The one new sport on the program for the Milan-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics is ski mountaineering (aka skimo). What is this sport all about, and why should you watch it? Sarah Cookler, Head of Sport for USA Skimo (USA Ski Mountaineering Association), joins us to talk about the sport, what it’s all about, and how much fun its debut at Milan-Cortina will be.
The origins of ski mountaineering
The skimo moniker is somewhat appropriate for this sport–it’s skiing, plus more. Competitors don’t just ski down a mountain, they have to climb up it first. According to the International Olympic Committee, skimo’s roots may go back to the Middle Ages—or even prehistoric times—but the sport as we know it today started in the late 1890s.
Back then, there were no mechanical ways to get up a mountain. The first rope pull that used mechanical means to move people up a hill was invented in 1908 in Germany. In the US, that came about in 1910. The 1930s saw a flurry of innovation, starting with the tow rope coming out of Canada in 1934, followed by the J-bar in 1934 and T-bar in 1935, both from Switzerland. In 1936, the first chairlift was invented—and with it, alpine skiing really took off. If you remember from our Chamonix 1924 series, downhill skiing wasn’t even in the first Winter Olympics, but ski mountaineering (or a form of it) was. It was called military patrol.
Still, people wanted to cross the mountains on skis. In 1897, German Wilhelm Paulcke because the first to make an alpine traverse, and to get up the hill, he slapped some animal skins on the bottom of his skis to prevent him from slipping backwards down the mountain.
What to expect for ski mountaineering at Milan-Cortina 2026
Ski mountaineering has evolved from its early days, with different kinds of races that challenge athletes to scale a mountain and ski back down. It’s especially popular in Europe, which is one of the reasons Milan-Cortina 2026 organizers wanted to include it on the Olympic program.
Ski mountaineering has many race formats, but just the sprint and relay formats will be held at the Olympics. As Sarah explains in our discussion, the sprint format is incredibly fast, so you’ll have to pay attention to the race so you don’t miss it.
At the Olympics, there will be men’s sprint, women’s sprint, and mixed relay events. The sprints will each have 18 competitors, and the mixed relay will have up to 18 teams with one man and one woman. Countries will only be allowed to have one team in the mixed relay.
Paris 2024 News
Also on today’s show, we have news from Paris 2024 about the condition of the bronze medals, namely that within just a few months, over 100 athletes have asked for replacements. Tariq Panja and Liz Alderman of the New York Times wrote an interesting piece on what went wrong and who’s responsible for fixing the problem.
Milan-Cortina 2026 News
This is the final full year before the Games begin, so test events are underway. Some of the ski venues have passed the test, but the sliding track is a big question mark. In our newly dubbed “Slidingnovela,” stakeholders held a two-day meeting to discuss the progress of the new track construction. Will it be finished by March? The timeline is tight. Oh, and a reminder: Lake Placid is Plan B.
Russian and Belorussian skaters may be able to compete at Milan-Cortina. The International Skating Union has announced a pathway for figure skating, long track, and short track speed skating. No teams (with the exception of pairs and ice dance couples in figure skating), but you may see more neutral athletes next year.
Ticket sales will start on February 6 for the 347,000 people who have already registered for the ticket lottery. Some events have early-bird prices if you purchase by May 2025. Check the ticket price chart for more information. If you didn’t get in this round, you’ll have another chance in April.
Plus,TKFLASTAN has had a big week—we’ve got results, honors, a tough situation, and some listener views on Sydney 2000 and The Fire Inside.
Thanks so much for listening, and until next time, keep the flame alive!
TRANSCRIPT
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375-Sarah Cookler on Ski Mountaineering
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. Each week we share stories from athletes and people behind the scenes to help you have more fun watching the games. I am your host, Jill Jaracz, joined as always by my lovely co host, Alison Brown.
Alison, hello, how are you? Cold. You can say that again. Cold. It’s, it’s not Beijing cold. I will say that.
Alison Brown: You know, I was thinking about that because we were talking a few minutes ago about our, pretty much our favorite Tingus Boe, who’s retiring, and they’ve been playing a lot of his, , races from Beijing, you know, little clips of him winning and, and he’s got the moleskin on his face.
I’m like, yeah, it’s not Beijing cold. And I didn’t even experience the cold that you experienced. No,
Jill Jaracz: no. And it’s just a different kind of cold. Like I went out this morning where I mean, it was, must’ve been like minus two Fahrenheit, minus two to minus four Fahrenheit this morning. And I had to bring in the garbage cans and it was cold after a little while I started to feel it, but it, it’s not the same because we have a lake right next to it.
by my house. So you get a little humidity in with that cold. You get a lot of wind, but it’s not the same as that cold coming off of the desert and the Arctic. I will tell you that it’s just not the same.
Alison Brown: So one of the things that happened to Beijing was I met that nice Korean man on the bus who gave me that Korean scarf.
And I, For some reason, I never unwrapped it and I put it on yesterday. This thing is fantastic. It is amazing. So thank you to the, to the nice man from team Korea who gave me this scarf. I had no idea.
Jill Jaracz: It’s
Alison Brown: very cool.
Jill Jaracz: Very cool.
Alison Brown: It’s featured in some of the videos that I’m making now.
Jill Jaracz: Excellent. Excellent.
We’ll look for that on socials at Flame Alive Pod.
Patreon: Can you achieve Olympic-like greatness by reading Olympians’ memoirs?
Jill Jaracz: also what you could look for is our new Patreon episode is coming out soon. We are doing a series all year long focusing on whether or not you can learn how to become Olympian in whatever endeavor you choose by reading Memoirs of Olympic athletes.
We are starting with Lindsay Vonn because it’s winter and we think skiing and Lindsay is making a comeback. So we’re looking at her memoir, Rise, my story. And, uh, I will tell you, I am fascinated by everything she had to say. We have thoughts. We do have thoughts. And you do hear it if you are a Patreon patron.
That’s right. So that is special for our silver medal members and up who get bonus content every month. You can check that out at flamealivepod. com slash support or patreon. com slash flamealivepod.
Interview with Sarah Cookler
Jill Jaracz: So today, speaking of skiing in a way, we are going to look at the one new sport that will be at Milan Cortina 2026.
Ski mountaineering. What is it? We are here to find out and let you know. In October 2024, we spoke with Sarah Cookler, head of sport for USA Ski Mo. Sarah is also the head coach and executive director of the Silver Fork Ski Mo Foundation. She explains how the sport works. How, what to look out for and which athletes to keep an eye on for 2026.
Take a listen.
Alison: Sarah Cookler, thanks for taking some time with us this morning.
Sarah Cookler: Absolutely. Good morning.
Alison: We kind of need to start at the very basics with ski mountaineering because most of our listeners and certainly I have not watched any until we were preparing for this interview. So for someone who’s never seen it before, what is ski mountaineering?
Sarah Cookler: So let me start from the very beginning. So ski mountaineering actually evolves from a very early sport. Um, and it’s actually a return into the Olympics, believe it or not. So in 1924. The first Olympics in Chamonix, um, Winter Olympics. Ski mountaineering was a sport. It was called military patrol at that point and You know the world war one era many, military Personnel traveled up and down through the mountains on skis.
So the first games had Ski patrol or mountaineering patrol in it. And it was essentially ski mountaineering. You have skins on your skis and you travel up and down through the mountains. They had a rifle on their back and that eventually evolved into the sport of biathlon. but now fast forward, Another 100 years and we’re back into the Olympics and definitely a different aspect of the sport, but still ultimately traveling up and down through mountains on skis, completely self powered, if you will.
The sport looks like this. You have small skis. They have, they’re a set length and width for males and females. So everyone’s racing on very similar, dimensions of gear. Those skis have metal edges on them, just like a downhill ski. They’re smooth on the bottom, just like a downhill ski. However, in order to go uphill, you must apply these synthetic skins.
So again, the evolution started with like an animal fur or skin that when you slide forward, it glides. And when you, are going backwards, the hairs kind of stand up on end and hold you on the snow. So now there’s these very fast synthetic skins that you stick to the bottom of your skis, which allow you to kind of glide and stick so you can have a running motion going up the mountain.
The terrain, Can vary and there’s again multiple disciplines for ski mountaineering and the Olympics they’re focusing on the short formats exciting head to head fast type races and we can get to that but the sport itself is running uphill on skis. You get to transition points and transitions are a very, um, important factor in the race as far as time.
And at the transitions, you take the skins off, buckle your boots, step into your skis, and then essentially you’re in a downhill race, um, going through gates, similar to Alpine skiing. So it’s a kind of a combination of. Cross country skiing, endurance running, and fast downhill skiing. That gives you a quick overview.
Alison: Of course, the two second answer and I’m like 5, 000 questions. when people tune in to the Olympics, what are they going to be watching? What are those races going to look like?
Sarah Cookler: So when they announced that ski mountaineering was going to be in the Olympics, they chose to reformat the sport a little bit, so that it’s more spectator friendly.
So if you think about running, for instance, if you watch a marathon, I mean, The physical aspect is remarkable. How exciting it is? Not terribly exciting to watch somebody run for, you know, three hours on end. I think ski mountaineering, the long distance races are a little bit more picturesque because they’re going up and down mountains.
However, for the Olympics, if you tune in, they are going to be fast and furious races. There’s the sprint discipline, which is a set course. It’s about, takes athletes about four to five minutes to complete that lap. And then you move on and heats. So think skier cross border, cross some short track speed skating, something like that, head to head racing on a set course.
That’s really fast. And it moves on from like quarterfinals, semifinals finals. And then there’s another race called the mixed relay. And this race was actually just developed like. Two years ago. It’s been on the World Cup for two years now. and so we’re still trying to get an idea of who the best athletes are for this because it’s somewhere in the middle of that long distance race in a sprint race, a mixed relay race.
One is really neat because it’s mixed gender. You have to have a male and a female from your nation, teamed up. And then, similar to the sprint, it goes off in a heat format, so head to head racing. However, each lap is about eight to ten minutes, and each athlete will do it twice. So the females start in a mass start lineup.
They go head to head. They do this kind of two ascents, two descents, um, lap that’s a set course. They tag off to their male partner, they do the same course, and then it comes back to the females for a second lap, and then the males finish with a lap. So the entire format of that race takes about 40 45 minutes, , and it’s a cumulative result of your male and female teammates and their time together.
Alison: Okay, I want to go back to the sprints.
Race of each heat. That’s it.
Sarah Cookler: That’s it. Yeah, so we’re talking the trend the evolution of a race or a sport that used to travel long distances up and over mountains over varying terrain over the Alps picturesque pointy mountains to a set course on man made snow that lasts four to five minutes.
That’s a completely different athlete, right? This is like a 400 meter sprinter versus a marathon runner.
Jill: how much elevation are they traversing when they go up in a sprint race, typically?
Sarah Cookler: it’s a set amount and actually I probably should have pulled up the exact statistics, but it’s between 90 and 120 meters.
So think like 300 vertical feet. and within that ascent, there are specific skill criteria that every course has. So you start with your skis on, and your skins on. They start skiing uphill, kind of running uphill. There’s this diamond formation, so that it allows athletes, since you start in a heat of six, a diamond formation allows you to choose, do you go left or do you go right?
But then you have to make a turn, and turning on skis is a skill in itself. while you’re running uphill, and then it crosses and it merges. So you have to time that, right, to either get ahead of somebody, or cut them off, or whatever. There’s strategy in that, in the first section. Then you get to a transition where they have to be inside the marked area.
They take their skis off, put them on their backpack, all done in less than 10 seconds, and start running. up a kind of essentially man made staircase. They actually carve these stairs in the snow with chainsaws and athletes run up two flights of stairs as fast as they possibly can, get to the top, put their skis back on, start running uphill again on their skis.
Get to the top of the 300 vertical feet, bend over in a completely hypoxic state, rip their skins off, put them in their suit, and ski down like a giant slalom course, so with gates, and a jump, a mandatory jump, when you’re on like toothpick sized skis. and so then you’ve got these athletes in their full spandex.
Flying through the air, landing, and getting to the finish line. It’s very exciting.
Alison: I’m stuck on the, the steps carved in the snow. Because when we were in Beijing, our listeners will remember, I had a very bad experience with snow carved, steps that didn’t hold up because of the weather. So of course now I’m worried about these people on Borneo going, They better be maintaining those steps really well.
Sarah Cookler: Yeah.
Alison: I was going to say the weather obviously is going to play a huge factor in this because the conditions are going to change as these races are going along.
Sarah Cookler: Absolutely. Yeah. And that’s part of it too. So the conditions are very dependent and similar to Nordic skiing or Alpine skiing. It depends on how you prepare your skis, but now it’s not only how you prepare your skis for the gliding aspect, but it’s how do you prepare your skins?
So people are actually waxing, so applying wax to these synthetic skins so they glide faster. You can trim them down so it covers less surface area of your ski, which would then be faster, but doesn’t provide as much grip. So you have to find that balance based on your technique and the quality of the snow, the, uh, pitch of the terrain, how steep it is.
Um, so there’s a lot of technical aspects that go into this very, very short race. And a lot of places things can go wrong.
Alison: When you say there’s a jump, what, what are we talking about on that downhill portion?
Sarah Cookler: So it’s, Usually pretty standard, but if you can picture an alpine racing, sometimes alpine racers are are going down the descent and then there’s this like three foot step off. so you’re taking off on one spot and then essentially the land falls away from you and you go through the air and you land at a different elevation.
So that’s exactly what it is. It’s a step off jump. So you’re coming in, it’s usually around, you go around a gate and then you’ve got to get into your tuck, fly over this, but there could be multiple other people going over this jump at the same time as you. And so like a ski or cross kind of jump and then landing and continuing on the course.
Alison: Okay, and then skins. Let’s talk about what those are exactly, because we keep saying the word, but to me, I’m thinking, what, what exactly is this made of? And how are you using them? And what do they look like?
Sarah Cookler: Yeah, so for those who are familiar with backcountry skiing, it’s a similar aspect.
It’s skin. again, I think the name is still derived from back when they used animal skins to do this, but now they’re obviously synthetic and they’re very lightweight. The bottom is adhesive, and that’s what sticks to the bottom of your ski. But it’s a specific type of adhesive so that when you pull it off, it doesn’t leave like glue or stickiness on your ski, right?
That would, that’d be detrimental. And then the plush part of it that’s facing the snow are these very fine synthetic fibers that, When you rub your hand in the direction that the ski would be gliding, it’s very smooth. But if you rub it the opposite way, , the little fibers stand up and provide like a Velcro type effect.
Right? So it kind of grabs. So you can’t go backwards on your skis. You can go forwards. That makes sense. Now these skins are only cover three quarters of your ski. They attach with these little, at the tips of your skis, there’s notches in the tips of the ski, and there’s a bungee cord on the top of these skins that latch into the tip of the ski, which then at these transitions allows you to bend forward, grab the bungee tips, and then quickly in one motion, Rip the skin off of the ski, fold it up and put it into your race suit.
Alison: to the racers, have to hang on to those skins throughout.
Sarah Cookler: They do. And actually, yeah, that’s a part of it. Um, they have to hang on to them. They have to be stored appropriately before you can depart from the transition area. They can’t be hanging out. They have to actually be like, secured inside your suit and zipped up.
And that’s a whole nother part. All of these suits have really been developed for the ease and efficiency of storing the skins. Like, do you unzip it and put it in? Do you pull out this pocket and get it in? There’s many different options and suit development around these fast races.
Alison: Do the suits look significantly different than other ski racing suits that we’re used to seeing?
Sarah Cookler: Not particularly. They’re full spandex suits. they just have these like external pockets on the front chest.
Alison: They have pockets.
Sarah Cookler: Yeah. Yeah, exactly. They’re like kangaroo pouches on the front. They can pull them open and throw their skins in
Alison: what physical body type works very well for the sport. You know, we, we tend to see Alpine racers are, are.
Taller and stronger. What are we going to see in ski mountaineering?
Sarah Cookler: You’re going to see some pretty amazing athletes in general. this sports, you know, it attracts the, think about the endurance and the physical aspect of a, a mountain runner or a top cross country skier. But then the. risk taking of and strength of a downhill skier.
So a combination there. However, as I was explaining, there’s been, different disciplines in ski mountaineering. And then with the Olympics, this evolution of these faster races. So when oftentimes when you get a faster, shorter race, it does start to lean towards The stronger, fast twitch muscles, more muscle mass athletes.
However, on the world cup, there’s been a, certainly a mix. There are some, still some tall, lean athletes, and then there are some that look a little bit bulkier and stronger, but we’re still talking on, in general, on the spectrum of a human, general human body type, the lean endurance athlete
Jill: when you get to the ski portion the downhill ski. Is there much potential for crashing since they’re going I mean like getting in each other’s way and things like that.
Sarah Cookler: Yeah, absolutely. I think the general motto with these short races is The downhill is not where you’re gonna win the race, but it’s certainly where you can lose the race, right?
So if you crash out, so you think in a, you know, we’ll make it even, like a five minute lap, a five minute race. You’re gonna be spending four and a half minutes on the uphill and 30 seconds on the downhill. But if you crash, game over. Right. So you’ve got to be a confident, strong skier, to get down safely and, inefficiently.
Yeah. And then also strong in the sense of being able to control yourself. If other racers are bumping elbows. and skiing on top of you,
Alison: I’m just picturing all of this and saying, this is right up Jill’s alley. She loves the cross races, the ski cross and anything where people are head to head. That’s
Sarah Cookler: and I think that’s why they went this way, right? It’s much more spectator friendly and exciting to watch,
Jill: but my lungs burn just thinking about the ascent.
I mean, seriously, this, that’s no joke. Sure.
Sarah Cookler: No, I mean, in their full on sprinting up the hill, for four minutes, it’s an all out effort and it’s an all out effort that you then have to think about how you can recover and do it again. Right? So in the sprint, you have to be able to do that from your qualifying run to quarter finals, semifinals and finals.
So you could be doing this four times.
Jill: Do they take much rest time in between rounds?
Sarah Cookler: Yeah, probably about 20 to 30 minutes,
Jill: which sometimes it’s harder to
Sarah Cookler: get back off the couch then. So oftentimes you’ll, you’ll start seeing at some of these world cup races, that teams have spin bikes. out there so that during between the heats athletes are staying loose, just like you would see on, cycling races warming up and cooling down.
Alison: Yeah. This is making me feel like it’s the velodrome where they do these multiple high endurance, high speed races, and then you just stand there and wait for the next one.
Sarah Cookler: Yeah. That’s actually a good comparison.
Alison: Besides the insanity of it, what makes someone go into this versus alpine or versus cross country or versus the other ski disciplines in the Olympics?
Sarah Cookler: That’s a good question. why do they go into it? I think It definitely attracts a slightly different person, a little bit more, it’s more of the adventure side of it, is where the sport starts, right? So it’s not cross country skiing where you’re always on a set track that’s nicely, freshly groomed. the heart of ski mountaineering is in the mountains, and exploring, and traversing, and climbing big In descending big peaks, so I think it attracts that type of athlete and then once they’re hooked into the sport, then they get wrapped up into the, you know, the spandex wearing fast racing and into that, however, though, that now that scheme outnearing or skimo racing is gaining more traction in the U.
- we are, um. Seeing a lot more crossover from other sports. so not only from cross country seeking, but cycling, uh, we even have an athlete who’s a former speed skater, three time Olympic speed skater. Who’s come to Schemo. so I think it’s an exciting sport. You’ve got to know how to downhill ski and essentially cross country ski and put them all together.
Jill: When you talk about the skis being small toothpick sized, how does that differ from a regular downhill ski?
Sarah Cookler: A lot. So a regular downhill ski is going to, it’s quite heavy when you pick it up. It’s made out of multiple layers of whatever it’s made out of carbon and wood, big thick metal edges. Uh, it’s got this side cut, that you can.
Flex it. It really withstands a lot of pressure. not to mention their bindings right in there. The Alpine bindings are quite chunky, hold their boots in place. They’re even risen off the, the ski so that when they carve a hard turn that their boots don’t hit the snow. In comparison, a ski mountaineering ski is as light and fast as you can get, because as I had mentioned, 90 percent of the race is going uphill.
So you want to be light and fast on the uphill, and then you’ll make it work on the downhill. So the ski mountaineering, schemo skis are Two pounds, as opposed to like, 15 pounds. they are very thin, very thin. they break easily. , honestly. Um, it’s not uncommon to see broken gear in these races.
And then you’re binding is, minuscule. The toe piece is, is about as minimal as you need to have two little pins that hold in the toe. And then the heel is about one inch by one inch with these two pins that you step into and it holds your heel. So you’re held at like three. Um, and then you’re going to put those points of contact onto your ski, and then you’re directly onto the ski with your full carbon boot.
so then when you try to make a tight turn, there’s sometimes risk for your boot hitting the snow and sliding out. So there’s definitely, some technique to skiing downhill for that. So in general, we’re talking like almost cross country ski looking equipment. That then you have to try to ski downhill.
Jill: Okay. Because then, as you were describing it, my next question would be, how does it differ from a cross country ski beyond the fact that the cross countries have no heel attachment? And different shoes.
Sarah Cookler: They’re definitely wider than a cross country ski. Similar length. The men’s ski on 160s and the women’s ski on 150 cm length.
And boots differ significantly from cross country boots. Schemo boots, have a lot of forward and backward flex to them when they’re in the walk uphill mode. But when you get to the downhill mode, part of the transition is you bend down, flip this lever that locks them into a rigid position so that you then can, and then you clip into your heels.
So your heels are attached like an Alpine boot. but then on the downhill, you have more rigidity to hold you, in place as you make your turns.
Jill: Sorry, my mind is blown. Okay, so we’ve got
Alison: the skis, the boots, the suit. Is there a helmet?
Sarah Cookler: Yes, yes, there’s a mandatory helmet. and there’s a backpack that is mandatory. especially for the short races, that has to part of the transition when they get to the running up the stairs part is the. The skis have to be secured onto the backpack in two points of contact.
So there’s these very specific Schemo race backpacks that have a loop, on the bottom left corner of the suit, of the backpack, and this kind of bungee cord with an L hook on the right shoulder, so that when they’re doing this transition, it’s very, Smooth. They’ve practiced this, you know, millions of times.
They quickly jump out. They step out of their skis by releasing the toe bindings. They put their skis together. They slide it through the loop in the lower part of the backpack around their back, hook. The top part of their skis and then they’re secure. Their skis are secured onto their backpack They pick up their poles and they start running.
Alison: Okay, so we haven’t talked about poles What did the poles look like for this?
Sarah Cookler: The poles look very similar to cross country ski poles. They’re very light They’re a similar length to the classic Distance, cross country ski poles, not skate poles where they’re like up by their nose. these are kind of a little bit below their armpit in length.
Jill: Do they carry anything else in the backpack or is that just for show after that?
Sarah Cookler: for these short races, they do not have to carry anything else in the backpack. For the longer races, again, not in the Olympics, but kind of the marquee event of, of ski mountaineering. You do have a lot of other required.
Gear, mostly avalanche safety gear because we’re traveling up and through avalanche terrain. So a beacon probe shovel extra jacket. That kind of stuff. But for the Olympic disciplines, no, nothing else has to be in the backpack.
Alison: Is there controversy in the Schemo community about it being these very short TV friendly races versus kind of where the sport came from?
Sarah Cookler: There certainly was. when the Olympics were announced and these were the disciplines that were chosen, there definitely was a little bit of, um, controversy.
Yeah, you know, a little bit of maybe disappointment that it’s not the showcase of what the sport has always been. However, I think people have certainly embraced the excitement of these short distance races and with the It’s what sounds to be like the positive feedback and likelihood of, uh, future Olympics, based on the future Olympics and their locations being in kind of skimo centric areas.
Uh, it sounds like one skimo should have a good longevity in the winter Olympics for the next few coming up. in addition to adding it back in some of the longer distance races. And as, as you’ve seen to maybe since this is its inaugural year, oftentimes sports are started with their first year with a kind of smaller number.
And so that too, right? There’s only 18 men and 18 women allowed in these races, which is very small. it’s a, shallow, shallow pool of athletes that they’re accepting.
Alison: When you say schemocentric areas, are we talking kind of what we would expect? Western Europe, North, you know, US, Canada.
Exactly. What are the big, those are the big players.
Sarah Cookler: Yeah, Western Europe is, is kind of the hub. Of ski mountaineering. the world cup takes place primarily in Western Europe. We’re talking Switzerland, France, Spain, Italy, Austria, those countries. And when you look towards, when you look in the future of the winter Olympics, right, we’re in Italy now.
And then France, Utah, right back into the U S and then hopefully Switzerland too. Um, if it lines up like that, I think ski mountaineering has a very, high percentage of being in, in all of those. but it is growing and now there are a World Cup Schemo races in Eastern Europe and in Asia. and so it really is expanding.
Alison: Are there certain kind of ski mountains that are better? Better for this because you’re going to be in Borneo in, Italy, good site, not good site. What, how does that stack up with some of the other places?
Sarah Cookler: So I think for these short, these short disciplines, the location is less, of a factor.
It’s on manmade snow and just needs to have those, you know, You have this criteria, 250 to 300 vertical feet and a set course. So you can pretty much do that at any ski area and, and make it, make it what it is.
Alison: You’ve been involved in Schemo for a lot of years. How is building the program and, you know, once it got to be an Olympic sport, all of a sudden Team USA says, wow, we need to do this. So what has that process been like?
Sarah Cookler: It’s gained a lot of traction, especially over the past.
2 to 3 years, and, you know, within the past 5 years and then 10 years in the US, but, uh, growing slowly and then it’s really accelerated recently. So the sport in the U. S. Over the past 10 years has definitely been gaining traction. Um, you start to see some youth programs open up, some clubs open up more regional racing going and then the U.
- Schemo, which is a nonprofit organization, which organizes The national team and, uh, you know, the path to the Olympics, started seven or eight years ago, and it’s. Has recently gotten more funding, which has allowed us to ramp up, the support for our athletes and gain more traction on the world cup and get our athletes really to that high competitive level.
Alison: Who are the stars of the sport? who do we need to know about?
Sarah Cookler: Um, we’ve got some amazing athletes, on the U S team. but kind of back to The newness of these short disciplines, it’s, it’s going to come down to the wire, it’s going to come down to the wire of who is the best in the sprint and the mixed relay come December, 2025, this year on the world’s cup is going to really showcase us and, and.
See who shines. we’ve got some great perspective athletes. Uh, we’ve got even some, some athletes who haven’t been skimo racing in the past year, a couple of years who want to come back into it. so we have a training camp in November. Our national team training camp where athletes will all be together.
We’ll have a couple of mixed relay time trials where the athletes go head to head. And that gives us our first look of who’s coming off the summer, who’s healthy, who’s strong, to then start getting, our fastest teams to the world cup. And then it’ll really kind of play out on the world cup.
But if you want me to give you some names, I can too.
Alison: Yeah.
Sarah Cookler: Okay. So on the men’s side. We have, uh, in no particular order. These are all very strong athletes. Cam Smith, who is out of Crested Butte, Colorado has, been skimo racing for a number of years. He was unfortunately laid up, for the past 2 years off and on with some injuries, but he’s coming back stronger than ever and is a very competitive trail runner and has put up some great results this summer looking strong.
Um, and he’s had some podium finishes on the world cup. In years past as well. Try to keep your eyes out for him. He’s one that’s hard to miss. he’s got some great, great big red hair and great big red beard, great curly red hair as well. Griffin Briley is a young I’d say young up and coming only because I think he still has potential, but he’s right up at the top of the racers in the US.
He is out of Park City, Utah and. Is 18 years old, and he has put up remarkable results. He has won multiple youth world cups over the past two years, uh, over in Europe. And he entered the senior race division, last year, just kind of dabbled in that, cause he can also race as a junior still, and as a senior was one of the top us racers, he’s looking really strong for this year, uh, and then kind of on the more seasoned side of things, John Gaston, who is out of Aspen, Colorado, has been at the top of US Schemo for the past decade, and he’s still there and he’s still really strong. so I think he’s going to give it a shot as well.
So those are kind of three top men, there’s a long list and somebody may surprise us. Actually, this is a neat, could be a neat story as well. Quinn Simmons, who is, a professional road cyclist. He just took 8th or 9th at the World Championships in road cycling. He is from Durango, Colorado, loves skiing, was actually on the Schemo national team as a junior.
And podiumed in the sprint discipline in the world championships in 2017, and he is going to make a resurgence, as long as his bike team allows him to. Yeah.
Alison: How many, skiers can qualify from any one country? For the Olympics.
Sarah Cookler: Oh, how like quota spots? Well, that’s, that’s a whole nother story. Yeah.
So, not many, um, as I had mentioned, there’s only 18 men and 18 women spots total for the Olympics and maximum quota spots per country are two men and two women. so as far as the qualifications and the quota spots go, uh, in the eyes of the U S. We are looking to secure at least one spot, and we will do that through, the continental America’s quota spot.
And that means that the U. S. needs to be the fastest team, in the mixed relay standings throughout the World Cup season, compared to any other team in North or South America. They’ve combined the Americas. so that means Canada’s got a strong team. Chile’s got a strong team. I don’t know if there’s other South American teams there that I’m missing.
But there’s definitely some work to be done. But I think we’ve got a good chance of securing that spot. And then the second spot would potentially come through the sprint standings.
Alison: So there’s kind of a country spot and then a person spot, it sounds like.
Sarah Cookler: Yes. No, but they’re still, they’re still based off of the country.
So it doesn’t have to be a specific athlete who makes it. It’s the world ranking for that country’s top athlete. So you can have like different athletes kind of score points throughout the year. however, the top U. S. race ranker is.
Jill: How about on the women’s side, when we’re talking relay, especially?
Sarah Cookler: So, we’ve got some strong women there as well. Grace Staberg is a name that’s been around for a little bit as a, skimo racer. She started as a youth racer and she, I believe is 23. She’s kind of come up through the junior rankings, um, and is still having some strong results. So she’s one to watch. we’ve got some kind of newer to the sport, but very strong athletes.
As I had mentioned at the very beginning, crossover athletes. So Maria Lamb is a three time Olympic speed skater. She’s retired from speed skating, lives here in Park City, Utah, loves skiing, and obviously still has a competitive edge to her, and has got into skimo racing, and is doing quite well. And then along those same lines is, Emily Savon Avis, who I believe lives in Bozeman, Montana, and is a very strong trail runner.
strong results at UTMB and at big trail events. We’ll see how she can kind of Change her workouts and her training for these shorter events. and then similar to like the John Gaston long time in the sport is Jesse Young. who is also out of Aspen, Colorado, has been top of Schemo racing for the past decade, but hasn’t been racing as much for the past few years.
She had a few young kids, but with the prospect of the Olympics, she is back out and training hard and I think is going to be a top competitor.
Alison: Can people watch the world cup? Is it easy to find it?
Sarah Cookler: Yeah. So all of the world cups are on YouTube. And you can just Google, , so I S M F international ski mountaineering federation is the international federation, um, that puts on the world cups. So if you just Google I S M F world cup skimo, you’ll be sure to get all the races there.
Alison: Cause now I want to see people crash. No, I don’t want to see people crash, but I kind of do.
Jill: You talked about equipment breaking frequently, what happens if something breaks during your race? Are you done or is there a replacement? Equipment
Sarah Cookler: in the short races that that would take too much time. Um, yeah, in the short races, if your ski breaks, you’re, you’re done. I mean, if you can somehow limp yourself to the finish line, with all your pieces, you can do that.
but yeah, unfortunately, yeah, sometimes that’s the end of it. think short track speed skating, right? Like if somebody clips you on the turn and you crash out, and yeah, that’s super unfortunate. Like you don’t have enough time to get up and, and restart.
Alison: Are there any rules or technicalities that if I’m just watching for the first time that I really need to know?
To understand what’s going on.
Sarah Cookler: you know, it’s always hard to look in, on something when you’re so familiar with it, but I’d say for the most part, it’s spectator friendly in the sense that they start in a heat. They’re all going up the same path and doing the same things and it’s going to be the first person that crosses the finish line wins that heat.
you know, sometimes the technicalities and similar to Nordic racing, you know, it’s the first two that cross and then a lucky loser that gets a little bit confusing with timing. But for the most part, if you’re watching it, it’s the first person that crosses the finish line.
Alison: I’m so
Jill: excited for this now. I know.
Sarah Cookler: Sarah,
Alison: you have done your job because you’ve gotten us very excited for ski mountaineering.
Sarah Cookler: Excellent. I hope you go watch some, some YouTube videos.
Alison: I really, what I really want to do is get my hands on some of those skins.
Sarah Cookler: I’m very curious as to what
Alison: it, You know, the feel of those.
Sarah Cookler: I mean, I can go show you one. You want me to grab, I’ll go grab one. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Sure.
Alison: Cause I would stroke it like a cat
Jill: and then the other way, like, and then the other way,
Alison: right?
Sarah Cookler: Okay. Different brands come in different colors, but the pink Pomoca skins are very popular. So this is the tip attachment I was talking about, and this notches into the ski tip, and then they’re stuck together at the moment. So that’s the length of the skin, and on the back side is adhesive, and then this is what’s smooth on one side, or if you go in one direction, and then they’re very, very fine.
You can see, like, it doesn’t stick up that much. And this, you then. The bottom doesn’t have any sort of attachment. It just sticks to your ski. But then it rips off very easily. So, How long? Oh, go ahead. Yeah. It’s about three quarters of the length of the ski. But another kind of technical thing that can go wrong is if snow gets underneath this or another skier steps on your tip and pulls this off.
And your skin falls off during the uphill, uh, you have to stop and try to get it to stick back on. And that takes a while.
Jill: How long does a pair typically last? Like what’s the longevity of a pair?
Sarah Cookler: Well, so during a race, you would only use one pair per lap, and then it kind of needs to warm back up and get the adhesive.
But the actual skin itself, I mean, it depends on how much you use it, but, you know, Uh, a season or two.
Jill: Okay, because I didn’t, I was curious, I’m curious as how long that adhesive lasts. You can,
Sarah Cookler: the adhesive, yeah, I mean, I guess it depends on how many times you put them on and take them off in a season.
Um, but you can also kind of reglue them. You can put new adhesive on it’s more of how quickly the plush wears out and some people, you kind of want the plush to wear out from, it’s like a good pair of jeans, right? Like, you don’t want them like super starchy and new you want them worn out, but you don’t want them like, well, at least I don’t know.
I don’t want all my jeans with holes in them. Um, but, So you want them somewhere in between. Right? If they’re worn in, they’re going to slide really well, but if you go a little too far, then they don’t have enough.
Alison: It’s a whole other rabbit hole. Yeah. Of
Jill: equipment.
What does a pair of one of those cost? Typically
Sarah Cookler: a pair of skins. I think retail costs about 120 dollars and not bad, but I’d say most racers will show up to a race with about 8 to 10 pairs of them. And those will be different brands that have. They glide a little bit different, different lengths. You wax them differently.
Um, just so you have all the different variations.
Alison: So just for the different conditions, even a particular course will change on a particular day and then throughout the day.
Sarah Cookler: Exactly. And your
Alison: whole variety
Sarah Cookler: and similar to, um, cross country skiing. Right. I come from a cross country race background. If you know about that, like if you’re in the tracks of a classic ski, right, those can get, even the friction of skis going on, the snow can heat it up and glaze it over and ice it.
Right. So if you’re on a set track. And there’s many racers in front of you that can even change the formation of the snow and, make it either icier or more abrasive.
Alison: So you need a skin tech.
Sarah Cookler: You really do. And most of, so on the world cup teams have a pretty big support team. You’ve got a coach, a physio, um, you know, which is like your massage therapist, and you’ve got a tech. Um, who’s waxing and prepping skis.
Sometimes there’s multiple coaches out there, but yeah, like anything, you know, there’s always a big staff that, entourage that goes with them.
Alison: Takes a village. It does. Takes a village to go up that hill and down that hill.
Jill: Yeah. Or you call them a patrol. Really? Exactly.
Alison: This was great, Sarah. Thank you so much. This is a perfect introduction. gives us a way to get going so that when Milan comes around, we can watch this and really understand what’s going on.
So thank you so much.
Sarah Cookler: Absolutely. Thanks for taking the time.
Jill Jaracz: Thank you so much, Sarah. You can find out more at usaskimo. org and they are at usaskimo on Insta and X. I’m kind of excited about this.
Alison Brown: You know, I had, I haven’t, I hadn’t watched it until we were getting ready for this interview and it is cool. It’s fast.
Jill Jaracz: It is fast. So I, I already anticipate that I will be like, this was too fast.
I want a longer event.
Alison Brown: Just watch all the test events, get yourself ready.
Jill Jaracz: So it’ll be exciting to check it out. Let us know what you think of USA Schema. You can chat with it, chat with other listeners in our Facebook group.
That’s keep the flame alive podcast group on Facebook.
Paris 2024 News
Alison Brown: Oh, my dude.
Jill Jaracz: Oh boy, this medal situation is getting really bad.
Alison Brown: So people posted photos almost immediately after the Olympics were over of the bronze medals being a little worse for wear.
Jill Jaracz: Right.
Alison Brown: It’s not getting
Jill Jaracz: better. No, over 100 athletes have already asked for replacement medals because the bronze tarnish is wearing off.
And I know one French athlete likened it to crocodile skin. Cause it’s just, it’s so patchy and just looks really, really bad. Uh, one of the athletes who needs a replacement medal, Arsha Klastani Nikitkin. The problem seems to be mostly with the bronze medals, the Monet de Paris, which is the French Mint, said that the issue is a technical problem related to the varnish. According to a recent New York Times article by Tariq Panja and Liz Alderman, the article is really good. We’ll have a link to that in the show notes. so check that out. The varnish that they’re using was supposed to prevent oxidation, which seems to be the big problem that’s happening.
But, The Mint had to change its varnish recipe to conform to recent EU regulations banning the use of the toxic chemical chromium trioxide, which prevents metal from rusting. This is according to the French newspaper La Lettre. LVMH designed the metals, but they have been mum about the whole situation because they’re not involved with the manufacturing process.
So it’s fascinating again,
Alison Brown: they found a good
Jill Jaracz: partner.
Alison Brown: You know, but that’s, I mean, to be fair, even clothing designers, you design the clothing and then it’s manufactured someplace else. I mean, I don’t expect an LVMH designer to be able to come up with the. chemical varnish formula.
Jill Jaracz: Right, right, right, right. However,
Alison Brown: it’s a little passing the buck there.
Jill Jaracz: Right. but yeah, we’ll have the, this article in the show notes because, you know, as Shukla Stani, Michael Payne pointed out to the New York Times, the situation’s not a good look for LVMH at all.
Alison Brown: I’m glad to see that nobody is pretending that it’s not happening.
Right. You know, because a lot of times, Oh, you did something you as the athlete didn’t store it correctly. Nobody is saying that. So I do give the mint a lot of credit for saying, yeah, we see a problem. We will replace it and we’re going to figure out why this happened. So mistakes happen. It’s always how you handle the mistake that’s real.
And that LVMH is not just raising its hand and saying. It was our, it, the buck stops here. So good on The Mint for at least saying, yeah, we see the problem and we’re fixing it as best we can.
Jill Jaracz: I wonder if they can take the original metal and re dip it at all or if they have to start fresh and do all new metal.
I think they have to
Alison Brown: start fresh because it’s, I bet it clings to the metal in such a way that you’d have to like probably melt it down to get all the varnish off. I mean, not that I’m a chemist, but just, you know, I’ve stripped paint and I know that ain’t fun.
Jill Jaracz: Well, we will see what, comes of this and how round two works.
Hopefully they will find something. putting, Metals on the list. Got to talk to a metal manufacturer.
Milan-Cortina 2026 News
Alison Brown: Oh, we have so many updates from Milan
Jill Jaracz: Cortina. This is nice things are cruising along in a way. Venue updates, the aerials and moguls facility in Livigno is complete and ready to go. Hooray. The Olimpia Tele Defani Alpine skiing track, Also completed the test event and, it is good to go. The world cup tour does stop there frequently.
So they know what they’re doing over in Cortina. And I know the skiers really love going there.
Alison Brown: It’s a great, course.
Jill Jaracz: So, that is all good to go. But, the sliding track. Let’s have a chat.
Alison Brown: This is our, our bobsled novella. I mean, we got a name. I mean,
Jill Jaracz: every time. Sliding novella? We should call it the sliding novella.
Alison Brown: The sliding novella. I mean, in every single game, one of these stories comes up that captures our imagination and just keeps going. And we keep thinking it’s not going to happen. And it just falls in our laps. Every time. So here’s the latest episode of the sliding novella.
Jill Jaracz: Right. There, there was a two day, two day technical meeting and inspection on January 16th with Simico, the construction company, the Milan Cortina organizing committee, the IOC, and all of the sliding sport international federations.
They acknowledged the progress that the construction company has made, but they have also said that the schedule quote remain. tight and challenging end quote to meet deadlines. They have to start making ice at the beginning of March and be ready for pre homogilation of the track at the end of March.
So we don’t have a ton of time. We’ve seen pictures of, track like the outline in place, but I don’t know if that just means like, it looks like they need to pour concrete, but how, much concrete and do they have all of the, the refrigeration stuff laid in there? I don’t know.
Alison Brown: Right? We’re not, we’re not construction workers as long as not being chemists and Do they pre make those pieces and put them in?
Who knows? If there’s any bobsled construction experts who can look at these pictures and let us know.
Jill Jaracz: So, yeah, we will see what happens. The group is meeting again in mid February. I’m sure to get another update. As a reminder, Plan B. Lake Placid.
Alison Brown: I kind of want to make a reservation at that hotel we stayed at when we were in Lake Placid because that was a lovely spot.
Jill Jaracz: It was.
Alison Brown: Let me see what their cancellation policy is.
Jill Jaracz: Just in case.
Alison Brown: Just have the room reservation sitting there for no reason. No reason at all.
Jill Jaracz: We have some neutral athlete news. So the International Skating Union has announced a pathway for a limited number of neutral athletes from Russia and Belarus to compete in figure skating, long track and short track.
So one male and one female can qualify in each discipline. And for skating that is figure skating, that’s one pair and one ice dancing couple. Yes. No relays, no teams, but there is a pathway for Um, individuals to be eligible to compete. And that comes to us from the Washington Post.
Alison Brown: And that’ll be really interesting, especially in figure skating, just because obviously Russia over the past several years has been so dominant.
And then these past three years, they’re not there. So we don’t even know what’s been happening in the figures. It’s been a very closed world and how the judges would, would view these skaters.
Jill Jaracz: That’s a very good question because how much Do judges like seeing the routine over a whole season?
Alison Brown: A lot. A lot.
And will non Russian judges welcome back the Russian skaters?
Jill Jaracz: I don’t know. It’ll be an interesting situation all around with so many facets of what is going on, especially with, I mean, this is all based on the war in Ukraine and the violation of the Olympic truce. Well, we haven’t even like touched on the, the iceberg that is the Scandal around the Camilla Valleeva doping situation and how that has affected the women’s.
Alison Brown: Jacky Wong. I’ll talk to you soon.
Jill Jaracz: Tickets, tickets are coming up. I know they had the, the, not the raffle. What’s the word I’m looking for? The lottery. You had to sign up for the lottery. Yes. So the, the lottery registration has closed. 347, 000 people have registered. 30 percent are from Italy and 70, 70 percent are from other countries.
All who registered are guaranteed. Entry in the priority draw. So if you’ve registered for the ticket lottery, you will get a 48 hour window of time to buy tickets. You just don’t know when that is. So if you get it early, you get more choice. If you get later in the draw, you might find stuff has been sold out.
Uh, sales are going to start on February 6th. Each person can buy up to a maximum of 25 tickets. That’s a lot of tickets. That is a lot of tickets. But if you’re going to be the one person to buy them for like four people, you know, you’re that goes pretty quickly.
There’s all the also the possibility for early bird pricing for people who purchase tickets by May 25th. So what is early bird pricing? Cross country curling qualification matches, women’s hockey for the prelims and the playoffs, luge, nordic combined, Skeleton and Skimo all have discounts for buying tickets early.
So if you get them by May 2025, so for example, in cross country skiing, category. A is going to cost 120 euros per ticket, but if you get early bird pricing, it’s going to be a hundred euros per ticket. and then category B would be. 80 euros versus 65 early bird pricing category C is 50 versus 40 or your early bird pricing.
So there’s discounted tickets just for those sports and sessions. You have to look at it on the ticket price chart, which we will have a link to that in the show notes, just for those sports, just for certain sessions. So if you’re talking like, I want to see biathlon or Alpine skiing or figure skating or the ceremonies, forget thinking, forget.
Early bird pricing is not going to exist.
Alison Brown: But still, that’s, that’s not a joke. I mean, 20 euros off of a ticket, if you’re buying for four people, all of a sudden you can buy a whole other ticket.
Jill Jaracz: Yeah, exactly. So that’s going to be a cool little feature that seems to be a brand new implementation for
Alison Brown: I think this is, I’m sorry, I think this is about, they’re concerned about selling tickets.
Oh, I do too. Yeah, they want the early they want people committed to this.
Jill Jaracz: If you did not register for this round of tickets, you will have to wait till April 2025 for phase two. Thank you. of ticket sales, but that still the early bird pricing is going to happen too. Paralympic tickets go on sale March 2025.
Open sale, no registration necessary. Almost everything’s got early bird pricing. The only exceptions are ceremonies and late rounds of sled hockey. Sled hockey.
Alison Brown: Oh, sled hockey.
Jill Jaracz: You excited? Oh, oh, so If you’re planning on going to Milano Cortina, let us know, either drop us a line or post it up in the Facebook group, because I’m curious who is going to go.
And when we talk about like 30 percent of people from Italy have signed up for the ticket lottery, are people in Italy not interested? I mean,
Alison Brown: It’s not a lot of people that have signed up for this.
Jill Jaracz: No.
104, 000? That’s not much. No. I’m not sure how many tickets. That’s something else to look up. How many tickets are available total? So we’ll see. and then if you sign up for the lottery, does that, are you going to go?
Alison Brown: Right.
Jill Jaracz: Cause there’s always going to be people whose plans change or they can’t make it or they, you know, life happens and they can’t go anymore.
Or they just decide that they don’t want the tickets.
Alison Brown: Yeah, I think people are much less worried. for Milan than they were for Paris. And I think people learned a lot from Paris in that they planned and planned and planned, and then the prices went down and then tickets were available. So they didn’t need to have, they didn’t need to make those reservations so far in advance.
And winter’s always smaller and less demand. So are people going to do all that last minute stuff?
Jill Jaracz: Yeah. And if you’re going to the Olympics, Are you going to do what that one organizing person said and, that, remember that one person from the Milan Cortina committee who went, Oh, you’re just going for one sport.
Right. Is that what they’re hoping or are they hoping that the Olympics fan is going to come out and want to see multiple sports? And if you do that, what are your options really? Because everything is so spread out.
Alison Brown: Thankfully, we’re talking to Ken Hanscom soon. You will help us all.
Doping News
Alison Brown: Did you just yuck my yum with that sound?
Jill Jaracz: I did yuck your yum. Yes. So, uh, doping news. The International Paralympic Committee has banned Paris swimming athlete Roman Budnarenko of Ukraine for a period of three years until September 5th, 2027 for committing an anti doping rule violation. They had an adverse analytical finding during the Paris 2024 Paralympics, when a urine sample found methamphetamine and amphetamine in his sample. the results have been disqualified and he must forfeit anything gained from those results. This disqualification didn’t affect the podium at all.
TKFLASTAN News
Alison Brown: Welcome to Shook Flust On.
Jill Jaracz: It is the time of the show where we check in with our team, Keep the Flame Alive. These are past guests and listeners of the show who make up our citizenship of our very own country, Shook Flust On. Bob’s Lead News.
Alison Brown: Josh Williamson and Adam Edelman are racing on the North American Cup circuit at the race in Park City.
Earlier last week, Josh placed first in four man and Adam placed fourth in two man and eleventh in four man. The Cup Tour races in Lake Placid.
Jill Jaracz: snowboarder Chloe Kim is back winning her fifth LAAX Open.
Alison Brown: And speaking of doping use, but thankfully not as bad as it could be, uh, Yul Moldauer has been suspended by USADA for 16 months due to whereabouts violations, meaning he missed three drug tests within a 12 month period.
He did not have a positive test. It’s only a whereabouts violation. Thank you, Jen.
Jill Jaracz: Which is a bummer. And he said that a couple of the tests, the whereabouts violations, he was competing and he was getting tested. Then the last one that that triggered the suspension was. After the U. S. trials, the Olympics trials.
Alison Brown: Where he kind of went into hiding.
Jill Jaracz: Yeah, and he was, that just was not a good situation. So, that’s, we’re sorry, you’re all, you all. It’s just tough, it’s tough. The whole whereabouts violation stuff, the whereabouts and tracking everything has to be tough. Sprinter Kenny Bednarek was inducted into the Indian Hills Community College Hall of Fame.
Alison Brown: USA Track and Field names 62 athletes and two guides to its 2025 tier athlete program. Shook Fastanis on the list include Jaydin Blackwell, Noelle Malkamaki, Daniel Romanchuk, and Justin Phongsavanh. Congratulations. I hope that means support. I couldn’t quite figure that out. I would expect that. A tier athlete program’s gonna have some cash involved.
Hope so. And I hope for, and I hope for Justin’s sake, it’s a snowblower. ’cause the poor kid’s in Georgia and he was posting today about, he’s like, I didn’t move to Georgia to get snow .
Jill Jaracz: And he knows snow’s
Alison Brown: I’m, suck it up. I know. I’m like, suck it up buttercup. You’re one snowstorm. This decade will be okay.
Jill Jaracz: We have a couple of really fun listener messages. First we heard from listener Hilary, who said, he was listening to our first Sydney 2000 story. And he was reminded that if Manchester UK had won the bid, he could have climbed to the highest point on his farm and watched the sailing events that were due to be held in North Wales with binoculars.
Alison Brown: That gives me such a beautiful image,
Jill Jaracz: right?
Alison Brown: These rolling hills and whales, and he’s just sitting there watching, that would have been, I’m sorry, Hilary, that breaks my heart a little bit.
Jill Jaracz: And then we also heard from listener Bryan who saw The Fire Inside and thought the movie was good, did not know Claressa Shields story as well as others, which that is the running theme.
And, and I keep seeing stuff about Claressa Shields lately and how much she has accomplished, which is kind of maddening how her story has fallen through the cracks in a way. Brian did say he knew that Katie Taylor, who won a gold for Ireland in boxing in those same Olympics, had a very different reception in terms of popularity, money, et cetera, after the games, which made him consider that part of the issue is in the USA, you have to compete against a lot more gold medalists for money and support afterwards.
Plus, some people just draw the public in. There’s a whole generation of people. people who see Shaq on TV once a day who are not even alive when he was in the Olympics or the NBA. Shields is now a very accomplished pro boxer, but she’s not really a celebrity or famous in the greater culture. He will give S. H. I. E. L. D. ‘s Olympic ring tattoo, he saw, that you saw near the end of the movie, a six out of ten. I want to know what those four points are lost in.
Alison Brown: Well. Brian, let me know what lost the four points.
Jill Jaracz: So yeah, if you’ve seen The Byron Side, let us know what you think or check out that episode where we talk about it.
Get in Touch
Jill Jaracz: And that’s going to do it for this episode. Let us also know what you think of ski mountaineering and if you’re looking forward to watching it during Milan Cortina.
Alison Brown: We love hearing from you.
You can chat with us and other listeners on our Facebook group, Keep the Flame Alive Podcast. Email us at flamealivepod at gmail. com and the voicemail and text line are always open at 208 208 4222. 3 5 2 6 3 4 8. That’s 2 0 8. Flame it. If you need more Olympics and Paralympics in your life, and who doesn’t, sign up for our newsletter at flamealivepod.
com. We’ll have a link to that in the show notes.
Coming Soon
Jill Jaracz: Next week. Oh, next week you have to tune in for this story. We will speak with Bruno Mauro, who is a cross country skier from Brazil. We should be able to call her an Olympian, but something tragic happened before she could get to Beijing. And her story is next.
incredible. and it’s not just being a skier from a country that doesn’t have a ton of winter and a ton of resources. There is a whole, there are many, many layers to this story and you will not want to miss it. Thank you so much for listening. And until next time, keep the flame alive.