February 16, 2018 • 32 mins
We’re cheering on team USA - and especially this extraordinary boundary-breaking women of color.
Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
Hey, this is Emily and you're listening to stuff Mom
never told you. First, I want to give a major
shout out and huge thank you to everyone in Colorado
(00:25):
who came out to our Powerful Women in Podcasting panel
on Tuesday night this week. It was so awesome to
share a powerful space with so many rad, sminty listeners
who came out to say hello. So shout out to
you you came out to that event, and many thanks
to Cat Jaffee of House of Pod who organized the event,
(00:47):
as well as my fellow panelists there, Barry of Podcasts
in color and Claire Enjoy, the fitness duo behind the
podcast Girls Gone Wad That's w O d Wad as
an work out daily. It was such a blast to
hang out with y'all in person, and I hope we
can do it again soon. Today's Conversation is a similar
(01:08):
kind of shout out episode in that we are just
bringing some love to today's Conversation for a few absolutely
incredible women who are currently representing Team USA in the
Winter Olympics. That's right, Emily, I couldn't be more excited
(01:28):
to shout out these awesome, dynamic women of color who
are really doing their part to change the face of
how we think about winter sports exactly. And it's so
critical that we trying to spotlight on women of color
of the Women Olympics, because in the past, the Winter
Olympics have looked pretty darn white. And as much as
we'd love to give a shout out and tell the
(01:49):
stories of every amazing woman of color at the Olympics,
this year, we're sticking to the US team so that
we can basically not be here all day. Um, but
there are so many great American women of color who
are representing Team USA that we wanted to shine a
spotlight on their incredible achievements. Yeah, it's interesting. I'm definitely
(02:10):
guilty of spreading the misnomer that winter sports are things
that white people do. Growing up, we never really went skiing,
we never did ice skating, and I sort of got
into my head that those were things that black folks
didn't do. I also grew up hearing the misnomer that
black folks don't really die with the cold. And so
again you can see how these cultural misconceptions that I
(02:32):
myself I'm guilty of holding and perpetuating, can keep this
particular subset of sports to be thinking of as kind
of a white thing. Yeah, And I mean, honestly, that
misconception isn't grounded in nothing, because if you look at
the nine point four million skiers in the United States,
of them are white. So I mean skiing is also
(02:53):
from a socioeconomic standpoint, such a privileged sport. It's a
hard thing to get into because it's expensive, especially when
you go for just a day. Right. A lift ticket
on a daily basis is super expensive, but a lift
ticket on a season pass level, as I am the
proud new owner of, is super affordable. But it's sort
of like a barrier to entry in terms of especially
(03:14):
if you're urban dwelling quite frankly, access to ski mountains
and all the expenses that come along with it is
a pretty high barrier to entry, right. And if you
just don't grow up having these kinds of winter sports
be part of your every day, like you don't grow
up going to the mountain every weekend or whatever, you
can sort of see how that perpetuates this idea that
it's something that's not for you, And that's probably why
(03:35):
you don't see more folks of color getting involved because
of these different barriers that just habits so that it's
not an everyday part of your upbringing. Exactly. One of
the incredible Olympians who were going to talk more about today,
Aaron Jackson, said when offering advice to young athletes of
color who hoped to compete internationally, she said, quote, don't
let the representation or lack there uf deter you from
(03:57):
getting out there and trying these sports. Even if you
don't see other athletes out there, it's always nice to
be the first, which she knows a thing or dear about.
So I love that this year's boundary breaking Olympic athletes
are in so many ways changing the look of the
Winter Olympics. In the past, it was really dominated by
(04:19):
wealthy Nordic and Scandinavian countries, and even now the Winter
Olympics only include less than half as many countries as
the Summer Olympics. So you know, from a global standpoint,
there's a lack of representation. From a racial standpoint, per
the countries that compete in the Winter Olympics, there's also
been a historic lack of representation, which is part of
(04:40):
what gets me so excited about these incredible women and
the changing look of the Winter Olympics this year totally.
I'm so excited that these women are finally getting their
due and helping to really flip the script on this narrative.
Because if you're a little black girl or a little
brown girl watching these amazing powerhouse athletes kicking on the
snow and on the ice, you might think that could
(05:00):
be me one day. And so something I always like
to remind folks is you don't know who's watching and
who you are, planting that seed within that this could
be something that they could do. And part of me
wishes a young bridget Todd and maybe seeing more girls
that looks like me out on the ice. I had
to confess I'm not super into the Olympics in general.
(05:20):
I mean, this year has really been you know, I
mean it sounds bad. I just love it when black
women win, right, So I'm like, wake me up with
a black woman win, so my kids and be like, yeah,
let's go, girl, get it, blah blah blah. And then
any other time I'm like, Olympics will at Olympics. Who.
So that's my that's my confession. Not watching the primetime
coverage every day, not at all. But I know when
(05:41):
one of us wins, and then I'm all of a
sudden Bob Costas, I'm like, let me break down from
what happened in this In this Bob sled historic black
women's win, overnight snowboarding expert Bridget Todd's here to weigh
in on how incredible pretty much I love it. I mean,
this year's Winter Olympics are extraordinary when it comes to
how much representation shin of of folks of color, people
(06:01):
of color are competing this year. However, before we get
too excited, before we share with you some of the
stand out, extraordinary athletes who are competing on behalf of
Team USA, I think we should also temper those cheers
for a moment with a quick reality check on the numbers.
Out of nearly three thousand athletes competing at this year's Games,
(06:23):
black athletes and this isn't just black women, this is
black athletes in general make up just one point four
five percent of those vying for medals. According to BuzzFeed,
Non white athletes, meaning black Asian American Olympians, et cetera,
account for just under nine percent of the American team.
(06:43):
So it's great and historic and all of that, but
let's not get too excited. It really demonstrates how much
further we actually have to go to get racial parody
on this issue. I am all about celebrating the awesome
achievements of these awesome women, but I want to keep
it real that we have a long way to go. Yeah,
exact way. And as to your prior point, you know,
people can't be what they can't see. So I think
(07:06):
progress begets progress on a thing like this when we
see more people representative different backgrounds and different races and
different sexualities, which has also been kind of groundbreaking. Uh
and this year's Olympics, it gives permission to others to
see themselves in that light as well. Maybe I could
be a little future Olympians someday. There are lots of
children who are saying that right now. I hope that's true.
But I hope there's a little brown and black girls
(07:27):
out there thinking that's gonna be me. Yes, me too.
If you sminthy listener, know a little black or brown
girl who's got those kinds of vibes going, we want
to see the photos. We want to see her, um
so share her story with us after today's episode. So
let's get down to it right there are two women
who I am especially excited about for this year's winner Olympics,
(07:51):
and that is Alana Myers Taylor and Lauren Gibbs. And
I have to put in a little disclaimer here because
I am very biased in that I adore Lauren Gibbs.
Because when I was a little college freshman entering my
freshman year at Brown University on the volleyball team, Lauren
Gibbs was my senior captain and she was by far
(08:14):
the strongest member of our team. She was a lefty
like me, she was a right side player like me,
and she was all my goals embodied into one human being.
And so to see my former college captain of the
volleyball team ascend to new heights, granted in a totally
different sport, has been an amazing years long sort of
(08:37):
journey that I've I've borne witness too. So she just
an amazing athlete large Like whether it's volleyball or winter
sports or whatever, she's like good at whatever she touches.
She is fierce. Okay, she got really into CrossFit, and
I think that's part of how she was discovered in
some ways. But let me back up for a second
and mentioned that Alana and Lauren are competing in this
(08:57):
year's US Bob sled team, and going from volley ball
to Bob's letting is not, you know, and not a simple,
I think thing to do. But what's fascinating is that
a lot of Myers Tailor is a veteran of the sport.
She has long been one of the most powerful pilots
in the sport writ large. She competed in the Vancouver
(09:17):
and Sochy Olympics, as well as numerous World Championships that
she was a part of. Uh and she was on
the hunt for her teammate, you know, she was sort
of looking and searching for and taking a very active
part in grooming the next champion to be her teammate.
So it's really cool to see her paired with Lauren Gibbs,
who has been training very hard for years now to
(09:41):
qualify and make this year her Olympic debut. The pair
are a spotlight in terms of the strengths that they
bring to the table, One a season veteran and one
described by NBC as a quote eager first time olympian,
which is a major understatement. Knowing I just gotta make
(10:01):
a quick plug here. You know how they always do
those female reboots of movies like Female Ghostbusters Female this.
I would die for someone doing a cool running style
boot of black women Bob's Letters. Yes, this thing writes itself.
It does. Who would you cast as obviously those two? Yeah,
I mean who would you if they were in the movie.
Who would play your friend Lauren? I don't think anyone
(10:23):
could play Lauren Gibbs, but Lauren Gibbs. Okay, knowing these
women and knowing Lauren especially, there's no one you can
do it like her. If you're a Hollywood Asian out there,
call them make this movie happen. Please, We're dying for
a cool Runnings reboot. And actually, isn't this year Jamaican
bob sleddings happening at the Winter list is so wait, okay,
(10:43):
smithy listeners, I have to level with you. We just
took a quick break to look up the details around
the Jamaican bob sledding team because we were right. This
is the first year that Jamaica was putting up a
women's bob sledding team, which is extraordinarire talk about women
of color at the Olympics, and yet the head line
we just came up against is Winter Olympics Jamaican bob
(11:04):
sled coach Quits says she owns team sled, so basically
the coach is like that, only am I out. I'm
taking that sled with me taking sled. Oh my goodness,
it's awful. It's hard out there for a bob's letter. Seriously,
I hope it all works out. But this is a
developing story. You can always count on Sminthy for your
late breaking Jamaican bobsled team news and updates. Stay tuned
(11:28):
for more. We should really be um the announcers for
the impacts. What are they that we I think the
commentator you would be Tera Lepinsky. I would be Johnny
weirphones amazing, amazing. I love that that you watch something
and it's like these this beautiful display and they're both
so unimpressed. But yeah, they're like that contrast. Yeah, all right,
(11:50):
let's get back at it to refocus here on the
incredible a lot of Myers and Lauren Gibbs. A little
background on Alana. She actually played softball at g W
you right around the corner from here before she became
one of the world's top bobs letters and a decorated Olympian.
She didn't just compete in those World championships and at
the Olympics, she also meddled there. She won the bronze
(12:14):
medal at the Winter Olympic Games as a part of
the two women bob sled teams. So now she's back,
she's hungry for more. But what's really interesting is the
Washington posted this great article kind of chronicling her come up,
and she says that the hardest part of her job
is constantly looking for talent. She says, quote, I'll do
(12:34):
whatever I need to do to bring more athletes into
this sport because, according to the USA women's bob sled
coach Sepplaza, she says, quote, you never can have enough
people and athletes coming in to try out. That is
what we live for. Really, not enough athletes in the
United States grow up bob sledding to field a national team,
So the federation has to work double time on recruitment
(12:57):
efforts um and really convince them that their path to
the Olympics comes in the form of bob flooding. It's
a really interesting persuasion campaign. But I mean that makes
sense because what kind of kid grows up thinking they're
going to bob sled their way to the Olympics. Yeah,
that seems someonelikely, but what I love about that is
the investment in lifting up new talent. And so you know,
(13:19):
one of our sort of de facto sayings on the
show is lift as you climb. I love that she's
not just thinking about herself. She says, I need to
get a team together. How can I develop and foster
new talent and make sure folks know this is an
It may sound unlikely, but it is an avenue and
a sport that you could actually do exactly. And what
I love about how Lauren got into the picture here
(13:41):
is that I actually interviewed her for a Bossed Up
webinar that we were hosting a few years ago now
because of the fascinating career transition story that she has
behind her. Lauren Gibbs has an NBA from Pepperdine. Lauren
Gibbs was crushing it on a corporate career trajectory when
she was persuaded to leave that behind to train full
(14:03):
time for the Olympics. Can you imagine that conversation at
your dinner table, mom, Dad, I have some big news.
I'm leaving my successful corporate gig. Oh what am I doing?
I'm going to be a professional bobs letter chasing boss
led glory. I know. It's insane, amazing, It's really insane.
And Lauren herself has said, and I quote, I had
(14:24):
a corporate job and wore a suit to work every day,
and I just kind of felt like I wasn't living
my authentic self or doing what I was passionate about.
At the time, she was living in Denver, of all places,
working as a sales manager for an online retailer, and
doing CrossFit as a hobby. You know. Granted, when Lauren
does anything as a hobby, she crushes it. So she
(14:44):
was making waves in the CrossFit community in Denver when
she encountered a friend UH and a rugby player, Jillian Potter,
one day at the gym. Potter recognized Lauren's strength and
power right away and started asking her questions leading up
to urging Gibbs to try out for the US bob
(15:05):
flooding team, which really, I mean, if it hadn't been
for Jillian Potter probably wouldn't have occurred to her. But
she had played on the US rugby team with Myers
Taylor and saw that Gibbs had the strength, speed and
power to be a brakeman for Myers Taylor at the time,
who was also in Bob's letting. How what a story.
I mean talk about a come up story. And it's
like meeting all the right people who encouraged her and
(15:27):
all the right ways at all the right times really
is kind of why she is where she is. It
sounds right. And her first reaction in the gym was quote,
I'm like, no, one, Bob's led That's just not something
people do. And I mean, that's what I would think, Like,
Bob sledding is something that you people just don't grow
up thinking is a thing that people do, and this
incredible Bob Slayer is no different. It's not like she
(15:48):
grew up wanting to be a Bob's letter exactly. So
after doing some research, Gibbs went on to Colorado Springs
the training center there to learn more and she's like, okay,
this is like in the Olympics. And you know, at
the time she was connecting with Myers, who was already
a two time Olympic medalists, so she knew she was
in good hands. And then it was years of intense
(16:11):
competitive physical training and competitions in the World Cup level
for her to really get there. But that meant walking
away from her mb A corporate job, right, Like walking
away from that kind of stability to pursue this all out.
So I could not be more excited that that initial
meeting between a lot of Myers Tailor and Lauren Gibbs
(16:33):
went swimming lely and seemed to go, well, Uh, they
were on the right track. Did I couldn't make a
swimming reference and then not get it right? Okay, So
I'm excited to be cheering them on, especially seeing someone
like Lauren Gibbs I've known for so long just rise
up in this Bob setting world. So get excited, y'all.
(16:54):
What a story, right, Let's hear more of those stories
after a quick break and we're back, just getting pretty
excited talking through some of these awesome red women of
color on skates, on sleds, on skis, all of that
good stuff, one of whom is Aaron Jackson. Aaron will
(17:17):
be the first black woman to compete for the US
in a long track speed skating, which is freaking awesome. Again,
Aaron is someone who really kind of took to this sport.
A fun fact about her is that she just sort
of didn't get her start skating at all. She was
initially a roller derby champion and just four months into
speed skating nailed it and qualified, which is she still
(17:39):
skates with the new Jack's City Rollers out of Jacksonville,
where she's from. At just twenty five years old, she
only had four months of speed skating on the ice
before making it to the US speed Skating Trials in
early January. She really at the time said she hoped
to someday make it to the Olympics, and boom, there
(17:59):
she is. Again. That just shows what can happen when
you try new things and try something out. The same
way we were talking about how you might not grow
up thinking that bob sliding is the thing that you do,
but if you try it, you never know. And so
I love that Jackson maybe thought of herself as a
derby girl rocking her scathe on the rink and just
try it, tried trying out those skills on the ice
(18:20):
and it was really successful. I also think it's important
to note that the same thing that we were talking
about earlier in the show about how you don't really
see many women of color out there in winter sports.
Jackson is pretty keenly aware of this. She's quoted as
telling Time it's a pretty exciting thing, especially since you
don't see many people of color in Winter Olympics. And
again that only is she aware that she's sort of
(18:40):
breaking barriers in that way, but who knows what her
presence in the Winter Olympics will do. I'm so excited
to see the legacy that these women have made reverberate
through history and through time, and I do not doubt
that they will be responsible single handedly for changing the game. Absolutely.
Don't you think that there must be a lot of
women out there and people in general out there who
(19:03):
are like potential Olympic athletes who have just gone undiscovered.
Oh my god, Yes, it's just it's just hitting me.
How are you saying that maybe I'm a potential Olympic
athlete undiscovered because of racism and systematic barriers and gendered
by its Yet Oh my god, I could be it.
That's exactly what I'm going for. A RB Bridge is
about to go try for you in four years for
(19:25):
the Olympics. I'll do it in I love it. So
there's another incredible speed skater that we have to mention
as we're talking about Aaron Jackson, and that is mom
A Biny who is. I am convinced the happiest human
being I have ever seen in my life I've ever
seen on TV. When I was watching the opening ceremonies
(19:47):
because I do because I'm an Olympic nerd and I
love that stuff. Um, they interviewed mom A and just
the kind of beaming, smile and effervescent personality that was
coming through may me lean in and want to know
everything I could about her. And the more tape I
watch of Mammy, the more you will see like she
is this overjoyed every time there's a microphone in her face, granted,
(20:10):
because she's crushing barriers and she's absolutely dominating in her field.
So let's say to listen into the interview she gave
right after succeeding in the qualifying trials that would determine
whether or not she would make it to the Olympics.
It's crazy awesome because like, I've dreamt about this movement
(20:31):
for like since June, and I am just so happy
right now. She's completely losing it with joy, which I
absolutely love. You have to watch mom a viney on
video to get the full effect. But she is just
the most overjoyed, grateful, fierce competitor I've ever seen interviewed. Yeah,
(20:53):
I love the effervescence that she gives off, Like, how
do you listen to her speak and not feel happy.
It's so easy to root for someone when they seem
genuinely excited to be doing their craft and genuinely stoked
to be doing it so well. So I'm really rooting
for her. And again, I just think it just goes
to show how when you give black women and black
girls a chance, they nail it and it's just amazing.
(21:15):
It's amazing for everybody, and so we need to be
inspiring and lifting up and encouraging and all of that
to make sure that we have more. Maybe Bailey's out
there exactly, and I think she kind of knows that, what,
you know, what kind of an importance her presence at
the Olympics is serving. She says, quote, I am super
honored to be able to be part of this because
I know that US African American girls and women haven't
(21:36):
been able to be in this situation before. I'm really
honored to inspire other women African American or any other race,
to get out there and do what you can to succeed.
So it's no coincidence to me that almost every woman
that we've talked about so far, when asked what does
this mean to you, how are you feeling, they all
throw it back to that that I understand that there
are not that many of us out there, and that's
(21:58):
why it's so important for me to be here. I
think that it's so interesting and not at all surprising
that each and every one of them seems so keenly
aware of what it means that they're They're absolutely and
I mean she is breaking down barriers. She's becoming a first.
Viney is the first black woman to qualify for the
short track team, following Shawnee Davis, the first black male
(22:23):
athlete to make the short track team back in two
thousand two. So we've got Aaron Jackson, the first black
woman to serve on the speed skating team for the
long track, and in the same year, mam A Viney
the first black woman on the short track. It's just
an amazing year full of first and it shouldn't go
without being mentioned that Mammy turned eighteen just days before
(22:46):
the opening ceremony of the Games of January, making her
the youngest member of Team usas speed skating team as well.
Can you imagine a lot of first, a lot of first?
Can we say this might be one of the most
historic Black History Months ever? Right? And tell you last
Black History Month open with Beyonce performing at the super Bowl.
This one is opening with all these amazing black women
(23:08):
killing at the Olympics and black panther and black panther.
So it's it's been a it's been a good February.
It's been a good February. All right, let's take a
quick break, and when we come back, we've got more
wildly awesome women of color at the Winter Olympics. And
(23:31):
we're back and we're talking through some of the incredible
women of color at this year's Winter Olympics who are
representing Team USA. And we were just mentioning how incredibly
young mom a Byney is at eighteen years old. She
just turned eighteen a few days before the opening ceremonies. Now,
(23:51):
one of my favorite performances to watch at the Olympics
thus far has been the half pipe. Um the snowboarding
half pipe is just an incredibable feat to watch the
way that those athletes make It seems so effortless as
they're floating through the air and trying to stick their
landings on the way down, only to soar once again.
Gives me chills, especially as someone who does on occasion
(24:14):
fly down a mountain on a pair of skis. I
just cannot imagine doing what these snowboarders are doing on
the half pipe. And the one you have to watch
if you missed it is Chloe Kim, who already earned
a gold medal on Tuesday morning, and in doing so,
basically realized this American immigrant dream. I love the way
(24:36):
that she was talking about her parents who immigrated to
the United States from South Korea only to go watch
their incredible, profound daughter compete at the Olympic Games in
South Korea. It seems like this coming home American story
and that VI was totally totally on display after her win.
After she won, her father reportedly pointed to himself and
(24:58):
kept shouting, American dream, American dream, and honestly, give us
you chills, because that is the American dream, right that
we all are Americans and that we can all represent
our country and no matter where what our origin story
is where we come from for all Americans United, and
it's just it's I don't often feel that sort of
patriotic rara warm fuzzy feeling. But I definitely got it then, Yeah,
(25:20):
I mean, Chloe says that herself. She says, quote, my
dad is definitely sacrificed a lot for me, and I
don't know if I could do it if I were
in his shoes, leaving your life behind and chasing your
dream because your kid is passionate about this sport. I
think today I did it for my family, and I
am so grateful for them. Is As it turns out,
John Jin, her father, prodded Chloe to jump out of
(25:41):
snowboard when she was only four years old, and nearly
a decade ago, he quit his job as an engineer
to help his precocious daughter reach glory on the slopes.
Her parents frequently drove Chloe from their home in Torrance, California,
to Mammoth Mountain, where she trains, a six hour ride. Wow.
(26:02):
That just goes to show you that oftentimes when these
athletes win, it isn't just a win for them, it's
a win for their entire family. Right, It's a win
for your dad who quit his job and got up
early to drive you to practice and all of that.
And I just love seeing these athletes reaffirm that. It's
it's so beautiful and it just reminds you how behind
every athlete is a village of some kind or another,
(26:22):
our family who has made their athletic dream possible by
shuttling their kid around, or by getting them on the slopes,
or by making those opportunities a priority. And it's just incredible.
And beyond that, something that's been really heartwarming to see
is how that community, that village in a lot of
these cases is often to other athletes. It's other athletes
lifting each other up and getting them there and and
(26:44):
lifting as they climb. It's really a beautiful story about
how athleticism really is a tapestry of support. Just really,
it's really something. It is a beautiful story. And if
you have missed it, like I said earlier, you have
to go back and see Chloe Kim's performance on her
very first run, she landed a score above ninety three
out of a hundred. I mean, I'm no sportscaster here,
(27:06):
but she was landing tricks that I can't even pronounce,
and the entire rest of the competition was struggling to
keep up with her scores after Chloe's first run, but
by the time that her final take on the half
pipe came around, she was already gold medal secure. She
was free to take a victory lap, but instead she
added an extra exclamation point, as NBC described it, by
(27:28):
landing her most technical sequence of tricks, the back to
back ten eighties, the combination of a front side ten
eight into a cab ten eight in the middle of
her run, and her final score from judges came in
at nine eight point to five, which is insane, making
her officially the new Olympic Champion. I love her. You
(27:52):
have like a girl crush on her. I do have
a girl crush on her. She's just so California cool.
Everything about her is like so effortlessly cool, and she's
like the epitome of snowboarder cheek in every way snowboarder
ch Well, I'm a skier, so it's not me. Um.
Snowboarders are like the way cool, laid back, like you know,
(28:14):
shredding on the slopes without even looking like you're breaking
a sweat kind of cool people. Um, at least some
of them are, some of them are very annoying as
a skier. But Chloe is like the epitome of just
effortless perfection and it's amazing to watch her. And I
don't want to say that to detract from all the
effort that went into it, because clearly she busted her butt.
(28:34):
But that's the thing. She makes it look easy, something
that takes an incredible amount of training and skill and
poise and talent. She makes it look easy. She makes
it look like anyone who get out there and do it. Yeah,
she's amazing. And speaking of making things on the snow
and ice look effortless, we would be remiss to not
mention Marai Nagasu. Now, Marai made history when she became
the first American woman at the Olympics to land the
(28:56):
coveted and notoriously difficult triple axel, and she did so
making it look like it was nothing like it was
the easiest thing in the world, you know, just the
vision of poise and athleticism. And again it shows you
how difficult these things are, how much training and talent
and skill and strength they take. These women do it
and they make it look so easy. Yeah, it's an
(29:17):
incredibly tough skill because the triple axel is the only
jump in which the skater flies into the air while
facing forward, requiring a three and a half rotation before landing.
Only two other women in the entire world throughout history
have ever completed such a feat at the Olympics, the
two others being from Japan Midori Ito and Mao Asada.
(29:42):
Something that I love that Nagasu said about her win
is that she said, this is definitely history or history,
whatever way you want to put it, and it kind
of it just goes to show these women know that
they are breaking barriers out there and how important that is.
I think it's interesting how each and every one of
these women they're not just out there doing it for themselves.
They're doing it for all of us, and they're keenly
aware of how significant their presence is. I love that
(30:05):
she finished for the one thirty seven point five three
overall score, which was the second best of the Ladies
free skate, helping Team USA to win a bronze for
the team event in figure skating. When speaking to the
press after her win, she said, quote, I knew in
my heart that this day would come. I love that
don't you kind of want to be best friends with
(30:26):
all of these women? Yes, I mean I saw her
performance lived. It was beautiful. It was absolutely astounding. And
the Los Angeles native has competed in the Olympics before.
She was at the Olympic Games in Vancouver where she
finished fourth, so she has a long history of crushing
it at the Olympics, and it's just wonderful to see
such a poised, incredible athlete like her absolutely nail this
(30:52):
incredibly hard trick under all of that pressure, with all
of those eyeballs, making this Olympics her moment to shine.
I can't even imagine. And beyond the physical strength, this
takes the mental and emotional poise you would have to have,
I certainly laugh, do not have it. I mean what
we've talked about the world of figure skating and how
hard it is to be a fierce athlete and ladylike
(31:13):
throughout the whole competition with Sanya Harding's up. Yeah, it's
just a good reminder how it's often this tight rope
of balancing so many things mental, emotional, physical, you know,
looks this that, and some of these women do it,
and they do it so well. It's just almost hard
to fathom. Absolutely, it's amazing. Well, I hope you have
enjoyed walking through with me some of the most incredible
(31:36):
women of color competing at this year's Olympics. I certainly
have enjoyed watching them get up there and prove to
the world that women can do anything, and that we
need more women of color in these arenas totally. So
go out there and encourage the women of color in
your life to do whatever they want, whether that's bob sledding,
or ice skating or whatever, skiing, snowboarding. Let's build a
(31:59):
culture that says it's okay for women of color to
do those things. I love it, So tell us s
Mendy listeners, who are the women that are inspiring you
this Olympic season, Because we know we couldn't have mentioned
them all. These are just some of our favorites we
wanted to shine a spotlight on. Hit us up on
Twitter at mom Stuff podcast, Send us a snap of
the Olympic dreamers in your world on Instagram at stuff
(32:22):
Mom Never Told You, And, as always our inboxes open
mom Stuff at how stuff works dot com.
Hey, this is Emily and you're listening to stuff Mom
never told you. First, I want to give a major
shout out and huge thank you to everyone in Colorado
(00:25):
who came out to our Powerful Women in Podcasting panel
on Tuesday night this week. It was so awesome to
share a powerful space with so many rad, sminty listeners
who came out to say hello. So shout out to
you you came out to that event, and many thanks
to Cat Jaffee of House of Pod who organized the event,
(00:47):
as well as my fellow panelists there, Barry of Podcasts
in color and Claire Enjoy, the fitness duo behind the
podcast Girls Gone Wad That's w O d Wad as
an work out daily. It was such a blast to
hang out with y'all in person, and I hope we
can do it again soon. Today's Conversation is a similar
(01:08):
kind of shout out episode in that we are just
bringing some love to today's Conversation for a few absolutely
incredible women who are currently representing Team USA in the
Winter Olympics. That's right, Emily, I couldn't be more excited
(01:28):
to shout out these awesome, dynamic women of color who
are really doing their part to change the face of
how we think about winter sports exactly. And it's so
critical that we trying to spotlight on women of color
of the Women Olympics, because in the past, the Winter
Olympics have looked pretty darn white. And as much as
we'd love to give a shout out and tell the
(01:49):
stories of every amazing woman of color at the Olympics,
this year, we're sticking to the US team so that
we can basically not be here all day. Um, but
there are so many great American women of color who
are representing Team USA that we wanted to shine a
spotlight on their incredible achievements. Yeah, it's interesting. I'm definitely
(02:10):
guilty of spreading the misnomer that winter sports are things
that white people do. Growing up, we never really went skiing,
we never did ice skating, and I sort of got
into my head that those were things that black folks
didn't do. I also grew up hearing the misnomer that
black folks don't really die with the cold. And so
again you can see how these cultural misconceptions that I
(02:32):
myself I'm guilty of holding and perpetuating, can keep this
particular subset of sports to be thinking of as kind
of a white thing. Yeah, And I mean, honestly, that
misconception isn't grounded in nothing, because if you look at
the nine point four million skiers in the United States,
of them are white. So I mean skiing is also
(02:53):
from a socioeconomic standpoint, such a privileged sport. It's a
hard thing to get into because it's expensive, especially when
you go for just a day. Right. A lift ticket
on a daily basis is super expensive, but a lift
ticket on a season pass level, as I am the
proud new owner of, is super affordable. But it's sort
of like a barrier to entry in terms of especially
(03:14):
if you're urban dwelling quite frankly, access to ski mountains
and all the expenses that come along with it is
a pretty high barrier to entry, right. And if you
just don't grow up having these kinds of winter sports
be part of your every day, like you don't grow
up going to the mountain every weekend or whatever, you
can sort of see how that perpetuates this idea that
it's something that's not for you, And that's probably why
(03:35):
you don't see more folks of color getting involved because
of these different barriers that just habits so that it's
not an everyday part of your upbringing. Exactly. One of
the incredible Olympians who were going to talk more about today,
Aaron Jackson, said when offering advice to young athletes of
color who hoped to compete internationally, she said, quote, don't
let the representation or lack there uf deter you from
(03:57):
getting out there and trying these sports. Even if you
don't see other athletes out there, it's always nice to
be the first, which she knows a thing or dear about.
So I love that this year's boundary breaking Olympic athletes
are in so many ways changing the look of the
Winter Olympics. In the past, it was really dominated by
(04:19):
wealthy Nordic and Scandinavian countries, and even now the Winter
Olympics only include less than half as many countries as
the Summer Olympics. So you know, from a global standpoint,
there's a lack of representation. From a racial standpoint, per
the countries that compete in the Winter Olympics, there's also
been a historic lack of representation, which is part of
(04:40):
what gets me so excited about these incredible women and
the changing look of the Winter Olympics this year totally.
I'm so excited that these women are finally getting their
due and helping to really flip the script on this narrative.
Because if you're a little black girl or a little
brown girl watching these amazing powerhouse athletes kicking on the
snow and on the ice, you might think that could
(05:00):
be me one day. And so something I always like
to remind folks is you don't know who's watching and
who you are, planting that seed within that this could
be something that they could do. And part of me
wishes a young bridget Todd and maybe seeing more girls
that looks like me out on the ice. I had
to confess I'm not super into the Olympics in general.
(05:20):
I mean, this year has really been you know, I
mean it sounds bad. I just love it when black
women win, right, So I'm like, wake me up with
a black woman win, so my kids and be like, yeah,
let's go, girl, get it, blah blah blah. And then
any other time I'm like, Olympics will at Olympics. Who.
So that's my that's my confession. Not watching the primetime
coverage every day, not at all. But I know when
(05:41):
one of us wins, and then I'm all of a
sudden Bob Costas, I'm like, let me break down from
what happened in this In this Bob sled historic black
women's win, overnight snowboarding expert Bridget Todd's here to weigh
in on how incredible pretty much I love it. I mean,
this year's Winter Olympics are extraordinary when it comes to
how much representation shin of of folks of color, people
(06:01):
of color are competing this year. However, before we get
too excited, before we share with you some of the
stand out, extraordinary athletes who are competing on behalf of
Team USA, I think we should also temper those cheers
for a moment with a quick reality check on the numbers.
Out of nearly three thousand athletes competing at this year's Games,
(06:23):
black athletes and this isn't just black women, this is
black athletes in general make up just one point four
five percent of those vying for medals. According to BuzzFeed,
Non white athletes, meaning black Asian American Olympians, et cetera,
account for just under nine percent of the American team.
(06:43):
So it's great and historic and all of that, but
let's not get too excited. It really demonstrates how much
further we actually have to go to get racial parody
on this issue. I am all about celebrating the awesome
achievements of these awesome women, but I want to keep
it real that we have a long way to go. Yeah,
exact way. And as to your prior point, you know,
people can't be what they can't see. So I think
(07:06):
progress begets progress on a thing like this when we
see more people representative different backgrounds and different races and
different sexualities, which has also been kind of groundbreaking. Uh
and this year's Olympics, it gives permission to others to
see themselves in that light as well. Maybe I could
be a little future Olympians someday. There are lots of
children who are saying that right now. I hope that's true.
But I hope there's a little brown and black girls
(07:27):
out there thinking that's gonna be me. Yes, me too.
If you sminthy listener, know a little black or brown
girl who's got those kinds of vibes going, we want
to see the photos. We want to see her, um
so share her story with us after today's episode. So
let's get down to it right there are two women
who I am especially excited about for this year's winner Olympics,
(07:51):
and that is Alana Myers Taylor and Lauren Gibbs. And
I have to put in a little disclaimer here because
I am very biased in that I adore Lauren Gibbs.
Because when I was a little college freshman entering my
freshman year at Brown University on the volleyball team, Lauren
Gibbs was my senior captain and she was by far
(08:14):
the strongest member of our team. She was a lefty
like me, she was a right side player like me,
and she was all my goals embodied into one human being.
And so to see my former college captain of the
volleyball team ascend to new heights, granted in a totally
different sport, has been an amazing years long sort of
(08:37):
journey that I've I've borne witness too. So she just
an amazing athlete large Like whether it's volleyball or winter
sports or whatever, she's like good at whatever she touches.
She is fierce. Okay, she got really into CrossFit, and
I think that's part of how she was discovered in
some ways. But let me back up for a second
and mentioned that Alana and Lauren are competing in this
(08:57):
year's US Bob sled team, and going from volley ball
to Bob's letting is not, you know, and not a simple,
I think thing to do. But what's fascinating is that
a lot of Myers Tailor is a veteran of the sport.
She has long been one of the most powerful pilots
in the sport writ large. She competed in the Vancouver
(09:17):
and Sochy Olympics, as well as numerous World Championships that
she was a part of. Uh and she was on
the hunt for her teammate, you know, she was sort
of looking and searching for and taking a very active
part in grooming the next champion to be her teammate.
So it's really cool to see her paired with Lauren Gibbs,
who has been training very hard for years now to
(09:41):
qualify and make this year her Olympic debut. The pair
are a spotlight in terms of the strengths that they
bring to the table, One a season veteran and one
described by NBC as a quote eager first time olympian,
which is a major understatement. Knowing I just gotta make
(10:01):
a quick plug here. You know how they always do
those female reboots of movies like Female Ghostbusters Female this.
I would die for someone doing a cool running style
boot of black women Bob's Letters. Yes, this thing writes itself.
It does. Who would you cast as obviously those two? Yeah,
I mean who would you if they were in the movie.
Who would play your friend Lauren? I don't think anyone
(10:23):
could play Lauren Gibbs, but Lauren Gibbs. Okay, knowing these
women and knowing Lauren especially, there's no one you can
do it like her. If you're a Hollywood Asian out there,
call them make this movie happen. Please, We're dying for
a cool Runnings reboot. And actually, isn't this year Jamaican
bob sleddings happening at the Winter list is so wait, okay,
(10:43):
smithy listeners, I have to level with you. We just
took a quick break to look up the details around
the Jamaican bob sledding team because we were right. This
is the first year that Jamaica was putting up a
women's bob sledding team, which is extraordinarire talk about women
of color at the Olympics, and yet the head line
we just came up against is Winter Olympics Jamaican bob
(11:04):
sled coach Quits says she owns team sled, so basically
the coach is like that, only am I out. I'm
taking that sled with me taking sled. Oh my goodness,
it's awful. It's hard out there for a bob's letter. Seriously,
I hope it all works out. But this is a
developing story. You can always count on Sminthy for your
late breaking Jamaican bobsled team news and updates. Stay tuned
(11:28):
for more. We should really be um the announcers for
the impacts. What are they that we I think the
commentator you would be Tera Lepinsky. I would be Johnny
weirphones amazing, amazing. I love that that you watch something
and it's like these this beautiful display and they're both
so unimpressed. But yeah, they're like that contrast. Yeah, all right,
(11:50):
let's get back at it to refocus here on the
incredible a lot of Myers and Lauren Gibbs. A little
background on Alana. She actually played softball at g W
you right around the corner from here before she became
one of the world's top bobs letters and a decorated Olympian.
She didn't just compete in those World championships and at
the Olympics, she also meddled there. She won the bronze
(12:14):
medal at the Winter Olympic Games as a part of
the two women bob sled teams. So now she's back,
she's hungry for more. But what's really interesting is the
Washington posted this great article kind of chronicling her come up,
and she says that the hardest part of her job
is constantly looking for talent. She says, quote, I'll do
(12:34):
whatever I need to do to bring more athletes into
this sport because, according to the USA women's bob sled
coach Sepplaza, she says, quote, you never can have enough
people and athletes coming in to try out. That is
what we live for. Really, not enough athletes in the
United States grow up bob sledding to field a national team,
So the federation has to work double time on recruitment
(12:57):
efforts um and really convince them that their path to
the Olympics comes in the form of bob flooding. It's
a really interesting persuasion campaign. But I mean that makes
sense because what kind of kid grows up thinking they're
going to bob sled their way to the Olympics. Yeah,
that seems someonelikely, but what I love about that is
the investment in lifting up new talent. And so you know,
(13:19):
one of our sort of de facto sayings on the
show is lift as you climb. I love that she's
not just thinking about herself. She says, I need to
get a team together. How can I develop and foster
new talent and make sure folks know this is an
It may sound unlikely, but it is an avenue and
a sport that you could actually do exactly. And what
I love about how Lauren got into the picture here
(13:41):
is that I actually interviewed her for a Bossed Up
webinar that we were hosting a few years ago now
because of the fascinating career transition story that she has
behind her. Lauren Gibbs has an NBA from Pepperdine. Lauren
Gibbs was crushing it on a corporate career trajectory when
she was persuaded to leave that behind to train full
(14:03):
time for the Olympics. Can you imagine that conversation at
your dinner table, mom, Dad, I have some big news.
I'm leaving my successful corporate gig. Oh what am I doing?
I'm going to be a professional bobs letter chasing boss
led glory. I know. It's insane, amazing, It's really insane.
And Lauren herself has said, and I quote, I had
(14:24):
a corporate job and wore a suit to work every day,
and I just kind of felt like I wasn't living
my authentic self or doing what I was passionate about.
At the time, she was living in Denver, of all places,
working as a sales manager for an online retailer, and
doing CrossFit as a hobby. You know. Granted, when Lauren
does anything as a hobby, she crushes it. So she
(14:44):
was making waves in the CrossFit community in Denver when
she encountered a friend UH and a rugby player, Jillian Potter,
one day at the gym. Potter recognized Lauren's strength and
power right away and started asking her questions leading up
to urging Gibbs to try out for the US bob
(15:05):
flooding team, which really, I mean, if it hadn't been
for Jillian Potter probably wouldn't have occurred to her. But
she had played on the US rugby team with Myers
Taylor and saw that Gibbs had the strength, speed and
power to be a brakeman for Myers Taylor at the time,
who was also in Bob's letting. How what a story.
I mean talk about a come up story. And it's
like meeting all the right people who encouraged her and
(15:27):
all the right ways at all the right times really
is kind of why she is where she is. It
sounds right. And her first reaction in the gym was quote,
I'm like, no, one, Bob's led That's just not something
people do. And I mean, that's what I would think, Like,
Bob sledding is something that you people just don't grow
up thinking is a thing that people do, and this
incredible Bob Slayer is no different. It's not like she
(15:48):
grew up wanting to be a Bob's letter exactly. So
after doing some research, Gibbs went on to Colorado Springs
the training center there to learn more and she's like, okay,
this is like in the Olympics. And you know, at
the time she was connecting with Myers, who was already
a two time Olympic medalists, so she knew she was
in good hands. And then it was years of intense
(16:11):
competitive physical training and competitions in the World Cup level
for her to really get there. But that meant walking
away from her mb A corporate job, right, Like walking
away from that kind of stability to pursue this all out.
So I could not be more excited that that initial
meeting between a lot of Myers Tailor and Lauren Gibbs
(16:33):
went swimming lely and seemed to go, well, Uh, they
were on the right track. Did I couldn't make a
swimming reference and then not get it right? Okay, So
I'm excited to be cheering them on, especially seeing someone
like Lauren Gibbs I've known for so long just rise
up in this Bob setting world. So get excited, y'all.
(16:54):
What a story, right, Let's hear more of those stories
after a quick break and we're back, just getting pretty
excited talking through some of these awesome red women of
color on skates, on sleds, on skis, all of that
good stuff, one of whom is Aaron Jackson. Aaron will
(17:17):
be the first black woman to compete for the US
in a long track speed skating, which is freaking awesome. Again,
Aaron is someone who really kind of took to this sport.
A fun fact about her is that she just sort
of didn't get her start skating at all. She was
initially a roller derby champion and just four months into
speed skating nailed it and qualified, which is she still
(17:39):
skates with the new Jack's City Rollers out of Jacksonville,
where she's from. At just twenty five years old, she
only had four months of speed skating on the ice
before making it to the US speed Skating Trials in
early January. She really at the time said she hoped
to someday make it to the Olympics, and boom, there
(17:59):
she is. Again. That just shows what can happen when
you try new things and try something out. The same
way we were talking about how you might not grow
up thinking that bob sliding is the thing that you do,
but if you try it, you never know. And so
I love that Jackson maybe thought of herself as a
derby girl rocking her scathe on the rink and just
try it, tried trying out those skills on the ice
(18:20):
and it was really successful. I also think it's important
to note that the same thing that we were talking
about earlier in the show about how you don't really
see many women of color out there in winter sports.
Jackson is pretty keenly aware of this. She's quoted as
telling Time it's a pretty exciting thing, especially since you
don't see many people of color in Winter Olympics. And
again that only is she aware that she's sort of
(18:40):
breaking barriers in that way, but who knows what her
presence in the Winter Olympics will do. I'm so excited
to see the legacy that these women have made reverberate
through history and through time, and I do not doubt
that they will be responsible single handedly for changing the game. Absolutely.
Don't you think that there must be a lot of
women out there and people in general out there who
(19:03):
are like potential Olympic athletes who have just gone undiscovered.
Oh my god, Yes, it's just it's just hitting me.
How are you saying that maybe I'm a potential Olympic
athlete undiscovered because of racism and systematic barriers and gendered
by its Yet Oh my god, I could be it.
That's exactly what I'm going for. A RB Bridge is
about to go try for you in four years for
(19:25):
the Olympics. I'll do it in I love it. So
there's another incredible speed skater that we have to mention
as we're talking about Aaron Jackson, and that is mom
A Biny who is. I am convinced the happiest human
being I have ever seen in my life I've ever
seen on TV. When I was watching the opening ceremonies
(19:47):
because I do because I'm an Olympic nerd and I
love that stuff. Um, they interviewed mom A and just
the kind of beaming, smile and effervescent personality that was
coming through may me lean in and want to know
everything I could about her. And the more tape I
watch of Mammy, the more you will see like she
is this overjoyed every time there's a microphone in her face, granted,
(20:10):
because she's crushing barriers and she's absolutely dominating in her field.
So let's say to listen into the interview she gave
right after succeeding in the qualifying trials that would determine
whether or not she would make it to the Olympics.
It's crazy awesome because like, I've dreamt about this movement
(20:31):
for like since June, and I am just so happy
right now. She's completely losing it with joy, which I
absolutely love. You have to watch mom a viney on
video to get the full effect. But she is just
the most overjoyed, grateful, fierce competitor I've ever seen interviewed. Yeah,
(20:53):
I love the effervescence that she gives off, Like, how
do you listen to her speak and not feel happy.
It's so easy to root for someone when they seem
genuinely excited to be doing their craft and genuinely stoked
to be doing it so well. So I'm really rooting
for her. And again, I just think it just goes
to show how when you give black women and black
girls a chance, they nail it and it's just amazing.
(21:15):
It's amazing for everybody, and so we need to be
inspiring and lifting up and encouraging and all of that
to make sure that we have more. Maybe Bailey's out
there exactly, and I think she kind of knows that, what,
you know, what kind of an importance her presence at
the Olympics is serving. She says, quote, I am super
honored to be able to be part of this because
I know that US African American girls and women haven't
(21:36):
been able to be in this situation before. I'm really
honored to inspire other women African American or any other race,
to get out there and do what you can to succeed.
So it's no coincidence to me that almost every woman
that we've talked about so far, when asked what does
this mean to you, how are you feeling, they all
throw it back to that that I understand that there
are not that many of us out there, and that's
(21:58):
why it's so important for me to be here. I
think that it's so interesting and not at all surprising
that each and every one of them seems so keenly
aware of what it means that they're They're absolutely and
I mean she is breaking down barriers. She's becoming a first.
Viney is the first black woman to qualify for the
short track team, following Shawnee Davis, the first black male
(22:23):
athlete to make the short track team back in two
thousand two. So we've got Aaron Jackson, the first black
woman to serve on the speed skating team for the
long track, and in the same year, mam A Viney
the first black woman on the short track. It's just
an amazing year full of first and it shouldn't go
without being mentioned that Mammy turned eighteen just days before
(22:46):
the opening ceremony of the Games of January, making her
the youngest member of Team usas speed skating team as well.
Can you imagine a lot of first, a lot of first?
Can we say this might be one of the most
historic Black History Months ever? Right? And tell you last
Black History Month open with Beyonce performing at the super Bowl.
This one is opening with all these amazing black women
(23:08):
killing at the Olympics and black panther and black panther.
So it's it's been a it's been a good February.
It's been a good February. All right, let's take a
quick break, and when we come back, we've got more
wildly awesome women of color at the Winter Olympics. And
(23:31):
we're back and we're talking through some of the incredible
women of color at this year's Winter Olympics who are
representing Team USA. And we were just mentioning how incredibly
young mom a Byney is at eighteen years old. She
just turned eighteen a few days before the opening ceremonies. Now,
(23:51):
one of my favorite performances to watch at the Olympics
thus far has been the half pipe. Um the snowboarding
half pipe is just an incredibable feat to watch the
way that those athletes make It seems so effortless as
they're floating through the air and trying to stick their
landings on the way down, only to soar once again.
Gives me chills, especially as someone who does on occasion
(24:14):
fly down a mountain on a pair of skis. I
just cannot imagine doing what these snowboarders are doing on
the half pipe. And the one you have to watch
if you missed it is Chloe Kim, who already earned
a gold medal on Tuesday morning, and in doing so,
basically realized this American immigrant dream. I love the way
(24:36):
that she was talking about her parents who immigrated to
the United States from South Korea only to go watch
their incredible, profound daughter compete at the Olympic Games in
South Korea. It seems like this coming home American story
and that VI was totally totally on display after her win.
After she won, her father reportedly pointed to himself and
(24:58):
kept shouting, American dream, American dream, and honestly, give us
you chills, because that is the American dream, right that
we all are Americans and that we can all represent
our country and no matter where what our origin story
is where we come from for all Americans United, and
it's just it's I don't often feel that sort of
patriotic rara warm fuzzy feeling. But I definitely got it then, Yeah,
(25:20):
I mean, Chloe says that herself. She says, quote, my
dad is definitely sacrificed a lot for me, and I
don't know if I could do it if I were
in his shoes, leaving your life behind and chasing your
dream because your kid is passionate about this sport. I
think today I did it for my family, and I
am so grateful for them. Is As it turns out,
John Jin, her father, prodded Chloe to jump out of
(25:41):
snowboard when she was only four years old, and nearly
a decade ago, he quit his job as an engineer
to help his precocious daughter reach glory on the slopes.
Her parents frequently drove Chloe from their home in Torrance, California,
to Mammoth Mountain, where she trains, a six hour ride. Wow.
(26:02):
That just goes to show you that oftentimes when these
athletes win, it isn't just a win for them, it's
a win for their entire family. Right, It's a win
for your dad who quit his job and got up
early to drive you to practice and all of that.
And I just love seeing these athletes reaffirm that. It's
it's so beautiful and it just reminds you how behind
every athlete is a village of some kind or another,
(26:22):
our family who has made their athletic dream possible by
shuttling their kid around, or by getting them on the slopes,
or by making those opportunities a priority. And it's just incredible.
And beyond that, something that's been really heartwarming to see
is how that community, that village in a lot of
these cases is often to other athletes. It's other athletes
lifting each other up and getting them there and and
(26:44):
lifting as they climb. It's really a beautiful story about
how athleticism really is a tapestry of support. Just really,
it's really something. It is a beautiful story. And if
you have missed it, like I said earlier, you have
to go back and see Chloe Kim's performance on her
very first run, she landed a score above ninety three
out of a hundred. I mean, I'm no sportscaster here,
(27:06):
but she was landing tricks that I can't even pronounce,
and the entire rest of the competition was struggling to
keep up with her scores after Chloe's first run, but
by the time that her final take on the half
pipe came around, she was already gold medal secure. She
was free to take a victory lap, but instead she
added an extra exclamation point, as NBC described it, by
(27:28):
landing her most technical sequence of tricks, the back to
back ten eighties, the combination of a front side ten
eight into a cab ten eight in the middle of
her run, and her final score from judges came in
at nine eight point to five, which is insane, making
her officially the new Olympic Champion. I love her. You
(27:52):
have like a girl crush on her. I do have
a girl crush on her. She's just so California cool.
Everything about her is like so effortlessly cool, and she's
like the epitome of snowboarder cheek in every way snowboarder
ch Well, I'm a skier, so it's not me. Um.
Snowboarders are like the way cool, laid back, like you know,
(28:14):
shredding on the slopes without even looking like you're breaking
a sweat kind of cool people. Um, at least some
of them are, some of them are very annoying as
a skier. But Chloe is like the epitome of just
effortless perfection and it's amazing to watch her. And I
don't want to say that to detract from all the
effort that went into it, because clearly she busted her butt.
(28:34):
But that's the thing. She makes it look easy, something
that takes an incredible amount of training and skill and
poise and talent. She makes it look easy. She makes
it look like anyone who get out there and do it. Yeah,
she's amazing. And speaking of making things on the snow
and ice look effortless, we would be remiss to not
mention Marai Nagasu. Now, Marai made history when she became
the first American woman at the Olympics to land the
(28:56):
coveted and notoriously difficult triple axel, and she did so
making it look like it was nothing like it was
the easiest thing in the world, you know, just the
vision of poise and athleticism. And again it shows you
how difficult these things are, how much training and talent
and skill and strength they take. These women do it
and they make it look so easy. Yeah, it's an
(29:17):
incredibly tough skill because the triple axel is the only
jump in which the skater flies into the air while
facing forward, requiring a three and a half rotation before landing.
Only two other women in the entire world throughout history
have ever completed such a feat at the Olympics, the
two others being from Japan Midori Ito and Mao Asada.
(29:42):
Something that I love that Nagasu said about her win
is that she said, this is definitely history or history,
whatever way you want to put it, and it kind
of it just goes to show these women know that
they are breaking barriers out there and how important that is.
I think it's interesting how each and every one of
these women they're not just out there doing it for themselves.
They're doing it for all of us, and they're keenly
aware of how significant their presence is. I love that
(30:05):
she finished for the one thirty seven point five three
overall score, which was the second best of the Ladies
free skate, helping Team USA to win a bronze for
the team event in figure skating. When speaking to the
press after her win, she said, quote, I knew in
my heart that this day would come. I love that
don't you kind of want to be best friends with
(30:26):
all of these women? Yes, I mean I saw her
performance lived. It was beautiful. It was absolutely astounding. And
the Los Angeles native has competed in the Olympics before.
She was at the Olympic Games in Vancouver where she
finished fourth, so she has a long history of crushing
it at the Olympics, and it's just wonderful to see
such a poised, incredible athlete like her absolutely nail this
(30:52):
incredibly hard trick under all of that pressure, with all
of those eyeballs, making this Olympics her moment to shine.
I can't even imagine. And beyond the physical strength, this
takes the mental and emotional poise you would have to have,
I certainly laugh, do not have it. I mean what
we've talked about the world of figure skating and how
hard it is to be a fierce athlete and ladylike
(31:13):
throughout the whole competition with Sanya Harding's up. Yeah, it's
just a good reminder how it's often this tight rope
of balancing so many things mental, emotional, physical, you know,
looks this that, and some of these women do it,
and they do it so well. It's just almost hard
to fathom. Absolutely, it's amazing. Well, I hope you have
enjoyed walking through with me some of the most incredible
(31:36):
women of color competing at this year's Olympics. I certainly
have enjoyed watching them get up there and prove to
the world that women can do anything, and that we
need more women of color in these arenas totally. So
go out there and encourage the women of color in
your life to do whatever they want, whether that's bob sledding,
or ice skating or whatever, skiing, snowboarding. Let's build a
(31:59):
culture that says it's okay for women of color to
do those things. I love it, So tell us s
Mendy listeners, who are the women that are inspiring you
this Olympic season, Because we know we couldn't have mentioned
them all. These are just some of our favorites we
wanted to shine a spotlight on. Hit us up on
Twitter at mom Stuff podcast, Send us a snap of
the Olympic dreamers in your world on Instagram at stuff
(32:22):
Mom Never Told You, And, as always our inboxes open
mom Stuff at how stuff works dot com.
Stuff Mom Never Told You News
Hosts And Creators
Anney Reese
Samantha McVey
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.