?Good morning. Morning. How are you? I am good. How are you? I'm well. Thank you. Great. Let me get this annoying note taker off. There we go. Oh my gosh. It is always there. It's like clippy from back in the day. And it's so helpful sometimes, but other times I'm just like, why can't I make you go away? Oh my gosh.
We're talking about my note taker there. It's not anybody else. Let me hit that pause. Go. All right. Join me in welcoming my fabulous guests and amazing hosts of keep the flame alive podcast, Jill and Alison ladies. Thank you so much for joining us today. Thanks for having us. Thanks for having us.
Oh my gosh. Before we jump in and start learning all about you and your passionate topic, all things Olympics I would love to ask you my favorite startup question. And that is, would each of you please share what is your greatest remix story?
I guess this would be it. Really? Because. Yeah. Because, we both started out in a corporate library, and I guess a good remix for me was leaving that job and becoming a freelance writer. And then got the idea to start this podcast, Asked Allison, and it has provided so many adventures that, and taught us so much that, I can't even begin, we don't have time.
For all that really, but it's really, it was really just one of those whims. I'm like, Oh, how about a podcast? And you went, Oh yeah, sure. And there we go. And all of a sudden, a few years later we find ourselves in China. What? Those are the best friends. The ones that you can say, Hey, I'm coming by to pick you up.
And they never say where are we going? They're just like, bring me, should I bring snacks? What do we do? Oh my gosh. That's that has definitely become. What's happened in in some of our travels where it's just, Oh you're stranded on a mountain. That's fine. You'll get back. There's a lot of that's happened over the past few years with the show especially.
Oh my gosh. That's so amazing. It just made me flashback to this time. I was going to a wedding and my friends, Vince and Zach were getting married and I didn't have a date. My husband was busy and I was like, Oh, I know. I'll just call Felicia. I said, Hey, what are you doing? You want to go to a wedding with me?
She's sure. And I get there and I'm like, do you even know who's wedding it is? She's no, I just figured it'd be fun. Cause you were going, I'm like, okay, those are the kinds of friends we all need. So I love that you found that in each other. So good. Okay. Let's dive in a little bit. I'd love to know just really what fueled your passion around the Olympics?
What got you into this space? I think what really drives us is it's amazing to talk to people who are the best at what they do or who are trying to be the best at what they do and how that works in so many different endeavors because we don't just talk to the athletes, though we do talk to many of them.
We will talk to anyone involved with the Paralympics and the Olympics. So it may be a doctor who then is the best at. What she does working with athletes or people who are in the IOC. So people who have that passion drive our passion. It's exciting to talk to people who are excited about what they're putting so much time and energy into.
It's a constant reminder to do our best because every couple of years when the Olympics are on, I'm inspired by all of these people who put their best out on the line, trying to achieve. a gold medal, but that doesn't mean that we can't be a gold medalist in whatever we choose to do. And so that is one of the reasons I love the Olympics.
I also love them because the world comes together no other way for a couple of weeks and you think, maybe we could do this full time. And, people being people and countries being countries, it's not very possible, but There's an idea that peace around the world can exist and that's really exciting.
And then it's also exciting to see so many different sports. We here in the US, we get our diet of three or four major sports, but there are so many sports out there. And if you thought you weren't athletic because you don't like baseball or football, there's a sport out there for you. And it's amazing to see what people find to do and the ways they can push their bodies to be the best.
Oh my gosh, that's such a great way of looking at it. So many things you said. One, the world coming together for those couple of weeks, that's huge. If we could only just come together, I don't know, as a country for just a couple of weeks, wouldn't that be amazing and then maybe stay that way? So incredible.
That's A great way to look at it. And then to your point, here in the US, we do only have a couple of sports to choose from. So there's not a lot of opportunity for kids as they're growing up to show off their gifts. There is football, baseball, basketball, cheerleading probably is one that's counted.
There's a handful of sports, but just not enough that people know about. So I love your vision and your. Your perspective on that. Do each of you have a favorite Olympic sport? The last one that I watched. The last one that we went to, it's very hard to pick a favorite. And we joke about that, like this week, basketball will be my favorite or diving will be my favorite.
And the next day I'll go to fencing and then fencing is my favorite. And I think that's, what's so exciting when you're watching the Olympics is that. For that moment, synchronized swimming or artistic swimming is the most important thing in the world for you for those couple of hours that you're watching and you may not know anything about it, but it becomes everything because you can feel it and you can see it and you know it's beautiful and you know these people are at the peak and it doesn't matter if you don't totally understand what's happening.
It's just such a joy to watch people achieving their dreams. I agree. Oh my gosh. Oh, so good. So I have to say it because Gen X, right? So this year, the Olympics between Snoop Dogg and Flava Flav. Hey, who ever thought they were going to be the world's best role models in 2024? Who would have seen that coming, right?
We went to a press conference with Flavor Flav, and it was so fun, just ahead of time with the anticipation of everybody in the audience. But one of the handlers was like, Oh, you can't sit in the front row because that is for Mr. Flavor Flav's people. And we're like, Mr. Flavor Flav, I never thought I would hear that.
And he was so genuine in that press conference, his enthusiasm and his support of the U. S. water polo team was not for show. He was putting in the work and putting in the cash, more importantly, to help these women keep that team going. And then I was at breaking when Snoop Dogg, for the first competition, which was the women's competition.
And Snoop Dogg did the opening ceremony bit, which was Paris 2024, did something at the beginning of every session called the Trois Coupes, which is a theater tradition where somebody comes out on the stage and bangs a big stick three times to get everybody's attention that the show is about to start.
So Snoop Dogg did the one for break in. And it was so phenomenal how he got the crowd so excited. The crowd was already excited to be there and excited for breaking, but just, he amped it up even more and the level of charisma and just, I know excitement is a, I'm saying it five times, but it was so cool to watch him do that and bring the crowd up and pump them up in a way that you didn't expect.
Yeah, I agree. Oh my gosh. And it's so funny, Flava had fallen off of my radar for a long time. He disappeared, but all of a sudden you're like, Oh my gosh, wait, all these people are coming back into our lives. Snoop Dogg could narrate the story of my life. I could listen to him talk all day long. So whether I'm laughing or just mesmerized.
I love it. So it just brought such a different, even just a little bit more variety to the show this year. And it just added even more interest. And I'd say for me, it had me watching a bit more, so I'm betting it brought even more fans in. Yes. And fans who wouldn't get to see who wouldn't choose to watch the Olympics.
In a different way and then got sucked into what they were all about. So that's awesome for the movement. Absolutely. Oh my gosh. So good. So one of the things that I'm curious about is, and we're doing it, so it's actually now I'm a little bit more in the know, I think. How do you manage to talk about the Olympics all year long, all the time, even in off years?
Athletes train all year long and there's so many sports. So there is so many sports to cover and athletes to cover. And then you add in all the other people who are involved. It is enormous international undertaking to put this together. So you have officials and translators and negotiators and marketers and all of those pieces that we as just fans don't.
Think about, we just did we just recorded our one year out episode for Milan Cortina and we spoke to a travel expert. So if you're thinking of going to Milan Cortina 2026, how do you start planning that trip? You got to start planning now. So we talked to someone who can help you do that.
So there are way more stories than shows that we have done. We have a list that we joke about, put it on the list, put it on the list. We never run out of topics or people that we want to talk to. And in a way, the, what I like about talking to people behind the scenes is that it showcases career options for people that maybe the you dream of being Olympian, but you're not athletically inclined, but there are ways to work with the Olympics that you never thought of that are.
Absolutely necessary to make the show go on. So that's one element of it. Timotha, did you know how many different kinds of ice there are? Ice hockey ice is different from figure skating ice, which is different from curling ice, which is different from the ice in a bobsled track. It's all don't get me started on surfaces.
No, I'm gonna be looking at the ice in my margarita. Wait, why is that? Which is different. If you get a frozen margarita, that ice is different from, say, an ice that you put in a glass of whiskey. And there it is, and I will tell you, in Paris there is no ice . Oh no. I'm going into it. And I am an ice person.
Oh, no. . I am such an ice person. It was, so we were in Paris, obviously, for the Olympics, and we stayed through the Paralympics. So we were there for several weeks. And whenever I got ice in my drink, it was like the skies had opened up. I was so ex. There's ice . There's ice . Oh my gosh. Thank you for warning me.
I have. Four and a half months to prepare myself. So here's the phrase you need. You need, you can say beaucoup glace, which is a lot of ice. But then I also started saying gloss American. Basically I need American level ice. And then the waiter would understand. Oh my gosh. That also leads me to, I probably should never chew my ice in public there because probably a sound people are not accustomed to.
Oh my goodness. I. I'm just so in awe of the two of you with these facts that you're bringing to me. I never even thought about all the different kinds of ice. I've never even thought about, all I think about the people behind the scenes, I think about careers a lot because that's where my background is.
Going from corporate into career advancement, coaching initially, but. You don't always think of all the people that put the show together and all of the people that set the fields up or break down the stages or, treat the people for their mental health and exhaustion in between things and all of those aspects.
So I can imagine that your list grows by about a mile every time you sit down and brainstorm. So during the Olympics, we had, we do daily shows and one of the segments that we put in there was what volunteer or official job would you like? So every day of the Olympics, we see a new volunteer job that we would like to try.
So that's. 17 plus days of different jobs for the two of us, and we never repeated one. So there are a lot of people doing a lot of different things all day, and that's just during the games, that's not in preparation or afterwards. Oh, my gosh. Oh, my gosh. I can't even think, when we think even just the opening ceremony this year, how many people it took behind the scenes to pull that off.
And then, oh, my gosh. I'm just, I've got so many things in my brain right now. We're going to get back to the important questions so that we can understand here because I have so many things going on. Let's see if one of the things that you shared is, that the Olympics and Paralympics matter because they really bring people together and give people an opportunity to highlight skills and things that they've trained for their whole lives.
What other reasons do you believe the Olympics and Paralympics matter so much to us or should matter so much to us?
I think seeing people, and we said this earlier, seeing people achieve and not just achieve the gold medal, all those other people have pushed themselves beyond what they thought they were capable of. And even when it's somebody who isn't going to win a medal and is from a much smaller country that does not have the resources, say of a team USA.
It reminds you that you, it's not just what you're given, it's also what you do with what you're given and how you can push yourself and how you can do things you never thought you were capable of in a way that isn't just about the end goal. You're not going to win a medal every time, but that doesn't make it any less worthwhile.
It's the taking part. It's not just being on the podium, it's taking part that is important. We just talked with a cross country skier from Brazil who started out as a mountain biker, had to have surgery, her mountain biking career was over, and she ended up switching to cross country skiing through a serendipity experience.
And she's trying to become a cross country ski racer for her country.
So much, and do that on the world stage, she had qualified for the Beijing 2022 Olympics and en route to the airport to fly to China, she got in a horrific car accident that almost it. Was career ending for her, just broken arms, smashed up foot, many other injuries. She's come back from that and is determined to make it to Milan Cortina next year, even on a shoestring budget with Little equipment with little funds for coaching and travel and just hearing her story and her drive even with so much stacked up against her is so inspiring and makes you realize like you can dig inside yourself a little deeper sometimes I mean you get life is tough and You're going to have hard days, but if you can keep going and keep remembering what your goal is and your drive is, you'll find a way to get there.
Just talking with her is incredible about so many reasons. Oh my gosh, I grabbed a note for that. I'm hoping our listener took that down because that is amazing. I'm going to include that in our show notes because it's important for people to just grab onto that. It is so important to keep going and to that woman, that is so incredible that, her option was, yeah, you can just give up.
This is the thing you trained for and it didn't work out. Let's just give up and be unhappy. Or, you know what, let's. Pull ourselves back up, figure out what the next thing is and go do it. What's the goal, what's the drive and how do we make sure that we stay in alignment with our goals and stay happy?
Like it's, I think a lot of times we do, we give up too soon. Things are harder than we expect them in all aspects of life and career and starting a business. And. A lot of people will just give up, but it's the Olympians and all of us that are the ones that keep shining, keep showing up and keep going for the gold.
Exactly. So to speak. Look at me and my Olympic metaphors today. We love them. I'm so inspired. So good. Oh my gosh, so much. And it's funny when we were When I was reviewing kind of your bios and looking at your podcast and all, I was like, Oh my gosh, there's so much that aligns just between, there's so many parallels between the Olympics and Paralympics and just.
Life and career and entrepreneurship that we can all take such beautiful lessons and use them to keep us moving forward. Oh my goodness. Wow. All right. What is one thing that you would each like to share with our listener? Who maybe isn't as excited about sports or isn't as excited about the Olympics.
I feel like you've already shifted a lot of people, but what is one thing that you would like to each share that would give our listener even a little bit more inspiration to dig in and follow these wonderful events? I'm not an athlete. I am probably the most uncoordinated person you will meet. I would never make, I would never make the Olympics in any sport.
I trip over my own feet and most of the time when I'm watching the sports, there's a lot of sports I don't understand, but it doesn't matter. And I think that's the cool thing about it. One of the reasons that we started the show was to make people better. Viewers of the show, educate them about the sports themselves.
We don't have a sportscaster background. That's not where we came from. We were just fans and enjoy it. And I think that's enough. You don't have to be an expert. You don't have to be perfect. You can just. Do it for fun. You can watch that sport for that day and be the biggest fan in the world for that day.
And that's it. And that's perfectly acceptable. I think there's a lot of gatekeeping that goes on in, in sports and in many hobbies and, just watch it and you will get infected and you will love it. It. You don't have to be the number one perfect fan to enjoy it, right? and the gatekeeping to build off of what Allison said the When we started, we were big fans of the Olympics and we built our expertise over many years.
You don't necessarily become an expert overnight. And if you're trying something new and you're trying to, you feel inadequate next to so many people who have been doing it for decades, don't worry, you'll get there. Put in the work, put in the time, build your knowledge and build your skill and you too can achieve a lot.
But I would say for my thing, check out the Paralympics because Paralympics are they're run by a different organization. So it's a different field than the Olympics, but the Paralympics are so much fun to watch and it is so amazing to see what people can do. With their bodies, when they have a disability.
And the fun that they have, and the love of sport that we see, Paralympics is great. I will take your wheelchair rugby, Allison. No! No, it's mine! Mine's wheelchair rugby. People are crashing around in wheelchairs. All day long on wheelchair rugby. I love the visually impaired sports the blind football and goalball are two that are not in the Olympics.
And it's amazing to see people play soccer when they're, when they have masks over their face and can't see anything. But they can do it and you realize what is actually possible in this world. And it makes you think about what gates you can drop or open up for yourself or for others. Oh my gosh, that's great.
So good. And I love it. We put a lot of gates up for ourselves and we don't always recognize that we're doing it. And one of the things you said is, comparing yourself to others. I'm not as good as that person or it doesn't matter. Comparison is the thief of joy. I say it all the time. I will.
Probably die on that cross because the more you compare yourself to someone, the more unhappy you're going to be. And that's just a big part of life. I also really love your encouragement for watching the Paralympics. I do need to do more of that. I've watched a few events here and there. I'm going to double up on your rugby, your wheelchair rugby. So good. Oh, so good. If you like hockey, if you like basketball, you will adore wheelchair rugby just because the quality of that sport is so incredible. Oh my gosh. So amazing. Ladies, this has been so much fun. I am sure that my listeners are going to want to hear more from you.
Is there a really great way for them to connect to you? What's the best way for them to find you? Yeah. You can find us at flamealivepod. com and we are flamealivepod on socials. We're on Insta and Facebook. We have a great Facebook group called keep the flame alive podcast group that is hopping even when the Olympics aren't on.
There's other things that people want to talk about Olympic news that's going on. That's a great fun place to just hang out and get to meet other. Fans like yourselves. And so we would love you to tune in to our show. We're on all the podcast apps and, uh, it's a lot of fun to hang out with a great community of fans from all over the world who love the Olympics as much as you do.
Oh my gosh. Amazing. And we will definitely include all of those links in the show notes and more. I want to just say thank you to both of you, Jill and Alison. It has been so much fun learning about the Olympics. I've learned some great things. Seeing the parallels between. Olympic sports life and career, which I love putting all those pieces together and just hearing about your own Gen X remixes.
So this has been so much fun. I look forward to staying connected. Excellent. Thank you so much for having us. Thank you. Thank you.
