Another day in Paris, another load of World and Paralympic Records going down! Jill went to Wheelchair Rugby…and let’s just say there may be a podcast fight over who covers the final. Meanwhile, Alison braved the chill of the Grand Palais to see TKFLASTAN bring home a medal in Para Taekwondo. Plus, an email from a TKFLASTANI upended evening plans for all the right reasons.
Sports on today’s program are:
- Boccia
- Goalball
- Para Archery
- Para Athletics
- Para Badminton
- Para Cycling – Track
- Para Rowing
- Para Swimming
- Para Table Tennis
- Para Taekwondo
- Shooting Para Sport
- Sitting Volleyball
- Wheelchair Basketball
- Wheelchair Rugby
- Wheelchair Tennis
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Our researcher for the Paralympics is Elizabeth Emery.
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 Do not quote from the transcript; use the audio as the record of note.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 Paralympics: Day 3
Jill: Bonjour and welcome to day three of the Paris 2024 Paralympics. I’m Keith the Flame Alive, the podcast for fans of the Olympics and Paralympics. I am your host, Jill Jaracz, coming to you from the Hotel du Podcast, joined as always by my lovely co host, Alison Brown. Alison, bonjour, comment ça va?
Alison: There ain’t no party like an Uzbek party.
Jill: Oh yeah, you messaged that to me and I was just like, what is going on in
Alison: Taekwondo? It was Uzbek a wild.
Jill: Oh my gosh. I will say it’s been a good day.
Alison: It has been a good day. It’s been a, it’s been an emotional day, but a good day.
Jill: Excellent. Little follow up file I wanted to note after, uh, We signed off yesterday. I found out that Lisa Kjær from Denmark in who won one of the bronze taekwondo medals. That was the last part of her career.
She sealed it up with a medal. That’s nice. You know, go
Alison: out on top. There you go. Let’s begin the baguette. So I spent my day at the Grand Palais. Yes. Got there in the morning, didn’t leave until I think it was 1030 or so by the time I actually got out of the building.
Jill: Taekwondo is a long day. It is
Alison: a long day.
We had three weight classes today. So there was a lot going on, but there was a little break and I didn’t want to go far. So I went across the street to the Petit Palais. Which I think is also very funny, by the way, because there’s the Grand Palais
Jill: And the Petit Palais is not that petite.
It is
Alison: not that petite, but they did have one of the cultural Olympiad exhibits, and it’s called the Body in Motion. And I had seen it before during our break, but I went back and spent a little more time in it. And they didn’t put the borrow anything. All of these pieces are things that they have in their collection.
So it was ancient Greek things and a painting from 1945. So it really spanned, uh, different genres, different timeframes. And what an interesting way to use the collection a museum has and relate it to the greater history. events going on in the city. And museums, as we’ve mentioned previously for Cultural Olympiad, all over the city are doing this.
Jill: And there’s so much like we can’t even hit the tip of the iceberg. And we know that some of the listeners have been to different exhibits. We don’t have time to get to those. I, and I want to, but there, Paris really did an amazing job of putting together a cultural collection of events for, especially if you’re not interested in sports, you can at least learn something about the history and why this is important, kind of how the history of the games ties to art and other elements of culture.
It’s, it’s really amazing what Paris has done.
Alison: And this one was free. Very nice.
Jill: Nice. so I went to wheelchair rugby today. I will say, going there, we’re in the Champs de Mars, as you said yesterday, I was completely disoriented. Right? I didn’t understand, but it’s because we’re approaching it from a different direction.
Yes. But I got so messed up with where the river was versus where the venue was, and I just could not get that sorted in my brain. I did get into the venue.
Alison: Excellent.
Jill: What I couldn’t seem to figure out is like, it felt like media was more segregated in terms of entrances and exits in the venue part of Champ de Mars.
Alison: See, in the, in the, do you mean in the arena or in the venue?
Jill: In the arena, not the whole venue complex. It’s the same entrance. And I know it’s the same entrance as before, but I felt like before I could, I, you know, I went out to the, I used a, a spectator exit before that’s, you’re always wandering where you’re not supposed to be.
I know. And I was afraid. I’m, and I’m, I’m now perpetually afraid that I will never be able to find where I put my stuff. And I do not want to always take my stuff all the time when I. I have to like go to the bathroom.
Alison: Well, sweetie, always take your phone with you. Okay. I do
Jill: always take my phone with me.
That happens. So I totally understood where you were coming from with that. It’s, it’s very bizarre. I don’t know if I’ll get over it. And I also think that the app told us to get off a stop too early. Yes. I think that really was what messed me up. I’m like, well, if you had really gone, cause it told us to get off at Ponta Alma.
And if we had gone all the way to Ponta Mars. I think we would have gotten off in a better place. Agreed. And mentally, too. Even though, remember if But now you
Alison: walked through a different part of the city that we had never walked through before.
Jill: Well,
Alison: I wasn’t
Jill: even noticing that because I was like, am I going in the right direction?
And then I’d just be looking up and go, well, I have to go to the Eiffel Tower and I could see the Eiffel Tower. But and, and the sad thing is like, listeners, if you listen to our Beijing, uh, Coverage. The, in the Paralympics we talked about the buses and how sometimes you got a putt putt bus and you got a chug chug bus.
You got a bus that would go really fast. Well, we had to take the RERC to get to, uh, everywhere to a lot of places and it is a putt putt train , that’s for sure. But,
Alison: but it is a
Jill: comfortable train. It is a comfortable train. I will say that. I mean, and I don’t want to knock the transportation because the transportation here is amazing.
It’s really unbelievable. Public transportation is great. Although Yesterday I saw my first rats on the subway. Like it wasn’t in the metro. It was in the RER and Producer Ben and I had remarked that we did not see any rats In the transportation system, which you definitely see that in America, in New York, you see it in Boston, you see it in Chicago, there are rats all over that place, because Americans are lazy and don’t throw their garbage away, and there are signs all over the place, not All over the place, but I have seen signs, litter, basically, because the rats are coming.
Alison: You see that a lot in the parks. Yes,
Jill: but it holds true for the subways, and then yesterday I was waiting for the RERC and I was like, Ooh, rats, they come. But then I also wondered that Did he cook? What? The rat? So it’s not like Ratatouille? No. Oh, that was a bad joke. Um, But it was also, uh, I wondered if the Metro comes so often that the rats don’t have a ton of time to, they’re just perpetually afraid until the, until night time.
Yes. So I don’t know. That’s a question to ask a local. Then it’s not a burning question. So we’re not going to ask. I’m not going to find out, but, but I thought it was interesting. I do not know what rat is in French. Neither do I. I don’t want to know. Um, but got to wheelchair rugby. And on the way to Wheelchair Rugby,
I will be at Stade de France tonight doing the Trois Coupes. And I immediately responded saying, Well, my evening plans have changed. Because I was going to wheelchair basketball tonight. And I immediately went to para athletics. Okay, we’ll save that. We’ll save that for when we get to para athletics. Uh, but wheelchair rugby had halftime.
Well, okay. Well, hold on. If you listen to our Olympic coverage, you know we’re into floor maintenance.
Alison: And it’s, I’m sure people are very disappointed in the hotel room recording studio because there is no vacuuming facility. Maybe we should just record our, our cleaning staff when they come through our hotel room.
Jill: Maybe. And just like
Alison: throw it on the end of the show. Because they
Jill: do vacuum
Alison: the
Jill: hotel. They do because we actually have carpeting in this hotel. We did not have carpeting in our last hotel.
Alison: We’re lucky we had a floor in our last hotel.
Jill: But um, you know what? I do have audio just of vacuums. That I have taken randomly throughout the Olympics.
I did not know that! And maybe I’ll put it underneath. If you’re missing the, uh, if you’re missing some vacuuming, I can throw it in. Let us know. but during the halftime break, you know, at wheelchair rugby, the players come out and they kind of warm up, especially players who have been on the bench all game, have been, they, they warm up a little bit, and then And then I saw, uh, two people in volunteer suits and they had, uh, brooms, kind of like Swiffer type brooms, but they were big round Swiffers, like definitely two to three.
Two and a half feet. It’s a big circle. Swer. Yes. That was
Alison: big.
Jill: It was a, it was. The radius was really big. It was a
Alison: different type of floor maintenance tool. I
Jill: know, I know. ’cause that’s what caught my eye. And I went, Ooh, this is exciting. . We have a new brew in our midst. And then it turned. But
Alison: then you had no idea what was about to come because I forgot to tell you about this.
Jill: No, I’m glad you didn’t tell me about this because then it turned into a dance number. So
Alison: if you’ve ever been to Disney World. There is a show, there’s actually several shows where they have alleged cleaning people or alleged staff come out on stage and do something, but they’re actually part of the show.
They break out into song, they break out into dance. This was that. So two girls come out and supposedly are cleaning the floor, but they’re not. And then the music starts and they do a dance number.
Jill: Right. And it was just really bizarre. I was like, it’s happening. It’s a floor maintenance show. It’s like they’ve read our minds.
Alison: We gave a pin to the right person is what happened.
Jill: All right. What volunteer or officiating job would you want to do?
Alison: I met Queen Letizia of Spain today. What? No, I didn’t really meet her. Okay. But she was at Parataekwondo. I have some very close up pictures of her. What?
Jill: What, did she accidentally wander into the press tribune because she couldn’t find the Paralympic family section?
Alison: So she was standing near, uh, our bank of seats and I could walk down. They’re much less strict, by the way. right now, I think because it’s less full. Um, so I was able to get some photos and she was doing a meet and greet, taking pictures with kids. And there was a volunteer basically managing who could come up to take a picture with her.
And she was very free with people taking pictures with her. She was like, Oh yes, bring the children, bring the children. She’s lovely. She had her, um, Team Spain kit on. You know, nothing fancy. She had on the Spain polo shirt and like the athletic pants. But I’ll tell you, I recognized her right away. She looks exactly like her pictures.
Jill: Did you take a picture with her? Was that interdite?
Alison: That was interdite because you know what? It was really for the kids. Like she was having families come up and she would have spoken to me in Spanish and then I would have, Clearly revealed myself to be an imposter, but there was a volunteer who also I will take her job because she was lovely We were both like do you think we could sneak over there and get a picture with Queen Letizia?
The answer is no Nice. That
Jill: was a cool night. It was
Alison: very fun. And so this volunteer was just there kind of managing people so they weren’t crowding her. And, and of course she had her, she didn’t even really have security people around her. It was very
Jill: loose. Maybe if you’re, I don’t want to say minor royalty, but Spain royalty is not really.
You know, it’s not King Charles. Right.
Alison: It’s, it’s real figurehead situation.
Jill: I went to para athletics tonight. And there’s so many there. Oh my gosh. Um, so I, I went to para athletics. And I have to say, wheelchair rugby ended, and I was very worried about being on time for it. John Register, foreshadowing. Uh, very worried about being on time, and I said, I gotta get there. Looked at my watch, and it said, like, I think, 1600?
And like, I’ll get there, I’ll get there. And I’ll have an hour. No, I would get there in the 1600 hour, and I have an hour. And it’d be great, I’ll be perfect. I got there three hours early. I don’t know how I didn’t like, Oh, I read that session time wrong. Cause I walked, like I walked in and there’s nobody around.
And I walked up to the venue and I could, I could pick any seat I wanted almost. And then I realized, and I looked at the time and went, Oh, this doesn’t start for three hours. And then I was like, Oh, I can do stuff. But then I can’t really because I spend too much time looking around at all the prep, but that’s okay.
And this is not a prep job. It’s a during the, the action job. So many throwing competitions tonight at Para Athletics. There was clubs, there was shot put, and there was javelin. And there was something I call chairs. And, uh, club throwing is seated. thing and you have to get from your chair into your personal wheelchair into a Fixed chair and that chair gets locked in and how it gets locked in Is and and this was also for Javelin and this was not like a Justin Fong Savant Javelin class, it was, uh, some of these people could walk and, and were, uh, upright mobile, but they also had chairs and for javelin, I was able to see this a little bit better because clubs was in the far corner of the track for me and it had a net around it, but, uh, in the circle.
There were there was like a metal half arc and then in the back of the circle. There was like a metal row connected to the ground and this had holes all the way through it because you take the chair your throwing chair and You bungee cord it to the holes in the track on the ground so that it stays stable, but there’s measuring and there were like five people doing this job measuring involved a lot of where are we going to put the, uh, bungee cords?
Cause you can choose a variety of holes to stabilize it as much as possible, as much as the athlete wants to. It looked complicated. I tell you, this javelin thing went on all night. The whole session almost was. It was a javelin competition. And now I understand why everybody does their throw, their amount of throws at one go.
Because it is the transition from one athlete to another is pretty long because they want to make sure that everybody gets the right stability and comfort. To make it fair. Yeah. To make it fair and, and help them do their best. But it was involved. I will say. Looked at. It did look cool.
Alison: You do love a good bunch of cord.
Jill: You know, I was like, oh, hey, I could be part of that. And then, and then I saw the measuring. I went, oh, that’s for me. All right, let’s begin the baguette. Uh, oh, speaking of beginning the baguette, we’re going to do a little baguette now. Uh, We are an independent podcast and we are here independently, which means a lot of self financing.
And there’s not a lot of media here, to be quite honest. There are 2, 000 journalists of our category of journalists, and that is a fraction of what we do. the IOC has at the Olympics. I have to look up that number. I will look up that number. But we’re not even talking a half. We’re talking if we’re, if it’s a quarter
Alison: at best.
Yes,
Jill: exactly. That, and this is amazing interest in the Paralympics for sure, uh, we have heard. Uh, and We love covering this stuff for you, but it does cost money and it would help if you could support that cause to keep our flame alive. If you enjoy this show and what we bring you and how we bring you the games and make it real for you and a community that you can get involved with, please help support the show.
We’re just asking for 20. 24 to celebrate 2024.
Alison: Though, if somebody wants to give us 2, 000. 24, I’m
Jill: not going to say no. No. Or 200. 24. Or 20, 000. 24.
Alison: That’s a little greedy now, Jo.
Jill: Hey, you know, there’s somebody out there in a hedge fund or venture capital who might be listening to the show And just wants to support because they like flames.
They like to keep them alive So you could look at flame live pod. com slash support for many different ways to donate We have paypal. We have venmo if you would like to be an ongoing contributor We have patreon and that is a monthly fee and you get a different You Things, uh, exclusives, we will say for that, that’s patreon.
com slash flamealivepod. All paid patrons get a special photo of the day that doesn’t go anywhere else during Paris 2024. And then if you’re at the 5 a month and up, you get extra content at random times when I’m not watching stuff happen. Unfold in front of me on the track and field. Possibly involving some Uzbeks.
Oh We got some Uzbek content coming. Awesome. A lot of it is video. There’s gonna be some audio coming your way I was at para athletics today and got a lot of mixed zone tape and We’re gonna have mixed zone tape for everybody that’s from Shukla Stanis But I have some from non Shukla Stanis and that will be for patrons only and some of that is from Shukla Stanis.
Nick Mayhew, Team USA, and some other Team USA athletes, uh, which it, it’s really good. I, I was really excited with what the athletes had to say cause, and this is why we love the Paralympics. They are pretty flat out honest with you and they got nothing to lose. They got everything to gain by getting some exposure and they will tell it to you like it is.
So if you really want to know what’s going on, be a patron and uh, sign up for that and you’ll get some of that. Patreon. com slash flamealivepod or flamealivepod. com slash support and thank you to everybody who’s donated so far It’s been really heartwarming flame kindling heartwarming with flames.
That’s right. So thank you again for helping us Be at Paris and hopefully be at future games as well. Daily results. Gotcha. We had individual play for both women and men in multiple classes. Yeah.
Alison: Alison Levine lost to Lady Chica Chica from Columbia three to two.
Jill: Oh, that sounds tough. That sounds really tough and it’s such a low scoring game that was
Alison: tight
Jill: this
Alison: Allison will be back for the mixed doubles tournament.
Jill: I know and but you know, she really was mad She yeah, she wanted to do much better than this. So our heart goes out to you Allison fuel that fire into mixed doubles
We have goalball. We had more preliminary action for men and women. In the men’s, China defeated Egypt 7 to 4 and USA beat France 5 to 4. That was really close, but we ended with a tie. Brazil and Ireland tied at seven. No, Iran. Oh, sorry. Thank you. Uh, Brazil and Iran tied at seven all. In the women’s preliminaries, Turkey beat, uh, Israel.
Israel. Thank you. Five to four. China beat Brazil three to one and Korea beat France six to one. Uh, Standings are kind of irrelevant because everybody moves on to the quarterfinals and the quarter, the, the pool standings just help seed you better for quarterfinals, um, which to me says more people got to get involved with goalball.
So tell your friends and neighbors,
Alison: find some people with visual impairments and get them to play goalball.
Jill: I have seen people that have been like. I hope you can play goalball someday. Please discover goalball. Uh, para archery. We were at a women’s individual W1. I had the it’s medal round today. Gold went to Chen Min Yi from China.
Silver went to Sarko Poltar Moslova. from Czechia and bronze went to Teresa Brandilova from Czechia. And then in the Women’s Compound Open, gold went to Osnur Kuri Kurdi from Turkey, silver went to Fatima Himati from Iran, and bronze went to Jody Gringham from Great Britain. There was actually two people.
Yes. Two bronze men. On that bronze bench. Yes. Bronze
Alison: podium.
Jill: Yes.
Alison: Jodi is pregnant.
Jill: And very pregnant.
Alison: I think she’s seven months along.
Jill: Yes. So, um, she talked about how her pregnancy impacts her shooting.
Alison: Yeah. She talked about, and this is, I think, I can’t remember if we talked about it ourselves or if, uh, we talked about it on the show.
Archery is such a, a, a body control sport. And when you are pregnant, especially at seven months, you cannot control. That little creature that you are growing and if you as a, as a pregnant person are still that little person. moves around. When you’re moving, your baby tends to go, oh, okay, I’m here for the ride, but to still her body.
So she talked about that she and her coach would do practices where the coach would move her bump around while she was trying to shoot to get her used to the idea of, she didn’t know how he was going to move her. So just like if the baby started flipping over as she’s trying to shoot, you have to be prepared for that.
And she felt it. And she felt it when she was going to shoot. Little, little, little Jodi decided, um, excuse me, mommy. I’m not getting enough attention right now,
Jill: but it worked. Yeah, she got a bronze. That, that, that is an amazing story. Because we’ve talked about, uh, pregnant athletes at the Olympics too, but this is one of the farthest along pregnancies we’ve seen.
And we’ve had pregnancies at the Paralympics because Laura Webster was Yeah, Laura
Alison: Webster just keeps getting pregnant. Is she pregnant now? She better not be. I
Jill: didn’t ask her. I forgot to ask.
Alison: I told her husband to stay away from her, to stop getting her pregnant before the Paralympics. Um,
Jill: moving over to para athletics,
Alison: this was
Jill: so exciting
Alison: to get this email.
So we got this email this morning and John Register, who we spoke to, gosh, three years ago. It’s been a
Jill: long time, but he’s a, uh, silver medalist in long jump from Sydney 2000. And then he was a para swimmer at Atlanta 1996.
Alison: Yes. And he’s been very involved in the movement and he was going to do the Trois Coupes tonight at.
Parathletics.
Jill: So I was like, I’ve changed my plans. I will be there. And it was like, turning around, going right to the stadium. I have to tell you, it’s not different. It’s not any different getting to the stadium where you have to go. All the venue stuff. It’s, it’s like going home, which is great. Nice and easy.
Um, I did spend some time walking around the stadium to try to find Team USA fans. And then I heard noise from inside when I was on kind of the opposite side of where I was supposed to go into. I’m like, uh oh, did I miss the toy groups?
Alison: But you didn’t. I did not. Okay. I,
Jill: uh, Missed, um, some hype stuff. Okay.
They, they had John out talking to him about what he does. And, uh, I got a picture of the, uh, Jumbotron cause he was being fun with that. Fantastic. Uh, and then he came out and did the talk groups and it was fantastic. He did a great job. It was so much fun. And, uh, I got, it was a great, great night at para athletics and it was, it was Something it may have had to do with the fact that I saw maybe five victory ceremonies and I have that Song in my head now and the Swelling music when they get up and the gold medalist gets on the stand and I’m just also filled with love
Alison: May have something to do with the fact that Shukla Stan is on the medal table now because of athletics.
It was a great night to
Jill: have fun. Okay, let’s get to some results. Yes, exactly. We’re going to start with throws today. We had women’s discus throw, uh, at 57 class, which is low degree of impairment. in one leg or two feet or an absence of limbs or two feet. Uh, gold went to Naseema Saifa from Algeria who got a Paralympic record.
Silver went to Xu Mian from China who got a personal best today. And bronze went to Moghil Kamadova from Uzbekistan. in women’s javelin F 13, uh, which is a visually impaired class, uh, that’s one of the higher degrees of, uh, visibility. Gold went to China’s Zhao Yuping, who got a world record. Silver went to, uh, national Paralympic, neutral Paralympic athlete, Anna Chou.
Kulinich Sorokina and bronze went to, uh, Natalia Eder from Austria in the women’s shot put F37 class. It’s a moderate impairment on one side. Gold went to, uh, Li Ying Li from China. Silver went to China’s Mi Na and bronze went to Irina Verinskaya from neutral Paralympic athletes. Um, this was going on when I was at track and field tonight or athletics.
I honestly couldn’t pay attention to it. There was so much going on again, but I did notice that, uh, Verinskaya had on a Paris 2024 track suit because we have noticed that they were very, very Very, very, uh, blunt, let’s say, with a neutral para ath neutral Paralympic athlete team and how they would be recognized because the flag looks like you’re going to the generic aisle of the grocery store.
Alison: It looks like someone just stamped the letters on an on an empty flag. Like wrote it with a Sharpie.
Jill: And, and because the Olympics, they created a logo. They had their own theme. No, the
Alison: IPC said, you started a war during our show in Beijing. You get a stamped flag and be grateful for it.
Jill: And then I looked at the podium and like.
How is she wearing a green suit? And then I got my little binoculars out and it said Paris 2024 on the jacket. So it’s like, Oh, they just gave them a jacket. So they didn’t have to deal with black and white stuff. Um, men’s javelin throw F57, which is a low degree of impairment in one leg, two feet, or absence of, uh, Uh, one limb or two feet gold went to York and back a little off from Uzbekistan.
Uh, silver went to Mohammed Kalev Andy from Turkey and bronze went to Cicero Valderon, Linz, nobody from Brazil. This was going on most of the night because they had a lot of chairs, took a long time. And I, I, I understand that because it’s very precise, but I also understand like, wow, this is pretty. Very involved with getting, getting the sitting javelin, getting to anything sitting throws is, uh, uh, tough management, I would say.
Then we had men’s club throw. F32 is a seated class, high impairment in trunk and legs, arms and, uh, affected arms and hands. There were a lot of athletes in this who did not have very good control of their motor skills. And A, there was a, He didn’t even make the podium, but this, uh, uh, there were some athletes who were very, very jacked, I would say, arm wise.
There were some athletes who threw sideways, like, like, it’s like a hammer throw, basically, I would say, similar to what you would have for a hammer throw. You have a club here. There were, were athletes who had their backs to the field and they were facing the nets. and threw backwards and that’s how they could do it.
It was really fascinating and club throw seems to be popular in certain areas of the world that I would say like Central Asia and central, like Greece was also big. So that Greece, Turkey, Middle Eastern, Northern Africa, and into like the Caucus region, America get into club throwing. It was so cool looking.
It really, really was. I, I could have watched that all night, just that alone. It was fun. They had on the feed, they had the numbers marked on the field. So you could. Tell how far they were going and, uh, they could. Whip those clubs so far. Yeah, I was I was really really impressed and so Gold went to Alexei Churkin from neutral Paralympic athletes silver went to honest Antioceos Constantinidis from Greece who got a personal best today and bronze went to Ahmed Mahias from Algeria And this is another one where they get six attempts and they go all in one throw so So as an athlete, I would think how you draw, and I think we talked with Justin about this.
Yes, we did. How you draw is so important because if you go first, you have to set the tone and then you have to sit there and wait and see did, were you good enough? But it was really, really cool. Looks like a lot of fun. We have these weighted clubs at home. They’re just like a pound or two. Are you going to start
Alison: throwing them?
Jill: I might tell Ben, we got to start throwing them. I think who you need to tell
Alison: is your neighbors.
Jill: We have a long yard.
Uh, then we had men’s shot put F12, uh, uh, visual impaired class with moderate impairment, gold went to, uh, Elbeck Zoltanov from Uzbekistan, who got a personal best silver went to Vlodimir Polomarenko from Ukraine, who got a personal best. personal best as well. And bronze went to Roman Danilyuk from Ukraine.
And some of these finals were in the morning. So like during the Olympics, it was like heats in the morning and finals at night.
Alison: Too many finals.
Jill: Finals all day
Alison: long. Yeah.
Jill: Not a bad session to be had I will say that. Track. We had men’s 100 t12 Which is a visual impairment with constricted vision. Gold went to a Serkan Yildirim from Turkey.
Silver went to Noah Malone from the USA and bronze went to Jofstern Mahirno de Oliveira from Brazil. This evening we had the men’s 100 t38 class which is a low impairment in the lower trunk and legs one side or all body.
Our Jaden Blackwell was in it. World record.
Alison: As you will. So that’s, he broke his own world record.
Jill: He broke his own world record, which he set at Paratrack and Field Trials. Uh, that was, uh, 10. 64. Not a bad time at all. He was, uh, he looked so far ahead of the rest of the field, even though he was only like three tenths ahead, it was no contest whatsoever.
He was so focused and so into it. And this race, they actually had a couple of delays. Some of it was, uh, one of the athletes from China, I believe, had a band that they had to wear, uh, on the hand to keep their hamstring in place. And it wasn’t fitting right. And so they delayed the start and one of the U.
- athletes helped him get the band on. I saw
Alison: that video that the other athletes were helping each, each other. So that was the situation. So much
Jill: camaraderie here. It was really, really cool. Um, and there was a French athlete. So that was Dimitri, uh, Yoswiki. Crowd goes wild. And then Nick Mayhew comes out. Oh no!
And no Silence! And he’s like, Come on, people! Come on! And nobody was clapping for Nick. And he’s such a
Alison: fired up kind of runner when he comes out. It’s get the noise, get the funk, get everything going. Exactly.
Jill: And he could not get the noise or the funk going from the, from the crowd. So I felt really bad for him that way.
Nick is known for having, uh, uh, intense hair dye jobs, I would say. And he said in the mix zone that this hair is his MRI of his brain. Is it black and white? No, it’s multi colored. Okay. But he has the spot in, because he’s got part, there’s a dead spot in his brain. So the dead spots on his head as well, on his hair.
It’s, it’s really cool that that story was really interesting to hear. Nick has a lot to say. I will, I will just tell you that. If you’re a patron, you’re going to find out soon. Um, Gold went to J. R. Jaden Blackwell with a world record. Silver went to Ryan Medrano, who is going to be a citizen of Shuklastan.
If I have anything to say about it, he came through the mix zone too and was so fantastic to talk to him like, well, we are going to
Alison: do follow up stories of people’s Paris experiences. So Ryan, we’re coming for you. Poor thing doesn’t even know what’s going to hit him.
Jill: No, it’s going to be so exciting. He got a personal best today.
He was so excited. And, uh, he said, yeah, um, you know, you always want to be, you know, Best but he’s like I got the 400 too. And my 400 is better than Jaden’s 400 That was great and then bronze went to while on Alejandro Campos Sanchez from Columbia who also got a personal best. It was great. Nick Mayhew finished seventh
Alison: Wow Not happy about it.
No, I would expect not.
Jill: Right, and we remember Nick Mayhew as a star of Tokyo, got reclassified last year. Oh. So he got put into a higher class, which makes it more difficult for him. These, uh, the word on the street is that They said he was too fast for the class he was in, so they classed him up. I am kind of curious how that works for him.
He does, he has things to say about classification. He’s getting reclassified again next year. He has to go through a lot of classifications because of his disability. And, um, That is for us really interesting to talk about. So hopefully we can get him on the show too. Men’s 1500 meter T46, which is one or both arms, uh, absence, partial absence of one or one arm or both hands.
Gold went to Alexander Iramnitschuk from neutral Paralympic athletes. Silver went to Mikhail Roger from Austria, Austria. Australia and bronze went to Antoine Proud from France who got a personal best. Men’s 5, 000 meter T13 visually impaired class with a restricted field of view. Gold went to Yassine Oudafi El Atabi from Spain.
Silver went to Alexander Kostin from neutral Paralympic athletes and bronze went to Anton Kouliantin also neutral athlete. Men’s 5, 000 meter T54 class wheelchair. Daniel Romanchuk. I, I, I. And Marcel Hugues. I know. This is a race where I was, again, we talked about wanting the feed earlier. And listeners, if you can watch this on YouTube, if you can watch any Paralympic feeds on YouTube, please tell us how to do it.
We cannot figure it out. We cannot find them.
Alison: I think we may be geo blocked from stuff.
Jill: That makes sense. But we, I got to watch this race again because so much, it’s a long race, but so much happened. First off, I have to say, if you are a wheelchair athlete and you have to wear a helmet for your race, please take care of yourself.
A cue from Marcel Hugues, because that silver bullet helmet was so easy to under see who it was.
Alison: Make it something distinctive. You see that silver helmet, no matter any picture you see of him, you know it’s Marcel Hugues. The man doesn’t know he is my best friend.
Jill: He led from the start.
Alison: Yeah, he does that.
Jill: And uh, somebody challenged him.
Alison: He said no.
Jill: He said no, of course not. But like two laps to go, the pack packs up. Because everybody was in a line and all drafting off him. So Marcel’s doing all of the work. And
Alison: he’s old.
Jill: Yeah, he’s in his late 30s. I know we can laugh at that. Two laps to go, he’s passed by so many, he gets stuck in the pack.
He does get out of the pack, but who else gets out, who had been way in the back, was our Daniel Romanchuk, who we just talked to. And, He gets out and gets ahead, beats Marcel Hugues in a photo finish by five hundredths of a second. Or no, no, five tenths of a second. Sorry, it’s five tenths. Um, it was so close.
And then I watched everybody cross the line. And then all of a sudden you hear kind of a crash. And two athletes go down before they can cross the finish line.
Alison: Oh no! Yeah,
Jill: there was a crash. Uh, everyone seemed to be okay. I think there’s some scrapes. Because, uh, one of the athletes came through and said, uh, when he was in the mixed zone, he’s like, Oh, this is going to hurt soon.
Alison: Oh, right. When you cool down in the bruises form. This
Jill: was Brian Seaman from the U. S. and, uh, uh, got into it with, uh, Putak Kongrat from Thailand. So they both went down. Everybody seemed to be okay because even though medical brought out stretchers, they just got back into their chairs and went up. So it was a super exciting race.
I will say that, uh, Daniel Romanchuk from the U. S. and Shuklastan wins gold. Marcel Hugue from Switzerland wins silver and Fazal Al Raheyi from Kuwait wins bronze. I have to say when I saw the victory ceremony. I felt a changing of the guard as you saw Marcel Hugues in the silver medal position like this might be it for him for Paralympics I mean he may still do marathons for a while, but I I think he had alluded to that when I was in the athlete’s village.
And I think this is a change. Well,
Alison: he’s got three more races, so don’t, don’t count him.
Jill: No, don’t put him out to pasture. Yeah, no, no, no, no. That’s true. That’s true.
Alison: But yes, I think there is that shift in this T54 class that we’re, that we’re seeing it and, oh gosh, to see Daniel Romanchuk beat him. On the one hand, it’s fantastic.
And on the one hand, is that shift? It’s that, yeah. Okay. Now we’re, yeah, we’re seeing that change, but man, hey, she got another gold medal.
Jill: Women’s 100 meter T38 class, which is a low impairment in the lower trunk and legs or one side or around the body. Gold went to Karen Tatiana Palomaic Moreno from Colombia with a world record.
Silver went to Alida Maria Montepollou from Greece with a personal best and bronze went to Darian Fosry Jimenez Sanchez from Colombia in the women’s 400 meter t47 class Which is a low to modern impairment in one arm or absence of a hand. Gold went to Fernanda Yara De Silva from Brazil who got a personal best.
Silver went, oh, I’m sorry, the whole podium gets personal best tonight. This is, it’s been a fantastic meet, I will say, because a lot of personal best and you always want to see that. A lot of Paralympic records, a lot of world, there was an amazing world record later, I will tell you. Uh, Silver went to Lisbelli Marina Vera Andraja from Venezuela and bronze went to Maria Clara Augusta da Silva from Brazil.
In the women’s 400 meter T11 class, which is visually impaired with a guide runner. Gold went to Laha Ishtila from Namibia with her guide Sem Shimanda, Paralympic record there. Silver went to, uh, Talita Vittoria Simplicio da Silva with guide, uh, Felipe Valasola da Silva and bronze, uh, there from Brazil and bronze went to China’s He Shashan from, uh, with guide Personal best on the night.
I have to say it was interesting to see a lot of women in the visually impaired classes who had male guide runners.
Alison: That seems to be the norm.
Jill: Yeah, I’m not surprised. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was a spouse or significant other or relative that does that because a lot of relatives are due the assistant roles and and things like that.
But you have the height differential. Oh, not always, not tons. It’s not always dramatic, but there’s something and you know, there’s a stride and every once in a while I could see or feel just by looking at them like, Oh, I got to hold back because I’m the guide. I got to hold back because I’m the guide because they’re very strict about that.
Alison: The guide cannot cross the line first. The athlete has to cross the line first. Or as we saw yesterday, there was a disqualification.
Jill: Oh, because
Alison: the guide crossed first.
Jill: Oh, and you really had to be careful because the guide really can’t pull along for, Any big chunk of the race, but to see that whole in a way holding back because you have to match the stride of the runner, the, the athlete.
So it was really interesting to see again on the list for. Good relationship talk. Uh, in the T13 class for women’s 1500 meter, this is also visually impaired with a restricted field of view. Gold went to a Tisganjan Meniksu from Ethiopia to Silver went to Fatima Israha El Erdrisy from Morocco and bronze went to Liza or Liza Corzo from the USA.
She was in the silver medal position until the very end. She did not look happy with how that turned out. I hate to say it because you do win a medal, but you just, she just didn’t have a kick. And uh, Ella Driese had a kick in there. That was, that was a tough race to see. And in the women’s 5, 000 meter T54 wheelchair class with a full range of body and arm movements, gold went to Katarina De Bruyne from Switzerland with the Paralympic record.
Silver went to Susanna Scarcone from the USA. from the USA and bronze went to Madison de Rosario from Australia. In jumps, we had women’s long jump T64 class, which is a modern impairment, moderate impairment in one lower leg or absence of a leg below the knee. Gold went to a Fleur Young from Netherlands with the Paralympic records.
She was actually in. The Paralympic village doing interviews when I was there and seemed very excited about the competition. Gee, I wonder why Paralympic record
Alison: gold medal. Right.
Jill: Um, uh, silver went to a Marlena van Gunswinkel from Netherlands with a personal best and bronze went to B Hotz from the USA.
In the men’s long jump T63 class, which is a moderate impairment in one lower leg or absence of one leg above the knee. We also had a T42 class, which is a little more, uh, impaired in with them because it was just one person. Uh, but in this class, Gold went to Jold de Jong from Netherlands who got a world record at the end.
It was an unbelievable jump and he beat the world record by like a hundredth. It was just stellar. Silver went to Daniel Wagner from Denmark. He got a personal best. Were the Danes there? Oh, they were there. The Danish fans were there and he had also broken the Paralympic record too. Like the Paralympic record kept getting broken.
And then de Jong finally broke the world record. And that was just like, well, that’s it. I guess he’s going to win. And it was, it was, you know, like one of the last, like his last jump. So it was right at the end. Uh, and then Noah, um, by, uh, um, sorry. Mumba Yamba from Netherlands. with a personal best. Uh, also in this race, it was where the press tribune is and where the long jump is opposite sides.
So it’s helpful to watch a feed and. On our list, on my questions, how long is the bottom of a running blade compared to your foot? Because there were a lot of scratches. And I don’t know how it compares to able bodied scratches, but, uh, Ezra Fretsch from the USA was there. He scratched by, like, millimeters.
It was so, so close, but there was a lot of scratching going on. Uh, the other one I want to mention, the other athlete I’d like to mention is Wagner Astacio from Dominican Republic. He’s in the T42 class. He did set a Paralympic record. He did like one jump. and then scratched and then retired. He’s the only, only athlete there.
He has one leg, uses a crutch, does not have a blade like every other athlete in this event did, and he hopped And jumped from a hopping and I was just like, please, somebody get him a running blade for competitions. I don’t know the whole story. We’ve tried to get information and there’s not a whole lot out there because he’s from a small country and they don’t have a whole lot of resources, but it was.
Well, A, it was incredible to see, to see what you can do, but also, you’re like, oh, you, it felt so mismatched with everybody else, even though I knew he was in a different classification, it was, it was hard to see. Parabadminton, we still have, uh, men’s and women’s singles and doubles going on. Uh, we had group play through semifinals in several classes, so we will have medals coming up there soon.
which means we’re going to have to go to Portland, Port LaChapelle, Port de LaChapelle.
Alison: David LaChapelle is coming. Yeah, exactly. Is he coming with Jackie Chan?
Jill: But that, that trip is in the offing, which I’m excited about because that was a good, good, it’s a good venue. It’s a good venue. Paracycling track.
We had the women’s C1 to 3 classes combined for 500, 500 meter time trial. They have a higher level of impairment. Gold went to Amanda Reed from Australia, silver went to Jiang Wen Wei, who got a, uh, C1 world record. She is from China and bronze went to Micah Hausberger from Germany. We had the men’s C1 through 3 class 1000 meter time trial.
Also higher level of impairment. Gold went to China’s Li Xiangyu. Silver went to China’s Liang Weikong. And bronze went to Alexander Leutte from France, which must have been crazy in that Lutte. Lutte. I’m sorry. Thank you. Lutte.
Alison: He’s my friend now with my floppy, with his floppy hair.
Jill: Men see four, 4, 000 individuals individual pursuit, low level of impairment on one side or hips and legs, absence of partial limbs, gold went to Josef Metalka from Slovakia, bronze, uh, silver went to Archie Atkinson from Great Britain and bronze went to Gaetan Larousseau from France.
Again, crowd must have been great today. They got a show. They got a real good show. Men C5, 4, 000 meter individual pursuit. One arm is infected, uh, one arm is affected this, in this, or one leg is moderately affected. Gold went to Dorian Foulon from France, silver went to Yehor Dementiev from Ukraine, and bronze went to Eloan Gardin from USA.
Para rowing had repoussage rounds for men’s and women’s singles, skulls, mixed double skulls and mixed coxed four, which means we get results soon. I have to say, I hate to say it, we’re not getting there. I don’t think we’re getting there. Para rowing happens early in the morning. Yes. It’s like maybe a nine o’clock to twelve o’clock.
event and para rowing is over an hour out there. So that’s unfortunately not one that’s easy to get to for us in the morning because we also have late nights para swimming. Um, We had, uh, let’s go starting with 50 meter backstroke. We have for the men as one, that’s the highest level of impairment. Gold went to Camille Otowski from Poland.
Silver went to Francesco Battella from Italy and bronze went to Anton Cole from Ukraine in the. Same distance as two class, which is a high level of impairment, but more arm mobility goals went to a Gabrielle dos Santos Araujo from Brazil. Silver went to Vladimir Dolenenko from neutral Paralympic athletes and bronze went to Alberto Caroli Abraza Diaz from Chile.
In the women’s version of that race, gold went to Yiping Zhu from Singapore, silver went to Heidi Viviana Aceves Perez from Mexico and bronze went to Teresa Perales from Spain. Nice mix of countries to say that. We’re going to 100 meter backstroke now as a class, which is, um, a lot of different body types and limbs.
They’re almost at full capacity, but lack all around muscle power. Gold went to Uh, for the men, gold went to Inigo Lopez Sanz from Spain, silver went to Kota Kubota from Japan and bronze went to Mark Malyar from Israel. For the women, gold went to Alice Tai from Great Britain, Paralympic record. Silver went to, uh, Victoria, uh, Isla Chicova from neutral Paralympic athletes and bronze went to Meera Janamak from Brazil.
Germany. Jessica Long. Our Jessica Long was in that. She had finished sixth. In the S12 class, which is a visual impaired class with this restricted field of, field of view, 100 meter backstroke, both men and women. For the men, Stephen Clegg from Great Britain. He’s got gold and a world record. Silver went to Raman, India.
Soleil from Azerbaijan and bronze went to Yaroslav Denisenko from Ukraine for the women. Gold went to Maria Carolina Gomez Santiago from Brazil. Silver went to Ana Stetsenko from Ukraine and bronze went to Maria Delgado Nadal from Spain. We have 50 meter freestyle S11 class, which is a visual impairment, near total impairment, blackout goggles.
They have the back tappers for the men. Gold went to Kimura Keiichi from Japan. Silver went to Hua Dong Dodd from China. And bronze went to Wendell Bellarmino Pereira from Brazil for the women. Gold went to Magia from China. Silver went to Carolina. from Cyprus and bronze went to Marina Bedumna from Ukraine.
And hey,
Alison: Mejia got a world record.
Jill: Nice. 200 feet. Sorry. 200 meter freestyle as 14 class, which is an intellectual impairment. Gold for the men. Gold went to William Ellard from great Britain
Alison: world record.
Jill: Silver went to Nicholas Bennett from Canada. Bronze went to Jack Ireland from Australia and went for the women.
Gold went to, uh, Valeria Shabalina from Neutral Athletes. Silver went to Poppy Meskill from Great Britain. Wait a second, didn’t we talk about her yesterday? Yeah,
Alison: she got a world record and a gold medal, uh, the night I was there.
Jill: And bronze went to Louise Fittis from, I believe Great Britain. Great Britain, okay.
Oh, I see that. Uh, yeah, it’s It’s pretty incredible. Uh, 400 meter freestyle S13 class, which is visually, uh, visually impaired. Uh, they have a restricted peripheral vision, but they can see pretty far. Gold for the men went to Ihar Boki from Neutral Athletes. Silver went to Alex Portal from France and bronze went to Killian Portal from
Alison: their brothers.
They’re going to have a party in the Portal Porte tonight.
Jill: And the women, gold went to Shukla Stani Olivia Chambers from the US. Silver went to Carlotte Gili from Italy and bronze went to Anna Stetsenko from Ukraine. So this is the first medal for Olivia Chambers, which is really exciting, two seconds ahead of the field. So it was a nice, clean victory for her.
Finally, we have the, uh, 200 v 200 meter individual medley SM7 class, which is, I hate to call it a hodgepodge, but there’s a lot of stuff going on, uh, that affects the ability to do power. So you could see, Loss of limbs. You could see people with short stature. Uh, you could see arm, uh, amputees. So a lot of different things there.
Gold went to Inaki Bozalov from Argentina. Silver went to Andrei Trusov from Ukraine and bronze went to Yevheny. From Ukraine for the men, for the women, gold went to Mallory Wegman from USA who got a Paralympic record. Silver went to Tess Routliff from Canada and bronze went to Julia Gaffney from the U S.
Para table tennis. We had some more, uh, doubles day. Let’s just call it doubles day. Women’s men’s mixed. We have medals, men’s double MD four, which is a wheelchair class. Gold went to, uh, Peter Lova and Yana RPOs from Slovakia Silver went to, uh, Jin and Park J from Korea and Bronzes. ’cause this is a sport that has do dual bronzes.
Those went to, uh, Frances, Fabian Lamar, and Julian on Maho from France and Cha and p Cho from Korea. For the MD eight wheelchair class in men’s doubles gold went to, uh, ka ing from Chi and Fong Penang from China. Silver went to, uh, Valentine BAAs and Thomas Berger from Germany and bras went to Abdullah, RK and n Teran from Turk and Wu and Hun from Thailand.
Women’s doubles WD20 standing class. Gold went to Australia, Li Nanlei and Cheung Yang. Silver went to Chinese Taipei, the team of Lin Tzu Yu and Tian Xiao Wen. Bronzes went to Brazil and Poland. Brazil is Bruna Alexandra and Daniela Rowan and Poland’s Natalia Partika and Carolina Peck. One more women’s doubles class in the wheelchair.
WD 10 Gold went to China, Guang and PanIN Silver went to Serbia. That’s the team of Nadia. Nada ache and Boris Lava per brokovich and bronzes went to two Korean teams, uh, J and Mon, and also Kja and Lee m.
Mixed doubles XD 17 class. That’s a standing class. Gold went to Xhu from CH and meo, Mao J from China. Silver went also to China. Pang, Nan and Chung. Jan and Bronze went to Poland’s. Peter Christian and Carolina Peck and Ukraine’s Victor dka. And Irina Shinkarova, Taekwondo. I
Alison: was at Taekwondo all day long.
And I want to tell you the most exciting thing I learned about para Taekwondo. They have sensor socks.
Jill: For points?
Alison: You, so yes. So. It’s a kicking sport. You kick in the chest and it’s the sensor in the sock that registers the point.
Jill: And is it that the triggers the
Alison: tonk? Yes. That is what triggers that gong sound.
That’s from the sensor sock. It’s not the only way you can get points, obviously, because there’s, there’s more complicated rules involved. But when I found out about the sensor socks, that was, and then, so I talked to the woman from World Taekwondo and it turns out that the sensor socks are not super sensitive sensor socks.
You have to have some impact into it. So it’s not just touching. You actually have some force behind the kick.
Jill: Which makes sense. Cause when I watched last night, you’d see touching and there would be no tongue, uh, so points didn’t register. And I wondered, but that must be because you have to have, you have to make an impact.
Correct.
Alison: There was a lot of Uzbekistani. Uh, fighters competing, the Uzbek showed up, they showed up with a trumpet, they showed up with a drum, they showed up in mass, they cheered so loudly and vigorously for their fighters obviously, but also just in general, there was a lot of getting the crowd to sing, getting the crowd to chant, getting the crowd to, there was chance that involved taking your phone out with the light and you would take your light out and then you put the light away.
There was music during break time. The guy would break out the trumpet if they were doing a video review. And, and the Uzbeks were doing this,
Jill: not, not the Club France.
Alison: No, no. This was the Uzbek fans. This, I want to say there was a good, there was a very large group of maybe 10 to 15 of them that came to the first session and sat in one place and then they came back for the second session and sat in a different place.
Jill: And that’s a lot of people to be, they can make something happen. They did. And they did. That sounds awesome. I mean, that really sounds awesome. It is awesome when other fans do that. Because we know the French are just fanatic about France and the French athletes, but when other countries fans show up and make the same stuff happen, That’s special.
They’re special. And I don’t
Alison: think if there were French, uh, Taekwondo athletes in the competition, they knocked out very early. So there was no, uh, French for the French to cheer for. So there was a big British contingent and a big Uzbek contingent. And honestly, the Brits need to pick up their game. I want, I was a little surprised the trumpet and the drum got in through security because the drum, the drum was big.
It wasn’t like a little hand drum. It was like a big drum on the floor with two really big sticks.
Jill: Maybe they just said pound it and then went, okay, it’s a drum. Sounds hollow on the inside.
Alison: It was so much energy. The crowd was not, uh, the stands were not full. You wouldn’t know it because the Uzbeks came.
So they had a lot to cheer about. And the men’s under, uh, 80 kilograms. Gold went to Uzbekistan as Sadbek, uh, Tash Temerov. Silver went to Louis, uh, Luis Mario Nehera from Mexico and bronzes went to Alireza Bakht from Iran and, uh, Ji Yong Joo from Korea. And Joo got hurt. at one point in his, uh, competition.
So they all kind of carried him up to the podium. Yeah, it was good. I’m going to skip. Okay. And go back. So in the women’s, uh, over 65 kilogram gold went to Amy Truesdale from Great Britain. Silver went to, uh, Guljanoj Nemova from Uzbekistan, uh, and bronzes went to Elena Papastema Topalov from Greece and Roger Akramak from Morocco.
Okay. I do want to talk about this a little bit because Amy Truesdale in the gold medal match hit Nimova with an accidental shot, either in the chin or the throat, and it was, it was an illegal hit. She goes down. Nimova goes down. And stays down. Oh. At the time the score was 8 1. It was maybe halfway through the time, um, medical comes out.
Namova ends up being carried off the mat on a stretcher. Uzbek’s, uh, staff make a complaint saying it was a intentional hit, not an accidental hit. Cause if it was intentional, then Truesdale would have been disqualified and Namova would have won the gold medal. It was determined to be an accidental hit.
Namova was awarded a point, but still have to withdraw. So Truesdale is awarded the gold medal. Here’s where we get into trouble. She does a little backflip and cartwheel and split in the middle of the mat and starts running around with the flag. And I honestly. was with the Uzbek fans who started booing her.
You won by kicking a girl in the throat. I don’t care if it was accidental. That behavior, Amy Truesdale, was disgusting. It was unsportsmanlike and it was wrong. Yeah, celebrate your gold medal, but be appropriate. Your, your competitors got carried off on a stretcher. Grow up.
I got a little mad. Thankfully, I will say this, Namoba was able to come out for her medal ceremony. and the Uzbeks rightfully went wild. She was crying before she even got on the podium and the way those fans really embraced her. I was concerned actually that the Uzbekistani fans would like turn their backs on Amy Truesdale or, or, but they didn’t.
They were gracious. and honorable and just wanted to celebrate, uh, Namova’s silver medal. Nicely done, my new Uzbek friends.
Jill: I wonder what the celebration is like back in Uzbekistan.
Alison: It was, well, you know, we have said Uzbekistan a lot tonight and they are, they are hauling.
Jill: I hope they’re getting some print.
Alison: I hope so too. So now we’re going to talk about Evan Medell in the, uh, over six, over 80 kilogram class. So. Um, this was when I said before it was an emotional night. So in his semi final, he looked great in his first match. He competed against, um, Elias Gab Ramazanov. He was, uh, Evan was leading most of the match as Madovanov caught up to him, seven seconds or left Ramazanov is penalized.
So Evan’s given a point and we’ve got seven seconds left, but the, um, the coaches say, Nope, we’re going to protest that point. Is reversed. and Evan gets the penalty. They’re tied. And then Ramazanov gets a point with three seconds left. So in the last sec, seven seconds of the match, he was, he was secure to win and go to the gold medal.
And then it just completely abandoned.
Jill: And, and I saw stuff like this in para taekwondo too. It, it, along with judo or are these sports where everything is done in a split second and you can win or lose and it’s like mental. It’s, it’s interesting the people who are drawn to the sport because why you’re drawn to the sport, a lot of contact stuff, a lot of getting aggression out, that’s really helpful.
And it’s a fun challenge to overpower somebody or kick some, in this case, kick somebody. Not in the head. I totally understand what you mean, Evan, uh, but to lose it all in, in a second.
Alison: It was rough. It was, it was an emotional roller coaster for me and I’m not invested.
Jill: Oh, you are invested. Come on. It’s Evan.
Alison: I got to tell you, I had a hard time sitting in the Tribune for the rest of the night that it was rough. It was rough because It was so fast and it was so, he was fighting so well and I’m like, he is going to do this. And then boom, it’s, it’s just gone. How do you deal with that? Especially when you look so good.
Yeah. Well you come back and you win the bronze medal is what you do. He won that bout 13 1.
Whoa.
Alison: Yeah. And he came out fired up. So I did get to talk to him in the mix zone and he said, yeah, he was not going to lose that bronze medal. Yeah. So, gold went to Matt Bush from Great Britain, silver went to Alaska Ramazanov from neutral Paralympic athletes, Evan Medel from the United States won bronze, as did Hamed Hagshanes from Iran.
Jill: You know, I’m going to interlude with, I forgot to tell you a story from cultural begin the baguette. When I left track. You know how you have to go all the way to the end to get to the bus?
Alison: Did somebody kick you in the throat and then celebrate it?
Jill: But our gate to the bus, because you have to go down, there’s a gate and then a staircase down.
And then you get to the bus, because that’s street level. Well, there’s always gendarmes, or police, or somebody like mobbed around this little gate area. And I always think that it’s closed, and I will be interdict from getting to my bus. And one of the gendarmes started talking to me in French. I’m like, what’s going on?
And then I realized he wants to trade pins. The pin trading and for all of the The gendarmes are so into it! The security people are into it! For how little pin trading there was during the Olympics, the Paralympic people get it and they love doing it. So the gendarme was all like, will you trade with me?
And I’m like, oh yeah, I’m totally trading. So we do some trading and then this woman in an orange vest comes in and is like, let’s trade. Do you want to trade? I’m gonna trade. And I’m thinking, I gotta get to my bus. I don’t want the bus to leave on me. Because then you will be stranded at Stade de France.
Right. And then I realized the woman in the orange vest is the bus driver.
Perfect.
Jill: Like, well, I’m gonna make the bus. This will be great. Let me get in.
Alison: And she’s gonna drive extra carefully. Play. Make sure you get safely to your destination. Exactly. You’ve made her happy.
Jill: Exactly. And everybody got pins They liked that was great because the the gendarme was all about USA pins and he’s like you have a USA pin.
Oh Like you’re like weak. So fun day shooting Paris sport We had sh1 class, which is lower body impairment. They hold its rifle class They hold the rifle without the stand men’s 10 meter Uh, gold went to Korea’s Park Jin ho, silver went to, uh, Yerkan Gabasov from Kazakhstan, and bronze went to a Martin Black Jørgensen from Denmark.
And apparently our gold medalist was almost eliminated with a handful of shots remaining. So he was, he was really nervous, but he focused. And it was just like oh again another sport. I want to see on the feed I would i’m really sorry that they’re so far away.
Alison: That one’s real. That one’s that’s truly Unreachable
Jill: and I and I totally understand like Watching it is probably a little difficult or a little maybe watching paint dry But it could also be very calming never know women’s 10 meter air pistol sh1 final gold went to Sarah Yevon Marty from Iran silver went to ISIL Ong’s done Ozgun from Turkey and bronze went to Rubina Francis from India.
Uh, our gold medalist has, would like to retire. Well, she’s got a collection. Not bad. Not, not a complete set. No, but she has five, four golds and a bronze across four games. She’s going to, uh, focus now on training the next generation. Sitting volleyball today, we had two, uh, four. Games two for each men and women in the prelim rounds for the women, uh, Slovakia.
Nope. Slovenia beat Rwanda three, one, and Brazil be Canada three to one in the men’s, uh, Bosnia Herzegovina beat Kazakhstan three, two. Ooh, that’s a match and Egypt beat France three, two, zero. We have some wheelchair basketball prelim rounds. Canada beat Great Britain 63 to 54 and Netherlands beat USA 69 to 56, but Netherlands is the defending gold medalist.
So we know that’s going to be a tough team in the men’s side. Great Britain beat Canada, 88 to 58, uh, USA beat Netherlands 60 to 34 are Brian Bell,
Alison: 18 points, 11 rebounds.
Jill: Nice. But it’s interesting. In, uh, the men’s game versus the women’s game.
Alison: Yeah. Netherlands is such a powerhouse on the women’s side and the men obviously good enough to qualify, but not a particularly strong team.
It almost feels like a soccer in the U S how the women are so much stronger than the men. And I wonder if that has to do with what countries have men’s versus women’s wheelchair sports.
Jill: And then the final game is Germany beating France 72 to 64. Wheelchair rugby. One of the things that really stood out to me, because you talked about, uh, Sarah Adam playing for the U.
- yesterday, is There’s a lot of women in this tournament. I, is this the most women we’ve had? Most women we’ve had. I, uh, emailed wheelchair rugby. Cause I was like, how many women do we have? Uh, and how does it compare to Tokyo? So Tokyo had four women. We had an Australian, a woman from Denmark, woman from Great Britain, woman from Japan, four.
Now we have eight. Nice.
Alison: Three of them on our, on Australia.
Jill: Yes. Three in Australia. We have five countries. So, uh, the U S got added into there. Uh, three of them are returning, uh, Paralympians. So you, you really noticed it. And they were getting some playing time, like, uh, Uh, Sophie Scobo from Denmark, she was on the court a lot, Sarah Adams on the court a lot.
Sarah
Alison: Adams, let me tell you something about Sarah Adams. I have decided, you know, back in Tokyo I did call, um, Chuck Aoki the, um, Michael Jordan of wheelchair rugby. Yes. He’s got a Scottie Pippen.
Jill: He does. That’s exactly right. That is exactly right.
Alison: And it is Sarah Adams. And it was beautiful. Gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous playing
Jill: together, just dialed in USA beat Germany 57 to 47.
It was pretty close back and not quite back and forth, but within a couple of points. And then just at the end, USA pulled that out. Chuck Aoki did fall over and he did need a Swiffer behind him because he’s he sweats. He’s working hard. He is working hard.
Alison: It’s hard to carry the entire sport of wheelchair rugby on your back.
I will say
Jill: the the thuds you were talking about in person are real and they are awesome. It is so cool. But what you didn’t tell me about was the pickup mats.
Alison: We talked about that during Tokyo. We had a whole conversation, I think offline, about how they put the whole process of picking people up when they fall over.
Jill: Well, they lay down a mat.
Alison: They lay down a mat because otherwise the wheels would just keep
Jill: spinning. Right, but you And there’s different
Alison: techniques for different teams depending on who does that.
Jill: That’s not what’s important. It’s important that the mat has the pictogram on it and it is gorgeous and I would totally be the person who would want to handle the pickup mat because I would be handling it back into my baggage to take home and use it as like a big welcome mat or something like that.
I was all over that, I will say. They were really, really sweet. So as we said, USA picked up a win. And then I also saw Australia versus Denmark. Australia won 53 49. Ooh, they are bruisers. That is a tough, tough team.
Alison: Josh Nicholson is just there to hit people.
Jill: They weren’t. It was awesome.
Alison: That’s all
Jill: he’s there for.
He comes on the court and you’re like, oh, he’s here
Alison: to hit people.
Jill: And yeah, an Australian contingent in the car. Yeah. He had a big Denmark contingent in the crowd. The streamers were back. It was fun. Did you find Bo Vernon’s family? No, they’re my friends. Don’t try and take them away. I won’t I won’t Great time today at wheelchair rugby so much fun to see in person.
I will say this though They have a 40 second shot clock and in the US game I did notice that stuff got slow because they were trying to kill time especially with somebody in the penalty box So if you had control of the ball and somebody and the opposite team had somebody in the penalty box You just sat there And it was boring and people noticed and it wasn’t until the end when, and you needed to pick up the scoring that it got good.
I
Alison: wonder
Jill: if that’s because
Alison: the, and I hate, and I hate to disparage a team. The teams that I saw were more closely matched. So they didn’t, they couldn’t do that as much.
Jill: I don’t know. Because And, and the other reason to do this is there are, um, man, if some, you’ve got somebody in the box, they’re a man down until a try is scored and then the box is cleared out.
So if your person is in the box, you want to clear it out as quickly as possible. If the opposite team is in the box, you want to kill time. And that got slow and it got a little boring. I will say the, uh, Denmark, Australia game, there was. A lot of try there were a lot of tries right at the end and really dramatic somebody almost going over but not quite and it was Really phenomenal the crowd was so into it.
It was so much fun to watch other prelims in the afternoon japan beat canada 50 to 46 japan is coming to play
Alison: Unexpected. Unexpected. It from me. No, I wasn’t. I clearly, I missed the memo on Japan.
Jill: And then sure. Great Britain beat France 50 to 49. Can you imagine being in that arena with those of the French fans?
And there’s a lot of Brits who have come over. Yeah. So
Alison: this was a, I’m sure a very rocking stadium. Oh my gosh. Okay. So we’ve got semifinals. We’ve got semifinals. Speaking of missing Japan. So it’s Japan versus Australia and USA versus Great Britain.
Jill: Thank goodness. I was really, really worried that USA was not going to make the semifinals.
I
Alison: know. This was, this is a tight tournament. This is a tight tournament. Exciting though. I feel like I should bring some, some heart medication to go to the semifinal.
Jill: What I want to know is something I want to look into as we’re going to talk on this show about planning future shows, and then we’ll forget we planned these.
I do want to. Explore how the women’s game is evolving and if Because we do see women on men’s teams, but as we talked, uh sled hockey with Monica Quimby. Thank you The men’s hockey team in the u. s Is so talented and the pool is deep enough that it’s very hard for a woman to get on the men’s team So the women’s side has developed yet in wheelchair rugby You have women on the same level as the men and being an integral part of the team But how many other women How deep is the women’s pool and how deep is the men’s pool?
And do we have enough to develop a women’s game? Because it would be cool at some point to have men’s tournament, women’s tournament.
Alison: Oh, I disagree. I would like to see it continue to be a mixed tournament, just more women in it. I like that. Well, you know, I always love mixed events. I am a big fan of mixed events.
And especially this event, I think just because it, they call it murder ball for a reason. It’s, there’s a lot of smash mouth going on, but also as the sport has developed, we’re seeing more finesse and technique. And I like the idea of the teams being mixed gender. And, You have the success of a Sarah Adam and, and, uh, the other women players, chicken and egg.
You see more women play, you get more women to play.
Jill: Yeah. I want two tournaments because I want more wheelchair rugby. Wheelchair tennis. We had first round action for women’s and singles, quad singles, men’s doubles. Our Shukla Stani, David Wagner played today. He was defeated by Turquoise, uh, Coplin. Yeah.
I’m at Kaplan. Sorry. Thank you. Uh, six, one, six, two. So quick in and out for David in this tournament. He’s been in a lot of games.
Alison: I mean, the man is 475 years old and he’s played 367 Paralympic games.
He’s the same age as we are. Exactly. So. So
Jill: I’m hopefully going to wheelchair tennis tomorrow. We’ll never say, never, never hold that schedule. Cause we don’t know if we’re going to get an email tomorrow saying, Hey, this is going on. So hopefully I’m, I’m excited to go back out to Roland Garros and see some tennis.
There are some really big stars playing tomorrow. Uh, Dijon Drogroet is playing for the Netherlands. If she is unstoppable. Basically, she is an amazing player and I’m hoping to see her, maybe Alfie Hewitt in person. Oh,
Alison: I’ll get there. I’ll get there. Got plans tomorrow.
Jill: I in plans. You won’t tell me so this is exciting.
We have a couple of exciting event I don’t know what you’re doing, but I got something exciting plan to me
Alison: too.
Jill: Awesome. So Mascot.
Alison: Yes, the official mascots for Shukla stand for the first week of the Paralympics are Sonny and Sadie And I will never get tired of talking about Sonny and Sadie. I adored these guinea pigs They became a part of listener.
Would you stop with the squeaking?
Jill: I’m
just
Jill: talking guinea pig.
I could do what Pa Jarrett would do and just move my nose because I had a guinea pig growing. I, we had guinea pigs growing up. Oh, did you? Yes, exactly. So my, my father, this is not good for podcasting. So my father would go, he’d look at the guinea pig and go, this is what Patches would say and then he’d wiggle his nose.
Alison: Well, listener Don’s family is not insulting to Sonny and Sadie.
Jill: Father was not insulting. Don, if you, if you move your nose like Pajeros, let me know.
Alison: And they became a part of the family because his daughter did a school report on guinea pigs and then wanted one for her very self. And Don, yeah. Does not say no to his daughter ’cause he’s smart.
And thank you very much to very smart listener, Don and his daughter, for supporting the Kickstarter campaign that got us to Paris and for sharing Sunny and Sadie with Shean. We are on the metal board. We have three gold and one bronze. Nice day, good job. Shut the stone and. There’s
Jill: more Shukla Stanis in
Alison: action tomorrow.
Callahan Young and Team USA men’s goalball face Iran in their final preliminary game.
Jill: Matt Stutzman competes in the finals rounds of men’s compound open archery.
Alison: Daniel Romanichuk. Daniel Romanichuk races in the men’s T 54 400 meters.
Jill: One of five million races he’s doing here at, uh, in Paris. Uh, Jessica Long wins in the women’s 200.
meter. I am SM8.
Alison: Grace Norman competes in the women’s PTS5 para triathlon.
Jill: Maybe. We don’t know though. We got to check
Alison: the weather.
Jill: It rained like right at the end of the athletic session, massive clap of thunder. And then we got some rain. So who knows what that means in terms of water quality in the Seine.
Will they reschedule? Will they do a duathlon? I don’t know. We’ll let you know. We’ll
Alison: let you know.
Jill: McKenna Geer shoots in the mixed 10 meter air rifle prone SH2.
Alison: Team USA women’s sitting volleyball continues preliminary play against France.
Jill: Brian Bell with Team USA men’s wheelchair basketball faces Australia.
Alison: And Chuck Aoki and Team USA’s wheelchair rugby team will be testing the strength of my heart and play their semifinal. That’ll do it for this
Jill: episode. Special thank you to our researcher, Elizabeth Emery.
Alison: And you can get in touch with us on X, YouTube and Instagram at flamealivepod. Send us an email at flamealivepod at gmail.
com. Call or text us at 208 325 7000. 352 634 8 that’s 208 flame it chat with us and other fans on our Facebook group. Keep the flame alive podcast and to get our special daily games time newsletter, sign up at our website, flamealivepod. com.
Jill: On the end of this is going to be mixed tone from Evan and then we’ll have, Jaden Blackwell and Daniel Romanchuk after that.
It’s worth running down four flights of stairs floor flights of janky stairs So look forward to that right after this join us again tomorrow for more action from paris Please don’t forget to tell a friend about the show hang out with us in our facebook group.
Oh my gosh uh, you saw what channel four in the uk did? they Posted in our, well, they didn’t post in our Facebook group, but posted in our Facebook group was the fact that on their viewing guide, digitally,
Alison: They put little hints about the Paralympics in all the program descriptions.
Jill: It was phenomenally cool. What a campaign. Thank you, Channel 4, and thank you so much for listening and until tomorrow, keep the flame alive.
Evan Medell: Two
Alison: people for you. Hi, Evan. I’m Alison Brown from Keep the Flame Alive. We had spoken back in the spring. Uh, what went right today?
Evan Medell: Um, the first fight and the last fight. And really, all three fights went well. You know, when you’re competing at this level, and you’re competing with guys that are world champions, European champions, it’s two or three dumb mistakes, and I made one at the end.
I felt like he was gassing out, and he let his mind relax. I just kind of recklessly went in and lost.
Alison: Right. You still have a bronze medal. Yeah. And you decided to come out and not lose that bronze medal. Yeah. What was that, what happened in between those two, those two battles? Um,
Evan Medell: you know, I was, I never let myself think about that last fight.
As soon as you lose that fight, you’re on to the bronze medal. And I, you know, I’ve been through that. And I had a broken foot and there was no one in the stands. It was like just like dead quiet, but I could hear the fans out here and I, I just knew that I wasn’t going to lose because I didn’t, wasn’t locked in.
You know, I wasn’t mentally ready. I was going to lose because
Alison: he was
Evan Medell: better.
Alison: When I interviewed you, I told you I wanted to talk to your dad. I did. And
Evan Medell: how’d that go?
Alison: It was great. It was great. And your brother. And um, you had so many fans. Yeah, I did. I did, definitely. Yeah,
Evan Medell: totally, like, it’s a totally different experience from Tokyo.
And that’s, that’s part of the reason why I came back. I wanted, you know, I didn’t want my one Paralympic experience to be the one that, you know, Everyone was just like out there. So that’s why I came back to enjoy the crowd, to enjoy, you know, the venue, you know, it’s a great venue and, um, do all the things that I didn’t get to do in Tokyo.
So, you know, yeah, just really fired up for that rock medal match. He’s a tall guy, you know, he even is been giving people problems all day. Um, so. Yeah.
Yeah, it’s an experience. You know, I’ve been doing this for 10 years. I’ve lost matches. Uh, I’ve come back and drawn final matches. You know, it’s, uh, You just forget it and then, you know, later on, later tonight I’m just gonna be sitting in bed, be like, why? You know, during that, my final match. But, you know, that’s not the time when you’re back there getting ready for a fight.
So,
sorry, . Your Exactly. Sorry,
Jill: it should been louder about that. Hey, Daniel. I keep the plan alive. And, uh, how was that raised for you? I mean, obviously result you wanted, but like how much work was it to get from the back of the pack up to the
uh, certainly, uh, you know, it, those, those last few laps, uh, you know, it was certainly just to head on a swivel.
for, uh, for any movement within the pack, uh, especially being that far back. Um, cause yeah, you’ve, you’ve got a lot of, a lot of ground to make up. Um, and, uh, you know, I really kind of just, uh, Remember, kind of getting, getting out, um, you know, just in time for everything, you know, everything to, uh, to break loose.
Uh, and, uh, you know, the final, final sprint to, uh, to start. And, um, yeah, certainly it was just a very, very unusual race, though. Um, you know, usually there’s a lot of, uh, of transitions going around. You know, the, the draft line will We’ll cycle through people, but really there was very, very little to no cycling.
Uh, you know, I remember I was able to get in the back and, uh, pretty much didn’t move from there. Um, you know, again, there was no, no movement in the pack. So certainly an unusual race. You’re only getting better your past couple races Tokyo to now it looks like you’re only getting better You’re only getting faster.
Your numbers are getting lower. Do you feel like you’re peaking right now? You feel like this is This is where you, like, this is peak form. Um, it, it’s, uh, hard to say exactly. Um, you know, for, for us, we have, uh, you know, the, uh, I personally, I have a, a, a very long, uh, schedule here at the games. Uh, but then, you know, I still continue afterwards with the, the mar the major marathons.
Um, and so, uh. I’m very thankful to have, uh, have a coach who, uh, who can, you know, deal with all of the training and worrying about, you know, peaking at at the right time. When you saw Marcel make his move, were you so confident you could get past? Um, I really, um, those last, that last lap or so is kind of a blur.
Um, yeah, I just kind of remember. You know, being in the back, uh, you know, kind of moving out a sprint starting and just everyone. I think we probably were four or so wide at one point. Um, so, um, it was, uh, certainly, uh, a little, um, hard to say.
Jill: In those last laps, is there something specific you’re telling yourself, maybe even on that last sprint, like a phrase in your mind, anything like that?
Um, not necessarily. No. Um, it’s just, uh, you know, try and, uh, you know, sprint and, you know, watch, you know, watch, watch the movements of everyone around. Um, you know, first of all, you know, tactically, but also just safety. Um, you know, when we’re, when we’re going 20, you know, low twenties and, uh, you know, inches from each other, little movements can, uh, can lead to, to, to Pretty bad crashes.
And so, yeah, just always head on a swill, really. Um, but ultimately just sprint. You know, I’ll talk with myself, go for another golden quartet. As you’ve dashed out of the first attempt, I mean, and you won a primary title. What does that mean? What does that mean for you? You know, I really, um, you know, well, well, it’s a, it’s a huge honor to be able to, uh, to bring home gold for, uh, for the U S.
Um, ultimately, you know, records will, will be broken and, uh, you know, there, it’s really something, you know, records and stuff like that are, I view as, you know, things to be pushed, not something to be owned. Um, so yeah, really it’s, uh, you know, Marcel is just an amazing, uh, an amazing athlete. Um, and, uh, you know, it’s great to, uh, great to be able to race with them again.
Because you all know each other, don’t you? You all race against each other so often. All along those marathons. Yep. It’s a huge respect amongst all of you really, isn’t it? Uh, absolutely. Uh, you know, certainly get to, get to know, uh, people a little bit. Uh, you know, everyone that goes around to the same marathons every year.
Um, you know, again, just, you know, a bunch of amazing athletes here and, uh, it’s, you know, and, uh, Yep. Great to be able to push with them all.
Jill: I will get in trouble if I don’t ask. How was the wedding?
It was amazing. Uh, it’s certainly, uh, you know, it’s just, just great to be able to, uh, have, have Hannah and, uh, the rest of my family here.
Um, you know, it’s, uh, as I think I mentioned earlier, you know, it’s, it’s an individual sport, but it’s a team effort. Uh, and, you know, family has certainly, uh, certainly done a lot over the years.
Jill: Did having the wedding right before the games help take the pressure off? Or was it a different kind of pressure that you got?
I think it just kind of made things, um, It was kind of, kind of different, but it was good to have two, two different things coming up. Uh, you know, that one, that way one thing doesn’t really get, you know, You know, doesn’t start to consume everything, so to say. Uh, you know, there’s a little bit of, uh, variety to it.
To, to think about.
Jill: Excellent. Thank you.
Right.
Reporter: You see it, Jane? Thank you, Brian. Congratulations. Race couldn’t have gone any better. Possibly tonight. Or was that the perfect race? And obviously, I’m sure immense satisfaction.
Jaydin Blackwell: I mean, I mean, it was a perfect race. I mean, I was just really just focused on what I really need to do and just really just get out and get to the line as fast as possible.
So I mean, I’m just really glad that I can be able to do the things that I can do and God’s giving God’s grace that I can do. So, yeah,
Reporter: take us through the race from the start to, uh, you know, leading the whole way and hammering it home.
Jaydin Blackwell: I mean, really? Um, I mean, I was just really just getting two blocks. I was just telling myself, just push out.
Do you get out one? You got this? Just don’t worry about it. Don’t worry about anything else except you yourself. What you got in front of you. So I just really just got out, got on my drive phase and just stood up tall and just got to chugging it. I thought it was a little bit slow. It felt like it’s a little bit slow, but I mean, I mean, I looked up when I crossed the line, I looked up at the little screen and saw attention for.
I was like, Okay, all right. Yeah, let’s go.
Jill: The emotions like getting during that bell on the biggest stage.
Jaydin Blackwell: I mean, I never got thrown in bed before. So I mean, it was a It was a good experience, just ding, ding, ding. So yeah. I wanted to bring it more, but I didn’t want to take too much people of their time.
They want to watch other people raise, not just me. So what about the
Reporter: celebration? Put it on the shades, pose them where we’re a little, little Hollywood going on there. Yeah.
Jaydin Blackwell: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I had to bring something over here to pull a little pizzazz on here. So
Jill: obviously today went according to plan,
Jaydin Blackwell: but
Jill: in the, from trials to now, how has it been training and tapering back?
And getting ready for pairs.
Jaydin Blackwell: Oh, training’s been whew. My coach be putting me through the ringer ‘
Jill: cause
Jaydin Blackwell: he wants me to do what I need to do and he puts me through the ringer because he knows what I can do and I’m grateful for that even though he may, even though I don’t really wanna do it sometimes. But still
Um, I’m happy that I have a coach like that that can really push me to my limits. So,
Reporter: Jayden, what about helping, uh, the athlete from China? At the beginning of the race, what was going on there? And was that just kind of nice to see the other runners kind of helping him? You know what I
Jaydin Blackwell: mean? Like, he was just trying to put on the little band thing, and like, the, like, the officials were trying to rush him.
I’m like, dude, like, chill out. Like, he’s trying to put it on. I’m like, so I was like, I’m gonna just help him do it so they can stop bullying him. Like, yo, like, calm down, dude. Like, it’s a final. Like, we can take it many times if we want to. Like, they need to chill out with that, for real. That got me a little mad a little bit.
I ain’t gonna lie. But still,
Jill: how is it running in front of a crowd this big,
Jaydin Blackwell: real big? I ain’t never run in front of a crowd this big before. So it’s a real good thing to hear all them cheers and stuff. My ears might have been bringing us some.
Jill: What’s it like getting a race like this?
Jaydin Blackwell: It feels really good.
Um, it gives all of us that good boost of energy knowing that we have a teammate. Like that we like train with, hang out, laugh, joke with, and like on the same track as we are. So, I mean, it’s real good that I have Nick and Ryan in the same field, in the same lineup, on the same track as me, so we can push ourselves.
Because Ryan, EPR, so like, so yeah, he’s been trying to chase me, so I mean, um.
Reporter: You guys shared a nice hug. You and Ryan, obviously tell us about, you know, short conversation. Congratulations. What?
Jaydin Blackwell: I mean, yeah, we just say congratulations to each other. I mean, me and him are like really close because, like, we share similar things and everything.
And, like, we both tried to push each other to absolute limits. So it’s really good thing that I have him, he has me. So we just hugged it out. Congratulations, everything. I’m really glad to have him, like, in my life and, like, as a teammate.
Reporter: He said similar, but he said he thinks he can get you in the 400 Not to start, start trouble this early on, but gonna,
Jaydin Blackwell: I’m gonna, I’m gonna say this. When I came to like Paralympics, who can win in the foreign me? Who came the second him? So it’s not gonna change. I know you had something.
Reporter: I was gonna ask you the last time we talked to Charles. He did mention Looking for the 400 mm-Hmm. That you were looking to work on your second gear.
Like you think your get off is good and you think your finish is usually strong, but it’s that middle, like 50 to 70 yards that, like, what have you done? We asked about training. What have you done training wise? Do you feel like you’re in a good position to, to fix that? ’cause you knew you had talked about it in trial.
Jaydin Blackwell: Mm-Hmm. . Mm-Hmm. . I’m gonna say a couple words. A lot of strength. Uh, strength, uh, strength training, and a lot of six hundreds. 600 because he’s because my cousin, he put me through the ring with them. 600. What is the
Reporter: 600? Like, what’s the benefit of having,
Jaydin Blackwell: uh, uh, working on like my stamina and like my strength, like the finish and everything.
Cause like my finish is like, it’s good, but it’s not where I kind of want it to be. So just really just working on those things, you know, it’s just my techniques. I’m just running the full 400. So, yeah.
Reporter: Can you comprehend the last two years and your four world titles here at Paralympic Games tied to the world record.
In two years is unbelievable. Can you comprehend it? Take it all in?
Jaydin Blackwell: Uh, uh, yeah, I can’t take it all in. Um, I don’t like to, like, think about all that all at the same time because it could cloud, like, people’s minds. So I just like to take it at just one step at a time. Like, like going up steps, you know, you take one foot and then the other foot.
Yeah, yeah, I just like to take it, like, just one step at a time. Just take it in slow. Then when I’m done with that, just move on to the next. So, yeah.
Reporter: Do you think, uh, I know you guys are, you know, all friends, but do you think U. S. adaptive sprinting is a On par with, uh, you know, U. S. Able bodied springing. No, Noah and Kenny and obviously you and Ryan.
How do you guys stack up against the able bodied guys?
Jaydin Blackwell: I mean, we stack up pretty good. I mean, we already know that they’re really fascinating us, but I mean, like we put in as much as work and dedication as they have. So, I mean, We have our own league, but like we could go into their league. So it’s me.
It’s like once I get more older and get more reps in, I bet I can go over there and try something. Guys, we gotta
Jill: take him. Sorry. He’s gotta get to his medal ceremony. Thank you.