Just The Gist

For more than a decade, the entire McDonalds Monopoly game in the US was completely rigged. From 1989 to 2001, anybody who won a major prize in the competition had actually cheated, with help from someone on the inside. That someone was Jerome ‘Jerry’ Jacobson, Head of Security for the company in charge of making and distributing the McDonald’s Monopoly pieces. But when McDonalds found out that nobody was legitimately winning the major prizes, they still let the public spend their money trying to win in one last competition, because the FBI needed to go undercover to catch the Monopoly cheaters in a massive McSting. And when Jerry Jacobson finally revealed how he had pulled the whole thing off, it literally came down to one accidental fluke. 

This is Just The Gist of the McDonald’s Monopoly Fraud. 

We give you Just The Gist, but if you want more, there's Breakin' Nooz, JTG After Show AND Bonus eps! You can access them by joining the Gistener Club via the Just The Gist Patreon or Apple Premium Subscriptions.

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Just The Gist is a Just The Network production. Executive Producer and Host: Rosie Waterland | Senior Producer and Editor: James Joseph | Producer: Kate Leaver | Additional production support: Hayley Staveley | Acast Legends: Guy Scott-Wilson and Simon McDermott | Production Assistant: Pocket

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McMillion$ — Official Trailer (HBO)

The Daily Beast "How An Ex-Cop Rigged McDonald's Monopoly Game and Stole Millions" by Jeff Maysh

The Guardian "McMillion$: the bizarre story of how one man stole $24m from McDonald's"

Vanity Fair "The True Crime Story Behind McMillion$"

The New York Times "McMillion$ on HBO, Explained"

CNBC "How the McMillions Scammers Rigged the McDonald's Monopoly Game and Stole $24 Million"

NPR "How the Ex-Cop Who Scammed McDonald's Monopoly Got Caught"

Adweek "McDonald's Revives Monopoly With a Wink at Its Scandalous Past"

Wikipedia: McDonald's Monopoly (the promotion)

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If you go to prison for having your mother murdered, it’s probably best not to joke about it in an effort to grow your TikTok following, no? That’s exactly what Gypsy-Rose Blanchard did this week, and since her story is part of JTG lore, we thought it was time to check in: two years after being released from prison, what exactly is going on with Gypsy-Rose Blanchard? 

Gisten to our original episode on Gypsy-Rose and Dee Dee Blanchard right here.

Gisten to our bonus book club episodes on Gypsy-Rose’s memoir My Time To Stand:

Part 1

Part 2 

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We give you Just The Gist, but if you want more, there's Breakin' Nooz, JTG After Show AND Bonus eps! You can access them by joining the Gistener Club via the Just The Gist Patreon or Apple Premium Subscriptions.

Watch Just The Gist episodes on Youtube @JustTheGistPodcast

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Follow Rosie in all the places at @RosieWaterland

Want to give us a SuGISTion? Tell Rosie to stop singing so much? Email us at [email protected] 

Just The Gist is a Just The Network production. Executive Producer and Host: Rosie Waterland | Senior Producer and Editor: James Joseph | Producer: Kate Leaver | Additional production support: Hayley Staveley | Acast Legends: Guy Scott-Wilson and Simon McDermott | Production Assistant: Pocket

Don't forget to follow and give us 5 stars, which means something apparently!

Thank you, as always, for Gistening. Now go say something impressive at a dinner party.

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Watch the ‘We listen and we don’t judge’ video with Gypsy-Rose and Natalie Reynolds

Watch Gypsy’s apology on TMZ

Gypsy-Rose Blanchard Instagram

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At the 2017 Oscars, La La Land was announced as Best Picture. The producers rushed the stage. The speeches started. And then a panicked staffer ran on, confusion spread through the Dolby Theatre, and La La Land producer Jordan Horowitz grabbed the microphone and said: "There's a mistake. Moonlight, you guys won Best Picture. This is not a joke."

It was the most chaotic two minutes and twenty-three seconds in Oscars history — and it all happened because one accountant couldn't put his phone down.

This is Just The Gist Mini of the La La Land/Moonlight Oscars mix-up: the story of Brian Cullinan, the PricewaterhouseCoopers partner who was so busy tweeting celebrity selfies backstage that he handed Warren Beatty the wrong envelope — and then stood in the corner mouthing "shit" while someone else cleaned up his mess.

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We give you Just The Gist, but if you want more, there's Breakin' Nooz, JTG After Show AND Bonus eps! You can access them by joining the Gistener Club via the Just The Gist Patreon or Apple Premium Subscriptions.

Watch Just The Gist episodes on Youtube @JustTheGistPodcast

Follow Just The Gist on Instagram and TikTok @JustTheGistPodcast

Follow Rosie in all the places at @RosieWaterland

Want to give us a SuGISTion? Tell Rosie to stop singing so much? Email us at [email protected]

Just The Gist is a Just The Network production. Executive Producer and Host: Rosie Waterland | Senior Producer and Editor: James Joseph | Producer: Kate Leaver | Additional production support: Hayley Staveley | Acast Legends: Guy Scott-Wilson and Simon McDermott | Production Assistant: Pocket

Don't forget to follow and give us 5 stars, which means something apparently!

Thank you, as always, for Gistening. Now go say something impressive at a dinner party.

..........

"They Got the Wrong Envelope": An Oral History of Oscar's Epic Best Picture Fiasco — The Hollywood Reporter, 2018

How the Wrong Envelope Triggered a Best Picture Fiasco — The Hollywood Reporter, 2017

PwC Takes Full Responsibility for Oscars Best Picture Error — CNN, 2017

PricewaterhouseCoopers' Brian Cullinan Wanted to Perform at Oscars — Variety, 2017

Oscars Stage Manager Details PwC Accountants' Incompetence — The Wrap, 2017

New Photos Show PwC Accountant Tweeting, Mixing Envelopes Backstage — Variety, 2017

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In 1989, the Oscars opened with Snow White going on a date with Rob Lowe, giant cardboard stars with human legs, and (for some reason) dancing tables. The ceremony was so bad that Disney sued, seventeen of Hollywood's biggest stars penned an open letter saying they were ashamed, and producer Allan Carr never worked again. Today Rosie breaks down the 61st Academy Awards — widely considered the worst Oscars in history. This is Just The Gist of the 1989 Oscars disaster.

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We give you Just The Gist, but if you want more, there's Breakin' Nooz, JTG After Show AND Bonus eps! You can access them by joining the Gistener Club via the Just The Gist Patreon or Apple Premium Subscriptions.

Watch Just The Gist episodes on Youtube @JustTheGistPodcast

Follow Just The Gist on Instagram and TikTok @JustTheGistPodcast

Follow Rosie in all the places at @RosieWaterland

Want to give us a SuGISTion? Tell Rosie to stop singing so much? Email us at [email protected]

Just The Gist is a Just The Network production. Executive Producer and Host: Rosie Waterland | Senior Producer and Editor: James Joseph | Producer: Kate Leaver | Additional production support: Hayley Staveley | Acast Legends: Guy Scott-Wilson and Simon McDermott | Production Assistant: Pocket

Don't forget to follow and give us 5 stars, which means something apparently!

Thank you, as always, for Gistening. Now go say something impressive at a dinner party.

......

'I Was Rob Lowe's Snow White': The Untold Story of Oscar's Nightmare Opening (The Hollywood Reporter, 2014)

The Worst Oscars Ever — the behind-the-scenes story of Allan Carr (Los Angeles Magazine, 2010)

The Oscars' 1989 Snow White Opening Was a Disaster — director Jeff Margolis reflects (IndieWire, 2024)

Let's Revisit the Train Wreck That Was the 1989 Academy Awards (AV Club, 2020)

61st Academy Awards (Wikipedia)

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In 2019, the CEO of eBay was caught up in a bizarre scandal that involved harassing a random married couple called David and Ina Steiner. David and Ina had live cockroaches, spiders and even a pig carcass mailed to their home, explicit magazine subscriptions addressed to them but delivered to their neighbours, their house posted online as the location of a swingers party, trackers placed on their cars and a funeral wreath couriered to their front door. But why did the CEO of a Fortune 500 company care so much about a nerdy couple living in the suburbs? David and Ina Steiner are journalists who ran a niche website called EcommerceBytes, writing about issues affecting people who sell things online. And when Ina wrote some stories about Ebay that CEO Devin Wenig didn't like, he gave his team the orders: "TAKE HER DOWN." . This is Just The Gist (MINI) of the eBay stalking scandal — the true story of the eBay harassment campaign that sent seven people to prison.

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We give you Just The Gist, but if you want more, there's Breakin' Nooz, JTG After Show AND Bonus eps! You can access them by joining the Gistener Club via the Just The Gist Patreon or Apple Premium Subscriptions.

Watch Just The Gist episodes on Youtube @JustTheGistPodcast Follow Just The Gist on Instagram and TikTok @JustTheGistPodcast

Follow Rosie in all the places at @RosieWaterland

Want to give us a SuGISTion? Tell Rosie to stop singing so much? Email us at [email protected]

Just The Gist is a Just The Network production. Executive Producer and Host: Rosie Waterland | Senior Producer and Editor: James Joseph | Producer: Kate Leaver | Additional production support: Hayley Staveley | Acast Legends: Guy Scott-Wilson and Simon McDermott | Production Assistant: Pocket

Don't forget to follow and give us 5 stars, which means something apparently!

Thank you, as always, for Gistening. Now go say something impressive at a dinner party.

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Whatever It Takes: Inside the eBay Scandal (2024), dir. Jenny Carchman — available on ABC iview and Prime Video

Two newsletter publishers say eBay executives orchestrated a years-long harassment campaign against them — New York Times, 2020

DOJ Press Release: Six Former eBay Employees Charged with Aggressive Cyberstalking Campaign Targeting Newsletter Editors, 2020

eBay's Bizarre Stalking Scandal — 60 Minutes, CBS, 2023

EcommerceBytes — Ina and David Steiner's newsletter, still publishing

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In 1996, John F. Kennedy Jr. was the closest thing America had ever had to a prince. The only son of assassinated President JFK, he'd been named People Magazine's Sexiest Man Alive, dated half of Hollywood, and was widely expected to follow his father into the White House. When he married Calvin Klein PR powerhouse Carolyn Bessette in a secret ceremony on a remote Georgia island, they became without question the most famous couple in the world. But less than three years later, John and Carolyn were dead - with their bodies, and the body of Carolyn’s sister Lauren, found strapped to their seats in JFK Jr.'s private plane on the ocean floor off Martha's Vineyard. This is Just The Gist of JFK Jr., Carolyn Bessette Kennedy, the Kennedy Curse, and the plane crash that ended Camelot.

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We give you Just The Gist, but if you want more, there's Breakin' Nooz, JTG After Show AND Bonus eps! You can access them by joining the Gistener Club via the Just The Gist Patreon or Apple Premium Subscriptions.

Watch Just The Gist episodes on Youtube @JustTheGistPodcast

Follow Just The Gist on Instagram and TikTok @JustTheGistPodcast

Follow Rosie in all the places at @RosieWaterland

Want to give us a SuGISTion? Tell Rosie to stop singing so much? Email us at [email protected]

Just The Gist is a Just The Network production. Executive Producer and Host: Rosie Waterland | Senior Producer and Editor: James Joseph | Producer: Kate Leaver | Additional production support: Hayley Staveley | Acast Legends: Guy Scott-Wilson and Simon McDermott | Production Assistant: Pocket

Don't forget to follow and give us 5 stars, which means something apparently!

Thank you, as always, for Gistening. Now go say something impressive at a dinner party.

..........

Once Upon a Time: The Captivating Public and Private Life of Carolyn Bessette Kennedy by Elizabeth Beller

Ask Not: The Kennedys and the Women They Destroyed by Maureen Callahan

The Kennedy Curse by Edward Klein

JFK Jr. and Carolyn Bessette Kennedy wedding footage

JFK Jr. Newsnight interview footage

The West Wing S04E04 'The Red Mass' — graveyard spiral scene (39:45)

JFK Jr. and Carolyn Bessette Kennedy paparazzi footage

Candace Bushnell's 'Spoiled in the City' column featuring CBK (1998)

'Settlement reported in JFK Jr. crash lawsuit' — Cape Cod Times (2001)

'A mother grieves in private' — Cape Cod Times (2000)

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In 1987, there was a news event that brought the entire world together. People did not stop watching their TVs for days - the First Lady of the United States even postponed surgery until she knew the outcome. Eighteen-month-old Jessica McClure had fallen down an old well and was wedged almost ten metres underground for 60 hours. Every news channel that existed had cameras in that tiny backyard in Texas, while the world watched - live - and waited in suspense to see if she’d come out alive. 

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CW: This episode contains a brief mention of suicide. If you need, please contact (Australia):

Lifeline (24 hours: 13 11 14)

13YARN - Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Crisis Support (24 hours: 13 92 76)

Blue Knot Helpline (1300 657 380)

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We give you Just The Gist, but if you want more, there's Breakin' Nooz, JTG After Show AND Bonus eps! You can access them by joining the Gistener Club via the Just The Gist Patreon or Apple Premium Subscriptions.

Watch Just The Gist episodes on Youtube @JustTheGistPodcast

Follow Just The Gist on Instagram and TikTok @JustTheGistPodcast

Follow Rosie in all the places at @RosieWaterland

Want to give us a SuGISTion? Tell Rosie to stop singing so much? Email us at [email protected] 

Just The Gist is a Just The Network production. Executive Producer and Host: Rosie Waterland | Senior Producer and Editor: James Joseph | Producer: Kate Leaver | Additional production support: Hayley Staveley | Acast Legends: Guy Scott-Wilson and Simon McDermott | Production Assistant: Pocket

Don't forget to follow and give us 5 stars, which means something apparently!

Thank you, as always, for Gistening. Now go say something impressive at a dinner party.

.

‘Baby Jessica on the 30-year anniversary of her rescue from a well: Her life as a wife and mom’ (People Magazine 2017):  https://people.com/human-interest/baby-jessica-on-the-30-year-anniversary-of-her-rescue-from-a-well-her-life-as-a-wife-and-mom/ 

‘Baby Jessica’s Rescue From a Well Capped Off a Terrifying Week in US History’ (Time Magazine 2017): https://time.com/4980689/baby-jessica-30th-anniversary/?amp=true 

1987 archive footage of Jessica McClure being rescued (Film Archives NYC 2012):  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afSChsWNcbQ 

‘Baby Jessica rescued from a well as the world watches’ (History 2011, updated 2025): https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/October-16/baby-jessica-rescued-from-a-well-as-the-world-watches 

‘Helping to pull little Jessica McClure from a Texas well made firefighter Robert O’Donnell a star. But the limelight soon turned to darkness.’ (Los Angeles Times 1995): https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1995-05-24-mn-5474-story.html 

‘Death on the CNN Curve’ (The New York Times Magazine 1995): https://www.nytimes.com/1995/07/23/magazine/death-on-the-cnn-curve.html 

Baby Jessica (Jessica McClure) wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rescue_of_Jessica_McClure

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Being sucked out of a plane mid-air. Swimming away after his train crashed into a river. Being hit by a bus and walking away from a (different!) bus crash. His car swerving off the road and plummeting off the side of a cliff.Two separate car explosions. Over the course of his life, Frane Selak survived every single one of these accidents. "You could look at it two ways," Selak said in an interview. "I was either the unluckiest man in the world, or the luckiest. I preferred to believe the latter." This is Just The Gist (MINI) of the unluckiest, luckiest man to ever live (so he says...) Frano 'Frane' Selak.

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We give you Just The Gist, but if you want more, there's Breakin' Nooz, JTG After Show AND Bonus eps! You can access them by joining the Gistener Club via the Just The Gist Patreon or Apple Premium Subscriptions.

Watch Just The Gist episodes on Youtube @JustTheGistPodcast

Follow Just The Gist on Instagram and TikTok @JustTheGistPodcast

Follow Rosie in all the places at @RosieWaterland

Want to give us a SuGISTion? Tell Rosie to stop singing so much? Email us at [email protected] 

Just The Gist is a Just The Network production. Executive Producer and Host: Rosie Waterland | Senior Producer and Editor: James Joseph | Producer: Kate Leaver | Additional production support: Hayley Staveley | Acast Legends: Guy Scott-Wilson and Simon McDermott | Production Assistant: Pocket

Don't forget to follow and give us 5 stars, which means something apparently!

Thank you, as always, for Gistening. Now go say something impressive at a dinner party.

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'The Seven Unbelievable Survival Stories of Frane Selak' (All That's Interesting 2024): https://allthatsinteresting.com/frane-selak

'Luckiest or Unluckiest Man in the World?' (Ripley's 2018): https://web.archive.org/web/20211205143729/https://www.ripleys.com/weird-news/unluckiest-man/

'#BBCtrending: Is the 'world's luckiest man' being exploited?' (BBC News 2014): https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-27414609

'Frano Selak, world's luckiest man' gives away his lottery fortune' (The Telegraph 2010): https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/7721985/Frano-Selak-worlds-luckiest-man-gives-away-his-lottery-fortune.html

'Doritos googles up unlikely spokesperson' (Ad Age 2004) https://adage.com/article/the-world-ad-age-global-news-data/doritos-googles-spokesman/99131/

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In 1978, 909 people lined up, drank poison, and died. More than 300 of them were children.

For decades, it was described as the largest mass suicide in modern history, and it remained the greatest single loss of American civilian life in a deliberate act until 9/11.

But was it really a mass suicide, or mass murder?

Jonestown was founded by Jim Jones, leader of the Peoples Temple, a racially integrated American church that preached equality, socialism, and community care. By the time the world learned its name, 909 men, women, and children had consumed a cyanide-laced drink in a remote settlement in Guyana — while armed guards stood watch.

Some believed. Some resisted. Many were too young to choose. But all became part of what the world now shorthand calls “drinking the Kool-Aid.”

This is just the gist of The Jonestown Massacre.

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We give you Just The Gist, but if you want more, there's Breakin' Nooz, JTG After Show AND Bonus eps! You can access them by joining the Gistener Club via the Just The Gist Patreon or Apple Premium Subscriptions.

Watch Just The Gist episodes on YouTube @JustTheGistPodcast

Follow Just The Gist on Instagram @JustTheGistPodcast and TikTok @JustTheGistPodcast

Follow Rosie in all the places at @RosieWaterland

Want to give us a SuGISTion? Tell Rosie to stop singing so much? Email us at [email protected]

Just The Gist is a Just The Network production. Executive Producer and Host: Rosie Waterland | Senior Producer and Editor: James Joseph | Producer: Kate Leaver | Additional production support: Hayley Staveley | Acast Legends: Guy Scott-Wilson and Simon McDermott | Production Assistant: Pocket

Don't forget to follow and give us 5 stars, which means something apparently!

Thank you, as always, for Gistening. Now go say something impressive at a dinner party.

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Doco: ‘Cult Massacre: One Day in Jonestown’ (2025)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYIUjavwqVo

Doco: ‘Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple’ (2006)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6S_d1eVv0E8

TV Movie: ‘Jonestown: Paradise Lost’ (2007)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLh7W5r4zS8

Book: ‘Salvation and Suicide: An Interpretation of Jim Jones, the Peoples Temple, and Jonestown’ (1982) by David Chidester

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/835279.Salvation_and_Suicide

Book: ‘The Road to Jonestown: Jim Jones and the Peoples Temple’ (2018) by Jeff Guinn

https://www.simonandschuster.com.au/books/The-Road-to-Jonestown/Jeff-Guinn/9781476763835

Casefile Podcast: ‘Jonestown’ (Three-Part Series)

https://casefilepodcast.com/case-60-jonestown-part-1/

Wikipedia: Jim Jones

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Jones

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Alysa Liu just won Olympic gold for a figure skating routine that has already gone down in history. People are saying she changed the stuffy world of competitive skating forever. But just four years earlier, she had quit the sport entirely - and was thrilled at the thought of never skating again. So how does someone go from Olympic retirement at 16… to gold at the Milan Winter Olympics?

Alysa Liu started skating at five, was a prodigy by ten, and was winning national titles before she was tall enough to climb onto the podium. Then, at 16, she shocked the figure skating world by saying: I’m done. She didn’t want her whole life to be medals, pressure and expectations anymore.

Two years later though, she decided to make a comeback - but only on her terms. No chasing quadruple jumps for points. No extreme dieting. No giving up college or friends. She picked her own music, her own choreography, her own identity on the ice. She wasn’t chasing gold. She was chasing joy.

And she skated better than ever.

This is a story about Olympic pressure, burnout, retirement and comeback, mental health, and what it means to insist on being yourself in a sport built on control. It’s also about how a 20-year-old seems to understand life, boundaries and happiness better than most of us.

This is Just The Gist of US figure skater Alysa Liu.

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We give you Just The Gist, but if you want more, there's Breakin' Nooz, JTG After Show AND Bonus eps! You can access them by joining the Gistener Club via the Just The Gist Patreon or Apple Premium Subscriptions.

Watch Just The Gist episodes on Youtube @JustTheGistPodcast

Follow Just The Gist on Instagram and TikTok @JustTheGistPodcast

Follow Rosie in all the places at @RosieWaterland

Want to give us a SuGISTion? Tell Rosie to stop singing so much? Email us at [email protected] 

Just The Gist is a Just The Network production. Executive Producer and Host: Rosie Waterland | Senior Producer and Editor: James Joseph | Producer: Kate Leaver | Additional production support: Hayley Staveley | Acast Legends: Guy Scott-Wilson and Simon McDermott | Production Assistant: Pocket

Don't forget to follow and give us 5 stars, which means something apparently!

Thank you, as always, for Gistening. Now go say something impressive at a dinner party.

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https://www.nbcsports.com/olympics/news/alysa-liu-figure-skating-comeback 

https://www.nbcsports.com/olympics/news/alysa-liu-retires-figure-skating 

https://www.vanityfair.com/style/story/alysa-liu-hair-style-medal-olympics?_sp=faec963a-590f-48a4-9136-550d5ff5111e.1771905534964 

https://www.nbcolympics.com/news/alysa-liu-champion-who-cant-stop-smiling

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