Paris 2024 Paralympics: Day 5

Day 5 at the Paris 2024 Paralympics brings some highs and lows–and Alison got stuck on the low end of the spectrum. We also learned about Nike’s efforts to develop more inclusive clothing and footwear, and Jill had a splash and dash to and from the splash and dash.

Nike also has an initiative to develop athletes’ careers post-competitive career, as well as hire more people with disabilities. To that end, they have an initiative called Game On, which is a 12-month program for employment seekers that will help Nike make more improvements in their products for disabled people. Learn more about it here.

Sports on today’s program:

• Blind Football
• Boccia
• Goalball
• Para Archery
• Para Athletics
• Para Badminton
• Para Swimming
• Para Table Tennis
• Para Triathlon
• Shooting Para Sport
• Sitting Volleyball
• Wheelchair Basketball
• Wheelchair Rugby
• Wheelchair Tennis

Don’t forget – the only way that we’re able to bring you this unique look at the Games is thanks to donations from listeners like you. Please support us financially so that we can continue to keep our flame alive. We have many ways to support us — and if you sign up as a paid Patreon member, you’ll get exclusive content!

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 Do not quote from the transcript; use the audio as the record of note.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 5

Jill: Bonjour and welcome to day five of the Paris 2024 Paralympics on Keep the Flame Alive, the podcast for fans of the Olympics and Paralympics. I’m 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 va?

Alison: I’m not doing the show.

Jill: You know, you came, I got to the back to the room first, and I have had a great day. And you came back in and you’ve had a very bad day. Very bad evening.

Alison: Not doing the show.

Jill: Doing the show. You’re contractually obliged to do the show.

Alison: I’m gonna just whine and process. I’ll stop making that noise again.

Jill: Well, we didn’t get any complaints about it that I saw.

Alison: People haven’t listened yet. There are a few days behind. So

Jill: you got a few days to do it before people are like, what is up with that noise?

Alison: And if anything is going to make me make that noise. It was my evening.

Jill: Oh, I’m sorry. We’ll

Alison: get to that, actually, at the end.

Jill: Yeah, exactly. Um, we have a little follow up file because I was looking at, uh, some information from the International Paralympic Committee, uh, daily press briefings, and Craig Spence, who has been on the show before, he’s the Chief Brand and Communications Officer for the IPC. He’s got the best quotes.

Alison: All the time.

I love him. He is a great human being. Let’s just put it that way. Yes, exactly. And he says what he means and he means what he says. So you do get some great quips from Craig Spence.

Jill: So the Refugee Paralympic team got a second medal here at the Games. And, uh, Craig said, it’s the third games we’ve had refugee team and like buses, we wait for a metal to come along and we get two at once, which is fantastic.

And if you’ve lived in a city that has public transportation, you know exactly what he means.

Alison: And also I know he was, when we spoke to him, he talked about the refugee team. And I think, along with it being part of his job, I think there’s a real personal devotion to that cause to make that refugee team happen and get the support that they need.

So I think there was a lot of joy behind that. Oh, yeah, we get two medals. Exactly.

Jill: They did talk about, uh, ticket sales, which are climbing here in Paris. It’s always a question of how well ticket sales do for the Paralympics because the Olympics always do very well. Paralympics, of course, not as well known.

People don’t know the sport. Will they get the will they watch and come out and see it even when ticket prices are way, way low. But that, that helps, I will say. He did say, uh, Paris is sold 2. 3 million tickets, which is more than they have. So people are starting to get into the sports and see it. London 2012, which is the best ever Paralympics, they sold 2.

7. And he goes, I don’t think we’re going to get there, but it’s a good start, you know, a good, good change for Paris to get in France to get involved in the Paralympic

Alison: movement. After London, there was a loss of momentum for the Paralympic movement because they went to Rio and Rio struggled financially, especially when it came to the Paralympics.

If you watch, uh, uh, Rising, Phoenix Rising, Rising Phoenix,

Jill: one of the, I apologize when you,

Alison: you watch the movie, um, focused on the Paralympics. They talk about that the Rio Paralympics almost didn’t happen because of a financial crisis. So and then of course you had

Jill: COVID

Alison: and three games in Asia and all those things they keep talking about.

So to bounce back to this level on a European games is a huge success.

Jill: Right. And France is doing very well. Thank you. I think in terms of medals and performances and that helps bring in the crowds and they get, just cause they get so excited about any French athlete, which is phenomenal. And then the crowd brings the momentum.

There’s been some great crowds today and today is back to school day for the kids. So even though they’re not, There and the I like my day session was a little emptier But people are there and in the night sessions look a lot fuller. So it’s gonna be good. It really is I’m looking forward to seeing what the last weekend is like in terms of tickets We had today.

I will tell you my my schedule just stop right there. What? You didn’t do the setup. Oh, I’m sorry. Let’s begin the baguette.

Alison: I count on these markers from you. Because I’m really going to struggle today.

Jill: You are, and I’m sorry I can’t. I’ve got to be more solid.

Alison: So, on the back to school note, I went to blind football today. School groups everywhere. Mostly middle school it looked like. But then when I was walking across, um, the Pont d’Alexandre, younger school groups coming to events.

So it may be back to school day, but the school groups came with all their matching t shirts and matching hats. And as they always do, the energy was great.

Jill: Good, good, good. I think it’s a good experience for kids. Eventually. I mean, I would love someday for it to not be a situation where, Oh, we have to give school children.

tickets because we can’t sell them. To

Alison: be fair, Craig Spence said it was only 200, 000. Yeah. And you’re selling 2. 3 million.

Jill: Very true. Very true. I will say that. Um, So my day, so you saw blind football in the morning. My morning was pair of badminton, and then we both met up at an event at Nike headquarters here.

And then my evening was supposed to be goalball. And during pair of badminton, well, first off, let’s, let’s get the really important thing out of the way, is pair of badmintons by the It’s in our old hood, kind of. So when I got off the metro, I’m like, Oh, this is the day I went to the bakery, the boulangerie, and then I went across to the other boulangerie, right across the street, right after it.

Alison: With the cookie.

Jill: With the cookie. And I was like, I could really use a cookie today. So I went and got a cookie and then I got some other pastry that looked really good. Not that I needed it, let me tell you that, because of the Nike thing. But went to Pair of Edmonton, we got an alert. that Jamal Hill had made the finals in the 50 meter freestyle.

And another alert that Mackenzie McCohen, Mackenzie Cohen, sorry, had made the finals as well in the 400 meter freestyle. So, I started looking at scheduling because the Nike headquarters isn’t that far from the swimming venue.

Alison: It’s not hard to get to.

Jill: No, it wasn’t hard to get to. And I said, can I swing swimming and goalball?

Alison: The answer was yes. by the skin of your teeth.

Jill: Okay, so you know in the NFL how they have those giant men who, you know, got hanging over, yet they are so agile and fast you can’t believe it?

Alison: Yes.

Jill: I was that person today.

Alison: Because the, the other thing is that even though something’s not far, you have to deal with the crowd and sometimes the public transportation can be slow.

And then you’ve got to go through multiple security checks and get to the right entrance. So you think it’s, you know, the, the app will tell us it’s 21 minutes away, but that hasn’t added the 12 minutes to walk from one entrance to the other.

Jill: Yes. And then once you’re in. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You have to go through the bowels of the venue to get to where you’re supposed to sit.

And we have discovered that during the Paralympics, I’m having, struggling with understanding venues that I’ve been to multiple times.

Alison: And I We discussed swimming in detail because I had been swimming several times and after the first time I got it down and you Struggled with it the couple times the first time

Jill: I only went I think I went once in the Olympics and I said

Alison: never again

Jill: Well, I I just had the worst time I came in from the wrong place.

I found the wrong entrance I’m walking all over the venue. I’m walking through NBC and OIS a snack room Walking everywhere, but where I’m supposed to be.

Alison: Okay, so you You Left Nike.

Jill: Right. I left, uh, Jamal, I thought, was swimming at 5. 51, and you kindly informed me that it was 5. 52 that he was swimming, and I left Nike after, going on five, I think it was, it was the late four o’clock hour, and, uh, took the one out to, uh, La Defense, got off fine, got out of the metro, fine, and, uh, Uh, I’m only seeing signs for entrances 2 and 3.

And you’ve told me that I’m in Entrance 5, and so I’m freaking out on the inside a little, but I’m just like, well, pink sign, let me go that direction. And then, finally, when I’m close to the venue, I see 5. I get in the right place, I see the signs clearly marked for Door 56, which you told me to go in, and I kept going and going and going and going around the building.

And

Alison: I told you it was as far as you could go.

Jill: It’s very far. Yes, I found it. in, got into the venue, got up to, uh, got through the venue media center, got up the stairs to where you needed to go to the press tribune, and then was just like, surrounded by scaffolding and didn’t know, and, and ti and roped off things and didn’t quite know where to go.

But there’s helpful volunteers right there. And I said, press tribune, and they pointed me up and the session was just getting started. Like the first, race was in and that was a men’s 400 meters free. Oh,

Alison: I’m so relieved because you made me nervous when you wouldn’t tell me how it went getting to the venue.

Yes.

Jill: Uh, and I was walking quickly, let’s just say walking very fast to get there. And, uh, and also on the way I see Jamal Hill people around and I have to give them pins and, and be like, I’m, I’m with the podcast, Olympics, Paralympics, here’s a pin. And they’ll be like, okay. And, uh, sat down, men’s 400 free is on.

Next race is Mackenzie Cohen’s race. I didn’t even know, because I haven’t really been on my computer today. So Mackenzie swims, and we’ll get to her result later. And then, uh, Jamal’s race is right after that. So I’m thinking, will I get, I’m like NBC, just keep talking and OBS, keep talking. to McKenzie Cohen, please, so I can watch them all, thank goodness, it’s a splash and dash, and then get down to the mix zone as fast as possible.

So, and that’s what happened. Uh, and I found the mix zone with help and, uh,

Alison: I’ve never been to the swimming mix zone. So I could not have helped you.

Jill: It’s behind something because you can’t see the pool from where we are. I didn’t know that. So they did have screens there if you need them. Got McKenzie. So we’ll have interview tape with her, got Jamal, we’ll have interview tape with him, and then I dashed.

Alison: Because you had gull ball, which is not close.

Jill: No, I had to go back to the Transit Connect hub for us, which is the same metro line I took out, and then Go to Arena Sud, which they say is like 30 minutes and goalball starts at 730 and we are after 6 o’clock this time. We are getting close to an hour. I start running I kind of shuffle over to the Metro.

Okay, hustle down Doesn’t trains like they’re almost immediately or no, no, cause it’s the end stop. So there was a train right there left, get out at the Palais de Congress, get to, uh, and I’m looking at the map because I feel like I’m going out the wrong exit. There’s exits that are by the Metro, but there’s also RER exits, which I’ve been trying to wander through a little bit more that get you closer to the transit connect hub.

Didn’t do that. Some some lady could saw me staring at the map and was like, Can I help you? And, and she’s just like, just go up. See, go to the street. I tell you that every day. I know, I know. I was running up Metro stairs. You don’t know how heavy my backpack is. Yes, I do. My backpack is so heavy. And I’m running through the Palais de Congress Square, because I am not missing the bus.

And I get to, uh, the, the, the, the stop, the, the, Waiting for transit center. Yes, and where I’m the the slot that it is and there’s no bus. There’s no really no buses there and One by one all the buses come in and of course now I’m pouring sweat because I have been running around running upstairs running up escalators as fast as I can to make sure I get this bus and finally finally bus driver comes.

And it’s me and one other woman who is French and she’s chit chatting and having a good time with the bus driver.

Alison: And you’re like, can you just drive please? No, no, no, no, no. I

Jill: was like, well, thank goodness it’s the right bus. First off. And, uh, it was a chug chug bus.

Alison: Oh, no. No, a chug

Jill: chug. It was not a putt putt.

He was going. Oh, okay. So he moved and the Arena Soud bus has two stops. So you can stop by Batcha or you go around to the other bus. side of the thing. And he’s like, Oh, do you need something? We’re like stopping at four. And he’s like, Yeah,

Alison: getting you out of here and getting on home.

Jill: Well, and then we stopped in front of the arena because there was a stops stoplight thing.

And there’s a taxi there. And he did not like what whatever the taxi was doing. So he opens up the door and starts yelling at the cab driver, the cab driver is kind of yelling back. It’s great. Yeah, you got to maneuver through a gendarme barrier. And he gets us there. And then of course, I have to run from the bus stop back close to a hundred meters to get through security, take every, you know, put my stuff in there like, Oh, do you have a computer?

Yeah. The computer’s got to go through separate. Meanwhile, the woman who is probably walked the other woman on the bus is probably why she finally shows up when I’m putting everything away. I take off running again because we are, I am getting close to time. Hoof it into goalball. Well, they the the one guy didn’t know the volunteer where I first got to didn’t know where was and he lets me through and then the security guy was like, no, no, no, you got to go behind the store.

And I once I saw the behind the store

Alison: remembered

Jill: then I remembered because it’s a weird place to put a media insurance.

Alison: It is. And if I remember correctly, it’s kind of on a different level. Yeah, you

Jill: kind of run up. So I hustled, hustled, hustled. Of course, when I get in, I don’t see any signs where the Press Tribune is.

So you just have to pop up and go, Oh, there’s where it is. And I sit down five minutes to spare. It was a great day.

Alison: Jackie Joyner Kersee in the house.

Jill: I know. Splash and dash. That was my day today.

Alison: I’m exhausted just listening to that. And at every moment, I have this terrible fear that you’re just going to get abandoned at a parking lot in a mountain, and I’m never going to see you again.

Jill: Well, you know, the problem with all of this is that my clothes stink. And I feel like I’m some sort of Middle Eastern European middle aged guy right now who doesn’t know the word who don’t know one lick about personal hygiene. So I apologize in advance and I will be showering aplenty later on.

Alison: I didn’t notice.

Jill: Good. Thank you. Because I do, I’m one of those people who, I did walk in the metro after Goalball and walked in the metro to go home. I smelled urine and I thought, is that me? And then I go, it’s not you because you haven’t smelled it before. But that is my instant reaction to anything that is a foul body odor, foul smelling.

And it’s got to come from my body.

Alison: Let’s talk a little bit about our Nike immersion experience. So a couple of weeks ago we got an email and it said, would you like to come to this experience at Nike? And we want your sizes. Right. We said, sure. So let me just tell you. Um, we have not gotten anything from Nike.

Jill: And that’s fine.

Alison: And that’s fine because they brought us in to their French headquarters and we got a tour and a demonstration of all the accessible shoes and clothing and equipment that they’re creating and it’s their innovation office. Is that how you would describe it? And we got to see some of.

Bebe Vio’s fencing arms, prosthetic arms, and the different shoes and the different bags. And what they’re doing. And yes, I understand Nike is doing this for money. They are a for profit company, but what they are doing is so incredibly clever and important and simple to make life better. easier for not just para athletes or people with disabilities, but it’s just a better product.

Jill: Yeah. And, and the, they walked us through the Team USA uniform and all of the different elements that made it easier for accessible or made it more accessible, but Olympians and able bodied people are like, Oh, we like this magnetic zipper too.

Alison: Magnetic zipper moving the pockets so that if you are in a wheelchair, you can actually use them.

That’s just more comfortable. If it’s on your side of your thigh versus right up by your hip. And it’s also more secure because it’s straight down versus at an angle.

Jill: Yeah.

Alison: Silly things.

Jill: I

Alison: mean, silly, but not silly. Like they made the zipper on the bag, uh, a circle, a big circle that you could put a finger through rather than a tiny little piece of metal.

Jill: Right. So I would say if you have stock in a company that makes tiny little zippers, dump it now. They’re going to lose.

Alison: They did a lot with, um, step in shoes that look like traditional sneakers. So it doesn’t look like you’re wearing an orthopedic.

Jill: Yeah. Yeah. It’s a lot more fashionable. Um, I loved the, they have the running blade and they have made Uh, treads for the running blades.

They have made spikes for running blades, and then they also have a, a shoe that fits on a running blade. So you don’t have to cut a shoe apart in order to fit it on your blade if you want to have a sneaker around.

Alison: So all of these innovations that they, that Nike has created for the elite Paralympians, they’re creating products.

For the consumer market. So now if you can’t tie your shoelaces because you have a hand issues, you can get these really cool step in elastic laced sneakers that look like everybody else’s shoes.

Jill: Yeah. So that was really cool. And they had a lot of presentations along with it, but we’ll have some pictures and because I took pictures, I took some video of all the different products and, uh, it was really, really neat.

Not everything is going to be for the consumer market. Some of the stuff they make that they had there was for specific athletes, which made me wonder, like, what is the world like when you get signed to, uh, athletic contract, even if it’s not Nike, they all have rosters of athletes. What is it like when somebody, you’re talented enough.

that a company wants to sign you to a contract and say, well, let’s make you clothes or accessories that you need to do your job well.

Alison: And then they’re also developing, they’ve created a program where They’re going to be hiring Paralympians to transition into the corporate world after retirement from elite sports.

Jill: This is a program called Game On that they’re working with the US OPC to get more diverse people working at Nike. And it’s going to be a career pipeline for Nike and USA athletes, but anybody can apply to this program, which is a 12 month long deal. You’d get. Benefits along with it and you’d get a moving stipend as well, which is kind of cool it but it’s definitely it’s a transition program for somebody who needs to change from mostly from being an athlete to being in a corporate world or life and doing something that’s life after athlete after being an athlete when you don’t know what to do.

Alison: It’s nice to see an Olympic and Paralympic sponsor putting its money where its mouth is.

Jill: Yeah. And so the, Uh, program is, uh, going to be at jobs. nike. com slash disability dot dash inclusion. That’s what they said and that made me think that’s a weird URL, but we’ll, we’ll look into it and make sure we get that right.

The application opens pretty quickly. And, I don’t know what happened. I don’t, I don’t like this desk. What I don’t, also don’t like is that I can never get this thing to be straight. You know, make a little note to delete right there.

Alison: And you’ll be happy you have your note.

Jill: The application process opens pretty quickly because people will find out in November and then in February the program starts. So we will put some stuff up in the show notes so that you can, uh, if you’re interested or know somebody who might be interested in, have them, Apply.

And they fed us. They did feed us. It was very nice. It was a really nice event. What volunteer job would you like to do today? I’ll

Alison: be honest, I don’t have a volunteer job because I wasn’t even going to come on the show today. Wow. I was, I thought of it, but I was in my moment of severe depression and I said, you know what?

My volunteer job is handing out tissues. Aw. It’s been a rough evening. I’m sorry. I need one of those pavlovas again from today. Nike people, bring me a pavlova. I’m eating my feelings.

Jill: When I, uh, huffed and puffed myself into the Goalball Press Tribune. I sat down next to something called VisionPad.

Alison: What is that?

Jill: This is a volunteer was sitting there working VisionPad and I asked, what is this? And she spoke French. So I kind of got what she was doing and I watched her on the sly and on the sly I took a video and, uh, I took a picture of it.

It is a multiple component contraption. which is a tablet, a keypad, and then a metal box that is a frame. And it looks like it, like a framed picture, but the box is maybe two inches tall, and maybe 12 by 14.

Alison: I saw something similar to that at blind vo uh, football.

Jill: Okay. And so where, if it’s a picture frame, but it’s all metal, where the picture would be is kind of a, a sheet.

And this had a little, uh, raised like plastic or magnetic dot. And then what the volunteer did is tracked every move the ball made on the pad, the tablet. and it somehow translates it into the machine and it spits out something so they can get a representation of the game. USA Goalball is going to help me understand, or not goal, the, the USA Blind Athletics.

Yeah, Blind Athletics, the pressure out of the shades, like, this is, it’s really cool. I’ll get back to you.

Alison: So it probably was the same thing that I saw

Jill: if

Alison: it’s, if it’s just based on blind sports.

Jill: Could be. I will put a picture up because it’s, then it was a Paris 2024 branded vision pad. I have no idea. I, I just enthralled with this.

It was so hard to watch both Goalball and the Vision Pad going at the same time. Right, because then you

Alison: saw a little trinket and you said Fancy new toy, must see. I know,

Jill: and this poor volunteer is like, what is wrong with you? She did have that look, I’m like, I’m like, this is so cool, and she’s like Okay, I don’t know what to do with that.

And then Goalball got on.

Alison: You know, I think the entire country of France has said to the two of us, I don’t know what to do with you.

Jill: How long are you staying?

Maybe if we ask nicely, they’ll give us some money to leave.

Alison: We’re staying in your country until you pay us to leave.

Jill: Right. Right. Right. And. Speaking of money, we’d like to get into our portion of what we call the baguette, because we are an independent media outlet here, and that means that we are financed independently as well.

It does cost a lot of money to send a couple people here to France and make sure they are in a hotel, whether that be a nice hotel or a not nice hotel, and everything we need to do to get the show running, because there’s a lot of moving parts behind the scenes. Um, And we need your help in keeping our flame alive so that we can continue to do the show after Paris 2024.

Hopefully we can get to Milan Cortina 2026 as well and bring you more coverage that way. So we’ve got many ways to do so. The, uh, at flamealivepod. com slash support. You can see them all. We’ve got Venmo, we’ve got PayPal. If you want to be an ongoing patron, that’s at patreon. com slash flame alive pod link at.

at the support page. And, uh, patrons right now are getting an exclusive daily photo that you won’t see anywhere else. And also at the 5 a month level, you’re getting special audio and video as well.

Alison: Maybe some audio postcards from the Uzbeks.

Jill: Yes, definitely. Um, uh, and During the Paralympics, I really feel like it’s important for us to be here because we found out there’s only 2, 000 journalists of our category here.

That doesn’t include, like, the NBC people and other rights holding broadcasters, but, like, regular publication Journalist, there’s only 2000 from the entire world, which is about a fifth

Alison: of what was at the Olympics,

Jill: right? So it’s really important if you are enjoying the Paralympics, if you are enjoying the, the watching them and wish that they were on the same par as the Olympics in terms of people paying attention, uh, feed beefs, all that kind of stuff.

Uh, it’s people like us who help make that happen, and so we need people like you to help people like us make it happen for everybody. So flamealivepod. com slash support. Thank you everybody who has donated so far. It’s really, You know, it, it helps so much. It’s what powered you through your hoof in it. I know, I know.

I gotta do it for the patrons. I gotta do it. That’s right. You should have seen me hustle up those stairs, hustle up an escalator, and I didn’t even know what was going on with me running through the Palais de Congress. Made it work. All right, daily results. Blind football

Alison: is where I started my day.

Jill: How

Alison: was it?

It was great. Well, first of all, it’s at, uh, the, uh, Saad the Eiffel. I don’t think that’s actually what it’s called. It’s at the Eiffel Tower. So this is where beach volleyball was. So great, great facility and stadium. Lots of school kids. who understood the instructions to cheer when they were told to cheer and not cheer when they were told to be quiet.

And it was Argentina versus Columbia. We’ve got two South American teams playing soccer. And I don’t care that it’s blind football. It was two South American teams playing soccer. They were physical. There was dives. There was people being dramatic when they dove and hit the ground. It was telenovela of blind football, which is fantastic.

Here’s what threw me off, especially after my experience yesterday with the food in the dark. The way that these players run full tilt across the field freaked me out a little bit because not only are they visually impaired, they’re goggled. So they’re truly, there is nothing. and no fear. And that’s why they’re good at what they do.

The ball handling was excellent. Um, the teamwork was amazing. Interesting how they use the sideboards to their advantage because they would kind of feel to the side and then they could just kind of like run along the sideboard because then it kept them most effectively running straight. Um, you know, you weren’t losing anything by, Oh, I lost my place on the field.

Um, it ended up being a zero, zero tie despite an absolute last second diving shot by Argentina and this crazy save. The goalkeepers are cited and coach the players, though the goalkeepers have to stay within their little box. There’s a, uh, a square in front of the goal and they cannot step out of that. I got to see the clinging on the, for the penalty shot.

So for, we talked about this in Tokyo, but just as a reminder for a penalty shot, the coach hits the posts so that the player can hear the shape and where he is on the field. That was cool. And different coaches have clearly different pinging techniques. Uh, lots, like you were saying, lots of yelling chaos, but not, it was and it wasn’t.

I think it looks more chaotic on TV than it does in person.

Jill: Oh, interesting. Maybe because the TV will zoom in to where the chaos is, and you have a, big field of vision when you see it in person. So the chaos gets, uh, minimized in a way.

Alison: The other big difference that I found from watching it on TV, in person, you can hear the bell quite clearly.

Okay. On TV, I found it to be hard to distinguish among all the sounds like you were talking about with the chaos. But in person, I think being able to distinguish that bell sound cleared the screaming coaches. And you know, I mean, it’s Argentina and Columbia, the coaches, a soccer coach knows how to scream from South America.

Jill: They’re passionate.

Alison: They’re passionate. And there was a good, uh, crowd and the kids really seem to get into it. I mean, it’s soccer, it’s soccer.

Jill: Right.

Alison: So as I said, zero, zero tie. Just the beginning. You got to get out there. Um, also in that session was Morocco, uh, over Japan 1 0. And then tonight China beat Turkey 2 0 and Brazil beat France 3 0.

And when I was walking back from my devastation this evening. I also passed the, the Eiffel Tower stadium and I heard the Br the Brazil France match and I said, that is awfully loud for a blind soccer cause you’re supposed to be quiet. So there was a lot of screaming in between points.

Jill: Yeah. And I had it on because my night ended a little earlier.

So I came back and turned on channel three and uh, the announcers were quite subdued tonight.

Alison: Yeah. France didn’t do so well. No. But for Brazil I know. It’s such a powerhouse. Yeah. On to Batya.

Jill: All right. We had individual women’s BC1 gold medals. This is for the poor trunk control and sitting balance. Gold went to Arielle Albert from France.

Silver went to Tang Yi. Ting Jerilyn from Singapore and bronze went to Endo Hiromi from Japan. In the men’s individual, same class, gold went to Hong Kong’s Lung John, silver went to Jung Seung Joon from Korea, and bronze went to Muhammad Siafah from Indonesia. And in the We move over to the BC class.

These are the ones who use BC

Alison: three.

Jill: Oh, I’m sorry. Thank you. BC three class. These use the ramp for the men. Gold went to a Jung Ho won from Korea with the ramp operator, Kim Seung kim and silver went to a. Daniel Michelle from Australia with Ramp Operator Ashley Mattern and bronze went to Gregorios Polychronidis from Greece with Ramp Operator, uh, Aikaterini Petroni.

For the women, Uh, gold went to Ho Wen Kay from Hong Kong with ramp operator Lee Win Kit. Uh, silver went to Jamison Leeson from Australia with a ramp operator Jasmine Hayden. And bronze went to Kang Seung Hee with ramp operator Park Seyul from Korea. And then we finish up with the BC4 class, which is, uh, moderate to high impairment.

They do a lot of, uh, uh, uh, overcoming fatigue. So for the women, gold went to China’s Li Jimei, silver went to Hong Kong’s Cheung Yin, and bronze went to Lady Chika Chika from Colombia, who defeated Alison Levine, or Chufastani. in the men. You’re silent about that.

Alison: I’m having a hard time not throwing the microphone across.

I’m still, I have waves happening right now.

Jill: Wow. It’s been a rough one. For the men’s, uh, individual BC4 class, gold went to Stephen McGuire from Great Britain. Silver went to Edelson Chica Chica from Colombia and bronze went to Artem Kalinko from Ukraine. It’s a party in the Chica Chica house. It is. Uh, in goalball, we had men’s quarterfinals tonight, Brazil beat Egypt 10 to 0, Ukraine beat Iran 6 to 3, and then China defeated France 12 to 2, those were big games.

Then I got there in time for the, the USA versus Japan match, much lower scoring. First off, uh, uh, goalball in person is everything you want it to be and then some. Except for not long enough. It just was over so quickly. Halftime is only three minutes. Um, they had a shh cam. Did they have a shh cam at blind volley, blind football?

Alison: No. They have

Jill: a big, a person who’s got a big shh sign. Um, I had a very good quiet please referee. today, uh, was, that was so great. The, it’s, it, again, it’s a mesmerizing sport to watch. You, I could not hear the ball very well. Um, Japan had this little gimmick where if they had, especially in a penalty shot, that one person would run up, another person on the other side would run up, but the person in the middle had the ball and they would throw.

Callahan’s got some words about that, Callahan Young, because I did ask him. Um, Callahan’s did score. They just ran out of time. They had, they, a couple of Japanese points came on penalty shots. Um, and, uh, U. S. capitalized on their penalty shots a little bit, but it just, they, they just ran out of time. And that’s the same, excellent saves.

It was, it was just really good. It was a lot of fun.

Alison: Final

Jill: score? Final score, Japan 6, USA 4. They also had V mops. I think we talked about this before. We talked about this

Alison: because

Jill: Did they have those at Tokyo?

Alison: The V mops? Yeah. No, we had it here. Oh, okay. And you didn’t, we, I, I revealed about the Vmops. I said, oh, you didn’t tell me about the Vmops.

Jill: Because they go in both directions. Right. Because I saw that tonight.

Alison: Yeah.

Jill: But it was like, oh, the Vmops are out. I’m sorry. You were really hurting today. It’s gonna be, it’s gonna be better. I told you

Alison: I was ready to quit the show and not come back

Jill: to hotel, to podcast. Wow. Uh, lots of USA people in the house, which was nice, but, uh, they did get shushed a lot.

Well, they should. It’s a shushy sport para archery. Uh, we had the mixed team, W one, which is a high level of disability across the body. Gold went to China. The team of Chen Min and Chen Silver went to, uh, Czechia. team of Sarka Poltar Musilova and David Drahininski.

And Bronze went to Italy’s Dalia Domeno and Paolo Tonin in the mixed team compound open. Gold went to Jody Grinnam and Nathan McQueen from Great Britain. Silver went to Fatima Hemmati and Hadi Nouri from Iran. And bronze went to Sheetal Devi and Rakesh Kumar from India.

Alison: I saw Rakesh Kumar yesterday. He lost the bronze medal match.

Jill: Oh my gosh.

Alison: And He was a lovely archer, just lovely to watch. And uh, that mixed team was actually a trio. That’s our pregnant archer who won the gold, Jodi Grinham.

Jill: Oh, nice, nice, nice, nice. In para athletics, uh, follow up, Roderick Townsend won the high jump yesterday, three peat in the high jump for him.

Alison: We do love a good repeat.

Jill: He has won every Paralympic and World Championship high jump gold medal since 2015. It’s like Dita DeGroote of, of athletics. Dita DeGroote is some wheelchair tennis player who’s just phenomenal, but like, seriously, it’s

Alison: like, can’t be beat.

Jill: I’m sure. And I’m sure the whole field is gunning for the one he’s going to fall at some point.

Unless he just magically retires. I mean, Alexander Karelin in, uh, men’s wrestling in the Olympics, he

Alison: retired on top.

Jill: Yeah. No, he lost. He might’ve, Oh, that was Rulon Gardner, right? Rulon Gardner match. Um, anyway, back to athletics. Uh, we have, uh, jumps. We had the men’s long jump and two different classes. Uh, one is the T12, which is a constriction vision class.

Gold went to Saeed, uh, Nahavzada from Azerbaijan. Silver went to Doniar Saliyev from Uzbekistan and bronze went to Fernando Vasquez from Argentina in the T36 final, which is a load of moderate impairment in all four limbs. Gold went to a neutral Paralympic athlete, Yevgeny Tursunov, who got a. Paralympic record.

Silver went to Asser Mateus Almeida Ramos from Brazil and bronze went to Alexander Litvinenko from Ukraine who got a personal best. In throws, we have, uh, some javelin. It was the F64 final. This is a lower leg impairment or absence of lower limbs. Gold went to, uh, Sumit, uh, from India. He, uh. F64 class and got a Paralympic record for that class.

It’s one of these that’s mixed, uh, a lot of mixed classes. So you’ll find records in, uh, different, uh, levels of the play because, uh, the silver medalist Doolan, uh, Kutiwut, uh, Wuduwaku from Sri Lanka, uh, set a world record for the F44 class.

Browns went to Michael Burian from Australia. In a shot put, we had, uh, two, uh, men’s shot put classes and one woman’s shot put event. For the men, we had an F11 final, which is the lowest level of vision. And they had a guy to assist them. Gold went to Amir Hossain, Alipore Darbed, From Iran, silver went to Mahdi Olad from Iran and bronze went to Alvaro Del Amo Cano from Spain, who got a personal best today, uh, in the F41 class, which is a, uh, short stature class, gold went to, uh, Bobirjan Omanov from Uzbekistan.

I always think now that you’ve been friends with Uzbekistanis, I think, well, you must know these people, right?

Alison: Oh, I hope that whole cadre that was at Taekwondo has just moved and is at every event that in his Becky medals because they all deserve the trumpet and the drum.

Jill: Silver went to Nico Cappel from Germany and bronze went to Huang Jun from China.

In a women’s shot put F54 final, which is a seated class. Gold went to Gloria Zarza Guadarrama from Mexico. Silver went to Elizabeth Rodriguez Gomez from Brazil and bronze went to Nurkan Kurbanova from Uzbekistan. And then in discus, we have amends. F56 class, which is an absence of legs or full leg impairment.

Gold went to Claudine Batista Santos from Brazil. Silver went to Yogesh Katanuya from India. And bronze went to Castaninos. Constantinos Tsounis from Greece. Bronze went to Constantinos Tsounis from Greece. In um, the women’s F53 discus throw, which is a seated class, gold went to Oh, I said that already. Oh, oh, sorry.

I got confused because Elizabeth Rodriguez Gomez is just throwing everything. So, she won the gold medal for Brazil, silver went to Onidani Keiko from Japan, and bronze went to Zoya Ovsy from Ukraine. She just throws things. I might throw things too someday. Some days doesn’t it feel like it would be great to just have a discus lying around and you can whip it around?

Alison: Today would be a bad day for me to have things to throw.

Jill: Okay, we’ll move on. Uh, in track, we had the men’s 100 meters in several classes. T34 class, which is wheelchair. The gold went to Chaiwat Ratana from Thailand. Silver went to Waleed Khatila from Tunisia and bronze went to Austin Smeek from Canada.

And the T35 class final, which is a moderate impairment in the legs. And perhaps some, uh, upper impairment in the upper body. Gold went to Ihor Tsvitov from Ukraine, who got a personal best. Silver went to Artem Kalashyan from neutral Paralympic athletes, who got a personal best. And bronze went to Dmitry Safronov from neutral Paralympic athletes.

In the, uh, T63 final, which is an absence of one leg above the knee, Uh, gold went to Ezra Rech from the US with a personal best. This was a surprise for him. He was very surprised ’cause he just started doing the 100 meter within the last quad. So, uh, comes away with the gold. Not bad. Silver went to Daniel Wagner from Denmark, who also got a personal best, which is quite nice to see.

And bronze went to of Venicia vis Rodriguez from Brazil in the T 64 final. That’s absence of one leg below the knee. Bronze went to, uh, gold went to Sherman Isidro Gitigiti from Costa Rica. Silver went to, uh, Maxell Amumanu from Italy, and bronze went to Felix String from Germany. This is the, uh, category that Hunter Woodall.

is in a very famous or well known, uh, Paralympian who’s married to Tara Davis Woodhall, who won gold in the long jump in the Olympics. He finished sixth today. However, we also learned that his main race is the 400 meters, which is coming up, so another chance at it.

Alison: Uh, Giti Giti is a name that I remembered.

Jill: Yes.

Alison: I just looked it up. He was the gold medalist in Tokyo.

Jill: Oh, nice. Nice. Nice. Nice to have the repeat. And then finally, we have the women’s 1500 meter T11 final. This is a visual impairment class with the guide runner.

You’ve got the results on this one.

Alison: Yes. So, uh, gold goes to Yash, Yai, Yayeshgate Tesfa with guide Kindu Sisegirma from Ethiopia. Uh, silver is He Shanshan with guide Yu Xunji from China and bronze is Luzon Kotsi with guide Erasmus.

Baden horse from South Africa.

Jill: Moving over to para badminton. I was there for some of the morning session. And, uh, this is a sport that we’ll use half courts when it’s necessary for the class. So some people who have more mobility will use a full court like a Olympic badminton, but then wheelchair classes tend to use just the half court because they move forward and back and can and stretch side to side.

And also some stand up classes that have mobility issues also use a half court. The wheelchair courts are on a wooden court. There’s the wooden court and then there’s like the vinyl flooring or whatever chair floor like flooring, court flooring that they have, but they had a different court setup for the wheelchair.

And I saw wheelchair fence, the wheelchair fencers, wheelchair players on this court. Um, I don’t know if that’s the only court they played on. Cause that’s, that was today. They were only on that court. Um, again, I just got sucked in. I wanted to play. It was fun. It was fun. I will tell you that.

Alison: You got excited for Olympic badminton.

Jill: Yeah.

Alison: So this does not surprise me that this would excite you again.

Jill: Um. We also had, the other nice thing about this session was that there was play going on, then there were a whole lot of victory ceremonies, which put me in an even better mood because of that music that everyone plays. Uh, the wheelchair doubles, WH1, WH2 class, the women had their, uh, victory ceremony.

So, uh, Liu and Yin from, uh, China did the cutest thing where they held their medals in one hand and the other hand had the frieze and they made the big heart with their arms together. It was so adorable. Everyone was so happy. It was a lot of fun. And also another, uh, of course, a French pair won, which was great.

And the French would not stop yelling. It was, um,

Oh, I’m sorry, Fautin Noel and Lukas Mazur. So they kept yelling, Fautin, clap, clap, Luka, Fautin, and it wouldn’t stop. He left kind of quickly. I think it, it must’ve been because he competed later on, but she just seemed to stay and soak in all of that. I would stay as long as I could.

Alison: You couldn’t get me out of there, people are chanting my name.

Jill: We’re going to start with wheelchair classes. In the Women’s Singles WH1 class today, we had Satomi, uh, uh, Serena from Japan won gold, uh, Sujarat Pookham from Thailand won silver, and Yin Meng Liu from China won the bronze. I did see the gold medal match. And honest to Pete, you would think that a shot would go way past Satomi.

Her range of motion leaning back was so far and you could tell it was farther than, uh, Pucom’s and Pucom. She had a decent range of motion too, but it’s just like you could, she, I wouldn’t be surprised if Satomi could do like a backbend from on in her chair. That’s how much flexibility she had in her back.

And then I wanted to go and do some bird dogs. to strengthen my own back a little bit, because guess what? It’s another sport that requires your entire core.

Alison: Is there a sport that doesn’t require your entire core?

Jill: Probably not, but the gold medal match was actually really, really close. So, uh, Satomi pulled it out.

She lost the first game, 18 21, but then won 21 18. So it was that last game was really close. It could have been anyone’s in the men’s singles wheelchair. One class, uh, gold went to, uh, choose the mole from China. Silver went to Choi Jungman from Korea and bronze went to Thomas von von Schneider from Germany.

I came in near the end of this match. And he won 2 0 over Korean Jung Jae goong, 26 24, 21 11. He is 60 years old, I believe. And again, another one who did not want to leave. Of course, he was hitting shuttlecocks into the crowd. There was a big German contingent, so especially he was over there hitting shuttlecocks into the crowd.

He just enjoyed the moment and soaked it in so much. It was really fantastic to see. In the Men’s Singles Wheelchair 2 class, uh, Japan’s Kajiwari Daiki. One gold, silver went to Chan Ho Yoon from Hong Kong, and bronze went to Kim Jong Joon from Korea. In the women’s singles WH2 class, gold went to China’s Liu Yutong, silver went to China’s Li Hongyan, and bronze went to Switzerland’s Yara Rangli.

And then in the women’s singles SL3 standing class, which is a half width court. Gold went to Xiao Shujian from China. Silver went to Kanita Iktara Siakoro from Indonesia. And bronze went to Mariam Enolia Bolaji from Nigeria. In the men’s singles SL3 class, India’s Kumar Nitesh won gold. Over Daniel Bethel from Great Britain.

This was a good match, too. This is going on at the same time. We had three matches going on mostly at the same time.

Alison: Metal matches and they still had multiples. I know, I know.

Jill: So many classes and this was the last day for pair of badminton. So they got to get it in and, uh, At first, uh, Nitesh and Bethel, their match seemed to be like, lob, lob, shot, lob, lob, shot.

And I’m looking at the next court over, which is, uh, Fujihara and Bunsen. That was the bronze medal match. And they seem to have a lot of, different variety in their shots. But then as the match went on between, uh, Natasha and Bethel, they started in with some variety and some good shots and some speed and, and really dinking it over the net.

And then I felt really bad cause, uh, um,

Fujihara, From japan in the bronze medal match just he was making really good shots. And then the the match was 21 15 21 15 with the bronze going to Malkon bunsen from thailand who just outplayed him in the men’s singles sl4 class So it’s a standing full with court francis lucas mazur won gold Silver went to uh, cs.

Alana kara. Yeah Yeah Yathiraj from India and bronze went to Freddy Saitawan from Indonesia. That name sounds familiar too. I bet they were in Tokyo. In the women’s singles SL4 class standing full with court, gold went to Cheng He Fan from China. Silver went to Liani Ratir Oktila from Indonesia. Bronze went to Hela Sofie Sagoe from Norway.

In the men’s singles SL, SU5 class, uh, upper bis, upper disability, English. upper body disability. Gold went to Alikhu Che from Malaysia. Silver went to Suryo Nugroho from Indonesia. And bronze went to Deva Anrusmuthi from Indonesia. There was a big Indonesian crowd there too. Oh

Alison: good. So

Jill: that was nice. They had a lot

Alison: to cheer for.

We got more.

Jill: Exactly.

in the women’s singles SU5 class, Gold went to Yang Qing Cha.

The women also were doing the metal matches for the U five class. Gold went to Yang Q Chang, yang Chu Shia from Chi China Silver went to a Tula Musan from India and bronze went to Manisha Ramas from India. Mixed doubles SL3, SU5, which is a mix of SL3 class and the two SU4 and SU5 classes. Gold went to India.

Gold went to Indonesia, the team of Hikma Ramdhani and Liane Rater Oktila. Silver went to Indonesia, the team of Freddie Saitawan and Kalimatas Sadia. And bronze went to Francis Lucas Mazur and Noel, and Faustine Noel. Clap, clap. Uh, in the men’s singles SH6, which is a short stature class,

gold went to China, Li Naoli and Li Fengmei. Silver went to Miles Ksky and JC Simon from the USA and Bronze went to Banson and Rina Marlina from Indonesia. That’s USA’s first pair of badminton, uh, medal at all.

Alison: And their children, they’re 19, the two of them. Wow.

Jill: I didn’t, I didn’t realize. Miles was that young.

Alison: He is that young. If you get a, we saw him, we didn’t get to talk to him at the Team USA Media Summit in the spring. But if you take a good look at his face,

Jill: he is clearly just an absolute kid. But I mean, silver medals, nice job, right? Because the US does not have a tradition in badminton too much. I know we say first medal, but Tokyo was first game that para badminton. But still,

Alison: there’s a lot of classes. There’s a lot of players. And to see the United States on a medal stand for a sport that they don’t do terribly well in on the Olympic side either is exciting.

Jill: Moving over to swimming, so I did see three races tonight.

for results and making it easier, we’ve grouped things by classes and, , Strokes and distances. So we will get to the different races I’ve seen at different times. , in the S 13, which is a visual impairment class. Men’s 50 meter freestyle gold went to IHA Bochy from neutral Paralympic athletes.

Silver went to IA Yako from Ukraine and bronze also went to Ukraine’s Alexi of Chenko for the Women’s 50 meter Feast style S 13 class. Gold went to Maria Carolina Gomez Santiago. Silver went to Gio Paragolini and bronze went to Carlotta Ghilli from Italy. Silver medalist is from USA and our Olivia Chambers finished fifth.

We’re moving over to the S9 class which is coordination affected to a low degree or potential limb amputation.

Moving over to the S9 class where coordination is affected to the low degree. Jamal Hill, 50 meter freestyle.

Alison: Oh, that breaks my heart a little bit too.

Jill: Yeah, that was tough. And he told me what happened. He said it was really intense and then just You go, it’s only 50 free. I forgot how long a 50 meter pool was. I know it’s 50 meters, but that’s a long race when you’re a sprinter.

Alison: A lot happens extremely quickly.

Jill: he’s a slapper.

He did not have a good race. I will say that. And he, you could tell. tell something was going on because he he had finished first in his heats and he had time of 2534 in his heats. He finished the final and in 2562. Oh, yeah, so it was a three tenths off which is a lot in Splash and Dash.

Alison: And within one tournament, within one competition, to have that kind of spread it’s not like, oh, something Changed, but obviously something did change.

Jill: Yeah, so he talked about it in the mix zone, which we’ll have after this just went out too intense and then with the his disability That really comes into play in this class when you have a muscle disability coordination issues and, and I know it’s 50 meters, but 50 meters at one go can be long when you don’t have to turn and get a little bit of rest.

So it, it really came through. We did have a world record set tonight. They were really, really fast. That was Simone Barlam from Italy, who got the gold. Silver went to Denis Tarasov from neutral Paralympic athletes, and bronze went to Frederik Solberg from Norway. Moving over to the S2 class, which is a high level of impairment. Men’s 200 meter freestyle. Gold went to Gabriel Geraldo Dos Santos Arroyo from Brazil. Gabriel Geraldo Dos Santos Arroyo from Brazil. Silver went to Vladimir Donalenkov from Neutral Athletes. Bronze went to Alberto Caroli Albarraza Diaz from Chile.

In the S7 class, which is, could be short stature, could be modern impairments on one side, or absence of limbs. Gold went, uh, we had the men’s 400 meter freestyle. Uh, gold went to Federico Bicelli from Italy. Silver went to Andrei Trusov from Ukraine. And bronze went to, uh, Inaki Basilov from Argentina. For the women, same class.

Mackenzie Cohen is in this race.

Alison: Mackenzie Cohen did very well in

Jill: this race. She did. Uh, gold went to Morgan Stickney from the U. S. who set a Paralympic record. Mackenzie got the silver and bronze went to Giulia Tertzi from Italy, talked with Mackenzie afterwards.

Uh, first off, she looked really strong in the pool. Like, you saw her swim, you saw her stroke and just like, you look really strong today. You’re having a good day. She was having a good day. She was overjoyed. We talked, I got some tape with her. The last year has been really tough for her. She, she’s been It has had some setbacks in other ways, couldn’t train the way she wanted to this, her training, her tapering all went exactly how she wanted to.

And this is a result. So it’s really nice when everything clicks. And it’s so hard to get it to click

Alison: and she not

Jill: done. No, she’s got more. So good Anya McKenzie, keep going. Moving over to the S3 class, which is a only can use arms and upper body. Uh, Ben’s 50 meter backstroke, gold went to a Dennis Ostapchenko from Ukraine, silver went to Josia Tim Alexander Topf from Germany, and bronze went to Sergei Polomarchuk from Ukraine.

In the, uh, women’s 50 meter backstroke, gold went to Alice Chalice from Great Britain, silver went to Zoya Shchetrova from Neutral Athletes, and bronze went to Marta Fernandez Infanta from Spain. Then we have the SB14 intellectual disability class for breaststroke. Men’s 100 or men and women did 100 meters tonight.

Gold went to Nicholas Bennett from Canada, silver to Jake Mitch Michael from Australia, and bronze went to Yamaguchi Naohide from Japan for the women. Louise Fittis from Great Britain won gold. Deborah Borja Coronero from Brazil won the silver and Beatrice Borja, Borja Carneiro from Brazil won the bronze.

Alison: Not a coincidence with the names.

Jill: Sisters. Um, moving over to SB4 class, a breaststroke class for moderately affected coordination. Men, 100 meters. Gold went to Dmitry Chernyov from neutral athletes. Silver went to Antonio Sapotachios. Sapotachios. Silver went to Antonios Sapotachios from Greece, and bronze went to Manuel Mateo Bortuzzo from Italy for the women.

Gold went to Giulia Chiaretti from Italy. Silver went to Fanny Illes from Hungary, and bronze went to Cheng Jiao from China. Just like in the

Alison: Olympics, Italy, Italy, Italy in the pool.

Jill: Yeah, it’s great. And in the mixed 4×100 meter freestyle relay, 34 points, gold went to Australia, silver to Netherlands, bronze to Spain.

Sorry, I missed that. I would have liked to seen a relay.

Alison: There’s more. There’s more. But you’re not going back to swimming, are you?

Jill: I don’t know. Probably not because it’s, we don’t, well, McKenzie’s got some races still and Olivia’s got some races still, but. I don’t know if I’ll go. There’s goalball tour.

In Paratable Tennis, we had men’s and women’s singles round of 16 and quarterfinals for various classes. Our Eden Seidenfeld defeated Martin Perry from Great Britain 3 0 in the men’s singles competition. He plays Spain’s Alvaro Valera in the quarterfinals tomorrow. Guess what actually happened today?

Alison: The triathlon. You know why the triathlon happened today? Because so the day before I got up, I got ready. And then realized it was canceled and laid down fully clothed back to bed to get an extra hour of sleep. These start very early. And of course, you got to get over there and get to the press center.

Today, I said, it’s not going to happen. I’m not even going to wake up.

Jill: And guess what happened?

Alison: The power triathlon.

Jill: So we have all classes are staggered starts depending on impairment, uh, metal orders determined by who crosses the finish line first for that class.

Alison: So in other, uh, sports, we’ve talked about the different clocks, you know, a second is in a second and it runs at different speeds.

This what they do is they put that time differential at the beginning. So if you are in a. a class with a higher level of disability, you start sooner than people with a lower level of disability. So you, so it’s all balanced out that way. So it really is who crosses the finish line first, which makes it easier.

to understand who wins.

Jill: We’ll start with the visually impaired classes. Uh, gold went to Dave Ellis from Great Britain with guide, Luke Pollard. Silver went to Thibaut Rigaudier from France with guide Cyril Villeneuve and bronze went to Francis Antoine Perel with guide Johan Laberre. There was a bike accident. That’s not good.

Uh, Hector Catala Laparra from Spain got a bike accident. And there were some penalties. I, I saw a lot when I looked at the results. There was stuff that was contested. Then there were a lot of penalties I saw. Some of the kind of penalties they have are Uh, uh, Owen Cravens from the U. S. got a, uh, 10 second penalty in the second transition because he touched the helmet locking mechanism while he was in possession of the bike inside the transition area.

So it was like, he had the bike, he was in the transition area, and I guess he started unlocking his helmet before he could, was allowed to, that would be my guess. Uh, More of that, uh, there’s equipment, penalties for placing equipment outside of their box. which makes sense because then that could impair somebody else.

Um, I think that’s true in able bodied triathlon as well. So

Alison: that’s not any different. Uh,

Jill: we had a disqualification for writing through the transition area. Uh, that kind of thing. It’s, it’s kind of interesting to see what all the different penalties are and how they affect people. Cause they’ll, they’ll have to serve like 10 seconds or something.

Sometimes they pull them off to the side.

Alison: And anything that we have seen in terms of these penalties, it all looks like either, because you get a time advantage or you put somebody else at risk.

Jill: In the women’s PTVI class, gold went to Susanna Rodriguez from Spain with guide, uh, Sarah Perez Sala. Silver went to Francesca Tarantello from Italy with guide, uh, Silvia Viaschi.

Sorry. Thank you. I’m not even going to try that. And bronze went to Anya Renner from Germany with guide Maria Paulig. In the men’s PWT. PTWC class. Gold went to Jetsa Platt from, uh, Netherlands. Silver went to Florian Brungraber from Austria and bronze went to Geert Schipper from Netherlands. And

Alison: PTWCs use wheelchairs and hand cycles.

Jill: Okay. Uh, for the women, gold went to Lauren Parker from Australia. Silver went to Kendall Gretsch from the USA and bronze went to Leanne Taylor from Canada. If you recognize Kendall Gretsch’s name, uh, she did win gold. in her class in Tokyo. Uh, but this is her seventh Paralympic medal because she is also a Nordic skier and we saw her compete at Beijing.

Yes, we did. I think she won a silver in the race that we saw her in.

In the, uh, standing classes, we have men’s PTS2. France, France’s Jules Ribstein won gold. Silver went to Mohamed Lanna from USA. And, uh, Bronze went to Mark Barr from USA. In the PTSA, I mean, sorry, France cleaned up. a lot here. France won a lot of medals today. So we were Kelsue was busy. Kelsue was really busy.

That show was really, really busy. And what was really

Alison: funny was while they were talking to one, one of the, the triathlete medalists, another French athlete won another medal in a late session. So then we got that medal session live as they’re talking to somebody who got their medal earlier in the day.

Jill: Yeah, there was a big section of the studio audience from Kelshu who was, was medalist from today for France. It was, it was great. And of course they will play every ceremony and everyone sings Marseille over and over again. So we’re going to hopefully learn the words by the time we’re, we’re done here.

In the men’s PTS4 class, Alexis Hanquinquan from France won gold, uh, Carson Clow from USA won silver and bronze, went to nil. Rio Davids, victory from Spain. PTS3. PTS3, I’m sorry. No,

Alison: we need to go back and do PTS3. Oh, I’m sorry.

Jill: For that class, Daniel Molina from Spain won gold, silver went to Max Gellar from Germany, and bronze went to Nico Vandenberg from Netherlands.

Alison: Then the men’s PTS5. Gold goes to Chris Hammer from the United States. Silver is Ronan Cordiero from Brazil. And bronze is Martin Schultz from Germany. Now we get some women’s results. PTS2. Gold to Haley Danz from the United States. Silver to Veronica Yoko Plebani from Italy. And bronze to Alyssa Seeley from the United States.

Women’s P ts four Gold for Meghan Richter of Great Britain. Marta, Francis Gomez from Spain won the Silver and Hannah Moore from Great Britain wins the bronze. Hey, you know who won the PTs five in the women’s short close. Dawn Grace Norman won. She only won by about a minute, and then another minute was silver and another minute was bronze.

So this was a, it wasn’t a photo finish. But nice and tight, which is exciting. So silver is, uh, Claire Cashmore from Great Britain and Lauren Steadman also from Great Britain, won bronze.

Jill: Moving over to shooting para sport. We had the P3 mixed 25 pistol, uh, SH1 class that, uh, uh, Yang Chao from China won gold, Gong Yanjiao from USA won silver, and Kim Joon nam from Korea won bronze.

Our Marco De La Rosa placed 19th and so was not in the finals of that. Sitting volleyball,

Alison: we have our last group of preliminary rounds. Actually, I take that back. So one pool of each of the men and the women are done. We’ve got the last ones tomorrow. So, uh, in the men’s side, Egypt beat Kazakhstan, uh, three to one, uh, Bosnia Herzegovina beat France three to zero.

And on the women’s side, Canada beat Rwanda 3 0 and Brazil beat Slovenia 3 0. So the men’s semifinalists from Pool A are Bosnia Herzegovina and Egypt. Pool B will be decided tomorrow. The wins, the women’s semifinalists, uh, from Pool B are Brazil and Canada. Pool A, which includes our Shukla Stani, Laura Webster and, uh, United States will be decided tomorrow as well.

I

so wheelchair basketball, this is in fact the last of the preliminary rounds. So US beat Japan on the women’s side, Netherlands beat Germany on the women’s side, on the men’s Great Britain beat France and Canada beat Germany.

So men’s quarter finalists are Great Britain, Australia. Spain, Germany, Canada, Netherlands, USA, and France,

Jill: that’ll be a, that’ll be a good game.

Alison: Are you going to try and go to that one?

Jill: I am going to try to go to that one since I didn’t see a full game. We didn’t really, we didn’t go to basketball during the Olympics because it, for the men at least it was too hard.

It

Alison: was too far away. It was in, it was in Lille.

Jill: Yeah, it was hard for that and even when they moved down, it was hard for us to get to where we were location wise. And

Alison: those were high demand tickets, so we couldn’t even just walk in. On the women’s side for the quarterfinals, which will be on Wednesday, it will be Netherlands versus Spain, Canada versus Germany, USA versus Great Britain, and China versus Japan.

Jill: Wheelchair rugby. What happened?

Alison: Okay, let’s start with the easy stuff. So we had the placement rounds. So, uh, France was fifth. Canada was sixth. Denmark was seventh and Germany is eighth. Then you got the bronze medal match. So close. Australia beat Great Britain. The defending champions walked away empty handed, 50 48.

Jill: Whoa.

Alison: Then we get to the gold medal batch.

Jill: Wait, so was Australia really scrappy as per usual? Oh yeah. Was it a really, really violent match?

Alison: It wasn’t a violent match. Uh, Australia was scrappy. They, you know, They wanted this and not that Great Britain did it, but there was an element in the Australian team,

Jill: like a different intensity, a different

Alison: intensity, like kind of what I’ve seen in some other bronze medal matches where they were not, they were not going to be denied.

Great Britain was right in there with them. So it wasn’t like, oh, they walked all over them, but the Australian fans were there.

Jill: Oh, yeah, they showed up for when I saw them as well.

Alison: I don’t know what they’re doing, but they are here.

So we had talked earlier in the week about I didn’t expect Japan to be there and I don’t know why. They’re the two time bronze medalists. And I think it’s because they haven’t done terribly well at the world championships and because the U. S. hasn’t played them in semis. So I just sort of missed that Japan has slowly but surely been creeping up the standings of the world.

Wheelchair rugby to break my heart is what they’ve been doing. Oh. So, uh, Japan beat the United States today. 48 to 41. The US beat itself nine turnovers. Ooh, to won by Japan. Ooh, six penalties to won by Japan.

Jill: Ooh.

Alison: It felt like they came out super hot. were great in the first quarter and then kind of burnt themselves out a little bit.

Like it got too intense, if that’s a word, and Japan stayed calm throughout and just steady, steady, steady. They didn’t get a, so it was one point tied, one point tied until midway through the third quarter. Japan went up three points and that was the end of the game.

Jill: Oh, you’re kidding. Wow. And that’s not a lot, like one little shift.

Alison: It was basically one of those turnovers or two of the turnovers they converted. And that was the game. It was a rough ending. Chuck was on the court crying, which made me cry. This is going to be tough. This is a tough, this is the third silver medal in the row for the United States. They’ve gotten beaten by a different team each time.

thrilled for Japan. They played a solid game. They were clean. They were crisp. They kept to their game plan, cannot fault them at all. Little scrappy, but not chippy like with Canada. And this hurt a lot. Cause I know what this meant to this team because they were so clean and so good. And I honestly thought Sarah Adam was that.

missing piece that was going to, because when she’s on the court, they are a slightly different team. They’re faster and more complex in their play selection.

Jill: Oh, that’s interesting.

Alison: I see a lot of the, the more complicated setups and the passes and she is fast, man. You get her going and she’s like, Oh, there goes Sarah.

She’s already scored. See ya. So. did not get mixed zone. I don’t know if any of the American players came through. It didn’t look like they were going to. Um, they did do the NBC, uh, the, uh, coach Joe Delegrave and, uh, Chuck did the NBC interviews and I think that was it. And I cannot fault them.

Jill: That’s tough.

Alison: Class acts on the metal stand as you would expect, but it’s hard to win the silver medal but lose the gold and then get on the medal stand. We’ve talked about this for all the team sports. Um, yeah, so I am, this was, I did not, I knew it was going to be hard because you know me, I, I

Jill: love wheelchair rugby. I love wheelchair rugby.

Alison: I love this team. I adore Chuck. I just, and I feel like connected to them in a way that is completely inappropriate and not realistic. Like they’re my team.

Jill: Welcome to fandom.

Alison: Yeah, I know. And I’m not that kind of fan. But to the team, USA Wheelchair Rugby, I am. So I already sent Chuck a note and just be like, we love you.

We love you. And we love this team. And, you know, we went back and forth because he does have availability tomorrow. And I kind of want to talk to him in a month. Not now. Yeah. I don’t want to be that reporter. Like how are you feeling now that you lost again? It’s it’s What is he going to say? I feel awful.

Of course he feels awful. And he’s going to say he loves his teammates because he does. This team loves each other. They don’t need me to make them feel crummy.

Jill: Maybe say the silver medal is beautiful because I do think the silver medal might be the best looking one of the three.

Alison: I guarantee you he does not care.

He does not like that he has a three set of silvers.

Jill: Fair enough.

Alison: So Chuck, I love you. And Sarah, I’m getting to love you now that I’ve seen you play these tournaments. And

Jill: it’s tough.

Alison: This was tough. But, but I’m here.

Jill: Well, it’ll be interesting to see what they do going forward, because LA will be a big moment for them. Just as just as all of these moments are very big for France and the Paralympic movement in France, USA, LA 2028 is going to be huge.

Alison: You know, do you. make significant changes or are you happy? And it was just a bad game.

So it’ll be interesting to see how the, the organization and the team going forward works because I mean, we all thought this was going to be it. This was going to be the breakthrough.

Jill: This is tough.

What’s the, what’s the sound you made? I’m

Alison: not making the sounds because now people are going to be scared of me.

Jill: Make the sound.

Don’t you feel better? No, I don’t. Okay, how about some wheelchair tennis? We had men’s singles third round, women’s singles second round, quad singles quarterfinals tonight. Rob Shaw of Canada will challenge the number two seed Niels Vink of Netherlands in the quad singles quarterfinal tomorrow. Shaw has dropped his last six matches to Vink. So we will see, is this going to be a Niels Vink spectacular or will Shaw finally break through?

That’ll be exciting. And I remember

Alison: we, we really enjoyed watching Niels Vink in Tokyo. Oh yeah. Oh my gosh. He was just such a joy. So this’ll, this looks like a barn burner. This’ll be good to

Jill: know. All right. Who’s our mascot? They’ll make you happy.

Alison: And it’s our last day with them. Sunny and Sadie are guinea pigs from Listener Dawn, who was kind enough to share them.

And I don’t know Listener Dawn’s daughter’s name. So, but I do want to thank her because I think the guinea pigs are really hers. So Sunny and Sadie have been outstanding mascots. Listener Dawn is so proud of them. And we’ll have a new mascot for you tomorrow. Excellent. We have some more medals for Shuklastan.

So we are at five golds, two silvers, two bronze, one silver I didn’t want, but I’m still, I’m so proud of that team.

Jill: They did do well. I mean, seriously, this is another sport, much like wheelchair basketball that I wish was more prominent in the U. S. that you could go and see it more often. I wish you could see wheelchair rugby more often, too.

And it’s not that it hasn’t had a moment here and there because there was murder ball that we watched a movie club and it just seems like oh, here’s a pop. There’s a pop. And I don’t know what billionaire would love to to sponsor a league or something or get them off the ground. It’s going to take people who have money and time and, and just the insane curiosity or, you know, drive to make that happen.

But it would be great to get to see a lot of these sports again, more than once every four years. But we get to see more Shook Lasagnas in action tomorrow. Ian

Alison: Seidenfeld plays in the quarterfinals of men’s singles paratable tennis.

Jill: Alice, Alison Levine and partner Julian Chabano have their first two prelim matches in the BACHA BC4 mixed doubles tournament.

Alison: On the track, Jayden Blackwell runs in the men’s T 38 400 meters and Daniel Romanchuk takes on the 1500 meters in the T 54 class.

Jill: And Olivia Chambers swings, swims her last event, the S 13 200 meter individual medley.

Alison: Team USA finishes its preliminary, uh, matches in women’s sitting volleyball against Italy.

Jill: Maybe that will make you happy going to see some sitting volleyball. I’m going to go see

Alison: Ian and Allison tomorrow.

Jill: Oh, well, there you go. That’s going to make you happy too. Uh, and Brian Bell and Team USA play men’s basketball in their quarterfinal against France. And that’s going to do it for this episode.

A special thank you to our researcher, Elizabeth Emery.

Alison: And if you want to get in touch with us while we are in Paris, you can reach us on X YouTube and Instagram at flame, a live pod. Send us an email at flame, a live pod 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: After this, we will have, Mixed zone tape from Mackenzie Cohen, then Jamal Hill, so both the swimming first, and then Callahan Young for a goalball after that. So stick around for that, and then join us again tomorrow for more action from Paris.

Please tell your friends about the show, tell them about the Paralympics and how cool it is, and hang out with us in the Facebook group because it’s hopping there. Thank you so much for listening, and until tomorrow, keep the flame alive.

Hi, Jill from Keep the Flame Alive. Hi! Oh my gosh, you look so strong out there. How did

McKenzie Coan: you feel?

Jill: I mean, how was it going in from this morning to this evening?

McKenzie Coan: Yeah, I felt really strong this morning. It was a great surprise. That’s the fastest time I’ve been in three years, and that’s exactly what I wanted to do.

How I wanted to execute and get a really good lane and good placement going into tonight, so.

Jill: Okay, so when, like, your training and tapering down, how did that go? And, I mean, I feel like it went according to plan. Yes. And you’re surprised at how well it went.

McKenzie Coan: Yes, yes, it definitely, so the last year hasn’t quite gone according to plan at times.

It’s been kind of up and down, that’s for sure. So to have, like, my full taper and have everything hit the way I want it to at the right time, it’s been great. It’s just been a while since that’s happened for me, and so it feels so good and so powerful to go out and execute the way that I want to.

Jill: I don’t know what to say.

I’m so excited for you. I’m excited

McKenzie Coan: too! Okay! I love it! You’re making me more excited now too!

Jill: Medal ceremony, tears, you know that kind of thing. It’s really cool. Congratulations. I don’t know what else to ask. I want to talk to you forever, but I to ask. I appreciate it.

McKenzie Coan: Thanks so

much. How are you? Good. Obviously. Okay. What happened from this morning to today or this evening? Oh, I went slower. That’s what I did. Um, did it feel different? This? Yeah. I mean, you know, sometimes like you just try a little too hard. I think that’s what tonight was a case of. Tried a little too hard. Um, and uh, you know, one of my, one of my greatest mentors always said when you win, you party and when you lose, you ponder.

Jamal Hill: Uh, so right now, it’s not really about feelings. It’s just about, again, figuring out what exactly happened. Um, I know I was really focused on just taking it out fast, taking it out hard. I brought a lot of intensity and I think that just caused my muscles to tighten up too early in the race. So when we were coming to that, you know, literally probably the back third.

I could feel it just falling more and more behind. And I mean, again, at that point, all you can continue to do is just swim your race, get to the wall, hope for the best. So tonight, the best Iowa’s fifth place. All right. How’s the experience of the Paralympics been so far? And because you have this big platform, yeah, the Paralympic movement, I think is a wonderful movement.

Um, I’m really honored that not only me representing Team USA Athlete, but also the businesses and ventures that I’m involved in all go to really supporting and growing that Paralympic movement. You know, it’s not just about standing on this platform to, uh, to advance our own goals and our own visions as individuals and as collectives, but, uh, you know.

We’re parts of a whole here. So I think the more winners that we have and the more winners that we have winning in other areas of life and bringing that energy and bringing those crowds and bringing that, you know, that Venn diagram, that overlap of communities back to the Paralympic movement. Uh, that’s what it’s really about.

And, um, I’m really just, again, grateful. I’ll, I don’t even know, you wouldn’t even be interviewing me if I wasn’t a part of the Paralympic movement. So, uh, it really is an honor and a lot to this movement. Alright, thank you. Cheers. I’m bummed that, that it worked out the way it is, but It’s alright, listen.

One thing you learn being on the block, you win some, you lose some. Exactly.

Jill: It’s Jill Jaracz from Keep the Flame Alive Podcast. How are you? I mean, it’s been better. It’s been better, yeah. I mean, that’s a good question. Yeah. Going into tonight, what kind of play did you anticipate from Japan?

You know, just that. They are a methodical team that will pick you apart and, uh, they don’t make many mistakes and, uh, early on they did make a couple mistakes that we were able to capitalize on.

Um, Tyler scored one of the penalties. Um, And, you know, we being able to keep ourself in the game was our mindset going into it. We knew that they’re going to be a, they’re one of the best teams in the world. So you know, by keeping us in the game, by keeping the score, you know, if we can’t catch an early lead, at least keeping it tight within one was our mindset.

I mean, obviously we want the lead, but, um, you know, we are, we are very aware that they are an elite team. So. Um, we did what we went out there to do was keep the score tight because we knew that we could score goals and, uh, you know, just, uh, just ties didn’t end up falling our way. We had a couple of close calls that went in that didn’t go in.

I mean, in all fairness, so did they. Goalball is a, sometimes it’s luck, luck’s not on your side, and sometimes it is. And defensively, we had a few lucky saves that I’m extremely thankful for and a couple that didn’t go in that I’m not very thankful for. So, um, It’s just the game kind of went how we thought that they would play.

Uh, it’s just, we didn’t actually do it on the little things that, uh, could have pulled out the wind there.

Jill: Okay. So they have this move where, uh, one guy in the center really has the ball and the other two take turns trying to run to fake you out. Does that fake you out really? Or no, do you know what they’re doing?

No, I mean, they do it so much. It’s like, it’s, it’s very gimmicky. Um, you know, I mean, it’s, it’s just. The ball, nothing can make the same sound as the ball. That’s what I tell my teammates. I’m like, don’t listen to the footsteps. Like, you know, you can’t put bells in your shoes and nothing will ever sound like the bell.

So I just, I find it very gimmicky. It doesn’t really get to me. I mean. Honestly, like the, um, you don’t see the best teams in the world like China and Brazil doing it because they know that, uh, putting an angle from the thrower is the most important part. Um, you know, doing a angle from your, your arm and your body is what’s going to really get people.

I mean, it does bite some people, but, um, I, I try to see myself as someone that doesn’t really get bit on that fake footsteps.

Jill: Okay, good. One more game. How do you regroup?

We gotta figure out what time it is. It’s at 10. 45 tomorrow. We get to sleep in a little bit. Worst case scenario, it was at 9. 15. Worst case scenario, we had to play a game tomorrow, so I mean, pick your poison.

But, uh, you know, we have the opportunity to get back into the Paris 2024 Paralympic floor and represent our country one last time. And, you know, that’s how we have to do it. That’s how we’re going to handle it. You know, not everyone gets the opportunity to be on this floor in the stage and, um We are blessed with that opportunity.

So, I mean, just you gotta take it at that, right? Like, um, I’m fortunate we didn’t win, but, uh, you know, I’m fortunate that we have to play tomorrow, but you just gotta take the blow and move on.

Jill: Okay, great. Thank you.