Episode 91: Five Rings of Fun

06/27/19 • 50 min

Hope you had a great Olympic Day! Alison did some sport climbing; Jill did elements of a triathlon, and we both participated on Team Olympic Fever for Team USA's Virtual Race (we're currently sitting in 3rd place--wooo!).

We loved seeing everyone's celebrations -- if you haven't gotten your participation certificate, send us your proof of participation. We'll get a certificate to you!

It's that time of year when the International Olympic Committee members get together for their semiannual IOC Session, and this one was a big one!

First up, the big decision: Who will host the 2026 Winter Olympics? Spoiler alert (in case you haven't heard the celebrations all the way where you are): It's Milan-Cortina.

Jill watched the bid presentations, and boy, did Stockholm-Åre have a sound plan guided by the IOC's New Norm/Sustainability push. However, as Alison pointed out, Milan-Cortina had more support the whole way through, and they had the government guarantees. What do you think matters more to the voting members?

Also at the session, The IOC celebrated its 125th anniversary by inaugurating its brand new headquarters, the Olympic House. Speaking of sustainability, the IOC could not stop talking about how sustainable the building is--and we have to say, it is pretty cool. Check it out here. And check out the fancy guards here.

The additional sports for Paris 2024 are one step closer to being added to the program. They are:

Skateboarding
Surfing
Sport Climbing
Breaking

While we'll get to experience the first three at Tokyo 2020, Breaking will be a first--and sure, everyone's talking about that dance sport now, but what really grabbed our attention was where the surfing competition could possibly take place.

We've learned many other things during this IOC Session, including:

The bidding process for hosting the Games will change again
The IOC has its own broadcasting awards
AIBA, while not running the boxing tournament at Tokyo 2020, will be putting together the pool of officials. Anyone see a problem there?
WADA is going through the RUSADA samples they finally got a hold of. It's not going to be pretty.

Tokyo 2020 tickets are on many people's minds right now. Jill and Contributor Ben snagged a few of the ones they requested. If you didn't get everything you want to see, there will be more opportunities. One way to stay on top of them is to subscribe to this bot, which will email you whenever a flash sale occurs.

Also, the U.S. Olympic Committee has officially changed its name to the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee. This is a big, visible step to becoming a more inclusive organization--hooray!

DISCLAIMER: OLYMPIC® is a trademark of the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee (“USOPC”). Any use of OLYMPIC® in the Olympic Fever podcast is strictly for informational and commentary purposes. The Olympic Fever podcast is not an official podcast of the USOPC. The Olympic Fever podcast is not a sponsor of the USOPC, nor is Olympic Fever associated with or endorsed by USOPC in any way. The content of Olympic Fever podcast does not reflect the opinions, standards, views, or policies of the USOPC, and the USOPC in no way warrants that content featured in Olympic Fever is accurate.

We loved seeing everyone's celebrations -- if you haven't gotten your participation certificate, send us your proof of participation. We'll get a certificate to you!

It's that time of year when the International Olympic Committee members get together for their semiannual IOC Session, and this one was a big one!

First up, the big decision: Who will host the 2026 Winter Olympics? Spoiler alert (in case you haven't heard the celebrations all the way where you are): It's Milan-Cortina.

The additional sports for Paris 2024 are one step closer to being added to the program. They are:

Skateboarding
Surfing
Sport Climbing
Breaking

We've learned many other things during this IOC Session, including:

The bidding process for hosting the Games will change again
The IOC has its own broadcasting awards
AIBA, while not running the boxing tournament at Tokyo 2020, will be putting together the pool of officials. Anyone see a problem there?
WADA is going through the RUSADA samples they finally got a hold of. It's not going to be pretty.

Also, the U.S. Olympic Committee has officially changed its name to the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee. This is a big, visible step to becoming a more inclusive organization--hooray!

Previous Episode

Episode 90: Prepping for Sport Climbing at Tokyo 2020 with Josh Levin

Team USA sport climber and Team Olympic Fever member Josh Levin is back on the show to talk about his involvement with the sport since age 4 and training for the Tokyo Olympics. He also tells us which countries to watch out for at the Games.

One of the other topics we talked about was moving up from the junior to senior ranks, and Jill was surprised to hear that Josh thought it was less stressful for him once he moved up. Josh also lays on some good wisdom about assessing your involvement in the sport and having an identity beyond your sport.

Follow Josh online:

In our Team Olympic Fever Update, we mentioned that the dulcet tones of Jason Bryant have a new audio series called "Countdown to Nur-Sultan," consisting of 2-minute profiles of 100 wrestlers you'll see at the Senior World Wrestling Champs (held this year in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan). Jason told us that many of these people will also be at Tokyo 2020, so this is a great way to get to know the athletes (and hey, it's the dulcet tones of Jason Bryant--why else would you need to listen?).

This Sunday, June 23, is Olympic Day! Get out and do something sporty -- take a pic and post it on social with the hashtags #OlympicDay and #OFOD. We'll send you a participation certificate.

You can also be part of Team Olympic Fever Podcast on Team USA's challenge (open to anyone, anywhere!) -- sign up here, become part of our team and complete 3 miles by the end of the month to earn another certificate. We've got several listeners on our team and are doing well on the leaderboard, but we need you to continue our stride!

We also have a ton of news about Tokyo 2020, including:

The rowing facility is open
Look out for plastic bag fees
A very cool project called Flower Lane to make going through security more pleasant
Applications for Torch Relay Torchbearers are open! Let us know if you apply!
The USA Oreo Truck is on tour
Team GB has released a fun Travel to Tokyo program (some of us in the Facebook Group are doing it -- join us!)
Georgio Armani showed off Team Italy's track suits at a recent fashion show. What do you think of them? Alison has opinions.
Episode 74: Josh Levin on Olympic Sport Climbing
Episode 76: Tokyo 1964 vs. Tokyo 2020
Episode 66: Touching Base with Josh Williamson

Next Episode

Episode 92: Olympic Fever Lightning Round 4

It's Canada Day and Independence Day in the US this week, so we're celebrating by putting together a set of Lightning Rounds. We ask our Team Olympic Fever members five quick questions, and we love hearing how different everyone's answers are!

In this edition, we've got sports psychologist Dr. Kristin Keim, Team USA's "Team Mom" Sherry Von Riesen and gold medal diver Laura Wilkinson. Who hooked Kristin on the Olympics? What does Sherry think of the US Olympic and Paralympic Training Center's food options? What's Laura's favorite exercise? Find out on this week's show!