Female Athlete Protection and LA28 Updates

0:00The greatest festival of our contemporary society, the Olympic Games, is about to begin. This is gonna be close. Oh! They're all completely gassed! They've given it everything on the global budget! Oh yeah! Oh! Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant! But that isn't a good chapter now. Ready? Hello and welcome to another episode of Keep the Flame Alive, the podcast for fans of the Olympics and Paralympics. If you love the games, we are the show for you. I am your host, Jill Jaros, joined as always by my lovely co-host, Alison Brown, Alison. Hello, how are you? I'm doing well. How are you doing? We haven't seen each other in a long time. We have had a couple of weeks off. It was supposed to be restful, right? To re-rest and recover from Milano Cortina. And neither one of us rested or recovered. No, no, no. Decided, let's do some more traveling.

1:01Right? You have been to Denver and back twice. Twice. Because that seemed like a good idea. And you're going back and forth to Indiana, so the two of us have decided that, you know, flying back and forth a few times to Europe was not enough. Right? So, we'll get there. But for listener's sake, we are back on regular show schedule. Yes, so that will be helpful for everyone to get back into their regular routines. Exactly. And of course, the moment we took off a ton of news dropped. So that's what we're going to spend time doing today catching up on all of the big news. I'm going to be a big show of news. Really big show. So we're going to kick things off with the gender and sports discussion that the IOC decided to create a new policy about and it's called the IOC policy on the protection of the female or women's category in Olympic sport and guiding considerations for international federations and sports governing bodies.

2:16Okay, let's start with explaining what it is. Yeah, this is good. This is a 10 page paper. Let's if you are into some heavy reading 10 page paper coming your way. This is going to update the last gender work that the IOC put out in November 2021 where they put that framework in. And this was really a framework trying to figure out what to do about trans athletes and that I don't want to say what to do about them. It's really like we have more transgendered people competing in sports supposedly and we need to have some guidelines for that. Basically the IOC came up with the framework that was here's what we think but international federations were passing the buck to you. You decide what to do in classic IOC fashion and in a certain way appropriately because every sport is different. And especially when you come to gender issues, you know, you have a question where men and women compete on equal footing and then you have say swimming and track where we know advantages and disadvantages biologically are there.

3:23So it was it almost felt appropriate to have the international federations set their own rules. But the IOC decided that wasn't enough. Yeah, and I don't know if I'm glad you said a question because now I want to know what gender horses do the questions compete on are they always male are they a mix of male and female. They're a mix. Are there inherent advantages or disadvantages in a male horse versus a female horse. I don't know. Instinct says that yes, but not in the way that you think. Yeah, I have no idea we are we are unfortunately not horse people, but I put that on the list. Yeah, do do you know my my little bit of knowledge of horses say female horses are more easily trained even if male horses may be stronger. But that's my my my very limited horse knowledge.

4:24Right. So what what difference are their differences in your horse gender as well. I don't know, but they don't have a policy on that yet that we know of. There's a lot of horse news out there. But this is about the people gender. So the IOC decided that it wants a firm policy and Kirsty Coventry came in and when she became president, this was became a priority. They had commissions. I don't think we even still know who were on those commissions because they were private. And they said they looked at the science about it and they've come out with the policy that says sex and gender are different. So sex is biological and that is male or female based on your reproductive biology and sex chromosomes. So XY is male XX is female and you're also talking about gonads and hormones.

5:29And gender they say as a person's view of themselves as a man or a woman or a non-binary person. So when the IOC looked at the science, they said healthy adult men have 15 to 20 times more testosterone than healthy adult females. And this extra testosterone gives them larger and stronger bones and muscles. Hearts are bigger and stronger, lung size, more red blood cells, lower body fat. And that gives them advantages in sports or events that require strength, power and or endurance. And the advantage is very sport by sports. So they could get a 10 to 12% advantage in running or swimming, 20% or more in throwing and jumping and 100% or more in explosive sports like collision sports lifting or punching sports. And context sports increases safety risks to females, to which I asked, did they go look at the roller derby?

6:29So did they look at more context sports that are out there? Because, you know, roller derby is full of people who play in mixed gender teams. And I don't know, or did they only look at context sports within their within the Olympic framework, you know, boxing, judo, those kinds of context sports. Yes. So men have the extra testosterone women. You're just disadvantaged. You've got menstrual cycles, gestation, periodic ligament, laxity, wider hips and more breast tissue. All so you're just fat and lazy women is basically what this report said. You're just full of fat and all your bones and ligaments are just going, and you can't do anything. Right. So then they say that if you're an XY transgender athlete, or you have XY differences or disorders and sex development, which is called DSD,

7:32you have the advantage of extra testosterone, which isn't mitigated by gender affirming hormone treatment or testosterone suppression. You got the testosterone testosterone in there. You just have it. It's a built in advantage. So the IOC with I have to quote this one with its quote modern goals for the female category and quote believes that biological sex rules. And they are seeking equality creating, which would be creating equal opportunities for female athletes in finals on podiums and in championships. To their seeking to enhance the Olympic value featuring both women's and men's finals in every sport and three they would like to increase visibility and inspiration. So they want to celebrate female athletes biological female athletes on the Olympic podium to inspire and represent women and girls worldwide. As I read that, I just get angry.

8:33You know, I just I angry might not even be the right word. It's like. I don't know. You know, it's the language of we're going to protect little girls. Right. And I really bristle at the word protect the female because it's basically like the the the shorthand for this is protect the female. Right. And I hate that so much. Right. So how are we going to prove that females are biological females. They are going to do S R Y gene screening. And I hated the IOC for making me do biology. You thought sophomore year high school was over, but no. Right. So the S R Y gene is on the Y chromosome and it's the starting pistol for male body part development. So if you don't have this gene, you won't become a biological male. However, you know, gene is going to gene and mutations can happen. And as intersex conditions and that those those manifest in intersex conditions or DSDs.

9:39But we're just going to stick with the top level here, which is basically what the IOC wants to do. Right. Because you're only going to have to do this once, which is helpful. So they're not going to get into sex testing at every event. You're not going to get into the very invasive examinations that we have heard about at least according to the IOC. It's a blood test. We're going to keep this simple. Right. And or it can be done via saliva cheeks. Yes. Yes. But yeah, one test once and you're done. If you test negative, you're a female, you're done. That's it. If you test positive, you are biological male. Or you potentially have complete androgen insensitivity syndrome. Or you could have a DSD. So if it go ahead. Though it seems like the DSD athletes are being banned from the female category the way this is written. Yeah, that's what it sounds like. Yeah. So we know that like Kastra Samania, she would now be banned according to these rules.

10:45Yes. Not just from one event, but from, you know, those very weird rules that world athletic came up with. But basically saying, you're not a woman, at least in our definition of a woman. And the other thing that went through my head yesterday was the am I a woman? Oh. Yeah. I mean, there's, there's no good answer here. No, if you test positive, there's going to be further evaluation. And then if you're, if they deem your biological male, you have to compete in the men's category. This policy doesn't apply to grassroots and rec sports. You're free to do what you want. International federations and sports governing bodies have to define how they're going to implement their programs. Some already do exist. And of course, they're going to want this if you go to the Olympics. I understand the political pressure in making this policy because it is certainly in the United States.

11:46I don't know about other countries, but certainly in the United States, this issue has become huge. Whether it actually is an issue is another question. I mean, how many, I think we've had one known transgender woman competing in the female category in the past something like 30 years. There are DSD athletes, you know, again, a handful at best. So do we need an entire policy to address an issue that isn't really an issue? Okay, politics sometimes trump reality. But nice choice of words there. I mean, how else can you say it? You know, when you're talking about six athletes out of how many thousands have competed in the past 100 years, it's such a minor issue. But it's an issue that people are really up in arms about.

12:46So you have to come up with the policy to say we're addressing this thing that people are really concerned about even though that's not reality. Yeah, and I don't think we got any sense of what the reality was. I watched a little bit of the press conference and have done a little bit of the reading, you know, reading around it. But the news is basically like this is the policy. We don't understand how many people this affects. The fact that this, I think, is now going to be used in a trickle-down effect, where in even though it says this doesn't affect, or this is not a part of grassroots and rec leagues, it's going to be a part of grassroots and rec leagues because those leagues are going to look at the Olympics and look at the IOC and say they came up with this policy we should do it too. And the sad part is, is so many rec leagues are mixed anyway, right? I remember there was a controversy a few months ago about a woman refusing to fence a transgender athlete when that event was mixed.

13:54As it was, and are we creating, again, creating a political situation when reality doesn't match that? Right now this whole idea of protecting women feels so infantilizing. Yeah, and it feels like a Salem witch hunt going on something like that because this is especially with DST or this could be news to people who have already thought they were women and have been women their whole lives and then to be told, oh, you're not a woman. Or what if there's a lot of docs in going on and a lot of bullying going on. I mean, I think this just opens it up for that, especially when we're not understanding how many people this really affects. I hope what this does do is open up the avenues for more research to this.

14:57I'm afraid it closes the door because we're saying this is our policy, but I'm hoping that this will, there'll be a pushback that says no, no, no, we need to actually examine number one, how many people this is actually affecting. And how many people are are going to be now banned from competing because of this. And at what point is their differences, we know there's differences, but there's all kinds of biological differences that we've talked about. You know, we talk about Michael Phelps lung capacity or we talk about Katie Ladecki's wingspan. You know, there's lots of biological differences that people have that make them better athletes. And at what point do you start regulating that? And that's where I'm worried about the slippery slope here that we're going to start regulating more and exactly what you're talking about. If you're not woman enough, if you don't look like a woman, if you don't wear makeup, if you don't have a feminine appearance. Are you going to be banned because you don't look enough like a girl?

16:01Yeah, and that's a tough thing. And we're also looking at differences in races and geographies because one of the things that people have talked about with the Kestor Semenia case is that populations around the world can be different. Right, there's an ethnic and a racial component to this. Yeah, and for something coming from primarily white European organization, which does have a global makeup for sure. But is this being directed by a certain type of person? And just to be clear, this is IOC, not IPC. So the IPC for Paralympics has not come out with any kind of parallel. And are they going to feel pressured now to come out with a similar statement? When as far as I know, we've had no issue in the Paralympic community about transgender athletes. They have their own fish to fry.

17:03Right, classification is hard enough. So exactly. I cannot imagine that this is on their radar, but we should find out. But this is not the end of the discussion. This is really a, even though it's the end of their policy, we know policies can change. We know policies can get updated. And let's keep following the science. Yes. So there's been some back and forth. If Christie Coventry is very proud of the work and the team says it's in the best interest of athletes. And I wonder if she feels more strongly about the issue because she she's a swimmer. And the woman and the swimming category is one where that has come up. And of course, swimming has a dark history of doping in the 70s. So there may be some more sensitivity in that sport. And she also is a mom. So what does she worry about if her kids go into sports? And African as well.

18:03So being and having a complex being a white woman from Zimbabwe, having a complex racial history. I mean, she's in such an interesting position with her unique background, not unique, but unique certainly in the IOC, her age, her ethnicity, her sport history. So this was big on her radar. I mean, this is not a surprise that she came out wanting to do this first. I'm a little surprised that this is what this is the hill she wanted to die on. Yeah, we'll see how it goes. So the UN special repertoire on violence against women and girls. Her name is Reem Al-Salem is on board with the policy says this policy does not disqualify anyone from participating in sports. But it ensures that women and girls aren't at a disadvantage in their own sports category. However, there's two sides there when I did your basic Google search to start this. There was a lot of let's protect the women organizations coming up and things like that.

19:07So there's money being pushed for this message. Rebecca Schneid reported on time.com that Andrew Sinclair, a geneticist who helped discover the SRI gene in 1990 said that the mere presence of this gene alone does not define biological sex. And then on Murdoch children's research institute Sinclair himself wrote that about world athletics implementation of this test and said, you know, not so fast. This approach is overly simplistic. It doesn't look at how SRI functions in a person. So that was when I saw that I just when I can't I can't biologically go there. Yeah, the science starts getting really complicated. And people want the male female science to be simple and it's not simple. And the desire for it to be simple gets into that you don't look like what I think a woman should be. Yes. And that's really tough. So Sinclair also said wealthy nations are able to do the tests better than other than non-wealthy nations.

20:14The tests are very sensitive and he wrote that Atlanta 1996 eight out of 3,387 women tested positive for a Y chromosome and seven of those were resistant to test asked around. So that was 2.236% positive tests from Atlanta 1996. And not all of them would then have been disqualified because there was that secondary test. Yes. So you're basically saying out of all out of 3,387 people who were one. Yes. One. And Sinclair was also part of the expert panel that persuaded the IOC to drop SRI testing for Sydney 2000. I understand the need. I understand the impetus that this is coming from but we don't have the science to do this well yet. I don't know if we'll ever have the science to do this well. And do we have the numbers?

21:15Do we have the numbers to even worry about this? Well, you know what? We're going to have to wait and see what kind of you know all it's going to take is one person who is a prominent athlete to be banned for this to come back. Yes. Will that happen to you know it takes one prominent likable athlete. Yes. Or athlete athlete athlete who people like because I'm sure Castro Semenia was appreciated by and liked by many people. But not you know if you rub people the wrong way or are winning in such dramatic fashion. I mean, right. She was not a popular. She was not popular. No. And do you look at some people who continually blow the field out of the water? Literally. Why aren't they getting looked at for the conversation doesn't go into why and I will use this as an example because it's the one that popped my head first.

22:18Sydney McLaughlin never own amazingly fast amazingly talented keeps getting better continually wins by huge margins. And nobody says hey are you male because she looks and yes presents very traditionally female. Yes. We're not done talking about this but we're done talking about it for now because we're just going to get ourselves more upset. So that's what it is. We're happy to see a conversation up on our Facebook group because I would be happy to hear other opinions because we have I have my protected opinions. Are my are my female opinions protected under this policy? The answer is no. The short answer is no. I would love to hear listeners who agree with this policy and are happy about it and I would love to hear why you think that why because this is an issue that's just in this time and place.

23:21And it'll be interesting to hear what we talk about 20 years from now but I'm curious to hear another side of the story as well agreed. Now for something completely different. Yes. Lots of LA 2028 news. Branding released. Yes. They have released the look of the games and the look of the games is called LA in full bloom. And this is a graphic pattern and color palette that is inspired by the California super bloom, which is a rare event in Southern California. Where dormant wildfire, where dormant wildfire seeds wake up and explode in color. This is gorgeous. Okay. I have several thoughts. A, it is beautiful. I had another thought was there are a lot of colors in this because obviously super blue and they went like this whole spectrum of color. So they have these sort of three bands of color where one is sort of predominantly blueish and greenish and then they have oranges and pinks and.

24:26So any bright color you can think of is in there. But the way that they melded it made it cohesive. I don't know how they did it, but it feels so LA. And it the patterns in this design are very graphic and almost pixelated in a way where you have maybe squares and rectangles coming together with color to form diamond shapes and patterns and waves and undulating shapes. I guess you could say I do have thoughts and this was a big hit in the Facebook group too with people who are graphic designer so they know who like listener dawn actually have educated opinions on this. This was this was a hit. My first reaction, my gut reaction was, oh, this looks like Paris. I thought the same thing.

25:28But it's brighter. It's not quite as pastel. It's more neon. Yes, it is brighter and the shapes are different. It is still this mash of shapes but Paris did it in a different way and it felt like LA was somewhat inspired a little bit by Paris. So I did have that over putting shapes on shapes to form a pattern kind of thing. I might before I read into it and like, well, I hope they are using these massive variety of colors because we did not pick one color. We picked a huge variety of colors. We picked every color and that every cluster would have a different color and it seems that way. Yes. So that's good for way finding and place orientation. I think there are clusters that have one venue and they call them a cluster, but you know, that's okay. And so that I think is really good that they've, they're going to do the identification in that way.

26:33So it is, it is cool. It's pretty. They also did typography. Boy did they do typography. The type is inspired by LA street signs and is actually four different type faces, which is a nod to the mixed fonts of stacked signs. And somebody had pointed out to me that the LA28 logo itself had different type faces in it, like the two in the eight are different types. Oh, which I'm looking at the logos now on the LA28 org. And I don't see that here the same way I've seen it before, but that's okay. But we have like kind of a bold phase that sound serif. We have a tall narrower font that's serif. Another sound serif font that's more blocky and then kind of a script font that is indicative of some of the hand painted signs and stores. Around LA apparently.

27:35Do you have thoughts on this? It's just a lot. I wish they had picked two or even three would have been okay. Four feels like a lot. Yeah, I've kind of losing the unity. But between the font and the wide array of colors, I thought we could not make a choice. We could not make decisions. So we're just going to have it all. We've got sweatshirts and t-shirts now with that have all four fonts on them. I hate it. I don't hate so strong word. I don't like all of them stacked together. I really don't. I like some of the fonts. I like that scripty font when it's just on a sign by itself. I like the serif font that they have. That's my favorite of it. Okay, because I was going to say that one doesn't fit in the whole rest of them for me. So it's a nice font. I don't think it fits with the rest of it. Again, I think this is one of those.

28:35Let's wait and see how they actually implement it. I agree for as too many. And the script one is really cool, but hard to read probably when you blow it up or shrink it down. So let's see how we go and hope for the best. But I can't believe you don't love the color palette. The color palette. I love the color palette. But I really came away with like, oh, I was disappointed like when I first saw it. I still am hanging on to that. Oh, this is a little like Paris. But that when I see it in motion, it's cool. I just couldn't thought that they couldn't make a decision. We're going to have all of the colors. It's a super bloom. When you get the, when I get that description, I can buy into it because it's very colorful flowers. Okay, I get it. I do like it. I'm not going to say I don't like it because I do like it and like the shapes. I think it's super innovative though. Okay. It's going to be a nice design, but I don't think it's changing the way that that graphics are. I think it's a continuation of Paris.

29:36Okay, that's fair. But Paris did such a good job. Let's build on it. I know it's kind of like. It's nice. I don't mind that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And when we get there and it's going to be cool looking for sure, it's going to look really cool. But I do feel like we could not make choices. Speaking of making choices. Yes. Ticket sales are underway. You have to make choices about what you're going to see. And people have been making their spreadsheets. I've been seeing some fantastic TikTok and Instagram videos of people sitting down with their friends and family trying to decide what they're going to do. And listen to Meredith was so sweet because she was panicking a little. But she used the mantra that that can always a can hands come our friend in the ticketing world always says it is a marathon. Not a sprint. This is the first mile of the marathon. We've got a lot of time and a lot of space. So if you haven't figured out what you're doing with tickets yet.

30:36Do not worry. You haven't lost out on the $28 tickets. There were not a ton of them in this drop. So panic not if you miss this. But if you did, we've been hearing in the Facebook group about people who have bought their tickets and got themselves organized. But a lot can happen. It's two years away. Right. So the local sales started April two ticket drop one started April nine. It ends April 19. There have been glitches in the system who is shocked. Tickets for some event sports sold out. And not like the sport is completely gone and off the table. Just what was in this ticket drop got sold out. It's going to be okay. There will be more ticket drops throughout this year. And I'm sure into next year. Because it's two years away. They're not going to drop all of the tickets now. If you're because I do wonder like economically. If they sold all the tickets now and then people decide they can't go. Then they go to they go on the resale.

31:36And the resale platforms make money. Not like what's the. What's the economic. It makes the money on the ticket sales when they go to resale. LA keeps talking about the fact that. The majority of tickets are under $200. So there is that and tickets for sporting events get really expensive. So the foam always real. And the foam always really real on planning groups. If you're if you're like, hey, I want to get in on this. But you don't need a lot of FOMO in your life. Don't get on this planning group Facebook group. Don't get into any planning groups. Just hang. You'll be okay. And get on the list. You'll have to sign up at LA28.org to get into the next ticket lottery. But like you don't want FOMO going. Oh, well, I'm going to go see cricket because that's what I can afford. And I don't really want to see cricket. I want to see swimming. But I don't see any tickets right now.

32:36But I better get a ticket otherwise I'm not going. There will be more tickets for every single event. They haven't put it all out there because. And even towards the end, we know there are last minute ticket drops because not all the officials and the federations and the organizations and sponsors use all their tickets. They move camera positions and all of the sudden tickets open up because the camera is going to get moved. And now they have 10 more tickets. It doesn't sound like a lot. But it just keeps coming out. So if there's a sport you want to see, don't settle. And then there's always the last minute resale. Where we saw tons of resale even in Paris for big events. You know, where people just, oh, I couldn't get a hotel room. Or I couldn't get the time off from work. So don't settle, especially not two years ahead of time. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Tons of time, plenty of time. The resale platform is not open yet.

33:36That won't open until next year, I believe. So don't buy any tickets off of resale now because they can't guarantee them. And you don't want to get stuck buying tickets that don't exist. So just be careful there and just wait for the next ticket drop. And if you don't get into that one, there's going to be another one. There's always going to be a ways to get tickets. I'd like to have Ken on to talk about the resale platform later. Later in the year, of course, and see what we get it once it gets going. Because it's going to be a different system. Yeah, it'll be a different system. Then we've had the past two games just because California has different rules, I believe. Yes. Did notice that service fees are high for tickets here. It's pretty bad on the service fees. And that's frustrating. That you don't get back in your resale platform. Correct. And the sticker shock on souvenir tickets is high.

34:40And they charge it per ticket. But I noticed when I went to. Because I had two opportunities when we went to the on location event and watched pairs with on location. We got a ticket transfer to us. And then when I saw the opening ceremony with my sister in law, Charlotte. I also had a ticket transfer to me then. And that's when I got asked, oh, would you like a souvenir ticket? Well, yes, I would. And paid for them. Then the tickets for Milano Cortino or something like three or four euros. And then the service fee was like 16 some euros. And like, oh, well, when I see $18 for souvenir tickets, that makes that money in line. But listener Patrick had noted that he found a thing in the Milan ticket system that if you ordered all of your tickets at once from Milan, you only paid one delivery fee.

35:42Which also makes sense. Yes. And you don't have that option with L.A. 28, the year to buy that individually. So yeah, there's hopefully some kind of work around. But it's a little sticker shock right now for a lot of people. So if sticker shock is not also part of your blood, save up. And you have a little more proud of money when it's time for you to buy tickets. Right. And you, you don't want to go to the Olympics and then be disappointed with what you're seeing. Yes. That's just, that's just a waste of money. I sound so old-fashioned. I realized as I said it, I sounded so much like my grandmother. Oh, my goodness. You don't want to waste the money on those tickets. Of course you do. You want to spend the money on the tickets, but spend the money the way you want to spend the money and don't panic. Right. And I do want, if you want to talk about L.A.

36:4228, shame on you for selling tickets two years plus an advance of your event. Come on. I know you want to create the buzz and you want people to talk about it. But the buzz gets bad really quickly because all you see is people angry about how much tickets are. People angry about they can't get tickets and tons of formal. And it's just frustrating, I think, to say the least. Maybe spend some time doing a little glitch testing on your ticket system or making some choices with colors and fonts. So you don't have to choose them all. Now, the spectrum is nice. I really do like the look of the games. I don't like the type faces together as a collective four part. Anyway, one other thing about L.A. 2028. If you have fencing artifacts, that USA fencing would like to know, they along with the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures and L.A. 28 are developing a showcase celebrating fencing history and film.

37:43And that will be somewhere at L.A. 28. So they're looking for artifacts connected to films and TV shows that feature fencing or swordplay. So they're talking like Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Princess Bride, Mask of Zoro, Pirates of the Caribbean, Die Another Day, which has that fantastic fencing scene. Or as Maya Chamberlain would talk about fencing in the TV show I Carly. Yes, right? I Carly. If you got any props, costumes, signed memorabilia, equipment, posters, photos, anything like that. If you wanted to have a global audience, they would like to borrow it for a little while. We will have a link in the show notes for how you can contact the curators. More news to get out of the way. But wait, this is going to be a bad news, good news situation. Okay, we do have doping news. There has been an anti-doping violation from the Paris 2024 Paralympics.

38:46This involves paratriathlete and silver medalist Ronin Nunez Cordero from Brazil, who had 19 nor a druster on in his urine sample provided in competition on September to 2024. So the IPC charged him with an anti-doping rule violation. Nunez Cordero denied those charges, requested a hearing and on January 28, 2026, the IPC's independent anti-doping tribunal upheld the charge and imposed full consequences. As a result, Nunez Cordero's results in the men's PTS 5 competition of Paris 2024 are disqualified along with all resulting consequences. So he'll forfeit his medals points and prizes. The IPC has referred this case to World Triathlon for any other consequences. No word yet on a new podium for this event. Then on a happier note, there were no doping violations found at Milano Cortina during competition,

39:51during the Olympics and the Paralympics. It's the first time in 28 years. So I saw this on the BBC. A lot of people have reported it. It's from the International Testing Association agency. Excuse me. So this was the official word that nobody got disqualified during competition. Yet. It's one of those like because now I mean Paris had also fantastic results. And now the results are starting to dribble in. And we know that they keep samples for a long like 10 years or so so that they can retest as new tests become available. So it's nice that the initial tests are great, but I'm just so skeptical. What they said was the big difference was 92% of participants in both the Olympics and the Paralympics were tested ahead of time. So they found a couple positive tests prior to competition. They've really upped that pre-game testing regimen.

40:51So they're trying to find it before it gets to competition time. So they found a couple there. You know, I'm going to be hopeful because it is still the first time in 28 years that nobody got disqualified during the games. So let's take that as a good sign. Let's hope so. And I think during Paris, they were doing pre-testing as well or not during Paris ahead of Paris. They did pre-testing. So yes, it's good policy and the more testing they can do ahead of time, the more the less the games get affected and the less disappointment we feel, but I'm still always disappointed when you get results. Yeah. And people get their podiums that they're supposed to get. Yes. We have a new segment called Olympic and Paralympic Travel. Because it's not just traveling for the games. Right. You can travel with this theme all four years. Right? So if you're traveling or you live in a place that's got something Olympic going on, let us know. There's always stuff going on about the games that's special and it pops up here and there.

41:55So maybe if you're in the neighborhood or you're traveling someplace, maybe you can check these things out. Georgia Tech is opened a new exhibit about their involvement with Atlanta 1996. It's called Georgia Tech's Olympic Legacy. It's open now through mid-November from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. every day in the library's exhibit gallery. It's located on the first floor of Price Gilbert. If you are familiar with the area, a nice little way of how Georgia Tech contributed and benefited from having the Olympics in town. Then USA Gymnastics Trials for 2020 got announced. In case you need to plan. But you know what, Trials is a great way if you cannot travel to the Olympics and the Paralympics themselves. Going to Trials, especially something like gymnastics, swimming, track and field, those are super exciting events that give you that feeling. Yes, they really do and it's, you know, holds across all countries too.

42:55Absolutely. So if you find out in your neck of the woods, what's going on trial wise, if you're not in the US, because of course we get US knowledge first. But yeah, I would love to hear about Canadian Trials. You say, I happen to be in New Zealand during 2012 Olympic Trials for track and field. It was awesome. It's just a fun way to see and you could see a whole lot more people. And for some, the trials are way more pressure than the actual games themselves. So you really see people going for their best. So USA Gymnastics Trials will be June 16th through 19th. That is a Friday through a Monday in 2028 at the KFC Yelma Center in Louisville, Kentucky. Right. And it's, if you're in Kentucky, you're a kind of far from LA. Right. But if you, you know, all those Midwesterns, Midwesterners can check out the trials, which is really exciting. And they are, I put that in my driving distance radar.

43:55Oh, yeah, for you, that's definitely driving distance. Yes, I don't know. I think it's probably five hours. That's driving distance. That's total driving distance. So that may happen. We will see what the podcast has to save up its quarters. No, I'm not buying tickets now. That's for sure. Yeah, tickets for that won't go on sale, probably until a few months at a time. Welcome to Shukflaston. It is the time of the show where we check in with our team, keep the flame alive. These are past guests and listeners of the show who make up our citizenship of Shukflaston. Our very own country. A lot of news. Of course, we take time off. A lot of stuff going on. Absolutely. So let's start with all the life changes. Our para shot putter, Noel Malcolm Ackie is moving to Seattle. Very exciting. Para runner and jumper. Noel Lambert is having a baby girl. And she was at Moana Cortina making tons of videos as well.

44:56Para Swimmer and Mackenzie Cohen got engaged to Micah Plotkin. He proposed at the place where they met and had their first date. Oh, come on. It's so cute. That's fantastic. She's the best. Biathlete Deer Irwin and Snowboarder Robbie Burns. Eloped. Good for her. That's the best way to do it. Speaking of weddings, Para Icehockey player Monica Quimbee married Donald Pressake and then went to Canada to compete in the three game frontier series. That's a great honeymoon. And the US won all three games with the first win being in sudden overtime. Very exciting. And some sports updates and results. Para Powerlifter Luis Suggden won her second European championships title, which is her first major medal after Tokyo 2020. Hammer Thrower Deanna Price reopt her contract with Nike. Wheelchair tennis player Charlie Cooper competed at the Miami Open. He faced number one seed, Takita Oda in the first round lost 2616, but he got games. Often Oda, which you know, that is hard to do.

45:58And then in the men's doubles competition, he teamed up with Casey Rotsloff. And they lost to the number two seeds. Daniel Cover Zashi and Martin De La Puenta 3606. Cyclist Hannah Roberts won the USA cycling BMX freestyle nationals in Utah. At figure skating world champs Amber Glenn got six in the women's event and Emily Chan and Spencer how placed 16th in the pairs. Which is I got to say that was a bummer to see. I didn't get to watch a lot of the pair the the world champs. But I guess they had been placed pretty high after the short program and just had a not a great day on the long. So tough way to end the season. Archer Casey coffold won the women's recurve title at the Vegas shoot. Volleyball player Jordan Larson retired from competitive play on April six. At the LGT men's world curling championships team Schuster took fourth place losing the bronze medal to Scotland. If you're going to lose. You're going to lose to Scotland and curling.

47:01Noah Elliott won the Paris no board crystal globe for the third year in a row. As he should and now some cheers and accolades. So are are are many titled George earthler marketer and author was nominated now for an Emmy award. In the southeast where his documentary documentary the games in black and white. And Rob snook was nominated for a Canadian screen award in the category of best sports play by play announcer for his work on CBC sports presents. Well deserved to rob. I know we got to see in Milan, which was very exciting. It was so awesome to get to hang out with him for a little bit and catch up and it's been a long time since we talked to people. But we'll go back to that next week more interviews coming that we have that we had done prior to Milan, Cortina. And then we've got some more exciting things coming up that's on the calendar. So that'll be fun. Exactly. So that will do it for this episode. Thank you so much for listening. And until next time, keep the flame alive.