We’re at the halfway point of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, and we’re still trying to figure out optimal watching schedules. Don’t worry though, we’ve seen a lot of action from the 27-sport schedule today, and we’ve got updates on:
- Archery – Go back and watch the Women’s Individual comptition!
- Athletics
- Badminton
- Baseball
- Basketball – Another robot sighting
- Canoe Slalom
- Cycling – BMX Racing – TKFLASTANI Connor Fields competed
- Equestrian – TKFLASTANI Phillip Dutton competed
- Fencing
- Football – Women’s knockout stage
- Golf
- Judo – Go back and watch the Women’s +78kg competition!
- Rowing – It’s time for the eights!
- Sailing
- Shooting
- Swimming
- Table Tennis
- Tennis
- Trampoline Gymnastics
Join in the fun – viewing guide, fantasy league, brackets and more at https://flamealivepod.com/tokyo
Text us/Leave us a VM! 208-FLAME-IT (208) 352-6348.
Thanks so much for listening, and until next time, keep the flame alive!
TRANSCRIPT
Note: This is an uncorrected machine-generated transcript. It contains errors. Please do not quote from the transcript; use the audio file as the record of note. If you would like to see transcripts that are more accurate, please support the show.
Jill: [00:00:00]
Konichiwa Olympics, fans, and lovers of shook list on welcome to keep the flame alive. The podcast for fans of the Olympics and Paralympics. I am your host. Jill Jaracz joined as always by my lovely cohost, Alison Brown, Alison Konichiwa Konichiwa.
Alison: I did not work my new plan because it ended up that everything I wanted to see was on at like one o’clock in the morning.
Jill: Well, and there were delays today because of weather and, and that affected a lot of sports. So I went to bed much later than I wanted to. I still got up at like five in the morning to catch the end of the day. And then I fell asleep on the couch for a run while I sat and watched. So it was a scramble at the end of the day to finish up the competitions.
I was in the middle of the.
Alison: I am definitely enjoying the, I keep one thing on and have the next thing I’m keyed up. So it’s like 15 minutes later. So then I can speed through sort of certain things like when all the chit chatting and the waiting for scores. And, but yeah, I still have not optimized my view.
Well, we have one more week. I know what we’ll be ready for Beijing though. We said that with piano Chang too, but
Jill: we’ll, won’t be ready for the Paralympics. Very
Alison: true. Uh, beyond Chang and Tokyo, we have discovered, and we knew this winter is so
Jill: different. It really is. So this has been, this has been a lot of fun, but it’s been a lesson in how big the Olympics actually.
Absolutely. So, uh, from our followup file, I had a question about. Horses and the foaming at the mouth listener, Hilary told me that dressage riders use the bit to control their horses and a bit in the horses. Mouth breaks the section of their lips, the air mixes with their saliva and causes the foam. Oh no.
That was very interesting. Thank you. A little correction from listener Pete, day three, we were talking about Monica Abbott being six, three, and comparing her to the big hurt. And we meant to say that was Randy Johnson.
Alison: Yes, that’s exactly who I was thinking of.
Jill: And then, uh, again, talking with, uh, Elizabeth Emory from, uh, hear her sports podcast, we were talking about how.
Writers and the road cycling race can float back to the Peloton of cars and get food and water and they can get their shoes put on them if they need to. She said, oh, they can also do mechanical repairs while you’re on the bike. I’m
Alison: telling you mothers of toddlers, they are the workhorses of the Olympic games who knew that’s, who should be doing the training for the support staff.
Jill: All right. Where is our shift of Michelle and morning McBean today? Well, she
Alison: has been at rowing and she has been at rugby and trampoline. She was also at basketball with three flags, ended her drum.
Jill: I am not surprised she was at rowing to see that incredible race. We will get to it. When we talked about rowing, I got to say, she’s probably, I know we’re following her specifically. If I was an Olympian, I would want her as my chef to mission. She’s been amazing. And I had to look up who was the chef de mission for the team USA.
And it’s like the director of sport for performance from the U S OPC. And he’s just like, that’s not even, I mean, they can be there for you and they know what, you know, they’ve probably been to Olympics before, but not in the same capacity that Marnie did when she competed. And she knows exactly those feelings that you’re going.
And
Alison: she really took a roll. I don’t think she expected to take on and being cheerleader , you know, families aren’t there. And, and so a lot of support staff couldn’t go and the people who are usually around. So she’s going to all these events with our flag and our drum and taking pictures with people and the athletes are all commenting.
Ha. Beautiful. It is for them and how they know she’s there and they hear the drum and it feels like Canada’s with them. So amazing, amazing job by Marnie McMeen in this.
Jill: Uh, so there were a few thunderstorms in the area that delayed a lot of action. So rugby got delayed because there was lightning BMX got delayed because the track was soaked and golf was interrupted.
And there’s still a few players left to finish up around two in the golf. Fantasy league, how is our league doing? So I have been having a problem in trying to update my fantasy brackets right before prime time on Eastern us time starts. And I can’t get into the system because it’s overcrowded. And I’m sure it’s just [00:05:00] overloaded like crazy.
So I’m hoping that I can get in while Japan sleeps and that part of the world sleeps and make some swaps because I have some athletes who are not competing anymore. Show on still killing it with 443 points. Kolibri still in second with 1 68 and, uh, PS Scola and Patrick from green bay, uh, has jumped ahead of me at one 40.
Over in records, I’m still on the lead, but the behind me is shaken out a little bit. So Olympic fan Dan Cholestin and omega Beth are 10 points behind me. And Lisa Brown is 10 points behind. I am not.
Alison: So I do have some, I don’t think I have any points in brackets, but I was so excited this morning that I actually have points in the fantasy league.
Jill: I think there is still time to get in on the action for fantasy league and brackets. You can find out how to join us at flame alive. pod.com/tokyo. All right. What officiating or volunteer job would we want? Do you have a, do you have a job that you’d want today? I want the job that you don’t want. Oh, my goodness.
Okay. I was watching trampoline and they have four spotters around the trampoline. And then the, the athletes coaches there with a pad. And I got to say, the pad is really cool, cause it was Tokyo 20, 20 Brandon. But I was petrified when some of those gymnast got one of them. It hit the pads, uh, one, uh, you know, they get really close.
One of them slipped and fell and it’s just, I think being a spotter would be incredibly stressful and frightening. I would be too worried.
Alison: You see? But I would like that job because I could do something about. Oh, okay. Because then I would be worried, but here comes my pad to save them. So if they bounce off the bouncy part and this happened in the early rounds, I think it was the Australian.
She basically went clean off the trampoline and the pad caught her. See, that’s a job, also another job for mothers of toddlers, where you can do something with your concern.
Jill: I will take that. I liked stuff that was going on at the BMX track. I really liked the starter patter, which includes watch the gates.
Uh, but then when I was watching the feed, they showed people behind the scenes with clipboards, checking in riders and anything. That’s got a clipboard in it. Just hand it to me. I’ll bring my own. I have my own clipboards
Alison: and your own words.
Jill: I have multiple clipboards and multiple whistles. I got you covered.
Alison: Oh. And, and I saw my first, uh, cow bell in the stands. Oh, okay. So I was excited about that. So that would be sort of, my volunteer job is ringing the cow bell to cheer people on.
Jill: There you go. Alright. Time for our new segment. What’s up with Mike and Maya. That is the Mike and Maya are the stars of Toyotas.
First date ad spot in their stateroom. Huh? Campaign where Mike, uh, junior high, I would assume Mike asks Maya to the school dance via a being on a robot screen that rolls through the school hallways. So yesterday there has been a lot of Mike and Maya talk in my house more than anybody wants to hear. But I was wondering if Maya was out of Mike’s league and he had to ask her right away.
Well, it had whatever courage he, he pulled together in the hospital,
Alison: figuring somebody would get to her first. Exactly. See what I noted yesterday was Mike is not wearing any pants. And I was a little concerned about him asking the girl out in his hospital gown. Now I realize he has a broken leg. So pants would be difficult, but maybe slip on.
Shorts cargo shorts.
Jill: It’s cool. I mean, he had to ask my out because you know, in the background is on the left. If you’re looking at the TV on the left is Javan in the background with the trucker cap. And I think he has his sights set on Maya too. And Mike just got to her for.
Alison: And I have a feeling that Maya likes Mike, but her friends may not approve because there was a couple judgy looking girls there.
Jill: Yeah. We will get to that tomorrow. Not begun to get in on my friends. So, if you have thoughts about Mike and Maya, please let us know. Flame alive pod itchy, mail.com or drop it in our Facebook group. Keep the flame alive podcast on Facebook. Before we get to today’s action, we would like to tell you about our Kickstarter campaign.
Surprise. Media accreditations for the winter Olympics in Beijing, those are less than 200 days away. And that means in 200 days, within 200 days, we have to pay for a pretty expensive trip to make sure we can get there and be on the ground for both the Olympics and the Paralympics. So we’re talking about a six weeks.
But we are really excited to have the opportunity to bring you a [00:10:00] better podcast experience that only comes with having an on the ground presence. And as a podcast that is, uh, an independent outlet. We really need your support to get there. You can find out more about our campaign and check out some of our supporter bonuses.
We’re sending postcards from Beijing to some supporters. Your pet could be our mascot. You could tell us where to go and be a producer. So far, we’re about 20% of the way toward our goal, which is awesome. So thank you so much, everyone who has donated so far and, uh, we’re really hoping to get to at least 50% by the end of the Olympics.
So if you’re able, please check out our Kickstarter at kickstarter.com/profile/flame alive pod. Alright, action. In archery. It was the women’s individual. Finals to, uh, today. Huh? This was so exciting. I have to say lots and lots of shutoffs. So everything got tied up and they had to go to the one arrow shoot off and whoever’s closest to the center of the bullseye wins.
Korea’s onsen when the gold and she, and she won the golden, a shootout against, uh, Elena also Povo from ROC. Uh, enseno also beat out Deepika Kumari from India in the quarterfinals and Mackenzie brown in the semi-finals to, to get to that gold medal match. Uh, I was really bummed because I was hoping that Deepika was on a different part of the brain.
To not have to meet on that, that early in the tournament, then Lucina Boeree from Italy won the bronze. She meet beat Mackenzie brown, and it was just honestly, shootout, shootout, shootouts. Um, super exciting on is the first athlete from Korea to become a triple gold medalist, Edie summer Olympics. So congratulations to her.
She shot incredible. And there were like games where she was just perfect. It was unbelievable athletics. Oh man. I’m not ready for athletics to start that tune
Alison: into athletics because I cannot watch athletics until swimming is done. I hate the crossover weekend. And I hate it every
Jill: time I agree. And there’s just a lot of qualifying right now, except for there was one final.
So we’ll get to that. The mixed four by 400 meter relay started, and that’s a new event for Tokyo. Uh, both the Dominican Republic and the USA were disqualified in round one, which was amazing. And the U S I found out it was a. Uh, mishap on the, on one of the Baton exchanges. I’m not sure exactly what they did wrong.
Interesting note that I want to kind of pay attention to because this. Uh, almost an issue at the USA Olympic trials. The announcers mentioned that starts all session long, had been very quick. So they do that on your marks and then they hold it and then they shoot the gun, but they’re shooting the gun pretty quickly on that, on your marks set moment at us Olympic trials, there was kind of a long period of time.
So there were several people that may have flinched a little bit and got disqualified. And then they got put back in after appeal. Because I really hadn’t. So I’m curious what the strategy is from the starters perspective, and then the men’s 10,000 meter final gold went to Ethiopia’s and then Joshua Tiggy from Uganda and Jacob Kipley limo from Uganda, all one, they were within a second of each other.
So it was a really close race and good news. For up for one of our
Alison: hunter, Michelle Carter will be on NBC’s analyst team. So she’ll be on peacock in the morning and on USA in the afternoon.
Jill: I am excited about that. Moving on to badminton. I did watch one of the women’s singles quarter finals between Oklahoma and Nozomi from Japan and Hey, being gel from China.
Oh my goodness. Back and forth, Hey, being Joe one, two to one, but the gains were pretty tight and O’Hara like hung in there. And there were so many long routes. That it was really exciting to watch, and we felt really bad that she didn’t have a big crowd to watch her. So having young moves on to the semi-finals, the mixed doubles had their gold medal matches.
Golden silver, both went to China. Uh, gold is two, a Wang Yi Lu and Hong dong, ping, and silver was Zhang Shihwae and Hong yeah, Keon Chung. And. Uh, bronze went to Japan’s one Tanabe UTA, and he goes, she know RESA. They beat Hong Kong to win, [00:15:00] uh, in the baseball stadium, still in group play, Dominican Republic, beat Mexico one zero and the USB Israel 8 2 1, cause
Alison: Israel has been too busy jumping on the bed.
Exactly.
Jill: In basketball, the women played, I caught a bit of Belgium versus Puerto Rico, mostly because I wanted to try to see the halftime robot, which, which I did, but it was one of those, of course it’s halftime. They have to break away to commercial and then they have to show the graphic with the first half stance.
And it’s just like, you know, the robot is doing its thing and then it finds. Pulled down the graphic and you could see the robot finally doing like a half court shot. And that robot is big. I did not. It’s like a giant, it’s
Alison: a shack robot. It’s a shack bot.
Jill: And then I saw him walk away and I was trying to get a little video of it.
And then it cut to Mike and Maya. I’m not kidding. Grong
Alison: robots.
Jill: I have noticed we we’ve talked about this before on the feed where ads just break in and just randomly, and I’m sure that’s because they’re doing dynamic ad insertion, which says basically at this time code put in an ad, honest to Pete during gymnastics.
Middle of the beam routine yesterday and an ad came off.
Alison: Yeah, I was watching your Sosh in the middle of a test and I’m like, wait, where’s pumpkin. I don’t want Mike and Maya. I want pumpkin back. It’s a very frustrating
Jill: it is. I wish I, and I get that. They’re just levering technology that nobody’s sitting down.
Making an ad scheduling us. Yeah. But I would love if NBC figured out how to do that better, the technology needs to improve a little bit to make that work a beach volleyball. Did you see anything from beach volleyball?
Alison: Yeah. The only thing I saw with beach volleyball is that it was pouring and they were slogging through the sand.
It was, it was like playing beach volleyball in mud. So not a heck of a lot of jumping going on. Uh,
Jill: that would be. Um, boxing is still in preliminary, but they’re moving on to quarterfinals and some of the weight classes. So we’ll start to bring you more of that action. Canoe slalom. The men are on the course.
They had the K one semi-finals and finals gold went to Czech Republic. Uh, the jury , uh, silver went to Slovakia’s, uh, Yacob, Grieger, and Germany’s won the bronze. BMX cycling. Uh, oh, this,
Alison: this has been rough. This has been rough and we’ve both been upset about it. So I did not see it live. I thankfully knew what happened before I watched, but Connor fields are Shockless Donnie got in quite a bit and it wasn’t the only crash of the day.
This was a bit of, of demolition. I mean, we joked with him about it not being demolition Derby. Today was
Jill: I’m very curious how the track was because of the thunderstorms they had. They delayed the racing by a couple hours at least. And they had to have lots of crews out with pads, soaking up water and like leaf blowers vacuuming up or blowing the water away.
I wonder how much of the track was. Although, it sounded like it was fairly, the asphalt was fairly porous and there were sand underneath to get for drainage, but it still, it still looked a little damp.
Alison: So do not watch this crash unless you’ve got a strong stomach because Connor fields hits the pavement and, you know, he’s.
I mean, you just, you know, he’s knocked out because the way he just goes limp, like a rag doll, it was horrific
Jill: and it happened pretty quickly. He had been doing well. This was a second run of the semi-finals. He had been racing really well, looking very strong and very fit. Down into the first berm he turns and he’s just behind, just because of his position in the gate, he’s behind another writer.
And as they go into the berm, he clips the other writers backwards. It was the French writer and then goes flying and took out another, there were a couple whose three,
Alison: three cyclists went out in that crash. And as I was watching. I kept thinking about how, when we spoke to him, he joked about his mother worrying about him because I said to him, oh, now I have to worry about you.
My heart just sank watching.
Jill: It was tough. And ironically, he still qualified for the finals, but he had [00:20:00] been taken out on a stretcher and been taken to the hospital. So there was no way he was starting. That meant there would be a new Olympic champion. So Netherlands, Nick, Nick Cayman won gold. Silver went to, uh, Kai white from great Britain and Carlos Alberto Ramirez IPAs from Columbia one.
Alison: So you checked on Connor this morning and found some information.
Jill: Yeah. A sports illustrated had been in communication with Connor’s dad and knew that his son was alert and answering questions and moving all his limbs, but he’s in some pain and subdued and he will, he’ll be going under, uh, going through some CT scans on his head spine and app.
So we’ll keep an eye out on that and update you as we find out information on the women’s side. Great. Britain’s Bethany Schriever won gold Columbia’s Marianna prion won a silver and that she was going for her third gold medal and got silver this time. And then Merrill smolders from Netherlands won the bronze.
So I have a. Because there were a couple of British writers in here and Britain’s been killing it in the pool and they’ve been doing well on diving. My theory is that we are nine years out from London, 2012. Are we starting to get the athletes who were inspired by the Olympics being in their home country.
And they’re starting to show up at the Olympics.
Alison: Excellent. Yeah. I’m you’re absolutely right.
Jill: Well, I don’t know. That is a theory. No, I
Alison: think it’s an absolute, accurate theory because number one, team GB did well in London. Lots of people went, lots of people saw it became part of the culture in a way that I don’t think it had been locked.
Cause obviously the UK has been in the Olympics since the beginning, but London, 2012 kind of reinvigorated. That crater in the UK.
Jill: Right. So I think you are absolutely right. And it’s interesting because one of the legacy points of London 2012 was to get the average public, to exercise more and be more fit.
And that part hasn’t worked. But I wonder if it inspired. People to become athletes and they’re now competitive. And
Alison: I’m also wondering if it also provided the facilities. I mean, what, you know, when we’re talking about cycling and velodromes and training facilities and courses, they’re all right there now.
So they’re not having to travel outside of the UK for some of these
Jill: facilities. Good point diving the women’s three meters springboard preliminary started. So we will be tuning into more action on that in equestrian, the events, dressage team, an individual they one occurred. How did our shook fasani Phillip Dutton do team
Alison: USA is in ninth place.
Excellent. And dressage is not their strongest portion. So they were very pleased with where their standing is at this point in the
Jill: competition. One of the jobs that’s getting higher up on the jobs I would do, or the volunteers that take the fences out for the horse to go into the dressage arena. Watch where you step one, poor horse.
Did his business. During the test. Did you see, I’ve
Alison: seen that that’s actually happened a few times as I’ve been watching massage
Jill: and the commentator who is lovely talks about the horse. Oh, it’s so sad. He’s got to do his business right now. Fencing men’s epee team competition happened and Japan won their first gold and.
So congratulations to them. ROC took silver and Korea took the bronze, and I got to say to see two Asian countries and you couldn’t debate ROC, usually think of it as Europe, but most of the countries in Asia, that’s incredible that that Asian countries have become a lot stronger in that sport.
Alison: Right.
Because fencing is usually so, so Eurocentric.
Jill: Very much so football women’s quarterfinal action. Host’s super exciting. Canada, beat Brazil. They were tied nothing and nothing. So they had to go to penalty shootouts, which Canada won four to three Australia beat great Britain, four to three Sweden, beat Japan, 3, 2, 1, and Netherlands and USA tied to two and, and penalty shootouts U S one 40.
And I tuned in right for like the last kick. Yeah.
Alison: I mean, leading into it, USA was going to wipe the floor with everybody and they have not been Dominic.
Jill: No, they have not done well. And I have looked a little bit at that, that news [00:25:00] coverage. And there’s been a little mention of not having fans in the stands.
You don’t have that energy and excitement. And I wonder how it is for sports that are used to having an audience versus sports who are used to not having an audience. I’m just like, oh, nobody goes to modern pentathlon. Anyway. So we’re used to this versus world cup stadiums with 45, 60, 80,000 fans there.
Alison: And again, even the personality of the American soccer team, I would see that the crowd would be such a feed for them. You know, they really live for that. And I don’t mean that as a criticism, I just mean it as there. The style of the team is very outward and extroverted. And so yeah, I could see them struggling with that.
Jill: And golf men had the round two of their individual stroke play.
Moving onto handball. We’re just about out of the group stage. So over the next couple of days, we will be paying more attention to that, to see who moves on to the quarterfinals. Same goes with hockey. I still have not been able to watch India and hockey and it’s killing me a judo. We watched a lot of judo lessons.
So, uh, it was the women’s plus 78 kilograms competition and the men’s plus 100 kilograms competition. So this is the last of the individuals. Then there’s going to be a team competition, which is new for Tokyo. These are big people and these, and, and you get, there was one match up between, uh, I can’t remember who it was between, but the one woman.
Very large. And you can just see, even with a geeky on that’s pretty loose in the pants, you can see the strength in their legs is just incredible. And then they just have so much power and have to in the rest of their body. And there was one woman who was like lean all the way down, but she still was in that weight class.
And you’re just like, oh, you are not going to get very much farther. She did. This, honestly, this is wanting to go back and watch. So a Sony Akira from Japan won the gold, this, uh, you know, one of the quarterfinals I think, or one of the bouts was like 42 seconds long. And so I, we were sitting down this morning watching it because the play went really late.
And I was like, Ben, you had just don’t look at your phone. You got to watch, this will be over in no time. This. We went full time and then went into a long golden score period before Sony pulled out the win over Cuba’s, uh, Dallas or teas who is a multi Olympian and a multi medalist and all man, that was a tough man.
Then the bronze is, went to a Roman Decaux from France, who is an up and coming star. So watch for her for Paris. She was really, really good. And then she had the fiercest braid game. She had her, she had hair full of braids. They were white. And then on the side she had a Stripe of red and a Stripe of blue to look like.
It was beautiful. And then the other bronze went to, uh, I Rina from Azerbaijan on the men’s side. Gold went to Czech republics, Lucas, Capella silver went to George’s and bronzes went to our OCS, Tamara and Francis Teddy Riner RO. I tuned in and I kept bouncing back and forth between growing and other stuff.
Wow. What a day? So women single skull. New Zealand’s Emma twig won gold. So yay. Silver ferns are OCS Hannah. Cutson one silver and Austria’s Magdalena lobe nig one bronze on the men side, greases to final statistics, one, uh, the gold it’s an Olympic best time. This is Greece’s first ever Rowan gold medal and was a surprise victory.
And I noticed on rowing, you know, on swimming. It’s all about world records. And the times and rowing our Olympic best and world best. I don’t know the difference, but it’s on my list. Maybe
Alison: it’s the same house. Some sport used ladies in some sports use women. It’s just
Jill: tradition. I don’t know. Or maybe they have to have the best because of conditions change.
I don’t know. Then Norway is won a silver and Damir Martin from Croatia won bronze. Then you brought out the big boats, the eights, which we have read boys in the boat. So the eights is we understand the specialness of the aides. We went rowing with gold medalist from Rio Tessa gobo we understand the U S is tradition.
Women’s aids has won many, [00:30:00] many gold medals in the last few Olympics here. Not a factor at all. What a stunning upset Canada won gold commanding performance. When then they were just, they looked so good on the water. New Zealand, one silver and China, one bronze on the men’s eight side. New Zealand took gold.
So yay. Silver ferns, man. They had a
Alison: nice day on the water. You’d have a good day.
Jill: And, uh, Germany took silver and great Britain. Took. The U S has never really had an Olympics where they have not won a medal and rowing. The only two times that this has happened was 1908 and 1980 when we didn’t have rowers competing.
So this is, this is huge for the U S rowing program, rugby sevens. Did you see any of this? Oh,
Alison: I only have two eyes and as we’ve already established, I can only watch one thing at a time. And I do occasionally need to sleep.
Jill: Alright. Rugby sevens. We had pool play early on, and then in the afternoon it was, uh, placings in quarter five.
Fiji upset, defending gold medalist Australia to get into the next round. This is the first time Fiji Ana has ever been able to be Australia. It was a tight game by score 14, 12, but Australia is like one of their last tries came right at the end. It was, it was. Not dominant, but Fiji scored early and quick.
They got a couple of tries very quick and looked good and they had pretty good defense and it was really a tough game and Australia of course heartbroken, but so excited for Fiji.
Alison: Did you see any of the shots of the parties in Fiji when the men won?
Jill: Yes. Yes. They were going crazy. It was exciting. Can you see, that’s the thing.
Can you imagine if the women one as well. The party would never stop. Right? Right. So also moving on, uh, New Zealand beat ROC pretty handily, great Britain, B U S and France beat China. So the semi-finals will be Fiji versus New Zealand and great Britain versus France. Sailing. I did not get to watch any sailing, but our Shukla Sonnie’s competed Stephanie robot and Maggie Shea in the 49 or FX, they had three more races and they placed fifth, ninth, and 30th in those, and overall, they are sitting in sixth place.
Alison: I was watching some of the lasers and it was looking a bit like bumper boats, really. All over the place. And I assume it had to do because of the conditions.
Jill: Interesting. Huh? I have to turn in, uh, inside the games reported that in the laser men’s Australia’s met, Warren is so far ahead that even though there’s still racing, that’s going to happen.
He can’t be caught, so he should be getting the gold. So that’s pretty interesting. Um, the shooting range, it was the 25 meter pistol competition for the women. Gold went to Vieta, Lena, but sir, Skeena from ROC Kim. I mean Junge from Korea, one silver. And shall she Schwan one from China? One, the bronze swimming, which I dipped into and out of yesterday because judo a lot more races dipping into
Alison: swimming.
Did you just say you dipped into swimming?
Jill: I did. I also know to put the round thing in the round. Anyway, did you, did you watch your beloved rowdy games? I did.
Alison: And what was really funny was they showed him, they, they replayed the Caleb Dressel race from the night before, but they showed. With Rowdy’s view, as in like watching rowdy, watch Caleb Dressel and he was so nervous and so excited and he was like a dad.
It was fantastic.
Jill: Ah, again, some semi-finals, but the fi in the finals of competition, we had women’s 200 meter breaststroke. So Lily king was back out there trying to win a gold medal in her keystroke. But South Africa is Tatiana shown. Beat her out for the gold and got a world record time. She, oh my goodness.
She was crying so much on the victory on the podium.
Alison: Best moment of the night was she was in the pool. She realized she had one Andy and Lily king and Annie laser were on either side of her. So they go to congratulate her in there and the other south African swimmer comes over. And then she realized that she got the world.
And her whole face lights up and all four of them are trying to hug each other in the pool. It was, it was a wonderful moment where clearly the love and respect among the competitors came through. And [00:35:00] I just, that’s why we love it. That’s why we watched that.
Jill: Exactly and Lilly king took silver. And any laser also from us took bronze in the men’s 200 meter backstroke of Ganni relaunch from ROC one gold Ryan Murphy from USA, one silver and a Britain’s Luke bank won the bronze.
So again, more team GB and the pool cleaning up with the metals and the women’s 100 meter freestyle. Australia’s Emma McCown. Gold Chavon, Bernadette Holly from Hong Kong, one silver and Kate Campbell from Australia. One bronze again, Chavon from Hong Kong, another metal. This is just incredible.
Alison: Yeah. This was a tough race to watch because Kate Campbell looked very disappointed and.
That, you know, she’s excited to win a medal, but when you expected better of yourself and you didn’t race your race. So that was a little, she just looks at and then her teammate wins gold. So she’s excited for her. So it was, it was an interesting race to watch the emotions play.
Jill: And then the session ended with the men’s 200 meter, individual medley, uh, finals China’s Wang, Shung won gold.
Great. Britain’s Duncan. Scott won silver and Switzerland’s Jeremy display punch one brown.
Alison: So I did want to mention, cause we haven’t talked at all about Michael Phelps and I realized he’s the American announcer. So only in Americans are gonna get this, but he has been doing some in the studio analysis.
He hasn’t been at the swimming venue.
Jill: I thought he’d been at the swimming venue too. Cause he’s gone through a couple of races. W D he’s done a few races. He’s called racist, but not everyone. Right.
Alison: But mostly when I’ve seen him in the evening, at least he’s in the studio with Mike Tirico. Right, right, right.
Which is really funny because compared to make Trico, they sort of squish Michael Phelps into these chairs. And it’s sort of like dad and his son, and it’s almost like Mike Tirico, his feet don’t touch the ground, but he did a fantastic job talking. The individual medley and how this was his favorite race.
He has been so insightful in a way that I did not expect. And I totally blame myself for thinking, oh, he’s so egotistical and he’s, you know, the goat and all that. But man, has he been what, a fantastic surprise.
Jill: And he could have changed over the years. When you are competitive, maybe there’s different actions, but yes, he has been on the call for a couple of races and talked about like, at this point, this is what you’re doing with your legs.
You need to drive with your legs and not use your arms as much. And the insight he’s given into. The actual, what the swimmers are going through and what they need to do at certain points of the races has made for a much better viewing experience. And he’s done really, really well. And I hope they continue to use him.
Alison: And not only for swimming because they talked to him a little bit about the Simone Biles situation. And just, obviously he’s been very public about his own mental health struggles and how he retired and decided to come back. And again, very self-aware and very mature and able to talk about it in a way that I did not.
And, and also very willing to share things that he doesn’t have to. So clearly being married and a dad and not competing anymore. I want to be his friend now. And I would tell him to trim the beard. The Beard’s a little much. My daughter said he looked like Jesus. He needed to, he needs to tighten it up a little bit.
Jill: Okay. Uh, moving on to table tennis men’s singles finished their tournament. Gold went to China’s. My long silver went to China’s Fung, Jane dong and bronze went to Germany’s Dmitri of cha. Uh, tennis a surprise in the men’s singles in the semi-finals Novak Djokovic from Serbia last two Germany’s Alexander’s Vera and, uh, 6 1 3 6 1 6, which, uh, Novak Djokovich had been going from what they call the golden slam because he’s won the first three, uh, grand slam tournaments on the tennis circuit this year.
He’d be going for the full grand slam, which would add the U S open, which is later this summer and the golden slam, which I believe maybe only Steffi Graf has won the golden slammed as the Olympic title too. So he will not have that. Vera will face ROC Karen Cotton off in the finals. And the men’s doubles tournament is over.
Uh, Croatia’s uh, Nick MetKids and Povich won gold. Kayla and DODIG from CRA, also from Croatia when silver and New [00:40:00] Zealand, Daniel and Venus won the bronze trampoline, which we both watched. And I felt really bad because the female commenter who was fantastic again, I almost wondered if it was the same woman doing dressage, but I think the two card tournaments were going on at the same time.
And then I thought, well, maybe they’re just sisters.
Alison: Maybe they just went to the same public school,
Jill: but she was also very good about talking how, what, what the athletes needed to do, but because of the schedule and COVID restrictions, the trampoline gymnast did not get to practice on the equipment. Until that very day.
So they had a practice, they had a little bit of rest and then they had to compete in both the semi-finals and the finals all on the same day. And so she said it really has to be your day. And if it’s not, if you’re having a bad day, this is it. It doesn’t. Which I thought was very tough on these gymnast and I felt really bad.
I mean, the artistic gymnast got podium training for, and they’ll probably get, get more podium training, but it’s really, it seems unfair that the trampoline to don’t get much more. Do you have thoughts on the competition?
Alison: Okay. So the one thing I will say was about the coverage. So they use several different camera angles, one camera angle, you could see.
However high, the gymnast bounced for lack of a better. And then another camera angle. The camera bounced with the gymnast and I just kept screaming. Please stop bouncing. Please stop bouncing. Because when they showed the bouncing camera, it really made me feel sort of queasy.
Jill: Oh, interesting.
Alison: But when they showed the full shot and I could just watch the bouncing from the whole shot, I had no idea.
When the camera bounced, they, oh, it was like being on the worst cruise ship ever.
Jill: I wonder if they do that because that the up and down camera can zoom in closer and show you more of the actions. There was also another kin KMR angle that they would show like when they were getting on the trampoline that was underneath.
It was really bizarre to look up through the mesh of the tramp and watch them and start to. But gold went to China’s zoo should wane ying silver went to China’s Liu Ling-Ling and bronze went to great Britain’s Briony page and Canada’s Rosie McLennan, who was the defending gold medalist. She placed her.
So I like trampoline. I think it’s fun to watch. It does scare me when they go that high and they can’t control where they land that really freaks me out. But I’m always kind of bummed that trampoline is only a two day competition. One day women in one day, men. I kind of wish it could be longer. I think
Alison: I wish they would spread it out a little.
You know, do it over four days because
Jill: it’s interesting. I feel like we in archery because I’ve watched a lot of it because some people have been competing in three different competitions. I’ve gotten to know the athletes better. And this is, is this a sport that I am interested in watching and don’t get to you.
Don’t get to know these athletes very well.
Alison: It’s interesting with the trampoline gymnast because they are generally. You know, you, you will see, you know, Riney page I think is 30 and Rosie McLennan is 32 and that’s not unusual. Oh,
Jill: why is that?
Alison: Do you know? I don’t know why that is. I think it’s, I don’t know if it’s because they get into it later or I don’t know, but they do tend to be older.
And the, and our favorite lovely English woman said they do tend to be older and they do tend to come to multiple Olympics. That’s
Jill: interesting,
Alison: but there is a little part of. That when I was looking at these women and seeing these women in their thirties and leotards, it was very jarring because my brain is trained to artistic gymnastics to seeing children in leotards.
Interesting. And it was, I realized it. I said, why did these women look off to me? I was thinking, oh, I’m just not used to seeing a trampoline body. Or, and I realized, no, it’s because I’m ageist. And I have, my brain has been trained to think, oh, gymnast need to be. No four foot 10 and 16,
Jill: right? Right. I was wondering what the leotards with all the sparkles on it looked like as in the venue, as.
Flipped in the air and how they caught the light. If that makes a difference. I mean, I’ve seen gymnastics, women’s gymnastics tournaments, but I’d never paid attention to the sparkly, but I have noticed the sparkles and the crystals so much more
Alison: because we have reached eighties prom level of gaudiness in the leotards.
Jill: True. True. All right. And in volleyball and water polo, we’re still in preliminary rounds. So we will check up on [00:45:00] who else is moving on in the knockout stage and have that for you tomorrow. Uh, we’d like to give a special thank you to our Patrion patrons. Your ongoing financial support keeps our flame alive and means the world to us.
Thank you for those who have been listening to our daily coverage and signed up for Patrion patronage. If you are interested in doing that. Go-to patrion.com/flame alive pod. All right, Alison, who is on are so focused on watch for today.
Alison: Kelly clase and Sarah sponsor will be, uh, playing against Patricia and Rebecca of Brazil.
I love how the Brazilians only go by one name. Oh, that’s going to be good.
Jill: That’s the
Alison: last of their pool play matches. Uh, Phillip Dutton will be doing the cross-country day, two of inventing, and there is more sailing with Robles.
Jill: Excellent. I’m definitely tuning into that. Cross-country because cross-country courses are just so amazing.
And as we talked about with Atlanta 1996,
Alison: you don’t go to the Olympics to be a wuss, you know, go to the Olympics to be a wimp. You go to ride the horse with a punctured lung and April.
Jill: And you’d have to go back to one of our Atlanta, one of our earlier episodes this year, where we talked about the Australian eventing team and their, their competition in Atlanta 1996 was pretty amazing.
So I am looking forward to good competition. I’m inter interested to see what the course is like and how, how it is writing in the heat. So that, that means it’s time for us to say CYO. Nara has always, you can email us@flamealivepodatgmail.com or text or voicemail us at 2 0 8 3 5 2 6 3 4 8. That’s 2 0 8.
Flame it, uh, don’t forget our Kickstarter and help us reach our goal of bringing you on the ground coverage at Beijing that’s kickstarter.com/profile slush, flame alive. So as we go out to music by mercury sunset, thank you so much for listening. And until tomorrow, keep the flame alive. .