December 29, 2024 • 50 mins
What if military sports could unlock leadership potential and foster international diplomacy? Join us as we uncover this intriguing prospect with our special guest, Eli Bremer, an accomplished Air Force Academy graduate, Olympian, and Military World Games competitor. We explore Eli's captivating journey from a two-sport athlete at the Academy to earning global recognition. Together, we shine a light on the often-overlooked avenues for service academy graduates to extend their athletic dreams beyond their academic years, through remarkable programs such as the Armed Forces Sports Program.
The World Military Games aren't just about sports—they're a grand spectacle of camaraderie and competition on a scale that rivals the Olympics. Imagine military athletes from 141 nations coming together to display their prowess. This episode unpacks the historical and strategic importance of these games, organized by CISM, and the unique challenges faced by American military athletes in preparation. With personal anecdotes and insights from past competitions in Wuhan, China, we highlight the pressing need for enhanced support and recognition for these athletes who represent the U.S. on the world stage.
As we look ahead to the 2027 World Military Games in Charlotte, there's much excitement in the air. Plans are underway to present a world-class event featuring awe-inspiring ceremonies and an international military expo. This is more than just a sporting event; it's a chance for the U.S. to showcase its hospitality and strength. Additionally, we explore the profound impact of sports on military leadership, evidenced by successful figures like Chad Senior and the integration of sports in military duties in countries like Lithuania. We wrap up with heartfelt gratitude to our Academy Insider audience, encouraging feedback to make our podcast a continuous source of inspiration and information for the Naval Academy com
The Vermeer Group is a residential real company matching military families with trusted real estate teams across the country. If you have any real estate questions at all, please text Grant at (650) 282-1964 or email grant@thevermeergroup.com
To stay most up to date with Grant, Naval Academy updates, and real estate insights, follow him on LinkedIn
The mission of Academy Insider is to guide, serve, and support Midshipmen, future Midshipmen, and their families.
Grant Vermeer your host is the person who started it all. He is the founder of Academy Insider and the host of The Academy Insider podcast. He was a recruited athlete which brought him to Annapolis where he was a four year member of the varsity basketball team. He was a cyber operations major and commissioned into the Cryptologic Warfare Community. He was stationed at Fort Meade and supported the Subsurface Direct Support mission.
He separated from the Navy in 2023 and now owns The Vermeer Group, a residential real estate company that matches service academy families with trusted real estate teams all across the country. Text (650) 282-1964 with any real estate questions.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Season 2 of the Academy Insider Podcast.
Academy Insider is a 501c3nonprofit organization that
serves midshipmen, futuremidshipmen and their families.
At its core, this podcast isdesigned to bring together a
community of Naval Academygraduates and those affiliated
with the United States NavalAcademy in order to tell stories
and provide a little bit ofinsight into what life at the
(00:22):
Naval Academy is really like.
I hope you enjoy it.
Thank you so much for listeningand reach out if you ever have
any questions.
Everyone, and welcome back tothe Academy Insider podcast.
Today's episode is the finalepisode of 2024.
Thank you so much to theincredible audience of Academy
Insider who's followed alongwith me.
This is exciting and today'sepisode is going to be a great
way to conclude 2024.
(00:43):
I'm so excited to do it becauseI'm joined by Eli Bremmer.
Eli Bremmer is actually an AirForce Academy graduate from the
class of 2000.
But this is where it goes crazy.
He's actually an Olympian andthen a two times World Military
Games alumni, and he won a goldmedal in the pentathlon in the
World Military Games.
This guy is an elite athleteand has been connected in the
military sports space for a longtime.
(01:04):
And what is really cool is ifyou're listening to this right
now, there is a proposal for theUnited States of America to
host the 2027 World MilitaryGames in Charlotte.
If you have no idea what theWorld Military Games is, I don't
blame you.
We haven't put a ton ofemphasis or recognition around
it.
So that's what this episode isall about.
Today is we're going tohighlight military sports and
(01:25):
military sport culture, becauseafter your time at the academy,
your sports playing careerdoesn't have to end.
There are so many ways tocompete at the all Navy level,
at the armed forces servicelevel, and compete in
international tournaments, andso if that's something that's
interesting to you, then take alisten to this episode.
It's so cool.
We cover so many differentaspects about the importance of
sport and military culture andthen highlight and talk about
(01:46):
the World Military Games whichwill be coming to the United
States in 2027.
So take a listen, reach out ifyou have any questions.
Thank you so much and I hopeyou have a great day.
The Academy Insider Podcast issponsored by the Vermeer Group,
a residential real estatecompany that serves the United
States Naval Academy communityand other select clientele in
(02:09):
both California and Texas.
If I can ever answer a realestate related question for you
or connect you with a trustedAcademy affiliated agent in the
market which you're in.
Please reach out to me directlyat grant at the Vermeer
groupcom.
You can also reach out to me onmy LinkedIn page, Grant Vermeer
, and I'd be happy to respond toyou there.
(02:29):
Thank you so much, and nowlet's get back to the episode.
Hey everyone, and welcome backto the Academy insider podcast,
Eli.
Thank you so much for takingthe time to join us today.
I think this is going to be asuper fun topic, obviously, as
some sports fanatics uh, talkingabout military sports, which is
great.
But before we do jump into it,if you just mind providing a
little bit of context to theAcademy Insider audience about
who you are, how you ended upactually at the Air Force
Academy, a little bit about yourtime in the Air Force, both as
(02:52):
an Air Force officer and anathlete, and then currently what
you're doing now.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
Well, yeah, grant, thanks for having me on.
It's great to be here after acouple minor technical
difficulties to get here.
Um, but I'm eli bremer.
I graduated from the uh, theother service academy, the air
force academy uh, in 2000.
I was when I hang out with westpoint and annapolis grads and
they're like did you go to westpoint?
No, did you go to annapolis?
No, but you said you went to aservice academy.
(03:17):
There are three.
Uh, I always get.
I always get into that.
But I grew up here in colorado,which actually just north of the
Air Force Academy, and my olderbrother graduated three years
before me and he's actuallyretiring.
He's in 06, in a couple months.
So he's had a long career therebut was stationed here in
Colorado Springs at SchrieverSpace Force what's now Space
(03:40):
Force Base in Peterson SpaceForce Base.
But I did a lot of time insports and sort of became a
sports expert in the military.
I was a two-sport athlete atthe Air Force Academy but
parlayed that over into time inthe World Class Athlete Program
and competed in the Olympics inBeijing in 2008, a broadcast for
(04:00):
Olympics.
I now advise the Air Force'ssports program and I used to run
the largest Olympic sponsorshipprogram in the country.
So I do a lot with sportsmarketing, and today we'll be
talking about my next venture,which is the World Military
Games, which you're familiarwith too.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
Yeah, no, absolutely.
And I'm so excited about itbecause if you are watching,
like on YouTube, and you see thevideo aspect of this, obviously
I have my Jersey from themilitary world games hanging up
behind me, which is so cool,because I think one of the
things that is reallyinteresting that people don't
really consider when they attenda service Academy, especially
athletes is they assume thattheir sports career is over
(04:36):
after the Academy and while,again, we're going to have a lot
of discussion pieces and allthis when it comes to
professional sports et cetera,but there is this thing that we
call the Armed Forces SportsProgram, which gives people
opportunity to compete at a veryhigh level still after their
time at the academy and whenthey're in what we call the Navy
, the fleet I'm not sure whatthey call it in the Air Force,
but you're actually an officerout doing the thing, in working,
(04:58):
there's still an opportunity tocompete on what we call for us
again, the all Navy team and theall Air Force team.
And so my question to youactually, eli, is when you were
going through this again forbasketball, we had an
inter-services tournament where,like, the Air Force team played
the Navy team, which played theArmy team which played the
Marine Corps team.
Was that similar in your sector?
Did you guys have just youwould just go straight to
(05:20):
competing with the USA ArmedForces team, making your way out
to international competition.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
It's a little different for each sport.
So I was, I tracked really upthe uh the Olympic chain into
the world-class athlete programwhich the the army has, the air
force has uh, the the Navy doesnot have.
Yet we're working on some uh,we're working on some options
for uh expanding the, the, theopportunities for Navy and
Marine uh service members to beable to participate.
But, yeah, in most casesthey're sort of selected through
that normal process you applythrough your base gym or
(05:52):
something like that.
There are in the Air Force andthe Army there are athletes who
are assigned full-time intotheir Olympic programs.
So by the time I was competingin the military events, I was
the national champion.
I was, you know, at one pointtop two in the world.
So we didn't have the same typeof selection.
But you know, to me what mattershere is a lot of people ask me
(06:14):
the question why are sportsimportant in the military?
And I think it's great to goback to the start and
MacArthur's quote of on thefields of friendly strife are
sown the seeds that on otherfields and other days will bear
the fruits of victory.
And I am such a firm believerthat if you want to instill a
warrior ethos into young men andwomen.
(06:36):
One of the best ways to do itis by sport participation, and
the more the better.
Yep.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
No, 100%.
I couldn't agree more, for bothmy time at the Academy and after
, kind of in the fact that a lotof my leadership development
happened on the court right,like there are so many dynamics
that kind of directly relate tothat experience.
And a question I have for you,since again we're talking about
the military world gamesespecially which again is going
(07:04):
to be a fun introduction in thistopic You're someone who
competed in both the militaryworld games and the actual
Olympics, and so, for someonewho's not aware, if you were to
play for some of these, like thearmed forces sports teams,
every four years, once everyfour years, kind of in a in a
military or an Olympic cycle,there is what we call the
military world games, right, andso I competed in 2019 in Wuhan,
(07:26):
china.
There are over 100 countriesthere, 20 plus sports being
played, billions of dollarsinvested by China in
infrastructure and everything toactually host this event.
Can you describe the differenceor similarities between
competing in a military worldgames in the actual Olympics,
just to kind of put inperspective how big this event
(07:47):
is and like its legitimacy?
Speaker 2 (07:50):
Yeah, people in America are very unfamiliar with
this event.
But if I sort of start bytalking about the Olympics,
because this is where it allbegins, the Olympics are the
largest games event in the world.
Okay, the Olympic rings are,are some of, if not the most
recognizable commercial mark inthe world.
There are some of the mostwell-respected, it's one of the
most well-respected brands andI've got the, the Olympic rings,
(08:12):
behind me right here for peoplethat are watching.
Um and so the Olympic, the, theinternational Olympic committee
, under them, has anorganization called CISM, which
is French, the councilinternational de sport, military
, and that organization so thisis part of the Olympic family
organizes all the militarysports globally.
They've got 141 member nationsand starting in 1995, they
(08:36):
started organizing worldmilitary games.
Cism has been around since 1953.
They were formed after WorldWar II to promote friendship
through sport between alliedcountries.
During the Cold War era itbecame sort of the proxy.
One of the healthy, proxybattles between the United
States and the Soviets wassports play.
So anyway, over the last youknow what is it?
(08:58):
Three, four decades now we'vebeen hosting World Military
Games inside the Olympic systemand so globally, the World
Military Games are actually thesecond largest games event in
the world, only behind theOlympics.
In Wuhan, where you competed,they had 10,000 athletes, 120
nations.
To put that in perspective,I've competed in three different
(09:19):
games events the Olympic games,the world military games and
the Pan American games.
And the World Military Games is50 to 100 percent larger than
the Pan American Games.
So you know, people sort ofthink it's the Warrior Games.
That's about 500 people.
This is 20 times the size ofthe Warrior Games.
And in terms of quality, theWorld Military Games are also
(09:44):
the second highest levelOlympic-style sporting event in
the world, only behind theOlympics.
It is more difficult to win agold medal at the World Military
Games, statistically speakingand in terms of quality of the
athletes, than at the PanAmerican Games or the Goodwill
Games.
Military athletes in theParisics won almost 175 medals.
(10:07):
Yep, so, uh, 10, about 10 of theolympians in paris were
military.
So the scope is way bigger andyou saw this firsthand.
Firsthand.
I mean wuhan, china, they, theyput it on.
There was a huge stadium there.
Um, you know it was it was.
Speaker 1 (10:24):
It was unbelievable.
Right and and again.
Because what's funny is, evenbeing in the military and
competing on the team, I had noidea about this event.
And when we went out to China,right like they, they put on a
massive opening ceremony.
Massive president Gigi pinkspoke at the event.
Right Like they, they had.
I kid you not, this is one ofthe wildest things.
Likeie chan came zip liningdown into the stadium performing
(10:48):
as a singer like he's a popstar in china, oh yeah, I don't
even know him as an actor.
I was like I was like what isgoing on?
Like this is the craziest,coolest experience of all time.
And then, like you were talkingabout, you were walking through
kind of the mess hall, thecafeteria that they have there,
and everyone from theirrespective countries have the
Olympic rings tattooed on them.
(11:08):
Like the majority of athleteswho are competing, who are also
military in their home country,are Olympic athletes, right.
And so like I'm walking aroundlike I was on a submarine four
months ago and now I'm heretrying to compete, like against
professional athletes.
I was like what is going on?
And so, again, from from thelevel of competition, like it's
(11:29):
so high and that's why I want toturn it a little bit to like
training for these games,because in the sport of
basketball specifically, wewould get literally one month to
go TAD temporary assigned dutyto train, to like go to a
training camp and then get readyto play.
In my opinion, especially onthe basketball side, again, we
haven't taken it that seriously.
(11:50):
The fact that I was playing inthese games is crazy, right,
like I was an okay athlete, butlike not nearly like the level
of all this is going on and soyou know, obviously you have a
little bit more with, like theworld-class athlete program that
kind of has people allowed totrain.
Do you mind breaking down, youknow, between sports or just the
overall, like overall,generalizing how we train
(12:13):
athletes for these events?
Speaker 2 (12:15):
Well, unfortunately, grant, we haven't done a good
job of it and that's led to somenot very good results in the
past, and this is a veryimportant part of soft power for
the United States.
So again back to what I wassaying earlier.
People sort of have asked thequestion isn't sports just fun
and games and stuff like that?
And I said no.
If you go back to the ancientGreek times, this was how we
(12:37):
trained warriors.
For literally over 2,000 years,sports training has been the
foundational training forwarrior ethos, and so it's not
just about, as I said, fun andgames, but the United States.
Until recently and this issomething that again thank you
for having me on, because I'mtrying to spread the word about
(12:58):
what we're doing here we'rereally working on bringing the
United States up to par with therest of the world, because
other countries and you knowfolks like China, north Korea,
germany has a very large sportsunit.
There's even countries likeTurkey, egypt, mexico, countries
all over the world are usingthis to train their athletes.
(13:20):
Number one.
But also it creates anenvironment where, you know,
their young people get a chanceto sort of open their eyes and
see the world.
I'm curious had you ever beento China before before that.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
Nope, Literally first time, first time stepping in
anywhere in the, in theIndo-Pacific.
Honestly, I had never beenoutside of Europe and the United
States and Latin America.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
And you've probably never heard of Wuhan, which I
think has over 10 million peoplein it.
Speaker 1 (13:46):
Huge city, huge city and obviously again, obviously
COVID kind of made it moreinfamous.
But like, yes, like there wasnever, like Wuhan, a massive
industrial, like business cityin China, never heard of it, and
so you know, this gives likefrom from just the American
point of view.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
It gives our young men and women in the service an
opportunity to go out and seethe world through different eyes
.
When I was competing in the AirForce, I actually landed in
Egypt as the war broke out inIraq and when the US invaded
Iraq and we actually had toborrow uniforms from the
Canadians because there wereriots in the street and things
(14:23):
like that.
So I was a young lieutenantwhen that happened and had a
very profound impact on me, um,you know.
And then, and then back ontolater that year, I competed in
my very first world militarygames in 2003 in Italy.
Um, and I would eventually go onto compete in 2011 in Brazil as
well, but as an as an activeduty air force officer, I was
(14:44):
able to have very minor butofficial contact with North
Koreans and Iranians, because insport, you have the ability to
mingle there and it gives agreat opportunity for them to
see us, to see that we're notterrible people.
We also make some connectionsthat can be extremely valuable
over time.
Uh yeah, in fact, part of thereason why this has come about
(15:07):
that we're that the UnitedStates is anticipating to host
the world military games is thatas a young Lieutenant, after
competitions I wouldperiodically go get beers with
another young Lieutenant fromBrazil, and that young
Lieutenant is now a full Colonelwho's in charge of the entire
operation, and he said hey, eli,y'all need to belly up to the
bar here and, and you know, weneed to get the United States
(15:28):
military more involved ininternational sporting.
Uh, it was that internationalfriendship 20 years ago that has
given the United States ofAmerica this opportunity.
Speaker 1 (15:37):
No, 100%.
I couldn't agree more.
Obviously, my scale offriendship and relationship
built out of that is a littlebit different, but it was the
same thing.
I built a really closefriendship over time while I was
in Wuhan with a Braziliangolfer right, and he's currently
on.
He makes his way into, he's onlike a kind of a PGA tour
outside of the United States butcontinues to golf
(16:00):
professionally very successful.
But again, like you're saying,it gives us an opportunity to
build relationships with theseathletes in other countries who
are going to be in powerfulpositions at some point in time
in their respective country.
This is fostering internationalrelationship very legitimately,
very genuinely, building thesefoundations of relationships
(16:21):
early on with people who aregoing to be in decision making
positions and authorities overtime.
Yeah, right, and so back tothat.
Speaker 2 (16:29):
You know very probably the most formative time
in my life, a couple of yearsafter graduation, when I was
competing for my first Olympics,my uncle was his ambassador,
paul Bremer, who had who wastaking over Iraq and working on
the reconstruction.
And it's a little known story,but one of the very first things
he did, the InternationalOlympic Committee had kicked out
the Iraqi Olympic team and sothey were totally fine with Uday
(16:54):
and Kusei Hussein committinghuman rights atrocities on their
athletes.
But when the United States tookover they, you know, wanted to
almost disgrace the Iraqisfurther.
So my uncle flew around thecountry setting up elections,
because the InternationalOlympic Committee said the only
way you will be allowed back inthe Olympics is if you have fair
(17:14):
and open elections for yourOlympic Committee.
Now I want to think about this.
For four decades they've beenliving under, you know, a
totalitarian system of SaddamHussein.
There were no elections.
So he flew around, they set upthe elections and they got their
Olympic Committee reformed,which was the first elections in
Iraq.
But he called me up one day andsaid hey, I'm going to send out
a number of our aspiringOlympians to the Olympic
(17:37):
Training Center in ColoradoSprings.
And I said you're in a war zone, why are you doing this?
And he said these are going tobe the future leaders of the
Iraqi nation and I need them togo over to the United States to
meet you, meet other Olympicathletes and military members,
so that they have a good opinionof us and that we have these
sort of back channel connections.
Speaker 1 (17:57):
And it was about four weeks later they arrived at the
training center and I becamefriends with them and you know,
(18:34):
just, it really created anopportunity, I'm sure some 2019
World Military Games, the UnitedStates, by the fact that I was
competing in this thing.
In your opinion, why do we needto take this very seriously and
what can we be doing inpreparation for this World
Military Games that's proposedto potentially be hosted in the
(18:55):
United States coming up in acouple of years?
Speaker 2 (18:57):
Well, I think we need to have a resurgence in the
United States, particularly inthe military, the importance of
sports and why it's good andit's.
There's so many reasons.
I mean, the reason you and Ieven connected a week ago was
because I was, I was looking forthat, that commercial that the
(19:17):
Navy has big decks Great bigdecks, baby.
I didn't know that about theNavy has big decks Great big
decks, baby.
I really didn't know that aboutthe Navy.
I was really curious becauseobviously that was not produced
from the Pentagon.
So I thought I wonder who theheck did this.
And I'm searching around for itand there I come across your
podcast and I look in thebackground I'm like, okay, I see
your Navy jersey and I see theUSA jersey and Googled you and
(19:47):
I'm like, oh, that's superinteresting.
Grant played in the worldmilitary games.
It opens up a lot of doors anda lot of connections.
But I want people's minds to beopened up as to the importance
of this too, because, like Isaid earlier, this is about, you
know, formatting in our youngmen and women in the military a
warrior ethos and understandingthat competition matters, and
losing on the field of playteaches you how to win and we
need our service members to bewinners, to think like winners,
(20:09):
because when there is anotherwar and there will be the United
States will engage in a war atsome point.
We need these folks really welltrained.
So fortunately, I'm getting youknow, at the political level
this is bipartisan, I'm gettingit from both parties support for
the idea that the United Statesmilitary needs to tilt back
into at least a partial focus onexcellence in sports.
(20:32):
And so you know there's anappetite now to create a much
bigger environment where ourservicemen and women are able to
come in and participate for alonger period of time, so that
we're not pulling in from asubmarine and saying, hey, good
luck, go beat China, because,guess what, the Chinese are
taking this seriously and callme a pig-headed American, but I
(20:53):
don't think Americans shouldshow up on foreign soil and not
have the very, very best chancewe have of kicking their butts
up on foreign soil and not havethe very, very best chance we
have of kicking their butts.
And so you know I want ourservicemen and women to be out
there with the best chance tosucceed.
I want these other countries tosee America as strong we're
able to show over, we're able toannihilate them on the field of
play and then have a beer withthem afterwards too.
(21:15):
You know we can do all thesethings.
So we're working on promoting,you know, on promoting this
concept, where we would have amuch larger participation
program in the United Statesmilitary, probably about 5x what
we have right now in ourOlympic program.
But it also serves.
There's no secret that the USmilitary is really struggling in
(21:38):
recruiting right now.
Yes, really struggling inrecruiting right now, and the
latest numbers appear to beabout 17% of high school seniors
are eligible to serve in themilitary.
And I think, quitedisgracefully, we've been
dropping the standards.
Well, if we go to war withChina, iran, russia, they're not
going to drop their standardsfor us.
(21:59):
So one, you know, one of theways we can raise, we can keep
the high standards is byshowcasing the military as a
place that's welcoming toathletes, so that athletes on
their high school cross countryteam or high school wrestling
team or basketball team look atthis and say, culturally, that's
a friendly place for athletes.
Because those are the peopleyou know where that 17% of high
(22:20):
school seniors are.
They're on their sports teams.
Those are the people where that17% of high school seniors are.
They're on their sports teams,and it's not that they're going
to come in to do sports, but ifthe United States military is
viewed as a place of athleticexcellence, it's much more
intuitive for them to say, okay,I get it, I should consider
this as a career.
Speaker 1 (22:39):
Yeah, no, absolutely, and it's really interesting.
And again, just pullingperspectives from some of the
other militaries that wewitnessed, like playing right,
like when we competed againstsome of these other countries,
specifically Lithuania, who wonthe gold medal in basketball.
Again, when we talked to themthey're like, hey, yeah, no, our
military duty is playingbasketball right.
Like that's what we do.
What we do, we play, we playprofessionally, and then we come
(23:01):
together as a team here to getrepetitions together, practice
together, play together to, toget ready to compete in these
tournaments.
Is that something that you seealso quite literally, as a
pathway of, of a projected waythat we can do this?
And again, giving people anopportunity to, like you're
saying, really have theirmilitary duty, be preparing to
(23:23):
go compete and win on aninternational level, and how do
you foresee that coming to life,if possible?
Speaker 2 (23:29):
Yeah, 100%, and it's for multiple reasons.
Again, like just delving in mypersonal life, I'm actually very
close with the Lithuanianathletes who I competed against,
and one of them, a female,lauraadiskaita, just got named
to the Lithuanian parliament.
So you know, here I am.
You know, little Air Force gradsitting in Colorado Springs.
(23:50):
I have personal contact nowwith a, with a parliament member
over there, because you knowher husband and I were very good
friends.
He's an Olympic silver medalist.
I don't know how many timeswe've gone on runs together,
trained together, been atcompetitions together.
But also, here's the otherinteresting thing Athletes tend
(24:10):
to do very well If you look atthe service academies, the
reason that they keep such ahigh level of sports team
outside the fact it's great forthe image of the schools, but
these athletes tend to be one ofthe greatest predictors of how
they do.
Little known fact.
I don't know if you know this.
Do you know who the most famousathlete from my sport was?
And he went to a serviceacademy?
I don't.
(24:31):
Actually, george Pattoncompeted in the Olympics in 2012
, or in 1912, got fifth place inthe pentathlon.
Okay, so when we recruitathletes into the military, a
lot of, a lot of these youngpeople come in and say, hey,
this is really fun, I'm going toget to go, you know, extend my
career by a few years.
Um, but they will oftentimes goon and serve with incredible
(24:54):
distinction.
Uh, one such individual I'veknown, uh, for it's approaching
three decades now.
Uh, he was a standout swimmerand runner.
Uh in in high school.
Then he was a scholarshipswimmer in college.
Uh, the army recruited him intotheir world-class athlete
program where he went to twoOlympics.
Uh in in Sydney in 2000, athens, 2004.
(25:15):
Um, he would later crosscommission into the air force,
became a combat rescue officer,you know.
So he did special operations,got a master's degree at kellogg
, uh graduate certificate atharvard, became the aid to camp
to the chief of staff of the airforce and retired as a full
colonel.
Uh, so you know the.
The reason is that you can't,you can't divorce that winning.
(25:38):
That you know I'm I'm going towin at all costs.
I mean I his name was chadsenior and I, you know, i've'm
going to win at all costs.
I mean, his name was ChadSenior and I've known him for
years.
We actually ran together at theWorld Military Games in 2003.
But I mean, we're, you know,we've been friends for three
decades and I watched Chad atthe military championships in
2000.
(25:58):
The first time I competed in amilitary sporting event, we were
in Switzerland in 2000,.
The first time I competed in amilitary sporting event, we were
in Switzerland and he wasrunning from fifth place into
third place and when he passedthe guy that was in third place,
the running 3000 meter run wasright at the end.
He didn't stop and just sort ofhold his place.
He knew he couldn't get tosecond.
He put the afterburners on andand he basically wanted to
(26:22):
humiliate the guy behind him.
He spent the entire rest of thenight throwing up okay.
So this is the level of of likewarrior ethos that chad had,
which is why he went intospecial operations, why he did
so many combat deployments, whyhe served with such distinction.
So you know I I believe ifwe're recruiting these people in
, they're going to be thehighest quality people we can
(26:44):
get into some of these jobs.
Speaker 1 (26:47):
No, it's super interesting, right Again.
I think again, this is purelyanecdotal, at least from my side
right now, right.
But again, the large majorityof the Navy football team ends
up as Marine Corps officers,right, and a large majority,
some of my really close friends,are now, you know, captains in
the Marine Corps infantry orkind of made their way over to
MARSOC, right.
And then you have a bunch ofthe lacrosse guys, the wrestler
(27:09):
guys, et cetera, who end up asSEALs, right.
Water polo and swimmers are abunch of our EOD guys that are
swimming a ton Right, and soit's again.
It's an interesting perspectivethere, perspective there.
And do you, I mean, do youhappen to know off the top of
your head, data wise, like, howmany flag officers across our
military kind of have a athleticbackground, whether that be in
college or high school oranything of the sort?
Speaker 2 (27:31):
I don't know the total actual numbers, but I do
know it's disproportionatelyhigh.
But that makes sense If youactually look at like society as
a whole.
There was an Ernst Young studya few years ago that showed that
94% of female executives thisis in the private sector, 94%
participated in organized sports, growing up with 50% playing
(27:52):
sports in college.
So whether you're going to thehighest levels of business or
the highest levels of themilitary, sports training is
absolutely foundational.
And I think it's because sportsare pretty brutal and you know
you have a winner and a loserand you know, I'm 100% sure some
(28:14):
of the lowest points in yourlife have come in sports from
losing and the highest pointshave come from winning.
And you also know that 99.99%of everything is not the game,
it's getting ready for the game,it's having your act together.
These are the lessons thatathletes learn in sports, that
they tend to take on with them.
And again, you can't divorcethat from the athlete.
(28:35):
You can't.
You know you can't say okay,you know suddenly you're, you're
out of sports, you've you'veforgotten everything you learned
about hard work.
You've forgotten everythingyou've learned about teamwork or
coachability or the ability togive feedback to a teammate and
gain their respect so that youcan make each other better.
These are all some of thegreatest skills to create great
leaders.
Speaker 1 (28:56):
Foundational and again, I talk about this a lot
that, like being a juniorofficer in the military, one of
the number one things you haveto do is not one, not be afraid
of conflict, but to be reallygood at having difficult
conversations with people whenpeople are not meeting the mark,
or upholding state like thestandard that needs to be, and
(29:26):
that is something that you buildthrough sport, right, like the
amount of times you have to goto a teammate and like get on
someone.
Or like, again, it's like, hey,if we want to, like no, this
isn't, this isn't personal, butif we want to win, right, like,
if we want to win, then I needyou to to play your role, and
your role needs to be doneextremely well.
And like, again, this issomething that we've talked
about a lot right, and I needyou to perform in this way.
And on the same front, I wassharing a story last night,
actually, with a West Point guyhere in Texas.
We went out, we got dinner andwe were sharing stories about
basketball and how thepreparation was one of the
(29:48):
wildest things.
We even went back to our highschool days, where our high
school coaches had printed outthese scouting reports right,
like the most detailed, in-depthscouting reports of all time.
We competed on like really goodhigh school teams as well in
our area and it was like it wascrazy, but we would spend hours
learning tendencies of theplayers that we were going to
play against, both as a team, asa unit, as an organization.
(30:11):
But the individual, like hey,when number 12 gets the ball on
the left wing, he's going to bedriving right into the middle of
the lane, right, like knowingthat each player has a tendency,
has something that they do thatis backed up by a ton of
observation in film and study.
Right, like when it comes towinning a basketball game.
There is so much preparationthat goes into it.
(30:32):
Whether you want to comparethat to an intelligent side of
the military, right.
But you have to know, you haveto observe, you have to study
and then you have to prepareyourself to be able to take away
what they do well, right andlike.
There's so much comparison inthat world.
Speaker 2 (30:44):
And there's the other .
The other one is a is a fourletter word that has become
completely unwelcome in much ofthe modern military, which is
risk and the.
The military, you know, thelast couple of decades, from
what I've seen has has reallyhunkered down and become a very
anti-risk set of organizations.
And yet we need our leaders tohave the ability to understand,
(31:08):
know and manage risk.
And in sports you have to knowthat.
In basketball it'sunderstanding am I going to pass
the ball, am I going to shoot?
And risk doesn't mean yousucceed.
Every time I sort of jokinglysay I talk to senior officers
who will tell me we're allowedto take risks as long as you
never fail.
And the greatest things I'veever learned in my life were not
(31:29):
successes in sports, they werefailures.
And sports gives you a chanceto fail and to learn how to
handle that, to learn how to getbetter because of it.
And I think we have, for avariety of reasons, I don't
think it's any one person, Ithink culturally, the military
(31:50):
has adopted an anti-riskposition and there's some
reasons for that.
My former service.
We fly airplanes that are worthhundreds of millions of dollars
and so you don't necessarilywant a 26-year old flying an
F-22 to take a lot of risk, buton the other hand, they need to
(32:12):
understand what it is, becausethere may come a day when we
need them to take some risk andevaluate it and understand the
components of that.
So in my private sector world,I deal with risk all the time
and and I I do believe thatthat's one of the one of the
greatest lessons sports canteach you is is understanding
risk, accepting it and beingable to look at something and
say you know what?
I'm going to fail?
(32:33):
I'm going to fail a lot and Ihave to be able to stomach that
because in the military, we needyou to be able to understand
that concept, because when weneed you to succeed, we really
need you to succeed.
Speaker 1 (32:45):
Yeah, no, 100%.
It's fascinating, and so wereally have established again,
leading up to this conversation,the importance of sport right
and so, especially as it comesto military, military culture et
cetera.
Now I do want to tailor tosomething again that you had
brought up early, which is thisidea of a world military games
potentially being hosted in theUnited States.
(33:06):
I want to turn it over to you,if you're willing, to share as
much as you can again yourthought kind of the plan or
pathway where it would belocated, sports et cetera,
highlight the importance of itand put out if there's anything
we can do as a community as wellto support it, to try and make
this event as good as it canpossibly be.
Speaker 2 (33:29):
Well, we have a unique opportunity.
Because of my friendship withthe president of the
International Military SportsFederation.
They have offered us, theUnited States, the opportunity
to host the 2027 World MilitaryGames.
It'll be hosted in Charlotte,north Carolina, predominantly at
the UNC Charlotte campus.
We're planning right now on theopening ceremonies being at the
(33:50):
Raceway in Charlotte andclosing ceremonies might be at
Panther Stadium.
We're still looking at that,but I mean, grant, you walked in
the opening ceremonies in China.
They do it right.
I walked in, they do it right.
Speaker 1 (34:02):
I'm telling you, that thing was the craziest thing
I've ever seen.
Speaker 2 (34:04):
Yeah, and I walked in the opening ceremonies in the
Beijing Olympics and I mean, ifyou wanted to say a defining
moment of my life, you knowthree defining moments.
The second I threw my hat up inthe air at the Air Force
Academy when I married my wife.
And then walking into openingceremonies, they're just amazing
.
So the opening ceremonies weanticipate 120,000 people at the
(34:32):
Raceway in Charlotte.
We anticipate the President ofthe United States will open this
.
I mean we want to show China.
Hey, we can play here too, andwe're hoping to have a major
military air show there, maybe amajor rock concert and country
concert.
Can't say yet who we're lookingat for that, but that level
because I want.
You had 120 nations who went andsaw the might of China in 2019.
(34:54):
And my goal is to have thosesame countries come over and see
what the United States ofAmerica can do.
So I want them to see F-22s and, you know, the Blue Angels and
the Thunderbirds, and see whatour air power can do, what our
military can do.
And then I also want them tosee the softer side of America,
that we're great people.
(35:14):
We're, you know it's a greatcountry to come, you know, to
come to, because I want, I wantthose militaries to think twice.
Uh, you know, carrot and stick.
I want them to think twicebefore they ever think about
attacking us.
On the other hand, I want themto think those guys are pretty
nice.
Um, so the plan right now is isto have the 2027 world military
games in Charlotte, in, uh, in,probably in July, or sorry, in
(35:37):
June, and you'll appreciate this.
We're hoping to house all theathletes together in one village
to be able to promote this ideaof the exchange between all the
various different servicemembers, forming these
connections.
We're hoping to have all thevenues actually within walking
distance, because I know one ofthe issues they had in Wuhan was
(35:58):
that it was really hard to getaround.
Speaker 1 (36:00):
Really spread out.
I mean hours apart.
You were taking buses, trains.
It was difficult to you know,get to your stadium right and
then back to the village.
Speaker 2 (36:09):
And so our plan right now is to have everything
inside one enormous venue, andthat's great for the
participants.
It's also great for thespectators.
This is not a well-known sport.
People aren't going to pay 50bucks to go watch a judo
competition, but they might pay50 or 75 bucks for an entry
ticket to come in and watch abasketball game, a track, some
(36:32):
skydiving, orienteering, some ofthese sports that they don't
get to see every day.
So, additionally, the plan rightnow is to do something that has
not been done before, which isto combine an international
military expo at the same time,which would be in downtown
Charlotte, and so we would havethe major US defense contractors
(36:55):
there down there.
We probably also have themdisplays inside the large venue.
So again, young people, kids Ihave a 10-year-old son, he'd
love this to come in and see adrone up close or a satellite
presentation.
So we want to showcase this forAmericans as well, to come in
and see the might of ourmilitary, to see the United
(37:15):
States go beat other countrieson the field of play, carry
ourselves with pride.
But it's going to be a prettymajor undertaking.
We're hosting the Olympics in2028.
This will be, as I said, thesecond largest games that have
ever been held in the UnitedStates, only behind the Olympics
.
So we're a little behind theeight ball in timing because
(37:36):
we've been waiting on some finalgovernment approvals.
The incoming Trumpadministration has assured us
we're going to have thoseapprovals very quickly.
Then we're moving forward with.
You know, there's a lot offederal agencies, state agencies
involved.
You know, when you're bringingRussians and Iranians and North
Koreans and Germans all together, it's very positive, but it's a
lot of moving pieces.
Speaker 1 (37:57):
A lot of moving pieces, yeah, a lot of
contingency plans you got tobuild.
How do we build the energybehind this event?
How do we get eyeballs ontothis, how do we build support
for this and how do we turn thisinto again an event that the
average American would tune into watch Again, hopefully, you
(38:18):
get people there in person, buthow do you again, how do we
actually build support aroundthis event?
Speaker 2 (38:27):
Well, that's one of the things that we're working on
doing.
The Chinese they held thismajor event, but it was very
insular, as you saw.
They didn't have a lot ofoutsiders, and our vision for
this is to really open this upmuch more.
We've been talking to broadcastpartners.
We do believe we've got severalthat are interested in coming
on board.
So part of what I've got to dois I've got to match the
(38:47):
broadcast partner with thefunding sources for that,
because a lot of this is verymissional and so, um, you know
it's not.
They just don't know.
Can we go sell 30 milliondollars of advertising?
Probably not.
Um, so we're looking atstreaming platforms, things like
that.
Uh, we're also just looking atgetting the word out.
That's why I appreciate whatyou're doing, having me on,
(39:10):
because your listeners are a lotof our target people and, and
we believe that by connectingwith business owners, whether
it's defense contractors orwhoever, the more partners we
bring in on this, the morethey're going to promote it.
We're already talking to some ofthe major banking enterprises
out there, because they willhelp us defense contractors,
(39:34):
these major corporations.
They have the ability to alsohelp promote this, which is good
from a commercial point of view, it's great also to promote
this and showcase what theUnited States and the US
military can do.
So we have, as I said, a littlebit of an abbreviated time
schedule, but, if you know, foranybody who's listening to this,
(39:57):
if you're like, wow, this issuper interesting, I want to get
involved.
I run a company We'd beinterested in coming on board as
a commercial partner, that typeof thing.
We want to talk because this isgoing to be an all-hands effort
to get this thing off theground and really show the world
how great America can be withus 100%, and obviously anyone
(40:19):
listening.
Speaker 1 (40:19):
you can always reach out to me and I will get you in
touch with Eli, but if someonewants to reach out to you
directly about these questionsor has an interest in
potentially supporting thisproject, how can they get in
touch with you?
Speaker 2 (40:29):
Best way is shoot me an email.
My personal email is just myname at Gmail.
It's elibremmer E-L-I dotB-R-E-M-E-R.
At gmailcom.
And you know, particularly ifyou're, if you got some
strategic, you know,compatibility with us of some
site.
You know we're not signing ourlarge sponsors yet.
We are still looking for somebid sponsors.
(40:50):
We're hoping we've applied tobe in the presidential
inauguration parade which is runby the U S military.
Um, we've got about 25Olympians and we've got some pro
athletes that have signed up,uh, to help promote this concept
of the, the military warriorathlete.
So, um, you know the because wehaven't fully confirmed, but
(41:14):
let's just say there's a,there's some famous Annapolis
grads that are super interested,that have a strong history in
Olympics and in pro sports and,as I said, we've got some gold
medalists who are militarymembers, who who intend to come
out.
So you know, if that'ssomething you're interested in,
if you want to support that,reach out to me.
Because again we are, becauseagain we don't have any
(41:37):
government funds on this rightnow.
Eventually there will be, butwe are having to raise some
capital around this.
So if that's something you'reinterested in, shoot me an email
and we'd love to chat.
Speaker 1 (41:48):
I love it.
Well, I appreciate it, andsomething I always ask whenever
we bring someone on is again, atthe end of the day, some of our
listeners as well, who areprobably interested in this, are
just prospective high schoolstudents who are trying to learn
a little bit about the academyas well.
So I just want to turn thisopportunity again.
Based on all these lifeexperiences that we've had as a
result of being an Air ForceAcademy and a Naval Academy
graduate, what's your bestrecruiting pitch about why young
(42:10):
men and women should consider aservice academy education?
Speaker 2 (42:19):
Can you see what's on my hands here?
That's an Olympic ring.
That's my Olympic ring.
That's my Air Force ring.
This one means a whole lot moreto me than this one.
I've been to the Olympics.
I've been top of the world insports.
I've done all that and I willtell you that the service
academy, the people you willmeet there, are simply
unparalleled.
It is, in my opinion, is theepitome of what a young man or
(42:43):
woman can do with their lives,and so, if they're considering
it, take it seriously, respectit.
I grew up next to the Air ForceAcademy.
The people my biggest mentorswere Air Force Academy cadets.
My brother went to the AirForce Academy and so I had great
respect for it.
One of my lifetime mentors isSenator Ben Nighthorse Campbell.
(43:04):
He gave me my nomination to theAcademy.
He's also a military Olympian.
He competed in the Olympics in1964 while he was in the Air
Force.
So there are some great thingsyou can do in your life.
I've had the opportunity, as Isaid, to do amazing things in my
life.
Graduating from a United StatesService Academy is probably the
(43:25):
top of that pinnacle.
So you know, I would encourageyou.
You know, are you going to haveas much fun at a service
academy as you will at some ofthe other schools you get
scholarships to, I sure hope notdoors that it opens.
I mean from you know peopleI've been able to meet united
states senators, billionaires,uh, professional athletes, I
(43:48):
mean across the board thenetwork I've got, I mean grant.
The reason we're on the calltoday is you and I both wear the
same, effectively the same,ring.
And if you're a young person,if you're the parent of a young
person and you want to set yourkid up for life the beauty of a
service academy.
My extended family came out ofthe Ivy Leagues.
My mom and my dad are both IvyLeague educated.
(44:09):
You can buy your way into anIvy League.
You can't buy your way into orout of a service academy.
And so if you want to berespected for the rest of your
life, go to a service academy,kick butt at a service academy,
serve your country.
It is one of the greatestthings you can do.
Speaker 1 (44:26):
Oh yeah, absolutely Well, Eli, you're the man.
Thank you so much for takingthis time today.
I want to turn it over to youIf you have any last thoughts or
things that you wanted to bringup that we may not have weaved
into the conversation, naturally, so I'll just turn it over to
you for any any last thoughtsthat you may have.
Speaker 2 (44:39):
Well, you know, thanks, thanks for having me on.
You know, I always appreciatethe other service academies,
remembering that there is oneout here in Colorado.
I was at an event in WashingtonDC a couple of years ago for
service academy grads and thisgal comes in and says oh, you
know, I don't know you did you?
I think she went to west point.
She said did you go toannapolis?
I said no.
She said, well, this is serviceacademy only.
(45:00):
I'm like, come on, but, um, youknow, no, thanks for having me
on.
And and seriously, if, if you'reout there and you're thinking
about this and saying, hey, thisis something I want to get
involved in, this is something Iwant to get involved in, this
is something I want tofinancially support.
Or I got a friend I want tointroduce you to.
Runs a company.
(45:21):
Shoot me an email, I'll say itagain.
It's elibremmer E-L-I dotB-R-E-M-E-R at gmailcom.
It's super easy to reach.
Shoot me an email, I'llschedule a call with you.
This is a service academyfamily and we would love to have
all the help that we can getpushing this forward, both for
the World Military Games andthen also hopefully pushing a
(45:43):
resurgence of military sportsand the warrior ethos that
military sports can help create.
Speaker 1 (45:50):
Absolutely Well.
Thank you so much, eli.
This has been a pleasure.
It's always fun getting toshare stories about this and
again, when I think back on it,the World Military Games was my
dad and I were talking about itthe other day as I was preparing
for this interview like thecoolest life experience we've
ever had, and it's not evenclose Like he came out to China
to be a part of it.
He was there for the two weekslike came and traveled to all
(46:10):
the games.
There's nothing like it.
And so, again, to promote theevent, to bring as much
attention to it and to build apipeline of military sports
culture again, to dominate inthese events and compete at an
extremely high level is justsomething I can get behind every
day of the week.
Speaker 2 (46:27):
Grant, when you walked into the opening
ceremonies, were y'all chantingUSA, USA.
Speaker 1 (46:32):
USA the whole time man.
Speaker 2 (46:33):
Isn't that just one of the greatest feelings Chills.
Speaker 1 (46:38):
I'm telling you.
There's a picture of usmarching around, because it was
like a massive track around.
We did a huge loop carrying theAmerican flag, all 100-plus
athletes of us in our militaryuniforms, chanting USA as we
were walking in.
Literal chills, right, literalchills, as the stadium was, just
you know, roaring with energy.
Speaker 2 (46:59):
And you will never forget that.
For the rest of your life.
You'll never forget thatfeeling.
None of those other young menwill ever forget that feeling,
and that's what I want to bring,as I said, to the next
generation.
Speaker 1 (47:10):
Yeah, man, absolutely Well.
This has been incredible.
Thank you so much.
Can't wait to hopefully getsome people over in your way and
support this initiative.
So I appreciate you taking thetime this morning to talk about
it and I can't wait to bring itto life, and you best believe
I'm going to be in Charlotte in2027.
I'm excited to be a part ofthis in whatever way I can, and
(47:30):
go witness some of this amazingstuff that's coming to life.
Speaker 2 (47:33):
I really appreciate it.
We'll be happy to have youthere.
Academy Insider is welcomeanywhere.
I love it.
Speaker 1 (47:38):
My guy.
I appreciate you All right.
Well, thank you so much to theAcademy Insider audience.
I hope you had a good listen.
Reach out with any questions.
Otherwise, have a great day.
Thank you so much.
Thank you so much for listeningto this episode of the Academy
Insider podcast.
I really hope you liked it,enjoyed it and learned something
during this time.
If you did, please feel free tolike and subscribe or leave a
comment about the episode.
(47:59):
We really appreciate to hearyour feedback about everything
and continue to make AcademyInsider an amazing service that
guides, serves and supportsmidshipmen, future midshipmen
and their families.
Thank you.
Welcome to Season 2 of the Academy Insider Podcast.
Academy Insider is a 501c3nonprofit organization that
serves midshipmen, futuremidshipmen and their families.
At its core, this podcast isdesigned to bring together a
community of Naval Academygraduates and those affiliated
with the United States NavalAcademy in order to tell stories
and provide a little bit ofinsight into what life at the
(00:22):
Naval Academy is really like.
I hope you enjoy it.
Thank you so much for listeningand reach out if you ever have
any questions.
Everyone, and welcome back tothe Academy Insider podcast.
Today's episode is the finalepisode of 2024.
Thank you so much to theincredible audience of Academy
Insider who's followed alongwith me.
This is exciting and today'sepisode is going to be a great
way to conclude 2024.
(00:43):
I'm so excited to do it becauseI'm joined by Eli Bremmer.
Eli Bremmer is actually an AirForce Academy graduate from the
class of 2000.
But this is where it goes crazy.
He's actually an Olympian andthen a two times World Military
Games alumni, and he won a goldmedal in the pentathlon in the
World Military Games.
This guy is an elite athleteand has been connected in the
military sports space for a longtime.
(01:04):
And what is really cool is ifyou're listening to this right
now, there is a proposal for theUnited States of America to
host the 2027 World MilitaryGames in Charlotte.
If you have no idea what theWorld Military Games is, I don't
blame you.
We haven't put a ton ofemphasis or recognition around
it.
So that's what this episode isall about.
Today is we're going tohighlight military sports and
(01:25):
military sport culture, becauseafter your time at the academy,
your sports playing careerdoesn't have to end.
There are so many ways tocompete at the all Navy level,
at the armed forces servicelevel, and compete in
international tournaments, andso if that's something that's
interesting to you, then take alisten to this episode.
It's so cool.
We cover so many differentaspects about the importance of
sport and military culture andthen highlight and talk about
(01:46):
the World Military Games whichwill be coming to the United
States in 2027.
So take a listen, reach out ifyou have any questions.
Thank you so much and I hopeyou have a great day.
The Academy Insider Podcast issponsored by the Vermeer Group,
a residential real estatecompany that serves the United
States Naval Academy communityand other select clientele in
(02:09):
both California and Texas.
If I can ever answer a realestate related question for you
or connect you with a trustedAcademy affiliated agent in the
market which you're in.
Please reach out to me directlyat grant at the Vermeer
groupcom.
You can also reach out to me onmy LinkedIn page, Grant Vermeer
, and I'd be happy to respond toyou there.
(02:29):
Thank you so much, and nowlet's get back to the episode.
Hey everyone, and welcome backto the Academy insider podcast,
Eli.
Thank you so much for takingthe time to join us today.
I think this is going to be asuper fun topic, obviously, as
some sports fanatics uh, talkingabout military sports, which is
great.
But before we do jump into it,if you just mind providing a
little bit of context to theAcademy Insider audience about
who you are, how you ended upactually at the Air Force
Academy, a little bit about yourtime in the Air Force, both as
(02:52):
an Air Force officer and anathlete, and then currently what
you're doing now.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
Well, yeah, grant, thanks for having me on.
It's great to be here after acouple minor technical
difficulties to get here.
Um, but I'm eli bremer.
I graduated from the uh, theother service academy, the air
force academy uh, in 2000.
I was when I hang out with westpoint and annapolis grads and
they're like did you go to westpoint?
No, did you go to annapolis?
No, but you said you went to aservice academy.
(03:17):
There are three.
Uh, I always get.
I always get into that.
But I grew up here in colorado,which actually just north of the
Air Force Academy, and my olderbrother graduated three years
before me and he's actuallyretiring.
He's in 06, in a couple months.
So he's had a long career therebut was stationed here in
Colorado Springs at SchrieverSpace Force what's now Space
(03:40):
Force Base in Peterson SpaceForce Base.
But I did a lot of time insports and sort of became a
sports expert in the military.
I was a two-sport athlete atthe Air Force Academy but
parlayed that over into time inthe World Class Athlete Program
and competed in the Olympics inBeijing in 2008, a broadcast for
(04:00):
Olympics.
I now advise the Air Force'ssports program and I used to run
the largest Olympic sponsorshipprogram in the country.
So I do a lot with sportsmarketing, and today we'll be
talking about my next venture,which is the World Military
Games, which you're familiarwith too.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
Yeah, no, absolutely.
And I'm so excited about itbecause if you are watching,
like on YouTube, and you see thevideo aspect of this, obviously
I have my Jersey from themilitary world games hanging up
behind me, which is so cool,because I think one of the
things that is reallyinteresting that people don't
really consider when they attenda service Academy, especially
athletes is they assume thattheir sports career is over
(04:36):
after the Academy and while,again, we're going to have a lot
of discussion pieces and allthis when it comes to
professional sports et cetera,but there is this thing that we
call the Armed Forces SportsProgram, which gives people
opportunity to compete at a veryhigh level still after their
time at the academy and whenthey're in what we call the Navy
, the fleet I'm not sure whatthey call it in the Air Force,
but you're actually an officerout doing the thing, in working,
(04:58):
there's still an opportunity tocompete on what we call for us
again, the all Navy team and theall Air Force team.
And so my question to youactually, eli, is when you were
going through this again forbasketball, we had an
inter-services tournament where,like, the Air Force team played
the Navy team, which played theArmy team which played the
Marine Corps team.
Was that similar in your sector?
Did you guys have just youwould just go straight to
(05:20):
competing with the USA ArmedForces team, making your way out
to international competition.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
It's a little different for each sport.
So I was, I tracked really upthe uh the Olympic chain into
the world-class athlete programwhich the the army has, the air
force has uh, the the Navy doesnot have.
Yet we're working on some uh,we're working on some options
for uh expanding the, the, theopportunities for Navy and
Marine uh service members to beable to participate.
But, yeah, in most casesthey're sort of selected through
that normal process you applythrough your base gym or
(05:52):
something like that.
There are in the Air Force andthe Army there are athletes who
are assigned full-time intotheir Olympic programs.
So by the time I was competingin the military events, I was
the national champion.
I was, you know, at one pointtop two in the world.
So we didn't have the same typeof selection.
But you know, to me what mattershere is a lot of people ask me
(06:14):
the question why are sportsimportant in the military?
And I think it's great to goback to the start and
MacArthur's quote of on thefields of friendly strife are
sown the seeds that on otherfields and other days will bear
the fruits of victory.
And I am such a firm believerthat if you want to instill a
warrior ethos into young men andwomen.
(06:36):
One of the best ways to do itis by sport participation, and
the more the better.
Yep.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
No, 100%.
I couldn't agree more, for bothmy time at the Academy and after
, kind of in the fact that a lotof my leadership development
happened on the court right,like there are so many dynamics
that kind of directly relate tothat experience.
And a question I have for you,since again we're talking about
the military world gamesespecially which again is going
(07:04):
to be a fun introduction in thistopic You're someone who
competed in both the militaryworld games and the actual
Olympics, and so, for someonewho's not aware, if you were to
play for some of these, like thearmed forces sports teams,
every four years, once everyfour years, kind of in a in a
military or an Olympic cycle,there is what we call the
military world games, right, andso I competed in 2019 in Wuhan,
(07:26):
china.
There are over 100 countriesthere, 20 plus sports being
played, billions of dollarsinvested by China in
infrastructure and everything toactually host this event.
Can you describe the differenceor similarities between
competing in a military worldgames in the actual Olympics,
just to kind of put inperspective how big this event
(07:47):
is and like its legitimacy?
Speaker 2 (07:50):
Yeah, people in America are very unfamiliar with
this event.
But if I sort of start bytalking about the Olympics,
because this is where it allbegins, the Olympics are the
largest games event in the world.
Okay, the Olympic rings are,are some of, if not the most
recognizable commercial mark inthe world.
There are some of the mostwell-respected, it's one of the
most well-respected brands andI've got the, the Olympic rings,
(08:12):
behind me right here for peoplethat are watching.
Um and so the Olympic, the, theinternational Olympic committee
, under them, has anorganization called CISM, which
is French, the councilinternational de sport, military
, and that organization so thisis part of the Olympic family
organizes all the militarysports globally.
They've got 141 member nationsand starting in 1995, they
(08:36):
started organizing worldmilitary games.
Cism has been around since 1953.
They were formed after WorldWar II to promote friendship
through sport between alliedcountries.
During the Cold War era itbecame sort of the proxy.
One of the healthy, proxybattles between the United
States and the Soviets wassports play.
So anyway, over the last youknow what is it?
(08:58):
Three, four decades now we'vebeen hosting World Military
Games inside the Olympic systemand so globally, the World
Military Games are actually thesecond largest games event in
the world, only behind theOlympics.
In Wuhan, where you competed,they had 10,000 athletes, 120
nations.
To put that in perspective,I've competed in three different
(09:19):
games events the Olympic games,the world military games and
the Pan American games.
And the World Military Games is50 to 100 percent larger than
the Pan American Games.
So you know, people sort ofthink it's the Warrior Games.
That's about 500 people.
This is 20 times the size ofthe Warrior Games.
And in terms of quality, theWorld Military Games are also
(09:44):
the second highest levelOlympic-style sporting event in
the world, only behind theOlympics.
It is more difficult to win agold medal at the World Military
Games, statistically speakingand in terms of quality of the
athletes, than at the PanAmerican Games or the Goodwill
Games.
Military athletes in theParisics won almost 175 medals.
(10:07):
Yep, so, uh, 10, about 10 of theolympians in paris were
military.
So the scope is way bigger andyou saw this firsthand.
Firsthand.
I mean wuhan, china, they, theyput it on.
There was a huge stadium there.
Um, you know it was it was.
Speaker 1 (10:24):
It was unbelievable.
Right and and again.
Because what's funny is, evenbeing in the military and
competing on the team, I had noidea about this event.
And when we went out to China,right like they, they put on a
massive opening ceremony.
Massive president Gigi pinkspoke at the event.
Right Like they, they had.
I kid you not, this is one ofthe wildest things.
Likeie chan came zip liningdown into the stadium performing
(10:48):
as a singer like he's a popstar in china, oh yeah, I don't
even know him as an actor.
I was like I was like what isgoing on?
Like this is the craziest,coolest experience of all time.
And then, like you were talkingabout, you were walking through
kind of the mess hall, thecafeteria that they have there,
and everyone from theirrespective countries have the
Olympic rings tattooed on them.
(11:08):
Like the majority of athleteswho are competing, who are also
military in their home country,are Olympic athletes, right.
And so like I'm walking aroundlike I was on a submarine four
months ago and now I'm heretrying to compete, like against
professional athletes.
I was like what is going on?
And so, again, from from thelevel of competition, like it's
(11:29):
so high and that's why I want toturn it a little bit to like
training for these games,because in the sport of
basketball specifically, wewould get literally one month to
go TAD temporary assigned dutyto train, to like go to a
training camp and then get readyto play.
In my opinion, especially onthe basketball side, again, we
haven't taken it that seriously.
(11:50):
The fact that I was playing inthese games is crazy, right,
like I was an okay athlete, butlike not nearly like the level
of all this is going on and soyou know, obviously you have a
little bit more with, like theworld-class athlete program that
kind of has people allowed totrain.
Do you mind breaking down, youknow, between sports or just the
overall, like overall,generalizing how we train
(12:13):
athletes for these events?
Speaker 2 (12:15):
Well, unfortunately, grant, we haven't done a good
job of it and that's led to somenot very good results in the
past, and this is a veryimportant part of soft power for
the United States.
So again back to what I wassaying earlier.
People sort of have asked thequestion isn't sports just fun
and games and stuff like that?
And I said no.
If you go back to the ancientGreek times, this was how we
(12:37):
trained warriors.
For literally over 2,000 years,sports training has been the
foundational training forwarrior ethos, and so it's not
just about, as I said, fun andgames, but the United States.
Until recently and this issomething that again thank you
for having me on, because I'mtrying to spread the word about
(12:58):
what we're doing here we'rereally working on bringing the
United States up to par with therest of the world, because
other countries and you knowfolks like China, north Korea,
germany has a very large sportsunit.
There's even countries likeTurkey, egypt, mexico, countries
all over the world are usingthis to train their athletes.
(13:20):
Number one.
But also it creates anenvironment where, you know,
their young people get a chanceto sort of open their eyes and
see the world.
I'm curious had you ever beento China before before that.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
Nope, Literally first time, first time stepping in
anywhere in the, in theIndo-Pacific.
Honestly, I had never beenoutside of Europe and the United
States and Latin America.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
And you've probably never heard of Wuhan, which I
think has over 10 million peoplein it.
Speaker 1 (13:46):
Huge city, huge city and obviously again, obviously
COVID kind of made it moreinfamous.
But like, yes, like there wasnever, like Wuhan, a massive
industrial, like business cityin China, never heard of it, and
so you know, this gives likefrom from just the American
point of view.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
It gives our young men and women in the service an
opportunity to go out and seethe world through different eyes
.
When I was competing in the AirForce, I actually landed in
Egypt as the war broke out inIraq and when the US invaded
Iraq and we actually had toborrow uniforms from the
Canadians because there wereriots in the street and things
(14:23):
like that.
So I was a young lieutenantwhen that happened and had a
very profound impact on me, um,you know.
And then, and then back ontolater that year, I competed in
my very first world militarygames in 2003 in Italy.
Um, and I would eventually go onto compete in 2011 in Brazil as
well, but as an as an activeduty air force officer, I was
(14:44):
able to have very minor butofficial contact with North
Koreans and Iranians, because insport, you have the ability to
mingle there and it gives agreat opportunity for them to
see us, to see that we're notterrible people.
We also make some connectionsthat can be extremely valuable
over time.
Uh yeah, in fact, part of thereason why this has come about
(15:07):
that we're that the UnitedStates is anticipating to host
the world military games is thatas a young Lieutenant, after
competitions I wouldperiodically go get beers with
another young Lieutenant fromBrazil, and that young
Lieutenant is now a full Colonelwho's in charge of the entire
operation, and he said hey, eli,y'all need to belly up to the
bar here and, and you know, weneed to get the United States
(15:28):
military more involved ininternational sporting.
Uh, it was that internationalfriendship 20 years ago that has
given the United States ofAmerica this opportunity.
Speaker 1 (15:37):
No, 100%.
I couldn't agree more.
Obviously, my scale offriendship and relationship
built out of that is a littlebit different, but it was the
same thing.
I built a really closefriendship over time while I was
in Wuhan with a Braziliangolfer right, and he's currently
on.
He makes his way into, he's onlike a kind of a PGA tour
outside of the United States butcontinues to golf
(16:00):
professionally very successful.
But again, like you're saying,it gives us an opportunity to
build relationships with theseathletes in other countries who
are going to be in powerfulpositions at some point in time
in their respective country.
This is fostering internationalrelationship very legitimately,
very genuinely, building thesefoundations of relationships
(16:21):
early on with people who aregoing to be in decision making
positions and authorities overtime.
Yeah, right, and so back tothat.
Speaker 2 (16:29):
You know very probably the most formative time
in my life, a couple of yearsafter graduation, when I was
competing for my first Olympics,my uncle was his ambassador,
paul Bremer, who had who wastaking over Iraq and working on
the reconstruction.
And it's a little known story,but one of the very first things
he did, the InternationalOlympic Committee had kicked out
the Iraqi Olympic team and sothey were totally fine with Uday
(16:54):
and Kusei Hussein committinghuman rights atrocities on their
athletes.
But when the United States tookover they, you know, wanted to
almost disgrace the Iraqisfurther.
So my uncle flew around thecountry setting up elections,
because the InternationalOlympic Committee said the only
way you will be allowed back inthe Olympics is if you have fair
(17:14):
and open elections for yourOlympic Committee.
Now I want to think about this.
For four decades they've beenliving under, you know, a
totalitarian system of SaddamHussein.
There were no elections.
So he flew around, they set upthe elections and they got their
Olympic Committee reformed,which was the first elections in
Iraq.
But he called me up one day andsaid hey, I'm going to send out
a number of our aspiringOlympians to the Olympic
(17:37):
Training Center in ColoradoSprings.
And I said you're in a war zone, why are you doing this?
And he said these are going tobe the future leaders of the
Iraqi nation and I need them togo over to the United States to
meet you, meet other Olympicathletes and military members,
so that they have a good opinionof us and that we have these
sort of back channel connections.
Speaker 1 (17:57):
And it was about four weeks later they arrived at the
training center and I becamefriends with them and you know,
(18:34):
just, it really created anopportunity, I'm sure some 2019
World Military Games, the UnitedStates, by the fact that I was
competing in this thing.
In your opinion, why do we needto take this very seriously and
what can we be doing inpreparation for this World
Military Games that's proposedto potentially be hosted in the
(18:55):
United States coming up in acouple of years?
Speaker 2 (18:57):
Well, I think we need to have a resurgence in the
United States, particularly inthe military, the importance of
sports and why it's good andit's.
There's so many reasons.
I mean, the reason you and Ieven connected a week ago was
because I was, I was looking forthat, that commercial that the
(19:17):
Navy has big decks Great bigdecks, baby.
I didn't know that about theNavy has big decks Great big
decks, baby.
I really didn't know that aboutthe Navy.
I was really curious becauseobviously that was not produced
from the Pentagon.
So I thought I wonder who theheck did this.
And I'm searching around for itand there I come across your
podcast and I look in thebackground I'm like, okay, I see
your Navy jersey and I see theUSA jersey and Googled you and
(19:47):
I'm like, oh, that's superinteresting.
Grant played in the worldmilitary games.
It opens up a lot of doors anda lot of connections.
But I want people's minds to beopened up as to the importance
of this too, because, like Isaid earlier, this is about, you
know, formatting in our youngmen and women in the military a
warrior ethos and understandingthat competition matters, and
losing on the field of playteaches you how to win and we
need our service members to bewinners, to think like winners,
(20:09):
because when there is anotherwar and there will be the United
States will engage in a war atsome point.
We need these folks really welltrained.
So fortunately, I'm getting youknow, at the political level
this is bipartisan, I'm gettingit from both parties support for
the idea that the United Statesmilitary needs to tilt back
into at least a partial focus onexcellence in sports.
(20:32):
And so you know there's anappetite now to create a much
bigger environment where ourservicemen and women are able to
come in and participate for alonger period of time, so that
we're not pulling in from asubmarine and saying, hey, good
luck, go beat China, because,guess what, the Chinese are
taking this seriously and callme a pig-headed American, but I
(20:53):
don't think Americans shouldshow up on foreign soil and not
have the very, very best chancewe have of kicking their butts
up on foreign soil and not havethe very, very best chance we
have of kicking their butts.
And so you know I want ourservicemen and women to be out
there with the best chance tosucceed.
I want these other countries tosee America as strong we're
able to show over, we're able toannihilate them on the field of
play and then have a beer withthem afterwards too.
(21:15):
You know we can do all thesethings.
So we're working on promoting,you know, on promoting this
concept, where we would have amuch larger participation
program in the United Statesmilitary, probably about 5x what
we have right now in ourOlympic program.
But it also serves.
There's no secret that the USmilitary is really struggling in
(21:38):
recruiting right now.
Yes, really struggling inrecruiting right now, and the
latest numbers appear to beabout 17% of high school seniors
are eligible to serve in themilitary.
And I think, quitedisgracefully, we've been
dropping the standards.
Well, if we go to war withChina, iran, russia, they're not
going to drop their standardsfor us.
(21:59):
So one, you know, one of theways we can raise, we can keep
the high standards is byshowcasing the military as a
place that's welcoming toathletes, so that athletes on
their high school cross countryteam or high school wrestling
team or basketball team look atthis and say, culturally, that's
a friendly place for athletes.
Because those are the peopleyou know where that 17% of high
(22:20):
school seniors are.
They're on their sports teams.
Those are the people where that17% of high school seniors are.
They're on their sports teams,and it's not that they're going
to come in to do sports, but ifthe United States military is
viewed as a place of athleticexcellence, it's much more
intuitive for them to say, okay,I get it, I should consider
this as a career.
Speaker 1 (22:39):
Yeah, no, absolutely, and it's really interesting.
And again, just pullingperspectives from some of the
other militaries that wewitnessed, like playing right,
like when we competed againstsome of these other countries,
specifically Lithuania, who wonthe gold medal in basketball.
Again, when we talked to themthey're like, hey, yeah, no, our
military duty is playingbasketball right.
Like that's what we do.
What we do, we play, we playprofessionally, and then we come
(23:01):
together as a team here to getrepetitions together, practice
together, play together to, toget ready to compete in these
tournaments.
Is that something that you seealso quite literally, as a
pathway of, of a projected waythat we can do this?
And again, giving people anopportunity to, like you're
saying, really have theirmilitary duty, be preparing to
(23:23):
go compete and win on aninternational level, and how do
you foresee that coming to life,if possible?
Speaker 2 (23:29):
Yeah, 100%, and it's for multiple reasons.
Again, like just delving in mypersonal life, I'm actually very
close with the Lithuanianathletes who I competed against,
and one of them, a female,lauraadiskaita, just got named
to the Lithuanian parliament.
So you know, here I am.
You know, little Air Force gradsitting in Colorado Springs.
(23:50):
I have personal contact nowwith a, with a parliament member
over there, because you knowher husband and I were very good
friends.
He's an Olympic silver medalist.
I don't know how many timeswe've gone on runs together,
trained together, been atcompetitions together.
But also, here's the otherinteresting thing Athletes tend
(24:10):
to do very well If you look atthe service academies, the
reason that they keep such ahigh level of sports team
outside the fact it's great forthe image of the schools, but
these athletes tend to be one ofthe greatest predictors of how
they do.
Little known fact.
I don't know if you know this.
Do you know who the most famousathlete from my sport was?
And he went to a serviceacademy?
I don't.
(24:31):
Actually, george Pattoncompeted in the Olympics in 2012
, or in 1912, got fifth place inthe pentathlon.
Okay, so when we recruitathletes into the military, a
lot of, a lot of these youngpeople come in and say, hey,
this is really fun, I'm going toget to go, you know, extend my
career by a few years.
Um, but they will oftentimes goon and serve with incredible
(24:54):
distinction.
Uh, one such individual I'veknown, uh, for it's approaching
three decades now.
Uh, he was a standout swimmerand runner.
Uh in in high school.
Then he was a scholarshipswimmer in college.
Uh, the army recruited him intotheir world-class athlete
program where he went to twoOlympics.
Uh in in Sydney in 2000, athens, 2004.
(25:15):
Um, he would later crosscommission into the air force,
became a combat rescue officer,you know.
So he did special operations,got a master's degree at kellogg
, uh graduate certificate atharvard, became the aid to camp
to the chief of staff of the airforce and retired as a full
colonel.
Uh, so you know the.
The reason is that you can't,you can't divorce that winning.
(25:38):
That you know I'm I'm going towin at all costs.
I mean I his name was chadsenior and I, you know, i've'm
going to win at all costs.
I mean, his name was ChadSenior and I've known him for
years.
We actually ran together at theWorld Military Games in 2003.
But I mean, we're, you know,we've been friends for three
decades and I watched Chad atthe military championships in
2000.
(25:58):
The first time I competed in amilitary sporting event, we were
in Switzerland in 2000,.
The first time I competed in amilitary sporting event, we were
in Switzerland and he wasrunning from fifth place into
third place and when he passedthe guy that was in third place,
the running 3000 meter run wasright at the end.
He didn't stop and just sort ofhold his place.
He knew he couldn't get tosecond.
He put the afterburners on andand he basically wanted to
(26:22):
humiliate the guy behind him.
He spent the entire rest of thenight throwing up okay.
So this is the level of of likewarrior ethos that chad had,
which is why he went intospecial operations, why he did
so many combat deployments, whyhe served with such distinction.
So you know I I believe ifwe're recruiting these people in
, they're going to be thehighest quality people we can
(26:44):
get into some of these jobs.
Speaker 1 (26:47):
No, it's super interesting, right Again.
I think again, this is purelyanecdotal, at least from my side
right now, right.
But again, the large majorityof the Navy football team ends
up as Marine Corps officers,right, and a large majority,
some of my really close friends,are now, you know, captains in
the Marine Corps infantry orkind of made their way over to
MARSOC, right.
And then you have a bunch ofthe lacrosse guys, the wrestler
(27:09):
guys, et cetera, who end up asSEALs, right.
Water polo and swimmers are abunch of our EOD guys that are
swimming a ton Right, and soit's again.
It's an interesting perspectivethere, perspective there.
And do you, I mean, do youhappen to know off the top of
your head, data wise, like, howmany flag officers across our
military kind of have a athleticbackground, whether that be in
college or high school oranything of the sort?
Speaker 2 (27:31):
I don't know the total actual numbers, but I do
know it's disproportionatelyhigh.
But that makes sense If youactually look at like society as
a whole.
There was an Ernst Young studya few years ago that showed that
94% of female executives thisis in the private sector, 94%
participated in organized sports, growing up with 50% playing
(27:52):
sports in college.
So whether you're going to thehighest levels of business or
the highest levels of themilitary, sports training is
absolutely foundational.
And I think it's because sportsare pretty brutal and you know
you have a winner and a loserand you know, I'm 100% sure some
(28:14):
of the lowest points in yourlife have come in sports from
losing and the highest pointshave come from winning.
And you also know that 99.99%of everything is not the game,
it's getting ready for the game,it's having your act together.
These are the lessons thatathletes learn in sports, that
they tend to take on with them.
And again, you can't divorcethat from the athlete.
(28:35):
You can't.
You know you can't say okay,you know suddenly you're, you're
out of sports, you've you'veforgotten everything you learned
about hard work.
You've forgotten everythingyou've learned about teamwork or
coachability or the ability togive feedback to a teammate and
gain their respect so that youcan make each other better.
These are all some of thegreatest skills to create great
leaders.
Speaker 1 (28:56):
Foundational and again, I talk about this a lot
that, like being a juniorofficer in the military, one of
the number one things you haveto do is not one, not be afraid
of conflict, but to be reallygood at having difficult
conversations with people whenpeople are not meeting the mark,
or upholding state like thestandard that needs to be, and
(29:26):
that is something that you buildthrough sport, right, like the
amount of times you have to goto a teammate and like get on
someone.
Or like, again, it's like, hey,if we want to, like no, this
isn't, this isn't personal, butif we want to win, right, like,
if we want to win, then I needyou to to play your role, and
your role needs to be doneextremely well.
And like, again, this issomething that we've talked
about a lot right, and I needyou to perform in this way.
And on the same front, I wassharing a story last night,
actually, with a West Point guyhere in Texas.
We went out, we got dinner andwe were sharing stories about
basketball and how thepreparation was one of the
(29:48):
wildest things.
We even went back to our highschool days, where our high
school coaches had printed outthese scouting reports right,
like the most detailed, in-depthscouting reports of all time.
We competed on like really goodhigh school teams as well in
our area and it was like it wascrazy, but we would spend hours
learning tendencies of theplayers that we were going to
play against, both as a team, asa unit, as an organization.
(30:11):
But the individual, like hey,when number 12 gets the ball on
the left wing, he's going to bedriving right into the middle of
the lane, right, like knowingthat each player has a tendency,
has something that they do thatis backed up by a ton of
observation in film and study.
Right, like when it comes towinning a basketball game.
There is so much preparationthat goes into it.
(30:32):
Whether you want to comparethat to an intelligent side of
the military, right.
But you have to know, you haveto observe, you have to study
and then you have to prepareyourself to be able to take away
what they do well, right andlike.
There's so much comparison inthat world.
Speaker 2 (30:44):
And there's the other .
The other one is a is a fourletter word that has become
completely unwelcome in much ofthe modern military, which is
risk and the.
The military, you know, thelast couple of decades, from
what I've seen has has reallyhunkered down and become a very
anti-risk set of organizations.
And yet we need our leaders tohave the ability to understand,
(31:08):
know and manage risk.
And in sports you have to knowthat.
In basketball it'sunderstanding am I going to pass
the ball, am I going to shoot?
And risk doesn't mean yousucceed.
Every time I sort of jokinglysay I talk to senior officers
who will tell me we're allowedto take risks as long as you
never fail.
And the greatest things I'veever learned in my life were not
(31:29):
successes in sports, they werefailures.
And sports gives you a chanceto fail and to learn how to
handle that, to learn how to getbetter because of it.
And I think we have, for avariety of reasons, I don't
think it's any one person, Ithink culturally, the military
(31:50):
has adopted an anti-riskposition and there's some
reasons for that.
My former service.
We fly airplanes that are worthhundreds of millions of dollars
and so you don't necessarilywant a 26-year old flying an
F-22 to take a lot of risk, buton the other hand, they need to
(32:12):
understand what it is, becausethere may come a day when we
need them to take some risk andevaluate it and understand the
components of that.
So in my private sector world,I deal with risk all the time
and and I I do believe thatthat's one of the one of the
greatest lessons sports canteach you is is understanding
risk, accepting it and beingable to look at something and
say you know what?
I'm going to fail?
(32:33):
I'm going to fail a lot and Ihave to be able to stomach that
because in the military, we needyou to be able to understand
that concept, because when weneed you to succeed, we really
need you to succeed.
Speaker 1 (32:45):
Yeah, no, 100%.
It's fascinating, and so wereally have established again,
leading up to this conversation,the importance of sport right
and so, especially as it comesto military, military culture et
cetera.
Now I do want to tailor tosomething again that you had
brought up early, which is thisidea of a world military games
potentially being hosted in theUnited States.
(33:06):
I want to turn it over to you,if you're willing, to share as
much as you can again yourthought kind of the plan or
pathway where it would belocated, sports et cetera,
highlight the importance of itand put out if there's anything
we can do as a community as wellto support it, to try and make
this event as good as it canpossibly be.
Speaker 2 (33:29):
Well, we have a unique opportunity.
Because of my friendship withthe president of the
International Military SportsFederation.
They have offered us, theUnited States, the opportunity
to host the 2027 World MilitaryGames.
It'll be hosted in Charlotte,north Carolina, predominantly at
the UNC Charlotte campus.
We're planning right now on theopening ceremonies being at the
(33:50):
Raceway in Charlotte andclosing ceremonies might be at
Panther Stadium.
We're still looking at that,but I mean, grant, you walked in
the opening ceremonies in China.
They do it right.
I walked in, they do it right.
Speaker 1 (34:02):
I'm telling you, that thing was the craziest thing
I've ever seen.
Speaker 2 (34:04):
Yeah, and I walked in the opening ceremonies in the
Beijing Olympics and I mean, ifyou wanted to say a defining
moment of my life, you knowthree defining moments.
The second I threw my hat up inthe air at the Air Force
Academy when I married my wife.
And then walking into openingceremonies, they're just amazing
.
So the opening ceremonies weanticipate 120,000 people at the
(34:32):
Raceway in Charlotte.
We anticipate the President ofthe United States will open this
.
I mean we want to show China.
Hey, we can play here too, andwe're hoping to have a major
military air show there, maybe amajor rock concert and country
concert.
Can't say yet who we're lookingat for that, but that level
because I want.
You had 120 nations who went andsaw the might of China in 2019.
(34:54):
And my goal is to have thosesame countries come over and see
what the United States ofAmerica can do.
So I want them to see F-22s and, you know, the Blue Angels and
the Thunderbirds, and see whatour air power can do, what our
military can do.
And then I also want them tosee the softer side of America,
that we're great people.
(35:14):
We're, you know it's a greatcountry to come, you know, to
come to, because I want, I wantthose militaries to think twice.
Uh, you know, carrot and stick.
I want them to think twicebefore they ever think about
attacking us.
On the other hand, I want themto think those guys are pretty
nice.
Um, so the plan right now is isto have the 2027 world military
games in Charlotte, in, uh, in,probably in July, or sorry, in
(35:37):
June, and you'll appreciate this.
We're hoping to house all theathletes together in one village
to be able to promote this ideaof the exchange between all the
various different servicemembers, forming these
connections.
We're hoping to have all thevenues actually within walking
distance, because I know one ofthe issues they had in Wuhan was
(35:58):
that it was really hard to getaround.
Speaker 1 (36:00):
Really spread out.
I mean hours apart.
You were taking buses, trains.
It was difficult to you know,get to your stadium right and
then back to the village.
Speaker 2 (36:09):
And so our plan right now is to have everything
inside one enormous venue, andthat's great for the
participants.
It's also great for thespectators.
This is not a well-known sport.
People aren't going to pay 50bucks to go watch a judo
competition, but they might pay50 or 75 bucks for an entry
ticket to come in and watch abasketball game, a track, some
(36:32):
skydiving, orienteering, some ofthese sports that they don't
get to see every day.
So, additionally, the plan rightnow is to do something that has
not been done before, which isto combine an international
military expo at the same time,which would be in downtown
Charlotte, and so we would havethe major US defense contractors
(36:55):
there down there.
We probably also have themdisplays inside the large venue.
So again, young people, kids Ihave a 10-year-old son, he'd
love this to come in and see adrone up close or a satellite
presentation.
So we want to showcase this forAmericans as well, to come in
and see the might of ourmilitary, to see the United
(37:15):
States go beat other countrieson the field of play, carry
ourselves with pride.
But it's going to be a prettymajor undertaking.
We're hosting the Olympics in2028.
This will be, as I said, thesecond largest games that have
ever been held in the UnitedStates, only behind the Olympics
.
So we're a little behind theeight ball in timing because
(37:36):
we've been waiting on some finalgovernment approvals.
The incoming Trumpadministration has assured us
we're going to have thoseapprovals very quickly.
Then we're moving forward with.
You know, there's a lot offederal agencies, state agencies
involved.
You know, when you're bringingRussians and Iranians and North
Koreans and Germans all together, it's very positive, but it's a
lot of moving pieces.
Speaker 1 (37:57):
A lot of moving pieces, yeah, a lot of
contingency plans you got tobuild.
How do we build the energybehind this event?
How do we get eyeballs ontothis, how do we build support
for this and how do we turn thisinto again an event that the
average American would tune into watch Again, hopefully, you
(38:18):
get people there in person, buthow do you again, how do we
actually build support aroundthis event?
Speaker 2 (38:27):
Well, that's one of the things that we're working on
doing.
The Chinese they held thismajor event, but it was very
insular, as you saw.
They didn't have a lot ofoutsiders, and our vision for
this is to really open this upmuch more.
We've been talking to broadcastpartners.
We do believe we've got severalthat are interested in coming
on board.
So part of what I've got to dois I've got to match the
(38:47):
broadcast partner with thefunding sources for that,
because a lot of this is verymissional and so, um, you know
it's not.
They just don't know.
Can we go sell 30 milliondollars of advertising?
Probably not.
Um, so we're looking atstreaming platforms, things like
that.
Uh, we're also just looking atgetting the word out.
That's why I appreciate whatyou're doing, having me on,
(39:10):
because your listeners are a lotof our target people and, and
we believe that by connectingwith business owners, whether
it's defense contractors orwhoever, the more partners we
bring in on this, the morethey're going to promote it.
We're already talking to some ofthe major banking enterprises
out there, because they willhelp us defense contractors,
(39:34):
these major corporations.
They have the ability to alsohelp promote this, which is good
from a commercial point of view, it's great also to promote
this and showcase what theUnited States and the US
military can do.
So we have, as I said, a littlebit of an abbreviated time
schedule, but, if you know, foranybody who's listening to this,
(39:57):
if you're like, wow, this issuper interesting, I want to get
involved.
I run a company We'd beinterested in coming on board as
a commercial partner, that typeof thing.
We want to talk because this isgoing to be an all-hands effort
to get this thing off theground and really show the world
how great America can be withus 100%, and obviously anyone
(40:19):
listening.
Speaker 1 (40:19):
you can always reach out to me and I will get you in
touch with Eli, but if someonewants to reach out to you
directly about these questionsor has an interest in
potentially supporting thisproject, how can they get in
touch with you?
Speaker 2 (40:29):
Best way is shoot me an email.
My personal email is just myname at Gmail.
It's elibremmer E-L-I dotB-R-E-M-E-R.
At gmailcom.
And you know, particularly ifyou're, if you got some
strategic, you know,compatibility with us of some
site.
You know we're not signing ourlarge sponsors yet.
We are still looking for somebid sponsors.
(40:50):
We're hoping we've applied tobe in the presidential
inauguration parade which is runby the U S military.
Um, we've got about 25Olympians and we've got some pro
athletes that have signed up,uh, to help promote this concept
of the, the military warriorathlete.
So, um, you know the because wehaven't fully confirmed, but
(41:14):
let's just say there's a,there's some famous Annapolis
grads that are super interested,that have a strong history in
Olympics and in pro sports and,as I said, we've got some gold
medalists who are militarymembers, who who intend to come
out.
So you know, if that'ssomething you're interested in,
if you want to support that,reach out to me.
Because again we are, becauseagain we don't have any
(41:37):
government funds on this rightnow.
Eventually there will be, butwe are having to raise some
capital around this.
So if that's something you'reinterested in, shoot me an email
and we'd love to chat.
Speaker 1 (41:48):
I love it.
Well, I appreciate it, andsomething I always ask whenever
we bring someone on is again, atthe end of the day, some of our
listeners as well, who areprobably interested in this, are
just prospective high schoolstudents who are trying to learn
a little bit about the academyas well.
So I just want to turn thisopportunity again.
Based on all these lifeexperiences that we've had as a
result of being an Air ForceAcademy and a Naval Academy
graduate, what's your bestrecruiting pitch about why young
(42:10):
men and women should consider aservice academy education?
Speaker 2 (42:19):
Can you see what's on my hands here?
That's an Olympic ring.
That's my Olympic ring.
That's my Air Force ring.
This one means a whole lot moreto me than this one.
I've been to the Olympics.
I've been top of the world insports.
I've done all that and I willtell you that the service
academy, the people you willmeet there, are simply
unparalleled.
It is, in my opinion, is theepitome of what a young man or
(42:43):
woman can do with their lives,and so, if they're considering
it, take it seriously, respectit.
I grew up next to the Air ForceAcademy.
The people my biggest mentorswere Air Force Academy cadets.
My brother went to the AirForce Academy and so I had great
respect for it.
One of my lifetime mentors isSenator Ben Nighthorse Campbell.
(43:04):
He gave me my nomination to theAcademy.
He's also a military Olympian.
He competed in the Olympics in1964 while he was in the Air
Force.
So there are some great thingsyou can do in your life.
I've had the opportunity, as Isaid, to do amazing things in my
life.
Graduating from a United StatesService Academy is probably the
(43:25):
top of that pinnacle.
So you know, I would encourageyou.
You know, are you going to haveas much fun at a service
academy as you will at some ofthe other schools you get
scholarships to, I sure hope notdoors that it opens.
I mean from you know peopleI've been able to meet united
states senators, billionaires,uh, professional athletes, I
(43:48):
mean across the board thenetwork I've got, I mean grant.
The reason we're on the calltoday is you and I both wear the
same, effectively the same,ring.
And if you're a young person,if you're the parent of a young
person and you want to set yourkid up for life the beauty of a
service academy.
My extended family came out ofthe Ivy Leagues.
My mom and my dad are both IvyLeague educated.
(44:09):
You can buy your way into anIvy League.
You can't buy your way into orout of a service academy.
And so if you want to berespected for the rest of your
life, go to a service academy,kick butt at a service academy,
serve your country.
It is one of the greatestthings you can do.
Speaker 1 (44:26):
Oh yeah, absolutely Well, Eli, you're the man.
Thank you so much for takingthis time today.
I want to turn it over to youIf you have any last thoughts or
things that you wanted to bringup that we may not have weaved
into the conversation, naturally, so I'll just turn it over to
you for any any last thoughtsthat you may have.
Speaker 2 (44:39):
Well, you know, thanks, thanks for having me on.
You know, I always appreciatethe other service academies,
remembering that there is oneout here in Colorado.
I was at an event in WashingtonDC a couple of years ago for
service academy grads and thisgal comes in and says oh, you
know, I don't know you did you?
I think she went to west point.
She said did you go toannapolis?
I said no.
She said, well, this is serviceacademy only.
(45:00):
I'm like, come on, but, um, youknow, no, thanks for having me
on.
And and seriously, if, if you'reout there and you're thinking
about this and saying, hey, thisis something I want to get
involved in, this is something Iwant to get involved in, this
is something I want tofinancially support.
Or I got a friend I want tointroduce you to.
Runs a company.
(45:21):
Shoot me an email, I'll say itagain.
It's elibremmer E-L-I dotB-R-E-M-E-R at gmailcom.
It's super easy to reach.
Shoot me an email, I'llschedule a call with you.
This is a service academyfamily and we would love to have
all the help that we can getpushing this forward, both for
the World Military Games andthen also hopefully pushing a
(45:43):
resurgence of military sportsand the warrior ethos that
military sports can help create.
Speaker 1 (45:50):
Absolutely Well.
Thank you so much, eli.
This has been a pleasure.
It's always fun getting toshare stories about this and
again, when I think back on it,the World Military Games was my
dad and I were talking about itthe other day as I was preparing
for this interview like thecoolest life experience we've
ever had, and it's not evenclose Like he came out to China
to be a part of it.
He was there for the two weekslike came and traveled to all
(46:10):
the games.
There's nothing like it.
And so, again, to promote theevent, to bring as much
attention to it and to build apipeline of military sports
culture again, to dominate inthese events and compete at an
extremely high level is justsomething I can get behind every
day of the week.
Speaker 2 (46:27):
Grant, when you walked into the opening
ceremonies, were y'all chantingUSA, USA.
Speaker 1 (46:32):
USA the whole time man.
Speaker 2 (46:33):
Isn't that just one of the greatest feelings Chills.
Speaker 1 (46:38):
I'm telling you.
There's a picture of usmarching around, because it was
like a massive track around.
We did a huge loop carrying theAmerican flag, all 100-plus
athletes of us in our militaryuniforms, chanting USA as we
were walking in.
Literal chills, right, literalchills, as the stadium was, just
you know, roaring with energy.
Speaker 2 (46:59):
And you will never forget that.
For the rest of your life.
You'll never forget thatfeeling.
None of those other young menwill ever forget that feeling,
and that's what I want to bring,as I said, to the next
generation.
Speaker 1 (47:10):
Yeah, man, absolutely Well.
This has been incredible.
Thank you so much.
Can't wait to hopefully getsome people over in your way and
support this initiative.
So I appreciate you taking thetime this morning to talk about
it and I can't wait to bring itto life, and you best believe
I'm going to be in Charlotte in2027.
I'm excited to be a part ofthis in whatever way I can, and
(47:30):
go witness some of this amazingstuff that's coming to life.
Speaker 2 (47:33):
I really appreciate it.
We'll be happy to have youthere.
Academy Insider is welcomeanywhere.
I love it.
Speaker 1 (47:38):
My guy.
I appreciate you All right.
Well, thank you so much to theAcademy Insider audience.
I hope you had a good listen.
Reach out with any questions.
Otherwise, have a great day.
Thank you so much.
Thank you so much for listeningto this episode of the Academy
Insider podcast.
I really hope you liked it,enjoyed it and learned something
during this time.
If you did, please feel free tolike and subscribe or leave a
comment about the episode.
(47:59):
We really appreciate to hearyour feedback about everything
and continue to make AcademyInsider an amazing service that
guides, serves and supportsmidshipmen, future midshipmen
and their families.
Thank you.
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