Team Keep the Flame Alive collects more gold today, as Matt Stutzman competes in Para Archery. Alison’s got all of the details of his amazingly close matches, plus an encounter that made her day better than wheelchair rugby can. Plus, she has a sensory experience that was like any other.
Meanwhile, Jill saw most of TKFLASTANI Brian Bell and Team USA’s men’s wheelchair basketball team. Then she headed to Team USA’s High Performance Center for a Wheelchair Fencing lesson with Paralympian Byron Branch before ending the day at Roland Garros with Wheelchair Tennis.
Sports on today’s program:
- Blind Football
- Boccia
- Goalball
- Para Archery
- Para Athletics
- Para Track Cycling
- Para Rowing
- Para Swimming
- Para Table Tennis
- 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 Do not quote from the transcript; use the audio as the record of note.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 4
Jill: Bonjour and welcome to day four of the Paris 2024 Paralympics on Keep the Flame Alive, the podcast for fans of the Olympics and Paralympics. I am your host, Jill Jaris, coming to you from the Hotel du Podcast, joined as always by my lovely co host, Alison Brown.
Alison, bonjour.
Alison: This has been possibly the best day that I have been here.
Jill: Did it involve wheelchair rugby?
Alison: It did not.
Jill: Okay, we’re gonna get to it. Because you had, it was very mysterious, you’ve been very mysterious about. Last night you were like, I’m doing this thing, I’m not going to tell you what it is.
Very mysterious woman here.
Alison: And that is not even The story I
Jill: have
Alison: to tell you.
Jill: Wow. Wow. Uh, let’s, yeah, get right to it. Follow up file.
Alison: So you had a lot of trouble getting to the Grand Palais and getting to the proper place. And it’s because you have issues. Entrance number one is the same as it has always been for accredited media.
All the signs are still there. You still go through the room with five doors. And the stairway to hell.
Jill: So I just didn’t go in. I had to keep going around the pallet. Okay, so this is then my beef. Is, why don’t they They see I’m a journalist. Maybe they don’t see I’m a journalist. They just see all. They see accreditation.
They see accreditation. They see all the app. They all have an app on their phone that they scan to make sure the accreditation is real. And I think they just must go, well, you know, we can scan it. It’s okay. But, but I wish they knew what media was. Don’t blame the
Alison: security who was trying to be nice to you for your directional deficiencies.
Jill: I have been so nice to securities. They have all gotten in on the pin game. , let me tell you how we, we had problems during the Olympics with pins because there weren’t much, there wasn’t much pin trading going on, and that was really frustrating to a lot of the collectors. Uh, the Paralympics, they no trade trading and those security people they know trading and they’re.
Awesome.
Alison: The minute that bag comes out of my backpack, I have little hands,
Jill: oh, do you have pins? Yes.
Alison: Yes, I do.
Jill: So that is great. Let us begin the baguette. All right. We did mention that the horse from the Olympics opening ceremony is at the Hotel de Ville. So popular that they extended the hours to see it.
And everything is just sold out now. I would say sold out all the tickets have been claimed because they’re free. It’s free to go, but they I thought I could go and see it like you can go and see the balloon and you don’t have to be up close. They put this in the interior. Um, courtyard. So I’m not sure that you can do a similar, like, not walk right up to it, but like sidle out to the back.
Alison: Maybe you need to be the master torchbearer and climb across the roof.
Jill: You know, if I put a cloak on with like a big hooded cloak, do you think they would think I was the hooded cloak? No. You don’t. Okay.
Alison: She was tall.
Jill: Anyhow. Okay. Tell me what it is that you did today.
Alison: Okay. So. The Paris Media Center has been doing a lot of press tours related to disabilities.
So I went to a restaurant called Grands Clovis Noirs for the lunch in the dark.
Jill: Oh my gosh, that is awesome.
Alison: I’m going to do a full blog post on it because there’s a lot of details and I don’t want to, we could do three podcast episodes on, on this experience. But so what it is, is a restaurant. It’s been around for 20 years.
You come into the restaurant and then they take you into an absolute. lightless room and you eat lunch. Do you know what you’re eating? No, they do not tell you ahead of time what the menu is. So you do not know. So that’s where the difference is. If you were actually a blind person, nobody’s going to put a plate of food in front of a visually impaired person.
You can’t
Jill: see, we won’t tell you what, you don’t get to choose what you want to eat either.
Alison: So we don’t know, they ask you if you have allergies or food restrictions. And then we got a, um, A main dish and a dessert, um, and a bottle of water. Um, um, and then I will say, and then they pass a bread basket around.
And also part of their purview is they hire visually impaired waiters because the room’s at the dark. It doesn’t matter. And train them, uh, to have a job that they may not be able to get otherwise. They also developed a perfume. And the, the chemists that are working on the perfume are also visually impaired, but, and they had to train them because you can’t train a chemist in a standard way if they can’t see.
Perfume smells beautiful by the way. Ooh. So. Here’s the one part I will tell you. This was the most terrifying experience that I have had in Paris and here’s why Because I don’t speak French. Oh, so I was in a completely blackened room and everyone is speaking French around me Thankfully, it’s very very lovely woman on on my tour who I’d spoken to pretty much the whole walk over Sat next to me and when she realized I was next to her.
She spoke to me in English At least a little bit in English because otherwise I was completely adrift. Wow. And Um, just that 10 minutes before we, she realized I was there and she said to me, Oh, are you frightened? And I said, yes, because even though I can tell the waiter when he comes to tap me, uh, that he needs to say what he’s going to say to me in English, because I’d asked ahead of time if the waiter If one of the waiters spoke English, so they made sure that the waiter who was helping me spoke English, but everyone around me was speaking French and I had no idea what was happening.
I couldn’t see it. I couldn’t understand what anyone was saying. I could feel the table in front of me and that was my world. Wow. What did you have to eat? We had a, it ended up being like a beef dish with, um, risotto and salad. like a cooked salad in it. I thought it was lentils and it was risotto because you don’t know.
So you’re going to simply buy what’s in your mouth. And I knew this was really funny to me. I knew there was a flavor in the dish that I didn’t like, but I couldn’t avoid it because I didn’t know where it was on the plate. It was olives. And you know how I hate olives. So that was mixed into the vegetables.
So all of a sudden I would get this and I couldn’t tell what I was picking up on my fork. Couldn’t tell how big of a bite I had gotten. Couldn’t tell when the plate was empty.
Jill: That’s really fascinating.
Alison: It was, it was an incredible, incredible experience and the food was quite tasty except for the olive.
Jill: That’s cool. I’m glad you went on that. I’m also glad you didn’t tell me until now. That was awesome. I went to Team USA’s High Performance Center to have a wheelchair fencing lesson with Foilist Byron Branch. That was fun! I was there. I felt like I was there for a while. I will talk about it more as wheelchair fencing goes on because you
Alison: learn something.
I
Jill: learned some stuff and I might be sore tomorrow in ways in weird places like my forearm really hurt. when I was done.
Alison: I would, that makes sense. Cause you were probably gripping so tight to hang on
Jill: to it. And of course, uh, if you’re a fencing geek, there’s multiple types of grips that they put on the handles that they put on their weapons.
I had a French grip, which is just a long post. And of course they all use a pistol grip. So it’s a lot. Uh, it’s a lot easier to, to maneuver around. So that, it was, it was sore How did they put you into the wheelchair? they did not strap me in. You don’t have to be strapped in.
You can be strapped in if you want to. So that was it. They just, but they had to set the wheelchairs up in a certain configuration because, um, I’m a righty. He was lefty. So it’s got to go a certain way. But there’s so much more. Byron was great.
Alison: what did you think of the high performance center? Cause now you and I have both seen it as has producer Ben.
So you’ve gotten a lot of,
Jill: yeah, I mean, I only saw this one room and walked around. It’s big. I will say that it’s air conditioned. That’s nice. And, and Byron was saying, look, the, the high performance center has been fabulous for them because the training facilities at The media at the village are pretty small and of course you have to share with everybody they had They had a fencing strip laid out and you could have I think they he said four different wheelchair Fencing setups can fit on one strip so you can get a lot of things it’s a giant room and they could fit a ton of strips on there if they wanted to and the Um, the village workout room was, oh, I don’t know.
It’s in a garage. It’s in the parking garage. It’s really not that much. They really couldn’t fit that many strips in and, and it’s, they have to share the room with the equipment check people. So it’s a lot of people trying to do the same thing. And of course it’s hot because there’s no air conditioning.
So he would, he really appreciated the effort that went into the high performance training center. So we’ll have more on that as the week goes on. volunteer job that you would, or officiating job you would want to do.
Alison: I was at archery today. I’m an arrow girl. I know that there were men and women and, and boys doing this, but I am calling myself an arrow girl.
So, and you might need to clarify this for me. I only noticed it when we had shootouts. Oh no, it’s every end. It is every end. Okay. So at every end, They bring them arrows. They don’t put all the arrows for the entire match with them.
Jill: Right. So they, they shoot an end. The arrow people have, they have probably six arrows or seven arrows that they, they have in their, um, it’s not a holster don’t, Meredith, I know, I can’t remember my terminology.
My brain is Isn’t it a quiffer? A quiffer? It may be, so they shoot an end and while the coaches and the judges are looking to see if there’s any questions, the arrow people run down like the, the arrows for the next end and they can get ready and then that end shoots up and so there’s always like constantly replenishing the arrows.
It’s a good job. I like that because
Alison: it’s both, it’s a volunteer job in that it deals with equipment and you’re still dealing with the athletes and the coaches and there’s still some personality going on there. They do have to hustle. They do have to hustle. My short little legs will have to do some turnover.
But there was a very short girl who was probably all of, you know, 2021 who was at the session. And I think I identified with her and her little legs just going so fast every time.
Jill: I was at wheelchair basketball today. And they had the same circular push dry mops that they had at the wheelchair rugby halftime show.
But did they actually use them to sweep? Yes, they were used for sweeping. And then I was like, oh, these are real. And then I noticed they were Paris 2024 branded ones. So the handles were pink and they said Paris 2024 on them. And then the mop was teal. And then I had a pink edge. It might be pink underneath.
And, um, oh my gosh. Are we going to Decathlon tomorrow to see if we can find them? I wish they’d, I, you know, it’s something that may show up at one of those garage sales and I don’t know, I may have to extend the plane, my plane ticket and go to one of those garage sales and, and, uh, see if I could get one of those.
I don’t know how I’d get it home. I don’t know how you declare that on customs. You’re bringing home a mop. Why? The other thing I was going to say that, it’s not really, it’s not a volunteer officiating job because I think these people got paid. I saw two, uh, men crushing plastic bottles at wheelchair basketball. They have a little machine out around the building, which is conveniently located next to the container that is marked, marked with a pink sign that says here’s where the Plastic reusable cups are there’s two of those containers.
I went. Oh, wow. There’s the gold mine right there But they were crushing plastic bottles. So obviously these are getting recycled That made me feel better
Alison: when you said they were crushing plastic bottles. I thought you meant like on their head
Jill: Um, negative.
Alison: Alright.
Jill: Rrrrrr!
Alison: They’re getting ready for
Jill: powerlifting!
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Alright we have daily results. You know what started You have a whole language there you don’t speak French, but you speak
Alison: You are not going to ruin my day I I
Jill: haven’t even told you why this is the best day ever. Oh my gosh Wow Okay, but blind football has started. That’s one of the bits of the best day ever Is that blind football has started. Uh, we are in the men’s preliminary round, men’s preliminary. There’s only a men’s tournament right now.
Uh, Columbia beat Japan 1 0, Morocco and Argentina had a 0 0 tie. Brazil beat Turkey 3 0 and France beat China 1 0. I was in the hotel room early. My, my evening session got done fairly early. So I put on a channel three here and they had the blind football match on. And I don’t know how the French fans are watching this when they can’t cheer the entire time.
Alison: You know, I have seen things on social media that goalball is marginally having a problem.
Jill: Oh, I got to get there so I can get some quiet pleases.
Alison: Right. Because everywhere else they’re encouraged to cheer so loudly, you know, and then there it’s quiet, please. And blind football as well. It’s quiet, please.
Because the players need to hear the bells in the ball and the clunking on the clunking is not the right word, the tapping on the goalposts.
Jill: And also the coaches can yell to them. Because that makes it sound chaotic too. It’s, it’s a lot of chaos in football. I am so impressed with these players because I, I really don’t know how they do it.
I, I can understand how they dribble the, their dribbling technique is different from able bodied football and that, that, so it keeps the ball near their feet a little bit more. They can keep feeling it, but I don’t know how they sort all these sounds out. and, and the ball and where they are in relation to everybody else on their team.
Alison: I couldn’t even do it for lunch.
Jill: So, uh, the announcing, the commentary. Was so much fun to listen to here in the room on tv They were so excited about this game. It really showed through then at the end They thanked because france won they thanked every team member by name. They thanked the coaches by name They announced the tv announcers were like mercy this mercy mercy mercy.
They keep It was so cool.
Alison: That’s a, that’s beautiful. The connection that, and we’ve seen this a lot over the Olympics and now the Paralympics, how Francis really stepped up for its team, which we weren’t sure it was going to happen. And I don’t know why we weren’t sure.
Jill: Cause the French are pessimistic, but boy, do they like their sports.
Alison: They do love the blue.
Jill: That’s right. Uh, Moving over to BACHA, we had quarters and semifinals in men’s and women’s individual play in many classes, including BC2, which is a moderate trunk control and sitting balance impairments. Women’s individual gold went to Cristina Goncalves from Portugal. Silver went to Jeong So Young from Korea and bronze went to Geisha Sayana from Indonesia.
And in the men’s Individual, same class, gold went to Warwut Sangampa from Thailand. Silver went to Muhammad Bingtang Herlanga from Indonesia and bronze went to Washirpon Phongsa from Thailand. Um, Thailand’s stepping up on
Alison: Bacha. Thailand is stepping up on everything it feels like. I feel like we’re saying Thailand a lot and Indonesia.
Jill: Very nice. Gold ball today. We had a men’s and women’s preliminary matches and the prelims really don’t. Produced I mean they produce standings, but the standings aren’t used to eliminate anybody Much in which is different from a lot of other pool play team sports Uh, they are just a way to seed people into the quarterfinals.
So everybody’s going to go through But we’ve got some pretty big results here. Japan beat egypt 11 to 1 USA beat uh, iran 14 to 7 China beat ukraine 6 to 1 in the women’s team You Very different story. Korea, Canada, 0 0, Thai. China, Israel, 6 1, China. And then Japan beat France, 6 0. So tomorrow the quarterfinals happen.
It’s USA vs. Japan for our, uh, Team Shuklastan’s Callahan Young. Para archery. You were there.
Alison: I wasn’t there for the W1, so do those results first. All
Jill: right. Well, W1 is, um, we had the men’s individual, which is a high level of impairment. Gold went to Jason Tobansky from the USA. Silver went to Hong Guifei from China and bronze went to Zhang Tiaqin from China.
Alison: Okay, before I get into the competition, here’s the story I wanted to tell you. Um, in between rounds, I retreated to the, uh, media center cause it was hot and you’re in the blazing sun. You know this, there’s no shade. And you want to know who was in the media center with me? Jackie Chan, Andrea Joyce,
Jill: Oh, from NBC,
Alison: from NBC.
She was basically there covering Matt Stutzman and, uh, she was interviewing him after kind of each round and giving a little reports as to what was, was happening. And, um, there were a couple other American archers She was really focused on. And I said to myself, self, you are never going to have this chance again.
So I went up to her and I said, I’m going to be completely Um, press unprofessional and just tell you how awesome you are. And she then proceeded to have like a 10 minute conversation with me. I have pictures, the, the people who were there were so her NBC people, the guy sitting next to her said, Oh, what’s your name?
And I told him and he said, and I know Alison’s going to be too shy, Andrea, but she wants a picture. And I was like, yeah, I kind of do. It gets better. So Andrew was asking me what we did and how long we’ve been doing it. And isn’t that great? And then she says to me, I’ll come on your podcast. She gave me her phone number.
And then she’s like, Oh, but you only want athletes. And I’m like,
Jill: Andrea
Alison: Joyce, you will be a month long special. She was Um, I, I cannot tell you how incredibly gracious and supportive and how we, we were talking about women in, in sports broadcasting because I said to her, we couldn’t do what we do without you.
Jill: Very true. Because
Alison: she and Leslie Visser and that whole generation of, of women broadcasters in sports really It really broke through and we couldn’t do those mix zone interviews, you know, back in the day and to, to have that generation of women and just, she was just so incredibly kind and lovely. And yeah.
Just wanted to talk about what we do.
Jill: I have her phone number. Amazing, amazing. Well, that will be like a month long special because she has done so many Olympics and we have to talk about Adam Rippon calling her Andrea all the time. I mean, cause really that’s one of the things that makes her, I want to say it makes her stand out, but the fact that the athletes know that she cares about them and asks good questions and really wants to get to the heart of things without.
Being, you know, get different information. The fact that he appreciates it so much and be like, Andrea,
Alison: this is totally unprofessional. She’s beautiful. Oh, no. Which made me like, Oh, as if you weren’t amazing enough, you are also so incredibly beautiful in person. So and her staff was all lovely to me. They gave me an NBC Paris pin.
Jill: Nice. Did they get pins?
Alison: They got pins. Good. And cards.
Jill: Good. And I have Andrew Joyce’s phone number.
Alison: And then there was this little competition going on with our good friend, Matt Stotzman.
Jill: Oh, by the way,
Alison: while this is all happening, so I got there for the, uh, It’s elimination round and Matt faced, uh, Forsberg. This was a rematch of the 2012 gold medal match ended in a shootout. Stutzman lost that, ended in a shootout today.
Jill: I saw the, I checked the score when I was at wheelchair tennis and it was tied because I was following along. And we were near the end and then it was tied and it was like, It was and it was that last arrow kind of thing for both of them. It was so close and Matt got a 10 I think on his last arrow.
Alison: Matt not only got a 10 on his last arrow.
It was a dead center 10 It was like through the Apple kind of shot. It was,
Jill: oh wait, it was
Alison: boom. It was boom.
Jill: If you remember the Tokyo 2020 commercials.
Alison: I also just want to mention, uh, Jonathan Clemens, who is the Team USA coach who’s on, uh, the field for lack of a better word. Field is good enough for now with all the Team USA archers and just handles them each differently.
definitely is working with whatever they prefer. So he was fantastic. And so then we get to the quarterfinals. This was a super tight match, but not as stressful as a shootout. Um, and Matt beat Nathan McQueen one 43, one 42, who was the, no, it’s in the semis that he meets the medalist. We’ll get there. Okay.
That one was when I was hanging out with Andrea. So I only saw that on the feed inside the the media room. Then we get to the semis and Matt is facing He Jiao, who is the Tokyo 2020 gold medalist and has been a machine going maybe one end in. He had 16 10s in a row. And he’s super fast. And if you remember our conversation with Matt Stutzman, one of the things Matt talked about was sometimes opponents like to go very, very quickly because he can’t set up his arrows as quickly as they can shoot.
And it’s all timed. You know, each archer only gets 30 seconds. So he was going really quickly. And I could see Matt trying to do it. to keep up with the pace. Like the second he shot the arrow, he was setting up the next one. There was no time to think. He made a couple of unexpected errors and Matt took advantage.
Jill: Wow.
Alison: Goes to a shootout.
He gets a nine in the shootout.
Jill: Forget it. Then that’s almost like shows over.
Alison: And then Matt scores a 10. So then we go to the gold medal match and At this point, I’m like, he’s going to win. Watching him through each of these rounds, he just kept shooting more relaxed, more confidently. He shot a couple of eights and of course the crowd reacts and he would look at everybody and just kind of shake his head and wave his hand.
Like it’s fine people. I’m good. This is no problem. A couple of scores got changed.
Jill: Oh, right. Because you have to measure
Alison: and One was to his advantage and he kind of bounced up and down and one was to his disadvantage and he was like, Oh, he was so relaxed that going into that gold medal round.
Surprisingly, I was very relaxed.
Jill: Well,
Alison: which, you know, is not my normal state of affairs, nevermind in a gold medal round. So. Uh, it’s, it was against China’s Ai Zhenliang, who also kind of had been a 10 machine up until this round, made a couple of mistakes. Matt gets a Paralympic record score. Oh, what? And wins the gold medal.
Ah.
Jill: End. It’s one of, when he said the other night when he, uh, had in the ranking round trouble with the, his equipment, the last time that happened, he came back and won the whole thing.
Alison: And yeah, there he did. So lucky enough to get some time with him in the mix zone. Uh, so we’ll throw that tape on the end.
Most of who you’re going to hear asking the questions is a Team USA, uh, media rep. Um, but I did get to, Talk to him a little bit after it, at least get to say congratulations. And during the interview, he got emotional. So then I started crying and he was kind of laughing at me and I was laughing at him.
So you can’t hear that. But I did want to share that because the two of us were sitting there and tears are running down our cheeks and I’m like, well, I’ve been totally press unprofessional this entire session. So I’m going to cry with you, Matt Stutzman. So we talked about, is he going to come back? Um, he has previously before the game said, this is it.
And he said tonight, I can’t do better than this. My family was all here. I shot good as I could shoot. I’ve got to go metal. I’m done. I’m, this is, this is good.
Jill: Yeah. And it’s, I think it’s interesting because he had mentally prepared for that. You know, he’s talked, like you said, retirement, retirement, retirement.
And of course. Everyone on the press side just thinks people can keep going and going and going. Um, even his coach was like, well, you know, we’re going to take a break and then we’re going to see what he’s 41. He’s not he’s he’s getting up there and and there’s other stuff that he wants to do in his life and And maybe he would want to come and see in three years, like with the, with the buildup to LA happening, do you get roped in by that excitement?
But really, how can you do better than a gold medal and a Paralympic record? what you’ve done for the sport on the playing field. I mean, it’s okay, people. It’s okay for Matt Tussman to retire.
Alison: And in this tournament, in these rounds, he beat the people who beat him at the previous Paralympics. So he’s. We got a movie ending.
Jill: Yeah. Right.
Alison: So, uh, in the men’s compound open competition, Matt Stutzman from the United States wins goals. Ai Xin Yang from China wins silver and He Xiao takes the bronze.
Jill: Moving over to para athletics. We will start with jumps today. The one thing I didn’t mention about para athletics is I was walking around the stadium yesterday and They’ve got the try it things because they have every venue.
There’s like a try the sport thing But they have a setup where they’ve got a little lane That is a wheelchair lane so you can test what it’s like to be it doesn’t have the racing wheelchair, but it’s a actually more of a Basketball wheelchair or something like that, something where the wheels are angled in so that you get that kind of feel and then there’s another station where they put a blind visor on you and kind of lead you through an agility ladder and then trying to go around some cones on your own.
It’s really interesting to see people try this.
Alison: Did you
Jill: try it? No, I didn’t have time. Lines are long for this stuff. I will tell you that that kind of the crowd engagement really has been good. And so they’ve, they’ve done a lot of that stuff. Um, but in jumps, we had women’s long jump T12, which is a visually impaired class.
Uh, this is a class where the athlete tends to count their strides to know where they are in relationship to the board and the pit gold went to Oksana Zubkova. Uh, Kostka from Ukraine, silver went to Sarah Martinez from Spain and bronze went to Linda Homri from Algeria. This is Oksana Zubkovska’s fifth Paralympic title in this class.
She has been going since Beijing in 2008. This is, this is incredible. It sounds like she’s going to retire as well, and
Alison: Well, you think five is enough?
Maybe you should go for an even half dozen.
Jill: Well,
Alison: like, like use them as plates, you have a serve a six serving,
Jill: but now she’s going to help the next generation of Paralympic athletes. In the women’s long jump T37 class, which is a side moderate impairment, which makes them a little more asymmetrical. Gold went to China’s Wen Xiaoyang, who got a Paralympic record.
Silver went to Jaylene Roberts from the USA and bronze went to Manon Genest from France. Men’s high jump, T47 class, one arm or the absence of. Roderick Townsend went, uh, from the USA, won gold. Kumar Nishad from India won silver. And Georgi Merigev from neutral Paralympic athletes won the bronze.
Moving over to throws. We had a bunch of shot put tonight. We had women’s shot put, uh, F20 class, which is intellectual impairment. Gold went to Sabrina Fortune from Great Britain with a world record.
France, uh, or France. Uh, Silver went to Gloria Agbomagnon from France with a personal best and Bronze went to Poleth Ismar Mendes Sanchez from Ecuador. We have on, on every once in a while, because we’re here in the Hotel du Podcast, uh, we can put on a TV while we’re prepping and they’ve got this show called Quelle Joue?
Alison: Yes. And it’s like
Jill: a wrap up of the games and they bring out all the different medalists from the French medalist. Yes. The French medalist. And there’s a TV audience. So everybody’s excited and they replay races and stuff like that. So they replayed her winning throw and she just went. So happy running across the track, running to her coaches and to her family.
And it, she was thrilled to do that. And it was a far throw. It was one of those, like, when I saw Brian Krauser throw in person, like you could see off of his hand, how good of a throw that was. And. Here, you could also see that too. So good for her.
Alison: I want to mention really quickly something about classification.
Each sport uses their own classification. So you will hear us say, for example, F20 is an intellectual impairment for field events, but in swimming it’s S14. So classification, once again, very confusing. We’re going to work with you on this, but different sports use different numbers.
Jill: Men’s shot put F40 are people with short stature.
Gold went to Miguel Montero from Portugal who got a point. Paralympic record. Silver went to Battagoula from, uh, Battagoula Kizmed from Mongolia and bronze went to Garatsianesh from Iraq. In the men’s shot put F 53 class, which is a seated class because they have a high impairment in the trunk or legs.
They have some difficulty with hand grip as well. The gold went to Giga Oshkedia from Georgia, who got a world record. Silver went to Abdullila Ghani from Morocco and bronze went to Ali Reza Moherti Hemmami from Iran. Moving over to discus, we have two competitions there. The men’s F52 class, which is a seated class, uh, high degree of lung, uh, trunk and leg and hand impairment, but they have some mobility in their arms.
The gold went to Rigavan. Uh, Ganesh Maruti from Italy, who got a world record, silver, silver went to Iger’s Alpena from Latvia and bronze went to Andre Rocha from Brazil. I love the fact that all these world records are falling because it means that the competition is getting better. So This is exciting.
Women’s discus throw in the F64 class, which is a lower leg impairment or absence of the lower limbs. Gold went to China’s Yang Hui, silver went to China’s Yao Huan, and bronze went to Osiris Aneth Makado Plata from Mexico. And then in the women’s javelin throw F64. 34 class, which is some trunk and arm mobility, but they have greater impairment in their hips and legs.
Gold went to Zhao Lijuan from China with a world record. Silver went to Zhuo Kaiyong with a personal best. She’s also from China and, uh, Bronze went to Dana Kreese from Australia. On the track, we have a women’s 100 meter class in the T 34, which is a wheelchair class. Gold went to Hannah Cockcroft from Great Britain.
We’ve heard that name before. Uh, uh, Silver went to Carrie Agdinant. Adam Nagin from Great Britain and bronze went to Lan Han Yu from China in the women’s 200T35 class, which is, uh, a leg impairment, maybe some upper body impairment as well. Gold went to China’s Xiao Xia, silver went to China’s Guo Jiangcheng, who got a personal best, and bronze went to India’s Pritapal with a personal best. Uh, moving up to the 200 meter, this is a T36 class, which is low to moderate impairment in all four limbs. Gold went to China’s Xi Yiting with a Paralympic record. Silver went to Danielle Atchison from New Zealand. Go silver ferns! And bronze went to Molly Lovell from Australia.
In the women’s 800 meter T53 class, which is a wheelchair class, gold went to Catherine de Bruner from Switzerland who got a Paralympic record.
Alison: Second gold for her at this Paralympics.
Jill: Nice. Silver went to Samantha Kinghorn from Great Britain and bronze went to Zhao Hongzhan from China. In 800 meters T54, which is another wheelchair class.
Gold went to Manuela Scher from Switzerland, silver went to Xiao Xiaofang from China. Uh, Scher got a Paralympic record, Xiao got a personal best, bronze went to Susanna Scaroni from USA. Uh, moving over, we have two men’s 100 meter races, T13, which is a visual impairment class. Gold went to Skander Jamali, uh, Jamil Althamani from Algeria, who got a Paralympic record.
Silver went to Salim Aghzazi Kashifali from Norway. And bronze went to Kawakami Shuta from Japan.
In the men’s 100 meter T 44 class, which is a low to moderate impairment in one lower leg, gold went to South Africa’s Pummelelo Molongo, silver went to Yamal Luis Vivasuarez from Cuba, and bronze went to Eddie Bernard from Malaysia. In the men’s, we have a couple, 400 meter classes as well, T11, which is visually impaired.
They have the guide runners in this class. Gold went to Anderson, German, Santos, Gonzalez from Venezuela. Silver went to Timothy Adolf from France. . and bronze went to Guillaume Junior Atagana from Refugee Paralympic team. For the T53 class, which is a wheelchair class, um, Gold went to Phongsakom Paeo from Thailand, silver went to Brent Lakatos from Canada, and Brian Seaman from the U. S. got a personal best and the bronze medal.
In the T 54 class, which has a little bit more full range of body arm and movements than the T 53 class, gold went to China’s Dai Yung Chiang who got a Paralympic record, silver went to Atiwat Peng Nguyeh from Thailand, Thailand and bronze went to our very own Daniel Romanchuk,
Alison: second medal of the games,
Jill: right?
Um pair of badminton pair of badmintons wrapping up tomorrow Really the last day So we had semi finals in a bunch of men’s and women’s singles classes Metal matches were in the wheelchair classes today women’s doubles wh one and two gold goes to china’s liu young tong and ying men Uh, silver goes to Satomi Serena and Yamazaki Yuma from Japan and bronze goes to Sujirat Pookham and, uh, Amnuli Vajratan from Thailand.
And in the men’s version of the same class, gold goes to China’s Maan. Mai Chiang Pen and Kyu Jae Mo, and silver goes to Jung Jae Gung and Yoo Soo Young from Korea, and bronze went to Kajiwara Daiki and, uh, Murayama Hiroshi from Japan.
Alison: So our researcher Elizabeth noted in one of her messages to us how interesting it is that the same sports, the countries that dominate in Olympic sport, dominate in it’s very often dominated in the Paralympic sport.
And it just makes sense. Of course, that’s what you see people doing. You know, if you grew up prior, say, you know, if it was an accident kind of thing, or if you’re able bodied siblings are doing that sport, of course you’re going to want to do that sport. You’ve got the facilities, you’ve got the coaches, you’ve got the interest.
So it makes sense that we’re seeing, you know, Japan and Thailand and China and Korea in these Uh, badminton, because that’s what we see in Olympic badminton. Why wouldn’t it be the same?
Jill: In paracycling track, we had, uh, two races in the visual impairment class. Men’s B 1, 000 meter time trial. Gold went to James Ball from Great Britain with his pilot, Stefan Lloyd. With his pilot, Matthew Rutherman, also from Great Britain and bronze went to Thomas Ulbricht with pilot, Robert Forstmann from Germany and in the women’s 3000 meter individual pursuit finals in the B class, gold went to a Sophie Unwin from Great Britain with her pilot, Jenny Hall, silver went to Katie George Dunleavy from Ireland with pilot, Polly.
Eve McChrystal, and bronze went to Laura Faeci from Great Britain with pilot Corinne Hall.
Alison: Laura and Neil Faeci are a married couple.
Jill: Nice, and they have their toddler son, Fraser, in the crowd. So that is very cool. Then we had a bunch of C classes as well. Women’s C5 3, 000 meter individual pursuit finals.
Gold went to Marie, uh, Paul Juliet from France, uh, She was on Kelju tonight And says the games have been unbelievable and magical She’s got the road race and she’s retired after that. She’s gonna go out on top. So good for her Way, what a way to end a course career, athletic career, a gold, a
Alison: gold medal in your home country.
Jill: Yes. So that is fantastic. Silver went to Frances, Heidi Gauguin and bronze went to Nicole Murray from New Zealand.
Alison: Thank goodness. Go silver ferns. I haven’t said that much.
Jill: No, but at least we get some in today, in the open 750 meter team sprint finals, gold went to great Britain, silver to Spain and bronze to Australia.
Uh, para rowing today, last day for para rowing. We could not get out there because para rowing was always early in the morning. And
Alison: far away.
Jill: And, and it is very far away. So, um, maybe we can get to Canoe. We have to look at the time. We got to look at some
Alison: Va.
Jill: Yeah, I’m, I’m really excited about that. But, uh, canoeing.
Fair warning, if it starts in the morning and ends at noon and far away, highly unlikely that we can get there based on how we tape the show and when we go to bed.
Alison: And also, to be fair, how the buses run out there.
Jill: That’s true. Uh, we had B finals in women’s and men’s single skulls, mixed double skulls, mixed coxed four, and also A finals.
Sounded like it was a really tough day on the water because there was a strong headwind going on as well. So that’s a lot to work through. In the women’s single skulls PR1 class, this is a minimal to no leg and trunk function. Gold went to Moran Samuel from Israel. Silver went to Birgit Skarstein from Norway and France.
It was Nathalie Benoit from, uh, won the bronze. That was a, about a half second apart finish on silver and bronze. And so Skarstan was really kicking it into gear. Didn’t know how she finished. Until she saw the results. So that’s, uh, that was an exciting race. Men’s single skulls PR1 class, which is minimal to low, no leg and trunk function.
Gold went to Benjamin Pritchard from Great Britain. Silver went to Roman Poliansky from Ukraine. And bronze went to Eric Horry from Australia. In the Mixed Double Skulls PR2 class, which, uh, can’t and does not have use of legs. Uh, gold went to Great Britain, silver to China, bronze to Israel. In the Mixed Doubles PR3 class, which is limited area in, uh, limited impairment in different parts of your body, but you can use a sliding seat in this class.
Uh, gold went to Australia, silver to Great Britain, bronze to Germany. And then in the Mixed Coxed IV class. PR3 class, gold went to Great Britain, silver to USA, bronze to French. Uh, this was also on Kelju, and we were watching some of the replay, which was really nice to have that. And in these boats, the position of the oars varied from boat to boat.
So some would have alternating left and right, left and right. Some would have Uh, the front and the back oar would be on one side and the two middle oars would be in another. So now we have questions.
Alison: We have not talked to a para rower. So it’s, we didn’t miss asking the questions and now we have new questions.
Jill: Fair enough. Para swimming. We have, uh, probably a lot of swimming cause there’s a lot of swimming to be had at the Paralympics. Uh, uh, In the S11 visual impairment class, this is near total impairment, so they wear the blackout goggles and they have the back tappers. Uh, men’s and women’s both had 100 meter backstroke races.
Gold, and for the men, uh, gold went to Mikhailo Serbin from Ukraine. Silver went to David, uh, David Kratcheville from Czechia. And bronze went to Daniel, from, uh, Ukraine. For the women, gold went to Kylie Wen from China, silver went to Li Guizhi from China, and bronze went to Daria Lukinenko from Neutral Paralympic Athletes.
And the SB5 class, uh, that’s, uh, I hate calling it the hodgepodge, but there’s a lot, it’s a power generation factor. So you could have people with missing limbs. You could have people with short stature and there’s just a lot of different body types in this one. Men’s and women’s hundred meter breaststroke gold went to, uh, for the men.
Gold went to Leo McCrae from Switzerland. Silver went to Antony Ponce Bertran from Spain and Bronze went to Daniel Simon Il from Ukraine, bro. Uh, for the women. Bron. Uh, gold went to Grace Harvey from Great Britain. Silver went to j Lee from China and Bronze went to Ana from Ukraine in, uh. SB6 class, which is a little bit different impairment, but also the same mix of body types.
Uh, men’s and women’s had 100 meter breaststroke finals for the men. Gold went to Yang Hong from China with a Paralympic record. Silver went to Nelson Crispin Corso from Colombia, uh, and Borokhiyo from Ukraine. Um, silver, He, Nelson Crispin Corso, because we asked, we’ve known this name for a while, he has competed in, uh, three other Paralympics.
So he’s a four time Paralympian. He’s got eight medals in total, but it seems like we’re saying his name all the time.
Alison: It feels like it, maybe we just, you know, it, it goes into that, uh, Zach’s Double D Cook category where we just loved saying Nelson Crispin Corso. So I think it stuck with us the few times we did say it.
Jill: Right. But. No slouch four times.
Alison: I did not mean to insult him because he is clearly our favorite Paralympic swimmer.
Jill: I don’t think you’ve insulted Columbia before. So we’ll add this to the list. And for the women’s 100 meter in the same class, uh, breaststroke in the same class, gold went to a Maisie Summers Newton from great Britain with the Paralympic record.
Silver goes to Liu Daomin from China and bronze went to Ying Chiu, Young from Hong Kong. Then we move over to the S10 class, which is the highest level of mobility and coordination. Men’s and women’s hundred meter freestyle. For the men, gold went to Stefano Raimondi from Italy, silver went to Rowan Crothers from Australia, and bronze went to Thomas Gallagher from Australia.
We also had said Stefan, Stefano Raimondo of a few times he was, uh, uh, Tokyo Paralympian. So this is Paralympics number two in Tokyo. He won seven medals. How is that even possible? It’s possible. You know why? Because he saw a Toyota bus ad that said, imagine you’re possible or start, you’re impossible.
That’s right. He started his impossible during Tokyo keeps going for the women, the same distance and stroke. Gold went to Emily and Pierre from France. Silver went to Arielle Rivard from Canada and bronze went to Alessia Scortecnini from Italy. in the SM4 class. Uh, this is low mobility in the legs and trunk or, uh, no legs and a partial one arm.
Men’s 150 meter individually med, individual medley. Gold went to Roman Zhdanov from neutral Paralympic athletes. Silver went to, um, Ami Omar Dadadan from, um, Israel and bronze went to Angel de Jesus Camacho Ramirez from Mexico. For the women, gold went to Tanya Schultz from Germany with a Paralympic record, silver went to Natalia Butkova from neutral Paralympic athletes, and bronze went to Lidia Vieira de Cruz from Brazil.
Alison: I do want to mention we have been saying a lot of neutral Paralympic athletes and we didn’t say a lot of neutral Olympic athletes. There were many more neutral Paralympic athletes that were allowed to compete than the Olympic athletes. So if you feel like we’re saying it a lot more, that’s because there was a lot more to pick from.
Jill: Right. And I will theorize as well that Russia. about the Olympic athletes. Like, that stage is a bigger stage for them, because a lot of Russian athletes had, uh, mentioned that they, you either had to leave or they wouldn’t be able, they wouldn’t be able to compete or they’d lose their funding if they competed.
So I wonder how much of that same thing went on with Paralympic athletes.
Alison: And there was also the issue of qualification. A lot of Russian athletes were not allowed to compete in the qualifying tournaments. And I doubt that was the case for a lot of these Paralympic athletes.
Jill: So we have the SM three class.
For the men’s 150 meter individual medley, gold went to, uh, Yosha, Tim Alexander top from Germany. Silver went to Ahmed Kelly from Australia and bronze went to grant Patterson, Grant Patterson from Australia. SM eight class, which is an almost full capacity, but they have, uh, a lack of all around muscle power.
Men’s 200 IM, gold goes to Zhuhai Zhao from China, silver went to Yang Guanglong from China, and bronze went to Diogo Cancela from Portugal. And for the women in that same race, gold went to Brock Witson from Brazil. Wiston from Great Britain, silver went to Victoria Ischilova from neutral Paralympic athletes, bronze went to Alice Tai from Great Britain and fourth place was our Jessica Long.
And finally, we had the mixed 4x100m freestyle relay, S14 intellectual impairment class, gold went to Great Britain, silver to Australia and bronze went to Brazil. Pair table tennis. We had early elimination rounds, uh, for men’s and women’s singles. In the doubles, we did have some gold medal matches, though.
Uh, for the M, men’s MD18 class, gold went to Poland, the team of Patrick Chosinowski and Peter Grusin. Uh, silver went to China, Liu Xiaodong and Xiao Yiqing and Uh, bronzes went to China’s Lian Hao and Zhao Xue and, uh, Brazil’s Luiz Felipe Manara and Claudio Massad. For the MD14 class, Gold went to, uh, Liao Keli and Yang Shou from China.
Silver went to Rongroi, Tha Thaianam and, Fizit
wangponpathanasiri from Thailand. Bronzes went to Clement Berthier and Esteban Hero from France and Paul Karaburardak and Billy Shilton from Great Britain. And finally, in the Mixed Doubles XD7 class, Gold went to Feng Pan Feng. And Zhao Ying from China, Silver went to Yutajak, uh, Glyn Bansion, and, uh, Witrya Jayong from Thailand.
Bronzes went to Zhai Zhang and Guo Gu Xiaodong from China, and Frances Florian Marion and Flora Vautier.
Alison: Hey! Was there a para triathlon today?
Jill: No.
Alison: Hey, why wasn’t there a para triathlon today?
Jill: Because it rained. And when it rains, it means the river in the Seine, it becomes unsuitable for swimming. This is a bigger problem for para triathletes because, uh, they may also have a lot of Paralympians in general have other issues that make them more susceptible to illness, like maybe E.
coli that’s in the river that some Olympians caught.
Alison: So, We talked about this I believe in Tokyo because of the heat that the Paralympics in many sports has less tolerance for bad conditions. So if it gets above a certain temperature, if there’s a certain level of smog, they’re very, they’re much more protective of their athletes because they have to be.
Cause like you said, many of these athletes have not just a physical disability, but then additional health issues. Right. And we don’t want
Jill: somebody dying because that’s very realistic possibility.
Alison: Exactly. So. The, the water quality of the Seine has to be even better than it was for the Olympics. The standard is higher and it rained.
And supposedly we’re going to do this tomorrow.
Jill: This is, I, I would be so frustrated to be an athlete because journalists are being told that the time will be published. before 6am. So can you imagine being a competitor and getting up super early to not know whether or not you’re racing?
Alison: The start times of the first para, uh, triathlon tomorrow are supposed to be 8.
- They’re making the decision less than two and a half hours beforehand.
Jill: I don’t know, maybe they’re making the decision earlier. And just not publishing it. Yeah, and communicating and hopefully they’re Telling the athletes and then they’ll get around to publishing it for us because we can jump a little faster and Hopefully I would think that a lot of the journalists are closer than the athletes in the village To
Alison: not know 24 hours ahead of time,
Jill: but they’re waiting for the results of these tests I know I mean, that’s the hard thing You really have to you want to get it kind of close to the date because if you You Measure at 10 p.
- The water’s gonna change.
Alison: Please don’t do anything stupid like this, L. A. Yeah,
Jill: if you really need to clean up some water, don’t. Athletes in it. Even if you have a long time to clean it up, it’s not going to work. Shooting Parasport. Uh, we had medals today in the R3 Mixed 10 Meter Air Rifle Prone SH 1 class.
Gold went to Veronika Vadovikova from Slovakia. Silver went to Radoslav Melenskova, um, Malinowsko, Malinowski, sorry. Silver went to Radoslav Meneloski from Slovakia and bronze went to Juan Antonio Salverde Ronaldo from Spain. And in the R5 mixed 10 meter air rifle prone SH 2 final, France’s, uh, Tanguy de la Forest won gold.
Silver went to Alexander Augusto Galgani from Brazil and bronze went to Mizuta Mika from Japan, our McKenna Gear finished 33rd in this competition and did not make it to finals. So it sounds bad, but like McKenna Took time off to have a baby first off. And that’s pregnancy messes with your body anyway, from what I understand.
Yeah.
Alison: She has only come back within the last year, so to even make the team was a, a, a pretty big accomplishment. So I’m so excited she’s here. I’m so excited she’s here and she made it in three events.
Jill: So that is, that is awesome. And, uh, yeah, the results don’t matter here because it’s, I think it’s a win.
In sitting volleyball, we had, uh, men’s and women’s preliminary round action. China, for the women, China beat Italy 3 0, and then USA beat France 3 0, and they pretty, they were pretty dominant in this, uh, appearance, uh, winning each set 25 and 25 5.
Alison: You said that the scuttlebutt was France was very far down the pecking order.
Jill: And my guess is that it, uh, because they got an automatic entry, let’s create a team. And we don’t, we don’t know how long the team has been together and, and what the sitting volleyball culture was in France before this. I’m guessing it wasn’t. There was no culture. I’m guessing it’s kind of like how we will be with blind football, where now we’re putting together a team.
but that’s fine. They’re here and they’re showing their country people that volleyball, uh, in that sitting volleyball
Alison: is amazing. It’s so amazing. I’ll get out there.
Jill: In the men’s prelims, Germany beat Ukraine three to one and Iran beat Brazil three to zero, a wheelchair basketball where you went today.
I did. I, and I only got to three quarters into team USA before I had to go out to the high performance center because that was a. our trip from where we were. But, uh, I’m so glad I got in there to see it. The court, as people have talked about the design of the court on TV, it’s beautiful in person. I will say that it’s absolutely beautiful.
Uh, USA played Australia. Australia is a very physical team. Are we shocked?
Alison: Are they ever not a physical team in a same sport?
Jill: It’s amazing. Uh, There were a lot of Australians in the crowd too. That was really surprising. I was really surprised not to see more Americans there, which is a bummer. I also am surprised that the NBA has not hopped on board with wheelchair basketball and figured out a way to, there’s a market for this, because if you like basketball, you like wheelchair basketball.
You’ve just not gotten the opportunity to see it because it’s the same game.
Alison: You know, the NHL has done things with sled hockey. There’s a model to do this.
Jill: Right. So hopefully we can find something that will prove our indignation wrong.
Alison: I’ll call Andrea Joyce. I have her number.
Jill: There you go. She might know.
Instead of the point values on the back of their chair, like they have in rugby, they just have their player numbers on the back of their chair. So that I thought was really interesting. Very close game in the first half. Very, very close. Then quarter three, USA just broke it open. And when I left, I felt like, okay, they’ve got this game in the book.
That’s, uh, they, they did really, really well. And it was fun. It was really, really fun to watch. In the other men’s prelims, uh, Spain beat, uh, Netherlands 68 to 53, USA men are undefeated in pool play. They’ve got the top spot in their group and have qualified for quarterfinals. Also qualified are Australia and Spain so far.
Alison: The other pool hasn’t finished. Yes.
Jill: In women’s prelim action, Germany beat Japan 67 55, China beat Great Britain 62 47, and Canada beat Spain 81 49. The four, four of the teams that have qualified for quarterfinals are Spain, Canada, Great Britain, and China.
Alison: Wheelchair rugby. I did not go because I was with Matt Stutzman.
He needed my support, but I was sitting there watching the score in the
Jill: can’t stay away.
Alison: You can’t stay away. I knew when it started, and I left it for like 15 minutes. And then I said, I can’t handle this. So I’m sitting there watching that Stutzman with my phone. I can’t watch the feet or anything
Jill: because you
Alison: have to be quiet.
Just watching the score.
Jill: And we don’t know how to get the feet to be quite honest. We sometimes we’re in venues where there are screens, but that’s just the feet of what you’re watching in front of you. We don’t have the same Discovery Max pass that we had for the Olympics. Because that’s
Alison: not the, European broadcaster, I don’t think, for the Paralympics.
No.
Jill: And, uh, we’re going to be honest. We don’t know how to get it on YouTube. Cause we watch, we watch KJU. Yeah. So now we watch, we watch TV three when we get a chance, but they may not show the wheelchair rugby because France not doing so well. But who is?
Alison: So Canada in the classification. So this is a weird classification.
So to determine fifth through eighth, there’s actually going to be two games that each team plays. So for today, Canada beat, uh, Denmark 56 to 46, France beat Germany, uh, 54 to 48. Then we had the semifinals. The first one was between Japan and Australia. It went to overtime and Japan. Upset Australia, 5251.
Jill: This is amazing.
Alison: This is a big upset.
Jill: Because, I mean, when we were talking about the tournament ahead of time, Japan didn’t even come out of your mouth.
Alison: And I feel really bad about it now.
Jill: Right? They must have really taken what, having Tokyo being the host, that must have really put some energy into them and kept that momentum going.
And now look at the success that they’re having.
Alison: So then, thankfully, thank goodness, the United States led throughout this game. It was, it was close, but not tight. Uh, so the U. S. defeated Great Britain 50 to 43. Chuck Aoki had 18 tries. He was a little busy tonight.
Jill: Pretty good.
Alison: So tomorrow the gold medal batch will be USA versus Japan.
I’m a little in shock in the best way, because my Australian friend that I met and spoke to for all the five minutes, we both said after that first day, this tournament is going to be tight. So having a A surprise team in the gold medal match is not that much of a surprise. We knew there was a lot of, it wasn’t just two teams that we knew we’re going to end up in the final and the bronze medal batch will be Australia and Great Britain.
And these, these are anyone’s games. I’m going.
Jill: Well, I was going to say you will be there, so you will be there to tell us all about it. Um, I went to wheelchair tennis, which is our last sport for the day. And I only saw. Like a game and a half, because I was coming back from the High Performance Center, but I did want to get out to see some doubles action with, um, one of the most dominant teams of recent years, Netherlands, Dita de and Anique van, who have been dominant in the sport for a long, long time.
Uh, they’ve won the French open wheelchair doubles six times together, which were playing on the French open court. So that’s kind of, uh, makes sense here. Also have a lot of Olympic tie, or I believe they’re defending gold medalists from Tokyo as well. Um. They were the last match of the day on Philippe Chartrier, so I was really excited that they got that, but then we had, uh, the crowd.
And before them was, uh, Schroeder and Vink, Niels Vink from Netherlands.
Alison: Some of my favorites from Tokyo.
Jill: Yes. Playing against Rampati and Sitola from South Africa. Fun game. Pretty big crowd. It was, I would say the crowd size for that matchup was about the size of A women’s match, non France and non superstar, superstar, at the Olympics.
So, pretty full but not packed that you would get for a men’s match. Then everybody left. Really? It really cleared out. And, uh, Niels Mink had a huge cheering section for him. They all left. I’m like, but your country people are here. I know you want to go see your buddy. But, like, there’s more tennis. So, a lot of people left.
They, even I said. said come down for like the last game to try to fill in the lower level. It was rough and frustrating. And I also get that some French people were playing on Suzanne Langland. So of course a lot of the crowd went there. People were leaving. I’m sure it was a hot day. I get to sit in the shade, but not all the court is shaded.
And especially if you were in some of the outer courts, those have no shade. So it could have been that people were just done with tennis for the day, but that really made me sad because you missed some amazing tennis. I will say, um, Vincent Schroeder, uh, beat, uh, Rampatti and Satola 6 1, 6 1, but the crowd was getting behind.
South Africa, like nobody’s business. They want a longer match. I know. That’s what they did. They wanted the longer match. Some beautiful points and beautiful placement by the South Africans that just sent the crowd wild, which was really, really fun to watch. And then, um,
oh, the other semi that and so Shorter and Vink win, uh, 6 1, 6 1, they are in the quads double semifinal. The other semifinal that day, uh, Great Britain’s Lapthorne and Slade beat Pena and Silva from Brazil, 6 1, 7 5. So it will be Netherlands versus Great Britain for the gold medal there.
And then Dita DeGroote and Anik Vankoot beat Japan’s Otani and Takamuro 6 4, 6 1. That first, uh, set was really close, to be quite honest. There was a lot of back and forth on, uh, a deuce. There was a lot of back and forth on a deuce with, uh, the umpire who couldn’t remember where we were in the point.
So he kept saying, he, first he said game and it wasn’t game. It just had gone back to deuce. And then he was like, oh, um, okay. And then he messed it up like two or three more times. Just could not get if it was deuce, if it was an advantage, or if we were back at, uh, or if the game was over. That was fun. Um, when you watch wheelchair tennis, it does look like a lot of lobbing back and forth in a way that’s not, I don’t want to be critical of that because it seems a lot slower, but then all of a sudden you can’t not look because they’re gonna put a spin on the ball, or slice it, or slam it down.
Didgeridoo’s got so much power. It’s amazing. She is, I wish I had time to go watch her play singles because I was really, really, really, really happy to get to go out there. A lot of fun, beautiful day on, in Roland Garros. And I think that’s it, right? We’re done for the day?
Alison: That’s all the competition. Is that not enough for you?
I got Andrew Joyce’s phone number.
That press center is like the best singles bar ever.
Jill: Well, you know, and if you go into the, the snack area of the lounge, the media lounge in that venue, media center, all the tables have little tablecloths that are archery targets. It’s adorable. I love the archery people. They’re fantastic. And you know who else is fantastic?
Alison: Sunny and Sadie are official mascots for this week of the Paralympics. So listener Don described Sunny as having mellowed as she has gotten older. I will not use the word that he used to describe her as a young guinea pig.
Jill: Rambunctious. Punk. Oh, that’s, I’m, she was a punk. That’s awesome.
Alison: Um, Sadie, on the other hand, had part of her ear bitten off by another Guinea pig because she was in a hoarding situation, I think.
She was with, so she had to be rescued. So she’s a little Paralympian herself. So, thank you Jadon for sharing Sadie and Sonny with Chocolaston and for supporting the Kickstarter campaign that got us to Paris.
Jill: So, Chocolaston has won some medals today.
Alison: Uh, we’ve got a bronze and a gold, so it’s four gold, two bronze.
No silvers. Get going people.
Jill: Uh, how are we doing on that medal stand?
Alison: That is 11th overall between Switzerland and Ukraine.
Jill: Not bad. Not bad at all. And we have more options or more chances tomorrow.
Alison: So racing in the pool in 50 meter freestyle, Olivia Chambers is in the women’s S13 and Jamal Hill in the men’s S9.
Mackenzie Cohen has her first swim in the women’s S7 400 meter freestyle.
Jill: Grace Norman may be racing in the PTS5 Paratriathlon.
Alison: Marco De La Rosa shoots in the P3 mixed 25 meter pistol SH1.
Jill: Callahan Young and Team USA play men’s goalball in the quarterfinals against Japan.
Alison: Hey, you know who else is playing Japan?
Jill: your, I would say your boyfriend, but he’s not.
Alison: No, he’s my, he’s not my boyfriend. I’m just, I just, I’m fangirling Chuka Yoki and Team USA wheelchair rugby. I will be there. You will hear me from the United States. That sound you hear is,
as I chair for the wheelchair rugby.
Jill: Well, that’s going to do it for this episode. Special thank you to our researcher, Elizabeth Emery.
Alison: Let
Jill: me hold it. Okay.
Alison: A special thank you to our researcher, Elizabeth Emery. You can get in touch with us on X YouTube and Instagram at flame alive pod. Send us an email at flame alive pod at gmail.
com call or text us at 208 352 6348 That’s 208flameit. Chat with us and other fans on our Facebook group, Keep the Flame Alive Podcast. And to get our daily special Games Time newsletter, sign up at our website flamealivepod. com.
Jill: We will have Matt Stutzman tape coming up right after this, so be sure to stick around for that and join us again tomorrow for more action from Paris.
Please tell a friend about the show and hang out with us in the Facebook group because it is hopping. Thank you so much for listening and until tomorrow, keep the flame alive.
Team USA press: . You’re a man possessed today. I mean, you just, you live for this. I said to you yesterday, you’re a showman. Have you seen that photo?
Matt Stutzman: I haven’t seen any photos yet. Could you get it
Team USA press: any closer to the middle for that shoot off?
Matt Stutzman: I don’t, I don’t know.
I haven’t seen nothing. So, I don’t know. Here, here’s what was going through my mind. One arrow at a time. And it was my plan to just enjoy the moment. Whatever happened. I told my family that I said hey if I don’t do well, it is what it is I’m still gonna go out there and enjoy the fact that I get to shoot in Paris no matter what happens It’s not like oh I have to go shoot in Paris No, I get to shoot in Paris and that was how my mindset was coming into this I’d never I didn’t think it was gonna I was gonna get hot at the end and it was gonna turn into this But, uh, that was my mindset, and I just kept it going the entire time.
I heard you say,
Team USA press: I’m not sure if it was an interview or talking to somebody the other day, and they were saying, oh, you know what, you’re retiring. And your words, correct me if I’m wrong, were, I’m not as good as I used to be. I mean, I mean, today you were on fire.
Matt Stutzman: Uh, yeah, what, so, I can’t explain it. I can’t explain it.
It just, I, having the whole crowd behind me, um, made me feel at home. And after, once I started shooting that match against McQueen, my, my jitters, my anxiety about, like, not anxiety, but my jitters just went away and everything got relaxed. And, uh, all of a sudden I found my, my, my stroke. And it was so confident that I could aim.
And if it didn’t feel right and I went like this, I could wait. And I look at the time and I’m like, ah, I got lots of time. And I would come back in, bam. And that, but that’s the confidence. I was so confident. I brought one bow. I didn’t bring any backups. In fact, if you look at my bow, the strings have been on that bow since, uh, Tokyo.
They’re pretty messed up, but at home when I was shooting, I was shooting world records at home and my confidence was with it so much that I didn’t want to create doubt in my head by bringing anything else, because if you have a backup, you’re like, Oh, what if the backup would have shot better? I wanted to be like, this is it, do or die.
Here it goes. This is going to work. And that’s what I did. That’s the confidence or the belief and the mental training I had to I had to do
Team USA press: you talk about the crowd But there was a particular group in that crowd How much are you drawing on that
Matt Stutzman: being the first time that they were at a games they couldn’t be in Tokyo When I first walked out for my very first match I really had to fight back the tears of just being able to perform in front of them and having them cheer Knowing they had my back no matter what happened and that is my golden medal moment whether I would have won this or not and That’s why that’s why I got to retire.
You can’t top you can’t top this Never top it
Reporter Wakako Yuki: I couldn’t I couldn’t believe
Matt Stutzman: I was there I can’t believe that the mental prep and having my family there worked. I couldn’t believe that I beat China China is very good. Um, and I, I knew going into it that I would have to shoot pretty good to beat them.
But, none of it mattered because I was already okay with the results. Whatever that was. And I think it just, it worked. It worked. And China is amazing. Amazing. I, I wish, I wish we, I wish I trained with China all the time. Because I, you know how much better I would be if I trained with China? And you wouldn’t be retarded.
No, no. USA, USA is good too, but it’s more about being around those athletes. Because when you shoot together, you get better. And I knew I had to have my best performance to beat them. And they made me work for it and, uh, it was awesome. Two golds in a day. Talk about Jason. Oh my goodness. And how much that Oh my goodness, I forgot.
Yes, Jason rocking the gold too. Uh, I was in the stands for that one. And, I don’t know if you guys know his story, but I think it’s the most amazing thing. He didn’t even qualify for Paris. And he had another archer that was going to Paris to get injured so they couldn’t go. So because they couldn’t go, he got the spot.
So he went from not even making the games to a gold medal. Like, he has served our country way more than I could have ever served our country, and I’m glad that he was rewarded for it.
Reporter Wakako Yuki: There’s a bit of a bookend. His first games, your last games, and you both walked away with gold today.
Matt Stutzman: I was thinking about this.
My very, very first games was a silver, and today, I, today I had to Beat him to move on and it was kind of like a storybook little Beating the guy who beat me and then uh, my last games ever is a gold so and a shootout and uh with I just can’t explain it, but i’m very blessed. That’s all I’m sure tomorrow if he asks me all these questions again, they’re probably going to be a little bit more energy and exciting What are you doing tonight?
Uh, I want to go spend time with my family. I got a pee for people and then uh, i’m i’m You I’m gonna soak it all up and just enjoy family time.
I’m from Japanese newspaper and I’ve seen you, you know, Rio, Tokyo and here. Um,
Reporter Wakako Yuki: I never saw you that consistent, concentrated, you know, focused on.
Matt Stutzman: Yeah.
Reporter Wakako Yuki: What changed you?
Matt Stutzman: Um. The
Reporter Wakako Yuki: fact that this could be the last or, you know, the fact that, I don’t know.
Matt Stutzman: This is my favorite question. Because I think you will, you will understand, uh, this. Um, in London. When I shot in London, I first games, no expectations, just have fun. Rio. I spent four years training for a moment. And when I got there, it didn’t work out.
I had a, an issue, but I, I took the loss hard. Like it was mentally hard because I was like four years. I spent training and I have nothing. Tokyo, um, my mindset was I get there and I don’t have a crowd and I love crowds. So it kind of like my confidence wasn’t that good. And, and, and so for this game specifically, I focused all my energy for the last several years on mental focus, mental training, and learning and how to shoot without pressure.
Because when you do that, you will perform like your body knows how it’s been trained to do. So for me, the difference between, this game felt very much like London. When I was in London and had to go against Forsberg, is that right? Forsberg? I was so happy to be there, I didn’t care. I was like, no matter what, I’m winning a medal.
When I went out there today, I said, I’m going to win this gold. I could have thought, oh, I’m going to win a medal no matter what, but this time I’m like, I’m here now, it’s my time, and I’m going to win. And that’s, I was calm, confident. study and everything worked great. So I don’t know. Yes, I did.
By Chinese
Reporter Wakako Yuki: guy in Tokyo. Yes. Yes. And one final one for me, I know you’ll reflect more time over the next few days, but your legacy. Your legacy is not just medals, it’s not just family, there’s more armless archers now involved in this sport because of you.
Matt Stutzman: This is, um, you could take away all my medals and I wouldn’t care because that would be my medal.
Do you know how many people are here shooting and feeling what I felt when I first started shooting? It’s not about winning the medals, it’s about the fact that they’re competing against people. They’re winning, they’re getting this feeling of joy and excitement. This archery can’t tell them no. A bow is a bow, it just wants to be shot.
Nobody cares who shoots it. So, these armless archers are finding what I felt a long time ago, and they’re finding it now. And they’re feeling the joy and the excitement and the passion of being able to compete at the world’s greatest stage and win against people with arms. You’re gonna see a flood of armless archers because armless archers sell a dream Of, of not just winning but that freedom of saying I’m good at something and you can’t take that away from them and no one can tell them you can’t do that and you’re gonna, that’s why you’re gonna see it huge now.
Reporter Wakako Yuki: There was a little moment there, and maybe I’m wrong, but there was a little moment as I was asking that question, you started to get a little bit emotional. This means a huge amount
Matt Stutzman: to you, doesn’t it? It’s a lot. Yeah. Okay. We’re changing. When I got into it, Feed My Family, now it’s about changing the world.
Reporter Wakako Yuki: You’ve been driving cars, doing everything, you know, Michael Johnson, and so in a sense you are trying to show to the world
Matt Stutzman: And, and I try to do it by example, not just talk about it. You can talk about it all day long, but when they watch and they see, it changes their mind. And then they understand that, hey, I can do that too.
And even for, even for you guys, whatever it is going on in your lives, why can’t you do that? Why can’t you be the best, whatever it is? You know, like, I just want a gold medal against people with hands. Come on now. You know, so that’s, that’s where my mindset is