This is our last Paralympics-focused episode before the Paris 2024 Summer Games start! We’re excited to bring you our remaining interviews from athletes we met at the Team USA Media Summit:
- Para triathlete Grace Norman
- Para shooter Marco DeLa Rosa
- Para cyclist Dennis Connors
- Goalball player Calahan Young
- Para powerlifter Bobby Body
- Runner Jaydin Blackwell
- Sitting volleyball player Kaleho Kanhelo Maclay
In Paris 2024 news, we talk about the swimmability of the Seine–someone’s one-upped Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo by hopping in the water first! Check out her swim, plus how fast the river flows!
We also have some hospitality house news–keep up to date with House Party!
If you’re in Canada, the Canadian Olympic Committee is hosting three Team Canada FanFests across the country. Learn more about them here, and if you go to one, let us know what it was like!
In news from TKFLASTAN, we have a bunch of event results and Paris 2024 team announcements. Plus, some TKFLASTANIs were at the nation’s 4th of July party:
We’ll be heading to Paris later this week and look forward to sharing the Games experience with you! Thanks so much for listening, and until next time, keep the flame alive!
Photos: Alison Brown and Jill Jaracz
TRANSCRIPT
Note: This is an uncorrected machine-generated transcript and may contain errors. Please check its accuracy against the audio. Do not quote from the transcript; use the audio as the record of note.
355-Team USA Paralympians
Theme Music
Jill: 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?
Alison: I’m okay, but I am slightly troubled today. Oh. So, listener David was kind enough to do a really fun interview with us over the weekend and he asked us a question about who we thought was gonna be the final torchbearer for Paris. I didn’t have an answer at the time and that has been bothering me ever since.
I have not stopped thinking about it. So thank you, David, for haunting me. And I came up though with a really good answer that I’m very proud of. So I want to share it. Okay. And put it on record. Okay. I think I’m wrong, but I still think it would be a cool idea if they had the either grandchildren of the four musketeers.
Oh, the heyday of French tennis back when they were, when Roland Garros first opened involved because then you tie in the 1924 era and modern times. I like it. I think that is a good, I don’t even know if they have descendants. I don’t know if they have children, grandchildren, I don’t even care, but I just got this idea in my head.
Like, wouldn’t it be cool if. That would be Renee Lacoste’s granddaughter was involved, right?
Jill: That would be really cool to tie it back because they’ve done such a good job at tying it back to the last Olympics in so many ways. It’ll be exciting. I’m ready. Are you? This is our last week of regular episodes.
Really? We have one on Paralympics today, then we have an Olympics episode this week, and we’ll be on a plane. Yeah.
Alison: Bonjour! I hope, I hope Paris is ready for me, because I’m going to try so, Paris people, I am going to try so hard. I’ve been trying so hard with the French. I am so bad, and I know, and I’m sorry. Je suis désolée. Je suis désolée.
Jill: We’ll get there. We’ll get there. All right. We’ve got a whole batch of Paralympic interviews from, , one that we just conducted a couple hours before we got on the line here to do the show.
And then, uh, the rest are from the Team USA Media Summit. This kind of wraps up our Paralympic day. coverage from Team USA. first off, we’re going to have a longer interview with Grace Norman. We first met Grace at the Team USA Media Summit, but then she had some time later to, uh, add on a longer interview.
She is a paratriot. Triathlete has a full set of Paralympic medals winning silver in Tokyo and gold in Rio in paratriathlon and also a bronze in Rio in the T44 women’s 400. She is the reigning world champion in the PTS5 class, which is, includes athletes with a low degree of disability in one leg or both forearms, a high degree in one foot or ankle, or the absence of limbs.
Okay. Following her, we will be talking with Marco de la Rosa, who is a parachuter. He does pistol. Marco competes in the SH 1 class of 10 meter air pistol. These athletes have disabilities in their legs or lower trunk and compete either standing or sitting. Marco competed in Rio and is a more senior member.
So we say I prime member, I would say, yeah, right. Contemporary of ours, we’ll put it. Of Team USA. Marco is also from Chicago, so we had to talk a little Chicago geography. Uh, I think that gets. Saved in the conversation for your enjoyment. Then we have a cyclist, Dennis Connors. Dennis is the reigning world champion in the T2 class of road cycling.
This is a tricycle class for athletes with disabilities that affect coordination throughout the body or down one side. Then we got to play with a goal ball.
Alison: Somebody made the mistake of putting a goalball in Jill’s hands.
Jill: That was awesome. Uh, we are talking with Calahan Young. Calahan is headed to his second Paralympics as a member of the USA gold ball team. He has been a member of the national team since 2018. Then we have another. Um, uh, what do you, a senior member, member in their prime?
Yes. Okay. Bobby Boddy, who is a para power lifter at age 50, Bobby won the Parapan American title in the 107 kilogram class of para power lifting last November. Paris will be Bobby’s, you want, you always want to say Bobby Boddy, right? It’s such a fantastic name, especially
Alison: for a para power lifter.
Jill: Right.
Paris will be his first Paralympics. Yes. Yes. Then we’re heading to the track to talk with Jaden Blackwell, who runs the 100 meter and 400 meter, which blew our minds at how you could run both of those distances and do them very well. Jaden holds the world record in the T38 400 meters, that class. In athletics includes athletes with a low degree of disability in the lower trunk or legs down one side or across the whole body.
He is the U S and world champion in both the 100 meter and 400 meter. And finally, we are talking with Kaleo Kanahalo McClay. She is headed to her fourth Paralympics as a member of the U. S. women’s sitting volleyball team. The U. S. team is two time defending gold medalists. It was so exciting to talk. With all of these athletes.
I mean, uh, this was so much fun. Take a listen.
Grace Norman Interview
Alison: So what have you been told about the plan B for swimming in the sun or have you been told anything?
Grace Norman: I have not been told anything. Um, we are planning as if it’s going to be triathlon, um, but I’ve not heard of a plan B as of yet.
Jill: Speaking of the Seine, how do you train for swimming in a river and dealing with river currents? Because you did not get to do a test event, right? The, the Para test event, the Seine was not high quality that day.
Grace Norman: Yeah, so the day before our race, we were allowed to swim in it. So I could, I swam in it 1 time. It was like, the course familiarization. and I have never swam in a river with that strong of a current, especially for a race. Like, we’ve been in, I guess, rivers, but they are, you know, They haven’t had that strong of a current, so, it has made me rethink how I’m going to train differently, and one of the big ways we’ve tried to change training is just learn how to swim in currents because that’s not really been part of my training.
Swimming. I swim in a pool or in lakes or oceans where you kind of have some waves. But mainly it’s just working on the turnover and how it’s going to change based on if you’re going with the current or against the current, and it’s going to be a lot harder to going with or against the current. So yeah, it’s been a fun challenge and something unique to this games.
Alison: What does training look like in these last few weeks in terms of versus what it looked like three months ago?
Grace Norman: Yeah, definitely. It’s a lot more specific going into the last few weeks before I leave for Paris. I am really dialing in the each sports, the swim, bike, run more of like course specific more triathlon race specific, where we’re just getting very detail oriented and then, finding things that will kind of simulate the course in Paris.
So like different currents, like swimming more open water looking for a little bit more bumpy road conditions to kind of mimic the cobblestones and then just hitting those paces and those numbers. So it’s definitely a lot more detailed oriented and specific, whereas three months ago was a lot more base training, um, just getting the miles in, putting the time in.
So it’s getting exciting.
Jill: How many legs do you travel with for competition?
Grace Norman: For competition, I have two different legs with me, but for Like, all of my legs will be traveling with me to Paris, so there’ll be four different legs traveling with me. Potentially a fifth for an extra running leg just in case if something goes wrong or I need it for warm up.
Um, cause a lot of times they close transition, and that means that my run shoes and run prosthetic are stuck in there, and I don’t have the ability to run warm up. After transition closes and a lot of time there’s like a good hour and a half where I wouldn’t be able to do anything. So I do have a second run prosthetic that will probably make the journey with me.
So in total, probably five prosthetics with one that I’ll be wearing. So four extra.
Alison: When you fly, do you leave your prosthetic on or you take it off?
Grace Norman: Most of the time I leave it on. Um, I’ve not been one to really take my leg off that much because one of the problems I’ve found is that the prosthetic kind of helps keep everything from swelling.
And so when I take it off, it’ll swell. And then I can’t get the leg back on. So that is not good, especially if I’m traveling alone. Cause I can’t have someone carry me off the plane. I guess I could request, you know, assistance, but I just leave it on most of the time.
Alison: Are you bringing your high heel leg for Paris?
Grace Norman: Yes, I think so. I will be gone long enough that it’s my most comfortable leg that just like hanging around the village, the house. But anytime I do like long walks, which there’s a lot of walking in the village, I’ll put on my more active leg. But my husband will be in Paris with me. We’re going to do an extended few days there.
So I’m going to have that for options for date nights and look, you know, wearing cute shoes and everything. So it will be with me as well.
Jill: The course has cobblestones. Does the run portion have any cobblestones?
Grace Norman: It has a few, but I think there’s only about, I would say less than 800 meters. It’s the first part of it before you cross the bridge and then you’re on the other side for the rest of the course.
So a little bit, but not as much as the bike.
Jill: How does that work with the running prosthetic then?
Grace Norman: Yeah. So for me, I am a little bit more I guess unique in how I use my running prosthetic. I put a shoe on the bottom of the blade instead of where most people just put a tread on the bottom. So cobblestones can present to be a very big challenge for most amputees because they can be slippery.
They can be uneven. You can catch the tip of the blade on a cobblestone or you can slip on it, especially if it’s wet and rainy. But I’ve had pretty good success with having a shoe on the bottom just to help. Stabilize the blade. And so I’ve not really had a ton of issues running on. It’s not my favorite, but it hasn’t presented a lot of issues for me, which is good.
Jill: Yeah. Cause just to see athletes falling all over the place, that would not be fun. Yeah,
Grace Norman: it’s definitely not a. Fun thing to watch. Yeah, so I, I do know that most of my teammates have practiced it. They have thought about it. It becomes, uh, you know, a fourth part of triathlon is working with your prosthetics and how to go over all the different surfaces.
So yeah, Paris course definitely presents a lot of different challenging surfaces.
Jill: So you are part of team Xfinity. Along with our Chuck Flastani’s Chuck Aoki and Dennis Connors. How did that come about?
Grace Norman: Well Xfinity has been a partner with Team USA and I’m really honored to be one of the 16 that they’ve chosen to represent and be on their team.
And it’s, I, I’m just really honored. They’re going to have the fastest connection to Paris with All live streaming of both Olympics and Paralympics on Xfinity, which is really incredible because most of the time you get to see some NBC coverage of, what they choose to show you know, for me in Rio, I only had three minutes coverage at like, Midnight in, in Tokyo, I think it was a little bit better, but now with full live streaming on Xfinity, you can see everything.
And it’s really amazing for both Olympics and Paralympics, just having all that exposure. But I do feel really honored to be be able to represent them, be on their team, and with all the other Olympians and Paralympians.
Jill: We know famously that American athletes don’t get funding from the government.
So what does this kind of sponsorship mean to you and what does it help you, how does it help you as an athlete besides financially?
Grace Norman: Yeah, it’s a huge honor. I was super blessed. Um, and just very excited to be part of the team. For me, like, obviously, financially, it’s a, it’s a big help. As a, you know, Paralympian, there’s not a ton of funding in general.
So, to be chosen and invested in was just really special to me, but beyond the financial part having that, the, just the stability that, you know, that you’ll be able to connect to your family wherever with Xfinity Especially in Paris, I’m going to be, not, my entire family isn’t going to be there, most are, but I’ll be able to, you know, FaceTime, call, and not have the, you know, no internet, or worried about the crazy charges from international coverage, so having that International coverage is huge for me and a lot of athletes.
What’s really cool is that not just the Paralympians that were chosen to be part of team Xfinity, but Xfinity has come along every single Olympian and Paralympian and given them I think it’s 2, 024 in credit for their for staying connected with their family friends while they’re abroad in Paris.
So that’s a really cool backing and I’m just really excited to see that support for everyone so that everyone can be connected to their family and who means most to them in Paris.
Alison: This is going to be Paralympics number three. What do you see different in both the Paralympics and Paratriathlon specifically over this timeframe?
Grace Norman: Yeah throughout my two third Paralympics each Paralympics has gotten greater coverage and a greater backing, I guess there’s more athletes in, especially in para tri because para triathlon is a newer sport.
It debuted in my first Paralympics in Rio 2016. So this is only its third round. And in Rio, there were only three of five categories included in the Paralympics. And in Tokyo, there was. Four of or three or four of six and now I believe we have almost every category represented in paris as a medal event, which is incredible to see that Amount of growth over the time that i’ve been in it just I guess 10 years And i’m really excited for the future to see it.
Um, but also just the coverage of the paralympics as a whole in rio, I There was barely any coverage on the, on television. You had to, you know, download every single other app, you know, you couldn’t watch it on like the mainstream TVs or definitely, you know, it wasn’t like Xfinity is now where they’re showing everything.
Um, so it was really hard to find, whereas now, um, they’re going to have equal, like, it’s just, crazy to have such good coverage shows, uh, showcase all different sports, all different athletes. And I think that’s going to continue to help grow the Paralympics, uh, paratriathlon, especially in general. Um, and the more it’s shown and more you can see it, the more athletes be like, I can do that.
There’s more people like me. Um, cause I didn’t have that as a kid growing up.
I just am very excited for the future of Paralympics and the sport of Paratriathlon.
Alison: Is that why you’re competing in a different category this time around? Because Rio, they didn’t have PTS5?
Grace Norman: Correct, so they reallocated the categories after Rio, they added a 6th category. So there used to just be 1 through 5 with 2 through 4 being the standing categories.
Now they added another subdivision in the standing category. So you still have the wheelchairs of being ones and the visually impaired as the 6th and now they have 2 through 5 as a standing categories. And so they just added. One more category to kind of further break it down. So it’s a little more equalized with the people you’re racing against.
So I got technically classed as a five, which is similar to a four now. But they just kind of broke the fours and fives.
Jill: How does that help mentally knowing that you’re on a more even playing field?
Grace Norman: It definitely pushes you. It is good for the sport because I think what was happening was a lot, Of the athletes that felt they were competing in a tougher category than what their disability was allowing them to compete definitely discouraged them and it, it dwindled, especially in the women.
We saw a lot of women just not do the sport because they, they couldn’t compete. Well, um, so now adding that. that extra category where you’re more even, you’re able to compete against people with similar disabilities. It really does help mentally because you know, you’re just fighting against how hard you can work instead of you’re fighting as your disability, which is never the point with a Paralympics in general.
You want to be working with your disability and, and competing as others of similar disability.
Alison: What does success in Paris look like to you?
Grace Norman: Success in Paris? obviously everyone says, you know, I want the gold medal which is a big part of my success journey and what I strive to get, but I have worked very hard over the past few years of not to tie my success to a medal because that’s, Truly not what success is to me.
Um, it’s been a really, really tough journey getting to Paris. It’s been a fun journey. But I know that success will be when I give my all because I will and I just will enjoy every single moment. And if I can give my all, Give glory to God and be present in that moment and share with my family, no matter what the outcome that will be success for me.
Jill: Excellent. Well, we are excited for you, Grace. We will be there. We will be there cheering for you. Oh, yay. So look for two crazy old ladies. Excellent. Well, best of luck and safe travels. And yeah, we are really excited and grateful that you. You’ve made some time for us again. Of course. Yeah. Thank you, Jill.
Grace Norman: Thank you, Alison. It was so wonderful to speak with you both again.
Marco De La Rosa Interview
Jill: Okay, for the tape, can you say your name for us, please?
Marco De La Rosa: My name is Marco De La Rosa.
Jill: Okay, where in Chicago are you from?
Marco De La Rosa: Northside.
Jill: Okay, I grew up in Northwest Indiana and then lived in the Northside for about 15 years. Whereabouts? I lived first in Lincoln Park, then Old Irving Park, and then Lakeview.
Marco De La Rosa: Lakeview? Yes. I went to Roosevelt High School.
Jill: Oh, okay! I
Alison: only lived in Chicago for two years.
Marco De La Rosa: Oh, you did?
Jill: Yeah.
Marco De La Rosa: What happened? Bye.
Alison: I was traumatized and I had to come back east.
Jill: Could not deal with Midwest nice. All right, pistol shooting. Let’s talk about the pistol itself. What’s the gauge on that? It’s
Marco De La Rosa: a 177 pellet.
And then we shoot a sport pistol. That’s a 22.
Jill: Okay. Yeah. And how long are they?
Marco De La Rosa: Um, the sport, the Air pistol. It’s about maybe 13 inches long, weighs about two pounds. And, uh, I mean, they, they got a lot of safety and stuff, but if I were to shoot you with it, it would just bruise you. I mean, barely break your skin.
Yeah. But still safety’s important.
Jill: Yeah. two pounds. That’s not bad. The other, the, the 22 gauge, how heavy is that?
Marco De La Rosa: Oh, that one’s, uh, maybe six inches long, six, seven, six, seven inches long. And that weighs a good three, three, four pounds. And, uh, the difference is, uh, air pistol, it’s, uh, we got precision 60, 60 shots.
And in sports, you got 30 30 rapid, where you hold down 45 degree angle and then the green light turns on, you got three seconds to bring it up, squeeze the trigger, bring it back down.
Alison: Okay. So with your disability, how is that motion? Where are the muscles?
Marco De La Rosa: Oh, we’re all in the shoulder, shoulder and the arms and you got to stay steady in the same position.
You hold down, you bring it back up because it has to come up exactly where you saw it last time. If you move any part of your body, you just messed up. And when you go up, you’re not going to be aligned at all.
Jill: So what kind of training do you do to keep that stability in your arm?
Marco De La Rosa: Oh, dry fire. If you talk to any shooter, um, all the shooters hate it.
But you do it, it’s dry fire. Dry fire, dry fire, and it makes you a better shot. Okay, what is, as
Alison: a non shooter, what’s dry fire?
Marco De La Rosa: You point it at the wall, and you focus on your sights. And you make sure that when you squeeze that trigger, your sights don’t move. They stay, and then you follow through. Follow through is you hold it in the same spot.
So then when you actually shoot, and you adapt that to your shooting, boom. I think it goes straight where you aim that and stuff, and no jiggling, no nothing.
Alison: So in terms of your body and training, are you feeling like the slightest difference in your body because you have to be so still?
Marco De La Rosa: While you’re shooting?
Yeah. Oh yeah, definitely when shooting. So your mind’s constantly focused on, like, your process, make sure that everything’s the same. If you move anything at all, it’s like, gotta recover. Yeah, you gotta start all over.
Alison: Can you start over during competition?
Marco De La Rosa: Well after your five shots, yeah. Okay, so once you’ve
Alison: reset.
Marco De La Rosa: Yeah, once you reset. So there’s no balk in shooting. No, no, no, no, no, no. Oh, and it’s worse, cause I was talking to a buddy who’s an archery, and if your bow messes up and stuff like that, they’ll give you a chance to fix it and come back in line. Not in shooting. Your pistol messes up, you’re done. So if you’re itchy, you know.
No, you better, we better hold on. You better think, get that out of your mind. How much time do you have to take the five shots? So it’s three seconds. You’re like, well, precision, they gave you five minutes. So, but you can’t put the gun, the gun down. You always have to hold it. And, uh, in precision, you got those five shots and you can put it down.
Alison: this is not the sport for me.
Jill: No, but, okay. So people would probably go, Oh, 10 meters. No joke. But that’s not a joke.
Marco De La Rosa: 10 meters. It’s
Jill: kind of far. You’re shooting at a teeny tiny pellet.
Marco De La Rosa: A bullseye is a size of a dime. That’s a bullseye. A quarter is a nine. And then it goes on from there. And I remember there was a reporter came to interview us.
Of course, I’ve trained a lot, so I make it look easy. So I seen his little smirk. He’s like, you want to try it? He hit the wall. Yeah, he hit the wall. I would kill somebody. I mean, I know
Alison: you say it’ll just bruise you, but no, because I’d be, I recognize the skill needed. Right.
Jill: And then the 25 meter, what’s the size of that?
Marco De La Rosa: You’re about like a small. Maybe a peach. Okay. Yeah. Okay. That’s bullseye. That’s bullseye. But
Jill: that’s still far away. That’s about the same size really. Yeah. But
Marco De La Rosa: again, it’s far away when you
Jill: get it at the distance.
Marco De La Rosa: Side alignment. Side alignment. Only the same thing in the same spot and all the time squeezing, you’ll hit the, you’ll hit the bullseye.
It’s all training. As you
Alison: get older, Has your vision changed at all?
Marco De La Rosa: Yes it has. And
Alison: how do you adjust for that?
Marco De La Rosa: Uh, I go every year now to get my eyes checked and uh, man, I’m 52 years old now. Yeah, and now I have to, I have to squint to see my iPhone. Like, yeah, it’s like, wow, it’s weird. So now I got a bigger iPhone.
It still don’t work. It still don’t work. I got the Max and it didn’t work.
Jill: even with better vision, it’s still, you can’t really see those things. No. So.
Marco De La Rosa: The target’s always going to be blurry. Okay. The one thing you have to focus on is your front sight. Okay. Make sure your front sight is aligned.
It stays in the center. And just holding it in the same spot and squeezing, you’re going to hit a 10. Yeah. But the thing is, it sounds easy. No it doesn’t. It really doesn’t. It’s the
Jill: holding it steady. That’s the, I mean, it sounds so difficult to maintain that stability and consistency from shot after shot after shot.
That’s the thing.
Alison: Now, able bodied shooters are wearing weighted vests.
Marco De La Rosa: Oh, that’s for um,
Alison: Rifle shooters. Right. Rifle shooters. But are you using any kind of equipment like that? No.
Marco De La Rosa: No. No. No. It’s just one handed and that’s it. You can’t hold on to anything. Your hand has to be visible. So you can’t, this hand can’t be holding on to anything at all.
It’s just your arm.
Alison: Now are you using your regular chair or are you fixed in some fashion?
Marco De La Rosa: I used to have an old wheelchair that it would jiggle a lot. So I went back to the VA and I asked them, I need a real sturdy chair that does not move. And I got this one. So this is my everyday chair, but it’s a sturdy chair that really got to move so it could move.
So, so you’re lucky. So you’re just hanging out in your regular chair. Once I put my brakes on, my chair is not moving whatsoever.
Jill: Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Thank you ladies.
Alison: Yeah. Thanks.
Dennis Connors Interview
Dennis Connors: My name is Dennis Connors.
Jill: Alright, Dennis. I have so many bike questions. So many questions about the bike. First off, bike with a two wheel attachment, so it’s trike.
Dennis Connors: Yep.
Jill: Are there regulations around how it has to be or can you make modifications to
Dennis Connors: it? Is a if it’s a trike where the axle is in the rear Then the bike frame has to be has to fall under all the UCI regulations, so Like on my time trial bike my handlebars have to be the certain distance and all the UCI regulations Apply
Jill: Okay. Do you have a funky helmet for your road cycling?
Dennis Connors: I have like four helmets and it depends on the conditions on which one I’m going to wear. So
Jill: walk us through that.
Dennis Connors: Um, so I have heat regulation problems.
Jill: Okay.
Dennis Connors: , so one of the things that I’ve moved to is no longer wearing a time trial specific helmet.
Like one of those crazy helmets. Yeah. Now, have you seen the new helmets that have come out? Like on the, like the Darth Vader, the shark helmet, baby shark helmet, Ratatouille’s in there controlling everything. yeah, I don’t have anything like that. and because of the heat regulation problems I have, I typically just wear an aero road helmet.
and then for road racing, I just wear like a little bit more vented aerodynamic road helmet. Yeah.
Jill: I feel you with the vents. I get really hot when I ride, so I have to have as many vents as possible. Yeah,
Dennis Connors: I don’t sweat from my brain injuries. Oh, man. I’ve been doing a lot of heat regulation training, to kind of, and heat tolerance training.
And hopefully I can get back into a TT helmet, because it does save a lot of time. Yeah, it makes a huge difference.
Alison: How hard is it to travel with your racing bike? Yeah, the joke
Dennis Connors: is, uh, we’re not the swim team. Yeah. You know, like swim team shows up with a backpack and they’re like, I brought five swimsuits.
I’m like, well, I brought two bikes and it wouldn’t fit on this table, which is humongous. So yeah, it’s like rolling tanks around.
Jill: Yeah. Yeah. So, okay. So does the back come off the front?
Dennis Connors: So yeah, it’s a, it’s a normal bike. Like I’m sponsored by Argon 18. So I raced their bikes. and the axle attaches to where the rear wheel would attach and just sticks behind it a little bit.
And I can, uh, detach it from there.
Jill: what do you travel, how do you pack it? Like, what is it, does it go in a box?
Dennis Connors: Yeah, so I have a hard bike case where I put two bike frames in, kind of facing each other. Okay. And then I can get four wheels in there. And then that’s basically it, for weight limit. Oh, jeez.
And then I have a big, like, expedition duffel bag. That has all of the parts, like chains, and then I have spare parts and derailleurs and everything that goes in a big duffel bag.
Jill: Okay, we’re being monitored. Thank you so much.
Calahan Young Interview
Alison: guys can pass it
Calahan Young: around or whatever. It’s Bill’s, so you can keep it. It’s brand new. That’s a hot commodity. I know, now we gotta keep it out of the sound. I’m just gonna move the mic more in front of you. Oh, perfect. There you go.
Alison: Okay, just say your name for the tape. My name is Callahan Young. Okay. I’ve got to keep this away.
Take this away from Jill. Because
Jill: I will play with it. And we have a million questions about goalball because during Tokyo, a lot of our listeners just fell in love with goalball.
Calahan Young: I, and that’s like, I was just telling someone earlier that like, so many people have loved it during Tokyo, but then we had the problem that like as soon as Tokyo was over, like it just kind of fell off the map. And so it’s just like trying to like recapture that and like, hopefully Paris can bring the same energy.
Jill: So when in your everyday life, how much light do you see
Calahan Young: So I have a good amount of vision. So I have what’s called tunnel vision where I don’t have any perfuels. Okay, I can see straight ahead As you can see You didn’t take it
Alison: out
Calahan Young: you’re fine. Yeah, it was that was a test and I passed But so I can see you straight ahead Okay.
I have like 2200 vision. So you could see it 200 feet. I’d have to be at 20 feet.
Jill: Okay.
Calahan Young: so I have a good amount of light perception. Like I could watch a movie. I probably need an audio description that describes what’s going on a little bit more to understand, but I can see a good deal.
Jill: Okay. So then when you put the mask on,
Calahan Young: yeah.
Jill: How black is it? Or what does it do to your senses? If your senses are already kind of heightened to compensate for lack of vision.
Calahan Young: So it, I mean, it like extremely heightens your sense of hearing. Oh, really? Well, because like you stop trying to like look around and see what’s going on. Like you really have to like hone in and listen on what’s going on.
And I mean, maybe it’s just because that’s. What we do, right? Like we’re always trying to listen to who’s walking where on the other side of the court, who has the ball? Were they talking, um, I’m trying to listen to what the coach is saying. Or every once in a while you catch someone in the crowd talking, talking crap or like, you know, there’s just so much stuff going on that like.
You really do pick up on different stuff. And then once you recognize that, you can kind of hone in on what you want to focus on. And so, like during the game, it’s the ball. Or it’s that, you know, listening to the footsteps of where they’re throwing from or what type of ball they’re throwing. So it’s definitely, It’s definitely like really honing in on all of these little things.
Alison: So how much training slash practicing are you doing with the mask versus without the mask?
Calahan Young: So we practice, we only practice with the mask on. Well, I think there’s different thoughts around it because For me, like I don’t have enough usable vision to get anything out of not wearing, like the eye shades.
And so whereas some people can see better, you know, if they, if there’s cues on the floor, they can see a line on the floor, you know, they could take, they can leave off their eye shades and use that as markers and, you know, get that muscle repetition over and over and over again. And so for me, I have it on all the time just because I want to practice what that, I want to get that muscle memory.
Just based on feel, not based on any visual excuses. I don’t, I don’t get enough in from my vision to, to actually get a benefit out of it.
Jill: so, also along that line, if your sense of hearing is heightened, Does quiet, please, really help? Like, to have it really quiet in the arena, or does some other noise How much does a crowd noise make a difference?
Calahan Young: It’s funny because, like, I don’t hear it. Like, once you get in the moment, you know, like, whenever, like, you’re reading a text, and, like, you’re like, Oh, wait, what did you say? Whenever they’re, like, talking right at you. And it’s kind of like that where I get so into the game that, like, I don’t hear anything besides the game.
And, uh, I have to make an effort to like, when there’s a play stoppage, to listen to my coaches because otherwise I’m like really intently trying to focus on where, where the other team’s trying to set up their shot and that’s the only time the coaches can talk is when there’s a play stoppage. And so, I really have to make that like mental shift to only listening to the other side of the court to now trying to fixate on what my coaches are telling me to do or what their, you know, what advice they’re giving or coaching.
So, a quiet gym is always going to be better. However, You know, I really tend to just lose track of what’s going on around me. Just focused on that ball, trying to stop it from going in my hand.
Jill: With, oh, are we done? Oh, we’re done. Bill said he’s taking us away. Oh, is that
Alison: time? Aww,
Jill: Grant.
Alison: It’s okay.
Jill: Thank you so much. It’s good to meet you, Calvin. Good to meet you. Thank you.
Bobby Body Interview
Bobby Body: Bobby body.
Jill: when I was looking at pictures, I like to measure things by the size of my head, like cake. Your biceps look like they might be the size of my head. How big are they?
Bobby Body: Uh, that’s actually a good question. I’ve never really measured them. Um, because I don’t try to train to make them bigger. Yeah,
Jill: yeah, it
Bobby Body: just happens.
Jill: It just happens. Okay,
Bobby Body: one of the questions
Jill: I know I did have is, How big is your bicep? With your disability, how much does not having feet on the ground help? Does that make sense? Am I making sense? Yes, yeah,
Bobby Body: uh, I’ve had a lot of people ask me that. Um, how do you, because in able bodied powerlifting, it’s called a Larson press.
Where you don’t have your feet on the ground, and you have to build more stability. and work your stabilizers in order to hold a heavy weight up. So para powerlifting is pretty much a Larson press, but with extreme amount of weight. and so you had to, you have to learn how to build your stabilizers in order to hold that weight and be able to control it on the way down as well as on the way up.
Jill: Okay, so then how do you do that?
Bobby Body: What’s that?
Jill: How do you do that?
Bobby Body: So building your stabilizers, um, you have to figure out how to Lifts certain weights, um, that makes the bar feel unbalanced. Uh, for example, putting, bands on the ends of the bars and with weights hanging from them or using chain, heavy chains, um, that hang from the bar.
So because when then you unrack it, it’ll make the bar sway back and forth. And that’s what builds stabilizers.
Alison: Okay. So where are the stabilizers for you in your body?
Bobby Body: The stabilizers is your delts, your front side and rear delts. You have to make sure that your shoulders, which, or your shoulder, your front side and the rear part of your shoulders are strong.
So, because also, if you’re lifting heavy weight and you don’t have strong, uh, delts, then that’s when you risk, tearing a rotator or something like that. So that’s the big injury. That’s the big injury, shoulders. Okay. Most of the, most of the athletes in our sport that have injuries are shoulder injuries.
Jill: We are told to wrap it up.
Alison: Thanks so much for stopping in Bobby.
Jaydin Blackwell Interview
Jaydin Blackwell: my name is Jaydin Blackwell.
Alison: Okay, 400 and 100. How?
Jill: Two very different differences. Like, yeah, how? what do you like about both?
Jaydin Blackwell: the 100, I just like how it’s straight and like it’s short. I mean, you don’t have to do really anything special. And the 400, I really typically do not like it. I, I don’t know.
I really don’t like the 400, but I mean, I’m good at it, so I mean, I have to do it. I kind of like the 400 because it’s kind of a long race, but it’s a short race still in that. um, I kind of like the adrenaline rush and like coming down to home stretch and you got people cheering you on and everything.
Alison: What’s the mindset for each race? Because they’re so different.
Jaydin Blackwell: Um, um, I really don’t have really kind of a mindset. My mind is just blank when I’m out there. The only thing I’m really telling myself that’s on my mind, really, is just, do you get out, run your race, don’t worry about nobody else. It’s just you, yourself.
Jill: Do you have a plan when you go into the 400 because of the distance, or do you just go, I’m getting around this track?
Jaydin Blackwell: Kind of a 400. I’m just trying to just get out for the first 400 just like 100 then on the Back, and I’m just floating but still maintain my speed then when I get to like the top of The 150 then I start trying to push it Cuz if I push it way before I’m gonna burn out before I even get Even down like the home stretch of the 50 meters.
So I’ll just try to like save up but not Completely save up all my energy just for that last push.
Alison: So 100 it’s flat out the whole way but 400 you really have to use that strategy so Going into 100 How do you not hold back?
Jaydin Blackwell: Because I know that everybody else is going to be doing the exact same thing.
And 100 meters, you can’t hold back. You have to go all out. It’s just one straight line for 100 meters. And everybody else is trying to get the same thing that you are trying to get. It’s that medal. It’s that gold medal. So, you have to go all out to get that. You have to try your absolute hardest.
Alison: which start is harder?
Jaydin Blackwell: I’ll have to say the 4 inch because you’re starting on a curve. but I mean, like both are really typically hard.
Alison: So what makes it hard to start on the curve?
Jaydin Blackwell: kind of like the angles. Cause like, I mean, you have to like lean in, like as soon as you like stand up, like got kind of like lean in, like on the a hundred, you could just go straight.
You have to curve as soon as you like, you kind of get out the blocks.
Alison: Do you like the inside or the outside
Jaydin Blackwell: of the curve?
Alison: Well, for, yeah, for the 400 start,
Jaydin Blackwell: I like the middle. I like. My ideal lanes are at least, are at least 4 and 5. 4 and 5. Possibly 3. Possibly 6. If I get either 1, 2 or 8, 7, I’m like, no. I’m good.
Somebody switch out. Tag out. Tag out. Come on.
Jill: Can you find somebody who will take a 1 and 2? No. No. No. No.
Jaydin Blackwell: No.
Alison: Okay, perfect. That’s great.
Thank you so much.
Kaleo Kanahele Maclay Interview
Kaleo Kanahele Maclay: my name is Kaleo Kanahele Maclay, and I play sitting volleyball.
Alison: So sitting volleyball, we know a lot of the ins and outs, but I want to talk, Jill’s favorite topic, which is surfaces, different courts responding differently. Yes. So just talk a little bit about, have you been to the Paris venue? What was Tokyo like on surface wise?
Kaleo Kanahele Maclay: I have not been to Paris. This will be my first time.
but most of the time at world pair volley tournaments, , we use a certain type of court. It’s like, it’s pretty slick. It does good with, Sweat like it’s not too crazy, but sometimes we play on sport court, which is not ideal Especially like the holes in the court since you’re using your hands a lot and moving moving around a lot And then sometimes gym court, which is what we usually train on Just like a basketball court type flooring can get pretty sticky So it gets hard to move, which is honestly good practice for us, because the more traction, like the harder it is for us to move, the more we’re training for an easier court.
so although I don’t love that, especially in the summer in Oklahoma, , it makes for good tournaments, so.
Jill: because one of the things about sitting volleyball is like, you can’t wear padding on your butt. Yeah. So it’s the butt drills and how sore does your butt get.
Kaleo Kanahele Maclay: It gets so sore. I think you usually get used to it. cause it’s like the sides of your butt, um, but you get used to it. And honestly, it’s pretty hard on the hands too, because your hands are really what are like making that contact with the ground. and It’s funny because a lot of the time people ask, like, why do you wear knee pads?
But it is so much just like flinging your legs and your knees onto the ground because I have two legs. So I’m like flopping my legs back and forth depending on if I’m passing or if I’m setting or if I’m hitting. so there’s lots of bruises everywhere.
Alison: So with you, you are not an amputee. Yes. How in the way do your legs feel when you’re on the court?
Kaleo Kanahele Maclay: Yeah, they get very in the way. some of the middles, uh, one of the middles, her name is Nikki. You guys might have met her. , she has two legs. So her legs on top of my legs cause holes in the block and holes just on the court. So we have to end up like sitting on top of each other. Which is just what we’re used to, like, she’ll put her legs on top of my legs when she comes in to hit and we’re just like running into each other a lot.
Sometimes they get tangled, but, making sure that our hands and we’re like closed on blocks and stuff is really important,
Alison: How much feeling do you have in your legs?
Kaleo Kanahele Maclay: I have feeling in all my legs. Okay,
Alison: so you are aware of where other people are. Yes, yeah. Okay. So it’s
Kaleo Kanahele Maclay: like, my disability is, leg length. muscle deficiency. Like I don’t really have a left calf muscle. So I was born with clubfoot. , but yeah, so I have feeling in all of my legs. , but yeah, the movement and back and forth is sometimes a little crazy.
Alison: So, because I’m thinking, you know, if you’re a paraplegic and you don’t feel the other person next to you.
Yeah. So having two paraplegics at the net doing blocking would probably not
Kaleo Kanahele Maclay: Yeah, sometimes it just depends, and how you, like, line up with other people, but usually there aren’t many problems. You can’t interfere with underneath the net, so, you get called on it, but, yeah.
Alison: But on top of each other is okay.
Yes,
Kaleo Kanahele Maclay: yeah. That
Jill: is wild. It is wild. Mm hmm. Just the tangled, yeah, limbs everywhere. Yeah, limbs
Kaleo Kanahele Maclay: everywhere, yeah.
Alison: Where’s your favorite place to be on the court?
Kaleo Kanahele Maclay: ooh, that’s interesting. I like to be, so we run a system called a 5 1. So I’m a setter, and I set from right front. , that’s one of my favorite places to be because it’s like the least amount of back and forth. So when I’m back row, it’s like I’m transitioning up to the front row and then back to back row when the ball goes over the net.
So just a lot of back and forth. So my favorite place is right front.
Alison: Looking at the tournament in Paris, obviously the women, the U. S. women, very strong. Who else do we need to be paying attention to?
Kaleo Kanahele Maclay: Yeah, China, , is always great. Um, and they, honestly, they always bring a good game. I think they challenge us.
Um, and then Brazil, their energy is very, entertaining and very hard sometimes to play. So I think that’ll be another really great game.
Alison: And how much do you now hate the song Believe by Imagine Dragons?
Kaleo Kanahele Maclay: I, I don’t know if I hate it.
Alison: Because in Tokyo Yeah.
Kaleo Kanahele Maclay: All the time. Yeah.
Alison: Watching it on TV, I was like, if I hear that first four seconds of that song another time, I’m going to lose my mind.
Kaleo Kanahele Maclay: That’s so funny. I haven’t had that issue, but we’ll see with this game, what comes next.
Alison: Great, perfect.
Kaleo Kanahele Maclay: Sounds good.
Alison: Thank you so much. It’s good to see you.
Jill: Thank you so much team. We will have links to all of their socials in the show notes. So you can follow them along in their journey to Paris.
Alison: And speaking of Paris, yes, we have. Bonus and unique content coming to our patreon members while we are in Paris. I am excited So we will have stories and photos and videos and things that will only be available to our patreon members So you want to get in on that?
You can find that at patreon. com Slash flame alive pod sign up for one of those levels and you will have some fun Special Paris material coming your way. Exactly.
Jill: And if you don’t want to, Patreon is an ongoing patronage. That’s not something, uh, you can manage right now, but you can kick us a couple of bucks because this is an expensive show to produce.
we will have a donation campaign going during the games. Like we have had last in China, we had a red envelope campaign. We might be looking for some baguette money. Who knows, but yes, we will be having, , some cool content coming for patrons because of their exceptional support of this show. We really appreciate you.
Paris 2024 News
we talked about the Senn a little bit with Grace Norman, uh, Sports Minister Amelie Huidia Castera has tested the waters of the Senn. This is great because you were looking forward to Mayor Anne Hidalgo hopping in and uh, Amelie here has just. You know, stolen some thunder. She said, ah, ah, ah. So on July 13th, she went for a swim according to Lamont.
Lamont has also reported and she looks quite happy. But I will say, did you see video of this? I have not. Okay. I will, I will look for some video to see if it’s shareable, uh, because boy is that current something. Like, it was really noticeable how strong it was and after talking with Grace and then looking at the current, like, I don’t
Alison: know how they’re going to do this.
I know, and I made a joke a few shows back that we’re going to lose the Algerian team. That it’s going to get their poor boat because they’re, I’m assuming Algeria is, is, I haven’t gotten to that part in Duolingo, but that Algeria in French is one of the first teams coming out. And they’re just going to send that boat down and it’s just going to keep going.
Jill: Lamond reported on July 12th that the Seine has been swimmable for 10 or 11 days of July. So that looks good. The weather is scheduled to be mostly dry in the run up to the games, and we know that Um, when it rains, it rains, if it rains heavily, that is what really, uh, makes the water quality go down.
So if it stays dry, we should be looking good. Hospitality house news. If you can keep up with this, I cannot even keep up with the hospitality house situation. There will no longer be a Portugal house. The Portuguese have, have opted out. There will be a Slovak house for free and a Ukrainian place called Voila Space.
Both of them will be in Park de la Villette, where most of the hospitality houses are. If you were hoping to go to Sweden Arena, and maybe also Casa Italia, but that’s not clear yet, uh, those two places will not be open to the public. You’re giving me a
Alison: look. I’m giving you a look because Casa Italia. I am one of your people.
Jill: I know, but that, that, that is still unclear on Casa Italia. Maybe. I would, I would be surprised. I mean, I get that the hospitality house situation, a lot of it is for families and maybe close friends of athletes, but I would think, you know, Italy would be doing something for Milan.
Alison: Exactly. I mean, they’ve only got 17 months after Paris is done to, to get everybody back into that mode.
So that seems like a wasted opportunity. Right. So
Jill: if you are as bewildered by the number of hospitality houses as we are. Houseparty. blog has a lot of, uh, information there. They’ve got some more up to date information on, like, it, the Africa house and German house and, and maps and things like that. So that is a really helpful site.
Also, if you are in Canada. The Canadian Olympic Committee has announced its first ever Team Canada Fan Fest. This will take place over three weekends in three cities, uh, July 26th through 29th. It will be in Calgary on Stephen Avenue Walk at Centre Street. August 2 through 5, it will be in Toronto at the CF Shops at Don Mills.
And August 9 through 11, it will be in Montreal at Le Corgar Windsor. Fans will be able to watch the games. There’s going to be Olympic athlete appearances. There’s going to be live music opportunities to try sports and do a bunch of other fun things. Uh, hosts will be two time Olympic champion, Katronia LeMay Doan, alongside Olympians Gilmour Jr.,
who will be in Calgary, Cynthia Appiah will be in Toronto and Maxime Dufour Lepointe will be in Montreal. You can find out more at olympic. ca slash fan fest. I would
Alison: be really excited about that. That sounds so cool. And then you could pick up the Canadian Cheerios with Maggie McNeil on them.
Jill: You’re good to go.
You know, we talk a lot about feed beefs. I, with, with Grace this morning, she was talking a lot about the coverage getting better and I didn’t really want to get into our feed beef segment. I just didn’t want to overwhelm her with that. But you know, who’s might have feed beefs. The Russians sports that are you via Novaya Gazeta has reported that Russia will not show the games on state TV or streaming services.
This is the first time in 40 years that the Russians will not be watching the Olympics. 40 years ago is the boycott from LA 1984. And, uh, Novaya Gazeta also mentioned that 15 Russians will be participating as neutral. So it’s going to be a very tiny team from, that contingent. The Times of Israel is reporting that there will be a memorial ceremony for the victims of the Munich 1972 massacre.
They say that it will remain private and in a secret location due to security concerns. But then the Israel Olympic Committee says, no, no, it was moved from city hall. From because of logistics, it’s going to be on August 6th in a different location and not much more about that. But if that’s, uh, something we’ve often noted, how about the memorialization of that tragedy and, Um, this is one way that, that those athletes and teammates will be, memorialized come Paris.
TKFLASTAN Update
Alison: Welcome to Shooklastan.
Jill: It is the time of the show where we check in with our team. Keep the flame alive.
These are past guests and listeners who make up our, uh, citizenship of our very own country, Shuklastan. Um, I meant to mention this a while back, but, uh, we had on PBS is 4th of July celebration and it was. There was a whole Team USA segment with Shawn Johnson out, uh, announcing everyone and fencer Tatiana Nazimov was there.
Did you wave? I did and also you’ll, folks, you’ll meet her, next week. Uh, Jess Savner was on as well.
Alison: Alison Levine won bronze at the Povea World Boccia Cup after being sick during her semifinal. She came back 24 hours later to win bronze 8 1 and she and Pairs partner Iulian Ciobanu took gold.
Jill: Katie Moon finished 5th in the women’s pole vault at the Wanda Diamond League, Monaco.
Alison: Millie Tapper won the Australian National Championship in table tennis doubles.
Jill: Beatrice de Lavalette was officially named to the U. S. Paralympic equestrian team. She also served as captain of Section 55 of the Paris Torch Relay on Saturday, carrying the torch through her hometown of Dijon, France.
Alison: McKenna Geer has qualified for the Paralympics in R4 Mixed 10 meter air rifle standing SH2. The U. S. Excellent.
Jill: Paralympics number three for McKenna and Laura Webster Bargiolini has officially been named to Team USA’s sitting volleyball team. This will be her sixth Paralympics.
Alison: Olly Hogben and Blythe Lawrence will be at Paris 2024 as part of the artistic gymnastics commentary team.
He’ll also be working on badminton, wrestling, and archery. We will have plenty of
Jill: places to look for Olly. I’m so excited to meet him in Blythe in person. And Sunny Choi, our breakdancer, will be partnering with Blume, a health and wellness brand. So good on you for getting some sponsorship money.
That’s going to do it for this episode. Let us know what you think of our roster of Team Shuklastan Paralympians.
Alison: Find us on X YouTube and Instagram at flamealivepod. Send us an email at flamealivepod at gmail. com. Call or text us at 208 352 6348. That’s 208 flame it. Chat with us and other fans on our Facebook group, keep the flame alive podcast, and you can sign up for our weekly.
soon to be daily during the games newsletter with even more Olympic and Paralympic info for you at our website flamealivepod. com
Jill: on Thursday we will disembarking from some planes and we will be bringing you an episode that we will tape in advance of the rest of Alison’s Team USA fencing team interviews. We will, uh, she’s got the whole foil team, men and women, and they are really, really interesting to listen to. So while we are traveling, we bring you those and then we’re going to be in Paris.
Amazing. So please don’t forget to tell a friend about the show. If you’re getting merch to wear in Paris, you might still have a chance to get it before it arrives. We’ve got our viewing guide. We’ll have links to that in the show notes as well. So you can pick that up and follow along and plan out how you are going to schedule all of your feeds.
Thank you so much for listening. And until next time, keep the flame alive.