We are getting in boats today and going on the water! At the Team USA Media Summit, we talked with Olympic kayaker Evy Leibfarth, canoeist Nevin Harrison and rower Michelle Sachser. All three competed at Tokyo 2020 and have qualified for Paris 2024. Evy competes in canoe slalom (whitewater) and this year will compete in canoe single, kayak single, …

Para taekwondo was first on the Paralympic program at Tokyo 2020, and it's looking to make a big statement at Paris 2024. On this episode, we talk with American para taekwondo fighter Evan Medell, who competes in the K44 class of the men's 75+ kg weight class. At Tokyo, Evan broke his foot during his semifinal match against Asghar Aziziaghdam and l…

Team USA BMX cyclists join us to talk about what's in store for Paris 2024! We start with BMX freestyle and Olympian Hannah Roberts, who won silver at the sport's Olympic debut in Tokyo. Hannah tells us how BMX freestyle courses are built (keyword: janky) and attempts to explain the sport's judging. Then we move over to BMX racing with Olympic lege…

In our look at the 100th anniversary of the very first Winter Olympic Games at Chamonix, France, Alison dives into the speed skating competition, which pitted two very different global styles against each other. Add an uncooperative Mother Nature, and you've got a doozy of an event! Special thanks to listener Manu for his contributions to this epis…

Paralympian Samantha Bosco joins us today to discuss her story as a Paralympic track and road cyclist. Samantha won two bronze medals at the Rio Paralympics, in the C5 3km pursuit on the track and the C5 time trial on the road (C5 riders include those with movement affected at a low level in one arm, moderately affected in one leg, or the absence o…

We're in the thick of Olympic and Paralympic Trials for Team USA! On this episode, we're featuring some of the gymnasts who will be vying for slots on the Team USA's artistic gymnastics team this weekend. Yul Moldauer and Brody Malone talked with us at Team USA's Media Summit in April, and they'll be competing to get onto their second Olympic team.…

The U.S. Paralympic Swimming Trials are just around the corner, so we're talking with para swimmer Jamal Hill. Jamal is a freestyler, specializing in sprints. At Tokyo 2020, he competed in the 50m freestyle S9, where he won the bronze medal, and in the men's 100m freestyle S10 class, placing 6th. He was also part of Team USA's men's 4x100m freestyl…

Team USA Wheelchair Basketball player Brian Bell joins us to talk about the ins and outs of this Paralympic sport. Brian has been part of Team USA for the Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020 Paralympics, both of which were gold-medal-winning performances. Brian and Team USA will be looking for the three-peat at Paris 2024. Follow Brian on social! He's on Insta…

We're getting aquatic on this episode, sharing Team USA Media Summit interviews with all sorts of swimming athletes. We've got (athlete links are Instagram accounts--follow them!): Water Polo Ben Hallock - Captain of the U.S. Men's Water Polo team. Paris 2024 will be his third Olympics Maggie Steffens - Captain of the U.S. Women's Water Polo team. …

While you wouldn't think para swimming is much different from able-bodied swimming, the Paralympic classification system makes it a more complex sport to follow. Classification helps level the playing field (although we learn here that it's not the most perfect system), but the diversity of swimmers and abilities means that there are a lot of class…

We're exploring team sports on this episode of Keep the Flame Alive. At Paris 2024, there will be 11 purely team sports: artistic swimming, basketball, basketball 3x3, beach volleyball, football, handball, hockey, rowing, rugby sevens, volleyball, and water polo. Athletes don't just have to be in top physical shape, they also have to work well with…

We're hopping on a horse and riding along with Paralympian Beatrice de Lavalette on this episode of Keep the Flame Alive. Beatrice competed for Team USA at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics in para dressage, finishing 5th in Individual Championship Test - Grade II - Open) and 6th in Individual Freestyle - Grade II - Open. We've talked about para dressage …

Olympic sprinter Kenny Bednarek joins Jill and Alison for a discussion about sprint starts, running the curve on a track, and the principles Kung Fu Kenny lives by. Follow Kenny on Insta, X, YouTube, Facebook and TikTok! The latest news from Paris 2024 has a transport focus, including shuttles to remote venues and updates on Uber policies during th…

On this episode we're bringing you more tape from the Team USA Media Summit, and we're talking with three Paralympians: Multi-Paralympic medalist wheelchair tennis player David Wagner, para judo athlete Liana Mutia and gold medal-winning para table tennis player Ian Seidenfeld. David talks with us about clay courts. Liana tells us how she had to en…

We're happy to have Ben Waterworth, one of the hosts of Off the Podium join us. Off the Podium is an Australian/Canadian collaboration, so we wanted to get their view on what's going on with Paris 2024. We preview some of the big sports and names and look forward to the excitement that awaits us this summer. Also, Ben tells us the issues with the G…

We are 100 days out from the start of the Paris 2024 Paralympics! We think there's no better way to celebrate than by throwing things. We got to talk with Paralympian Justin Phongsavanh at the Team USA Media Summit for a few minutes and are thrilled that he had time to come on the podcast for a longer interview. Justin competes in para javelin in t…