The U.S. Center for SafeSport was created in 2017 by the U.S. Congress in the wake of the Larry Nasser scandal to address abuse and misconduct in American Olympic and Paralympic sports. On this episode, we talk with Benita Fitzgerald Mosley, who become the organization’s new chief executive officer in February 2026.
Benita is an Olympic champion herself, winning gold in 1984 in the 100 meter hurdles. She’s also a mother of children who have their own competitive athletic journeys. These experiences combine to give her insight as to how to lead an organization whose mission is to protect young athletes.
Our conversation, which took place during her first week on the job, gets into the differences of the inappropriate behavior she saw during her time as an athlete, the measures the U.S. Center for SafeSport is taking today, and her hopes for what the center can achieve in the future.
Also on this episode, Alison reviews her experience at Stars on Ice, which includes insight on how influential Alysa Liu has become in our culture.
Plus, there are rumors that the International Olympic Committee has said game over to esports and has thoughts about the sports programs for French Alps 2030 and Brisbane 2032.
2026 marks the 50th anniversary of the Montreal 1976 Summer Olympics. All year long, cultural institutions and the Olympic Park will have events to celebrate these Games. The fun will culminate in a big 50th anniversary celebration on August 1. Find out what’s going on here.
The best event will be The Great Nadia Gathering in honor of the impact Nadia Comaneci had on baby names. If you’re a Nadia of a certain age (born 1976-1978), this contest is for you!
Thanks so much for listening, and until next time, keep the flame alive!
Photo courtesy of U.S. Center for SafeSport.
TRANSCRIPT
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435-Benita Mosley Fitzgerald, CEO of the U.S. Center for SafeSport
Theme Music
Jill Jaracz: Hello, and welcome to 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? I am very well, and we have been busy. We have been busy. So I, I went to my alma mater grade school and got to give a presentation on writing for, uh, the internet and writing for podcasts, and that was a lot of fun.
And, uh, [00:01:00] welcome to anybody who is listening, Mr. Vanderwood, if you’re out there, hello.
Alison Brown: But- Gotta acknowledge the kids, man
Jill Jaracz: Right? Right. Right
Alison Brown: No, but that’s, that’s so much fun when you get to do things like that and go back- Yeah … and see the school and, and then actually get to present something to them that, that can be of some value.
Yeah, exactly. ‘Cause we remember those presentations when people would come back.
Jill Jaracz: Right. Right. And you always wonder like-
Alison Brown: This was- … what were you like
Jill Jaracz: as a
Alison Brown: kid? Does it sink
Jill Jaracz: you know, does anything sink in, or are they just happy to not be in the classroom? You know what I mean? But I showed pictures from Milano Cortina and, uh, talked about some of the stuff that we had seen, and oh my gosh, when I put up the picture of Alysa Liu and Ilia Malinin, they went nuts in a way that I didn’t understand how mu- And when we’re there and we don’t see things happening here in the States, like we didn’t have this with, with, uh, Steve Nadrojik in Paris.
Alison Brown: Right.
Jill Jaracz: It’s hard for us to understand how much of the zeitgeist they captured and how they got to be everywhere. Alysa Liu is [00:02:00] just off the charts in another world now.
Alison’s review of Stars on Ice
Alison Brown: And I went to see Stars on Ice, and I can tell you Alysa Liu is the star on the ice.
Jill Jaracz: Wow. How was it? She- How was it? Where’d you go? What did, what did you
Alison Brown: see?
So I went to the UBS Center out, uh, in Queens.
Jill Jaracz: Okay.
Alison Brown: So that was a bit of a trek, but, you know- … my sister and my brother-in-law, we all went in one car. My daughter was there, so we had a grand day of it, and, it was a full, full cast. So Ilia, uh, Malinin, Jason Brown, Andrew Torgashev, Isabella Vito, Amber Glenn, Alysa of course, and she’s definitely the star.
She and Ilia are the stars, but she got the last slot.
Jill Jaracz: Ooh So
Alison Brown: you know that that was, that was it. And every time she came on the ice, people went absolutely nuts.
Jill Jaracz: Wow.
Alison Brown: Which was great. Uh, Madison Chock and Evan Bates, Anthony Ponomarenko and Christina Carrera, who are a favorite of mine that, that I love – Mm-hmm
and Danny O’Shea and Ellie [00:03:00] Kam rounded out the cast. Nice. Now, let me tell you something about Danny O’Shea and Ellie Kam. They know how to do a show routine. Oh. Head bangers, one-arm lifts, swinging her around. He came out dressed as Pitbull for one of the routines – Oh, my God. … you know, with his beautiful bald head and the sunglasses and the white suit.
a lot of people like to take off their shirts.
Jill Jaracz: Oh, okay.
Alison Brown: There was a lot of shirt stripping, and the audience did not mind.
Jill Jaracz: And, and by audience did not mind, are you talking about you?
Alison Brown: I, uh, no. My daughter – Or your sister? … didn’t complain, I’ll say that. There was some throwing of flowers into the audience as well.
Ilya did this routine where, um, he, he skated with a flower for part of it, but then he put the flower down and went back to the flower, and both my daughter and I looked at each other and we’re like, “There’s a wasted opportunity. Throw the flower.” And like two seconds later, he throws the flower into the audience
and we’re like, “Oh, okay, that’s much better.” But yeah, it was about a two-hour show, so you really get [00:04:00] your money’s worth. You’re there for a good long time. Nice. And everybody skates twice, plus the cast numbers. Okay. So a lot of them did their show routine and their short program.
Jill Jaracz: Oh, nice.
Alison Brown: Nice. Which was nice.
That’s fun. Which was a lot of fun. And so I got to see Amber’s, Like a Prayer, which I know is a favorite of yours. Yeah. Aww. And she just, they take some of the difficulty out. You know, she’s not – Oh, yeah … doing the triple Axel every night, ’cause they’re doing – Right … a show every other night.
Jill Jaracz: Right.
Alison Brown: Um, but she did, still did a couple triples in there.
Right. But you land- You know, she didn’t wear them down that much … you, you land a jump on that music and everybody just goes nuts anyway. Yep. It doesn’t matter. She, she could have done a single Axel and we all would have lost our minds. I mean, it was such a great atmosphere. So much fun, so much more relaxed.
And you see, you really, really get to see how talented of a performer these kids are. Kids. Mm-hmm. Some of them are grown-ups, but to me, they’re all kids. because there’s no pressure on them. Mm-hmm. It’s all about just enjoying and loving skating and getting to share it with [00:05:00] all these people who just enjoy and love skating.
So many kids. There was two skating clubs that they announced-
Jill Jaracz: Oh …
Alison Brown: that were there, and we were sitting behind a kid who was maybe five or six, and every time his favorite skaters came on, he just lost his mind. He was just jumping up and down, and it was the greatest thing. It was so much fun to have him there –
Jill Jaracz: Aww
Alison Brown: watching it with him. Uh, we almost enjoyed him as much as the skating. And there was a, there was a lot of little girls with Alysa Liu T-shirts on.
Jill Jaracz: Aww.
Alison Brown: Remember we talked about the hair? I think we talked about it offline. Yes, yes. Like, if the, the- Uh, the Dorothy Hamill haircut phenomenon was gonna happen with the dye- Mm-hmm
the way. And I said, “Well, that’s a little more permanent than the haircut.” They have these pieces that you clip in that have the dye. So I saw-
Jill Jaracz: Oh my …
Alison Brown: a whole bunch of girls with these little clip-in pieces that have the stripe dye. [00:06:00]
Jill Jaracz: There you go.
Alison Brown: So there’s, there’s what you’ll be seeing in the mall this year.
That is mom approved. Exactly, ’cause when, when appropriate you can remove it. But a lot of the girls had that in, which I thought was really great. But yeah, it’s, it’s- Oh, that’s great … they still have another few weeks, so if it’s coming to your town, Stars on Ice is definitely worth a ticket.
Jill Jaracz: Excellent. And you will talk more about this in the newsletter.
Alison Brown: Yes. I’ll do, I’ll do a full rundown, number by number, and more- Oh, nice … there was, there was so much stripping. I mean, even Jason Brown- The strip meter …
Jill Jaracz: got into the stripping. The strip-o-meter is on.
So, and this makes sense why they were all throwing out the first pitch at the Mets game not that long ago. So-
Alison Brown: Yeah,
Jill Jaracz: that
Alison Brown: was, that was last week. That was on their day off, uh, the day before I saw them.
Jill Jaracz: Oh my gosh. Wow. ‘Cause that wa- that looked like, uh, fun for them and, and chaos as well, ’cause they were just throwing and doing [00:07:00] cartwheels and, and lifts and all this stuff on the field.
Alison Brown: And why Alysa Liu was able to go to the Met Gala this week, because she was just- Hmm.
Jill Jaracz: Oh, okay …
Alison Brown: in New York doing the show, uh, this past weekend. Nice. Nice. I gotta say her– I liked her dress a lot. I thought it was very appropriate, both for the theme and for her. it was just pretty. It was pretty. And fluffy.
Jill Jaracz: It was, yeah. Pretty. Pretty maroon, fluffy, with, uh, like ruffles and puffy stuff that would normally be in the back, but it was in the front. Front. And I thought it was very different, so I liked that too. we are not talking figure skating today. Well- We’ve got kind of a good segue. Well, in a way, yes. You, you go- you got that right.
Benita Fitzgerald Mosley Interview
So, uh, figure skating adjacent, sadly. we are going to talk about SafeSport, and we were lucky enough to meet and talk with Benita Fitzgerald Mosley, who on February 1st, 2026, stepped into her new role as chief executive officer of the US Center for SafeSport. [00:08:00] The center was created in 2017 by, uh, the US Congress in the wake of the Larry Nassar scandal to address abuse and misconduct in American Olympic and Paralympic sports.
Benita herself is an Olympic champion. she won gold at LA 1984 in the 100-meter hurdles. We spoke to Benita in her first week on the job, and we were sitting in the media center at Milano Cortina when we talked with her. So take a listen.
Bonita Fitzgerald Moseley, thank you so much for joining us. Talk to us about your new role at, the Center for SafeSport.
Benita Fitzgerald Mosley: Yes, I am the. CEO of the US Center for SafeSport, uh, was announced in early January and just this week is my first official week on the job. Had a nice transition time with our, now board chair emeritus, but she was interim CEO April Holmes for Paralympic gold medalists. And she, uh, oversaw the organization, in interim capacity for several months and we.
Ex exchange the baton [00:09:00] during, uh, the time in month of January, and we are now, still partnering, but now I’ve taken the lead role as CEO as of February 1st.
Alison Brown: What was your knowledge and contact with SafeSport before you came into the position?
Benita Fitzgerald Mosley: The actual organization? F that much. However, I have a long, history, involved with, SafeSport in various capacities.
versus as an athlete of course, acknowledging that even the predates me, I predate the US Center for SafeSport of course, but. understanding some of those challenges and issues as an athlete, but, more recently as chief of sport at USA track and field, it was about the time when the swimming.
Allegations were running kind of rampant. And there were several others like TaeKwonDo and a couple of other NGBs NGBs that were having some challenges. And the US OC was talking to NGBs about implementing SafeSport practices. And so when I took [00:10:00] over as chief of sport, it was summer of 2009 and the head coach at Tennessee, my alma mater.
Was, uh, Terry Crawford and she came to work for me as Director of coaching. I was the first ever, chief of sport performance, high performance, had always here to force, been managed through a committee. Believe it or not, at USA track and field. And so I was the first staff person ever to lead high performance at USA track and field.
So, and she was the first director of coaching and she said, Bonita, the first thing we need to do is implement SafeSport at USA track and field. And so we were actually the first NGB to independently start a SafeSport program. We did a code of conduct, background checks and um, a coach’s registry. And so if you, sign the code of contact, did a coach’s registry, you were able to be on our list to be able to receive all the benefits that accrued to the coaches who had participated.
I also, uh, oversaw. SafeSport when I was Chief Operating Officer at the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee. So we had a task force at the time [00:11:00] that was looking at how to build a SafeSport organization, all the foundational elements of that. And then I was on the commission on the state of US Olympics and Paralympics as well.
Uh, that was, I was appointed by Senator Maria Cantwell to that commission, and we provided a lot of recommendations to SafeSport, from that commission.
Jill Jaracz: it blows my mind because you’re talking, 2009 is when track and Field first implemented this, so it’s not really that long ago. When you were an athlete, what kind of things did you see around you?
I often say that was, that was, you would’ve been in the eighties, 1980. 1984.
Benita Fitzgerald Mosley: Yeah. Um. It things were just kind of commonplace where coaches dated a athletes that, that, uh, were under their tutelage, if you will, and often married them and, you know, had families with them. And [00:12:00] so, you think about a couple that’s married and then maybe you trace back and say, oh gosh, she’s 15 years older than she is and she went to that school that he coached at.
You see what I’m saying? Mm-hmm. You could put two and two together and some. In many cases, and I mean, there are some coaches that have been married two or three times to their, to dif three or two or three different athletes. So I, I’m not naming any names, but I have, you know, names in my head, but you know that that’s just it.
I mean, you, it was just kind of commonplace back then. And so to have, these safeguards in place now guidelines, you know, our SafeSport code that really. You know, in the map, you know, for, for minor athletes that really spells out what behaviors should happen and shouldn’t be happen. How you recognize those things, how you comport yourself as a athlete or an official, and, you know, put some clear, I guess, bright lines out there for what acceptable behavior looks like and what [00:13:00] athlete safety looks like.
Alison Brown: Were you surprised in 2009 when you put SafeSport in at track and field, some of the reports that you were getting?
Benita Fitzgerald Mosley: So at that time we wanted to set the standard for what the behavior. Was right. So that’s what that was spelled out in the code of conduct. It was pretty rudimentary back then.
and also the background checks to make sure that, you know, whoever’s coming in doesn’t at least have a history of that. And there was an annual requirement to do the background checks. So, and then we had a process for if there was a claim, you know, how that would be adjudicated, but all of that was happening inside the NGB.
And so what I like about the US Center for SafeSport is its independence and looking at these cases, regardless of whether this athlete or coach is the best in the world or, or not, right? We’re we are not giving any credence or, any favoritism to people based upon their stature in the movement.[00:14:00]
And so I’m not saying that track and field did at the time. I’m saying without that independence having gone through the. Anti-doping phase before usada I was in, involved in that too. Right. So there was a opportunity at the beginning where the NGBs did their own anti-doping program and then the USOC oversaw the anti-doping program, all of that.
It was fraught with challenges because they may or may not, sanction the athletes that tested positive in the appropriate way or at all. S many times, not at all. And so having this independent agency, USADA, to be able to oversee that is really, really important. And I feel the same way with SafeSport.
Jill Jaracz: How important is education? Because young athletes don’t know that they’re being groomed.
Benita Fitzgerald Mosley: Yeah.
Jill Jaracz: You know
Benita Fitzgerald Mosley: the, I think that’s really the most important thing. So, you know, the mission really is to create a culture of athlete safety and wellbeing [00:15:00] across American sport and. It’s not really the the gotcha part, that’s a part of what we do, but I think the education and prevention is, is the most important thing to make people more aware.
Building awareness of what athlete safety looks like, how important that is to athlete wellbeing overall. There’s just the basic tenet of feeling safe and secure and supported as an athlete, as a human, really that’s a basic human need, and so to be able to provide that for these athletes, be they eight years old, 18 years old, or 28 years old, it doesn’t matter.
because if they don’t feel that sense of security, then it’s hard for them to do their best and be at their best.
Alison Brown: What misconceptions are there about SafeSport in the general public, and what’s something that you didn’t understand about it before coming into the organization?
Benita Fitzgerald Mosley: I think the main thing is just how many, we have 2,400 people on this centralized disciplinary database and.
And although there are certainly some [00:16:00] operational challenges of any startup, and we still are in many ways in a startup phase, or at least have been throughout these first eight or nine years, and there are mistakes gonna be made there, you know, operationally. But ultimately the idea that we’re a educating and preventing and training.
Folks, we just met some people from US ski and snowboard. The first thing they said when you found out we were with SafeSport is, I, I’m up to date on my SafeSport training. Right. And, but, but I hear that all the time now and that’s not something I would’ve heard 10 or 15 years ago. and the fact that these 2,400 bad actors, if you will, are out of sport, because of this center.
And so that’s 2,400 people that aren’t. Abusing people, 2,400 people who it may be, they’re on a temporary suspension, they could be on a permanent ban. It, it, you know, varies. But at least there’s a source for a parent or an athlete or an administrator that’s hiring a coach can go [00:17:00] to, to find out if this person is or isn’t, uh, in line with their values and can create the safe environment for athletes,
Jill Jaracz: for parents.
How much do people just getting their kids into sport know about SafeSport?
Benita Fitzgerald Mosley: They don’t,
Jill Jaracz: unfortunately. And is that a hard thing for
Benita Fitzgerald Mosley: the organization? It’s the awareness piece is one of the things that I hope, during my tenure we’re able to, to increase. And that can’t be done by the US Center for SafeSport alone.
That is in partnership with the U-S-O-P-C, the national governing bodies, the NFL, the NWSL, the WNBA, you know, it’s, it’s brands, it’s the media like yourselves, and getting the word out to parents so that it’s the first thing they think of and not an afterthought. When someone. does something bad in their team or their league, uh, it needs to be the first thing they think about.
I wanted to be paramount. Is my kid gonna be safe? And certainly when they’re six and seven and eight [00:18:00] years old, it’s easy. You take them to the thing, you bring them back, you watch ’em the whole time they’re on the field. It’s very difficult to have someone do something untoward to a six, seven, or 8-year-old.
Not saying it’s impossible, right? Or Larry answer. But I know being a parent myself, that. As they get older, the more independent independence they have, the more time they spend out of your care. And that’s when I think it gets more difficult for parents because if they have not up to that point, when that kid is 10, 11, 12, their sports career is starting to go up.
They’re, if they finally made this travel team, your travel team produces. You know, D one athletes and I want my kid to be a D one athlete. I want my kid to make it to the ECNL level or this level or that level in soccer, or, you know, make the Olympic team then, then all these other things start to play in.
So I think the earlier parents keen in on, the importance of SafeSport, the better off everyone will be, including, of course their, [00:19:00] their young athletes. So as a parent myself, it. It wasn’t something that I necessarily considered, but I was always that mom that was taking my kids everywhere or my husband was taking, particular son, they’re five years apart.
So my son played through high school, was supposed to play in college and decided to go the academic route and, and use his academic scholarship instead. My daughter’s a D one athlete at University of Maryland. In track and field. She, she’s on the track team check. Yeah. Uh, doesn’t run the hurdles, but she’s a, um, long sprinter.
Mostly 400 meters. Four by 400 relay.
Alison Brown: That’s a
Benita Fitzgerald Mosley: special, I know that’s
Alison Brown: a special
Benita Fitzgerald Mosley: type runner. That’s a special, that’s a special human right there. That’s
Alison Brown: a person who likes to hurt the most,
Benita Fitzgerald Mosley: just over and over and over again. I don’t really understand it, but the first time I saw her run a 400, she was about five or six years old, and we were at a middle school track.
And it was a, something called, um, the running club. And we would get together once a week and they [00:20:00] didn’t train. In fact, the young ones mostly just played duck duck deuce in the middle of the track. And the little older ones would actually, we’d have a track meet every Tuesday evening and they, you know, they’d run 10 heats of the, you know, all the little, from the little littles to the, you know, the little olders.
And she ran the 400. I promise you, she finished when everybody else was at the halfway mark. Oh my God. Boys, girls, older, younger, it absolutely didn’t matter. And she crossed the finish line and just the girls asthmatic. She’s been asthmatic since she got here and she wasn’t breathing hard. She didn’t, you know, I’m like, who is that?
Person, like that’s me. They, my coach used to have to twist my arm to get me to run the mile relay in high school. In college, I boycotted the one time my coach asked me to run the 400, the four by four. She says, wow, so and so’s hurt. So and so ran the 800 already. So I said, I already ran the three, the a hundred, I mean the 60, the 60 yard hurdles, and you brought me running the four by four.
So I just [00:21:00] jogged. The whole two laps. And she was not pleased with me. And she called me in the office the next Monday and Terry was like, uh, you know, better better get your act together. I don’t care if you’re, you know, our national champion or not, you’re going to, but I asked you to do something. You really need to do it kinda with the effort.
But my daughter, no, that’s her love. She loves the 400. Mm-hmm.
Alison Brown: That’s cool. How much of a parent are you bringing to the job? You really can’t separate it.
Benita Fitzgerald Mosley: There’s no way to separate it. And my brain goes back and forth as a, as a mom and as an athlete, you know, what would I want the organization to do and be and setting that standard that’s a high bar because there’s no, and a mom too, I mean, dads love their kids, but there’s no more protective human than a mom.
And so, thinking about that, protective nature and wanting to be that, you know, we wanna be the mom, if you will, of. Of the Olympic movement. [00:22:00] We wanna, we want to project that in a caring, hopeful kind of way.
Jill Jaracz: since you’ve been along this road in different iterations and everything is baby step with organizations like this, what kind of growth and and positive change has have you seen across the spectrum?
Benita Fitzgerald Mosley: Phew. I mean, you can go back just in my lifetime, the fact that it was the norm for coaches, uh, to have relationships with, with athletes, to now where at least people understand it’s a taboo.
Jill Jaracz: Mm-hmm.
Benita Fitzgerald Mosley: And, uh, not to say it doesn’t happen, but people are more wary in business in general. Right. But, but particularly in sport. And so I, I see that has happened. Of course, it’s over 40 years. but I think it’s gonna accelerate over the next decade where it’s gonna be, uh, far less likely that we are having increasing [00:23:00] numbers of complaints every year that we’re hopefully, uh, start to lessen.
’cause it’s been a, a huge bell curve at this point. Up only upward trajectory at this point, but I, I’m hoping that we plateau at some point and then start going down. And not because people are afraid to make claims, it’s just that, uh, there are fewer of them to be made.
Jill Jaracz: How, go ahead. Oh, how long do you think that’ll take?
I mean, are we talking I
Benita Fitzgerald Mosley: I It’s gotta be least another decade.
Jill Jaracz: Decade,
Benita Fitzgerald Mosley: yeah. If that makes sense. At least another decade. Yeah. I, I think we’ve got a long way to go on this awareness piece, and like I said, we, we can’t do it alone. I’m looking at the limited resources that, US Center for SafeSport has.
It’s a static number. It’s been the same for five, almost six years now. and it’s a lot of money. It’s $20 million, but it’s still not enough. We have a small grant from the Department of Justice, which we’re grateful for that they’ve renewed every year for the past several years. But we, we have to find, we have to diversify our [00:24:00] revenue.
We have to develop more resources for the organization outside of that. Uh, while at the same time, you know, hoping and praying that, that those other resources might increase at some point in time, but we can’t depend on that. And in order to fully serve our mission, we, we really do need greater resources.
So I thought that’s contingent on that, but I think these partnerships are the ones that are really gonna help. When you think about, I was thinking about the other day. That, uh, I dunno, it was a PSA or just whatever it was. You remember I used to talk about, uh, it’s 10 o’clock, you know? Do you know where your kids are?
No. You know where your
Alison Brown: children are? Yes.
Benita Fitzgerald Mosley: Yeah. It just came to me the other day and I thought, that’s a, that’s a campaign for SafeSport, you know? It’s, it’s, you know, practice time. Do you, do you know that your kid is safe? You know what I mean? Mm-hmm. Uh, it’s game time. Do you know that your, whether your kid is safe, and so that is what I want, that, you know.
To be the forefront of people’s minds, and it’s gonna take a while to change American culture so that athlete safety is [00:25:00] paramount.
Alison Brown: So SafeSport in terms of education, has to walk this very fine line where you want parents to be very involved in protecting their kids, but you don’t want that stage parent,
Benita Fitzgerald Mosley: right,
Alison Brown: that parent who is controlling the coach.
Benita Fitzgerald Mosley: Yeah.
Alison Brown: And how do you project that? Same. That tough balance.
Benita Fitzgerald Mosley: Yeah, I think most parents get it. I really have been in a lot of settings, track meets volleyball, matches, basketball games, football games, flag football games. I mean, between my baseball, all, you know, two kids, my, they’re 27 and 22, so at least 25 years I’ve been, you know, following kids around playing sports, soccer fields.
- Can name on one hand how many times I’ve had a parent go off that’s been affiliated with the organizations that I’ve been affiliated with, or even around me, you [00:26:00] know, in the, that are playing, you know, an opponent’s team. So it doesn’t, it, we see the most egregious. Cases on social media where, you know, all of a sudden everybody’s fighting the officials and the parents are fighting and you know, I think it happens certainly, but I think most parents know how to comport themselves and, but they’re, they’re very, the word ignorant.
I’m not using that to mean they’re dumb. I mean, they just don’t understand and appreciate all. That they need to do. I have parents asking me all the time, I want my kid to try running track. They, they love running. I have nowhere to go, don’t know where to go, what to do, and I’ll, you know, point them in the right direction as far as a track club.
But they ask me about, you know, a soccer, I wouldn’t necessarily know because my kids didn’t play elite soccer. So I think it’s difficult enough for a parent. To just navigate the youth sports landscape in addition to all the other things that the last thing on their minds really is causing a ruckus. I, I just didn’t experience it and I’m [00:27:00] still in it.
Right. And at a track meet to really see, go down an official, my kid, I, I don’t, I just don’t, I don’t see it.
Jill Jaracz: I’m glad I’m too.
Benita Fitzgerald Mosley: Yeah.
Jill Jaracz: What’s it like being back at the Olympics?
Benita Fitzgerald Mosley: At the Olympic Games here in Milano, Corina, um, I haven’t felt it yet, but I certainly will. Tonight we’re gonna be in the Olympic stadium for the opening ceremonies and I know some tears are gonna come down when the American team comes into the stadium.
It’s a magical feeling. I was on the board of the US Olympic and Paralympic Museum since 2014 until December. So, yeah. 11 to 12 years. And was there from the inception when the, you know, when we were thinking about, during the thing I was appointed by the CEO of the U-S-O-P-C to sit on the board, um, or at that point, more of a steering committee to figure out are we really doing this thing?
And then when we hired the [00:28:00] architect and she kind of drew something weird thing on a paper napkin at dinner. And then this monumental structure is now in Colorado Springs, which is beautiful. And we were part of this athlete Charette where we, gave. The content providers and designers, uh, a peek into what a day in the life of an Olympian is, what it feels like to walk into the stadium for the opening ceremonies.
And they, they did a great job replicating that feeling when you walk through the tunnel and into the stadium and the roar, the crowd, and there’s like a 360. View of the stadium when you walk in and when I walk in there I get chills maybe ’cause I was an athlete and it, you know, deja vu all over again.
But I’ve heard from others that didn’t experience that firsthand that it’s a magical experience as well. So I can’t wait. And I know I’m gonna be doing some figure skating, some hockey. some speed skating, you know, ’cause that’s just track on ice,
Jill Jaracz: right? Yeah,
Benita Fitzgerald Mosley: [00:29:00] absolutely. So I’m gonna, I’m gonna dabble in a few events while I’m here too.
Jill Jaracz: So when, wait, when you go into the, whenever you went to a board meeting at the museum, did they clap for you? Because we’ve heard that they clap whenever an Olympian goes in and it
Benita Fitzgerald Mosley: sounds fantastic. I wanna be
Jill Jaracz: there.
Benita Fitzgerald Mosley: There’s several of us. And in fact, Apollo Ono was just elected to the board and so, uh, he, oh, who was on there with me?
Um, I can see his face. He’s a speed skater and he’s, uh, commentating here.
Jill Jaracz: Oh, oh, oh. Joey Cheek,
Benita Fitzgerald Mosley: Joey. Was Joey Cheek and I were the original athletes on the, on the board together. So yeah, we, um, no, they don’t clap for us, but my photo, my, a little clip, video clip of me singing the national anthem on the victory stand is part of the montage as you leave the last part of the museum.
So I have a kind of permanent imprint there, plus my, I got to sign one of the beams
Alison Brown: Oh, nice.
Benita Fitzgerald Mosley: As the, before it got walled up
Alison Brown: [00:30:00] besides getting the medal. Do you have a favorite memory from 84?
Benita Fitzgerald Mosley: Huh? Well, certainly winning is a huge, huge memory. But the semifinals was, uh, my first real taste of, ’cause it was in the evening, we did the heats and the quarterfinals the day before, but I believe they were in the morning.
Session and even though there were, I think the same number of people, I feel like they weren’t as amped up ’cause it wasn’t a final. but after the semi-finals, the crowd just erupted when I crossed the finish line first and they were yelling U-S-A-U-S-A-U-S-A as if I just won. And I thought, I want to hear, feel this again.
I want to hear it again. Like that’s not enough. Right. And I didn’t get to do the victory lap, obviously, ’cause it’s the semifinals. So it, it feel like it spurred me on to, to come back and win for real, in the final
Jill Jaracz: And looking ahead to LA [00:31:00] 2028, what do you see? is it gonna be cool to, well, it is gonna be cool to go back.
Benita Fitzgerald Mosley: I got to go back two weeks ago, three weeks ago into the Coliseum for the first time since, uh, well second time since the games. That I’ve been in the Coliseum and they had a, a group of us, about 300. Olympic and Paralympic and Paralympic athletes there. Uh, with LA 28, it was kind of a, a bit of a show and tell about the games and just to give us behind the scenes a little bit.
And they hosted it at the Coliseum and I got to see my name. The names of all the gold medalists from 32 are on the wall, 84 on the wall. I’m sure they’ll find a place to put the 2028. So this will be the third Olympic games in that coliseum, which is pretty amazing to think about. And. just being back there, just washed, you know, I just washed in memories.
And thinking back to being in that stadium, it’s, it’s pretty amazing.
Alison Brown: When your time at SafeSport is done [00:32:00] many years in the future, what do you want your legacy to be? What’s your goal?
Benita Fitzgerald Mosley: Oh, wow. What we talked about, really about raising awareness of, of SafeSport and athlete safety and, and wellbeing to feel like we, we’ve left, I’ve left it in a better place obviously than, than it was when I got there.
But more importantly, that in the center of American sport, be it professional sport, amateur sport, youth and adults, that people think about athlete safety as being the first thing that they really wanna. Secure and take care of, and nurture. And, uh, if that’s the case, then, you know, sport is so important to the development of, of young people in particular.
most won’t become Olympic champions. Most won’t become professional athletes, but we heard the stat, 93% of all female executives played sports when they were younger. And it hones so many [00:33:00] amazing skills. in young people. This also this sense of, I, I like to, think about, the idea of going for the gold, but my personal mission is to help people in organizations win gold medals and life in business.
And so if I were able to help this US Center for SafeSport Win Gold Medals as far as the awareness of athlete safety and wellbeing, I feel like I would’ve done my job.
Jill Jaracz: Excellent. Perfect. Thank you so much, Bonita. Thank you so much, Bonita. You can learn more about SafeSport at its website, uscenterforsafesport.org.
LA 2028 News
Little bit of LA 2028 news. Oklahoma City University announced that it will be the site of the athlete’s village for softball and canoe slalom, the two events being held in Oklahoma City for the LA ’28 Games. The village will host 170 athletes plus officials, and it is pretty centrally located. It’s, like, just [00:34:00] under five miles from canoe slalom and about six to eight from Devon Park, the softball site, which probably won’t be called Devon Park.
It’ll be called, like, the Oklahoma Softw- Softball Center or something like that.
Alison Brown: Well, it may be called Devon Park because they are allowing naming rights.
Jill Jaracz: Oh. I wonder-
Alison Brown: So maybe we won’t have to change so much. That would be… On the one hand, I’m, glad they’re keeping the naming rights because it just gets so confusing when something is known as something, and then you gotta call it something else.
Jill Jaracz: Yes, and then when you’re there, you see the obvious canvas over the name of the arena.
Alison Brown: Or the garbage bags, sheets.
Jill Jaracz: Right, and the, the tape, uh, like in Beijing when we had the tape over- Tape over the TV … the cars and the TV, which was hilarious because they taped over the TV because the TV wasn’t the electronic sponsor, and then you turned on the TV and you got the, the logo of the TV when you were warming up.
So it, doesn’t make [00:35:00] sense, but- Yeah … it is what it is. So, um- Excellent.
Alison Brown: Oklahoma City getting ready.
Jill Jaracz: Yes, getting ready, and it’s good that they’re gonna reuse the… You know, there’s nothing new being built for this either, so I’m curious to know, uh, what else Oklahoma City has got up their sleeve.
For fun in LA. I don’t know what they have up their sleeve. The Frigidaire- In general? I don’t wanna know that.
French Alps 2030 News
Ooh, le ski. Uh, w- uh, oui. Le ski. So French Alps 2030, we’ve got a little bit of venue news there. Franck Jou reports that the alpine skiing venue site is r- is wrapping up for finalization of what it is. The Val d’Isère Municipal Council voted to sign a letter of intent to host events there. Uh, this includes, the payment the area would pay to the, organizing committee to host.
And this is, like Franck Jou does a Google translate for the English, so it seems like the city is going to pay French Alps [00:36:00] 2030 some kind of money to host the Alpine events, but not quite clear on that. and to have that money, the Francchu story said, uh, it would be likely that the Criterium de la Première Neige 2029 would not be held, which is, like, the first, race of the year in December 2029.
They’re not gonna hold that. The money that goes to put that on would instead go to hosting the games instead.
Alison Brown: Well, that makes a lot of sense ’cause Val d’Isère- So we’ll see … is a, is a annual stop on the World Cup circuit. So if they’re gonna ch- sort of take their-
Jill Jaracz: Yeah …
Alison Brown: stop and make it the Olympics as opposed to just a regular World Cup race.
Jill Jaracz: That would be good. more, uh, venue news to come, I’m sure.
International Olympic Committee News
We have news from the International Olympic Committee, and a hat tip to Rich Perlman at the Sports Examiner for spotting this Kyodo News story that is [00:37:00] reporting, uh, some leaked information ahead of the IOC executive board meeting, which we are taping this on Wednesday, May 6th. They are meeting May 6th and May 7th.
So by the time you listen to this, we will have had a press conference, and we’ll have more news next week. But, some things apparently that are coming down the pike is that the IOC’s Esports Commission may be halted. We may be done with esports.
Alison Brown: Thank goodness.
Jill Jaracz: How do you feel about that?
Alison Brown: Oh, I will be glad to see that in the rear view mirror.
Jill Jaracz: Well, it’s just- It really felt like grabbing at straws.
Alison Brown: And- Yes … like, “Let’s get the young people interested, and let’s try doing video games.” And it didn’t really seem to have a good cohesive strategy as to why.
Jill Jaracz: Right. And I get that esports are big in a subset of people, but I don’t think they’re [00:38:00] as much on everybody’s radar and everybody is going into them as you might think.
Alison Brown: And the biggest thing is I don’t think– Like, whenever you do a side project, you want your side project to feed into your main product. And I just didn’t see how esport was feeding ba- Like, I can see how the Youth Games feeds into the main event. You know? Mm-hmm. “Oh, we’re gonna see these people in the Olympics in the future.
Oh, we can test out new sports and, and new con- events and configurations.” Made a lot of sense. But the esports, how is that feeding into your main product? I don’t see the connection.
Jill Jaracz: Good question. Get to the museum while that exhibit’s still open. Say that. also, uh, probably coming down the pike this week, uh, Winter Olympics will remain for snow, sports on snow and ice.
cause as you remember, both athletics and cycling were trying to get into the Winter Olympics with different events, and, uh, [00:39:00] Rich Perelman did note that if they were successful, those international federations would get a slice of the IOC TV revenue, and I don’t think the other federations want that to happen.
Alison Brown: No.
Jill Jaracz: Don’t wanna split that up even more. other big, big news is that the sports program for Brisbane 2032 will likely be smaller. So, coming down off of LA makes sense because LA’s got an all-time high of 36 sports, and, uh, that’s, it’s a lot. It’s really a lot. And-
Alison Brown: And a lot of team sports with a lot of people.
Jill Jaracz: Yes, and we still have to figure out who to talk to or find out how they got all these team sports in. Oh,
Alison Brown: I know.
Jill Jaracz: So- How
Alison Brown: did they get that with the, with the athlete quotas?
Jill Jaracz: Right. Right, right. But there are some financial issues going on, and, uh, Brisbane 2032 is likely going to have fewer sports.
Not just fewer sports, but [00:40:00] f- also fewer disciplines and events within sports. So we may see some events chopped as well.
Alison Brown: Ooh. That’s interesting.
Jill Jaracz: Yes. So, uh, Rich had done some, thinking about what could be eliminated and, you know, looking at, like, TV revenues or whatever. Do you, is this the time where you get rid of modern pentathlon?
Is this the time where you get rid of, um, I don’t know. I, I, my brain went to trampoline, but- Hmm … trampoline’s popular, but it’s just a one-day, one-time event. Oh, the other one was, like, open water swimming. Do you get rid of marathon swimming?
Alison Brown: Hmm.
Jill Jaracz: If you’re not gonna reuse that venue for triathlon, You know, that’s an extra thing with, and how many… It doesn’t take a huge number of athletes, but it is another venue for a one-and-done event. So I wonder if some of these one-and-dones will be-
Alison Brown: Done …
Jill Jaracz: done. Yeah. Just
Alison Brown: done.
Jill Jaracz: Well, and I also [00:41:00] wonder why some, you know, if, are there proposals to add events to some of these one-and-done things?
Like, we’ve, I’ve wondered, like, why isn’t there more than just men’s and women’s single trampoline?
Alison Brown: Right. Or
Jill Jaracz: why
Alison Brown: aren’t there doubles?
Jill Jaracz: Yes. Yes For
Alison Brown: example
Jill Jaracz: Or synchro or something like that.
Alison Brown: Right. ‘
Jill Jaracz: Cause, ’cause doubles to me, doubles to me says two people on one trampoline which does not end well in many ways.
Alison Brown: That’s how accidents happen in the backyard.
Jill Jaracz: Right.
Alison Brown: And somebody ends up in the ER. Many an accident has happened as to too many people bouncing on the trampoline together. Wait, can you imagine that and they’re trying to do like triple flips?
Jill Jaracz: Right? If they don’t land at the same time, or even if they do and one goes flying the other, why, what a job for a spotter.
Alison Brown: This could just end so badly. But no, I think it makes sense to make the… We’re overwhelmed [00:42:00] when we’re there-
Jill Jaracz: Mm-hmm.
Alison Brown: Yes … with the amount, and it’s overwhelming to watch, and should it be trimmed? And it’d be interesting to see where they trim, because they’re talking about adding events, like all those 50 meter events to swimming.
Oh, right. Because generally you don’t get any athletes for that. That’s just an extra- Mm-hmm … medal event. But it’s still another event, and it still has to get scheduled, and it still has to sell tickets. So it’ll be interesting to see how they re, uh, configure some of these things to make it a little bit more manageable.
Jill Jaracz: And I wonder if Are we gonna have a hard and fast rule about how many sports any host committee can add to the program? ‘Cause Paris didn’t add that much, and Tokyo added quite a few, but it feels like we just throw a lot of stuff in and say, “Hey, we wanna add five sports.
We wanna add six sports ’cause this is our special games.” Our special
Alison Brown: interest.
Jill Jaracz: Yeah. And, and I don’t feel like when we were back in the days of demonstration [00:43:00] sports-
Alison Brown: You’d have one or two …
Jill Jaracz: you got one, maybe two. Yeah. And that was it. but, uh, it’s just LA’s, it is gonna be overwhelming, and not in a, not in a great way.
Alison Brown: Yeah.
Jill Jaracz: So we shall see how that one goes.
Montreal’s plans to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the 1976 Summer Olympics
Uh, we do have Olympic travel news. Still no music for that yet. But this year marks the 50… What?
Alison Brown: I feel like it should be like the, the, um, that bumblebee song, that do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do. Flight of the Bumblebee. I’ll
Jill Jaracz: see if I can get that.
Alison Brown: Yes. That’s Flight of the Bumblebee- Okay
because it’s so stressful Travel is stressful.
Jill Jaracz: But it also could be like beach sounds because tra– vacation is relaxing.
Alison Brown: Oh, okay. That’s true. See, I can see what our most recent travel experiences have been for each of us.
Jill Jaracz: Well, it– the last travel experience was not relaxing, let me tell you. It was exhausting.
It was exhausting and stressful. Um- But
Alison Brown: this one, this one is a goodie. This is exciting.
Jill Jaracz: Yes, [00:44:00] this is good. So this year marks the 50th anniversary of the Montreal ’76 Summer Olympics, and they’re, uh, they’re doing a lot to celebrate this. many, many events, many activity things going on, which include but are not limited to, a Olympics exhibit at the McCord Stewart Museum in Montreal that will run through September 7th.
There will be an open-air photography exhibit along Pierre de Coubertin Avenue through, December 31st, and the Bank of Canada Museum will have a Montreal 1976 coin exhibit through March 22, 2027. But the best event might be the Great Nadia Gathering.
Alison Brown: This is so awesome. Whoever came up with this needs more than a gold star.
This is- Oh
Jill Jaracz: my gosh … so clever. On August 1st, there’s gonna be a big 50th, 50th anniversary celebration, and they will have a gathering of people named Nadia who were born between 1976 and [00:45:00] 1978, obviously named for Nadia Comaneci. And if this is you, uh, there’s a registration process. There will be a random lottery drawing, and 50 lucky winners will get VIP access to this 50th anniversary celebration, and you will meet Nadia Comaneci herself.
Alison Brown: Can I change my name and lie about my age?
But what a, what a clever, fun idea, and they obviously think there’s a good number of people if they’re already saying that 50 lucky winners and they’re expecting a drawing. So- Oh, yeah … there must be a lot of Nadias in Canada- Yeah … who were named for her- I, I- … which I think that I, I– sure there are, ’cause it was like- Right
“Oh, yes, Nadia.”
Jill Jaracz: That is fantastic. So we will put a link to the 50th anniversary website in the show notes, and it will have all of the Nadia registration stuff and all of the other activities [00:46:00] that they have going on all year long and all summer long. If you go to Montreal, let us know, and let us know what you see.
I happened to be in Montreal during the 40th anniversary of Montreal 1976. Went to like three different museums for exhibits that were fantastic, and They did such a good job. So, I- Love Montreal as a host city- Yes. Yes … in legacy form, ’cause even though those games, well, the games themselves, they had some fantastic moments, some iconic moments.
some issues with the boycott, but, you know, we had Tebow. Nadia.
Alison Brown: And some issues
Jill Jaracz: with
Alison Brown: money.
Jill Jaracz: And some, and some issues. But I think the issues with money ended up making them very realistic, and- Yes … they seem to be a host city that is quite honest about what worked and what didn’t, ’cause obviously any– If they said, “Oh, these were fabulous games and we have all this stuff,” anybody’s gonna call their bluff and say, “Hey, we’re fixing the stadium [00:47:00] roof for, what, like, the third time?”
You know? It, it’s, it’s not great. So they know it, and at least they own that, and they try to figure out ways to celebrate it anyway.
Alison Brown: Um- Yeah, they’ve done an amazing job with using the venues, and the legacy in that park has i- never been a white elephant, that’s for sure. As, as white elephant-seeming as those games looked like they were going to be- Right
they’ve really turned it around as a city and came through. And like you said, they owned the bad things, but they also celebrate how amazing those facilities- Yes … are and that they can still use them.
Jill Jaracz: Yes, and, you know, it’s sad that the stadium has been problematic in terms of re- you know, reuse for a while, gotta fix it.
We keep trying. Hopefully this roof will be– It’ll be done s- not anytime soon-soon, but they’re, uh, I think they’re, like, halfway through maybe. Um- Oh,
Alison Brown: boy …
Jill Jaracz: and hopefully that will be the magic that [00:48:00] lets them use this venue year-round. So- Yeah … it’s a, it’s a fun Olympic city to visit, so please do so if you can.
Team Keep the Flame Alive News
Alison Brown: Welcome to Shucklustan.
Jill Jaracz: It is the time of the show where we check in with our team, Keep the Flame Alive. These are guests and past listeners of the show who make up the citizenship of our very own country, Shucklustan.
Alison Brown: Congratulations to Siobhan Forgan, Sophia Kirkby, and Ashley Farquharson for making USA Luge’s Fall 2026 National Team, and extra congratulations to Ashley on her engagement. I want pictures. Pictures.
Jill Jaracz: Sled hockey player Monica Quimby played with the Tampa Bay Lightning team at the Sled Hockey Nationals.
Team made it to the finals, but they lost to Indy Steel. Number two.
Alison Brown: And finally, congratulations to video journalist Sean Callahan for finishing the Providence Half Marathon, and beat his personal goal by 14 minutes. Nicely done, Sean.
Jill Jaracz: That’s nice. And that is going to do it for this episode. [00:49:00] Don’t forget to join our Facebook group and hang out with o- other Olympic fans.
Alison Felix is making a comeback, and, uh, there’s conversation about that going on in the Facebook group right now, so be sure to check it out. World Games chat is starting, and, we’ll have more of the Montreal stuff going on in there too. So thank you so much for listening.
Alison Brown: And until next time, keep the flame alive.