It’s been a rainy Day 8 at the Paris 2024 Paralympics, but that did not dampen our spirits, even if it soaked our socks. Jill spent the day at the Eiffel Tower/Champs de Mars stadium complex, in part to see TKFLASTANI Liana Mutia compete in para judo, but also to catch some more blind football. Meanwhile, Alison had a team sports day with wheelchair basketball and sitting volleyball.
Sports on today’s program:
- Blind Football
- Boccia
- Goalball
- Para Archery
- Para Athletics
- Para Cycling Road
- Para Judo
- 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 Do not quote from the transcript; use the audio as the record of note.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 8
Jill: Bonjour and welcome to day eight of the Paris 2024 Paralympics on Keep the Flame Alive, the podcast for fans of the Olympics and Paralympics. I am your host, Jill Jaracz, coming to you from the Hotel du Podcast, joined as always by my lovely co host, Alison Brown. Alison, bonjour, ça
Alison: va? I think you’re going to start writing the podcast on a legal pad.
Cuz we’ve been having a lot of technical issues and you’re like Andrew Joyce told me the legal pad with a Ballpoint pen is the way to go
Jill: honest to Pete My phone crapped out the phone seems to be better. I can’t get into The MyInfo system on a regular Chrome tab because I get a 502 bad gateway, which I’ve been trying to fix to no avail, so I have to go incognito on that.
And then we went to tape tonight and a recorder crapped out too, so thank goodness for backups.
Alison: We have a lot of backups. We have a backup mic, we have a backup recorder.
Jill: And I am grumpy because it rained today. It rained really hard. You
Alison: know, it reminds us that we really haven’t had that much bad weather to deal with.
The heat, but not rain and thunderstorm. A couple of days, but today was not fun to get around.
Jill: No, not fun at all, because when it rains here, we are really in a concrete jungle. Like, there is very little grass around this place.
Alison: And in the train this morning, and I’ve seen it the other days that it rains, they have to push the water off the train.
the walkways because the walkways don’t drain. When this, when it rains in the city, it is so slippery everywhere.
Jill: Yes. And it’s like instant flooding. It’s unbelievable. I was at a first, I was walking through the rain to get to the Shambhala Mars Eiffel Tower complex, which is, that’s where I spent my entire day today.
And then of course that complex is kind of a park in between the two. A lot of the park is big, wide, dirt, crushed stone pathways that were now mud and, uh, the, uh, plastic walkways, which were, are decent, they’re really decent ones at this complex. Yes. But they were flooded out too.
Alison: Yeah, they can only handle so much.
I mean, and this was a lot of rain in a short period of time.
Jill: So I got, my feet were all wet by the time I got to Judo and they stayed wet all day. I did not bring my sweatshirt with me because I thought I don’t want to get that soaked. And, uh, the Chewtorian was really cold today. It got cold. So I was grumpy about that.
And then, I just kept missing stuff because I went to blind football too. To finally get to enjoy a fair amount of blind football, which I didn’t really enjoy. So I saw, uh, like a few minutes of one game. Went back over to the Jump to Mars, uh, Came back, was at the Venue Media Center, uh, and then, as I leave the Venue Media Center, I hear the roar from the crowd.
Because it’s France Colombia. And I go, well, I’ve missed something there. And sure enough, I get to, over to, uh, the blind football arena. And people are coming out, so I’ve missed that game. And then I stayed for Argentina and Brazil, and I’m so cold. It, it’s beautiful now. The, it’s not raining, but everything is still a little bit wet.
So, you’ve got that, and it’s cold, and I’m damp. Things are damp, and, uh, it was, it was a good game, but I was like, I’m staying to see a goal! That’s what I wanted to do, and then it went into a shootout. Which
Alison: was a very good shootout, I saw, I had it on here when I came back to the hotel room.
Jill: But, I’m cranky.
How, did you have a better day than me, please? I did. Good.
Alison: And we will get
Jill: to all of that. Alright, let’s begin the baguette. I would like to say kudos to the Cleveland Plain dealer, because Uh, I had a lot of table time today at the, in the press tribunes. We don’t always get a lot of table time. So I had enough time to look at the e version of the paper, and they’ve been having, every now and then, Paralympic wrap ups in the sports section.
Or medal tables. Like a plain dealer. I know. I know. And we, I mean, they had an, also had an article on Brittany Mason, who is from Cleveland. She got silver in, uh, in an athletics race. And I was impressed. I could not believe that. And we have seen Nick Mayhew on social call out Bleacher Report and ESPN for being at the Olympics and not being here.
Alison: He’s right. I mean, we see it.
Jill: Yeah, everybody cleared out. There, there are some people here, but not, not very many. Not comparatively.
Alison: You know who didn’t clear out? My friend Andrea Joyce. I know,
Jill: I know. Because you saw her today. I did see Andrea Joyce. She was with her people and working and chatting And I was like, oh, this is Andrea Joyce, but you actually talked with her.
Alison: I did. I have
Jill: her phone
Alison: number. I know
Jill: So
Alison: excited. I still can’t believe that happened
Jill: And she was lovely to you and i’m sure if I talked to her she would have been lovely to me I think she just is
Alison: lovely.
Jill: Hopefully she’ll be on the show Um Do you have anything cultural that happened to you today?
Alison: No, I was going to go for the fancy ice cream that you were sending me to, but I couldn’t do it in the rain because there’s another island in the city that I didn’t know about and I couldn’t walk over there because there was, the whole street was flooded.
And I said, no, thank you. I do love me some ice cream, but not that much.
Jill: Right. So there is this really good ice cream place called Bertillion and I could be mispronouncing that. It could be Bertillion. I don’t even know, but, um, Ben and I, Ben and I were told about that and we couldn’t go because they were closed for like vacation.
Alison: I think they were closed. All of August. It
Jill: could
Alison: have been. Because even when we got to our hotel, which is relatively close, they were still not open. Correct. So I think that has just come to pass this week, that they are back open. And they are open for very limited days, very limited hours.
Jill: Right. 10 to 8, like Wednesday through I think it’s 10 to 6.
Oh my gosh. Wow. And so, they have The ice cream is delicious because you will find it at different restaurants in the city and Ben and I had stumbled upon a restaurant Which is that’s and he was like, this is the best ice cream I have ever had and it’s it is really really good And they do other inventive things because we had like chocolate and vanilla and we were perfectly happy
Alison: So, you know how rain how bad the rain was because I didn’t traverse it to get the best ice cream that Ben has ever had.
So it was, it was a floody kind of day.
Jill: Yeah. And I will tell you when it rains, we are in a concrete jungle. Like they don’t have much in the way of grass. It’s really strange. I think they’ve got all these gardens around here and there. And all of the gardens also have massively wide crushed stone paths that instantly turned into mud.
And I was in the Champs de Mars, Eiffel Tower complex today, and it was a nightmare. That’s how I got my super wet shoes. I’m also trying to jump across rivers in the gutter because there’s nowhere for the water to drain.
Alison: I’m sorry.
Jill: What volunteer job or officiating job would you like to do today?
Alison: So I went to sitting volleyball, and I had a few options.
So one was the prosthetic handler. Oh. With a basket, with a rolling basket. So that combined my love of a rolling basket and the handling of prosthetics. So she lined them up in the basket because they switch sides.
Jill: Right, and they need to have them rolled over. And so
Alison: she was rolling the prosthetic cart
Jill: back and
Alison: forth if the players, generally they don’t put their prosthetic back on.
One woman I noticed when she wasn’t playing kept her prosthetic on. I guess that’s just how she’s comfortable. Uh, most of them don’t. But, she was Johnny on the spot with the prosthetics. The second option would be, there was, there were two cameras set up shooting the spectators. And there’s a hype woman.
There was a volunteer who was being a hype woman for the crowd for the camera man. Nice. I said, that’s a nice gig. She was working with the Brazilian crowd. Oh, well. So she didn’t have to do a heck of a lot.
Jill: No, no. It’s a simple job when you got the Brazilians around. I was at Judo. First day for Judo. First day, second day.
It’s early on in the Judo competition. And uh, one of the things that struck me as interesting and odd for a volunteer to do was as I am sitting in the press tribune, asked to see my credential.
Alison: I’ve been getting that. almost every day, that when I’m hitting press tribunes, my credentials are checked. And they were not during the Olympics.
No. They barely glance at them. And I think maybe because there’s so few, they don’t actually believe us.
Jill: Maybe not. And I, or because in judo, there are regular fans kind of intermingled and also, you know, people from sitting, uh, not sitting by ball, uh, blind soccer were coming over into the press tribune to take pictures in front of the Eiffel Tower because it’s a beautiful shot and they got shooed away.
But, you know, if I have a computer and all of my stuff laid out, plus like two meals, what makes you think that I shouldn’t be there?
Alison: Well, it seems, it also seems, because I’ve seen this happen, Which type of press determines which table you’re at. That’s very true. So, I sat, I sat in the normal press tribune, and then someone who had a press pass sat next to me, but not the right kind.
Oh. I think he was press for the federation, and he got shooed away from my table.
Jill: Yeah, because they have a special table. Yes. That’s clearly marked. So, I, I don’t know. But it was, it was strange to me. Especially coming in just a few days before we close.
Alison: It’s strange that, I mean, and I know they’ve shrunk a lot of the tribunes, but you would have thought that during the Olympics that would have been the time to be really strict and check.
Today in, uh, wheelchair basketball, my credential got checked frequently, like each step of the way. Maybe it’s because I had a lot of stuff and they couldn’t see it quite so clearly. Oh. Maybe that’s the issue. Maybe we’re wearing too many clothes. We’ll just go naked and wear the credential.
Jill: Oh man. Who wants to see that?
Oh boy. Um, my other option from Judo was During the medal ceremonies, there’s 1924 people who are guiding the athletes because it’s a visually impaired class. So, they’re with them every step of the way, and I would like to be one of those people.
Alison: Oh, that’s a very sensitive job. I mean, sensitive in the sense of, of, like an emotional, because that moment is so emotional.
Exactly. That surprises me that you’d want to do that, actually. I’d like to try. You’d be good at it. You think? Thank you. I do.
Jill: Not today. I can tell you that. Just get up there!
Alison: Step high! Just get your darn middle and stop complaining! You won, Shumpton! Have a freeze!
Jill: What 1980s person are you imitating today?
Alison: Thank you so much, by the way, to listener Patrick for posting the Dennis Eckersley video to our Facebook page. I really appreciated that. Do you know how much love Dennis Eckersley got on our Facebook page today?
Jill: I hope a lot. He’s the next Olympian.
Alison: And I so appreciated that people knew who he was and that I’m not that old.
Jill: Well, uh, as you have heard that our, all of our technical gear seems to be crapping out. We really could use your help and financial support to keep this, to keep our flame alive. To keep us going. Right? And, uh, not just now, we keep going all throughout the downtime in between games, so. When the call turns out, we still go, as long as we are financially able to do so.
This, uh, we are an independent podcast, and that means we are also independently funded. As, uh, you’ve heard us say, Nick Mayhew is not thrilled with big media outlets not being here for the Paralympics and giving the Paralympics their due. We are one of the few who will, and if you appreciate Paralympic coverage, we We would appreciate you slidin a little cash our way to help make sure this, uh, podcast stays afloat.
So, we’ve got a variety of ways to support us at flamealivepod. com slash support. If you would like to be an ongoing supporter, ongoing patron, we have a Patreon. All paid patrons during the games get an exclusive photo. And if you are at the 5 a month level and up, Uh, you get some extra video. Uh, and, uh, audio sometimes as well.
Uh, I’ve got some video from Blind Football that’s gonna go up tonight. Keeping us afloat during the flood. That is, that is true. And, and it’s a, uh, one of the, it’s a halftime show. The halftime show, that was really cool. If you, if you missed any kind of Asian drumming, we’ve got you covered.
Alison: I didn’t see any Asian drumming.
Jill: Well, you’re gonna have to go back. Okay. If you can, I don’t know. Daily results. Speaking of blind football, let’s start there. Um, in case you’re wondering why we, uh, call it blind football, because it changed its name. It was football five a side, uh, in Tokyo. Now it’s blind football, which I think encapsulates it more.
It’s easier to understand.
Alison: Yeah, football five a side makes it sound like it’s rugby sevens, that it’s just a smaller version of rugby sevens. Olympic football and that’s not what it is at all.
Jill: No, it’s just, it’s, it’s really, really different. Um, we also have a, a different format of a game this time. It’s two 15 minute halves with a 10 minute break instead of 20 minute halves.
So I’m curious as to why they did that. I would imagine some of it could be mentally taxing because you’re listening, you have a lot of input coming in. But Uh, I’d be curious to know if, uh, listener Eugene, if you’ve got any insight there, drop us a line. Uh, so tonight we had a bunch of matches. We had classification matches first.
Turkey beat Japan 2 0 and China beat Morocco 1 0. Then we had the semi finals. I missed France beating Colombia. 1 0.
Alison: Well, you did see the replay on Kelju this evening.
Jill: Yeah, yeah, I know. I know. But I love it when replaying that goal. When they say merci to all the, the team, that’s, that gets me right there.
And then we had a repeat in the other semifinal of last year’s, or last year’s, last Olympics, last Paralympics gold medal match. And that was Brazil and Argentina. Last time, Brazil won. This time, Argentina won.
Alison: In a shootout?
Jill: Yes, and I was there for this game. It was really exciting. A really fast game.
Really amazing ball handling from these two. And, uh, 0 0. Got to the end. And then it was a 4 3 shootout, I believe, for Argentina to take the victory.
Alison: Let me ask you this, because I saw Columbia and Argentina. Uh, and you saw Argentina and Brazil. Did you get that, this is a South American soccer game, Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.
Jill: Yes, right? Silent wave kept going around the, around the stadium. And then when play stopped, it would get loud again. And then it would be like, then everyone would quiet down. It was a lot of fun. Even though the stadium wasn’t, Super full. It was pretty full. I was impressed that there were as many people that were there on a crummy night on a weekday.
But they’ve, I think this country or this city has really embraced blind football as a sport. And I think that’s really cool. Everyone’s having a good time except the poor Brazilians tonight. I was talking with a volunteer who said, I’m cheering for Brazil because I’m Brazilian, but I lived in Argentina for a while.
So she didn’t know quite who to cheer for. So either
Alison: she couldn’t win or she couldn’t lose. That’s true,
Jill: that’s true. But a lot of fun, so we will see. France and Argentina battle it out for the gold medal. That will be amazing. And then Colombia and Brazil will play for the bronze, and I believe that’s Colombia’s first time in the tournament.
So that’s going to be, uh, really nice that they’ve done so well in this, uh, sport. In Bacha, we had some mixed team and mixed pair medals happening today. So the mixed team BC1 and BC2 class, gold went to China’s Lang Zhijian, Yang Zhijian, and Zhang Qi. Silver went to Indonesia, the team of Mohamed Siafah.
Uh, Felix Arte Yuda and, uh, Gisha Sayana, and Bronze went to Japan, the team of Endo Hiromi, Hiroshi Takayuki, and, uh, Sugimura Hit, uh, Hidetaka. In the Mixed Pair BC class, BC3. I’m sorry, thank you. Uh, Gold went to Hong Kong, the team of Ho Huynh Ke with ramp operator Lee Win Kit, and Tse Tak Wah with ramp operator Lao Wai Kee.
Silver went to Korea, the team of Jung Ho Won with ramp operator Kim Seung Kim, and Kang Seung Hee with ramp operator Park Se il. And then Argentina took the bronze. The team of Stefania Ferrando with ramp operator Juan Ferreira and Rodrigo Romero with ramp operator Leandro Viagra. And then we have the mixed pair BC4 class, which our Allison Levine is in.
Gold went to Colombia. Chica, Chica, Chica, Chica. That’s right, Edison and Lady. They are brother and
Alison: sister.
Jill: Silver went to Hong Kong’s, uh, Cheung Nguyen and Leung Yuk Win. And Bronze went to Palm Chuk Larpien and uh, Nguyen Chan Phan Sila from Thailand, which means
Alison: They beat. Allison Levine and Julian Shibano, 6 1.
And it was pretty decisive. I mean, going through the ends, it’s 0 1, So consistently throughout, they just got a score, a score, a score. You know, there weren’t any really dramatic moments. It was just that kind of slow drip, uh, to beat them.
Jill: That’s tough. We’re sorry, Allison. It’s, it’s not been What you hoped for games so hopefully, uh, Hopefully you’ve had fun in other ways though I will say that we’ll hopefully be touching base with you soon to see what you think And in goalball we had the uh, we had metal matches today today goalball ended.
Uh, so, uh for the men Japan beat ukraine four to three for the gold and then brazil beat china five to three for the bronze And then in the women’s tournament Uh, Turkey beat Israel eight to three for the gold medal. And then, China beat Brazil six to zero for the bronze.
Alison: Uh, that Japan Ukraine game went into overtime.
Jill: Wow.
Alison: It was very, very close. The Paralympics, uh, official account was posting on threads when I happened to be on it during this game. And they posted a picture of the Friege biting his fingers because this game was so incredibly close.
Jill: Wow. Nice way to end it though. It’s been a great
Alison: tournament.
Jill: In Para Archery we had the mixed team recurve open.
Gold to Italy, silver to Turkey, and bronze to Slovenia. Then over in Para Athletics we have a lot of stuff going on as per usual. We had several women’s shot put classes. So we start with F 35, which is moderate affected movement coordination of legs. Gold goes to, uh, Maria Pomazan from Ukraine, silver to Wang Jun from China, and bronze to Anna Nicholson from Great Britain.
Then we have the F 57 class, uh, that’s, uh, uh, affect, uh, Uh, affects the, uh, legs or feet. Gold goes to Saifa Jalal from, uh, Algeria with a Paralympic record. Silver to Zhu Mian from China and bronze to Nassima Saifi from Algeria. I heard Algeria’s national anthem today. They’ve, they’ve, uh, done some cleaning up today.
Nice! Nice! In the women’s shot put F 64 class, which is another lower leg, uh, impairment, gold to China’s Yao Huan, silver to, uh, Arielle Middleton from USA, who got a personal best, and bronze to Yang Hui from China. In the F 33, how many shot puts are we having today? Wow. There’s
Alison: more, because the men had some shot put too.
Wow.
Jill: Wow. Uh, women’s shot put F 33 class, which is, uh, affects the whole body. Gold to China’s Wu Ching with the Paralympic record. Silver to, uh, Gilda Guadalupe Cora from Mexico and bronze to Svetlana Cnik from neutral athletes with a para, uh, personal best in the men. They had the F 35 class, which is a leg class.
Gold goes to, uh, Kusnadin Norbikov from Uzbekistan with a Paralympic record. Silver to Hernan Emmanuel Ura from Argentina. And bronze to seyed Alishgar Javanmardi from Iran.
In Men’s Discus, they had two different classes today. First we had the F11, which is a visually impaired class. Gold to Onne Tapia from Italy, silver to Hassan, uh, from Iran with the personal best and bronze to Alvaro del Ano from Spain who also got a personal best. And then we have the F 64 class, which is the absence of one leg below the knee gold to Jeremy Campbell from us with the Paralympic record Silver to Akeem Stewart from Trinidad and Tobago and Bronze to David Blair from the us.
And then last throwing event today was the Men’s Javelin F 13 class, which is a visually impaired class. Gold to Daniel Pembroke from Great Britain with a world record. Silver to Ali Perouge from Iran. And bronze to Ulysser Aguilera Cruz from Cuba.
Alison: I happened to see this on the TV while we were sitting here and I didn’t realize it Because obviously the, our TV’s in French and I didn’t get all of it.
I didn’t realize it was a, uh, a visual class. Oh. Because these guys were throwing that javelin. Like it was nothing. it was a really good competition. So I am not surprised that there was a world record.
Jill: In jumps we have two women’s long jump classes. We have the T 38 which is, lower limb impairment or one side or all body.
Gold goes to Luca Ekler from Hungary who got a personal best. Silver to Nela Moos from Germany with a personal best. And bronze to Karen Tatiana Palomich Moreno from Colombia. And in the T30, T63 class which is, uh, Missing one leg above the knee, gold goes to Vanessa Lowe from Australia with a world record, silver to Martina Chironi from Italy, and bronze to Elena Krater from Switzerland.
On the track we have a men’s 100 T11 class, a visually impaired class, with a guide runner. Gold to Anastasios Gavalis from Greece with his guide Yanis Nifantopoulos. Silver goes to Timothy, Timothy, Timothy Adolph from France with his guide Charles Renau and bronze 2, China’s Ding Dong Dong with guide Lianjie Yang. We saw this on Kelju. Or the, just the end of the, the evening coverage. Yes, because Timothee, as a, as a
Alison: France, a, uh, medalist, appeared on Keljou this evening.
Jill: That’s right. With, we’ve, we’ve discussed, um, we’ve, and by we I mean I, have decided that the host’s name is Carolyn Moneau.
Caroline Manon. Caroline
Alison: Manon.
Jill: Uh, in the men’s 400 meter, we also have two different visual impairment classes with different levels of vision ability. In the T12, gold goes to Mounsef Bouja from Morocco, silver to Noah Malone from the U. S. and bronze to Roy Jabably from Tunisia. So, and then in the T13 class, for joining us.
Gold goes to Skandar Jamali, uh, Athmani from Algeria, silver to Fukunaga Ryota from Japan, and bronze to Bunderbrenner Bermudez Villar from Colombia.
Alison: So if you see any of these metal Uh, podiums with Columbia. You gotta check out the print.
Jill: There you go. There you go. And we have, uh, two men’s 800 meter races in, uh, two different wheelchair classes.
In the T53, gold goes to Brent, uh, Lakatos. from Canada. Did I say that right? You did. Oh, thank you. Uh, silver goes to Pong Sakam Paeo from Thailand and bronze to Brian Seaman from the U. S. Thank goodness Brian Seaman who I talked with in the mix zone. I’m glad you got a metal buddy. This
Alison: is, no, I think this is, uh, bronze number two.
Jill: Oh, that’s good because he’s, he’s had a couple of tough races, uh, then in the, what I will call the Daniel Romanchuk class, uh, gold goes to, uh, this is also 800 meters, gold goes to China’s Jing Hua with a Paralympic record, silver to China’s Dey Yongchang with a Paralympic, uh, personal best, and bronze to Marcel Hug from Switzerland.
This is his third medal of the games, he’s got one bronze and two silvers. But
Alison: no gold.
Jill: Not yet. This is true. We don’t know. We don’t know. He’s got more. And then our Daniel Romanchuk finished in fifth. And we have two women’s 100 meter races, uh, T37 class, which is one side impairment, gold to Wang Xiaoyang with, from China with a Paralympic record, silver to Taylor Swanson from the U.
- and bronze to Jaylene Roberts from the U. S. Then we have the T12 class, which is a visual impairment. Gold to Omara Durand Elias from Cuba with guide, uh, Eunil Kindlon Vargas. I recognize that name, I think. Maybe an Olympian. I don’t know.
Alison: I’ll look it up right now.
Jill: Uh, then, uh, silver goes to Oksana Boturchuk from Ukraine with guide, uh, Makeda Barbanov.
And a bronze to Katrin Müller Rothgart with, from Germany, with guide Noelle Philippe Feener. And then we have a couple of women’s 400 meter races. They are both in wheelchair classes. Gold in the T53 goes to Katarin Debruner with a Paralympic record. This is her fifth medal of the game. She has four. This
Alison: is the Debruner class.
Jill: Yeah, this is the Debruner class. Four golds and one silver for her so far. Silver goes to Samantha Kinghorn from Great Britain and bronze to Zhao Hongxuan, I’m guessing from China. And then in the T54 class, gold to, uh, Lea Baiut. Viacoula from Belgium, silver to Manuela Scher from Switzerland, and bronze to China’s Zhao Jiang, Zhao Chang.
Uh, this is Tatiana McFadden’s class.
Alison: So she originally won bronze and did all the pictures and did all the celebrations and then was dequeued for a lane infringement.
Jill: Ouch. That’s, that’s not fun to deal with.
Moving over to Paracycling Road.
Alison: If you think you didn’t want it to rain today, I have a whole bunch of people who wanted it to not rain more than we did.
Jill: Yeah, I’m, I’m with you on that. These poor people. So,
Alison: most of these races were postponed and, and started later than they were supposed to because when we got up this morning there was lightning.
Jill: Yeah, and they can’t do that. They
Alison: can’t do that, but. Once there’s no more lightning, they don’t care that it’s pouring. And we saw some crashes on the replays. I think just because, going back to what you said, concrete jungle, flooding.
Jill: Cobblestones, probably. Cobblestones.
Alison: Everything is very slippery. I don’t know what this city is made of, but everywhere I walked today, I thought I was going to take a header.
Jill: Well, let’s just keep up with the 80s reference, because we built this city on slip and slides. We built this city.
Alison: So, be careful, we’re going to have to pay royalties if you keep singing. Um, but, We built this city. So, this was a rough day for racing for, um, all the cyclists.
Jill: Uh, so we had
Alison: all hand cycling today.
Jill: So men’s H 1 2 road race, gold to Florian Jouany, Jouany,
Alison: Jouany
Jill: from France. So that made big headlines here, Kelsue, uh, appearance of course, silver to, uh, Sergio Garote Munoz from, uh, Spain and bronze to Luca Mazzoni from Italy in the H 3 gold to Matthew. Thank you. Beaujolais from France, silver to Johan Quale from France, and bronze to Mirka Tesko from Mirko Testa from Italy.
France, France, France. I know. It was a good day for France on the cycles. In the H4, gold to Jitsa Platt from Netherlands. Silver to Tomas Fruvert from Austria. And bronze to Rafał Wilk from Poland. In the H5, we had gold going to Miecz Waliz from Netherlands. Silver to Loic Vernot from France. And bronze to Pavlo Bal from Ukraine.
And then the women had a combined H1 through 4 class. Gold to Lauren Parker from Australia. Silver to Jeanette Janssen from Netherlands. And bronze to Annika Zayn Giles from Germany. Uh, Janssen, silver medalist, got lost in the woods. I, I, I don’t know quite how this happened. Actually, I do know how this happens.
There were signs on where to go until there weren’t. That’s my guess.
Alison: And the volunteers weren’t there to point her in the right direction.
Jill: Right, right. But she managed to get back on track and get the silver, so good for her. And then in the Women’s H5 class, this is the Oksana Masters class, she won gold for the U.
S., silver went to Sun Bian from China, and bronze went to Ana Maria Vitellaru from Italy. Parajudo, where I was at.
Alison: You were hanging out there today. What did you think?
Jill: I figured out how to watch judo. And that is, pick one mat and wear binoculars. Use your binoculars. Because then you focus on that one mat. lot easier. Yeah, yeah. Because I can see how the distractions happen. This looked like, um, able bodied judo, for sure. Parajudo is only a visually impaired sport. And when we talked with With Liana, we were talking about Paritudo, there’s, um, in the setup, the, they had to put the hands on each other, and we were like, ooh, somebody else put your hands, because we were told that the ref puts the hands on, and that seemed a little weird.
No, no, no, the ref is really hands off, so what they do is, when they go on to the mats, they offer elbows, and the, um, athletes take the elbow. Some of them need, uh, the, the class that Leanna is in, there’s J1 and J2. Her class has big red dots on their name, on the, that’s the name sticker on the back of their gi, and that signifies that they need a guide or may really need a guide.
So, uh, for those classes, they’ll have the referee stick their elbows out. They can take the elbows. When, uh, they get ready, the athletes take each other’s gis, and if they’re in the wrong position, the ref will just tap them. So, it’s more of a guiding thing than it is, I’m going to put your hands where they’re supposed to be.
Alison: Right, because that, when we had that discussion, it was confusing to us, and then obviously you see it and it makes sense. But the idea that there was so much guidance as to make the competition not as competitive, and that doesn’t sound like that’s what’s happening. No, no, no,
Jill: no. Everybody knew where to go, so that wasn’t a big deal.
The back stickers, they have ads on them, sponsor names on them. Really? Yeah, different ones. So they’re, uh, they kind of cycle through the, the sponsors. So that’s interesting as well.
Alison: We have to have a discussion with the IPC.
Jill: Yeah.
Alison: About. How this worked. How this worked with the agreement with the Olympics and how it’s working going forward.
Jill: Mm hmm.
Alison: Because it feels like a lot. It feels like a lot of, the more venues I go to, the more events I see. It feels like a lot of sponsor names. in a lot of places.
Jill: I do see more and more sponsor names, but it still feels to me as very tasteful. It’s not, it’s not, I, I remember it vividly from Pyeongchang 2018 in the shift from Olympics to Paralympics because the sponsor names were everywhere.
And this I feel that yeah, they’re on the track. Yeah, they’re on the the venue. They may be a couple other places, but they’re on the courts.
Alison: Yeah, they’re on the court, which I find very obvious
Jill: So I’m very curious how this this worked
All in judo, we had, uh, men’s, uh, up to 60 kilograms for J one class. Gold went to ab del Katter, uh, Bomer from Algeria Silver to Ed Meum Banaba, Krum body from Iran and Bronzes ’cause this is another one where they had two bronze medals. Uh, bronzes went to Venezuela’s Marco Dennis Blanco and India’s Kapil Palmer in the, uh, up to 60 kilograms J two class.
Gold went to Shirzad Namazov from Uzbekistan, silver to Zorab Zurabani from Georgia, and bronzes to Ishak Woldkoldir and, uh, from Algeria, and, uh, David Korava from Ukraine. Ukraine was on the podium a lot today.
Alison: And Algeria, apparently. Yes,
Jill: and Algeria. But, uh, yeah, it was a pretty emotional day for Ukraine.
And the women’s up to 48 kilograms for the J 1 class. Uh, gold went to Ukraine’s Natalia, uh, Nikolaychik. Silver went to Hangai Shizuka from Japan. Bronzes went to Rosa Clayda, Silver de Andraja, and Turkey’s Ecem Tanzen Kavdar. All of these matches were won by Ippon fairly quickly, which is when they flip them over on their back and the match is over.
Alison: Oh, yes! Yeah. Where the, I didn’t know what had happened and all of a sudden the match is over.
Jill: Exactly. Exactly. That’s this. And in the women’s up to 48 kilogram J2 class. Uh, this is the class with Sandrine Martinet from, Martinet from France. And she’s 41 years old. This is her, uh, sixth games. She is the first French Judoka to get four medals.
I walked into, first off, she won very well in her quarterfinal and semifinals. When, when, uh Uh, well, in the semifinals it was a golden score, which means overtime, and first one to score wins. So that’s always tough when you have that happen, but then when she was leaving the mat they played, There she goes!
Oh, wow. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That was really, really cute. Um, and then for, uh, the medal round matches, Bronzes were first. Uh, So they had, uh, bronzes. I’m going to do this in backwards order. Bronzes went to, uh, Kahid Eke from Turkey and Li Qing from China. Gold medal match. This, this felt like a changing of the guard to me.
Because, uh, Martinet is 41 years old. Uh, the gold medal winner that she faced, oh wait, I, I spoiled it for you, she faced uh, Akamar Naalbek from Kazakhstan who’s 25 years old. It’s that
Alison: generational change that she probably, uh, Martinette was probably her judo hero and now she defeats her in that, in that match.
Jill: And it, it really, oh, uh, Naalbek was really strong. She, you could see the drive in her. And not that Sandrine didn’t have it, but, uh, it was really impressive. I walked into the final session and saw something I had not seen before, which is They have fan sections in every venue for the French fans to be super French fans.
Alison: And if you’ve seen on television the giant heads, that’s the special fan zone where they give them the giant heads and banners and sometimes noise makers. They really are supposed to get into it.
Jill: And it doesn’t take much for the French to get into it. But I walk into the venue, every seat has a flag on it.
And I was just blown away.
Alison: Did you snag a flag?
Jill: No, because I wasn’t in a seat and I didn’t want to take somebody’s flag away from them.
Alison: I’m ashamed, I’m ashamed of your lack of crime activity. That would have been a good crime.
Jill: Next time, I guess. Then we had the J1 class and the up to 57 kilograms, which is our Liana Mutia’s class. Liana had really good bouts in leading up to the finals. Her first bout, she got her opponent in Ipan in seven seconds. It was, it was really like over before you knew what was happening. Her second opponent was, um, harder.
She faced, uh. Oh, did it
Alison: last eight
Jill: seconds? No, no, no. She, it went the full time. Oh, nice. She faced Angela, uh, Havryashuk from Ukraine. She won by Waza ari. Liana did, which means that she just got one point. She got part of a shoulder down. And that came at the very end of the bout. And, uh, Havirsuk had a little bit more height on Liana, so it was really hard for Liana to get in leg sweeps and do that, but she ended up winning.
Got to the medal round. Liana gets behind quickly because, uh, the, uh, woman she was facing, She, She Yi Chae. And, uh, She got her, uh, down pretty quickly and got a point, and then not too long after that got Ipon. The, the cool thing was, like, Leanna was all smiles. It looked like they were buddies off the mat.
And lifted her up in the air and swung her around. That was, it was really, really sweet. So, nice to see that joy and happiness for each other. Losing. We’ve talked about this all the time. Losing a gold medal and getting the silver in a head to head match is really tough.
Alison: Right, because you, you lose and are probably experiencing the worst loss of, of the tournament and then you have to go receive your silver medal.
Right. And you want to be happy about the silver medal because it’s still a silver medal. You still beat everybody else, but you lost in this moment right before.
Jill: Moving over to Parapowerlifting. We had women’s up to the 50 kilogram final. Gold goes to, uh, Clara Sari, Fuentes Monasterio from Venezuela, silver to Xiaoxin Jiping from China and bronze to Olivia Broome from Great Britain.
Alison: She swept up.
Jill: Oh man. In the women’s up to 55 kilogram final, gold goes to Rehad Ahmed from Egypt, silver to Bejra Duman from Turkey and bronze to Mohsen Bakhtiar from Iran. In the men’s up to 59 kilograms. Final gold goes to Mohamed Elm from Egypt, silver to Ching Yang Kai from China and bronze to Bhati from Iran.
And finally in the men’s up to 65 kilogram final. China’s xo y won gold silver to Mark Swan from Great Britain and bronze to Hosni Betar from Algeria. You know,
Alison: I’m
Jill: beginning to wonder.
Alison: Because all of a sudden we’re saying Algeria, and it’s kind of like when you buy a car, a red car, and then you see red cars everywhere.
Like if, because you said Algeria did well today, now we’re just totally focused on Algeria. But they did do well today.
Jill: They did. It’s kind of exciting. Uh, in Paris swimming, we had a whole bunch of races as per usual, because it’s a swimming pool and it’s a popular sport. S8, which is the, a lot of different body types and amount of limbs class.
We had the 50 meter. Don’t laugh at me, I’m trying really hard to.
Alison: No, no. And you’re doing an excellent job with some of these classes that are very hard to explain and we’re trying to make the distinction and explain, but different number of limbs. There’s only, there are four options, I guess. Actually, there are five options because you could have.
Between zero and four. Yes,
Jill: yes.
In the 50 meter free for the women, gold goes to Alice Tai from Great Britain, silver to Cecilia Kathleen Geronimo Araujo from Brazil and bronze to Victoria Ischilova from Neutral Athletes. Our Mackenzie Cohen was in this race but placed 12th and did not make the finals. In the S5 class, which is, uh, moderately affected coordination, uh, can mean absence of limbs as well, men’s 50 meter freestyle, gold goes to Guo Jingchen, who got, from China, who got a world record, silver to Huan Huiyi from China, and bronze to, oh, China sweat the podium, bronze went to Wan Qilao from China.
Alison: So I think that’s the third swimming podium that they’ve sweat.
Jill: Wow, that’s true. I wonder if it’s the East. three all together. They keep doing it. Oh, if it’s always the same class. Yeah, I don’t know. It’s a good question. Something to look into. In the S6 class, which is a one side impairment,
men’s 100 meter freestyle. Gold goes to Antonia Fountain from Italy with a Paralympic record. Silver goes to Talison Henrique Glock from Brazil and Laurent Girard from France wins the bronze.
Alison: And then we go over to some S 10. It’s the highest level of mobility and coordination. The women’s 400 free. Gold to Canada’s Arlie Rivard.
Alexandra Truitt from the United States won silver. And Bianca Papp from Hungary won bronze. And in some, let’s see, I think we have a bunch of, Uh, visually impaired classes. So S11, men’s 100 meter breaststroke, gold to Roger Dorseman from Netherlands, silver to Yang Bozan from China, bronze to Danilo Chufarov from Ukraine.
And on the women’s side, Daria Lukyanenko from Neutral Paralympic Athletes, won gold with a Paralympic record. Silver to China’s Ma Jie, and bronze to Cyprus, uh, Carolina Pellandritou. And S12, uh, visually impaired class, women’s 100 meter breaststroke. Gold to Elena Krauso from Germany, uh, with a world record.
Brazil won silver, Maria Carolina Gomez Santiago, and bronze to Zhitong Zhang from China. S13, also VI class, men’s 100 meter breaststroke. Uh, Taliso Engel from Germany, won gold. Naderlay Jumagala from Kazakhstan, won silver. Paralympic record for his class. I think it’s, there’s a couple of McClasses, McClasses in here.
And Vali Israilov from Azerbaijan won bronze. On the women’s side, where Olivia Chambers happened to be swimming. Swimming. Rebecca Redfern from Great Britain won gold.
Jill: Hey, look! We got silver!
Alison: Olivia Chambers from the United States won silver. And Colleen Young, also from the United States, won bronze. Some more women’s hundred meter brushstroke.
This is the S7. Another one of these mixed classes. Maria Pavlova from neutral path like Paralympic athletes with a world record, one gold. Iona Winiforth from Great Britain, one silver and Tess Routliffe from Canada, one bronze. SM9 now for some individual medleys, men’s 200 meter. Timothy Hodge got a Paralympic record and gold.
He’s from Australia. Hugo Didier from France won silver and Hector Denier from France won bronze. On the women’s side, uh, Zofia, uh, Kankaly from Hungary won gold. I saw her get a medal.
Jill: Oh, okay.
Alison: In that first night I went to swimming. And she was the one who made me cry because she was crying.
Jill: Aww.
Alison: I hope she cried again.
and enjoyed this half as much as she did that first medal. Uh, Nuria Marquez Sotef from Spain won silver and Anastasia Dimitriev Dimitriev also from Spain won bronze. End of the night, we’ve got a mixed four by 50 meter medley, 20 points. Gold to China, silver to the United States, and bronze to Ukraine.
Jill: In Paratable Tennis, we had a bunch of medal matches, because we’re getting, we’re getting to that stage.
Alison: We’re getting to the end now.
Jill: It’s weird, because I’m saying goodbye to the venues. Because I know I’m not going to be back at
Alison: I’m not even doing that. I’m just ignoring that.
I’m ignoring it. If I don’t say goodbye, then it doesn’t happen.
Jill: And you don’t have to leave.
Alison: And I don’t have to leave.
Jill: Just keep going back.
Alison: And keep getting baguettes.
Jill: You know what would happen if we did that? We’d just be wandering around, and they’d be taking down the venue, and you’d be going, well, where’s the press tribune?
Where is the press tribune? I can’t find it. Où
Alison: est la lenteuse pour la media?
Jill: And they’re like, it’s gone, lady. Madame is
Alison: Madame, go home. Les Etats Unis,
Jill: ici. Um, Ian Seidenfeld, uh, played today in his class in the semi final for the MS6. His class did not have a gold medal match today, it was just the bronzes.
So, he did win, he beat Matteo No. Oh, no, no, no, no, no. Oh, you’re right, you’re right, you’re right. I’m sorry, I had to remember for a second how table tennis worked. So, it was the semi finals, and then the winner moves on to the gold medal match. And the losers both get bronzes. So, Matteo Parazon from Italy beat Ian Seidenfeld 3 0, which means Ian will collect a bronze medal and adds his collection, uh, another, he won gold in Tokyo in his class, so now he’s working towards the set, as we like to say.
Two
Alison: Paralympics, two medals. Not bad. And he’s like 12 years old, too, so.
Jill: In Women’s Singles Class 7, gold went to Kelly Van Zandt from Netherlands, silver to Kubra Korkut from Turkey, and bronzes went to Bai Tuomi from Great Britain and Wang Rui from China. I saw, Bly is, I saw her in the doubles. And she is also very, very young.
So I wouldn’t be surprised if we’re, in like two Olympics, in two Paralympics we’re gonna be going, I Hasn’t she been around for a long time?
Alison: She and Ian just hang out, you know, and can’t drink. No, Ian can’t drink. I think he’s, what, did we say 23?
Jill: Something like that.
Alison: Yeah.
Jill: In the women’s class 11 gold medal match, we had Japan’s Wada Natsuki won gold.
Silver went to Elena Prokovea from Russia. Neutral athletes and bronzes to abr. Oster from Turkey and,
f Kawa, KMI from Japan. na Suki Wada, uh, she only started playing table tennis because she wanted to lose weight. It worked and, and now. She’s, yeah, she lost a bunch of weight
Alison: and now she’s gained weight with her medal.
Jill: That’s right. And those things I’ve heard are very heavy in the men’s singles Class Two gold goes to Rafael Chu from Poland, silver to Yuri Nik from Czechia and Bronzes to Chasu Young from Korea and Fabian Lamoro from France in the men’s singles Class three Gold to China’s Fang Pon Fen. Silver Toma Schmid Berger from Germany and bronzes to, hun from Thailand and J Yin from Korea. Finally in the Class 11 for men Gold to Korea’s Kim Gi Silver to Chen Chen Yen from Chinese Taipei and bronzes to Pedro Polish from Hungary.
And uh, Samuel Van from Austria.
Alison: We have one more event in Shooting Parasport. It’s R6 mixed 50 meter rifle prone SH 1. Gold to Natasha Hiltrop from Germany. Silver to Anna Benson from Sweden. And bronze to Jean Louis Marchaud. Michaud? Michaud. Michaud from France.
Jill: Sitting volleyball. We had the men’s semifinals today.
Bosnia and Herzegovina beat Germany 3 0 and Iran beat Egypt 3 1, which means, the gold medal match is going to be a rematch from a semi final in Tokyo, Iran’s the defending gold medalist, Bosnia had won bronze in Tokyo, so this is going to be a good set up.
Alison: You were there. I went, I did not see the men, I saw the women in the evening, um, and, It was not bad.
You were absolutely right about getting to, uh, Arena Paris Nord. Far, but not hard. Yes. And lots of volunteers. I had a volunteer walk me to the accredited entrance.
Jill: And then did you find the venue media center if you wanted to? I
Alison: did! I found the Tribune. I found the media center. I found the bathrooms. I found the mix zone.
So, all these, all these volunteers wanted, I guess they took one look at me and said, this American lady is going to be a problem. So let’s get her to all the different places. So I, I found everything, got upstairs, settled myself in. But before that on the concourse, I saw these very lovely American women who were all decked out in their Team USA discussing the pins on the table that they had.
So I was like, Hi ladies, I have pins for you. So it ended up being, uh, Bethany Zumo’s mom and sisters and family. So hi Zumo’s, because now we’re all best friends. We had a lovely chat and, and discussed pins. Um, they did a give it a go session. Oh, I’d love
Jill: those.
Alison: Where you could come down and first they tried to serve and then you could play.
The other reporter and I were kind of trying. to get each other to go do this because we both kind of wanted to. But we said, I think this may be unprofessional for us to go give it a go. But we should have.
Jill: Was anybody giving it a go?
Alison: Many people were giving it a go. And this was a good 45 minutes before the match started.
So there was a good number of people, even though the stadium was almost, I mean, stadiums arena, it’s small, was not even a quarter full yet. They were all on the court. Giving it a try.
Jill: Well, that’s nice that everybody wants to try it out and see what it’s like.
Alison: Chucky Yokey showed up. Nice. I didn’t embarrass myself and wave at him, but He has put his Paralympic cheerleader hat back on because his tournament is over.
So now he is the biggest cheerleader for, uh, Team USA Paralympians. He is a big fan of monster block.
Jill: Oh, I can imagine.
Alison: He, he got into the monster block. Did, and I want to see if you had this, because I also had this today at wheelchair basketball, the loud cam where they try and get the crowd. Should be as loud as possible.
With a decibel level? With a decibel level!
Jill: Yes, I have seen this. That hurt. You know why? Because now you have the little school children who love nothing more to do than to make that decibel level go as high as humanly possible. So
Alison: both events I was at, it broke a hundred. As did my eardrums. So, a statistic that I just wanted to bring up because Kaleo, uh, Kanahali McClay is one of our people.
So, uh, She’s the best blocker in the tournament before this round and I don’t think that changed tonight because she had a game Nice little nice little game Heather Erickson, I think that here comes the boom about four or five times. Boom. She just boom Had some shots and some blocks that were really really fantastic and of course the volleyball announcers in house They came out of their booths and were running around
Jill: Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, they are working very very hard and doing just an amazing job It’s volleyball is such a fun experience.
Alison: It was a half full arena You wouldn’t have known it. It was rocking didn’t hurt that. It was Brazil in the u. s Brazil had a huge contingent. I was on the train with them and they all had these bags You know, they had their Brazil shirts, but they switched then they all had matching shirts flags a drum face paint and there had to be 25 of them at least nice.
There was a very large Brazilian contingent which made it That would be more fun. Tight, tight match, um, U. S. had some trouble in the second set. I got to talk to Laura Webster after, we’re trying to throw that on the end of the show. She talked about the, uh, the U. S. made a lot of mistakes in that second set, but they bounced back, they won, uh, U.
- won three sets to one, so they will be in the gold medal match on Saturday against China, who defeated Canada in the second semifinal.
Jill: Then you were also at wheelchair basketball.
Alison: I did. I ended up going to the classification matches in the morning, which you think wouldn’t be very exciting.
Jill: Oh, no,
Alison: that’s that’s a lie.
Because these were early ish in the morning. So there were a ton of school groups there. France was not playing. And I think different kids and different schools were either assigned or chose who were that they were going to cheer for.
Jill: Oh, interesting, because
Alison: My favorite part was when they started saying, Allez les Bleus, but France is not on the court.
But it’s what you say to cheer your team on.
Jill: Well, it was funny because when, in Parajudo, when Sandrine was out there, it was like, Allez les Bleus. It wasn’t, it was just like, oh, we only have one blue to cheer for.
Alison: But they really were into it, and they definitely broke the decibel meter.
Jill: Yes. You’ve got that, you’ve got that tone and that look, like, It really hurt.
You’ve had a kid’s birthday party at your house.
Alison: And I’m cleaning cake out of the couch. I had a thought, and I wanted your opinion. Do you think there’s only one of those floors, and they brought it down from Leo? No. and reinstalled it into Bercie?
Jill: I wouldn’t be surprised.
Alison: Because it’s beautiful! It is
Jill: beautiful.
It’s really stunning.
Alison: Really distinctive with that sort of burnt imprint wood look to it. And I would think it would be pretty expensive given, you know, what we’ve heard from Gerflor about what these kind of floors cost. So why would you have two if you only used one at a time?
Jill: Could be. I wouldn’t be surprised if it wasn’t.
Those kind of floors I think are easier to install than we think because they’re both They have so many, uh, basketball and hockey arenas in the U. S. together, so they know how to make floors that install pretty quickly. So, to make that turnover happen.
Alison: But this is not a hockey arena country.
Jill: No, but I would mean that Jere Floor would know how to make a floor that’s quick to install.
Alison: I did love wheelchair basketball in person. Wasn’t it fun? I did. It was a great, you know, it was everything that I love about basketball. It was great shot making, great passing. Great ball handling, um, and these are classification matches, so these are the teams that are not going for the medals. And yet, I had a grand old time up there, hanging by the edge of my seat for my dear life in Bercy Arena Press Tribune.
Jill: Oh, you were way up there?
Alison: Well,
Jill: Did you go up to the balcony? Because you can go down.
Alison: There was no, well, there was no table. Oh, okay. They’ve taken away a lot of the down. Oh, okay.
Jill: Oh, okay.
Alison: At least it seemed to be, or maybe, the volunteer was very interested in my credential. It was another one of my credential situations.
So I sat where he told me to sit.
Jill: Oh, okay.
Alison: At the matches that I saw, Great Britain beat Japan 67 to 55, Germany beat Spain 51 45. There was a men’s qualification match, uh, later in the day. Netherlands beat France, France 72 to 63. Then there was this little tiny match, the other men’s semi final.
Jill: Whoa, I just looked at the score.
Alison: So Brian Bell and the American men beat the Canadians 80 to 43.
Jill: Wow. And as we said the other day, this is the first time that Canada has made the semis since 2012. So it’s a big deal for them, but boy did we, uh, give them a little.
Alison: A little talking to. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, Saturday will be the medal matches for the men.
Uh, Great Britain and the United States will go for gold. Great Britain’s undefeated in this tournament.
Jill: Ooh, and so is the U. S. Exactly. Somebody’s losing today. On Saturday.
In wheelchair fencing, we had team events today for the FOIL, so women’s FOIL team. Chyna got gold, silver went to Hungary, bronze went to Italy. Uh, so that means Bebe Viggo gets two medals today, this game. Ellen Geddes and Team USA were defeated by Italy in the quarterfinals, 45 to 16. I believe she said on Instagram that they did really well for where they’re at compared to Other countries in the world.
So she was pretty happy with those results. For the men, Goldwin to China, silver to Great Britain, and Bronze to France.
Alison: And finally we have some wheelchair tennis Oda, take Keto. And Alfie Hewitt in the men’s singles won their matches for the semifinal, so they will be facing off for the gold win. Whoa,
Jill: Yes. Yes. Doesn’t it make you want, oh, Alfie Hewitt makes you wanna go back out to Roland Garros, right? It
Alison: does. But then there’s also the sitting volleyball and the basketball. And there’s only so many places I can be at once. Uh, Women’s Doubles finished up gold to, uh, Japan’s.
Jill: Wait, what? Yeah, I, Wow. This is, this is a surprise.
Alison: I was, I was going to get there. Uh, to, so Kamiji Yu and Tanaka Manami. Defeated the Netherlands, Didi de Groot and Aniek van Coet, who ended up with silver. It was a huge upset. And
Jill: it
Alison: was 6 4 7 6. It was, it was a tight match, but not an insane match. Where you’re thinking, oh my goodness, there’s no way that this can happen.
Uh, Bronze went to, uh, Yao Lu Yao and Wang Zhijie Ying from China. And then we had the finishing, the finishing up of the quad singles in the bronze medal match. Guy Sasson from Israel defeated Ahmet Kaplan from Turkey. And we have the doubles partner Sam Schroeder and Nils Vink playing each other for the gold medal.
Nils Vink defeated Sam Schroeder 6 love, 6
Jill: 1. Wow, that’s pretty handily.
Alison: It was that nasty little drop shot of his.
Jill: I don’t know if that’s true, but I just like to think it is. So
Alison: even though he’s cut his hair since Tokyo, he cut his ponytail, he has not lost his strength.
Jill: You know who we hope is getting his strength back?
Alison: Waldo, our beautiful mascot. So Waldo is a big fan of Cat TV with Smell O Vision. Which is actually just opening the window. I’m particularly fond of this because we call our sliding glass door puppy TV. So I’m glad to see that there are other pet parents who do this.
So Waldo, I appreciate this. And there’s so much entertainment of birds and chipmunks and things that can be can be gleaned. Sure. Special thanks to listener Cindy for opening the window for Waldo and sharing him with Shooklastan and for supporting our Kickstarter campaign that got us to Paris.
Jill: We did well in the middle.
Alison: It’s not a bad day. So we ended up with two more golds and a bronze, uh, two more silvers, excuse me, and a bronze. So nine golds, five silvers, three bronzes.
Jill: Nice. We’ll have to see where we’re ranked on the You
Alison: know, it’s not good
Jill: Well, I think we’re in the
Alison: 20s
Jill: Hey, I will take that. I will take that we still have like team We have a couple of team people so we got more chances and opportunities Who is competing next?
Alison: Justin Fong Sivan throws in the men’s f54 javelin
Jill: Samantha Bosco rides one more time in the women’s C4 5 road race.
Alison: And Ellen Geddes is back fencing in the women’s EPPE category B.
Jill: And that’s gonna do it for this episode. Special thank you to our researcher, Elizabeth Emery,
Alison: and if you wanna get in touch with us while we are in Paris, you can find us on X YouTube and Instagram at Flame Alive Pod.
Send us an email at Flame Alive pod@gmail.com. Call or text us at (208) 352-6348. That’s 2 0 8. Flame It. Chat with us and other fans on our Facebook group and find. Clips of Dennis Ardsley on, uh, keep The Flame Alive Podcast.
Jill: I hope you find clips of Jefferson Airplane. Starship Star. Just Starship now, right?
I think Patrick, I don’t know. , keep that eighties thing going.
Alison: And to get our special Daily Games Time newsletter, sign up on our website, flamealivepod. com.
Jill: And join us again tomorrow for more action from Paris and hopefully better weather so that Jill ain’t so grumpy. Uh, please tell a friend about the show and hang out with us in the Facebook group because it is fun, fun, fun there.
Thank you so much for listening and until tomorrow, keep the flame alive. Hi, I’m Elise.
Lora Webster: Laura. Hi.
Alison: Hi. Hi. Oh, I love your scarf, I’m so gross. Oh, that’s okay. Congratulations. Beautiful. Thank you very much. Made it interesting. Yes, we love to do that.
Lora Webster: What went
Alison: right?
Lora Webster: What went wrong? Um. Let’s start with what went right. What went right was that we recovered from set two. Set two was all errors on our side.
Um, and games like that happen. That’s what’s so fun about volleyball, is that it’s like, And you can be playing awesome in one set, and the next one you come out and it’s like the start cloud, and you just can’t figure it out. And like weird things happen. We had funky stuff happen. So, the fact that we bounced back from set two, and played the way that we played in set three and four, just goes to show what kind of a team we are.
We’ve really worked on our mental toughness and we don’t let those mistakes eat away at us like a lot of teams can it can Happen it’s totally like a mental game. And so our mental stamina is what got us through that match
Alison: I saw the momentum shift after that second set Yeah How is that that feeling on the on the court when you’re feeling those those?
Sways back and forth and you’ve got to manage that and keep it steady
Lora Webster: So I think it really helps that there’s so many veterans on the team We’ve played these games before and we also know what we’re capable of. And we also know that sometimes there’s just games like that and there’s no matter what you do and sometimes try too hard to make it right.
Those games happen. And like, literally you just have to be like, can we just fast forward and get it over with and move on? But we’ve got to play it. And we made such a comeback at the end of that second set. And so, you know, we were dealing with, um, like, you know, whenever you’re trying to make a run and then you have a call that you disagree with, you’re just Oh my gosh, you know how hard we’re trying.
So, you know, you, those kinds of moments are what makes a strong team. So that kind of adversity on the court is what we kind of like go against, you know, that’s sometimes you’re fighting against not only yourself, but outside sources. And so we really just, you know, we know what we’re doing. And when you have an old team like us, you know how to get yourself out of it.
Alison: Who got to come to see you this time around or is everybody in school?
Lora Webster: Um, two of my older kids started a new school. So my husband is sacrificing his time here. He was supposed to be on a flight tonight and he changed his flight to come. She’s going to be here for like literally 30 hours. But he’s coming for that final.
He believed in us to get there. And, um, so he’s literally coming for the game, I’m gonna kiss him, and then he’s going home because our kids have school on Monday. I thought of it today, I’m like, there’s nobody here, but we’re here. Thank you, and we feel it, and I tell you that wholeheartedly we feel it, so thank you for being here for us.
Excellent,