The Tokyo 2020 wheelchair rugby tournament is over, which makes Alison very sad (she may have watched both medal bouts twice); however, a new team sport has started that looks to also be incredibly fun to watch!
Today’s action includes:
- Archery
- Athletics
- Boccia
- Equestrian
- Football 5-a-side
- Goalball
- Judo
- Powerlifting
- Rowing
- Sitting Volleyball
- Swimming
- Table Tennis
- Triathlon
- Wheelchair Basketball
- Wheelchair Fencing
- Wheelchair Rugby
- Wheelchair Tennis
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Thanks so much for listening, and until next time, keep the flame alive!
TRANSCRIPT
Tokyo 2020 – Paralympics – Day 6
Jill: [00:00:00] Konnichiwa Paralympics fans and lovers of TKFLASTAN, and welcome to day six coverage of the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics on 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 co-host Alison Brown. Alison, Konnichiwa!
Alison: Konnichiwa! So that one day off did not help me because today I could not figure out what day of the week it was. I knew we were in day six, but I couldn’t, I couldn’t decide if it was Saturday, Sunday or Monday.
Jill: Okay. That makes perfect sense to be quite honest. I don’t know what day it is anymore either. It’s just, it’s another day.
Alison: I feel like we’re a bit in, in that novel, 1984, where they changed the calendar and there was no days of the week. It’s just now we’re day 6.
Jill: Pretty much, pretty much that’s how it is, but it was a good day. I will say that it was a very good day. Really good competitions. A little fun news that I found. The Japan News reported that a 43 year old Chilean Paralympian , Francisa Mardones has been immortalized as a Barbie doll.
Jill: Isn’t that? Cool?
Alison: Well, Bebe Vio has a Barbie as well. So this is a thing. Of course she does, but I love that that Barbie is doing this.
Jill: Yeah. And Mardones represents Chile and she’s competed in wheelchair tennis before, but now she’s picked up shot put discus and javelin. But she’s here in Tokyo. She finished 10th in the F 55 discus and she competes tomorrow in seated shot-put. At 43 years old, current world record holder. And she, she competes in javelin on September 4th.
Alison: Do you know if her Barbie comes with the throwing implements because that would make it even better?
Jill: It does. And a tennis racket and [00:02:00] they even have her sponsors, they got permission to put the sponsor logos, just so on her uniforms.
Alison: That’s fantastic. I may need one.
Jill: All right. Do you have any feed beefs?
Alison: They keep stopping in the middle of competitions and just cutting me off.
Jill: W what’d you get stuck on?
Alison: I got in the middle of a rugby match.
Jill: What?
Alison: Yeah, it just, I had to switch feeds.
Jill: Oh, you’re kidding. Were you watching the OBS feed and then it cut out so that for Americans?
Alison: Yeah, for the bronze medal. And then I had to basically switch channels ,and then it happened again last night. So that happened this morning. And then it happened last night when I was watching a five-a-side, it was like in the middle of a point and it just stopped.
Jill: So yesterday again, another day where the 9:00 PM to 9:00 AM coverage started at like midnight. And it wasn’t on NBCSN because we had NASCAR Daytona 500 race here in America, and it was on the Olympic Channel for a while. And I did catch some of it. And I wonder if Carolyn Manno has a little clause in her contract where they always need to cut to table tennis, because she does love it because I was watching football five-a-side and with like three minutes left to go in the game, they cut over to table tennis.
Jill: And I get that. I think it was a medal match, but like. Can’t you pick up in the middle of the table, tennis match. It’s not going to, it’s not going to be, you got maybe five, seven minutes left on a three minute, five-a-side game.
Alison: Or, you know, could it be time delayed by five minutes so you can finish the soccer and catch up?
Jill: I don’t know. I, keep hoping that there’s going to be a day during the Paralympics where we [00:04:00] don’t have a beef about the feed, but I’m not sure that day’s ever going to come.
Alison: Well. We’re going to have beef for several more days until they start showing us some things. Until we get some archery. We’re not getting any fencing. So we’re never going to be not upset about that.
Jill: Right. We won’t get any, any TaeKwonDo. So we won’t be able to see Afghanistan’s first female competitor. And I was reading up on their story of getting to Tokyo. And the IPC has said that those two athletes will not be doing any conversations with the media while they compete, which is, I think very, very smart to shield them.
Alison: Every time this story comes up, I start tearing up and I’m just so excited about this and so thrilled. And you know, who else was thrilled? Andrew Parsons, because I saw him talking about it, He is so proud of himself that this happened, and he should be. Whatever needed to happen happened. And he’s just like, we did this!
Jill: Okay. What officiating or volunteer job would you like today?
Alison: So I was watching triathlon, and I don’t know if this was medical staff. I think it was more volunteers. They would come as each person crossed the line with a cold towel to drape over their shoulders and then additional ice and water they could pour over them. And that’s a very, that’s a mom job. Come on.
Alison: Are you feeling okay? Don’t sit down, keep walking, keep walking.
Jill: I will stay with you at triathlon. And I would like to be one of the people at the end who holds the ribbon, the finish line ribbon. I think that would be great. I think it’s an official, I think so. I’m starting to think that the red shirt people are officials and the blue shirts are volunteers. That’s my guess. But I saw that and went, oh, that’d be kind of a fun job.
Alison: And because in paratriathlon they have multiple events running at the same time. [00:06:00]Men and women are on the course at the same time, different classes. You get to do that several times.
Jill: Exactly. Exactly.
Alison: And you gotta be on it to know that that person is this class, so they’re going to be the gold medalist.
Jill: Right. Because there were people getting lapped and things like that. So you’ve got to be on the ball. I think it would be fun. And you know, you see people win.
Jill: All right before we get to today’s action, we would like to tell you a little bit about our Kickstarter campaign. Seven days left in our Kickstarter campaign. We are 40% funded. Every day we get a few more backers. So thank you so much to all of you who have been backing our campaign and telling your friends about it. This is to support our trip to Beijing, to cover the Winter Olympics and Paralympics, where we are accredited as media.
Jill: This was a little surprise to us. Accreditations are usually very competitive in media, so this was our first application and we didn’t expect to get it. So we also didn’t expect to have to create a budget to support that trip. But we’re really excited for this opportunity, not just to cover the Olympics, but when we see the coverage that the Paralympics has gotten, even though it keeps getting better and better with each edition of the Games, You hear how angry we are.
Alison: It needs help. It needs us.
Jill: And, you know, we can help make it a little bit better. So we’re really excited to be able to be there and be a podcasting presence. We’ve realized that there aren’t that many podcasts covering Paralympics, and usually those are interview- based, and I’m not sure there’s anybody else doing daily recaps like we are, and that needs to keep happening.
Jill: So please support our Kickstarter program. We need your support. You can find out more about our campaign and check out our supportor bonuses at kickstarter.com/profiles/flame alive pod. We’ve got viewing guides coming out. We’ll have pins and we’ve got postcards. We’ll send you a postcard from Beijing at different [00:08:00] levels.
Jill: All right. Today’s coverage, starting with Archery. Not that we saw it, but women’s individual competed in the compound bow in the round of 16. Then there was also mixed team action that went all the way to the medal rounds. China won the gold. Turkey won silver, and bronze went to RPC.
Jill: The gold medal match was really close. It was China, 153 to Turkey’s. 152
Alison: Can’t get any closer than that.
Jill: No, no, that must’ve been doozy to see. If you saw it. Let us know.
Jill: Moving on to athletics. Okay. We’re going to start with the jumps today. We had women’s long jump. The first class was T 12, which is a visual impairment class. Gold went to Oksana Zubkovska from Ukraine. Silver went to Sara Martinez from Spain, and bronze went to Lynda Humphrey from Algeria. In the T 37 class– and this is moderate impairment on one side of the body. Gold went to Wen Xiaoyan from China. Silver went to Jaleen Roberts from USA. Bronze went to Anna Sapozhnikova from RPC. I saw a little bit of this. Because there was an American jumping, we got to see her final jump.
Alison: Oh, thanks.
Jill: Right?.
Alison: To be, to be fair, they do that with the Olympics as well. The only way you see the whole jumping competition is if you watch the feed.
Jill: Yes, and that’s why so many of us are so excited that the feeds exist because you can do things like watch whole jumping competitions and whole throwing competitions because throws and jumps get so little love from the directors and producers of the athletics broadcasts.
Jill: In men’s high jump. This was the T [00:10:00] 47 class T 47 is a class where one arm is impaired or missing. Gold went to Roderick Townsend, from the USA. He had already won the gold medal, and he kept jumping and he got the world record. Was pretty impressive. And I did see a little bit of this, and it was getting close to the end of competition anyway, and he was just sailing over the bar. It looked like it was no big deal. So impressive.
Jill: Silver went to Nishad Kumar Nishad Kumar, who got an area of record, and bronze went to Dallas Wise from the USA.
Jill: Over in ShotPut, we had one women’s competition and two men’s competitions. For the women in the F20 class, this is intellectual impairments. Gold went to Ecuador’s Poleth Isamar Mendes Sanchez, who I believe got a world record. Silver went to Anastasiia Mynsky from Ukraine, who got an area record, and bronze went to Ecuador’s Anais Mendez who got a personal best. Nice for Ecuador and cleaning up there.
Alison: Yeah. That’s not a country that you usually see twice on a single medal stand.
Jill: In the men’s shot put F 40 class. This is for athletes who are short of stature. Gold went to nis Gnezdilov from RPC, who got a world record. Silver went to Garrah Tnaiash from Iraq, who got an area record, and bronze went to Miguel Monteiro, who got third.
Alison: I know. Miguel was slacking. At least get a PB Miguel. Come on.
Jill: I know. It’s just incredible to see all of these records, whether they’re world or Paralympic or area or national, just falling, and a lot of athletes getting their personal bests, which I also love, because it’s just nice to be able to do your best at the pinnacle of your, your sport.[00:12:00]
Jill: In the men’s ShotPut F 53 final. This is a class were athletes have significant disability in the trunk and legs. Gold went to Elvin Astanov from Azerbaijan, who got a Paralympic record. Silver went to Iran. Alireza Mokhtari Hemami, and bronze went to Czech Republic’s, Ales Kisy.
Jill: Then we moved over to discus, and there’s just one competition each for men and women. Men did the F 52 class. Now we’ll give you a result, but these are being protested. And at taping time, they are still under review. Gold has been awarded initially to Piotr Kosewicz from Poland, silver it to Velimir Sandor from Croatia and bronze to Vinod KumarVinod Kumar from India, who has been initially awarded an area record. So I’m not sure what has been protested about that. There was just, as I was looking at results, there was just a little highlighted bar that popped up and said, the results of this event had been protested. And then when you go to the event, pages has “protested” on it.
Alison: That’ll be interesting to find out what that story is. So we’ll, do a little digging and we’ll post it in the Facebook page, if we get some answers.
Jill: The women’s discus competition was the F 64 class. This is athletes who have moderate disability in their lower legs or below the knee. Gold went to Yao Juanfrom China who got a world record. Silver went to Yang Yue, from China and bronze went to Sarah ,Edmiston from Australia who got an area record.
Jill: And then the last bit of throwing competition was in the women’s javelin. This is the F 34 class. And so athletes have highly their legs are highly effected and also lower trunk or arms. And these athletes compete seated. So gold [00:14:00] went to Zou Lijuan, from China. She equaled her own world record, which she set in 2018. Silver went to Frances Herrmann from Germany, and bronze went to Marjaana Heikkinen from Finland. And I saw that. I would say yay, from Finland, but she did not look too pleased when she threw but she was cause she was the defending silver medalist from Rio. She’s a European champion. And I also want to say she is 54 years old.
Alison: Go,old ladies!
Jill: Right. I think bronze is pretty good when you’re 54.
Jill: I think bronze is pretty good, no matter what your age is, but especially when you’re 54, right. You just take that Beatles song. Will you still throw me?
Jill: Now I’m just going down the road of a tale of a javelin singing to an athlete.
Alison: It’s too early in the Paralympics for you to lose it yet. It happens on day 12.
Jill: Okay. Let’s move over to the track. First off in the 100 meters, the women had one race and the men had two. For the women, it was a T 30 for a wheelchair class final. Gold went to Hannah Cockroft from Great Britain with the world record. Silver went to Kate Adenegan from Great Britain, and bronze went to Robyn Lambird from Australia. I wanted to watch that and I didn’t get a chance because I want to see how fast they accelerate. 100 meters is not that long. Did you see this?
Alison: Very fast and do they, it is amazing how quick they go from zero to 60, as we say in theUS for cars. It’s impressive.
Jill: I will go back and find that maybe it’s on highlight. I would expect. So because when I was watching the 200 and the 400 ones, it felt like it took them a little while to get going, but that’s also, they’re working with [00:16:00] a curve right away. And, you know, the racist longer. So you got to pace yourself differently.
Alison: They do not pace themselves. They just start banging those wheels as fast as they can. It’s amazing to watch. It’s really cool.
Jill: In the men’s 100, the first race was a T 12 class, which is a visual impairment, but no guide is necessary. Gold went to Salum Ageze Kashafali from Norway, who got a world record. I saw this race and when he won, he was so excited, and it’s just like Norwegian dominance on the track is in the Paralympics too.
Alison: Now we have a paralympic Viking! Fantastic!
Jill: Silver went to Noah Malone from the USA, and bronze went to Roman Tarasov from RPC.
Jill: The second men’s 100 meter race was the T 13 final, which is also a visual impairment class that does not need a guide. Gold, went to Jason Smyth from Ireland. Yay.
Alison: We always love an Ireland medal!
Jill: Silver went to Skander Djamil Athmani from Algeria, who got an area record, and bronze went to John Carlos Mina Aponza from Colombia, who also got an area record.
Jill: Moving up to the 200 meters. We had two women’s races today. The first was the T 35 class, which is moderate impairment to the legs. And this was a repeat of the 100 meter podium from this class. Gold went to uh, Zhou Xia from China, who set a world record. Silver went to Isis Holt from Australia, who got an area record, and bronze went to Maria Lyle from Great Britain.
Jill: In the T 36 final. This is a low to moderate impairment in all four limbs class. Gold went to China’s Shi Yiting, who equaled the world record. Silver went to Danielle [00:18:00] Aitchison from New Zealand, and bronze went to Yanina Andrea Martinez from Argentina.
Jill: Then we move up to the 400 meters. There were three men’s races today. The first one was T 11, which was visually impaired. Gold. Went to Gerard Descarrega from Spain and his guide was Guillermo Rojo Gil. Silver went to Ananias Shikon go from Namibia with his guide Sem Shmianda. Bronze went to Gauthier Makundafrom France with guide Lucas Mathonat.
Jill: Then we had a T 53 class, which is a wheelchair class. Gold went to punks, a corn pale from Thailand, who set a world record.
Jill: He beats Canada’s Brett Lakatos who got an area record, but it was, it was pretty close race. And bronze went to Vitalii Gritsenko from RPC.
Jill: Then in the men’s 400 T 54 class, which is also a wheelchair race. And that’s moderate to high impairment or loss of legs. Daniel Romanchuk from USA, one by 100th of a second beating Thailand’s Athiwat Paeng-Nuea.
Jill: And bronze went to Dai Yunqiang. And the commentators were saying, how Thailand– I don’t know when, I can’t remember when this happened, but maybe one or two Paralympics ago, Thailand came out of nowhere in wheelchair racing. And they have built this huge wheelchair racing program in the country. And that’s kind of exciting to hear and watch them succeed. Cause that race was really, really close. And Daniel Romanchuk couldn’t believe he won either. It’s just like, they’re like, how do you feel? Like, I don’t know. I can’t believe it.
Alison: And Daniel Romanchukis a hockey name.
Jill: Oh yeah. It really is.
Alison: So maybe he should get [00:20:00] together and do some sled hockey.
Jill: Moving on to the 800 meters. There were two races for women, both wheelchair races. T 53 class, gold went to Madison de Rozario from Australia ,who set a Paralympic record. Silver went to Zhou Hongzhuan from China, and bronze went to Catherine Debrunner from Switzerland.
Jill: In the T 54 class gold went to Manuela Schaer from Switzerland, who set a Paralympic record. Silver went to Tatyana McFadden from USA and bronze went to Susannah Scaroni from USA.
Jill: Those two
Alison: are getting a little collection this time around aren’t they? Well, it’s not Tatiana McFadden. I think they said this was number 16 for her career of Paralympic medals. Yeah. She doesn’t fool around.
Jill: And rounding out the competition in athletics, men’s 1500 meter T 52 final. This is another wheelchair event. Gold went to Sato Tamaki from Japan, who set a Paralympic record. Silver went to Raymond Martin from the USA, who set an area record, and bronze went to Ueyonabaru Hirokazu from Japan who set a personal best. And I saw this race. Did you see this race?
Alison: I did not, but I love that Japan was one and three.
Jill: Oh yeah, because Raymond Martin was coming up and Sato just was like, no, no, no, not in my house again. You saw it. And he just of put on the gas. And won I think pretty handily by the end, but it was really great to watch.
Jill: In Boccia, we are still on pool play. Athletes have played between between two and four games. They’re going to be having pool play for another couple of days. So the quarterfinals start on Tuesday and that means maybe we’ll start seeing some action soon. We’re kind of looking. There’s a lot of people in Boccia.
Jill: Moving on to a Equestrian. We had the team test to music, and I didn’t realize this was a two day event where [00:22:00] the teams choose who is going to ride. They get three riders and it’s a mixture of grades.
Alison: Yes.
Jill: But grades one through three competed yesterday, and grades four and five competed today. And then combined all everything and got the total score. So sometimes you had one rider today. Sometimes you had two for a team. It just depended on how the teams made up their composition.
Jill: Did you watch? I watched a little bit of this.
Alison: I haven’t seen this yet cause I was too busy watching multiple rugby games multiple times. Were there excellent music choices?
Jill: Yeah. And they kept saying, you know, music is not a factor in this. It’s just kind of background music in a way. They don’t judge. They’re just basically judging what the athlete is able to do with the horse and the horse’s movements. If you look at dressage and you look at Olympic dressage, it is amazing because, and you don’t understand how amazing it is until you watch not so good able-bodied dressage. I have done that to try to understand that.
Jill: And it’s oh, like, oh, you appreciate the people at the top end a lot. Paralympic dressage, the thing here, I noticed that you could kind of see mistakes. The commentators were really good about pointing them out, but you could still like, oh, now I see what they’re talking about. And that kind of helped.
Jill: And it’s also interesting because I think equestrian, they’re looking at what you can do with the horse and it doesn’t really matter what your disability is. Can you meet the test requirements?
Alison: Right. They’re really judging the movements of the horse, even in able-bodied dressage. As long as you sit nicely on the horse, they’re not staring at you. They’re looking at the horse.
Jill: Exactly. The gold went to Great Britain, which was a surprise. Right before I logged on with you, I watched Sophie Wells do her test, and she did really well. [00:24:00] And they said, well, even if she doesn’t do really well, here’s the thing, the Great British riders pretty much are all on new horses, like between Rio and here with the year delay, situation where the horse just wasn’t going to be competitive.
Alison: The horse aged out.
Jill: Yeah. So they all, you know, you have to build up this partnership with a new horse rather quickly. And I was impressed that they walked away with a gold. Silver went to Netherlands, and the USA took the bronze.
Alison: What I think is interesting about this podium is, this is an Olympic podium in terms of the countries. And in a lot of sports, we’re seeing different countries are very good in sports at the Olympics versus the Paralympics. You’ll see different dominance, but equestrian, the Brits, the Dutch and the Americans. The only one who’s missing here are the Australians.
Jill: Right? Action started in football Did you see any of this?
Alison: I did see this. I saw some of the Brazil/ China match. I mean, it’s, it’s football. The basics are the same, but obviously, because they’re visually impaired, there was a lot more falling over each other, which was disconcerting. I was worried.
Jill: Disconcerting to you for me, I was kind of like, If you’re sad that wheelchair rugby is ending, you just go watch football five-a-side. You will get the same kind of knock around competition. I loved it. And, you know I don’t like Olympic football. I just thought it was so fascinating that you put these athletes who are visually impaired, put them with a ball that jingles, and they know where, where it is. And can put it into a goal. That is the other thing. So I have to watch more cause I want to understand like how they understand , the length and the width of the court and how they put themselves spatially.[00:26:00] To accommodate the visual impairments, there’s walls on the side, so there’s no side out of bounds. There’s just out of bounds in the back.
Jill: But my favorite part, and this would be total job I would take except for they are a member of the team, is when there’s a penalty kick. But during this China, Brazil game, which might’ve been the best one to tune into because the Brazilians are so passionate.
Alison: You know, again, this is one of those times where you see a country being very good, both able-bodied and Paralympic.
Jill: Yes.
Alison: Like they’re gonna play football no matter who you are.
Jill: There was a point where Brazil had to take a penalty kick, the referee looked like he was herding cats. And he’s like talking to the player, who’s making the kick. Okay. No, get the ball on the spot. You have to get the ball on the spot. And then there’s this guy who has this job that I will explain momentarily. And he started doing the job too soon. And the referee was like, no, you do that. When I tell you to. You can just see, I’m like you go here. And there’s a lot of hands on connection with the referees and the players when play stops because they do kind of have to put them into the position that they need to be in to , to make the action start properly.
Jill: But when the penalty kicker is set up, there’s a person who stands behind the goal with like a wrench and he knocks each side of the goal all the way up and down and knocks the one side, he runs around to the other side and he’s like, Hey Carlos! And he bats the other side of the goal so that the player can get an image of how wide the goal is and know where to kick for the penalty kick.
Jill: And, oh my gosh, I saw that and went, what is he doing? And then I figured it out. And on one of the penalty, you know, he made the, the penalty kick and the Brazilian team member who was an I say team member, the support staff, I don’t know who is in this position on the team, but [00:28:00]just comes running around and everybody’s doing the whole, You made the goal! We’re all getting in a big group hug thing. And he was so excited. It’s fantastic!
Alison: When I was watching the the Brazilian goal banger, for lack of a better word, he was very aggressive and kind of annoyed. Like, I don’t think he likes that task.
Jill: Oh, well give it to me, man!
Alison: It’s like, I’m banging the goal. I may have just been his expression, but something about when he did it, he was just like, yeah, here I am banging a wrench against a goal. What is going on?
Alison: But yes, the Brazilians were fantastic, and the Chinese were, it seemed like they sort of tried to bring their energy to match the Brazilians, which was fun to watch.
Jill: Hmm. Yes. But honestly, I was enthralled with football five a side in a way I did not anticipate, and I cannot wait to watch more.
Jill: The other thing I noticed is that this is a men’s only competition. So ladies.
Jill: I noticed that as well.
Jill: Ladies let’s go, or maybe we can make it a mixed competition, but we can’t let them have all the fun.
Alison: No.
Jill: So Brazil beat China three to zero. Also in preliminary action, japan defeated France four to zero. Argentina defeated Morocco two to one, and Spain defeated Thailand one to zero.
Jill: Moving over to a group play in goalball. On the men’s side. Brazil defeated Japan, eight to three. Ukraine defeated Belgium four to two. USA defeated Algeria 13 to five.
Jill: And for the women, Japan defeated Egypt 10 to zero. China defeated Israel 4 to 1. Australia defeated RPC four to one. I did not get to see any goalball overnight.
Alison: I have only seen women’s goalballfor some reason. I have yet to see a men’s match. So I’ll have to make a point of that today, but I love, I love goalball.
Alison: I know the American women have been doing very well. . And Amanda Dennis is [00:30:00] adorable and so good, but yes, I’m getting used to this, and I think we mentioned yesterday Lisa O’Sullivan, who is the announcer for goalball. You will understand what’s happening because of her. And you will have fun because of her. Excellent, excellent job, Lisa.
Jill: We have one more day of group play before the quarter finals, but four out of five teams from each group move on. So you just have to worry about not being last.
Jill: Moving over to judo. It was the last day of competition for judo. Fun fact we learned while watching is that some of the competitors have big red dots on their gis, like on the sleeves, around the elbow. And that signifies that they have total blindness. So the ref will guide them off and on the tatami or into place when they have to get back to the starting position because both Ben and I wondered like why a, why are there dots and B you see that one person gets guided onto the tatami, but not necessarily both of them. So that was a nice question to answer.
Jill: On the men’s side, we had three weight class that started at 90 kilos. Gold went to Vahid Nouri from Iran. Silver went to Elliott Stewart from Great Britain. Bronzes went to Helios Latchoumanaya from France and Oleksandr Nazarenko from Ukraine.
Jill: In the 100 kilo class, gold went to Christopher Skelley from Great Britain. Silver went to Ben Goodrich from USA. Bronzes went to Sharif Khalilov from Uzbekistan and, Anatolii Shevchenko from RPC.
Jill: Okay. So Ben said, I just saw that there was some kind of nine minute judo bout. We have to watch this. So he found it, and it was Ben Goodrich versus Brazil’s Antonio Tenorio da Silva is 50 years old.
Jill: He has been competing at the Paralympics since [00:32:00] Atlanta 1996. So half of his life has been spent as a Paralympian. He has four gold medals, he’s the defending silver medalist. And he also has a bronze. And it’s funny because as he’s aged, he’s moved up in weight class,
Alison: Haven’t we all?
Jill: So we watched this match, and it really was nothing happened, or no action enough during the standard regulation time. So they moved over to golden score, and golden store just kept going and going and going. And finally Goodrich got DaSilva down in a way that he tapped out, and that’s when Goodrich got an ippon, and the match was over. And we’re just like, wow, but you could see how much that took out of both competitors. So I haven’t gotten to see the gold medal match yet, but I’m wondering if Goodrich was just really tired from his previous bout. And sadly Silva, he was in the running for bronze, but he did lose. I’m curious to see if he’ll come back for Paris.
Alison: Might as well.
Jill: Then in the men’s over 100 kilo class, gold went to Iran, Mohammadreza Kheirollahzadeh. Silver went to Revaz Chikoidze from Georgia, and bronzes went to Ilham Zakiyev from Azerbaijan and Choi Gwang Geun from Korea.
Alison: I want to mention something that I noticed today. Azerbaijan is sixth on the medal table for the Paralympics.
Jill: Wow. I had not realized that, but we have been saying Azerbaijan a lot.
Alison: Exactly. So I just took a quick look because I was thinking, oh, we’ve been seeing some different countries. And then I said to myself, that’s impressive. And we’ll see how that shakes out with another week to go.
Jill: [00:34:00] In the women’s classes, we had the 70 kilos class. Gold went to Alana Maldonado from Brazil. Silver went to Ina Kaldani from Georgia. Bronzes went to Ogawa Kazusa from Japan and Lenia Fabiola Ruvalcaba Alvarez, who was from Mexico, who was the defending gold medalist. So she’s walking away with another medal in two games.
Jill: In the women’s plus 70 kilos, gold went to Dursadaf Karimova from Azerbaijan. Silver went to Zarina Baibatina from Kazakhstan, and bronzes went to Meg Emmerich from Brazil and Carolina, Costa from Italy.
Jill: Moving over to power lifting. Both men and women had two different classes. So for the men’s we had the 88 kilo class. Gold went to Jordan’s Abdelkareem Mohammed Ahmed Khattab, who set a Paralympic record with the best lift of 231 kilos. I know! Silver went to Ye Jixiong from China whose best lift was 230 kilos. Bronze went to Hany Abdelhadyfrom Egypt whose best lift was 214 kilos.
Jill: And in the men’s 97 kilo class, gold went to Yan Panpan from China whose best lift was 227 kilos. Silver went to Seyedhmed Solhipourvanji from Iran, whose best lift was 222 kilos, and bronze went to Fabio Torres from Colombia, whose best lift was 221 kids.
Jill: Over on the women’s side, the first class we had was a 73 kilos. Gold went to Mariana D’andrea from Brazil, whose best to lift was 137 kilos. Silver went to Xu Lilil from China whose best lift was 134 kilos. Bronze went to Souhad Ghazouani [00:36:00] from France, whose best lift was 132.
Jill: And in the women’s 79 kilo class, gold went to Bose Omolayo from Nigeria whose best lift was 141 kilos, which was a Paralympic record. Silver went to Ukraine’s Nataliia Oliinyk, whose best lift was 133 kilos. Bronze went to Vera Muratova from RPC, whose best lift was 132. That’s a lot of weight to lift.
Alison: My arms hurt just reading that.
Jill: In rowing, the rowing competition ended today. We had women’s and men single sculls, and some mixed double skulls and mixed Coxed four. In the PR one w X one class for the women’s single sculls the gold went to Birgit Lovise Roekkum Skarstein from Norway. Silver went to Moran Samuel from Israel ,and bronze went to Nathalie Benoit from France. I saw part of this race. Oh my gosh.
Alison: Yeah. Skarstein was just out there, and there was no way she was going to lose. It was just beautiful, beautiful rowing.
Jill: And I hadn’t realized this, but the regatta course is 2000 meters, which is for the first time, the same distance as the Olympic distance. So they’re going farther. This seemed to be a class where you couldn’t use your legs and it’s all upper. So as we went rowing with Tessa Gobbo, and it was use your legs to push a lot, and then you saw Birgit Skarstein’s upper body and how jacked she was.
Jill: I mean, there was not a muscle that wasn’t enormous, and she was so strong and so powerful. It just, I think I had my mouth open the whole time.
Alison: And what I thought was interesting was Skarstein… she had an issue with her [00:38:00]boat that it wasn’t approved between the heats and the finals.
Alison: So she had to actually adjust the seat because there was some movement in the seat. And the officials said, no, that’s too much of an advantage.
Jill: Oh, that’s right. Is that because they couldn’t, they can’t use their, their lower body. And so the seat has to remain fixed?
Alison: Right. So, and this was just the back of the seat.
Alison: So I guess it’s how much support you get. So if your back moves a little bit, it allows your upper body to generate more power. I mean, think about a rowing machine, how the seat moves back and forth so that you can generate more power. So yeah, it changed my, boat. It’s fine. I’ll still win the gold medal without a problem.
Jill: In the PR one men single sculls, PR one M one X final, gold went to Roman Polianskyi from Ukraine. Silver went to Eric Horrie from Australia, and bronze went to Rene Campos Pereira from Brazil.
Alison: There was something really funny. The announcer was having a lot of trouble, not saying Roman Polanski. And he said it a few times and then he would correct himself. And I was like, I don’t… it’s okay. It, we know it’s not the movie director with the sketchy past. It’s this amazingly jacked rower? We’re good.
Jill: Then we had the PR two mixed doubles sculls. And the gold went to Great Britain. Silver went to Netherlands and bronze went to China. And then finally it was the PR three mixed coxed 4. Gold went to Great Britain. Silver went to USA, and bronze went to France. Rowing you’ve come and gone.
Jill: Moving over to sitting volleyball. We had some preliminary men, the RPC defeated Bosnia and Herzegovina [00:40:00] three to zero. Egypt defeated Japan three to zero. For the women, Canada defeated Italy three to one, and Brazil defeated Japan three to zero. Another sport that we can’t see yet.
Jill: Over in the swimming venue we had starting with backstroke. It was the men’s and women’s 50 meters S three class. So athletes’, legs and trunks are highly effected by their impairments. In the men’s side, gold went to Zou Lianking from China. Silver went to Denys Ostapchenko from Ukraine, and bronze went to Diego Lopez Diaz from Mexico. For the women, gold went to Arjola Trimi from Italy. Silver went to Ellie Challis from Great Britain and bronze went to Iullia Shushova from RPC.
Jill: Then we moved over to 100 meter breaststroke. Men and women each had two races. The first one was the SB four, which was a moderate disability to whole body or high degree to the legs and trunk. Dimitri Cherniaev from RPC won gold. Moises Fuentes Garcia from Colombia won silver, and Antonios Tsapatakis from Greece won bronze.
Jill: For the women’s version of this race, gold went to Fanni Illes from Hungary. Silver went to Giulia Ghiretti from Italy and Yao Cuan from China won a bronze.
Jill: Then the next class that was up was the SB 14, which is intellectually impaired for the men. Yamaguchi Naohide from Japan won gold. Silver went to Jake Michel from Australia, and bronze went to Scott Quinn from Great Britain. For the women, Michelle Alonso Morales from Spain won gold. Louise Fides from Great Britain won silver, and Beatriz Borges [00:42:00] Carneiro from Brazil, won bronze.
Jill: Then we had four races in the 50 meter freestyle. Men started out with S nine, which is low-level coordinations in the arms or legs or high degree of impairment in one leg. Gold went to Simone Barlaam from Italy. Silver went to Denis Tarasov from RPC and bronze went to Jamal Hill from USA. For the S 13 class, which is a limited visual impairment, gold went to Ihar Boki from Bellarus. He’s really cleaning up. That’s like his third gold medal.
Alison: We keep saying that name.
Jill: Silver went to Illia Yaremenko from Ukraine and bronze went to Maxim Veraksa Ukraine. For the women, their first class was S 11. This was a rescheduled race, I believe from day four. So this was total visual impairment. Gold went to Ma Jia from China. Silver went to Li Guizhi from China and bronze went to Karolina Pelendritou from Cyprus And we haven’t heard Cyprus.
Alison: I don’t think we have in either the Olympics or the Paralympics before.
Jill: Love it when the small countries win medals.
Jill: And then the women had S 13 limited visual impairment class, Maria Carolina Gomes Santiago from Brazil won gold. Anna Krivsh ina from RPC won, silver and Carlotta Gilli from Italy won bronze.
Jill: In freestyle. Men’s had one 200 meter freestyle race for the S two class. Gold went to Gabriel Geraldo Dos Santos Araujo from Brazil. Silver went to Alberto Abarza from Chile and bronze went to Vladimir Danilenko from RPC.
Jill: Then we had the 400 meter freestyle. Men and women each had one race in the S seven class, which as we explained yesterday, it was kind of a hodgepodge of impairments. So you could have missing limbs missing [00:44:00] legs, low impairment, or low ability in limbs. You could have moderate impairment on a side. You could be short of stature. So it’s a wide variety of impairments competing together. For the men. Mark Malyar from Israel won gold, Andril Trusov from Ukraine, won silver and Evan Austin from USA won bronze.
Jill: For the women, McKenzie Coan won gold. Giulia Terzi from Italy, won silver and Julia Gaffney from USA, won bronze. Mackenzie and Julia, are training partners. So that was very nice.
Alison: And Mackenzie is one of those faces of Team USA. So I’m sure there’s always a sigh of relief when one of your big stars actually wins the medal you expect them to.
Jill: Right. And I wonder if there’s also a sigh of relief on her end of, oh, I lived up to the pressure. But she was very happy to, to win. Who’s not happy to win? Oh, except for that guy from Hungary.
Jill: You still
Alison: haven’t gotten over that. Have you?
Jill: No, I haven’t. The fact that I remember that moment is that’s impressive at this point in the competition. That I remember anything from the Olympics is pretty good.
Jill: The final event of the program today was the women’s four by 100 freestyle relay. This is a 34 points race. So the total of everyone’s classification added together can not add up to more than 34 points. Interesting because you think of strategy and speed and trying to, to get the right combination of everyone in this one, race. This was something because the USA finished first, but got disqualified because the second swimmer left the block too early and started the race before the first swimmer touched the wall.
Jill: This also happened to Great Britain. Yeah. So that was, that’s because the commentator said, oh, those people with lots [00:46:00] of paperwork and clipboards will have plenty of meetings to discuss what happened and why, because there was a protest lodged, but I think it got resolved pretty quickly because those results are standing. So when the disqualifications are all said and done, Italy got the gold, Australia took silver and Canada won bronze.
Jill: Okay, moving over to table tennis. We had a lot of singles victories today.
Jill: So let’s start with the Ws three class. This is a class where the competitors compete in a locked wheelchair. The women, it’s the women’s side. So the gold went to Xue Juan from China. Silver went to Alena Kanova from Slovakia, and bronzes went to Lee Mi Gyu and Yoon Jiyu, both from Korea.
Jill: In the Ws four class. This is a wheelchair that allows for sideways movement. Gold went to Xhou Ying from China. Silver went to Bhaviniaben Hasmukhbai Patel from India. Yay, India. They were, I saw that on social media, they were thrilled to win a medal. And bronzes went to Gu Xiaodan and Zhang Miao, from, both from China.
Jill: Then we moved up to Ws five class. That’s a wheelchair that allows for full movement. Gold went to Xhang Bianfrom China, silver went to Pan Jiamin from China and bronzes went to Khetam Abu Awadfrom Jordan and Jung Young from Korea.
Jill: For the men’s Ms. Five class, gold went to Valentin Baus from Germany. Silver went to Cao Ningning from China and bronze went to Jack Hunter Spivery from Great Britain and Ali Ozturk from Turkey.
Jill: Moving up to the Ms seven class. So this is a low degree of impairment across your entire body [00:48:00] or moderate, moderate impairment in arms or legs. And now we’re at standing classes, correct?
Alison: Yes.
Jill: Okay. Gold went to Yan Shuo from China. Silver went to William Bailey from Great Britain. Bronzes went to Maksym Chudzicki from Poland and the Liao Keli from China.
Jill: For the Ws eight class in the women’s side. This is now a low level of impairment in both arms or both legs, a moderate impairment in one leg or your missing legs and use prosthetics.
Jill: Gold went to Mao Jingdian from China. Silver went to Huang Wenjuan from China and bronze went to Aida Dahlen from Norway and Thu Kamkasophou from France.
Jill: Moving up to the, the Ms. 10 class, which is a moderate disability in the trunk. One foot, one hand, or you’re missing one leg or one arm. Gold went to Patryk Chojnowski from Poland. Silver went to Mateo Boheas from France. Bronzes went to David Jacobs from Indonesia and Filip Radovic from Montenegro. Montenegro! Nice!
Jill: And in the S M S 11 class, this is intellectual impairments. For the men, gold went to Peter Palos from Hungary. Silver went to Samuel Phillip Von Einem from Austria.
Jill: Bronzes went to Florian Van Acker from Belgium and Lucas Creange from France. Table tennis is huge. That is a huge sport.
Alison: A lot of classes, a lot of players, and just many, many, many tables for someone to clean. Get to ait, Jill, with your bag of supplies.[00:50:00]
Jill: Moving over to triathlon. We had four more races today, two for women, two for men. The first was the P T WC class for both men and women. This is moderate disability in either the legs and trunk or in the arms and shoulders. And this is a wheelchair class.
Jill: For the women, gold went Kendall Gretsch from USA. Silver went to Lauren Parker from Australia and bronze went to Eva Maria Moral Pedrero from Spain.
Alison: This was amazing. So there is a 100th of a second difference between gold and silver in a triathlon. In a triathlon!
Jill: It was impressive because Kendall Gretsch was a little bit behind too.
Alison: She passed Lauren Parker in that, I don’t know, maybe the last 10 meters. It was right at the end, surged across the line. You rarely see that kind of finish in, in this long of a race.
Jill: It was so impressive. And we’re going to see clips about this for days. I know. And did you know that this class was not competed in Rio? So Kendall Gretsch said, ah, let me go try biathlon and went and competed in So she’s getting ready for Beijing when she gets home.
Alison: Yeah, they talked about that, that, oh, you know, some people take a month off and they’re like, oh, or you’re Kendall, Gretsch, you’re starting on Monday to train for Beijing.
Alison: But I do want to mention a group that she mentioned, which is called Dare2Tri, which what it’s, a nonprofit organization based out of Chicago that gets people with disabilities into triathlon. And it was the organization that she worked with when she started on her journey into disability sports, and they had a huge [00:52:00] watch party that they showed.
Alison: And it’s just it’s. I did a little reading about it. Amazing, amazing organization. So definitely worth checking out.
Jill: On the men’s side. Gold went to Jetze Plat from Netherlands. Silver went to Florian Brungraber from Austria and bronze went to Giovanni Achenza from Italy 50 years old.
Alison: Old Italian man scooping down the end there, it was fantastic!
Jill: In the PTs five class, this is a low degree of disability in one leg, both arms or both forearms or a high degree of impairment in one foot or ankle goal for the women. Gold went to Lauren Steadman from Great Britain. Silver went to Grace Norman from the USA.
Jill: Bronze went to Claire. Cashmore from Great Britain. It just like, again, the British team in triathlon has been phenomenal.
Alison: The Olympians and the Paralympians of the British triathlon team, all trained together.
Jill: That makes sense why they’re so good on both sides.
Jill: For the men. Gold went to Martin Schultz from Germany. Silver went to George Peasgood from Great Britain. And bronze went to Stefan, Daniel from Canada. And Schultz is a repeat gold medal from, from Rio. So congratulations, double gold medalist. That’s nice. I’m very curious to see what happens with Paris being only three years away and how that affects athletes decisions to keep competing or choose to retire.
Jill: In wheelchair basketball we are still in preliminary rounds. On the women’s side. Netherlands defeated Spain 63 to 24. Germany defeated Japan 59 to 54. USA defeated Algeria 62 to 21 [00:54:00] and Canada defeated Australia 76 to 37. Wow. And for the men, Great Britain defeated Iran 69 to 57. Turkey defeated Colombia, 80 to 38. Germany defeated Algeria, 71 to 50. USA defeated Australia 66 to 38, and Spain defeated Japan 79 to 61.
Jill: In wheelchair fencing, it was the men’s and women’s foil team competition. So for the men, gold went to China. Silver went to Great Britain and bronze went to France. For the women, China beat Italy 45 to 41, even though our F our favorite Bebe Vio did extremely well in her matches just the whole team together wasn’t quite the same as China today. Silver went to Italy, Hungary took bronze.
Jill: And we finished the wheelchair rugby competition today. Gold went to Great Britain. They beat the USA for the silver and Japan took the bronze, beating Australia. And it was the first time in a long time or ever that Australia has gone home with no medal.
Alison: Well, they’re the two time defending gold medalists and they just kind of fell apart in this match, which was upsetting to see.
Alison: And it was very upsetting to Mark Zupan, who was one of the NBC announcers and was also part of the 2008 USA team. And watching Australia fall apart, he was trying to both remain professional, and yet there was a little part of him that became the angry dad on the sidelines of a kid’s basketball game.
Alison: Where he wanted, he was scolding some of the Australian players. He was getting upset with them. He was, you know, telling them how messy they were playing. But then on the other hand, he was [00:56:00] sympathizing. Cause he knew that this was a struggle for some reason, you know, whatever had happened on the Australian team.
Alison: And if you have a chance to go back because I did watch this match twice, actually I watch both because I’ve become obsessed. I watched both medal matches twice, which is why I didn’t see anything else. One with the NBC commentators and one with the OBS commentators, and you will get a very different feel for the matches.
Jill: Really? How so?
Alison: Okay. So. NBC commentators are very, to be fair, very pro team USA. Oh yes. So when you were watching certainly the gold medal match, it was all about, and Mark Zupan knows all these guys very well. So he was coaching and being team dad. At the OBS team, I believe they’re both Australian. And so they did not get upset at the bronze medal match, which surprised me. They did get frustrated. Just the Australians were not playing well, but when you get to the gold medal match, which was a great match and such amazing play, they are the guys who are watching the kid’s basketball game, but don’t actually have kids in the basketball game.
Alison: So they’re just excited for the kids doing really well. It’s like their kids have, you know, the team Australia is not in this game, so they’re okay. And they’re cheering for everybody. So it’s, it was an interesting take, but what I will say was what great play was in that gold medal match and how heartbroken the Americans were, was a little hard to watch.
Alison: But then the British team who had never won a medal in wheelchair rugby before were so thrilled. So it was kind of like the Olympic softball, gold medal match with Japan and the U S where I am heartbroken and thrilled at the same time.
Jill: Yeah. I understand where you’re coming from. And when, by the [00:58:00] time, when I woke up from my nap and discovered that the game was almost over Mark’s Zupin was saying just USA looked tired at that point. And I wondered how much the physicality of their semi-final bout contributed to their performance in the gold medal match. But Great Britain, like you say, first European country to win a Paralympic gold. So, how was the medal ceremony? Did you watch it?
Alison: I did watch the medal ceremony. So there’s an, and I don’t know if this will happen for other team sports as well. The team nominates somebody to present them with their medals to actually put them on their necks. And each of these teams chose their team manager. Two of whom were women. Which had a nice feel to it. And the love of the team manager for their players was so apparent. There was a lot of crying. There was a lot of hugging. It was very sweet. Andrew Parsons was there. He knows this is the, the star sport that is coming out of this games. This has gotten so much attention. And yeah, the USA team was very sad to get a silver, which is heartbreaking because you’ve got a silver. You got a silver, but they’ve gotten silver before and they didn’t want silver.
Jill: Right, right. Again, Paris is only three years away.
Alison: I think we’ll see a lot of these guys back, a lot of these guys.
Jill: And finally in wheelchair tennis, we had second round action for men’s singles and doubles, and we had women’s doubles quarterfinals. And there was also quarterfinals in quad doubles. The heat has really played with wheelchair tennis and the scheduling The only benefit I see to this. And the heat issue is that sometimes the feed goes on a little longer, so you can catch up in the morning.
Jill: And it’s nice. I do love watching wheelchair tennis. It’s fun to watch the quad doubles [01:00:00] semi-finals are set. So Australia Australia’s Alcott and Davidson defeated Japan’s Moroishi and Sugeno, 6-2, 6-4., Netherlands Shorter and Vinks defeated Great Britain’s Cotterill and Lapthorne 6-0, 6-2. So it will be Australia versus Netherlands for the gold and Japan versus Great Britain for the bronze.
Jill: We’d like to take a second and think our Patreon patrons. These are ongoing contributors who help the show’s financial needs greatly. Thanks to the ones that we’ve gotten during the Olympics and Paralympics, we’ve been able to start offering transcripts, which we’ve had every day since the Paralympics. And we will continue that in going forward in the future. And we are so excited to be able to do that. It makes the show accessible to more people. So thank you so much, patrons. If you would like to make an ongoing contribution to the show, check out our Patreon page at Patreon.com slash flame alive pod. TKFLASTAN Watch!
Alison: McKenna Geer competes in the R4 mixed air rifle standing.
Jill: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Go McKenna!.
Jill: Are we
Alison: going to get to see it? Who knows.
Jill: I know maybe because listener Meredith and super-fan, Sarah are going to the USOPC watch party because Meredith knows shooter Taylor Farmer.
Alison: Well, they’ll get to see it. Will, we get to see it?
Jill: I don’t know, but we’ll get news otherwise. So it it’s time to say sayonara. As always.
Jill: You can email us@flamealivepotatgmail.com, text or voicemail us at 2 0 8 3 5 2 6 3 4 8. That’s 2 0 8. Flame it. We are @flamealivepodon social I’m on Twitter. Alison is on [01:02:00] Insta and Facebook. So get at us there. And if you’re not in our, Keep the Flame Alivefacebook group, you are missing out. So please join in the fun there, please.
Jill: Don’t forget our Kickstarter. Just one week left to help us reach our goal of bringing you on the ground coverage at Beijing. That’s kickstarter.com/profile/ flame alive pod. As we go out to music by Mercury Sunset, thank you so much for listening and until tomorrow, keep the flame alive.
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