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Welcome to Good Game with Sarah Spain, the show that from now on and forever we'll be calling the Olympics sports tapists.
Thank you disco utters on Twitter.
On today's show, we'll get into all the biggest headlines after a busy weekend at the Paris Games. We'll give love to some old folks still getting after it and try to stump producer Alex with your Olympic questions. It's all coming up right after this. Welcome back, Hope you had a great weekend. Here's what you need to know today.
On the track, the women's one hundred meter final took center stage on Saturday night, Americans Shakerrie Richardson and Melissa Jefferson both competing in their Olympic debut when silver and bronze respectively. But we absolutely have to give flowers to gold medalist Julian Alfred, who upset gold medal favorite SHAKERI to give the Caribbean nation of Saint Lucia it's first ever Olympic medal of any color. The island nation has a population of just one hundred and seventy nine thousand.
If you haven't seen him, google the videos of folks back in her home country watching and celebrating the win. So cool and if you think Saint Lucia is small, let's sail about ninety miles north to another island nation, Dominica population seventy two thousand, which also won its first ever Olympic medal. On Saturday night, Theo Lafon Gadsen claimed gold in the triple jump on behalf of the Caribbean
island nation of that. In swimming, Katie Ledecki, who just last week became the most decorated female athlete in US Olympic history when she won her thirteenth medal, made even more history this weekend. On Saturday, she claimed gold in the eight hundred meters, becoming the first woman from any country in any sport to win four gold medals in the same individual event. She's only the second swimmer to
do that, joining the goat Michael Phelps. Over the weekend, Simone Biles won her tenth career Olympic medal, claiming gold on the vault. Brazil's Rebecca Andrage took silver, and American Jade Carey took braun. In the uneven bars finals, Sunny
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Lee captured her third medal of this Olympics, taking bronze behind Kalia Namore of Algeria and Chochia of China. Now you'll remember our guest last week, Ari Sapperstein, who came on to talk gymnastics, told you keep an eye on Khalia and we hope you watched it because it was a beautiful routine. She also becomes the first Olympic medalist in gymnastics from not just Algeria, but all of Africa. Very very cool to watch. Gymnastics concludes today with the
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balance beam and the floor apparatus finals. Simone Biles will compete on both. She'll be joined by Sunny Leon Beam and Jordan Chiles on floor. We're pumped for that.
To basketball.
Three x three basketball concludes today and somehow the US are competing. If you listen to last Thursday's group chat, you know that we didn't really have high hopes for the US team when they started the games with three straight losses.
But you know what, shame on us because they turned it around.
You know what, not shame on us, We're gonna take credit for Thank you for listening, ladies. I'm glad our disappointment in you and our demand for a whole new set of players inspired you to turn things around, because Yeah, after their terrible start, team USA came back in won four straight. They finished pool play at ranked third out
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of eight teams, and even though they missed out on a bye, they made quick work of their playing game opponent, defeating China twenty one to thirteen on Saturday. So they'll now play Spain in Semi final number one today, that's at eleven thirty am Eastern, and then Germany and Canada go head to head in Semi Final number two at twelve thirty pm Eastern. The bronze medal and the gold medal games will follow, beginning at three pm Eastern.
Good luck, ladies.
Glad you took our shitting' on you and turned it into a positive.
Are bad?
In soccer, the US booked a spot in the semifinals
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with a one nil extra time win over Japan on Saturday, Trinity Rodman scoring an absolute banger of a goal for the win. Please look that up if you didn't watch it. Next up for the US is Germany. That game is two day at twelve pm Eastern. Germany booked its spot with a penalty shootout win over Canada, ending dronegate at least on the play side. I'm sure plenty of news still to come, and Brazil and Spain are playing in
the other semi final. Now, you remember ahead at this USA Germany game that US already beat Germany four to one in pool play earlier in the tournament, so they're very familiar with the Germans and presumably they'll head into this match with a little bit of confidence. Also, one other soccer update that we needed to give you after talking about it last week. You remember that Marta, the Brazilian legend, got sent off with a red card in
Brazil's final game of group play. Usually that means you're missing the next game, so we were worried we might not see her in international play ever. Again, Marta told us before this Olympics this was it for her in Green and Yellow. But Brazil pulled off the win without her, and we all celebrated more Marta until we learned via the athletics Meg Linahan that Marcha's red was earned from a quote serious foul play, so she was docked two games and she'll have to miss Brazil's semi final game
against Spain as well. Brazil is appealing that, but the good News is whatever happens, Marta is guaranteed one last Olympic game. Even if Brazil loses in the semis, they'll still play in the bronze medal match, and assuming all goes well, we'll get to see her one last time finally. Boxing News boxers Cindy Nagamba will soon become the first member of the Olympic refugee team to claim a medal. She won her quarterfinal round on Sunday and secured a spot in the semi final, and if she wins, she'll.
Fight for gold.
If she loses, she'll take home bronze. The Sport of Boxing awards bronze medals to both semifinal losers. Now. Nagomba was born in Cameroon, but she can't return home because she's gay and homosexuality is outlawed in the country, so she lives in England. But per the Athletic she's repeatedly been denied British citizenship despite winning three national titles and receiving support from Great Britain Boxing. So she competes for the refugee team and she'll be winning them a medal.
Such a cool story.
One of the things I've loved most about watching this Olympics, and really any Olympics, is how many different examples of greatness we get to see. We see big, small, tall, short, fast, strong, young, and old, And I especially like the old, as the only person on the show alive for the death of John Lennon and the birth of MTV and apparently, based on pre show, the only one who knows the reference A dingo ate my baby. I appreciate the olds are
still getting it done. In the words of another eighties baby, the great Diana Tarasi in the twenty twenty one ESPN doc one forty four, why can't old people dream too?
It's like, why can't old people dream too?
What?
There's an age limit to being great?
And we're not talking Simone Biles old here, golden girls, my ass y'all are children. You're Misha's age, Simone. We're talking actually old for sports people, you know, like the.
Meme you I'm only thirty five. I have my whole life ahead of me.
Sports broadcaster, here comes the oldest player in the league. He's thirty two. A miracle so speaking to thirty somethings, and as the only person at good Game who remembers the hit show thirty something whatever, whatever, let's just start with the youngest old. On Sunday, thirty one year old Kristin Faulkner won gold in cycling's road race, marking Team USA's first women's road cycling medal in forty years.
Now.
She's not actually old, thirty one is just getting started. But do you ever watch when they do those athlete features with the home video footage of the gold medalist, like playing their sport as a three year old, and you think, wow, you know, guess if I wanted to be an Olympic medalist in skateboarding or soccer or gymnastics, should have started training as soon as I could walk.
Well, that is not Faulkner's story.
She only started cycling seven years ago, at age twenty four. It's kind of where her relatability ends, though, because she grew up in Alaska, road at Harvard, moved to New York to take a job in venture capital, you know, like normal things. But after going to a free intro to cycling lesson, she started biking around Central Park for her morning workouts. Didn't even pursue cycling full time until twenty twenty one. Wasn't even supposed to compete in the
road race at these Olympics. She only clinched the spot after one of her US teammates gave up the spot to focus on triathlon, so Falkner entered as the true underdog's underdog coming into Sunday's race, But with three kilometers left in the race and still hanging with the lead pack, she made a risky move and decided to leave the peloton behind. It sprint for gold, and she won. So
to the baby of our group of olds. Congratulations. Okay, but Misha's really the only one here who considers thirty one old, so let's talk like actually old for an Olympic athlete. Fifty five German dressage writer Isabelle Verirth became the oldest woman to win Olympic gold in one hundred and twenty years when Team Germany claimed the top prize in team dressage on Saturday. Now that's according to those
Olympic nerds over at OLYMPDA. With that gold, she also became the first person to win a gold medal at seven different Olympics. By the time producer Misha was born, birth was already a four time Olympic medalist.
Also shout out American Laura Kraut, who at.
Age fifty eight, became the oldest US medalist in seventy two years when she won silver and team.
Jumping last week.
And by the way, did you guys see the venue for these equestrian competitions Chateau de Versailles? Absolutely unreal, Like, even if you're not interested in watching any equestrian stuff, which you should be based on how we've established ourselves as the primary source for horse news, you should just watch.
Some of it. For the venue, It's unbelievable.
Also, I once cursed at a man in French outside Versailles because he cut the entire two and a half hour line with this family by pretending to be on the phone. And when I started getting mad at English, she pretended he didn't understand me, even if you might have. So then I started swearing in French and that's when
things really picked up. Anyway, let's get to the next old Seeing Seng was a rising table tennis star in the nineteen seventies and eighties and even went pro at age twelve, making the Chinese national team at sixteen, but then a rule change derailed her game and she retired
when she was only twenty. She moved on, making her way to Chile in nineteen eighty nine, opening a furniture store and only briefly dabbling in the sport in the interim, But she decided to pick up her paddle again during the pandemic, and last week she played in her first Olympic match at age fifty eight. Even better, it was a sixty one year old former teammate who's also competing this year that inspired her to come back. It's not too late for us, y'all. Pickleball, Brisbane, twenty thirty two.
I'll see you there. I probably won't because I'm actually getting tired just thinking about competing at my advanced age.
Let's take a quick break and towel off. I'm fatigued. When we come back, we're going to answer your Olympic questions with Alex. Welcome back, everybody.
If you're enjoying the Olympics as much as I am, despite still being a little bit confused about a lot of things, and based on some of your questions, you are so our expert Alex is going to answer your questions and we'll see if we can Stumper.
Let's start with Eve.
This is from an email she sent us, she asked, why does the coach question mark stand near the uneven bars for women? Is it to catch them in case of a fall or to provide something to spot So what's happened there?
Alex, Yeah, I love this question. So it is similar to what happens at a gym. If you're doing a bench press, you better have a spotter because you don't want to be the person that ends up not being able to get the weight off of your chest. And in gymnastics they're doing dangerous things all the time, and so what is interesting to me is that it is only on uneven bars that athletes are allowed to have
a spotter without an automatic deduction. And so jimnasts typically have their coach because it needs to be somebody that knows their routine and is also accredited and allowed on the floor of the bit competition who stands underneath them because if they lose the bars when their head is towards the floor, that could obviously end very badly for them. But one story I just want to flag, I'll link
to it in the show notes. Diana Moskovitz of Defector actually wrote a great story last year about how Biles when she was training the yr chinko double pike, chose to get a deduction to have her coach spot her. It was a point five deduction, which you know in gymnastics is a lot thoughnut for Simone Biles, and so I think that there's a question to be asked in the future of should gymnasts be allowed to have a spot her all the time for all four apparatus.
Yeah, I mean it feels like in the middle of a vault it would be dangerous for both of them. But you have seen Simone's coaches during warmups be on the edge of the map to kind of cushion her if she's going to fall at the end of those massive vaults.
Well, one thing I'll add to that too is I love watching gymnastics and diving with other athletes because me, as a normal human, I'll be shocked when the person falls when they actually fall, But jimnasts note that the person is going to fall like a whole five seconds in advance, and so their coaches are the same. When you've seen an athlete do something one hundred times, you know from the get go that they're in the wrong place,
the wrong spot in the air. They're not doing that twist fast enough and so while it is dangerous for someone to be there, the coach certainly knows better than anyone else. Oh, I need to step back because she's about to fly into me.
Yeah for sure.
Yeah.
I mean I kind of had a feeling about those spotters, but I did never think about the fact that they don't allow them for any other parts of the routine. All right, let's go to Laurna on Twitter. What are those random boxes the medalists receive.
This one's quick and easy. It is the official poster of the Olympics. And as someone who decorated her college dorm room with unofficial printed off of the Internet posters of the Olympics, I'm pretty jealous.
Oh my gosh.
I thought those were like carrying cases for the medals, because, as someone who's won two Emmys, what happens when you win an Emmy is they give you this giant box to put it in and to take home with you. But then they also give you like luggage to put the box in, because they presume that you didn't have room in the original luggage that you brought to like.
Get it home.
So I thought, oh, they probably have like some sort of like long skinny box with like clasps on it that you put the metal in, and that that's what they were holding.
Do they have that separately?
That's actually a great question. I don't think that they give them a carry in case for their Olympic medal. Maybe Sarah stumped me, right.
They don't even get like a little Crown Royal velvet pouch to put it in.
I know I used to keep my ski goggles in a Crown Royal velvet pouch. Those are the best.
Yeah, maybe if you anticipate getting a medal, you should bring a Crown Royal pouch with you. Because I'm not raw Dog in my Medal. You got to wrap that thing up before you take it home. If you're not going to wear it all night on your neck, you got to have a plan for it, is all I'm saying.
Yeah, honestly, I think if you win an Olympic medal, mandatory you have to wear it through security.
Yeah, I mean agreed for sure.
I also think think it's mandatory that we call this episode raw Dog in your Medal, because that's just gonna have to happen.
Moving on, Beth hool.
Asks does the caddy get a gold in golf too? I love this question because I saw someone post that horses should get the medals because the riders are really more like the coaches, which was hilarious to me. But I didn't really think about the caddies. Are caddies getting medals?
They are absolutely not getting metals, which apparently is something that golf is like all up in arms about and has been since the sport was added back in twenty sixteen. To me, it's not that wild, given that coaches don't get metals in any Olympic sports.
Yeah, caddies are basically coaches.
Yeah. Yeah, coaches don't get medals, horses don't get metals. But I agree with you. I think the horse should maybe get the metal over the human.
For sure, or at least both, at least both. This question is from Nick. Why are some surfers wearing helmets?
So it is because of how dangerous that venue is. So ahead of the Olympics, Surfing's International Federation actually advised that surfers wear helmets. Most of them did not listen, but one of them, Joe On de Fay of France, she actually crashed, had a super nasty wipeout, got thrown into the coral reef that is below that break, and when she came back after getting four stitches, she was
wearing a helmet. I also got a question from Nick about helmets in skateboarding, because some athletes are wearing them and some aren't. And in skateboarding it's actually an age thing. So if you're under eighteen, you have to wear a helmet no matter what event you're in, and if you compete in the park event, you also have to wear a helmet. But for athletes that are competing in street and are over the age of eighteen, they can decide to do whatever they want.
Interesting, I'm always seeing people riding around Chicago on those we call them divvy bikes, I think their city bikes in New York, and they're like, clearly they don't know how to ride a bike and they don't have a helmet, and I think it's just a safety issue for all of us. I think at any age, you should be required to wear a helmet on a city bike. I've also seen stories of them ending up on Lake Shore Drive in the middle of Chicago, which not great.
Not great.
Somebody else on Twitter wants to know what gives with the repechage round in track and field. So can you explain who and why they get to run in that if they don't make it via their heats.
Yeah, for sure. So even Olympic nerd alex Azi had to do a double take when I saw that track and Field had represchage rounds. So represchage is actually a French word. Loosely translated, it means second chance. It's something that has existed in rowing probably forever. Don't fact check me on that. And what happens is that in the individual events from the two hundred to the fifteen hundred, if you don't advance out of your heat, you are given a second chance to try to make it into
the semi finals. So it's all the losers competing against each other. I don't know if I love the idea hate the idea, but I guess we'll see how it goes.
I tend to love the idea.
I think any chance you have to prove that you belong and make it. If you then do that, I'm here for it because it's so heartbreaking to me when someone just like something goes wrong or they're just this closed or something I don't know. I just for the most part, I believe in that as long as ultimately everybody gets that fair shake in the end at the final Absolutely.
The only thing I'll add to that is you have to actually finish. If you record a DNF for whatever reason, I'm pretty sure that doesn't actually qualify you for the repechage round.
Oh that's the kind of incident where I want them to have a second yit darn it all, all right, Alex, I feel like I did, in fact stump you because I did ask about whether they get a metal condom, and so I get a prize, right, That's what you said, if someone stumps you, they get prize.
Yeah.
And I think my family also gets a prize because they asked me a question today that I thought I knew the answer to you, and then I realized I maybe don't actually know the answer to it.
What was that?
So we were watching fencing and they were curious about the tethers. One of them asked. They were like, oh, is that so the coach can pull them back? I was like, that's a really funny visual, Like imagine your coach just gets to like pull you back like you're on a support climbing hall or something. But the tethers are there because they're electronic equipments to determine whether or
not they make the touch. Oh, just because the weapon is moving so fast that the human eye probably can't detect that.
That totally makes sense.
Right, And I think it's existed for like probably as long as electricity. Again, don't fact check me. So then though, they ask me, is it possible for one fencer to
electrocute another fencer? And I immediately was like no, And then I stopped because blind confidence is my least favorite quality in a human and I'm pretty sure the answer is no. But I was like, I've never asked a fencer that, and then I started googling myself and I end up on Reddit where somebody's like I was sweating and I felt a small shock while fencing, And granted that's like some amateur anyway, just reminds you you always need to ask the question.
You just don't know. It's always good to ask the question. Okay, and speaking of that, I have one more question for you. Let's see if I can stump you at this. Okay, let's hear it should male Olympic pole vaulters hire drag queens to teach them how to tuck before they compete, so they don't limited themselves competition with their natural gifts down below, and not talking about any particular incident at all.
This is a total hypothetical.
I love a good hypothetical question. Answer more. Drag queens always all the.
Time, absolutely, and I do think you know, add it to the coaching staff.
It can't hurt. Also, shout out to my.
Girl, Renee Stubbs for the ingenious idea of a drag queen coach teaching these guys how to tuck. I say, get the queens from the opening ceremony, or you know, call my girl Lucy Stewell from here in Chicago.
Shout out Lucy Stewell. Everybody look her up.
I think it's wise for us to take another break here. When we come back, we'll talk about some things we wish. We're set in stone.
You're back. We're back, and it's time for yes. And let's talk about statues, y'all.
In January twenty twenty one, the University of South Carolina Athletics put up a statue of Las Vegas Ace and tmusa basketball superstar Asia Wilson in front of Colonial Life Arena to commemorate.
Her absolutely legendary college career.
The Hopkins South Carolina native and twenty seventeen National champ was the first black woman to have a statue solely in her honor on SC's campus, and as Asia pointed out, it was the same campus that her late grandmother wasn't even allowed to step foot on in her youth due to racism. The moment was so well deserved and got
a lot of attention around the sports world. In fact, considering the tear that Asia has been out in the WNBA and internationally, wouldn't surprise me if she had another statue.
By the time her career is over.
But Asia's one of very few women athletes with a
statue of their likeness. Some others include Gold medalis Sunni Lee, who has one in her hometown of Saint Paul, Minnesota, four time WNBA champ, Simone Augustus who has one at LSU, Brandy Chastein and the ninety nine ers who are immortalized at the Rose Bowl, and Venus and Serena Williams, who have a statue honoring them at the National Museum of African American history and culture in Washington and now, as of this past July, three time Olympic gymnast Dominique Dawes
has one at a recreation center in Montgomery County, Maryland, where she grew up. Dominique Dawes one of my favorite Olympic athletes ever. We are so excited for her and for the athletes you mentioned so yes, and the fact remains that there are so many female athletes who have not received their statues or frankly, the attention and appreciation they deserve. And it's much bigger than just female athletes not getting their recognition.
It's women in general.
Did you know that, according to research by University of Wisconsin lacrosse professor Sierra Rooney, only six percent of all American monuments feature actual female historic figures as their subjects.
And according to nonprofit Monument Lab.
In the US, you're more likely to find a sculpture of a mermaid than of any American born woman who actually existed and.
Did something cool.
Because I bet you've seen a lot of those stone tittied fountain ladies fountain water, but not a lot of statues dedicated to real, actual accomplished women, and this is the way we've immortalized men in this country for centuries, both athletes and otherwise. So it's about time we start keeping that same energy for greats of any gender. Put it in stone or clay or whatever the hell you make a statue out of, except for butter, because that
Kaitlin Clark butter statue was super awesome. But if you could nuke a statue and it melts doesn't count.
It was cool though.
Okay, we love that you're listening, but we do want you to get in the game every day too. So here's our good game play of the day. What athlete in women's sports do you want to see immortalized in.
Bronze or clay or copper or not butter?
Pick one person. Okay, we do not want lists. We want one person, only one athlete in women's sports you would like to see a statue of.
Next. Thank you.
Hit us up on email, good game at wondermedianetwork dot com, leave us a voicemail at eight seven two two oh four fifty seventy, or hit me up on some at Sarah Spain on Twitter, and don't forget to subscribe, rate and review.
We're not just saying this for our health.
People Hit the foll A button, subscribe, click five stars, rate review.
It's really really easy.
Watch official water polo hypeman Flavor Flav expanding his reach to other sports and athletes, rating five out of five stars review. Not only do we see Flavor, don't call him Flava out here supporting women's rugby, hanging with Billy Jean King and Serena Williams, expertly dropping Taylor swift lyrics into his instaposts, and just you know, generally being America's cool Olympic grandpa.
But he's out here paying bills now too.
Because discus thrower Veronica Freeley posted on social media that she was on her way to the Olympics but couldn't pay her rent. Flavor jumped in to cover her four the month, and then Serena Williams's husband and Reddit co founder Alexis o'hanian saw their exchange and jumped in to.
Cover her through the rest of the year. I love it. Flavor called him his partner in dime so good.
Frehley also started to go fundme page that thanks to Flavorflave, Alexis so'hanni and everybody else who saw their exchange has now raised more than her twenty thousand dollars goal. So shout out to Flavor Flav for being the ultimate hype man. See how easy that is?
Now it's your turn rate and review. Thanks for listening. See you tomorrow. Good Game, Olds, Good Game, Dominique Dawes.
Few countries that have rules against sexuality or gender expression. Good Game with Sarah Spain is an iHeart women's sports production in partnership with Deep Blue Sports and Entertainment. You can find us on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Production by Wonder Media Network, our producers are Alex Azzi and Misha Jones. Our executive producers are Christina Everett, Jesse Katz, Jenny Kaplan, and Emily Rudder.
Our editors are Jenny Kaplan, Emily Rudder, Britney Martinez and Grace Lynch. Production assistants from Lucy Jones and I'm Your Host Sarah Spain