Can you spend an entire day in Paris Arena Sud at the Paris 2024 Paralympics? Alison lives to tell the tale of one location, three sports: boccia, goalball and para table tennis. Jill gets a taste of blind football before dashing over to the Team USA House to interview TKFLASTANIs and then head to watch Brian Bell and the US Men’s wheelchair basketball team try to advance to the bracket stage.
Sports on today’s program:
- Blind Football
- Boccia
- Goalball
- Para Archery
- Para Athletics
- Para Equestrian
- Para Swimming
- Para Table Tennis
- Shooting Para Sport
- Sitting Volleyball
- Wheelchair Basketball
- Wheelchair Fencing
- 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 Do not quote from the transcript; use the audio as the record of note.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 6
Jill: Bonjour, and welcome to day six of the Paris 2024 Paralympics on Keep the Flame Alive, the podcast for fans of the Olympics and Paralympics.
I am your host, Jill Jarris, coming to you from the Hotel du Podcast, joined as always by my lovely co host, Alison Brown. Alison, bonjour, ça va?
Alison: You have ushered me into a life of thievery. This is like Les Miserables, where Fantine just like follows into this, this life of crime.
Jill: What happened?
Alison: We’ll get to that.
Jill: Alright, we have a follow up file. We’re just getting right into the show. Uh, we have a follow up file. Vision Pad. I saw it today! Oh, you saw it today, I saw it today at Blind Football, and we got in a little explanation, and you found a reel about it, and Ben, and producer Ben found a reel about it, and this is amazing.
So VisionPad, what I saw was the back end of VisionPad, and did you see it, somebody using it, or did you see it at Gold Bowl, because you said it in the Press Tribune in the right spot?
Alison: I saw the back end of it as well, so somebody creating. the vision pad data that would then output to somebody with a visual impairment.
Jill: Yes. So if you have, if you’re blind, you can get this vision pad, which is this metal box with a, the, the, like I said, the top looks like a painting. It’s got a frame and then a little indent to a flat space. But that flat space is the field of play for your sport and the little it’s magnetized. It’s a, the little disc thing is a ball and you can follow that with your hand and know exactly what is going on with the game.
at any given time. And there’s other tactile notifications for your fingers to know different things about the field and what’s going on too.
Alison: It’s
Jill: like making, I almost want to say it’s
Alison: like live action braille.
Jill: Yeah, it is. It is. And the reel you found, I really can’t remember who it’s from, uh, British person, British woman.
I
Alison: think it’s one of the channel four. Oh, I think it’s a channel four video explaining adaptive sports.
Jill: Yes. And she said that was the first time she’d ever been able to experience. Knowing what happens on the sports playing field. She’ll be at an event and can hear the cheering and maybe somebody can describe it to her, but she doesn’t know exactly what’s going on at all times.
This was the first time she’d done that. And then she’s, her brain was overloaded with information.
Alison: I can imagine. Right. Because if you’ve never. use that kind of information input. That’s a whole new muscle that you’ve got to figure out. How does that translate to how you’re envisioning the sport and how you’re experiencing the sport?
So yeah, when,
Jill: when the goal Paul folks talked to me last night and they were like, Oh, it’s just wild. Uh, it is, it’s amazing. And it’s really, really cool. And, and the vision.
Alison: I wonder how much, well, we’ll have to find out how much one of those things cost.
Jill: Good question. Cause I, well, I tried Googling it when I was sitting at Gold Ball because I really wanted to know what it was and I was not getting anything. So there’s got to be some other way we got to work the librarian brains to try to figure out what this system is.
Alison: And is it consumerable? You know, is it, you know, you’ll have it here, but it’s not really available to consumers on a broader, uh, level yet.
Jill: Or is it, will it be available if you go to blind sports eventually? I don’t know. It’s, it was really, really cool. Well, let’s begin the baguette.
You did not tell me about the quiet waves of blind football.
Alison: They did not do the quiet waves of blind football, but today at goalball, they did them. So, we were both experiencing this, and the slow motion one, too. The slow motion ones,
Jill: they did slow mo at wheelchair basketball, too.
Alison: So, I had not seen it at blind football.
So, this is The Wave, done to music. At mine, because it was during a break, but slowly, and then they speed up the music and it goes faster. I have never seen this before, and it was fantastic.
Jill: It’s been a wave extravaganza today. And by wave, I mean, they call it the Mexican wave here, which just floors me to no end.
The French do love their waves. It is amazing. It is amazing. Um, do you, did you, what experiences do you have?
Alison: I walked around arena sued. I didn’t go too far today. So there was very little cultural experiences.
Jill: You made it out alive, too.
Alison: But you,
Jill: I finally went to, uh, finally
Alison: got to Team USA house.
Jill: I did go to Team USA house. They have interviews with athletes who medal at Team USA House the day after or two days after and, uh, Grace Norman won yesterday in the Paratriathlon and Matt Stutzman was also there. And so I got on the list to interview them.
We’ll have tape at the end of this and you have to ask the day before and you get the notification. So I was prepped for a great day of blind football. Great morning of blind football and then a great night of wheelchair basketball. Get to blind football. I got in. So, okay.
Alison: And you got the notification that you were going to have to be at Team USA house at what time?
Jill: One
Alison: o’clock. So you were going to get maybe one game of blind football in, if that.
Jill: Um, yeah, because blind football, I now realize I have to adjust my scheduling for when I arrive places because the security guards are on pin trading. So I get to the venue, which I went to a different stop on the RER, so I went further, which was better.
Did you go to Port Lauma?
Alison: Yeah.
Jill: No, this time I went to Champ de Mars because Port Lama, I was so disoriented when I got out. I just was like, where do I go? And I kept looking at the Eiffel Tower and I eventually found it. See, if I had known
Alison: you were going to do that, I would have told you not to do that because the walk from Champ de Mars is, I found it, much more complicated because there were roadblocks everywhere.
Jill: Oh, I didn’t, I didn’t have that.
Alison: because it was paratriathlon day. That
Jill: may be it. That may be it. So I, I get to the entry and of course everybody wants to trade. I’m like, Oh, I never got to get to blind, because the entry is still like, you got to go, it’s closer to chomp to Mars than it is to blind football.
So you, I walked past blind football to get into the entry and then I had to make a U turn and go back and I missed the beginning and then, check the email because we’ll get to this. I have no data again. I can’t use the internet if I’m not on Wi Fi. So I finally get on everything and then I spend a chunk of the football time figuring out how to get to Team USA house from where I am.
Alison: Which is not easy.
Jill: Not super easy. It wasn’t horrible, but it was going to take time. And then I had to leave blind football early. And now at the Champs de Mars blind, uh, uh, stud, I fell. What is it called? The Eiffel Tower
Alison: Stadium, Jill. Thank you. Let’s just keep it simple.
Jill: Uh, they now check your bags on the way out, too.
Yes, they do. Which I didn’t realize, and I don’t know why, except for maybe people are stealing plates from the venue, media center? I don’t know.
Alison: I don’t know what they’re checking for, because they don’t check it too extensively. No. They just sort of look in and say, ah, c’est bon, and.
Jill: Yeah, and I’m not sure what, yeah.
Yeah. It’s, it’s really, really weird. And so then once they have to check my backpack, they’re like, Ooh, you want to trade? I’m like, okay, yes, of course I will trade. So you need to learn the word look a doe. I have, I did look a doe, but I also got pins on the deal too. See, I just
Alison: look a doe and keep walking.
Oh, I just give it to them.
Jill: Yeah. So then I got to Team USA house. Team USA house was, you get there by one. because nobody’s showing up until two. And so I sat and I, the nice thing was, I had time to think of questions because the brain is getting really bad and, uh, it would be nice to have questions prepared besides, Oh my gosh, this is really awesome for you.
Alison: Which honestly, in the mix zone, that is kind of our standard question.
Jill: But this was special. And, uh, Team, and then afterwards I could wander around Team USA House, but Team USA House didn’t open until four. So it was like no big deal. I would not have paid 400 bucks.
Alison: I’m not surprised you say that. I mean, to pay 400, it needs to be very special.
Jill: And I think you need to be a person who enjoys hobnobbing and I’m guessing that for the Olympics, they had just a ton of Olympians there. And that would have helped the situation. They probably had heavy snacks because people were setting up tables. There was a bar, which I believe might have been pay?
Alison: One drink, I think. Oh, one. Okay.
Jill: Yeah. It’s a big open area. They have a big Ralph Lauren store. They have a, uh, when you walk into like the entryway area, there’s a USA stand, like a selfie thing, but it’s, uh, got a grid in the US and A so that all the champions can put locks on like the bridge thing, which is really cute.
That’s really cute. Um, there’s a little display of Olympic memorabilia from one of their big donors. And, uh, the Maya Friege met a bunch of mascots. That was cool, I thought. Bonjour, mes amis! And, uh, there was a little, uh, Leroy Neiman exhibit. with paintings there. And, and that was about it. And it was open.
They have, uh, they have events. They do have people coming in. So, uh, Alana Nichols and Bobby, Bobby Boddy was going to be there to talk about power power pair powerlifting Mallory Wegman. There was going to be a meet and greet with Mallory Wegman. So met and the medalists here may have stuck around. I don’t know, but, and, and they, and they had some TVs.
They were, the USA was on. Um, USA Network was on, uh, playing sitting volleyball. I was like, Oh, this is Oh, this is not Geoblocked! No. So it may have been fun. It probably, like Ben said, with the hospitality house, uh, that he went to with the judo ticket, it’d be more fun if you’re with people. And it would probably be more fun if there’s a lot of special people there.
You might get enough heavy snacks and the one drink to make like, I think it’s 125, 150 for Para.
Alison: Yeah. I don’t know how much it is for Para for Olympics. It was 250, 350.
Jill: Yeah. It was very, very expensive. So I’m not sure that would be worth it to me maybe for Paralympics. I don’t know, but I don’t think that’s my kind of scene to be quite honest.
And I, and I realized that usually Team USA house is closed to the public and this was super special and a fundraiser, but it just, nah. Um, I did go to wheelchair basketball. Speaking of the wave, the announcers go, oh, the record for the wave, one continuous wave in the Bercy arena is 20 minutes.
Alison: And we wanted to break it.
Jill: Can we beat it? And he never followed up on that. He did follow up. He said at, uh, 20, 32, 8, 832, you’ve been at this for nine minutes. Keep it up. And it kind of straggled for a little bit. Then it got better. There were some sections that were better at doing the wave than others. And the end of the game was nine o’clock on the dot and it
Alison: was still going.
Oh, so they did. I guess it depends. on what you consider going.
Jill: Yeah, I guess so. But I mean, I wish the announcer would have said, You did it! Something. He forgot.
Alison: Yeah, I think so. Because his brain is tired. He’s been doing this announcing. I know. For many, many days. I know.
Jill: And I will say the basketball announcers are very good.
It’s a good French guy and good American. But I think the pairs change because I had different people from the night before. And, uh, the first man I heard from, uh, who was the English announcer was. pure NBA basketball in house announcer. That was really good. But the, the announcing teams are very nice and it’s kind of like Oscar from, from Beijing.
Well,
Alison: given that there’s, I think there were four wheelchair basketball games today. You could, one, one announcing team could not possibly have done that. So my guess is they do one switch off.
Jill: Yeah.
Alison: So that they can then go, I mean, just on your voice, that would be, nevermind on your energy. That would be taxing.
Jill: But they’re, it’s a really good team. It’s fun. You don’t get to go out to wheelchair basketball. Did you not put that on your schedule?
Alison: It is a possibility. Okay. Try. I mean, I know I really want it. If nothing, I want to see the floor in person. So I might go see, I, I really wanted to swing it so we, I could go see Brian Bell and Team USA, but I don’t think that’s in the offing.
Too bad.
Jill: I am surprised at how much I love I like wheelchair basketball. Really? I am neither here nor there on stand up basketball. Oh, but basketball
Alison: is better. Oh my gosh, it’s so because it’s so much better ball handling. Yeah, I don’t see the slam dunks and the the the the using your size as everything you see people actually You know, can shoot a ball and make it pretty and do the pretty passes.
And yeah,
Jill: I was thinking of you tonight with all the passing and like, Oh, Allison would love this. You do get the big, there were some big guys, big, uh, uh, if they were stand up, they’d be tall with really long arms and one of his palm stuff and puts it in the basket. It’s awesome.
Alison: Anyway, I’m still waiting for Brian Bell to palm my head.
If he wins, I’m gonna be like, dude, you’re a gold medalist now. You got to indulge me.
Jill: What volunteer job or officiating job would you like to do? So
Alison: this was a job I saw last night at Wheelchair Rugby. And now again, because now I’m looking for it. So there are two people, at goalball, there was only one person at wheelchair rugby who goes around with a little wheelie cart and collects all the towels.
Oh, which I assume they’re going to laundry. So in my head, they then take their little basket and they’re like, Well, now I’m gonna go wash all the towels and you would think laundry would not be a fun job. But I actually have out of all house chores, laundry is probably my favorite
Jill: because it has
Alison: a beginning, a middle and an end.
Jill: Oh, I mean, if I had five kids,
Alison: I probably wouldn’t feel that way. But I do love doing a good towel load because it gets all fluffy and it folds so nicely. And this is all the same towel so they would all fold and the same size and you could stack them up all neat and they’re pink.
Jill: Very nice.
Alison: No fabrics offer in your towels.
No. No. takes away the absorbency.
Jill: I have a bone to pick with you about blind football, because you did not tell me a lot of stuff that was very, very cool. Including the get loud guy.
Alison: So yes, there is someone who tells you when you can make noise.
Jill: Yes, and he’s got this giant sign that is in French on one side and English on the other and the English says, get loud and he’s running all over the place.
There was the whole team was fun, uh, because there was, there was a shh cam, I think.
Alison: See, at my game, they did not have a shush cam and the get loud guy was not running around. He was just sort of stationary. Oh, no, this one ran,
Jill: not only ran around the whole field, but danced with Freesh and did like shimmies.
They had a whole thing going on. It was fantastic. I
Alison: did see Freesh shimmying, but he was, poor Freesh was shimmying by himself like a stripper.
Jill: Poor freak . But the, the get loud guy was a lot of fun. It was a good, good anou, another good announcing team and another fun venue. So I’m bummed that I only got partial game of blind football. I’m working on getting back there. oh, oh. Speaking of baguettes, it’s baguette time. It’s baguette time.
Yes. So, uh. We enjoy bringing this coverage of the Olympics and Paralympics to you. We hope you have enjoyed our daily coverage and our adventures and misadventures and bringing you a different perspective of the games that you can’t get anywhere else, i. e. NBC or whoever your local media groups are, uh, working with.
We’d like to bring it to you unfiltered, which is the most fun way and, and gives you a real feel of what it’s like to be here. However, that being here comes with a cost and we really need you to help keep our flame alive as well. So we ask you, if you enjoyed this coverage, kick us a little bit of money, a little dough, so to speak.
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If you’re a stripper, we’ll take singles. Like tPhyrge ashit, blind football. And if you are at the 5 a month patron level and up, you get exclusive audio and video. Today you guys got the audio of my Mixed Zone athletes that are not Shukla Stanis. So it was, um, Brian Seaman, who’s a wheelchair racer. Ryan, Darrow?
Yes. And I forgot, he was on Survivor, the show Survivor. That’s, he learned from, uh, another contestant about the Paralympics. So that’s how, I know, I know. Then I spent time at Wheelchair Basketball trying to watch Survivor clips. That was not a good scene. And then also, uh, Nick Mayhew, which really good.
interesting conversation with him. So that went out today. Also found some hockey video from field hockey in the Olympics with the little band outside. So that’s getting your way as well. Again, that’s slamlifepod. com slash support into daily results, blind football. I saw Columbia versus Morocco, partial left stadium.
I walked outside the perimeter of the venue and heard all the cheering. And that was the only goal that was happened.
Alison: And this is the, because I saw Columbia yesterday, scoreless yesterday. So this is their first goal of the tournament,
Jill: uh, Columbia beat Morocco one to zero. This was so much fun to watch, wasn’t it?
It’s it’s one of those. I could not think of. A better phrase than the Toyota and I hate to show for Toyota, but we have said many times they are a perfect sponsor for the Paralympic movement because they’re coming up with so many things that help differently abled people. Move around and all I could think of was the start your impossible campaign that they’ve got going on now for this games and you just don’t realize what is possible until you see something like blind football or goalball
Alison: and I read a great, post today on Instagram, and I apologize for not knowing who it was.
I think it was just somebody who is disabled. Talk about the, the Paralymp, watching the Paralympics and seeing the Paralymp, Paralympians is not just about how amazing these people are. It’s also about what people can do when they’re given opportunities. So when a peep, when, when people with a visual impairment who love soccer.
Are given a chance to play soccer. They play soccer at an extremely high level, right?
Jill: It’s, it’s really, really cool. So I’m hoping to get back out to another game or two to see more and take in more. We didn’t talk about the field yesterday because you had noted it on the show sheet, but we didn’t talk about it.
Most of the surfaces in Paris have been purple. This is a beautiful shade of aqua,
Alison: I
Jill: think. Yeah, aqua, the teal. In the teal spectrum that they have going on here. But it is beautiful.
Alison: It looked beautiful in person. I hope it looks as beautiful on the television. You know, it’s one of those colors that could play a lot of different ways, but in person it’s quite striking.
Jill: Mm hmm. A couple matches today was Argentina beat Japan 1 0, China and Brazil had a 0 0 tie. This is really a low scoring tournament. And then France beat Turkey 2 2 0. So I’m sure on the TV here there were a lot of merci, merci, merci. You do love that. Oh, my gosh. The athletes were
Alison: just competing.
We
Jill: had it on again. We had some swimming on and they thanked one of the swimmers. Yes, for getting a medal. It was fantastic. Bacha.
Alison: I went to Bacha this morning to see Alison Levine and Julian Chiobanu. It was the first session so it was pretty empty. Filled up by the time I left just because that session started early.
Uh, they were playing China. It was a big event. Really exciting match. I’ll get to that in a second. You didn’t tell me, you told me about the measuring devices. You didn’t tell me they were calipers. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Oh,
Jill: I Was I was hoping you would say something about getting around the one big thing. I forgot about blindfold ball They had the biggest marker for the press tribune I’ve ever seen.
It’s like two feet tall. It was the best. I took a picture. I, if I go back, I might have somebody take a picture of me next to it
Alison: because I loved it so much. I had no trouble because thankfully they haven’t moved any of the press tribunes in Arenasude. So I was in Arenasude all day, saw three different sports.
Baja was quieter than I expected it to be. I don’t know why in my head the balls were hard and would clunk like pool balls, but they’re not. They’re soft. So you can’t really hear anything. There’s not a lot of yelling like there is in curling. People were generally quiet. There’d be some chatting between the players, but very quiet.
which was almost disconcerting. But also, I think that led to your mesmerizing observation, because it was just this very low murmur going throughout. There was maybe four or six matches. I can’t remember if we were using all six, but there are six courts available.
Jill: Yeah, it’s a lot of courts. And, and I will say I was also mesmerized by Allison’s wind up, so to speak, like, she’s got a long approach to her throws.
And it’s really like, it just sucks you
Alison: in. So does Julian, he does the same sort of multi swing throw. They were playing the Chinese pair. And did I write down who they were playing? No, I didn’t. The woman of the Chinese pair is the one who won the gold medal last night.
Jill: Oh, okay. So
Alison: she came out very pumped.
It seemed like The Canadians were a little conservative at the beginning because the first they went down. They got down. Oh, five. Whoa. In the first two ends. Then in the third end, in the second to last throw, Julian did this game saver where he arced it over the other balls and just dropped it right next to the jack.
You know, one of those beautiful shots like we see in curling. Yeah. Yeah. And that shifted the entire match. Uh, they won 8 5. In the fourth end, it was 5 0. And they were much more aggressive, much more confident in their throws. So I think they just kind of shook it off at the beginning. So after there was a several Canadians there.
So I went over to the Canadians and I said, Are you Allison’s people? And they said, No, Allison’s people are down there. So I got to see Mrs. Levine, who told me I could call her Roberta, who apparently listens to the show, even when Allison’s not on it. So hi, Roberta. And I just sort of asked her how Allison was feeling.
And, and she had the same observation, like, yeah, they were a little conservative. Oh, here, I did write it down. Lin Zhimei. is the Chinese gold medalist. Apparently this Chinese team doesn’t do much on the circuit. They don’t see them much. So I think, uh, Alison and Julian were a little unsure as to what they were going to bring.
Uh, and how that was going to play out. So once they got to that third and fourth end, they said, okay, we, we know what’s going on, but they were pumped. They were excited at the end of it. So she looked really, really good. And they also won their second match of the day over Croatia. They’ve got their quarterfinal tomorrow against Ukraine.
Jill: Nice.
Alison: So there was lots of other, uh, mixed pairs and mixed teams and lots of different classes happening today as well.
Jill: Then we move over to goalball, which then you moved over to a different arena. I moved over to goalball.
Alison: I got to see, uh, two matches, but we’ll give the results first. Uh, for the men’s classifications, uh, 7th and 8th place, France beat Egypt 6 4.
In the men’s classification, 5th and 6th place, Iran beat the USA 4 3. I spoke to another reporter. that I had met at the HPC. I did not speak to any of the players from USA. He did. And so they were pretty devastated. That was the word that he used. So, uh, this was a, I think this was a tough loss. I think the whole tournament was very frustrating to them.
So, uh, Tyler Marin, who’s in his fifth Paralympics, is retiring. So to not have a great tournament, because this is who Keith, my reporter friend, spoke to, was kind of heartbreaking for, for him. We’re hoping that some more money gets thrown blind sports way in the US.
Jill: Now that the games are going to shift to LA.
Alison: And you know you’re going to be in the tournament.
Jill: Maybe. Let’s hope so. But remember we talked with Molly Quinn and USA Blind Sports not only governs goalball, they also govern blind football, which we get a buy or we get the automatic entry and we don’t have a team. So they’re building a team now.
Hopefully they’re getting enough money. I don’t know. The goalball center is not that far from my house. I mean by not that far, I mean like maybe a Two or three hour drive?
Alison: Doable. So the matches that I saw were the women’s quarterfinals. I saw China and France. China ended up beating France 12 to two. , you wouldn’t have known it by the crowd,
Jill: Oh no, it doesn’t matter. France matter is playing. Doesn’t matter. They’re, they’re, they’re on it. They will will them to whatever, whatever
Alison: outcome. I felt kind of bad for the referee having to say, quiet please. She definitely broke out her mom voice or her teacher voice, she got very frustrated saying, quiet please, to the crowd, , and they sang the French National anthem.
any time they could. I think I heard it four times during this match. And gobble is not an anthem sport. They do not play the anthems beforehand, but the crowd was not having it. I could hear the ball, and then I couldn’t hear the ball, and then I could hear the ball again. It’s, it, it was almost like depending on how they threw the ball affected how well I could hear it.
That’s interesting, but I know
Jill: exactly what you’re saying, because it was, it, you could hear the ball better in blind football than you could in goalball. And we’re higher up. We were farther away.
Alison: Right. In goalball, you’re right there.
Jill: Mm
Alison: hmm. It’s very close. And the thing we noted, because there was more goalball tonight on the television, when we came back, the court on TV looks very wide.
It is not as wide as that fisheye lens
Jill: is
Alison: giving you the impression of. It’s small. You are close to each other. So when you throw that ball, you gotta be quick to stop it. You don’t have all this time for it rolling along and you can catch the sound. No, it is fast. Second game I saw was Canada Israel.
They were even faster. Wow. Israel is quick. They’re quick on turning over the ball in terms of like, the ball comes to them, they throw it right away. Oh, yeah. There’s no setup. There’s no, let’s discuss. It’s, I have the ball in my hand. I’m throwing it right now.
Jill: US men did that. Last night, from time to time, they were like, we got to hurry this play up and it’s really cool to see the play speed and and not and slow down again.
That’s an interesting strategy at work.
Alison: So Israel beat Canada 5 1 and in the other two matches, Brazil beat Japan 2 0. Turkey beat Korea 6 3. So the women’s semifinals will be Israel versus China. First time Israel has made the semis. In this tournament and Brazil versus Turkey
Jill: in a pair archery, we had women’s individual recurve open gold went to China’s Wu Chongyang silver went to China’s Wu Yang and bronze went to Elisabetta Muno from Italy and also archery related.
We had Kelju on. And Matt Stutzman was on tonight. It was fantastic. I mean I came in the room grumpy. I was really grumpy grumpy day And uh because it rained and although jill brought her umbrella and brought her jacket Which was good because wheelchair basketball the concourse is a million degrees Or a zillion degrees, as listener Don said, and the arena is negative a zillion degrees.
I was super happy to have the jacket. But, uh, came in and I was super grumps and then Kelju was on and I was happy again. And then Stutzman was
Alison: on the screen the second you walked in the room. You hadn’t even noticed that he was on yet. It was
Jill: fantastic. Parathletics. We had a nice session today or a couple of sessions today.
Uh, men’s high jump. We’re going to start with jumps, uh, high jump T63, which is a leg impairment. Gold went to Ezra Fretsch from the USA with a Paralympic record for the T63 class. Silver went to India’s Sherard Kumar from, uh, India. from India. He got a Paralympic record for the T 42 class and bronze went to Mariupan Tangivelo from India and also in the T 42 class.
Well, I guess Ezra Fretch wasn’t being all pouty like he was in Tokyo. Remember that? That was hilarious. I don’t remember. I remember him being grumpy. Because he, he lost and he was very, very angry. And then he got, he had to go to the mix zone for NBC and was with another person, and the other person was speaking and Ezra was just super pouty.
Well, he’s very young. I know he is young and he was that much younger, but he is from California, Southern California, so he should be trained. I know. Anyway, men’s long jump. T 37 class, which is a side impairment. Uh, gold went to Argentina’s Brian Lionel Impelizera. Silver went to Samson Opio from Kenya and bronze went to Malleus Evangelista Carroso from Brazil.
And in the T 47 class for long jump, which is an arm class, uh, gold went to, uh, Robiel Yanquiel Cervantes. Our sole Cervantes from Cuba, silver went to Wang Hao from China and bronze went to Nikita Kotukov from, uh, neutral Paralympic athletes. Shot put. Lots of shot put. Lots of shot put today. So we start with the F32 class for men.
That’s a seated class. Gold goes to Anastasios Konstantinidis from Greece. Silver to Alexi Churkin from Neutral Paralympic Athletes and bronze to Lazaro Stefanidis from Greece.
Alison: Konstantinidis won another gold throwing something else. A day or two in a row, yeah, he just throws things. He sits down, he throws things and throws them far.
Jill: In the F20 class for men shot put, it’s an intellectual impairment class. Gold goes to Alexander Yarvy from, uh, Ukraine with a world record. Silver goes to Mohammad Ziad Zolkofi from, uh, Malaysia. and bronze goes to Maxim Kovalt from Ukraine. In women’s shot put, we had the F 34 class, which is some trunk and arm mobility.
Gold goes to Zhou Li Juan from China, silver to uh, Lucina Cuer, Nobis from Poland and bronze to Saida Amoudi from Morocco. Moving over to javelin, we have a men’s F46, which is a side, upper body side impairment. Gold goes to Guillermo Verona Gonzalez from Cuba. Silver to Ajit Singh from India, who got a personal best.
And bronze to Sudarsingh Gurjar from India. Women’s javelin, F56 final, that’s a leg impairment or absence of legs. Gold goes to Diana Cremina from Latvia for a Paralympic record. Silver to Raisa Rocha Machado from Brazil and bronze to Lin, Lin Sitong from China. Women’s discus, we have the F11, which is a visual impairment class.
Gold to Xiang Li Min, Lian Min from China. Silver to Asunto Lignati from Italy. And bronze to Xue Yunhui from China.
Alison: And Lignati throws things, too. This is a second medal for her.
Jill: Going to the track, we have several 100 meter races. First up, we have a T11. We have two visual impairment classes. First one’s with the guide runner.
Gold goes to Brazil’s, uh, Jerusa Gaber dos Santos with, uh, Gabrielle Aparicido dos Santos Garcia for her guide. Uh, silver goes to Luyao Uh, Kwee Ching from China with guide Chen Shen Ming and bronze to Lorena Silva Spolardi, Spol the Dory. with a guide, Renato Benher Costa Oliveira. For the T13, which is a, uh, less impaired visual impairment, gold to, uh, Lamiya Valieva from Azerbaijan with a world record, silver to Rayana Suarez da Silva, and bronze to, uh, Orla Comerford from Ireland.
And then in the T47 class, which is an arm impairment, gold to Kiara Rodriguez, uh, uh, from Ecuador. Sorry, I just all of a sudden realized I’m not saying five names here. Silver to Brittany Mason from the USA, from Cleveland. Oh, is she? She is from Cleveland and she got silver, I believe, in Tokyo too. So it’s, it’s, it’s an exciting day for Cleveland.
And, uh, bronze to Anna Grimaldi from New Zealand. Go, Silver Ferns! In the men’s 200 T51 class, which is a wheelchair class, gold to Cody Fernie from Canada with a personal best, silver to Tony Pispanen from Finland. We have not said Finland very much at all during these games. Yay. And Peter, uh, bronze to, uh, Peter, uh, Gennen from Belgium.
In, uh, the women’s 200 meter T 64, which is, uh, uh, one leg amputation below the knee. Gold to Kimberly Alkamaade from Netherlands with a Paralympic record. Silver to Marlena van Gassenwinkel from Netherlands. And bronze to, uh, Irmgard van Susanne from Germany. And then we have 400 meter races. We have a lot of these.
Women’s T20 intellectual impairment. Gold to Yulia Shillar from Ukraine with a personal best. Silver to Aysel Ondur from Turkey. And bronze to Deepti Chivanji from India. Same race on the men’s side. Oh, excellent. Uh, gold to, uh, John Sebastian Obando Asperilla from Colombia, silver to David Jose Pineda Mejia from Spain, and bronze to Giovanni Philippe from Mauritius.
For the T36 class, for the men, that’s, uh, All four limbs have some, uh, some sort of impairment. James Turner from Austria, Australia, one gold with a world record. William Stedman from New Zealand, one silver with personal best for William. And bronze goes to Alexis Sebastian Chavez from Argentina. For the women’s T 12, which is a visual impairment, glass gold to Ian o Omar Duran from Cuban Cuba with guide union, uh, Kindle on Vargas Silver to Iran’s Haja sda, Gaja.
who ran with no guide,
Alison: right? This is a class that you can have a guide or no guide.
Jill: And then bronze to Sana Butcher Butch Chuck from Ukraine with Guide Makita. Baranoff, Durand or gold Medalist is a four Pete in the 400, uh, either TT 12 or T 13. ’cause sometimes the class different races, uh, just probably depending on how many infants there are.
So, uh, this is her fifth and final games. lot. That’s, that’s a lot of games to go to, to be quite honest,
Alison: to be a track runner and to be at five games.
Jill: That’s a lifetime. I know, but she’ll be in two more races. You’ll have two more times to catch her before she hangs up her spikes. In the women’s 400 T37 class, it’s a one side impairment.
Gold to Natalia Kobzar from Ukraine with a personal best. Silver to Jiang Fenfen from China. And bronze to Victoria Slanova from Neutral Athletes with also with a personal best. And then we had the T38 class for the men. With our Jaden Blackwell, uh, he got gold, another gold, another world record. And then silver to Ryan Medrano And then bronze went to Juan Alejandro Campos Sanchez from Colombia who got a personal best.
So good night for Shookfustan there.
Alison: Now we have a whole bunch of 1500 meters.
Jill: All right. Uh, T11, which is visual impairment. Gold to Yeltsin Jacques from Brazil with guide Guilherme dos Anos Santos. Silver to, uh, Yitiria Yigsaw with guide, from Ethiopia with guide, uh, Esubalu Nabera. And bronze to Julio Cesar Agrippinos dos Santos from Brazil with guide, uh, Michel Batistas dos Santos.
Uh, another visual impairment class, the T13, gold to Alexander Kostin from Neutral Athletes, who got a Paralympic record, silver to Ruey Djibably from Tunisia, and bronze to Anton Kouliatin from Neutral Athletes. And then, uh, moving over to wheelchair classes, in the men’s 1500, gold went to Jin Hua, Silver to Marcel Hugues from Switzerland and bronze to China’s Day, Yong Jiang, uh, who got a personal best.
And if I didn’t say this, Gold went to China. Uh, Daniel Romanchuk got ninth with the
Alison: season’s best. So that’s pretty good. I tell you, if there’s a T50, if there are wheelchairs racing, Daniel Romanchuk is in that race,
Jill: right? And then we had a women’s 1500, uh, T54 wheelchair class. Gold went to Katarina de Bruner from Switzerland with a Paralympic record.
This is her third gold so far of these games.
Alison: And I don’t think she, I think she’s another one. If there are women in a wheelchair, she’s gonna, she’s gonna win the race.
Jill: Silver goes to Samantha Kinghorn from, uh, Great Britain. And Bronze to Susanna Scaroni from USA.
Alison: She’s having a good games too.
Jill: Paraquestrian.
Side note, for grades 1, they allow companion horses who may stand adjacent to the arena. So we’ll look into why this is helpful. What does that mean? Yes, exactly. Uh, it was a crummy day this morning, foggy and rainy. that affects the equestrian as well because they’re outdoors. That can’t be fun.
This is kind of a bummer because, uh, it was kind of an individual day. The, uh, two time, Tokyo 2020 gold medalist Tobias Tornig Jørgensen from Denmark withdrew at the last minute because his horse got travel sickness.
Alison: I mean, this is what we, one of the reasons that I love talking to teams of two is because you have that, it’s only two of you.
But it’s not yourself. And the person and the horse is a team of two. They’re equal in achieving the, the, the goal. So if your horse gets sick, your horse gets sick. And the worst part is you can’t communicate with the horse. I mean, you can, but you can’t.
Jill: And the horse can kind of communicate with you, but not exactly, you know, not the same communication skills.
Alison: You know, with the way of we have been dealing with, there are a lot of horses that communicate better than some of the people we’ve had to deal with in our travels.
Jill: Or me by now.
Alison: So yeah, that’s, that is heartbreaking when one of a pair is sick or hurt and then the pair cannot compete.
Jill: a pair of question is all dressage here and, uh, we had individual events in all of the grades.
So the lower the number, the higher the impairment you start, uh, and, and the, the less the horse does in a way. So they start with a walk and they can start building on that as the abilities increase. So we have grade one, which is a walking class. Gold goes to, uh, Richard Snikus. from Latvia on King of the Dance.
Uh, he got the first Paralympic gold medal for Latvia, not in para athletics.
Alison: That’s a surprise. I wonder if that’s only summer. Oh, I bet it’s both.
Jill: Could be. I don’t know, but it, that was a nice little fun fact. Then, uh, Roxanne Tronnell from USA with a Fantastico H, one silver and bronze went to Sarah Morganti from Italy on Maribel.
In grade two, gold went to Fiona Howard from the U. S. on Diamond Dunes. Silver went to Katrine Christensen from Denmark on Gortling, Gortling’s quarter and bronze went to Georgia Wilson from Great Britain on Sakura. And then we had grade three, uh, Rebecca Hart from the U. S. on Florentina, won gold.
Her fifth Paralympics, but first individual medal, which is nice. Silver goes to Rieks van der Horst from Netherlands on Royal Funk and bronze goes to Natasha Baker from Great Britain on Dawn Chorus.
Alison: Horses don’t get enough. the tension , in just in equestrian in general.
Jill: No, they don’t.
Moving over to paraswimming, again, it’s another big day in the pool. We have the, uh, starting off with the S7 class. Uh, these, uh, swimmers work harder at stroke timing. It’s a mixed class of, uh, swimmers. impairments. Men’s 100 meter backstroke S7. Gold goes to Yuri Shenher from Ukraine. Silver to Andrey Trusov from Ukraine.
And bronze to Federico Bicelli from Italy. In the S9 class, gold goes to
Chachalacanu from Neutral Athletes who set a Paralympic record. Silver to Hugo Didier from France and bronze to Bogdan Mozgovili from Neutral Athletes. It was a big day in the pool for Hugo. Well, any,
Alison: any day that Ugo’s in the pool is a big day for France because there is nothing like when you’re in that stadium and they are chanting, Ugo, Ugo, Ugo.
Jill: And then there’s the, the second best thing is watching it on TV when they’re like, Merci Ugo. I just, I love that they think the athletes from the commentators box.
Alison: So, same race, 100 meter backstroke on the women’s side. Gold goes to Christy Raleigh Crosley from the United States with Paralympic record.
Silver to Nuria Marquez Soto from Spain, and bronze to Mariana Ribeiro from Brazil. Men’s 200 meter freestyle in the S4 class. Gold goes to Ami Omar Dadion of Israel. Silver to Roman Jandanoff from Neutral Paralympic Athletes. And bronze to Japan’s Suzuki Takayuki. Then we move over to the S6 class. It’s a moderate impairment on one side, high impairment in legs and trunk.
This is another one of these classes where you’re going to see a lot of different disabilities. Uh, we have the 50 meter butterfly, uh, both men and women. For the men, gold is, uh, goes to Wang Zhigang from China. Silver to our best Colombian friend, Nelson Crispin Corzo, who we got to watch. We got the replay.
Jill: And he wasn’t that far behind. He was not. Close, close. match for our race for all three there.
Alison: And bronze is Laurent Chaudard from France. On the women’s side, gold goes to Jiang Yuyang from China, silver to Luao Zhaoming from China, and bronze to Mayara Jo Amaral Petzold from Brazil. Brazil’s having a good games in the pool.
They
Jill: are having a good games and they’re doing well in the medal stands. We don’t know. necessarily talk about the overall medal count. China, as you know, is just dominating these games. They’ve, I’m sure hosting in 2008, helped open their eyes to what they need to do for Paralympics. a desire to be the best on the world stage, and they have money to invest.
But here is one example of their dominance in the mess, uh, men’s and women’s 50 meter backstroke S5 class, trying to sweat the podium for both races. I cannot believe this. It was just, Unreal to me. So, uh, for the men, gold went to Huan Weiyi, silver to Guo Jingchen, and bronze to Wang Lichao. For the women, gold to Lu Dong, silver to Hei Shengguao, and bronze to Liu Yu.
And we have the 200 IM for men and women, SM11 class, gold for the men to Roger Dorsman from Netherlands with the Paralympic record, silver to Daniel, uh, uh, Chufarov from Ukraine and bronze to David Kratochevil from Czechia. For the women, uh, Daria Lukanenko from neutral athletes, one gold with the world record.
Silver to Ma Jia from China and bronze to Kai Li Wen from China. In the S3 class, which is, uh, a leg and trunk, uh, impairment disability. For the 100 meter freestyle women’s gold to Leanne Smith from the USA with a Paralympic record, silver to Marta Fernandez Infante. from Spain and bronze to Rachel Watson from Australia.
SM11 class for the 200 individual medley. Uh, both men and women did the SM13 class, which is a near total visual impairment. Uh, gold for the men went to Ihar Boki from Neutral Athletes with a world record. France’s Alex Portal won silver and bronze went to Vladimir Sotnikov
from Neutral Athletes. If you remember Ihar Boki’s name, we’ve said it a lot. That’s right. He’s got, uh, now 21 Paralympic titles overall in his career. Uh, he’s also got his fifth gold medal right now from Paris.
Alison: Yeah, yeah. He’s been busy. I hope he brought an extra suitcase for his medals.
Jill: Thank
Alison: goodness Louis Vuitton made those cases, right?
He can ship them home in a lovely box. He’s gonna, remember we talked about the big trunks that Louis Vuitton made? He’s gonna need one just for himself.
Jill: The Itabunki Collection. Hey, there’s a women’s race with one of our peoples in it. That’s right. Olivia Chambers went into the finals with the best time in qualifying.
Final, slightly different story. Carlotta Ghili from Italy won gold. Olivia got second. Uh, second with, she was just over a half a second behind. And then bronze went to, uh, Roycen Nguyen from Ireland.
Alison: So Olivia’s second medal at her first Paralympics. She’s a baby. She could easily do LA and Brisbane.
Jill: Very nice.
Uh, in the S10 class, which is a very high level of mobility and coordination, 100 meter butterfly for men and women. For the men, gold goes to Stefano Raimondi from Italy, another familiar name. Silver went to Ihor Nemchenko from Ukraine, and bronze went to Alex Safi from Australia. For the women, Faye Rogers from Great Britain won gold, Kellyanne Warrington from Great Britain won silver, and Katie Cosgriff from Canada won bronze.
Table tennis.
Alison: So first I want to mention, uh, yesterday, Millie Tapper was defeated in the quarterfinal of the women’s singles, uh, class 10 by, uh, Chinese Taipei’s Qian Xiao Wen, three to two.
Jill: Wow.
Alison: It was, and it was tight. Wow. That was a tight three two. Wow. So I did go to the evening session. Our, uh, Eden Seidenfeld was competing in the men’s singles, but there was a set of matches before then.
And one of them was Peter Rosenmeier from Denmark. And remember those Danes from the opening ceremony? They bred because I talked to them afterwards and I said, were any of you at the opening ceremony? And they said, no. Oh, really? Denmark? has sent an invasion force of fans to the Paralympics. I’m here for that.
They were loud. They had signs. They had painted faces. Thank goodness Peter Rosenmeier won in five sets. It was a barn burner. But I was, I was slightly concerned because there was a Danish contingent on my side and then a second one on the opposite side. There’s a lot of Danish fans at this table tennis.
It was fantastic. Uh, the other one I saw was Matteo Boheus, uh, from France. He lost in his semifinal. Once again, the French crowd did not matter. So much Marcelles, so much Matteo chanting. What an experience for these French athletes.
Jill: Oh, yeah.
Alison: What a, uh, talk about once in a lifetime experience. So I can see why a lot of American Paralympic, uh, Paralympians coming here are thinking, I gotta hang on.
I gotta stick around and get that experience. Um, I Buxall of Paratable Tennis. That’s not good. Was not good. It was the coach of Tomonoyuri screaming and I assume swearing in Japanese because there was some words that given the way he said them could only be a not good word. And you have to remember that at table tennis, there’s at least four, sometimes six matches going at the same time.
And for a coach to be screaming at his player at every single point, it’s very difficult to watch the other matches. I can’t even imagine trying to play the other matches. I tried to find his name because I do want to call him out by name, but I could not find it in the information we had in my info. So I’ll, I’ll keep looking.
It was bad,
but you know, it wasn’t bad. Are you inside? I am. Yeah. So he was great. He was fantastic. And I got to talk to him after so we got a little tape of how his match went. He played Alvaro Valera. And he, I think it made it onto the tape because some of it, we started talking before I was recording before he kind of made it to us.
His father never beat him. And Ian has never beat this player. That’s how long this guy’s been playing. What? Wait a second. Like He’s been playing, so Alvaro Valera has been playing since the 90s. This is his last go. And so this is the first time any Seidenfeld has beat Valera. So that was a big deal. And he talked, Ian talked a little bit about, uh, Valera has a degenerative disability.
So over the years, and every time you play him, you have to play him a little differently. Yeah, you don’t know what Valero’s gonna show up. Exactly. So over the years, things have, have changed. Um, Ian did not use his extender, though he had it with him.
Jill: Okay.
Alison: Um, and he said, I didn’t need it. It’s there. And I asked him about all the approvals are there.
There’s no issue like there was in Tokyo. So that’s all good. He looks really relaxed. Um, he sounded great. He kind of laughed when I said, Oh, you looked really relaxed. He was like, yeah, I guess. But he, he, he looked super sharp. And let me tell you something about he’s got this spin shot. And I said to him, actually, after she was walking away, I was like, that spin shot is nasty.
He’s like, I’ve been working on it. And it shows, I mean, that’s the kind of spin shot that you see. You don’t need to know anything about racquet sports, but you know the ball shouldn’t do what it just did.
Jill: Ooh,
Alison: nice. So he was looking super sharp. Uh, he will have his semi final against Matteo Parenzen of Italy on Thursday.
We also have a medal, one medal event today, uh, men’s singles class five, gold goes to Tommy Erhau of Norway, uh, silver to Ming Chi Cheng from Chinese Taipei, bronze, two bronzes in table tennis, uh, Ali Ozturk from Turkey, uh, and, uh, Mitar Palakucha from Serbia.
Jill: In shooting para sport, we had a rifle today. We had in the SH 1 R7 men’s 50 meter rifle three positions.
Gold goes to Park Jin ho from Korea, who broke the Paralympic record in both the qualification and the competition. and the finals. Because,
Alison: you know, breaking in the qualification was good enough. Gotta do it again.
Jill: No, and what wasn’t good enough was just one gold, because this is his second. Silver goes to China’s Dong Chao, and bronze to, uh, Mark Dobrowolowski from Poland.
For the women in the same class, gold goes to Natasha Hiltrup from Germany, silver goes to, uh, Veronica, uh, Vladova Kova from Slovakia and bronze to Zheng Qupin from China. Both of those two silver and bronze were, uh, SH1 class, final shot determined
Alison: to one. And this is crazy, Vladova Kova has been doing this since Sydney
Jill: 2000.
When I saw that, I was floored. And this is her 19th Paralympic final. Pretty stunning career.
Alison: You know, we said before to do it for three. She’s been doing it a lot longer than people have been alive. She’s
Jill: been doing it the entire century.
In Sitting Volleyball, we had two sessions today, went for women and men still in preliminary rounds. So last day of, okay, last day, USA beat Italy for the women. 3 2 0 and it was pretty close, uh, 25 21, 25 23, and 25 15. Uh, Laura Webster said that they started off a bit slow, but then they dominated in the last set.
They’re gonna face Brazil for the semi finals. They know it’s gonna be a battle. Brazil’s got a lot of energy, so they’re gonna be trying to match that energy and top it. Uh, the other preliminary round for women, China beat France 3 0. For the men, Brazil beat Ukraine 3 1 and, uh, Iran beat Germany 3
Alison: 0. So for the men, the matchups will be Iran and Egypt and Bosnia Herzegovina and Germany.
Jill: Yes. Wheelchair basketball. We had men’s quarterfinals today. Germany beat Spain 57 to 49, putting Germany into the semifinals first time since Barcelona 1992. Speaking of centuries. Then Canada beat the Netherlands 79 67. I was there for this match and then the last two because of my internet phone problems.
I spent the entire match chatting with Verizon trying to fix my phone. And we did everything and nothing has worked. They were down to where, where, what’s your address right now? Uh, because, and, and it was like, I was on the third set of people too that they got through. And when I tried to send my address, I couldn’t do it.
It was like message not sent, retry. So this was a frustrating game, but just for me. End. For Netherlands. Netherlands as well. But Canada beat them pretty heartily, uh, 79 67. Great Britain versus Australia, 84 64 to Great Britain. This was a close game until It wasn’t. Until it wasn’t. So they were, uh, At the end of the third quarter, there was only five points difference.
And then Great Britain said, no, this is not going to happen. And they got some people with long arms. They have people with really long arms that would just put up one arm, palm a ball, and then chuck it into the basket. It was, it was pretty sweet. Then, uh, the closing bout of the night was USA versus France.
You would not know from the cheering that the score, and, and the Mexican wave that went around for, uh, over 20 minutes that the final score was USA 82, France 47. Just from the very beginning, USA was dialed in. Steve Serio, the captain. Is he fun to watch? Oh, they’re all fun to watch because the passing team is so, so good.
But you could see his leadership just in his presence on the court and making plays. Brian Bell got a double double. Oh, yay. So that means he got, uh, double digit points and rebounds. He had 20 points. There were four players in double digits for points for USA. It was a great game for them. Just teamwork wise, they looked so beautiful.
Uh, they’re semifinal matchup is Great Britain and Germany. If that is late,
Alison: that’s the match I’d go to. That’s good. Please be scheduled late in the evening. Paralympic basketball. I have other things I need to do that day.
Jill: Wheelchair fencing is getting underway. We had Saber Day today, uh, Women’s Saber Category A, China’s Gu Haiyan won gold, silver went to Kinga Drozda from Poland and bronze went to Nino, uh, Tbilisi Shavili from Georgia.
Women’s Saber Category B. Gold went to, uh, Sai sun see, Sai uh, Sai sun yee, Jan jana from Thailand. Silver went to Zhao Rong from China. And bronze went to Olena Fedota Isaeva from Ukraine. For the Men’s Saber Category A, gold went to Maurice Schmidt from Germany. Silver to Pierce Guiliver from Great Britain.
And bronze to Eduardo. Giordano from Italy, and in the men’s category B, gold went to Feng Yangke from China, silver to Michal Dabrowski, and bronze to Zhang Jie. from China.
Alison: And then finally, we have wheelchair tennis. We have some tennis. So we had women’s singles quarters, men doubles quarters, women’s doubles semifinal, where shockingly, DeGroote and Van Coet won.
That was a surprise. That was a surprise. Beating Ling and Zhu from China, 6 2, 6 2. Kameiji and Tanaka from Japan beat Guao and Wang from China, 6 0, 6 1. So, gee, Didi de Groot’s going to be in another Paralympic tennis final. Then we had the quad singles semifinals, uh, Ahmet Kaplan fell to Niels Vinklund from the Netherlands, 6 1, 6 1.
And from Israel Sasson lost to Sam Schroeder from the Netherlands, 7 6, 6 4. So this sets up the quad finals as Niels Vink and Sam Schroeder, who are doubles partners, both lost to Dylan Alcott. in Tokyo, who’s a legend among quad. He retires. And then these children, Vink is 21, Schroeder’s 24, have taken up the mantle and just taken off with quad tennis.
The quality of the play with these two is a lot of fun. But before they play their singles final, they have to play together tomorrow as a doubles team. in the gold medal match for the doubles.
Jill: That’ll be fun to watch. It’s gotta be interesting to be in the doubles and then compete, compete with somebody for doubles and then play against them in another match.
Alison: You know, the difference with, uh, Paralympic wheelchair tennis versus Olympic tennis or, uh, uh, Grand Slam tennis. There’s time. You know, usually the doubles tournament, the singles tournament, yes, they’re running at the same time, but it’s not quite as intense of a schedule. You know, you’re not going to have the two gold medal matches.
So back to back worked into. So you literally are training against each other and with each other on the same day.
Jill: We have a new mascot.
Alison: We do have a new mascot. Meet Waldo.
Jill: Okay, Waldo has been sick. So we need to send Waldo a lot of love.
Alison: Oh, I didn’t know.
Jill: Yeah, yeah. Waldo is not doing too well, but they think they know what’s going on. And hopefully we’ll turn the corner.
Alison: Okay, well, listener, Cindy, we already love Waldo.
I can’t wait to share some of these pictures because Waldo apparently likes to do yoga. So Cindy sent me a lot of yoga Waldo. And Waldo also has some fantastic, uh, judgy faces. So thank you so much, Cindy, for sharing Waldo with Sookvlistan and for supporting the Kickstarter campaign that got us to Paris.
We got two more medals today. So total of six gold, three silvers, two bronze.
Jill: We’re doing well as a country. Wow. Um, And we still have people competing.
Alison: So I mentioned earlier, Alison Levine and her partner, uh, Julian Chobano have their next, uh, mixed team preliminary match going tomorrow. And then we’ve got a whole bunch of other people doing stuff.
So Noel Malkamaki throws in the women’s F46 shot put.
Jill: Dennis Connor and Samantha Bosco ride in individual time trials in road cycling. Samantha’s in women’s C4 and Dennis is in men’s T1, T2. And can I tell you why we’re not going to go to Paris Cycling? I looked it up today because I wanted to know where it was.
It’s in a different suburb of Paris. This is Paris’s most isolated suburb. There is no major road, there is no public transportation going there. There’s Nothing. Apparently you need to ride a road cycle.
Alison: I guess so.
Jill: I guess so. So good luck. Both Samantha and Dennis, we will be cheering for you from a little bit away.
Alison: We have two women’s races in the pool to keep an eye on. Mackenzie Cohen in the S7 100 meter free and Jessica Long in the S8 400 meter free.
Jill: McKenna Gear will shoot in her final event. The mixed 50 meter rifle prone SH two class
Alison: and Ellen Geddes fight fences in women’s foil. Category B. And that will do it for this episode.
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Jill: Join us again for more action from Paris tomorrow. And please tell your friends about the show, especially if they have not heard about the Paralympics. They need to get drawn in.
We need more people watching these games ’cause they are. Fun, fun, fun. Please hang out with us in the Facebook group because it’s hopping and thank you so much for listening. We’ve got on the back end of this is Grace Norman and Matt Stutzman in Ian Seidenfeld, uh, interviews. So please stick around for that.
And until tomorrow, keep the flame alive.
Metal is gorgeous. How does it compare to, you’ve got a nice set of metals. I do. Yeah, so how does it compare to Rio and Tokyo? Like the look of it? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, it’s gorgeous.
Grace Norman: Yeah, the, I feel like it’s heavier than the other metals I’ve gotten. Um, the look is gorgeous. The back is the Eiffel Tower under it with the aguitos.
And the front has part of the original Eiffel Tower on it. And it’s just so simple, clean, and just one of the Beautiful piece of hardware I have.
Jill: Um, I have questions for you. Real questions. Okay. But, I’m like, I am going away by the mouth. Can I touch it? Um,
Grace Norman: I
Jill: haven’t let many people touch it. Okay. I’ll look at it.
Okay. Um, okay. We were very curious. How much time did you get to familiarize yourself with the river? We
Grace Norman: were given two opportunities to swim in it, um, leading into the race on Thursday morning and Friday morning. I did swim Thursday morning, um, so I did one lap of the course.
Jill: Okay, what’d you think? What did you think it was going to be like versus what was it like to swim it?
Grace Norman: Yeah, so I swam in it last year at our test event. Um, and Oh, because they have
Jill: familiarization there. Yes, we have,
Grace Norman: but not the actual race. Yeah, yeah. Um, so I kind of had an idea, but I didn’t, we didn’t know the correct lines to swim. Um, so this year it was definitely a lot more like, we are swimming in this river, we need to learn how to best race in it and swim in it.
And, um, taking the proper lines and pinning yourself against it. The wall when you’re coming back, so you’re not into the really full current in the center was really important to know and to familiarize myself with. Um, and just learning how to swim in that current just a few days before. Um, but I did feel that it really gave me a lot of insight into how to race.
Um, and getting into that water, it was probably, I know people aren’t going to believe it, but it was very clean. Um, I, it didn’t smell bad. You could see the bottom. Um, yeah, like the, you know, the city of Paris really did a phenomenal job cleaning it up. And, um, yeah, I was very excited we were able to actually race in it.
Jill: Could you see the bottom last year?
Grace Norman: Um, I don’t remember, but I don’t think it was as clean last year. Okay.
Jill: Swimming against the wall, because I noticed this on the feed. That’s because the current isn’t as strong?
Grace Norman: Correct. Yeah, the closer you went into the center, the harder the current was. Okay.
Jill: Um, delays.
How early do they tell you about the delay?
Grace Norman: Well, um, we went to bed on Saturday night with the email saying that we were going to swim, we were going to race, and so I went to bed thinking I was going to race. Um, they did say. It is contingent on our 3. 30 a. m. meeting, and so at 4 a. m. we got the email that we were delayed, um, to the next day.
And it was not a fun time waking up. It was, uh, I was ready to go, and I was, you know, nervous and excited for that day. And then getting the delay was like, okay, let’s re channel, let’s figure this out. And, um, I was really excited that we got the news that we could race. It was around 11 p. m. the night before.
Okay.
Jill: Then did you get enough sleep?
Grace Norman: Yes, I did not have to. I went to bed before I got the email. Um, so I woke up during the middle of the night and saw my email and knew that I could race the next day.
Jill: Okay. Um, race goes off. How was the swim?
Grace Norman: It was, it was good. It was harder than I thought it was going to be.
Um, I hadn’t swam it at race effort and then with other people, um, who are fighting you for that same line. Um, and the adrenaline and everything pumping and excited for the next portion of the race. So I think it went really well. It was just harder than I wanted it to be during the actual race, but it did go well.
Jill: How was the transition? Cause you guys went up a ramp. Yeah. And was that just, it was normal. Yeah,
Grace Norman: it was, it was actually shorter than most races. Um, it didn’t feel taxing. I think Tokyo was way longer. Um, we’ve had races that are up to 400 meters. Um, so the whole thing was, I think under. So it wasn’t very long.
The ramp was, um, covered well and not super steep. So it made it just kind of flowing into it. It was just nice.
Jill: Um, bike ride. How was the, how was the bike?
Grace Norman: It was
Jill: beautiful. I love
Grace Norman: that course. It is technical. It is fast. It is fun. The cobbles are, you know, keep you engaged. You can’t kind of daydream during that course.
Um, and then all the people on it were just electric and exciting and, um, kept your attention definitely throughout the entire race. Does, does
Jill: that. The technicalities give you an advantage because because of how you ride?
Grace Norman: I would say yes. I am a very skilled technical rider as well as pushing power. And so being able to feel secure on those cobbles and push and know how to take those turns and corners quickly saved me a lot of energy, whereas a lot of my competitors were using the brakes a lot more and slowing up into those corners.
Um, it gave me a lot of confidence the days leading up into the race, knowing that I’m a good technical rider and good at cornering. Um, And got me really excited. And during the race, it definitely showed that it worked to my advantage
Jill: and run. You were a little behind, but you caught up pretty quickly. Uh, I
Grace Norman: was about five seconds out of transition behind, so I wouldn’t say I was behind.
Um, but yeah, I, I entered the run third, um, and within the first 200 meters was able to gain first, um, and hold that throughout the, the run.
Jill: Felt good going from, I mean, my brain is Swiss cheese right now. But obviously it felt good in the run.
Grace Norman: Yes. Yeah. Um, I let off the bike in a T2. I had to change my prosthetics, whereas the women in my category are army amputees.
So they did not have to change anything. So they put on their shoes and I put on my prosthetic. Um, so that’s what made me exit transition a few seconds behind. Um, but then I felt really strong. I got to see my family throughout the run course. Um, it’s a fast, fun course. And, um, it’s really, it’s a short lap, so you can see people, you can see your competitors pretty much at every 600 meters, which is really helpful.
Um, just to kind of know where I was, I was pulling away, it gave me more confidence, um, and it was a lot of fun.
Jill: When did you know you had it in the bag?
Grace Norman: Um, 200 meters into the run. I
Jill: knew
Grace Norman: once I made that pass, I took a little side eye back and saw they had clung together and I knew it was a race for silver and not for gold.
Nice, nice.
Jill: That gives you more confidence. It did, it did. How’s the last 24 hours been? What sunk in? What did you think would be, what it would be like?
Grace Norman: It’s phenomenal. Um, I won eight years ago when I was 18 years old, but winning this gold now as a different person, different athlete, um, it’s been more than I could imagine.
Um, I got to celebrate with my entire family, friends who flew all the way here, who have been with me this entire year through the ups and downs and a lot of the challenges. Um, I raced with, um, So much joy and gratitude for what God has brought me through this year and how I’ve grown as a person as athlete And so to be able to have this gold medal and share it with so many people it’s been very surreal and Led to a pretty sleepless night last night of just looking at all the photos kind of unbelievable how far I’ve come how far God’s brought me through and Just very grateful.
Jill: What’s been the response from Ohio? Yes,
Grace Norman: Ohio has definitely backed me and I’m excited to bring home another gold.
Jill: Thank you.
How are you? Hello? Um, oh, hey, I am recording. Okay, so you know that show 48 hours where like the first 48 hours after a murder and the most occurred?
Matt Stutzman: Oh yeah.
Jill: Okay. So walk us through the first 24 hours after your victory.
Matt Stutzman: I’ll give you, I’ll give you, has it been 48 hours?
Jill: No, I had, I don’t, I don’t know. I don’t even know what is is, Matt.
It’s pretty,
Matt Stutzman: I, I’m pretty sure it might have already be 48 hours. How about I just do that? Yeah, yeah. Let’s go. I think I have like. Three hours of sleeps a day since that.
The first night I didn’t sleep at all because the adrenaline, it just didn’t want to wear off. So like, I’m, I get back to the room and probably. Two o’clock in the morning from just, you know, all this stuff you have to do. And then, uh, I lay there awake, fall asleep at probably three 30 and then like at five or six o’clock I’m wide awake and I can’t go back to bed.
And then I get up and do a full day of, uh, you know, family and media and spending time with them. And then last night, three more hours of sleep. And
Jill: that’s, that’s it. And it’s
Matt Stutzman: so all, it honestly hasn’t quite sunk in.
Jill: That was my next question. What has sunk in?
Matt Stutzman: Nothing really. Like, uh, I still have probably 2, 100 messages to respond to.
So, I, uh, I try to just chip away at it every night. Uh, you really can’t get to everybody, but, um, The one thing that has set in the most was that my family, the way they seem afterwards, and the fact that they allowed me to bring them on the podium with me after it was all said and done, which I believe is the first time that’s ever happened at a Games.
Um, Like, I don’t know. Just the way my kids were reacting. They didn’t want to leave. They wanted to spend more time here. They, like, I don’t know. I just The reason why I brought them here was for them to understand what Dad has been doing for the last 14 years. And I think they got it. And I don’t know. I think it brought us all closer in a very good way.
So
Jill: That’ll be cool to see what happens when you go home and see how they’ve changed because of this trip, you know? Yeah,
Matt Stutzman: yeah. I don’t know, like But just like during this whole trip, they’ve been the most amazing. And I have boys in there and they’re little rebels like we’ve all been, but they have been the most amazing kids.
I’m almost like shocked. Like those are my kids. This is a mate. Like, wow. They’re like,
Jill: yeah,
Matt Stutzman: absolutely. Like, uh, I was so proud of them and just the way that they responded and cheered and help people. And just the way they, you know, I don’t know. It just, um, it was awesome.
Jill: Uh, is the reality, what’s the reality like what you thought it would be to get the gold?
Matt Stutzman: Uh, so this might shock you, uh, my focus on this games wasn’t a gold medal.
Jill: Okay.
Matt Stutzman: So, for me it was making memories. I, we’ve been calling this, uh, the memories games for probably a year now.
Jill: Okay.
Matt Stutzman: Uh, to come over here and make as many memories as possible. My, my family has never flown before, nor have they ever left the country.
Like my mom and dad have as far as my boys are concerned. So first time on a plane, first time leaving Iowa or like the U. S. Uh, and if you look at the matches I had to go to to get to where I won and the historic, what they all meant. And then my family was here. And then I got to meet Jackie Chan one of those nights, you know, like, yeah, like I just, um, all the memories have come true.
Like. Yeah, when you call it the memories game, When you call it the memories game, they’ve come true. Like, I don’t know how you top this anywhere else.
Jill: Uh, I don’t know if this has sunk in yet, What’s it like to have reached the pinnacle of your sport? Have you thought about that? Like, you’ve got to the top.
Matt Stutzman: Uh, so, and this might be the competitive person in me, but When I shot my last arrow, and I jumped out of my chair, And I ran over to the coach, and we were hugging, hugging And my first thing out of my mouth was, Oh, I almost shot a perfect score! I was one off perfect! Like, that’s what, it had nothing to do with winning gold, like, I just won!
It was like, I only missed, like, I almost, would have been the first person to ever shoot a perfect score. And I was just like, oh! You know, like, that’s what I was like, and even then, I didn’t, I didn’t even pay attention that it was a record at the time. So, you know, like, I was just chasing that perfect score, because I knew I had to shoot a perfect score to beat him.
And, uh, So that’s, that’s, that’s where my mind was, to be honest.
Jill: Um, okay. That’s, that’s all my mind. Alright, awesome. That’s all my brain can handle right now. That’s okay. If, if, can we reach out to you in maybe like six months? Absolutely. And then, and do it, You have all my
Matt Stutzman: information still? I
Jill: believe so.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, we do. Yeah, absolutely. Cause it’d be great to talk to you again. Once it’s all settled down. Are you still
Matt Stutzman: recording? Yes. Uh, so I, I caught wind that there might be a big parade for me when I get home. So that, so after all that and all that, uh, I would like, ask me these questions again and I’ll have time to like everything to process.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Jill: That’s what we like. Yeah. So absolutely feel free to reach
Matt Stutzman: out.
Jill: Okay. Excellent. Thank you, Matt. Congratulations. Thank you.
Alison: Very nice job. Congratulations. We’ve, I’m Allison Brown from Keep the Flame Alive. We met at the Team USA Summit. I remember, yeah. How is it, great match.
Ian Seidenfeld: Yeah.
Alison: How is it going so far for you?
Ian Seidenfeld: Well, I played Alvaro Valera, who’s a, I have a tremendous amount of respect for him. He’s really a legend. Um, my dad played against him, uh, when he played, and we actually, I’ve played him twice before.
None of, neither one of us had ever beaten him. So this was, uh, very sweet, and, uh, from what I understand, one of his last games. Tournaments. And so I have a tremendous amount of respect for how he plays, uh, and the character of him. So it’s, it’s nice
Alison: you had the extender out on the table with you. Any issue this time around with getting it approved?
Ian Seidenfeld: Uh, no. Everything is approved. Rules are, you know, official and so I don’t worry about the extension at all other than how to use it and playing against him. And, uh. I didn’t need to use it in this match, but I expect to use it in the next match in the semi finals. And what happens
Alison: between now and then for you?
Ian Seidenfeld: Uh, we get a, I believe a day off, so I’ll rest, try and recover. I feel pretty sore right now. Uh, and so just trying to rest as much as possible really.
Alison: You did a little bit of a comeback in this, in this match. You did look very calm though.
Ian Seidenfeld: Okay. Are
Alison: you, were you not calm?
Ian Seidenfeld: I was more calm than usual, but it’s never fun being down a one, a two.
Um, you know, you have to claw back, claw your way back. And really it’s just taken at one point at a time. It sounds simple, but you really are just point by point. And I kind of gave up on the game, actually. And just let things be and try to win as many points, get some momentum for the next game. But it turned out, uh, we played some points in my favor.
Alison: Very good. I’m gonna report, well, if you don’t mind. I just kind of want to walk you through the motions of that being down a hole in the second. Yeah, uh, my, my mind
Ian Seidenfeld: just
goes to I gotta start playing better and get some balls on the table and give him a chance to miss. I knew he was playing really well at that time, but he was playing really badly in the first game. So, there’s always ups and downs and you have to ride them out. And I ultimately, uh, Came out with the, the last two last point of the game.
Alison: I noticed you were challenging him laterally a lot. Is that part of the game plan ?
Ian Seidenfeld: Yeah, I think sometimes we can get stuck in the game plan and I definitely did in the first couple games, uh, trying to hit one side of the table and it was pretty. One dimensional of the game for me, uh, to try to do that, it made his job a little easier.
So I had tried to open up the table a little bit more in, later in the second game and the third game, um, to make him not just stay on his forehand side like I was trying to, and it made me more tight trying to hit just direct spots. So, uh, it was definitely a game plan because everyone does that to him based on his disability, but, uh, but it ultimately maybe backfired a little bit.
And we had to change.
Alison: Kind of on top of that, what about his game makes him such a strong opponent player?
Ian Seidenfeld: He’s a really smart player. I, I think he was playing in the nineties. Uh, like I said, he played against my dad before and so he’s just really smart. He knows how to win matches. He knows how matches can go up or down over time, and so he is always ready to win.
Uh, and, but, he’s, uh, his disability is degenerative, so I could tell there were things that were different than maybe the last time I had played him or when he had played my dad, uh, where he has maybe less control than he used to. Thank
Alison: you. Great. Thank you so much, Ian. Best of luck.