Final Headlines and Olympic Venues

Hello and welcome to Sports Illustrated's Daily Rings SI's Daily Olympics podcast.

I'm Mitch Golddi here as always with Dan Gartland.

Gart, it is day -2.

We have seen some actual sports.

I guess people are going to be hearing this in their feeds the morning of day -1.

Uh, that is, we are taping Wednesday and, uh, day -1 is Thursday.

For those of you who are not yet on your Olympics calendars.

Gart, how are you enjoying your day m-2?

I'll tell you what, my day minus 2 got off to a start I didn't quite like.

So, uh, I was hoping, so, for those of you who don't know, I write a daily newsletter for SI.

I start that about 7 o'clock in the morning.

I saw that the first event, the first official event was men's skiing downhill training at 5:30.

I said to myself, I don't need to wake up at 5:30 for training.

I'll catch some of that while I'm beginning to write the newsletter at 7.

I turned the TV on about 7:10 after 7, your event has concluded.

So I, I was hoping to catch some skiing while I started my work early in the morning, but I didn't realize they'd be done so quickly.

Yes, I also slept through the alpine.

We, I promise you, listeners, we are committed.

We are gonna be up at ridiculous hours throughout the whole Olympics.

Gotta pace yourself a little.

I thought the training runs that are not really, uh, Olympic events that will impact the official results.

I thought I could, uh, you know, save myself, save some bullets for later in the week.

Uh, so yeah, I also did not wake up, but I did watch a little curling, uh, which got off to an eventful start.

But I just want to say, I think this is our last sort of preview episode.

We're gonna hit on some news.

We've got Lindsey Vonn updates.

We've got the minion, uh, the minion figure skater.

We should mention the US flag bearers for the opening ceremonies.

I watched a little curling.

Um, so we've got some stuff and we also have, I think we've mentioned this every day so far, maybe, but we've got the long-awaited segment about all of the venues over in Milan Cortina.

Um, but yeah, I think before we get to the, the news items we want to hit, the curling, this is just, again, a perfect Olympic story.

They, uh , they do all the pomp and circumstance.

There are 4 curling matches going on.

On at the same time on sheets next to each other in the same venue, and then 5 minutes into the Olympics, the power goes out at the arena.

And it was not like a total blackout, like I don't think it was like the 49ers Ravens Super Bowl uh years ago, where it was like actually dark in the Superdome, cause they had, they still had cameras going, and it was just like darkened, and they took 5 minutes to get everything back on and the fans clapped and cheered when the lights were back on, but it was a pretty funny start to the Olympics, 5 minutes and the power goes out.

Yeah, we're talking about, you know, you'll hear in the venue segment, all the trouble with the hockey rink and all the, you know, the construction issues there.

And then this other rink, you had no idea there's gonna be any issues there, and then, of course, you know, the power goes out.

So, uh, all kinds of issues going on over there in Italy with their , their infrastructure, but, uh, they got it ironed out quickly, like you said.

Yeah, did you watch much of the mixed doubles?

It was nice to have curling back in our lives.

I did.

I, so I watched, you know, I, I, it was tough cause it was going up right until recording time, actually, so my setup here is I have, like, my TV downstairs, my office slash podcast studio upstairs, so I had it on the TV downstairs, and then I was like, really interested in this Estonia, uh, Switzerland match, which is going up right until I needed to come up and start rearranging the office to get it set up for uh podcast mode.

And I was like, all right, I gotta throw it on the phone here and watch it as I move some furniture around, but yeah, I was, I was glued to that for sure.

It was fun.

Yeah, we talked about the mixed doubles, um, uh, during our preview episode, and I think we told everyone that that is the curling event where the US has the best chance at a medal.

They had 4 games going on at once, and Team USA was not involved.

They will be, uh, competing on day minus 1, as we will talk about, I think at the very end of the show.

Um, but one thing that we did not talk about in our preview that was fun, this element of a power play in, in, uh, mixed doubles curling.

And so when we went over the rules, um, did mention that the, so the mixed doubles is basically higher scoring, and they were talking about that on the broadcast I was watching today.

Um, I had the round robin view with all the, with every matchup at the same time in the.

Audio is kind of moving around.

Um, but, uh, yeah, it's a high scoring game, partly because they start each end with stones already in the house.

Um, but I did not realize until I was watching, I guess this was a refresher for me, I had forgotten, uh, that they also have the option, each team can do a power play once per game, where they get to move some of the stones.

And I just kind of enjoyed that they call.

Call it a power play because that doesn't seem like what it is, but it's kind of like a bunch of hockey fans were like, oh, we should call it the power play, even though if it was like a different sport, they might call it an advantage.

I don't know.

Some, if you're a big curling expert, maybe if John Cullen is listening, uh, you can reach out and let me know why they call it a power play or maybe it , uh, if it predates hockey or who knows.

But I was amused that that's what they call it.

Yeah , it was, it was interesting, a little wrinkle there.

And the other thing I liked about the mixed doubles, obviously it's only 2 people, and so the person who throws the stone, they also then have to chase after it and start sweeping.

So there's like some real athleticism there in getting out of your crouch, like, shuffling on the ice somehow without without falling down, and then you gotta, you know, you gotta sweep then and your partner is down the other end, you know, directing you what to do, so, a lot, it's a really complicated version of curling and a lot of fun to watch.

Yeah, that is the thing that stood out to me also because I, I noticed it, and I noticed it, and I actually went back because they were holding the broom as they throw it, and then they have to get up and go sweep.

And in my head I was like, do they do that?

Do they hold the broom in the four-person curling teams?

Uh, and I was like, I think they do, but now I'm not sure because you don't see them typically as aggressively go up and start sweeping.

So I went back and watched, and they do do that, uh, you know, I've seen John Schuster.

I watched some of his.

Highlights from old Olympics this morning, uh, or I guess this afternoon.

Um, but yeah, I, I like how it's like there's no time, uh, you got to get right in the action.

And so, yeah, I think, I think the mixed doubles is fun.

That's gonna be the early part of the Olympics before we have the 4 men and the 4 woman teams.

So that'll be our, our nice little intro to curling for the next few days.

One of the things you asked John Cullen about in our segment was you said, are there anybody like the, uh, like the Norwegian team from a few years ago with the Funny pants .

We're looking out for some curling fashion, and the first day of mixed doubles gave us some great curling fashion.

Mitch, did you see these shoes on Estonia's Harry Lil?

I didn't see this.

OK, so Harry Lil, or I think it might be Hari, it's the Estonian name, but anyway, this guy Lil, he's wearing, um, Nike Air Jordans that are in the colors of the Estonian flag.

Love that.

That's good.

So, you know, very, I, I was, and I like you, I had it in the quad view.

And so it's just tiny box and I'm like, geez, those sure look like Air Jordans, but then I'm like, I got, I gotta pull that up full screen and, and check it out.

And then sure enough, you know, you got a bunch of nice shots, you know, fully zoomed in as he's sliding the rock on, on those, you know, unmistakably Air Jordan shoes, which you did not really expect to see in curling, but, uh, goes to show you the uh cultural impact of a guy like Michael Jordan.

By the way, I, I'm glad you brought up the Estonia flag, cause this is something I meant to say like 3 days ago.

If you go all the way back to our Monday episode, and I would encourage anyone who is new here, please go back, check out the Monday episode where we previewed all 16 sports in 3 to 5 minutes.

I did make a promise that I would find my Slovenia flag in the box of all the Europe flags in honor of them, uh, competing in ski jumping and, and possibly having an opening with the scandal with the Norway jumpers.

So I just want to let anyone know in case you were concerned, I do have the Slovenia flag on my bookshelf behind me.

You, you've got all of Northern Europe covered now.

I do.

All right, um, so now that we've talked about which flags are on my bookcase, should we get into Lindsey Vonn, which might be slightly more newsworthy, uh, when it comes to these Olympics?

I think that's a bigger story, yes.

OK, so I think, and we, we, um, brought this up a couple of days ago.

I assume most people, if you're dedicated enough to be listening to this podcast before the Olympics start, you're probably aware of the general situation that Lindsey Vonn crashed and ruptured her ACL in her last race before the Olympics, had to be airlifted out.

Uh, and in the press conference where she announced she has a ruptured ACL, she Also announced she will still be skiing at these Olympics with that injury, uh, at least she hopes to.

The plan is she's gonna do some training runs, um, and then I think depending on how that feels and how the knee holds up, would determine, um, whether she goes ahead and competes.

And I think it's actually, I think that's necessary that I think everybody who competes in the Olympics has to participate in at least one training run.

Um, so yeah, I have, you know, I read a great story about this from Tim Leyden, our former colleague here at SI, longtime SI legend who's now at NBC, um, and I was gonna read some quotes from that, but I don't know if you have top line thoughts you wanna share before we get into his story.

No, I, yeah, the Leighton story was great.

I saw that you shared that on Blue Sky and I, I read it as well.

I think it, it does a really great job of, um, you know, laying out not only the injury, but also what, what about Vaughn's character.

Um, you know, should make it not a surprise that she's willing to try to gut it through this kind of an injury.

Yeah, so I'll, I'll, I'll read from Tim here, and he's someone who has, uh, obviously spent a lot of time with Lindsey Vonn, and I think with her whole family, uh, over the course of her career.

So he writes, uh, it is also not surprising that Vaughn has chosen to move forward with the 3 downhill training runs later this week, and potentially the downhill itself on Sunday morning.

And if that goes acceptably well, a metric Vaughn and her team will measure, the team combined 2 days later and the super G 2 days after that.

Uh, so that just, I mean, gives you an insight into what her schedule looks like.

It's not like, uh, oh, I have an injury, let me just tough it out in one race.

That is a lot of skiing to do.

And then, uh, I love some of these details from the race in which she crashed.

He wrote, Vaughn was the 6th skier down the course.

Two of the 1st 5 had failed to finish.

Nevertheless, Vaughn was incautious.

In the 1st 12 seconds of the race, her split was more than 0.5 2nd faster than any of the 5 racers who preceded her, a small but telling sample.

It was probably too fast.

That was the thing that stuck out to me as well was like, you know, you, you, there's been so much written about Lindsey Vonn in the wake of this injury, and, and as we lead up to these loads where she's attempting to, like we said, ski through it, um, Pat 40 as well, wrote a great piece for SI about Vaughn and her, her sense of risk taking.

And so, yeah, that stuck out to me as a way that really illustrates, like, she is not, she is not scared, you know, skiing in heavy snow, conditions that would make other people, you know, maybe a little more cautious and she just going full board down the mountain and you saw that it, it didn't work out well for her.

Yeah, and we should say at 41 years old and already with a knee replacement, like she had already retired, um, and I, and I think, yeah, Pat 40, his story was good too.

Both of them just traced the number of injuries she's had over her whole career and just what a miracle it is that she was back and skiing again anyway, and then this happens, and so it gives you a little insight into her and her personality and, and what she's willing to do out there.

The other thing from Tim's story that was interesting, which I did not know until I read it, is the, the whole business about the other skiers then being caught on hot mics complaining.

About the, uh, the, so after she was the 3rd skier to wipe out out of 6, they then canceled the rest of the competition, and, uh, some other skiers were caught talking about it and had to apologize after.

One of those was Breezy Johnson, uh, Team USA skier who we talked about in the preview, as, uh, like Breezy Johnson, Lindsey Vonn, Mikaela Shiffrin could come out of these Olympics as the three big names for Team USA.

So, uh, that was interesting, getting spicy.

Should, uh, just, well, we love these kinds of storylines before the Olympics.

Yeah, like, you know, Vaughn is not.

Necessarily well, I don't know if it's, I don't know if it's not that she's not well liked, but more that she, you know, people see that she's gonna be treated differently than the rest of the skiers, right?

Like she's such a, a face of the sport that maybe they felt that organizers were going out of their way to, to cover for her and, you know, by, by canceling the rest of the race when the people, you know, other, so the skiers would have said, well, you know, I, I'm willing to go down, but, you know, they kind of wanted to, to cover their bases and, and, um, you know, and give Vaughn the special treatment in a way.

And so other skiers apparently, you know, didn't sit well with them.

Yeah, which is interesting cause it's, it's like we've talked about player safety in all kinds of sports, and it feels like a lot of sports leagues are being more cautious nowadays, uh, and erring on the side of, uh, you know, safety, and obviously there's inherent risk in downhill skiing and, and, uh, you know, you can't always promise to tape, and I, I think actually the men's alpine, um, training runs, like part of them, there's heavy snow, and so it's already like, this is already an issue that we're gonna be dealing with, and I don't know where that.

As I understand, if you're a skier and you want one last training run before the Olympics, uh, you can be annoyed that it got canceled and that, uh, you know, 6 people got to go before you, 3 of them wiped out, but 3 of them got down to the bottom.

So, yeah, tricky, tricky situation.

And, and I will say, oh, sorry, yeah, go ahead .

No, it's actually the women's downhill first training run that's been canceled as we speak here.

So that to take place as you listen this morning, Thursday, um, that's been canceled.

I don't think, I mean, just given you laid out Vaughn's schedule there, um, I don't think there's time in the schedule before the medal race on Sunday for them to have all three of those training runs then.

So, um, that's an interesting factor to watch here, you know, you wonder that, you know, Vaughn, maybe she wants an extra practice or maybe she wants, you know, to keep the knee fresh.

So, um, I don't know whether that cancellation is going to help or hinder her, but that is something to keep an eye on.

Yeah, I would think that a training run would be good and helpful just to feel what it's like to ski with a torn ACL, but also I'm not an Olympic skier, so what do I know?

Maybe, maybe she would want the rest.

I trust the people around her to make, to make that decision, I guess, yeah.

Yeah.

You also mentioned other sports.

I thought, so there was interesting in the, um, in the aftermath of Vaughn's announcement that she was gonna try to ski through this torn ACL.

Chris Swick at Yahoo published a list of other athletes who have played or, or at least tried to play through torn ACLs.

It's not a long list, and the list, you know, many people on there, uh, either didn't, you know, they're just going out there like, uh, Klay Thompson in the NBA Finals, ready tore his ACL, hit a couple of free throws, and then left the court.

Um, you know, it's, it's like very limited action.

There's a Kyle Palmeri of the New York Islanders, you know, he hurt his knee, got back on his feet, made a pass, and then that, that team ended up scoring, so it was an assist, but like, it's really the, the people who have seen, you know, extensive action on a, on a torn ACL in pro sports, it's like, Uh, Joe Thornton of the Sharks, he played 4 playoff games in a torn ACL and MCL.

Uh, Philip Rivers played an AFC championship game with a torn ACL and meniscus, but he only had 211 passing yards in that game and threw 2 picks.

Um, Indiana quarterback Curtis Rourke, he played the entire 2024 season on a torn ACL, later drafted by the 49ers and sat out this year recovering.

So, it's not, you know, these are, but you look at these, especially quarterbacks , right, not very mobile quarterbacks like Rivers, um, It's not, you know, you, you, it's so much different than skiing.

Like, we talked about how dangerous it is going down the mountain at the speeds they do, and, you know, Vaughn says she's gonna wear a brace to, cause the ACL, right, it stabilizes the joint and a brace can do that as well, but obviously you would prefer to have.

Your own, you know, knees structure stabilizing it, but one would think.

Right, so I think, you know, she thinks she can make it work, but it's just like, it's so much different than any other similar instance in in other sports, of which there are also quite, quite few.

Yeah, that's a great list, thanks for sharing that, and we've now made two Lindsey Vonn, Philip Rivers comparisons in one week.

I was thinking about him and, and I'm glad you, uh, you mentioned him cause I remember that game.

Um, OK, should we, should we do the minion figure skater next?

Do you want to see us up on that story?

Yeah, sure.

So people might have seen this, um, it's been, it's been going, I mean, I think this guy has been a little bit well known even before this controversy just because of his routine.

So, um, there's a figure skater from Spain, his name is Tomas Llore Guarinoabate.

Um, he had been skating his short program to a medley of music from the Minions films.

Um, he's even wearing blue overalls and a yellow shirt, uh, which is like what the characters wear in the movie.

Um, he's got an armband that's got like their little, you know, eyeball thing on it, so, uh, people have loved this on the internet, but unfortunately, he's not gonna be able to do this routine at the Olympics.

Um, so he announced on Monday, he had been informed he wouldn't be allowed to use the music because of copyright issues.

Um, he said that he was using that music to quote, bring joy and a fun style to the ice, um, you know, he said it's, it's, it's so grueling being a high level athlete, he's looking for ways to, to enjoy himself and this music, you know, helped out.

I should say he's also, he's not considered a medal contender, um, but, you know, he was a fan favorite of sorts, um.

He also said he went out to say that he, uh, I'll read from his statement here, um, I followed all the required procedures and sent my music through the International Skating Union click and Clear system in August, competing this routine throughout the whole season.

Um, regret regrettably, just before the Olympics begins, I was informed that I am no longer allowed to perform this routine due to copyright issues.

Um, finding this out last Friday, so close to the most important competition in my life, was incredibly disappointing.

Nevertheless, I will face this challenge head on and do everything possible to make the best of the situation.

So that's the other thing here, is like, he's having to then change his music just days before the biggest competition of his life, which uh seems like a really nerve-wracking experience for him.

Yeah, I think I read somewhere that they're gonna try to find new music that they can just uh time it up so that he can do his same skating routine, basically, cause that's the part that's muscle memory and, and you don't wanna be thinking about doing a different routine.

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This story is just like stunning to me.

The thing that's most stunning here is that he, that, like he said, he just found out on Friday.

Like, I don't know how this isn't, uh, like locked in, confirmed much farther in advance.

Um, we've, we've talked about other sports, and we talked about this over the summer, that, um, some sports where uh athletes perform to music are getting into more like.

You know, popular music, then like the classical.

This is obviously smooth Horse and dressage, and then that has created a world where lots of other uh dressage routines are done to pop music.

I remember this for um artistic swimming, we talked about this a lot, and do you remember the uh Team USA's team did the performance to Jason Momoa as the water, and I forget the name of the show, um, and I know that, uh, some other artistic swimming, you know, they used to do classical music and now they're doing pop music.

And so this is gonna come up and It's just surprising to me that they couldn't get the guy a final answer much earlier.

I'd assumed he, he assumed he was all set here.

Uh, so I don't know if that means that they changed their mind late or if it's just a late approval process, but either way, that is just, that to me is the real shame.

Like, he should have known with plenty of warning that this would be acceptable or not.

Yeah, the thing that's confusing to me, and I, I couldn't really get an answer to this through the, the coverage that I was reading.

So he says in his statement that he used this system called Click and Clear.

And, uh, click and Clear is like a rights clear music rights clearing service, right?

Like they, you, you can Google them and like their website pops up and they say, like, get get like instant approval, um, but the ISU, the International Skating Union, says they have no contractual relationship with Click and Clear.

So he, like, the skater Sava is under the impression that he's going through this process with this Click and Clear platform, and the ISC was saying, well, like, we don't like.

Basically, click and Clear is not Bible, like, you know, we use them, but it's not like, it's not really an official thing.

Um, so it's just, it's, it seems confusing and I really can't blame the guy for having, but like you said, they should have an answer for him much sooner, um, cause now he's really thrown into the lurch.

Yeah, and then I think my final thought is just that.

You know, it seems surprising you wouldn't get approval cause this is pretty positive.

Like, I think the whoever owns the rights to the Minions movies franchise, like you'd think they'd, this is gonna be like a great ad for you, like this guy in a Minon costume skating to your music.

I know that we've seen plenty of stories over the years about uh musical artists saying like, hey, I don't want you to use my song.

At your political event, uh, to certain political candidates, and I can understand things like that.

But this seems pretty harmless, like guy dressing up like a minion skating at the Olympics with a whole maybe new generation of fans, uh, watching his routine and, and discovering minion's music or just getting more excited about it and, and having positive associations.

So that's the part to me that's like, you know, why wouldn't they want this?

Yeah, I don't see the downside, and I, I seem like if I get the impression that this story is not over, uh, the ISU said they're gonna, you know, release more information as it becomes available.

Maybe we'll learn what the film studio's objection was, maybe we'll learn more about, you know, why it wasn't cleared so, so, uh, you know, before, so soon before the Olympics.

Um, it seems like now, like, I know you mentioned maybe they're gonna find new music, at least one option that he has.

Um, last season, he skated to the Bee Gees, so he might use that music again, um, but the problem is, he now uses the Bee Gees for his free skate program, the longer program, so he might end up having to skate twice to the same music, which is gonna be, uh, you know, a little bit awkward, uh, for him, but just a mess all around.

You feel bad for the guy and uh you feel bad for the fans who are gonna be robbed of this, this fun, you know, kind of lighthearted routine.

Yeah, and, and maybe he needs a new costume, I would think, can't can't address his opinion or maybe you would, and so his costume is probably the wrong word, uniform, what, what do they, we should have, I should know that.

That was a cool, like, I, one of the articles that I read, it called it, I think just an outfit, but then it said it's basically like a costume, but they were like, they were like in in ways that like other skaters are not, it's, I guess if he's doing the Bee Gees, right, he can still wear the same outfit, but then just put on like a curly wig.

Um, maybe some sunglasses, but, uh, we'll see what he ends up doing.

Perfect.

All right.

Should we, uh, move on?

I wanted to mention, um, so the opening ceremony is Friday, and this is always a big deal that, um, the decision on who the flag bearers are gonna be, and there's an announcement for Team USA.

It's gonna be Aaron Jackson, who won a gold medal at the 2022 Beijing Games, and bobsledder Frank Del Duca, who is The pilot in bobsledding, Erin Jackson, the speed skater, I, I, uh, missed her sport there.

Um, and Frank Del Duca, a bobsledder who competed in Beijing, um, did not win a medal.

They were just announced, uh, just a couple of days ago.

So a little background on them, uh, Del Duca is also an Army sergeant stationed in Lake Placid.

And a quote from him, with the Olympic Games being held in Italy, it means even more.

Nearly everyone in my family is of Italian descent.

Uh, he told the USOPC there's no greater honor than leading Team USA into the opening ceremony in Italy.

It feels like a bridge between my family's heritage and the country I'm so proud to serve.

So that is cool.

You always wonder like, how do they pick somebody?

There are so many athletes who have inspiring stories, and the idea of trying to narrow it down and pick is so hard, and, you know, whoever they pick, you're almost always gonna be thrilled for them.

And so that's a cool connection that he has.

And then for sure .

And then Erin Jackson, uh, born and raised in Florida, won the gold medal in the 500 m in Beijing, becoming the first black woman from any country to win gold in any event at the Winter Olympics.

This is, uh, I'm reading from an NBC story, and should say that was to her surprise, and she said, uh, It was just really surprising, I guess, because I felt like, how could that be?

This is, she told the AP um at the US speed skating trials ahead of these games.

Uh, and she said, when you think about how many Winter Olympics we've had, I just thought it was really strange.

I hope people can see my story and the stories of other black women in winter sports, and then hopefully we'll have more coming up soon.

So that's cool for her as a trailblazing figure and obviously an accomplished athlete, and uh I think two good choices, you know, I, you know, I, it would have been impossible for me to guess like, Mitch, who do you think it's gonna be or who deserves it, um, but this is cool and I like that it's, um, you know, not always necessarily likely.

Let's just pick the biggest star.

Let's just have like Mikaela Shiffrin because everyone knows who she is.

It's, it's always nice.

I think they do a good job, sort of, um, trying to find other athletes who get their, their moment here and, and obviously, Erin Jackson had her moment, uh , at the last Olympics when she won her medal, um, but this is also like a really cool spotlight on her to have this chance.

Yeah, two great representatives, uh, great picks.

Mitch, I'm a little bit disappointed that you didn't use the Del Duca quote about how much he loves Italian food.

I didn't see that quote.

That's, that was I think an Associated Press interview .

He's like, I grew up eating the food, my family's all Italian.

So, but he's like, I know it's not the same.

So he's, yeah, yeah, he seems like a, like a great guy and like you said, a great representative for this.

Awesome.

Well, those were the, uh, news headlines I had on my list.

Uh, like we said, we're gonna throw it to our, uh, our conversation that we have already recorded where Gart will take us around Europe, uh, Italy, and getting very close to the borders of other nearby countries as we talk about the venues here that we'll be watching, you and I will be watching on TV while some of our, uh, colleagues will be there live.

Um, anything else you want to hit on before we go to that segment?

No, enjoy it.

It's a, a great geography lesson and, and I think much needed.

All right, and then we will , uh, we'll come back and say goodbye before the, uh, and, and to preview uh upcoming events, um , before this episode is over.

All right.

Well, when we did this podcast together in 2024, uh, I think this was your idea, Gart, that you wanted to do a segment on all of the venues.

There were so many historic ones in Paris for those Olympics.

And so it went so well, we said, hey, why don't you just do it again?

And I think, I don't know if this time you volunteered or if I'm volunteered you for it, uh, but this has become your corner.

So we're gonna go, uh, we're gonna go around Milan Cortina with Dan Gartland.

And, uh, I think if you want to just take us, I don't know if you've got something on every sport or just some of the sports, but, uh, I'll let you lead the way here and tell us about some of the actual venues where we're gonna see the athletes competing.

Yeah, so I, I've, I've grouped it kind of geographically, which is gonna become a theme, I think, of these Olympics.

We talked about it with Michael Rosenberg about how spread out these games are .

Um, in contrast to Paris, you know, the Paris games, that those are some really, like, world famous locations that they were using for the sports, right?

The Eiffel Tower and the Champs Elysees and all this stuff.

Um, not really the case with this one, but there's, there's definitely a lot of stuff worth mentioning, um.

I think, like I said, the, the primary thing is, uh, well, it's the hockey arena, we'll get into that.

That's the, that's the big, like, news item.

Um, but yeah, also the, just how spread out they are.

So there's 4 different clusters, uh, they are Milan, Cortina, hence the name, uh, Valteina and Valde FM.

And so, generally speaking, Milan is where you have your major indoor venues.

Cortina is, um, is, is in the mountains, so that's where the curling is, as well as the sliding sports and the women's alpine skiing.

Valtalina is the snowboarding, the freestyle ski uh, freestyle skiing, ski mountaineering, and the men's alpine skiing, and the Val de FM is the ski jumping and cross country.

Um, so, they're, you know, they're all over the place.

I know this is gonna be a really a major talking point.

It's just how far away things are.

Um, so I wanted to just get right off the top, like, as we're, as we're talking about these venues, they're gonna be all over the place and it's kind of hard to keep track of, so I hope that's something that we can help our listeners with is understanding where everything is going on because it's gonna be a major story.

Yeah, uh, we did talk about this with Michael Rosenberg.

I think it's, uh, everyone's least favorite storyline in the world is the media talking about how difficult things are, uh, to cover as media.

But we also talked, I mean, it , it will have an impact, uh, in some real ways like Esther Ledeka, we talked about, uh, qualified in both skiing and snowboarding, and she's unable to compete in both, uh, because of how far away they are, which is just an interesting wrinkle.

So, um, yeah, and.

I think we hit on this a little bit in our preview that some of the venues where they'll be doing, um, I know cross-country skiing is one.

there are venues that are like regular stops on some of these, uh, World Cup tours and places athletes are.

And so, you know, familiarity with the course, uh, is another thing that can affect the competition.

And so we thought it'd be good to, uh, give people a primer here.

And like you said, the hockey arena, this is, and I don't know if this is where we want to start today, but this is one where I think if we had taped this podcast maybe 1 month ago or 3 weeks ago, this might be the number 1.

Thing we'd be talking about, it feels like maybe now it's been a little bit overblown.

And so maybe it's better that we didn't, um, get into it too much, uh, too early.

But yeah, I don't know.

You, you tell me where you want to get started.

Yeah, I think we might as well start there.

And, in fact, if we had taped this like 3 days earlier, it would have been a lot different because the IOC just had a big press conference over the weekend, uh, in Milan talking about, uh, a variety of topics, but this did come up, the, the hockey arena.

So just to, to start from the very beginning, um, The main, like, the, the, the, the only new arena being built for these Olympics is, it's, it's the arena they're gonna use for, uh, the main hockey matches, the main hockey arena.

So, um, just for clarity's sake, it's known by several different names.

It's either the Pala Italia, the Santa Julia, or the Arena Milano.

I'm gonna use Santa Juula because it's easier to pronounce than Pala Italia, and it's more clear than Arena Milano, cause there's many different arenas in Milano.

Um, it's also gonna be known after the Olympics as the Unipol Dome.

It's named after an Italian insurance and banking company, but the IOC doesn't use, um, sponsored names.

So, the Santa Julia, um, construction's been really, really delayed.

They only got started building it in the spring of 2023.

Um, the committee says that's because of, uh, COVID restrictions .

Um, I don't know, you know, I, I, I don't know how realistic that is, like, uh, I was in Italy in the fall of 2022 and I think they could have done some, some building at that time.

I mean, I, I didn't feel any restrictions, but, um, I don't know, that's, that's the reason they gave, um, and for whatever reason, it's been, it's been a real, I don't wanna curse, but it's been a, it's been a disaster.

Um, it's been a real problem.

So, The most recent news, uh, IOC executive Director Christoph Dubi said over the weekend, the arena will not be finished before the start of the Olympics, but that all games will be played there as planned.

Uh, a quote from him at this press conference.

Now we do have every sing, now do we have every single space in the venue finished?

No.

And is it absolutely needed for the games?

No.

So no one's experience is going to be tainted by anything that needs to be painted or carpeted after the games.

Let's be very clear, anything that is public facing, anything that is for media or for the athletes is absolute top.

Um, he's French, so a little bit of, uh, you know, uh, give him, give him some grace there on, on the , the grammar a little bit, but, um, I feel like absolute, absolute top is a good phrase.

I might use that later in these days.

Right.

So, uh, I don't believe him though when he is absolute top because the thing is not done.

Um, and there was also, so there was a, uh, a BBC article, they had a reporter, Emma Smith, who was at the, the arena.

And wrote this.

Days before the games, most roads remain closed around the arena, while inside construction materials and rubbish litter the floor.

Many areas of the arena, including hospitality boxes, as well as food and drink stalls are unfinished, while there are no seats in the press area.

While core elements like electricity and running water are functioning, lifts and toilets remain covered in plastic wraps and are scuffy in appearance.

So as long as they got electricity and running water, you know, what else do you need?

Yeah.

Um, I, I love this story.

So let's, let's give the obvious caveats that you and I are concerned about player safety, and we would not make jokes about, you know, they're talking about like the quality of the ice.

We don't want anyone to get hurt, uh, you know, the NHL players who interrupted their season, we don't want the, uh, Olympic tournament itself to be affected by injuries.

I think that goes without saying anyone who has listened to us understands we don't want anyone to get hurt.

Now, having said that, some of these other points are, it's just like a perfect Olympic story.

Uh, I was thinking about this, like, so many scandals in the Olympics and sports in general are just like exhausting.

They've become like either political or culture war or whatever or really like horrible things.

And this is just like a classic, like, oh, they just didn't finish the arena in time, and they don't have as many seats, and literally the rink is not the dimensions that they agreed to .

Now, I will say, I, I read that the first time when this was all going around earlier in January and I was just like dying laughing at.

The thought that they, uh, they just made the rink the wrong size, and that was like an unfathomable thing to me.

My, uh, initial thoughts on that have changed a little hearing that, uh, I think the dimensions are comparable.

Kristen Nelson told us this the other day that like the dimensions are comparable to other, like international competitions that they've had in the past.

So it's not like they just gave us like a weird misshapen rink.

So it's like, OK, the neutral zone will be shorter than we thought it would be, but players have played in these dimensions.

Um, some of the other things.

are like, uh, I was reading a story from Emily Kaplan at ESPN who mentioned that like they don't have hospitality suites for the NHL owners, which is like, oh, well, um, and, uh, like the seating capacity for fans is lower.

Um, I was trying to, let's see, oh, they were like, they don't know where like the medical people are going to sit, which is the one thing that's like, that's not great.

And you mentioned the roads, like they were testing things like how long will it take an ambulance to get from the arena to the hospital if they need that, which is like, yeah, we want that stuff figured out.

Out, but the rest of the stuff, the, the scoreboard we should talk about, there's like a tiny scoreboard that everyone is, is posting pictures of and making fun of.

Um, yeah but, yeah, so, yeah, so there's a few, so, right, so they, they have actually played hockey here, uh, a couple of times before.

So, usually when you're opening a new arena for the Olympics, they have a test event, like, usually it's like, at most or at least a year before.

In this case, they did it in the middle of January, 2nd week of January.

They had some Italian Cup tournament there.

Uh, Chris Johnston, who covers hockey for the Athletic, he was there, uh, wrote a great story.

I, if you, this is, again, it's, you know, it's like, uh, 3 or 4 weeks old at this point, but I think a lot of it still holds his description of what the, what kind of shape the arena was in, a lot of photos in there.

Um, you mentioned the ice surface, so that was a big concern, uh, when they first started playing hockey on that.

That ice.

According to Johnson, the ice surface was subpar at the beginning of this weekend-long tournament, but it improved as time went on.

There was a, um, in the first game, there was a hole that opened up in the ice, uh, near one of the goals.

They had to pause the game to fix it, but it, you know, it froze back over and it seems like the ice is gonna be fine, not really a problem.

The bigger issue is with, um, So next to, next to the main arena is kind of a secondary, like, an auxiliary building where they have a practice rink and also, um, dressing rooms for the players, you know, locker rooms but hockey parlances, they call them dressing rooms.

Um, so, the dressing room area, when Johnson was there, was completely unfinished.

It was, like, just studs in the walls, like, it was, like, totally, totally, not even, not even near done, and The issue was, so, as the Canada, for example, is the number one team in the world for men's hockey, and they get to, because they're number one, they get to pick their dressing room first.

So they go in this empty building and they go, well, I don't know, I guess we'll take that one cause it's near the door.

Like, they, they couldn't pick a room because they didn't know what it was gonna look like, um.

And so, the, the reason they have those auxiliary rooms or that auxiliary building is because, you know, there's obviously not enough room in the main arena to have teams have their own rooms.

So this way, they'll get ready for the games in that building, they'll go over to the main arena, they'll, you know, play the game, and then in intermission.

They have these smaller, like kind of meeting rooms basically, where they can talk strategy and make adjustments and players get medical attention and everything else they do between periods.

Now, those rooms are like, really bare bones, because this arena is not gonna be used for hockey after the Olympics, at least not on a regular basis.

And so, like, they don't have lockers in there, they just have, like, coat hooks where you can , like, hang your gloves from.

So, um, it's gonna be an adjustment, and that's by design, by the way, so it's not like this is like some, like, oh my God, we gotta scramble to figure out where the players are gonna sit between periods, like, no, like, that's that's what they intended on.

And so that's gonna be, you know, regardless of how everything else shakes out, things like that are gonna be an adjustment for NHL players.

Yeah, and I, and I guess my final thought on this is just, uh, this is actually pretty typical with the Olympic experience, I think, not necessarily like the arenas cutting it this close, but we've seen so many stories over the years.

I think the Sochi Olympics in 2014 were famous for this, where like people showed up and just like hotel rooms weren't furnished and, and I saw.

Other people were posting, um, I think actually, um, Roger Sherman, our podcast guest , posted something on Blue Sky, but there was like a cafeteria that they said was going to be a cafeteria and it was just like empty and they're like, don't worry, like this will be a cafeteria 5 or 6 days from now.

Like, we've, we've got this under control.

Um, this feels a lot of stuff is, is always just like done at the last minute.

Um, which is why possibly some of the stories from January might seem like slight overreactions now.

Um, so yeah, we'll have a better idea once they actually start playing hockey, um, of, uh, you know, how much of an issue this is and, and what the experience is like.

Um, I'm sure it will, yeah , definitely not what the players are used to in the NHL, um, and I'm sure there are things that, uh, people will be disappointed in not being better, um, but my guess is they will pull enough, uh, enough stuff together that, uh, the tournament itself will go off, mostly without a hitch.

Yeah, I agree.

I think it's gonna be little things, right?

You mentioned the slightly different ice size, um, you, you know, we mentioned those, those meeting rooms.

You, I just wanted to drill home cause you mentioned in passing the scoreboard.

That could be actually a thing that impacts play, because Johnson spoke to some players who were playing in this, this warm-up tournament.

And this scoreboard, and I encourage you, please look it up for yourself, it's so funny to look at.

It is so small and so high above the ice, where you're like, why do they even have it?

But the issue is, players rely on that scoreboard to know how much time is left in the period, how much time is left in the power play, and players said, I couldn't.

See that.

I had no idea, as I'm going up and down the ice, if I have time to make another pass or I have to try to just make one last desperate shot at the goal, you know, they don't, it's, it's impacting, you know, a little, that's not gonna decide a game, but little things like that are, you know, that are, are gonna impact games to, to a small degree and it's the fault of the arena.

Yeah, it makes me think a little bit about like um NFL stadiums, like sometimes the play clocks are in different spots, like slightly different and like the quarterbacks have to get used to like looking at where am I looking, but that is interesting.

I hadn't thought about that, um, that the players actually rely on it, cause I know people have been sharing like the photo of Michael Scott, uh, his TV in his condo at the dinner party, where it's like this, the tiny little TV that looks like you're in like a waiting room from 30 years ago, um, and that looked, uh, like an accurate, uh, comparison.

Um, but yeah, actually having an effect on the thing, it's one of those things though, it's like, it's the same for both teams, and so they'll figure it out, and yeah, the scoreboard is small, adds, adds a little charm.

Right.

So that's not the only place they'll be playing hockey.

There's also a, um, there's this places, it's a convention center called the Fierra Milano.

It's enormous.

It's like, it's, I mean, I look it up on like a satellite view of Google Maps, it's like a city, it's crazy.

Um, they've built a second hockey arena in there, it's called the Roe Arena, um, it's named after like the, the suburb of Milan that it's in.

So, they've taken this big convention center and they've built a hockey rink in there, and also the long track speed skating rink.

Um, they, there were various options they're looking at in terms of where to build, um, especially the speed skating track because there was, there's an existing track outdoors, uh, near Milano.

Milano, I sound like Italian, near Milan, uh, so.

I'll get into the Italian mood, uh, near Milan.

And they thought, oh, maybe we'll use that one, but we need to build a roof.

And then they decided actually building the roof is gonna be more expensive than just building a rink inside this convention center.

So they went with that, um, they went that route.

Um, so the hockey rink in this convention center is gonna have 5800 seats, and the speed skating rink is 7500 compared to, uh, 11,800 at the Santa Julia.

So, it's gonna be a, a smaller arena that they're gonna use for some of the, the lower profile hockey matches.

Um, the majority of the men's games will take place at the larger arena at the Santa Julia.

But the US women will have two preliminary games at the Fierra Milano, one of them versus the Czech Republic, or uh Czechia I should say as they're referred to now, and one against Finland.

And then also all of the women's quarterfinal matches will be played at the Fierra Milano, but after that, every semifinal game, men's and women's will be played at the larger arena.

All right, thanks for the hockey rundown.

Yeah, I don't know if you have that much.

I assume you don't have that much on every single venue, but I don't, though, that's the big one.

the only other thing I have in Milan in the Milan cluster, just so people are aware of where things are taking place, uh, the figure skating and the short track speed skating will take place at a venue called the Forum de Milano.

This has 11,500 seats.

It's the home of the Olympia Milano basketball team, uh, one of the main pro teams in Italy.

Um, one thing that I, so I, I also like, I went to.

A deep rabbit hole.

I received access today to the Olympic media guide.

And I was like, wait, so if they're both, if they're doing speed skating and figure skating at this one arena, like, you know, how do they make that work?

They've built a second rink outside, um, where there's practice and training and stuff.

And so, they're using that, uh, for, you know, kind of warm-ups and, uh, and preliminary, and not preliminary, but, um, for warm-ups and for training and stuff like that.

And then there's a competition rink on the inside, um, that they are using separately.

So I Like, how do they make it all work?

No, they, they, they figured that out.

They actually built two ice rinks at the site of one rink, so no problems there.

They won't be, uh, short track speed skating around the figure skaters, which is what I thought because I'm looking at the schedule and they're overlapping and then I'm like, oh, no, I saw that like, there's a, I will also, I'll, I'll post when this episode goes up, I will post on Blue Sky, a map.

There's a map from the IOC in the media guide that really helps, uh, lay out and really helps you visualize where all these arenas are, where the venues are.

So that's very, very helpful.

Um, while we're on the topic of speed skating, I also, I have a, a random observation that I made, uh, today when I, I got access to the same media guide you're talking about.

There was like a section where we were able to, um, sign up for like mobile alerts, and they had different categories, and one of the categories was, uh, get an alert every time there's a world record, and it occurred to me that Speed skating and short track speed skating are the only sports where we're going to see any world records.

It's interesting because that is such a big thing in the Summer Olympics with all of the track and field and all of the swimming events, and there's so much talk about that this one, this race was an Olympic record.

This was a world record, um, but really those are the only two sports that take place where it's like an individual sport like that on a standardized, uh, playing surface because like the sliding sports, bobsleigh scout.

luge, those are on different tracks all over the place.

So you get track records, but never a world record.

Same thing with like the cross-country skiing and the alpine skiing and the ski jumps and things that have different scoring systems.

So yeah, so it just, it hadn't really occurred to me, uh, looking at the list of 16 sports earlier in the week.

Um, but yeah, those are the only two where it's like a consistent, uh, you know, dimensions and sizes and the race is the same length on the same course.

And so those are the only two where we're going to see any world records.

That's a good note.

Um, I think, so now as we, we, we'll move on to the Cortina cluster.

Um, so this is , you know, this is where we're starting to talk about things being spread out.

So, Cortina, Cortina, I should say, hosted the 1956 Winter Olympics.

Um, so, there are some, that's another reason why this was picked is because there's some existing structures there.

Um, but it's about a 5 hour drive from Milan.

It's 160 miles as the crow flies or 250 miles driving.

It's the same driving distance.

As LA to Las Vegas or New York City to Washington DC .

So, I mean, if you're for Americans trying to visualize that, like, those are so far apart in our minds, and yet these are part of the same Olympics.

It's, it's a, it's a, it's pretty alarming, you know, when you think of it.

It's the same as Calgary to, no, I'm sorry, I don't have the Canadian.

No, so I mentioned the, you know, that they have these existing structures there.

So, um, the, the main Olympic stadium they had for the Cortina Olympics in '56, um, that's been used, that's gonna be used for the curling.

So, interestingly, curling was not part of the Olympics in 1956, only added in '98.

And, um, so what they've done, uh, I would encourage you to go and look up images of the original Cortina Olympic Stadium .

Because it was outdoors.

And so it's this open-air stadium with an ice rink in the middle that was used for uh figure skating and, um, and hockey.

The speed skating was actually done on a nearby lake.

It was the last Olympics to feature natural ice speed skating.

But so what they've done in this instance is they've taken that uh original Olympic stadium, I mean , this is, they've done this years ago, decades ago even, I think.

Um, and they've added a, a roof to it, and so there's a roof over it, but then on the arena, the stadium has three sides .

And so on the open side, there's a big glass window, like floor to ceiling, really, it must be 100 ft high or something, really, really big, it's a beautiful view of the mountain.

It's just really cool structure that's this fascinating mix of old and new, um, this amazing, like, steel latticework, uh, in the ceiling.

It's a really striking venue, um, and you're gonna see a lot of it in the curling.

I think it's gonna be really, really, it's gonna look really, really good on TV.

Very cool.

Curling is a good sport to appreciate that because there's like stoppages and breaks so that we'll get the, the beautiful, uh, camera angles and panning across and, uh, although we did learn this week that it's, there's a, the running clock, it's like chess on ice and they don't have a ton of time to discuss strategy and things, but that's, uh, I think that's a good sport for it.

Sounds a little bit, what was, I forget what the venue was that the fencing was in in Paris that was like also just like a beautiful, um, venue.

Maybe I could look that up, maybe while you're, there are people, hopefully our, our regular listeners are screaming into their phones.

How could you not remember where the fencing was?

But I can, I can look that up while you're talking.

Yes, um, yeah, also in Cortina is the, uh, the sliding track, as you mentioned, and that's, so obviously there was a sliding track there in 1956 when they first had the Olympics.

They built a new one, so there was a track there that stood from 1923 to 2008.

Um, but actually that's been torn down and they built a new one, but this is brand new.

It's only been opened in November.

So, there's been no competition on it.

I think, as we heard in our interview with Ken Childs, the Italians, they took some time off from the World Cup Series to go and practice at this track, and so they're gonna have a bit of an advantage, um, but they'll, you know, other countries, they'll have their training runs and stuff to, to get familiar with the track.

Um.

And then you also have the other venue in the uh Cortina cluster is the biathlon.

So this one's actually the, the curling, the sliding, and the, uh, alpine skiing, which I'll, I'll get to in a second.

Um, I should mention, yes, the alpine skiing also in the Corti Cortina cluster, but I moved that down for reasons you will see in just a minute .

Um, so, the biathlon course, um, is the, the last one in this, in this cluster.

And it's um it's over an hour away from Cortina.

It's actually the, the, like, main, uh, like, stadium where they do the shooting.

It's 1.5 mile from the Austrian border.

It's like almost, it's so far from Milan, it's almost in another country.

It's really, we talk about things being spread out, I think that fact, 1.5 mile from the Austrian border really, really drives that point home.

Uh, and I have, uh, nothing to add there, but I will just say it is the Grand Palais is where the fencing for all those people after we just encourage everyone to email us and to tweet it out a blue sky us, uh, when we make mistakes or everything, but we got that one, so we're good.

But yeah, the Grand Palais fencing out, sorry, back to Gart's, back to Gart's venue corner.

OK, so the alpine skiing, um, interestingly, the men's and women's alpine skiing are taking part, are taking place in different areas of Italy.

So, the women's is gonna be at a course known as the Olympia della Tofane.

Um, and this is a court like Mitch has mentioned in the past, um, this is one of the courses that's on the World Cup circuit.

So, women race this course, um, in the World Cup circuit, they're familiar with it, um, the men don't, so that's why they're in a different place.

Um.

This is gonna be, if we're talking about like backdrops, the way we've talked about in Paris, um, this is where you're gonna get your good backdrop because there's this really striking feature, a, a rock feature known as the Tofana shoes.

Now you might notice that word does not sound Italian, that's because we are in the part of Italy where many people actually speak German, um.

So the Tofada shoes is this tight passage between two rock faces, um, skiers, it's very, it's very close to the top of the downhill course.

So I think they'll only pass this during the downhill portion, it's not in any of the other alpine races.

Um, but the skiers, they come through this chute, and then there's immediately an enormous drop, um.

So you're gonna get these really great images of skiers flying through the air, airborne, you know, kind of sandwiched between these two big rock faces.

It's gonna be really, really cool.

Um, I, there's actually, you, if you go on YouTube, you can see a video of, um, just normal people skiing this course, and it is so interesting to watch them, you know, kind of slowly and carefully carve their way down this mountain slope through these rocks.

It takes them, you know, 4 or 5 minutes, and then you watch the pros go through in about 6 seconds and you're like, wow, that's like, it just really drives home how different, uh, you know, competitive skiing is versus, and bearing in mind, these people are skiing a World Cup course, they are great skiers themselves, but, uh, they're still nowhere near the pros.

Yeah, I love that comparison.

It makes me think, uh, I feel like golf has come up a bunch on this show, but it's similar where, um, like golf is one of those sports where regular people can play some of the courses that the pros play on, and I have played a couple where then like I'll watch a golf event on TV and be like, I played this course, and it's like, well, this guy hit his drive about 200 yards farther than mine, or like, you know, he's, he's hitting a, he's hitting an 8 iron from there, uh, or like I, you know, it took me 6 putts cause that green was so fast.

Um, so yeah.

But, uh, less dangerous, uh, in golf than in skiing.

I, I have already said I'm not a skier at all, and I can't imagine that.

But the idea of, of, uh, seeing regular people do it, that is fun.

I'm gonna, uh, absolutely check out that link and, and maybe one of us should share it too if people want to find it.

But yeah, I mean, the downhill skiing is like such a cool, uh, visual already, like watching them up on the mountain .

So having a particularly notable backdrop, uh, feels like it just adds to it.

That's gonna be really, yeah, it's like one of the most famous features in, in world skiing.

So it's going to be, it's gonna make for some really cool photos, um.

Moving on now to the, the Valtalina cluster.

So this is where the men's alpine skiing is, as well as the ski mountaineering.

They're gonna be at a, it's a place called the Stelvio Ski Center in the town of Bormio.

So, this course is, like I said, there's nothing terribly special about it, you know, it's part of the World Cup circuit.

The men race it every year.

Um, it's longer and steeper than the women's course and it has a greater total drop in elevation.

Um, it's 5.5 hours from where the women are skiing, uh, just to, to, you know, give you an idea of, of how far apart these things are.

Um.

So, uh, Italy's Dominic Paris holds the record for most wins at Stelvio.

He has, uh, 76 of them in the downhill.

He's racing at these Olympics, but he's 36, hasn't won since 2021.

We'll see, maybe he'll, you know, he'll have a nice hometown story, but, uh, if you're looking for a name, you know, in terms of people who have succeeded here in the past, he's the one.

also in this cluster is the snowboard and freestyle skiing.

That's in a town called Livogno.

It's about an hour from Stelvio.

So they built the Livonno Snow Park, uh, I'm sorry, Lavino.

I, I, I watched, I watched two YouTube videos, learn how to pronounce this, and I put an O there instead of an I.

It is Lavigno.

So the Lavinno snowpack, uh, snow park.

It's just really compact area.

So, if we think about how, how widespread all the other venues are.

If you're looking for things that are close together, go to Lavino.

So, they've got, uh, all like tightly, tightly packed together.

They have, uh, venues for the big air, the slopestyle, the half pipe in both, uh, ski and snowboard, the parallel giant slalom, and the snowboard slash ski cross.

So, they're all right there.

There's an image, you know, the, the IOC posted like a, a layout of everything, um.

Really, really close together, um, you know, you'll be able to, if you're a fan who's going there, you're able to see everything, I think, pretty easily, uh, depending on the schedule.

Um, so, at least in this regard, they've, they've kept things pretty together.

Um, they also have in this area, they have the, uh, ski moguls and the ski aerials, which are 2 miles away from the, uh, the Livonnos Livinno Snow Park.

Um, And this area is about 3 miles from the Swiss border, so you're almost in a different country than where you are.

So it's like, you're really, you know, you're straddling the border here of, of, of 3 different countries.

It's a, it's a pretty interesting layout.

Yeah, and, um, and you know, it's, it's, uh, we should mention, I don't know, uh, if some people are listening, this is the first episode you caught, you should go back, you missed some good interviews, but like Michael Rosenberg was telling us about how the spread out nature of the games could also have an impact on the teams and the competitors themselves, um, if you think about like coaches and support staff and nutritionists and all kinds of people from, uh, you know, for the United States, they'll.

Uh, have plenty of people in all the areas they need to get to, but, um, some smaller countries that have smaller delegations, um, it might be more of a challenge to be spread thin.

Um, so it is interesting that the spread out nature could actually have an effect on the competition in some ways.

And, and I was actually thinking also, um, you know, one of my favorite things at the Olympics is when you've got teammates rooting for each other and sometimes athletes from one sport, if they either finish competition.

or they have an off day, they can go and um support some of their, uh, fellow countrymen, countrywomen, and come, you know, be at a different sport that's not theirs.

I think there is a lot more crossover in the winter than the summer where it's like there are so many different skiing events and ski jumping and snowboarding and whatever, but, um , yeah, it'd be a shame if we lose like some of those cool images of, um, you know, just because it's harder for fans, uh, and also athletes to get around on the days that they're not competing.

Yeah, the, and the last, just very briefly, the last cluster is the Valdi FM.

So, this is 2 hours from Cortina, it's 4 hours from Stelvio, and it's, I think, about 3 hours from Milan.

So just, you know, driving home again this point that everything is like way out of the way.

Um, that's where you're gonna have your cross-country skiing, your ski jumping, and then the Nordic combined, which as I learned is those two sports together.

So, I think it's worth mentioning as we wrap up here.

Um, the reason why this was done, right?

I think a lot of it is, uh, they had these existing structures in place.

They had, you know, you had the men's, uh, downhill ski racing and the women's at, at different mountains that they're familiar with, and so, it's like, all right, we'll just put them there, right?

You have the, the existing, uh, Olympic stadium in Cortina and this history that with that.

They have a sliding track, OK, put it there.

And so, it's like, it's about, um, sustainability, right?

There's so many cases.

Yeah, I think in the past 20 years or so, where you had these Olympic venues that just went to ruin, right?

They were, they built them for the Olympics, and then they weren't used again.

So, it's like, we're not gonna do all this over again.

We'll just use these existing places.

Um, and, yeah, it might be a little more convenient for fans and, and maybe to a degree for the athletes, but, uh, just generally speaking, it's gonna be, it's gonna be a more, um, it's, it's designed for a long-term success rather than, than short-term convenience.

Mhm.

Well, and I guess I probably should plug.

I'm surprised I have gone this long without bringing it up, but that is, uh, right on topic with a big story that I was working on for the last few months that was published in December.

Um, but yeah, I think, uh, a lot of people have probably heard by now that when the Olympics come to LA in 2028, there are actually gonna be two sports that are, uh, contested in Oklahoma City.

It's gonna be the canoe slalom, including our beloved kayak cross that we had so much fun following last summer.

and also softball, and those sports are gonna be in Oklahoma City.

And the big reason for that is that they had existing venues and the infrastructure was, um, basically in place instead of building a new whitewater slalom course in LA and, uh, building a bigger softball stadium or putting in one that's smaller, they've decided to move those to Oklahoma.

So talk about, uh, Olympics where things are spread out.

We will have an example of that in 2028.

So anyway, I wrote a story for Sports Illustrated.

It's got all of the backstory of how this decision.

was made.

And I actually went, uh, kayaking and rafting on the 2028 Olympic whitewater course with the mayor of Oklahoma City, David Holt.

Uh, so it was a ton of fun.

It was a, a story that I wrote, and then there's also a video where you'll get to watch me and the mayor out on the water together.

Uh, so a quick plug for myself, uh, on this, on this topic of, uh, Olympic sustainability.

It's something that I have, uh, dove into a little bit.

So I would appreciate you can, uh, I guess I've, on my social places, I've now pinned this podcast, but you can just Google it and it'll come up.

As we're talking about, you know, plugging SI articles, I'll plug another one here.

A great one just came out from Andrew Gastelum about the culture of this region of Italy.

So, Andrew actually lives in the north of Italy, and this is something that we're gonna be able to see a lot because of the spread out nature of these venues.

I mentioned how this is an area of Italy that people actually speak a lot of German, and so, you're gonna see a different side of Italy.

This is the, um, I mentioned that being near Switzerland, near Austria, um, you're gonna see, you know, this is not, uh, marinara sauce, Italy, so to speak.

This is a different kind of, kind of cultural region, and, uh, I think it'd be really interesting to see, as you're, you know, you're getting the backdrop of these, of these venues and seeing maybe into, into the towns where these, these events are taking place, you know, it's gonna give you a different vision of Italy that you don't usually get.

All right, well, thanks, Gart.

I thought that segment was absolute top.

Uh, I hope everybody enjoyed it.

I hope, uh, I hope this gives you just a little bit more of an appreciation for what we're gonna be watching over the next 3 weeks.

Um, I thought this would be a good topic to get into.

And, uh, yeah, it's nice we've had these few days to do some of these preview episodes to, uh, just where we've got a little more breathing space before the events themselves, uh, just take up the entire calendar and start to overwhelm us a bit.

Yeah, it was fun and now I'm looking forward to actually seeing people at these venues competing.

So I'm, I'm really, I'm really amped up for that now.

All right, I hope you enjoyed our little venue chat there.

Uh, I know it's a lot to take in a lot of different places all over the country, but, uh, hopefully that gives you a better sense of what's going on.

Um, we're gonna be able to see a lot of those venues in action, uh, as we get here, day minus 1, so, day before the opening ceremony, kind of a light schedule, but we'll, we'll go through it quickly here.

Um, The biggest thing to watch is obviously gonna be the US women's hockey team.

They've got a game against Czechia 10:40 a.m. Eastern.

Um, that's their first obviously their first, uh, match of these Olympics.

Uh, great to see them in action.

I guess a pretty decent opponent, um, maybe not a medical contender, but, you know, one of the top, top nations in these Olympic Games, so, uh, could be a good game for them.

Um, also on the US side, the US mixed, uh, mixed doubles curling is gonna be facing Switzerland at 8:30 a.m. Eastern.

It's probably over by the time you're hearing this, but make sure you check out that result.

And then, uh, in terms of the, uh, later slate, you've got men's snowboard, big air qualification, 1:30 p.m. Eastern.

That's always fun.

The guys going really high in the air, doing crazy tricks, and so, uh, definitely worth checking out and hopefully you're listening before that happens, so you can actually catch it.

All right.

Well, I guess we should maybe do a little programming note uh about our show's schedule.

Um, so yeah, this is the episode that'll come out Thursday morning.

We will not have an episode in your feeds Friday morning.

So if you wake up and don't see anything, you don't have to refresh a million times in a panic, though we do appreciate if you're hanging on every episode that closely.

Uh, but no, Friday's episode, we are gonna be after the opening ceremonies.

The cauldron will be lit.

We will get to talk.

Talk about the Olympics being officially underway.

And then at that point, we're off and running.

Episodes are gonna come out every evening.

We're gonna recap all of the day's events, uh, starting with day one.

We'll also, uh, spend time each episode previewing what's coming up the following day so that everyone knows like which episodes you've got to see, what are the big storylines everyone's going to be talking about.

Um, this, this is good.

This is a fun week.

I think we did a nice job previewing.

Everything.

I feel like we set the table.

I'm excited for everything that's coming up.

And, uh, yeah, now the, the real episodes that are like sort of the meat of what I think of of this podcast are gonna be starting.

So thanks everybody for checking them out.

As a reminder, you should follow us, subscribe, uh, whatever language you want to use on different platforms.

We're on Apple Podcasts, we're on Spotify.

You're gonna be able to catch the uh daily recap episodes on YouTube every day if you want to see what we look like.

Um, you can probably find them in whatever your podcast app of choice is.

Uh, and yeah, we really appreciate all the people who've already reached out to say they've started listening.

If you wanna, uh, help us spread the word, word of mouth, help on social media is always appreciated, uh, cause we're off and running.

The games are here.

Yeah, I'm ready to get going here and finally get a full slate on Friday and really looking forward to it and looking forward to recapping it all with you, Mitch.

All right.

Well, thanks everybody.

Enjoy your, uh, for those who are going to be up at 5 in the morning, 4:30 in the morning like us, enjoy your last maybe good night of sleep, and then uh we will talk to you Friday night.

Can't wait.

Talk to you then.