Day 7 of the Paris 2024 Paralympics was pretty magical for your two favorite Paralympics podcasters. Alison spent the day at the hallowed ground of Roland Garros for wheelchair tennis and got clay in more places than she thought was possible. Jill saw a TKFLASTANI destroy a world record at the Stade de France, then ended her day with medal rounds of wheelchair fencing foil, with the Paralympic legend Bebe Vio.
Sports on today’s program:
- Boccia
- Goalball
- Para Archery
- Para Athletics
- Para Cycling Road
- Para Powerlifting
- 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 Do not quote from the transcript; use the audio as the record of note.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 7
Jill: Bonjour and welcome to day seven of the Pairs 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: I was having a really good day
Jill: until I realized we hadn’t been taping.
We recorded about a half an hour of show
Alison: and it disappeared into the abyss. No, I still had a very good day and it’s not going to ruin it. Good, good, good, good, good. Let’s just begin the baguette.
Jill: So we had Kelju on today.
Alison: So Kelju is the evening wrap up show with the host and you, you have called her the French Carolyn Mano. Yes. Which I, we don’t understand what she’s saying, but she’s charming and lovely and very, um, Cordial with the, with the athletes, they seem to really enjoy themselves.
Jill: If Carole and Manna was in front of a studio audience.
Alison: And there’s a studio audience. And so they bring the medal, the French medalists on, they show their winning moments. They show their moments from the medal stand and then show them watching the medal stand moments. They have some other panelists, which will be other reporters. They have actors, I have noticed now on the little banner at the bottom.
We are just enjoying the heck out of the show every night.
Jill: Ah, it’s great. It’s great. And we didn’t see it during the Olympics. I assume it happened, but we were either at events, or we were at the media center taping, and I blame the Maine Press Center for not having a pipeline into Keljou to
Alison: tell us about this.
We had 1400 televisions that sometimes I had to unplug because they would start humming when we were trying to record. My life of crime has just been expanding.
Jill: Because he did not like that either. It was fun when, it was fun when the volunteers were like, what happened to this television?
Alison: But it would get that buzz like you got in the 1970s when, when the, when the television, when the stations would go off.
So listeners, not only would you have heard vacuuming, you would have heard back of the show. But why wasn’t those one of those televisions
Jill: on Kelju? I know that would have been great. Anyway, tonight on Kelju was Alex Portal, who is who wanted to be the French Leon Marchand. He had four events. And he got four medals.
Alison: But none of them gold, because there was this little man
Jill: little man, big, big swimmer named Ihar Boki, who we talked about last night because we were like, Ihar Boki, we knew the name, we knew the name from Tokyo. And he is just phenomenal, still setting world records by a lot. And, and we know, Alex, that you wanted really hard to be another inspiration, and I’m sure you’re another inspiration for a lot of people.
I know it must, you got A, the silver medal is beautiful, the most beautiful looking medal out of the three, I think. But E. R. Boki
Alison: said interdit.
Jill: That’s right. But we will say, Alex, E. R. is 30. And you were 22.
Alison: Just outlast him, man. Yeah, that’s all you have to do.
Jill: Keep it up. Keep it up. You will get there. Um, we also had a wonderful email from our visually impaired listener, Eugene, who wondered about the commonality of the A Gidos Paralympic logo tattoo versus the Olympic rings tattoo here in among Paralympic athletes.
Alison: And certainly among Olympic athletes, the rings are that ring tattoo has become almost cliche. Right. There’s a lot of different variations of rings that Olympic athletes have. And at one point it became a thing for Paralympians. to Tattoo the Rings as well. Right. Because the Paralympics hadn’t quite developed that distinct Agetos logo that now they are really set and focused on and everything is Agetos.
Jill: Yeah, and it’s hard to remember that the Paralympic movement is about 50 years timewise behind the Olympic movement. And that also means they are not as well developed as the Olympic movement, I would say. So their logo was first introduced in 1988 at Seoul, the Seoul organizing committee for those games, developed a logo that used their, um, a Taeguk symbol, and they put five of them together.
So it was kind of like Olympic rings. And then eventually the Olympics said, yeah, it looks too much like the Olympic rings and you’re a different organization. Please stop. So in 1994, they made it three Taeguks to be a little bit different. And then again, they changed the logo in 2004. And that’s when you started to see the swooshes.
And the logo we have today is only five years old. It’s a baby logo. I mean, the
Alison: rings have been around for a hundred plus, just over a hundred years. And yes, they’ve changed over the, over time. They used to be lined up the colors, but the idea of the rings is nearly as old as the Right. The agitos is really a new symbol that I would say I felt like Beijing is really where we saw it consistently everywhere.
It’s probably Tokyo. But in terms of what I noticed,
Jill: Yeah, I mean, there were, I would say, also, Pyeongchang somewhat. But I think once they got the 2019 logo, they could really lean into it and say, this is us, this is what we are. We have this logo, and this is the one that’s going to stick. I think. And 2019 is not that long ago, so a lot of Olympians and Paralympians, actually a lot of Paralympians who have been in the movement for some time or were in the movement way before this logo came out.
either didn’t know the logo or the Olympics inspired them.
Alison: They don’t have the emotional attachment. Yes. To the ajidos. Whereas younger athletes now who are being inspired by Tokyo, Beijing, Paris, the ajidos will have that meaning in their consciousness. So I think going forward, Alex Portel, you can get the ajidos.
Uh, tattooed
Jill: on you. Right. And I have seen Ajito’s tattoos here. I’ve seen some big calf tattoos with Ajito’s and, and they’re around, I think that’s going to be up and coming as people really embrace, this is our event and it’s different from the Olympics. And I love that. So. And let’s
Alison: bring the two stories together.
Yes. On Kelju, one of the French sitting volleyball player had it shaved and dyed onto his hair. I loved it. It was
Jill: fantastic. So there you go, uh, Eugene. We’re getting there. It’s, it’s a slow evolution and we’re still in the evolution. But I think as we keep going, I’m curious to see what 2026 will be like.
Because there were 28,
Alison: even more so with LA and, and tattoos are such. Uh, an L. A. thing, will even more people be interested in, in doing that.
Jill: Okay, uh, we got an email from LA 2028.
Alison: Speaking of. Right. And we talked about in Beijing that there wasn’t really a presentation of the next host. There was a handover of the Paralympic flag, but not the show that they do for the Olympic handover, this time with Tom Cruise and Simone Biles and Snoop Dogg and I don’t know what was happening over there, but they’re going to have a show.
They’re doing
Jill: something, and Shukla
Alison: Stan is involved with this. So, uh, Jamal Hill and Samantha Bosco, who, as you mentioned to me earlier, are both California natives, will be involved. So we have not gotten some intel from them. They’ve been a little busy. you know, going in competing, but we’ll be keeping an eye on that.
What volunteer or officiating job would you like to do today? Okay. So I spent the day at Roland Garros. It is kind of low hanging fruit to say a ball girl, but the reason I want to be a ball girl specifically in this situation is they have a double pump technique that all the ball kids were using. And it’s quite distinct.
It’s kind of a, a, I was about to say a Dennis Akersley throw, and then I realized that there’s probably like three of our listeners who are going to know who that is. It’s a submarine pitch.
Dennis
Jill: Eckersley, oh my
Alison: gosh. Hey, do not laugh at the X Man. Hey, he played for the Cubs. It’s all good. So it’s a very distinct double pump kind of sidewinder underhand throw when they are moving the ball, say, from the net to the backcourt. very distinct, had a distinct facial expression that all the kids did when they did this.
So whoever trained them must have made the expression and the kids subconsciously absorbed that when I throw the ball, I must make the face.
Jill: Did they stroke their invisible mustaches too?
Alison: If I had known that you found Dennis Lackersley so funny, I would not have mentioned him.
Jill: I get that I’m on hallowed ground here.
Alison: Should I bring up Braly fingers next?
Jill: No, I have no ates. I have no attachment to row fingers. .
Alison: And speaking of fingers, what’s your
Jill: job? Okay, so I was at Wheel Wheel fair wheelchair fencing today and.
A lot of stuff going on wheelchair fencing, but one of the things is you have a crew of people that locks the athletes in their chair. So the chairs have to get locked into a frame that’s on the pist and, uh, there’s people who lock the wheels into place and then you had to deal with distance. You have to get the distance between the chairs, right?
And that is based off of the shorter person, which I learned from Byron Bench when I went out to the high performance training center. And what they do is they each, uh, put their arm up in an L and the other fencer, uh, holds up their weapon straight to, uh, touch the elbow. And they figure out, okay, the shorter person has to be able to touch that person’s elbow.
And then what they do is somebody has to put on gloves and then There’s a crank on the bar that’s connecting the two chairs together, and they crank the distance apart or together. It was really cool. I was totally mesmerized. And once again, I’m very glad I have binoculars. And you, and there were gloves involved.
There were gloves involved. You know, I like an accessory. You know what else I like? Money. Yes, I do like money. And, uh, this is a part of the show where we ask you to help support us. We are an independent media outlet, which means we also need independent financing. And coming to Paris to bring you the games is Got a price tag on it.
We’re not gonna shy away from that It’s a pretty big price tag with a lot of euros. That’s right. And the exchange rate ain’t that great in our favor? so if you have enjoyed the coverage that we have brought you we try to bring you the unfiltered real scene that’s happening here and trying to bring the schwa to Veve of Paris and the games and If you could slide a little euro money our way, we would greatly appreciate it.
Uh, we’re suggesting 20. 24 because it is 2024. But, uh, you might also say 20. 24. Back in Beijing, you were asking for 2022, Jill. Allison, I say inflation.
Alison: And that’s pretty good, given how inflation has been.
Jill: Right, yeah. Podcast inflation hasn’t been that much.
Alison: And
Jill: that’s because we stayed in a really, really, really cheap Olympics hotel.
I can’t tell you how cheap it was. It was amazingly cheap. And we got what we paid for. That is correct. So we have a variety of ways to support Uh, that you can support us. They are all listed at flameoflifepod. com Support. We also have an option if you would like to be an ongoing patron that is also there on that page ongoing patrons Get a special photo of the day.
They uh different levels get uh video and audio of the day So, uh, not the day. They give video and audio when I’m able to put it up. Let’s be quite honest. And I’ve had problems with, uh, connectivity. So, uh, video and audio has come after I have dealt with a lot of logistics stuff because I don’t need to get lost in Paris because the data on my phone won’t work.
So anyway, that’s flamelifepod. com slash support daily results.
Alison: Botches first. So as I said, we have good news and bad news. Uh, for our Allison Levine and her mixed pair, uh, partner, Julian Chibano. They won the quarter against the Ukrainians, Kalinka and Kanenko, six to zero, really solid quarterfinal. And then they lost in the semi to Chang Luang, Chang and Luang from Hong Kong, six to four.
So it was close, but yet again, more good news. They play for the bronze tomorrow against Thailand. There you go. You can do it. You
Jill: can get that bronze. We are rooting for you. I will say that. And, and Roberta, Mrs. Levine, we are definitely rooting for them and we will hopefully see them on the podium. In goalball, we had some women’s and men’s action today because we’re getting close to the end of goalball.
Alison: We’re getting close to the end of everything. I know. The team sports are coming. We’ve got semifinals. We’ve got nothing less than semifinals. in, in team sports anymore.
Jill: And it really bothers me because I have not seen enough goalball and I don’t know if enough more goalball is in my future.
Alison: Well, you know what?
There is more goalball in your future, just not your immediate future.
Jill: Okay. Thank you. We had a women’s classification playoffs and then the semifinals for the playoffs, seventh and eighth place. Korea beat France four to three. It took two overtimes. Which is a way to go France for hanging in there like that because I know you’ve put your team together for these games and That means you’re not as seasoned players as other teams, but that’s a way to hang in there for this So, I’m looking forward to seeing what ha I really am looking forward to seeing what happens to Parasports in France.
And if they’re going to have a bump, because we’ve seen China at the top of the leaderboard, Brazil is up on the medal count, Japan is up on the medal count, all past, recent, past hosts. Come on France, you can do it. If, if the audience at Kelju says anything to me, it says they love Parasport. And they love wearing chicken heads.
Very true. We also had women’s semifinals, Israel beat China two to one and forgot
Alison: the fifth and sixth match. Oh, I’m sorry. So the classification match for fifth and sixth place, Canada beat Japan one zero. Then we had semifinals. Okay. in the women’s side. Uh, Israel beat China two to one Turkey, Turkey beat Brazil three to one Israel Turkey a final.
That’s gonna be cool. And I saw Israel play in their past. Also cool. I like that strategy. It’s it’s a it’s a fun style to watch. Then we’ve got some men semifinals. Ukraine beat Brazil six to four, and Japan beat China 15 to five. Five. So final is the gold medal match is going to be Ukraine and Japan. And I have a feeling they have very different styles.
Jill: Yes, I would imagine. And the crowd is going to be amazing for this. Quiet please. . In Para Archery, we had the men’s Recurve open finals gold went to Harvinder Singh from India. Silver went to Luca Chik from Poland and Bronze went to Mohammad Reza Arab Amari from Iran. This is India’s first Paralympic or Olympic archery gold medalist.
That’s shocking to me. It is shocking ’cause they’ve had a lot of really good Olympic archers. in recent quads, but none of them have gotten through that last barrier to get to the podium. So good on you, Harvinder Singh. Uh, and in, uh, Tokyo, he also got a medal. So this is a step up from his last bronze. A lot of stuff going on in Parathletics today.
You were there today. I was there in the morning. Uh, easy peasy to get to. I was really surprised. Long, longest train ride, but it got you to a stop that was kind of built for the stadium. So if you’re going to a big rugby match or something. It is right there, and you walk with everybody, uh, and you walk with all the school kids because they’re all coming
Alison: to the Parathletics.
I was on the train with all the school kids out to Roland Garris too. Some of them are not very well behaved, but some of them were lovely.
Jill: Uh, we had a group stopped and a volunteer with a bullhorn was making them sing the Marseille, and another group was on my other side, and they just automatically started singing too.
So. forget this. And you know, a stadium that’s made, it’s not super full. It wasn’t, it wasn’t bad. I will say they had for, for a Wednesday morning session, but those kids were so loud. When anybody from France, uh, raced, they’re cheering. It was like the stadium was full.
Alison: And what’s fun about kid cheering is it’s different.
And, you know, we were talking before about the joy. It’s fun when the kids start cheering. You can’t, I mean, unless you hate children, but just in general, and I think for the athletes, that probably is such a great thing. Sound and feeling to feel that, that kind of childhood abandon in their cheering, which was great.
It was great at the tennis. So I’m sure athletics, it was even better.
Jill: Yeah, and and they really liked cheering for track races, because I think they can understand that a little bit more. It’s you got to sit and pay attention to a throws or jumps competition to appreciate that. But anything that was a race around the track they were there for.
in multitude. It was great. That was so much fun. I also like the Paralympics because I can get a three person desk just for me and I could take the next one or two desks if I want.
Alison: You know, the, the, some venues have shrunk the tribunes because Stade de France is an existing stadium that’s used for many things that kind of have a set.
size of the, the press tribute. Yeah. It’s permanently in there. It’s permanently there. So it was the same size for the Olympic, uh, a hundred meters with Noah Lyles as it is for a Wednesday morning session of the Paralympics. So. It’s great for us. Not great if you’re trying to get more people into the stadium and squeeze in more seats, but it is helpful when we can actually work.
I will say that. And, and watch the events. And geez, you had some nice events to watch. I
Jill: did. Uh, we do have, the, the results we have are kind of meshed together between morning session and evening session. It’s really kind of, I, I don’t want to say odd because it’s just different. There are so many events in para athletics that they have medals in the morning session and in the evening session, whereas in the Olympics we were used to heats and things in the morning and then the evenings would be finals.
So it was, odd to be there during the day. And, uh, past Jill remembered that she was going to the Grand Palais tonight and how cold it was. I’m like, Oh, bring the jacket. And then I remembered that further past Jill had bought a very nice sweatshirt. And I remembered to bring my fuzzy sweatshirt with me, and by golly, once the sun moved enough in the Stade de France, because it was hot, when I sat down, I’m like, I’m gonna get sunburned.
And then it moved, and yeah, I needed that. I was, I was very cozy and comfortable. And then I left the stock to France after, and then I roasted again cause it was actually kind of warm out. Anyway, women’s discus throw F41 final. This is a short stature class. Uh, gold went to Rawia Talili from Tunisia, silver went to Yossir Kareem from Morocco and bronze went to Estefani Gisela Lopez Macas from Ecuador.
I did see this event and it was a lot of fun to watch. And,
Alison: uh, T’Lili is a three time double gold for shot put in discus.
Jill: She was amazing. She throws things. She really throws things far. In the, oh man, women’s shot put F46 final. This was so good. This was so much, well, it was so good because of Noelle.
Alison: Okay, so our Noelle Malkamaki, who we have spoken to, this is her event prior to the event.
She is the world record holder,
Jill: which she said at Olympic trials.
Alison: So a lot of pressure, a lot of expectation.
Jill: First throw sets a Paralympic record. That was amazing. But it got better from there. And she’s the 14th out of 15 throwers. So already like She won the race. She won the race. She won the event on that Paralympic throw, but her next throw, she, uh, and, oh wait, she set that Paralympic record by over a meter and a half.
A meter and a half for the Paralympic record. So you think back to, I forget how long ago that was, but that’s a lot. Oh, because they didn’t have the event at Tokyo. People have been talking about how this event was in the Paralympics and out of the Paralympics. Now it’s back in the Paralympics and they’re really hoping it stays because there’s enough women to do it.
At the end of round one, she is 1. 72 meters ahead of the rest of the group. This is it. The show is over at this point, really. Oh, no, the show has just begun. Oh, her show has just begun, but the competition is over. Next round, she gets a world record, and she smashes it by 0. 35 meters. So now she has a personal best on her agenda, too.
So she throws 3. 95. Next round, a little bit less than that. Okay. You can do that. Around four, she breaks 14 meters. So she hits 1406. She like collapsed onto her knees when she saw the score and couldn’t believe it because that was the goal. She, she’s like, I know I can throw over 14 and she hit that goal and it was just really beautiful.
Alison: How she reacted to the throw when she let go. Did she know?
Jill: No, you know, and I talked to her in the mix zone. We’ll get to that. I talked to her in the mix zone and she didn’t quite know because she said, you know, people do ask that, but she did feel the drive in her legs. So she knew and she was hopeful that it was.
I don’t think she
Alison: expected 14 0 sex.
Jill: No, and then the nice thing was in her last throw was 14 flat. So hitting 14 meters two times, she was like, that wasn’t a fluke. So crazy that you can get two world records and a Paralympic record in one competition, but you could. I do have tape from the mix zone. I cried.
I cried really bad.
Alison: I cried when I saw the gold medal come up, um, because I was going through, I was sitting at a tennis match and it popped up and I started crying in the stands and this was only minutes after another result, which we’ll get to in a minute, you know, within, I want to say five to 10 minutes, I got these two results and I, and I’m trying to watch this tennis match and I’m sitting there in the press.
at the little, at the little court with tears coming down my face. So, oh, I’m so glad you got to talk to her too. Yeah.
Jill: So great. I think she’s totally helping push this class forward and, uh, propelling them tons of personal bests and seasons best. And yeah, maybe some of that’s the adrenaline of the event and being in front of a huge crowd, but.
It’s really great that these women are pushing each other to get better and better and better. So, future is bright here. Okay, do the medals. Alright. Uh, so, uh, bronze, uh, bronze goldwin to Noelle Makki with a, uh, new world record. Silver to, uh, Maria Cha, uh, shop Kiska from Ukraine. She got an area record and then Holly Robinson from New Zealand got the bronze.
Okay, I have a confession to make
Alison: go Silver Ferns.
Jill: So. She is in the mixed zone. Uh, she got there before Noelle, and I see her, and she’s talking with another reporter, and I think, when she walks past, you have to say, go Silver Ferns. When she walks past, you have to say, go Silver Ferns. I don’t know what happened, but she was past me, and I hadn’t said, go Silver Ferns.
I’m very sorry.
Alison: It’s okay, I appreciate the, the, the You know, I have found, um, New Zealand athletes can go two ways on that if you say it to them, because I did in Beijing and a couple of them looked at me like I was insane. So maybe the universe was protecting you because Holly would have been frightened of you.
Jill: Probably, probably. Well, I hadn’t started crying yet, but there you go. Women’s shot put final 30 or 32 classes, the seeded class, uh, gold went to Anastasia Moskalenko from Ukraine who got a world record. Silver went to Juana from Brazil and bronze went to Yevgenia Kalachinovka Nova from Neutral Athletes.
Men’s shot put F36 final, which is a moderate coordination disability across the entire body. Gold went to Vladimir Sviridov from Neutral Athletes with a world record. Silver went to Alon Kokodity from Neutral Athletes and bronze went to Dastan Mukheshbevkov from Kazakhstan. In the men’s shot put F46 final, same deal as Nicole Noel’s class.
Gold went to Greg Stewart from Canada. Silver to, uh, Sachin Suryaro. Kalari from India. And bronze went to Luka Bakovic from Croatia, who got a personal best on the day too. In men’s javelin throw F 34 final, which is, uh, some trunk and arm mobility. Gold went to, uh, Said Afrooz from Iran, who set a world record.
Silver went to Mauricio Valencia from Colombia and bronze went to Diego Fernando Menezes Medina from Colombia. Um, okay. So I have some stuff to say about Columbia’s kit.
Alison: Have we talked about that on the show or just you and I talking? I don’t, I don’t know. I think you and I’ve talked about it. So Columbia and a lot of their kit has this.
sort of 80s flashy pattern that they, that they, very colorful, very colorful, very lovely with the red and blue and gold of the flag, but not in a traditional flag like way, very abstract artsy way. And they use it in many different ways. They have a hoodie. That’s the whole pattern.
Jill: It’s really cool looking, really, really cool looking because they kept walking through the, the,
Alison: I
Jill: saw this, this was on there, oh my gosh, because the, the, uh, city of Fruze was just throwing like nobody’s business.
It just would not stop, like, the gentleman went far, man. I’m sorry. That’s all I have to say. It was like, Whoa, that’s going really far. You know, sometimes
Alison: at athletics, because there’s so much going on at once, sometimes that’s all your brain can process. Yes. Like you can’t come up with good journalistic language.
You can say, Oh, I’m sorry. Goodness gracious, that was far
Jill: right and think about it because at the same time we had javelin and then shotput discus and stuff on the track. And then a long jump came in as well. So we had a lot going on. It’s like a Vegas show. In the men’s long jump T30. Wait, you forgot the club throw.
Oh, sorry. Oh, how could I forget the club throw? Well, I didn’t see it because it wasn’t in my session. But men’s club throw F51 final. It’s a seated class. Gold went to, uh, Dharambir from India. Silver went to Pranav Surma from India. And bronze went to Zeljko Dimitrijevic from Serbia. Now we can jump. Okay.
We can jump. Men’s long jump, T38 final, reduced coordination across parts of the body. Gold went to Katov Kinchikov from. neutral athletes. Silver went to Zhang Huanghao from China and bronze went to Jose Gregorio Lemus Rivas from Colombia. Uh, Nick Mayhew and Ryan Medrano, who I talked with after the 100, 100 to 100, uh, and patrons, you have audio of that.
They were both in this race because they just decided to add in a jump too. They were bored. They had some time on their hands. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And it’s funny because Ryan doesn’t have a pit to train in. So he’s like, I, I, he didn’t have much practice in the pit. He got a personal best. But he’s like, okay, I’m going to use this and drive.
And then, uh, so he placed sixth, Ryan Medrano did. Nick Mayhew placed fifth, Tara David, uh, Tara Woodhall. Tara Davis was there on the sideline, not in the sidelines, but in the stand who came down to coach him and give him some pointers, which is really, really nice. You know,
Alison: I’ve been seeing a whole bunch of photos of Tara, uh, and Nick together.
So that must be that she and he are working together on this. Yeah. I think she’s coming in to help
Jill: her. It’s a new event for him too. He hasn’t been doing it very long. And, uh, when I was watching, like he didn’t. hit the board a lot of times. Not over. He was under short. He was very short, which means you give up some like centimeters on the other end of your jump.
So he was, he was a little disappointed. I think, I think he’s having a tough games when he came off of an excellent games, getting reclassed and having a struggle because of now you’re in a different class with a different class of people and You’re just not the best anymore, or at least for this, this moment
Alison: in time and the way that they race and we, when we talk to Paralympians, it’s not simply who you’re racing against or who you’re competing against different classes.
sometimes function very differently within their events. So yes, your competition has changed, but also how your competition works has changed.
Jill: Right. So it’s a big adjustment and it’s a tough adjustment and Nick does not like to lose. So it’s been very, very tough. And I give him credit. I give him credit for stopping and talking to me and I know he’s got his patter to be quite honest, there’s some pattern and he’s got messages to say.
But, um, You know, I do feel for him because he’s got a lot to process after being on such a high. We did talk on the tape about the mixed relay. Oh, my favorite moment from Tokyo! I know, I said I couldn’t do it, my co host would be very angry if I didn’t ask. Um, he was sad to not be on that team. I
Alison: think that was his favorite moment in Tokyo, too.
Yeah,
Jill: yeah, yeah. But, um, yeah, I, I feel bad for people who have tough games. They have good games, they have tough games. And every athlete can have up days and down days. And we see that with so many of our athletes, too. So, it’s tough. And I feel for you, and just, you know, How you get through it and it’s, it’s tough to put that into words, like the process of getting through and maybe you need that challenge to break through to another level.
So I don’t know. if you’re a patron, you will know what Nick and Ryan say because you will get that audio shortly. Men’s long jump T 64 title, uh, final. This is a lower leg impairment. Gold went to Marcus Rehm from Germany. Silver went to Derek Loxodent from USA and bronze went to Jared Wallace from the USA.
Over on the track, we had women’s 100 meter T 36 final. It’s a all four limb impairment. Gold went to, uh, Shi Yiting from China with a Paralympic record. Silver went to Daniel Edgerton. Acheson from New Zealand.
Alison: Go Silver Ferns.
Jill: Bronze went to Victoria, uh, Veronica Hippolito from Brazil in the same race, T53 final.
It’s a wheelchair class. Gold went to Samantha Kinghorn from Great Britain with a Paralympic record. Her second medal. Oh, nice. Silver DeBrunner. She lost
Alison: something?
Jill: No, but it’s
Alison: her fourth medal in four events here. Oh my goodness. And she got one of the silvers. So she has the prettiest one. And then she’s also got some golds.
Jill: Yes.
Alison: Gold is nice, but this, uh,
Jill: really the silver is beautiful in person with that Eiffel Tower bit, because the Eiffel Tower’s, the iron of it, the iron color, just works really well with the silver. Anyway, uh, bronze went to Gao Feng from China. In the T 54 class, uh, women’s 100 meter, this is another wheelchair class, gold went to Lea Bayekula from Belgium, who set a Paralympic record. Silver went to Tatjana McFadden from the U. S. and bronze went to Amanda Kotadja from Finland. Second medal for Finland. I know, at least in athletics, oh no, we, you’ve kept track.
Alison: And uh, the 20th medal overall for the Paralympics for Tatjana McFadden.
Wow.
Jill: Men also had a 100 meter T53 final. It’s wheelchair class. Gold went to Abdul Rahman Al Qurashi from, uh, Saudi arabia and uh, that name sounds familiar. I will be quite honest with you Uh, he said a personal best silver went to pongsikorn payo from thailand and bronze went to Arios faldo fernandez de silva from brazil brian seaman who I talked with the other night.
He finished fourth.
In the T 54 men’s 100 meter, uh, Gold went to one Pablo Cervantes Garcia from Mexico. Silver went to Atiwat Peng Nguyeh from Thailand and bronze went to Leo Pekitati from Finland. Finland has decided to show up for the games. Nice. Nice. We have some Finnish people in our hotel, a Finnish Paralympic committee people types and, and maybe they’re media, but they’re very lovely.
They are
Alison: lovely.
Jill: And in the men’s 400 meter T 37 class, it’s a one side impairment. Andrei Vurvin from neutral Paralympic athletes, won gold.
Bartolomeu de Silva Chaves from Brazil won silver with a personal best. And Amin Ala Tseyu from Tunisia won bronze.
Alison: Okay, so over to Paris. Oh, no,
Jill: no, no, no, no. I’m sorry. I know we have to move on. But I had run down to the Mixed zone. I get, uh, there’s plenty of signs. Do you have, have you been to athletics, para athletics yet?
Alison: Not
Jill: yet. There are tons of signs. Please use the stairs. Please use the stairs. Save the elevator for people who need it.
Alison: Because the elevator’s not big.
Jill: No, it’s probably slow because elevators seem to be slow around here. Anyway, I have taken pictures of all the signs and that meant I got back up to my desk Kind of late, and then the session ended and I had to pick up, well, I had to figure out how to get to where I was going, write down the instructions, screenshot the instructions so I didn’t get lost in Saint Denis, and, uh, I was there for the amazing amount of floor maintenance going on in the track.
So we had, over in the javelin section, there was push brooms. In the shot put, they, like, watered the track around the shot put area. And then this big roller, that they rolled around to help mop that up. There was a, a leaf blower going on in Long Jump to blow all the sand back. And then there was a big vacuum, not a big vacuum, but it was a regular vacuum.
But I do have a picture because of course I saw this woman come out and she came out in the start area of the 100 meters. So that’s that side of the track, and she’s pulling this vacuum around, and she kind of stops and takes selfies, and has somebody take a picture of her with the vacuum, and like, oh, you are people.
What are you doing with this vacuum? She pulls it over. all the way down the straight and then around the curve to where the other throws are. So the discus and the club throw and all that. And she has to, she spent some time looking for a plug to plug it in. I think she had to go get an extension cord, but then she did do vacuuming around there.
Cause I was like, what’s that vacuum for? I am here for the rest of this. As long as it takes, I will be here people. So, you know, she needs an official vacuum or keep the flame alive shirt. Available at RT Public Store, I
Alison: will say that. Paracycling road. Paracycling road. So the easy, we’re going to go over the classes first.
C is bicycles, uh, T are tricycles, H are hand cycles, B are for visually impaired classes with a tandem. So there’ll be a pilot. The lower the number, the greater the impairment. So I find that this classification kind of simple and a little easier to follow. So. So in the women’s C1 3 individual time, actually everything is an individual time trial today.
So women’s C1 3 class, gold went to Germany’s Meike Hausberger, silver to Frances Brown from Great Britain, maybe one of my cousins, and a Beck from Sweden won bronze. Then we had the C4 class. You know who’s in this class?
Jill: Samantha Bosco. Do you
Alison: know who won the gold medal? Samantha Bosco! This was the race that she wanted to win.
This was the race. that she was gunning for. And she did it. This was the other result I got with Noelle Malcomackie, and I’m sitting on the, on the stand just making a fool of myself. I know
Jill: when I saw this, because we get the breaking news and that came through soon after. I’m like, Oh, yeah, I was so excited.
I think I might have pumped. Oh, I did. Yeah.
Alison: And it’s in the middle of a point. And I’m like, Oh, silver went to Meg Lemon from Australia and bronze to Francisca Matile Dorek from Switzerland. Yes. Okay. Thank you. And this is Samantha’s first gold after winning two bronzes in Rio. Very nice. In the women’s C5, Dame Sarah Storey from Great Britain won gold, Heidi Kuka from France won silver, and Alana Foster from Australia won bronze.
Dame Sarah Storey is 46 years old. I
Jill: thought she had retired.
Alison: She did. Oh, and then she came back. She, well, I don’t know if she officially, like, I don’t know if she told, um, the, uh, doping agency not to take her anymore, but she, after Tokyo was like, yeah, I think this is it. No. Ninth Paralympics, 13th gold medal in cycling, cycling.
She’s got 16 medals in para swimming, going back to Barcelona. Wow.
She’s just gonna pick another sport to dominate in the second half of her life, apparently. She could go to shooting and she’d probably kill it. Don’t say that.
Men’s C1. Gold went to Riccardo Tenergeles from Spain, silver to Michael Tauber from Germany, and bronze went to Zbigniew Mazuzewski from Poland. In the Men’s C2, oh, Andre Lute won from France, won gold. Excellent. Oh, and Juid Romant from Belgium won silver, Darren Hicks from Australia won bronze. In the Men’s C3, France takes another gold, Thomas Perotin Darte, silver to Eduardo Santa Ascensio from Spain, bronze to Germany’s Matthias Schindler.
Men’s C4, France. Kevin LeCunf won gold, Gatien Larousseau from France as well wins silver, and damien Romas Sanchez from Spain won bronze. Um, in the men’s C5, uh, the Netherlands, uh, won gold, Daniel Abraham Gebru, uh, Alistair Donahoe from Australia won silver, and Florian Foulon from France won bronze.
France had a really nice day, and I am not done with saying France. Men’s H1 Fabrizio Cornigliali from Italy won gold. Maxime Hortus from Belgium won silver, and Nicolas Peter Dupreez from South Africa won bronze. In the men’s H2, Sergio Garota Munez from Spain wins gold, Luca Mazzoni from Italy won silver, and Florian Giuanni from France won bronze.
Men’s H3, Mathieu Bosradin from France won gold, Johann Kahl from France won silver, and Martino Pini from Italy wins the bronze. Men’s H4. Jetze Platt from the Netherlands won gold, Thomas Frohwerth from Austria took the silver, and Jonas van der Steen from Belgium won bronze. Men’s H5, Mitch Felice from Netherlands won gold, Loic Vernad from France takes the silver, and Luis Costa from Portugal won bronze.
Jill: I gotta say, uh, researcher Elizabeth had mentioned during the track cycling competition like, oh, the typical powerhouse countries that you see in able bodied cycling are also doing really well in paracycling. Are they doing really well on the road cycling?
Alison: Netherlands, Netherlands, France, France, Netherlands.
Uh, women’s H13, uh, gold to American Katerina Brim, silver to Lauren Parker from Australia, bronze to Annika Zion Gillis from Germany. In the women’s H45, oh, I didn’t see the results for this, Oksana Masters from the US won gold. It’s her 18th Paralympic medal. That’s amazing. Over winter and summer, because
Jill: she’s, she can, She
Alison: does everything.
Silver to Chantal Heynen from the Netherlands, and bronze to China’s Sun Bian Bian. And in the men’s T1 2 individual time trial, gold to China’s Shen Jian, Canada’s Nathan Lament won silver, and Tim Salen from Belgium won bronze. Our Dennis Connors finished fifth. Well done. In the women’s T1 2, uh, Netherlands, one gold, Marijke van Soist, uh, Celine Van Til from Switzerland, one silver, and Emma Lund from Denmark, one bronze.
Now we get into the two B classes. These are the, uh, visually impaired and they have pilots, uh, gold to Netherlands, Tristan bag bang ma with pilot Patrick boss, France takes the silver Ellie a day Carvalho with pilot Michael Gouchard and Vincent tear sure from the Netherlands wins bronze with pilot Timo Franson.
And in the women’s B, Katie George Dunleavy from Ireland wins gold with pilot Linda Kelly. Silver goes to Sophie Unwin from Great Britain with pilot Jenny Hole. And Laura Fauci from Great Britain wins bronze with pilot Corinne Hall.
Jill: Paraquestrian started. So we had the individual event intercise for grade 4 and then grade 5.
Uh, the higher the number, the more complexity the athlete can do with their horses and their movements. So for grade 4, uh, Uh, and it’s a one to five grade scale. So grade four, gold goes to, uh, Demi Herkens from Netherlands on Dowla. Silver goes to Sanne Voets from Netherlands on De Montour. And bronze goes to Annalena Mijhoos on Kimbaya six, or sex.
From Germany. Uh, in the grade five event, gold goes to Michaela George on, uh, from Belgium on best of eight. Silver to, uh, Regina Mispelkamp from Germany on Highlander’s Delights. And bronze to Sophie Wells on, uh, Legit. Engelbergards Samoa. They’re from Great Britain.
Alison: When I typed that horse’s name in, I so looked forward to what in the world you were going to do with this.
There are so many vowels in that name of that horse, and then it’s an English horse on top of it. I’m like, who named this horse? And what do you actually call him when you’re working together? And I’m like,
Jill: Also starting today is para powerlifting, which hopefully you can see on the feeds because it’s, it was one of the Tokyo sports that you could not see at all.
And, uh, so we had, uh, both men and women competing today in the men’s, uh, 49 kilogram final. Gold goes to Omar Sami Hamada Karada from Jordan, silver to Abdullah Kayan Pinar from Turkey, and bronze to Lee Van Cong from Vietnam. In the women’s 41 kilogram final, gold to China Silver to Esther Nwongu from Nigeria, and bronze to Lara Aparcida de Lima from Brazil.
In the Women’s Under 45 Kilogram Final, China’s Guo Lingling won gold. Silver went to Zoe Newsom from Great Britain, and bronze to Masimo Muratli from Turkey. And finally, in the men’s um, uh, uh, under 54 kilogram final gold to David Degtyaryev from Kazakhstan, silver to Pablo Ramirez Berenteos from Cuba and bronze to Yang Jinglong from China.
Another big day in the pool. Every day is a big day in the pool. It’s a lot of classes. There’s a lot of races. That’s right. We will start with the S7 class, kind of a mixed class, uh, uh, uh, swimmers had to work at harder at getting their stroke timing. So, uh, men’s 50 meter freestyle. Gold goes to Andrei Trusov from Ukraine, who set a world record.
Silver to, uh, Carlos Daniel Soronto Zarate from Colombia and bronze to Egor F. Rosinin from Neutral Athletes. Women’s 100 meter, same class. Gold went to Jiang Yu Yan from China, who set a world record. Silver to Morgan Stickney from the U. S. and bronze to Giulia Terzi from Italy. All names we keep hearing.
I will say that. Our Mackenzie Cohen was in this as she had finished third overall in the heats, finished fifth in the finals. Over in the S9 class, which is a coordination class, women’s 100 meter freestyle. Gold went to Alexa Leary from Australia, who set a world record. Silver went to Christy Raleigh Crossley from the U.
S., who set an American record. And bronze went to Mariano Ribeiro from Brazil. And then we have a couple of races in a visually impaired class, the S12. Gold goes for men’s 100 meter freestyle. Oh, we have both men’s and women’s 100 meter freestyle. For the men, gold went to Yaroslav Denisenko from Ukraine.
Silver went to Maxim Vorovskaya from Ukraine. And bronze went to Rahman Saleh from Azerbaijan. For the women, gold goes to Maria Carolina Gomes Santiago from Brazil, silver to Anna Stetsenko from Ukraine, and bronze to uh, the Tsutsui Chi Yayano from Japan. So moving over to the S8 class, which is a lot of different body types, but, uh, they lack overall muscle power.
So, uh, in the 400 meter freestyle for the men, we had, uh, gold going to Alberto Amodeo from Italy, silver to Reid Maxwell from Canada, bronze to Andrei Nikolayev from Neutral Athletes. For the women, gold goes to Are Jessica Long. We’ve had a nice day. We’ve had a very nice day. Silver to Alice Tai from Great Britain, and bronze to Zegna Francesca Palazzo from Italy.
So Jessica, this is her 30th Paralympic medal.
Alison: You gotta go with a round number like that.
Jill: 17th gold. She had gotten a silver in this event in Tokyo and said, I’m not doing it again. And then was convinced to keep at it. She did. Was excited with the results, of course, but said like, she woke up really sore.
So that was interesting. She should wake up sore more often. Maybe, but she did like getting the 30 medal. Nice round number there. In the S14 class, which is an intellectual impairment, we had the 200 meter individual medley. For the men, Nicholas Bennett from Canada won gold with a Paralympic record.
Silver went to Reece Darby from Great Britain, and bronze went to Ricky Betar from Australia. For the women, gold goes to Valeria Shabalina from Neutral Athletes, silver to Poppy Moskill from Great Britain, and bronze to Kinoshita Aria from Japan. We have the S2 class, which is a high level impairment, but, uh, men’s feet are 50 meter breaststroke.
Uh, gold goes to Arnulfo Castarena from Mexico, silver to Ismail Barlov from Bosnia and Herzegovina and bronze to Grant Patterson from Australia.
Alison: He’s been around a long time. He has been around a long time. That is a name that we have heard. At least two or three?
Jill: He’s been to London. Oh, wow. And he said, you know, London, he noted how the Olympics have, or the Paralympics have changed so much because in London, they only had like two hours of TV.
And we’ve seen that as well, where they’ve had like the hour and a half wrap up show and like half an hour that is commercials. So, uh, he’s really excited with the growth of the Paralympic movement. I will say that. SB3 class for the 50 meter breaststroke women. This is another coordination class, maybe some absence of limbs.
Gold goes to Monica Boggioni from Italy, silver to Patricia Pereira dos Santos from Brazil, bronze to Marta Fernandez Infante from Spain.
Alison: And finally, a mixed Four by 100 meter freestyle 49 points relay. Which you love. You love the mixed relays. I do love the mixed relays. I haven’t watched this yet. I’ll have to go back and find it.
Uh, gold to Ukraine, silver to Brazil, and bronze to Spain. A
Jill: pair of table tennis. We had some quarterfinal action. Also had some gold medals and some singles. So women’s singles class 5, gold to Zhang Bian from China, silver to Pang Jiamin from China, bronzes to two Koreans, Moon Sung Hye and Jung Young Ah.
In women’s singles class 10, gold to Yang Jiang from Australia, silver to Natalia Partikia from Poland and Bronzes to Chinese Taipei’s Tian Xiaowen and Bruna Alexander from Brazil. And then finally in the men’s singles class 10, gold to Patrick Chosnowski from We’ll find out where he’s from silver to Leon how from China and bronzes to, uh, Philippe Radovich from Montenegro and Mateo Boheus from France.
Gold medal match was very close. I understand it was three, two. Moving over to shooting Paris Sport, we have, uh, P four mixed PIs, 50 meter pistol, sh one final gold to Yang Chow from China, silver to silver, ov from Uzbekistan. And, uh, Fran, uh, d sorry, David French Getty from Italy wins the bronze for the. women in the mixed 50 meter rifle prone. It’s a mixed class. It’s not just women.
Oh, okay. Sorry. Because you know why? Because mechanic gear is in this class. So of course, I think it’s for women. Uh, gold went to Dragan Ristic from Serbia, silver to, uh, Vladimir Chincharali from Georgia and bronze went to Tim Jeffery from Great
Alison: Britain. And speaking of McKenna, she finished 13th with a score of 16, 619.
- She was less than four points away from qualifying for the final. She had a good match. She posted on Instagram that while she was disappointed with the result, she was thrilled with how she shot today. She felt like she did what she came here to do.
Jill: Awesome. Awesome. Sitting volleyball. We had a women’s and men’s classification matches.
Rwanda beat France 3 0 for the women and Italy beat Slovakia, Slovenia, I get this messed up all the time. It’s SVK for Slovakia. Italy beat Slovakia 3
Alison: 0.
Jill: Italy beats Slovenia
Alison: 3
Jill: 0. Okay. Uh, for the men, Ukraine beat France 3 0 and Kazakhstan beat Brazil 3 0.
Alison: You know, Czechoslovakia is in this tournament.
Jill: Somewhere they are. I find it interesting, well, okay, oh no, the head classification, I find it interesting that the women’s sitting volleyball team is much further along than the men and from Brazil. Yeah. But maybe that’s because women’s volleyball has a bigger tradition.
Alison: It certainly has a bigger tradition.
I also think women have fewer options in Brazil as to what sports they can. We’ve seen that. women’s sports in Brazil is very, very limited. So they don’t have the competition for the best athletes that men’s sport
Jill: does. Right. And the men play football all over the place, but I think we came into this with another soul story.
If we can bring it back to soul, 1988 again, um, remember when we talked about volleyball tournament in Peru and how well they did. And that was because, you know, They weren’t allowed to play any other sport. That’s right. It’s kind of like when, back in the day, when women could only be nurses and teachers.
Kind of. That’s it. Wheelchair basketball. I’m glad we can bring in some women’s history into this show.
Wait, did Dennis Eckersley get into this episode? And Czechoslovakia. That’s right. We’re running the gamut here, people. Wheelchair basketball. We had women’s, uh, it’s a, uh, no, it’s not just a women’s day. A lot of games going on. Women’s. No, it is. Oh, it’s a women’s day. Oh. But not just a women’s classification day.
Okay. Thank you. Because I see women, I see men, I see lineups, I see matchups. So much excitement going on. And you know, okay, so I have to say the other day when I saw men’s basketball and I, I think I mentioned this on the show, how they had the sweepers who suddenly turned into the dancers. Yes. I’ve now seen that move, that thing three times.
Alison: Yes, because it’s it. I saw it at rugby. You saw it at basketball. Yes. And I think somebody else posted a video of it from possibly Olympic volleyball.
Jill: A. Repeat be I’m tired of seeing the same moves. I mean the one guy’s got the he’s got the thing where he whips around the shoulders and he kind of does the flares, you know, but on the ground and then he gets on his hands into the handstand hops and stuff.
Alison: I saw two women who did like Latin ballroom dance. I saw them.
Jill: I saw that too. Because I think that surprised me too because I was Where’s the whippy guy? No, why? Why aren’t you sweeping? Because they have to do their moves. I guess not everybody is enthralled with cleaning implements as I am. They must do the lumbar or the dance of love.
Anyway. I’m sorry. Women’s classification playoff, uh, five through eight. I think they’re going to play them all and then that’s, then they settle it out. Australia beat Spain 78 74. In the women’s quarterfinals, China beat Japan 62 50 and the USA beat Great Britain 59 52. That is close. They said it was hard fought, um, I don’t know.
double doubles by Ika Gonzales and Rose Hollerman, and they faced Tokyo silver medalist China in the semis. So that’ll be interesting. Uh, Netherlands beat Spain, 61 43, and Canada beat Germany, 71 53. We have all of our semi final matchups set. Men, as we reported yesterday, Great Britain vs. Germany, USA vs.
Canada. Women’s semi finals are China vs. USA and Netherlands vs. Canada. Which is kind of a relief for Americans that Netherlands is not going up against the U. S. in the semis.
Alison: I know, because the Netherlands is just a steamroller in women’s basketball.
Jill: Uh, wheelchair fencing, uh, uh, Byron Branch, who’s Shook Flastani by proxy, I guess now, because uh, he taught me how to fence.
said today was quite the eye opener, really, because of the atmosphere and how big the building is. And it’s very, this is probably par for the course across the gamut of Paralympic sports, with maybe the exception of tennis, because they do grand slams.
Alison: Grandest venues, biggest crowds, yes, most pomp and we talked about pomp and circumstance, the most ceremony with any Right.
Event. You know, a lot of their events are probably, you know, in a church basement.
Jill: Yeah. You know, in a baseball gym. They’re very tiny. Nobody goes. Very quiet. So, getting used to this atmosphere, especially at the Grand Palais where it’s just raucous beyond belief. You don’t even have to have that thing full and it sounds so loud in there.
Um. Today was foil day. So in the women’s foil category A, we had gold going to Jiao Xu Fen from China, silver to Gu Haoyan from China, and bronze went to Judith Rodriguez Menendez. I was there for the final, the gold medal matches and the bronze medal matches. This one, this was the last match of the night and it was just, really anticlimactic because it kind of ended on a red card.
Alison: Oh
Jill: no. Yeah, it just kind of ended and we’re like, Oh, did it end? And it’s interesting because these two must, must know each other very well. I would think. I think these worlds are pretty tiny. Yeah. In the women’s foil B category, which is where our Ellen Geddes places, uh, Gold went to, uh, Janna’s, uh, Saesunee Janna from Thailand, silver went to Xiaorong from China and bronze went to Beatrice Maria Vio Grandes, also known as Baby Vio.
So I was really bummed before I went in to see that she wasn’t going to be defending her gold medal because she has won the last two and she was in the bronze medal match. She had a decisive win over Korean Cho Young Hee, 15 to do. This is everything you wanted a baby, baby to be about because she is a very passionate, passionate fencer.
So when she wins points, there’s a lot of screaming. There’s a lot of screaming from the Italians in the audience. They were starting to sing. I love you, baby. Oh, no, that’s fantastic. It was so much fun to watch. Uh, the gold, if those names sound familiar rematch of yesterday’s saber match, which, uh, uh, Also won, but she barely won that 15 14.
This was a little bit bigger 15 11. And our Ellen Geddes, last minute chair repair before
Alison: her first bout. I didn’t understand what had happened there, but then when you Yeah, it’s a, it looked like a lot of duct tape.
Jill: Oh, dear. So, that’s not great. She fell 15 11 in her first, in the table of 16. She got a buy in to the reprisise round, which was very nice, but lost to, uh, Irma Katsouriani from Georgia 15 6.
She’ll be back, though. There’s team events. There’s another weapon that she’s fencing. Yeah, she does epee, right? Yes. Um. Lots of things for Ellen to do. Men’s foil category A, gold went to China’s Sung Kang, easy win over Matteo Betti from Italy, 5 3. Uh, and then bronze went to Zhang Jiacheng from China. Our Byron Branch won his table of 32 match, lost in the table of 16.
Uh, easy win. He will all, and then, um, he was in the rest massage round and, and lost also. He will also have more competition ahead. In the men’s foil category B, gold went to Demetria Kutya from Great Britain. Silver went to Feng Yangqi from China and bronze went to China’s Hu Daliang. Gold medal match was a rematch of the Tokyo 2020 semifinals.
Feng won that 15 14. This time Kutya won 15 7. So the other thing that fencing does, because every sport keeps track of like stats and they all have their different stats for different things, for uh, this event, this category, men’s foil category B, a lot of pretty evenly matched fencers, one of the things they track is the average time needed to get a hit during the event.
Kotya was the fastest fencer at 1. 9 seconds, and Feng had a 5. 3 second average hit speed. So you can kind of see where the disparity is and where Kotya could go in. I have to say, I really liked wheelchair fencing almost more than stand up fencing. Really? And that is because I didn’t have the movement of the bodies back and forth on the strip to distract me.
Alison: The saber people jumping up and down.
Jill: That didn’t matter because you have people waving around in their chair every, every time they want to point. So, um, What I liked about it was, yes, you still had those dramatic moves, because fencing, of course, has the dramatic lunges. Well, this is the dramatic backwards movement to get out of the way.
They still create distance in an interesting way. But because they’re, they’re stationary in the chair and the chair’s locked down, you don’t have the distraction of watching the feet move back and forth. The feet aren’t what’s going to establish the movement. It’s the, you have to really watch the sword and you really can do that a lot more clearly.
I think, or at least the way I watch the sport, I can see it a lot better in wheelchair. It was really, really fun to watch. Uh, When I was fencing with Byron, I was trying really hard and he’s like, no, it looks like there’s swashbuckling and going, yeah, it’s all in the tips of your fingers. So you’re barely holding that weapon and moving it around very, there’s a lot of dexterity there, but it’s a very light touch, even though it looks heavy.
It’s very cool. Watch it because we can watch it this time. It’s true. Wheelchair Oh, I stayed through the medals. For Well, I stayed through Baby V is medal. They do not get a podium. They get a podium storefront.
Alison: Yes. I’ve seen that. Okay. I have seen that in several of the wheelchair events. They have the same thing.
I believe I saw it over at table tennis set up. Yes. It’s kind of a front because of the ramp issue,
Jill: right? There’s not enough. There’s not enough space where they need to put the podium or the options for the podium. I saw it at wheelchair rugby. Oh, okay.
Alison: They had very, very large storefronts. I think that’s why because it was so many people, they just sort of put the front piece of the podium up and then they roll up to the edge.
Jill: Yes. So, and then the other thing is that they all sit in a wheelchair. Baby Vio has prosthetic legs. So she walked in. With somebody pushing a wheelchair an empty wheelchair and then when she got to the podium She sat in the wheelchair and kind of wheeled up so they were all at the same level But you can tell she’s not really used to using a wheelchair on the regular because you know, the wheelchair for fencing is locked in.
You don’t have to know how to move it because she’s a little awkward with that movement with the chair. And, and it was, it was kind of funny. I will say that wheelchair tennis, how was your day at rolling arrow? So,
Alison: and we talked about this earlier, early on the show that was lost, but I’ll mention it again.
I grew up watching tennis. My mom was a big fan. So mostly eighties into the early nineties. We would just watch tennis and all the grand slams. And to sit there in Roland Garros was such a moment was probably the one moment since we’ve been in Paris where I said, I’m here. Like this is the coolest thing that has probably ever happened to me.
I’m sitting here in Roland Garros, just wandering around all of these courts. So today there were matches on Philip Chatrier, which is basically the equivalent of center court, uh, Suzanne Langland, which is like court one, and then kind of a larger outer court, court 14, which is very tiny, but for an outer court actually has a small set of stands.
Oh, right. So because I was in one of the outer courts, I’m, you’re practically in the, in the lap of the players. You’re right there. And there is red dust all over the ground of the seating area. So that was really cool. Some red dust got on my papers. Oh, man. Did get a little in my mouth. Gross? No, because it was Roland Garros dust.
It was Roland Garros clay. It didn’t taste like anything, or I just didn’t have enough in my mouth to taste it, but I felt it.
Jill: So you had the Roland Garros feeling with inside you? I do.
Alison: I have ingested some clay. So that was, that was interesting. And also, I was glad I got to go through to all three courts today because I really got the feel.
for how different it is on each of the courts being in shot rate. You might as well watch it on TV. You are far away. You can’t really hear the players can’t. I mean, it’s great being there, but in terms of the intimacy of the match, you’re not getting much.
Jill: And well, I think because did you go to court 14 first?
I did. There you go. So you got spoiled. I, I don’t, I did not get to have the outer court experience because tennis during the Olympics rained the day I was there. So a lot of all the outdoor courts were rescheduled. And then when I went for wheelchair tennis, it was, uh, the matches I wanted to see were on Chartier.
So again, did not really get the out door. outer court feeling, though I did poke around there a little bit while I was there. But, yeah, I can see where it’d be fun to have that intimacy. I liked Philippe Chatrier.
Alison: That’s beautiful and dramatic and grand and feels like center. You feel like you’re at center court.
Right. I saw the um, quad doubles gold medal match.
Jill: Oh,
Alison: man. Wait, you hear who I saw today. This was just so that match was Sam Schroeder and Nils Vick against Andy Lapthorne and Gregory Slade. Nils Vink has this nasty little drop shot That he just pulls out Regularly, but not too often
It was gorgeous. The Dutch and of course, all the Dutch fans with all their orange are there. They’re everywhere. Because the Dutch we talk about, you know, countries that are really good at a sport in both the Olympics and the Paralympics. The Dutch don’t have a recent history of great tennis players. No, but they just are one of the dominant countries in wheelchair tennis.
There was Dutch everywhere today, and they were following me. So I have a whole series of pictures of all the people in orange, because they would hoard, there’d be like a whole section of orange people. It was fantastic. So in that gold medal match, uh, the, the Dutch won 6 1, 6 1. They were so much fun to watch.
They’re a young, uh, you know, young pair, Vink is 21, uh, Schroeder is 24. Wait,
Jill: that’s it? I feel like they’ve been around forever.
Alison: Well, Vink was around last time with his cute little blonde ponytail. Blonde ponytail is gone. He’s cleaned up. Um, and Schroeder also played last time, and he was all of, 21 last time around.
So yeah, the quads were a lot of fun to watch. So gold went to Sam Schroeder and Niels Vink from Netherlands. Silver to Andy Lapthorne and Gregory Slade from Great Britain and bronzed to Donald Rampatti and Lucas Sithole from South Africa. My first match on court 14 featured a little boy named Alfie Hewitt.
Okay. So I know I absolutely fell in love with Alfie Hewitt in Tokyo. I think he’s a great player. I think he’s a lot of fun to watch. I saw him play both singles and doubles today.
Jill: Yeah,
Alison: I know. He, he went, just went almost back to back. As did his partner, Gordon Reed. So they both had a singles match and then their doubles match.
He is both a grunter and a talker. So he grunts on his hits and it’s a weird grunt because it’s it’s like an Uh, . It’s a weird little broad’s, not your, uh, it’s not my, uh, he’s, but he, he talks to the ball, he talks to himself, and I only caught that because it was court 14, so I could really, uh, hear his, uh, opponent in the singles match.
Uh, RA uh, Reuben, uh, spare Guard Netherlands. Struggled with his serve the whole match. You don’t see a lot of aces in wheelchair tennis. You see a smattering. Not as many drop shots as I would have expected as well. The power these guys are generating is surprising, but not. Because obviously they’re not, they’re getting no power from their legs.
So a lot of times when you see able bodied tennis, they kind of do that little jump move where it’s almost like they thrust their legs into the shot and that’s where the power is getting generated. Obviously wheelchair tennis can’t do that, but they are still getting speed and spin and slice and real power.
It must be the grunt. So Alfie Hewitt won his singles match 4, um, and then Gordon Reed, unfortunately, on his singles match, he played it on shotry. I caught the end of that. He lost it. Six love, seven, six. I want to mention, uh, Gustavo Fernandez because there’s this cool thing that different players do.
Different players do different things with their extra ball
Jill: on
Alison: serve. Most of them throw it back to the ball boy. or a ball girl. It’s mostly ball boys today. Some of them put it in the spokes. But Gustavo had a little shove on the back of his wheelchair. And I don’t know how it sat there so nicely and held, but it was almost like a little suction cup.
Wow. That’s impressive. I, uh, Didi de Groot and Aniek van Coet both played today. I saw them like half a game. Oh, okay. You know, very, because it was, all these matches are going, um, on at the same time. But my day ended with the double semifinal between, uh, Hewitt and Reid and the French Cantonao and Houdet, who also had singles matches today.
Houdet played a singles match earlier. So I’m thinking these guys are exhausted. Oh no. They’re not exhausted. They had rallies that went on for minutes, it felt like, and just beautiful, beautiful shots and placements. And the crowd was full of school kids for that match. Oh, man. And they’re French. So there’s a French team and getting excited over every shot.
But I was sitting next to a British reporter, and the two of us, and I was so grateful he was next to me, because the two of us are, oh, oh, oh, because the shots were just so pretty and precise and fun. And Hewitt and Reid did win, 6 4, 6 3. The French gave them quite a scare at a few points, a lot of ads, a lot of juices, a lot of back and forth.
They’re fun. This is a fun doubles pair. They have been playing together quite a while and did talk, but didn’t need to. Very, it’s easier to see how well doubles players have to move with each other in wheelchair than with able bodied. Simply because they’re physically larger, they have to maneuver the chair.
I read something yesterday where somebody commented that this is all just on social media. Oh, I was watching wheelchair tennis. The tennis is so good. I don’t notice the wheelchair anymore. And somebody said to me in response that that’s an ableist statement. But I want to say this. The intent of that was how I felt today.
I was just watching good tennis. It didn’t matter on the one hand that it was wheelchair tennis. Yes. I noticed certain elements of it that were different, but as a fan, I was just getting excited over a drop shot. Yeah. And I don’t want to discount that. Paralympians have that other layer, but I also want to celebrate watch the sport because it’s good sport.
Yes. You love tennis. Why would you not watch wheelchair tennis because it’s good tennis?
Jill: Right. Just like we talked about wheelchair basketball last night. Amazing game to watch. It’s so, I mean, in terms of ball handling and all that, but wheelchair, I felt the same way. Like, I really loved being able to watch wheelchair tennis in person and seeing the, just the different, it’s, it’s the placement that they, that, and like any good tennis player will get just a massive placement.
has good power and force, and it’s just amazing. What did you think of the
Alison: complex? I loved the complex, actually. On the one hand, it doesn’t have, you know, the gravitas and distinctive architecture of, say, a Wimbledon. But it’s nicely laid out. All the courts had good sightlines, had, um, pleasant atmosphere.
It was big, but not overwhelming. The hardest part, once again, was walking from the train station to the accredited entrance, which was, of course, on the whole other side of the complex. But not as not too far from court 14, where I started my day. So it all worked out. The atmosphere was fantastic. People were moving between the different courts.
The Dutchman were following me, which was great. I’m not a huge crowd, but enough of a crowd and certainly a very engaged crowd. Lots of Brits because they had a lot of Brits to cheer for lots of Dutch and lots of flags. with people’s names on it, which I always think is great. A lot of children and not just school children, littles with their parents.
And which makes me think to them, wheelchair tennis is just going to be part of the sporting world in their brains because they’ve had this experience. And I ran into two little kids who were leaving when we were walking back to the train, and they were French and clearly Even though, yet again, I could only understand like two or three words coming outta this like seven or 8-year-old year old’s mouth.
This child just fell in love with wheelchair tennis. Aw. She had had the best day and that was so clear by the look on her face and the way she was talking about it. And it was, mommy, can I go back tomorrow? I think was, was what was happening there. And that’s, that’s the power of this event. Because she doesn’t, to her, it doesn’t matter that it’s Parasport.
She just had the best day watching all this, all these amazing players. And stuff she doesn’t see on the regular. And I got to, I got to see all of the wheelchair players I wanted to see in one day. And all three court, outside court, Langland and Chaudry, it was such a good day.
Jill: Good. Good. I’m very glad to be quite honest.
I’m so glad my trip to Roligaris.
Alison: This was like the one thing that I still had to do that was like, okay, can’t leave Paris without going to Roligaris. And then I just had this amazing, amazing day there. So awesome. Yay for wheelchair tennis.
Jill: You know what else is awesome? Who else is awesome? Our mascot
Alison: Waldo.
Yay. So Waldo loves to share in his mom’s yoga practice. So in the newsletter, there is a picture of posing Waldo.
Jill: Oh, I’ve seen these pictures and not, not the ones that you got, but now I remember seeing them. So yes, it’s fantastic.
Alison: Don’t know what we would call this pose, but I don’t think a human could replicate it unless they’re a very bendy human.
Ooh. Uh, he is also apparently a very vocal cat and listener Cindy. This is the best description. Describes his voice as very Kathleen Turner like. So apparently Waldo smokes.
Jill: But very special. No, because then I just got an image because if he was in France he would be vaping because there’s a lot of vaping here.
I just had this image of this cat with a cloud of vape smoking. With a beret. And a thing of vape in its paw. I’m sorry Cindy.
Alison: Well, special thanks to Cindy, who is probably regretting her choice for sharing Waldo with Shooklastan and supporting our Kickstarter campaign that got us to Paris. All right, how’s our metal table doing?
We added three golds today. So that makes nine golds, three silvers and two bronze. Excellent. Excellent, excellent. And we have
Jill: more action tomorrow in Shooklastan.
Alison: Allison Levine and partner Julian Chabano play for bronze against Thailand in the BC4 Mixed Team Tournament.
Jill: It’s another day, so it’s another Daniel Romanchuk race.
He’s going to be in the men’s T 54 at 800
Alison: meters.
Jill: Liana
Alison: Mutia competes in the J 1 under 57 kilogram class of para judo.
Jill: Mackenzie Cohen swims
Alison: in
Jill: the 50
Alison: meter
Jill: freestyle S8 class.
Alison: Alan Geddes fences in the women’s foil team event.
Jill: Ian Seidenfeld plays in the semifinals of the men’s singles
Alison: class six in para table tennis.
Team USA takes on Brazil in the semifinals of women’s sitting volleyball. And Brian Bell with Team
Jill: USA plays Canada in the semifinals of men’s wheelchair basketball. That is going to do it for this episode. Special thank
Alison: you to our researcher Elizabeth Emery. And you can get in touch with us on X YouTube and Instagram at flamealivepod.
Send us an email at flamealivepod at gmail. com. Call or text us at 208 352 6348. That’s 208 FLAME IT. Chat with us and other fans on our Facebook group, Keep the Flame Alive Podcast. And to get our special Daily Games Time newsletter, sign up at our website flamealivepod. com.
Jill: Hang on because we have tape from Noelle Malkamaki after this and me losing it in the mix zone.
Gold medalist, world record holder, Noelle Malkamaki. But after you listen to that, you should join us again tomorrow for more action from Paris. Please do not forget to tell a friend about the show and hang out with us in the Facebook group because it has been hopping and it is so much fun to be there.
Thank you so much for listening and until tomorrow, keep the flame alive. Oh my gosh, I’m gonna try not to cry. Oh my gosh, that was so amazing. oh my gosh. Bro, I gotta compose myself, bro. It was so good, oh my gosh, it was really good.
Noelle Malkamaki: Yeah, I’m, I’m really excited about this one. Um, I trained a lot this summer to get over, um, some, some mental hurdles with, you know, being able to push the distance on my throw and I feel like everything we were able to do led up to this moment perfectly.
I’m so happy that I was able to channel the excitement from the stadium into. Good throws, not, you know, uh, erratic throwing, but like real power and excitement. And I’ve really never had more fun at a meet in my entire life. And that, that’s my favorite part of it. And so
Jill: the first woman ever over 40 meters.
Oh,
Noelle Malkamaki: Whoa, that’s big. First time I’ve heard that. Yeah. Um, it’s huge. I’m so happy about it. I, uh, I woke up this morning and the goal this whole time has been to hit that 14 meters. And I was looking at the information I had given that it was given to me and I was the 14th thrower. I was like, yeah, we’re going to get this done today.
So. I’m super excited about that, yeah.
Jill: And twice, too.
Noelle Malkamaki: Yeah, that was, that’s what I’m really happy about is I think throwers talk a lot about consistency, you know, it only takes one throw to win a medal, but having a consistent series and being able to put, you know, several throws out there, I’m, I’m thrilled with that and I’m, I hate to say it already, but like excited to get back to work here in like a month.
Jill: Yeah, I was gonna say when you came in, what was your distance goal?
Noelle Malkamaki: Yeah, my distance goal was to hit the 14. I really, I kind of feel like I’ve been waiting on that for a long time. I felt like that in Paris last year that I should have been able to hit that then. And then there were a couple more meets throughout the year where it was getting frustrating that I wasn’t able to hit the 14.
So I think me and my coach kind of sat down and we’re thinking it’s time. It’s time to hit the 14. What do we need to do? I feel like I left no stone unturned in getting every small detail right. I’m just really happy it ended up translating.
Jill: Did you know how far it was going when it left your fingers?
Noelle Malkamaki: Ah, I know, that’s like the big thing every thrower says, I know it was gonna be good. Um, my best throw actually, I wish I had left my fingers better. So, but whatever, whatever. I could feel in my legs that there was a lot of power in it, and so I was happy with that. Um, depth perception can be a bit tricky with throwing, so I saw the mark, I was happy with it, and it was like, okay, let’s see what that actually ended up being.
But, definitely felt like a lot of power in that throw that I was happy with.
Jill: Can
Noelle Malkamaki: I
Jill: just ask you about your tattoo?
Noelle Malkamaki: Of course, yeah! This is, uh, 1951, that’s the year that my papa was born, and he died a couple years ago, so. Yep.
Jill: Yeah,
Noelle Malkamaki: exactly. These are the birth flowers of all my grandparents, actually. Wow.
And, uh, the three that are alive are here with me today, so. Great. Yeah, really exciting. How many, yeah,
Jill: whole family came out,
Noelle Malkamaki: or? Yeah, how many? I think it’s like, eleven? Eleven people. So I’ve got my husband, my mom and dad, my sister. Grammy, Grandpa, Grandma, and some, uh, like more distant aunts that came out too.
So, it’s just huge. That means the world to me that they would come out to see this.
Jill: I was going to say, what’s the celebration going to be like?
Noelle Malkamaki: Oh man. I don’t
Jill: know what to say. No, I’m
Noelle Malkamaki: just, I’m excited to enjoy Europe with them. Uh, my, my parents haven’t been out of the country. My husband hasn’t been out of the country.
This was like, The first time ever. So we’ve got a couple more days in Paris, then we’re going to Rome. So little, a little vacation is how we’re gonna just spend some family time to celebrate. And that’s, that’s all I could have really asked for. So. Nice. Nice. Of course. Thank you. Um, you know, just you’re
Jill: bringing the class to a new level.
Does that sink in, like, what you’re doing to change your event?
Noelle Malkamaki: Yeah, that’s, I love that question. I think we can get really, as athletes, we can get really caught up in, I’m just trying to do the best I can for me. And there’s a time and a place for that, but when you get into a stadium like this, and it’s packed, and there’s people that want to watch, and you talk to your, the people that are in your competition with you, it kind of sinks in that this is a lot bigger than just one athlete.
Um, it, It is a burden that I’m happy to carry, to try to push the limits of what’s possible, you know. How far can you throw a shot put with one hand? I want to figure that out, you know. So yeah, I, it’s a daunting task, but I’m up for the challenge of just seeing how much we can raise the, the limit there.
Yeah.
Jill: Because a lot of people got personal bests today, and I don’t know what, like, what’s adrenaline versus what’s like, oh, we have a new standard. Well, and
Noelle Malkamaki: that’s the thing is like, uh, at some of the meets that I’ve been to, the, the throwing events can be a little bit dead. You know, it’s hard to get energy into those.
People do a lot better when everyone is amped up, right? So it can start with just one person. One or two people having fun can change the competition completely. And I think we have to bring back that joy and competition and it helps everyone do better. Obviously, you know,