July 29, 2024 • 34 mins
CBC Sports senior contributor Shireen Ahmed joins Sarah to give a lowdown on the drone-driven spy scandal overshadowing Canadian soccer. Plus, producer Alex Azzi shares some Olympic factoids that are guaranteed to impress your friends, so long as your friends are also Olympic nerds.
- What Olympic questions do you have? Try to stump producer Alex. Reach out to Alex on X @ByAlexAzzi or leave us a voicemail 872-204-5070 or send us an email goodgame@wondermedianetwork.com
- Follow Shireen Ahmed on social! X: @_ShireenAhmed_
- Listen to LOVB’s Serving Pancakes pod to stay up-to-date on the Olympic volleyball tournament
- Watch USA Water Polo take on Spain at 9:35am EST today on USA Network and streaming on Peacock
- Watch USA Basketball play Japan at 3pm EST on Peacock and NBCOlympics.com
- Follow Sarah on social! X: @SarahSpain Instagram: @Spain2323
- Follow producer Misha Jones! X: @mishthejrnalist Instagram: @mishthejrnalist TikTok: @mishthejrnalist
- Follow producer Alex Azzi! X: @ByAlexAzzi
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Good Game with Sarah Spain, where we're still
a little bit emotional after Celine Dion's opening ceremony performance.
We're going to get into all of the magic from
the opening ceremony. Here the latest on the Canadian drone
scandal from CBC Sports Schyne Ahmed and enter producer Alex's
Wild and Wacky World of Olympic Facts.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
But first, here's what you need to know today to Paris.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
In diving, best friends since childhood, Cassidy Cook and Sarah
Bacon secured the United States first medal of the Games,
winning silver in the synchronized spring board event, the first
American medal in this event since twenty twelve. China meanwhile
claimed its sixth straight gold. Well Great Britain picked up
the bronze. By the way, shout out to whoever was
in the Cook and Bacon fan section wearing a full
(00:45):
Bacon outfit.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
That's my people right there.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
In swimming, the US team of Kate Douglas, Scretchenwalsh, Tory Huskins,
Simon Manuel claimed silver with a new American record in
the four by one hundred meter freestyle relay. Australia meanwhile
continued its decade of dominance the event, claiming a fourth
straight gold. Two of those relay teammates went one to
two the next day in the one hundred meter butterfly,
Americans Husk winning gold and Walsh taking silver. Katie Ladecki
(01:11):
opened her fourth Olympics with a bronze medal in the
highly anticipated four hundred meter freestyle race. Ladecki said she
just couldn't find another gear, coming in third behind reigning
world record holder Arion Titmus from Australia, who took gold,
and Canada's Summer Macintosh, who took silver. Ladeki will now
pivot to her longer distance races, the eight hundred meter
and fifteen hundred meter, and will enter both as the
gold medal fave. In soccer, the US earned a spot
(01:34):
in the knockout stage with a four to one win
over Germany. Sophia Smith put in two in the back
of the net, while Mallory Swanson and Lynn Williams each
added a goal. They'll wrap up group play against Australia
on Wednesday.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
And in case you.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
Thought we hyped up Zambia's Barbera Banda too much before,
the US beat Zambia three to nil. Well, she had
a first half hat trick against Australia, her third hat
trick in just five career Olympic matches. But get this,
Australia is still on the Matildas came back from a
five to two deficit and secured a six to five
victory with a goal.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
In the ninetieth minute.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
In fencing, it was Team USA versus Team USA in
the foil final, Lee Kiefer successfully defending her gold medal
from Tokyo, beating teammate Lawrence Scruggs fifteen to six.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
Get this.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
With the win, Keefer becomes just the third woman to
ever win back to back gold medals in the foil event,
an event that was first contested at the nineteen twenty
four Paris Olympics. Also, Scruggs, a rising senior at Harvard,
becomes the first black woman to win an individual medal
in fencing for the US. The women of Team USA
Gymnastics qualified for Tuesday's team final, while Simone Biles qualified
(02:41):
for the all around final with a massive score of
fifty nine point five to sixty six. She also qualified
for vault, floor and beam finals. This was scary. We
saw a minor CAF injury flare up for Biles during
her floor warm ups, but thankfully, one of her coaches,
to Seal Landy says she doesn't have any concern about
biles ability to compete in the upcoming events, and we
hope to see a full strength Simone going forward. Fingers crossed.
(03:04):
We're sending you all our calfs files. You could take
all of our calves, Simone, we don't even need them,
you can have them. Finally, the US indoor volleyball team
open up their Olympic title defense today with a Group
A match against China. By the way, another podcast right
here on the iHeart Women's Sports Network, League one Volleyball's
Serving Pancakes has all the volleyball contact you're looking for,
(03:25):
so be sure to subscribe, follow and listen.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
Let's get back to.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
Selene Dion really quick and that incredible opening ceremony, because
there were tears. There were tears for Selene, there were
tears for that incredible rendition of imagine pretty much tears
for like half of it.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
The whole thing was such a feat.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
It was strange at first, this departure from the usual
ceremony happening inside a stadium those are super dramatic and impressive,
and we've kind of gotten used to them, so seeing
this started out a little weird, but then it was
absolutely incredible for the people of Paris. Among the people
of Paris, people were literally hanging out of windows and
balconies to watch, and they became a part of the show.
(04:09):
The show used monuments and churches and museums and elements
of the city's architecture. It had everything. It even had
an Italian American from New York City singing a French classic.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
That's right, shout out, Lady Gaga.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
You know your French pronunciation is good when France itself
invites you to sing in their tongue on the biggest
stage in the world. That was beautiful. Speaking of beautiful Beyonce,
hot damn. I really think America should just get every
single medal at this Olympics for being able to claim
Beyonce as ours. I mean, the boots, the outfit, the song,
(04:43):
the hair, the vibes, the message, absolutely mesmerizing. Of all
the things, and there were many, that was by far
my favorite, but some other moments that stood out to me. First,
I want to give medals to all the acrobats that
were in the rain, like the breakers, the bikers, the dancers,
those cirks to so olay looking people on the giant
poles like that stuff looks really hard, but then they
(05:04):
were doing it in the rain, which was even more impressive.
I think there should be special metals for them. I
also loved Kelly Clarkson shouting out the non binary Parkourt
torch bearer that led us kind of through the ceremony.
And also the inclusive runway show. We saw folks in drag,
young and old, everybody, every size, every race. I absolutely
love that. Also shout out to us runner Nicki Hilts.
(05:26):
They posted several shots waving an American flag with the
caption quote, here's my official application to be at Tamussa's.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
Non binary flag bear love that, Niki.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
I also love that Paris couldn't not be horny for
just a second. Did anyone else have a menajatoi in
the library in their opening ceremony bingo card. I'm not complaining.
I mean people aroused by books, I get it. I'm
in I'm just surprised. Also, the way they closed the
door on their canoodling like a contestant on the Bachelor
kicking out the camera for the fantasy Suite, perfect chef's Kiss.
(06:00):
I also loved that we went straight from that to
the minions so the kids at home could recover quickly.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
That was just, you know, seamless transition Paris.
Speaker 1 (06:09):
While I was watching, I was thinking about the teams
in the smaller boats and wondering if the athletes and
those like took into account that they were waving that
giant flag for two hours in a dinghy in those
waves in the rain, like I hope they consider that
an arm day ahead of their competition, or I hope
they like took turns seemed very tiring when the waves
really got going, which brings me to a not dinghy,
(06:30):
which was the Americans. Holy cow, five hundred and ninety
four USA athletes, not all of them were on the boat,
but this was a giant boat, and it kind of
reminded me of how we sort of take our Olympic
greatness for granted.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
Sometimes I was just listening to a podcast and a.
Speaker 1 (06:44):
Foreigner moved to the States and kind of realized, unlike
his home country that gets dotted by the occasional success story,
that now that he was in America, it was.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
Just gold, gold, gold, gold, and more gold.
Speaker 1 (06:56):
And I feel like we throw around stats about our dominance,
you know, we always talk about how just the women
would beat almost every other country's total medal count, but
I don't know that we really sit with it all
that much other than just like bragging. So I was
just feeling really proud as I was looking at that
really diverse, incredibly packed, giant, absolutely giant yacht full of
(07:16):
American greatness, and I feel like that's kind of what
the Olympics always do for me. Like there are so
many reasons to be critical about our country right now,
and frankly critical of so many aspects of the Olympics,
but I find it really hard to be cynical when
I'm watching the opening ceremony or I'm watching athletes get
their medals, or families crying over their kids succeeding. I
(07:37):
just think with the sadness and the conflict in the world,
the Olympics are this way. We always remind ourselves that
we're in this together. And when we see people from
countries that are at war literally celebrating amongst each other,
competing fairly and valiantly against each other, seeing in their
enemies their own humanity, like there's another human being over
there putting in the work, putting on their country's colors
(07:58):
and achieving a life stream. You look at that refugee
Olympic team, this like sad but beautiful balance of people
competing without a flag or a country, but they're still
training and working and striving. I just feel like during
the Olympics we see so many of our globes, problems
and solutions kind of displayed at once. And I always
wish the feeling of unity and the shared planet vibes
(08:19):
that we get at the Games would last longer than
sixteen days, or if you count the Paralympics, more than that.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
But I don't know. In some ways, maybe naively, I
think it does.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
I do think it brings people together, and hopefully they
leave and those people watching leave feeling a little more connected.
I think seeing all those different faces and bodies and
flags and uniforms on the boats was just super moving
and I loved it, and I love the Olympics, and
I'm so glad they're back.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
When we come back a country.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
That's maybe not feeling quite as proud as I am
right now, we'll find out what the folks are saying
about the Canadian drone scandal up in America's hat.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
After this, we're back.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
We spent the braain awarding the first ever Olympic medal
in drone flying to Canada. Okay, all jokes aside, but
started as a simple spying incident has ballooned into so
much more. And to give us some perspective from Canada,
we're joined by CBC Sports reporter for a coast of
the fantastic podcast Burn It All Down, which we miss.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
It's Schirene Ahmed. What's up, Scheren.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
Hi, Sarah, thanks for having me Okay quickly to set
the stage for this conversation.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
We're talking on Sunday.
Speaker 1 (09:26):
Canada currently has six points after today's two to one
win over France and last week's two to one win
against New Zealand. But on Saturday, in response to an
initial investigation into the drone scandal, FIFA deducted six points
from the team and find them over two hundred twenty
thousand dollars. Canadian coaches Bev Priestman, Joseph Lombardi and Jasmine
Mander all suspended from taking part in any football related
(09:47):
activity for one year for a Canadian team hoping to
defend gold. That's six point penalty makes it really tough
to advance to the knockout rounds, but if they keep winning.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
It certainly helps. We've got some ongoing reports.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
We could still find out that the players knew about
this or a million other things, but for now, Sharen,
it feels like they're suffering due to the choices of
their coaches.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
How are you seeing it? So that's exactly it.
Speaker 3 (10:10):
I mean, this was supposed to be like a really
great opportunity to, you know, following cover a team that
I've been covering for a very long time, defending gold medalists.
You know, the storylines are all there, but realistically it
quickly descended into something very different. First with the allegations
from New Zealand the Ferns, but now it's got to
a point where this morning, two hours before kickoff, former
(10:32):
head coach Bet Priestman is issuing essentially an apology, not
an explanation, but an apology and just sort of saying
she hopes that Canadians still cheer on this team. There's
so many mixed perspectives. People are angry, people are angry
at Rick Westhead's reporting for TSM. People are angry at me.
People are angry about so many things, which I think
(10:52):
is misdirected because you know, you want to cover the job.
Isn't need to be a PR person or comms. It's
a journalist, right, And people are heartbroken for the players.
I'm getting a lot of resounding, you know, comments that
it's unfair. People are saying that FIFA's you know, decision
was unfair. And we did hear from David Jimmaker, head
of the Canadian Olympic Committee, that they will be looking
(11:14):
into an appeals process. And in the meantime, you also
have that's like Steph Labe out there defending herself, Christine Sinclair,
greatest Canadian, you score an international goals score of all time,
prolific player with the Portland Thorns. You also have Dina
Matheson who came out to say that you know what,
if they take away six points, we'll give them nine.
Speaker 1 (11:36):
Dina Mathieson, who was a great for Canadian soccer and
is also launching a professional women's soccer league in Canada,
and of course doesn't want this hanging over this incredible
endeavor of the Northern Super League.
Speaker 3 (11:47):
Absolutely, but you know, her guidance and her ability to
get up there in leadership and say listen, this is
what we're going to do. And to be very honest
with you, the players on this team have been supported
unconditionally by past members. Claire was stat and Amy Walsh.
I was working with them both at CBCE Olympics this week.
Claire is on color commentary and Amy Walsh was me
(12:09):
on the panel broadcast panel, and they're both associated with
this program. I mean, this has been devastating for so
many people and there's so many questions. There's so many
questions Sarah, and Soccer Canada has launched what they said
they will launch an independent internal review, which is really important.
So when people ask, well, what's going to happen, we
don't know. We do know that Bet Priestsman has been
(12:30):
suspended pending the results, but I really don't see a
scenario where she comes back.
Speaker 1 (12:36):
Yeah, you know, you mentioned that it feels like just
full throated support for these players. So you know, how
are folks in Canada reacting to this? Both the news
that there was cheating and reports that had been happening
for years, and then also the idea that like the
players ultimately as of now we feel are innocent but
are penalized by this point deduction.
Speaker 3 (12:55):
Yeah, I think that's a really important distinction. At the
end of the day, there's no evidence that the players
were involved, and I need to reiterate that because at
the same time, if they've benefited from a system that
was rigged, then you have to have that conversation, and
it's not a good one to have, particularly when they're
out there literally as warriors. They just won two to
one in thirteen minutes of overtime and extra time. That
(13:16):
felt like another half to be quite honest, against France,
who's play second. So you see the grit, you see
the passion, and it's unfortunate in one sense. It's not
only to move on, it's they're playing for their reputations.
I mean, these are players that are no strangers to
any kind of drama. If you know your listeners, remember
last year before the Women's World Cup, which was disastrous
(13:38):
for Canada. It really was a difficult year. They testified
on Parliament against the federation, almost went on strike like
it was a tough year. And then this year was
really supposed to be better, and this whole thing unfolds,
so they're not interested in drama. They don't want this.
I actually really feel like, can they ever get a break?
Speaker 1 (14:00):
Can any women's soccer team get a break? Like you're
talking about that? I think maybe it's a good thing.
I mean, Spain won in the midst of their disaster,
the US one while suing its own federation over equal pay. Like,
can we just get a team to be supported by
its own freaking federation and its own coaches and its
own fans and then rise to victory in a completely
spotless situation Like that would be nice.
Speaker 2 (14:21):
It would be It's the dream, Sarah.
Speaker 3 (14:23):
But like, at the end of the day, we see
what we see happening. Is int answer you a question.
There's a lot of Canadians with the opinion it's really
not a big deal. And the reason that I say
that is because it's commonplace in other practices and maybe
on the men's side. Whereas ESPN did actually report earlier
this morning, I think, because what is time that John
Herdman is actually connected the former women's head coach who
(14:46):
went to the men's and now coaches in MLS for TFC.
He is like a common denominator for all of this,
which is really. But then at the end of the day,
you wonder Bev Priestman may not have a future in
soccer anymore, but John Hurdan and still will. Right, Where's
where's the equity there?
Speaker 1 (15:04):
It certainly feels Sharene that this could get even bigger
and the investigations could reveal even more. You know, you
mentioned goalkeeper Stephanie Lebay. She won bronze in the Rio Olympics.
She helped lead Canada to gold in Tokyo, and our
producer Alex unearthed an old story from a site called
between the Sticks. This is from Canada's Tokyo run and
it pointed to Lebay's efforts in net as extraordinary and
(15:25):
I say the word like that on purpose. Quote Her
tournament penalty saved percentage of fifty percent excluding off target
penalties is absolutely astonishing, especially when you consider that most
top goalkeepers average between thirty and forty percent of penalties
saved in a single tournament. Now, Stephanie tweeted out, if
anyone wants to speak about pks, I studied hard the
night before every match, watch video of players taking peakys
(15:47):
pks and national team and club games. Made my own
educated guesses based on that info. No drone footage was watched.
Do not confuse great goalkeeping with cheating. I want to
believe her, and I do believe for that she didn't
know it, that she didn't want footage. But if her
coaches did and they said, hey, this person always goes left, Hey,
this person fakes left, goes right.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
Hey, this person sho tie or low or whatever it is.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
I feel for these players and having to wonder if,
deep down somewhere their achievements were affected by the cheating
of their coaches.
Speaker 2 (16:17):
That's so unfair.
Speaker 3 (16:19):
It is unfair, and I think that's a good way
to put it. It's the epitome of betrayal. It's the
epitome of injustice because in her intent wasn't There's no
way anyone can make me believe that Labbe did I
mean for her to go out there was actually really
heartbreaking to heard her go online. I remember watching that match,
watching her kind of smile, her ponytail, jumping up and down,
(16:39):
trying to distract the Swedish players, kind of psyche them out.
I remember watching that match and being like, you know,
she's got this and her tenacity. She's also an older player,
just sort of her experience and the joy that it
brought in her trusting her own gut and her being
in a really good mental place. Lobby's also a player
who's been really honest about he struggles with mental health.
(17:00):
So yeah, you know what, I actually really do believe her.
And the thing is is that until someone can ultimately
prove otherwise, irrespective of stats and whatnot, like I mean,
I'm going to but like you said, this does have
even if you didn't intend to, you're affected by it.
And that's what is so frustrating, like really frustrating for
(17:22):
these players on Team Canada because of the fact that
what they've been through and they're a team that stands
about integrity. They have been really supportive of Quinni, They've
been supportive of social and political issues. They've been really outspoken.
So to have this happen is just the icing on
a cake you didn't want.
Speaker 1 (17:40):
Yeah, it just makes me so angry for them. Sharene Wee,
thank you for coming out. I know you've been doing
hits left and right talking about all the latest and
breaking news in this but while we have you, I
wanted to ask you one more thing because I've been
watching and thinking about you. I've been thinking about my
friend ip Taj Mohammad. I saw the news of France's
rule prohibiting French female Muslim athletes from wearing a job
or headscarves during the Olympics. The athletes are technically considered
(18:03):
civil servants while they're competing, so they have to adhere
to principles of secularism.
Speaker 2 (18:07):
That's according to the country's rules. You wear a job.
Speaker 1 (18:10):
You have spoken so eloquently about this, particularly cool things
like Nike introducing their own hit jobs and things like that, Like,
how do you see this rule and how.
Speaker 2 (18:19):
Unfair is it to these female athletes in France.
Speaker 3 (18:21):
I think that when we're talking about an Olympics, the
thirty third Olympiad is being presented as one with gender equity.
It's a farce. It's hypocritical because the host nation is
deliberately excluding a particular group of women. I don't know
how they stand there and do that and look. I
like Begats as fun much as everybody else. I really
do love Begattes, but at the end of the day,
(18:42):
don't purport to be supportive when selective inclusion doesn't is
not inclusion at all. And I've said this once and
have said it again. Forcing women out of clothing is
as violent as forcing them into it. And in sport
in particular, let women wear what they want to as
long as there's no jewel. There could be hurt to
other opponents or something like that, which is not the
(19:04):
case with a job. There has been no evidence, because
I've looked for it, Sarah, that his job will hurt
a player or an opponent. It's just not it. And
I think it's really important to understand that. And one
of the reasons a lot of people didn't know about
this is because media and France barely reports on this,
so few do and France really believes in this idea
(19:24):
of secularism. And at the end of the day, I
do want to make this distinguishing point is that secularism
isn't a bad idea if it's implemented fairly, and it's not.
You see Seri the professional league in France. You have
South American players with religious tattoos all over them, making
the sign of the Cross, going on and off the pitch.
How is that not religious symbolism? Tell me? And honestly,
(19:46):
when you are isolating black and brown women from a
particular country. It's so heartbreaking. I have never been discouraged
in my entire career as much as I have been
from my sisters in France telling me their stories.
Speaker 1 (20:01):
I think your point is a valid one. Certainly, you
open Pandora's box if you encourage or allow too many
statements based on religious beliefs. But this isn't a statement.
It's a completely harmless piece of attire.
Speaker 2 (20:14):
It's very different.
Speaker 1 (20:14):
And yet we do see statements like how many athletes
I'd like to thank God first? I start with God,
here's my God. We know that there's crosses, there's all
the other things. So yeah, it's been really heartbreaking to watch,
and it feels like it so flies in the face
of everything the Olympic stands for. But we're aware that
it's not a perfect endeavor, as much as it may
try to be.
Speaker 2 (20:33):
So this is just one of those examples.
Speaker 3 (20:35):
And at the same time, you want to support by
no means want to take away from the women. But
at the end of the day, it's about bodily agency
and letting women wear what they want. I want women
to wear if they want to wear a bikini or
a burkini or a Burka. Let them give women the choice,
and then that's not happening.
Speaker 2 (20:51):
Scharene. We will always choose to have you on the podcast.
Thank you so much for coming on. We love you.
Speaker 3 (20:57):
Thank you for having me, Sarah.
Speaker 2 (21:01):
Next up, it's producer Alex's time to shine.
Speaker 1 (21:04):
We're going to enter Alex's wild and wacky world of
Olympic fun right after the break. We're back and I'm
so excited because ever since episode one, we've been hearing
all about how Alex is an.
Speaker 2 (21:19):
Expert in the Olympics. And to be clear, behind the
scenes we already know this.
Speaker 1 (21:24):
She's been updating us left and right on every little detail,
not just that the opening and closing ceremonys are singular
when they're by themselves, en plural when they're together, but
so much other stuff.
Speaker 2 (21:35):
So now we're gonna share it with you.
Speaker 1 (21:36):
She's gonna give us some wild and wacky Olympic facts
so that we can be experts just like her as
we're watching for the next two weeks. But first we
need a resume, we need the bona fides so we
believe you, Alex.
Speaker 2 (21:46):
So why are you such an expert?
Speaker 4 (21:47):
Well, I recently realized that this is the first Olympics
where I am watching from the other side of the
TV since twenty ten. And honestly, my first takeaway was
have there been this many commercials these last day though?
Because oh my god, there's so many commercials there?
Speaker 2 (22:04):
Really are there? Really are?
Speaker 1 (22:05):
Okay, So you you were a researcher writer, you interviewed
tons of athletes. Yep.
Speaker 4 (22:10):
So I started out in twenty fifteen, one year ahead
of the Reo Olympics. As a researcher, it is one
of the only positions in the world where you get
to focus on the Olympics all the time as your
full time job. So I think I traveled to something
like twelve countries twenty states, interviewed thousands of athletes in
all of the different sports, had some specialty sports, but
had to be kind of familiar with all of them.
(22:33):
And it was a lot of knowledge, a lot of
brain space getting used up by all of that.
Speaker 1 (22:37):
Well, also, because you weren't just covering American athletes, right,
you were doing a lot of research and covering of
like all the athletes around the globe.
Speaker 2 (22:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (22:44):
That was one of the things that I realized when
I first started that job was that it is a
lot easier to track down an American athlete on the
phone on zoom at a national competition than it is
a Chinese diver or a Mongolian wrestler. And so when
I would travel to competitions, my priority would be primarily
international athletes, getting to know them, chasing them down. A
(23:07):
lot of times, chasing them down also required finding somebody
to translate, whether it was a teammate or an athletic
trainer or some volunteer at the venue, just to be
able to get some basic information across, like when did
you start this sport and where do you live and
why do you enjoy it? And it's one of those
things that I got to know so many international athletes,
and believe me, they have the same sacrifices, the same
(23:30):
journeys to get to the Games. And it's a sadness
that I feel every time that I watch the Olympics
that it feels like, more recently, the Games have become
in this country very much an America first, USA number
one type event, where we're only talking about Team USA
and very rarely are we talking about international athletes, and
(23:51):
very rarely are we also talking about international athletes. That
aren't from Western countries, and there's so many great stories
out there, and I wish more were known.
Speaker 2 (24:01):
I agree.
Speaker 1 (24:02):
I mean, it already feels so hard to watch all
the American things and get all those stories. So I
understand the plight of the people trying to produce and
put everything together. But I agree that there are some
really incredible stories, and there's a lot more room to
tell the.
Speaker 2 (24:14):
Stories of the globe, because that's kind of the point
of the Olympics.
Speaker 4 (24:16):
If not at the Olympics, then when are we going
to do.
Speaker 1 (24:18):
It exactly wild and wacky facts promised by Alex Are
you starting at the bottom of the top one or seven?
Speaker 4 (24:26):
Oh, let's start with number one. So Jymnasts travel with
their own chalk. They make sure to put it in
a separate bag than their leos, because the worst thing
that could possibly happen is having chalk explode on your
leo mid flight. But if you're wondering why on aren't
they bring their own chalk, it is because the look
and the feel and the consistency of chalk can vary
from one country to the next, and you want to
(24:48):
make sure that you have the right chalk with you.
Sidney Lee once told me that she likes rough chalk
because it makes it easier for her to grip the
bars and she can actually tell when a country uses
smooth chalk and uses the bars in in front of
her and she has to kind of clean it off
and then apply her own chalk to make it feel right.
Speaker 1 (25:03):
I was unaware that there was ruffed and soft chalk,
but that makes sense. It actually reminds me of when
I landed in Iceland and ordered to coffee, and I
didn't know that you needed to specify milk to get
like cow's milk, so it's made with malted milk powder,
which was absolutely disgusting. And it reminded me that, like
wherever you are, you might need to like just double
check those things. So chalk and milk, just always ask
or bring your own.
Speaker 4 (25:23):
Most athletes also bring their own coffee too. Yeah, you
don't want to be at the Olympics without your preferred
brand of coffee.
Speaker 2 (25:29):
Totally makes sense. That's a great one, b yoc bring
your own chalk.
Speaker 4 (25:33):
Okay, number two diving. The next time that you watch,
look at the pool and see if you can spot
the sprinklers. Yes, there are sprinklers running during the competition.
Speaker 1 (25:41):
Now.
Speaker 4 (25:41):
The reason for that is because imagine that you are
doing three twists and two flips through the air super fast.
If the pool is glassy, it is really really hard
to tell if you're one foot away from it or
ten feet away from it, and so they have to
make sure that the water is always disrupted so that
the athletes can have a good sense of how far
(26:02):
away they are.
Speaker 1 (26:03):
That explains why I can't complete those dives at my
local pool. If they put a sprinkler in there, I'd
probably be just as good as the Olympians, exactly good.
Speaker 2 (26:10):
Note good note, good note, I'm requesting a sprinkler now.
Speaker 4 (26:13):
Number three, Speaking of sports with sprinklers, field hockey. If
you've seen field hockey at any of the recent Olympics,
you will have seen that it is played on a
blue field and with a yellow ball, and it honestly
looks kind of strange because grass is green, right, except
that field hockey is played on AstroTurf. And if you're
wondering why it's blue, it's actually because a series of
(26:34):
tests that field Hockey's International Federation did about a decade ago,
and they wanted to make sure that people watching at
home were able to appreciate the sport and how fast
it is. And so they looked at the data, did
a bunch of tests with different cameras and found that
a yellow ball on a blue field provided the most
contrast so that people could see it.
Speaker 2 (26:55):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (26:56):
You know who doesn't appreciate how fast high level field
hockey is because it's played on turf? Someone who was
all stayed in field hockey on grass and then realized
that if she was going to play in college, she
was going to get absolutely dusted. That being me because
I was a fast runner, but the hand eye coordination
was about to get toasted. To the collegiate level, watching
field hockey is very difficult if you're not familiar with it,
but I urge people to look up a couple rules
(27:19):
and give it a shot. It is incredible, especially at
the highest levels. The stuff that they can do is
out of this world. So I did not know that
was the reason for the blue fields, Alex, keep them coming.
Speaker 2 (27:28):
You are educating us all right.
Speaker 4 (27:30):
Number four. So some of you may know that breakdancing, Yes,
break dancing is making its Olympic debut in Paris, But
did you know that breakdancers, They don't choose what music
they danced to. There is a DJ that is the
person that picks out the tunes, so it's kind of
like improv but for dance.
Speaker 1 (27:46):
That was fascinating to me when I learned that, because
I assumed it would be hard enough to do with
a routine that you practiced over and over, when in
fact they are improvising based on the music being played
and they're getting judged on like rhythm and elegance and
the moves and the difficulty, but also.
Speaker 2 (28:01):
The beauty of it. So it really is so artistic,
which is so cool. Absolutely.
Speaker 4 (28:07):
Okay, moving on to track and field, the biggest sport
at the Games. So in track and field, it is
possible to start after the gun but still get dechewed
after a false start, and that is because athletes have
a zero point one second margin that World Athletics believes
if somebody starts within that margin, their brain actually wasn't
(28:30):
able to react that fast. So you're supposed to start fast,
but not too fast, and I think that this rule
is outdated. I think athletes at this point actually can
start faster than point zero one seconds. Having interviewed a
ton of track and field athletes too. One of the
first things that I noticed was they gesticulate so fast
their hands. You look at them and one second their
(28:51):
hands are here, and then the next second they're put away.
Fast twitch muscles people.
Speaker 2 (28:56):
Yeah, their brains are probably fast twitched too.
Speaker 1 (28:58):
Who's to say that we haven't evolved to a quicker
reaction time off the blocks?
Speaker 2 (29:01):
Good one, Good one.
Speaker 4 (29:02):
Here's a riddle for y'all. In this Olympic sport, the
host city may change, but the ground remains the same.
Any Guessa, Sarah, The.
Speaker 2 (29:10):
Host city may change, but the ground remains the same.
I truly do not.
Speaker 4 (29:16):
Know talking about beach volleyball, and that is because the
sand in Paris was extracted from the same cory that
supplied sand for the twenty twelve London and twenty sixteen
Rio Games. And before you say sand is sand, hear
me out. This sand is super fine, which provides a
more stable base so that they're able to jump higher.
Speaker 1 (29:36):
Yeah, and you also don't want sand like when it's
got like little Indian beads and like rocks and like
things in it that you might snag a toe on.
Speaker 4 (29:42):
Yeah, exactly. I've actually heard of beach volleyball players finding
like rusty nails in the sand. So make sure you're
up to date on tetanus shots, folks.
Speaker 2 (29:49):
That's a great fact too.
Speaker 1 (29:50):
I think for all the athletes, regardless of event, just
be up to date on tetanus. And you know what, everybody,
I'm gonna say, even if you're not an Olympian, you
never know when you might come across a name or bat.
Speaker 2 (30:01):
All right, Alex, of those are your facts.
Speaker 1 (30:03):
I have one mare, all right, the big finale.
Speaker 2 (30:08):
Okay.
Speaker 4 (30:09):
In swimming, you may have heard of the four strokes, right, freestyle, backstroke, breastroke,
and butterfly. But what if I told you freestyle is
not actually a stroke. It is freestyle. You are technically
allowed in a freestyle race to do whatever stroke you want.
You could backstroke in a freestyle race. You could breastroke
in a freestyle race, but no one does that because
(30:29):
it is slower to do that than it is to
do the front crawl. So for all intents and purposes,
front crawl equals freestyle. But I really would love to
see somebody who's just really really fast at butterfly say
this is how going to do my freestyle today?
Speaker 2 (30:43):
Yeah, doggy paddle watch me.
Speaker 1 (30:46):
I don't think that's very fast though, so you'd be
watching me lose, but it'd be funny. Alex is wild
and wacky Olympic facts. We're all going to be more
educated when we watch. Actually I did not ask her
or if I could do this before. And if you
have any Olympic questions, at by alex Azzie is where
you can find her on Twitter.
Speaker 2 (31:06):
She's up all hours of the night.
Speaker 1 (31:07):
She's got nothing going on, like she said, she's just
going to parties and giving people Olympic facts, So she
would love to hear your questions.
Speaker 2 (31:14):
Just throw them at her at Buy alex Azie, whatever
you got, she'll be there to answer.
Speaker 4 (31:19):
And if you can stop me, I'll send you a prize.
Speaker 2 (31:21):
Oooh all right.
Speaker 1 (31:26):
We also got some great responses to fight me. We
asked you the summer Olympic athletes who wanted to join
you in a bar fight versus some juice and cheating Russians.
Josh Bart said Hope Solo, And I literally cannot believe
I forgot Hope Solo, Like there is no one better
in a bar fight.
Speaker 2 (31:40):
I can almost guarantee it.
Speaker 1 (31:41):
The gal's over at galpal Sports said, shot putter Raven
Hulk Saunders amazing. Also equestrians Laura Kraut, assuming we get
Cedric the horse too amazing. I want a horse in
my bar fight. Also a horse walks into a bar
like There's so many places we can go with that.
At Chief Underscore one twelve, shot putter Chase Foster Jackson
(32:03):
and discus thrower Longet Saga Collins paired with Simone Biles,
Shannon Miller and Gabby Douglas. The throwers throw the gymnasts
at the Russians.
Speaker 2 (32:12):
Game over. Game over, you win so good. Don't forget that.
Speaker 1 (32:16):
You can hit us up on our email good game
at wondermedianetwork dot com, or on social at Sarah Spain
on Twitter, or you can even leave us a voicemail
message eight seven two two oh four fifty seventy. We
love that you're listening, but we do want to get
you in the game every day too, So here's our
good gameplay of the day. Make sure you watch USA
Waterpolo taken on Spain nine thirty five Eastern today AM
(32:37):
on the USA Network and streaming on Peacock. Team started
their quest for Gold with a fifteen to six victory
over Greece. This weekend, Spain won fifteen to six over
host country France and their opener. Also, USA women's basketball
plays game one of their Olympic tournament against Japan three
pm Eastern on Peacock and Nbcolympics dot Com. Dinah Trossi said,
this is your last Olympics, so you don't want to
miss a second of it. If you're feeling the vi
(33:00):
for our show, don't forget to subscribe and follow the
pod rate and review two. It's easy watch Morning Walks
rating four out of five stars. Review Et cons it's
early pros serene, no one to bother you, Crisp Morning
Air promotes blood flow, releases indorphins, and it tires out.
You're insane, one year old beast child of a dog,
(33:21):
so you could get your work done. Thanks as always
for listening. Come on back tomorrow. Good game, Selene, Good game, Scharene.
Speaker 2 (33:28):
Fuck you had job bands.
Speaker 1 (33:31):
Good Game with Sarah Spain is an iHeart women's sports
production in partnership with Deep Blue Sports and Entertainment.
Speaker 2 (33:37):
You can find us on.
Speaker 1 (33:38):
The iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Production by Wonder Media Network. Our producers are Alex Azzi
and Misha Jones. Our executive producers are Christina Everett, Jesse Katz,
Jenny Kaplan and Emily Rudder. Our editors are Jenny Kaplan,
Emily Rudder, Brittany Martinez and Grace Lynch. Production assistants from
Lucy Jones and I'm Your Host Sarah span eight
Welcome to Good Game with Sarah Spain, where we're still
a little bit emotional after Celine Dion's opening ceremony performance.
We're going to get into all of the magic from
the opening ceremony. Here the latest on the Canadian drone
scandal from CBC Sports Schyne Ahmed and enter producer Alex's
Wild and Wacky World of Olympic Facts.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
But first, here's what you need to know today to Paris.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
In diving, best friends since childhood, Cassidy Cook and Sarah
Bacon secured the United States first medal of the Games,
winning silver in the synchronized spring board event, the first
American medal in this event since twenty twelve. China meanwhile
claimed its sixth straight gold. Well Great Britain picked up
the bronze. By the way, shout out to whoever was
in the Cook and Bacon fan section wearing a full
(00:45):
Bacon outfit.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
That's my people right there.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
In swimming, the US team of Kate Douglas, Scretchenwalsh, Tory Huskins,
Simon Manuel claimed silver with a new American record in
the four by one hundred meter freestyle relay. Australia meanwhile
continued its decade of dominance the event, claiming a fourth
straight gold. Two of those relay teammates went one to
two the next day in the one hundred meter butterfly,
Americans Husk winning gold and Walsh taking silver. Katie Ladecki
(01:11):
opened her fourth Olympics with a bronze medal in the
highly anticipated four hundred meter freestyle race. Ladecki said she
just couldn't find another gear, coming in third behind reigning
world record holder Arion Titmus from Australia, who took gold,
and Canada's Summer Macintosh, who took silver. Ladeki will now
pivot to her longer distance races, the eight hundred meter
and fifteen hundred meter, and will enter both as the
gold medal fave. In soccer, the US earned a spot
(01:34):
in the knockout stage with a four to one win
over Germany. Sophia Smith put in two in the back
of the net, while Mallory Swanson and Lynn Williams each
added a goal. They'll wrap up group play against Australia
on Wednesday.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
And in case you.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
Thought we hyped up Zambia's Barbera Banda too much before,
the US beat Zambia three to nil. Well, she had
a first half hat trick against Australia, her third hat
trick in just five career Olympic matches. But get this,
Australia is still on the Matildas came back from a
five to two deficit and secured a six to five
victory with a goal.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
In the ninetieth minute.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
In fencing, it was Team USA versus Team USA in
the foil final, Lee Kiefer successfully defending her gold medal
from Tokyo, beating teammate Lawrence Scruggs fifteen to six.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
Get this.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
With the win, Keefer becomes just the third woman to
ever win back to back gold medals in the foil event,
an event that was first contested at the nineteen twenty
four Paris Olympics. Also, Scruggs, a rising senior at Harvard,
becomes the first black woman to win an individual medal
in fencing for the US. The women of Team USA
Gymnastics qualified for Tuesday's team final, while Simone Biles qualified
(02:41):
for the all around final with a massive score of
fifty nine point five to sixty six. She also qualified
for vault, floor and beam finals. This was scary. We
saw a minor CAF injury flare up for Biles during
her floor warm ups, but thankfully, one of her coaches,
to Seal Landy says she doesn't have any concern about
biles ability to compete in the upcoming events, and we
hope to see a full strength Simone going forward. Fingers crossed.
(03:04):
We're sending you all our calfs files. You could take
all of our calves, Simone, we don't even need them,
you can have them. Finally, the US indoor volleyball team
open up their Olympic title defense today with a Group
A match against China. By the way, another podcast right
here on the iHeart Women's Sports Network, League one Volleyball's
Serving Pancakes has all the volleyball contact you're looking for,
(03:25):
so be sure to subscribe, follow and listen.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
Let's get back to.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
Selene Dion really quick and that incredible opening ceremony, because
there were tears. There were tears for Selene, there were
tears for that incredible rendition of imagine pretty much tears
for like half of it.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
The whole thing was such a feat.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
It was strange at first, this departure from the usual
ceremony happening inside a stadium those are super dramatic and impressive,
and we've kind of gotten used to them, so seeing
this started out a little weird, but then it was
absolutely incredible for the people of Paris. Among the people
of Paris, people were literally hanging out of windows and
balconies to watch, and they became a part of the show.
(04:09):
The show used monuments and churches and museums and elements
of the city's architecture. It had everything. It even had
an Italian American from New York City singing a French classic.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
That's right, shout out, Lady Gaga.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
You know your French pronunciation is good when France itself
invites you to sing in their tongue on the biggest
stage in the world. That was beautiful. Speaking of beautiful Beyonce,
hot damn. I really think America should just get every
single medal at this Olympics for being able to claim
Beyonce as ours. I mean, the boots, the outfit, the song,
(04:43):
the hair, the vibes, the message, absolutely mesmerizing. Of all
the things, and there were many, that was by far
my favorite, but some other moments that stood out to me. First,
I want to give medals to all the acrobats that
were in the rain, like the breakers, the bikers, the dancers,
those cirks to so olay looking people on the giant
poles like that stuff looks really hard, but then they
(05:04):
were doing it in the rain, which was even more impressive.
I think there should be special metals for them. I
also loved Kelly Clarkson shouting out the non binary Parkourt
torch bearer that led us kind of through the ceremony.
And also the inclusive runway show. We saw folks in drag,
young and old, everybody, every size, every race. I absolutely
love that. Also shout out to us runner Nicki Hilts.
(05:26):
They posted several shots waving an American flag with the
caption quote, here's my official application to be at Tamussa's.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
Non binary flag bear love that, Niki.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
I also love that Paris couldn't not be horny for
just a second. Did anyone else have a menajatoi in
the library in their opening ceremony bingo card. I'm not complaining.
I mean people aroused by books, I get it. I'm
in I'm just surprised. Also, the way they closed the
door on their canoodling like a contestant on the Bachelor
kicking out the camera for the fantasy Suite, perfect chef's Kiss.
(06:00):
I also loved that we went straight from that to
the minions so the kids at home could recover quickly.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
That was just, you know, seamless transition Paris.
Speaker 1 (06:09):
While I was watching, I was thinking about the teams
in the smaller boats and wondering if the athletes and
those like took into account that they were waving that
giant flag for two hours in a dinghy in those
waves in the rain, like I hope they consider that
an arm day ahead of their competition, or I hope
they like took turns seemed very tiring when the waves
really got going, which brings me to a not dinghy,
(06:30):
which was the Americans. Holy cow, five hundred and ninety
four USA athletes, not all of them were on the boat,
but this was a giant boat, and it kind of
reminded me of how we sort of take our Olympic
greatness for granted.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
Sometimes I was just listening to a podcast and a.
Speaker 1 (06:44):
Foreigner moved to the States and kind of realized, unlike
his home country that gets dotted by the occasional success story,
that now that he was in America, it was.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
Just gold, gold, gold, gold, and more gold.
Speaker 1 (06:56):
And I feel like we throw around stats about our dominance,
you know, we always talk about how just the women
would beat almost every other country's total medal count, but
I don't know that we really sit with it all
that much other than just like bragging. So I was
just feeling really proud as I was looking at that
really diverse, incredibly packed, giant, absolutely giant yacht full of
(07:16):
American greatness, and I feel like that's kind of what
the Olympics always do for me. Like there are so
many reasons to be critical about our country right now,
and frankly critical of so many aspects of the Olympics,
but I find it really hard to be cynical when
I'm watching the opening ceremony or I'm watching athletes get
their medals, or families crying over their kids succeeding. I
(07:37):
just think with the sadness and the conflict in the world,
the Olympics are this way. We always remind ourselves that
we're in this together. And when we see people from
countries that are at war literally celebrating amongst each other,
competing fairly and valiantly against each other, seeing in their
enemies their own humanity, like there's another human being over
there putting in the work, putting on their country's colors
(07:58):
and achieving a life stream. You look at that refugee
Olympic team, this like sad but beautiful balance of people
competing without a flag or a country, but they're still
training and working and striving. I just feel like during
the Olympics we see so many of our globes, problems
and solutions kind of displayed at once. And I always
wish the feeling of unity and the shared planet vibes
(08:19):
that we get at the Games would last longer than
sixteen days, or if you count the Paralympics, more than that.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
But I don't know. In some ways, maybe naively, I
think it does.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
I do think it brings people together, and hopefully they
leave and those people watching leave feeling a little more connected.
I think seeing all those different faces and bodies and
flags and uniforms on the boats was just super moving
and I loved it, and I love the Olympics, and
I'm so glad they're back.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
When we come back a country.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
That's maybe not feeling quite as proud as I am
right now, we'll find out what the folks are saying
about the Canadian drone scandal up in America's hat.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
After this, we're back.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
We spent the braain awarding the first ever Olympic medal
in drone flying to Canada. Okay, all jokes aside, but
started as a simple spying incident has ballooned into so
much more. And to give us some perspective from Canada,
we're joined by CBC Sports reporter for a coast of
the fantastic podcast Burn It All Down, which we miss.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
It's Schirene Ahmed. What's up, Scheren.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
Hi, Sarah, thanks for having me Okay quickly to set
the stage for this conversation.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
We're talking on Sunday.
Speaker 1 (09:26):
Canada currently has six points after today's two to one
win over France and last week's two to one win
against New Zealand. But on Saturday, in response to an
initial investigation into the drone scandal, FIFA deducted six points
from the team and find them over two hundred twenty
thousand dollars. Canadian coaches Bev Priestman, Joseph Lombardi and Jasmine
Mander all suspended from taking part in any football related
(09:47):
activity for one year for a Canadian team hoping to
defend gold. That's six point penalty makes it really tough
to advance to the knockout rounds, but if they keep winning.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
It certainly helps. We've got some ongoing reports.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
We could still find out that the players knew about
this or a million other things, but for now, Sharen,
it feels like they're suffering due to the choices of
their coaches.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
How are you seeing it? So that's exactly it.
Speaker 3 (10:10):
I mean, this was supposed to be like a really
great opportunity to, you know, following cover a team that
I've been covering for a very long time, defending gold medalists.
You know, the storylines are all there, but realistically it
quickly descended into something very different. First with the allegations
from New Zealand the Ferns, but now it's got to
a point where this morning, two hours before kickoff, former
(10:32):
head coach Bet Priestman is issuing essentially an apology, not
an explanation, but an apology and just sort of saying
she hopes that Canadians still cheer on this team. There's
so many mixed perspectives. People are angry, people are angry
at Rick Westhead's reporting for TSM. People are angry at me.
People are angry about so many things, which I think
(10:52):
is misdirected because you know, you want to cover the job.
Isn't need to be a PR person or comms. It's
a journalist, right, And people are heartbroken for the players.
I'm getting a lot of resounding, you know, comments that
it's unfair. People are saying that FIFA's you know, decision
was unfair. And we did hear from David Jimmaker, head
of the Canadian Olympic Committee, that they will be looking
(11:14):
into an appeals process. And in the meantime, you also
have that's like Steph Labe out there defending herself, Christine Sinclair,
greatest Canadian, you score an international goals score of all time,
prolific player with the Portland Thorns. You also have Dina
Matheson who came out to say that you know what,
if they take away six points, we'll give them nine.
Speaker 1 (11:36):
Dina Mathieson, who was a great for Canadian soccer and
is also launching a professional women's soccer league in Canada,
and of course doesn't want this hanging over this incredible
endeavor of the Northern Super League.
Speaker 3 (11:47):
Absolutely, but you know, her guidance and her ability to
get up there in leadership and say listen, this is
what we're going to do. And to be very honest
with you, the players on this team have been supported
unconditionally by past members. Claire was stat and Amy Walsh.
I was working with them both at CBCE Olympics this week.
Claire is on color commentary and Amy Walsh was me
(12:09):
on the panel broadcast panel, and they're both associated with
this program. I mean, this has been devastating for so
many people and there's so many questions. There's so many
questions Sarah, and Soccer Canada has launched what they said
they will launch an independent internal review, which is really important.
So when people ask, well, what's going to happen, we
don't know. We do know that Bet Priestsman has been
(12:30):
suspended pending the results, but I really don't see a
scenario where she comes back.
Speaker 1 (12:36):
Yeah, you know, you mentioned that it feels like just
full throated support for these players. So you know, how
are folks in Canada reacting to this? Both the news
that there was cheating and reports that had been happening
for years, and then also the idea that like the
players ultimately as of now we feel are innocent but
are penalized by this point deduction.
Speaker 3 (12:55):
Yeah, I think that's a really important distinction. At the
end of the day, there's no evidence that the players
were involved, and I need to reiterate that because at
the same time, if they've benefited from a system that
was rigged, then you have to have that conversation, and
it's not a good one to have, particularly when they're
out there literally as warriors. They just won two to
one in thirteen minutes of overtime and extra time. That
(13:16):
felt like another half to be quite honest, against France,
who's play second. So you see the grit, you see
the passion, and it's unfortunate in one sense. It's not
only to move on, it's they're playing for their reputations.
I mean, these are players that are no strangers to
any kind of drama. If you know your listeners, remember
last year before the Women's World Cup, which was disastrous
(13:38):
for Canada. It really was a difficult year. They testified
on Parliament against the federation, almost went on strike like
it was a tough year. And then this year was
really supposed to be better, and this whole thing unfolds,
so they're not interested in drama. They don't want this.
I actually really feel like, can they ever get a break?
Speaker 1 (14:00):
Can any women's soccer team get a break? Like you're
talking about that? I think maybe it's a good thing.
I mean, Spain won in the midst of their disaster,
the US one while suing its own federation over equal pay. Like,
can we just get a team to be supported by
its own freaking federation and its own coaches and its
own fans and then rise to victory in a completely
spotless situation Like that would be nice.
Speaker 2 (14:21):
It would be It's the dream, Sarah.
Speaker 3 (14:23):
But like, at the end of the day, we see
what we see happening. Is int answer you a question.
There's a lot of Canadians with the opinion it's really
not a big deal. And the reason that I say
that is because it's commonplace in other practices and maybe
on the men's side. Whereas ESPN did actually report earlier
this morning, I think, because what is time that John
Herdman is actually connected the former women's head coach who
(14:46):
went to the men's and now coaches in MLS for TFC.
He is like a common denominator for all of this,
which is really. But then at the end of the day,
you wonder Bev Priestman may not have a future in
soccer anymore, but John Hurdan and still will. Right, Where's
where's the equity there?
Speaker 1 (15:04):
It certainly feels Sharene that this could get even bigger
and the investigations could reveal even more. You know, you
mentioned goalkeeper Stephanie Lebay. She won bronze in the Rio Olympics.
She helped lead Canada to gold in Tokyo, and our
producer Alex unearthed an old story from a site called
between the Sticks. This is from Canada's Tokyo run and
it pointed to Lebay's efforts in net as extraordinary and
(15:25):
I say the word like that on purpose. Quote Her
tournament penalty saved percentage of fifty percent excluding off target
penalties is absolutely astonishing, especially when you consider that most
top goalkeepers average between thirty and forty percent of penalties
saved in a single tournament. Now, Stephanie tweeted out, if
anyone wants to speak about pks, I studied hard the
night before every match, watch video of players taking peakys
(15:47):
pks and national team and club games. Made my own
educated guesses based on that info. No drone footage was watched.
Do not confuse great goalkeeping with cheating. I want to
believe her, and I do believe for that she didn't
know it, that she didn't want footage. But if her
coaches did and they said, hey, this person always goes left, Hey,
this person fakes left, goes right.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
Hey, this person sho tie or low or whatever it is.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
I feel for these players and having to wonder if,
deep down somewhere their achievements were affected by the cheating
of their coaches.
Speaker 2 (16:17):
That's so unfair.
Speaker 3 (16:19):
It is unfair, and I think that's a good way
to put it. It's the epitome of betrayal. It's the
epitome of injustice because in her intent wasn't There's no
way anyone can make me believe that Labbe did I
mean for her to go out there was actually really
heartbreaking to heard her go online. I remember watching that match,
watching her kind of smile, her ponytail, jumping up and down,
(16:39):
trying to distract the Swedish players, kind of psyche them out.
I remember watching that match and being like, you know,
she's got this and her tenacity. She's also an older player,
just sort of her experience and the joy that it
brought in her trusting her own gut and her being
in a really good mental place. Lobby's also a player
who's been really honest about he struggles with mental health.
(17:00):
So yeah, you know what, I actually really do believe her.
And the thing is is that until someone can ultimately
prove otherwise, irrespective of stats and whatnot, like I mean,
I'm going to but like you said, this does have
even if you didn't intend to, you're affected by it.
And that's what is so frustrating, like really frustrating for
(17:22):
these players on Team Canada because of the fact that
what they've been through and they're a team that stands
about integrity. They have been really supportive of Quinni, They've
been supportive of social and political issues. They've been really outspoken.
So to have this happen is just the icing on
a cake you didn't want.
Speaker 1 (17:40):
Yeah, it just makes me so angry for them. Sharene Wee,
thank you for coming out. I know you've been doing
hits left and right talking about all the latest and
breaking news in this but while we have you, I
wanted to ask you one more thing because I've been
watching and thinking about you. I've been thinking about my
friend ip Taj Mohammad. I saw the news of France's
rule prohibiting French female Muslim athletes from wearing a job
or headscarves during the Olympics. The athletes are technically considered
(18:03):
civil servants while they're competing, so they have to adhere
to principles of secularism.
Speaker 2 (18:07):
That's according to the country's rules. You wear a job.
Speaker 1 (18:10):
You have spoken so eloquently about this, particularly cool things
like Nike introducing their own hit jobs and things like that, Like,
how do you see this rule and how.
Speaker 2 (18:19):
Unfair is it to these female athletes in France.
Speaker 3 (18:21):
I think that when we're talking about an Olympics, the
thirty third Olympiad is being presented as one with gender equity.
It's a farce. It's hypocritical because the host nation is
deliberately excluding a particular group of women. I don't know
how they stand there and do that and look. I
like Begats as fun much as everybody else. I really
do love Begattes, but at the end of the day,
(18:42):
don't purport to be supportive when selective inclusion doesn't is
not inclusion at all. And I've said this once and
have said it again. Forcing women out of clothing is
as violent as forcing them into it. And in sport
in particular, let women wear what they want to as
long as there's no jewel. There could be hurt to
other opponents or something like that, which is not the
(19:04):
case with a job. There has been no evidence, because
I've looked for it, Sarah, that his job will hurt
a player or an opponent. It's just not it. And
I think it's really important to understand that. And one
of the reasons a lot of people didn't know about
this is because media and France barely reports on this,
so few do and France really believes in this idea
(19:24):
of secularism. And at the end of the day, I
do want to make this distinguishing point is that secularism
isn't a bad idea if it's implemented fairly, and it's not.
You see Seri the professional league in France. You have
South American players with religious tattoos all over them, making
the sign of the Cross, going on and off the pitch.
How is that not religious symbolism? Tell me? And honestly,
(19:46):
when you are isolating black and brown women from a
particular country. It's so heartbreaking. I have never been discouraged
in my entire career as much as I have been
from my sisters in France telling me their stories.
Speaker 1 (20:01):
I think your point is a valid one. Certainly, you
open Pandora's box if you encourage or allow too many
statements based on religious beliefs. But this isn't a statement.
It's a completely harmless piece of attire.
Speaker 2 (20:14):
It's very different.
Speaker 1 (20:14):
And yet we do see statements like how many athletes
I'd like to thank God first? I start with God,
here's my God. We know that there's crosses, there's all
the other things. So yeah, it's been really heartbreaking to watch,
and it feels like it so flies in the face
of everything the Olympic stands for. But we're aware that
it's not a perfect endeavor, as much as it may
try to be.
Speaker 2 (20:33):
So this is just one of those examples.
Speaker 3 (20:35):
And at the same time, you want to support by
no means want to take away from the women. But
at the end of the day, it's about bodily agency
and letting women wear what they want. I want women
to wear if they want to wear a bikini or
a burkini or a Burka. Let them give women the choice,
and then that's not happening.
Speaker 2 (20:51):
Scharene. We will always choose to have you on the podcast.
Thank you so much for coming on. We love you.
Speaker 3 (20:57):
Thank you for having me, Sarah.
Speaker 2 (21:01):
Next up, it's producer Alex's time to shine.
Speaker 1 (21:04):
We're going to enter Alex's wild and wacky world of
Olympic fun right after the break. We're back and I'm
so excited because ever since episode one, we've been hearing
all about how Alex is an.
Speaker 2 (21:19):
Expert in the Olympics. And to be clear, behind the
scenes we already know this.
Speaker 1 (21:24):
She's been updating us left and right on every little detail,
not just that the opening and closing ceremonys are singular
when they're by themselves, en plural when they're together, but
so much other stuff.
Speaker 2 (21:35):
So now we're gonna share it with you.
Speaker 1 (21:36):
She's gonna give us some wild and wacky Olympic facts
so that we can be experts just like her as
we're watching for the next two weeks. But first we
need a resume, we need the bona fides so we
believe you, Alex.
Speaker 2 (21:46):
So why are you such an expert?
Speaker 4 (21:47):
Well, I recently realized that this is the first Olympics
where I am watching from the other side of the
TV since twenty ten. And honestly, my first takeaway was
have there been this many commercials these last day though?
Because oh my god, there's so many commercials there?
Speaker 2 (22:04):
Really are there? Really are?
Speaker 1 (22:05):
Okay, So you you were a researcher writer, you interviewed
tons of athletes. Yep.
Speaker 4 (22:10):
So I started out in twenty fifteen, one year ahead
of the Reo Olympics. As a researcher, it is one
of the only positions in the world where you get
to focus on the Olympics all the time as your
full time job. So I think I traveled to something
like twelve countries twenty states, interviewed thousands of athletes in
all of the different sports, had some specialty sports, but
had to be kind of familiar with all of them.
(22:33):
And it was a lot of knowledge, a lot of
brain space getting used up by all of that.
Speaker 1 (22:37):
Well, also, because you weren't just covering American athletes, right,
you were doing a lot of research and covering of
like all the athletes around the globe.
Speaker 2 (22:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (22:44):
That was one of the things that I realized when
I first started that job was that it is a
lot easier to track down an American athlete on the
phone on zoom at a national competition than it is
a Chinese diver or a Mongolian wrestler. And so when
I would travel to competitions, my priority would be primarily
international athletes, getting to know them, chasing them down. A
(23:07):
lot of times, chasing them down also required finding somebody
to translate, whether it was a teammate or an athletic
trainer or some volunteer at the venue, just to be
able to get some basic information across, like when did
you start this sport and where do you live and
why do you enjoy it? And it's one of those
things that I got to know so many international athletes,
and believe me, they have the same sacrifices, the same
(23:30):
journeys to get to the Games. And it's a sadness
that I feel every time that I watch the Olympics
that it feels like, more recently, the Games have become
in this country very much an America first, USA number
one type event, where we're only talking about Team USA
and very rarely are we talking about international athletes, and
(23:51):
very rarely are we also talking about international athletes. That
aren't from Western countries, and there's so many great stories
out there, and I wish more were known.
Speaker 2 (24:01):
I agree.
Speaker 1 (24:02):
I mean, it already feels so hard to watch all
the American things and get all those stories. So I
understand the plight of the people trying to produce and
put everything together. But I agree that there are some
really incredible stories, and there's a lot more room to
tell the.
Speaker 2 (24:14):
Stories of the globe, because that's kind of the point
of the Olympics.
Speaker 4 (24:16):
If not at the Olympics, then when are we going
to do.
Speaker 1 (24:18):
It exactly wild and wacky facts promised by Alex Are
you starting at the bottom of the top one or seven?
Speaker 4 (24:26):
Oh, let's start with number one. So Jymnasts travel with
their own chalk. They make sure to put it in
a separate bag than their leos, because the worst thing
that could possibly happen is having chalk explode on your
leo mid flight. But if you're wondering why on aren't
they bring their own chalk, it is because the look
and the feel and the consistency of chalk can vary
from one country to the next, and you want to
(24:48):
make sure that you have the right chalk with you.
Sidney Lee once told me that she likes rough chalk
because it makes it easier for her to grip the
bars and she can actually tell when a country uses
smooth chalk and uses the bars in in front of
her and she has to kind of clean it off
and then apply her own chalk to make it feel right.
Speaker 1 (25:03):
I was unaware that there was ruffed and soft chalk,
but that makes sense. It actually reminds me of when
I landed in Iceland and ordered to coffee, and I
didn't know that you needed to specify milk to get
like cow's milk, so it's made with malted milk powder,
which was absolutely disgusting. And it reminded me that, like
wherever you are, you might need to like just double
check those things. So chalk and milk, just always ask
or bring your own.
Speaker 4 (25:23):
Most athletes also bring their own coffee too. Yeah, you
don't want to be at the Olympics without your preferred
brand of coffee.
Speaker 2 (25:29):
Totally makes sense. That's a great one, b yoc bring
your own chalk.
Speaker 4 (25:33):
Okay, number two diving. The next time that you watch,
look at the pool and see if you can spot
the sprinklers. Yes, there are sprinklers running during the competition.
Speaker 1 (25:41):
Now.
Speaker 4 (25:41):
The reason for that is because imagine that you are
doing three twists and two flips through the air super fast.
If the pool is glassy, it is really really hard
to tell if you're one foot away from it or
ten feet away from it, and so they have to
make sure that the water is always disrupted so that
the athletes can have a good sense of how far
(26:02):
away they are.
Speaker 1 (26:03):
That explains why I can't complete those dives at my
local pool. If they put a sprinkler in there, I'd
probably be just as good as the Olympians, exactly good.
Speaker 2 (26:10):
Note good note, good note, I'm requesting a sprinkler now.
Speaker 4 (26:13):
Number three, Speaking of sports with sprinklers, field hockey. If
you've seen field hockey at any of the recent Olympics,
you will have seen that it is played on a
blue field and with a yellow ball, and it honestly
looks kind of strange because grass is green, right, except
that field hockey is played on AstroTurf. And if you're
wondering why it's blue, it's actually because a series of
(26:34):
tests that field Hockey's International Federation did about a decade ago,
and they wanted to make sure that people watching at
home were able to appreciate the sport and how fast
it is. And so they looked at the data, did
a bunch of tests with different cameras and found that
a yellow ball on a blue field provided the most
contrast so that people could see it.
Speaker 2 (26:55):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (26:56):
You know who doesn't appreciate how fast high level field
hockey is because it's played on turf? Someone who was
all stayed in field hockey on grass and then realized
that if she was going to play in college, she
was going to get absolutely dusted. That being me because
I was a fast runner, but the hand eye coordination
was about to get toasted. To the collegiate level, watching
field hockey is very difficult if you're not familiar with it,
but I urge people to look up a couple rules
(27:19):
and give it a shot. It is incredible, especially at
the highest levels. The stuff that they can do is
out of this world. So I did not know that
was the reason for the blue fields, Alex, keep them coming.
Speaker 2 (27:28):
You are educating us all right.
Speaker 4 (27:30):
Number four. So some of you may know that breakdancing, Yes,
break dancing is making its Olympic debut in Paris, But
did you know that breakdancers, They don't choose what music
they danced to. There is a DJ that is the
person that picks out the tunes, so it's kind of
like improv but for dance.
Speaker 1 (27:46):
That was fascinating to me when I learned that, because
I assumed it would be hard enough to do with
a routine that you practiced over and over, when in
fact they are improvising based on the music being played
and they're getting judged on like rhythm and elegance and
the moves and the difficulty, but also.
Speaker 2 (28:01):
The beauty of it. So it really is so artistic,
which is so cool. Absolutely.
Speaker 4 (28:07):
Okay, moving on to track and field, the biggest sport
at the Games. So in track and field, it is
possible to start after the gun but still get dechewed
after a false start, and that is because athletes have
a zero point one second margin that World Athletics believes
if somebody starts within that margin, their brain actually wasn't
(28:30):
able to react that fast. So you're supposed to start fast,
but not too fast, and I think that this rule
is outdated. I think athletes at this point actually can
start faster than point zero one seconds. Having interviewed a
ton of track and field athletes too. One of the
first things that I noticed was they gesticulate so fast
their hands. You look at them and one second their
(28:51):
hands are here, and then the next second they're put away.
Fast twitch muscles people.
Speaker 2 (28:56):
Yeah, their brains are probably fast twitched too.
Speaker 1 (28:58):
Who's to say that we haven't evolved to a quicker
reaction time off the blocks?
Speaker 2 (29:01):
Good one, Good one.
Speaker 4 (29:02):
Here's a riddle for y'all. In this Olympic sport, the
host city may change, but the ground remains the same.
Any Guessa, Sarah, The.
Speaker 2 (29:10):
Host city may change, but the ground remains the same.
I truly do not.
Speaker 4 (29:16):
Know talking about beach volleyball, and that is because the
sand in Paris was extracted from the same cory that
supplied sand for the twenty twelve London and twenty sixteen
Rio Games. And before you say sand is sand, hear
me out. This sand is super fine, which provides a
more stable base so that they're able to jump higher.
Speaker 1 (29:36):
Yeah, and you also don't want sand like when it's
got like little Indian beads and like rocks and like
things in it that you might snag a toe on.
Speaker 4 (29:42):
Yeah, exactly. I've actually heard of beach volleyball players finding
like rusty nails in the sand. So make sure you're
up to date on tetanus shots, folks.
Speaker 2 (29:49):
That's a great fact too.
Speaker 1 (29:50):
I think for all the athletes, regardless of event, just
be up to date on tetanus. And you know what, everybody,
I'm gonna say, even if you're not an Olympian, you
never know when you might come across a name or bat.
Speaker 2 (30:01):
All right, Alex, of those are your facts.
Speaker 1 (30:03):
I have one mare, all right, the big finale.
Speaker 2 (30:08):
Okay.
Speaker 4 (30:09):
In swimming, you may have heard of the four strokes, right, freestyle, backstroke, breastroke,
and butterfly. But what if I told you freestyle is
not actually a stroke. It is freestyle. You are technically
allowed in a freestyle race to do whatever stroke you want.
You could backstroke in a freestyle race. You could breastroke
in a freestyle race, but no one does that because
(30:29):
it is slower to do that than it is to
do the front crawl. So for all intents and purposes,
front crawl equals freestyle. But I really would love to
see somebody who's just really really fast at butterfly say
this is how going to do my freestyle today?
Speaker 2 (30:43):
Yeah, doggy paddle watch me.
Speaker 1 (30:46):
I don't think that's very fast though, so you'd be
watching me lose, but it'd be funny. Alex is wild
and wacky Olympic facts. We're all going to be more
educated when we watch. Actually I did not ask her
or if I could do this before. And if you
have any Olympic questions, at by alex Azzie is where
you can find her on Twitter.
Speaker 2 (31:06):
She's up all hours of the night.
Speaker 1 (31:07):
She's got nothing going on, like she said, she's just
going to parties and giving people Olympic facts, So she
would love to hear your questions.
Speaker 2 (31:14):
Just throw them at her at Buy alex Azie, whatever
you got, she'll be there to answer.
Speaker 4 (31:19):
And if you can stop me, I'll send you a prize.
Speaker 2 (31:21):
Oooh all right.
Speaker 1 (31:26):
We also got some great responses to fight me. We
asked you the summer Olympic athletes who wanted to join
you in a bar fight versus some juice and cheating Russians.
Josh Bart said Hope Solo, And I literally cannot believe
I forgot Hope Solo, Like there is no one better
in a bar fight.
Speaker 2 (31:40):
I can almost guarantee it.
Speaker 1 (31:41):
The gal's over at galpal Sports said, shot putter Raven
Hulk Saunders amazing. Also equestrians Laura Kraut, assuming we get
Cedric the horse too amazing. I want a horse in
my bar fight. Also a horse walks into a bar
like There's so many places we can go with that.
At Chief Underscore one twelve, shot putter Chase Foster Jackson
(32:03):
and discus thrower Longet Saga Collins paired with Simone Biles,
Shannon Miller and Gabby Douglas. The throwers throw the gymnasts
at the Russians.
Speaker 2 (32:12):
Game over. Game over, you win so good. Don't forget that.
Speaker 1 (32:16):
You can hit us up on our email good game
at wondermedianetwork dot com, or on social at Sarah Spain
on Twitter, or you can even leave us a voicemail
message eight seven two two oh four fifty seventy. We
love that you're listening, but we do want to get
you in the game every day too, So here's our
good gameplay of the day. Make sure you watch USA
Waterpolo taken on Spain nine thirty five Eastern today AM
(32:37):
on the USA Network and streaming on Peacock. Team started
their quest for Gold with a fifteen to six victory
over Greece. This weekend, Spain won fifteen to six over
host country France and their opener. Also, USA women's basketball
plays game one of their Olympic tournament against Japan three
pm Eastern on Peacock and Nbcolympics dot Com. Dinah Trossi said,
this is your last Olympics, so you don't want to
miss a second of it. If you're feeling the vi
(33:00):
for our show, don't forget to subscribe and follow the
pod rate and review two. It's easy watch Morning Walks
rating four out of five stars. Review Et cons it's
early pros serene, no one to bother you, Crisp Morning
Air promotes blood flow, releases indorphins, and it tires out.
You're insane, one year old beast child of a dog,
(33:21):
so you could get your work done. Thanks as always
for listening. Come on back tomorrow. Good game, Selene, Good game, Scharene.
Speaker 2 (33:28):
Fuck you had job bands.
Speaker 1 (33:31):
Good Game with Sarah Spain is an iHeart women's sports
production in partnership with Deep Blue Sports and Entertainment.
Speaker 2 (33:37):
You can find us on.
Speaker 1 (33:38):
The iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Production by Wonder Media Network. Our producers are Alex Azzi
and Misha Jones. Our executive producers are Christina Everett, Jesse Katz,
Jenny Kaplan and Emily Rudder. Our editors are Jenny Kaplan,
Emily Rudder, Brittany Martinez and Grace Lynch. Production assistants from
Lucy Jones and I'm Your Host Sarah span eight
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