Cross country skiing and para Nordic are two mainstay sports of the Winter Games. Cross country is one of the original Winter Olympic sports, and para cross country is one of the original Winter Paralympic sports. Para biathlon was added to the Winter Paralympic program at Innsbruck 1988, the fourth edition of the Winter Paralympics. All three sports require strength and endurance–and sometimes an ability to withstand extreme cold or warm, slushy snow.
At the Team USA Media Summit in October 2025, we were able to talk one-on-one with several cross country and para Nordic athletes, so this episode showcases those conversations. We start with cross country skiing, talking to Gus Schumacher and Julia Kern, both of whom were just named to their second Olympic teams.
For para cross country, we talked with Sydney Peterson and Jake Adicoff. Sydney made her Paralympic debut at Beijing 2022, winning a full set of medals. Jake is a three-time Paralympian and 4-time medalist, including gold from Beijing 2022 in the 4×2.5km mixed relay.
Oksana Masters, Aaron Pike, and Kendall Gretsch compete in both para cross country and para biathlon–and all three also compete in the Summer Paralympics. All three have different experiences transitioning from summer to winter sports, which we get into during our discussions. If you haven’t read Oksana Masters’ memoir The Hard Parts, check out our book club episode on that! Aaron and Oksana are also engaged–Alison was quite impressed with Aaron’s choice of engagement ring!
Also on this episode, we have plenty of news from Milano Cortina 2026, including the unveiling of the cauldron:
It was surprising to have this reveal–we’ve gotten a lot of news about details of the Opening Ceremony that are typically kept secret, so it’s felt a little like Milano Cortina’s that blabby person who spills the goods. However, we attended a press conference with Ceremonies Creative Director Marco Balich, who said that the Olympic and Paralympic cauldrons, which will be located in Milano at the Arco della Pace and in Cortina in Piazza Dibona, have to be constructed, so people are going to see it before the Opening Ceremonies anyway.
This is the first Games that will have two cauldrons. Given that these Games are so spread out, that’s a nice gesture to give to the athletes who will be based on the Cortina side of Italy. The plan is to light and extinguish them simultaneously, and if that goes off without a hitch, it should be pretty cool.
On the whole, we were excited about the details Balich did share about the Opening Ceremonies, including a return to more live action versus video, and bringing back the “heartbeat” connection to the event.
We also have an update on ticket registrations for LA 2028. The LA Organizing Committee crowed about the huge day one registration numbers, which topped the two previous Games. There may be a lot of competition for tickets, but don’t let that stop you from trying. Oh, and you can still register for the ticket lottery. We’ve got all the details on the process here.
There’s lots of news from Team Keep the Flame Alive – more TKFLASTANIs have puched their tickets to Milano Cortina 2026! We have news from:
- Josh Williamson
- Frank Del Duca & Elana Meyers Taylor
- Shannon Galea
- Bruna Moura
- Ryan Shane
- Josh Levin
- John Naber
- Louise Sugden
Thanks so much for listening, and until next time, keep the flame alive!
TRANSCRIPT
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427-Olympic Cross Country Skiing and Para Nordic with Team USA
Theme Music: [00:00:00] The greatest festival of our contemporary society, the Olympic Games is about to begin. This is gonna be close. Oh, they’re all completely gas. They’ve given it everything on.
Oh, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant. But that is an Olympic champion. Ready.
Jill Jaracz: Hello, and welcome to another episode of Keep the Flame Alive, the podcast for fans of the Olympics and Paralympics. If you love the Games, we are the show for you. I am your host, Jill Jaracz joined us always by my lovely co-host, Alison Brown.
Alison, hello, how are you?
Alison Brown: I am in full blown panic mode.
Jill Jaracz: Oh yes.
Alison Brown: I am worried about the stupidest things. Yesterday I had a little panic about what socks I am bringing to Milan.
Jill Jaracz: That’s not a bad thing to [00:01:00] panic about,
Alison Brown: but I realized I didn’t have the right. I have one pair of really good socks. They were my favorite socks in Beijing, and I’ve never been able to find another pair.
So now I realized that, and I’ve been furiously searching, trying to find these socks.
Jill Jaracz: I hear you. I hear you. You know, the, the shopping has started go to the store, get hand warmers, realize that they also have toe warmers.
Alison Brown: Yes.
Jill Jaracz: Which my feet would be very excited to have. So, pile those in.
I want two pairs of gloves.
Alison Brown: Excellent.
Jill Jaracz: And, who knows what else is getting thrown into my cart, Somebody already asked me, are you done? Are you, are y’all packed? I’m like, I have barely started the pile.
Alison Brown: Agreed. And we had a lovely note from two of our listeners asking for a video of what we’re packing, to which I say, I don’t know if you really wanna see that video, but it [00:02:00] gave me it.
That might be, that might be in our Substack newsletter.
Jill Jaracz: Yes. Yes.
Alison Brown: Towards the end of the month.
Jill Jaracz: Be on the lookout for that. If you aren’t on our Substack newsletter, that’s Flame Alive pod.substack.com. It is free to sign up. So don’t worry about. Just sign up for the newsletter and we will have special content there during the games. We have special content today.
Today We are talking cross country skiing, as well as para Nordic Skiing and Para Nordic includes both cross country and biathlon.
As of January 21st, all the athletes we talked with are still vying to qualify for Milano Cortina 2026. So hopefully those teams will be named soon and the following sh Stanis will make the list.
Gus Schumacher interview
Jill Jaracz: First up, we are talking with Gus Schumacher, who is an Olympian from. Anchorage, Alaska. Who competed at Beijing 2022 in CrossCountry. Since then, he’s been making a name for himself in the CrossCountry world by being the first American male to win a World Cup in over 43 years. [00:03:00] And this year he placed seventh overall in the tour to ski, which is a major multi-day ski race on the CrossCountry circuit.
That’s the highest finish ever by an American male. Take a listen to our conversation with Gus.
How cold was it in Beijing for you?
Because, you know, we saw the stories. I was over a lot on the biathlon side and it was really cold, but we got the stories about men having problems.
Gus Schumacher: Yeah, men were definitely. Well, whether, whether or not they were actually having problems, they got a New York Times, right? Yeah. Yeah. So maybe that was, I felt like maybe it was a bit of a game.
Alison Brown: Okay. ’cause
Gus Schumacher: that’s sort of always a factor in our sport.
Alison Brown: Mm-hmm.
Gus Schumacher: You got clothes for it, so,
Alison Brown: but the mole skin came out.
Gus Schumacher: Sure. Yeah. Yeah. The polar jocks, the whole deal. Yeah, it was cold. It was one of the coldest racing events I’ve ever been at. And I’ve raced in Fairbanks too, where they
Jill Jaracz: Right, right. You know, cancel
Gus Schumacher: races because it’s cold and they put the thermometer in a pie tin, so it warms up a little bit.
Oh man. Maybe not [00:04:00] actually, but they definitely measured the warmest part of the course and it like dips down low, but it wasn’t windy. Beijing was super windy.
Jill Jaracz: Yeah. Yeah. That was, and it was a nasty wind coming off. And the conditions desert, the snow conditions were interesting. Talk about
Gus Schumacher: Yeah, because it was, it was dry.
It’s super cold, but it doesn’t ever snow much there. And so yeah, it was manmade snow and it was like the hardest, manmade snow I’ve ever skied on. Super slow too, that like fine grain, wind blown snow was slow and hard and cold
Alison Brown: and painful.
Gus Schumacher: Yeah. And way, yeah, I guess so.
Alison Brown: Well, we, you know, we didn’t have the protective gear, so when that game kicked out Yeah, yeah.
It
Gus Schumacher: was, it was great time. Yeah, no, it definitely, it was not always fun to take off the warmups. Yeah,
Jill Jaracz: yeah, yeah. Talk to us about Skiathon the event and how it works.
Gus Schumacher: The Skiathon Yes. Is a 20 K race, so it’s 12, 13 miles, something like that. And it starts with classic skiing, always for half of it, [00:05:00] 10 K and halfway through we come into the pits exchange zone and switch to skating.
We wear the same boots the whole time. They’re like. For me, it’s actually just classic boots with a ankle cuff. So it looks like a skate boot, but the sole is softer. Skate boots have a stiffer sole. They’re generally stiffer because you’re pushing laterally and classic boots are softer because you, your toe, your foot gets in such flexion that you need that boot to flex a little bit.
You push off the ball of your foot, basically. So
Jill Jaracz: then does Do you have to make any adjustments for the freestyle skiing in terms of compared to a freestyle only race?
Gus Schumacher: Yeah, a well a little bit. The boots don’t really matter that much to me. They’re a little soft, but you get used to it pretty quickly.
It’s mostly just that first, like 30 seconds to two minutes where the polls feel too long and it’s all a little slippery. And then. You just start [00:06:00] skate skiing. ’cause that’s, you know, we’ve done it a million times.
Alison Brown: You can only change the skis. You can’t change the poles. You
Gus Schumacher: do change the poles. You do change the poles?
No. So the poles get longer. Oh. Because you, the poles get longer so all of a sudden your, your hands come higher. It’s a bit of a different position, the skiing, but yeah. So you change your skis and poles.
Jill Jaracz: How long is your.
Gus Schumacher: Like how the distance,
Jill Jaracz: no, no. Uh, how long does it take? How long does it take? Ideally?
Gus Schumacher: I don’t actually know. Like 10, 15 seconds. Okay. You, you can do a lot more damage in there than you can move up. Like people will kick their skis around and, and
Jill Jaracz: Yeah. ’cause it’s like triathlon has those transitions. So this is a transition. You can, yeah. That’s where you lose. And the race is long enough,
Gus Schumacher: like you don’t wanna lose a pack.
Jill Jaracz: Mm-hmm.
Gus Schumacher: But if you need to, you can sprint to catch up. The, but people have definitely like not been able to get in their bindings because it’s frozen for whatever reason. Or they’ll like get in there and kick their ski and it goes flying to the other side of the course. Mostly you just need to calm down and slow as fast.
Alison Brown: Are there rules in the transition like there are in triathlon where you [00:07:00] have to be in a certain position and if your ski does go out, you get penalized for that?
Gus Schumacher: I don’t think you get penalized for it. Yeah. I mean, you try to keep your stuff in and like when you leave. You might be able to get penalized if you like, throw your stuff everywhere, but you know, like you’re not supposed to throw your, if you threw your poles into your competitor’s box,
Alison Brown: oh yeah.
Gus Schumacher: I’d imagine you’d get a penalty, but I’ve never seen it happen.
Alison Brown: That would just be rude.
Gus Schumacher: Yeah. People might do it on accident, but if you’ve done it on purpose, that would be rude. Yeah.
Alison Brown: Talk about the different prep for mid distance versus long distance in terms either mentally and physically.
Gus Schumacher: Mid distance.
So like 10 20 KI assume you mean
Alison Brown: well? Mm-hmm. Yes.
Gus Schumacher: Okay. Which 20 K is still fairly long? 10 K takes us about 20 to 25 minutes depending on conditions. 20 k roughly. Double that. It’s usually like 45. And then the 50 K is about two hours usually and 10 K. 20 K are pretty, easy to go about. We do ’em a lot.
And physically you warm [00:08:00] up a little bit more ’cause they’re shorter. You’ll do some, especially in a, well I guess it depends on the start, but like interval starts, I kind of, I don’t do that much intensity, but I like to feel how fast I want to go. Get a sense, put myself in that mindset. Muscles need to be warm, but that’s pretty easy.
And in a 50 KI almost don’t warm up like it’s long enough. It doesn’t start that hard. Like you shouldn’t be starting that hard. If you wanna do well. So I kinda use the beginning of the race to warm up and I’ll do a couple speeds or something, but they’re often towards the end of the season too. So your body’s ready to race?
I’ll test skis. Usually that’s like an hour before, and then I’ll just like hang out until 20, 30 minutes before a ski round for 15, 20 minutes and change clothes.
Alison Brown: What do you think about over 50 K?
Gus Schumacher: Over 50 K? Well, I’m saying what? Oh, during a 50 k? During a 50? Yeah. A lot of things I guess. Yeah, I think about what’s going on in the race.
I think about how my body feels. I’ll think about like what the fans are [00:09:00] doing. a lot of times there are 50 Ks at Holman Coen in Norway, it’s one of their biggest ski events every year. And so it’s kind of fun to see like who’s there, who they’re cheering for. Think about, yeah. And as the race starts to go on, you think about who might be doing something when, ’cause sometimes there’s a big attack early.
It’s good to like be ready for that. It can be easy to just relax and get into a rhythm where you’re not necessarily ready for it to get a lot harder, rapidly
Jill Jaracz: with the 50 K, because that’s the one where you have the most countries participating. What is it like getting into traffic as you do laps?
’cause it, you know, you’re dealing with people who are a lot slower sometimes laughing. Yeah.
Gus Schumacher: They tend to pull people that are lapped.
Jill Jaracz: Oh, okay.
Gus Schumacher: Yeah. I guess I assume they do that at the Olympics too, I think because you don’t want someone that’s getting lapped to affect the end of a race, especially.
Mm-hmm. So, yeah, I, there’s not much of, I don’t think about that very much. [00:10:00] When I was beginning, I was like, I make sure we don’t get laps. You know, those laps are eight K. So that actually, that ended up not really being too much of an issue.
Alison Brown: Is there trash talking?
Gus Schumacher: Not really. No. It’s a pretty, it’s a pretty friendly field.
I’m sure people trash talk behind backs and everything, but while we’re out there, people yell once in a while, mostly just to let someone know they’re there. Some people get in a tizzy about things, but it’s a long enough race that nothing matters that much early on. Like you can go to the back of the field and you can fall and like, it’s not that big of a deal.
You’ve got time.
Alison Brown: Yeah. Have you been on the course in, uh, Cortina?
Gus Schumacher: I have. Yeah. What
Alison Brown: do you think?
Gus Schumacher: It’s so it’s gonna be new a little bit. Actually. They’re changing it up. They’ve changed it up a few times in the last couple years, but I’ve raced on two iterations of it, and it’s a hard course. It’s really up and down, like there’s not a lot of super sustained climbs, but the downhills are pretty technical, which I think is [00:11:00] actually one of the things that makes it hardest is.
You know, if you’ve got downhills where you’re just sitting and talk and just gliding out, which you do through the stadium there, which is nice, that makes it a lot easier. But two of the corners, every time you come through, you’re gonna have to think about it and make sure you like set up well. And they’re pretty easy to slip out on ’cause they’ll get icy from people sliding and stuff.
Jill Jaracz: How did it change from the first time to the second? Did they make it more challenging or were they like, oh we gotta fix this corner or
Gus Schumacher: something? Yeah, they made well. They made it a little less, it’s a little wider, it’s a little smoother, but I think every year we get a little bit faster too. Oh yeah. So like the technology gets better.
We had our, you know, our waxing switch to fluoro free a few years ago, so that slows it down marginally. But when I’ve raced there, it’s often been quite icy ’cause it’s in the shady side of the valley and it’ll, it freezes thaws a lot. So I think it’ll be quite fast, would be my guess.
Alison Brown: And just to finish up, does the mustache make you [00:12:00] faster?
I don’t think so. That’s why I’m it. That’s why I don’t have it. It, I think it does. You think it does? I dunno.
Gus Schumacher: It makes me look older, which is partly why I had it. But
Jill Jaracz: God, like without it. Thank you
Alison Brown: so much. Appreciate it. Have a pen. Grab
Jill Jaracz: Thank you so much, Gus. You know I did go and find the fleece thongs. What is it? I don’t what he called them.
Alison Brown: Fleece jocks.
Jill Jaracz: Yes.
Alison Brown: We did talk about this, I think on the show after, the team USA media summit that we had discovered a whole new, a whole new shopping experience.
Jill Jaracz: Whole New World. Whole New World. Uh,
Julia Kern interview
Jill Jaracz: next up is Julia Kern. She is an an Olympian from my old stomping grounds, Walham, Massachusetts. She competed at Beijing 2022 in cross country and also has two world championship medals as well as six World Cup.
Podiums after injuries disrupted her 2024 season. She has made a comeback, got a silver medal in the team Sprint at the [00:13:00] 2025 World Championships, and at the beginning of this year, 2026, she took 16th place in the tour to ski. Julia is also part of the Athletes Commission in, , the International Federation. So we talked with her a little bit about what she does in that role as well. Take a listen.
Julia, we’re going to get right into the weeds ’cause we don’t have time. How do you approach a sprint race?
Julia Kern: Depends on the day, but what I love about sprinting is that it’s super tactical and that’s a lot of what sprinting is about. So we have to do a qualifier. You have to make the top 30 to move on.
So qualifiers all out no matter what. You never know what’s gonna happen. And then in the rounds it’s all about heat selection. So we get to pick what heat we’re in, depending on how we qualify. And that’s a little bit newer in like the most, in the last few years. And so there’s this huge tactical element of who you pick a heat with.
so if
Jill Jaracz: you’re the best time you get to like the best times go, I want any, like you’re picking your [00:14:00] team kind of.
Julia Kern: You’re picking against
Jill Jaracz: or the people you’re gonna race
Alison Brown: against. Yeah. It’s like school
Julia Kern: yard pick. Yeah. Do the people
Alison Brown: with the best time get to pick first or last
Julia Kern: They pick. So it goes from 11th or verse to one because you don’t wanna pick first.
’cause then you, you have really no choice. You’re just picking blindly. And so if you qualify 11th, you’re like, oh, I’m just guessing at a blank slate. But then. When you pick, when you like qualify first, you see the top 10 people in front of you, and so you can kind of pick, so there’s a lot of like strategy involved in that, which is,
Jill Jaracz: oh my gosh, thats
Alison Brown: cool.
As you say, a sprint being so tactical, my first thought was really, it seems like you should just go as fast as you can as quickly as you can and get there. But that makes a lot more sense that now there’s this whole element. Wow. So they realize
Julia Kern: that people who were in the order earlier, quarterfinals and early semi semi-finals are were much more likely to win in podium because you have more recovery time.
Because if you’re in quarterfinal one or five, that’s a 25 minute spread, and that’s a lot of time to recover for the next round. And so do you pick a [00:15:00] strategy where you pick a easier heat or you have less recovery? Or do you pick a. Maybe in earlier heat so you have more recovery, but it’s gonna be a lot harder to move on.
so there’s a lot of complexity and there’s lucky losers. So top two from each heat move on and then the two next fastest times from all of the heat. So maybe you pick what you think will be a fast heat and just try to go for top four.
Jill Jaracz: Wow. Okay. So then do you look at like track and fields and go. Oh, you’re just coasting through that quarterfinal or semifinal.
Julia Kern: sometimes you can, you can tell. Yeah. And that’s, that’s also in our sport, the case, uh, you, you do get some coasters still. You get some coasters. I mean, some people are so good or they know they have such a strong finish. , And I think that’s what’s. Fun about it. It can be really frustrating too if you don’t have a choice or you regret your decision, but, yeah, you just, you pick what, where you think your path of least resistance is, or higher resistance, but more reward in the finals.
Alison Brown: Do you get help in picking or you, is it like an [00:16:00] isolation booth and you have to do it on your own?
Julia Kern: We can have one coach in the zone usually, so we have one coach. We also talk amongst our team sometimes too, because. You know, we all wanna succeed. Sometimes Jesse and I often end up going in the same heat because we agreed let’s just push the pace and go fast.
but it kind of depends on people’s strategies and yeah. So it’s such a tactical thing and it’s like you press this essentially this big easy button and it’s this whole heat selection thing and it’s, Yeah, every year I have a different strategy, even different times of year, and it’s a little bit of a guessing game too.
Ultimately, if you’re skiing really well, you sh, you hopefully will move on. But that’s the thing with sprint racing, you never know who’s gonna boot you out.
Alison Brown: Now how, with the conditions between the first one and the fifth one, I assume the conditions get worse as you go along?
Julia Kern: Depends on the snow. So. If it’s warming, then yeah, you think about maybe it’s gonna get snow or is it dumping snow?
Is the track gonna get slower and slower, or did it snow and it [00:17:00] stopped, and now it’s starting to glaze. And actually the later heats are getting faster. And so there’s so many things to think about and you can’t think about all the things. But, it’s become a big part of. Sprinting. And then there’s also people who do the same exact thing every race.
And so they’re very predictable. Or you have the troublemakers, you’re like, I know you create a lot of chaos and you break poles and you collide with people, you cut people off. I’m gonna avoid you. So there’s, there’s so much about going into knowing the field that. Kind of fascinating. I think a lot of people don’t realize when they watch cross country sprints, oh
Jill Jaracz: my gosh, I have so many questions.
what if the weather is changing? What is the opportunity to fix wax?
Julia Kern: Now that we have, fluoro testing, there’s a lot less opportunity. oh, ’cause that’s right, because they took away the access. So that adds another layer. You have to pick, pick. One ski before the rounds and stick with it. Whereas we used to like be able to swap skis out, um, if the conditions are changing.
And then when we do classic skiing, you have grip wax too. [00:18:00] And when it’s around 32 Fahrenheit, right around freezing, and if it’s like snowing, that’s the hardest to wax. And so sometimes they allow two pairs of skis if it’s borderline, because it could be meaning you have stilts on your skis and your face planning.
If you get the wrong wax, it can be that lethal. So there. It’s added a lot of extra challenges with the skis or do you wax them for being BA better in the later rounds and just good enough for the early rounds?
Jill Jaracz: What does it do to your legs and probably arms too when you realize, oh, I got, we didn’t get quite the right wax, or I’d like it a little adjusted.
Julia Kern: It can be frustrating and also it’s. Both the ownership on the wax technician and the athlete. Like we test our skis, we communicate and have to work with them. but ultimately once you’re in the race, it’s what you’re committed with. It’s just like on some days you start a race and you feel tired, but that’s what you’re working with and so you gotta figure out creatively.
Okay. How do I make this happen? So if maybe your skis are slick, but they’re really fast, okay. You just have to hang out on the [00:19:00] uphill and then draft them and shoot by ’em on the downhill. So you might have to just adapt your strategy in the moment. Moment. It’s like the skis are an extra team member, really, in a way.
Most definitely. I think people don’t realize that with cross country skiing is that our skis are so much of our sport and. I think most people don’t grasp. It’s, uh, whole chemistry, like a whole science. We have a whole wax truck that expands and follows us on the circuit and a whole wax team just for our skis.
Alison Brown: How many skis, how many pairs of skis do you have when you’re traveling?
Jill Jaracz: Anywhere from 40 to 60 pairs. How do they get transported? I mean, they have to get to the truck overseas somehow.
Julia Kern: Yeah, so it’s a ongoing fleet. So you’ll have like a quiver of skis and every year, you know, the brands bring their na newest, best items and it’s essentially like a trading system.
So they bring like a handful of skis at the beginning of the season and then you give back some of the skis that aren’t. Racing as well, and they go to kids or are [00:20:00] resold or whatever. So it’s a constant evolving trading system of skis in skis out, and our technicians manage that. And so it’s not like it’s 40 pairs are just arriving.
Like we always have a set flea in ebbs and flows with the skis coming in and outta the truck and there’s this huge rack with shelves and every athlete like shares a shelf and it’s all your skis lined up. Do you have favorites where you’re like, oh, it, these
Alison Brown: are
Julia Kern: my lucky
Alison Brown: skis.
Julia Kern: Um. Sometimes I have skis that like just consistently perform well.
Like last year at World Championships, atomic came out with a new base material and I had a pair of skis and the new base material was just better than anything else. And it was slushy for the whole last month of the season. And so it was just out beating anything I had. And so I ended up racing on it every race.
But we test every single race and lead up race, so you can’t have favorites ’cause then you’re actually doing yourself a disservice because. That’s why we have so many skis. But yeah, it’s easy to get bias and I try to like not look at the numbers and labels and also the numbers af after a while just mixed [00:21:00] together.
And you, you stop noticing. But it’s definitely also a mental challenge when you’re testing skis. Wow. You might expect one ski to be better and you’re like, this doesn’t make sense, but it feels better. Do you ever mix pairs? No, not intentionally. Yeah. No, we, we don’t usually mix pairs. but when they’re, when the skis are produced, sometimes I think in some brands they do like it’s just a bunch of single skis and they find the best closest match and pair ’em together.
Alison Brown: I wanna ask you about the FIS athlete rep and what you are doing in that role.
Julia Kern: Yeah, so I’m the cross country FIS athlete rep. There’s a male and a female for each sport and fis or umbrella sport like free ski. And we are all make up an athlete commission. And in that commission we discuss things, we bring athlete feedback, and then our chairs vote at the council level, which is the voting level of fis.
Alison Brown: How have you found that? ‘ cause I know you haven’t been doing this a long time, but how have you found that role?
Julia Kern: It’s. Motivating, [00:22:00] humbling, and also can be really frustrating. I think there’s change in the cross country level, and I feel like our relationship with the athletes and the Fisk Cross country team has been so awesome.
Like we have the most engagement we’ve ever had with. The cross country athletes, they reach out to us, they give us feedback, they answer our polls. We have a great communication channel. And now the cross country team, like they really care. When we say the athletes want this, they listen and they take that into account.
And so I think that’s been really rewarding to feel like they, we work together as a team and we’re making changes in our sport. On the fifth level, there’s so many sports, there’s so much to consider. And so that makes it a lot harder to have change because what might be best for cross country might not be best for Alpine.
And there’s just a lot more politics involved at the fist level, but I think it’s really important to have athletes be who are outspoken because they’ve fought so hard to get votes to begin with, and I still think the athlete representation and voice should be stronger than it is.
Jill Jaracz: Were you helpful in getting, uh, women’s 50 K [00:23:00] in?
Julia Kern: I came in when that was all happening. Oh, oh, okay. So, like, kind of in that turning point, we’ve like surveyed to see like people keep pushing back on it, but we’ve surveyed to confirm like. This is a good thing for our sport. and then last year I was involved with climate activists who wanted to protest the race and block the race, which they’ve successfully done in the past, and actually like had successful negotiations with them during the world championships to then come together and say, we’re on the same side.
We all wanna have clean air and clean water, but. Blocking the race isn’t the way to do it. And so then instead we made this letter and they ended up cheering on all the athletes who signed the letter. And I thought that was like a really special moment of saying, Hey, we’re actually on the same team. We wanna support this message, but just not in this way.
And we were the ones who made it happen that they didn’t protest. That is very cool.
Jill Jaracz: Okay Julie, thank you so much. ’cause we got the thing, but we really appreciate it. We got a
Thank you so much, Julia.
Our fundraiser update
Jill Jaracz: Before we move over to the Para Nordic [00:24:00] side. We’ve got results from our fundraiser.
Alison Brown: Yes. So in that last push, we got up to 70% of our fundraising goal, which is really great. We’re so excited about that. Thank you so much to everyone, who participated in that. We’re not gonna close it officially.
We’re gonna leave that fundraising page up, so if you didn’t get to it, fantastic, please. We will, we will take your money. We just cannot guarantee all the thank you gifts, but we’re gonna try, you know, if you give, uh, we’re gonna try and, and make those thank you gifts that, uh, happen as well.
Jill Jaracz: yes, thank you so much.
You can find that form@flamealivepod.com. There’s gonna be a popup. There’s also a little banner at the top where you can get to our fundraising page. Again, thank you everybody who’s donated so far. We are so thrilled that this trip, which is s expensive. Especially given the fact that we’d really like to try to be able to get over to the Corina [00:25:00] side where we’ll be based in Milano for the Olympics.
We’d love to get to the Cortina side and be able to cover up some of those sports and give you the atmosphere of what it’s like in the Dolomites. this helps us do that, but if, we could get that final push to get the a hundred percent goal, that would be awesome. FileMan life pod.com.
Oksana Masters interview
Jill Jaracz: Next up we are talking with Oksana Masters.
She is a seven time Paralympian with three winter Paralympics under her belt in winter. She competes in Para Nordic. we read her book The Hard Parts for our book club a couple years ago. So to learn more about. Ana’s early life. Check out that episode. We will link to that in the show notes.
She is currently ranked third in para cross country ski, and second in Para by Alon. Take a listen. Have you been to the ski tunnel this year?
Oksana Masters: I have been to a ski tunnel this year because I just got back in from about two and a half weeks ago in the one in Oberhof, Germany. That’s fine. I almost at
Jill Jaracz: Oberhof.
Oksana Masters: Yeah. Um, [00:26:00] I was supposed to be in the tours B one in Sweden, but I missed that one.
That was the one I was trying to remember. So you’re both right.
Alison Brown: Yes. I was like, it’s in they’re schedule. Yeah.
Jill Jaracz: What does that do to help prepare you that before pre-knowledge of tunnel or tunnel experience versus post tunnel.
Oksana Masters: Before gonna the snow tunnel, when training it is so important for, especially sit skiers, you can’t, we roller ski in the summer, but we can’t get on edge and maneuver on snow and turn and downhills. And that’s something that’s really, I think would say. More of a challenge from a winter side being an athlete to a summer side athlete, there’s way more crossover and training specific for summer sports, you can’t replicate snow.
You need that snow, and it only comes half a year depending where you could travel around the world. And so we go to underground snow tunnel camps and that is when our team started going to that. Oberhof was actually my first one [00:27:00] in the snow tunnel camp. Realize how valuable and important it is for sit skiers specifically to be in the tunnel in the summer as well.
And for me it’s even more so because I have to take my hands to ski. Mm-hmm. And so the way I ski and do my stroke
Jill Jaracz: mm-hmm.
Oksana Masters: I can’t replicate it on the roller skis.
Jill Jaracz: Okay.
Oksana Masters: And it’s so important for me to have that memory and that kind of waking up those muscles.
Alison Brown: Now talking about the motion, how is the switch physically between cycling and sit skiing?
Oksana Masters: Awful. This being fully transparent, I’m not going to sugarcoat it. It is awful. It is the most humbling experience in the world because going from my best season in skiing. I’m starting over and because skiing is all pulling motions for me, cycling as a hand cyclist, yes, I’m using my hands, but it’s pushing.
And so the way I propel myself and create power is through my [00:28:00] shoulders and my arms. Mainly, and in skiing it’s a lot of lats, a lot of back, a lot of tricep, and it’s rebuilding my body and there’s about two months of, oh my gosh, how did I, ’cause my memory is where you ended that season. It’s not, I forget how hard it was that transition and I don’t know what, I don’t know if it’s like true that goldfish have like a two second memory, but that’s me every time I transition into a sport.
But. I think the physical side is hard and I know I can get there and retrain your body, and it just reminds me more of how incredible a human body is. It’s, I think that part of that secret weapon that I’ve had where it’s keeping me hungry, I’m not settled at just. Being the best skier. Next year, I’m gonna be the best skier.
And building off of that, there’s always mentally of second guessing myself, getting back up and keeping me hungry.
Alison Brown: In terms of your physicality of which sport, are you bulkier or is it [00:29:00] just shifting cycling?
Oksana Masters: I’m de definitely, yeah. What did you, would you think? I thought it was the opposite. Yeah. No girl.
My traps that I get in the, it is not cute in certain dresses. ’cause I’m all about the fashion and you know, of course I’m picking all the spores from rowing to skiing, to cycling. I don’t know, I don’t know why I’m sticking, sticking to spandex, but it’s not a good look on me. but cycling is the bigger, I tend to just, the volume of training too is a lot higher, but it’s.
The time trial, specifically training for that? just I get bulkier and in skiing it’s, I’m more, I guess I’m still strong, but it’s more of like an endurance kind of strong, it’s not like where you see like an Olympic lift or you look a little bit
Jill Jaracz: Right. It’s, it’s the strong where you go, oh great. All the dresses I have to cover up.
Oksana Masters: Yeah,
Jill Jaracz: yeah. Right. Yeah. And
Oksana Masters: it’s so hard because going dress shopping or going, like for certain events, I’m transitioning from the skiing season to cycling season. And the lats don’t fit, and then I’m [00:30:00] starting over again. So everyone has to worry about their winter and summer attire closet. I’m thinking about my lats to my shoulder.
Thing.
Jill Jaracz: It’s a real thing. It’s real. Think that people don’t, yeah. Winter, summer, my winter, summer, my lads, my, my four closets shoulders,
How
Alison Brown: much racing of cycling are you doing in that two year transition back and vice versa, you know, when you’re going two year, you know, from Paris, have you cycle raced at all?
Oksana Masters: Well, so this has been actually a very challenging year for me After Paris. Paris was my last race. I’ve done, normally I would’ve been at World Championships doing World Cups, but I had injuries and surgeries this summer. So I missed an entire skiing season last year and the whole entire went summer training because of.
Some injuries that if I had legs, I meant to be a clutz. I was packing, closing a suitcase, and I dislocated my finger, my trigger finger, and needed a whole ligament repair because you know, when I injure myself, you gotta go big. You can’t just like, oh, I sprained it. No, [00:31:00] we gotta make sure I’m. Back in the hospital room.
Jill Jaracz: Yeah. And get the right finger that you need most.
Oksana Masters: Yeah. And make sure, yeah. Like for 2018, I busted and dislocated my elbow. That was my, I remember you, my shooting elbow. Yes. And
Alison Brown: you were held together with tape in Pyeongchang. Yeah.
Oksana Masters: Yep. A tape, tape and a brace where it locked me out. So I wasn’t even able to use my hands in that way.
And this time I decided, Hey, let’s make it extra challenging and let’s mess up your trigger finger for biathlon, as if biathlon wasn’t challenging enough. But normally I would be. Racing both the World Cup season, focusing on world championships, recycling, and then vice versa for skiing as well, because skiing is one of those things.
I do all the World Cups because it’s harder for me living in Champ Illinois. There’s no snow. So I have to, and I would like to, I, I love the team too, to travel with them and raise with them. Okay. Excellent. Thank you so much with you. So
Jill Jaracz: Thank you so much Ana.
Aaron Pike interview
Jill Jaracz: [00:32:00] Next up we are talking with Ana’s fiance.
Alison Brown: Fiance. Oh yes. And I complimented him on the ring that he got, Ana. It was quite lovely.
Jill Jaracz: It was, Aaron Pike. Aaron Pike is a seven time Paralympian. He competes in both para track and para cross country and para biathlon. He competes, in both para cross country and para biathlon. He is currently ranked fifth in the world in para biathlon. Take a listen. We wanna talk about sit skis and the construction of, and and transporting them and all that. So what is the sit ski made of?
Aaron Pike: Yeah, I would say a majority of the sit skis are typically made out of, either aluminum or titanium.
and then you’re gonna see a few of them out there, especially on our team. Um, more recently from like starting before the 2018 games, like in using carbon fiber. I’d say, but everybody, a lot of the field is on, um, aluminum sleds and the first one that all of us were on were made out of an aluminum [00:33:00] frame.
and they’re essentially like a frame that gets you off approximately like 40 centimeters off the snow. I think it was like the mat max height. and then they adapt some things for the bottom of the sit ski so that you can attach skis. ’cause there’s like the skis aren’t made for sit skiing.
They’re made for stand skiing. so we’re just always on the look for like skis that work better for us. And, we always have to adapt, like how before we had to drill, this like block system in the back of the ski, so it was, we actually had to like, we. Physically, they used like 3D printed things and we’d like screw in stuff into the existing skis, which probably wasn’t great for the ski either, but it was just a way that we could attach ’em to our sit skis.
And more recently, there’s a way to attach ’em in the last couple years where we don’t have to drill anything in the skis and we’re actually able to move the sit ski, forward and back over the top of the ski, like plus or minus three, which is like, I don’t know, say like a. Inch [00:34:00] and a half or so, either direction, um, that changes the way the skis feel, how they handle, how they turn when you’re trying to maneuver.
but yeah, the sit skis are made outta aluminum. There’s usually like some sort of seat on the top. classically people would ski with their legs. Like if you had legs, they’d be out in front of you. more recently, kind of like when I started, I would get, I would say like more people that are able to, would tuck their legs up under them.
so you’re almost sitting, it’d be like. Kneeling on the floor and then just sitting down on your heels, like you’re on your heels and you’re just, when
Jill Jaracz: you’re wheelchair racing,
Aaron Pike: like wheelchair racing, a lot like wheelchair racing. For me it’s like almost identical. Like my heels are just like right up to where my butt is and you’re just down in the wheelchair racing.
You spend more time like all the way down on your lap though, like really compact and sit skiing. You’re sitting up just like the nature of the sport and like how you move with the poles. and the carbon fiber like came into play and that made it to where it could be. Less straps and less like adjustability.
more. Because carbon you can mold in any way you want. And so you can like have it made specifically [00:35:00] for like, I can’t fit in Oksana ski like Kendall or we, we both have legs, but neither one of us could like get in each other’s sit ski ’cause it just, they’re just made specifically for us. And the carbon fiber process was like one, where we were the first time was like sitting in some beads and then just, you poured an epoxy in there and you sit in this thing for like quite a while until it kind of firms up and you have like a print of.
What your legs are and everything when you’re sitting in this thing. So then the carbon, they make carbon fiber thing outta that. and recently it was just like getting, I went to a prosthetics place ’cause I’m getting another sit ski and basically did the same process of making like a socket for a prosthetic to where they’re like casting you basically.
So it’s like getting a paper mache project like done on yourself and they pull that off and they’re um, they got a perfect splash of like your. Unique like features and stuff. And then, convert that into a plastic that you sit in and then they can see any hotspots. So like you sit in [00:36:00] that and you can see anywhere where there’s like blanching of the skin or something, and then they can heat that up and like, adjust that a little bit to where it fits better.
Or, or just somewhere that might be uncomfortable. But with the clear socket, you can. See through, and see, see how things are fitting and then they take that clear one, and they change and move that to then making a carbon fiber seat outta that. So it’s a very custom seat, really long process. not super cheap.
And it’s tough ’cause and it’s like no one’s saying you’re gonna get it dead. Right? There’s not like a perfect process to it. So I’ve like changed over the years, like from sitting how I think I wanna sit where there’s like more ephemeral angle, meaning my knees are more down my.
butts higher off the ground, but with my abilities, I have a little bit lower core function and stuff, so I’ve, I’ve started to continue to like, bring it to where I’m almost flat. Like you’re sitting and your femur going across is almost just like parallel to the ground, or it’s just like you’re sitting flat like you would in a standard chair almost.
and that just allows me to get over my poles a little more. But the carbon fire one, it’s not like I adjust that. You just have to [00:37:00] get a whole new one. And that process is expensive. It takes a lot of time, and then it’s just, You know, like there’s no saying you’re gonna get it like perfect that next time either.
So a lot of tinkering. Okay. I’m sorry that’s a long No no. And
Alison Brown: there’s like 15 questions. So first, how many do you have at any one given time?
Aaron Pike: Um, usually like. After I get this third one, I’ll have three, but it’ll be al it’ll be more like two. You should have two. It like everyone that has like the carbon fiber sled, especially if you break that, it could be a problem.
So, your primary and your backup sit, ski,
Alison Brown: are you bringing that on the airplane or is it getting shipped for you?
Aaron Pike: we box ’em up. Some are in Steelcases, some are in plastic, but we fly ’em under the plane. They’re just boxed up and wrapped up and everything. Yeah.
Alison Brown: Okay. You said it was expensive. How expensive are we talking?
Aaron Pike: Yeah. I wish I, I don’t know all the total r and d thing, but now that that carbon thing’s made and they have a base and stuff, it’s close to 10 grand, somewhere in there for like a carbon fiber sit, ski. And then the aluminum ones, it’s really great. There’s a guy making very good ones now that is also [00:38:00] across country skiing.
He used to be on the hockey team, now he’s skiing, but he does a lot of stuff out of his garage and he’s making sit skis for like. Right around a thousand thousand dollars and they’re like aluminum with a plastic bucket and stuff. And then he can help tailor him stuff. So a lot cheaper than trying to do a full carbon fiber.
And then, which is great for people that are just getting into the sport.
Jill Jaracz: What is okay? I’m on of time it takes to make the carbon fiber.
Aaron Pike: Yeah. so this last time I probably made four different trips to the prosthetics place over the course of like. A few weeks. you’re just trying to fit in through there.
They always have tight schedules. A lot of people with prosthetics going in there. So in total, so far, like, ’cause I haven’t even got it yet. It was like probably a month of going back and forth to that pro, like once a week. And then it’s been, I had to go take a trip to mic another like four hour drive and spent a whole day there, after he made the carbon fiber piece to try to sit it on the frame correctly.
And then he’s been working on it for a while, so it’s, I don’t know, probably like For me, it’s been like a month and a half or so so far.
Alison Brown: [00:39:00] and how long does it take to get used to then a new sits gate?
Aaron Pike: Yeah, that’s, that’s always like, it’s always an adjustment. And the last one that I switched to, I would say, to get to the point where I wasn’t really even thinking about it, it was probably like a solid three or four weeks.
just to get to the point where I felt comfortable going on downhills and. Was thinking about it less and more just thinking about what I was doing in training and less about like the thing I was sitting in. ’cause you just, you just want the sit ski to like kind of disappear under you. Like you shouldn’t be thinking about it.
It should just be you skiing and that thing should just be a part of you.
Alison Brown: I just got the image of Kendall Gretch in Aaron’s sit ski. We would lose Kendall grass. Yeah, she
Aaron Pike: would definitely get swelled up in that. Yeah.
Jill Jaracz: What is the advantage of carbon fiber over the other materials?
Aaron Pike: it’s light. and then it’s ability to wrap around organic shapes.
Like you can’t, it’s wrapping around like our bodies organically, where you can’t do that with metal tubing.
Jill Jaracz: [00:40:00] And what advantage
Aaron Pike: and what that gives you is just like, it’s very reactionary to like. Like, I’m looking a direction and it’s like going with me type of thing. Or like, I start pulling a direction a little bit.
It’s so locked in. There’s no movement. It’s like you’re, you’re, you’re not moving inside of your sit ski. Your siski is just moving with you as one unit.
Jill Jaracz: That’s cool. That’s a cool, that’s gotta be a cool feeling to be like one with the, the sit ski.
Aaron Pike: Oh, yeah. Yeah. You just, yeah. It just, it feels really good.
It just, it’s almost like. Yeah, I just assume it’d feel like if you were like being able to fly all of a sudden through the air and like you just have wings and you can fly. This is just something you can fly across snow on.
Jill Jaracz: When you’ve had to put drill holes in skis, what does that do to the integrity?
Yeah, thank you. The integrity of the ski.
Aaron Pike: Yeah. A lot of ’em. We broke a lot of tails that way. So it must have, it messed within just the strength of it, I think. ’cause there’s a lot of people that would break the tail end of the ski. And I think part indu because we were adding additional, like screwing additional things into it.
And then, [00:41:00] and then the skis, it’s, yeah, it’s just a process. ’cause they’re, for people standing, they usually have like a certain length. They’re set for a certain weight, but we’re just. We’re always on ’em at both, like all the weights on the skis at the same time. Like where, when you’re skiing, it’s like all your leg, your weight transfers on one ski and then it transfers to the other ski where we’re like distributing our weight on two different skis the whole time.
So I think that we, like, I tend to use like softer skis than I think my weight would be for like a standing ski, I guess, if that makes sense.
Alison Brown: I’m curious about the, adjustments for the biathlon rifle.
Aaron Pike: Yeah,
Alison Brown: in terms of for your abilities and, and working with the sit ski and then it’s held, so yeah. How is that customized and worked with?
Aaron Pike: So like when you compare it to able-bodied biathlon, we don’t carry ’em during the skiing part, so they can be, the weight isn’t as much of a factor. Like it doesn’t, I don’t care if my rifle’s heavy. If anything, it’s probably more steady. and a lot of people have gone and [00:42:00] made custom stocks, so they’re just basically.
Uh, carving out exactly like their kind of fingerprints in the rifle, and then when their, their hands stop and everything and just getting it set up to wear exactly like they want it. Um, and then there’s a ton of adjustability, like within the bath on rifle of like how far the butt plate moves forward and back.
The cheek peak moves up and down. The eye piece moves forward and backwards. and for that, it’s like everyone, it’s just like their own unique, like how they, How they’re most comfortable, like the, the length of their arms. Like a lot of, lot of go luck goes into that.
Alison Brown: So, which is harder to travel with the biathlon rifle or the sits ski?
Aaron Pike: Oh, the rifle. The rifle is a nightmare. The rifle is, even though we compete with, it’s not even like a true, we call a firearm where there’s like. Where it’s, you know, a true bullet in there that’s shooting, it’s just pellets, like a BB gun essentially. just a, like a five grand BB gun. super precise.
But yeah, traveling’s, traveling’s a pain. It’s way, that’s the hardest thing to travel with. There’s always like, you never know what’s gonna happen in country to [00:43:00] country, like paying extra fees, like them having to pull you out, like having to have locks on all over ’em. Paperwork for the rifles. Like there’s always something.
Jill Jaracz: When you got into the sport, did you realize that that was gonna be,
Aaron Pike: oh, one of your new
Jill Jaracz: hobbies? No paperwork.
Aaron Pike: Yeah, no ignorance was bliss. When you get into the sport with that kind of stuff, like it’s uh, it’s one of those things where you just start to learn over time. I guess they don’t like to tell you all that stuff, right.
When you’re getting into the sport,
Alison Brown: you chose some very expensive options in sports. Yeah. Yeah.
Jill Jaracz: So what is. Your home, like in terms of storing all of these chairs and sit skis and you, you’ve got a lot.
Aaron Pike: Yeah, there’s, yeah, there’s, uh, luckily, luckily, like I’ve, I’ve, uh, you, we, I have like a locker area and stuff too at the training center at U of I and between my basement, I know there’s at least a racing chair down there.
AKI. The garage probably has, it has at [00:44:00] least a couple of Ana’s bikes and like one of TKIs. And then I’ve, then the training center, I think I have, maybe four different aluminum racing chairs and a carbon fiber chair that are there. So just like, yeah, there’s stuff, if it was all in my garage, they would be a completely full garage.
A two car garage would have zero space if it was all in one spot at one place.
Jill Jaracz: We’ve talked with, uh, Sana about how her body changes from summer to winter in terms of training. Does your body change as well?
Aaron Pike: Yeah, just like small things like my, uh, you don’t use your forearms much, in Nordic skiing, but in wheelchair racing, that’s, that’s massive.
And then the lats are like the biggest thing, like in skiing, you’ll fill your lats. I usually. I feel like I gain a little bit of like a pound or two of like mass when I’m skiing. ’cause I think it’s just a, there’s just resistance all the time and the nature of the sport. You’re always a lot of climbing.
Like you’re, most of the places we train are just on the side of a mountain, so [00:45:00] nothing’s flat and it’s just a ton of resistance all the time.
Jill Jaracz: Excellent.
Alison Brown: Okay. Have to let you go.
Aaron Pike: Thank you.
Jill Jaracz: Thank you so much, Aaron.
Sydney Peterson interview
Jill Jaracz: Next up we’re talking with Sydney Peterson at Sydney’s, Paralympic debut In 2022, she won a full set of medals in para cross country skiing. Her success in Beijing came as big a surprise, more so to her herself than anyone else. She’s hoping to repeat her success at Milano Cortina.
Take a listen.
Alison Brown: You have the best thing that I love, which is a full set from Beijing, bronze, silver, and, gold. how do you manage that when you’ve got that many races, that many things going in such a short period of time?
Sydney Peterson: I don’t know, I guess I kind of came into Beijing super last minute. at this time, four years ago, the Paralympics still weren’t even on my radar. and so it wasn’t until mid-November that I ended up starting the process of classification and then I. I ended up racing [00:46:00] at World Championships in Lillehammer in January of 2022, and from there I got a Bipartite invitation from the IPC to.
go and race at the Paralympics. So that was a separate invitation process, so I didn’t qualify through the typical team USA route. so I was still there as like a team, USA athlete and everything, but I didn’t take a roster spot from Team USA, and that was because I was such a late addition. so going into it, I was just super excited to be there.
Um, I didn’t. Have any goals of winning a medal or anything. And in my first race, then I started getting splits from the coaches and they had told me, oh, it was a 20 k classic race. and they told me, uh, you’re winning. And I was like, oh my gosh, I need to slow down. This isn’t good. Like this is a long race.
I can’t keep this up anymore. I ended up getting [00:47:00] second that day. And so, I mean, I dropped back a little bit, but I still was really stoked on that. but then I thought that that was just a fluke, but it w ended up being able to sustain that throughout the, two weeks of the games being there. So.
Okay. No, I think
Alison Brown: we just threw out every question that we had. Yeah. Originally. ’cause now, so how did it get introduced to you? Who came to you and said, Sydney, you should be racing in four months?
Sydney Peterson: so I was skiing in college and I’ve skied my whole life and I ski at St. Lawrence University, but I have dystonia, which is a progressive neurological disease.
And with that I was gradually losing the ability to, use my left arm. And it was affecting my left leg more progressively. And so with that, I was trying to find ways to adapt and, still continue to ski. And I was really struggling. And so my college coach helped me find ways and I ended [00:48:00] up. continuing to reach out to the, para Nordic coaches.
And at first they were like, oh, I don’t know if you would qualify to be a classified. And I was just having trouble getting in contact with them. but then eventually, once I did get through to them. They were like, okay, you can come here and try to get classified. We don’t know if it’ll work though. You have to pay your own way.
but it did work. So and it became more than successful, not, not a bad idea. It worked out really well.
Alison Brown: So now, how has that changed for you? Because now in this quad you’ve been prepping for four years to, to keep going as opposed to a few months.
Sydney Peterson: Yeah, it’s very nice to have a little bit more certainty, and, very nice to, I now have great teammates and coaches that I can ask questions.
I know more what to expect. I think this games will be a lot different than Beijing because the COVID restrictions are lifted and we’ll be able to have spectators, [00:49:00] which is gonna be awesome. But. hopefully now there’s some expectations to try and improve upon my results, which will be a little bit different.
And so that stress is a little different. But, yeah, it’s nice to go in with some reassurance of I know what the races will look like and I know what it’ll look like when I get to the start line.
Jill Jaracz: Do you, how often do you have to get reclassified.
Sydney Peterson: it depends based on each person individually, the classification panel decides.
It’s generally for me, I think every other year. Um, some people, if they have an amputation, that’s never gonna change. Yeah, yeah. They just get confirmed right away. Um, for someone with more of a progressive disease, they’ll set it for every other year.
Jill Jaracz: How does being an athlete. Affect the progression of your disease?
Or do you know, like, because you’re in shape, does it help that element or is it just gonna do its own thing?
Sydney Peterson: Oh, I [00:50:00] definitely think skiing is the best thing I can do for myself. Um. I mean, it keeps me strong. It’s a great form of physical therapy. Okay. I would never wanna, you know, go, go to PT every single day and be like, okay, but here it keeps my muscles strong.
And so, yeah. I. all the ski training that I do definitely only makes me stronger and healthier, and so it definitely helps
Alison Brown: when you have the imbalance in your body. Is it consistent day to day or is it, you know, Monday’s a good day and Tuesday’s a bad day.
Sydney Peterson: There’s definitely fluctuations. yeah. Some days are better, some days are worse.
yeah, that’s for sure. So how does that affect your training plan? I don’t really follow a training plan. I’m more of a loose for, I don’t know, I just kind of wake up and do whatever. I feel like sometimes my training plan is just whatever friends I text to go on adventures in the mountains. Um, I don’t know.
That’s probably not what it should be, but we won’t tell your [00:51:00] coaches, but then it works out well because. You know, on the days that I don’t feel as good, it’s just an easier day. And then when I do feel good, it’s a good day to push it and go a little bit harder or do an intensity session.
Jill Jaracz: When you get your time splits because you’re in a time factored situation. Mm-hmm. How do they give you the splits? Or are you also doing the factoring math in your head?
Sydney Peterson: No, they give us our factored splits. Okay. So yeah, we never see the raw time ever. Okay. Um, yeah, thankfully there’s a program that. Does the split with the factor 10 for us.
Okay. But, but we know that would be really hard. We know
Alison Brown: Sydnee could do it in her head
probably.
Sydney Peterson: I don’t know. Well, mid race, that would be really hard. Also, it’s like. And 88%. And so that’s such an odd number to, we have,
Alison Brown: we have the topic for your dissertation ready? I think Brian’s waving at us. Excellent.
Okay. Thank you you so much. You in
Kendall Gretsch interview
Jill Jaracz: Kendall Grech is our [00:52:00] next Shuk Ani. She has won several. She has won seven medals over four Paralympics, both in summer and winter. Most recently a silver and paratriathlon at Paris 2024. Kendall competes in both para cross country and para biathlon. She’s currently ranked fourth in para biathlon. Take a listen.
Alison Brown: Thank you so much for sitting down with us. We wanted to talk a little bit about the switch between summer and winter and how that actually works in your body and the push. And the pull and, and where do you start that transition?
Kendall Gretsch: you know, I really don’t know any different ’cause as soon as I. I started doing Paralympic sport, I, I kind of jumped into doing both right away. Um, so triathlon in the summer and then Nordic skiing in the winter. and I think it’s great. They’re very complimentary sports. They’re both endurance sports.
So, that base of fitness that you build in each sport really does translate over to the other, And yeah, I, I think for a while when I first started out, I always tried [00:53:00] to do everything all at once. So I was trying to be a skier and a triathlete all year round, and I really learned that that just wasn’t going to work.
And so my mindset has always been going forward, whatever season I’m in, I’m gonna do everything that makes me the best triathlete or makes me the best skier. And sometime there is some cross training there. So in. The winter, I actually continue to bike a fair amount. , But I feel like that’s all because it compliments me as a skier and not because I’m trying to keep up my summer fitness.
so I think that mindset of really, what season am I in and what do I need to be the best in that season has helped me kind of maintain, Kind of balance and also be able to, to perform well in both sports.
Alison Brown: So for example, since Paris, have you competed in triathlon at all?
Kendall Gretsch: So I did a couple triathlons this summer, and it really was, More [00:54:00] just because it would be such a long break from the end of last winter season to the beginning of this winter season where I wasn’t gonna be racing. So it’s always fun to race. Um, so I did a couple of triathlons really just to have something on the calendar to look forward to kind of drive the training a little bit more.
But I would say compared to a typical triathlon season, this was a very paired down season for me. with only doing two races this year.
Jill Jaracz: What is the muscle movement like? Because for triathlon you’re doing a lot more pushing in a way, or, uh, and then in Nordic you’ve got a pole with the poles, right?
Kendall Gretsch: Yeah, yeah. You know, I think luckily. I kind of cover all of the movements with triathlon. Yeah. I mean, is it good, like,
Jill Jaracz: um, you’re not, you’re, you get a balance. Yes. Does it mu muscular balance kind of thing?
Kendall Gretsch: It is. I would say between, Nordic and triathlon swimming is probably the most similar in terms of what muscle use you’re using.
but in some ways I think it’s a [00:55:00] really great thing, you know, as. S someone that only uses their arms for their sport. Being able to do different movements throughout the year, I think really does help with kind of injury prevention or just making sure, that my arms aren’t overloaded. and yeah, I think, our strength coach that we works with, he, he actually loves it.
He thinks it adds to our longevity as, as athletes. Just kind of switching up that movement pattern that we’re doing.
Alison Brown: you do long races in both sports or all three sports, I should say. What do you think about during the race?
Kendall Gretsch: You know, it’s so funny because a long race, I feel like, you know, if you were just going out and, and you think about like an hour, and if you’re just like riding easy, it feels like it takes forever.
You know, I look at my watch and I’m like five minutes into a ski and I’m like, oh my goodness. But during a race. You are just so focused on kind of what’s in front of you, what’s coming up [00:56:00] next. you, you really do kind of get into this Flow Zen site where all of a sudden the time passes and, you know, if I do find that I’m like thinking about other things, I really do try to come back to.
Anything that’s process oriented of around, whether it’s skiing or triathlon, whatever sport I’m doing. Um, but thinking about in the moment, you know, what’s a cue or something that I need to focus on, what
Jill Jaracz: are some of your cues?
Kendall Gretsch: yeah. You know, I think for, for me, for biathlon, when I come into the shooting range, I always say in my head process, which is, just a reminder for myself just to, Almost just to clear my mind and not think about like, oh my gosh, I have to make all of these shots, or I need to, not thinking about the standing of the race, but just thinking about what is it that I need to do to follow the correct process while I’m shooting. Um, so it just a very simple one word cue.
but yeah, I, I think they’re, they’re kind of smaller things. [00:57:00] A lot of times it’s like thinking about different, Like spots or areas on, on the course, whether it’s a certain corner. and then counting, that’s a big thing too. Counting what LAP I’m on.
Jill Jaracz: Have, wait, have you had races that you’ve, some of them are
Kendall Gretsch: complex.
Yeah. I had a race once where it was eight and a half laps. Oh, oh my. Yeah. So that was, that was a tricky one. Or Yeah, I just, sometimes you, you know, you get so brain fog, you don’t know what you’re doing when you’re racing. And, so I like to have a way to count. So I, I come up with different fun ways to count things.
So, a lot of times I go through my family members. So if it’s like five people I’ll go through, you know, five people in my family. And then, which I think is a nice reminder too, you can think about each lap kind of being. Like a, almost a dedication to that family member. so yeah, but, but counting is a big part of what I think about when I’m racing.
Alison Brown: [00:58:00] Do you approach the cross country skiing differently when it’s cross country versus biathlon?
Kendall Gretsch: I think a little bit. You know, I, I try not to, I guess back off on the skiing, because I know that I’m going into the shooting range, I think, for, besides the kind of like, I guess a hundred meters or so, 50 meters of the actual range, I really try to treat them pretty similarly.
Obviously, there are a lot of differences of, you know, you’re, you’re stopping every lap you’re shooting, you have penalty lapse potentially. so it is a little bit different. But in terms of the skiing and pacing, I really try to, to treat it similar. Yeah.
Jill Jaracz: Which is a harder getting through the airport, summer or winter?
Kendall Gretsch: Oh, that’s a great question. you know, I think for summer when I show up to the airport, it looks like I’m moving. I’ve got a lot of stuff with me. You’ve got sports with a lot of gear, a lot of, and one with a rifle that’s, [00:59:00] yes. I think, I do think that the rifle makes it trickier because you just never know what you’re gonna get.
I’ve had some crazy experiences with the air rifle where, you know, you’re not sure if you’re gonna make it out, um, because they just, yeah, they’re, you know, they’re asking for paperwork that I just don’t have. so the, the rifle is definitely leads you to parts the airport you didn’t think you would go to.
Alison Brown: How long do you leave before your flight?
Kendall Gretsch: Oh, um, I feel like we typically get there like three hours in advance. Yeah.
Jill Jaracz: Okay. I’m just gonna say the night before,
Kendall Gretsch: well, often, yeah. We have like a lot of early morning flights, so be like showing up at the airport at 4:00 AM and we’re the first people at the desk to check in, which helps, but it’s a lot of early mornings.
Alison Brown: Have you seen the course for Cortina?
Kendall Gretsch: We have, yeah. So not the exact course, but we had a test event in Cortina last. Year. Um, so we were able to get an idea [01:00:00] of what the venue will be like. see parts of the course. There will be some changes for this year, but it’s always good just to get, start picturing that in your mind.
And, you know, I think one of the things that’s interesting for me on this course, especially for biathlon, is it’s not a, a. Established by Lon venue. So they actually kind had to build a range for the games. so it’s in a bit of an awkward location. Normally the range would be kind of like you’re starting an ending location for the lap.
This is almost halfway through the lap, so it kind of leads to some, some interesting, like first. Lap skiing, where you, you like, you pass the range before you go into it the first time. So it’s good just to have that in your mind of like, oh, hey, this is gonna be different than your normal process. And, um, just start thinking about that now.
Alison Brown: So the last two Paralympics of Pyeongchang and Beijing had insane winds.
Kendall Gretsch: Yeah. How are, how are
Alison Brown: the wins at the test event for Italy?
Kendall Gretsch: Yeah. You [01:01:00] know, it is actually. Um, it was kind of tricky, not like strong wind, um, but there was kind of some swirling wind. That if you were to look at the wind flag, you could, you could see the wind.
but a lot of times we go off of like feeling the wind on our cheek and so it was some tricky wind where you wouldn’t feel anything on your cheek, but it was actually blowing enough where it was impacting your shots. Um, so again, that’s something that’s really important to know going into the games this year of, you know, you can’t rely on those traditional win queues that you would at another venue.
Jill Jaracz: what about the snow? Because the snow in Beijing was interesting. Yeah. And, and you had warm days. Yes, because we were there and it was sloggy. Yes. Oh my gosh. It was a slog.
Kendall Gretsch: Oh yes. Yeah. you know, I think everyone is just hoping that there’s going to be snow.
You know, March is tough, unfortunately, especially in that area. We were there end of January. [01:02:00] last year and it, it was already kind of a slog. I think it was an especially warm last year. Last year. so hopefully again, it’s, we gotta hope for some snow.
Jill Jaracz: what, what about waxing? Like, how does that, I mean, that makes a difference.
Kendall Gretsch: Yeah. Luckily we have a really awesome team of wax techs that will be with us. and so I don’t have to worry about that, you know? Um, yeah. Which I think is, uh, is such a luxury and a great thing as a, a Nordic skier to have full trust in your waxing team.
and I think that’s something that we really do. Do so well as a country, I think there’s, there’s never a race where I’m, I’m not confident in our wax and our, our team’s ability to give us good wax. So they’re the experts there and, and I trust them.
Alison Brown: You just have to go be your fabulous self.
Kendall Gretsch: Yeah, exactly.
Which is what you want as an athlete. You don’t want a equipment to be a question of, of how you’re gonna perform. Uh, you just wanna show up and, and do what you’re, [01:03:00] what you’re trained to do.
Alison Brown: Excellent. Perfect. Great way to end.
Kendall Gretsch: Excellent. Thank you so much. You got a pen?
Alison Brown: Awesome.
Jake Adicoff interview
Jill Jaracz: Finally we have Jake Ticoff. He is a three-time Paralympian and four-time medalist, including gold from Beijing 2022 in the four by 2.5 kilometer mixed relay. He is currently ranked first in his class at the World Cup level. Take a listen.
Alison Brown: You Race With a Guide and we are totally fascinated with the relationship with the guide. So just talk a little bit about how that works.
Jake Adicoff: Yeah. so in a lot of visually impaired sports, athletes race with a guide, in Nordic skiing, in within the visually impaired category.
There are, there are three different classifications, going from NS one, which is completely blind up to NS three, um, which is the, the widest like band of sight. so, and that’s the category that I’m in. Um, so obviously for like NS ones and NS twos, the, the more [01:04:00] visually impaired of the, of the ski group, they rely on guides very heavily for getting around the course.
and in the NS three category, guides are kind of a, a twofold purpose. Um, the first is obviously, to help you see around the course, someone to follow. but a lot of us, are able to ski by ourselves still. so the, the second purpose of the guide is, drafting. and so you need to like learn how to ski behind a guide.
as close as possible so that, they can break the wind for you, and make your race faster.
Alison Brown: What makes a good guide for you specifically? For me
Jake Adicoff: specifically? Um, a good guide for me. one of the most important things, they of course need to be a good skier, but that’s, that is like baseline classification.
For me, I think the most important thing is that they’re, they’re like a close friend of mine. I spend about six months of the year, traveling for training and racing and et cetera, et [01:05:00] cetera. so most of that time is spent with one or more of my guides. so they need to be someone that I can like, you know, have breakfast, lunch, and dinner with, and then go to bed and do that again.
Um, they need to be someone that I am like super comfortable sharing a tiny little European bedroom with, in a hotel. So, yeah, it’s just, uh, just like someone that you know, where the day-to-day life is, like really comfortable. And then also, once we get on skis, the communications there, and that the speed is there too.
Alison Brown: How many guides are you working with in any particular season?
Jake Adicoff: last year I worked with I think, three guides. The year before, I think I had five total, this upcoming season, we’re, you know, still like putting the final touches on schedule. but it’s looking like probably two guides for this season.
Jill Jaracz: Is there a consistency between the cues that they give you or do you adapt to every guide?
Jake Adicoff: a little bit of both. we don’t do a [01:06:00] ton of queuing. So, you know, we, we established some like baseline communication of like, we need to speed up, slow down, watch out for this, technical part of the course.
but there, there is like very, very little actual communication during the race. most of it is communication about like pace. and I’m just like kind of using the, the limited site that I have to watch where they’re going and follow them and. Trust in what they’re doing. So, back to the question that you asked, there’s this baseline, but most of the time it is like this game of trust and, and a lot of the time that that works out pretty well.
Jill Jaracz: Are there rules about how far ahead they can be or how close they can be to you?
Jake Adicoff: no, there aren’t. So you can be as close as you want to. A guide, or as far away. And guides can also, cut off parts of the course. Um, you can have two guides in a race where they would like swap out. and we’ve, you know, I’ve used all of [01:07:00] these strategies before.
they’re there, there are certain days that kind of lend themselves to. Or not lend themselves. There are certain days that are, that are really hard to guide. Um, so, fast, icy courses, that are flat. Um, when the guide’s breaking through a lot of wind, it becomes very challenging for them to, to ski in front of me for an entire race.
so we have multiple guides, um, so that they can swap out, when they get tired.
Alison Brown: I was fascinated that in Beijing you meddled in a short freestyle and a long classic. that just seems so counterintuitive to be good at all things.
Jake Adicoff: Yeah. I think Nordic skiing is a pretty unique sport that way. where there are definitely specializations and there are, you know, people that are very good at sprinting are very good at distance skiing, but. across the sport in general, people race almost every type of, uh, or almost every discipline. and it is a little bit different than say, like, track where you’re, your [01:08:00] shortest race is, 10 seconds ish, a little bit less.
so, our shortest race, by time is maybe three minutes. Um, so. the specialization that you need, like the physiological adaptions, adaptations, sorry. aren’t so specialized, aren’t so specific. but yeah, it is definitely a big gear shift to go from a, from a short skate distance race to a, a long classic.
they’re totally different races. it does, you know, it takes some getting used to, to figure out how to race both of ’em well.
Alison Brown: Is it more physical or mental? That’s the tougher switch.
Jake Adicoff: Ooh, uh, whew. probably mental, actually. the physical is definitely tricky, but I definitely struggle the most with like, uh, with sprint races and, and staying like really present in that short amount of time.
I think it can be, you can like get into this like frantic state where you’re just trying to like move your limbs as fast as possible, but that [01:09:00] doesn’t necessarily translate to, the fastest skiing that you can do. so for me it is the mental, the mental shift.
Jill Jaracz: when you get the program do you prefer a sprint first or the distance first, or?
I mean, obviously you don’t get to control that, but, but how, how does your mentality change from when you see what the program is going to be?
Jake Adicoff: it doesn’t change too much. and to be honest with you, like I, not on purpose, but, and I will go look at it, with enough time to prepare, but I don’t know the order of the races in Milan yet.
Um, so, um, this is not, it’s not something that I’m. Super concerned about at the moment. it’s definitely like, you know, it needs planning, it needs attention. but I don’t need to start stressing about that, four months in advance. I can do that, you know, with 30 days or something.
Alison Brown: I wanted to ask you about mixed relay Yeah.
And how that is different than either working with only men or just doing your, your individual [01:10:00] events.
Jake Adicoff: mixed relay is, I think it’s the, the coolest event. Me too. Yeah. It’s, it’s really fun. it’s a really fun day and, you know, we have, we have a really strong team, but we don’t have a big team, so, it’s really cool that this event like lends itself to, uh, or like, is.
I don’t know, accessible to a lot of different teams. it’s, it’s formatted in a way that kind of lets everyone participate. and yeah, it’s, I don’t know, it’s so much fun to like be out there with, with your teammates that, you know, like have put in so much time and effort and have like performed all like in China, you know, relay was the last day.
saw so much good effort, going into that and like it was just, I don’t know, big confidence boost on the day to know that you know, your teammates are fit and fast, but then like, see that throughout the week, and then have it kind of unfold. The way that it did was. Just unreal. [01:11:00]
Alison Brown: Worked out well.
Jake Adicoff: Yeah, worked out great.
Alison Brown: I can’t let you go before, without asking you about Brian McKeever.
Jake Adicoff: Yeah.
Alison Brown: Tell me. He’s as fabulous as he seems.
Jake Adicoff: He’s a great guy. Good. Um, yeah, He’s the one of the coaches for the Canadian team now. we have a pretty tight relationship with the Canadians despite, you know, it being competition.
and yeah, he’s still out there like, Feeding me technique advice and stuff like that. Things that he sees that, he thinks I need to improve. Like he’ll, he’ll either let me or a coach know and yeah, it’s cool. I love it. Perfect. Excellent. Perfect. Excellent. Thank you so much. Thank
Alison Brown: you so much.
Thank you. Thank you so much. Excellent. Thank you.
Jill Jaracz: Thank you so much, Jake.
More free ways to support and have fun with the podcast
Jill Jaracz: You know there are other free ways to support us if you’ve already given or.
You can’t give financially to us at this time. There are other ways to support the show.
Alison Brown: Absolutely. Most importantly, share the show with your friends. That’s the best thing you can do. Tell your friends, share it on social media. Get more stanis in the, [01:12:00] in the group. We love that. Uh, speaking of group, you can join the Facebook group that’s Keep The Flame Alive podcast, and that’s where we talk.
All year round about all the fun things that people are watching and doing related to the Olympics and Paralympics. And as Jill mentioned earlier, you can sign up for the Substack newsletter, which is free, and we, uh, love to share additional content over there.
Jill Jaracz: and if you’re not on Facebook, but you are on Substack, they also have notes.
So we’ll be chatting there as well too if you wanna get in on that action. So yes, please, come along for the ride. We’re gonna have a lot of fun times in Milano, Cortina, and we wanna make sure you are there and we can connect with you. So please sign up.
Milano Cortina News: Unveiling of the Cauldron and Opening Ceremonies Updates
Jill Jaracz: See the cauldron has been unveiled, you know, and I thought, like when I saw the press release, like Milano Cortina is that person who just [01:13:00] cannot keep a secret.
Alison Brown: And I’m okay with that. I don’t love all the secrets and, and the, oh, we’re not gonna show it until the opening ceremonies, because I like all these reveals to get excited.
And also then I can learn more about it ahead of time. And it has a lot more depth and meaning to me when I actually see these moments.
Jill Jaracz: Fair enough. And, I agree that like being able to read up on this and get the full story and have it sink in and then you get to see what it actually looks like is, is cool.
But I do love the element of surprise. I, I do love that, that big reveal all at once when the entire world sees it at, and now this was kind of like a first to post it.
Alison Brown: And to be fair, the reason that they gave for revealing the cauldron ahead of time was so fantastic. So we went to a virtual press conference with the organizers and he said, we have to reveal the cauldron ’cause we’re gonna start building it [01:14:00] and people are gonna see it anyway.
So let’s make an event.
Jill Jaracz: Right. So the, the press conference was with Marco Bai, who is the creative director of the ceremonies for Milano Cortina. And, he talked a lot about what was gonna happen, not specifics.
’cause he did say there are some things we are not going to share, but we seem to be going back to old school. Ceremonies,
Alison Brown: two and a half hours, he said. So, plan ahead, get comfortable, get warm. Bring a blanket.
Jill Jaracz: But that’s better than a four hour ceremony. Three or four hours that they have been
Alison Brown: agreed and different segments, musical segments.
Mariah Carey’s gonna sing in Italian, which I think is pretty cool. I do too. Gonna sing an Italian, which is pretty cool.
Jill Jaracz: The Mariah Carey singing in Italian means that she will not be singing. Imagine
Alison Brown: unless she’s singing. Imagine in Italian
Jill Jaracz: that that’s, yes.
Alison Brown: I think I, mm I don’t know if she’s gonna sing Imagine in Italian, but I think we’re gonna hear, [01:15:00] imagine in Italian.
Jill Jaracz: Well,
Alison Brown: we’re just gonna hear, imagine. Yeah.
let’s talk about the Cauldron. ’cause Cauldron’s really cool.
Jill Jaracz: The cauldron is cool. It is inspired by Leonard Leonardo da Vinci’s, geometric links. So there are two circles that are kind of concentric and the flame is going to be in a small bowl in the center for environmental purposes. It will be small, so it’s not quite the snow flame of Beijing.
It is definitely not the electric lights of Paris, but it is not a giant cauldron that we are used to. But the deal is that this cauldron, which will be in the Arco De Apache, in Milano, there will also be one in Corina with the Dolomites behind it. They are mobile. So every hour on the hour, there’s going to be like a three to four minute cauldron show.
With lights and music and the cauldron will move, [01:16:00] the circles will do it their thing,
Alison Brown: right? So the concentric circles, with the DaVinci links expand and contract and move in opposing circular ways. The way the, the video was, was. Quite impressive. So I understand why they said, once we started constructing this, people are gonna see what’s going on because this is going to be a complex project to get these things up and moving.
So it’s gonna move. We’ve never had a mobile cauldron before, I don’t think.
Jill Jaracz: No. What the, the Rio one?
Alison Brown: Oh, yes.
Jill Jaracz: And, and to an extent like Vancouver, the arms lifted up.
Alison Brown: Right?
Jill Jaracz: But that’s not like a, it moves around all the time,
Alison Brown: right? So this is gonna be action Jackson, on your cauldron.
Jill Jaracz: So yeah, I think that will be cool. The show will be cool. whether or not it will be ticketed. To see because remember they had to and, [01:17:00] and Nicholas wool over from Olympic rings and other things mentioned later it’s like, oh yeah. Remember they had to ticket the cauldron at, uh, did they ticket the cauldron?
Alison Brown: Yes. You
Jill Jaracz: okay. Because I know they ticketed the horse
Alison Brown: was free, but it was ticketed.
Jill Jaracz: Yes. So will they need to ticket this as well? Because I’m sure it’s gonna be popular,
Alison Brown: but I have a feeling you’re gonna be able to see the light show from quite a distance. Yeah, yeah. Depending on how the, the Piazza’s set up and where the buildings are.
It’s not like the cauldron where people wanted in Paris, where people wanted to get up close to the balloon.
Jill Jaracz: Right.
Alison Brown: This is more of a spectacle, like the twinkling lights of the,
Jill Jaracz: Eiffel Tower.
Alison Brown: Eiffel Tower, thank you. Okay. Where you can see it from multiple places in the city,
Jill Jaracz: so hopefully, but it, it will be cool once it’s there.
I think it will be like a magnet drawing people to the flame. the Olympic ceremony will be in four places. Athlete Parade is going to [01:18:00] happen in all locations, and I have a feeling they’re gonna jump back and forth to different locations, but I.
Alison Brown: Yes, because he said some countries will only have one or two athletes, so they may not be in Milan, they may be up in the mountains.
So I think we’ll be jumping back and forth on the televised version depending on where the athletes are. So obviously, say for the American contingent, they’re gonna be in every place, but say Brazil, which we’ll talk about later, will probably only up be up in the mountains. So I think that the television will just show where the athletes are.
Jill Jaracz: Yeah. So that will be interesting and I think that will make the show shorter, ultimately,
Alison Brown: possibly.
Jill Jaracz: he threw some shade. It was great. He threw a little shade. cause somebody did ask, you know, the shows recently have been very heavy on video. Content and he did not seem to like that idea. I would not be surprised if there were some videos to cover commercial breaks or to, help with [01:19:00] transitions.
But he was very much a, an Olympic ceremony needs to have that heartbeat of a person in it. So there will be something like 1200 volunteers dancing and performing throughout the, the night in different ways. Um. And I am imagining very much an Italian spectacle.
Alison Brown: That’s what we’re hoping for.
Jill Jaracz: Because didn’t they say like cdu sole people were involved, or directors were involved in the background on the team?
Alison Brown: So the, the choreographer and I think the artistic director are both Cirque du Soleil people. So Hall, we’re gonna have flying Italians,
Jill Jaracz: oh, this is gonna be great. more shade given to Paris 2024 specifically, somebody asked about. The approach that the team was taking versus how they did it in Paris.
And he said, well, you know, there’s two ways you can do a, a ceremony. You can have a director and it’s kind of all about the director. Or you can have a team. We and every team has like their section that they [01:20:00] care about and we all come together and, and make it work. And that’s, you know, they did the, they’re doing the ladder on Milan.
And the Paris was the former,
Alison Brown: was Toma show. Lee was everything. And we don’t even know most of the names of the, the creative team. There’s so many of them that it’s not this as, as Marco said, the one guru who’s
Jill Jaracz: right,
Alison Brown: the focus. And that’s just not how they work. Which makes sense because when I spoke to the design team people, it was the same idea that we’re very team oriented, that there’s not this one.
Overpowering capo, who’s telling you what to do?
Jill Jaracz: last bit of shape. There’s going to be a tribute to Armani, uh, because Georgio Armani recently passed away. He is, from Milano. And has been the Italian kit designer for ages
Alison Brown: as far as I can remember, longer than Ralph Lauren, I wanna say that’s worked with team USA.
So yes. So Valentino passed away [01:21:00] over the weekend and someone asked, oh, will you work in some sort of honoring of him as well? And he ba and, and Marco basically said, no, he’s from Rome.
Jill Jaracz: That’s, I love that so
Alison Brown: much. We do not care. He is from Rome. He has no ties to the Olympics. He has no ties to Milan. Why would we honor Valentino?
But he very eloquently said, no, you know, we, we won’t be honoring him ’cause he’s from Rome, but we respect Italian design. But yeah, he just wanted to throw the Rome Milan, rivalry. It’s kind of like New York, Boston.
Jill Jaracz: Yeah. Yeah.
Alison Brown: And it was, it was fun to hear it play out just right there in the press conference.
Jill Jaracz: I am getting very excited for the opening ceremony. We will not know whether or not we both get in, so,
Alison Brown: or either of us get in. We’re gonna hope for one, we’re gonna hope for one at least.
Jill Jaracz: And if it’s at least one, it’s your turn. ’cause I did Paris, so,
Alison Brown: but yours. We’ll figure your Paris turn was awful.
Jill Jaracz: Well, you know, it was in the rain and there was exciting things and I [01:22:00] was there so, we’ll figure it out because there will be watch parties, there will be something else to do for if we’re not around in San, but hopefully we’ll be able to get to see some little element of that.
Pin trading center at Milano Cortina 2026
Jill Jaracz: But something else to do if you are going to Milano, pin Trader Scott Reed said on Facebook that there is definitely going to be a pin trading center at Milano Cortina.
It’s going to be in Corso Como, across the street from 10 Corso. Como, we’ll be open from
10 o’clock. In the morning to, uh, seven o’clock in the evening. Each day of the game, starting on February 6th, every day, they will have a limited edition pin for the day. That will be for sale only at the pin trading center, while supplies last. There will be other exclusive pins as well for sale appearances by athletes, other special guests.
More info coming on Monday, January 26th, and attendance is free. So be sure if you are going, be sure to pop in [01:23:00] there if you’re in Milano Canadian listeners.
Watch parties at Canadian libraries
Jill Jaracz: The CBC and Radio Canada want public libraries to host, free accessible watch parties and screenings during the game. So they are sponsoring them Let us know. Your library may be holding watch parties during the Olympics and or Paralympics. If you go, let us know. Let us know what it’s like. That was very exciting to read.
Alison Brown: Canada’s doing some really fun things related to the Winter Olympics. I’m jealous Canada.
Jill Jaracz: Except for, you know, I did see if you were on our Facebook group, you did see that I happened to drive by raising canes in our town and saw a big banner up front that said Limited time plus G for, USA bobsled skeleton.
Alison Brown: And you turned that little car so fast
Jill Jaracz: we did and got myself the cutest little dog in a bobsled. It comes outta the bobsled. It’s got a little hat on, the hat comes off, the helmet comes off. [01:24:00] It’s so cute. that is one nice thing that you can kind of get, but it’s not, it’s just USA bobsled and skeleton.
It’s not totally Olympics, but, uh, pretty good.
Props to Milano Cortina Accreditation Department
Jill Jaracz: Before we move on to other news, I, one last props to Milano. Cortina. ‘ We have been ragging on Milano Cortina a lot, especially on construction, but I wanna give props to accreditation because this is the first time in three games that we got our Paralympic accreditations before we left for the games.
Alison Brown: This is true. They’re sitting safely in a secure location. So that they will be ready for March.
But yeah, they, they did get us our accreditations early and we are ready to go. Yeah. Paris was late.
Jill Jaracz: Paris was late. Beijing was late. And, and late being that we have them, but you’re not coming home. I guess we can bring them with us, but you, we won’t get there before you need them. So you had to get, we had to get accreditations made.
Alison Brown: Yes.
Jill Jaracz: For both Paris [01:25:00] and Beijing, which was just kind of a waste of money in the weight of mailing those around. I will say Milan followed the good example that Paris did, where they don’t send you a laminated credential. And this is really getting in the weeds folks, but if you wanna hear behind the scenes stuff, we get a credential, for Beijing.
We got it. It’s laminated. And when you, uh. get to the airport and you get through customs, and then you go to the accreditation, desk where they activate your accreditation for you and, for Beijing, you, it was laminated already. They give you a lanyard, they activate it.
You’re good to go. Well, for Paris, they said we’ll just laminate them on site,
Alison Brown: which sounds small, but if you multiply that by the thousands of accreditations, how much postage. Travel weight that they saved by just laminating it when you show up. Made so much sense.
Jill Jaracz: It did. And Milan has followed that and props.
’cause [01:26:00] I think it’s such a great idea. Tiny but great idea. So I’m thrilled that we got our accreditations for both, everything.
Alison Brown: And they’re pretty,
Jill Jaracz: you don’t have to stress,
Alison Brown: they’re pretty, oh, you know the lanyard is gonna be gorgeous.
Jill Jaracz: Yes,
Alison Brown: we’ll have pictures of that when we get them.
LA 2028 News: Ticket lottery follow-up
Jill Jaracz: Little follow up from LA 2028 News. They were so over the moon that over 1.5 million people registered for the ticket lottery on the very first day. It opened more than any games in recent history. So
Alison Brown: are we surprised?
Jill Jaracz: No.
Alison Brown: No.
Jill Jaracz: We are not surprised. Should you be worried about this?
Alison Brown: No.
Jill Jaracz: Also, no. hooray for LA 2028.
There’s a lot of demand. A lot of people are excited. We are still two and a half years away and. Still plenty of time.
Alison Brown: You not, if you missed out, I think you can still register for the lottery.
Jill Jaracz: Oh yeah. You can register until March. So you didn’t need to register on day one and there were like [01:27:00] cues to get in to the sign up and, ’cause I, I tried, I eventually signed up for it just to see what the whole process was.
But you know, you, you got a couple months there to sign up. So If you need to know the process, we have a post on our blog. We’ll put the link in our show notes that tells you how to acquire tickets for LA 2028. It’s a long process, but there’s still plenty of time. Don’t worry. Don’t let them make you feel like you’re missing out.
That’s for sure. Be strong.
Team Keep the Flame Alive News (TKFLASTAN)
Alison Brown: Welcome to sh Stan.
Jill Jaracz: It is the time of the show where we check in with our team, keep the flame alive. These are past guests and listeners of the show who make up the citizenship of our very own country. Shuk Stan first.
Alison Brown: IBSF released allocations for Milano Cortina 2026 Shuk. Lesi number one will be going to his second Olympics.
Josh Williamson was named as a pusher on Shuk Tani’s. Frank Del Dukas four man. Sled two man [01:28:00] pairings will be named later. And also more sliders. Alana Meyers Taylor will be going to her fifth Olympics in the two women paired with break woman, Jaden O’Brien. Adam Edelman will be driving for Israel and in skeleton, Shannon Galia is in line for Milano Cortina.
Her going to the games depends on other athletes declining spots. We’ll keep an eye on that and let you know and.
Canada, we mentioned this last week with Canada and the cheating allegations regarding the skeleton spots, they have been cleared of cheating, so that affected Shannon’s point values. So we’ll keep an eye on that and see if anything changes between now and the start of the games.
Jill Jaracz: Cross country skier.
Bruno Mora was named to the Brazilian Olympic team for Milano, Corina 2026, which is huge because if you listen to our episode with her, she had such a bad accident trying to get to Beijing 2022, and now she is a. Realized your dream. I, you know, just safe [01:29:00] travel’s getting there. That’s all I want for you, Bruno.
Safe travel’s getting there.
Alison Brown: Just hit the starting line. Uh, short track speed skater Ryan. Shane missed making the US Olympic team by one place. So condolences for that, Ryan, but keep going, keep going.
Jill Jaracz: Climber. Josh Levin was on Suzuki, which is the original Ninja warrior in Japan.
Huge deal to get on Suzuki. He completed stages one and two, got, uh, bit by stage three, and uh, was thrilled to be there. props to you for making it that far.
Alison Brown: John Nber will be awarded a lifetime achievement award at the Los Angeles Sports Council’s, LA Sports Awards
Jill Jaracz: and Para Powerlifters.
Louise Den has been selected to compete in Europeans in March.
Alison Brown: She is never retiring. She’s just gonna lift heavy things forever.
Jill Jaracz: I know. Keep going. Louise, this is so exciting.
Special programming note
Jill Jaracz: And that is going to do it for this episode. We have a special programming note for you though. Next week while I’m on a plane heading to Milano, you will [01:30:00] be listening to interviews with Wheelchair Curler, Steve Ampt, freestyle Skier, skier, Jalen Kauf, and Paris Snowboarders, Mike Schultz and Noah Elliott.
But before that, ideally Monday, We’re planning, but it doesn’t happen until it happens. We are planning to have an alpine skiing preview with Tom Kelly and also on that show we will let you know the exclusive content that our patrons will get during Milano Cortina. You might be interested in that as well if you really wanna know all the stuff that’s going on.
So thank you so much for listening,
Alison Brown: and until next time, keep the flame alive.