The rain put a damper on most of today’s action, but that hasn’t stopped the athletes! We experienced amazing competitions today and have results and news from:
- Artistic Gymnastics
- Badminton
- Basketball
- Beach Volleyball
- Boxing
- Canoe Slalom
- Diving
- Equestrian
- Fencing
- Football
- Handball
- Hockey
- Judo
- Road Cycling
- Rowing
- Rugby 7s
- Shooting
- Surfing
- Swimming
- Table Tennis
- Tennis
- Volleyball
- Water Polo
Plus we learn about a French theater tradition that’s spilled over into sports, and dish on the celebrities we’ve seen here in Paris!
Don’t forget – the only way that we’re able to bring you this unique look at the Games is thanks to donations from listeners like you. Please support us financially so that we can continue to keep our flame alive. We have many ways to support us — and if you sign up as a paid Patreon member, you’ll get exclusive content!
Our researcher for the Olympics is Annalee Deabel.
Thanks so much for listening, and until next time, keep the flame alive!
TRANSCRIPT
Note: This is an uncorrected machine-generated transcript and may contain errors. Please check its accuracy against the audio. Do not quote from the transcript; use the audio as the record of note.
Paris 2024 Day 1
Jill: Bonjour, and welcome to day one of the Paris 2024 Olympics on Keep the Flame Alive, the podcast for fans of the Olympics and Paralympics. I am your host, Jill Jaracz, coming to you from the Maine Press Center here in Paris. And I’m joined as always by my lovely co host, Alison Brown. Alison, hello, how are you?
Alison: Hello, I was still getting prepared with all my notes and pages and things.
Jill: I’m sorry, do you want to? That’s
Alison: okay. No, because One of the things I learned today is that Ian Thorpe carries around a book that looks like an old time phone book when he’s getting ready to do his coverage. Wow. So my little notes and papers I am not ashamed of anymore.
Jill: Were you ashamed of them?
Alison: A little bit that I don’t do it on the computer and I don’t use computer apps.
Jill: You don’t have to. You get a
Alison: big book with not a binder things, you know, like those plastic clippy things like you get at a conference. Yeah.
Jill: Interesting. Interesting. All right. We have a little bit of followup file because we got back to our hotel and we’re like, Oh yeah, we didn’t talk about this, this, and this with the opening ceremonies, namely the Celine Dion performance,
Alison: which is huge.
And it was, uh, the hymn. I know they don’t say H’s, uh, Lamour, which actually was made famous by Edith Piaf. Makes a lot of sense. Amazing. Everyone in my little watch party went absolutely crazy. No doubt that live, it was insane.
Jill: Also, people were cheering around us and on the other side of the river as well.
It sounded terrific, and I’m not a huge Celine Dion fan, but she sounded amazing.
Alison: Nobody can pull off an epic moment quite like Celine Dion, so good on you. For that one.
Jill: Yes. Uh, talked with listener Ian. I got to meet listener Ian today. That was fantastic. Um, but he had, uh, had a seat along the river and exchanged it for a seat by the Eiffel tower.
Good choice because he got to see that phenomenal light show and said it was absolutely amazing. And we also talked with another reporter here in the main press center last night who had gotten a seat in the Trocadero and said, basically, She sat in the rain watching TV for four hours until the, until the, like the oath and the speeches and that, and you saw the flag get up.
Alison: And she said that there weren’t a lot of athletes who came up out of their boats. On to the area around those, uh, because it looked empty on TV. It looked like there was a lot of space. And she said she thinks a lot of the athletes that were on the nice boats, not, you know, poor ST Lucia, who always who almost ended up in the river, um, stayed in those comfy sort of dining areas that we may have, that you may have seen on the lower levels.
Jill: And then, uh, you know, I had thought a little bit more about what I would change it. There are a lot of mixed reviews about the show. Some people liked it. Some people didn’t.
Alison: As you would expect, it was that kind of a show where you’re going to have very strong opinions about it. Mm
Jill: hmm. A lot of, uh, I saw that, uh, listener Brian had commented, uh, that he watched it from London.
And so we got to see a different commentary team. And it just sounded like echoing what you said about the very scant information that we got. They didn’t really know what was going on. So it made job their job so much more difficult to be able to convey to listeners and their subtitle, not subtitles, but, uh, names along the bottom, not happening.
I guess you did not, you, you said that you did not get the, uh, Sign language translator. We also had everybody’s speech in English and French on the screens by us.
Alison: We were watching French television. So not only did we get the French in French, we got the English dubbed in French. Oh. So I had to, when we came back, I was catching up on some of the, what the English was, you know, I was straining to hear over the voiceover or under the voiceover what they were saying in, in English.
Jill: Uh, the other thought I had was I wished they had continued the performance. I know they had a main area for performance, but it would have been nice to have little barges like they had along the river. in spots and have little groups of dancers still performing. Cause we heard the music. It’s not like they couldn’t have done it.
I don’t know if they were trying to save money because they anticipated a potential dancer strike and they knew they’d have to pay out a little bit more. I don’t know, but I think that would have made it a little more fun for the people who paid and some of them paid very big bucks. Those Trocadero seats were not cheap.
And, and either, even, um, I, I know some of the seats were really cheap, but you had to snap those up really quickly. But I think a lot of people paid a pretty handsome price to end up not having much show in front of them. When it comes down to it, to have, like, we sat there for two, two and a half hours with nothing in front of us.
Uh, so, if you’re gonna do it, do it. Another ceremony on a river, and it’s gonna be a 10 kilometer course, and let’s keep that in mind.
Alison: Or, or, I think the answer is don’t do it.
Jill: Alright, let’s go to Dave, let’s begin the baguette.
Alison: So remember when you talked about the stick at rugby? Yes. I have discovered what this is all about because there is a stick at every event, it seems like, because this is a French theater tradition. It is called the Trois Coupes. You bang the stick three times in theater. It was to get people’s attention that the curtain was about to be raised.
The stick is called a brigadier. At Swimming Tonight, Inga de Bruyn banged the stick.
Jill: at tennis tonight, Billie Jean King banged the stick.
Alison: So
Jill: people went nuts.
Alison: So we, I don’t know if they’re showing this on television, but this is a wonderful French tradition that they’re bringing into sport where it comes from theater.
So yes, we will see lots of people banging sticks.
Jill: Interesting. You know what else, speaking of traditions, I am surprised to see, and it hasn’t been at every venue because at handball, they played national anthems.
Alison: Oh, no national anthems at swimming or any of the other events I’ve been to. We
Jill: didn’t see it in rugby, but when it started at handball, I was like, what, what is this?
Alison: Maybe that’s a tradition within the sport.
Jill: That could, I mean, that could be. And I am curious to know what sports are anthem happy and which sports aren’t. Um, I met some of your people on the metro.
Alison: What does that mean? Cause I really don’t have people in France. So when you put this note to me, I said, who are my people?
Jill: So I was making my way on the metro and this family of mother. Husband and wife and their teenage daughter. They were, I thought they were speaking English. The man was wearing a Green Bay Packers hat. That’s our football team and they were speaking in English and then they were speaking some other language.
And then I hear the woman go, Oh Polska, because there were some people all decked out in Polish flag wear and then they started speaking English and I finally went, where are you from? Because you’re speaking all these languages. And I said, Oh no, we’re Polish. And I said, But you have a Green Bay Packers hat on.
He says, Of course, they’re the best. And I said, I don’t know. I’m from Cleveland. We have the Browns. He goes, Well, I am the Browns because their last name is Brown. Oh,
Alison: that my kind of people. Oh, okay. That makes a lot of sense. Because somebody else in the, uh, media center today told me that I was not the best.
the first person from Connecticut they had met today. So I’m on the hunt to find more of my people.
Jill: All right. Uh, another interesting element is that the cauldron has been installed in the Jardin des Tuileries. Fans can get quote up close to the cauldron during the daytime. So from 11 to seven, there’s going to be, uh, It’s a ticketed event.
Tickets are free and they will have 1, 200 people an hour shuttling through to see the cauldron while it’s down on the ground. It’s this balloon thing. And then at sunset, it’s going to rise 60 meters in the air so that you can see it in the sky and it will be its full balloon special entity. And then it will stay lit until 2 a.
- So it’s not a flame. Because it looked weird when they quote unquote lit the cauldron last night. It was like, it looks kind of weird. Well, it’s not flame. It is water and light beams.
Alison: Okay. I don’t know about that.
Jill: And so it uses only electricity. It doesn’t use any kind of fossil fuel type things like a normal flame would. Sustainability. Yes. Sustainability. And that’s how they’re doing this. So the water mist will be all around the cauldron. And then the lights come up through it. So it looks like it’s moving.
Alison: I thought that was smoke coming off of it. That must have been water mist. Well, that makes a heck of a lot more sense now why it looks that way in pictures. Famous people everywhere.
Jill: Yeah. We like, you seriously did not think. A whole lot of celebrities would be here, but a whole lot of celebrities would be here because we first went together to Artistic Gymnastics and we’re trying to find the media entrance.
Alison: We’re walking by one of these security entrances and I look at Jill and I say, Ooh, there’s Spike Lee. Standing there with his people. I wonder if they call him Mr. Spike Lee. Like we call him Mr. Flavor Flav. Um, and then later in the day, or I should say at gymnastics, I have heard Jill Biden showed up. She did.
I, no,
Jill: because I walked out to go to tennis. And as I’m walking to the metro, I am stopped by a barricade of volunteers. And they said, you can’t go any further. And you could see cars kind of coming up a whole line of cars. I’m like, Oh, somebody’s coming. And they’re like, yeah. And then. It was Dr. Jill Biden came out secret service everywhere and she got escorted and somebody said, Oh, Hey, Dr.
Jill Biden. I should have said, you know, something, but so she looked, she
Alison: looked
Jill: her way and, uh, you know, waved and walked in,
Alison: never saw her inside the venue. I shouldn’t say that I, I didn’t see her. Doesn’t mean that she didn’t come into the venue, but there was no kerfuffle happening. So if she came in, she came in quietly.
She may have just met with the. the team not on the floor. So, well, that’s nice. And then you had more famous people.
Jill: I know at tennis. Um, I, thank goodness we have these binoculars. Cause I was wearing my binoc, or wearing my binoculars. I was looking through my binoculars at the end of the tennis match between, uh, an Argentinian duo and the Spanish team.
Wonder Twins team of Rafael Nadal and Carlos Alcarez. And the place was packed. Unbelievable what, uh, the noise level was. And at the end, I’m looking through my binoculars, and Rafa shakes Anna Wintour’s hand, because she was there and came down to the edge like people were trying to get autographs, and she just wanted to say hey.
Alison: Which is kind of surprising considering how bad Uh, Rafael Nadal’s outfit was on the opening ceremonies. He had some poorly fitted pants. The jacket sleeves were too short. So I’m kind of surprised that Anna shook his hand. She might have shook, shaken his hand to tell him, Do better next time. Stop
Jill: pulling your pants out of your, your shorts out of your crotch.
I had to do a lot of adjusting during the match. But I guess that’s par for the course. I don’t know. I’m not a guy. All right, let’s move on to what official or volunteer job we won today. I
Alison: found a good one. Well, I do want to say a special thank you to the two volunteers today who had to rescue me.
Jill: Alrighty, it’s day one. We’re getting rescued. Oh, and I got a transport story.
Alison: A lot of trouble finding Tribunes and where I was supposed to be. So thank you so much to these venue volunteers. volunteers for being so kind. But at fencing today there is each person on the field has a person who’s holding their bag for them, a volunteer.
So, and they stand behind the little barrier that the coach stands behind. So they have a little square. So if the person needs something during the trip, they scoot out with the bag, put it on the pest and then take it back behind the little barrier. I love that. And they zip it up and they keep everything organized.
So they touch the people’s things. So you’ve really got to trust your volunteer to, to handle your materials.
Jill: I love that. Um, I was at tennis today and I would like to be one of the rakers of the clay.
Alison: Oh, that’s great for clay. I love that.
Jill: The quick raking in between. I think they did it in between sets cause there was more of a break and then definitely between games.
And, uh, They also had, one guy on the team had a broom. So it would be a raker and then a guy with a broom who would sweep the lines clean. So, very nice job to have. Um, the other thing I did today was I started multi screening. Because we, as Accredited Press, we also get, uh, free access to Macs, slash Discovery.
So we get your access to the European. Uh, rights holding broadcaster. So that’s the equivalent of Peacock, but it’s not Peacock. And I had Surfing and I had, uh, Rugby Sevens up today. And I had some other stuff for a while, you know, it’s just here and there dipping in. And the one thing I really wanted and I could not get to work was closed caption titles on Surfing because I did not know what I was watching again.
Alison: Well, it probably wouldn’t have helped.
Jill: Probably not, because we’re watching a feed right now, and, you know, they go into the wave. And you can’t see them at all. The camera work is getting a little bit better about getting to the end of the wave, but I don’t know. I don’t know how they’re judging this. Do they just count how many seconds the person, you can’t see the person in the wave anymore?
Alison: I also don’t think the weather there is terribly good and clear, so that, I think that’s also making the camera work more difficult. But man, are these surfers surrounded by boats. Right. It’s like their own opening ceremony. Oh, they did have their own opening ceremony. Mm hmm. And I think They should have been on boats.
Jill: Speaking of, you know, who did not get their own moment in the opening ceremony, anybody that’s in Marseilles or in like Chateauroux where the shooting is, unless
Alison: they came down. Yeah, it’s far.
Jill: Yeah. Then it’s far for you to come for an opening ceremony, especially when you’re competing. But. Yeah, I was bummed.
And then, if I kept it on too long, like, other stuff would freeze. Like, I could not get out of anything unless I closed down my entire browser, so that was not fun. I don’t know if it’s my computer on that end, but it, it was a little feed beefy for me. I, and I can’t, can’t hear anybody because I didn’t want to put any commentary on, so.
Alison: We even come here, and we have feed beefs. I know,
Jill: and there are feed beefs going on in our Facebook group. I have heard that the multi screen you, uh, Not good, feature is not good, not well thought out, because they choose what featured match you want. So if you’re watching, the table tennis was the example, and the listener Brittany was saying that They show three different tables, but you can’t choose the one you want to watch.
So, and you also don’t get to choose what gets commentary, what doesn’t, and that’s not fun. So it’s kind of personalized.
Alison: It sounds dumb.
Jill: I don’t know. You know, what doesn’t sound dumb? Our mascot.
Alison: Our mascot. Yes, so we have the opening ceremonies. It’s all officially open, and some very nice Kickstarter supporters chose to be, you know, Uh, the parents of mascots.
So this time a listener, Erica has shared her beautiful cats, Polly and Mittens with us. And they’re polydactyl, which just means they have extra thumbs on their paws. And there’s some great pictures that I’ve got on social of their extra big paws because they all look like teenage boys.
These little cats. And, um, there are going to be videos and photos and other stories on our social media and in the newsletter. So, very special thanks to Erica and to Polly and Mittens for agreeing to do this. Because, you know, you can’t get a cat to do anything the cat does not want to do.
Jill: Alright, let’s move on to today’s results.
Uh, we start with Artistic Gymnastics,
Alison: which is where I started my day. I saw the first rotation of that, or I should say the first subdivision, all the rotations, was men’s GB, and Canada, and then they also had a rotation of the individuals. So there was a Brazilian, there was a, um, an Israeli. So kind of the random that aren’t in the team competitions, um, team USA was a little shaky.
Brody Malone, our Shukla Stani was a little shaky. Um, so team USA is in fifth in the team standings. Brody did not qualify for the all around or any of the individual apparatus. He fell twice on high bar, stepped out on floor. Wasn’t great, but you know, what was great was the energy. in the Bercy arena. So loud, such great energy, a really wild playlist.
Let me grab this note because I made a note that the playlist included bad guy, which I didn’t think was a great choice for men’s gymnastics, but it also included a remix of heart of glass.
Jill: Oh my, that
Alison: was just amazing. Um, at the same time that Brody Malone was falling off of high bar, Max Whitlock was on pommel.
And looking like it was 10 years ago. Really? So good. So good. So, the other moment I want to mention is at the end of the rotation, Canadian team also had a shaky performance, and there was a group of Canadian fans there, who sort of hovered as close as they could get to the bottom, and the Canadian team all stopped, and they were taking pictures and talking to one another, so it was just this Canadian team.
love fest happening in the corner that I got to see. So it was really, really great.
Jill: That was a weird place to find the media seating. Didn’t you have to go outside to get there?
Alison: Yes. So when you came into the arena in the very lowest level is where the media center is, but you get to the media seating.
You have to go outside. A And a terrifying set of stone steps. And into the main part of the arena and then just keep walking. And then you get to go up another set of janky steps. And the media, uh, seating for that is really high and really steep. And I thought I was going to take a header. Basically, I thought I was going to take a header is the theme of today for me.
Jill: And the written press is separated from the broadcast. It’s pretty distinctively here because after I left, I thought about Ollie and then I thought they were pretty separate. I’m not sure we’re going to get to see him unless we,
Alison: they’re on the whole other side of the arena from us. They’re sort of segregated.
They are segregated. I guess they’re keeping the media riffraff away from the broadcasters. But there is a cool thing I want to mention. There is a camera that they had near the rings. And it, it would, it would extend, but it looked like it was a stacking cup extender. Oh. So to get the different angle of a slightly above, or slightly below the athlete on the rings.
Very cool. There are some really cool cameras. I will do my best to take pictures of cameras, which sounds a little nuts, but that’s what we do.
Jill: I, I also saw kind of a robot camera on the high bar. The horizontal bar, and it was kind of on a, on an arm that would like raise and lower kind of crane like, but that was cool too because it’s really nice to see all of the different angles are trying to get to show different things.
All right, moving over to badminton. We had a group stage play for men’s singles and doubles and women’s singles and doubles and the mixed team are by when John played and she won her first match. So good for you on the group stage. In basketball, there were men’s group action happening today. Australia beat Spain, 92 80.
Germany beat Japan, 97 77. France beat Brazil, 78 66. And Canada beat Greece, 86 79. These are all pretty close games. That’s because the U. S.
Alison: didn’t play.
Jill: Oh, well, we’ll see what happens there. In beach volleyball, a lot of preliminary phase play went on. We have a short report from Claire, so take a listen to that.
Claire: Hey there, Jill and Allison. It is book club Claire coming to you at the end of my Saturday. It was a pretty busy day. I had badminton this morning and beach volleyball in the evening. Badminton was so much fun. The row seats were a little different because you came down and, uh, from above. So they counted the rows from there.
Like row one was up top and then row 18 was at the bottom. So I ended up being third from the top. Which was amazing. And I had some really good matches by me. So it was just, it was fabulous all around. Then this evening, uh, it was a tale of two cities getting to the Eiffel tower stadium was hell. It was just chaos everywhere.
Um, I had like three different security checks and it was so crowded and muddy because it’s rainy. Thank goodness I had my rain jacket. Uh, it was crazy inside the, uh, the grounds as well. Um, but then when I got into the stadium itself, it was wonderful. The MCs that they have, one French, one English, just kept the crowd going and the matches were great.
It was China versus Australia for the women’s side, and then Brazil versus Morocco for the men’s side. And it was just a blast and it was just so different between the two. Uh, and then I. Decided to go walk and find the cauldron. So going after my Instagram name, which is like the cauldron, I can guarantee that the cauldron is lit.
Um, that is it for me. So I hope everybody is having a great time enjoying the games. And if you want to let me know what’s been going on, I have no idea aside from the things I went to. So talk to y’all later.
Jill: Moving over to boxing, we had rounds of 32 and rounds of 16 for the women’s 54 and 60 kilogram class and the men’s 63 and a half and 80 Then in Canoe Slalom, there were men’s and women’s heats. Men had C1 heats, and women had K1 heats, which are Evie Liethardt and Luca Jones competed in.
Alison: Evie, uh, is fourth after two runs.
Luca’s 15th. They’re both headed to the semifinals tomorrow.
Jill: And then you get a clean slate. Over in diving we had some medals today. This
Alison: was the first medal event of the day. Strangely enough, usually it’s shooting or something else, but it was women’s synchro three meter springboard was the first medal of the games.
Jill: Interesting. And gold went to Chang Yan Yi and Chen Yi Wen from China, silver went to Sarah Bacon and Cassidy Cook from the US, and bronze went to Yasmin Harper and Scarlett Mu Jensen from Great Britain.
Alison: I watched a little of this on the feed. There was someone dressed up in bacon, like in a bacon costume.
Jill: In equestrian, we had ranking rounds for the dressage portion of the eventing event. And, uh, that was for both individual and team. The top five teams are Great Britain, Germany, France, New Zealand, and Japan. In fencing, it was epee day and saber day today. Wow. Individual. So women’s epee and men’s saber went.
Alison: So I was, I headed over there after gymnastics and the Grand Palais. was surrounded by mud.
Jill: Oh no.
Alison: So when we get back to the hotel, I’ll show you the back of my pants and my shoes. I’ll be washing those in the sink. So very hard to find the media entrance, find the media entrance, very hard to find where to go.
By the time I found the media room, when I tell you I was almost in tears, I had been walking around. It had taken me 45 minutes to get from the train station. to the media room. It should have taken maybe 10, but all the missed turns and, and the volunteer started to tell me where the tribune was. And then she looked at me and she said, I’ll take you.
So I went up a whole bunch of more janky stairs. This was really quite frightening. All I have some pictures. I’ll post them in the Facebook group, all the metal stairs. I get up there. It is, ear bleedingly loud in there because there are French fencers competing.
Unbelievable how loud it was in that place.
Jill: Well, You said they kind of covered the glass, but it looks like from pictures that they just put a sheet over it to diffuse the light a little bit.
Alison: You know, it was somewhat, I have to say, and this is going to sound terrible. It was kind of disappointing because you can see very little of the actual Grand Palais because of the stands and the competition floor.
And there is so much temporary doorway and structuring and walls. So there’s some. exposed beams, the exposed metalwork, but most of it, you could just be in any convention hall. At least from where the media is sitting.
Jill: Okay, that is disappointing.
Alison: But the competition was great, so women’s F. A. and men’s sabre.
Here’s a few things I learned. Men’s sabre fighters hop. I did not know about the hopping. There was so much hopping going on. I was very confused. It is freezing in the Grand Pai. I was joking with these very lovely people, uh, in the, uh, uh, in the tribute next to me, some European reporters. And I’m saying to them that even for an American, and I love me some American air conditioning, this was too much.
Jill: Whoa.
Alison: And it is loud. It is so loud. Be prepared if you’re going to see a French, uh, fencer. Bring earplugs. A couple of things weird happened though. So, uh, Sandro Bazzazzi, uh, lost to Mohammed Amer. So these are two saber fighters and then didn’t get off the pest. Wouldn’t get off for like 15 minutes because he was mad about the call.
Protesting? Yes. And then Mohammed Amer lost in his next match and basically did the same thing.
Jill: Far out, man.
Alison: Yeah, it was. It was amazing. So a couple of results for our people. Um, Margarita Guzzi Vincenzi lost in her first round. Uh, Hadley Houssissian and Anne Sabula won their first round, but they lost in the round of 16. And then our saber fighters, Eli Dershowitz and Colin Heathcock, both lost in their first round, kind of surprisingly.
Mitchell Saron, uh, won his first bout, lost in 16, got hurt in his bout, uh, but not seriously. I checked with, uh, USA Fencing and they said no, it was no big deal. But they did come out and spray him, with like a numbing spray, but sprayed it over the suit. Because you can’t move the suit. So she sprayed just a ton of it, I guess, with the implication that some would soak in.
In Women’s Epee, the gold went to Manwai Vivian Kong from Hong Kong, which they haven’t had a gold medal in a long time.
Jill: This will be big.
Alison: I saw her fight one of her rounds, um, but everything fencers on it, on the floor at the same time.
Jill: And, uh, speaking of French fencers, the silver went to Ariane Maillot Breton. From France, and bronze went to Esther Muhari from Hungary. And then in Men’s Sabre, do we have a gold medalist yet?
Alison: I’m looking right now.
Oh, we do. Oh, this is exciting. Uh, from Korea.
Jill: Ooh.
Alison: Oh, Sanguk. I saw him fight and the Koreans, the Korean fans were in the house with the clappy hands. Oh,
Jill: were they? They
Alison: were. The, uh, silver went to Ferjani Fares from Tunisia and the bronze to Luigi Semeli from Italy.
Jill: Wow. That is an interesting country distribution.
Wow. Over in football, we had matches all around the country again, uh, in the men’s group. So Spain beat, uh, Dominican Republic, uh, 3 1. Japan beat Mali 1 0. Argentina beat Iraq 3 1. Egypt beat Uzbekistan 1 0, USA beat Netherlands, er, I’m sorry, USA beat New Zealand 4 1, and Paraguay beat Israel 4 2 2.
Alison: There’s more.
Jill: And then there’s more. Ukraine beat, uh, Morocco 2 1. I bet that was an interesting match with the fans. And then, uh, France beat Guinea 1 0. In handball, we had more preliminary matches, now the men started their tournament. Spain beat Slovenia,
25 22. Egypt beat Hungary, 35 32. Croatia beat Japan, 30 29. Oh, this is a day to be in the handball venue, man. Norway beat Argentina, 36 31. Germany beat Sweden, 36 39. 30 27 and Denmark beat France 37 29. Wow, that, make your Olympic experience there, for sure. Over in hockey, and hockey’s at the 1924 stadium, I, I do want to get out to hockey.
Uh, we had men’s pool stages today, so Great Britain beat Spain 4 0, Netherlands beat Uh, South Africa 5 3, Germany beat France 8 2, Belgium beat Ireland 2 0, Austria, Australia beat Argentina 1 0, India beat New Zealand 3 2, and then the women’s pools, uh, Netherlands beat France 6 2, and Argentina beat USA 4 1.
In Judo, we had a couple of medals handed out today for the women. We had the 48 kilogram weight class and gold went to Natsumi Tsunoda, Tsunoda from Japan. Silver went to Bangsaku Balvodorj from Mongolia and the bronzes, this is one of the sports that offers two bronze medals because, uh, they don’t do a bronze medal fight off.
Uh, so bronzes went to, uh, Shireen Boukli from France and Tara Baboufath from Sweden.
Alison: So host country on the medal table.
Jill: Yes, there, I think, uh, host country, that little boost is happening. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. For sure in the men’s 60 kilogram, but but I will say this judo is very very big here in France So I’m not surprised that they’re going to get some medals Men’s 60 kilograms the gold went to Yeldos Smetov from Kazakhstan Silver went to Luca McKenzie from France and bronzes went to Francisco Garagos from Spain and Ryuji Nakagima from Japan In road cycling, we had time trials today and it was, it’s, it was really rainy all day and they had tough conditions to ride in, for sure, because they also, not just roads, they had cobblestones, I’m sure, at some point.
Um, so for the men’s individual time trials, gold went to Remco Evenpoel from Belgium, silver went to Filippo Ghana from Italy, and bronze went to Wout Van Aert from Belgium. For the women, Uh, gold went to Grace Brown from Australia, silver went to Anna Henderson from Great Britain, and bronze went to Chloe Digert from the U.
S.
Alison: I think I might start another metal table for all the Browns.
Jill: There you go. There you go. I have to look at that because I looked a little at some quotes that they pulled off. I think somebody lost their Garmin. On the, like their tracking computer, somewhere on the course, and in Olympic cycling, you can’t have radios, and I don’t know if they would have a radio in a time trials anyway, but I didn’t know, I can’t remember who it was, so that’s something for me, it might have been an American somewhere in the path, but like, if their computer fell off their bike, and they couldn’t figure out how fast to go, that has to be really tough, and how hard, how much effort to put into what you’re doing at that point in any, any given point in the race.
Ooh, that’s tough. In rowing, we had heats for men’s and women’s single skulls, double skulls, and quadruple skulls. Shukla Stani, Christy Wagner’s in the double skulls, and she and her partner Sophia Vitas have qualified for the semifinals tomorrow. In rugby sevens, We had the end of the men’s tournament. Gold went to France, silver went to Fiji, and bronze went to South Africa.
This whole, I had this on the feed too.
Alison: France beating Fiji. Unreal.
Jill: And it was, uh, not a tight match at the end. It was really close, really close, and then, uh, France scored a couple of tries. And, uh, It just, they said, you know, we had 69, 000 fans there, everyone’s screaming, one of their big rugby stars had moved over to Sevens, I think that’s Didio, and uh, Fiji did not look like itself on the, on the pitch there.
Alison: The fighting chickens have emerged.
Jill: I guess so. And then South Africa beat the Philippines. Australia for the bronze and in that match, uh, uh, Nick Maloff was sent off with a red card after he did a bad tackle and Australia had to continue with just six players. So that made it a little difficult. At the end, one of the things I was really curious about was, uh, South Africa had was getting a try at the end of the game that really sealed the deal for them to get the bronze.
And one of the players handed it off to I believe Williams number nine. And I need to look into this because it was just like, I’m not going to score the try. You score the try. And there’s got to be something significant about that. So look into that for a follow up file. If you have watched the matches, let us know.
Rugby sevens is fun. That field looks really big. For that small of a team. You know what I mean?
Alison: But they get a lot of distance very quickly. And speaking of being speedy. Our speed stick Perry Baker is kind of special.
Jill: He is. This was his last Olympics. He’s going to retire from rugby. U. S. finished eighth overall in the tournament.
He scored six tries in this tournament. He brought his Olympic career tally to 10. He is the record holder for most Olympic tries, which is really cool. As a reminder, he broke the record for most tries in a match yesterday, or yesterday, when he, no, no, day before yesterday, when he did had four tries against their, uh, in their pool play match against Uruguay.
So, um, Perry was saying, you know, he’s trying not to think about it being his last game because he loves what the game has done for him. He loves the brotherhood that he’s, uh, built up in the game.
Alison: We’re going to miss him. We’re going to miss him in the sport. That’s for sure.
Jill: That is true.
In shooting, we had men’s and women’s 10 meter air pistol qualification, and then the mixed teams had their 10 meter air rifle finals. Gold went to China, silver went to Korea, and bronze went to Kazakhstan. Uh, there was supposed to be skateboard today.
Alison: I was supposed to go to skateboard today. You
Jill: did not go to skateboard today.
I did
Alison: not go to skateboard today and I am not upset about it. It was rained out.
Jill: Yes.
Alison: Coming on Monday.
Jill: Uh, surfing, men’s and women’s are going through, in surfing, the men and women are going through round one. And we are still watching the women now. Oh,
Alison: look, she’s wearing a helmet. Remember we talked about the surfing helmets.
I have
Jill: seen many surfing helmets, to be quite honest. And, uh, I would love to know what you think if you’re watching any surfing at all. Because I, A, it still doesn’t feel really Olympic because it’s so far away. But, B, I don’t, I don’t understand how this sport works, still. And we’ve got a document, so I’ve got some reading to do.
So But there’s a lot of not being able to see the surfers because they are in the wave. And that’s a little, I think that’s a little frustrating for viewing and, and it doesn’t make sense. But better stories are in the swimming pool.
Alison: I went to swimming tonight. It is the best night of my life.
Jill: Uh, I do have to ask, did you see baskets?
I forgot to ask you to look at baskets.
Alison: Not only did I see baskets, I met the basket volunteers. Wait, what? Because in my lost state. I wandered into their team meeting.
Jill: It was fantastic. Now baskets are every when the swimmers come out. To their heats they are usually clothed and they put all of their stuff into a basket and there’s a whole Crew of people who come in they get the baskets and they take them out So they put them in a safe place for the swimmers to pick up their gear after they leave Tell me all about it because it at US trials these people were a machine.
They were like clockwork and they were fantastic and I was so enthralled I almost didn’t watch some of the swimming.
Alison: So I do want to start at the beginning. Got out to La Defense Arena, no problem. There are many many rail lines and metro lines that get you there. It’s very easy to find, very easy to get there.
Got there about an hour and a half before the session was supposed to start. The spectator line. It was long and not moving yet. People took, I need to be here an hour and a half, three hours ahead of time very seriously and it was very long. So I finally found the media entrance, went in, was faced with a four story staircase that I climbed up that I wasn’t supposed to climb up.
So yet again, thank you to the volunteers who said, where are you trying to go? And I’m trying to go to the press room. They didn’t even know where the press room was. Because they were up on the fourth floor. And then there was a whole discussion of whether I was allowed to take the particular elevator.
Oh, man. And, uh, The, the woman said, really pushed for me to be able to take the elevator. So I appreciated that in the four person discussion that was happening. So then I got sent down to the basement. No, I wasn’t supposed to be in the basement. I was supposed to be on the first floor. I got sent to the first floor, still could not find where we were supposed to be.
So the volunteer took me through the wrong door. Oh no, he knew where I was supposed to be. He didn’t know how to get me there. the right way. So, you know, the doors emblazoned interdit. He said, we’re going through it anyway. I said, it’s your head, not mine. And in doing so, I walked. Wait,
Jill: wait, can you say that to a French person?
Alison: I did, and he didn’t look insulted, so he still took me through interdit, la porte interdit. And in doing so, I walked Into this meeting, and all of a sudden all these young people came by, and they’re not really baskets, at least for the Olympics, they’re more like deep trays, plastic, black plastic trays.
Okay.
Jill: Kind of like what we had to put through security. Yes. But deeper. Okay.
Alison: And they were having a meeting and they were holding their trays. That’s fantastic. So the tray people, I said to the, my, my savior and guide, oh, it’s the, it’s the basket people. And he said. The basket people. What else do you call them?
They put the baskets by the pool. And he’s like, basket people. I have to tell my friends.
So there’s gonna be a whole discussion I think amongst the volunteers at the swimming arena about the basket people.
Jill: Okay, so I do have a question. Did you go out the correct way? Because now do you know how to get back in the correct way?
Alison: Yes and no.
Jill: Because you’re going back there tomorrow. I,
Alison: yes, I just found out that I got the ticket that I have been, the one ticket I wanted, which was for the Adam Peede final. Um, no, because the, the going out was very easy and I don’t think that’s the way you come in. But it could be. The, the security guard gave me a fist bump when I left, so I’m hoping he’ll be there tomorrow.
And, and I’ll say, fist bump man, will you let me back into the Tribune? So, important thing to get to. So first we had the, uh, men’s, no, we had the women’s 100 meter fly semi. Uh, Gretchen Walsh just went and gave herself an Olympic record. Get out of here. In the semis. Yeah, she looked fantastic. Um, then we had the men’s 400 meter free.
I didn’t know any of these swimmers. But when I was done, uh, the gold medalist, Lucas Martens, is my new best friend.
Jill: Oh, how’d that happen?
Alison: It didn’t really happen. He doesn’t know this. Oh,
Jill: okay.
Alison: Wait,
Jill: wait, wait, wait, wait. What about Kit?
Alison: Well, he’s, my kit is Kit McConnell is my IOC boyfriend, Lucas Martins is now my swimming friend.
Jill: Okay.
Alison: What a great reaction he had to, to winning. So that was, that was pretty spectacular. So I’ll, I’ll do metal finals while I’m, I’m telling you these ridiculous stories of janky staircases. Uh, gold went to Lucas Martens from Germany. Silver went to Elijah Winnington from Australia and bronze to, uh, Kim.
Woo Min from Korea. Huge Korean fan contingent. Not huge, but huger than I would have expected from Korea. Of course, tons of Australians. Um, which was amazing. Then to me came the, the headliner of the night, uh, which was the women’s 400 meter free finals. Ariana Titmuss just blew everybody away. I think she won by a full body length.
Jill: Wow. It
Alison: was not. That close.
Jill: Wow.
Alison: So, Arianna Titmuss from Australia won gold, Summer McIntosh from Canada won silver, and the United States, Katie Ledecky, got herself another medal with a bronze.
Jill: Very nice. Now, did you see your your favorite coach? Your favorite Australian coach?
Alison: I did not see him during the race.
I did see him later. He is not hanging. So, Gene Boxall, Arianna Titmuss coach, who’s Needs mental health treatment was not hanging off the rafters this time. He was sitting with the Australian swimming officials Possibly to keep him under control But I did see him he seemed much more bet much better behaved this time around which was a great relief But at this point in the night, I was deaf.
It was again all day just I’ve been in incredibly loud arenas. So not only was the crowd loud, but the in house announcers were so turned up on volume that you almost couldn’t understand what they were saying. Oh, my ears were burning a little bit at this point in the, in the session, but that was okay because then that was a hundred meter breast semis and Adam PDK I’m out.
And looked so good in his race. So calm, so together. He was the last one to get undressed and get on the blocks. Like, everybody was waiting for him, like, Excuse me, Adam. Can we move along, please? And I said, Don’t. He needs to take his time. Don’t anybody mess with my Adam Petey. But he looked really, really good, so I’m very excited for the, the final tomorrow.
Then we got some relays. And you know, I love a good relay. You had the men’s and women’s four by 100 meter relays. You know, these are going to be huge Australia, United States rivalries. Both countries came out happy and both countries came out. Sad is the short answer. So I’m in the, in the women’s version, Australia won the gold, the, uh, USA one silver, China got the bronze edged out Canada.
Jill: Oh,
Alison: when I say edged out.
Jill: Wow.
Alison: And I think this is the only, uh, event for Penny Alexia.
Jill: Oh. So
Alison: she did not get to add to her vast collection of, of Olympic medals. What a shame. In the men’s event, the Americans just took the lead in the second leg. Mm-Hmm. and. Just kept building it. Never let it go. So the United States won gold, the Australians won silver, and Italy repeated as bronze medalists in this event.
So got to do my first Olympic medal ceremony.
Jill: Oh, how was that?
Alison: Cried.
Jill: Aww.
Alison: It wasn’t, it was Ariana’s hit list. It wasn’t even my own national anthem and I’m standing there sobbing. Thankfully nobody in the press tribune was standing too close to me. But this also does mean that one of our favorite swimmers, Simone Manuel, uh, ends up with a silver.
Jill: Oh, good. Good, good, good, good. Very nice. Very nice. Uh, in table tennis, we had prelim rounds for men’s and women’s singles, and we had mixed doubles rounds of 16, so, uh, we will start looking at table tennis soon, but they’ve got a lot of play ahead of them still. I went out to tennis, I got to go to Roland Garros, which has been on my list of things to do, and watch, you know, see the infamous Red See Roland Garros.
Right, Roland Garros. So I, uh, left you at the Arena and went to the other side of the city. Basically it wasn’t difficult to get to. I will say this, the Metro stations are quite well marked, especially with Olympic venues on them. They’ve got in every car, the, the, the line map has stickers over it where the stops are with arenas.
The, some of the, uh, Metro stations have big flags outside of them so you can find them easy with what, what lines are there. So I think they’ve done a really good job for that. This is where I had to take two trains, but I didn’t transfer within the station. I had to get out and walk to another station and get back in and then I got too close to Roland Garros and I started walking and I kept walking and walking.
Can’t find the media, of course, cannot find the media entrance, but luckily I didn’t pass it. I found that okay, got in, and was completely overwhelmed with how big this is. area is because of course they’ve got, uh, two big stadiums with roofs. The Philippe Chartrier is the main, like your center court. Then Suzanne Longlin is the second level court.
And then, um, there’s another one, like Mathieu something is the third court, but it was closed today, so that’s why I don’t have it in my brain.
Alison: And then outside courts.
Jill: Exactly. And, and, uh, they are very tiny courts. And, and even like, you know, I play tennis and I don’t realize when you have a single court to itself, because usually I’ll play on something that has four courts or two courts together.
Your local
Alison: tennis courts and they’ll have multiple courts all mushed together.
Jill: One court with all the stuff around it is, is a pretty small space. And this, the higher the number of court, the less seating you have. So you have some that have just like a couple of rows of bleachers. all around it and some they have a little bit more rows of seating the higher up you get because it was pouring rain they were all covered and you kept seeing on the schedule okay this match will not stop before noon this match will now not start before four this match is you know cancelled rescheduled everything so that meant that anything that wasn’t on Chartrier or Longley was Pushed back to another day and not much happened.
So I get into the complex and it’s like lunchtime and, uh, Iga Sviantek is on Philippe Chartrier and I wanted to see her play. I managed to find the media center. I did a lot of, well, it’s downstairs. It’s downstairs. So, uh, the nice thing about Roland Garros because they have a very big tournament, Grand Slam tournament, the venue media center is gorgeous.
And because it’s a permanent fixture and people use it all the time, it’s not our folding tables and chairs that we’re used to. It is installed desks kind of. And so I threw my stuff down and then it’s try to figure out where do I go to find the media seating?
Alison: Right. Because there’s a work area and then where we actually go into the field of play to sit.
Jill: Right. So the work area, I believe for the entire complex is in Chartrier and that’s downstairs in the basement. And of course nobody knows where anything else is outside of their little world. So I’m wandering around and I finally get somebody to point me or towards, or I find the signage that says here is where your venue seating is, your tabled seating.
And it is, three floors up. I did, there was an elevator, but I did take stairs a lot. And then you’re just like, where do I go from here? Because the only sign is broadcast. But you have to go through the broadcast door to get to the tabled seating. So I finally figured that out. And then of course once you figure that out, then you help everybody else.
And they’re like, oh, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. So I get into the Leave
Alison: no reporter behind. Right.
Jill: I get into the venue just in time to see Shriyantek sign balls and toss them into the audience because she has already won. Then it’s like, well, let me go over to Longley because Carlos Alcaraz is playing a singles match over there and I would like to see that.
I get over there just in time to see him hit balls into the audience because he has already won. And then it was just like I was tired and crabby and then I wanted something to eat and of course the lounge inside the media center is Non existent, you know, everybody is already asking for coffee and there’s nothing in there And of course no snacks and I go to the little lounge area and there’s nothing There’s just tall tables that you can stand at like, what is this?
You There has to be something better, and I’m standing in line in an actual, uh, regular spectator line for a Coke. At this point, I just wanted a Coke Zero. And, I didn’t know what to do, and I’m like, Really? There’s gotta be something for media. There’s gotta be something. So if somebody finally points me toward a different building, where I have to go down the stairs again, and, uh, I hit the jackpot.
You did
Alison: not!
Jill: They not only have a little canteen that’s got food to go, they have a cafeteria. I had a four course lunch. I had a little bowl of fruit salad. You got to choose another salad, so I had cucumber and feta. And then I got a big plate of moussakas, which came with a side of pasta and mushroom cream sauce.
And then I got a cup of pudding for dessert. And it came with a drink, and it was only 18 euros?
Alison: Nice.
Jill: Yeah. Oh my gosh. It was like, and the food was fine. The food was decent. It wasn’t super like knock your socks off because it still is a cafeteria.
Alison: But it’s still a meal.
Jill: It was a huge meal and I was eating like a queen for at least a little bit.
I went back in, I poked my nose in to see if they had something different for dinner and they didn’t. So that’s a minus factor.
Alison: Any discussion of a queen is a dangerous thing in France.
Jill: Oh really? What do you do?
Alison: Well, they tend to behead them here. Oh, yeah.
Jill: Very true. So, I ate, and then it was time to figure out what to see, and, uh, I thought about seeing Djokovic, but I knew he was going to win.
He handily beat Australian, uh, Ebden, 6 0, 6 1, and it was one of those matches where, you know, the other guy wins a point. And everyone cheers like crazy. What I really wanted to see was, um, Caroline Garcia, who is French. She faced off against a Romanian, uh, Christian. And I had heard that the French were fanatical fans when they are in the venue and they did not disappoint.
This was on Longley and they had sections all over the place. They were cheering and Caroline Garcia, sadly. did not come through. She won the first set 7 5, but then dropped the second two sets, uh, 3 6, 4 6. She was the only match of the day that went three sets, which was interesting, but she just kind of, she would have good moments and then just kind of fell apart.
But it was really, really fun to see all the French out in full force, cheering on their woman. And then, uh, I thought about, you know, watching a little bit of Daniel Medvedev because he is a neutral athlete and I wanted to see what that experience was like. But basically he gets to wear tennis whites because they’re all wearing white.
Um, uh, he won as well against, uh, Hijikata from Australia. And then I ended up seeing the, the big Show of the night was the men’s doubles. First round action was, uh, Rafael Nadal and Carlos Alvarez from Spain, uh, going up against Gonzalez and Molteni from Argentina. Argentina got booed when they got announced.
They are really, really not liking them in France. And the Philippe Chartrier was packed. The press tribune was packed. And. People, oh my gosh, people just loved Rafa. And for good reason, I, obviously I’ve never seen these men play. I’ve never seen, no, I have, I have seen pro women’s tennis, but not necessarily at the highest level.
And just the, the speed and the power and the agility and all of this stuff, when you see it in person, it’s just magnified beyond belief. And you can see how much everybody loves Rafa. And it was just a great match. It was a tough match for them, kind of. Um, they won 7 6, 6 4. It was, you know, the Argentinians put up a good fight.
So they move on to the next stage in the doubles. Uh, also winning today was Taylor Fritz. And, um, uh, the last match of the night was on, uh, Chartreuse, Naomi Osaka versus Angelique Kerber from Germany. The Press Tribune emptied out, like almost everybody left. I mean, it’s like, it’s Naomi Osaka. Come on.
She’s making her comeback. Yeah. Everybody wanted to see her. Nobody wanted to see her. Nobody wanted to see her. The press, the press tribune emptied. It was packed for Nadal and Alparez just emptied out and, and we’re talking so many men on the press tribune. Oh, wow. And so, I mean, I understand that tennis has a problem with sexism and there’s a lot of discussion over who gets put on what courts, when.
And I thought it was interesting that Naomi Osaka was the last match of the night. She wasn’t the high, the highlight match was, you know, the primetime match. And she was the last match. But I was so shocked at how many people did not want to see her. The stands weren’t as full, but they were still pretty full.
And, uh, oh my gosh. Her hits are so hard. She’s got so much power in her swing and so much. I couldn’t believe it. I was texting a former coworker of ours whom, uh, you will never live down because you spoiled the Pete Sambras match for her, which I think about a lot. But she was telling me that Venus Williams says that Naomi Osaka hits almost as hard as Serena does.
And that’s the next hardest person that she’s ever faced. So just the power in her shots, she is coming back from having a baby and you could see that sometimes the ball just didn’t want to go where she wanted it to, but there were some times where her ball placement was just unbelievable. Same with, oh my gosh, Nadal and Alcaraz with ball placement.
Alison: It was just
Jill: beautiful. So I’m sorry to see Osaka didn’t win, but you know, Kerber had the better game tonight. And she was really thrilled to win, but it’s nice to see Osaka on the comeback trail. So hoping for better stuff as we keep going through the season in tennis. In volleyball, we had some prelim rounds, uh, for the men, Germany beat Japan three to two, Italy beat Brazil three to one, Poland beat Egypt three to zero.
I had a little bit of this feed on for a while. Uh, and USA beat Argentina three to zero. You know why I put this feed on because listener Nick said, Hey, The Olympic rings are peeling up from the volleyball floor. Your Gershwer floor volleyball court, which is very special looking, I think it has some paint around it or something, and some of the rings had come off.
By the time I turned on Poland versus Egypt, they were down to it just saying Paris 2020. Like the whole, the whole symbol was gone. The Marianne symbol was gone.
Alison: I guess if it start, well, they could have also removed it because if it started to peel up, then that wouldn’t have been safe for play and they probably went in and just took it off.
Jill: Yeah, exactly.
Alison: Wow.
Jill: Yeah, I, so I’m wondering if it’s humidity in there or, you know, when you add a whole big crowd of people, if that does something to the, uh, uh, the decal that they put down. So it’ll be interesting to see if they fix that overnight. Right. If you are watching volleyball tomorrow, keep an eagle eye on that.
Um, water polo. We had prelims rounds for the women. Netherlands beat Hungary 10 8. USA beat Greece 15 6. Spain beat France 15 6. And Australia beat China 7 5. So it’s been a full day here on day one.
Alison: I didn’t even get to tell my bathroom story. I’m going to put it in the Facebook group, is it involves the Grand Palais. Oh no. The basement.
Jill: Oh boy.
Alison: Some stone janky steps. And a very large German brushing his teeth.
Jill: Oh my gosh.
. All right. You know how this is a great way to segue into please give us money.
Alison: So that we can be safe in the bathroom.
Jill: The only way we are able to be here in Paris is because listeners like you have supported us. We are an independent media outlet, which means that we can really be frank and honest with you and give you the lowdown about this place in a way that no one can.
I’m sure NBC’s got a policy against toilet talk. But being here does cost money so we do ask you for your support. You can check out flamealivepod. com slash support for a variety of ways to donate. We take PayPal, we take Venmo, we take a number of other options. If you would like to do ongoing sponsorship.
You can become a patron. We have a special daily photo that goes out to all of our patrons that who are paid patrons. And then if you’re at the 5 a day level, you will get random videos every once in a while. And you’ve got one. I shot one today. I’m so excited.
Alison: I was so excited when I shot it and I said, Ooh, this is for the patrons.
Jill: So very good stuff. Thank you to all of you who have contributed so far. This helps get us cab rides at three in the morning because we had another situation last night where we left here really late for after taping. And
Alison: the, you pulled up the official ride share app for accredited press or accredited people and not just press said, sorry, no cars for you today,
Jill: right?
Then we looked at the tram line, which is right there, and it goes near to our hotel, and we could take a really sketchy, really sketchy walk, because I, I had a good joke the other day, which was how many Frenchmen does it take to turn a screw in a lightbulb? We don’t know, because we’re probably on break.
So, that’s where we would walk through the dark. And who knows what
Alison: else. But the tram no longer running. So thankfully we found outside the hotel that is across from the media center, there’s again a very nice cab driver who delivered us safely to our hotel at 3. 30 in the morning.
Jill: That’s right. So thank you to those who have donated to help defray our cab costs.
We got a lot of competition going on tomorrow.
Alison: We do indeed. So early in the morning, Casey Kaufhold competes in the women’s archery team event.
Jill: Abai Wenjiang continues badminton group play.
Alison: Kelly Chang and partner Sarah Hughes have their first match in beach volleyball.
Jill: Luca Jones and Evie Laepfart compete in Luka Jones and Evvie Leepfarth compete in the K 1 in canoe slalom.
Alison: Leigh Kiefer, Lauren Scruggs, and Jackie Dubrovich fence in women’s individual foil.
Jill: Kristi Wagner continues the early rounds of her women’s double skulls.
Alison: Michelle Sexer begins her early rounds in women’s lightweight double skulls.
Jill: And Stephanie Robel and Maggie Shea begin sailing in women’s skiff.
Alison: Mary Tucker shoots in women’s 10 meter air rifle.
Jill: And Ben Hallock and Team USA begin the preliminary rounds of men’s water polo. So that will do it for this episode. We’d like to give a special thanks to our researcher for the Olympics. You might remember her as Intern Annalee. So thank you, Annaleigh D’Abel for being part of the team.
Alison: And if you wanna get in touch with us while we are here in France, you can find us on x YouTube and Instagram at Flame Alive Pod. Send us an email at Flame Alive pod@gmail.com. Call or text us at (208) 352-6348. That’s 2 0 2 0 8. Flame it. Chat with us and other fans on our Facebook group. Keep the Flame Alive Podcast and get our special Daily Games time newsletter.
And you can sign up for that at flamealivepod. com You
Jill: can join us again tomorrow for more action from Paris and that Facebook group is Hopin and it’s great because people are here and they’re giving each other advice and we’ve got stuff going on at home and what people are seeing versus what we’re seeing and it’s been so much fun to every, every time I leave my computer and come back to it, I’m always looking forward to seeing what’s going on in the group.
thank you all of you who are participating there Thank you so much for listening, and until tomorrow, keep the flame alive.