September 4, 2024 • 20 mins
Sarah's living the suite life at the US Open and caught up with tennis greats Lindsay Davenport, Rennae Stubbs and Ilana Kloss. Plus, we dish on a whole lotta Paralympic success, a slice’s addition to our list of name twins, and Sarah gives an honest review of the popular Honey Deuce cocktail.
- Read more about the Billie Jean King Cup here
- Listen to The Rennae Stubbs Tennis Podcast here
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to Good Game with Sarah Spain, where we virtually
attended the funeral Simone Biles held for the Yurchenko double
pike rip. On today's show, we'll shed light on a
whole lot of success at the Paralympics. Put you in
a suite at the US Open and reveal a footy
name twin submission from one of your slices. It's all
coming up right after this. Welcome back, my little slices.
(00:38):
Here's what you need to know today. A lot of
Paralympic news. In para equestrian American Rebecca Heart, a five
time Paralympian, won her first individual medal and get this,
it's the big one. Heart earned a gold in Grade three,
which is for athletes with severe impairments in both legs
but minimal or no trunk impairment per the AP. After
(01:00):
the event ended, Heart took a moment to soak it
all in. She said, quote, it's been twenty five years
of trying to get to this point and being close
many many times to actually get it. I feel like
I'm going to wake up at any moment. It's just surreal.
It feels like a dream. End quote. Doesn't that just
pull out your heart strings some more para Equestria for you.
(01:20):
Twenty five year old American Fiona Howard made the most
of her Paralympic debut, winning gold with a personal best
score in the Grade two individual competition. That's for folks
with severe impairment of the trunk and minimal impairment of
the upper limbs or moderate impairment of the trunk, upper
and lower limbs. Howard's not done either. She's got two
more chances to medal this week. Today, she and her
USA counterparts compete in the team event, and on Saturday
(01:42):
she's in the freestyle competition. And three time Paralympian Rock
Sane Toronto won a silver medal in the Grade one
equestrian competition for athletes with severe impairments affecting all four
limbs in trunk. This is her third medal. She previously
won two golds in Tokyo. So much success for the Americans.
In at You Love It. On the Track, Susanna Scaroni
(02:03):
earned bronze in the women's fifteen hundred meter T fifty four.
It was a thrilling race. A crash in the last
lap took out the top two finishers in Tokyo and
Scarni herself hit the inside rail on the last curve,
but she was able to recover. Switzerland's Catherine de Brunner
won the gold, her third gold medal of the Games
in a Paralympic record, and Great Britain Samantha Kinghorn took
silver to the pool, where Christy Roley Crossley won gold
(02:26):
in the one hundred meter backstroke S nine final, finishing
in one oh seven ninety two, setting a Paralympic record
in the process. Raleig Crossley adds that medal to the
silver they won in the fifty meter freestyle. Team USA's
LeAnn Smith also added to the metal hall, winning gold
in thee hundred meter freestyle S three. Smith had an
especially tough road to reach Paris. Two years ago. She
was forced to spend seven months out of the pool
after she was admitted to the ICU with a collapse lung.
(02:49):
Congrats to her on quite a comeback. In sitting volleyball,
the US swept Italy in three sets and now advances
to the semi final for the sixth straight time. Set
ones started off, Set two required a late comeback, but
Set three was all USA. The quest for a third
straight Paralympic gold medal in the sport continues against Brazil
on Thursday, and in wheelchair basketball, US is onto the
(03:12):
knockout round. They faced Great Britain in the quarterfinals today
at ten a m Eastern. The US duo of Rose
Hollerman and Courtney Ryan have led the way for Team
USA so far, both averaging exactly thirteen point seven points
per game. To Hockey News, PWHL, Minnesota announced that Melissa
Caruso will take over as general manager. Crusoe, a Saint
Paul resident, spent fifteen years working in the American Hockey League.
(03:34):
She began as an intern right out of college and
eventually worked her way into a role as the league's
Vice president of Hockey Operations and Governance. Crusoe fills the
spot in Minnesota after the dismissal of former GM Natalie
Darwitz in June. The squad Darwitz put together was successful
in its first ever season, winning the inaugural Walter Cup,
but she was let go just days after the win.
According to the Athletic Minnesota parted ways with Darwit's due
(03:54):
to a rift between her and head coach Ken Clee.
We're going to take a quick break. When we come back,
we'll hear from a couple ogs at the Open. Don't
move a muscle, Welcome back. If you listen to yesterday's show,
(04:19):
you know I'm on a very cool field trip to
the US Open this week and yesterday I got to
hang in a suite with our friends at ELF Cosmetics.
ELF has entered a long term partnership with Billy Jean
King to support the Billy Jean King Cup, which is
the top international team competition in women's tennis, kind of
like the Women's World Cup of Tennis. ELF is also
co hosting the first ever Power of Women's Summit at
the BJK Cup, bringing together influential change makers to celebrate
(04:42):
progress and raise awareness for advancing gender equality and sports.
People like Malala are going to be there, and the
tournament and the summit are going to be in Spain
in November. And I'm not saying that I'm angling for
an invite, but if you're listening ELF, and I know
you are Spain in Spain sounds like a dream to me.
(05:03):
But back to Tuesday, some pretty incredible former tennis grades
were in the ELF suite and if you spoke to
the room of media and partners before the matches got started.
I want to take you inside the suite with me
and play you some of the great stories and memories
that they shared. And one thing you'll notice, Billy Jean
King is a common thread in all of these bits,
and deservedly so. She broke barriers with her performance on
(05:23):
the court and continues to do so with her advocacy
and support of women and women athletes off of it.
I always call Billy Jean King the Forest Gump of
women's sports because every story you hear she eventually pops up.
It's like women's hockey. We weren't sure what to do.
We called Billy Jean King women's soccer. We weren't sure
how to get what we wanted, so we called Billy
Jean King. She's absolutely the best, and you'll hear her
(05:44):
name come up a lot here. First up, we got
nineteen ninety six American Olympic champ and three time Grand
Slam winner Lindsay Davenport talking about being a young player
and some special moments that she had where BJK stepped
in and helped reframe her approach to the game, make
sure she was thinking about truly being a winner. And
putting herself in the mindset of winning first at the
Olympics and then at the Billy Jean kingcop Here's Lindsay.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
In nineteen ninety six. I was twenty years old.
Speaker 3 (06:07):
We were at the Olympic Games in Atlanta. Billy was
our captain. So, you know, you get to go to
the Olympics, you feel like you're like a kid in
a candy shop.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
We're going to all these events and having fun.
Speaker 3 (06:18):
And long story short, I found myself in the final
playing for the next day.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
I was gonna be playing for the gold medal.
Speaker 3 (06:24):
So the day before Billy goes I'd love to sit
down and talk to you about tomorrow. So we sit
down and she's like, okay, tomorrow, I go, Billy, can
you believe it? I'm going to at least leave here
with a silver medal. She was like, oh, Lindsay, Oh, Lindsay.
So that started an over hour conversation of you know,
really delving into like why are you scared to go
(06:46):
for the gold? Like why won't you go out there
tomorrow in a match that could change your life? And
why are you scared to put it all on the line?
Obviously really heavy stuff like a day before the final
was like, oh my goodness. But it got me in
the headspace of going out there against the player, beaten
to think like why not, why can't this be my moment?
So and then the other story I loved it tell
the I did with the golf y I didacty eight.
(07:14):
The other story that is really funny with Billy is
fast forward another few years and we're the Billy at
Billy Jean King Cup Finals. Renee was there actually with us,
even though she represented Australia. I'm yeah, We're sitting there
and again, you know, I was freaking out before a
match and like, Billy, I can't handle this, Like I
(07:37):
was playing one.
Speaker 2 (07:38):
And I think Monica was was had a tough match.
I'm like, what if Monica loses? Like I don't even
know it was freaking out. She's like, You've got to
get it together.
Speaker 3 (07:45):
She's like come on, She's like, champions adjust and pressure
is a privilege. I'm like, okay, okay, I'll take that.
So little did I know that was the first time
she said it was to me. So when you ever
hear that quote pressure is a privilege, that's because I
was really freaking out out here about Lane and.
Speaker 1 (08:02):
Mad That is some breaking news, y'all. Pressure is a
privilege is basically Billy's best bar and Lindsay was the
one who inspired it, which is too cool. And now
Lindsay's in a position to duel out similar words of
wisdom as she is the new US captain for the
upcoming BJK Cup. Next up. Former Australian doubles Dynamos, six
time Grand Slam winner and host of the Renee Stubs
(08:22):
tennis podcast right here and I Hurt Women's Sports talked
to the crowd, and here's Renee sharing her own fond
memories of playing in the Billy Jean Kingcup.
Speaker 4 (08:30):
Billy Jean Kingcup for me, it was literally my favorite
weeks of the year. And we as Lindsay knows, tennis
is an incredibly selfish individual sport. Even though you're amongst
your peers every single week, they're not your peers, are
not your friends during a tennis tournament because you literally
have to walk out and play against them, and so
we do have a traveling circus. But when it comes
to playing Billy Jean King Cup, it was the greatest
(08:52):
week for me because I was surrounded by my fellow Australians.
I was surrounded my teammates for the first and only
time that year, and it was usually two or three
weeks a year, so it was just a week that
we worked so hard.
Speaker 2 (09:04):
It was so pressurized. It was so stressful.
Speaker 4 (09:07):
But when you were around, like your other teammates were
obviously coming from your own country and you're there together
for a whole week, it's just it's my favorite. It
was my favorite weeks of the year. As I said,
it was also very stressful when you walk out there
knowing that your teammates are, you know, looking at you
to like for me, a lot of the times it
was also I was the doubles player and so it
came down to the doubles quite often in Billy Jean
(09:29):
King cups.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
It was very stressful for me.
Speaker 4 (09:31):
I was a great teammate all week, you know, playing
singles and all that, and then they were like.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
Okay, go win the doubles match, and I was.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
Like, oh god.
Speaker 4 (09:39):
But it was honestly, the joy I got from winning
those matches and being part of a team as literally
my favorite memories of playing professional tennis. And so you know,
I know, Lindsay will instill that with her players. The
pride of playing for the United States, the pride of
playing for other people and other teammates is something.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
That you'll never forget. And I think that that's that,
you know, if I were to.
Speaker 4 (10:01):
Sell to players about getting out there and playing Billy
Jean King cups.
Speaker 2 (10:06):
That's the memory.
Speaker 4 (10:07):
The memories are the favorite weeks of the end. I'm
sure Lindsay could attest that Billy Jean King Cup those
weeks spending up with.
Speaker 2 (10:13):
Your friends and getting to know them a little bit.
Speaker 4 (10:15):
Better and also getting in the trenches together, you know,
and continually talking to one another when you're playing matches
and you don't look over often and see, you know,
five or six of your enemies week in and week out,
they're pulling for you. You know you've got you know,
Lindsay's going to have the Emminavarro's and Coco Goths who
(10:36):
just played each other the other day.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
You know they're going to be pulling for each other.
And that is a memory that you can never forget
as a player. So for me, that's my favorite, and.
Speaker 4 (10:44):
That partnerships with ELF is just the synergy, the teamwork,
and that's what billaging King Come is it's a quality.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
It's working together and so for me, that's great to
have this partnership.
Speaker 1 (10:54):
Love Renee and it was very cool after that to
see her down on Arthur Ash Court interviewing players after
their whin tusslin around there getting the work done. Billy
Jean King deserves a lot of credit for all the
stuff she's done in tennis and sports in general, but
her wife and former South African pro tennis player Alana
Class is always by her side, always putting in the
work too, and she was in the suite with us too.
(11:15):
She shared her thoughts on the first ever Billy Jean
King Cup, which was then called the Federation Cup.
Speaker 5 (11:20):
It's the woman's World Cup of tennis and the first
one started in London in nineteen sixty three and had us.
Billy played on the very first one and sixteen teams
supposed to be outdoors, it was raining, they went indoors
and Billy always tries to set goals, so she kept
(11:41):
telling that her teammates, we have to win because this
is the first one, Billy, right, and you know, we
want our name to be on the cup because you're
always going to look back and see your name and
so This is really important to her as she believes
in teamwork, she believes in being the best you can be.
(12:04):
And we started a joint venture with the International Tennis Federation,
who actually manages the competition. You'd have to play in
the Billy Jenkin Cup in order to qualify for the Olympics,
so it really is connected to the Olympics, which is important.
But most important is the message it sends to young
(12:24):
girls and women not only on the court. We want
more women on boards and the tennis federations. We want
more women coaches, we want more women in the business.
More woman the podcast than our story's being told. So honestly,
we couldn't be more thrilled because at the end of
the day, I think, as Lindsay was saying, it is
(12:44):
about the relationships you build in life, and this one
is very special.
Speaker 1 (12:51):
And last but not least, we got a little bonus
content from Milana to the l Folks asked her to
talk a bit about helping Billy start the PWHL earlier
this year. Here it is we're a.
Speaker 5 (13:01):
Good team, but he says, she dreams it and then
we build it. But we don't build it alone, but
we did this year start a woman's professional ice hockey league,
and we felt that some of the players. Ken Or Coyne,
who was the captain and the US Olympic team, came
to us and said, you know, we're playing. I'm earning
(13:23):
seven thousand dollars. I'm sleeping on a blow up mattress.
I'm flying on Southwest Okay to Minnesota. I'm playing to Minnesota.
You know, CHAPALTI is You know that that's my main meal.
(13:45):
And we're are the best players in the world, you know,
and so would you help? And so we very similarly
used the playbook that we used for women's tennis fifty
years ago when we started the w and we said, look,
you have to get all the top players together. You
need one voice. They formed a player association and they
(14:08):
actually didn't play in competition for three years, which is
unbelievable when you think about it, because when you're playing
a sport that maybe the Olympics of the World Championship
is your goal and you're giving up an opportunity. But
they rarely felt that sticking together to create something for
future generations was more important. So we helped work on
(14:32):
a business plan, and more importantly, we helped fund an investor,
so one of our partners, Mark Walter, who owns the
Dodgers and a few other things. Billy was able to
get him to understand that investing in women's sports is huge,
so long term investment, single entity ownership. We started the
(14:54):
league in January in Montreal. Twenty one thousand people sold
out a st in ten minutes. Three teams in Canada,
three in the US. And what's great is you can
invest and you can build, but you can't make people come.
And they came, so it's just the beginning. It's at
(15:15):
the beginning where tennis is a little more mature. But
ELF has been with us on both junis.
Speaker 1 (15:21):
We're gonna talk plenty of p WHL when that season
gets closer. But back to tennis. It was a hell
of a day at the BJK Tennis Center. I got
to watch a fantastic match between American Taylor Fritz and
German Alexander Zverev. The serves in person, like the one
hundred and thirty five mile power serves, are insane in person,
but even better, I got to watch Emma Navarro, the
upstart American that we mentioned on a previous show, and
(15:43):
she continued her fairy tale run. She got a two
set win over Spain's Paula Badosa and she's now off
to her first Grand Slam semi final. So cool. I
want to give a huge shout out to the Elf
Cosmetics folks for the hospitality. Had an absolute blast in
the sweet watch and all the action and talking about
all the ways that Billyjian King had an impact on
the sports world. We're gonna still be referencing her for
(16:03):
decades to come. Also us open. I agree with Serena
Williams the Honey Deuce. We need to rebrand that. We
need to name that the Honey Ace. But more on
that coming later when we come back. Another slice gets
some participation points. It's next welcome back. So yesterday we
(16:33):
asked you to send us all your sports name twin
Intel and we already got a submission via email from
Megan go Forth. Meghan wrote, shocked you all didn't find
the Sam Kerr name twins. Of course there's Matilda Slash
Chelsea sam Kurr, but there's also a Scottish soccer player,
Sam Kerr. She's on the Scottish national team. And Bayern
Munich is your club, right now love the show. Thank
(16:53):
you Meghan for fixing us getting our shit together. That's
a good one. I can't believe we missed it. Also, Megan,
can you follow up with background on your name? Go Forth?
Go Forth is a rad last name. I'm guessing your
family was like a bunch of warriors or maybe vagabonds.
I don't know. Clue us in let us know. Also,
(17:13):
producer Alex thought of one more. Remember earlier in the show,
I mentioned that Paralympic swimmer Leanne Smith one gold on Tuesday.
Well she's not the only leand Smith's represent Team USA.
There's another one. This one's an alpine skier who competed
at both the twenty ten and twenty fourteen Winner Olympics,
and both have ties to New Hampshire, where Alex lives
or is it where Alex lives free or dies? Okay,
(17:36):
we'd love to hear more of those name twins, so
keep those submissions coming, and we love that you're listening.
But we always want to get you in the game too,
So here's our good game play of the day. Check
out the Renee Stubbs Tennis podcast. You can get more
amazing stories from her time playing from her six major
championship wins, plus lots of interviews, analysis stories from her
globe trotting sports watching life. She is truly a diehard.
(17:59):
She's a season ticket home for the Liberty. She's best
friends with Chelsea Handler and as I learned in Can
after we ran into Queen Latifa in the club, she
goes way back with when Dana Elaine owens. Yeah, Brene's
got stories. Hit that follow button and hit us up
on email. Good game at wondermedianetwork dot com or leave
us a voicemail at eight seven two two four fifty seventy.
(18:19):
Don't forget to subscribe, rate and review. It's easy if
you're on Apple Podcast. Just scroll down until you see
the stars. Click where it says rate and review and
you can add yours. Give us five stars hopefully and
a review like this. Honeyduces rating three melon balls out
of three melon balls review. I told y'all that I
(18:40):
was gonna be knee deep in Honeyduces yesterday, but it
was more like balls deep, Melon balls deep. What an
absolute delight of a drink, so delicious, truly and genuinely
extremely delicious, and at twenty three dollars a pop even
more delicious in a sweet someone else paid for. So
thanks Elf, now it's rate and review. Thanks for listening, slices.
(19:03):
We'll see you tomorrow where we've got an amazing NFL
edition of Group Chat. We're gonna talk to Tennessee Titans
defensive quality control coach Lori Locust and Chicago Bears offensive
assistant coach Jennifer King. Good Game, Lindsay Venea Andnlana Good game, Elf,
Thank you alarm clock the person before me and my
hotel room set for six and am and didn't turn
(19:23):
off when they'd check the fuck out. 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 Misha Jones. Our executive producers are Christina Everett,
(19:46):
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 Spain,
Welcome to Good Game with Sarah Spain, where we virtually
attended the funeral Simone Biles held for the Yurchenko double
pike rip. On today's show, we'll shed light on a
whole lot of success at the Paralympics. Put you in
a suite at the US Open and reveal a footy
name twin submission from one of your slices. It's all
coming up right after this. Welcome back, my little slices.
(00:38):
Here's what you need to know today. A lot of
Paralympic news. In para equestrian American Rebecca Heart, a five
time Paralympian, won her first individual medal and get this,
it's the big one. Heart earned a gold in Grade three,
which is for athletes with severe impairments in both legs
but minimal or no trunk impairment per the AP. After
(01:00):
the event ended, Heart took a moment to soak it
all in. She said, quote, it's been twenty five years
of trying to get to this point and being close
many many times to actually get it. I feel like
I'm going to wake up at any moment. It's just surreal.
It feels like a dream. End quote. Doesn't that just
pull out your heart strings some more para Equestria for you.
(01:20):
Twenty five year old American Fiona Howard made the most
of her Paralympic debut, winning gold with a personal best
score in the Grade two individual competition. That's for folks
with severe impairment of the trunk and minimal impairment of
the upper limbs or moderate impairment of the trunk, upper
and lower limbs. Howard's not done either. She's got two
more chances to medal this week. Today, she and her
USA counterparts compete in the team event, and on Saturday
(01:42):
she's in the freestyle competition. And three time Paralympian Rock
Sane Toronto won a silver medal in the Grade one
equestrian competition for athletes with severe impairments affecting all four
limbs in trunk. This is her third medal. She previously
won two golds in Tokyo. So much success for the Americans.
In at You Love It. On the Track, Susanna Scaroni
(02:03):
earned bronze in the women's fifteen hundred meter T fifty four.
It was a thrilling race. A crash in the last
lap took out the top two finishers in Tokyo and
Scarni herself hit the inside rail on the last curve,
but she was able to recover. Switzerland's Catherine de Brunner
won the gold, her third gold medal of the Games
in a Paralympic record, and Great Britain Samantha Kinghorn took
silver to the pool, where Christy Roley Crossley won gold
(02:26):
in the one hundred meter backstroke S nine final, finishing
in one oh seven ninety two, setting a Paralympic record
in the process. Raleig Crossley adds that medal to the
silver they won in the fifty meter freestyle. Team USA's
LeAnn Smith also added to the metal hall, winning gold
in thee hundred meter freestyle S three. Smith had an
especially tough road to reach Paris. Two years ago. She
was forced to spend seven months out of the pool
after she was admitted to the ICU with a collapse lung.
(02:49):
Congrats to her on quite a comeback. In sitting volleyball,
the US swept Italy in three sets and now advances
to the semi final for the sixth straight time. Set
ones started off, Set two required a late comeback, but
Set three was all USA. The quest for a third
straight Paralympic gold medal in the sport continues against Brazil
on Thursday, and in wheelchair basketball, US is onto the
(03:12):
knockout round. They faced Great Britain in the quarterfinals today
at ten a m Eastern. The US duo of Rose
Hollerman and Courtney Ryan have led the way for Team
USA so far, both averaging exactly thirteen point seven points
per game. To Hockey News, PWHL, Minnesota announced that Melissa
Caruso will take over as general manager. Crusoe, a Saint
Paul resident, spent fifteen years working in the American Hockey League.
(03:34):
She began as an intern right out of college and
eventually worked her way into a role as the league's
Vice president of Hockey Operations and Governance. Crusoe fills the
spot in Minnesota after the dismissal of former GM Natalie
Darwitz in June. The squad Darwitz put together was successful
in its first ever season, winning the inaugural Walter Cup,
but she was let go just days after the win.
According to the Athletic Minnesota parted ways with Darwit's due
(03:54):
to a rift between her and head coach Ken Clee.
We're going to take a quick break. When we come back,
we'll hear from a couple ogs at the Open. Don't
move a muscle, Welcome back. If you listen to yesterday's show,
(04:19):
you know I'm on a very cool field trip to
the US Open this week and yesterday I got to
hang in a suite with our friends at ELF Cosmetics.
ELF has entered a long term partnership with Billy Jean
King to support the Billy Jean King Cup, which is
the top international team competition in women's tennis, kind of
like the Women's World Cup of Tennis. ELF is also
co hosting the first ever Power of Women's Summit at
the BJK Cup, bringing together influential change makers to celebrate
(04:42):
progress and raise awareness for advancing gender equality and sports.
People like Malala are going to be there, and the
tournament and the summit are going to be in Spain
in November. And I'm not saying that I'm angling for
an invite, but if you're listening ELF, and I know
you are Spain in Spain sounds like a dream to me.
(05:03):
But back to Tuesday, some pretty incredible former tennis grades
were in the ELF suite and if you spoke to
the room of media and partners before the matches got started.
I want to take you inside the suite with me
and play you some of the great stories and memories
that they shared. And one thing you'll notice, Billy Jean
King is a common thread in all of these bits,
and deservedly so. She broke barriers with her performance on
(05:23):
the court and continues to do so with her advocacy
and support of women and women athletes off of it.
I always call Billy Jean King the Forest Gump of
women's sports because every story you hear she eventually pops up.
It's like women's hockey. We weren't sure what to do.
We called Billy Jean King women's soccer. We weren't sure
how to get what we wanted, so we called Billy
Jean King. She's absolutely the best, and you'll hear her
(05:44):
name come up a lot here. First up, we got
nineteen ninety six American Olympic champ and three time Grand
Slam winner Lindsay Davenport talking about being a young player
and some special moments that she had where BJK stepped
in and helped reframe her approach to the game, make
sure she was thinking about truly being a winner. And
putting herself in the mindset of winning first at the
Olympics and then at the Billy Jean kingcop Here's Lindsay.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
In nineteen ninety six. I was twenty years old.
Speaker 3 (06:07):
We were at the Olympic Games in Atlanta. Billy was
our captain. So, you know, you get to go to
the Olympics, you feel like you're like a kid in
a candy shop.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
We're going to all these events and having fun.
Speaker 3 (06:18):
And long story short, I found myself in the final
playing for the next day.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
I was gonna be playing for the gold medal.
Speaker 3 (06:24):
So the day before Billy goes I'd love to sit
down and talk to you about tomorrow. So we sit
down and she's like, okay, tomorrow, I go, Billy, can
you believe it? I'm going to at least leave here
with a silver medal. She was like, oh, Lindsay, Oh, Lindsay.
So that started an over hour conversation of you know,
really delving into like why are you scared to go
(06:46):
for the gold? Like why won't you go out there
tomorrow in a match that could change your life? And
why are you scared to put it all on the line?
Obviously really heavy stuff like a day before the final
was like, oh my goodness. But it got me in
the headspace of going out there against the player, beaten
to think like why not, why can't this be my moment?
So and then the other story I loved it tell
the I did with the golf y I didacty eight.
(07:14):
The other story that is really funny with Billy is
fast forward another few years and we're the Billy at
Billy Jean King Cup Finals. Renee was there actually with us,
even though she represented Australia. I'm yeah, We're sitting there
and again, you know, I was freaking out before a
match and like, Billy, I can't handle this, Like I
(07:37):
was playing one.
Speaker 2 (07:38):
And I think Monica was was had a tough match.
I'm like, what if Monica loses? Like I don't even
know it was freaking out. She's like, You've got to
get it together.
Speaker 3 (07:45):
She's like come on, She's like, champions adjust and pressure
is a privilege. I'm like, okay, okay, I'll take that.
So little did I know that was the first time
she said it was to me. So when you ever
hear that quote pressure is a privilege, that's because I
was really freaking out out here about Lane and.
Speaker 1 (08:02):
Mad That is some breaking news, y'all. Pressure is a
privilege is basically Billy's best bar and Lindsay was the
one who inspired it, which is too cool. And now
Lindsay's in a position to duel out similar words of
wisdom as she is the new US captain for the
upcoming BJK Cup. Next up. Former Australian doubles Dynamos, six
time Grand Slam winner and host of the Renee Stubs
(08:22):
tennis podcast right here and I Hurt Women's Sports talked
to the crowd, and here's Renee sharing her own fond
memories of playing in the Billy Jean Kingcup.
Speaker 4 (08:30):
Billy Jean Kingcup for me, it was literally my favorite
weeks of the year. And we as Lindsay knows, tennis
is an incredibly selfish individual sport. Even though you're amongst
your peers every single week, they're not your peers, are
not your friends during a tennis tournament because you literally
have to walk out and play against them, and so
we do have a traveling circus. But when it comes
to playing Billy Jean King Cup, it was the greatest
(08:52):
week for me because I was surrounded by my fellow Australians.
I was surrounded my teammates for the first and only
time that year, and it was usually two or three
weeks a year, so it was just a week that
we worked so hard.
Speaker 2 (09:04):
It was so pressurized. It was so stressful.
Speaker 4 (09:07):
But when you were around, like your other teammates were
obviously coming from your own country and you're there together
for a whole week, it's just it's my favorite. It
was my favorite weeks of the year. As I said,
it was also very stressful when you walk out there
knowing that your teammates are, you know, looking at you
to like for me, a lot of the times it
was also I was the doubles player and so it
came down to the doubles quite often in Billy Jean
(09:29):
King cups.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
It was very stressful for me.
Speaker 4 (09:31):
I was a great teammate all week, you know, playing
singles and all that, and then they were like.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
Okay, go win the doubles match, and I was.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
Like, oh god.
Speaker 4 (09:39):
But it was honestly, the joy I got from winning
those matches and being part of a team as literally
my favorite memories of playing professional tennis. And so you know,
I know, Lindsay will instill that with her players. The
pride of playing for the United States, the pride of
playing for other people and other teammates is something.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
That you'll never forget. And I think that that's that,
you know, if I were to.
Speaker 4 (10:01):
Sell to players about getting out there and playing Billy
Jean King cups.
Speaker 2 (10:06):
That's the memory.
Speaker 4 (10:07):
The memories are the favorite weeks of the end. I'm
sure Lindsay could attest that Billy Jean King Cup those
weeks spending up with.
Speaker 2 (10:13):
Your friends and getting to know them a little bit.
Speaker 4 (10:15):
Better and also getting in the trenches together, you know,
and continually talking to one another when you're playing matches
and you don't look over often and see, you know,
five or six of your enemies week in and week out,
they're pulling for you. You know you've got you know,
Lindsay's going to have the Emminavarro's and Coco Goths who
(10:36):
just played each other the other day.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
You know they're going to be pulling for each other.
And that is a memory that you can never forget
as a player. So for me, that's my favorite, and.
Speaker 4 (10:44):
That partnerships with ELF is just the synergy, the teamwork,
and that's what billaging King Come is it's a quality.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
It's working together and so for me, that's great to
have this partnership.
Speaker 1 (10:54):
Love Renee and it was very cool after that to
see her down on Arthur Ash Court interviewing players after
their whin tusslin around there getting the work done. Billy
Jean King deserves a lot of credit for all the
stuff she's done in tennis and sports in general, but
her wife and former South African pro tennis player Alana
Class is always by her side, always putting in the
work too, and she was in the suite with us too.
(11:15):
She shared her thoughts on the first ever Billy Jean
King Cup, which was then called the Federation Cup.
Speaker 5 (11:20):
It's the woman's World Cup of tennis and the first
one started in London in nineteen sixty three and had us.
Billy played on the very first one and sixteen teams
supposed to be outdoors, it was raining, they went indoors
and Billy always tries to set goals, so she kept
(11:41):
telling that her teammates, we have to win because this
is the first one, Billy, right, and you know, we
want our name to be on the cup because you're
always going to look back and see your name and
so This is really important to her as she believes
in teamwork, she believes in being the best you can be.
(12:04):
And we started a joint venture with the International Tennis Federation,
who actually manages the competition. You'd have to play in
the Billy Jenkin Cup in order to qualify for the Olympics,
so it really is connected to the Olympics, which is important.
But most important is the message it sends to young
(12:24):
girls and women not only on the court. We want
more women on boards and the tennis federations. We want
more women coaches, we want more women in the business.
More woman the podcast than our story's being told. So honestly,
we couldn't be more thrilled because at the end of
the day, I think, as Lindsay was saying, it is
(12:44):
about the relationships you build in life, and this one
is very special.
Speaker 1 (12:51):
And last but not least, we got a little bonus
content from Milana to the l Folks asked her to
talk a bit about helping Billy start the PWHL earlier
this year. Here it is we're a.
Speaker 5 (13:01):
Good team, but he says, she dreams it and then
we build it. But we don't build it alone, but
we did this year start a woman's professional ice hockey league,
and we felt that some of the players. Ken Or Coyne,
who was the captain and the US Olympic team, came
to us and said, you know, we're playing. I'm earning
(13:23):
seven thousand dollars. I'm sleeping on a blow up mattress.
I'm flying on Southwest Okay to Minnesota. I'm playing to Minnesota.
You know, CHAPALTI is You know that that's my main meal.
(13:45):
And we're are the best players in the world, you know,
and so would you help? And so we very similarly
used the playbook that we used for women's tennis fifty
years ago when we started the w and we said, look,
you have to get all the top players together. You
need one voice. They formed a player association and they
(14:08):
actually didn't play in competition for three years, which is
unbelievable when you think about it, because when you're playing
a sport that maybe the Olympics of the World Championship
is your goal and you're giving up an opportunity. But
they rarely felt that sticking together to create something for
future generations was more important. So we helped work on
(14:32):
a business plan, and more importantly, we helped fund an investor,
so one of our partners, Mark Walter, who owns the
Dodgers and a few other things. Billy was able to
get him to understand that investing in women's sports is huge,
so long term investment, single entity ownership. We started the
(14:54):
league in January in Montreal. Twenty one thousand people sold
out a st in ten minutes. Three teams in Canada,
three in the US. And what's great is you can
invest and you can build, but you can't make people come.
And they came, so it's just the beginning. It's at
(15:15):
the beginning where tennis is a little more mature. But
ELF has been with us on both junis.
Speaker 1 (15:21):
We're gonna talk plenty of p WHL when that season
gets closer. But back to tennis. It was a hell
of a day at the BJK Tennis Center. I got
to watch a fantastic match between American Taylor Fritz and
German Alexander Zverev. The serves in person, like the one
hundred and thirty five mile power serves, are insane in person,
but even better, I got to watch Emma Navarro, the
upstart American that we mentioned on a previous show, and
(15:43):
she continued her fairy tale run. She got a two
set win over Spain's Paula Badosa and she's now off
to her first Grand Slam semi final. So cool. I
want to give a huge shout out to the Elf
Cosmetics folks for the hospitality. Had an absolute blast in
the sweet watch and all the action and talking about
all the ways that Billyjian King had an impact on
the sports world. We're gonna still be referencing her for
(16:03):
decades to come. Also us open. I agree with Serena
Williams the Honey Deuce. We need to rebrand that. We
need to name that the Honey Ace. But more on
that coming later when we come back. Another slice gets
some participation points. It's next welcome back. So yesterday we
(16:33):
asked you to send us all your sports name twin
Intel and we already got a submission via email from
Megan go Forth. Meghan wrote, shocked you all didn't find
the Sam Kerr name twins. Of course there's Matilda Slash
Chelsea sam Kurr, but there's also a Scottish soccer player,
Sam Kerr. She's on the Scottish national team. And Bayern
Munich is your club, right now love the show. Thank
(16:53):
you Meghan for fixing us getting our shit together. That's
a good one. I can't believe we missed it. Also, Megan,
can you follow up with background on your name? Go Forth?
Go Forth is a rad last name. I'm guessing your
family was like a bunch of warriors or maybe vagabonds.
I don't know. Clue us in let us know. Also,
(17:13):
producer Alex thought of one more. Remember earlier in the show,
I mentioned that Paralympic swimmer Leanne Smith one gold on Tuesday.
Well she's not the only leand Smith's represent Team USA.
There's another one. This one's an alpine skier who competed
at both the twenty ten and twenty fourteen Winner Olympics,
and both have ties to New Hampshire, where Alex lives
or is it where Alex lives free or dies? Okay,
(17:36):
we'd love to hear more of those name twins, so
keep those submissions coming, and we love that you're listening.
But we always want to get you in the game too,
So here's our good game play of the day. Check
out the Renee Stubbs Tennis podcast. You can get more
amazing stories from her time playing from her six major
championship wins, plus lots of interviews, analysis stories from her
globe trotting sports watching life. She is truly a diehard.
(17:59):
She's a season ticket home for the Liberty. She's best
friends with Chelsea Handler and as I learned in Can
after we ran into Queen Latifa in the club, she
goes way back with when Dana Elaine owens. Yeah, Brene's
got stories. Hit that follow button and hit us up
on email. Good game at wondermedianetwork dot com or leave
us a voicemail at eight seven two two four fifty seventy.
(18:19):
Don't forget to subscribe, rate and review. It's easy if
you're on Apple Podcast. Just scroll down until you see
the stars. Click where it says rate and review and
you can add yours. Give us five stars hopefully and
a review like this. Honeyduces rating three melon balls out
of three melon balls review. I told y'all that I
(18:40):
was gonna be knee deep in Honeyduces yesterday, but it
was more like balls deep, Melon balls deep. What an
absolute delight of a drink, so delicious, truly and genuinely
extremely delicious, and at twenty three dollars a pop even
more delicious in a sweet someone else paid for. So
thanks Elf, now it's rate and review. Thanks for listening, slices.
(19:03):
We'll see you tomorrow where we've got an amazing NFL
edition of Group Chat. We're gonna talk to Tennessee Titans
defensive quality control coach Lori Locust and Chicago Bears offensive
assistant coach Jennifer King. Good Game, Lindsay Venea Andnlana Good game, Elf,
Thank you alarm clock the person before me and my
hotel room set for six and am and didn't turn
(19:23):
off when they'd check the fuck out. 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 Misha Jones. Our executive producers are Christina Everett,
(19:46):
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 Spain,
Host
Sarah Spain
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