The Tokyo 2020 Paralympics are here! We’re back with our daily coverage of all of the action, starting with today’s Opening Ceremonies. Was there a performance? Did it make sense? Did it tug at our heartstrings? How were the Parade of Nations uniforms? And how many tissues does it take to get through a cauldron lighting? All this and more!
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TRANSCRIPT
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Tokyo 2020 – Paralympics – Day 1
Jill: [00:00:00] Konnichiwa, Paralympics fans and lovers of TKFLASTAN and 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 co-host Alison Brown. Alison, Konnichiwa!
Alison: Konnichiwa. I’ve missed you.
Alison: I think this is the longest we haven’t spoken to each other, certainly in the pandemic, possibly since we started the show.
Jill: Yeah.
Jill: Likely like we took a whole week off and was very little contact between us.,
Alison: we’re all still okay. We are one piece. We’re back on Tokyo time.
Jill: For better or for worse,
Alison: For better or for worse.
Jill: And so today, it was the opening ceremonies for the Paralympic games. Very exciting. We will break it down for you, but before we get to today’s action, we want to tell you about our Kickstarter campaign.
Jill: We [00:01:00] surprisingly got media accreditations for the Winter Olympics and Paralympics in Beijing. Those are, oh, My notes say less than 200 days, but it’s closer to like 150. It’s really getting close, but we are really excited for the opportunity to go, except for the fact that we had to figure out a way to get there.
Jill: And we are an independent podcast on a shoestring budget and those shoestrings aren’t long enough to extend, to cover on the ground coverage at Beijing. So we are having a Kickstarter campaign and we need your support to get this accomplished. You can find out more about our campaign, check out our supporter bonuses such as we’re having pins made up for Beijing. And we are sending postcards from Beijing. So, check out those bonuses and more at kickstarter.com/profile/flame alive pod. This campaign, if you’ve been listening to our Olympics coverage, it started at the Olympics. We are close to 40% funded, which is amazing. So thank you so much to [00:02:00] everybody who’s already supported us so far and keep it going.
Jill: If you haven’t given yet, please consider giving. If you’ve already given, please share this with your friends so that we can make this happen.
Jill: Again. That’s kickstarter.com/profile/flame alive pod.
Jill: All right. Opening ceremonies. We had an actual, like a real opening ceremonies compared to
Jill: the Olympics.
Alison: I know it felt like they did not modify this show.
Jill: No. Well, and my guess is that the modifications happened because different people dropped out or were fired from the Olympic ceremony right before it went on.
Alison: Right. We haven’t heard as much controversy around, the Paralympic preparations though many in the organizing committee are the same, you know, it was still Hashimoto Seiko as the head of the committee. So some of those firings applied to both, but gee, what a shocker, the Paralympics were a little more sensitive to dealing with these kinds of issues.
Alison: But so overall, I’m going to [00:03:00] say so happy with these opening ceremonies.
Jill: I think they were beautiful and they had a concept of, we have wings, the big overarching story, which I loved how they did this because they had a story that went through the thing. So you saw a little segment of the story and then it went away and they had ceremonial stuff going on.
Jill: And then you brought the story back. So it wasn’t like a big chunk of performance. It was just sprinkled
Jill: in throughout.
Alison: You know, this is one of the complaints we had in the opening ceremonies that they had that building segment. They had a Kabuki segment, and it didn’t have any cohesion to it. And this one winged plane story was cohesion throughout.
Alison: And it was a beautiful story. Yes, it was heavy handed and the metaphor was obvious. Fine. I don’t care. It worked because it’s an opening ceremony. You can’t do nuance and subtlety in a stadium built for 65,000 people.
Jill: Right.
Alison: It’s gotta be obvious. And man, when that one winged, plane came [00:04:00] out the first time with that beautiful little girl.
Alison: It got me right away. And I started crying
Alison: and I’m like, come on. They haven’t even done the little story yet. And you’re already crying. This is going to be a long ceremony.
Jill: Well, so the theme was, we have wings and it was set in para airport. So there was a lot of airport imagery around, and then the main character was this 13 year old girl namedYui Wago, who uses a wheelchair and has upper and lower limb disorder. And I had heard the commentator say like she really was training to be able to do the final blast down the runway. So her story was that she was a one winged plane who dreamed of taking flight, but was very afraid to do so.
Jill: So her community and supporters had to show her the light that was within her to help make her fly.
Alison: Now in the first segment, when they [00:05:00] first introduce, the para airport, I was a little concerned that it was an unfortunate reference given pandemic and how many people can’t travel and how many people can’t fly.
Alison: But clearly this was an airport that took you to Willy Wonka land. It was a very bizarre airport. I think flights would be a lot more fun if that was the staff at JFK or O’Hare. Especially the guys on stilts that lit up. If they directed the planes out, I think people would be a lot less irritated with delays, but then once we got into the story, all the images made sense
Jill: Yeah, it was just really nice and you knew what was going to happen. And what they were able to do was really take advantage of the floor that could do projection mapping. And so you had gears on the floor, you, it became the runways, it– so much you can do with this technology. That was so effective [00:06:00] that I thought it was very, very, very cool.
Alison: And one of the complaints we had about the opening ceremonies for the Olympics was it wasn’t Japanese enough. And even though any other country could have done this same story of the one wing plane, the way they did it, I thought felt like it brought in a lot of Japanese pop culture.
Jill: Yeah. I would agree with just the music. They had a DJ, and they had dancers. It’s just a lot of different things that had it had a little Japanese feel without being too heavy handed on. This is Japanese culture.
Alison: Like could anybody else have done the driver of the dazzling bus?
Alison: What a fantastic character. I almost wish he had stuck around longer because they would show him. And I’m like, that’s sort of taking in a lot of American movies. They use the very bad stereotype of kind of the grand old Asian wizard[00:07:00] kind of image, but this was turning it on its head, and Japan is using that image of, of this Japanese wise man that literally lit up in Technicolor.
Jill: Right. And, uh, describe what the bus was for.
Alison: So the bus. So she’s trying to that the one wing plane is trying to get the courage to fly and she runs away from the airport at one point in the story because she just can’t do it.
Alison: And then this, they called it the dazzling bus and it is a double decker bus, all lit up with electric guitarists in the lower deck doing this. ..They were fantastic doing this wild 80’s hair metal kind of guitar playing. And the driver is just this lit up man, his with this amazing, huge white wig and everything’s lighting up and everything is flashing and he doesn’t say anything.
Alison: He just makes this face like you [00:08:00] can do it.
Alison: I just love the whole image and again, yes, it was heavy handed, but it’s an opening ceremony. It has to be obvious.
Jill: Right. And I think the, the, the big question for me was, okay, is she just going to race down the runway and they’ll do the takeoff via light imagery, or are they going to actually manage to hook her up to wires and cables and make her fly.
Alison: That was my one disappointment that she didn’t actually fly. I said th I mean, we’ve got the technology. We have a, uh, dazzling bus. We have a light up floor. Can we make her get off the ground? But they did it with lights and imagery. So that was my one tiny little disappointment.
Jill: Right. Because so many opening ceremonies we’ve seen over and over again, the little kid main character flying through the air for some reason or another. And, uh, I, I agree with you. I was kind of sad that they couldn’t make her physically fly, but she did get to propel herself down as much as she could down this runway. And the lighting [00:09:00] effects were really, really cool. That’s the one thing like, oh, they did such a good job with the lighting versus would be cool to see her fly.
Alison: Okay, so the pop culture references that I wrote down in terms of what this show is a combination of. It was a steam punk, Tommy, Starlight Express at Charlie’s chocolate factory.
Jill: That’s pretty good.
Jill: I want the light up guy. Who’s on stilts to be at JFK next time I got a fly out, man. I will trust him with my luggage.
Jill: Hmm. So, uh, some of the other elements of the show were, they went through the sports via video and just a couple of days ago, I thought, oh, it would be awesome if they brought back the kinetic performer to do the kinetic pictograms again. While it didn’t necessarily fit in with the whole story. I mean, they could have put it in place of this video, but I kind of wondered if the opening ceremonies and the, for the Olympics and the Paralympics were kind of siloed from each other,
Alison: [00:10:00] so I would say they absolutely were given how different the two shows were.
Jill: And it kind of made me sad that they couldn’t repeat that element because it was so cool and it would be so interesting to see it done for the Paralympics,
Alison: But the video made more sense with the way the show was put together.
Jill: It did, it did. And it was, it was quick. It showed a little glimpse of all of the sports and got that out of the way right away so that we could focus the rest of everything on the story and, and the, we, the 15 campaign that the Paralympics has started.
Alison: Okay. So can we talk about that video? That is honestly one of the best disability advocacy videos I have ever seen. And I’ve seen a lot of them strangely enough, it was so clever because they start off with all these classic tropes of superhero inspiring, and then they totally rejected. And [00:11:00] I love the there’s a girl at the beginning. I was like, yeah, superhero. And then they go into, no, we go on first dates. We have heartbreak. The best was when they have the couple, and they’re like, we get lucky. I’m like, there are going to be so many people who are uncomfortable with that moment and they should be because they don’t think of people with disabilities as having a romantic life. And, you know, we go on first interviews and we go out, we get jobs. Really great campaign. I’m so glad that they launched it with this Paralympics. And I think it’s. It’s uh, it’s the next step, you know, first we’ve kind of developed the Paralympics into this inspiring thing, and now we’re going to launch it into it’s just part of everyday life.
Jill: Right? And, , the International Paralympic Committee partnered with a number of organizations and agencies and business to bring this campaign to life.
Jill: And the 15 represents the fact that [00:12:00] 15% of the world’s population has a disability and it’s to shed light on that. And it’s got that color purple as the big color in its campaign and all around the world, buildings were lit up. So like in Rome, the Colosseum was lit up big skyscrapers and big cities were lit up. It’s really nice that the world is coming together to shed light on this fact and bring awareness and, and hopefully wash away a lot of the stigma that, disabled people face.
Alison: And when we started doing Paralympic interviews, you know, talking to Paralympians, we both had a pretty high level of discomfort that we were going to screw it up.
Jill: Wait, wait, wait. We had, and still have it.
Alison: And every time we talked to somebody, they reminded us, no, we’re just an athlete like everybody else. And that was the important part of the story, not the disability. And that’s what [00:13:00] this campaign is all about, which I love, which is true, which is fair, which points out our prejudice to seeing the other.
Jill: Right.
Alison: So somehow seeing a person with a disability, they have to be a superhero or they have to be inspiring. No, they can just be your neighbor who doesn’t bring in a trash cans and that’s fine.
Jill: okay. So other elements of the ceremony, a parade of nations, again, walked through the center so that the athletes congregated there. I don’t think there was hardly anybody in the stadium. Maybe some media and some, a few dignitaries, but. Again, empty. The stands will be empty throughout the games, except for they’re going to have school children there.
Alison: Parade of nations. They were moving really fast.
Jill: They were, it was just about as fast as the Olympic one.
Alison: I thought it was faster because they were coming in from two entrances.
Jill: I didn’t notice that.
Alison: You could either [00:14:00] come in from the left or the right. And then sort of into the middle and around. And it just seemed like this country, this country, this country. Yes. The contingents are smaller, but still, yeah, I liked it going faster actually.
Jill: It was really hard to keep up and like
Alison: Fair enough.
Alison: –take
Jill: notice of, okay, so who are the athletes in this? Well, a) take in the clothes. Let’s let’s be honest. Let’s take in the uniforms. Cause some of them were, the same as what the Olympic athletes had. Some were, complimentary to what Olympic athletes had and some seemed different than what I remember from the Olympics opening ceremony. And there were a lot of really cool things. I couldn’t keep up with it.
Alison: Did you have a favorite outfit that you took note of? ,
Jill: Romania had flag colored bow ties for the men. That was interesting.
Alison: Angola or as Ahmed Fahreed on the U S feed said Algona.
Jill: Oh, no.
Alison: Yes. But you know what? I felt bad for him [00:15:00] more than criticizing him because we’ve all done that and he’s on live television, but the dresses had pockets.
Jill: Oh, okay. Very nice.
Alison: They were very lovely, big, full skirt, and they had pockets and you know, every woman who put on this dress was like, It’s beautiful. And it has pockets.
Jill: The Chinese delegation was very interesting to me because usually when we think of a Chinese delegation, we think of the dominant color being red. And this time it wasn’t, it was the, there was a red tie, white shirt, turquoise blazer. And I thought it was very striking.
Alison: The Lithuanian box of highlighters was back, but not the Latvian walking disco shower curtains. But the Czech dresses were back.
Jill: Yes. I noticed the Czech, but you know what, to me, this time it looked Not dated, but look like old school in a interesting way. Like, I mean, there were several countries that had nods to a folk costume or a native costume, [00:16:00] but this almost seemed like it was old all of a sudden, I don’t know why.
Alison: Maybe just because we talked about it so much.
Jill: That could be. Did you see the Croatian dresses?
Alison: Yes.
Jill: The red with a little asymmetrical hemline, knee length, one panel that was red and white checked. I thought those were so cool.
Alison: Your favorite Poland fans were back.
Jill: Yes, exactly.
Alison: Their dresses were lovely as well. Were they the same? Because I didn’t remember them looking like
Jill: I don’t think so. They were white with like red belts. Correct?
Alison: But the shape of them was very flowing and looked great in motion.
Jill: An early front runner was Cape Verde who had these polo shirts with asymmetrical blocks on them that looked like the logo, the blocks that made up the Paralympic logo. And I thought that was very cool. I liked how Aruba had the ombre effect again from not to their Olympic thing or flag bear had lovely blue hair. [00:17:00]
Alison: I saw that and that’s the only Aruban athlete.
Jill: The flag bearer for Panama had this beautiful dress flower dress, white flowered with, one strap and then kind of a, sleeve sash. It almost looked like a shawl effect on the other shoulder.
Alison: And that similar embroidery that we talked about from the Mexican Olympic outfit.
Jill: Right. And they had those again, except for, a lot of the Mexican athletes who walked in, had on the vest version of that and a white t-shirt underneath it. And I seriously thought they worked in an airport.
Alison: Well, they were on brand.
Jill: They were on brand. Once I figured out it was Mexico, like, oh, but I still love that look.
Alison: The Italian pizza logo was back. Couldn’t change that one.
Jill: And the U S came out in jeans.
Alison: Ankle pants!
Jill: Hot, boring. You know, who didn’t have ankle pants? Sri Lanka. Did you notice their pants? They were very long and flowy and one leg was blue and [00:18:00] the other leg was maroon with a stripe that looked like their flag. I thought they were very elegant.
Alison: You know, who else was in the opening ceremonies?
Alison: Some seeing eye dog, or I shouldn’t say seeing eye dogs, they were support animals. They could have been for various disabilities.
Jill: Well, if I was on the Paralympic social media, if I was on two things, if I was on their social media, I would be making sure I got pictures of all of the support animals. I would also be putting that in the fan zone because there is nothing in the fan zone except for voting on Visa favorite moments.
Alison: Yeah. Given how good the Olympic fan zone was. You know, you could have shared.
Alison: One last thing I want to say about the PR actually two things about the parade of nations. New Zealand made a big point of not coming to the opening ceremonies. And they specifically released a statement saying we are not coming to the opening ceremonies because other countries are [00:19:00] not adhering to health and safety protocols.
Jill: Wow.
Alison: They were the only, only country who specifically made a public statement. Lots of countries sent very small delegations to the opening ceremonies. Fair, but they actually came out and said, Nope, other people aren’t following the rules. We’re not taking a chance.
Jill: Very interesting.
Alison: The other moment that got me was when they brought the Afghanistan flag in.
Jill: What a sad story.
Alison: Heartbreaking. So Afghanistan did qualify a team including their first female Paralympian, but because of the political unrest and the takeover by the Taliban, the athletes couldn’t get there. I assume they couldn’t even leave Afghanistan. And so the Paralympic committee chose to march the flag in anyway, because they should have been there. And that was another thing that made me cry. Yeah, because you know what? I [00:20:00] always talk about anything that hurts the athletes and to see that country in such turmoil. And just in that absolute the difference between the Olympics and the Paralympics at two weeks.
Jill: Yes.
Alison: And now they can’t have their team there. And that just that hurt. I don’t know why that hurts so much, but it does.
Jill: It does, and when, when you think about how much athletes sacrificed to get to that level anyway. And when you add on, the fact that they’re Paralympics, so life is it’s tougher and more expensive. Plus you add on Afghanistan, which is… It’s got its own complications, I’m sure for athletes to function in and it’s just, you know, you see the Paralympics is all about breaking boundaries and showing what is possible. And it’s really sad that that so many boundaries were going to be broken for this country, and not that final one to get them there.
Alison: Yeah. You know, who was there?
Jill: Who?
Alison: Mike and Maya!
Jill: Oh [00:21:00] yes. Mike and Maya were gone. I got it. Only once. Only once. Yes. so if you listened to our Olympic daily coverage, you will know that I have a beef with the Toyota Start Your Impossible campaign, the first date ad featuring Mike and Maya, who, uh, Mike is in the hospital, but yet he can ask Maya out to the school dance because he’s in the school hallway, courtesy of a digital rolling robot screen. And I saw them and I was like, oh, Hey, it’s Mike and Maya, but I don’t know. I’m, I’m almost embracing them now.
Alison: Well, on the one hand, I felt like it was a little bit tone deaf to use the broken leg and the robot for the Paralympics.
Jill: Hm.
Alison: Like you missed an opportunity to show the same robot being used by someone who would compete in the Paralympics. You know, someone with an actual longstanding [00:22:00] disability, not some kid who broke his leg and is still in the hospital for some reason.
Jill: And I don’t know if we’re going to go because you know what commercial I saw more and really hated, was the Nike Play Now campaign.
Alison: Oh, that’s where it’s constantly. Hello tomorrow what’s going to happen. Yeah, I think that may become our new app.
Jill: If we see that much more because, oh my gosh, the lip service. Please, nike and make me roll my eyes harder. Oh, a couple of things I wanted to bring up one, Ireland again giving a respectful bow to the host nation as they entered. Australia, did the same thing. I heard some other nations did as well. So it was very nice that that touch was included again. We have not talked about the cast members lining up on the aisles
Alison: With the propellers on their heads?
Jill: Yes. With the propellors on our heads. And all I could think of was the Olympics got very cool anime themed outfits. And [00:23:00] what these cast members got were white outfits with like a panel that went down to about their knees in front that had purple diagonal stripes. So it was white and purple stripes. And then they had beanies on their heads with giant propellers because they were part of the airport. And then Ben came in and he’s like, well, maybe they’re also a guide to like give visually impaired people a little more of a visual cue. That’s a bigger cue to see.
Alison: But the propellors were black. Maybe they were dark purple
Jill: And maybe he was going with the purple and white stripes on the things. But the propellors really got me.
Alison: I do not know how every athlete did not walk over and just whack one of those propellers to make them spin.
Alison: There is no way there wasn’t some smart alecky American who did not whack somebody’s propeller. There is no way. [00:24:00] And if it wasn’t the Americans, it was the Australians.
Jill: Andrew Parsons did not talk as long as TBach did.
Alison: He was great. And he really used his speech to introduce We the 15 as a campaign. It felt like Andrew Parson being so fantastically Brazilian wanted to jump out of his skin. He was so excited.
Jill: Yeah. He can convey more passion. I think just that’s part of his being then. Right?
Alison: So he was a lot of fun and we, I realized we do not have a nickname for Andrew Parsons and we need to come up with one. So that will be my goal for this. Paralympics to come up with. Cause I adore him. I think he’s fantastic. If you’ve seen Phoenix Rising the film about the Paralympics and you do not fall in love with him, I do not understand you.[00:25:00]
Jill: Well, we will work on that. The emperor was there to open the games. I have to say what we can learn. The announcer said, Stand for the emperor. And I just instantly instinctively went, stand if you are able
Alison: I was thinking the same thing. There was a part of my brain going, oh goodness, no. And then again, that’s our able-bodied brain.
Jill: Exactly. And that’s just something you have to learn to include. And it’s interesting how that pops up time and time again. And I wonder if for the closing ceremony, that there’s a moment where people who can stand should be standing and what they say.
Alison: The other thing I noted about the emperor is they just call him the emperor. Like in Great Britain, for example, when you introduce just queen as her majesty Queen Elizabeth, the Second she gets a name, but in Japan, it’s just his majesty, the emperor.
Jill: We all know who you’re talking about [00:26:00]
Alison: Apparently. And that it’s a, I thought that was an interesting little element that says something about Japanese culture and maybe I’m reading too much into it, but just that idea of authority is more the role, not the person. Interesting. And did he look so happy to be there? Because remember his father was the crown prince at the time that Tokyo had the Paralympics in ’64 and apparently was very involved in raising the profile of that. So we have some familial connection and he attended the Olympics and the Paralympics as a very small child in ’64.
Jill: And it’s with Tokyo being the first city to host the Paralympics twice. it’s a big deal.
Alison: Right? So there was a little glint in his eye that I did not see at the Olympics.
Jill: Very nice.
Alison: And again, maybe I’m just falling in love with the emperor and seeing things that aren’t there. But [00:27:00] I wonder if that’s again, the idea of the role is bigger than the man that he sees the connections over time. And if he doesn’t, I will give them.
Jill: Okay. And then finally, we had the flame in that beautiful torch, which is emblematic of the cherry blossom in Japan. Flame came from Stokes Mandeville. The final runners of the torch relay were powerlifter. Karen Morisaki , wheelchair tennis player, Yui Kamiji, and bocciaplayer, Shunsuke Uchida. So it was three people lighting the flame together. And the flame kind of worked its way through the stadium. And these three athletes rolled up a ramp and kind of around the cauldron, which I thought was a really cool visual element, especially from the air. And then you had all three of them lighting the cauldron and at the same time. Again, with the beautiful flower opening up.
Alison: And you know, closing, they’re going to do [00:28:00] my closing of the flower again. So gee, I’m already preparing two weeks ahead of time for when I’m going to cry again, but they made a comment in at least in the American broadcast about the importance of the number three in the ceremony. So the three Agitos of the symbol of the Paralympics, and then they had a, triple rhythm in the clapping and then the three Torchbearers all coming together. So that was a nice continuation of that. Yes, though. Again, med Fareed and Chris Waddell and the American television had a little odd comment because Chris Waddell said how you don’t want to rush the moment of going up to the, cauldron, but there’s this feeling that when you’re nervous, you move quickly and then they show a shot of the three people in the wheelchairs, working really hard to get their wheelchair up the ramp, kind of like, I don’t think they’re speed rolling here, Chris.[00:29:00]
Alison: And if Ahmed said “atheletes” one more time. If I have to listen to him, say “atheletes” over the next two weeks. I might in fact lose my mind.
Jill: Duly noted. We’ll keep count.
Alison: It was about 487 and that’s the day one. And that was on day one.
Jill: All right. Anything else about the opening ceremony?
Alison: Okay. Poor Hashimoto Seiko got cut out of the American broadcast again,
Jill: And it’s like, they showed the 30 seconds of her, like, especially same with the parade of nations. Oh, here’s what you missed while we were on break.
Alison: I mean, I assume it’s because she’s speaking in Japanese and American television is too lazy to either give you a voiceover or subtitles. But yeah, just cause she’s speaking in a foreign language doesn’t mean we don’t want to see her. She’s important.
Jill: Exactly, exactly. [00:30:00] But the cauldron is lit. The games get to start. This is so exciting!
Alison: I can’t believe I have this much excitement still left in my body. It’s like the two weeks off really just built it back up.
Jill: Right, right. We want to take a second to give a special thank you to our Patreon patrons whose ongoing financial support a) it means the world to us, b) it helps cover the cost of the show. During the Olympics we got some new patrons. Thank you so much for joining, because that means we are able to offer transcripts of episodes starting today with Paralympics. If you would like to make an ongoing contribution to the show, please check us out at patreon.com/flame alive pod.
Jill: I got some exciting news via Twitter. Our TKFLASTANI Giles Long told us that NBC signed up to use the LEXI graphical system to explain the different classes and competition. I was so excited that they jumped on board with this.
Alison: It’s such a great system, and it’s all about making it easy [00:31:00] for viewers to understand the very complicated classification system for para athletes. So take a look if you’re in America on American television, you will see the little figures in the corner.
Jill: So that’s super exciting. We have TKFLASTANI watch.
Alison: Very exciting. Yes. So it’s table tennis player, Millie Tapper. We’ll be starting a group round play, in the women’s competition.
Jill: Very good. I’m excited to watch her in action. And, that means it’s time to say sayonara.Super excited. Just, I, I like you don’t know what to watch, you know, TV’s on from 9:00 PM to 9:00 AM. What am I going to do?
Alison: Not sleep is what you’re going to do.
Jill: Oh yeah. I’m already looking forward to that. So, uh, as always you can email us at 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. Please don’t forget our Kickstarter and help us reach the goal of bringing you on the ground coverage at Beijing. That’s [00:32:00] kickstarter.com/profile/flame alive pod. I am on Twitter. Alison’s on Insta and Facebook. Those are all at flame alive pod, and Keep the Flame Alive podcast group on Facebook, which is already hopping with Paralympics talk. So please come and join us there. As we go out to music by Mercury Sunset, thank you so much for listening and until tomorrow, keep the flame alive.