February 6, 2026 • 48 mins
Benvenuti in Italia! Sarah and producer Alex join the show from Milan to share behind the scenes of their visit to the athlete’s Olympic Village (highlights: a bin of condoms and the torch relay!) and their first in-person competition, US women’s hockey versus Czechia (lowlights: J.D. Vance and Marco Rubio). Plus, norovirus hits the Finnish hockey team, Lindsey Vonn hits the weights and it only took one day to find our Olympic mantra!
- The full Milan-Cortina Olympic schedule is here
- Check out the bin of condoms with the Ted Lasso font here
- Check out a few of the view-ruining Secret Service dudes here
- Check out the sign with our new Olympic mantra here
- Leave us a voicemail at 872-204-5070 or send us a note at goodgame@wondermedianetwork.com
- Follow Sarah on social! Bluesky: @sarahspain.com Instagram: @Spain2323
- Follow producer Alex Azzi! Bluesky: @byalexazzi.bsky.social Instagram: @AzziArtwork
- Follow producer Bianca Hillier! Bluesky:@biancahillier.bsky.social
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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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 really
need to learn how to order the right kind of
coffee in Italy so we don't keep ending up with
a thimblesworth of caffeine. It's Friday, February sixth and on
today's show, we're coming to the village and we're doing
that hockey. On Thursday and Milan producer Alex and I
went on a tour of the athlete village. Highlights included
seeing the torch relay and finding the most discussed amenity
(00:21):
every Olympics, the condom supply. Then we made our way
to the Milano Row Hockey Rink to watch USA Hockey
take on Chechia in their opening match at the Games.
Low Lights included Jade Vance and Marco Rubio being seated
twenty feet to our left. Now we're here in the
media areat Milano Road to give you all the behind
the scenes from the village and the ice today. Plus
neurovirus hits the Finns, Vaughn hits the weights, and it
(00:44):
only took one day to find our Olympic mantra. It's
all coming up right after this chow slices. Here's what
you need to know today. We're starting, of course, in Milaw,
where the Olympic Hockey Tournament is officially underway. Competition kicked
off on Thursday, and Team USA opened its tournament with
(01:06):
a five to one win over Chekia Aka five free
birds to one bozoom, bozoom Racacoka. If we're keeping score
based on team goal songs, Hailey Skamura led the US
with two tallies, and Hillary Knight, Alex Carpenter, and Joy
Dunn each added one goal apiece. We'll have plenty more
to say on that game in just a few minutes. Meantime,
the other Group A games scheduled for Thursday between Canada
(01:28):
and Finland was postponed after multiple members of Finland's team
came down with neurovirus sometimes referred to as the winter
vomiting disease. So yeah, uugh. Per the Associated Press, Finland's
practice on Wednesday included just eight players and two goalies,
as the remaining thirteen members of the team were either
(01:49):
ill or quarantined. Per the Associated Press, Finland's practice on
Wednesday included just eight players and two goalies, as the
remaining thirteen members of the team were either ill or quarantined.
The game has been rescheduled to next week on February twelfth,
which is one day before the quarterfinal round begins. We
were told by someone with USPC Communications that all the
hockey teams participating in the tournament had to agree to
(02:10):
the schedule change, presumably both good sportsmanship to prevent the
Finns from having to forfeit, and also safety reasons so
Canada wouldn't be exposed to the virus. Finland and Chechia
entered the tournament as metal contenders, behind the favorites USA
and Canada. One more piece of news from the rink
underdog's team, Italy took full advantage of the home crowd
(02:30):
on Thursday, winning their opening game against France four to
one in front of a pumped up crowd. It was
the host country's first ever women's ice hockey win in
an Olympics, after finishing eighth of eight teams in two
thousand and six, back when Italy also hosted the games.
To the slope or the weight room, where Lindsay Vaughn
is doing everything she can to compete in the games
(02:50):
despite completely tearing her acl in a crash last week.
On Thursday, Vaughn posted an Instagram video for doing some
pretty intense weightlifting and strength exercises. You wore a brace
on her left knee for some of them, and the
caption read quote, I'm not giving up working as hard
as I can to make it happen. End quote. In
order to compete in the downhill, athletes have to compete
in at least one training run, but ongoing snowfall on
(03:14):
Thursday forced Olympic organizers to cancel the first women's downhill
training session, which is actually good news for Vaughan given
that it gives her a little more time to test
her knee. There's another training session schedule for Friday and
one on Saturday. Women's downhill starts Sunday at five thirty
am Eastern. It's a one run competition, so medals will
be awarded that day. More Olympics and a preview of
(03:35):
what to watch over the weekend. Thursday was merely an
appetizer for a very full Olympic plate over the next
couple of days. Figure skaters hit the ice today for
the first portion of the team competition, and then tonight
in Italy. This afternoon in the United States, it's the
opening ceremony, Alex and I will be there to see
it all. See as soon, Mariah. Then on Saturday, the
(03:55):
first medals will be awarded, including in cross country skiing Skiathalon,
where Jesse Diggins's friend of the show should be a
podium threat. Also women's ski jumping, where will all be
on crotch machine watch. The US hockey team will continue
its tournament, facing off against Finland, assuming enough of that
squad has recovered in time, and looking ahead to Sunday,
Alpine skiing kicks off with the women's downhill, and presuming
(04:18):
all goes well between now and then, Lindsey Vaughn will
officially make her fifth Olympic appearance. Sunday also include snowboarding's
parallel giant slalom competition, where Esther Ledetzka could become the
first snowboarder to win three straight Olympic gold medals. And
there's so much more. We'll link to a daily schedule
for the games in the show notes. Finally, in non
Olympic news, Thursday night was a banger in women's soups,
(04:41):
but you'll have to check the results for yourself, because
Alex and I were definitely already fast asleep in Italy
when all four matches between top twenty five teams went down,
including number four Texas and number six LSU battling it
out down in Austin. This weekend's top matchup features number
two UCLA putting its sixteen game win streak on the
line against number eight MISSI in ann Arbor on Sunday.
That's a three pm Eastern tip off on Fox. We
(05:05):
got to take a quick break when we come back.
Condoms a dix a deep dive into our first twenty
four hours at the Olympics. Welcome back Slices, and welcome
to our very first show officially on the ground at
the Olympics, my very first Olympics ever, and my first
(05:27):
takeaway Alex is that is very warm. I did not
wear a jacket the entire day today at the Winter Olympics.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
I'm just happy it was sunny and warm out today
because yesterday it was raining and I was like, if
it's going to precipitate, it better be snow fair.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
My hair looked trash yesterday. Also, Milo and Tina are everywhere,
my girlfriend and my boyfriend, the cute little stout mascots.
They are literally everywhere, even on the box of condoms,
which we'll get to, but also standing out to me
really good transportation. It's pretty cool. The app that you
download for transportation here at the Games has a section
that kind of acts like an ATM. You just pull
(06:02):
up the QR code and you could swipe it anytime
you use the metro or the train or any of
the public transportation, which is a really nice feature for
journalists to not be dropping all of our cash on
ubers and such. For sure.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
I mean, I just like being in a place that
has a metro subway whatever we're calling it here in Milan,
So the fact that it's free is even better and functioning.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
We love that. Okay, So we started our day pretty
late because Alex lept in forever and I'm not going
to allow you, guys, I actually thought Alex might not
be okay because she wasn't feeling that well at dinner
last night. And then this morning I messaged her on
nine and I was like, hey, you know, I'm awake,
but like I might sleep a little longer just to
like really get myself on this schedule since I'm kind
of sleepy, So no rush. And then several hours later
(06:46):
I'm like, okay, so for the athlete village, I think
we should leave around this time, And then another forty
five minutes later, I still I was like, I might
have to go to the desk and be like, I
know you're not supposed to tell me other people's rooms,
but I'm worried that my producer may have.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
Give you a wellness check on this person.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
Yeah. I didn't know you were such a good sleeper either,
me neither. Fourteen hours.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
I know, I know, I'm just you know, Sarah. Something
that they always say about the Olympics is it's not
a sprint, it's a marathon. And I always hate that
saying because have you seen marathoners runs were sprinting. And
so I personally like to live by the motto. This
is the first time I'm living by this motto at
the Olympics, which is sleep now so that you have
(07:33):
energy later.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
You were just banking's some energy for the next three weeks,
and I appreciate that. Just now that I know, I
won't be so worried that you died. I'll just be like, oh,
she's sleeping. So anyway, Alex woke up and we went
to the athlete village, which I wasn't sure at all
what to expect. I think I imagined an adorable like
(07:54):
ski village. I don't like in my mind, everything looked
like a cute little ski town in Calle Dorado or
something like that. That was not it. No, it was
still really cool. Yeah, I really enjoyed getting to walk around,
and I don't know what I expected, but I was
kind of shocked to be just surrounded by athletes from
all the different countries. I mean, I know that that's
(08:15):
the point of the athlete village, but I was like,
how am I allowed to just be chatting with the
Denmark hockey team and hearing jokes from the great Britain athletes.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
Well, I think the contact, Sarah, is that normally you're
not allowed, and they do make it so that media
cannot access the athlete Village except between two and six
pm on the day before the opening ceremony.
Speaker 3 (08:36):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:36):
There're only two days that would take advantage of it. Yeahyeah,
February third and February fifth, So I guess it was
the rare occasion. And we happened to be there for
the torch relay, which was so cool. Alex and I
took photos with the two men that were about to
receive the flame, and then we got to watch the
previous runner come in with the torch and a great
Britain athlete standing next to me. When they exchanged the
(08:58):
flame was like they touched and thought he was hilarious,
which I did find hilarious, just the tip ouch oucher
on my hair. And it was a really cool moment
to actually see because there were a lot of athletes
that gathered for it too. You could tell it was
meaningful to them and they wanted to stand around and
wait for it to come in. Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
I mean I also thought it was really funny, like
you couldn't really see the flame, you could just see
the gas burning. I don't know if I'm describing it correctly, but.
Speaker 1 (09:22):
I think anyone who has a gas fireplace at home
knows when it's like we're not burning any wood right now,
like gas fire asphalt.
Speaker 2 (09:29):
In the summer, when you're like, ooh, there's heat radiating
off of.
Speaker 1 (09:32):
It, still counts, yeah, still counts as the original flame.
Other things that stood out to me from the athlete village,
we got to see a couple noteworthy people, Pal Gasol,
famous former NBA player, One of my all time favorite
athletes in terms of just good guy vibes. Was there
the quad god Ilia, the American figure skater who's set
to take on the Games in a big way.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
He's a man, so this maybe the last mention he
gets on.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
Yeah, we're not going to talk about what he does,
but he's amazing. And he was leaving an elevator and
saying goodbye to a Korean female athlete that they I
guess been hanging out. And I loved that too, the
idea of like just seeing your friends from other countries
or making friends from other countries and hanging out. I
did find the most important part of the athlete village,
the only thing we ever hear about, which is the
condoms area. It was not what I expected. I think.
(10:18):
I thought it would be like a giant glass fish
bowl full of condoms, because you know, they're always like
they always run out, so I imagined it would just
be this like giant thing. But it was a nice
little subtle There were two boxes on either side of
the table just to subtle that said condoms and had
Melo and Tina on it. So those two are not
just going to hype you up. They're going to make
sure you wrap it up. And somebody online when I
(10:39):
posted the photo did point out that the font that
said condoms did look like the ted Lasso font, and
I was like, I like that. It's like believe that
you're going to get laid, and I bet a lot
of them did. There was also diaphragms, so I appreciate that.
They were like, this might be more your vibe than
a condom. You might want to take matters into your
own hands, ladies, So that stood out to me. I
was amazed.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
We were I think, where Canada and the Netherlands were staying,
and Canada was decorating with a big moose, which was great,
and it seemed like maybe it was a moose that
like came together in different parts, like you could like
put it together take it apart pretty easily, which.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
I actually have ornaments like that. There're slices of wood
and then they spit into slots, and that's what it was.
But giant, like a full moose size outside the entrance
to their building.
Speaker 2 (11:25):
Yes, and then right next to that, we're I don't know,
maybe about thirty bikes for the Netherlands, and I was like,
you guys represent with your cycling both in the Summer
Olympic sand in the Winter Olympics.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
Yeah, it just felt appropriate to have a bunch of
orange bikes for Netherlands and a moose for Canada. And
as we wandered around and did not see that kind
of representation anywhere else, we were kind of disappointed. Yes,
like I wanted like a paper mache eagle outside the
USA house or something. I will say, it was really
fun to see all the different decorations outside the buildings,
and Team USA of course was the biggest and the
(11:58):
most ostentatious, the most obvious. It was a banner taking
up the whole side of the building.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
Yeah. Yeah, but Team Germany had a lot of flags,
and I really want to know, like who measures the
window size and then finds a German flag that is
the exact right side and then make sure that they
bring twenty five of them to the games. That is
a prepared person.
Speaker 1 (12:17):
Yeah. It was also cool to see all the amenities
that they have back there. There was a P and
G champions Clubhouse and every day they have different offerings,
a scout massage, a braiding station, like really cool things
for the athletes to feel pampered. There's a spa that
looked like it did like free makeup sessions. There was
the little things like an ironing area, so if you
(12:39):
need to iron some part of your uniform for opening
ceremony or anything else, there's a little ironing area. Power
Aid had a Power of the Pause Mind Zone room
that was like a zen like calming space for athletes.
Corona had these like cool yurts that look like ski
chalets with plants everywhere, and some areas that you could
(12:59):
either and hang out or yoga mats with sort of
pillows on the ground to just lay and relax amongst
the plants. Coca Cola had an entertainment area that had
games a keyboard, and I was like, I'm imagining in
the movie of the Olympics of my mind, there's like
some athlete that's an amazing singer and piano player, and
they sit down and all the athletes from the other
(13:19):
countries gathered just like a Coca Cola ad and they
all sing together. So if that happened, someone please video
it and get it out to the public. So that
was cool too, just seeing the areas where the athletes
would be spending their time in between competitions and hanging out.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
Yeah, it was really nice. I had never been on
an athlete village tour, so excited we did it.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
The last thing from that was there was a robot hand.
So we started our pin collection today. I'm up to one, two, three, four, five, six,
I'm up to six seven, I'm up to seven pins already,
and this one was a pin trade with a robot,
and basically you had to take a pin you already had,
so thank god for that lady who gave us the
(14:00):
Mattress pins that we don't really care about. It was
just like a sponsored pin and we put them in
a little ball and then you gave it to the robot,
and then the robot put your pin somewhere in the
ballpin and grabbed you a new one. So it was
like a pin trade, but without any human interaction. And
Alex and I both got way better pins from the
robot than the ones we put in there. So apologies
(14:20):
to whatever athlete ends up with the mattress pins, but
that's what you get with the pin trade. You just
never know.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
I just want to point out to people that can't
see Sarah though, which is everyone except for me right now,
and anyone who walks down on the escalator that you
may hear in the background of our weird little media
zone area that we're recording this in. But Sarah is
putting her pins on her credential, which I want to
see how long you last with them, because your neck
is going to get so sore. They weigh a lot,
and so I haven't started putting mine one credentially yet.
(14:48):
I just kind of put them in my backpack, Alex.
Speaker 1 (14:51):
I was built for this. I'm going to be just fine.
I feel no pain other than the elbow that I
fell on that is now extremely purple and green. That
still hurts, y'all and shout out to front of the
show Colain, who when I was talking to her about
my elbow, was like, oh, I mean I heard you
say in the show you passed out. I didn't know
you met you pass it. I'm like, no, I fully
fainted and came to in a strange gym. Anyway, almost fine.
(15:15):
I'm gonna be fine, and so is my neck. I
was fucking built for this. Okay, Let's get to something
that was really special for me, my very first Olympic
sporting events. Today. I got to go to an Olympic
competition for the very first time, and I love that
it was US women's hockey because, as I've mentioned many
times on the show, the US defeating Canada in the
(15:37):
Olympics a couple of years ago is one of my
favorite sporting events that I've ever watched of my lifetime.
Like the nerves. I was jumping up and out on
the couch, I was sweating, I was gripping things, I
was screaming and scaring my dogs like I just remember
so viscerally how it felt watching that. And so for
the first ever Olympic event for me to attend, to
be US women's hockey was awesome. Let's start with the positives.
(15:59):
Great to start, their uniforms were fired. They looked like
the go backs to like the miracle on ice kind
of days.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
I love the contrast of them. I remember four years
ago in Beijing, Canada had these red and black uniforms
and you could not even read the player's name on
the back, zero questions. With these US uniforms, you can
tell exactly who is who and what the numbers are.
Speaker 1 (16:18):
They looked amazing. They put on quite a show. It
started a little slow. They were only up one nothing
after the first period, which was kind of surprising. Even
though Chechia is, you know, a favorite to potentially win
a medal, We're not going to say which medal and
what the expectations are for who will be in the
goal metal match, because that would be a total drinks.
I was going to say that CHECKI is a good team,
but it still felt like, Okay, haven't really gotten into
(16:40):
their groove yet. There were some just sloppiness early on
getting used to maybe the ice which the dimensions are
slightly different than the average rink back home, or maybe
nerves or anything else. But when they got into a
groove and started putting the points on the board, we
were like, Okay, this looks good. And we noticed that
every goal was followed by free bird by Leonard Skinnard,
and specifically just like the chorus and like the joyful
(17:04):
free bird. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (17:06):
I was expecting every time that the player that scored
the goal, like I just wanted them to spread their
arms and sore like you, yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:14):
Yeah, let's recommend. Yeah, we're friends with a couple of players,
let's tell them that I would love to see that.
And Alex did a little digging with a friend from
US OPC comms and as it turns out, the men's
US Hockey team won the twenty twenty four World Junior
Championships and that was their song and it kind of
spread in a way that the rest sled hockey, women's
(17:36):
and men's senior team all were like, Wow, that's all sick, Like,
that's the vibe, that's our vibe. And so when it
came time to pick their goal song, which each team
gets to do for themselves, the US women were like,
this is our US hockey song. Across the board and
this is the one, and so hopefully we will be
seeing a lot of freebird.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
We unfortunately did also hear Checky, a song which I
thought just the ones and you know what, I don't
want to say, unfortunately, go check you for scorn goal.
Speaker 1 (18:05):
We love, we love an Olympic moment. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (18:08):
Yeah, but their song came up. I had to ask Shazam,
who's who is singing it? And it is zoom Zim.
Speaker 1 (18:17):
Okay, that's the artist or the song.
Speaker 2 (18:20):
Well the cortina with a K, So maybe that's why they.
Speaker 1 (18:24):
Why they picked it. Okay, sure, and it's a real
creepy photo. Okay, guys, if you can search Cortina with
a K daytome d e t o M that appears
to be the album, and then the song is bizim
bosom b z u m brecky kiki b r e
k e k e k e. Because the photo on
the front looks like some sort of cult family with
(18:47):
eighty five children and there's just one man holding up
a saxophone in the back, and something makes me feel like,
are these children all singing on the song? Are they
just look it up? It looks like a creepy cult.
But you know, congrats to the check in is all
the same on their goal the check. Sorry the check,
So you don't say checkians, you do not? Okay, sure
(19:07):
the check. Congrats to the check. Also, it was very fun.
We ran into a couple of friends. Eric Ayala, who
covers hockey, was here my friend's jewels and died that
I see everywhere. I got to have a quick chat
with Hillary Knight's mom and she had an interesting point
to make. I said, any nerves with this? It's the
fifth Olympics, you know, are you feeling more nervous than usual?
And I think she thought I meant because it's her
(19:29):
last Hillary Knight the captain of the US team, a
great face for American hockey for a long time, has
said in advance of these games, this will be her
last Olympics. And so when I asked her mom if
she had any particular nerves, she said, well, you never
say never. I'm the last one. I said, ex squeeze me.
Hillary did in fact say never, and she said, well,
you know, and I said, yeah, I mean, she doesn't
look like someone who needs to hang them up anytime soon.
(19:51):
And then she started to equivocate. She was like, well,
you know, there is the drain of the PWHL season
and there's a lot of like the psychology of playing
for US hockey, you know. I was like, tell me more,
but I didn't say that, but I will ask her
next time. Tell me more what you mean by the
psychological effects of playing for USA hockey. But then she
sort of backed it off. But I was like okay.
So then of course I had to ask Hillary about that,
(20:12):
and she was very quick to shrug off the idea
that she would be returning but slightly a jar. Yeah,
let's hear what Hillary had to say when I asked
her about it.
Speaker 4 (20:23):
I'm just you know, we want to focus on this
tournament and you know, plotter way through it.
Speaker 1 (20:27):
So I don't know. To me, that's a door that's
just slightly a jar. There wasn't like an absolutely no way,
how no, this is it?
Speaker 3 (20:34):
No.
Speaker 2 (20:34):
I mean I think knowing when the end is I
would be so bad at it. And I'm so happy
that the PWHL now exists where you can end your
national team career and continue playing.
Speaker 4 (20:45):
Right.
Speaker 2 (20:45):
That's something that we used to see with soccer players
was once their Olympic career was done, their career was done.
And so that also though, adds a lot of wear
and tear on the body when you're playing. Yeah, so
many months out of the year that you know, when
you had the Olympics before, it was much more limited
in terms.
Speaker 1 (21:03):
Of what you were doing. Speaking of the PWHL, we
actually asked Hillary Knight what it was like having her
Seattle teammate Anetta Teova on the Czech team and playing
against her, and here's what she had to say.
Speaker 4 (21:12):
Yeah, I mean, you never want to play against teammates,
but yeah, I honestly, it's just when we're in USA,
it's go time. So just focusing on our group and
pro season put a pause.
Speaker 1 (21:22):
On that trash talk. Then yeah, no, I'm not really
good at trash talk. So Hillary Knight can't talk trash
after all these years, that's an important part of your game,
Like you could just leave the trash talking to the
side and focus only on your skating and goal scoring.
Speaker 2 (21:36):
I'm curious to hear what her opponents would say if
they agree with that assessment.
Speaker 1 (21:40):
Oh so you think maybe she's just she's lying about
being sneaky behind the scenes, a little trash talker. I
don't know.
Speaker 2 (21:46):
I just don't think that you can play hockey for
so long and not you know, have a couple of
lines that are ready to go.
Speaker 1 (21:52):
Some go Tosa. She's no Marina Maybury, but you know
a little bit more sound we got after the game
in the mixed zone where all the players and coaches
came through. The head coach for the Ottawa Charge, Karla
McLoud was there, and you remember we've talked about her
on the show before. She's the one that is actually
currently battling cancer while trying to coach Ottawa and also
lead this check team. And I just really enjoyed that
(22:13):
the one time the camera focused real close on her
face during the game, she was pissed about a call
and she kept just saying that's crap, that's crap, and
you could read her lips. So I asked her if
that was her go to word when she's mad about something.
Here's what she had to say. My mom will be proud.
At least I'm not cursing. No, it's usually it's unbelievable
because I can drop your voice of that one. I guess, Alex,
(22:34):
there is no age where you stop worrying about what
your mom thinks of your swearing. I mean, I think
of what my mom thinks of everything I do. So
my parents know I have a sailor's mouth, so they
would be shocked if I stopped swearing. Ever, they'd be like,
are you okay? Everything all right? We also got a
chance to talk to Layla Edwards. You might recall we've
mentioned that she is the first black player to suit
(22:55):
up for the US women's hockey team at the Olympics.
Here's what she said. Yeah, it means a lot. I
think I take a lot of pride in it, and
I'm just going to embrace it because representation matters, you know,
no matter how uncomfortable it can be. It's for the
next generation. I love that, and I'm excited to see
the impact that she could have, especially if the US
has a long run in these games and she plays
a big role. She got her first point in the
(23:16):
Olympics in today's game, but there could be a really
long lasting impact on what hockey looks like going forward
because of Leila Edwards and her influence.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
I mean, to me, I just think she's going to
be a generational player with this team. She is a
player that has been in the youth pipeline for a while,
finally made her senior debut a couple of years ago.
I say finally as if it was long awaited. She's
still in college, but I think this could be the
first of four five Olympics for her. You know, don't
(23:47):
want to jinx or don't want to put pressure on her,
but to me, that's the type of player that she
has quickly become within this program.
Speaker 1 (23:54):
One less positive from this game that we saw was
Alex getting a peek into the chech training set up.
Speaker 2 (24:00):
And what did you see, Alex, Well, it was a
shopping cart with the letters CZ, which I have to
think stand for.
Speaker 1 (24:08):
It was coming off the ice.
Speaker 2 (24:09):
Was coming like away from the ice, like around the corner,
and it had orange slices. Oh yeah, orange slices, And
I was like, I hope these are on their way
to the locker room further between period snack. I wish
I had a source who could get me confirmation of that.
Speaker 1 (24:26):
But I believe it, and I would like to believe
that Team Check would be huge fans of good game
with Sarah Spain, and that they would all be slices
if they only knew we existed, yes, and all spoke
English and were interested in primarily American women's sports. If
all those things are checked off, then they are absolutely
soon to be slices.
Speaker 2 (24:43):
But listen, there is another reality here where the US
had a shopping cart also fully slices on it as well.
Speaker 1 (24:51):
What a dream we can dream allan that one we
can get some confirmation on.
Speaker 2 (24:55):
So who'se mom cut them up?
Speaker 1 (24:57):
Though, that's a big question. Let's remember next time to
ask about their orange slice allocation. Okay, so that was
all the wonderful, amazing fun stuff about the game. Here's
what wasn't so great. We had barely sat down. We
were just a few minutes into the first period of
the game. When all of a sudden there's tons of
commotion a few rows below us. So the setup is
(25:18):
essentially that there are a couple rows of long tables
for media, and those are the folks that are set
up with computers and monitors that ever replays and things
like that. And then there's a couple rows mostly vertically
with a couple seats a piece that the rest of
the media are sitting in. And then to the left
of that there's this wide open area that when we
(25:39):
first got there, we were like, oh, can we just
sit over there? And they were like nope, and we're like, okay,
So we sit over to the right, and a few
minutes in the first period.
Speaker 2 (25:46):
That area, you know, why beyond time?
Speaker 1 (25:51):
Why beyond time? Twelve minutes into the first period, that
area suddenly is a wash with large men in suits
with earpieces, and here comes jd Vance carrying a child
and a bunch of the security, and eventually Marco Rubio
and I presume his wife, I'm not as familiar with her,
(26:12):
and eventually also Tilman Fertita, who is one of the
owners of the mnba's Houston Rockets and the US ambassador
to Italy, and the Lamaru twins, famed for their exploits
as US women's hockey players in their gold medal winning game,
the Spinerama, Oops, I did it again. If you haven't
seen it, google it. It's incredible. Now more known for
(26:33):
problematic opinions on things like trans people in sports, and
they are a guess a part of the presidential delegation
chosen by Donald Trump to represent the US at the
opening ceremony tomorrow, along with Marco Rubio and JD. Vance.
Ah so proud, so proud. Anyway, when I see JD
Vance's eyeliner face, I literally feel ill, like a.
Speaker 2 (26:55):
Basilisk can looked you in the eye and death was
awaiting you on the other side.
Speaker 1 (26:58):
I said that to you that I feel like I
just looked at a demon, like the devil, and I
don't even believe in that, but like my body felt
like when you have been spooked and you have a
little tingle that feels like, ooh, something's out right, or
like when you get in a situation and you feel like, oh,
some the energy's bad, something could go wrong here, or
maybe I should get out of here. Something's dangerous, or
(27:20):
this doesn't feel right. That's what my body felt like,
and I was in no way prepared to see him.
Speaker 5 (27:25):
No.
Speaker 2 (27:26):
I think there's so much that I hate about what
is happening in the United States.
Speaker 1 (27:31):
Right now, and yet when you hear about it in.
Speaker 2 (27:34):
The news, it feels like it's so far away. And
when you are instead ten feet away from a person
who is having an impact on the horrible things that
are happening to people, m hm, it feels, I don't
want to say.
Speaker 1 (27:49):
More real, feels surreal to me.
Speaker 2 (27:51):
It feels surreal, and it feels like you're a human,
You're human, and yet you are allowing these things to happen.
Speaker 1 (27:58):
Yes, that's exactly how I was feeling like. Just this morning,
I swiped past a story on my Instagram that said
jd Vance refuses to apologize for lies about Alex. Pretty
like this human being allegedly with demon energy is slandering
a dead man who was shot in the back while
helping a woman who was not fighting and was not
(28:21):
dangerous and at the very least deserves not to be
slandered in his death, but more much more so, deserved
much more than that. But the idea that that person
that was right there is responsible for so many of
the foulest and most unempathetic, uncaring, inhumane behaviors from anyone
(28:42):
in recent history. Was so disgusting to me, and it
did make it both surreal and more real, the idea
that just like just that dude right there has caused
so much pain and terror and awfulness, and it made
me so angry, and not just because his Secret Service
we're blocking half of the the ice like we're trying
(29:04):
to watch a hockey game. You ruined it by drawing
a ton of attention and then having thirty eight million
Secret Service people surrounding you at all times, blocking every
single angle.
Speaker 2 (29:14):
The delegation includes over sixty cars. Sixty cars.
Speaker 1 (29:18):
I wish you could see my face right now. Also
noteworthy thing from being there in person was there was
a row of photographers that varied anywhere from two to
about six right in front of us in the press
area down against the ice, and when the game started,
they were taking pictures of the hockey.
Speaker 2 (29:34):
I would say for the first twelve minutes. For the
game first twelve minutes they were taking accurate.
Speaker 1 (29:39):
Number twelve minutes, they were taking pictures of the Olympians
who had worked their entire lives to be out on
that ice competing and for the rest of the game
until Jade Vans and Marco Ruby and company and everybody
left with half of the third period remaining to play.
They left early, they got there late. That entire time,
the photographers were turned backs to the ice, not watching
(29:59):
the action and taking pictures of the presidential delegation god
doing god knows what, eating an apple, shoving a donut
in their mouth, like cheering, being excited for a goal.
We don't know, because they never showed it on the
screen at the event.
Speaker 2 (30:12):
So a little bit of like backstory on how Olympic
broadcasts work, just because I think it could be interesting
and relevant to folks. But basically, there is this group
called OBS Olympic Broadcasting Services and they do what is
called the World Feed. And so the world feed is
basically like if you are tuning in in Italy or
China or Canada or wherever it is, that is the
(30:35):
feed that you are getting unless your national rights holder,
so that would be NBC in the United States. NBC
could take the world feed for something and at their
own commentary, or they could also use their own cameras,
and so the world feed, I think is also the
one that was playing in the venue, and it was
explained kind of that they're not going to put a
(30:56):
politician up because it's not somebody who necessarily known to
the world.
Speaker 1 (31:01):
They might put someone like Donald Trump, right, They basically decide,
is this person that we're showing someone everyone in the
world would recognize or not? Sorry jd Vance and Marco Rubio.
Speaker 2 (31:12):
But the result, too, was that there was no opportunity
for the crowd to react to the person that was
in the building because he was never up on the stage.
Speaker 1 (31:21):
Except I contend when they left, yes, that I heard
a dull booing from just one section across the ice.
I will not say with one hundred percent certainty that
that was what was happening, But to me, I heard booing,
and it was when they were leaving, and it was
just from one area, so I think those people had
probably spotted them. But yeah, and not only that, but
(31:43):
the players. So what was interesting in the mixed zone,
They're coming right off the ice. It's literally still in
their uniforms since skates. They have not gone anywhere except
for straight from the ice to where we're meeting and
talking to them, and a number of them were asked
about JD Vance and Marco Rubio being in the crowd,
and every one, to a person said I didn't know that,
and some were more direct in their response. Others, I think,
(32:06):
played it a little bit cool and maybe avoided saying
whether they were excited to hear that or not. Here's
Kendall coin Schofield, for instance, answering, you know whether she
saw JD Vance. I had no idea they're here. I'm sorry,
no locker room visit.
Speaker 3 (32:19):
No. I saw my son after Waven, after the game,
and that was that was where my eyes were locked
too afterwards. But you know, we're we're in the game
when we're there, and so I think our focus was,
you know, was on the ice.
Speaker 1 (32:32):
Yeah, frankly, not a bad answer if you don't have
anything good to say, is our focus was on the ice.
The head coach for the US Women, John Rablueski, who
they just called Robo, had this to say about politicians
in the crowd. I was not aware of that either.
That's awesome.
Speaker 6 (32:48):
I love love our government representation, that we're that everybody's
pulling for us and everybody back home.
Speaker 1 (32:54):
It's awesome. Hmmmmm. Awesome is a word awesome is a word.
Speaker 2 (32:59):
I want the word a few minutes later to describe
starting goalie Aaron Frankel, and I would say erin Frankel
was awesome today.
Speaker 1 (33:05):
It's a versatile word. Then I wonder if any of
the coaches were given direction from communications about the best
way to handle it, like wow, it's just great to
know that we matter and that they want to come
and support us. Like that sounded like that, but it
did sound like a genuine enthusiasm. I would say it
was a genuine it. I want to play one last
one because Taylor Heisie was also asked about this, and
(33:27):
this one is one of those situations where I imagine
if it gets put into a written piece, the language
that she used would sound enthusiastic, and it felt to
me in the moment that it was a little more guarded.
It was sort of like she wanted to couch the
way she said by inserting the Italian president in the
(33:49):
conversation as just a general it's great how important the
Olympics are that even presidents of countries are paying attention.
Can't speak for her, pretend to know what she meant,
but you can listen to what she said and see
how you hear it. I had no idea, didn't know that.
Speaker 4 (34:07):
Now I do. I guess it doesn't change the way
I play, But regardless, that's that's pretty cool that he's here.
I didn't know the president of Italy. I don't know
if he was here, but he was at Athletes Village today,
so very very cool. It just kind of puts things
into perspective of, you know, kind of why we're here
and who is able to be in the stands. It's
super fun. So just an honor, absolutely and excited to
be out here and playing.
Speaker 1 (34:27):
So yeah, was she talking about how it was an
honor to play in front of J d Vance or
was she saying that, you know, having presidents and important
people and the audience puts into perspective what you're doing,
and then it's an honor to be a part of
something that big Churi's out. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (34:41):
I just keep going back to the fact that to
be so close to somebody who's making such horrible decisions,
not how I would have responded to it.
Speaker 1 (34:50):
Not how I would have responded either. I sent the
photo to a bunch of my friends and family and
they were like, what did you yell? And I was like, nothing, but.
Speaker 2 (34:56):
You don't want to get about saying down in front
of she did.
Speaker 1 (34:59):
Want to help down to the Secret Service. But when
I tell you, I have never been dealt such a
withering glance as I was by those security men. And
I was a little worried that maybe one of them
saw my tweet that said I just threw up in
my mouth. It wasn't a tweaks. I'm not on Twitter anymore,
my blue sky, my skeet, my skeet that said I
just threw up in my mouth when it's on JD.
I was like, what if they read that, I'm about
(35:19):
to get tackled and thrown out of this country. I
think they still a free speech in Italy. I don't know. Okay,
one last sound bite because we did like what coach
Robo had to say about the team rallying around to
Hillary Knight's last Olympics. Here's what he said.
Speaker 6 (35:32):
You want to surround Hillary and company with the right
players to get to get her that medal at the
end of all this. That's a big part of our
motivation as a staff and how we picked this team
is to end her legacy the right way.
Speaker 1 (35:47):
You know, sometimes coaches and teams don't say that out loud.
They're all feeling it, but they don't name it, and
so it's kind of cool that they're all like, yeah,
we're not you know, we're not messing around here. We're
going to make sure that Hillary Knight's final Olympics, allegedly
door is a Jar, goes out with gold.
Speaker 2 (36:01):
I mean, hey, I'm gonna say it. Fifth Olympics, only
one gold medal, twenty percent to leave with only twenty
percent gold, that'd be pretty shitty, Alex.
Speaker 1 (36:11):
Come on, you're scoffing at three silver medals.
Speaker 2 (36:14):
I am scoffing at three silver medals.
Speaker 1 (36:16):
I am wow, glad you're not my mom, Alex, and
would just be constantly disappointing you. Honey, you only had
one gold medal and three silvers. You're not allowed back
in this house. Listen. I have high standards.
Speaker 2 (36:29):
I was a kid who I would come home with
a ninety nine percent on a math test and I'd
proclaim it and my dad would be like, so, what
did you get wrong?
Speaker 1 (36:37):
So ninety nine percent runs in the family. I see
where you get it. Yeah. Also, I've never gotten less
than one hundred, so I couldn't possibly understand what it's
like to have high expectations and standards. Just kidding, Okay, Bianco,
We're kind of curious back home in the States what
it was like for you, because they actually will show
folks like jd Vance and Marco on gut TV. Right,
(37:00):
so you were watching the NBC feed, were they prominently featured?
Speaker 5 (37:03):
They showed them a couple of times, and I started
actually looking for you two in the stands because I
knew from your post on Blue Sky that you were
very close to them. But no, they didn't go on
and on about it with the commentary, but they did
show their faces a few times.
Speaker 1 (37:19):
Okay, what else did we miss on the broadcast?
Speaker 5 (37:22):
Well, I was wondering from you guys, what was the
vibe of the crowd, because I heard you guys just
say and a couple of players say it was a
packed house. But I did not get that vibe from
watching the game. They were, I mean, rightfully so showing
the rink most of the time, but I think being
so used to PWHL games now of seeing so many
(37:45):
fans in the stands and crowd shots.
Speaker 1 (37:48):
It was pretty subdued. I was missing a bit of that. Yeah,
it was. It was full pretty much, but it was
pretty subdued. And it's a small venue and it's just
a temporary venue. It's like a conference center that they
built to nice rink in. Yeah, I mean, there was
nothing wrong with it. I did notice that the crowd
wasn't super crazed. There was a guy in a zip
(38:09):
up American flag pajama set that was pretty enthusiastic, and
a friend next to him was also getting into it.
But I think the crowd was just like they were
in their opening round as well. They were warming up
for the metal matches or maybe even for something. It's
an interesting game because it does have an impact on
who you'll play in the elimination rounds, but there is
(38:29):
no chance of elimination. The stakes are lowered than almost
anything else you'll be watching in the Olympics because you're
not winning a medal as a result of what you do.
So I think that probably impacted it. But I did
think it was like a relatively quiet crowd.
Speaker 2 (38:45):
I agree with that, And I think two Unlike at
professional venues everywhere where the crowd is literally up on
the glass, that is not a possibility here. There is
like a big moat basically between the ice and the stands,
and the stands are scaffold like metal scaffolding where you're like,
who put this up and did they bolt it securely?
Speaker 1 (39:06):
Yeah? I mean the final stare if you're coming down
from the like three or four floors of stairs to
get up to the hastily put together media area, was
already broken. I'm like, day one, first game, already have
a broken stare at the end. I did tell the
woman because I was like, someone's gonna eat shit and
try to see them. But yeah, it was uh, definitely
a temporary.
Speaker 2 (39:25):
Yeah, I know, but I think the moat, for lack
of a better term, like had the impact of the
crowd was away and so like there wasn't any banging
on the glass or anything like that.
Speaker 5 (39:35):
Yeah, yeah, that feels like it could make a significant
impact for the players.
Speaker 6 (39:40):
Well.
Speaker 2 (39:40):
It was interesting because like their most recent Olympic experience
was in Beijing, where it was there was no one empty. True,
but then they've had the p WHL since, so there
have been a lot of folks in the stands. But
I'd say that even for them, people were kind of
comparing it to Beijing. But I would say, compared to
p WHL it was.
Speaker 1 (39:56):
Yeah, kendo Quin Schofield has asked about it, and I
think she seemed a little confused at first about the
idea of like, wasn't it so great to have a crowd?
I mean, because the crowd wasn't that great? But then
when she was reminded that the person asking the question
meant in relation to Beijing, She's like, oh, well, yeah, yeah,
I mean having people there is great. But again, I
think she was probably used to Minnesota frost game, where
people are losing their minds, and that wasn't the case today.
Speaker 5 (40:19):
Yeah, okay, I want to let you guys know about
two other things from the broadcast.
Speaker 1 (40:22):
You were just talking about how you.
Speaker 5 (40:24):
Doubt that Hillary Knight doesn't know how to trash talk,
and I will say that she was miked up for
this game, and there was no trash talking picked up
on the mic, So at least for this game we
can believe her.
Speaker 1 (40:37):
Wait, was she miked for how much of it?
Speaker 5 (40:39):
They led us to believe that she was micd the
whole time? They did not play the you know, it
wasn't a constant rolling tape of her. That's never whatever
she was saying, but we definitely heard some let's goes
and you know that kind of thing. No trash talking
for a time.
Speaker 1 (40:53):
I'll teach her a lesson before the gold medal game.
Speaker 5 (40:56):
Yeah, maybe that was because she was miked up.
Speaker 1 (40:58):
Perhaps maybe she was on her best behavior. Okay.
Speaker 5 (41:02):
And then also friend of the show, Angela Rigueiro, was
calling the game. We had her on the show a
couple of weeks ago. At this point, she was in
a studio away from the ranks. She told us would
be the case, and she shared this little tidbit probably
came from an Olympic researcher Alex shut out, but she
said that Megan Keller has given up the locker room
(41:22):
DJ role to Tessa Janikey. And then Janek said that
she stuck with throwbacks for her first time in the
role as to not mess with people's mojo.
Speaker 1 (41:33):
So, okay, I love hearing stuff like that. Yeah, that's
a nice through line. Like she's like, I'm going to
be taking over as DJ and will start to play
all my jams, but for now, I want to ease
you in by letting you know that I know what
the olds like, know what you're used to. Meanwhile, the
olds are Keller's twenty nine. There's something an eight year
different when he is twenty one, but still as someone
(41:54):
who has occasionally gone to a party of someone a
decade younger and been like, I don't know any of
this shit. Probably a good idea for her to start
with something everybody might get behind.
Speaker 5 (42:04):
Yeah, that's a follow up question. If you are able
to talk to her, what is considered a throat? Oh, no,
I don't want to turn of the century or not.
Speaker 1 (42:12):
No, I don't think I can handle it. When Hillary
Knight's the old gal getting put out to pasture at
thirty six, I don't know if I what the twenty
one year old thinks as a throwback? All right, Bank
anything else that you noticed, either from the broadcast or
from our stories so far from Italy.
Speaker 5 (42:29):
I will say that I have been googling what a
diaphragm is?
Speaker 1 (42:34):
Oh, what a cute little lesbian.
Speaker 5 (42:37):
Dental dam and contraception engaisha, What a diaphragm contraception engaig.
Speaker 1 (42:44):
Shit, that's really cute that you know, so things would
need and maybe not otherwise.
Speaker 2 (42:51):
I mean, it also just makes me a little bit
sad for sex education in the US.
Speaker 5 (42:55):
Which or you know, Bianca, true public school has really
failed me in that area, I suppose, but I thought
it was so inclusive that they were, you know, providing
different things.
Speaker 1 (43:04):
But they weren't.
Speaker 5 (43:05):
So please keep an eye out for other.
Speaker 1 (43:08):
I'm going to return to the athlete village with one goal,
and that is to find out if they have dental
dams anyway, Thank you, Sarah. That's a mission. That's a
mission for me to our first mission, Alex Wholesome. Anything else, Bianco,
I'm gonna leave it there, Okay. I don't think we
can go from dental dams to the note that you
put in the dock, which is go go squeeze on
(43:28):
the USA bench. I don't know if that's a transition
any of us are willing to make, so we might
have to just leave it there. Thank you, Bianka, thank you.
Thanks all right, we got to take a break when
we come back. Be an enterer, not a lever. God damn,
we can't get away from these phrases. Welcome back, slices.
(43:53):
We love that you're listening, but we want you to
get in the game every day too. So here's our
good game play of the day. Watch the games on
TV this weekend, so you can help producer bank and
keep us up to date on what we might be
missing out here. Shout out to my friend Patrick Sandusky.
He's an Olympics vet, and he told me there's always
stuff that they focus on during the American broadcast that
folks who are actually at the Games are totally oblivious to.
One year, people kept asking him if he'd met at
(44:15):
particular athletes sisters yet, because they'd gotten so much screen
time for being like great hype women, and he was like,
I have no idea what you're talking about.
Speaker 2 (44:22):
It's sad that I think I actually know what sisters
you're talking about based on that.
Speaker 1 (44:25):
Yeah, And so we could be out here in our
little bubble and have no idea what y'all are excited
about back there. So help us out if there's a
sister we should find in the stands or a pasta
dish that they're highlighting. Clock in and get to work slices. Oh,
and speaking a slice work, I want to thank everyone
for chiming in on our national Girls and Women in
Sports Day app with swin Cash. We got so many
(44:46):
great comments, tons of feedback on that one, including Anna
w writing in part quote. I have a future opportunity
for Swin that I'm putting out in the ether. I
think that the WNBA should create a CFO position and
slide Kathy Engelbert into it. I think she's really moved
the W forward financially, and I don't think she should
be tossed aside, but she no longer has the respect
of the players, and based on numerous comments, she lacks
(45:07):
the people's skills necessary to do the job of commissioner.
I'm putting it out there that Swin Cash should be
the next commissioner of the WNBA. Swin has it all
pro basketball experience, a deep executive level resume, respect of
both players and longtime fans, a big, big heart, and
an activist spirit. She is the right person for the
W at this time and going forward. End quote. I
(45:27):
think that's a brilliant idea, not just because I think
Swin would be a fantastic commissioner, but it certainly addresses
the questions I have about Kathy's future as a leader
post CBA negotiations. We all remember and Afisa Callier's statement
about Kathy at the end of the w season, so
I don't know if she can even stick around as
a CFO, but it's definitely more believable than her continuing
hon as commission And I do like the idea of
(45:48):
a commissioner that maybe doesn't have to be the business
person and is more the connection to the players. It
feels necessary, especially at this moment in the WNBA. We
always love to hear from you, so hit us up
on email. Good game at Wonder Media or leave us
a voicemail at eight seven two two four fifty seventy,
and don't forget to subscribe rate and review slices. It's
really easy. Watch our favorite sign of many so far
(46:11):
at the games, rating five out of five stars for
honesty review. There are signs everywhere Milan on the walls,
on the floor, on the metrostop, TVs, this way to
the ice hockey rink. Go over here for credentials. But
one sign stood out to us. As we wandered around
the athlete village. We spotted a sign on the door
heading into something called the I and I Allotment Office,
(46:32):
which apparently handles inventory and inspection and housing allotments. Now
this sign was a sign after our hockey was so
rudely interrupted by fascists. It became clear. This sign is
our new mantra for the games. It read, every person
has the power to make us more happy. Some do
(46:53):
it simply by entering this room, others by leaving the room.
And I will tell you the stench of evil lifted
when the presidential delegation left the hockey game super early,
of course, and they proved the science point less fascists,
more happiness. So that's all work to be an enterer
and not a lever when it comes to happiness. Now
(47:13):
it's your turn, y'all rate and review, Thanks for listening.
Good Game, Team USA for opening with the win. Good
game not wearing a coat the entire day at the
Winter Olympics, you security surrounded fascists spoiling a good hockey game.
Talking to you, Vladimir Futon, Koucho, Marx Teddy Spin Good
(47:37):
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 Asi and Bianca Hillier. Our executive producers
are Christina Everett, Jesse Katz, Jenny Kaplan and Emily Rudder.
Our editors are Emily Rudder, Lucy Jones, Britney Martinez and
(47:59):
Gianna Palmer. Production assistance from Avery Loftus and I'm Your
Host Sarah Spain
Welcome to Good Game with Sarah Spain, where we really
need to learn how to order the right kind of
coffee in Italy so we don't keep ending up with
a thimblesworth of caffeine. It's Friday, February sixth and on
today's show, we're coming to the village and we're doing
that hockey. On Thursday and Milan producer Alex and I
went on a tour of the athlete village. Highlights included
seeing the torch relay and finding the most discussed amenity
(00:21):
every Olympics, the condom supply. Then we made our way
to the Milano Row Hockey Rink to watch USA Hockey
take on Chechia in their opening match at the Games.
Low Lights included Jade Vance and Marco Rubio being seated
twenty feet to our left. Now we're here in the
media areat Milano Road to give you all the behind
the scenes from the village and the ice today. Plus
neurovirus hits the Finns, Vaughn hits the weights, and it
(00:44):
only took one day to find our Olympic mantra. It's
all coming up right after this chow slices. Here's what
you need to know today. We're starting, of course, in Milaw,
where the Olympic Hockey Tournament is officially underway. Competition kicked
off on Thursday, and Team USA opened its tournament with
(01:06):
a five to one win over Chekia Aka five free
birds to one bozoom, bozoom Racacoka. If we're keeping score
based on team goal songs, Hailey Skamura led the US
with two tallies, and Hillary Knight, Alex Carpenter, and Joy
Dunn each added one goal apiece. We'll have plenty more
to say on that game in just a few minutes. Meantime,
the other Group A games scheduled for Thursday between Canada
(01:28):
and Finland was postponed after multiple members of Finland's team
came down with neurovirus sometimes referred to as the winter
vomiting disease. So yeah, uugh. Per the Associated Press, Finland's
practice on Wednesday included just eight players and two goalies,
as the remaining thirteen members of the team were either
(01:49):
ill or quarantined. Per the Associated Press, Finland's practice on
Wednesday included just eight players and two goalies, as the
remaining thirteen members of the team were either ill or quarantined.
The game has been rescheduled to next week on February twelfth,
which is one day before the quarterfinal round begins. We
were told by someone with USPC Communications that all the
hockey teams participating in the tournament had to agree to
(02:10):
the schedule change, presumably both good sportsmanship to prevent the
Finns from having to forfeit, and also safety reasons so
Canada wouldn't be exposed to the virus. Finland and Chechia
entered the tournament as metal contenders, behind the favorites USA
and Canada. One more piece of news from the rink
underdog's team, Italy took full advantage of the home crowd
(02:30):
on Thursday, winning their opening game against France four to
one in front of a pumped up crowd. It was
the host country's first ever women's ice hockey win in
an Olympics, after finishing eighth of eight teams in two
thousand and six, back when Italy also hosted the games.
To the slope or the weight room, where Lindsay Vaughn
is doing everything she can to compete in the games
(02:50):
despite completely tearing her acl in a crash last week.
On Thursday, Vaughn posted an Instagram video for doing some
pretty intense weightlifting and strength exercises. You wore a brace
on her left knee for some of them, and the
caption read quote, I'm not giving up working as hard
as I can to make it happen. End quote. In
order to compete in the downhill, athletes have to compete
in at least one training run, but ongoing snowfall on
(03:14):
Thursday forced Olympic organizers to cancel the first women's downhill
training session, which is actually good news for Vaughan given
that it gives her a little more time to test
her knee. There's another training session schedule for Friday and
one on Saturday. Women's downhill starts Sunday at five thirty
am Eastern. It's a one run competition, so medals will
be awarded that day. More Olympics and a preview of
(03:35):
what to watch over the weekend. Thursday was merely an
appetizer for a very full Olympic plate over the next
couple of days. Figure skaters hit the ice today for
the first portion of the team competition, and then tonight
in Italy. This afternoon in the United States, it's the
opening ceremony, Alex and I will be there to see
it all. See as soon, Mariah. Then on Saturday, the
(03:55):
first medals will be awarded, including in cross country skiing Skiathalon,
where Jesse Diggins's friend of the show should be a
podium threat. Also women's ski jumping, where will all be
on crotch machine watch. The US hockey team will continue
its tournament, facing off against Finland, assuming enough of that
squad has recovered in time, and looking ahead to Sunday,
Alpine skiing kicks off with the women's downhill, and presuming
(04:18):
all goes well between now and then, Lindsey Vaughn will
officially make her fifth Olympic appearance. Sunday also include snowboarding's
parallel giant slalom competition, where Esther Ledetzka could become the
first snowboarder to win three straight Olympic gold medals. And
there's so much more. We'll link to a daily schedule
for the games in the show notes. Finally, in non
Olympic news, Thursday night was a banger in women's soups,
(04:41):
but you'll have to check the results for yourself, because
Alex and I were definitely already fast asleep in Italy
when all four matches between top twenty five teams went down,
including number four Texas and number six LSU battling it
out down in Austin. This weekend's top matchup features number
two UCLA putting its sixteen game win streak on the
line against number eight MISSI in ann Arbor on Sunday.
That's a three pm Eastern tip off on Fox. We
(05:05):
got to take a quick break when we come back.
Condoms a dix a deep dive into our first twenty
four hours at the Olympics. Welcome back Slices, and welcome
to our very first show officially on the ground at
the Olympics, my very first Olympics ever, and my first
(05:27):
takeaway Alex is that is very warm. I did not
wear a jacket the entire day today at the Winter Olympics.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
I'm just happy it was sunny and warm out today
because yesterday it was raining and I was like, if
it's going to precipitate, it better be snow fair.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
My hair looked trash yesterday. Also, Milo and Tina are everywhere,
my girlfriend and my boyfriend, the cute little stout mascots.
They are literally everywhere, even on the box of condoms,
which we'll get to, but also standing out to me
really good transportation. It's pretty cool. The app that you
download for transportation here at the Games has a section
that kind of acts like an ATM. You just pull
(06:02):
up the QR code and you could swipe it anytime
you use the metro or the train or any of
the public transportation, which is a really nice feature for
journalists to not be dropping all of our cash on
ubers and such. For sure.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
I mean, I just like being in a place that
has a metro subway whatever we're calling it here in Milan,
So the fact that it's free is even better and functioning.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
We love that. Okay, So we started our day pretty
late because Alex lept in forever and I'm not going
to allow you, guys, I actually thought Alex might not
be okay because she wasn't feeling that well at dinner
last night. And then this morning I messaged her on
nine and I was like, hey, you know, I'm awake,
but like I might sleep a little longer just to
like really get myself on this schedule since I'm kind
of sleepy, So no rush. And then several hours later
(06:46):
I'm like, okay, so for the athlete village, I think
we should leave around this time, And then another forty
five minutes later, I still I was like, I might
have to go to the desk and be like, I
know you're not supposed to tell me other people's rooms,
but I'm worried that my producer may have.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
Give you a wellness check on this person.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
Yeah. I didn't know you were such a good sleeper either,
me neither. Fourteen hours.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
I know, I know, I'm just you know, Sarah. Something
that they always say about the Olympics is it's not
a sprint, it's a marathon. And I always hate that
saying because have you seen marathoners runs were sprinting. And
so I personally like to live by the motto. This
is the first time I'm living by this motto at
the Olympics, which is sleep now so that you have
(07:33):
energy later.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
You were just banking's some energy for the next three weeks,
and I appreciate that. Just now that I know, I
won't be so worried that you died. I'll just be like, oh,
she's sleeping. So anyway, Alex woke up and we went
to the athlete village, which I wasn't sure at all
what to expect. I think I imagined an adorable like
(07:54):
ski village. I don't like in my mind, everything looked
like a cute little ski town in Calle Dorado or
something like that. That was not it. No, it was
still really cool. Yeah, I really enjoyed getting to walk around,
and I don't know what I expected, but I was
kind of shocked to be just surrounded by athletes from
all the different countries. I mean, I know that that's
(08:15):
the point of the athlete village, but I was like,
how am I allowed to just be chatting with the
Denmark hockey team and hearing jokes from the great Britain athletes.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
Well, I think the contact, Sarah, is that normally you're
not allowed, and they do make it so that media
cannot access the athlete Village except between two and six
pm on the day before the opening ceremony.
Speaker 3 (08:36):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:36):
There're only two days that would take advantage of it. Yeahyeah,
February third and February fifth, So I guess it was
the rare occasion. And we happened to be there for
the torch relay, which was so cool. Alex and I
took photos with the two men that were about to
receive the flame, and then we got to watch the
previous runner come in with the torch and a great
Britain athlete standing next to me. When they exchanged the
(08:58):
flame was like they touched and thought he was hilarious,
which I did find hilarious, just the tip ouch oucher
on my hair. And it was a really cool moment
to actually see because there were a lot of athletes
that gathered for it too. You could tell it was
meaningful to them and they wanted to stand around and
wait for it to come in. Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
I mean I also thought it was really funny, like
you couldn't really see the flame, you could just see
the gas burning. I don't know if I'm describing it correctly, but.
Speaker 1 (09:22):
I think anyone who has a gas fireplace at home
knows when it's like we're not burning any wood right now,
like gas fire asphalt.
Speaker 2 (09:29):
In the summer, when you're like, ooh, there's heat radiating
off of.
Speaker 1 (09:32):
It, still counts, yeah, still counts as the original flame.
Other things that stood out to me from the athlete village,
we got to see a couple noteworthy people, Pal Gasol,
famous former NBA player, One of my all time favorite
athletes in terms of just good guy vibes. Was there
the quad god Ilia, the American figure skater who's set
to take on the Games in a big way.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
He's a man, so this maybe the last mention he
gets on.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
Yeah, we're not going to talk about what he does,
but he's amazing. And he was leaving an elevator and
saying goodbye to a Korean female athlete that they I
guess been hanging out. And I loved that too, the
idea of like just seeing your friends from other countries
or making friends from other countries and hanging out. I
did find the most important part of the athlete village,
the only thing we ever hear about, which is the
condoms area. It was not what I expected. I think.
(10:18):
I thought it would be like a giant glass fish
bowl full of condoms, because you know, they're always like
they always run out, so I imagined it would just
be this like giant thing. But it was a nice
little subtle There were two boxes on either side of
the table just to subtle that said condoms and had
Melo and Tina on it. So those two are not
just going to hype you up. They're going to make
sure you wrap it up. And somebody online when I
(10:39):
posted the photo did point out that the font that
said condoms did look like the ted Lasso font, and
I was like, I like that. It's like believe that
you're going to get laid, and I bet a lot
of them did. There was also diaphragms, so I appreciate that.
They were like, this might be more your vibe than
a condom. You might want to take matters into your
own hands, ladies, So that stood out to me. I
was amazed.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
We were I think, where Canada and the Netherlands were staying,
and Canada was decorating with a big moose, which was great,
and it seemed like maybe it was a moose that
like came together in different parts, like you could like
put it together take it apart pretty easily, which.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
I actually have ornaments like that. There're slices of wood
and then they spit into slots, and that's what it was.
But giant, like a full moose size outside the entrance
to their building.
Speaker 2 (11:25):
Yes, and then right next to that, we're I don't know,
maybe about thirty bikes for the Netherlands, and I was like,
you guys represent with your cycling both in the Summer
Olympic sand in the Winter Olympics.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
Yeah, it just felt appropriate to have a bunch of
orange bikes for Netherlands and a moose for Canada. And
as we wandered around and did not see that kind
of representation anywhere else, we were kind of disappointed. Yes,
like I wanted like a paper mache eagle outside the
USA house or something. I will say, it was really
fun to see all the different decorations outside the buildings,
and Team USA of course was the biggest and the
(11:58):
most ostentatious, the most obvious. It was a banner taking
up the whole side of the building.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
Yeah. Yeah, but Team Germany had a lot of flags,
and I really want to know, like who measures the
window size and then finds a German flag that is
the exact right side and then make sure that they
bring twenty five of them to the games. That is
a prepared person.
Speaker 1 (12:17):
Yeah. It was also cool to see all the amenities
that they have back there. There was a P and
G champions Clubhouse and every day they have different offerings,
a scout massage, a braiding station, like really cool things
for the athletes to feel pampered. There's a spa that
looked like it did like free makeup sessions. There was
the little things like an ironing area, so if you
(12:39):
need to iron some part of your uniform for opening
ceremony or anything else, there's a little ironing area. Power
Aid had a Power of the Pause Mind Zone room
that was like a zen like calming space for athletes.
Corona had these like cool yurts that look like ski
chalets with plants everywhere, and some areas that you could
(12:59):
either and hang out or yoga mats with sort of
pillows on the ground to just lay and relax amongst
the plants. Coca Cola had an entertainment area that had
games a keyboard, and I was like, I'm imagining in
the movie of the Olympics of my mind, there's like
some athlete that's an amazing singer and piano player, and
they sit down and all the athletes from the other
(13:19):
countries gathered just like a Coca Cola ad and they
all sing together. So if that happened, someone please video
it and get it out to the public. So that
was cool too, just seeing the areas where the athletes
would be spending their time in between competitions and hanging out.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
Yeah, it was really nice. I had never been on
an athlete village tour, so excited we did it.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
The last thing from that was there was a robot hand.
So we started our pin collection today. I'm up to one, two, three, four, five, six,
I'm up to six seven, I'm up to seven pins already,
and this one was a pin trade with a robot,
and basically you had to take a pin you already had,
so thank god for that lady who gave us the
(14:00):
Mattress pins that we don't really care about. It was
just like a sponsored pin and we put them in
a little ball and then you gave it to the robot,
and then the robot put your pin somewhere in the
ballpin and grabbed you a new one. So it was
like a pin trade, but without any human interaction. And
Alex and I both got way better pins from the
robot than the ones we put in there. So apologies
(14:20):
to whatever athlete ends up with the mattress pins, but
that's what you get with the pin trade. You just
never know.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
I just want to point out to people that can't
see Sarah though, which is everyone except for me right now,
and anyone who walks down on the escalator that you
may hear in the background of our weird little media
zone area that we're recording this in. But Sarah is
putting her pins on her credential, which I want to
see how long you last with them, because your neck
is going to get so sore. They weigh a lot,
and so I haven't started putting mine one credentially yet.
(14:48):
I just kind of put them in my backpack, Alex.
Speaker 1 (14:51):
I was built for this. I'm going to be just fine.
I feel no pain other than the elbow that I
fell on that is now extremely purple and green. That
still hurts, y'all and shout out to front of the
show Colain, who when I was talking to her about
my elbow, was like, oh, I mean I heard you
say in the show you passed out. I didn't know
you met you pass it. I'm like, no, I fully
fainted and came to in a strange gym. Anyway, almost fine.
(15:15):
I'm gonna be fine, and so is my neck. I
was fucking built for this. Okay, Let's get to something
that was really special for me, my very first Olympic
sporting events. Today. I got to go to an Olympic
competition for the very first time, and I love that
it was US women's hockey because, as I've mentioned many
times on the show, the US defeating Canada in the
(15:37):
Olympics a couple of years ago is one of my
favorite sporting events that I've ever watched of my lifetime.
Like the nerves. I was jumping up and out on
the couch, I was sweating, I was gripping things, I
was screaming and scaring my dogs like I just remember
so viscerally how it felt watching that. And so for
the first ever Olympic event for me to attend, to
be US women's hockey was awesome. Let's start with the positives.
(15:59):
Great to start, their uniforms were fired. They looked like
the go backs to like the miracle on ice kind
of days.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
I love the contrast of them. I remember four years
ago in Beijing, Canada had these red and black uniforms
and you could not even read the player's name on
the back, zero questions. With these US uniforms, you can
tell exactly who is who and what the numbers are.
Speaker 1 (16:18):
They looked amazing. They put on quite a show. It
started a little slow. They were only up one nothing
after the first period, which was kind of surprising. Even
though Chechia is, you know, a favorite to potentially win
a medal, We're not going to say which medal and
what the expectations are for who will be in the
goal metal match, because that would be a total drinks.
I was going to say that CHECKI is a good team,
but it still felt like, Okay, haven't really gotten into
(16:40):
their groove yet. There were some just sloppiness early on
getting used to maybe the ice which the dimensions are
slightly different than the average rink back home, or maybe
nerves or anything else. But when they got into a
groove and started putting the points on the board, we
were like, Okay, this looks good. And we noticed that
every goal was followed by free bird by Leonard Skinnard,
and specifically just like the chorus and like the joyful
(17:04):
free bird. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (17:06):
I was expecting every time that the player that scored
the goal, like I just wanted them to spread their
arms and sore like you, yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:14):
Yeah, let's recommend. Yeah, we're friends with a couple of players,
let's tell them that I would love to see that.
And Alex did a little digging with a friend from
US OPC comms and as it turns out, the men's
US Hockey team won the twenty twenty four World Junior
Championships and that was their song and it kind of
spread in a way that the rest sled hockey, women's
(17:36):
and men's senior team all were like, Wow, that's all sick, Like,
that's the vibe, that's our vibe. And so when it
came time to pick their goal song, which each team
gets to do for themselves, the US women were like,
this is our US hockey song. Across the board and
this is the one, and so hopefully we will be
seeing a lot of freebird.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
We unfortunately did also hear Checky, a song which I
thought just the ones and you know what, I don't
want to say, unfortunately, go check you for scorn goal.
Speaker 1 (18:05):
We love, we love an Olympic moment. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (18:08):
Yeah, but their song came up. I had to ask Shazam,
who's who is singing it? And it is zoom Zim.
Speaker 1 (18:17):
Okay, that's the artist or the song.
Speaker 2 (18:20):
Well the cortina with a K, So maybe that's why they.
Speaker 1 (18:24):
Why they picked it. Okay, sure, and it's a real
creepy photo. Okay, guys, if you can search Cortina with
a K daytome d e t o M that appears
to be the album, and then the song is bizim
bosom b z u m brecky kiki b r e
k e k e k e. Because the photo on
the front looks like some sort of cult family with
(18:47):
eighty five children and there's just one man holding up
a saxophone in the back, and something makes me feel like,
are these children all singing on the song? Are they
just look it up? It looks like a creepy cult.
But you know, congrats to the check in is all
the same on their goal the check. Sorry the check,
So you don't say checkians, you do not? Okay, sure
(19:07):
the check. Congrats to the check. Also, it was very fun.
We ran into a couple of friends. Eric Ayala, who
covers hockey, was here my friend's jewels and died that
I see everywhere. I got to have a quick chat
with Hillary Knight's mom and she had an interesting point
to make. I said, any nerves with this? It's the
fifth Olympics, you know, are you feeling more nervous than usual?
And I think she thought I meant because it's her
(19:29):
last Hillary Knight the captain of the US team, a
great face for American hockey for a long time, has
said in advance of these games, this will be her
last Olympics. And so when I asked her mom if
she had any particular nerves, she said, well, you never
say never. I'm the last one. I said, ex squeeze me.
Hillary did in fact say never, and she said, well,
you know, and I said, yeah, I mean, she doesn't
look like someone who needs to hang them up anytime soon.
(19:51):
And then she started to equivocate. She was like, well,
you know, there is the drain of the PWHL season
and there's a lot of like the psychology of playing
for US hockey, you know. I was like, tell me more,
but I didn't say that, but I will ask her
next time. Tell me more what you mean by the
psychological effects of playing for USA hockey. But then she
sort of backed it off. But I was like okay.
So then of course I had to ask Hillary about that,
(20:12):
and she was very quick to shrug off the idea
that she would be returning but slightly a jar. Yeah,
let's hear what Hillary had to say when I asked
her about it.
Speaker 4 (20:23):
I'm just you know, we want to focus on this
tournament and you know, plotter way through it.
Speaker 1 (20:27):
So I don't know. To me, that's a door that's
just slightly a jar. There wasn't like an absolutely no way,
how no, this is it?
Speaker 3 (20:34):
No.
Speaker 2 (20:34):
I mean I think knowing when the end is I
would be so bad at it. And I'm so happy
that the PWHL now exists where you can end your
national team career and continue playing.
Speaker 4 (20:45):
Right.
Speaker 2 (20:45):
That's something that we used to see with soccer players
was once their Olympic career was done, their career was done.
And so that also though, adds a lot of wear
and tear on the body when you're playing. Yeah, so
many months out of the year that you know, when
you had the Olympics before, it was much more limited
in terms.
Speaker 1 (21:03):
Of what you were doing. Speaking of the PWHL, we
actually asked Hillary Knight what it was like having her
Seattle teammate Anetta Teova on the Czech team and playing
against her, and here's what she had to say.
Speaker 4 (21:12):
Yeah, I mean, you never want to play against teammates,
but yeah, I honestly, it's just when we're in USA,
it's go time. So just focusing on our group and
pro season put a pause.
Speaker 1 (21:22):
On that trash talk. Then yeah, no, I'm not really
good at trash talk. So Hillary Knight can't talk trash
after all these years, that's an important part of your game,
Like you could just leave the trash talking to the
side and focus only on your skating and goal scoring.
Speaker 2 (21:36):
I'm curious to hear what her opponents would say if
they agree with that assessment.
Speaker 1 (21:40):
Oh so you think maybe she's just she's lying about
being sneaky behind the scenes, a little trash talker. I
don't know.
Speaker 2 (21:46):
I just don't think that you can play hockey for
so long and not you know, have a couple of
lines that are ready to go.
Speaker 1 (21:52):
Some go Tosa. She's no Marina Maybury, but you know
a little bit more sound we got after the game
in the mixed zone where all the players and coaches
came through. The head coach for the Ottawa Charge, Karla
McLoud was there, and you remember we've talked about her
on the show before. She's the one that is actually
currently battling cancer while trying to coach Ottawa and also
lead this check team. And I just really enjoyed that
(22:13):
the one time the camera focused real close on her
face during the game, she was pissed about a call
and she kept just saying that's crap, that's crap, and
you could read her lips. So I asked her if
that was her go to word when she's mad about something.
Here's what she had to say. My mom will be proud.
At least I'm not cursing. No, it's usually it's unbelievable
because I can drop your voice of that one. I guess, Alex,
(22:34):
there is no age where you stop worrying about what
your mom thinks of your swearing. I mean, I think
of what my mom thinks of everything I do. So
my parents know I have a sailor's mouth, so they
would be shocked if I stopped swearing. Ever, they'd be like,
are you okay? Everything all right? We also got a
chance to talk to Layla Edwards. You might recall we've
mentioned that she is the first black player to suit
(22:55):
up for the US women's hockey team at the Olympics.
Here's what she said. Yeah, it means a lot. I
think I take a lot of pride in it, and
I'm just going to embrace it because representation matters, you know,
no matter how uncomfortable it can be. It's for the
next generation. I love that, and I'm excited to see
the impact that she could have, especially if the US
has a long run in these games and she plays
a big role. She got her first point in the
(23:16):
Olympics in today's game, but there could be a really
long lasting impact on what hockey looks like going forward
because of Leila Edwards and her influence.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
I mean, to me, I just think she's going to
be a generational player with this team. She is a
player that has been in the youth pipeline for a while,
finally made her senior debut a couple of years ago.
I say finally as if it was long awaited. She's
still in college, but I think this could be the
first of four five Olympics for her. You know, don't
(23:47):
want to jinx or don't want to put pressure on her,
but to me, that's the type of player that she
has quickly become within this program.
Speaker 1 (23:54):
One less positive from this game that we saw was
Alex getting a peek into the chech training set up.
Speaker 2 (24:00):
And what did you see, Alex, Well, it was a
shopping cart with the letters CZ, which I have to
think stand for.
Speaker 1 (24:08):
It was coming off the ice.
Speaker 2 (24:09):
Was coming like away from the ice, like around the corner,
and it had orange slices. Oh yeah, orange slices, And
I was like, I hope these are on their way
to the locker room further between period snack. I wish
I had a source who could get me confirmation of that.
Speaker 1 (24:26):
But I believe it, and I would like to believe
that Team Check would be huge fans of good game
with Sarah Spain, and that they would all be slices
if they only knew we existed, yes, and all spoke
English and were interested in primarily American women's sports. If
all those things are checked off, then they are absolutely
soon to be slices.
Speaker 2 (24:43):
But listen, there is another reality here where the US
had a shopping cart also fully slices on it as well.
Speaker 1 (24:51):
What a dream we can dream allan that one we
can get some confirmation on.
Speaker 2 (24:55):
So who'se mom cut them up?
Speaker 1 (24:57):
Though, that's a big question. Let's remember next time to
ask about their orange slice allocation. Okay, so that was
all the wonderful, amazing fun stuff about the game. Here's
what wasn't so great. We had barely sat down. We
were just a few minutes into the first period of
the game. When all of a sudden there's tons of
commotion a few rows below us. So the setup is
(25:18):
essentially that there are a couple rows of long tables
for media, and those are the folks that are set
up with computers and monitors that ever replays and things
like that. And then there's a couple rows mostly vertically
with a couple seats a piece that the rest of
the media are sitting in. And then to the left
of that there's this wide open area that when we
(25:39):
first got there, we were like, oh, can we just
sit over there? And they were like nope, and we're like, okay,
So we sit over to the right, and a few
minutes in the first period.
Speaker 2 (25:46):
That area, you know, why beyond time?
Speaker 1 (25:51):
Why beyond time? Twelve minutes into the first period, that
area suddenly is a wash with large men in suits
with earpieces, and here comes jd Vance carrying a child
and a bunch of the security, and eventually Marco Rubio
and I presume his wife, I'm not as familiar with her,
(26:12):
and eventually also Tilman Fertita, who is one of the
owners of the mnba's Houston Rockets and the US ambassador
to Italy, and the Lamaru twins, famed for their exploits
as US women's hockey players in their gold medal winning game,
the Spinerama, Oops, I did it again. If you haven't
seen it, google it. It's incredible. Now more known for
(26:33):
problematic opinions on things like trans people in sports, and
they are a guess a part of the presidential delegation
chosen by Donald Trump to represent the US at the
opening ceremony tomorrow, along with Marco Rubio and JD. Vance.
Ah so proud, so proud. Anyway, when I see JD
Vance's eyeliner face, I literally feel ill, like a.
Speaker 2 (26:55):
Basilisk can looked you in the eye and death was
awaiting you on the other side.
Speaker 1 (26:58):
I said that to you that I feel like I
just looked at a demon, like the devil, and I
don't even believe in that, but like my body felt
like when you have been spooked and you have a
little tingle that feels like, ooh, something's out right, or
like when you get in a situation and you feel like, oh,
some the energy's bad, something could go wrong here, or
maybe I should get out of here. Something's dangerous, or
(27:20):
this doesn't feel right. That's what my body felt like,
and I was in no way prepared to see him.
Speaker 5 (27:25):
No.
Speaker 2 (27:26):
I think there's so much that I hate about what
is happening in the United States.
Speaker 1 (27:31):
Right now, and yet when you hear about it in.
Speaker 2 (27:34):
The news, it feels like it's so far away. And
when you are instead ten feet away from a person
who is having an impact on the horrible things that
are happening to people, m hm, it feels, I don't
want to say.
Speaker 1 (27:49):
More real, feels surreal to me.
Speaker 2 (27:51):
It feels surreal, and it feels like you're a human,
You're human, and yet you are allowing these things to happen.
Speaker 1 (27:58):
Yes, that's exactly how I was feeling like. Just this morning,
I swiped past a story on my Instagram that said
jd Vance refuses to apologize for lies about Alex. Pretty
like this human being allegedly with demon energy is slandering
a dead man who was shot in the back while
helping a woman who was not fighting and was not
(28:21):
dangerous and at the very least deserves not to be
slandered in his death, but more much more so, deserved
much more than that. But the idea that that person
that was right there is responsible for so many of
the foulest and most unempathetic, uncaring, inhumane behaviors from anyone
(28:42):
in recent history. Was so disgusting to me, and it
did make it both surreal and more real, the idea
that just like just that dude right there has caused
so much pain and terror and awfulness, and it made
me so angry, and not just because his Secret Service
we're blocking half of the the ice like we're trying
(29:04):
to watch a hockey game. You ruined it by drawing
a ton of attention and then having thirty eight million
Secret Service people surrounding you at all times, blocking every
single angle.
Speaker 2 (29:14):
The delegation includes over sixty cars. Sixty cars.
Speaker 1 (29:18):
I wish you could see my face right now. Also
noteworthy thing from being there in person was there was
a row of photographers that varied anywhere from two to
about six right in front of us in the press
area down against the ice, and when the game started,
they were taking pictures of the hockey.
Speaker 2 (29:34):
I would say for the first twelve minutes. For the
game first twelve minutes they were taking accurate.
Speaker 1 (29:39):
Number twelve minutes, they were taking pictures of the Olympians
who had worked their entire lives to be out on
that ice competing and for the rest of the game
until Jade Vans and Marco Ruby and company and everybody
left with half of the third period remaining to play.
They left early, they got there late. That entire time,
the photographers were turned backs to the ice, not watching
(29:59):
the action and taking pictures of the presidential delegation god
doing god knows what, eating an apple, shoving a donut
in their mouth, like cheering, being excited for a goal.
We don't know, because they never showed it on the
screen at the event.
Speaker 2 (30:12):
So a little bit of like backstory on how Olympic
broadcasts work, just because I think it could be interesting
and relevant to folks. But basically, there is this group
called OBS Olympic Broadcasting Services and they do what is
called the World Feed. And so the world feed is
basically like if you are tuning in in Italy or
China or Canada or wherever it is, that is the
(30:35):
feed that you are getting unless your national rights holder,
so that would be NBC in the United States. NBC
could take the world feed for something and at their
own commentary, or they could also use their own cameras,
and so the world feed, I think is also the
one that was playing in the venue, and it was
explained kind of that they're not going to put a
(30:56):
politician up because it's not somebody who necessarily known to
the world.
Speaker 1 (31:01):
They might put someone like Donald Trump, right, They basically decide,
is this person that we're showing someone everyone in the
world would recognize or not? Sorry jd Vance and Marco Rubio.
Speaker 2 (31:12):
But the result, too, was that there was no opportunity
for the crowd to react to the person that was
in the building because he was never up on the stage.
Speaker 1 (31:21):
Except I contend when they left, yes, that I heard
a dull booing from just one section across the ice.
I will not say with one hundred percent certainty that
that was what was happening, But to me, I heard booing,
and it was when they were leaving, and it was
just from one area, so I think those people had
probably spotted them. But yeah, and not only that, but
(31:43):
the players. So what was interesting in the mixed zone,
They're coming right off the ice. It's literally still in
their uniforms since skates. They have not gone anywhere except
for straight from the ice to where we're meeting and
talking to them, and a number of them were asked
about JD Vance and Marco Rubio being in the crowd,
and every one, to a person said I didn't know that,
and some were more direct in their response. Others, I think,
(32:06):
played it a little bit cool and maybe avoided saying
whether they were excited to hear that or not. Here's
Kendall coin Schofield, for instance, answering, you know whether she
saw JD Vance. I had no idea they're here. I'm sorry,
no locker room visit.
Speaker 3 (32:19):
No. I saw my son after Waven, after the game,
and that was that was where my eyes were locked
too afterwards. But you know, we're we're in the game
when we're there, and so I think our focus was,
you know, was on the ice.
Speaker 1 (32:32):
Yeah, frankly, not a bad answer if you don't have
anything good to say, is our focus was on the ice.
The head coach for the US Women, John Rablueski, who
they just called Robo, had this to say about politicians
in the crowd. I was not aware of that either.
That's awesome.
Speaker 6 (32:48):
I love love our government representation, that we're that everybody's
pulling for us and everybody back home.
Speaker 1 (32:54):
It's awesome. Hmmmmm. Awesome is a word awesome is a word.
Speaker 2 (32:59):
I want the word a few minutes later to describe
starting goalie Aaron Frankel, and I would say erin Frankel
was awesome today.
Speaker 1 (33:05):
It's a versatile word. Then I wonder if any of
the coaches were given direction from communications about the best
way to handle it, like wow, it's just great to
know that we matter and that they want to come
and support us. Like that sounded like that, but it
did sound like a genuine enthusiasm. I would say it
was a genuine it. I want to play one last
one because Taylor Heisie was also asked about this, and
(33:27):
this one is one of those situations where I imagine
if it gets put into a written piece, the language
that she used would sound enthusiastic, and it felt to
me in the moment that it was a little more guarded.
It was sort of like she wanted to couch the
way she said by inserting the Italian president in the
(33:49):
conversation as just a general it's great how important the
Olympics are that even presidents of countries are paying attention.
Can't speak for her, pretend to know what she meant,
but you can listen to what she said and see
how you hear it. I had no idea, didn't know that.
Speaker 4 (34:07):
Now I do. I guess it doesn't change the way
I play, But regardless, that's that's pretty cool that he's here.
I didn't know the president of Italy. I don't know
if he was here, but he was at Athletes Village today,
so very very cool. It just kind of puts things
into perspective of, you know, kind of why we're here
and who is able to be in the stands. It's
super fun. So just an honor, absolutely and excited to
be out here and playing.
Speaker 1 (34:27):
So yeah, was she talking about how it was an
honor to play in front of J d Vance or
was she saying that, you know, having presidents and important
people and the audience puts into perspective what you're doing,
and then it's an honor to be a part of
something that big Churi's out. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (34:41):
I just keep going back to the fact that to
be so close to somebody who's making such horrible decisions,
not how I would have responded to it.
Speaker 1 (34:50):
Not how I would have responded either. I sent the
photo to a bunch of my friends and family and
they were like, what did you yell? And I was like, nothing, but.
Speaker 2 (34:56):
You don't want to get about saying down in front
of she did.
Speaker 1 (34:59):
Want to help down to the Secret Service. But when
I tell you, I have never been dealt such a
withering glance as I was by those security men. And
I was a little worried that maybe one of them
saw my tweet that said I just threw up in
my mouth. It wasn't a tweaks. I'm not on Twitter anymore,
my blue sky, my skeet, my skeet that said I
just threw up in my mouth when it's on JD.
I was like, what if they read that, I'm about
(35:19):
to get tackled and thrown out of this country. I
think they still a free speech in Italy. I don't know. Okay,
one last sound bite because we did like what coach
Robo had to say about the team rallying around to
Hillary Knight's last Olympics. Here's what he said.
Speaker 6 (35:32):
You want to surround Hillary and company with the right
players to get to get her that medal at the
end of all this. That's a big part of our
motivation as a staff and how we picked this team
is to end her legacy the right way.
Speaker 1 (35:47):
You know, sometimes coaches and teams don't say that out loud.
They're all feeling it, but they don't name it, and
so it's kind of cool that they're all like, yeah,
we're not you know, we're not messing around here. We're
going to make sure that Hillary Knight's final Olympics, allegedly
door is a Jar, goes out with gold.
Speaker 2 (36:01):
I mean, hey, I'm gonna say it. Fifth Olympics, only
one gold medal, twenty percent to leave with only twenty
percent gold, that'd be pretty shitty, Alex.
Speaker 1 (36:11):
Come on, you're scoffing at three silver medals.
Speaker 2 (36:14):
I am scoffing at three silver medals.
Speaker 1 (36:16):
I am wow, glad you're not my mom, Alex, and
would just be constantly disappointing you. Honey, you only had
one gold medal and three silvers. You're not allowed back
in this house. Listen. I have high standards.
Speaker 2 (36:29):
I was a kid who I would come home with
a ninety nine percent on a math test and I'd
proclaim it and my dad would be like, so, what
did you get wrong?
Speaker 1 (36:37):
So ninety nine percent runs in the family. I see
where you get it. Yeah. Also, I've never gotten less
than one hundred, so I couldn't possibly understand what it's
like to have high expectations and standards. Just kidding, Okay, Bianco,
We're kind of curious back home in the States what
it was like for you, because they actually will show
folks like jd Vance and Marco on gut TV. Right,
(37:00):
so you were watching the NBC feed, were they prominently featured?
Speaker 5 (37:03):
They showed them a couple of times, and I started
actually looking for you two in the stands because I
knew from your post on Blue Sky that you were
very close to them. But no, they didn't go on
and on about it with the commentary, but they did
show their faces a few times.
Speaker 1 (37:19):
Okay, what else did we miss on the broadcast?
Speaker 5 (37:22):
Well, I was wondering from you guys, what was the
vibe of the crowd, because I heard you guys just
say and a couple of players say it was a
packed house. But I did not get that vibe from
watching the game. They were, I mean, rightfully so showing
the rink most of the time, but I think being
so used to PWHL games now of seeing so many
(37:45):
fans in the stands and crowd shots.
Speaker 1 (37:48):
It was pretty subdued. I was missing a bit of that. Yeah,
it was. It was full pretty much, but it was
pretty subdued. And it's a small venue and it's just
a temporary venue. It's like a conference center that they
built to nice rink in. Yeah, I mean, there was
nothing wrong with it. I did notice that the crowd
wasn't super crazed. There was a guy in a zip
(38:09):
up American flag pajama set that was pretty enthusiastic, and
a friend next to him was also getting into it.
But I think the crowd was just like they were
in their opening round as well. They were warming up
for the metal matches or maybe even for something. It's
an interesting game because it does have an impact on
who you'll play in the elimination rounds, but there is
(38:29):
no chance of elimination. The stakes are lowered than almost
anything else you'll be watching in the Olympics because you're
not winning a medal as a result of what you do.
So I think that probably impacted it. But I did
think it was like a relatively quiet crowd.
Speaker 2 (38:45):
I agree with that, And I think two Unlike at
professional venues everywhere where the crowd is literally up on
the glass, that is not a possibility here. There is
like a big moat basically between the ice and the stands,
and the stands are scaffold like metal scaffolding where you're like,
who put this up and did they bolt it securely?
Speaker 1 (39:06):
Yeah? I mean the final stare if you're coming down
from the like three or four floors of stairs to
get up to the hastily put together media area, was
already broken. I'm like, day one, first game, already have
a broken stare at the end. I did tell the
woman because I was like, someone's gonna eat shit and
try to see them. But yeah, it was uh, definitely
a temporary.
Speaker 2 (39:25):
Yeah, I know, but I think the moat, for lack
of a better term, like had the impact of the
crowd was away and so like there wasn't any banging
on the glass or anything like that.
Speaker 5 (39:35):
Yeah, yeah, that feels like it could make a significant
impact for the players.
Speaker 6 (39:40):
Well.
Speaker 2 (39:40):
It was interesting because like their most recent Olympic experience
was in Beijing, where it was there was no one empty. True,
but then they've had the p WHL since, so there
have been a lot of folks in the stands. But
I'd say that even for them, people were kind of
comparing it to Beijing. But I would say, compared to
p WHL it was.
Speaker 1 (39:56):
Yeah, kendo Quin Schofield has asked about it, and I
think she seemed a little confused at first about the
idea of like, wasn't it so great to have a crowd?
I mean, because the crowd wasn't that great? But then
when she was reminded that the person asking the question
meant in relation to Beijing, She's like, oh, well, yeah, yeah,
I mean having people there is great. But again, I
think she was probably used to Minnesota frost game, where
people are losing their minds, and that wasn't the case today.
Speaker 5 (40:19):
Yeah, okay, I want to let you guys know about
two other things from the broadcast.
Speaker 1 (40:22):
You were just talking about how you.
Speaker 5 (40:24):
Doubt that Hillary Knight doesn't know how to trash talk,
and I will say that she was miked up for
this game, and there was no trash talking picked up
on the mic, So at least for this game we
can believe her.
Speaker 1 (40:37):
Wait, was she miked for how much of it?
Speaker 5 (40:39):
They led us to believe that she was micd the
whole time? They did not play the you know, it
wasn't a constant rolling tape of her. That's never whatever
she was saying, but we definitely heard some let's goes
and you know that kind of thing. No trash talking
for a time.
Speaker 1 (40:53):
I'll teach her a lesson before the gold medal game.
Speaker 5 (40:56):
Yeah, maybe that was because she was miked up.
Speaker 1 (40:58):
Perhaps maybe she was on her best behavior. Okay.
Speaker 5 (41:02):
And then also friend of the show, Angela Rigueiro, was
calling the game. We had her on the show a
couple of weeks ago. At this point, she was in
a studio away from the ranks. She told us would
be the case, and she shared this little tidbit probably
came from an Olympic researcher Alex shut out, but she
said that Megan Keller has given up the locker room
(41:22):
DJ role to Tessa Janikey. And then Janek said that
she stuck with throwbacks for her first time in the
role as to not mess with people's mojo.
Speaker 1 (41:33):
So, okay, I love hearing stuff like that. Yeah, that's
a nice through line. Like she's like, I'm going to
be taking over as DJ and will start to play
all my jams, but for now, I want to ease
you in by letting you know that I know what
the olds like, know what you're used to. Meanwhile, the
olds are Keller's twenty nine. There's something an eight year
different when he is twenty one, but still as someone
(41:54):
who has occasionally gone to a party of someone a
decade younger and been like, I don't know any of
this shit. Probably a good idea for her to start
with something everybody might get behind.
Speaker 5 (42:04):
Yeah, that's a follow up question. If you are able
to talk to her, what is considered a throat? Oh, no,
I don't want to turn of the century or not.
Speaker 1 (42:12):
No, I don't think I can handle it. When Hillary
Knight's the old gal getting put out to pasture at
thirty six, I don't know if I what the twenty
one year old thinks as a throwback? All right, Bank
anything else that you noticed, either from the broadcast or
from our stories so far from Italy.
Speaker 5 (42:29):
I will say that I have been googling what a
diaphragm is?
Speaker 1 (42:34):
Oh, what a cute little lesbian.
Speaker 5 (42:37):
Dental dam and contraception engaisha, What a diaphragm contraception engaig.
Speaker 1 (42:44):
Shit, that's really cute that you know, so things would
need and maybe not otherwise.
Speaker 2 (42:51):
I mean, it also just makes me a little bit
sad for sex education in the US.
Speaker 5 (42:55):
Which or you know, Bianca, true public school has really
failed me in that area, I suppose, but I thought
it was so inclusive that they were, you know, providing
different things.
Speaker 1 (43:04):
But they weren't.
Speaker 5 (43:05):
So please keep an eye out for other.
Speaker 1 (43:08):
I'm going to return to the athlete village with one goal,
and that is to find out if they have dental
dams anyway, Thank you, Sarah. That's a mission. That's a
mission for me to our first mission, Alex Wholesome. Anything else, Bianco,
I'm gonna leave it there, Okay. I don't think we
can go from dental dams to the note that you
put in the dock, which is go go squeeze on
(43:28):
the USA bench. I don't know if that's a transition
any of us are willing to make, so we might
have to just leave it there. Thank you, Bianka, thank you.
Thanks all right, we got to take a break when
we come back. Be an enterer, not a lever. God damn,
we can't get away from these phrases. Welcome back, slices.
(43:53):
We love that you're listening, but we want you to
get in the game every day too. So here's our
good game play of the day. Watch the games on
TV this weekend, so you can help producer bank and
keep us up to date on what we might be
missing out here. Shout out to my friend Patrick Sandusky.
He's an Olympics vet, and he told me there's always
stuff that they focus on during the American broadcast that
folks who are actually at the Games are totally oblivious to.
One year, people kept asking him if he'd met at
(44:15):
particular athletes sisters yet, because they'd gotten so much screen
time for being like great hype women, and he was like,
I have no idea what you're talking about.
Speaker 2 (44:22):
It's sad that I think I actually know what sisters
you're talking about based on that.
Speaker 1 (44:25):
Yeah, And so we could be out here in our
little bubble and have no idea what y'all are excited
about back there. So help us out if there's a
sister we should find in the stands or a pasta
dish that they're highlighting. Clock in and get to work slices. Oh,
and speaking a slice work, I want to thank everyone
for chiming in on our national Girls and Women in
Sports Day app with swin Cash. We got so many
(44:46):
great comments, tons of feedback on that one, including Anna
w writing in part quote. I have a future opportunity
for Swin that I'm putting out in the ether. I
think that the WNBA should create a CFO position and
slide Kathy Engelbert into it. I think she's really moved
the W forward financially, and I don't think she should
be tossed aside, but she no longer has the respect
of the players, and based on numerous comments, she lacks
(45:07):
the people's skills necessary to do the job of commissioner.
I'm putting it out there that Swin Cash should be
the next commissioner of the WNBA. Swin has it all
pro basketball experience, a deep executive level resume, respect of
both players and longtime fans, a big, big heart, and
an activist spirit. She is the right person for the
W at this time and going forward. End quote. I
(45:27):
think that's a brilliant idea, not just because I think
Swin would be a fantastic commissioner, but it certainly addresses
the questions I have about Kathy's future as a leader
post CBA negotiations. We all remember and Afisa Callier's statement
about Kathy at the end of the w season, so
I don't know if she can even stick around as
a CFO, but it's definitely more believable than her continuing
hon as commission And I do like the idea of
(45:48):
a commissioner that maybe doesn't have to be the business
person and is more the connection to the players. It
feels necessary, especially at this moment in the WNBA. We
always love to hear from you, so hit us up
on email. Good game at Wonder Media or leave us
a voicemail at eight seven two two four fifty seventy,
and don't forget to subscribe rate and review slices. It's
really easy. Watch our favorite sign of many so far
(46:11):
at the games, rating five out of five stars for
honesty review. There are signs everywhere Milan on the walls,
on the floor, on the metrostop, TVs, this way to
the ice hockey rink. Go over here for credentials. But
one sign stood out to us. As we wandered around
the athlete village. We spotted a sign on the door
heading into something called the I and I Allotment Office,
(46:32):
which apparently handles inventory and inspection and housing allotments. Now
this sign was a sign after our hockey was so
rudely interrupted by fascists. It became clear. This sign is
our new mantra for the games. It read, every person
has the power to make us more happy. Some do
(46:53):
it simply by entering this room, others by leaving the room.
And I will tell you the stench of evil lifted
when the presidential delegation left the hockey game super early,
of course, and they proved the science point less fascists,
more happiness. So that's all work to be an enterer
and not a lever when it comes to happiness. Now
(47:13):
it's your turn, y'all rate and review, Thanks for listening.
Good Game, Team USA for opening with the win. Good
game not wearing a coat the entire day at the
Winter Olympics, you security surrounded fascists spoiling a good hockey game.
Talking to you, Vladimir Futon, Koucho, Marx Teddy Spin Good
(47:37):
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 Asi and Bianca Hillier. Our executive producers
are Christina Everett, Jesse Katz, Jenny Kaplan and Emily Rudder.
Our editors are Emily Rudder, Lucy Jones, Britney Martinez and
(47:59):
Gianna Palmer. Production assistance from Avery Loftus and I'm Your
Host Sarah Spain
Host
Sarah Spain
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