into four groups of one. The event consists of three jumps, a trial round and two competition rounds.
The top eight teams from the second jump advanced to the final and the. That’s all they say.
Alison Brown: So what makes them super Just ’cause they’re jumping off a mountain.
Jill Jaracz: Maybe it’s, maybe it’s four.
Alison Brown: Oh,
Jill Jaracz: I believe. Okay. We’re putting that on the follow up file. And the sad thing is it was snowing so heavily that they canceled the, the final round, the round, final round.
And the, the results stood.
Alison Brown: And Germany was none too happy about this.
Jill Jaracz: Oh, I’m sure. Because of what, they were sitting pretty in fourth or something.
Alison Brown: Right.
Jill Jaracz: And, uh, gold went to Austria, silver to Poland, bronze to Norway. Uh, Norway was sixth. That’s sort of the first round and, and slid into the bronze. And, uh, Slovenia was [00:39:00] second and then went down to fifth in that second round.
And, uh. The heavy snow that they got messed with competitor’s vision made it difficult to get height or speed on takeoff and it probably wasn’t great going down those, that ice hill,
Alison Brown: right as you can’t see where you’re going yet. Usually in ski jumping you don’t see these kinds of big moves between rounds.
You’ll see them move one spot, two spots, but not these jumps of four and five. And
Jill Jaracz: you mean like super jumps?
Alison Brown: Like super jumps? In the super team. Maybe it’s like the supers from the Incredibles and they all have like X extendo legs
Jill Jaracz: moving over to short track speed skating. You were there today?
Alison Brown: I was, and it was. Crazy because people were flying all over the place. So many accidents and crashes and things happening, but not in the final of [00:40:00] the, the women’s thousand, which was very helpful. It was a nice clean race.
Jill Jaracz: Gold went to Xandra.
Uh, Zebo from Netherlands. This is a double gold medal games for her. Silver went to Courtney Ro from Canada. Her second medal of the games and bronze went to Korea’s. Kim Gillie and Italy’s Ariana Fontana finished fourth.
Alison Brown: Yeah, she was bounced outta position pretty early on in the race and just could never get past anybody.
But she honestly didn’t seem too upset. I mean, she’s got what, 13 medals to her name at this point I think she’s gonna be okay.
Jill Jaracz: And then we had heats for the men’s 500 and the men’s five TH thousand relay quarterfinals.
Alison Brown: So we’ll be seeing the finals of those uh, tomorrow. And wait, what day is today?
Today’s Monday. So I think we see that on Wednesday.
Jill Jaracz: Alright, and that wraps up competition for today.
Alison Brown: Oh,
Jill Jaracz: I, I, I do [00:41:00] really feel like we’re on the backslide, even though we still have sports to start.
Alison Brown: It’s true.
Jill Jaracz: So stuff is, stuff is winding down, especially in Milan. It feels like
Alison Brown: it’s true. We were getting less and less, uh, met.
Multiple competition days.
Jill Jaracz: Um, but team keep the flame alive is still competing. So who’s coming up?
Alison Brown: Absolutely. Sean Doherty with team USA in the men’s four by seven and a half kilometer biathlon relay. Amber Glenn in the Women’s Short Program and Frank Del Duga with Josh Williamson and also Adam Edelman in the final two runs of the Two Man bobsled.
Jill Jaracz: Excellent. And we have a mascot.
Alison Brown: We have your mascot, Abby, the beautiful torty cat. I think at this point I feel like I need to know, so I think I’ll be making a trip out to meet Abby. I hope she likes me after I’ve given her all this love
Jill Jaracz: and we have shout outs.
Alison Brown: Yes. First one is Patrick Analog from Chicagoland [00:42:00] who says he’s looking forward to your coverage, which is my favorite.
Makes follow the Olympics much more enjoyable. Thank you, Patrick.
Jill Jaracz: Thank you, Patrick. And it’s Patrick like Patrick Baumgartner, who is. In, uh, from Italy and he is competing here in bobsled in both the two man and the four man.
Alison Brown: And our second shout out is to Ian Teague from Columbus, Ohio, who wished us the safest of travels and the best bathroom stories.
I’m sorry to disappoint you that we haven’t had bathroom stories from Milan, but we’ve actually been quite bathroom successful.
Jill Jaracz: Yeah, except for the art. Own toilet instead of shuffle townhouse, which perplexes me on the regular.
Alison Brown: You have to just leave it flushing longer.
Jill Jaracz: I do leave it flushing longer and then I feel weird because it’s a wasting water.
Alison Brown: I know.
Jill Jaracz: Because there’s no like flush. It’s just you’re rinsing stuff down the drain. And I tell you, I did clean the toilet and um, I [00:43:00] turned the water on like all the way. And then I couldn’t get it to turn off. And I’m trying to turn and turn and it just like keeps flushing. I can’t get it turn. And I think I was just turning it in the wrong direction.
Oh no. But I really thought we were gonna have a situation where I just let the water faucet on all day.
Alison Brown: Oh no.
Jill Jaracz: That would’ve been bad.
Alison Brown: That would’ve
Jill Jaracz: been very bad. It might have had to. No, you were gone because I was like, I don’t know what to do with this situation. It’s, it’s a weird, it’s a weird toilet.
It’s, that’s all I have to say about that. And some days that BDE is looking pretty good,
Alison Brown: but who’s our Ian from Olympic History?
Jill Jaracz: Our Ian from Olympic History is Ian Whitehead. Not the same spelling Ian. Sorry to say that, but, uh, he is from Great Britain and he is a loser who competed at, uh, Albertville 1992 Place 27th. And that is gonna do it for this episode. If you would like even more of the most fun coverage of the [00:44:00] games hit us up.
We are@flameipod.com. That is your so source for our socials newsletter and direct ways to contact us. Be sure to tune in for tomorrow for what we forgot to tell you today. Uh, and you are sitting pretty on stuff. You’re remembering everything.
Alison Brown: I think the truth is, I’m just forgetting what I forgot. I’m living in my own little world with Eric Hyden and my friends from the spa.
Jill Jaracz: Well, you’re their friend. They’re not your friend. That’s how it works in the club. Okay.
Alison Brown: They
Jill Jaracz: club. We
Alison Brown: all fam
Jill Jaracz: go back to the club and. Maybe you should go to speed skating tomorrow, because I bet Eric Hen’s going to be there. He’s
Alison Brown: my friend.
Jill Jaracz: I don’t even know what to do with that. I just don’t know what to do with that, [00:45:00] except for maybe make a t-shirt. I’m Eric, he’s friend.
Well, on that note, be sure to tune in tomorrow for the Eric Hayden Watch Alert
and what I forgot to tell you today.
Alison Brown: And until next time, chow and keep the flame alive.