Preserving Olympic and Paralympic History with the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Museum’s Lindsay Huban

With every Olympics and Paralympics comes thousands of athlete stories. How do you preserve them all? Lindsay Huban, Chief Content and Integration Officer at the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Museum gives us some insight on how the museum tells the stories of Team USA athletes and the Games.

Part of that strategy is through special exhibits, and the museum has two new exhibits on tap. The first, A Legacy of Victory: U.S. Olympic Decathletes, shares the stories of America’s dominant decathlon performances throughout Olympic history. An Olympic event since Stockholm 1912, Americans have won 27 medals in this event, starting with Jim Thorpe’s decisive victory in the inaugural running.

The second new exhibit is The Genuis of Sport, on International Olympic Committee founder Pierre de Coubertin. Team Keep the Flame Alive member George Hirthler curated this exhibit, which he updated after it showed at Paris 2024 to include de Coubertin’s travels in the U.S.

We also talked with Lindsay about some of the amazing ways athletes send in artifacts and what you can experience when you see the USOPM’s new exhibits. Learn more at usopm.org.

Plus, LA 2028 has unveiled the triathlon and para triathlon courses, which start and end in Venice Beach. For just the second time in Olympic history, the triathlon will start on the beach instead of from a pontoon in the water. Athletes will have to swim two laps of different lengths and run 25m between laps. The bike and run routes travel down the Venice bike path and onto the streets, providing ample opportunity to see an Olympic event for free.

The para triathlon will start in the water, and its bike and run routes will also traverse the bike path and city streets. Fans will be able to cheer on para triathletes for free as they race through the city to the coastline finish.

We also have follow-ups on LA28 news from recent episodes, including new state laws for the Games, more economic predictions and a pause on tree removal at the equestrian venue in Santa Anita.

Plus, Alpes 2030 has finalized its venue plan, and it looks more manageable than Milano Cortina 2026. Does that make you want to go to them? Let us know!

Photo courtesy of Lindsey Huban.

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TRANSCRIPT

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447-Lindsay Huban-U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Museum

Theme Music

Jill Jaracz: Hello, and welcome to [00:00:30] another episode of Keep the Flame Alive, the podcast for fans of the Olympics and Paralympics. If you love the games, we are the show for you. I am your host, Jill Jaracz, joined as always by my lovely co-host, Alison Brown. Alison, hello. How are you?

Alison Brown: Hello. A little sniffly with the season change now that it’s officially fall.

Jill Jaracz: Yes, yes, yes, but it’s nice to have the, the crisp air.

Alison Brown: Not complaining. Apples. I won’t start complaining until we do the time change, and then it’s dark at 4:30.

Jill Jaracz: Yes.

Alison Brown: Then I [00:01:00] get upset. That’s never fun. But for now, this is nice ’cause you get the cooler weather, but it’s still light enough.

Jill Jaracz: Exactly. Exactly, exactly.

Lindsay Huban Interview

Jill Jaracz: What’s also nice is that it means, like, the start of new things, you know? School started a little while ago, but- Yeah … like, a lot of other new things come on board, especially at places like the US Olympic & Paralympic Museum, and that’s what we’re talking about today. We are talking with Lindsay Huben, who is the chief content and integration officer at the US [00:01:30] Olympic & Paralympic Museum.

And prior to joining the USOPM in November 2024, she was executive director at the Henry B. Plant Museum in Tampa, Florida, which focused on the Gilded Age and that era. we talked with Lindsay about the museum and how artifacts come in. You will love what Bonnie Blair does with her stuff.

Alison Brown: What lots of people do with their things was- … a good little preview for you.

Jill Jaracz: [00:02:00] Exactly. Also, e- even if you’ve been there, a lot of change is going on right now.

As this show airs, the museum is celebrating the opening of a new exhibit called A Legacy of Victory: U.S. Olympic Decathletes, and another new exhibit is, uh, one from our friend in Shuk- Shuklastani, George Hertler, who has an updated exhibit on Pierre de Coubertin called The Genius of Sport. And Alison, you and I saw The Genius of Sport when we were in Paris.

Alison Brown: Yes.

Jill Jaracz: it was [00:02:30] part of the Cultural Olympiad, and it was at the 7th arrondissement city hall. It was really cool. Uh, nice little exhibit about the life of Pierre de Coubertin. That has been updated, and it’s now in the USOPM, and, it’s nice to see it get some new life in the U.S., and we talk about that as well and what’s new and different about it.

So take a listen to our conversation with Lindsay.

Lindsay, thank you so much for joining us.

“The Genius of Sport” exhibit on Pierre de Coubertin opens at the USOPM

Jill Jaracz: You’re chief [00:03:00] content and integration officer at the US Olympic and Paralympic Museum, and coming up, or actually probably is on right now, is The Genius of Sport exhibit that our friend George Hirthler created. uh, it was first at Paris 2024. Correct. Why bring it to the USOPM?

Lindsay Flanagan Huban: Well, thanks so much for having me on today. It’s really a pleasure- Yeah … to be here. And as for why bringing it to the USOPM, because it makes sense. We’re the nation’s premier platform for telling Olympic and Paralympic [00:03:30] stories, and this is the story of how it all began. So George did a fantastic job with all of his original research, putting together the story of Pierre de Coubertin and all of the incredible connections to the United States.

know, I learned a lot reading this exhibit and working with George on installing it here, and it’s just been fantastic. We’re so honored to, to have it here in our museum for all of our visitors to enjoy.

Alison Brown: I have a quick question about moving an exhibit because The Genius of [00:04:00] Sport, Jill and I got to see it in Paris while it was there, and it was so idiomatic to the space that it was in because it was in that two floors and in that old building.

And you obviously can’t replicate that- because you, you have your space. so how do you bring that spirit of the exhibit and then transpose it into your space?

Lindsay Flanagan Huban: Well, you know, George and his designer, Buster, did a really fantastic job modifying the exhibit to fit in [00:04:30] our space. So it turned into more of a panel exhibit, and it’s, it’s almost immersive how it takes over an entire gallery, and it feels so different than the rest of our museum.

The version that we have here at the US Olympic & Paralympic Museum also has a lot of brand new scholarship in it that I understand was not in Paris. So there’s, there’s a whole section, probably 40% of the exhibit, that deals with Pierre de Coubertin’s two voyages to the United States and [00:05:00] all of the colleges and universities that he visited trying to drum up interest for this crazy idea about bringing back the Olympic Games.

Jill Jaracz: Wow. Which is cool because then it, really makes it fit the US mode and model and brings it home a little bit. And that exhibit is going to be on through LA 2028?

Lindsay Flanagan Huban: Unfortunately, not quite that long. It’ll be up for several more months, so there’s plenty of time to come and see it, and I hope everybody [00:05:30] does.

it is in one of our rotating exhibit galleries, so we try to change those over at least once a year.

How far in advance the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Museum plans and refreshes exhibits

Jill Jaracz: Which is a good segue to my next question, is how often does the USOPM get new exhibits in, and how far out do you plan stuff?

Lindsay Flanagan Huban: Well, so a lot of museums will plan three to five years in advance. We’re working about 18 months to two years in advance right now, and, uh, Genius of Sport was the first time that we brought in an exhibit that we did not curate and create [00:06:00] ourselves.

So that was a brand new experience for us. We try to refresh our core galleries, so our summer gallery, our winter gallery, we try to refresh those about once a year to bring in new content. And then as for brand new exhibits, we have two rotating exhibit spaces, so just in a couple weeks here at the end of September, we’re going to be opening another new exhibit, called A Legacy of Victory: US Olympic Decathletes.

Jill Jaracz: Ooh. That’s exciting.

Lindsay Flanagan Huban: Always something new here at the museum.

Jill Jaracz: That’s exciting. [00:06:30] when you change stuff over in an existing, i- in the summer and winter, exhibits and refresh them, how much do you change around?

Lindsay Flanagan Huban: It really depends on a lot of different things. Some of it depends on which athletes and national governing bodies we’ve been able to connect with, what artifacts we’ve been able to source.

there’s also structural questions. Are we bringing in new cases or just changing out the objects that are in the cases? when we [00:07:00] refreshed our Summer Games gallery in April of 2024, we hung a kayak way up high on the wall, so that was, that was a big change. Uh, it was only one object, but it, it was sort of a statement piece in the gallery.

The thing is something like 25 feet long. It’s enormous. So we did that. We changed out all of our signs, all of our signage, so that we could add images onto the signage so that you’re not just looking at, you know, Shannon Miller’s [00:07:30] iconic scrunchie, but you’re looking at the scrunchie right next to a photo of her wearing it.

So trying to, to kind of help bring it home a little bit more for our visitors and connect these things that you’re seeing to the history that they helped create.

How visitors experience the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Museum

Alison Brown: Do you find people know a lot when they come, or are they discovering a lot when they come, or a little bit of both?

Lindsay Flanagan Huban: Little bit of both, for sure. we have people who come in and they have a favorite sport, and all they care about is hockey, and that’s all [00:08:00] they wanna see, and that’s totally fine. Hockey’s a great sport.

I can get behind that. And then we have people who come in and they connect to a specific games. They remember LA ’84. They remember, I don’t know, Nagano. pick your favorite. And so they wanna only see things from that games. What I love seeing is when, when we have different generations come in together, and you see parents or grandparents or aunts and uncles talking to the next generation saying, “I remember when this [00:08:30] thing happened.

I was sitting at home and watching it on TV,” or, “I was there and I carried that torch.” So it, it’s really wonderful to see those connections being made, and it’s also even more special when we get athletes who come in and sign their name on one of our diamond panels and leave their mark here in the museum.

And there’s so many wonderful stories. Athletes who come in here and are just welcomed home And they feel a connection to this [00:09:00] place that maybe they didn’t know was gonna be there in advance. And after they leave, they reach back out days or weeks later and say, “Hey, I still have my uniform,” or my javelin or whatever it may be.

“Do you wanna borrow it for an exhibit?”

What it’s like to work at a museum with living primary sources

Jill Jaracz: What is like, what is that like for you, especially y- you haven’t been at the museum that long. Came in, November 2024, it said?

Lindsay Flanagan Huban: Yep, so

Jill Jaracz: almost two years. Okay. but in your previous work, you were working in a timeframe where [00:09:30] everybody is passed.

Alison Brown: Yeah.

Jill Jaracz: But now you’re dealing with artifacts and history that happens as we speak, and you are able to interact with the people who made that history.

What is it like for you as a content creator?

Lindsay Flanagan Huban: Well, it, puts primary sources in a whole new light when I can just call up the person and say, “Hey, can you tell me more about this uniform that you sent? How did you feel when you were wearing it?”

So in some ways it makes our [00:10:00] research a lot easier. it also, there’s a, there’s a complication because these exhibits that we design, that we curate here at the museum, you never know when the next person is gonna walk in and go, “Oh, well that’s a picture of me on the wall.

Good job.” Or, “I have a better picture. Can you swap it out instead?” There’s also an interesting, I won’t say challenge. There’s an interesting opportunity in that there’s a new Olympic and Paralympic Games every other [00:10:30] year, so the stories just are never ending. And that means we end up having to make some really hard decisions because space is limited and cases are limited, and how do you decide which stories to tell?

And that really is what makes our, our rotating galleries so fantastic, is that we can share these stories for six months or nine months or a year, and then swap them out, and now we have new opportunities to tell new stories and, and always something fresh to see and [00:11:00] experience here.

Gems from the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Museum collection

Alison Brown: Do you ever just go into your storage And just wander?

Because I, ’cause p- to be honest, if I were you, I would probably never get out of your clothes storage areas, just seeing the amount of items that you probably have at this point.

Lindsay Flanagan Huban: Well, we are, very lucky that we have some incredible, incredible pieces on display, and we’re also so fortunate to have wonderful partners who lend us things for exhibits too.

So since the [00:11:30] museum, since my museum only opened six years ago, we’re still building our collection. We have some really wonderful things, but there’s a lot more that we can do and that we’re hoping to do in the future. I will say we have a, we have a breakout meeting before we open every day, and the whole staff gathers and goes over, ” Here’s some interesting trivia and here are the groups that are coming today and here’s what to expect.”

When we get new artifacts into the collection, whether on loan or on a longer term basis, I [00:12:00] always bring them to that meeting. So this morning, ah, this morning was wonderful. I got to come to this meeting and showcase Dan O’Brien’s podium jacket from 1996 that he wore after winning the decathlon. And right next to it on the same cart, I had the Paralympic torch from the Milano Cortina 2026 Games.

So I really have the best job. It never gets boring, and I love getting to share it with all of my colleagues here at the museum and all of our visitors.

Why Lindsay Huban went to work at the USOPM

Jill Jaracz: What made you want to [00:12:30] work at the USOPM?

Lindsay Flanagan Huban: Well, my background is in sports history. I wrote a master’s thesis on baseball many, many years ago, and I’ve been in museums for 20 years.

So when I heard about this opportunity and learned about this museum, I looked at my husband and said, “Well, this is my job. I’m gonna go get it.” And I did. It, it worked out really, really well. I had been on vacation in Colorado for two weeks and went back home to Florida and thought, “You know what?

Colorado’s [00:13:00] a pretty special place. I, I think I wanna live there.” And this was literally the first job I saw posted, and I went, “All right. That’s it. That’s a sign. We’re gonna do it.” And fortunately, my husband is a really good guy and said okay.

Alison Brown: But now he gets to enjoy all the times when you come home and say, “Guess what I got to do today?”

Yeah. ”

Lindsay Flanagan Huban: Guess who I talked to on the phone today?”

What it was like joining the museum after the Paris 2024 Games

Jill Jaracz: Starting not that long after Paris ended, what was that like? [00:13:30] Because we, the two of us, find a Summer Olympics can be pretty overwhelming in terms of size and scope. What is that like for you working in a museum trying to capture that?

Lindsay Flanagan Huban: Overwhelming is definitely the right word. You know, with, what was it? Something like 10,000 athletes competing in Paris. how do you drill all of that down into 1,000 words or, or something along those lines? Fortunately, our staff here at the museum is incredibly talented and [00:14:00] thoughtful and passionate, so when I go to them and say, “Okay, send me your favorite stories from Paris.

What are people asking about? What are people saying is missing? What were your favorite moments?” that’s kind of how we start picking out the 5 or 10 or 15 stories that we’re going to tell from a single Games. it’s a challenging job. There have been 14,000 athletes that have competed for the United States since 1896.

You can find all of them, every single one, [00:14:30] somewhere in the museum, and there’s gonna be another 14,000 in the next however many years. So it’s, really challenging. And I will say coming in as a brand-new employee after this Games that, that really revitalized the movement and that got everybody thinking about the Olympics and the Paralympics again, it’s a daunting task.

Everybody has their favorite moments. Fortunately, we have a lot of flexibility in our exhibits that we can expand our content beyond just the half dozen [00:15:00] artifacts that you might see. We also have screens and interactives and games and fantastic storytellers who can bring it all to life for every visitor.

How events support the museum’s content strategy

Jill Jaracz: How important are events to the museum’s content strategy?

Lindsay Flanagan Huban: Events are really important. Events are a great way to support and supplement all of the wonderful things that we do with content. So whether that event is a special festival day, like during our, um, Hall of Fame [00:15:30] Festival last year, we were able to open for free for two days and offer athlete meet and greets, and signings, and panels, and demonstrations.

We work with, wonderful national governing bodies like figure skating, where they do a takeover of the museum and bring in their athletes, and do classes, and scavenger hunts, and bring things from their museums. Events are a great way to get people to come back again and again to the museum, and it’s also a– Events are fantastic at helping us [00:16:00] expand beyond just what you’re seeing on any given day.

We can go dive deeper into stories, whether it’s through a virtual format, like our Games History Hour or our Legacy Library, or our digital conversations that we have with athletes talking to each other about their experiences. And then we also have, you know, special events for our members, for our donors, that really take things to a whole new level.

I mentioned our decathlon exhibit that we have coming up here in a couple weeks. We’re [00:16:30] doing a wonderful special evening opening of it, where we actually will have Dan O’Brien here in the building, talking about his experiences and, and helping introduce this new exhibit to everybody.

Alison Brown: Oh, that’s fun.

Why are you so far away, Lindsay?

Lindsay Flanagan Huban: It’s worth the journey, I promise. Yes.

Jill Jaracz: Do you ever think, like, we’ll have the decathlon 10-course meal?

Lindsay Flanagan Huban: Actually, I [00:17:00] was thinking that it would be great if we, if we had a miniature decathlon and people got to try their hand at some of these events.

Jill Jaracz: The… Yes. Yes. And yes.

Lindsay Flanagan Huban: I will say one

Why Lindsay Huban has the best job in the world

Alison Brown: of the- When we, when we told you we were jealous of your job, we weren’t kidding.

Lindsay Flanagan Huban: Hey, I, I love my job. All my friends hear me say over and over that I have the best job in the world. I get to tell these stories and, and see these artifacts, and pick up these pieces of history. I was, I was, checking in a new artifact that we received [00:17:30] on loan from the Track and Field Hall of Fame in New York City.

It’s Bill Toomey’s throwing shoes from 1968. He won the decathlon, and I’m looking at these shoes, and they have these crazy spikes on the bottom that are an inch long. And I see all this dirt caked on these spikes, and I’m thinking, “Oh my gosh, this is Bill Toomey dirt. This is Bob Beamon dirt.

This is, you know, Tommie Smith and John Carlos dirt on these shoes.” It’s, it’s amazing. So best job ever.

Jill Jaracz: [00:18:00] So, th- th- the US has been a, a real big host nation. You know, we’ve done five summer, including the upcoming one, and four winter games. Uh, what’s the museum’s approach to sharing that history as a host?

Lindsay Flanagan Huban: That’s a great question. So we are the US Olympic & Paralympic Museum, so we really only focus on American athletes.

I don’t know that we really give any sort of special attention to home games other [00:18:30] than we tend to do really well at home games, so those show up a little bit more in some of the exhibits. I don’t know that, that we’ve really thought about or made a concerted effort to look at, to look at home games in particular, but I’m gonna add that to my list for our rotating exhibits going forward.

Jill Jaracz: Oh, wait. Uh, so how long is the list? I know how long our list is, but how long is your list?

Lindsay Flanagan Huban: It kind of goes on forever. There’s, there’s no shortage of good ideas. There’s no shortage of great stories to be told.

The difference between summer athletes and winter athletes

Jill Jaracz: [00:19:00] Is there a difference between summer athletes and winter athletes?

Lindsay Flanagan Huban: Not from how the museum approaches them.

Alison Brown: How about how they approach the museum?

Lindsay Flanagan Huban: Well, I will say when we, opened our exhibit back in April called It’s Your Vibe, it was our, our look back at the Milano Cortina Games. We had three winter athletes here for the opening. We had Danny O’Shea, Ellie Kam, and Patrick Hallgren.

they had some interesting thoughts about winter athletes, and, [00:19:30] and my takeaway, I’m absolutely paraphrasing what they said, was that winter athletes are maybe a little more reckless, that they maybe take some more chances than summer athletes do

Alison Brown: I wonder why that is. Well, they, uh, they’re on spikes.

Yeah. They’re on, you know, death s- knives.

Lindsay Flanagan Huban: They’re on death- Death statues … controlled falling off a mountain while they have blades strapped to their feet. They’re very brave. I wonder how that works with athletes who compete in both summer [00:20:00] and winter. we had Oksana Masters here recently, a summer and winter Paralympian.

So I’ll have to ask her next time, next time she stops by.

Jill Jaracz: Oh, yeah. That’s a good, that’s a good point. I mean, well, she is an- another being altogether, being able to go summer to winter for as long as she has and, be as successful as she has. I think there’s a, bit of otherworldliness in that ability.

But yeah, it’s j- it’s just fascinating.

Some of the cool artifacts lent or donated to the museum

Jill Jaracz: What kind of things do you [00:20:30] wish you could put on display that you can’t? Whether it’s space or timing or, you know, you have something waiting in the wings like, “Oh, this is really cool, and I wanna, I wanna show it someday.”

Lindsay Flanagan Huban: Well, we just received a loan of an artifact that is enormous.

Enormous, enormous. We have a sail from Paris 2024 that belongs to Laura Da- Lara Dallman-Weiss. she sent it to us, and we, we had to lay it out on our [00:21:00] boardroom table because we have no other space big enough to lay it out to get measurements. so that’s something I would love to display in a way that helps communicate what an incredible piece of technology this is.

it weighs nothing. It has an interesting texture so that the wind isn’t gonna grab it and rip it, but that it’s not flat. We can’t just hang it up on a wall because it has curves so that it can catch wind and expand and help propel the boat. So that’s [00:21:30] something I would love to be able to display in the future.

There are other iconic pieces that, that you think of when you think, Olympic history or Paralympic history. I’m thinking Tommie Smith and John Carlos’ black gloves that they wore in Mexico City in 1968. Gosh, to get something like that would be amazing. but I will say what we have here already is pretty iconic.

We’re the only place in North America or South America where [00:22:00] you can see a complete collection of Olympic torches. We’re the only place where you can see a cle- complete collection of Olympic and Paralympic medals. last January when there were the Palisades fires in California, Gary Hall Jr., 10-time Olympic medalist, lost his home, lost just about everything.

I believe he got out of his house with his dog and his insulin, and that was it. He lost all of his medals. The IOC issued him replacement medals, [00:22:30] and we called him that day and asked if we could borrow them, and he said, “Yeah, sure. Do you want the burned ones or the new ones?” And I said, “Well, I, you know, I would love both.

Thank you, sir.” And he, he sent us two of the burned medals that they were able to dig out of his safe and two of the replacement medals that he got. He was here in July of 2025, so this was all last year. He was here in July, and loved the museum, [00:23:00] and his takeaway afterwards was, “You’ve done a great job telling these stories.

Do you want the safe that has the rest of the medals in them?” And I said, “Yes, please.”

So now we have the safe on display too. So it’s, it’s– I think the point that I’m trying to make is that we wanna honor the history and the early torches and that 1896 medal that James Connolly won, but then we also want the recent stories, the things that are happening right now [00:23:30] that, that keep the Olympics and the Paralympics in our cultural consciousness all the time.

Does the museum approach the Paralympics and Olympics differently?

Alison Brown: Do you find you have to approach Paralympics and Olympics differently, or is it very much the same?

Lindsay Flanagan Huban: Very much the same. We present them side by side throughout the whole museum. they’re all members of Team USA, so they’re all Americans and, they’ve all done incredible things. So we, we make a concerted effort to make sure that we’re not segregating out Olympics and Paralympics, that they’re all presented [00:24:00] right next to each other throughout, throughout our exhibits.

Jill Jaracz: What is it like then going back in Paralympic history and finding the athletes that, before the, the agreement that, uh, the IOC and the IPC had where they worked more together or where host cities were expected to do both. You know, you had that time where, you know, LA’s a first-time Paralympic host this time around because the Paralympics had different host cities back in the day.

Lindsay Flanagan Huban: [00:24:30] it’s challenging for sure. I mentioned we have a database of all members of Team USA. For a lot of the early Paralympians, we don’t have all of the information that we’re looking for, all of the information that we would love to share. So we’re, we’re constantly doing research and trying to learn more.

It’s also really fascinating, the Paralympics are really great at illustrating how much technology has advanced in sport. In one of our [00:25:00] galleries, we have four prosthetic legs on display so that our visitors can understand how a Cheetah blade may be great for running, but that’s not gonna work for snowboarding, and how Mike Schultz had such problems competing on early prosthetics that he designed his own, the, the Moto Knee Versa Foot.

So I, I think those Paralympic stories, in a lot of ways, are even more fascinating and compelling [00:25:30] because there’s a lot of layers to them. There’s a lot of lessons that can be learned and taken away about adapting to whatever circumstances you find yourself in

Jill Jaracz: So when you try to fill in those holes, where do you start looking?

Lindsay Flanagan Huban: Well, we have a couple sources that we go to first. The Crawford Family Archives at the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee, we work closely with them just about every day on trying to fill those gaps. Uh, we also research through old [00:26:00] newspapers. We use the International Paralympic Committee. But a lot of the information can be really difficult to find.

the best place to go is to the athletes themselves, and they know somebody who knows somebody who can put us in touch with someone that we’re looking for. keeping a database like that as accurate as possible, it’s a never-ending job, and not just because there’s new athletes every other year, but because there’s always more that we can learn and fill in from some of those early athletes.

So we [00:26:30] look a lot of different places.

Alison Brown: What kind of information are you trying to collect?

Lindsay Flanagan Huban: So we collect first name, last name, date of birth, date of death, sport, games in which they competed. I should say sport or sports. Uh, there are a lot of early Paralympians who competed in four or five different sports.

any medals that they won, how they finished in each Paralympic event, and, uh, we also collect university, college, whether they served in the armed forces. There’s a lot of different, lot of different [00:27:00] empty fields on some of those records. And images, photos, of course. Photos are, are sometimes the hardest part

Working with the Team USA archives

Jill Jaracz: What is it like working with the archives at Team USA?

Because we’ve talked, a long, long time ago we talked with one of their archivists, but that was pre-USOPM, and just because they were so established, how is that working with them as a newer entity?

Lindsay Flanagan Huban: It’s great. We work very closely together. we have a monthly sit-down meeting where we talk through exhibits [00:27:30] that we have coming up and what they may have in their collections that we could borrow to support those exhibits.

They’re helpful when it comes to research and sharing their records. It’s a very collaborative effort.

Jill Jaracz: It’s probably nice for the museum-

Lindsay Flanagan Huban: Yeah …

Jill Jaracz: to not have, to not have that on their, budget, to be quite honest. And to have that, that big archive, that exists that you can help pull from.

Lindsay Flanagan Huban: Yep, absolutely. we also work very closely together. there’s so many athletes out [00:28:00] there that are trying to find a home for their memorabilia, their uniforms, their equipment, their records. so we also work very closely together in, responding to donation offers and loan requests and all of that sort of thing.

So it’s a good team.

What is Lindsay Huban’s dream program?

Alison Brown: Do you have a dream program? That you would love to put together that just y- you don’t have the materials yet, you don’t have the pieces

Lindsay Flanagan Huban: I think I could give you a [00:28:30] different answer. Uh, I mean, yes, but as to what that dream is, I think it changes every single day. I keep learning more and more about tiny little stories, and I think, “Well, everybody needs to know this.”

Dan O’Brien was the one who pitched the idea of a decathlon exhibit to the museum, and we sort of went, “Oh, yeah, that sounds cool. We’ll, we’ll put it on the list. Thanks, Mr. O’Brien. Congratulations on your gold medal.” And, um, then I started looking into it a [00:29:00] little bit and I thought, “Oh my gosh, this is, this is amazing.

This is incredible. The US domination in this event is fantastic.” And then I did some more research and some more research, and I, came across all of these athletes who did these amazing things. I mean, Harold Osborn won gold in the decathlon in 1924, and he was blind in one eye, so he had to use a special high jump style so that he could see the bar, so he could get over it.

And Kip Janvrin, who [00:29:30] competed in the decathlon for Team USA in 2000 in Sydney, he was 35 years old. He was the oldest member of Team USA to ever compete in an Olympic decathlon, and he won the 1500, the last event of the decathlon, to move up something like four or five places in the rankings at the end of the event.

And then the next year went on to set a world record in the ISO decathlon, which is a double decathlon. Like, these, these stories are just amazing. I can’t [00:30:00] imagine even finishing, let alone winning something like that. So I don’t, I don’t know what my, what my dream story would be. Today it’s Decathlon, and hey, great, it’s gonna open in three weeks.

You know, a year from now, I would love to have an exhibit where you’re designing your own adaptive sports equipment and getting feedback from Paralympians based on your design. Something like that. It would just be so fun, and what a great way to inspire the next [00:30:30] generation of engineers and athletes and sports medicine specialists.

I can keep gushing for a long

Jill Jaracz: time about this too. That’s fine. You know, please do. We, we do some history stuff as well, and the stories that we uncover are pretty, pretty amazing, and it’s also amazing how quickly they get lost to time because you constantly have another games coming, and more stories, and the bigger the games get, the more stories you have.

The responsibility of remembering athletes

Jill Jaracz: Why do we remember some [00:31:00] athletes and not others? Or why do we remember them during a games and not long-term kind of thing? it’s kind of fascinating.

Lindsay Flanagan Huban: Yep. Well, and we have a responsibility to remember as many of them as we can and to share their stories and, and their accomplishments because they were representing us.

They were representing the United States of America. And to get to work at a place that’s home to that legacy and supports sharing all of those dreams is, is [00:31:30] really quite a gift. It’s an honor.

Jill Jaracz: What are some of the other stories you’ve found that have surprised you?

Lindsay Flanagan Huban: Of course, every single one just flew out of my head. Um-

Jill Jaracz: Feel you there.

Lindsay Flanagan Huban: Yeah. Eddie Eagan. I don’t know if that name is familiar to you. Probably– You probably know more athletes than I’ve heard of. but Eddie Eagan is the only person to have won a gold medal in both the Summer Olympics and the Winter Olympics, and that was really amazing for me to learn because [00:32:00] he, won a gold medal in boxing and then fought in World War I and then became a lawyer and went to Oxford and did all these things that of course you do after winning a gold medal.

And then his friend called him up and said, “Hey, we need a fourth guy for our bobsled team. Are you free?” And he won another gold medal. Stories like that are, are just, just so, so cool. reading about athletes like Dave Kiley, who is one of the best wheelchair basketball [00:32:30] athletes ever. and then getting to meet him and, and he handed me his phone and said, “Can you take my picture of me with me here on the wall?”

I, I mean, what compares to that? Nothing. Nothing compares to that. It was, it was amazing. There’s no shortage of surprising stories. People like Kara Winger, who competed in three or four Olympics for Team USA in javelin, and then called us up and said, “I, I need [00:33:00] to borrow my javelin back. I’m gonna go make one more team.”

And we said, “Okay. Sure. Here, here you go, Kara.” So– And she did it. She made one more team. Just, just amazing. I, I am blown away every day by the accomplishments of these incredible athletes, by how even with everything they’ve done, they’re still real people, and they’re kind and they’re generous and they’re grateful that we’re here to share their stories.

Cam Smith, who just [00:33:30] competed in Milano Cortina in ski mountaineering and came out of nowhere with his partner Anna to f- to finish fourth. they were not expected to do that. He lent us his, his equipment from Mico and said, “Well, I can loan this to you, but only for six months because the season’s gonna start in October and I need it back then.”

Because he’s still competing. talk about being surprised by the generosity

How the USOPM is preparing for LA 2028

Jill Jaracz: how are you preparing for LA 2028?

Lindsay Flanagan Huban: as we [00:34:00] look forward to LA 2028, you know, the biggest sporting event the world will ever see, we have a lot of different plans in place.

We’re, working closely on a traveling exhibit that hopefully will open in Los Angeles in spring of ’28 with some artifacts from our collection. Can’t tell you a whole lot more about that right now. we are hoping to replicate and expand upon some of what we did in Milano Cortina, where we built a progressive exhibit over the course of the games, [00:34:30] soliciting loans from athletes as they came off the ice and came off the snow, and building a display at Winter House and bringing it back here.

So we’re hoping to expand upon that. We’re looking at, um, some partnerships with a, with a museum in West Hollywood, and one in Oklahoma as well, because we can’t forget about the events that are gonna be in Oklahoma. So there’s, there’s a lot of different irons in the fire, and we, we should have some big, big news coming out here in the [00:35:00] next, coming months.

How artifacts get to the museum

Alison Brown: I have a question about how things get to you.

are people just putting them in a mailbox? Like, how how do you get a sail? How do you get a safe?

Lindsay Flanagan Huban: Well, a sail, it turns out, folds really, really small and fits in about a shoebox size. Bonnie Blair sends you things in gallon Ziploc bags that are just-

in envelopes. Patrick Halgren just pulled it out of his backpack. Do you ever cringe when someone- I’m sorry?

Jill Jaracz: Oh, I’m sorry. do you ever [00:35:30] cringe when you get something in a Ziploc bag?

Lindsay Flanagan Huban: No, I, I laugh- Or in a safe … and then I put on my white gloves and take it out of the Ziploc bag and let it relax and let the wrinkles fall out of it over time.

Uh, and then there are other things that, that we actually will, will do fine art shipping. Uh, we currently have on display Billie Jean King’s tennis racket, who never competed in the Olympics, but is in the Hall of Fame as a special contributor. that was shipped in a refrigerated truck so that it was climate controlled the whole way from New York [00:36:00] City to here.

And then there are times where we will fly to a location and meet a lender and hand carry an artifact back to the museum. So it, it really just depends on the artifact itself, how big it is, how much it weighs. surprisingly expensive to ship a wheelchair rugby wheelchair.

Alison Brown: Those things are like tanks.

Lindsay Flanagan Huban: they are like tanks, and that wasn’t even in a box. It just had a shipping label zip-tied to it So, you never know how things are gonna show up Well, you

Jill Jaracz: know, [00:36:30] they get beat up in competition, so I guess if the, postal service or shipping company messes it up, it’s not, you know, it’s just more dents.

Lindsay Flanagan Huban: Exact- how are you gonna know which dent is from where?

Jill Jaracz: So mail time is fun in your office.

Lindsay Flanagan Huban: Oh, yeah. Yeah. we get some incredible things in and, and I get all excited and call whoever’s in the office over and say, “Come look at this. Come look at this. I’m, I’m unboxing this super awesome thing. You have to check it out.”

Alison Brown: Do things ever show up [00:37:00] unexpectedly?

Lindsay Flanagan Huban: Yes.

Alison Brown: Like, do people… Yes, people just send it to you without discussing it first.

Lindsay Flanagan Huban: Yep, and that’s the case at a lot of museums. Um, museums really don’t like that so much, because we all have collecting policies and collections management plans that, help us determine whether we are the best repository for whatever the artifact may be.

And it may be that, that we don’t have the resources to care long-term for someone’s treasures. So if they had reached out in [00:37:30] advance, we would’ve referred them to a couple other organizations that could give the artifacts the care, and space, and mind that they deserve. So things do show up unsolicited, and we– those are not always great days.

The U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Museum’s upcoming – and departing – exhibits

Alison Brown: So we have the Decathlon, exhibit coming up.

What else do we have coming up or on now? We have Genius of Sport on now. what else should we be looking forward to?

Lindsay Flanagan Huban: We have so many great exhibits coming up at the museum. Genius of Sport is [00:38:00] up right now. You’re running out of time to see It’s Your Vibe, our post Milano Cortina exhibit. That’ll be up until mid-October.

And then, uh, we’re opening our Decathlon exhibit, A Legacy of Victory, here in about three weeks. We’re gonna be redoing our Paralympic history case in November to refresh that case, tell some, some new stories and, and really help bring it home how important and incredible all of these athletes are. And [00:38:30] then next year in 2027, we’ll be redoing another one of our core exhibits, uh, The Lab, where we look at the impact of science and technology on sports and how it has changed over the last 130 years.

So I certainly will be staying very, very busy, and we have always something new to see here at the USOPM.

Jill Jaracz: Excellent. Lindsay Huban, thank you so much for being here.

Lindsay Flanagan Huban: My pleasure. This has been really fun.

Jill Jaracz: Thank you so much, Lindsay. You can learn more about the museum at [00:39:00] usopm.org

LA 2028 News

Jill Jaracz: Still nothing?

Alison Brown: Still nothing.

Jill Jaracz: Twinkle,

Alison Brown: twinkle little triathlon.

LA28 triathlon courses set

Jill Jaracz: There we go. There we go. So we have LA 2028 news for you. LA 2028 has announced the details of the triathlon and paratriathlon courses. This sport is going to be the first medal of the games, so women’s, , triathlon will be the [00:39:30] very first gold medal you will see from LA ’28.

So the course is in Venice Beach, and it’s a loop that starts at the beach. For the swim, this has only been done one other time at the Olympics, and that was in Rio 2016. competitors start on the beach and run into the water. So it’ll be a different element, which is gonna be interesting. they don’t need to spend money to build a pontoon for this one.

So there you go for that. Um-

Alison Brown: And [00:40:00] this is how I’ve always seen triathlons in the past. It was always… Like, the, image I have of the classic triathlon is you run into the water off the beach, and you run off the water onto the beach, that there’s that, that element to it as well.

Jill Jaracz: Y- yeah, though a lot of triathlons do do that.

so I’m excited about the beach entry ’cause it adds a different dimension. so the swim gets two laps.

First lap is gonna be 1,000 meters. They get out of the water, they run 25 meters, [00:40:30] and then they dive in for the second lap, and that lap is just 500 meters long. S-

Alison Brown: I would get so confused …

Jill Jaracz: remember how we asked Morgan Pearson about how he was training for the stair transition? Right. So I, I wanna know how they’re training for one long lap, one short lap, and this extra run in the center of this swim. It’s gonna be really, really interesting. Uh, so the bike leg’s gonna start on the Venice bike path.

It’s gonna then go into the [00:41:00] city streets. This will be a five-kilometer loop. They will do eight laps of this loop, so if you’re gonna go watch, this is one of those events that is free to watch, not by the finish line transition area. They’ll probably have stands and tickets for sale there, but usually along the course, uh, you can line up and watch for free.

so this is cool because they’re gonna do eight laps. You’ll see them go by eight times,

Alison Brown: That’s gonna be fun. It’s gonna. Yeah, that’s a nice little viewing opportunity with, with no tickets, that you can just [00:41:30] kind of show up and, and see what you see.

Jill Jaracz: Yes. And then the run portion will be four laps of a 2.5-kilometer loop that also starts on the bike path and heads out into the streets, and then, athletes are gonna go over the bridges of the Venice Canal and back to the transition area.

So the finish will, like, have the coastline in the background.

Alison Brown: As you should

Jill Jaracz: the mixed relay is shorter. The order is going to be woman, man, woman, man. Uh, they will start on the beach [00:42:00] for the swim. They will do one 350-meter lap. Bike race starts down the bike path again, and be two 3.3-kilometer laps, but again, even so, you got four people doing two laps, so you still get eight laps on that.

Run is going to be two 800-meter laps. Handoffs will take place in the transition area. Again, finish overlooking the coastline, ’cause this is– will be beautiful.

Alison Brown: They’re going to do the Paris, thinking of, we have this [00:42:30] beautiful object, the coastline. Let’s get it on camera as much as possible. You know, Paris had these iconic stadiums, and, you know, let’s get the Eiffel Tower in the shot as much- Right

as possible. Right. So it’s smart. It just makes– it makes good TV.

Jill Jaracz: Yes. the paratriathlon will start from a barge that will be past the breakwater. They will do one 750-meter lap, exit the water, the bike will start on the bike path, and move back to the streets. It will be [00:43:00] three laps of 6.6 kilometers.

The run’s going to be two 2.5-kilometer laps. So again, ample opportunity to see, triathletes race past you, and then the finish line will be the same as it is for the Olympic finish. Get your cameras out now. All right. there’s going to be a test event next year, that will be the World Triathlon’s T50 Triathlon World Tour event from July 16 through 18.

So, [00:43:30] check it out if you are in the area, and if you do see it, please report back.

Update on California legislation for LA28

Jill Jaracz: If you listened to last week’s episode with Jason Sisney, you may remember that he talked about LA ’28 related legislation that had passed in the state government but needed to be signed into law. if you haven’t listened to that episode, go back and do, because the amount of work that has to go on at the government level to make the games happen is amazing.

Alison Brown: Crazy. Crazy. And all the things you don’t think [00:44:00] about- Yes … that goes into that is just the details, the dotted I’s and the crossed T’s. Yes.

Jill Jaracz: uh, well, Governor Gavin Newsom has signed three bills into law now. The first is AB 2144. That requires the, California Office of Emergency Services to negotiate and enter into agreements with state, local, and out-of-state law enforcement agencies, regarding temporary deployment to support public safety elements for the [00:44:30] 2028 Olympics and Paralympics.

that means that they can go ahead and, uh, negotiate and get, extra law enforcement and s- security personnel to bolster, uh, the safety initiatives. this bill also created a temporary certification and training program through the Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training to make sure these extra staff get trained properly and how we would like them to act.

Bill AB 2436 [00:45:00] is for Team USA student athletes who are training in California. They will continue to receive an exemption so they can be classified as California residents, and therefore due in-state tuition. Big deal. A

Alison Brown: lot of cash on the table when you look at those tuition costs.

Jill Jaracz: Yes. And then finally, AB 191 implements some temporary statutory amendments to ensure a successful games.

Included in this bill are those gun law changes we talked about with Jason, and also the [00:45:30] filming tax credit situation that he mentioned as well. So all of that is good to go. and yeah, government’s gonna get involved at so many levels.

Another LA economic analysis

Jill Jaracz: Last week we also talked about an economic analysis done by the LA Economic Development Corp.

That study had been commissioned by LA28. Well, there is another economic report out there that was done by LA County for the County Board of Supervisors. It says, if you compare the two [00:46:00] reports, the LA County report, says spending will be less. They think it’s gonna be about 13.66 billion as opposed to 20 to 25 billion in the LA28 report.

And then economic impact would also be less, 20.92 billion as opposed to 35 to 40 billion. we’ve talked about economic analyses and how suspect they are, so.

Alison Brown: And I’m wondering if some of this has to do with [00:46:30] happening in LA County versus do they count- Oh … the venues that are not in LA County. So it could be that the numbers are different because of the, regional focus of this particular- That could be

report.

Jill Jaracz: Could be. We don’t-

Alison Brown: We don’t

Jill Jaracz: know. We have to re- we don’t know. I have to read fine print again. but it’s interesting to see how this stuff varies all over, and we’ll just keep an eye on that, maybe start a spreadsheet tracking some stuff. So we can see at the [00:47:00] end who’s right.

Update on tree removal at the Santa Anita equestrian venue

Jill Jaracz: And then finally, another follow-up, um, a few weeks ago on our Phil Andrews episode, and if you haven’t listened to that and you need to get inspired, go listen to Phil.

he’ll, he’ll make you get up off the couch and, and do something. We talked about LA28 wanting to remove nearly three dozen protected oak trees at the equestrian venue in Santa Anita, and there was a public hearing on this. No surprise, a lot of opposition

Alison Brown: to tree removal. Don’t take our trees.

Jill Jaracz: Hey [00:47:30] SoCal is reporting that LA28’s permit application is on pause, and the administrative review process is suspended. So trees are staying put for now.

Alpes 2030: Venue master plan finalized

Alison Brown: Le jeu est ici

Jill Jaracz: Game, well, the games are coming. I will say that. The games are coming. Alps 2030, whi- which is having, organizational issues again. You know, they’ve lost another president or another, another head of the games is gone.

Alison Brown: Right. [00:48:00]

Jill Jaracz: But they also have finalized the venue master plan. So most of the ice events will be taking place in Lyon.

hockey is going to take place at Dessinet Charpiaux Arena and Hall Tony Garnier. Curling, figure skating, short track, and the main media center will be at the Eurexpo Convention Center. speed skating in the Netherlands.

Alison Brown: What do we even do with that? It’s just gonna be this thing that’s happening.

I mean, on TV you won’t know the difference ’cause [00:48:30] you’re just gonna go camera to camera. And of course the stands are gonna be full, and the en- the, environment is gonna be electric. I mean, how can you not have an electric environment with those Dutch fans? But I feel bad for those athletes because they are not gonna get the Olympic experience.

Jill Jaracz: Right. And th- uh, this is just like surfing in Tahiti. Although surfing is still such a new sport that I don’t feel so connected to it.

Alison Brown: Tahiti.

Though I am excited that all those sports are gonna be in the same [00:49:00] convention center with the main media center. I am, too. It’s gonna be- I mean, you realize that these convention centers are huge, when we were in Milan, and we had to walk from one end of convention center to the other.

Jill Jaracz: And it

Alison Brown: was a good- And it was a, a mile- … 20 minutes. Yeah. … at least. But still, it made the atmosphere because there were multiple sports happening and people were coming and going from the different crowds.

You got that Olympic feeling because, “Oh, I’m going to see a hockey game. Oh, I’m going to see the speed skating. [00:49:30] Oh, I’m stopping in here.” Right. And there was a shop there, and it, it definitely made it more electric, which-

Jill Jaracz: Yes …

Alison Brown: which is kinda the point, so having all those things close together. And if you think about it, you could definitely have a whole day because curling usually during the day, the figure skating is in the evening, and curling goes the whole time because of- Mm-hmm

the, the pairs and the team, and, you know, men and women. So you just go, see your curling, stop at the main media center, go to [00:50:00] sh- uh, to either short track or figure skating. That’s a nice little day of competition you get to see.

Jill Jaracz: Exactly. Exactly. and Oullins-Pierre Bénit, Bénitti is confirmed as the Olympic Village for the Lyon cluster.

snow events, and snow events are, the map says they’re all within three hours of Lyon. I think some of them might be on the edge, but they’re saying three hours [00:50:30] from Lyon. so for alpine skiing, this is kind of the big thing that changed. Speed events, uh, which are downhill, super G, and combined, those are going to Courchevel.

And the technical events, which are slalom and giant slalom, that will be in Val d’Isère.

Alison Brown: Classic mountains on the World Cup. Yes. Yes. So that’ll be exciting. And that the skiers know these mountains so well.

Jill Jaracz: Yes.

Alison Brown: It will– Nothing will be a surprise to them, which is great because I think [00:51:00] that’ll make the competition that much more exciting because it’s a familiar…

You know, obviously the course is always different, but the mountain being familiar, but it’s the Olympics.

Jill Jaracz: Yes. That’ll be nice. Uh, biathlon’s at La Grande Bornand, standard venue for biathlon there. cross-country will be at La Clusaz. sliding’s gonna be at La Plagne, and snowboard and freestyle, some of that is going to be at Serre Chevalier, and some, along with skimo, will be at Mont [00:51:30] Genevre.

for the Paralympics, it’s much more compact.

Hockey and curling, of course, will be in Lyon. and both of those sports will be at the Parc des Expositions in Chasseaux. And so that will be nice that they also will be right next to each other, and hopefully you get that festival feeling again. La Clusaz will have para biathlon and para cross-country skiing, and then in Courchevel will be para alpine and para snowboard.

Alison Brown: How [00:52:00] far are the things in the mountains apart from each other? It looked far to me.

Jill Jaracz: I would say a good couple hours.

Alison Brown: Yeah.

Jill Jaracz: That’s what I was thinking. Um, so if you… Hold on

Okay, so if you were gonna go from Le Grand Bornand, which is biathlon, and that’s at the north end, right? And if you’re gonna go to Courchevel, which is kind of in the middle of this clump of clus- clusters, that is driving an hour and a half-ish.

Alison Brown: Okay. So that’s not bad. So a [00:52:30] couple hours. It’ll be interesting to see how they set up the bus schedules and the- Yes

busing between events. Yes. You know, will you be able to stay in Courchevel and get to all the mountain venues relatively easily?

Jill Jaracz: Right. And-

Alison Brown: Or is it going to be, you might as well just stay in Lyon ’cause you can’t get anywhere?

Jill Jaracz: That’ll be interesting to, understand as well. But even going from Lyon, It’s not that bad.

Alison Brown: Okay.

Jill Jaracz: This is not a Milano Cortina situation- Okay … I think. So, uh, it’s- Fingers

Alison Brown: [00:53:00] crossed.

Jill Jaracz: Yes, exactly.

Alison Brown: It’s exciting.

Jill Jaracz: Yes, it is exciting. I wasn’t

Alison Brown: excited about Alps because I’ve been worried about the, they didn’t really know where it was gonna be.

You know, it was in Nice for a while, and then they decided- Yeah … on Lyon. But now that we have a plan, it feels a lot more real.

Jill Jaracz: Exactly. And now that we have a plan where it’s more compact-

Alison Brown: Yes …

Jill Jaracz: I’m getting excited, ’cause getting to see more sports will be a better show. Yeah. And, and- Absolutely … more fun.

So, and, and I do love the idea of so many [00:53:30] sports clustered in one area, which will be very- If you’re there very Olympic, we’ll see how they get the rest of the city involved, but it’s gonna be cool.

Alison Brown: Yeah.

Get in touch!

Jill Jaracz: So if you are excited about Alps 2030, let us know. uh, we’ve got a great Facebook group that’s Keep the Flame Alive Podcast on Facebook.

We’re also @flamealivepod on other socials, and you can, send us an email if you’d like. We’re flamealivepod@gmail.com. feel free to send us a voice note. We’ll take those as well.

Alison Brown: We love them. We love those so much. ‘

Jill Jaracz: Cause we can play [00:54:00] them on the show. And, uh, you can be part of the show as well. So that’s gonna do it for this episode.

Thank you so much for listening.

Alison Brown: And until next time, keep the flame alive.