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Speaker 1: Welcome to Good Game with Sarah Spain, where we're going to have the best asses in the podcast game after this trip. Every day it's hills, hills and more hills. It's Monday, February sixteenth, and on today's show, we're coming to you from the third stop of our Italian adventure. Cortina will bring you highlights from the sliding track and our favorite skeleton wives the alpine slopes where we saw mind breaking podium in the Giant slalom and highlights of the liveliest most in the Olympic Spirit stop yet plus the point God Reigns Supreme, a Flavor Flave duet, and you've got leaf blower questions, We've got leaf blower answers. It's all coming up right after this chow slices. Welcome back. Here's what you need to know today. Let's start with the Giant Slalom, where it was a second gold for Italy's Federica Brignoni, cementing an incredible comeback from a frack leg and torny cilsaf for just last April. Now you remember Brinoni, she's one of Italy's flag bearers. She also won Thursday's Super g The rest of the podium was sweden Sarah Hector and Norway's Tayla Luisa steernesssund who shared silver. They both finished in two fourteen twelve. We'll have more on that tie later. Mikhayla Schifferin finished eleventh. Well friend at the show, Paula Moltzen was fifteenth. Again. More from this event, including the details of the remarkable nature of that silver medal tie later in the show. To skeleton aka the sliding sport where you're belly down face first. Austria's Janine Flock won gold on Saturday night in Cortina, marking her first win at either the Olympics or World Championships in sixteen all time appearances. Despite winning three overall World Cup titles in her career, Flock had never managed to put four runs together on the biggest stages. You remember, for skeleton, you do four heats and the times from each are added together. Four Your time now. Back at the twenty eighteen Peong Chang Olympics, she was in first heading into the fourth and final run, but blew her lead and finished off the podium entirely. She finally got the win in her fourth Olympics Germany's Suzanne Kreehaer and jack Leen Pfeiffer won silver and bronze respectively, and Alex and I were at Cortina Sliding Center for this one, so later in the show we'll have plenty more to say about flocks win, the logistics of trying to watch a skeleton race in person, and you'll hear from the skeleton Wives, Skeleton Engay, shit, y'all more sliding. The women's monobob competition got underway on Sunday and after two runs, Team USA has three sleds in the top five. Friend at the show, Alana Myers Taylor is in second point to two seconds off the pace of Germany's Laura Nolty. Kaylee Armbruster Humphries is third point three to one back, while Kashall Love posted a time good enough for fifth place. We're planning to be back at the sliding Center for runs three and four today, and all the times from all four heats are added to determined winners, so the medals will be awarded as soon as run four is done. Run three gets underweight at one pm Eastern today, and we'll have plenty more to say about just the second Olympic appearance of monobob in tomorrow's episode. To Moguls, you remember, Team USA athletes Liz Lemley and Jalen Kauf went one two in the women's moguls on Wednesday, while on Friday they both made the podium again in the women's duel moguls, a new Olympic event this year that pits two skiers against each other in a head to head race. This time, Kauf placed higher once again, securing the silver medal, while Lemley took bronze. Kauf is now the most decorated American mogul skier of all time. Australia's Jakara Anthony claimed the gold, a nice comeback for her after a disappointing mistake kept the favorite off Wednesday's podium. To speed skating, where Team USA's Aaron Jackson, the defending Olympic champion and the five hundred meters, placed fifth in her signature race on Sunday afternoon, finishing point zero five second shive of a podium finish. Fem k Kock of the Netherlands took gold in an Olympic record time. She's unbeaten in the five hundred since February of twenty twenty four, and she's won the last three World championships at the distance. After the race, the American Jackson said she was thrilled with their start and first hundred meters, but took a stumble goal on into the second corner, saying, quote, it sucks to miss out on the podium by so little, especially with the stumble midway through, but that's racing end quote. To curling. The women's tournament is well underway and as of this recording, US team Peterson is four to one and ranked second in the round robin standings following a six to five win against China on Sunday. The round robin portion of the tournament continues through Thursday, with the top four teams qualifying for the semi finals on Friday, followed by the gold medal game on Sunday. There's been a lot of drama in curling over the last few days after an incident in the men's tournament when Sweden accused Canada of double touching the stone aka touching the stone after releasing it past the hog line. Now this has resulted in additional surveillance by curling officials, impacting the women's tournament too. We're planning to make it over to at least one session of curling while we're hearing Courtina. So we're eager to see the drama for ourselves and I am very eager to see what exactly the hog line is to hockey. We're at semi final time. Team USA will match up against Sweden and the semi final number one today. That game gets going at ten forty am Eastern time. The US booked at semi final spot with a six nothing went over Italy on Friday, while Sweden pulled off a big upset against Chekiat to clinch its birth, guaranteeing the Swedes their best Olympic finish since twenty fourteen, when they placed fourth in the women's tournament. And lest anyone forget, the US and Sweden have some history in Olympic semi final meetings. In two thousand and six, the last time the Winter Olympics were held in Italy, Sweden upset the US in the semis to earn a spot in the gold medal game, eventually falling to Canada. That was the only time since the nineteen ninety eight debut of women's hockey at the Olympics that the gold medal game wasn't USA versus Canada Now the other semi final featuring Canada and Switzerland is also today. Puck drops at three ten pm Eastern and good news for the Canadians, Marie Philippe Pouhlen is back after missing two games due to a knee injury. Captain Clutch not only played in Canada's five to one quarterfinal win on Saturday over Germany, she notched a goal, her eighteenth all time at the Olympics, tying Hailey Wickenheiser's overall Olympic goal record. A couple more Olympic events to have on your radar today. The pairs figure skating competition concludes today with the free skate. Medals will also be awarded in free ski big air. The three medalists from free ski slopestyle, Matilde Grimmel, Aileen Goo and Meggan Oldham were the top three in qualifying for this event, though not in the same order. We'll link to the full Olympic schedule in the show notes so you can follow along from home. All right, let's leave the Olympic bubble and head to Unrivaled, where it was Gray versus Gray in the finals of the One v One Tournament Friend of the Show, Chelsea Gray defeated Ali Shagray, earning a cool two hundred thousand dollars. That's more than Chelsea Gray's entire twenty twenty five WNBA season salary of one hundred ninety sios two hundred and sixty seven bucks. Ali Shagrey earned fifty K, and semifinalist Kelsey Plum and Eliah Boston each received twenty five thousand dollars. And just like last year, the winner's teammates also benefit, so each of Chelsea's roseby C teammates earned ten thousand dollars. Chelsea is having quite a year plus. She captain roseb C to the first ever Unrivaled championship last season, earning finals MVP, then helped the Las Vegas Aces to the WNBA title and now the One v One Trophy Point God indeed more Unrivaled. The league has announced that its playoffs semi finals will be played on the road. After the success of their stop in Philadelphia, Unrivaled is headed to the Barclays Center in New York City for the semifinals on March second. The league also announced they're increasing the championship prize pool for players to six hundred thousand dollars. Playoffs start in Miami on Saturday, February twenty eighth. Oh and don't forget Angel Rees makes her unrivaled season debut with roseby c on February twentieth, and one fan won't ever forget the Chicago sky Stars Triumphant returned because it's written all over her. You could check the link the show notes to see the fan who promised she'd get an unrivaled tattoo if Angel returned, and she followed through to the NWSL where Angel City has removed defender Savvy King from the season ending injury list. You remember King suffered a cardiac event during a match in May of last year and had to undergo open heart surgery and endure a comprehensive rehabilitation process. Of her return to play this week, King said, quote, this is a moment that I have been waiting for since I woke up from my surgery. End quote. All right, slices, we have to quickly talk about this new third stop in our travels. Courtina. You may remember that when we were leading up to coming here, we were talking about a very very long travel day involving multiple buses and trains. Well, thanks to me listening to Alyssa Nic, my former ESPN colleague, on a podcast saying that she was taking a car service and that was sort of necessary. We took a car service, So big thank you to iHeart, Jesse and Will and everyone. That was a huge, huge help.
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Speaker 2: Alexaw I was dreading having to carry my luggage from one place to another. I hate to say it, but I am no longer able to carry everything in one trip.
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Speaker 3: I'm a two trip girly at this point in our journey.
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Speaker 1: You're a two trip girley, and I'm like a broken down horse that should have already been sent to made glue. So it's a struggle for me. I've got the elbow I fell on, I've got a bad shoulder, I've got a midget calf for my achilles that hates all the hills. So between the two of us, I'm very proud we are physically holding up despite it being like not for the week. But that car service was beautiful and comfortable, very long still, it was like six hours, but totally worth it. So thank you, thank you, thank you, iHeart. We arrived in Cortina and it was late, so we kind of just checked into our hotel, had some delicious pizza, and woke up the next day for a full day in Courtina and got to have some fun before we covered an event, and that fun included Alex connecting with the former NBC sports friend Lauren and we ended up going to lunch with Pikabo Street. What Pikaboo Street?
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Speaker 2: Like?
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Speaker 1: Gold Medal is one of the legacy names of the US Olympic team. How fun was that?
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Speaker 3: Al Oh, it was so good.
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Speaker 2: I mean I love hearing ski drama from the two of them too, Like it's just kind of fascinating behind the scenes stuff. But it was also just so fun to see Peekaboo like embrace the line spirit, like so many people are coming up to her, so many people also, Sarah were coming up to you. Somebody told you that you were their hero.
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Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, yes, Alex, I know we mentioned this on a previous show that I met that amazingly kind woman Ash from New Zealand who was a fan and was hoping I had brought a book with me, which was amazing that she even knew I wrote a book. All the way out there. But this woman, Kaiza from Sweden, was like so effusive and kind about how much my work is meant to her. And it's just like one of the wild things about the Olympics is being confronted by people from other countries. And I know American sports especially gets way more global than we do, you know, taking in people from other places. But it really like truly potentially made my week, not just my day. She was so nice.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, it was such a sweet moment.
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Speaker 1: It was really sweet. But your point about Peaboo, she was embracing like everyone she met. She was doing pins. She did a sweater trade. Okay, trading at the Olympics is normal. Okay, sweater trading is not. But there was a woman who approached our table to ask a question of something and they ended up realizing it was Pekaboo. This woman was from Ogden, Utah, preparing for some of the Olympic stuff that's going to happen in twenty thirty four, and she was wearing this red sweater that said Courtina with skiers on it. And we had all been walking around on our way to lunch talking about all the sweaters we wanted to get and Pekaboo complimented her and the woman was like, well, they lost my luggage and so I'm just been wearing this every day and she's like, I like your sweater. So they went to the bathroom and swapped sweaters. So this woman's walking around in an NBC Olympic sweater and Pekaboo had on her Courtina Ski sweater. But that was basically the vibe of Pekaboo, like a non stop tornado of joy. She even recorded like a video message for Lindsay Vaughn with this young girl who started crying afterwards that she had the opportunity to send a message to Lindsay about what she meant to her, like I just love people who take advantage of having power and influence and being able to make people's day. And Pekaboo was doing that left and right.
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Speaker 3: Absolutely, it was really cool to watch.
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Speaker 1: And we even saw Peekaboo interacting with soon to be friend of the show, Sophia Kirkby. You remember the loser who's looking for love. Well, she's been on several dates, one of which we walked past. We literally saw her in the front window over restaurant last night on a date we saw her again today. Two thumbs up. Congrats of that dude. Sounded like they had a good time. But she was handing out Valentine's on Valentine's Day because Saturday was Valentine's Day, So she was walking around Cortina handing people Valentine's and she gave one to Peekaboo Street. So that was super fun to see those worlds collide and Sophia also like making people's days.
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Speaker 3: Here for Sarah.
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Speaker 2: I do think that walking by Sophia on a date highlighted to me the difference between the two of us, because I was like, oh my god, we can't let her know that we saw her, even though she's sitting in the window.
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Speaker 3: See you like, let's hide.
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Speaker 1: Like, guess what I did.
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Speaker 3: Knock on the damn window.
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Speaker 1: I knocked on the window. I waved at her. I gave the guy thumbs up, Alex. You know me, I'd just like to get things kicking and every opportunity, I'm like, what's that?
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Speaker 3: Who's that?
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Speaker 1: Who are you? What's this?
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Speaker 3: Oh wait, hey that's Flavor Flave.
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Speaker 1: Great point. Yeah, we're literally walking down Cortina. I see my guy friend of the show, Flavor Flame and He's got a bunch of cameras with them, so we kind of turn and I start walking with them just to chat with them. Hey, did you get to the sliding center yet? You know we're gonna be there tomorrow for Skeleton. I hope to see you. Blah blah blah. And then I said, you can Sarah nade me again because I told y'all that right after he stopped recording the episode with him, He's sang Sarah Smile by Hallan Oates to me. So he goes absolutely and he starts singing. So we did a duet of Sarah Smile walking down the streets of Cortina. Alex got it on video. Shouts to Alex for always being ready for that, got some pins from Flave, and then we saw him again later. We'll talk about that at Skeleton, but yeah, like that was the vibe of Cortina. Alex is like at any moment, you're seeing an athlete, a celebrity, people dressed in crazy outfits, which I loved. We saw skiers last night, so weird, like it's cobblestone streets and we saw three people with nineteen fifties wooden skis and poles skiing up to this like ice statue in front of the door store, this like two story like woman who's got skis in a purse made advice and we were like, where are you going? What are you doing? No answers, but very entertaining and yeah, it's like a party scene here. It's really fun.
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Speaker 2: The Olympic motto this year is It's your Vibe, which is a weird motto.
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Speaker 1: Yes it though for Italy it's your vibe.
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Speaker 2: I guess so, I guess so, And like, I don't think that there's a normal Olympic motto. I think mottos in general are pretty hard to come up with. But one of the things that has stood out to me is how different the vibe is in each of the three places that we have now been. And we've now been to three of the floor clusters, and to me, Cortina really feels like, I don't know, even as the games have gotten more corporate and larger and a bigger footprint, like it feels a little bit like that old school Olympic village vibe that people talk about, where it's like people just in the streets celebrating together.
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Speaker 1: Completely agree. And this place has a history right. It hosted the Olympics fifty years ago, and it remembers that history and is still very tied to it, and that feels very cool. Here is this present and past intermingling, and it's a place that is a fancy ass resort ski town built for things like this, for a bunch of people to descend on it when it's normally not that populated, and host it and host it well. And it has. It's been a blast, and we can't wait to bring you more from Courtina. By the way, speaking of mottos, you know my motto alex is Unquable. Yes, and people can actually get that on a shirt breaking tea dot Com slash Spain. And speaking of that, I just have to shout out Alyssa Obradovich. One of our slices are Super Slice. She sent us a photo of her and three of her friends wearing hoops and Geisha shirts and it is this photo go so hard. I need them to be wearing those as uniforms for some sort of epic gay shit bowlingly rugby league trivia night. I don't care. I need you to all. I reposted it on my Blue Sky and my Instagram story. I need you to all see how you could look if you were like Alyssa, Breaking Tea, dot com, slash Bane get your own all right, we gotta take a break when we come back, eating your feelings, sharing is caring, and we spend Valentine's Day with the skeleton wives. It's all coming up. Welcome back Slices, Alex and I got to go to skeleton and giant slalom so far in Cortina, and the fun thing about these events and I just again the millionth shout out to my shirt at Alex. If you're gonna go to the Olympics, you should definitely take a former Olympic research with you because she knows everything and it makes it so much more interesting when you understand like the nitty gritty. But both of these events are ones that do like a seating, So the first heat they go best people first, down to the worst, and then for the second heat they do worst people first down to the best, and obviously in skeleton there's four but they do two days worth of that, and in giant slalom it's just one day.
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Speaker 3: So for a.
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Speaker 1: Stretch, some of the lesser athletes are at the top, which means if you went to someone and you said, oh, yeah, I did skeleton in the Olympics, and they don't know anything about it, and they could ask how you did. You could be like, well, for a time, I was winning the Olympics, I was in first place, which is such a very random and specific thing about these events. You'd have to know that that doesn't mean anything for that not to sound super impressive for the rest of your life, right, Ell.
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Speaker 2: I know I'm trying to think of like how we could work that into podcasting.
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Speaker 1: Okay, but how about this. We are the first and only daily women's sports podcast, so until there's another like full length podcast trying to compete with us, any one time anyone asks, we are the most popular, most listened to, most downloaded, most award winning, most highly regarded, most influential daily women's sports podcast on Earth.
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Speaker 3: Wow, I've never thought of that.
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Speaker 1: About that? How about that? All right, let's get to giant slalom. Guys. Everything is a focking track and my ass hurts bad, and I have to drag my little midget calf on the Achilles side up a hill eighty five times a day and I'm strying to feel my age. So it's really impressive to me when people near my age are competing. We'll get to that. Actually she's older than me. But the podium results reminder from this event that we told you earlier and they need to know. Italy's Frederica Brinoni won her second gold medal of these Games. There was a giant Italian flag, like giant giant Italian flag taking up half the stands. When people were celebrating, there was a dude riding an inflatable tiger, like the tiger on her helmet. Like seeing an Italian win in this place is so cool. She was followed by two silvers, sweden Sarah Hector and Norway's Taylor Luisa Steirnsend. They tied for silver and no Bron's battle was a word because of that. So we're gonna get to thoughts on the podium. But first, Alex, I want to talk about Mikayla Shiffrin, one of the biggest American stars heading into these Games. She finished eleventh, just a few days after she finished fifteenth in the solemn portion of the team combine. All the headlines are fall short, disappointing, you know, continues Olympic drout like all this stuff. How are you rating how much Kayla did today and maybe our expectations for her as the greatest ski year of all time when we don't really understand what that means in terms of World Cups versus Olympics, et cetera.
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Speaker 2: So I want to start by just playing a little bit of what Mikayla said after the race, so that people can get a sense of how she was feeling and what she was thinking after the giant slalom.
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Speaker 4: That was an amazing day. That was that was like the greatest show of GS skiing that we've had in a really long time. And to do it, you know, at the at the Olympics where people actually have eyes on the sport and Frederica skied incredible.
00:19:38
Speaker 5: That was.
00:19:39
Speaker 4: That was so cool to watch.
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Speaker 1: And then I don't.
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Speaker 4: Know, there was just so many really amazing things, and then it was such a stacked competition. And when I think about it, like I'm three tents off of the podium and a tenth or something, it's that is like such a high level of competition. It is really really cool that it was like that we as athletes were able to showcase that on this day and it was a beautiful day of racing, really good conditions and sunny, and like one of those days you can really enjoyed.
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Speaker 2: This kind of gets back to one of the storylines I was talking about before we even left for the Olympics, which is that Americans care about the Olympics, but people that are into ski racing have watched Mikayla's one hundred and eight career victories and know that she is one of the best of all time. And something that I kind of keep coming back to is the way that an athlete's previous results and especially their previous success.
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Speaker 3: Can be weaponized against them, you know.
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Speaker 2: And the reason why the headlines are, you know, Mikayla Schiffrin falls shorter, Olympic woes continue are because she has been so successful before, and Michayla's spoken about it. Where there's risk in competing at the Olympics. You're putting yourself in front of a brand new audience, much bigger audience, who isn't aware of what you have done before. And one of the things I kind of keep coming back to though, is when people talk about, like, oh, that was a disappointing result, well, disappointing to whom you know, was Mikayla disappointed with it?
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Speaker 3: Were you disappointed with it?
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Speaker 2: I'm generally coming from a perspective that I don't I don't think athletes really owe us anything, you know. I think it's a little bit different if somebody is not putting their best foot forward purposefully or intentionally. But that doesn't happen at the Olympics. That doesn't happen most of the time in sports, and so I think in general, if there is disappointment, it is disappointment on behalf of the athlete. But I also want to let them say that they are disappointed, rather than us deciding that for them or deciding that for the viewers. I thought it was really interesting because after Shiffern's result in the Giant Solemn, you know, she seemed pretty happy. She was proud of the progress that she'd made, and just kind of a refresher for people. This is the event that she ended up getting a big puncture wound. Back in November of twenty twenty four, she talked about experiencing PTSD. It took her a really long time to kind of get back into the mix with giant slalom and get back up to her normal speed. And it was just last month that she had her first podium result on the World Cup and so to see some of those headlines, it just makes me bummed for her because I think her result in giant slalom was a strong one against a really really deep field of competitors.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, and I think there's so much to that. It's a lack of understanding and knowledge about the different events, about how the World Cup circuit works, about the injury. Right, we just know the name, and we know she's dominant, and we know she's often called the best of all time, so we expect her to win all the things.
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Speaker 2: And we know that she had a really bad Olympics four years ago, and I think that's only added to the narrative. That's a really really hard I mean, talk about pressure when you're winning, but talk about pressure when you are the winningest athlete of all time and cannot succeed at the Olympics. And that's next level. And I don't think it's something that she wants. She just wants to ski.
00:23:01
Speaker 1: Just it reminds me of Serena Williams used to say, it's only story when I lose. Everyone just expects me to win. So when I lose, that's when all the stories are written. It's not quite the same with Michaela and the sport that she's in, but there are some ties there. Let's get to those who did win and the podium because this was wild. So again, two heats and then they combined the times and in the first heat three skiers tied down to the hundredth of a second, Albania's Laura culture Hector and Stirnistunt. And then in the second heat, Hector and Stirniston tied down to the hundredth of a second. Again, y'all, that is insane. And as Alex pointed out, there are some sports that go to the thousandth this is one that just goes to the hundredth. But again, they are going an entire giant slalom course and they are finishing to the exact same one hundredth of a second twice, which was crazy. And then it was so cool because when the Italian Federica Brignoni skied down and had the best time won the gold. The two silver medalists in a moment completely reminiscent of some bios and Jordan Childs with Rebecca Andragia at the Paris Olympics, ran out and bowed down to Federica Brinoni in front of her adoring Italian crowd, which was just so cool. And you know, we talked about this on the show, and we even talked about this with Paul Moltzen, who didn't have a good day to day unfortunately. We talked about Brinoni skiing so free because of the massive injury she suffered last April and how it just changed her perspective heading into these games. And I asked her about that, and I thought her answer was perfect.
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Speaker 6: I think I think there was my secret for the Olympics because I was really free. I was really focusing on my skiing and enjoy it. I knew this was my last Olympics already. I didn't know if I wanted to be here before and then after the injury, if I could be here, So just to be here was special, to to to be the flat keeper, and that was was already they My Olympic Games were already made, so I didn't need anything else. So that's why I think I had it.
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Speaker 2: And it was just the silver battleists that were bowing down to bring known a you know, throughout the mix on athletes were talking about how much they respected her, and we asked her, do you feel that support yourself, And here's what she had to say.
00:25:14
Speaker 1: The first race I came back and.
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Speaker 6: Actually, even after my injury, all the girls were writing me or when I came back, I saw it. It's not what you write or you put on Instagram or you post this, I don't care. But is the attitude that the girls they have with me and and I have with them. It's this is something that made me.
00:25:39
Speaker 1: I mean, when I went.
00:25:40
Speaker 6: To Selden just to watch the race, I saw this, this word and how they were happy to see me, and it was kind of, Okay, I want to come back. This this gave me a lot of a lot of energy to as for to come back.
00:25:58
Speaker 1: Yeah, and truly everyone does love Brinoni. A bunch of athletes were actually asked about her in the mix zone and they all kind of, I don't know, like a mother figure, sort of like such a kind supportive person even as she was coming back from such a difficult injury herself. And actually one of the people asked was Paula Moltz, and here's what she had to say.
00:26:15
Speaker 7: I cannot rid about her enough. She's the kindest, most genuine athlete on tour. She's kind to everyone, she's friendly to everyone, and like, obviously this come back and to have two gold medals at home is like, hands down, she's clearly the best here in the world right now.
00:26:29
Speaker 1: Frankly, this giant solomn was basically a love fest because we also had the silver medalists that were like the cutest. They were trying to share the chair that they have whoever sitting in the gold position. They were trying to sit on it side by side, like squeezed on it as they were waiting to see if they were gonna win bronze or silver or gold or whatever. And then they took the podium together, leaping up in the air when they got their medals and hugging like it was just very sweet. So afterwards we talked to them about each other. Here's Teya on her relationship with Sarah.
00:27:00
Speaker 5: I never forget first year coming into World Cup in twenty eighteen. She was so welcoming and talking to me as anyone else and befriended me quickly and was always supportive and if I had good runs, she was there right away and if I had bad runs, she always also always comes by, and it's likewise, so it's yes, it's a competitive sport and we are competitors, but in one way we are colleagues in the way that it's just about who's the fastest, is not me against you, so makes it more connecting in a way, which I like about alpine skiing.
00:27:35
Speaker 1: It's just like so genuine and sweet. And then we asked Sarah, of course about her relationship with Taya.
00:27:40
Speaker 6: I'm also so happy to do it with Tia because she's super nice and I like her a lot, to her good friends, and so that was a really really cool experience.
00:27:51
Speaker 1: Alex, I hate to say it because I am getting a little Olympic pilled. I did order a stuffed animal of a curling stone with earmuffs on, like I fear I've been imbued with too much of the Olympic spirit. But this did feel like what you always talk about, like when you think of the Olympics, and like everyone giving their best and giving their all and finding joy in the position they landed in and then loving on each other. It was so nice.
00:28:13
Speaker 2: I don't know why stories like this always make me so emotional, but I think it's because you have athletes that are training their entire lives to be the best in the world, and yet even in those moments, they are able to appreciate each other in a way that feels almost antithetical to the idea of wanting to be best in the world.
00:28:33
Speaker 1: It's very impressive. It's really impressive. Speaking of impressive, we also got the chance to talk to Sarah Schlepper, you remember us talking about on the show before. She's one half of the first ever mother son duo at the Winter Olympics. She's formerly of tam Usa, spent her first four games with them, the last three games, including this one with Mexico. This is her seventh Olympic Games and unfortunately, Alex she was disqualified due to this maximum stand height rule. We had to google this, but basically the distance between the bottom of her boot and the snow was like a millimeter two big. She was really frustrated with herself for the error.
00:29:07
Speaker 3: Alex.
00:29:08
Speaker 1: She came walking over carrying a little like lemon cake with a candle in it, and we were like, is it your birthday? She's like no, She's like, I'm depressed. I'm what is it called? And I was like, eating your feelings. She was like, yes, I'm eating my feelings. And then she described her own personal error. She does her own tuning of her skis. She talked about how the Team USA has so many texts and people to do all the things, but Team Mexico's a very different situation. Tuned her own skis and just made a mistake. And she's made this mistake once before in the past, so she was saying, like, I can't believe I didn't remember and get it right. And then it was funny, she said, my dad runs a ski shop. He's going to be so disappointed in me.
00:29:42
Speaker 2: And she also doesn't just tune her own skis, she tunes her son's skis. Although she said her husband is helping out this week, given that you know he's over in Bormeo.
00:29:52
Speaker 3: Which is about six hours away that car.
00:29:55
Speaker 1: Yeah, but she was going to hitch a ride with someone from the team for her gear to get to see her her son compete on Monday. And overall, she still had a really great attitude about everything and her ability to come and race, and she did say she didn't want to go out like this, so she hinted at you know more competitions in her future, maybe even She said she wouldn't be able to break the Olympic record of ten games, but she left the door jar for competing again. So it was honestly really cool to talk to someone doing an event like that that's older than me and Alex. I'm just having trouble walking up the hills to watch them. Just so impressive, endlessly impressed. Speaking of hills, goddamn it. Skeleton, Holy shit, Yeah, what a what a weird, interesting, intriguing, cool event to sy in person. If you're trying to imagine how one can watch a race on a sliding course, that's a great question. We're still figuring it out. We watched from many different vantage points, finish line, starting line, midway, through different curves, and no matter where you're watching, it's blink and you'll miss it right like you're gonna watch most of the race on a screen and then whichever part is in front of you try to catch. But before we even could take in like where we should be to watch, we had to walk up a giant hill and thankfully we were entertained. Along the way, there was a brass band playing Depeche Mode of all things with like a sick baritone sacks leading the way. At one point, Tina, the mascot, was dancing with them on top of this like mountain side overlooking the town, and the drummer gave Tina one of his drumsticks that she was like playing the drum and dancing like it was a scene. There were these German fans with these giant inflatable pretzels Janine flocks. Family and friends all had these vest son that said flock Janine. It was just like full of energy, even though it was so bifurcated, like all along the different spots along the track.
00:31:45
Speaker 2: I'm so curious, like what people thought they were getting into when they bought an Olympic skeleton to get and if they understood that it would involve all of this walking, but that as a reward they would get a band playing for them.
00:31:57
Speaker 1: Yes, and Flavor Flave or flav is not all talk, folks. He was there when we were there at skeleton. He was at Monobob on Sunday. He's wearing his gear, He's screaming. The first time Mystique Roe went in heat number three, which was the first heat of the night, I could hear flave yelling come on mystiq.
00:32:18
Speaker 8: Yeah boy as she took off down the courtse so he the hype man is hype mannin and yeah, it was a really cool thing to.
00:32:28
Speaker 1: Experience in person. I'm not going to tell you that I recommend it of all the Olympic sports as the one to buy the ticket for. Definitely go see it. It's very cool. It's just a difficult spectator sport. But you also get to see the strength, the power, the speed, the detail of the takeoff, which is where we spent a lot of our time. And there were some really cool storylines in there, and we mentioned Janine Flock being one of them. This is someone who was in her fourth Olympics, had finished fourth before right off the podium and she finally put it all together to win. And after the medals were awarded, we talked to a couple of the athletes, include in Great Britain's Tabitha Stoker. She finished fifth in the event. She was thrilled with that result in her Olympic debut. One of those athletes Alex that you would hope some reporter wouldn't come up and say, how sad are you? You just missed the podium because she's like, oh my god, I had the best time and I'm so proud of myself, Like she was so joyful.
00:33:17
Speaker 2: Ye.
00:33:17
Speaker 1: What really got her excited and choked up even was when the twenty five year old talked about Janine Flock getting that gold medal win. Take a listen.
00:33:25
Speaker 9: I was literally crying. I'm just so happy for her, Like I've you know, we'd go on these circuits scared there we're away from our family and our friends, and Jeanine's for our team especially. I think she's definitely been like a bit of an inspiration and she's always been so kind.
00:33:41
Speaker 3: And helpful with with sliding.
00:33:43
Speaker 9: Or with anything else other than that. And to see her succeed how she did today and to win like that, it's just inspiring and.
00:33:50
Speaker 1: I'm so so happy for her.
00:33:52
Speaker 3: She deserved it.
00:33:53
Speaker 9: And yeah, it's like I said, is she inspiring?
00:33:57
Speaker 3: Ah, I'm just a sucker for as loved as so much.
00:34:02
Speaker 5: I know.
00:34:03
Speaker 1: It's like so nice and it really gives you a story of the time that these people are spending together across continents, away from their friends and family and really bonding over this very unique thing they do. Speaking of bonding. You guys, we got to meet and talk to the Skeleton Wives. They were so much better than I even could have imagined. I don't know what I imagined. We talked about him on the show. We were like skeleton and gay shit, y'all, which, by the way, someone said, isn't that just Halloween? True?
00:34:29
Speaker 5: Fair?
00:34:29
Speaker 1: But and then we were like Skeleton Wives. Sounds like a new Bravo show or something. But they were so delightful. Nicole Silvera of Brazil and Kim Mahleman's of Belgium. We talked to Nicole first. I just became instantly obsessed with her. Just so much joy, so much love, such a great speaker. I asked her. You know, she had said that this was gonna be the first time they were competing as a married couple at the Olympics, and that they wanted to be loud and proud about their relationship while at these Italian Games. And you may recall in a previous show we mentioned that the Italian government has grown increasingly hostile to LGBTQ plus people in recent years. That includes removing lesbian mothers from their children's birth certificates. In twenty twenty three and banning travel abroad for surrogacy in twenty twenty four. And they're aware of these things, and they wanted to show up in this country and you know, be themselves, And so I asked Akle if they could be loud and proud the way they wanted. Absolutely.
00:35:23
Speaker 10: I think we don't try and hide anything. Our emotions and how we encounter each other at the end of the track is genuine. I think Italy is a tough place in terms of where the laws are going, so I'm just happy that we can show that it's okay to be who you are with no fear of that.
00:35:44
Speaker 1: More nerves for yourself or her tonight.
00:35:48
Speaker 10: Honestly, I thought it would be a lot more nervous to compete, but I would say I kept it pretty cool. There's always that those butterflies, and I try and use that to my advantage, so I would say that it's.
00:36:03
Speaker 1: For both of us.
00:36:03
Speaker 10: So it's almost four times the adrenaline rush that I get to every race.
00:36:10
Speaker 1: Nicole was also asked in the mix zone about the lodging arrangements at the Games for the skeleton wives, because obviously typically athletes live with folks from their own countries in their country house, but the Skeleton Wives were able to room together here in Italy. Take a listen.
00:36:23
Speaker 10: Throughout the whole season, we stayed in Airbnb, so we shared for the last time, I want to say three or four years, we shared accommodations. So we really from the beginning needed this to be at constant, so we fought, well, we didn't fight, honestly. Our federations were both very great. Brazil was able to spare a bed and he was very cute because when we showed up, the room was half decorated in Belgium and half decorated in Brazil. And I want to say, it's one of the first times that we've been able to join nations like that because our Belgium and Brazil federations were right next to each other. So yeah, it was it was incredible.
00:36:58
Speaker 11: But she's in the Brazil house technically, yes, yes, So there's just a couple of us around Nicole talking to her, and then we see Kim walk over and in her.
00:37:07
Speaker 1: Hands she's got these heart shaped cookies that the Belgian federation gave her for Valentine's Day, and I was just thinking watching them exchange and watching Nicole see the cookies and them talking about it, Like, what a memory for these two. They're competing at the Olympics together in the same event on Valentine's Day, like just it's just the cutest. And we got a chance to talk to Kim next and we asked her as well about the reception that she and Nicole have received in Italy. Take a listen.
00:37:34
Speaker 11: I mean we don't really hide our relationship. No, I mean everyone here is super nice. I don't think that the Italian's unfriendly.
00:37:42
Speaker 1: Towards us at all.
00:37:43
Speaker 11: I think it's just systematic as usual. No, I think it's been great. We've had a great time. It's been a very special Olympic Games.
00:37:52
Speaker 1: Alex like, I love love and these two, like, I'm kind of like might become a skeleton fan solely to follow their careers because they were so delightful.
00:38:02
Speaker 2: I'm like over here counting out all the different types of flavors of sports and gay shit that we've had. We have players that are competing in hockey USA Canada rivalry against their significant other. We have the Hillary Knights and Britney Bows of the world competing in different sports.
00:38:18
Speaker 1: Yes, Asy fun and Page Becker, same team.
00:38:21
Speaker 3: I just love the different varieties.
00:38:23
Speaker 1: There's so much gy shit. Highly recommend following them on social and just seeing what the content is because I can almost guarantee I haven't done that. I'm going to now because I'm obsessed.
00:38:32
Speaker 2: With them saying that you're going to do our good game play at the day yourself, Sarah, you're doing your slice work.
00:38:38
Speaker 1: Yeah, yes, I'm ast signing myself some little citrus work. And it is going to be to follow those two and keep up with their goings on because we just had so much fun talking to them, and we had just a lot of fun at both of these events. It's a lot of waiting, it's a lot of hiking, it's a lot of standing in the cold, but in the end, we have the opportunity to talk to Olympic athletes and Olympic medallists at some of the happiest moments of their lives. And as you can see, we're just gushing about it because it's really really cool to be a foot away from someone who's emoting in that way. It's just it's just really special. All Right, We got to take another break when we come back. Speaking of a mooting emotion, New goal. Find the party, Bros.
00:39:21
Speaker 3: It's next game.
00:39:29
Speaker 1: Welcome back Slices. We love that you're listening, but we want you to get in the game every day too, So here's our good game play at the day. Obviously, follow Kim and Nicole join me in my slice work slash Little Citrus Work. We'll put their accounts in the show notes. And if you like the coverage that we're bringing you for Italy, maybe consider sharing an episode or two with someone who might like it. Maybe repost a video or two. I've been putting them on Instagram or Blue Sky where I say, come with me to halfpipe, come with me to moguls. I've really tried to put together some behind the scenes where you can not see some of the events, but like what the crowd looks like, and what the walk looks like and all the other stuff. Something that I've always wondered about when I haven't been at the Olympics personally. So if you like any of that stuff, share it, send it to people. I think I mentioned when we were leaving for this trip that I stopped using Twitter and TikTok and TikTok I was pretty new on but it has a lot of reach and Twitter. I had, like, I don't know two hundred and sixty thousand followers, and it just didn't feel right to be in those spaces anymore. But I do want the coverage that we're doing here to spread far and wide. I do want to make sure that people are seeing all the stuff that we're putting our work into. So Instagram, LinkedIn blue Sky like wherever you see it, Facebook, share it and send it to people. We would love your help in making sure that our stories get out there and get told and speaking of your help, keep sending us missions because we are on the hunt investigating these things for you. Someone asked about a leaf blower, and there's a leaf blower man at Skeleton on Saturday, so I asked him if there are actual leaf blowers that they're using, and the answer is yes. One person is able to clear off all the snow and debris out of the groove lines in the track using the air from the leaf blower much faster than multiple people with like brooms. There's no heat, it's just air. And while I didn't ask the same of the people using those leaf blowers in the snow events that we were at out in Lavigno. I have to imagine it's basically the same vibe. It's clearing off the lines or grooves faster than you would with a broom. We always love to hear from you. To hit us up on email, good game at Wondermedia network dot com or leave us a voicemail at eight seven two two o four fifty seventy, and don't forget to subscribe, rate and review slices. It's easy. Watch the Win Brothers, rating five out of five stars for their fashionable matching fits review. The three older brothers of Team USA and Boston Fleet hockey player Haley Win have been turning heads in Milan as they arrive at her games in increasingly wild and creative coordinated outfits. One day they were wearing American flag, bucket hats, fleeces and pants. Another day bald egle onesies. One day they were wearing jorts, headbands and sleeveless americates. Another day, in response to being boot at a game, they donned newsboy caps with cigars and news papers. They were real preppy, real classy, and then they would hold up the newspapers when something good happened for Canada and slap them loudly to cheer on the Americans so good. Their videos are so entertaining, and y'all know I love a costume. These boys are kill in their costumes. So my new life goal when we get back to Milan is to party with Haley and her brothers after a Team USA gold medal win. No Jinks, O Jinks. Okay, now it's your turn, rate and review. Thanks for listening. See you tomorrow. Good game, Federica Brinoni, Good Game, Janine Flock you Hills, goddamn play? Am I so old and decrepit? Good Game with Sarah Spain is an iHeart women's sports production in partnership with Deep Blue Sports and Entertainment. You can find us on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Production by Wonder Media Network, our producers are Alex Azzi and Bianca Hillier. Our executive producers are Christina Everett, Jesse Katz, Jenny Kaplan and Emily Rudder. Our editors are Emily Rudder, Lucy Jones, Brittany Martinez, and Gianna Palmer. Production assistants from Avery Loftus and I'm Your Host. Sarah Spain
Speaker 1: Welcome to Good Game with Sarah Spain, where we're going to have the best asses in the podcast game after this trip. Every day it's hills, hills and more hills. It's Monday, February sixteenth, and on today's show, we're coming to you from the third stop of our Italian adventure. Cortina will bring you highlights from the sliding track and our favorite skeleton wives the alpine slopes where we saw mind breaking podium in the Giant slalom and highlights of the liveliest most in the Olympic Spirit stop yet plus the point God Reigns Supreme, a Flavor Flave duet, and you've got leaf blower questions, We've got leaf blower answers. It's all coming up right after this chow slices. Welcome back. Here's what you need to know today. Let's start with the Giant Slalom, where it was a second gold for Italy's Federica Brignoni, cementing an incredible comeback from a frack leg and torny cilsaf for just last April. Now you remember Brinoni, she's one of Italy's flag bearers. She also won Thursday's Super g The rest of the podium was sweden Sarah Hector and Norway's Tayla Luisa steernesssund who shared silver. They both finished in two fourteen twelve. We'll have more on that tie later. Mikhayla Schifferin finished eleventh. Well friend at the show, Paula Moltzen was fifteenth. Again. More from this event, including the details of the remarkable nature of that silver medal tie later in the show. To skeleton aka the sliding sport where you're belly down face first. Austria's Janine Flock won gold on Saturday night in Cortina, marking her first win at either the Olympics or World Championships in sixteen all time appearances. Despite winning three overall World Cup titles in her career, Flock had never managed to put four runs together on the biggest stages. You remember, for skeleton, you do four heats and the times from each are added together. Four Your time now. Back at the twenty eighteen Peong Chang Olympics, she was in first heading into the fourth and final run, but blew her lead and finished off the podium entirely. She finally got the win in her fourth Olympics Germany's Suzanne Kreehaer and jack Leen Pfeiffer won silver and bronze respectively, and Alex and I were at Cortina Sliding Center for this one, so later in the show we'll have plenty more to say about flocks win, the logistics of trying to watch a skeleton race in person, and you'll hear from the skeleton Wives, Skeleton Engay, shit, y'all more sliding. The women's monobob competition got underway on Sunday and after two runs, Team USA has three sleds in the top five. Friend at the show, Alana Myers Taylor is in second point to two seconds off the pace of Germany's Laura Nolty. Kaylee Armbruster Humphries is third point three to one back, while Kashall Love posted a time good enough for fifth place. We're planning to be back at the sliding Center for runs three and four today, and all the times from all four heats are added to determined winners, so the medals will be awarded as soon as run four is done. Run three gets underweight at one pm Eastern today, and we'll have plenty more to say about just the second Olympic appearance of monobob in tomorrow's episode. To Moguls, you remember, Team USA athletes Liz Lemley and Jalen Kauf went one two in the women's moguls on Wednesday, while on Friday they both made the podium again in the women's duel moguls, a new Olympic event this year that pits two skiers against each other in a head to head race. This time, Kauf placed higher once again, securing the silver medal, while Lemley took bronze. Kauf is now the most decorated American mogul skier of all time. Australia's Jakara Anthony claimed the gold, a nice comeback for her after a disappointing mistake kept the favorite off Wednesday's podium. To speed skating, where Team USA's Aaron Jackson, the defending Olympic champion and the five hundred meters, placed fifth in her signature race on Sunday afternoon, finishing point zero five second shive of a podium finish. Fem k Kock of the Netherlands took gold in an Olympic record time. She's unbeaten in the five hundred since February of twenty twenty four, and she's won the last three World championships at the distance. After the race, the American Jackson said she was thrilled with their start and first hundred meters, but took a stumble goal on into the second corner, saying, quote, it sucks to miss out on the podium by so little, especially with the stumble midway through, but that's racing end quote. To curling. The women's tournament is well underway and as of this recording, US team Peterson is four to one and ranked second in the round robin standings following a six to five win against China on Sunday. The round robin portion of the tournament continues through Thursday, with the top four teams qualifying for the semi finals on Friday, followed by the gold medal game on Sunday. There's been a lot of drama in curling over the last few days after an incident in the men's tournament when Sweden accused Canada of double touching the stone aka touching the stone after releasing it past the hog line. Now this has resulted in additional surveillance by curling officials, impacting the women's tournament too. We're planning to make it over to at least one session of curling while we're hearing Courtina. So we're eager to see the drama for ourselves and I am very eager to see what exactly the hog line is to hockey. We're at semi final time. Team USA will match up against Sweden and the semi final number one today. That game gets going at ten forty am Eastern time. The US booked at semi final spot with a six nothing went over Italy on Friday, while Sweden pulled off a big upset against Chekiat to clinch its birth, guaranteeing the Swedes their best Olympic finish since twenty fourteen, when they placed fourth in the women's tournament. And lest anyone forget, the US and Sweden have some history in Olympic semi final meetings. In two thousand and six, the last time the Winter Olympics were held in Italy, Sweden upset the US in the semis to earn a spot in the gold medal game, eventually falling to Canada. That was the only time since the nineteen ninety eight debut of women's hockey at the Olympics that the gold medal game wasn't USA versus Canada Now the other semi final featuring Canada and Switzerland is also today. Puck drops at three ten pm Eastern and good news for the Canadians, Marie Philippe Pouhlen is back after missing two games due to a knee injury. Captain Clutch not only played in Canada's five to one quarterfinal win on Saturday over Germany, she notched a goal, her eighteenth all time at the Olympics, tying Hailey Wickenheiser's overall Olympic goal record. A couple more Olympic events to have on your radar today. The pairs figure skating competition concludes today with the free skate. Medals will also be awarded in free ski big air. The three medalists from free ski slopestyle, Matilde Grimmel, Aileen Goo and Meggan Oldham were the top three in qualifying for this event, though not in the same order. We'll link to the full Olympic schedule in the show notes so you can follow along from home. All right, let's leave the Olympic bubble and head to Unrivaled, where it was Gray versus Gray in the finals of the One v One Tournament Friend of the Show, Chelsea Gray defeated Ali Shagray, earning a cool two hundred thousand dollars. That's more than Chelsea Gray's entire twenty twenty five WNBA season salary of one hundred ninety sios two hundred and sixty seven bucks. Ali Shagrey earned fifty K, and semifinalist Kelsey Plum and Eliah Boston each received twenty five thousand dollars. And just like last year, the winner's teammates also benefit, so each of Chelsea's roseby C teammates earned ten thousand dollars. Chelsea is having quite a year plus. She captain roseb C to the first ever Unrivaled championship last season, earning finals MVP, then helped the Las Vegas Aces to the WNBA title and now the One v One Trophy Point God indeed more Unrivaled. The league has announced that its playoffs semi finals will be played on the road. After the success of their stop in Philadelphia, Unrivaled is headed to the Barclays Center in New York City for the semifinals on March second. The league also announced they're increasing the championship prize pool for players to six hundred thousand dollars. Playoffs start in Miami on Saturday, February twenty eighth. Oh and don't forget Angel Rees makes her unrivaled season debut with roseby c on February twentieth, and one fan won't ever forget the Chicago sky Stars Triumphant returned because it's written all over her. You could check the link the show notes to see the fan who promised she'd get an unrivaled tattoo if Angel returned, and she followed through to the NWSL where Angel City has removed defender Savvy King from the season ending injury list. You remember King suffered a cardiac event during a match in May of last year and had to undergo open heart surgery and endure a comprehensive rehabilitation process. Of her return to play this week, King said, quote, this is a moment that I have been waiting for since I woke up from my surgery. End quote. All right, slices, we have to quickly talk about this new third stop in our travels. Courtina. You may remember that when we were leading up to coming here, we were talking about a very very long travel day involving multiple buses and trains. Well, thanks to me listening to Alyssa Nic, my former ESPN colleague, on a podcast saying that she was taking a car service and that was sort of necessary. We took a car service, So big thank you to iHeart, Jesse and Will and everyone. That was a huge, huge help.
00:08:43
Speaker 2: Alexaw I was dreading having to carry my luggage from one place to another. I hate to say it, but I am no longer able to carry everything in one trip.
00:08:55
Speaker 3: I'm a two trip girly at this point in our journey.
00:08:57
Speaker 1: You're a two trip girley, and I'm like a broken down horse that should have already been sent to made glue. So it's a struggle for me. I've got the elbow I fell on, I've got a bad shoulder, I've got a midget calf for my achilles that hates all the hills. So between the two of us, I'm very proud we are physically holding up despite it being like not for the week. But that car service was beautiful and comfortable, very long still, it was like six hours, but totally worth it. So thank you, thank you, thank you, iHeart. We arrived in Cortina and it was late, so we kind of just checked into our hotel, had some delicious pizza, and woke up the next day for a full day in Courtina and got to have some fun before we covered an event, and that fun included Alex connecting with the former NBC sports friend Lauren and we ended up going to lunch with Pikabo Street. What Pikaboo Street?
00:09:42
Speaker 2: Like?
00:09:42
Speaker 1: Gold Medal is one of the legacy names of the US Olympic team. How fun was that?
00:09:47
Speaker 3: Al Oh, it was so good.
00:09:49
Speaker 2: I mean I love hearing ski drama from the two of them too, Like it's just kind of fascinating behind the scenes stuff. But it was also just so fun to see Peekaboo like embrace the line spirit, like so many people are coming up to her, so many people also, Sarah were coming up to you. Somebody told you that you were their hero.
00:10:07
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, yes, Alex, I know we mentioned this on a previous show that I met that amazingly kind woman Ash from New Zealand who was a fan and was hoping I had brought a book with me, which was amazing that she even knew I wrote a book. All the way out there. But this woman, Kaiza from Sweden, was like so effusive and kind about how much my work is meant to her. And it's just like one of the wild things about the Olympics is being confronted by people from other countries. And I know American sports especially gets way more global than we do, you know, taking in people from other places. But it really like truly potentially made my week, not just my day. She was so nice.
00:10:42
Speaker 3: Yeah, it was such a sweet moment.
00:10:43
Speaker 1: It was really sweet. But your point about Peaboo, she was embracing like everyone she met. She was doing pins. She did a sweater trade. Okay, trading at the Olympics is normal. Okay, sweater trading is not. But there was a woman who approached our table to ask a question of something and they ended up realizing it was Pekaboo. This woman was from Ogden, Utah, preparing for some of the Olympic stuff that's going to happen in twenty thirty four, and she was wearing this red sweater that said Courtina with skiers on it. And we had all been walking around on our way to lunch talking about all the sweaters we wanted to get and Pekaboo complimented her and the woman was like, well, they lost my luggage and so I'm just been wearing this every day and she's like, I like your sweater. So they went to the bathroom and swapped sweaters. So this woman's walking around in an NBC Olympic sweater and Pekaboo had on her Courtina Ski sweater. But that was basically the vibe of Pekaboo, like a non stop tornado of joy. She even recorded like a video message for Lindsay Vaughn with this young girl who started crying afterwards that she had the opportunity to send a message to Lindsay about what she meant to her, like I just love people who take advantage of having power and influence and being able to make people's day. And Pekaboo was doing that left and right.
00:11:53
Speaker 3: Absolutely, it was really cool to watch.
00:11:56
Speaker 1: And we even saw Peekaboo interacting with soon to be friend of the show, Sophia Kirkby. You remember the loser who's looking for love. Well, she's been on several dates, one of which we walked past. We literally saw her in the front window over restaurant last night on a date we saw her again today. Two thumbs up. Congrats of that dude. Sounded like they had a good time. But she was handing out Valentine's on Valentine's Day because Saturday was Valentine's Day, So she was walking around Cortina handing people Valentine's and she gave one to Peekaboo Street. So that was super fun to see those worlds collide and Sophia also like making people's days.
00:12:30
Speaker 3: Here for Sarah.
00:12:32
Speaker 2: I do think that walking by Sophia on a date highlighted to me the difference between the two of us, because I was like, oh my god, we can't let her know that we saw her, even though she's sitting in the window.
00:12:44
Speaker 3: See you like, let's hide.
00:12:46
Speaker 1: Like, guess what I did.
00:12:48
Speaker 3: Knock on the damn window.
00:12:51
Speaker 1: I knocked on the window. I waved at her. I gave the guy thumbs up, Alex. You know me, I'd just like to get things kicking and every opportunity, I'm like, what's that?
00:13:02
Speaker 3: Who's that?
00:13:02
Speaker 1: Who are you? What's this?
00:13:04
Speaker 3: Oh wait, hey that's Flavor Flave.
00:13:06
Speaker 1: Great point. Yeah, we're literally walking down Cortina. I see my guy friend of the show, Flavor Flame and He's got a bunch of cameras with them, so we kind of turn and I start walking with them just to chat with them. Hey, did you get to the sliding center yet? You know we're gonna be there tomorrow for Skeleton. I hope to see you. Blah blah blah. And then I said, you can Sarah nade me again because I told y'all that right after he stopped recording the episode with him, He's sang Sarah Smile by Hallan Oates to me. So he goes absolutely and he starts singing. So we did a duet of Sarah Smile walking down the streets of Cortina. Alex got it on video. Shouts to Alex for always being ready for that, got some pins from Flave, and then we saw him again later. We'll talk about that at Skeleton, but yeah, like that was the vibe of Cortina. Alex is like at any moment, you're seeing an athlete, a celebrity, people dressed in crazy outfits, which I loved. We saw skiers last night, so weird, like it's cobblestone streets and we saw three people with nineteen fifties wooden skis and poles skiing up to this like ice statue in front of the door store, this like two story like woman who's got skis in a purse made advice and we were like, where are you going? What are you doing? No answers, but very entertaining and yeah, it's like a party scene here. It's really fun.
00:14:18
Speaker 2: The Olympic motto this year is It's your Vibe, which is a weird motto.
00:14:23
Speaker 1: Yes it though for Italy it's your vibe.
00:14:27
Speaker 2: I guess so, I guess so, And like, I don't think that there's a normal Olympic motto. I think mottos in general are pretty hard to come up with. But one of the things that has stood out to me is how different the vibe is in each of the three places that we have now been. And we've now been to three of the floor clusters, and to me, Cortina really feels like, I don't know, even as the games have gotten more corporate and larger and a bigger footprint, like it feels a little bit like that old school Olympic village vibe that people talk about, where it's like people just in the streets celebrating together.
00:15:00
Speaker 1: Completely agree. And this place has a history right. It hosted the Olympics fifty years ago, and it remembers that history and is still very tied to it, and that feels very cool. Here is this present and past intermingling, and it's a place that is a fancy ass resort ski town built for things like this, for a bunch of people to descend on it when it's normally not that populated, and host it and host it well. And it has. It's been a blast, and we can't wait to bring you more from Courtina. By the way, speaking of mottos, you know my motto alex is Unquable. Yes, and people can actually get that on a shirt breaking tea dot Com slash Spain. And speaking of that, I just have to shout out Alyssa Obradovich. One of our slices are Super Slice. She sent us a photo of her and three of her friends wearing hoops and Geisha shirts and it is this photo go so hard. I need them to be wearing those as uniforms for some sort of epic gay shit bowlingly rugby league trivia night. I don't care. I need you to all. I reposted it on my Blue Sky and my Instagram story. I need you to all see how you could look if you were like Alyssa, Breaking Tea, dot com, slash Bane get your own all right, we gotta take a break when we come back, eating your feelings, sharing is caring, and we spend Valentine's Day with the skeleton wives. It's all coming up. Welcome back Slices, Alex and I got to go to skeleton and giant slalom so far in Cortina, and the fun thing about these events and I just again the millionth shout out to my shirt at Alex. If you're gonna go to the Olympics, you should definitely take a former Olympic research with you because she knows everything and it makes it so much more interesting when you understand like the nitty gritty. But both of these events are ones that do like a seating, So the first heat they go best people first, down to the worst, and then for the second heat they do worst people first down to the best, and obviously in skeleton there's four but they do two days worth of that, and in giant slalom it's just one day.
00:17:00
Speaker 3: So for a.
00:17:01
Speaker 1: Stretch, some of the lesser athletes are at the top, which means if you went to someone and you said, oh, yeah, I did skeleton in the Olympics, and they don't know anything about it, and they could ask how you did. You could be like, well, for a time, I was winning the Olympics, I was in first place, which is such a very random and specific thing about these events. You'd have to know that that doesn't mean anything for that not to sound super impressive for the rest of your life, right, Ell.
00:17:24
Speaker 2: I know I'm trying to think of like how we could work that into podcasting.
00:17:27
Speaker 1: Okay, but how about this. We are the first and only daily women's sports podcast, so until there's another like full length podcast trying to compete with us, any one time anyone asks, we are the most popular, most listened to, most downloaded, most award winning, most highly regarded, most influential daily women's sports podcast on Earth.
00:17:48
Speaker 3: Wow, I've never thought of that.
00:17:50
Speaker 1: About that? How about that? All right, let's get to giant slalom. Guys. Everything is a focking track and my ass hurts bad, and I have to drag my little midget calf on the Achilles side up a hill eighty five times a day and I'm strying to feel my age. So it's really impressive to me when people near my age are competing. We'll get to that. Actually she's older than me. But the podium results reminder from this event that we told you earlier and they need to know. Italy's Frederica Brinoni won her second gold medal of these Games. There was a giant Italian flag, like giant giant Italian flag taking up half the stands. When people were celebrating, there was a dude riding an inflatable tiger, like the tiger on her helmet. Like seeing an Italian win in this place is so cool. She was followed by two silvers, sweden Sarah Hector and Norway's Taylor Luisa Steirnsend. They tied for silver and no Bron's battle was a word because of that. So we're gonna get to thoughts on the podium. But first, Alex, I want to talk about Mikayla Shiffrin, one of the biggest American stars heading into these Games. She finished eleventh, just a few days after she finished fifteenth in the solemn portion of the team combine. All the headlines are fall short, disappointing, you know, continues Olympic drout like all this stuff. How are you rating how much Kayla did today and maybe our expectations for her as the greatest ski year of all time when we don't really understand what that means in terms of World Cups versus Olympics, et cetera.
00:19:09
Speaker 2: So I want to start by just playing a little bit of what Mikayla said after the race, so that people can get a sense of how she was feeling and what she was thinking after the giant slalom.
00:19:21
Speaker 4: That was an amazing day. That was that was like the greatest show of GS skiing that we've had in a really long time. And to do it, you know, at the at the Olympics where people actually have eyes on the sport and Frederica skied incredible.
00:19:38
Speaker 5: That was.
00:19:39
Speaker 4: That was so cool to watch.
00:19:40
Speaker 1: And then I don't.
00:19:42
Speaker 4: Know, there was just so many really amazing things, and then it was such a stacked competition. And when I think about it, like I'm three tents off of the podium and a tenth or something, it's that is like such a high level of competition. It is really really cool that it was like that we as athletes were able to showcase that on this day and it was a beautiful day of racing, really good conditions and sunny, and like one of those days you can really enjoyed.
00:20:14
Speaker 2: This kind of gets back to one of the storylines I was talking about before we even left for the Olympics, which is that Americans care about the Olympics, but people that are into ski racing have watched Mikayla's one hundred and eight career victories and know that she is one of the best of all time. And something that I kind of keep coming back to is the way that an athlete's previous results and especially their previous success.
00:20:39
Speaker 3: Can be weaponized against them, you know.
00:20:42
Speaker 2: And the reason why the headlines are, you know, Mikayla Schiffrin falls shorter, Olympic woes continue are because she has been so successful before, and Michayla's spoken about it. Where there's risk in competing at the Olympics. You're putting yourself in front of a brand new audience, much bigger audience, who isn't aware of what you have done before. And one of the things I kind of keep coming back to though, is when people talk about, like, oh, that was a disappointing result, well, disappointing to whom you know, was Mikayla disappointed with it?
00:21:15
Speaker 3: Were you disappointed with it?
00:21:17
Speaker 2: I'm generally coming from a perspective that I don't I don't think athletes really owe us anything, you know. I think it's a little bit different if somebody is not putting their best foot forward purposefully or intentionally. But that doesn't happen at the Olympics. That doesn't happen most of the time in sports, and so I think in general, if there is disappointment, it is disappointment on behalf of the athlete. But I also want to let them say that they are disappointed, rather than us deciding that for them or deciding that for the viewers. I thought it was really interesting because after Shiffern's result in the Giant Solemn, you know, she seemed pretty happy. She was proud of the progress that she'd made, and just kind of a refresher for people. This is the event that she ended up getting a big puncture wound. Back in November of twenty twenty four, she talked about experiencing PTSD. It took her a really long time to kind of get back into the mix with giant slalom and get back up to her normal speed. And it was just last month that she had her first podium result on the World Cup and so to see some of those headlines, it just makes me bummed for her because I think her result in giant slalom was a strong one against a really really deep field of competitors.
00:22:26
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I think there's so much to that. It's a lack of understanding and knowledge about the different events, about how the World Cup circuit works, about the injury. Right, we just know the name, and we know she's dominant, and we know she's often called the best of all time, so we expect her to win all the things.
00:22:40
Speaker 2: And we know that she had a really bad Olympics four years ago, and I think that's only added to the narrative. That's a really really hard I mean, talk about pressure when you're winning, but talk about pressure when you are the winningest athlete of all time and cannot succeed at the Olympics. And that's next level. And I don't think it's something that she wants. She just wants to ski.
00:23:01
Speaker 1: Just it reminds me of Serena Williams used to say, it's only story when I lose. Everyone just expects me to win. So when I lose, that's when all the stories are written. It's not quite the same with Michaela and the sport that she's in, but there are some ties there. Let's get to those who did win and the podium because this was wild. So again, two heats and then they combined the times and in the first heat three skiers tied down to the hundredth of a second, Albania's Laura culture Hector and Stirnistunt. And then in the second heat, Hector and Stirniston tied down to the hundredth of a second. Again, y'all, that is insane. And as Alex pointed out, there are some sports that go to the thousandth this is one that just goes to the hundredth. But again, they are going an entire giant slalom course and they are finishing to the exact same one hundredth of a second twice, which was crazy. And then it was so cool because when the Italian Federica Brignoni skied down and had the best time won the gold. The two silver medalists in a moment completely reminiscent of some bios and Jordan Childs with Rebecca Andragia at the Paris Olympics, ran out and bowed down to Federica Brinoni in front of her adoring Italian crowd, which was just so cool. And you know, we talked about this on the show, and we even talked about this with Paul Moltzen, who didn't have a good day to day unfortunately. We talked about Brinoni skiing so free because of the massive injury she suffered last April and how it just changed her perspective heading into these games. And I asked her about that, and I thought her answer was perfect.
00:24:28
Speaker 6: I think I think there was my secret for the Olympics because I was really free. I was really focusing on my skiing and enjoy it. I knew this was my last Olympics already. I didn't know if I wanted to be here before and then after the injury, if I could be here, So just to be here was special, to to to be the flat keeper, and that was was already they My Olympic Games were already made, so I didn't need anything else. So that's why I think I had it.
00:24:59
Speaker 2: And it was just the silver battleists that were bowing down to bring known a you know, throughout the mix on athletes were talking about how much they respected her, and we asked her, do you feel that support yourself, And here's what she had to say.
00:25:14
Speaker 1: The first race I came back and.
00:25:17
Speaker 6: Actually, even after my injury, all the girls were writing me or when I came back, I saw it. It's not what you write or you put on Instagram or you post this, I don't care. But is the attitude that the girls they have with me and and I have with them. It's this is something that made me.
00:25:39
Speaker 1: I mean, when I went.
00:25:40
Speaker 6: To Selden just to watch the race, I saw this, this word and how they were happy to see me, and it was kind of, Okay, I want to come back. This this gave me a lot of a lot of energy to as for to come back.
00:25:58
Speaker 1: Yeah, and truly everyone does love Brinoni. A bunch of athletes were actually asked about her in the mix zone and they all kind of, I don't know, like a mother figure, sort of like such a kind supportive person even as she was coming back from such a difficult injury herself. And actually one of the people asked was Paula Moltz, and here's what she had to say.
00:26:15
Speaker 7: I cannot rid about her enough. She's the kindest, most genuine athlete on tour. She's kind to everyone, she's friendly to everyone, and like, obviously this come back and to have two gold medals at home is like, hands down, she's clearly the best here in the world right now.
00:26:29
Speaker 1: Frankly, this giant solomn was basically a love fest because we also had the silver medalists that were like the cutest. They were trying to share the chair that they have whoever sitting in the gold position. They were trying to sit on it side by side, like squeezed on it as they were waiting to see if they were gonna win bronze or silver or gold or whatever. And then they took the podium together, leaping up in the air when they got their medals and hugging like it was just very sweet. So afterwards we talked to them about each other. Here's Teya on her relationship with Sarah.
00:27:00
Speaker 5: I never forget first year coming into World Cup in twenty eighteen. She was so welcoming and talking to me as anyone else and befriended me quickly and was always supportive and if I had good runs, she was there right away and if I had bad runs, she always also always comes by, and it's likewise, so it's yes, it's a competitive sport and we are competitors, but in one way we are colleagues in the way that it's just about who's the fastest, is not me against you, so makes it more connecting in a way, which I like about alpine skiing.
00:27:35
Speaker 1: It's just like so genuine and sweet. And then we asked Sarah, of course about her relationship with Taya.
00:27:40
Speaker 6: I'm also so happy to do it with Tia because she's super nice and I like her a lot, to her good friends, and so that was a really really cool experience.
00:27:51
Speaker 1: Alex, I hate to say it because I am getting a little Olympic pilled. I did order a stuffed animal of a curling stone with earmuffs on, like I fear I've been imbued with too much of the Olympic spirit. But this did feel like what you always talk about, like when you think of the Olympics, and like everyone giving their best and giving their all and finding joy in the position they landed in and then loving on each other. It was so nice.
00:28:13
Speaker 2: I don't know why stories like this always make me so emotional, but I think it's because you have athletes that are training their entire lives to be the best in the world, and yet even in those moments, they are able to appreciate each other in a way that feels almost antithetical to the idea of wanting to be best in the world.
00:28:33
Speaker 1: It's very impressive. It's really impressive. Speaking of impressive, we also got the chance to talk to Sarah Schlepper, you remember us talking about on the show before. She's one half of the first ever mother son duo at the Winter Olympics. She's formerly of tam Usa, spent her first four games with them, the last three games, including this one with Mexico. This is her seventh Olympic Games and unfortunately, Alex she was disqualified due to this maximum stand height rule. We had to google this, but basically the distance between the bottom of her boot and the snow was like a millimeter two big. She was really frustrated with herself for the error.
00:29:07
Speaker 3: Alex.
00:29:08
Speaker 1: She came walking over carrying a little like lemon cake with a candle in it, and we were like, is it your birthday? She's like no, She's like, I'm depressed. I'm what is it called? And I was like, eating your feelings. She was like, yes, I'm eating my feelings. And then she described her own personal error. She does her own tuning of her skis. She talked about how the Team USA has so many texts and people to do all the things, but Team Mexico's a very different situation. Tuned her own skis and just made a mistake. And she's made this mistake once before in the past, so she was saying, like, I can't believe I didn't remember and get it right. And then it was funny, she said, my dad runs a ski shop. He's going to be so disappointed in me.
00:29:42
Speaker 2: And she also doesn't just tune her own skis, she tunes her son's skis. Although she said her husband is helping out this week, given that you know he's over in Bormeo.
00:29:52
Speaker 3: Which is about six hours away that car.
00:29:55
Speaker 1: Yeah, but she was going to hitch a ride with someone from the team for her gear to get to see her her son compete on Monday. And overall, she still had a really great attitude about everything and her ability to come and race, and she did say she didn't want to go out like this, so she hinted at you know more competitions in her future, maybe even She said she wouldn't be able to break the Olympic record of ten games, but she left the door jar for competing again. So it was honestly really cool to talk to someone doing an event like that that's older than me and Alex. I'm just having trouble walking up the hills to watch them. Just so impressive, endlessly impressed. Speaking of hills, goddamn it. Skeleton, Holy shit, Yeah, what a what a weird, interesting, intriguing, cool event to sy in person. If you're trying to imagine how one can watch a race on a sliding course, that's a great question. We're still figuring it out. We watched from many different vantage points, finish line, starting line, midway, through different curves, and no matter where you're watching, it's blink and you'll miss it right like you're gonna watch most of the race on a screen and then whichever part is in front of you try to catch. But before we even could take in like where we should be to watch, we had to walk up a giant hill and thankfully we were entertained. Along the way, there was a brass band playing Depeche Mode of all things with like a sick baritone sacks leading the way. At one point, Tina, the mascot, was dancing with them on top of this like mountain side overlooking the town, and the drummer gave Tina one of his drumsticks that she was like playing the drum and dancing like it was a scene. There were these German fans with these giant inflatable pretzels Janine flocks. Family and friends all had these vest son that said flock Janine. It was just like full of energy, even though it was so bifurcated, like all along the different spots along the track.
00:31:45
Speaker 2: I'm so curious, like what people thought they were getting into when they bought an Olympic skeleton to get and if they understood that it would involve all of this walking, but that as a reward they would get a band playing for them.
00:31:57
Speaker 1: Yes, and Flavor Flave or flav is not all talk, folks. He was there when we were there at skeleton. He was at Monobob on Sunday. He's wearing his gear, He's screaming. The first time Mystique Roe went in heat number three, which was the first heat of the night, I could hear flave yelling come on mystiq.
00:32:18
Speaker 8: Yeah boy as she took off down the courtse so he the hype man is hype mannin and yeah, it was a really cool thing to.
00:32:28
Speaker 1: Experience in person. I'm not going to tell you that I recommend it of all the Olympic sports as the one to buy the ticket for. Definitely go see it. It's very cool. It's just a difficult spectator sport. But you also get to see the strength, the power, the speed, the detail of the takeoff, which is where we spent a lot of our time. And there were some really cool storylines in there, and we mentioned Janine Flock being one of them. This is someone who was in her fourth Olympics, had finished fourth before right off the podium and she finally put it all together to win. And after the medals were awarded, we talked to a couple of the athletes, include in Great Britain's Tabitha Stoker. She finished fifth in the event. She was thrilled with that result in her Olympic debut. One of those athletes Alex that you would hope some reporter wouldn't come up and say, how sad are you? You just missed the podium because she's like, oh my god, I had the best time and I'm so proud of myself, Like she was so joyful.
00:33:17
Speaker 2: Ye.
00:33:17
Speaker 1: What really got her excited and choked up even was when the twenty five year old talked about Janine Flock getting that gold medal win. Take a listen.
00:33:25
Speaker 9: I was literally crying. I'm just so happy for her, Like I've you know, we'd go on these circuits scared there we're away from our family and our friends, and Jeanine's for our team especially. I think she's definitely been like a bit of an inspiration and she's always been so kind.
00:33:41
Speaker 3: And helpful with with sliding.
00:33:43
Speaker 9: Or with anything else other than that. And to see her succeed how she did today and to win like that, it's just inspiring and.
00:33:50
Speaker 1: I'm so so happy for her.
00:33:52
Speaker 3: She deserved it.
00:33:53
Speaker 9: And yeah, it's like I said, is she inspiring?
00:33:57
Speaker 3: Ah, I'm just a sucker for as loved as so much.
00:34:02
Speaker 5: I know.
00:34:03
Speaker 1: It's like so nice and it really gives you a story of the time that these people are spending together across continents, away from their friends and family and really bonding over this very unique thing they do. Speaking of bonding. You guys, we got to meet and talk to the Skeleton Wives. They were so much better than I even could have imagined. I don't know what I imagined. We talked about him on the show. We were like skeleton and gay shit, y'all, which, by the way, someone said, isn't that just Halloween? True?
00:34:29
Speaker 5: Fair?
00:34:29
Speaker 1: But and then we were like Skeleton Wives. Sounds like a new Bravo show or something. But they were so delightful. Nicole Silvera of Brazil and Kim Mahleman's of Belgium. We talked to Nicole first. I just became instantly obsessed with her. Just so much joy, so much love, such a great speaker. I asked her. You know, she had said that this was gonna be the first time they were competing as a married couple at the Olympics, and that they wanted to be loud and proud about their relationship while at these Italian Games. And you may recall in a previous show we mentioned that the Italian government has grown increasingly hostile to LGBTQ plus people in recent years. That includes removing lesbian mothers from their children's birth certificates. In twenty twenty three and banning travel abroad for surrogacy in twenty twenty four. And they're aware of these things, and they wanted to show up in this country and you know, be themselves, And so I asked Akle if they could be loud and proud the way they wanted. Absolutely.
00:35:23
Speaker 10: I think we don't try and hide anything. Our emotions and how we encounter each other at the end of the track is genuine. I think Italy is a tough place in terms of where the laws are going, so I'm just happy that we can show that it's okay to be who you are with no fear of that.
00:35:44
Speaker 1: More nerves for yourself or her tonight.
00:35:48
Speaker 10: Honestly, I thought it would be a lot more nervous to compete, but I would say I kept it pretty cool. There's always that those butterflies, and I try and use that to my advantage, so I would say that it's.
00:36:03
Speaker 1: For both of us.
00:36:03
Speaker 10: So it's almost four times the adrenaline rush that I get to every race.
00:36:10
Speaker 1: Nicole was also asked in the mix zone about the lodging arrangements at the Games for the skeleton wives, because obviously typically athletes live with folks from their own countries in their country house, but the Skeleton Wives were able to room together here in Italy. Take a listen.
00:36:23
Speaker 10: Throughout the whole season, we stayed in Airbnb, so we shared for the last time, I want to say three or four years, we shared accommodations. So we really from the beginning needed this to be at constant, so we fought, well, we didn't fight, honestly. Our federations were both very great. Brazil was able to spare a bed and he was very cute because when we showed up, the room was half decorated in Belgium and half decorated in Brazil. And I want to say, it's one of the first times that we've been able to join nations like that because our Belgium and Brazil federations were right next to each other. So yeah, it was it was incredible.
00:36:58
Speaker 11: But she's in the Brazil house technically, yes, yes, So there's just a couple of us around Nicole talking to her, and then we see Kim walk over and in her.
00:37:07
Speaker 1: Hands she's got these heart shaped cookies that the Belgian federation gave her for Valentine's Day, and I was just thinking watching them exchange and watching Nicole see the cookies and them talking about it, Like, what a memory for these two. They're competing at the Olympics together in the same event on Valentine's Day, like just it's just the cutest. And we got a chance to talk to Kim next and we asked her as well about the reception that she and Nicole have received in Italy. Take a listen.
00:37:34
Speaker 11: I mean we don't really hide our relationship. No, I mean everyone here is super nice. I don't think that the Italian's unfriendly.
00:37:42
Speaker 1: Towards us at all.
00:37:43
Speaker 11: I think it's just systematic as usual. No, I think it's been great. We've had a great time. It's been a very special Olympic Games.
00:37:52
Speaker 1: Alex like, I love love and these two, like, I'm kind of like might become a skeleton fan solely to follow their careers because they were so delightful.
00:38:02
Speaker 2: I'm like over here counting out all the different types of flavors of sports and gay shit that we've had. We have players that are competing in hockey USA Canada rivalry against their significant other. We have the Hillary Knights and Britney Bows of the world competing in different sports.
00:38:18
Speaker 1: Yes, Asy fun and Page Becker, same team.
00:38:21
Speaker 3: I just love the different varieties.
00:38:23
Speaker 1: There's so much gy shit. Highly recommend following them on social and just seeing what the content is because I can almost guarantee I haven't done that. I'm going to now because I'm obsessed.
00:38:32
Speaker 2: With them saying that you're going to do our good game play at the day yourself, Sarah, you're doing your slice work.
00:38:38
Speaker 1: Yeah, yes, I'm ast signing myself some little citrus work. And it is going to be to follow those two and keep up with their goings on because we just had so much fun talking to them, and we had just a lot of fun at both of these events. It's a lot of waiting, it's a lot of hiking, it's a lot of standing in the cold, but in the end, we have the opportunity to talk to Olympic athletes and Olympic medallists at some of the happiest moments of their lives. And as you can see, we're just gushing about it because it's really really cool to be a foot away from someone who's emoting in that way. It's just it's just really special. All Right, We got to take another break when we come back. Speaking of a mooting emotion, New goal. Find the party, Bros.
00:39:21
Speaker 3: It's next game.
00:39:29
Speaker 1: Welcome back Slices. We love that you're listening, but we want you to get in the game every day too, So here's our good game play at the day. Obviously, follow Kim and Nicole join me in my slice work slash Little Citrus Work. We'll put their accounts in the show notes. And if you like the coverage that we're bringing you for Italy, maybe consider sharing an episode or two with someone who might like it. Maybe repost a video or two. I've been putting them on Instagram or Blue Sky where I say, come with me to halfpipe, come with me to moguls. I've really tried to put together some behind the scenes where you can not see some of the events, but like what the crowd looks like, and what the walk looks like and all the other stuff. Something that I've always wondered about when I haven't been at the Olympics personally. So if you like any of that stuff, share it, send it to people. I think I mentioned when we were leaving for this trip that I stopped using Twitter and TikTok and TikTok I was pretty new on but it has a lot of reach and Twitter. I had, like, I don't know two hundred and sixty thousand followers, and it just didn't feel right to be in those spaces anymore. But I do want the coverage that we're doing here to spread far and wide. I do want to make sure that people are seeing all the stuff that we're putting our work into. So Instagram, LinkedIn blue Sky like wherever you see it, Facebook, share it and send it to people. We would love your help in making sure that our stories get out there and get told and speaking of your help, keep sending us missions because we are on the hunt investigating these things for you. Someone asked about a leaf blower, and there's a leaf blower man at Skeleton on Saturday, so I asked him if there are actual leaf blowers that they're using, and the answer is yes. One person is able to clear off all the snow and debris out of the groove lines in the track using the air from the leaf blower much faster than multiple people with like brooms. There's no heat, it's just air. And while I didn't ask the same of the people using those leaf blowers in the snow events that we were at out in Lavigno. I have to imagine it's basically the same vibe. It's clearing off the lines or grooves faster than you would with a broom. We always love to hear from you. To hit us up on email, good game at Wondermedia network dot com or leave us a voicemail at eight seven two two o four fifty seventy, and don't forget to subscribe, rate and review slices. It's easy. Watch the Win Brothers, rating five out of five stars for their fashionable matching fits review. The three older brothers of Team USA and Boston Fleet hockey player Haley Win have been turning heads in Milan as they arrive at her games in increasingly wild and creative coordinated outfits. One day they were wearing American flag, bucket hats, fleeces and pants. Another day bald egle onesies. One day they were wearing jorts, headbands and sleeveless americates. Another day, in response to being boot at a game, they donned newsboy caps with cigars and news papers. They were real preppy, real classy, and then they would hold up the newspapers when something good happened for Canada and slap them loudly to cheer on the Americans so good. Their videos are so entertaining, and y'all know I love a costume. These boys are kill in their costumes. So my new life goal when we get back to Milan is to party with Haley and her brothers after a Team USA gold medal win. No Jinks, O Jinks. Okay, now it's your turn, rate and review. Thanks for listening. See you tomorrow. Good game, Federica Brinoni, Good Game, Janine Flock you Hills, goddamn play? Am I so old and decrepit? Good Game with Sarah Spain is an iHeart women's sports production in partnership with Deep Blue Sports and Entertainment. You can find us on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Production by Wonder Media Network, our producers are Alex Azzi and Bianca Hillier. Our executive producers are Christina Everett, Jesse Katz, Jenny Kaplan and Emily Rudder. Our editors are Emily Rudder, Lucy Jones, Brittany Martinez, and Gianna Palmer. Production assistants from Avery Loftus and I'm Your Host. Sarah Spain
