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PODCAST

Keep the Flame Alive

Jill Jaracz & Alison Brown

Obsessed with the Olympics and Paralympics? Just curious about how Olympic and Paralympic sports work? You"ve found your people! Join your hosts, Olympic aunties Alison Brown and Jill Jaracz, for smart, fun, and down-to-earth interviews with athletes, coaches, and the unsung heroes behind the Games. Get the stories you don"t find anywhere else. Tune in weekly all year-round, and daily during the Olympics and Paralympics. We"re your cure for your Olympics Fever! Call us: (208) FLAME-IT.

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All Episodes

59:40

The Winter Olympics and Climate Change with Lisa...

Keep the Flame Alive ·

2026/10/01

We're nearing the start of the winter sports season, but as we've learned from past years, just because we're getting into winter, that doesn't mean we'll have enough snow for winter sports. To discuss climate change and future Winter Olympics, we talked with Lisa Riley Roche, reporter at the Deseret News in Salt Lake City. The Olympics is one of Lisa's regular news beats. She covered the SLC 2002 Games and has been covering everything going on with the Utah 2034 Games. We talked with Lisa about

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54:15

Preserving Olympic and Paralympic History with...

Keep the Flame Alive ·

2026/09/24

With every Olympics and Paralympics comes thousands of athlete stories. How do you preserve them all? Lindsay Huban, Chief Content and Integration Officer at the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Museum gives us some insight on how the museum tells the stories of Team USA athletes and the Games. Part of that strategy is through special exhibits, and the museum has two new exhibits on tap. The first, A Legacy of Victory: U.S. Olympic Decathletes, shares the stories of America's incredible performances

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01:05:38

Budget Advisor Jason Sisney on How the California...

Keep the Flame Alive ·

2026/09/17

When a host city signs the contract to put on the Olympic and Paralympic Games, they don't just have to deal with local government to make them happen. LA 2028 has to work with municipal, county and state governments, as well as commissions and the federal government for funding, as well as regulatory needs. Jason Sisney, Budget Advisor for the Speaker's Office at the California State Assembly, joins us to talk about the state's involvement in the LA28 Games. From temporary venues to environmental

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01:06:25

Amy Van Dyken: 6x Olympic Gold Medalist and...

Keep the Flame Alive ·

2026/09/10

At Atlanta 1996 swimmer Amy Van Dyken became one of the heroes of the U.S. team, bringing home a whopping four gold medals in five events. She followed that up at Sydney 2000 with another two gold medals. After retiring and getting into broadcasting, Amy's life took a turn in 2014, when an ATV accident left her paralyzed. While she's continued to broadcast (you may have heard her as an analyst on NBC's coverage of the Paris 2024 Olympics), she's also become an advocate for people with

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54:39

How USA Fencing Builds Growth in Non-Olympic Years...

Keep the Flame Alive ·

2026/09/03

Seemingly every time we open our Inbox, we have an email from the folks at USA Fencing with another amazing announcement: They're doing a panel at Comic-Con, have a champagne sponsor, creating a theme song, getting colleges to create NCAA competitive programs in an era where college sports are declining, signing on celebs like actor Mandy Patinkin to be fencing ambassadors, and the list goes on! Team Keep the Flame Alive member and USA Fencing CEO is leading that charge, and we talked with him

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27:33

Cortina 1956 Winter Olympics: Speed Skating's Magical...

Keep the Flame Alive ·

2026/08/21

We're going back to the Cortina 1956 Winter Olympics and the last Olympic speed skating competition on natural ice. Lake Misurina proved to be a fantastic venue as records fell by the dozens over the four races of the speed skating competition. We've got all the details, including the debut of the Soviet Union's fast skaters, a Norwegian comeback, and some Scandinavians who managed to make it onto the podium. As mentioned on the show, you can find the documentary My Name Is McNamara here:

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41:54

Book Club Claire on Heroes, Villains & Velodrome's:...

Keep the Flame Alive ·

2026/08/13

Book Club Claire returns for our first book club episode of 2026, featuring Heroes, Villains & Velodrome's: Chris Hoy and Britain's Track Cycling Revolution by Richard Moore. This book covers Hoy's early cycling career and the development of Great Britain as a cycling powerhouse until around Beijing 2008. Claire joins us for a rousing discussion of Chris Hoy's early success, the 1000m race, keirin racing in Japan, and the Wild West days of track cycling. Plus, we make a surprising discovery about

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25:40

Cortina 1956 Winter Olympics: Important Evolutions in...

Keep the Flame Alive ·

2026/08/06

In our ongoing series about the Cortina 1956 Winter Olympics, we look at the sports of Nordic combined and ski jumping, both of which underwent their own evolutions at these Games. For Nordic combined, a format change and uncoupling from other competitions allowed this event to finally stand on its own. That didn't mean it was easy for anyone outside of the sport to understand how it worked or how some athletes made it to the podium. Plus, there was drama in certain countries about who got to be

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01:13:20

"The Games in Black & White": George Hirthler on...

Keep the Flame Alive ·

2026/07/30

Remember when Atlanta won the right to host the 1996 Olympics? The Centennial Olympics, the ones that Athens desperately wanted to host and everyone thought Athens would win because the Olympics were born in Greece? And then Atlanta won, and everyone was surprised? Well, we've got the story of how Atlanta shocked the world. Writer and producer George Hirthler joins us to discuss his documentary "The Games in Black & White." This Emmy award-winning film delves into the unlikely friendship of

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38:45

The Moscow 1980 Olympics with Author Tommy Phillips

Keep the Flame Alive ·

2026/07/23

Thanks to a US-led boycott, the first Olympics hosted by a communist country has long been a big black hole in our knowledge of the Olympics -- until now. On this episode, we're joined by author Tommy Phillips, who wrote The 1980 Moscow Olympics: A Day-by-Day History. His book captures all of the major happenings at these Olympics, which were dominated by the USSR and East Germany. These countries' athletes dominated with skill and athleticism....and also maybe thanks to doping and some clever help

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52:24

Two Years to LA28 with Superfan Sarah

Keep the Flame Alive ·

2026/07/16

In two years, the LA 2028 Olympics will get underway, and we're looking ahead to those Games and what they'll have to offer. Superfan Sarah, officially recognized as Team USA's #1 fan, joins us to talk about how to prepare for the Olympics and Paralympics and what sports we're looking forward to seeing. We also discuss the many American comebacks that are happening in light of a home Games, and we start speculating on who could light the cauldron. Who do you think will be involved? Let us know!

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01:23:37

Shocks in the Olympic World!

Keep the Flame Alive ·

2026/07/09

We're back from a recording hiatus, and boy, do we have a lot of Olympics news to catch up on! First, Milano Cortina 2026 released its final report, and we go between the lines to suss out its venue delivery expectations, celebrity initiative, and a major issue they should have figured out earlier--as in, during the bid process. LA28 has made a ton of announcements over the last few weeks, so we have the latest on: The Paralympic schedule Ticket drop #2 Cycling routes Volunteer applications

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21:37

Cortina 1956 Winter Olympics: Cross-Country Skiing's...

Keep the Flame Alive ·

2026/06/25

In our year-long look back at the Cortina d'Ampezzo 1956 Winter Olympics, we head to the cross-country skiing stadium (built with filming in mind) where we're in the early years of the Hakulinen-Jernberg Era. Finland's Veikko Hakulinen and Sweden's Sixten Jergberg were the dominant forces in cross-country skiing, and their performances at Cortina 1956 were no exception! However, the Soviet Union wanted to make a statement during its first appearance at a Winter Olympics, and its athletes found the

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01:01:52

Javelin with 4x Olympian Kara Winger

Keep the Flame Alive ·

2026/06/18

It's another installment of our People Who Throw Things series! This time we're talking javelin with 4x Olympian Kara Winger. Kara spent 15 years as a professional athlete, and in that time she competed at Beijing 2008, London 2012, Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020 (where she was also elected for Closing Ceremony flagbearer). She stays involved with the throws community as a coach, official and ambassador for the sport. We talk with Kara about how javelin works. Kara breaks down the makeup (and cost) of a

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21:56

Cortina 1956 Winter Olympics: Bobsled

Keep the Flame Alive ·

2026/06/11

We're traveling back in time to the Cortina 1956 Winter Olympics to hear all about the bobsled (or bobsleigh) competition. These Games saw some big changes: New rules about weight and new types of sleds. Cortina 1956 was the first Olympics for Italian Eugenio Monti, whose results put him on the road to becoming a local hero and one of the best bobsled drivers of all time. Bobsled also featured some sibling rivalry, royalty and the last American medal before a decades-long dry spell. Weather

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59:06

Coxswain: The Hardest Position in Rowing

Keep the Flame Alive ·

2026/06/04

Paralympic silver medalist Jenny Sichel joins us to talk all things coxswain: What the position does, how vital they are to the success of the boat, and what they carry in their coxswain bag. Jenny has competed as a coxswain in both able-bodied and para rowing. We talk with her about how she got into coxing and discovered para rowing. Plus, we talk about her Paralympic experiences at Rio 2016 and the heartbreaking circumstances around the boat's silver medal. For a transcript of this episode,

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57:25

Athlete Mental Health with Paralympian Jenny Sichel

Keep the Flame Alive ·

2026/05/21

For Mental Health Awareness Month, we welcome back Jenny Sichel to talk about her experiences with being an elite athlete while managing Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. Jenny is a coxswain who competed with both able-bodied and para rowing crews. We talked with her about being misdiagnosed for years, the work that went into taking control of her condition, and how it affected her as an elite athlete. You can learn more about OCD at the International OCD Foundation: iocdf.org. Find Jenny on LinkedIn,

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20:22

Cortina 1956 Winter Olympics: Alpine Skiing's New Hero

Keep the Flame Alive ·

2026/05/14

In our year-long look back at the Cortina d'Ampezzo 1956 Winter Olympics, we take to the slopes of the Tofane in the Dolomites to explore the Alpine skiing competition. With three events for men and women alike, athletes thrilled spectators on the slopes. The clear hero of Alpine skiing--and of these Olympics--was Austrian Toni Sailor. Hear how experts discounted his talents and how he almost didn't make a competition. On the women's side, hear how a pharmacy student surprised everyone in the

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49:28

U.S. Center for SafeSport Explainer with CEO Benita...

Keep the Flame Alive ·

2026/05/07

The U.S. Center for SafeSport was created in 2017 by the U.S. Congress in the wake of the Larry Nasser scandal to address abuse and misconduct in American Olympic and Paralympic sports. On this episode, we talk with Benita Fitzgerald Mosley, who become the organization's new chief executive officer in February 2026. Benita is an Olympic champion herself, winning gold in 1984 in the 100 meter hurdles. She's also a mother of children who have their own competitive athletic journeys. These

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56:12

LA28 Olympic Hospitality with On Location's Paul Caine

Keep the Flame Alive ·

2026/05/01

To be a spectator at the LA28 Olympics, you can buy tickets directly from the Organizing Committee, or you can book a hospitality package through On Location, the Games' official hospitality provider. Paul Caine, president of On Location joins us to talk all things Olympic hospitality, from how the company did at Paris 2024 and Milano Cortina 2026, to what they're planning for once-in-a-lifetime experiences related to the LA 2028 Olympics. Find out more about LA28 packages at

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