Keep the Flame Alive

Today we're on the shooting range with Paralympian McKenna Geer. McKenna is a Paralympic bronze medalist in the sport of rifle shooting. At Rio she competed in the R4 - Mixed 10m Air Rifle Standing SH2 and earned 24th place and the R5 – Mixed 10m Air Rifle Prone SH2, where she took home the bronze medal. We talked with McKenna about how rifle works on the Paralympic side of the sport.

Follow McKenna on Facebook, Insta and Twitter - and cheer for her this week as she competes at the World Cup event in Lima, which is the last qualification opportunity for the Tokyo Paralympics.

What are our TKFLASTANIs up to this week? We've got news from:

• Paralympian John Register
• Hurdler Dawn Harper-Nelson
• Taekwondo athlete Madelynn Gorman-Shore
• Cross-Country skier Kikkan Randall
• Beach Volleyball player Kelly Claes
• BMX rider Connor Fields
• Modern Pentathlete Samantha Schultz
• Canoe slalomist Luuka Jones
• Diver Laura Wilkinson
• Karate athlete Tom Scott

Plus, tons of news from Tokyo 2020 (including an Atlanta 1996-related moment!) and the International Olympic Committee. Guess what? More medal reallocations due to doping - can you guess which sport is responsible for some of them?

Thanks so much for listening, and until next time, keep the flame alive!

Photo credit: Team USA

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Keep the Flame Alive: The Podcast for Fans of the Olympics and Paralympics with hosts Jill Jaracz & Alison Brown

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Tell a friend: http://flamealivepod.com

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The Shot Diva is here! 3x Olympian and Rio 2016 gold medal shot putter Michelle Carter joins us this week to talk about shot put technique, her strategies for managing her ADHD and dyslexia, her Olympic experiences and how looking her best helps her achieve her best.

Follow Michelle on Instagram and Facebook, and check out her website for more information on her You Throw Girl sports confidence camp and other programs Michelle's created.

What are our TKFLASTANIs up to this week? We've got news from:

• Speedskater Erin Jackson
• Pin collector/Olympic volunteer Sid Marantz featured in the New York Times
• Gymnast Chellsie Memmel
• Diver Laura Wilkinson
• Branding consultant Vickie Saunders

and Olympic team updates on:

• Shooter Ginny Thrasher
• 3x3 player Dominique Jones
• Beach volleyball player Kelly Claes
• Equestrian Phillip Dutton
• Artistic swimmer Jacqueline Simoneau

Plus, tons of news on Tokyo 2020. With only 50 days to go, the world is still concerned about Covid, but the Japanese government and the Tokyo 2020 Organizing Committee continue to take measures to ensure the Games will go on. Who's experiencing those measures first? The Australian softball team, who's the first team to arrive in Japan ahead of the Games.

We also have updates on the Paralympic torch relay.

Thanks so much for listening, and until next time, keep the flame alive!

photo: Getty Images, via ShotDiva.com

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Keep the Flame Alive: The Podcast for Fans of the Olympics and Paralympics with hosts Jill Jaracz & Alison Brown

Support the show:

Tell a friend: http://flamealivepod.com

Bookshop.org store: https://bookshop.org/shop/flamealivepod

Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/flamealivepod

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Film Buff Fran is back for another edition of Movie Club! On this episode we discuss "Foxcatcher," the 2014 film on the tragic story of wrestlers Dave and Mark Schultz, who coached and trained at John du Pont's Foxcatcher Farms. Steve Carell stars as du Pont, Channing Tatum plays Mark Schultz, and Mark Ruffalo plays Dave Schultz in this highly-nominated film. Did we think as highly of it?

In our conversation, we do talk about the book that inspired this movie. If you missed our book club conversation, find it here.

What are our TKFLASTANIs up to this week? We've got news from:

• DeAnna Price
• Chellsie Memmel
• Laura Wilkinson
• Samantha Schultz

Thanks so much for listening, and until next time, keep the flame alive!

***

Keep the Flame Alive: The Podcast for Fans of the Olympics and Paralympics with hosts Jill Jaracz & Alison Brown

Support the show:

Tell a friend: http://flamealivepod.com

Bookshop.org store: https://bookshop.org/shop/flamealivepod

Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/flamealivepod

Hang out with us online:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/flamealivepod

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Newsletter: Sign up at http://flamealivepod.com

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We're on the shooting range this week with Rio 2016 Olympic gold medalist Ginny Thrasher. Ginny won gold in the 10m air rifle, and she also competes in three-position 50m small-bore rifle. Ginny talks with us about the physical and mental demands of shooting, the funky shooting jacket and shoes, and how she travels with her rifles.

Follow Ginny on Facebook, Insta, Twitter and TikTok and check out her website.

What are our TKFLASTANIs up to this week? We've got news from:

• Figure skater Meagan Duhamel
• Gymnast Chellsie Memmel
• Swimmer Mallory Comerford
• Luger Shiva Keshavan
• Montreal's Olympic Park
• Para Discus Thrower Ness Murby

Throughout 2021 we're revisiting great stories from Atlanta 1996! For our Atlanta 1996 moment this week, Alison talks about the regionality of the football tournament in light of the Tokyo 2020 marathon and race walks being held in Sapporo.

We also lots of news on the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and Paralympics, including a new para avatar role-playing game, sustainability measures at the Games, General Mills Canada's Cheer-ios promotion, Australia's Opening and Closing Ceremonies uniform and more!

Thanks so much for listening, and until next time, keep the flame alive!

Photo courtesy of Ginny Thrasher.

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Keep the Flame Alive: The Podcast for Fans of the Olympics and Paralympics with hosts Jill Jaracz & Alison Brown

Support the show:

Tell a friend: http://flamealivepod.com

Bookshop.org store: https://bookshop.org/shop/flamealivepod

Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/flamealivepod

Hang out with us online:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/flamealivepod

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Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/312069749587022

Newsletter: Sign up at http://flamealivepod.com

VM/Text: (208) FLAME-IT / (208) 352-6348

Thanks so much for listening, and until next time, keep the flame alive!

Para Dressage Paralympian Sydney Collier joins us this week to explain how her sport works. From searching hundreds of horses to find one with the perfect walk, to the importance of fitness in equestrian sports, Sydney's gotten us excited to watch her event at Tokyo 2020.

Follow Sydney, her horse All In One--owned by her sponsor Georgina Bloomberg--and her service dog Logan on Twitter and Insta. Also check out her website for more information about her journey.

What are our TKFLASTANIs up to this week? We've got news from:

• Swimmer Mallory Comerford
• Author and Brazilian TV star Roy Tomizawa
• Boxer Ginny Fuchs
• Author David Davis -- check out his latest article!
• Snowboarders Chloe Kim and Alex Diebold
• Team USA "Mom" Sherry Von Riesen

Throughout 2021 we're revisiting great stories from Atlanta 1996! For our Atlanta 1996 moment this week, Jill finds out some amazing things about Blaze, the Atlanta Paralympics' mascot.

We also have Games Updates from Tokyo 2020, including our thoughts on Team GB's kit. Are you excited about snacking together? Also, check out Tokyo 2020's new FANZONE - get ready for some fantasy sports because we'll have a league in the FANZONE Fantasy Game!

Thanks so much for listening, and until next time, keep the flame alive!

Photo credit: Team USA

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Keep the Flame Alive: The Podcast for Fans of the Olympics and Paralympics with hosts Jill Jaracz & Alison Brown

Support the show:

Tell a friend: http://flamealivepod.com

Bookshop.org store: https://bookshop.org/shop/flamealivepod

Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/flamealivepod

Hang out with us online:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/flamealivepod

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Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/312069749587022

Newsletter: Sign up at http://flamealivepod.com

VM/Text: (208) FLAME-IT / (208) 352-6348

Thanks so much for listening, and until next time, keep the flame alive!

American flyweight boxer Ginny Fuchs joins us to tell us more about how boxing works. Ginny is also coping with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), and as May is Mental Health Awareness Month, she tells us how OCD manifests for her and what sort of treatments she goes through to better manage it.

Follow Ginny on Facebook, Insta and Twitter, and check out her website, Ginnyfuchs.com.

Book Club Claire also joins us for a preview of our next Book Club Book, Sevens Heaven: The Beautiful Chaos of Fiji's Olympic Dream (affiliate link). She chats with author Ben Ryan about bringing this story to readers.

What are our TKFLASTANIs up to this week? We've got news from:

• Tom Scott
• DeAnna Price
• Dawn Harper Nelson
• Evan Dunfee
• Kelly Claes
• Roy Tomizawa - published in The Japan Times
• John Register - featured in The Colorado Springs Business Journal

Throughout 2021 we're revisiting great stories from Atlanta 1996! For our Atlanta 1996 moment this week, Alison tells us about the boxing tournament, Floyd Mayweather's bout, and (surprise!) questionable officiating.

We also have Games Updates from Tokyo 2020, including the release of more Playbooks, a call for volunteer doctors and nurses (how popular is this request during the COVID-19? pandemic?), a Paralympic vlogger competition, some maranovela news and the winners of the Olympic Village dining hall recipe contest.

Plus, the International Olympic Committee gave its website a facelift!

Thanks so much for listening, and until next time, keep the flame alive!

***

Keep the Flame Alive: The Podcast for Fans of the Olympics and Paralympics with hosts Jill Jaracz & Alison Brown

Support the show:

Tell a friend: http://flamealivepod.com

Bookshop.org store: https://bookshop.org/shop/flamealivepod

Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/flamealivepod

Hang out with us online:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/flamealivepod

Insta: http://www.instagram.com/flamealivepod

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/flamealivepod

Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/312069749587022

Newsletter: Sign up at http://flamealivepod.com

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Book Club Claire is BACK for our discussion of Foxcatcher: The True Story of My Brother's Murder, John du Pont's Madness, and the quest for Olympic Gold by Mark Schultz with David Thomas. Bonus! The dulcet tones of Jason Bryant also join us to give some context to the story and what was going on in the wrestling community at the time.

Read Claire's blog Light the Cauldron and follow her on Twitter. Listen to more of Jason's dulcet tones at Mat Talk Onlineand follow him on Twitter and Insta.

Our next book will be: Sevens Heaven: The Beautiful Chaos of Fiji's Olympic Dream by Ben Ryan. Buy it through our Bookshop storefront, and we'll earn money to keep producing the show.

What are our TKFLASTANIs up to this week? We've got news from:

• Archivist Teri Hedgpeth
• Author Harry Blutstein - get his new book Games of Discontent: Protests, Boycotts, and Politics at the 1968 Mexico Olympics
• Video journalist Sean Colahan

Throughout 2021 we're revisiting great stories from Atlanta 1996! For our Atlanta 1996 moment this week, Jill talks about the monumental Atlanta torch relay, as this week is the anniversary of when the Olympic flame landed in Los Angeles to kick off its U.S. journey. We also reference our episode on Athens 1896, which you may want to check out.

The Tokyo 2020 Organizing Committee has started to release v2 of its Playbooks for participants in this summer's Olympics, so we go over the new measures added to them (think lots of COVID-19 testing, stick to the plan, go through more COVID-19 testing.

Plus, more news from Tokyo, and the International Olympic Committee's announcement of its first-ever Virtual Sports event.

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Keep the Flame Alive: The Podcast for Fans of the Olympics and Paralympics with hosts Jill Jaracz & Alison Brown

Support the show:

Tell a friend: http://flamealivepod.com

Bookshop.org store: https://bookshop.org/shop/flamealivepod

Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/flamealivepod

Hang out with us online:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/flamealivepod

Insta: http://www.instagram.com/flamealivepod

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/flamealivepod

Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/312069749587022

Newsletter: Sign up at http://flamealivepod.com

VM/Text: (208) FLAME-IT / (208) 352-6348

Thanks so much for listening, and until next time, keep the flame alive!

Connor Fields, reigning Olympic gold medalist in BMX racing, joins us to explain just how BMX is more organized chaos and less demolition derby. And he shares some interesting details about the BMX course we'll be watching at Tokyo 2020.

Follow Connor on Twitter, Insta and Facebook, and check out his website.

What are our TKFLASTANIs up to this week? We've got news from:

• Modern pentathlete Samantha Schultz
• Figure skater Meagan Duhamel
• Paralympic swimmer and long jumper John Register -- check out his foreword contribution to Bespoke Bodies: The Design and Craft of Prosthetics, by Amanda Hawkins and Sam Aquillano.

It's a big weekend for our Athletics TKFLASTANIs! Competing will be:

• Race walker Evan Dunfee attempting to set a world record for a 10K walk. Watch him race at the Richmond Olympic Oval.
• Hammer thrower DeAnna Price is competing at the USATF Grand Prix at Oregon Relays in Eugene OR. She throws at 2:50pm PT - catch the event on USATF.TV and NBCSN/Peacock
• Hurdler Dawn Harper Nelson is competing at the Drake Relays in Des Moines, IA. The stream's behind a paywall, but find more info here.

Throughout 2021 we're revisiting great stories from Atlanta 1996! For our Atlanta 1996 moment this week, Alison looks at mountain biking, which made its debut at these Games.

We also have Games Updates from: Tokyo 2020 (a giant skateboard!), Paris 2024 (sailing might lose a medal event) and Milan-Cortina 2026 (who's paying for that bobsled track renovation?).

And here's the International Olympic Committee Executive Board met this week, so we report back from TBach's latest press conference with the results of the IOC's Rule 50 survey and how they're going to handle athletes' activist concerns. Will they allow podium protests at Tokyo 2020?

Photo courtesy of Team USA.

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Keep the Flame Alive: The Podcast for Fans of the Olympics and Paralympics with hosts Jill Jaracz & Alison Brown

Support the show:

Tell a friend: http://flamealivepod.com

Bookshop.org store: https://bookshop.org/shop/flamealivepod

Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/flamealivepod

Hang out with us online:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/flamealivepod

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Newsletter: Sign up at http://flamealivepod.com

VM/Text: (208) FLAME-IT / (208) 352-6348

Thanks so much for listening, and until next time, keep the flame alive!

Canadian Olympic race walker Evan Dunfee is back to tell us how race walking works. Really -- we actually get into the sport this week (though don't count out novela talk)!

Evan talks about the mechanics of the sport, the discrepancy between TV cameras and judges' human eyes, and possible career opportunities once he ends his pro racing career. Oh, a little Rule 50 chat, just for fun.

You can follow Evan at @evandunfee on Twitter, Insta and Strava and read more about him at his website.

What are our TKFLASTANIs up to this week? A LOT! We've got news from:

• Leslie Klein
• Kikkan Randall
• Don Bigsby
• John Shuster
• Jacqueline Simoneau
• DeAnna Price
• Phil Andrews
• David Davis

Throughout 2021 we're revisiting great stories from Atlanta 1996! For our Atlanta 1996 moment this week, we discuss the race walking competitions--a women's distance that's no longer contested, an amazing win in the men's 20K and a men's 50K racer with a training plan we can get behind.

We also have Games Updates from:

• Tokyo 2020 - We're less than 100 days from the Tokyo 2020 Opening Ceremony! Japan's oldest woman carried the torch in the torch relay! Australia's planning live site watch parties and a kids' art contest to decorate athletes' room walls at the Village! More COVID-19 plans!
• Beijing 2022 - During the Team USA Media Summit, US Olympic & Paralympic Committee's Board of Directors Chair Susanne Lyons had some words on the possibility of a boycott.

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Keep the Flame Alive: The Podcast for Fans of the Olympics and Paralympics with hosts Jill Jaracz & Alison Brown

Support the show:

Tell a friend: http://flamealivepod.com

Bookshop.org store: https://bookshop.org/shop/flamealivepod

Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/flamealivepod

Hang out with us online:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/flamealivepod

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Newsletter: Sign up at http://flamealivepod.com

VM/Text: (208) FLAME-IT / (208) 352-6348

Thanks so much for listening, and until next time, keep the flame alive!

When Olympic race walker Evan Dunfee joined us to talk about his sport, little did we know we were in for some maranovela talk! In part 1 of our interview with Evan, we talk about the marathon and race walks' move to Sapporo and his opinions about the switch. Plus, the controversy over his race place at Rio 2016 and how Canadians embraced their best race walker.

Follow Evan on Twitter and Insta, and check out his website!

What are our TKFLASTANIs up to this week? We've got news from:

• Film producer John MacLeod
• Modern pentathlete Samantha Schultz
• Curler John Shuster

Throughout 2021 we're revisiting great stories from Atlanta 1996! For our Atlanta 1996 moment this week, Alison tells us how Atlanta's Table used the Olympics to make a difference in the community.

We also have Games Updates from Tokyo 2020 and the torch relay. Sexism in Japan? Oh, yeah.

Thanks so much for listening, and until next time, keep the flame alive!

***

Keep the Flame Alive: The Podcast for Fans of the Olympics and Paralympics with hosts Jill Jaracz & Alison Brown

Support the show:

Tell a friend: http://flamealivepod.com

Bookshop.org store: https://bookshop.org/shop/flamealivepod

Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/flamealivepod

Hang out with us online:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/flamealivepod

Insta: http://www.instagram.com/flamealivepod

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/flamealivepod

Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/312069749587022

Newsletter: Sign up at http://flamealivepod.com

VM/Text: (208) FLAME-IT / (208) 352-6348