It’s the first full day of competition from Paris 2024, as the Paralympics get off to a great start. Jill went to para track cycling to see TKFLASTANI Samantha Bosco, and Alison had the best day of her life at wheelchair rugby. In the evening, Alison headed over to para swimming for Olivia Chambers’ first final, while Jill wandered around Paris Arena Sud and eventually watched TKFLASTANI Melissa Tapper play para table tennis and Alison Levine play boccia.
The sports on today’s program are:
- Boccia
- Goalball
- Para Archery
- Para Badminton
- Para Cycling Track
- Para Swimming
- Para Table Tennis
- Para Taekwondo
- Shooting Para Sport
- Sitting Volleyball
- Wheelchair Basketball
- Wheelchair Rugby
Our researcher for the Paralympics is Elizabeth Emery.
Thanks so much for listening, and until next time, keep the flame alive!
TRANSCRIPT
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Paris 2024 Paralympics: Day 1
Jill: Bonjour and welcome to day one of the Paris 2024 Paralympics on Keep the Flame Alive, the podcast for fans of the Olympics and Paralympics. I am your host, Jill Jaracz, joined as always by my lovely co host, Alison Brown. Alison, hello. How are you? Bonjour.
Alison: I was having such a good day and now I’m struggling with the wine.
I had such a good day. I had. Such a good day today.
Jill: Outstanding. Really. It was a good day all around. I think. There’s some weird stuff. I won’t, I’m not going to deny you that. There was some weird stuff, but it was a good day on my end too.
And up until now, and now this wire is causing me all kinds of stress.
It must be a French wire.
Jill: Well, let’s get in. Tons and tons of action today. We are, like, bam, right into the thick of it with Paralympic stuff. So, uh, little follow up file. Trois
Alison: Coupes is back.
Jill: I know. I was so excited. Except for, I was at track cycling and, uh, that’s where I saw it first because that’s the only session that I went to at the beginning.
And people weren’t yet into the clapping.
Alison: Oh, they were at rugby,
Jill: and at
Alison: swimming they knew the assignment.
Jill: Okay, they didn’t quite know it at track cycling. I will say that. They were getting better. It was a weird fan day at track cycling. A weird fan day in a lot of places. But, uh, I think track cycling will come around.
But. Also different from the Olympics.
Alison: Yes. So I can’t remember if we talked a lot about clean fields of play. I know we’ve talked about it on the show in the past. So one of the big things at the Olympics is what’s called a clean field of play. There are no sponsor names on the court or on the field or on the sidelines or on the boards.
That’s not true in the Paralympics. And I thought it was going to be, I thought that was part of the advertising, uh, sponsor agreement that the Olympics and Paralympics came together to do, but it’s not true here. So I was at rugby and swimming and you will see sponsor names on the courts, on the lane lines, right up there.
Jill: every venue I went today had sponsors. So something must have changed with their agreement or Something because it is very tasteful. I will say that it’s Mindful and to me or if you want to get in on a meme, but it’s it’s Not a ton and it’s not totally in your face, but you kind of go Oh, we don’t have clean feel to play and I can’t remember if they had it for tokyo They might have they definitely had it in pyeongchang because that was before the agreement happened and then It’s way less than it was at PyeongChang, but then with the agreement, they didn’t have, uh, any advertising because they didn’t have it at Beijing.
And I don’t think they had it at Tokyo, but now it’s back, so we’ll have to dig into that and see what we can find out. Also, uh, follow up on my torch relay experience from yesterday. the guy in the exoskeleton was Thibaut Simon. He is an everyday hero who designed the exoskeleton for people with tetraplegia and paraplegia.
And it was very cool to see. Let’s begin the baguette. So we were talking yesterday, we started talking in past self and future selves and how we made decisions.
Alison: It was a really long day yesterday. So there were times where I felt like. My existence had been split along the time space continuum.
Jill: So this morning past Jill made a decision about her meals that she would have today.
Cause, breakfast here is amazing. You have omelet person again.
Alison: I haven’t out. Well, so far we’ve had three different omelet people. And I adore them all, but they have varying cheese techniques.
Jill: Yes.
Alison: Which I greatly appreciate.
Jill: So, we get enough for breakfast and that holds us over to lunch or we can tuck a little way for lunch.
That’s cool. So there’s always a question of where will you be for dinner and what will you be able to get or whatever you will need for any kind of evening sustenance because you’ll need it. And so this morning, Jill said, I don’t really want to stop at this very nice bakery and get a sandwich because it’d be a giant sandwich that I’d have to haul around all day.
Alison: And then it’s not going to taste very good.
Jill: No, and I’m kind of tired of a lot of bread. We’ve been eating a lot of bread. We
Alison: have.
Jill: And usually a sandwich here is a couple slices of ham and a slice of cheese, you know, cheese, and it’s on a long bun. So it’s a little layer of ham, a little layer of cheese.
And
Alison: mostly bread.
Jill: And mostly bread. And delicious bread, if you can get it, but you know. Which is
Alison: fine. for a few days, but six weeks later, eight weeks later, we’re, we’re good.
Jill: Yeah. So, um, I said I wasn’t going to do that because I was going to be at Port Mayo, which is next to the Palais de Congress. Right.
And I could stop at the grocery store,
Alison: that nice little grocery store that was in
Jill: salad. Yes. In the basement,
Alison: which is lovely. That nice little gourmet grocery store with that nice man at the checkout counter.
Jill: I’m glad you said was. Because it’s all under construction now. Everything is gone downstairs. Oh, no It is all gone.
It’s like we dreamed it There are boards up everywhere and you can hear construction going on. I have no idea what’s happening, but i’m like Did they build, like, a Potemkin grocery store and cafe for us?
Alison: I don’t know what happened. It was a full service grocery store. It wasn’t a tiny little bodega. It was a grocery store that looked like it had been there for quite a while.
Oh my goodness, it’s the Paris
Twilight Zone.
Jill: It is all gone. And I just, if I had time, I would have walked around again to make sure I didn’t not see it, but I went the way, and I was like, there’s walls up here. Isn’t this where it was supposed to be?
Garmond!
Jill: It’s just gone. Wow. So I don’t know, I may go back and see it again.
It
couldn’t stay open without our business. I
Jill: guess not. I guess not. It ran out of, ran out of wooden spoons and forks.
Alison: I went to the mega store today.
Jill: How is the Paralympic mega store?
Alison: It is no different than the Olympic mega store. Um, there was not a whole lot of of changeover in stock. There was a few new pins. So there were definitely pins for Paralympic sports. You brought home a t shirt with the t shirts that we loved so much, which had the pictograms of the different sports.
I didn’t see any.
Jill: Which is weird because I did pop into the big mega store at Arena Sued. And they had a goalball shirt and a boccia shirt. And then I got this other one with a little pictogram on it. It’s not a big pictogram. So, I’m really curious as to what the mixes and what it will be over the, the period of the Paralympics.
Were there people there?
Alison: It was full.
Jill: Oh, good.
Alison: I had a little, not a line to get in as much as the line was backed up cause they check your bags. Oh,
Jill: right, right. But there was
Alison: a lot of people. It was full. The freezes have pretty much turned over. So now it’s all Paralympic freezes and the magnets and those kinds of things have turned over, but the t shirts and most of the stock is still the same.
Jill: Okay. All right. Interesting. What volunteer or officiating job would you want to do?
Alison: So you would think I was at wheelchair rugby. I would have found a wheelchair rugby job, but the problem was that the tire maintenance guys and the two people that come and help the, uh, athletes up if they get knocked over, I don’t think I can handle it physically.
Those tires are big and I think they’re bigger than you would think. And I don’t think I would be able to manage it. Like I’d be waddling along. Like an Oompa Loompa trying to manage the tire. So there was actually two things at swimming that I found. One was prosthetic management. So when the swimmers come out, if they remove a prosthetic, it would go in the basket with the basket people, but it doesn’t go in the basket.
It goes to a special volunteer who then gently takes each prosthetic, however many there lines them up at the side of the pool.
Jill: Oh, so they get out of the pool and they’ve got their
Alison: In the order that they’re in, in the lanes.
Jill: Yeah, they have to be. I mean, can you imagine getting out and putting on somebody else’s leg?
Alison: Well, they’re pretty distinct. I mean, I don’t think you would. And then the second person is the credential management table, because the swimmers take off their credentials basically before they get introduced. And then she’s got the whole table of them because they put them right back on even before they go through the mix zone.
So I’m like, these are two organizational and athlete facing jobs that I would enjoy and be good at.
Jill: I did make it to Bacha tonight to see a couple of, uh, rounds. And I gotta say Bacha Fitchell would, would be good. They have the paddle, there is a flashlight involved with looking at the distance between balls.
Of course, the measurement tools. that we have seen before. There is a, there, they don’t quite do, oh, no, they do this. If a ball goes out, they have to signal it out, and then they pick it up, and they hold it upright, so that everybody knows they’ve got the right ball. And then there’s a little ball holder.
on the side of the playing field that it goes in until the end of the, until the end of the end.
Alison: If that thing had a whistle, a stopwatch and a clipboard, I would never get you out about you.
Jill: No. And every. Court had a table at the end that had like it must have been a scorer or something Oh running the clock must have been running the clock to and uh, uh managing the score because they had a little table and a computer So it was your own little desk.
You had probably had paperwork. You had a little computer. It was great There was one referee the referee who did ellison levine’s match was so calming They all were really calming officials. It was it was beautiful to see You I think it would be a great job. All right. You know what else would be a great job?
Money counter. We
Alison: have a little desk, like Scrooge McDuck. Oh, I’ve got all the gold here.
Jill: Well, we don’t have all the gold. We definitely do not have all the gold. This is when we have our baguette moment, because we are an independent media outlet, and the only way we can be here is if we have the money.
and share with you the ins and outs of the Paralympics is through your support. So if you are enjoying the coverage, if you enjoy what we provide for you in terms of community, uh, and foster that, if you could send a little love our way in terms of maybe 20 and 24 cents, a lot of you doing that would get us on our way to keeping our flame alive and getting, starting to get us to, Milan Cortina for 2026 because we go home and like two weeks later, we had to start thinking about that.
Alison: 17 months is all we got in between.
Jill: Yeah. So, um, these trips are not cheap, but we love doing this show for you. And we love, uh, being able to do it, but, uh, we do need your help in making sure it is a sustainable entity. So you can help us out by going to flamealivepod. com slash support. We have a number of ways to donate.
We’ve got PayPal, we’ve got Venmo. If you would like to be an ongoing patron, we do that through Patreon. That is patreon.com/flame, live pod,
Alison: and there’s lots of cool stuff you get as a Patreon that
Jill: is. And, and, uh, if you’re any paid Patreon during the games, gets a, an exclusive photo of the day that doesn’t get shown anywhere else.
If you’re at the $5 a month level, you get a bonus, uh, video content. of games time stuff here and there. I will say it’s not daily, but I’m trying to get up more because I’m catching up from the Olympics.
Alison: And that’ll continue after the games are over.
Jill: Yeah, probably as we go through stuff and, uh, have more things that are fun to share.
And then when the games are over, then 5 a month, 5 a month and up, there are bonus episodes for you every month as well. So, uh, we try to make that a fun experience, uh, for our, uh, people who support us financially. But yes, if you could help us keep our flame alive, we would greatly appreciate it. That’s flamealivepod.
com slash support
Alison: daily results. Speaking of Bacha.
Jill: Okay, so we got to talk about Arena Sued. Oh no, what happened? What happened? Okay, so I’m on the bus to Arena Sued and there is a lovely volunteer who is, uh, has lived in France for a long, long time, but is from Canada. And she is talking to a man from Japan who just got here.
He works for a news agency. And I am a couple of seats back, but of course I’m listening to this conversation because it started with I don’t I got something from Starbucks. I don’t drink coffee. I just wanted steamed milk and they keep giving me steamed milk with coffee in it. That’s where this kind of like I perked up my ears on that one.
And so we get to arena sued and she’s a volunteer off the clock now and she’s just going to watch something. So she wants to get off the TC bus in front of the arena. And she asked the driver to do that and he’s like, well, do I go with you? Cause she doesn’t know where the media entrance is. And that’s when I perk up and go, no, no, no.
We’re around the corner. You gotta hang up. So, the arena sued entrance and around the corner, it’s around the corner and like Of an arena. Yeah, and a good way down the block. Okay, you go past the entrance. So we get off, and we walk back to the media entrance. So we get through that, and like, this is the media entrance.
He goes, okay, where do I go for the venue media center? Where do we go for table tennis? And I’m like, I’m going to table tennis, I’ll go with you. And, um, Very friendly volunteers. Okay, you go to the left for table tennis and the media center is to the right. So we go I say okay around the corner is the media center But we’re going this way and we did what we were supposed to do is walk those Not moving moving sidewalks the several of them that take you to that side of arena sued Yeah,
Alison: so you’re going to the old volleyball building.
Jill: No, no, no. No, we’re back in table tennis land We’re in. Oh, okay. Okay. So we’re in the, we’re in the venues with the shorter ceilings. Yes. And uh, so we go and you have to walk down and down and down and you make a U-turn and there’s an entrance, but that’s a ticketed entrance. And they say, no, it’s a couple doors down.
Well, a couple of doors down is back where we started. And this guy is like, really? We couldn’t go in here? I’m like, no, you can’t . And he’s like. Are you serious? Like, yeah, and we get in, we finally get a door that will let us in, and I’m like, okay, I have to think about where the press tribute is. We might have to run up a stair and see where it is in the venue.
And then we see signs and like, oh, no, we have to go like halfway around the building in order and he just was about done with that. Already poor guy. I felt really bad for him. He was so nice and he’s like, I’m like, welcome to France
Alison: Now is he going to be covering multiple sports or it was?
Jill: I don’t know.
Alison: So If he’s done already, he’s gonna have a long Paralympics.
Jill: Yeah. Yeah. That side of arena sued boccia is where volleyball was Because there’s so many courts going on at the same time
Alison: Because that was a huge space that they created that volleyball court with that incredibly pitched set of stands.
Yes.
Jill: Those are still there. But I went in and okay, so I’m in table tennis, and I have maybe half an hour to get over to Bacha before Alison Levine starts.
Alison: And you gotta move.
Jill: Yeah. And I think, do I have time to get something to eat?
Alison: You do not.
Jill: No, I didn’t. And I said, I will get something in Arena Suede 1.
Alison: Because there is food venues.
Jill: Not there. Oh,
Alison: they’re gone?
Jill: No, they weren’t open. Beverages were open, but if they had food, it was closed for the day. The whole food thing was shut down. So I went, okay, I guess I’m not eating here. Thank you Past Jill for packing nuts and fruit. Although I think I ate those at Pear Table Tennis.
And, uh, I think I had a feed bar. That I had scored from athletics and have been walking around with for a week and a half and I think those are like gold Because it’s got some protein in it and I had those and I had my water and I was not super satisfied So
I see the Press Tribune and I also see venue media center signs and mix zone because I was like, oh And I still had a little bit of time, because now I’m a little bit early for Because
Alison: now you’re in the building.
Jill: Yes, I’m in the building, and I didn’t know I’m like, Oh, I didn’t know Arena Suite 1 had a media center in it.
So I go in and, you know, you have to get past security with the all marking on your credential, which is what we have. And the mix zone is to the right and the, uh, venue media centers to the left. I said, okay. So I started walking to the left and I see OBS dining hall this way. I’m like, Oh, they had a dining hall down
Alison: here.
Jill: And, uh, Oh, that shut down. You can totally tell it’s shut. And I keep walking and walking. I’m like, huh. And I see, in the wall because these are temporary walls, and there’s a security guard there and there’s a little sign above her that says what kind of credential can get into the section. And it says all, so she looks at my credential and she looks at me.
Okay. So I go in and there’s a kind of a biggish open area with like Stuff, pallets and temporary walls piled up and old, uh, refrigerated cases branded with Paris 2024, piles of foam, piles
Alison: of other stuff. So was that something at one point? Yeah, it was stuff from what the venue
Jill: used to be and I’m like, oh, I don’t know So I just started walking down the cubicle the temporary office hallway That is back there the maze and I quickly realized there’s nothing there All that stuff is empty, but the temporary offices and things have not been taken down yet And I don’t know why I keep wandering through this, like I’m going to find some magical opening and there’s going to be a venue media center with like a snack there.
That’s all I want.
Alison: But I don’t think that building ever had a venue. I don’t think so either. I think they were going to direct you outside. To the main.
Jill: Yes. So then I turn around and I leave and I’m like, why did you even let me in here? I’m surprised I didn’t get kicked out. Like tackled or something.
Interdict. Yeah, I know. But, but, I mean, I could get in there. So I find my way out, and then I say, well, I better get to, get to sitting down. So I climb up the press center stairs, cause it’s a climb up to like climb down or whatever. I don’t, it’s a hard staircase. And I want to catch up. Well, that’s because
Alison: those stands are so pitched.
I mean, they are really pitched.
Jill: They are very pitched. Bacha was so much fun to watch in person. So much fun. Her, her class. So we had all day long, it was women and men’s individual competition in all classes. The arena is pretty empty, but I’m there kind of, uh, there’s two rounds left for the day.
So I don’t know. If how full it was, this, of course, is on a discovery pass, you know, when Andrew Parsons said at the press conference, we went to IPC president, Andrew Parsons, they asked what sports you were looking forward to seeing and Bacha, he mentioned, and I thought, Hey, it’s one of those sports where he said, look, as people who had difficulty, uh, with motor skills and, uh, It’s a very precise sport.
So watching them overcome their motor skill is issues to be very precise with something is pretty incredible and that I believe but I also thought they didn’t sell tickets for this and There was a French contingent because there was somebody French and by golly They just show up they show up and they yeah And they wave their flags.
Yes, and they sing and they’re ready to go for anything. Um. Is there like a call that goes out?
Alison: We need the French to arrive! Oh, I know. Les Bleus! The blue mobile
Jill: So that was cool that they were there and the other people who were I mean the Brazilians also showed up There’s not that many but they showed up because there were a couple of Brazilians playing.
I had Brazilians to it swimming They’re the best
Jill: they are the best so watching Allison’s class she is a bc4 and that is a pretty limited motor skills and Watching All of the the women here play was mesmerizing and it was kind of like watching curling.
Alison: Oh Yeah, you love curling
Jill: you you’d line them up You’d throw you’d look at their strategy about where they threw the jack what they wanted to do How they wanted to get the other person and it was just really really cool , allison earlier in the day beat egyptian Uh hannah alfar four to three When I saw her she lost to uh, malaysian You neuro m and two to three, and it was really close down to the wire.
uh, Allison got to throw the jack last and she threw it really shallow. It was really close to the, their line, and I wanted to ask her in the mix zone. what the strategy behind that was. And she must have either bypassed or flew through because I did not get to see her in the mixed zone. She just probably was really tired.
Alison: Yeah. I think a lot of mixed zone, depending on where they are in their competitive cycle, they’re either not coming through or coming through and talking to one and two and yeah, done.
Jill: They also, at one point, brought in a second measurer because the balls were so close. It was really, really fascinating.
And then after her round came, it was the, uh, BC3, which is the players that use the ramps and the assistants. That one was a little harder to watch because there’s so much involved with setting up the ramp. And you, you don’t necessarily see what the assistant is doing and, or no, this is one of those that like, I wish they were mic’d up like they are in curling, but that’s, I know that’s for TV.
I wish they were mic’d up so we could hear them communicate with each other, even if it’s not in a language that you understand, but knowing what they’re saying to each other and how to adjust the ramp and where to add in the, like the ball holder. So it holds the ball before the player touches it. That was really fascinating.
I think it would be really, really hard to be the assistant. Because you can’t look at the field of play. So they’re constantly facing away. And a lot of times these assistants are parents. And I thought of you, I thought of you and like you can never do this job. You can never ever not want to, you know, you’d be dying to know what’s happening.
Alison: It’s like security at a concert. That’s, that takes a certain brain to be able to do that. And when it’s a parent or a partner or a sibling or any kind of thing where you had this not professional relationship as well, that must be incredibly tricky to navigate.
Jill: We need to get a person in this class and their assistant on at the same time to talk about that relationship, to talk about how, how all of that works.
And I also want to know for the players how they know how hard to tap the ball because I got to say Sonia Heckle from France, who of course was getting cheers beyond belief. She fit her ball precisely. into the space between the jack and the other ball. Like there was no room for anything else. And I don’t know how she figured out the speed that it needed to travel, the height that the ramp needed to be at.
And it just was perfect shot. It was unbelievable.
Alison: I mean, we’ve seen shots in both wheelchair curling and able bodied curling where the two of us will just look at each other and say, How, how did they, how could they see that? Right. How could they see the, the, the geometry of that? That’s what these people do.
They can see it and feel it and know how that’s going to go.
Jill: It is really, really cool and really, really fun to watch. I don’t know how much Bacha is getting airplay wise. They had, uh, cameras on one court, so that was also on the Jumbotron, but I don’t think much. else is getting televised. So watch what you can.
Maybe they’ll have more when it’s
Alison: Yeah.
Jill: Yeah. Or elimination, but, uh, yeah, it was a little disappointing and the sparse crowd was disappointing, but then we’re getting on towards the end of the night. So, you know, people are there to see specific people or they discovered it for an hour and that was enough for them.
But I highly recommend it. A goal ball was also going on at Arena Sued, but I did not see goal ball tonight.
Alison: I
Jill: know, I know. I’m like, uh, when I left botch, I was like, I’m done with arena suit. And then I thought, no, no, I have to come back and see goalball. There’s still more arena suit to get me.
Alison: Arena suit is never done with you.
Jill: In the men, China beat Japan 7 to 6, Brazil beat France 8 to 5, Ukraine beat Egypt 6 to 3, and on the women’s side, Canada walloped France 10 to 0. Brazil and Turkey tied at 3 all, and Japan beat Korea 3 to 1. Then we had Ranking Rounds in Para Archery. This was a ranking for women’s and men’s individual W1 and compound open.
That included our very own Shukla Stani, Matt Stutzman. He finished 19th out of 32 in the, uh, men’s individual compound open standings. He will compete tomorrow. Set to, uh, go against Victor Sardina Viveros of Mexico. Uh, that will be an evening match and I’m going to try to get to the top score today. So, uh, Matt Stutzman got 686 points.
Top score was a Paralympic record set by. Uh, 709 points. So math stats was not
Alison: that
Jill: far off.
Alison: And I mean, it’s a Paralympic record, it’s,
Jill: what are you going to do with that? Right. Set by Ai Xinglong from China. In para badminton, we had group play stage for women’s and men’s singles, women’s and men’s doubles, and mixed doubles in a variety of wheelchair and stand up classes.
Arena is just going to be hopping for days.
Alison: So many classes and so many matches. So we’ll get into detail when we get, when we get further along.
Jill: Paracycling track. I did go to the velodrome. I went to qualifying to see our Samantha Bosco. compete, and she was in the women’s C4 and 5, 500 meter time trial.
She finished 12th and did not qualify for finals. Uh, these are cyclists with the highest level of coordination. Uh, there was a world record set in qualifying. There were so many world records. Why? Cause the venue is so hot. The venue is kept between 29 and 30 degrees Celsius. And, uh, that Jill was happy that past Jill made sure there was a clean cooling towel in her bag because boy, did I use it for a half of the session.
It was, it was a rough, rough afternoon, just sitting there. I got to go into the mix zone to talk to, uh, Samantha. And so I watched a couple of races from inside the track. Because that’s where the mix zone is. It’s really cool. Although you get dizzy because you’re turning around with everything. uh, as I said, there was a world record set in qualifying for this race.
Uh, Caroline Groot from the Netherlands took a thousandth of a second off of her world record from Tokyo 2020. She also took home the gold medal. Silver went to Marie Patoullet from France and bronze went to Canada’s Kate O’Brien. In the women’s C1 to 3 3000 meter individual pursuit final, this is a cyclist with a higher level of impairment, more world records set in qualifying.
This was nuts. So what happens with this combined race is all the cyclists, uh, Ride together, but there’s records separated for individual classes and then there’s time factors involved as well.
Alison: We should talk, we’ll try and explain this in the very simple way. So the, the simplest way to say this is that when there is time factoring,
When there’s time factoring, the clock doesn’t run the same for everybody. So they, if you have a higher level of disability, your clock runs slightly slower. Then, so if you’re a C1, your clock runs slower than if you’re a C3. We saw this in Beijing with, uh, cross country skiing. It is very confusing because the first person who crosses the line is not necessarily the person who wins because the clock runs differently.
So you have to watch the clock to see who wins rather than the finish line.
Jill: Exactly.
Alison: And it also means that you could have multiple world records set and broken within a single race.
Jill: Yes, exactly. So in the class C2, Micah Hausberger from Germany took nearly two seconds off Daphne Schrager’s. World record from 2023 She’s from Great Britain two heats later Schreger took it back knocking four cents She took four seconds off Hausberger’s time It was nuts because you’re like they were like world record set and then two two heats later You’re like world record set again And it was like, that’s my record.
I’m taking it back. She just made it happen. And then in class C3 China’s Wang Xiaomei took over six seconds off the world record that was set at Tokyo 2020. I mean, it was incredible the times they were setting when I talked with Samantha. She said the track was amazing. They did a lot. They’ve done a lot of work in the past couple of years to really fix it up and resurface it.
It’s really, really nice to ride
Alison: and really fast.
Jill: Yeah. And even though she finished 12th, she was fine. She was really happy and excited to be there. And, uh, this wasn’t necessarily her dream. She’s looking forward or counting on in terms of results. This was kind of a warmup race. She got the jitters out.
Uh, her big race on the track is tomorrow.
Alison: Oh, that’s pressure now. Cause I’m going out to see her.
Jill: Good luck charm. We also had a Paralympic record set in the qualifying class C1, uh, for this 3000 meter individual pursuit final. That went to China’s Chiang Wan Wei. she broke her own world record or it’s, I’m sorry, broke her own Paralympic record from Tokyo 2020 by nearly 14 seconds.
Alison: Wow. So who, after all these world records, ended up with some medals?
Jill: Uh, Wang Xiaomei got, from China, won gold, silver went to Daphne Schrager from Great Britain, and bronze went to Florina Ringling from, Rigling from Switzerland. So, uh, Jackie Chan gave them
Alison: medals out. He also, I think, did the Trois Coupes.
From what I saw of the Oh, really? Yes! I
Jill: missed it because I didn’t stick around for the finals. I went in to see other Chocolastanis compete. Jackie Chan! I know! I mean, we had some really important names in French cycling that were doing the Trois Coupes for the morning. So that was fun, but Jackie Chan!
Alison: I think he did the Trois Coupes over at Para. Taekwondo.
Jill: Oh! Or one of the,
Alison: yeah, one of, whatever, whichever fighting sport we had today, I think that’s where he did the twa koop. But he was there giving medals!
Jill: That’s amazing. That is amazing. Uh, then in the, for the men, we had the men’s C1 3000 meter individual pursuit final.
That was the highest level of impairment. In qualifying, we had another world record set, uh, China’s Ling Zhangyu took over four seconds off. The Tokyo 2020 record, uh, he ended up winning the gold. Silver went to, uh, Liangyuan Kang from China and bronze went to Ricardo Ten Argyles from Spain.
Alison: Oh, look, there were world records set in the next race. Right.
Jill: The. Last race we had was the men’s B4000 meter individual pursuit final. This is a visually impaired class. Uh, so tandem riding, that was fun to watch. That was really, really fun to watch.
Another set of cyclists I want to talk to. Because sometimes you could see that the, The rider was driving the bike. The rider was driving the speed of the bike. Sometimes you couldn’t tell because obviously they, they match their strokes evenly. So you can’t, they’re just working in unison. Also a couple of the pilots were bigger.
Then the cyclist, the cyclist got to be very tiny. I’m like, huh, does that help with the,
Alison: or does that hurt? Because that’s an additional drag.
Jill: And I’m not, I’m not saying they were like 300 pounds, but they, a couple of them were a little bit bigger. And I kind of wondered how that worked in terms of aerodynamics and things.
When you’re talking about two people on a bike, um, poor Ghana, I will say this poor Ghana was Probably a continental qualifier if they have that. They look like they were riding a 10 speed bike because just the way the handlebars were and track cycles are Super expensive. There’s so much technology that goes into them So i’m sure they don’t I it was amazing that they had somebody in the race to be quite honest but you could really tell the disparities in What they could afford to do, but the bike was painted up really nice too.
It was really cute. Um, we had a world record set in qualifying, uh, great Britain. Steven Bate took almost two seconds off the world record set by Tristan Bangma from Netherlands earlier this year. Next heat, Bangma took a back saving, shaving off another second. Bangma went on to win gold. Uh, Steven Bate from great Britain won silver and Lorenzo Bernard from Italy won the bronze.
And a lot of the pilots were big hams at the end of the race, like, waving it up so people would cheer more. So it was, it was a weird crowd there. There were some school kids, cause they said they were bringing in the cool kids. The, the venue was maybe, two thirds to three quarters full. There were definitely seats empty and they didn’t quite know how to cheer if it wasn’t a French person.
And we would have pockets of cheering because there were, there was a Dutch contingent, there was a British contingent, an Irish contingent, there were a lot of contingents around from, but they were small. When you got a French person, they knew how to clap because there was a French guy who was just living life.
He went pretty fast and, uh, wowed the crowd with his, he, he didn’t make it into the finals, I don’t believe. , but, that was when it got exciting, but otherwise it was kind of a tough atmosphere. I think this is one of those, like, when people understand the sport, then they’ll. start getting behind it.
Just got to keep working on it.
Alison: People understood my sports. That’s right. We went to Paris swimming next. I went to Paris swimming and a couple of things I wanted to mention. It was the same in the sense of they did the whole light show beforehand. They did all the music that they had done. It felt. like being at the Olympic final evening sessions, which was great.
Um, so I got to see medal ceremonies, many of them. We’re not getting the posters. We’re getting Friege.
Jill: Oh, they get the Friege on this one. Thank goodness.
Alison: Yes. And that, you know, We talked a lot about the, at one point, the modular
Jill: podiums.
Alison: Well, the modular podiums have allowed them to put ramps on them.
Jill: Yeah.
I remember that.
Alison: So it’s ramped and it’s even, so they have the same podium, but it works for the, the athletes with disabilities. So simple and so obvious makes it equal. Nice little fun fact for tonight. Prince Albert of Monaco presented one of the medals.
Jill: Very nice.
Alison: I was like, Oh, hi! Like I’m, you know, I’m waving at him like he has any clue what’s going on.
And what were the medal attendants? We found out what they were called. Oh really?
Jill: Because I was just calling them 1924 people.
Alison: Well, they had several of them, uh, there with disabilities as well. Nice. I kind of wish they had done that at the Olympics. Like why did they reserve the people with disabilities for the Paralympics?
Let’s truly. Yeah. integrate this, but I was happy with the, their appearance. So a whole bunch of events tonight. The other thing I will say about para swimming, it moves, not the swimming moves slowly, the events move slowly. So the session tonight was four hours and that was long because there’s a lot of space in between each of the races.
depending on the level of impairment and the setup. So obviously you need the time. I don’t quite know how to make that move more quickly because I think that would help. The crowd knew how to cheer, pretty enthusiastic. I would also say two thirds, not in the first hour because the first, it started at five 30.
So I think people are still kind of gathering themselves and coming home from work. But by the, in, we had a, we had a very loud crowd and we had the French special fan zone with the cutout heads and they knew what they were doing because there were some big French names swimming tonight. Oh,
Jill: okay. Good.
Alison: Which was great. So. Uh, lots of classifications. We’re going to try and keep that pretty simple. But first race was men’s hundred meter backstroke S1, which is the highest level of impairment. Gold went to Poland’s Camille Adekowski, uh, silver to Anton Cole from Ukraine and bronze from Francesco Patella of Italy.
Uh, Men’s 100 meter backstroke, which is a high level of impairment, but has more arm mobility than S1. This, this was the best podium of the night. A gold went to Gabriela. So Gabrielle Geraldo dos Santos Arroyo, please watch this medal ceremony. He dances on the podium, silver to a neutral athletes Vladimir Danilenko and bronze to Chile’s Alberto Corolli at Barza Diaz, uh, then women’s a hundred meter backstroke as two.
Uh, as well, gold went to Singapore, Yip Pinju, who. started crying on the podium and made me cry. Aww. I’m like, why am I crying? I don’t know anything about this race. Uh, silver to, uh, Haiti, Viviana Aceves Perez from Mexico and Italy won the bronze, Angela Prochita. Then we had some splash and dash, which is so much fun.
You know how I love the splash and dash, uh, men’s 50 meter breaststroke SB3. So this is more coordination in the upper trunk and arms in the absence of limbs. Gold to Suzuki Takeyuki from Japan. Italy won the silver Afro Morelli and bronze to Miguel Luke from Spain. And in the men’s hundred meter.
Butterfly S 13. This is a visually impaired class with restricted vision. Gold went to neutral athletes, uh, Ihar Boki. Silver, this broke everybody’s heart, but got them excited as well, uh, was Alex Portel from France. He’s going, he was going for four golds. So this is race number one. Uh, but he’s meddled and everybody was thrilled.
And Spain won the bronze, Jose Enrique, Jose Alhambra, Malar women’s a hundred meter butterfly. Also as 13, uh, Italy won the gold car lot of Gili, uh, Americans got their first medal in swimming, uh, in, uh, for grace new for, and the bronze went to Muslima Oda Lova from Uzbekistan. Yeah. Then we had two S14 races, the hundred meter butterfly.
That’s an intellectual impairment. Uh, gold went to Alexander Hill house of Denmark, silver to William Ellard of great Britain and bronze to Gabriella of Brazil on the women’s side. Guess what we had? A world record. Are you jealous from your cycling? Uh, Great Britain’s Poppy Maskell won gold and Hong Kong’s Chan Yu Lam won silver and Shalina Valera of the Neutral Athletes won bronze.
You found a cute little quote. Was this?
Jill: No, our, our researcher, our researcher.
Alison: Yes. She, uh, Poppy apparently said that she felt weird about being the first British Paralympian to win gold in Paris, that it made her very uncomfortable. That’s, that’s funny. So some more splash and dash, uh, women’s 50 meter freestyle S6 is the modern impairment on one side.
Gold to Jiang Yu Yang of China with a Paralympic record, uh, silver to Ellie Marks from the United States and bronze to Anna Hontar from Ukraine. And uh, men’s 50. Meter Freestyle S10 is the highest level of mobility and coordination. Gold to Thomas Gallagher of Australia. Silver was won by Philippe Andrews Melo Rodriguez from Brazil and bronze to Rowan Crothers of Australia.
Same race on the women’s side. Gold for Chenyi of China with a another world record. Uh, Christy Raleigh Crossley from the United States won silver and Aurelie Rivard of Canada won bronze. We got more races. We got more races. There was a lot of races tonight. Uh, men’s 200 meter freestyled S5. This is moderately affected coordination, a highly affected mid trunk and lower.
Jill: body, lower body
Alison: and absence of limbs. Gold to Francesco Bocciardi of Italy, Kirill Polvar of Neutral Athletes won silver and Aleksandr Komarov of Ukraine won bronze. Same race on the women’s side, Tully Kearney of Great Britain won gold, Irina Poda of Ukraine won silver and Monica Boggioni of Italy won bronze.
This, now this is the race of the night, which was the men’s 400 meter freestyle S9. This is coordination affected to a low degree and some of the swimmers could be missing limbs. Hugo Didier of France has been in a lot of the pre Paralympic hype, so he’s everywhere. So everyone is cheering Hugo, Hugo. for him.
Crowd went absolutely nuts. He came from behind in the last hundred meters of this race and just inched and inched and inched. And even everybody in the press started getting up.
Jill: Oh, wow.
Alison: The press totally lost its cool. on this race. And he did pull off the gold. So Ugo Didier of France went gold, Simone Barlem of Italy won silver, and Brendan Hall of Australia took home the bronze.
And the same race on the women’s side, Sophia Conkely of Hungary won gold, Lakeisha Patterson of Australia won silver, and Vittoria Bianco of Italy won bronze. A lot of Italian names in this list. You know, Italian swimming. Did very well today, yet again. And I forgot to mention earlier, for the 100 meter butterfly, our Olivia Chambers raced, and she came in fifth.
She’s a slapper.
Jill: Oh, I did not know that. I did
Alison: not know that. I guess we’ve only seen her swim. We never saw like the prep. She’s a slapper, but she’ll be back. She’s got, I think, three more races. Excellent. Excellent.
Jill: In a pair of table tennis, we had a variety of classes in men, women, and mixed doubles round of 16 and quarterfinals today.
But, uh, uh, So I was there for this, for part of this session as well. And I forgot to mention when I was talking to my, uh, Japanese friend that I chatted with while I was trying to show him the ins and outs of walking around arena suit, I asked what the legacies were for the Paralympics from Tokyo. And he said, interestingly, Bacha has become very popular both with able bodied and with.
uh, para athletes. So that I thought was an interesting little legacy note. Uh, I got to see mixed doubles. I got to see Melissa Tapper and Trevor Hearth against Sweden’s, uh, Hansen and Handler, or Hander, um, four lefties. How is,
Alison: you know, as a left handed person, I totally applaud that. But that must have been a very odd game to play.
Maybe, maybe not. Because you don’t usually I would suspect play against, I would think it would be a lefty and a righty you would put together. That would be a better combination. I don’t know because I know so much about table tennis.
Jill: But this was such a really fun match to watch because the teams were evenly matched and things were really close.
The score doesn’t sound close. Uh, sadly, uh, Millie Tapper and Trevor Hurth lost 3 1. But the first game was, uh, 15 to 17, Australia to Sweden. Australia was behind at the beginning. They caught up. There was a lot of back and forth. Sadly, they lost. Second game, they got ahead right away. Sweden catches up. Got ahead.
And then Australia comes back and wins 11 9. Then, then, Millie and Trevor were in command on the third game. There were some time stoppages. And Sweden came back and, uh, they won, uh, Sweden won 11 to nine. Fourth game was a lot of hitting into the net and hitting long. So Sweden went up seven, nothing really quick.
And Millie and Trevor battled back valiantly, but lost seven to 11 on that. I gotta say Millie Tamper’s got this amazing smash shot. You know, it’s just super powerful. It hits on the edge. And it’s beautiful to watch and you can kind of see she’s got a little look when she’s like, doing it.
Alison: She’s been doing this a long time.
This is, this is three. Yeah. Paralymics number three for her.
Jill: Yeah. So, uh, you can see why she is at the level she’s at. And it was, it was just so much fun to watch her. I wasn’t sure I’d get to see her. I was like, Oh, Millie’s playing. I, and I’m here. Let me get to see that. So it was a thrill. So, uh, she’s going to compete again in singles.
Bummer. This is a knockout round. So they were done. And Millie did say that she, they did better than they expected to. So that was good. And this is a
Alison: new partnership, I think.
Jill: So. Not bad for a new partnership. Uh, we also had women’s doubles, uh, semi finals in the WD14 class. Germany’s, uh, Stephanie Graeber and Juliana Wolff, uh, defeated, Aida Pusikdalen from Norway along with, Meredith.
Vean. . The Germans won three to two in the second semi-final. China defeated Great Britain three to one. This was Chinese team, Huang Wan and Jing Hu Chen versus, uh, Felicity Picard and Bly. Okay, Fly told me, because I saw part of this match, and they were in front of me, she looks so tiny.
And then I looked her up. She is 14, maybe. Oh, she’s a baby. She is very, very young. And her partner is like 30 years old. So I really wonder how that partnership works as well. And when. Um, when you’re looking for a partner, there may, uh, how many choices do you get?
Alison: Right. Because how many women are, not just women, but we’re talking about the women, you know, how many women are in your class, in your country playing the sport
Jill: that you can work with?
Yes. So that was pretty amazing to see. Um, I think their games were probably a little closer. I saw one that they were doing quite well at one point, but China came back, um, earlier in the day. Our Shuklastani Eden Seidenfeld and his partner Tal Leibovitz lost to Liu and Zhao, I believe from China, uh, 0 3.
So gains were close on that one too, uh, uh, 11 7, 11 9, 11 9. So a tough day, tough outing for them.
Alison: They’re both coming back for the Men’s Singles Tournament.
Jill: Excellent. Get some pair of Taekwondo.
Alison: With Jackie Chan.
Jill: And the women’s K 44 class, uh, under 47 kilograms.
Gold went to Leonor Angelica, Espinosa Carranza from Peru, silver went to Jotakan Izakova from Uzbekistan, and bronzes went to Kwansuda Phangkachida from Thailand, who won by superiority, and Zyka Kudadadi from, uh, refugee camp.
Alison: So this is the first Paralympic medal for the refugee team.
Jill: First ever refugee athlete to win a Paralympic medal.
And I believe in the Olympics, there was a one first ever athlete, both women. Nice. So that’s really nice. Um, in the under 52 kilogram class for women’s K44, uh, gold went to, uh, Suriname, Ulaanbaatar from Mongolia. Silver went to Zara Rami. From Iran, Anna, uh, from Georgia and, uh, Miriam Batul Kavdar from Turkey, one bronze.
In the men’s K 44 class under 58 kilograms, gold went to Asaf Yasur from Israel, who won by final score 19 to 12 over Ali Khan Özkan from Turkey. And then bronzes went to, uh, Xiao Jiang Wen And, uh, from Taipei and, uh, Sabir Janelov from Azerbaijan. Then we had some city volleyball. Women’s and men’s preliminary round action.
For the women, Brazil beat Rwanda 3 0. Canada beat Slovenia 3 0. For the men, uh, Kazakhstan beat France 3 0. And Bosnia and Herzegovina beat Egypt 3 2 1. We had some wheelchair basketball prelim rounds too, for the men, uh, Great Britain beat Germany 76 55, USA beat Spain 66 56, Netherlands beat Australia 66 55, and for the women, China beat Canada 70 65, and Great Britain beat Spain 69 34.
Then we had a little sport wheelchair rugby that you went to.
Alison: This was the greatest day of my life. So first, I do want to give a shout out to the volunteers at Wheelchair Rugby, who were incredibly helpful because the Champ de Mars complex has been completely rearranged since we were there. They moved the entrance, like didn’t just move the entrance.
It’s on a different street. And the how you approach the arena has changed. They’ve changed which roads are closed off.
Jill: Oh, wow.
Alison: So if you go over there, just be prepared. But the volunteers were so nice. And then this one volunteer, once I got into the complex, I was so confused because all the temporary buildings are temporary and they moved them.
So my land references, my landmarks were gone. So he walked me to the arena and then got me to the mix zone. When he had one of his colleagues walked me over to the mix zone later. So we do have a two minutes of tape with Tuck Aoki, which was great. So I did get to talk to him after the match. So,
oh my God.
This was the greatest day of my life watching all this wheelchair rugby.
A couple of things that I noticed that I never noticed, uh, on TV before. The players have cards, like numbers that you see on runners on their wheelchairs with their points.
Jill: Oh, really? Okay. So how do they get marked?
Alison: Okay. So not their points that they scored, their point level of classification.
So yeah, so let’s, let’s just take a quick step back. So the very basic of all, uh, wheelchair rugby players get. physically evaluated, obviously, and they’re assigned a point value from 0. 5 to 3. 5. And you can only have a certain total points on the court at any given time, so that you know who’s what point value.
And if, you know, just like too many players on the court, too many points on the court. Australia and Great Britain, who I saw first, do a lot of 3. 5, 3. Hmm. That seems to be one of their favorite configurations. And it led to less of a smash mouth kind of play. And then Canada and the US take the court. And they did more of a mix, like you saw a lot of one, two, two, three.
configurations. And it’s very easy to see when you’re watching it in person because the cards have the person’s point value right there. You don’t have to look at the page. You can see who’s on the court.
Jill: And then that’s probably to help the referees too.
Alison: Oh, I’m sure it’s, it’s an official’s gig, but it was great for me because I could keep track of this because as we’ve known, I haven’t seen this in person before.
And what I noticed in person is there’s, there’s basically three kinds of plays. There is three kinds of ways to score. There is, you just out. race your point opponent. The ball goes flying, you catch it, you make the try. The second way is the old school smash mouth where you just knock people down like bowling balls and just plow on through.
And then there was this third way, which I did never did not see on television was the setup where it was, I’m passing it to you. You’re moving around away, array from the player. I mean, classic kind of, of, or basketball any team sport. And you could see it. It’s so much better in person because the camera focuses on the ball.
Your eye will focus on the court. So all of a sudden and Chuck and Sarah Adam, who is the first female on the American team, have a level of trust with each other and That is amazing. It’s like a no look pass. Oh, I don’t think it’s a no look pass. Awesome. But it has that feel to it. The way that they passed to one another.
Really, really beautiful. And just when all of a sudden they would arc a ball all the way down the court and there’s somebody there. You don’t see it on television because the camera’s never focused away from the ball. So I would say over the last. for years, certainly since we watched it in Tokyo, there’s a lot more of that nuance set up play, which is gorgeous and even more gorgeous in person.
So those were the two, big differences that I saw. I mentioned to Chuck that the game with Canada seemed kind of chippy and he’s
like, yeah, it
Alison: always gets chippy with Canada.
And I don’t know if that’s because they have similar styles. Um, but yeah, it was, I love that word by the way, chippy, because it just, it explains a certain kind of team sport and it was chippy.
I’m also best friends now with Bo Vernon’s family. He’s one of the Australian players because they all had shirts, saw them on the street and I said, I love your shirts and we had a whole conversation and then I ran into them again at the mega store. So if as long as Australia is not playing the US, I’m cheering for Bo Vernon and his amazing family that came.
So, uh, final scores on those two games that I saw Great Britain, uh, beat Australia, 58 55, and the United States did beat Canada, managed to beat Canada, 51 48.
Jill: I’m excited to go. I, I have to figure out when to go, but, uh, definitely have to get there.
Alison: Two more games today, uh, France beat Denmark, 53 51, and
Jill: Whoa, that crowd must have been crazy.
My crowd
Alison: at both games really were at least two thirds full. loud, enthusiastic, knew what was going on. You know, someone scored, they cheered, somebody failed, they cheered. It was, it was fantastic. So when you’re saying to me that your crowds were not responsive, all of my crowds today were, and we talked about this yesterday, you know, how are they going to respond to the Paralympics?
My day, they responded The way they responded at the Olympics and then last score, uh, Japan beat Germany 55 44,
Jill: you know I forgot to talk about the crowd at table tennis and again It helped that French people were playing and several tables of French people were playing throughout the the time I was there There was one person who kept trying to get the wave going I
Alison: had waves
Jill: well, they they they Got it going to his left.
He would it would start they would start and he’d be like, yeah And then he’d look to his right. It would wouldn’t have continued and he’d be like ALE ALE ALE And then he’d be yelling at the next bank over ALE And they finally got it going around the the venue several times and he was happy and until then they couldn’t get it going again.
But it was fun. They would pound their feet. The, the, the whole stands would vibrate. I feared for my life because I was in arena suit seating. But it was, that was fantastic. And I hope throughout the games that that spirit catches on. Not just for France but for other teams and other players. So
Alison: I had it.
I had it So it’s there and I think we just depending on what sport you’re at.
Jill: Yeah, go to wheelchair rugby Plan on it, man We do you know what else I plan on doing saying hello to our mascot
Alison: mascot and we’re so excited because we got guinea pigs You were so excited.
Jill: I had guinea pigs when I was growing up.
So this is very exciting.
Alison: Okay. So this week, Sadie and Sonny are the official mascots of Shookplaston. I can’t even say our own country name. I’m so tired. Our official mascots of Shookplaston. Guinea pig dad, Ton, tells us that Sadie is a big fan of fresh vegetables and has a lot to say when she doesn’t get enough, but she is willing to stand on her back legs like a circus animal to earn her treats.
Jill: Thank you so much.
Alison: Big thank you to Don for supporting our Kickstarter that got us to Paris and for sharing Sadie and Sonny with us. I think he’s going to be upset that I called him a guinea pig dad. Let
Jill: us know, Dawn. How are we doing on medals? No medals yet.
Alison: Not on the medal table yet.
Jill: Okay. Still a lot of competition to go.
That includes tomorrow. Alison Levine has one more match in her preliminary round in the women’s tournament. Uh,
Alison: Callahan Young and team USA Men’s Goal Ball play their first game against Brazil.
Jill: Matt Stutsman heads to the round of 16 in men’s compound open archery
Alison: Samantha Bosco races in the Women’s C four 3000 meter individual pursuit in track cycling
Jill: at.
Shooting Parasports, Marco De La Rosa competes in the men’s 10 meter air pistol SH 1 class, and Mechanic Gear competes in the mixed 10 meter air rifle standing SH 2.
Alison: Laura Webster and Kaleo Kanahale McClay of Team USA have their first game in sitting volleyball against China.
Jill: And Chuck Aoki and Team USA wheelchair rugby face Japan in preliminary action.
I have one more bit of legacy news. Uh, I was talking with somebody on Canada’s, uh, media people team, and we were going out to track cycling and we were chatting a little bit and she was saying, I said, Oh, are you from Montreal? Cause she could speak French and everything. She goes, yeah. And, and I said, Oh, it’s a shame that the velodrome from Montreal 1976 has become a museum.
She goes, yeah, but we just built a new, or we just opened a new velodrome two years ago. A little outside the city and that’s really easier because you have to haul all these bikes and that’s hard to do in the city. They opened the velodrome with the Atlanta 1996 track. They took it. They bought it and and the weird thing is that Atlanta 1996 sold it to Disney So it was gonna be like Disney’s World of Sports and they had this track And I don’t know if they ever used it or what it was doing But then this new track in Canada bought it from Disney And installed it up in Montreal.
Alison: This is a story we will just, we will investigate when we get home.
Jill: Definitely. Definitely. And that’s going to do it for this episode. Special thank you to our researcher, Elizabeth Emery.
Alison: And if you want to get in touch with us while we are in Paris, you can find us on X, YouTube and Instagram at flamealivepod.
Send us an email at flamealivepod at gmail. com. Call or text us at 208 633 4224. 4 8. That’s 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 game time newsletter at our website flamealivepod. com.
Jill: Join us again tomorrow for more action from Paris and please tell your friends about the show and hang out with us in the Facebook group because it is a lot of fun to be there, even if there are feed beef.
which they’ve already started.
Alison: no voice, so I just Oh, yes. Course . Good. See you. So I wanted to say hello. Amazing. I wanted to give you one of our pins. Oh, thank you. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Thank you so much. Generally you hold this, I’m gonna leave Jen. Yeah. I’m gonna give this to you. So how are you doing? How are you feeling? How’s it going?
Chuck Aoki: Uh, I feel a lot better now. Uh, certainly, uh, we made it a little closer than we wanted to, but No, it feels great to get our first one under the belt, um, against a, a terrific team like Canada. So enjoy this for a little bit and then we’ll get right back to resting up for Japan tomorrow.
Very chippy. It always is against Canada. It always is. They’re a very physical team. They like to make it physical. Uh, which is a good thing, you know, we don’t, that’s fine, it’s part of the game. So, no, it was a phenomenal match, um, they certainly brought it. And how are you balancing all the social media stuff with the Paralympic movement?
Because you’re doing a lot with the movement, and you still have to come out here and fight for a medal. Yeah, I mean, I think, I try to, you know, I really think of my time very concretely. This is this time, this is this time, you know. I think now that the tournament’s started, we’re locked in on this.
There’s nothing else that matters. I think I said it yesterday in my post, I was like, it’s your turn now, the rest of the world. We’ve done our part to get you ready. Now you’ve got to show up. And I mean, I tell you what, Paris showed up today. This was absolutely incredible atmosphere in there. Uh, I was so pleased for that.
I’m so pleased that it was so good. So, so yeah, it’s fantastic. And how are you doing without Winnie? It’s hard. It’s hard without Winnie, but I’m finding a way. I’m finding a way. My wife almost brought her whip, but she decided not to. Good luck for the rest of the tournament. Hopefully I’ll see you at the medal round.
Thanks.
Samantha Bosco: How’s it going? You know? I want to cry happy tears already. It’s just my first race. So we’re having fun. Good, good, good. How’s the track feel? Amazing. I mean, we were here in 2022 for track world championships. And it’s a nine day difference. They did such a beautiful job with this track, getting it ready for Paris.
And it’s just so exciting to be here and have fans here and like cheering and people are calling my name and I was all over the place. What, What kind of things are different? Um, well, the track is resurfaced, for sure. The logos are different. The envelope with the purple, it’s just, it’s just a party. Like, it has so much of an atmosphere.
It makes you just want to race as hard as you can. Um, how about the heat? The heat’s okay! I come from Southern California, where hottest days are triple digits, so I’m good to go right now. Excellent, excellent. Alright, well, good luck. Hope your time keeps going. And we’re going to keep, we’re going to keep following ya.
Fantastic. Awesome. Good to see you. Good to see you. Was that good preparation? Oh yes, yeah. It got the first day jitters out. Which I’m very excited about. Because tomorrow is a little bit more of an important race for me. So I’m glad to like, have that feeling already there. And to know what to expect even more tomorrow.
And hopefully not feel as nervous and jittery and all the things that you have on the first day of racing. And after all the misanthropy with the accident, what’s it mean to actually be back in pizza? I’m proud of you guys. It’s great, man. It’s funny, because it’s all of the feelings, bullets. I have my husband here, my parents came.
It’s their first international trip. I have two really good friends here. My heart is so full and bursting at the seams. It’s just an unreal experience. It feels like it’s my first Paralympic Games. But I have experience from being out one before with Rio. So like, I’m just soaking it in so much better, I feel like.
Just to have people that have been a part of my journey, especially the darkest parts, here, I can’t put that into words. Can I ask what? The hummingbird tattoo, what does that mean? Oh, yes, yes. My hummingbird tattoo I got last fall, but I really loved hummingbirds after we got hurt because I was sitting in the backyard just trying to get through all of the low moments, and hummingbird came to visit me and that was the moment where I thought Hummingbird can minute.
I can get through the interview. So, for me, it’s been significant because I keep seeing them. Yeah. And I need to have a moment of like, enjoy the joy. Did you get them here as well in Paris? Is there any in Paris? I haven’t yet, but now I’m going to be on the lookout. Yeah. No, I don’t, yeah. Maybe next time I’ll make hummingbird pins.
Thanks a lot. Best of luck for the rest of the competition. so much.