Episode 210 Part I: Tokyo 2020/21 Mega Olympic Preview

The Tokyo 2020/21 Olympics are the Pandemic Games. Even so, over two episodes (210 Part I and II) Burn It All Down will preview EVERY sport with excitement, cynicism, awe and critical thinking. In Part I, Brenda Elsey, Shireen Ahmed and Jessica Luther cover who to watch and what to know about the following events: artistic swimming, rowing, table tennis, sailing, water polo, canoeing, golf, tennis, football/soccer, softball, baseball, field athletics, badminton, archery, judo, weightlifting, taekwondo, karate and cycling. They also discuss what sport they'd like to see included in the Olympics that is not, as well as what sport they'd like to medal in.

This episode was produced by Tressa Versteeg. Shelby Weldon is our social media and website specialist. Burn It All Down is part of the Blue Wire podcast network.

Transcript

Brenda: Welcome to Burn It All Down – it’s the feminist sports podcast you need. This week we are doing a two part mega-super-amazing-best-ever Olympic preview, in two parts. I am here with my co-hosts Jessica Luther and Shireen Ahmed, and we are going to talk about what have been termed the “pandemic games,” the COVID games, the Tokyo Olympics of 202…really 21, but they’ll be called 2020. It got me thinking to how the last Tokyo Olympics in 1964 would have looked like for spectators and athletes. 1964 is seen as a really important year in Japanese history, a seminal year, for the Olympics, for the first bullet train, the normalization of relations with South Korea. And the people who are born in that year carry the name, the new people: those who would be now 57 and were identified as the first generation to be born post-war and reconstruction. Globally it's a pretty cold war year, you know? You're right in the middle of it.

South Africa as well was finally banned for the apartheid regime from those Olympics for the first time, and the last day of the games, Zambia declared independence from the United Kingdom. So, came in as one country and came out of the games as another. It's a very unique…And I think the only time it's happened in Olympic history. But that's just a reminder of how recent decolonizations have been, and another good reminder that they still cast a very long shadow over the Olympics.

For more on our analysis of politics, of having these games, and our critique: [laughs] see recent episodes 208 and 206, but you can literally search burnitalldownpod.com and you'll be treated to dozens of our takes on the Olympics more broadly, as well as interviews, like with NOlympics folks and expert professor Jules Boykoff. For now we're going to revel in whether we like it or not what's coming. And so I'm going to start out with some categories, and my co-hosts are going to try to feature some of the things that are exciting us the most. The first category: splashy and paddles. Shireen, can you tell us about artistic swimming?

Shireen: Artistic swimming, everybody, formerly known as synchronized swimming, artistic swimming has actually been part of the Olympics since 1984. Some Canadians may remember the name of Carolyn Waldo, who was in synchronized swimming, the first Canadian woman to win two golds at a single Olympics – 1988, Seoul – for doubles and in the solo competition. But the IOC took away the solo event, so now there are only team and duet events. There’s team technical and team free, and that just means that in the free event there are not required elements. So there's a greater emphasis on choreography and creative movement–

Jessica: I need everyone to know that as Shireen is explaining these movements she's literally acting out synchronized swimming moves.

Shireen: I was kind of flapping… [laughs] 

Jessica: It’s like a TED Talk video over there.

Shireen: So, artistic swimming – and this is my analysis – the artistic swimming is a combination of gymnastics, swimming and dance. It's memorizing. So, think cheer in the water, because there’s added elements of that kind of thing. Teams to look out for are Canada: Claudia Holzner and Jacqueline Simoneau, they’re a duet team and gold medalist at the recent super final in Barcelona. Fom Belarus: Vasilina Khandoshka and Daria Kulagina. Now, the Netherlands has twin sisters who are contesting second place. So it's Bregje and Nootje De Brouwer. Women's team events – Italy, Spain, and Canada are top three. I'm very excited about this and will be looking forward to it. And just as a side note, one of my bucket list dreams is to have the Burn It All Down crew in a pool doing choreographed dances.

Brenda: That was wonderful, Shireen. Now, I get rowing. So, a few interesting things. The most decorated rower in the history of the Olympics, who won five gold, two silver and one bronze metal is Romanian Elisabeta Lipă, who is now their minister of sports. And she's pretty interesting, left a huge legacy. There are 14 events. There’s two, four and eight people in these boats…I don't know what you call them.

Shireen: They’re called shells, and they're called oars.

Brenda: I thought that they were called sculls too.

Shireen: Sculling is when you have two oars, and sweeping is when you have one oar.

Brenda: Right. So it's not just shelly, shelly, right? There's scullys and other things [Shireen laughs] involved. It is called a sport for late bloomers, so that's something that's pretty interesting. So listeners out there that are in their thirties and forties, this is hope for you. It's pretty exciting. This year look for Sanita Pušpure, who is a Latvian-born professional rower. She represents Ireland and she's the mother of two. She will be 39 in this Olympics and also the kind of leading men range between 40 to 45. For the US team all eyes are on Charlotte Buck, and I just want to think about how COVID has affected these athletes. It's pretty interesting that she ended up basically catching the eye of the US rowing association by her COVID workouts that an indoor rowing machine tabulated and kept tabs on how hard she was working. So I thought that was kind of fascinating. She qualified in a really the different way.

Jessica: That's amazing, actually.

Brenda: Right? Yeah. It made me think of other friend of the show, Grant Wahl, who is constantly posting himself rowing.

Jessica: Yes! [laughs]

Brenda: And I was like, I wonder if Grant was going for this! So those of you who bought rowing machines, [laughs] this is going to be amazing. It's a whole new world out there. Okay. Moving on. Jessica, you've got table tennis.

Jessica: Yes. I have table tennis, which is a thrilling sport when you watch it. For me it's almost like hockey, where I just have a really hard time keeping my eye on the ball, or the puck. Because these people are so incredible at how they play table tennis. So, for this Olympics are only two singles players per country, which means for some countries it was an intense competition. The format will be for the singles, the top 16 players get a bye through the third round. So if you're in the top 16, by through the third round. Next 16 seeds start in the second round. From the third round onwards there are no byes and it's a direct knockout single elimination tournament. You're there and then you're gone. So, it's real intense. For the mixed doubles competition, which is a new Olympic event, and any of the two team events, they will all feature 16 teams and will take place as direct knock out single elimination tournaments with no byes. You lose, you go home. Can you imagine what an intense thing, after all the buildup, to that?

So, some players to pay attention to…It's thrilling. I mean, these people are all so good, and these countries can only send two of them. Ma Long and Ding Ning, both are from China. They're the defending men's and women's singles champions, respectively, from Rio in 2016. But Ding Ning is not the best Chinese woman going to Tokyo. Chen Meng is the defending world cup and ITTF finals champion. She's been number one in the world since June, 2019. So, she is a gold medal favorite. But then Japan has a lot of good players, right? So this could be a place where the host country wins some medals. This includes Ito Mima, the world number three, and Ishikawa Kasumi, number nine in the world. That's on the women's side. For the men: Harimoto Tomokazu is currently fifth in the world. I also want to mention, shout out to Hugo Calderano, who is from Brazil. He's the first Latin American player to crack the world top 10. So, we'll see how Hugo does. 

Brenda: All right! Eu gosto do Brasil. I get sailing, one of the OGs. [laughter] Sailing was in the Athens Olympics in 1896, but it was canceled. And I couldn't find out…It's a mystery. It seems that there's a debate over whether it was weather that led it to be canceled or the IOC’s mismanagement of getting permits to sail out of the Greek port.

Jessica: You mean like in 1896? They were going to do it and then it got canceled?

Brenda: Yeah. 

Shireen: Do you want to do a little friendly Burn It All Down wager? I will bet five bucks that it was the IOC. [laughter]  

Brenda: The problem is you have no takers for this bet. [laughter]

Jessica: I believe the IOC would say it's weather, but I believe it’s–

Brenda: Right!

Shireen: Exactly. [laughs] 

Brenda: The great weather cover-up of 1896 [Jessica laughs] that Burn It All Down has cracked, because I did go a-digging. So, the first time that sailing was actually included was 1900. Well, really 1904 until they really get it together. And it's typically been dominated by Great Britain, the US and Norway. There are 10 events in total, and I'm not even going to pretend to understand – because you just saw me there about rowing – exactly what makes it different, but they are defined by the boats and the types of things they need to do to make the boat go. [Shireen cackling] And those are categories. It's not…It’s not like weight class, you know what I mean? [laughs] It’s like the type of boats. So, the events are named, [Shireen still wheezing] many of them after the boats themselves. So for example, this is the first time that there is a Nacra 17 event. The Nacra 17 is a brand new boat that has been cleared for a particular event.

I am going to be charmed, I think, by 59 year old Santiago Lange from Argentina. This is his seventh Olympics. Also, both of his sons were in 2016 Olympic teams. And so I don't know what's in the water, don’t sit on the toilet, or do. But anyway, it's a whole family. [Shireen laughing] But point being, he previously one two bronze medals and then was diagnosed with lung cancer and had to have a large part of his lung removed and had to totally alter his training. At that time, what he did is took on a partner, her name is Cecilia Carranza, for the mixed gender Nacra 17. So, it's the first to demand mixed gender racing. It's just been brand new since 2016 were adopted, and now it'll really be premiered. So I'm excited about that. Shireen: water polo.

Shireen: So, to quote Dr. Brenda Elsey, the illustrious historian, water polo is also an OG. [laughter] So, it’d be an Olympic event in 1900 and was one of the original sports of the modern games. 100 years later the women's event was added at the 2000 Sydney Olympics. So it only took them a hundred years. Like seriously, these bitches went and just waited. At the 2000 Sydney Olympics, Australia women actually beat the USA for gold in front of a home crowd, and the first time that women had participated in water polo at the Olympics, it was a really big deal. So water polo, for those that aren't familiar, it's like rugby, netball and swimming combined. And it’s played with seven players, six and a goalie, and in four quarters of eight minutes each.

Shoulder injuries are the most common injuries to both men and women, a lot of like rotator cuff injuries and stuff like that. And for the men, traditionally European teams take the top tournaments in the world. Tokyo Tatsumi international swimming center in Koto will be the host of this event. And while the men's event is dominated by Europeans, the women's side is kind of like a smorgasbord, and I feel like I'm going to go for Hungary here – no specific rhyme or reason, but they did beat the Netherlands in the final of the Olympic qualifiers in February of 2021. And they just look like badasses. So what happens is before the match begins or the game begins, the ref blows the whistle and they all jump into the water at the same time and then they go for the ball that’s placed in the middle. So it's really neat.

The men's rankings were accumulative and FINA, which is also the governing body of swimming internationally also governs water polo. So, Serbia, Croatia, Hungary, Italy and Spain are for the men, and for the world league rankings, which are different, but just from 2019 and…The world rankings haven't happened since 2019. And we'll see this in a lot of the sports actually, is obviously because of COVID. So Serbia, Croatia, Australia, Spain, Hungary, Japan, Kazakhstan – which I did not expect and was so happy to see there – and then Canada, for the men. Now, the women's rankings, according to FINA from 2016 to 2020: USA's number one, Russia, Spain, Hungary and Italy. And they didn't actually have world league rankings unfortunately for the women. But like I said, Hungary! We’re Hungary (hungry) for some gold here in water polo!

Brenda: I’m hungry for them to do some LGBTQ protest about that legislation that they passed. I would love to see some of those athletes…Of course Black Lives Matter would be very well received by this podcast. I would also like to see Hungary and Hungarian athletes, you know, use their platform. That would be really heartening to see. So, I'll be interested. I’m with you, Shireen. I want to see Hungarians up there, and I hope it results in some political protest.

Okay, I got canoeing next. And for those of you that don't know, I actually have a canoe tattooed on my forearm. So, I care deeply about canoeing. It is my favorite sport to actually do myself. I grew up canoeing on the Au Sable river in Michigan, which has one of the largest and fastest canoe races. They go all night. And I used to wake up with my cousins and feed the canoe racers because the whole town would kind of wake up and then you throw them food. [laughs] It's very sweet. But to my disappointment, these are kayaks. These aren't really canoes. It's called a canoe race, but they're covered. And once you cover, if you can't put a six pack in it, it's not a canoe, it's a something else. 

Jessica: A six pack would never make it down those rough… [Brenda laughs] The things they do the Olympics on are incredible.

Brenda: The things they do are amazing. There's two kinds of events, the sprint and the slalom. It has been in the Olympics since 1936, so that was the ones in Berlin. And you'll see that it seems in 1936 a lot of sports started. So I do wonder to myself, cynical as I am, if Hitler was trying to bump up those Aryan numbers with some sports like canoe, which is traditionally a fairly European sport, as one can imagine. And so, anyway, these are the two. The sprints are just, you know, you go fast as you can. And the slalom is actually made from artificial rivers. So, they have a series of challenges that are rapids that are between classes two and four. And I think that the politics of creating an artificial river is probably pretty depressing.

Jessica: They look cool as hell, but yeah, what a wasteful thing to do.

Brenda: Right? But I mean the whole thing is that a canoe goes in an actual river, and there's lots of them. So, it was kind of sad. It was, for me, it was a disappointing thing. Except a couple of things: first of all, Mexico and Hungary – hello, Shireen! – will make their canoe slalom Olympic debuts in Japan. So that should be interesting. And women's canoe is making its first appearance as like a K1, C1 event. Right, whew. So, for the first time there will be equal numbers of men and women competing, 41 quotas allocated for each. And there is a team refugee athlete that is really compelling. His name is Saeid Fazloula, and he trains in Germany. He fled Iran in 2015, making his way there. You can see the Olympic profile on him on the Olympics page. He is very charming and his story is heartwarming. Okay. So we are now going to say goodbye to splashy paddles or paddling splashes, and the next category is: at the club. That sounds really fun. Shireen, give us something on golf. 

Shireen: Okay. So we're talking about clubs now, y’all! [Brenda laughs] Golf. We'll start there. Fun bit of history, friends: before Rio 2016, golf had only been at the Olympics twice – 1900 and 1904. There was a 112 year absence, and then at Tokyo 2020 – really Tokyo 2021 – there will be two events, and golf will have a 72 hole stroke play tournament, 60 different players representing their countries for both men and women. And for the women's event, all my money is on South Korea, and not just because Korean hot dogs are one of my favorite things ever. It’s because Jin Young Ko is ranked number one in the world. She's been a torchbearer in previous episodes. Inbee Park is number two and Sei Young Kim is number four, and I hope to see them on the podium.

Brenda: Do you remember how bad they pissed off Trump? Do you remember we did that episode on Trump wanting that US, I can't remember, a golfer that he kind of sponsored, to win. And those women that you just named just killed it. [Shireen laughs] And he was like, so depressed, he left. 

Shireen: So for the men, the USA may do well, but I don't do golf and I have no idea, but [wheezing laughter] the USA are predicted to do well, according to the standings. 

Jessica: This is wonderful. 

Shireen: So, [laughter] Justin Thomas is third, Collin Morikawa is fourth. Bryson DeChambeau is five and Xander Schauffele is sixth. So because the golf event can actually have up to 60 participants, I feel like it is the sport with the most varied athletes and countries in a singular event. So everywhere from Paraguay to Malaysia, to Slovakia to Mexico, you have being represented in golf. But the women's event, not a single person from the continent of Africa, while the men's event actually does have a South African and a player from Zimbabwe. So I love seeing the countries that we may not hear of on a global scale very often at PGA or LPGA tournaments. 

Brenda: I love that. That's one of the funnest things of all. Okay. Next up: tennis. Jessica?

Jessica: Of course, I got tennis. Tennis is always a little weird at the Olympics because tennis is an international tour nearly all year long, so these athletes are always competing against each other on these major international levels. But this time around, there's a lot of big names that are skipping Tokyo for a lot of different reasons. Serena, Victoria Azarenka, Roger Federer, Andy Murray, Rafael Nadal, Dominic Thiem, Nick Kyrgios, Bianca Andreescu, and Jo Konta, just to name a few of them. Konta has actually…She is not going. She's the big British star. She's been suffering the aftereffects of COVID-19. A member of her team tested positive in the buildup to Wimbledon and she had to quarantine, so she couldn't practice, and then came down with COVID and so it was just unable to prepare to go. So she will not be there. But I do think it's really fun to think about who could rise to the top amidst this depleted field. One of the best stories from Rio was Puerto Rican tennis player Monica Puig winning the gold medal.

This is Japan. Naomi Osaka might be the biggest story in the Olympics, right? If she can go all the way and win the gold medal, especially after all the buildup over the summer around Naomi. That would be thrilling. And he's not my favorite, but I'm going to mention Novak Djokovic. It's noteworthy because this year in particular, he's won the first three grand slams. If he wins the gold medal and he wins the US Open, he will win the golden slam, which no man has ever done. Steffi Graf, the great Steffi Graf, did it in 1988, and she's the only person who's ever done all five in one year. So, I will just mention Djokovic going for that. He left us all hanging on that. But it would be a big deal if he could do that.

Brenda: It’d be good for men to try to, you know, set their heights higher. It'd be great to see them breaking boundaries. So, you know, golden slam. Alrighty. So if Jessica got tennis, it's no surprise, since I'm generous and wonderful, that Shireen gets soccer. Or, as we like to call it, football.

Shireen: You did get sailing, of which you are the ultimate sailing prophet, Brenda. [laughter]

Brenda: Clearly I have a huge career in sailing commentary. 

Shireen: So, yes, I'm excited about this. So before we get into the details, please check out previous interviews with Crystal Dunn, Team USA, episode 180; and Erica Dambach, soccer coach, and that was December, 2020, Team USA also. Some people might be wondering, how does this actually work? And I do want to go through a little bit of the legality, technicalities of how footballers and their teams qualify to be part of the Olympics. So, athletes should have been born between the 1st of January, 1980 and the 31st of December, 2002 to take part. Football: it has been confirmed athletes who were entitled to compete in July, 2020 will actually remain eligible for this year. So they wouldn't shut them out of the COVID year. The maximum age for the men's event is 23, but for Tokyo 2020 it will be 24. There are no age restrictions for the women, but we will get into that.

There were 16 teams and it begins July 22nd, ends August 7th. Group A: Japan, South Africa, Mexico, France. B: New Zealand, South Korea, Honduras, Romania. C: Egypt – Mohamed Salah had not been released by the country to play, so he will not be playing for Egypt, just to update. So Egypt, Spain, Argentina, and Australia. Group D: Brazil, Germany, Ivory Coast and Saudi Arabia. And you're like, whoa, this is really, really global. So the only thing positive I really have to say, because the idea of FIFA combining with IOC just makes me want to bathe in hand sanitizer. But realistically, this will be an opportunity for other teams to qualify that wouldn't have necessarily for the World Cup because the qualification process is different. FIFA doesn't want competition and it belongs to the IOC, so they get to decide.

So, some of the wealthiest, arguably wealthiest country might have undue influence, if you know what I'm saying! So there's twelve women teams competing, begins July 21st to August 6th. There are no player age restrictions for teams participating on the women's side. Brazil's Bruna Benites is 35 and Carli Lloyd of the USA is 38, but they are among some of the stars taking part in this summer’s tournament, and one of our faves, faves, Brenda’s fav: Formiga! 43 years old and will be representing Brazil in her seventh Olympics. So like the sailor that Brenda was talking about, because they're both seventh Olympics, so they can have like, you know, a photo of the septuagenarian Olympians…Is that what it's called? I just made it up, that word. I think that's the word. Septagon?

Brenda: Septagon?

Jessica: You didn’t make it up. It's just not the right word. [laughter]

Shireen: So, USA is favored to win. We know this, for the women's side. The men, I feel like I'm going to go for France, just because of what happened in the Euros. And I want Kylian Mbappé to have everything. So USA is slated to win, but they did crash out in the group stages last Olympics and imploded. So you really never know. At Rio 2016 Germany beat out Sweden at the Maracana stadium to win the gold. Germany did not actually qualify this time, and neither did France for the women. Absolute heartache for me. Anyway, Group E: Japan, Canada, Great Britain, Chile. Group F: China, Brazil, Zambia, Netherlands. And Group G is Sweden, USA, Australia, and New Zealand. So unlike the World Cup for the IOC, Great Britain will actually be England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales. It won't be those individual countries. Now, all I got to say about this is I can't wait and I will be tweeting, you know, my punditry the whole way through. [Jessica laughs]

Brenda: That is so exciting. Thank you, Shireen. Okay. Back to you, Jessica, for some softball/baseball.

Jessica: Yeah. All right. So baseball and softball are making their return to the Olympics for the first time since the 2008 Games in Beijing. The opening games are going to be played at Fukushima Azuma baseball stadium, but then they will move to the Yokohama stadium, which was actually the main venue. They both have six teams, and softball is number one USA, number two Japan – who are actually the defending gold medalists in softball – number three Canada, number five Mexico, number eight Australia, and number nine Italy. It actually will start on Wednesday, July 21st, before the opening games. The very first game of the Olympics will be Australia versus Japan at 9:00am Japan standard time on July 21st in Fukushima. I'm sure that's not a mistake. That that is where Japan wants the games to physically start.

I do want to shout out two people in softball. One is Canada's Danielle Lawrie. She's a right-handed pitcher. She was born in 1987, joined the Canadian softball team in 2005, 16 years ago; retired in 2014, but came back in 2018 because she hopes to win a medal in these games. But Canada has never medaled in softball, so for Danielle we'll keep our fingers crossed for the number three team. But Japan has their own veteran right-handed pitcher: Yukiko Ueno, born in 1982, two time Olympic medalist, including the gold in 2008 when Japan won last time. In Athens 2004, Ueno pitched the first and only seven inning perfect game in the history of Olympic softball. The bronze and gold medal matches will be played on Tuesday, July 27th.

Baseball will take over the next day on July 28th. They also have six teams. Number one: Japan, in baseball. Number three, Korea, who are actually defending gold medalists. USA is fourth. Mexico fifth. The Dominican Republic is number seven, and number 24 in the world, Israel, will be the sixth team. The bronze and gold medal matches will come up on Saturday, August 7th. One baseball shoutout I want to give is Adrian Gonzalez from team Mexico. This first baseman was born in 1982 in San Diego and grew up in Tijuana. His MLB debut was with the Rangers back in 2003 and he's a five time MLB all-star and he'll be out there for Mexico. 

Brenda: Yay. Olé! The next category is: badassery/weapons. Shireen, what about field athletics?

Shireen: So, field athletics, vis-a-vis track. So, long jump: Malaika Mihambo of Germany is a current world champion and Juan Miguel Echevarría of Cuba won bronze at the world championships in Doha, but won golden 2018. So I feel like those are my faves to win. So, triple jump: Cuba has a very strong tradition in triple jump, and Jordan Díaz lapped 17.30 meters to break the world under-18 best at the 2017 championships in Nairobi. He followed it up the next year and improved to 17.41 meters in Havana, but also set a north and central American u-20 record. So he's really someone to watch. And someone else I just wanted to mention was Yulimar Rojas, is Venezuelan, and she's the first Venezuelan woman to win an Olympic medal. She won a silver in Rio and she's a triple jump star. She's won two outdoor world titles and a second world indoor. She’s amazing and was the 2020 world female athlete of the year and broke the indoor record. So I think she's amazing. And she said, quote, “My ambition is to become the first woman to jump 16 meters,” says Rojas. “It is something unimaginable in people's minds, but I think I have the ability to do it.” So, jumping 16 meters…Like, that’s a lot of meters to jump horizontally.

Brenda: How even!? How even!

Shireen: I would drive that, d’you know what I mean?

Jessica: That is so far! Golly.

Shireen: High jump. So, Javier Sotomayor of Cuba is the current men's record holder with a jump of 2.5 meters (8 feet and 1/4 inches) set in 1993. So, I'm just giving you some history here. And that is the longest standing record in the history of the men's high jump. So, Mutaz Essa Barshim of Qatar is a reigning world champion right now and who has not yet made Sotomayor’s record, but he's trying to beat that. So it's like, oh, can he catch up? So I didn't think there'd be this much drama in high jump, but I'm here for it. Now for women, Maria Lasitskene, born in Russia, who was actually an authorized neutral athlete (ANA) – is a category under which Russian athletes can compete at international competitions after the doping scandal, which first came to light in December 2014. So that's what ANA is if anyone's wondering.

Then we've got the pole vault. So, Anzhelika Sidorova, also ANA, and Sam Kendricks of the USA, you know, I'm kind of cheering for them. And they were world champions going into the Olympics. We've got shot put, discus, javelin, and hammer throw. And I was going to go through individually, but a hammer throw, I'm like, let’s talk about our fav, Gwen Berry! Episode 143 and special episode, June 2020, who we all know recently turned her back to the flag in protest during the playing of the star spangled banner. We love you Gwen, and we hope you throw the shit out of that hammer. Another hammer that I want to mention, a hammer athlete, is a Kanyen’kéha:ka athlete competing in Tokyo, Jillian Weir. Weir, whose maternal family comes from the Tyendinaga Mohawk territory in Southern Ontario, will compete in the hammer throw, which is a track and field event. And she said, quote, “I'm excited, honestly, just to be able to take part, represent Canada, and to represent the Mohawk nation. I feel like that's a huge accomplishment.”

Brenda: Now I get to pronounce a sport that has caused serious consternation on this podcast [laughter] for the past few days. And because I am lead, I get to call it badmitten. Shireen, I'm sorry. Jessica, why don't you tell us–

Jessica: About badmitten? 

Brenda: Yeah. About badmitten.

Shireen: You guys are cruel.

Jessica: Shireen’s dying. She wants it to be badminton.

Shireen: Badminton. That's how it's pronounced!

Brenda: By you. By you.

Jessica: So, badmitten [Shireen laughs] is one of the most popular sports in the world. Japan has a possible gold medalist on the men side: Kento Momota, he's fascinating. He's a world. number one. He was banned in 2016 from competing because of his involvement in an illegal gambling scandal. When he returned to the sport he made his way back to number one by winning 39 matches in a row. Then last year, leaving a competition, he was in a van and it crashed into the back of a truck. The driver died. Momota got a fractured eye socket,  damaged his eyesight. It's just a hell of a story. Had the pandemic not happened we probably wouldn't have seen him at the Olympics, but he has recovered enough now that he will get to compete in Tokyo. So he has had quite a run to get here, and we'll see if he can actually pull the gold out of this.

Brenda: Can I ask, did he gamble on badminton? Is there gambling in badminton? I'm just…

Jessica: Oh, I'm sure. It's super popular.

Brenda: Right. Okay. Okay. I'm just so curious.

Shireen: No badminton is a fascinating sport with a lot of drama. Like, badminton–

Jessica: Shireen just wants to say it. [Shireen laughs]

Brenda: I don't know what she's talking about, but go ahead, Jessica. 

Jessica: Aram Mahmoud, who is from Syria, he'll be competing on team refugee in the men's singles event. The world number one for women is from Taiwan, Tai Tzu Ying. She’s never won an Olympic medal. She's hinted that this will be her final Olympics. Her biggest rival is world number two, Chen Yufei of China. It will be exciting to see who can pull this one out. 

Brenda: I love that. All right. This one I'm going to share with Shireen, and that is the sport of archery, which is taking place from July 22nd to the 31st. It started in the Olympics in 1900, but then was dropped from 1920 to 1972. Why? It's so obviously awesome. I don't know. The IOC? There are men's events that are usually dominated by South Korea, US, Italy. Also Mexico, South Korea and China traditionally dominate the women's game. There are going to be 128 athletes. They are spread across five events: men’s individual, women's individual, men's team, women's team, and mixed team. The mixed team is new for 2020. All of the events mean that the archer to the target is the same distance, 70 meters. It's very far. I'm not perfect at the metric system because my schooling was in this country that doesn't use a rational measurement system, but I know it's very far.

I was super excited about Bhutan’s Karma. That's her name. In Bhutan they only use one name, so it's extra, extra badass. Like, it's badass but then it's super badass because her actual just name is Karma. And she's really charming. She claims that she trains, she shoots from 6:00am to 6:00pm daily, almost seven days a week or usually seven days a week. And she is hoping to be Bhutan's first medalist. This is their national sport. It is considered to be, you know, an extremely austere and spiritual culture, and archery is a big part of that. And so yay, Karma. Let’s go. Okay, Shireen, what do you want to add to this most badass event?

Shireen: I wanted to add that Deepika Kumari, who we have mentioned before, is a 27 year old from Ranchi – which is ironically where my mother was born in India before moving to Pakistan post-Partition. So, she is from Ranchi, and went to top of the rankings for the first time since 2012 and won gold medals in women's individual, women's team, and mixed team events. Overall, Deepika has 9 gold, 12 silver and 7 bronze medals at the world cups. She's one of India's strongest medal contenders at the Olympics. This is from ndtv.com. I just wanted to say about archery, I love archery. One of the things I really love about it is that we find women from the global south a lot in there, and we find women from countries that wouldn't necessarily participate in other sports. And one of the reasons is there have never been any clothing restrictions. There's always been uniform accommodations in archery.

So you get lots of archers from Iran, you get them from Malaysia, you get them…I remember the last Olympics there was an archer who was almost nine months pregnant who was competing. And I think this is something really neat because it requires so much mental acuity, but just to have people in their final trimester competing is fantastic. And one of the other things, a lot of people don't know, and Brenda was talking about Bhutan having a spiritual element…There are a couple sports within the faith of Islam that are recommended for people to do. One is swimming, one is horseback riding, and one is archery. So it's actually spiritually recommended to be able to shoot a bow and arrow. So, we got to do that. Maybe we'll put the artistic swimming on hold and go to an archery range when we get together next time.

Brenda: I don't think it has to be an either or.

Shireen: We can do both.

Brenda: Yeah. It’s an and.

Shireen: We can do archery in the pool.

Brenda: No, [Shireen laughs] but I think we could do them both on a visit. Okay. I get judo. Judo, quite fittingly, premiered at the 1964 Olympics because it is born in Japan. It is a related cousin of jujitsu, with more emphasis on competition, at least so far as I can read into it. [laughs] Basically there are weight classes and every country can qualify one athlete per weight class. And so what they are called are judokas, from 55 nations, that have won a medal, representing all five continents. In other parts of the world we think of seven continents or five continents. But mostly for those of you confused, it should be five. And so medals from all of them. And Japan tops the medal table of all time – 84 – and then there's France and South Korea. Also, really strong and surprising contenders from Cuba.

But people are mostly looking at Teddy Riner from France as an exciting figure. He was born in Guadalupe and he brings diversity to the French team by being there. And again, we can harken back to issues of colonialism and the ways in which the games are colonial, but they also highlight some of these athletes that have emerged for their countries. All right, Jessica. Weightlifting. 

Jessica: So, this is an OG event.

Brenda: Woo!

Jessica: It goes back to 1896 in Athens. So, both men's and women's weightlifting has seven different divisions all based on the weight of the lifter. The men's divisions range from 61 kilograms, which is about 134 pounds, to 109 kilograms and above – that’s 240 pounds and up. The women's divisions range from 49 kilograms, 108 pounds, to 87 kilograms, or up 191 pounds. I actually interviewed one of the weightlifters who's going to compete for the US in Tokyo back on episode 130. Kate Nye will be competing in the 76 kilogram, 167 pound division. She's actually gone up a division since I interviewed her. I thought it'd be fun to let Nye from that interview explain the two different lifts that you'll see people do at the Olympics.

Kate Nye: We have two lifts in competition, the snatch and the clean and jerk. You get three attempts of each. You start with the snatch and that is when you lift the bar from ground to overhead in one movement. The goal is to do that, obviously, the most weight you can do. The snatch is always less than your clean and jerk, at least if you're doing them right. The clean and jerk is next. You need to get it from ground to overhead, but you stop at your shoulders first. So you do the clean and you get to your shoulders and then you do a jerk from your shoulders to overhead. Usually with a split jerk, your good leg goes forward and your bad leg goes back. So that's the usual way. There's a couple other ways, but that's what people usually do. So yeah, you basically just do the best you can in all six lifts since you have three of each, and then you add your best snatch and your best clean and jerk to make your total. And your total is what you, you put it together and that's how you rank.

Jessica: So that’s the clean and jerk, and the snatch. One of the bigger stories recently has been Laurel Hubbard, a transgender woman from New Zealand, who qualified. Lindsay mentioned this on episode 208. It's believed that she'll be the first openly transgender person to compete in the Olympics. She'll be in the over 87 kilogram, 192 pound category. We here at Burn It All Down are team Hubbard, but I also want to tell you about Magdeline Moyengwa, a 20 year old from Botswana who started lifting six years ago. She became the first female lifter in Botswana to compete in an international weightlifting federation world championship. Back in 2019, she finished sixth in the 59 kilogram division. She'll now be the first ever weightlifter from Botswana to compete at the Olympics. And on the men's side, Cyrille Tchatchet II will be competing in the 96 kilogram division. He’s from Cameroon, but he will actually be on team refugee. 

Brenda: That is exciting! Okay. I get taekwondo now. Unlike judo, taekwondo is a martial art from Korea, and perhaps unsurprisingly is dominated by South Korea, as well as China and the United States, historically. It is focused on punching and kicking rather than the take-downs of some of the other martial arts. It premiered in 2000 in the Sydney Olympics, and medals are given in four weight classes equally between men and women. Lots of people have their eye on Wu Jingyu of China, the two time gold medalist in the under 49 kilogram category. China's Wu had announced her retirement after a frustrating loss in the quarter final in Rio, but then she returned in 2019, and that was just a year after she gave birth to her daughter. So, she is 34 years old and she's the first female taekwondoin to compete in four Olympics.

And the other person that I wanted to highlight is Kimia Alizadeh. She is a taekwondo athlete from Iran that is going to be competing for team refugee. She won bronze in the 57 kilogram weight class in Rio, making her the first Iranian woman to win a medal at the Summer Olympics. In January 2020, Alizadeh announced she was leaving Iran permanently for Europe. Explaining her defection, she stated, “I am one of the millions of oppressed women in Iran who they have been playing with for years.” We look forward to seeing her compete again. It's one more example of why team refugee is exciting and can, you know, allow these athletes a different venue when they're essentially stateless.

Okay. I also get karate. This is so funny that I ended up [laughs] with all of these martial arts, because it feels so different than anything I would even be brave enough to take a class in, you know? Or anything like that. So it was kind of funny that I get all these. But yes, here we go again, karate. Again, Japan is the birthplace of this martial art, and like 1964 when judo was debuted in Tokyo, now it's going to be karate that debuts in Tokyo. And there are two types of karate that have events. One is called kata. That is solo, and there's one event each for men and women. And the other is kumite. Now, that's the sparring discipline that has three weight classes for men and women, meaning if you do a kata, it's almost like doing a floor routine, you can't do the same thing again, and you have to think about the kinds of points, the balance, the strength, the flow that is going to earn you points, as well as your choice of movements.

So, the kata has its own very different scoring system. But they both have to do with agility, balance and strength. I love reading about how these athletes train themselves mentally and do so much meditation and think about mental focus because of the central role that balance takes in the sport and also its history. Spaniards are on the top of the kata world rankings in both the male and female categories. Sandra Sánchez and Damián Quintero will be among the favorites for the event. But Team Japan has a lot of people, so I think that may be a place where home country could definitely earn a bunch of medals.

And then finally, I just want to recognize one more from team refugee: Wael Shueb is from Damascus, in Syria. He was working in a textile factory and he was also a karate coach there, and then in 2015 he fled Syria to Turkey on a rubber dinghy and then went to Greece. He then took the Balkan road on a bike to the Serbian border through Macedonia, and eventually made it to Germany where he now is going to train and compete. So, he also is featured on the Olympics website. We can put the link there, you can see a video with him. It's very charming and inspiring – not that it's the kind of inspiration that you want to have to happen. Okay. Finally, last but not least. I kind of feel like we need to drum roll this. [drumroll] Cycling! Jessica.

Jessica: Yeah, there's a lot of it. [Brenda laughs] There are 22 cycling events in five disciplines. Those disciplines are in indoor track cycling – so, think velodrome – then road cycling – think Tour de France – those two are OGs from 1896. Then we have mountain biking, BMX racing, and the newest Olympic cycling event: BMX freestyle. So I'm going to go through these quickly, even though each one has like its own subdivisions. So track cycling, it has six events: the team sprint, the Keirin, the sprint, team pursuit, the Madison, and the omnium. I don't have time to go into all of them in detail. I do want to say, the Madison is like a relay race without a baton, and I love this, but like, pairs. So when the resting rider is ready to come back into the race, the racing rider grabs him by the hand and slingshots them into the front. I'm going to watch that. I'm going to watch it. That sounds dangerous and silly. And I just can't believe this is like a thing.

The first team to cross the finish line wins. It's a 50 kilometer race for the men, 30 kilometer for the women. They slingshot each other over and over again during this race. That sounds great. And I also want to explain the Keirin, because it's wild. They have a motorized bike that sets the pace – go find a video of this. It looked like a robot maybe in Rio, but it's definitely a motorized bike. The first lap, the bike goes 30 kilometers per hour. Over the next five and a half laps the motorized bike speeds up consistently to 50 kilometers per hour, and then gets out of the way for the final three laps. And then they just sprint the hell out of it, and whoever crosses the finish line wins. So they go incredibly fast by the end, but they're brought up to pace by a little motorized bike. That's the Keirin.

Road cycling. I want to mention Masomah Ali Zada, who is from Afghanistan and will be part of team refugee. She'll be competing in the women's time trial in road cycling. And Ahmad Baddredin Wais, he'll be competing in the men's time trial. He's from Syria. He's also on team refugee. All right. Mountain biking goes back to 1996. The kind of mountain biking in the Olympics is called cross country, which is shortened to XC. So when you see XC, that's the mountain biking. It’s an endurance event. 100 to 150 riders all start at the same time, which…What? How? Okay. But then they compete over rough muddy rocky terrain. The course in Japan will be about 4,100 meters, that’s roughly two and a half miles. French rider Loana Lecomte is one of the favorites to win gold in the women's mountain biking event. She dominated the cross country world cup circuit in the first half of 2021, winning all three events that have been staged so far this year. No woman has taken three world cup events in a row since 2006. So she's the one to watch.

BMX racing. It's BMX motocross, it’s a sprint race on dirt tracks and it's got the rollers, like, you know, like the little rolling hills…I’m doing this thing with my hand that’s not useful to anyone listening. Like, all the little rolling up and downs. They have jumps, banked turns. The course is about 400 meters long, that's a quarter of a mile. The BMX bikes are smaller than normal bikes because the riders never sit down on them. So they need to be able to be nimble on the bike. There'll be 24 riders in both men's and women's races. The cyclist to watch here is Mariana Pajón from Colombia. She won gold in London and Rio. This time around would make three in a row. That'd be amazing.

And finally, BMX freestyle, brand new event to the Olympics. Eight competitors for men, eight competitors for women. The riders will do a 60 second run on a park course that has ramps, obstacles, and transitions. Judges will score the runs based on the difficulty, originality and execution of the tricks. The rider in this one to look out for is a US BMX freestyler, Hannah Roberts. She's won the BMX freestyle world championship three times already. She's 19 years old. If she medals, she'll be the youngest US medalist in cycling since 1912!

Brenda: Wow. I'm tired. 

Shireen: I didn't know cycling was quite complex this way. 

Jessica: There’s so much to it, there's like a ton.

Shireen: I just thought there was one event. [laughter] 

Jessica: When I got to it and I got to the track cycling and it was like, and there were six of those events! And I read them, I was like, Keirin!? And Madison? Omnium? [laughs] I'm like, what is this?! 

Brenda: Slingshot?!

Jessica: Yeah.

Shireen: When you said slingshot, I'm like, am I hearing her correctly? 

Jessica: They just slingshot each other around. Sounds dangerous.

Brenda: I mean, I also have to think, like, BMX freestyle, are they judging them on like their pizzaz? 

Jessica: Difficulty, originality and execution.

Brenda: Originality. So you can just think of some more absolutely off the wall slingshot techniques…

Jessica: Yeah. Gold medal to you. 

Brenda: Wow. Okay. Well, thanks to you both for that total amazing rundown. I do want to ask a couple other things. First – this is just rapid, you know, little round table – what sport would you like to see included in the Olympics that isn’t? Jessica.

Jessica: Yeah. So, women’s baseball. That shouldn't be a surprise to anyone who listens to this. I would really love to see the women play baseball. But also powerlifting, which is not weightlifting. So powerlifting would be like deadlifting and bench press. Those are the things that I do, and hopefully one day I'll learn to weightlift, but I was like, that would be really fun to see.

Brenda: Olympic hopes for Jessica. Shireen?

Shireen: I feel so much more firmly about this now…I know this is rapid fire, but after BMX, creative…Why is skipping not in the Olympics? I feel like skipping is like, not just a training event. I feel like this deserves to be an Olympic event. 

Jessica: Difficulty, originality and execution.

Shireen: Come on.

Brenda: Artistic skipping.

Jessica: Bringing the skipping on, with some rolling hills. Some bank turns. See what people do with that.

Brenda: I agree. I mean–

Shireen: You can slingshot people actually, with the skipping rope. So everything's rolled in there. Music…Oh yeah.

Jessica: There you go. You got it. 

Brenda: Yeah. I agree. And mine, I couldn't think of one, and then shout out to my daughter Luna that said, you know what I want for you? Is pinball to be in it, because you're actually kind of good at that. And I was like, right! [Jessica laughs] I am, I am good at that. Pinball.

Jessica: Kind of good.

Brenda: Well, for me it's good. It's relative to where you set the bar. So, pinball is perhaps my only hope, and I love it so much.

Jessica: Bren, I read it as…When I was reading the document, I read it pickleball, [Brenda laughs] which would also be–

Shireen: It would be on brand for us as well.

Brenda: Yeah, I'm not against it. If I've got one thing, you know, it would be that. Okay. What would you want to medal in? And these are probably related. Jessica.

Jessica: Oh yeah. Weightlifting. Hands down. That'd be amazing. But also I was thinking, I know we're doing summer, but I would totally want to be a ski jumper.

Brenda: [gasps] You would want to do that? Or you just want to be the type of person that could do that? 

Jessica: That's a great question, Bren. Yes. [laughter]

Brenda: Shireen, what about you?

Shireen: Clearly I didn't know we were allowed to talk about winter sports because like, clearly all the–

Brenda: We weren't, we weren’t. Jessica was uncharacteristically breaking rules out there.

Shireen: I love this moment! This is like a pivotal moment. I'm a little shocked, actually, at the moment. 

Brenda: It’s weird.

Jessica: Sorry. I changed it.

Shireen: So, I'm going to be unconventionally sticking to the rules. [Jessica laughs] Soccer or artistic swimming, just because I think it would be fun. Like obviously soccer is what I'd love to be on the podium for.

Brenda: Yeah. Well, if pinball was included, I definitely would want a medal in pinball because that means I would get to do it a lot. And maybe even get, you know, paid for it or something, or supported, or it would carry it on, because right now our kids are really getting rid of pinball, so that makes me sad. But yeah. In terms of current events, archery, just because I feel like I would be so intimidating to everyone. I'd be like, “I could kill you with this!” [laughs]  And I know that's not true of archers. They want to just win at their sport. But you know that they think it sometimes! I mean, they've got to be like, you're practicing from 6:00am to 6:00pm, Karma?

Jessica: So sinister, Brenda.

Brenda: You’re not thinking of like, you know, politicians that shall not be named or…You know what I mean, right?

Jessica: Yes. 

Shireen: But I feel like the judokas and the karate folks or black belts–

Brenda: Totally, totally.

Shireen: They can walk around with that energy, being like, “I can literally destroy you.” I would do that if I had one, which I don't have a black belt, but if I did, that would be my energy.

Brenda: Oh, definitely. Actually, if I medaled in any single one of these things, now that we've gone through it, I would pretty much feel amazing. I mean, you could kill someone that slingshot and that bike. Who knows what you could do with a badminton racket at that speed? [laughs] I mean, they're all amazing.

That's it for this episode of Burn It All Down. This episode was produced by Tressa Versteeg. Shelby Weldon is our web and social media wizard. Burn It All Down as part of the Blue Wire podcast network. Follow, Burn It All Down on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Listen, subscribe and rate the show on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, Google Play and TuneIn. Please, please subscribe and rate. For show links and transcripts, check out our website, burnitalldownpod.com. You'll also find links to our fire merch at our Bonfire store. And thank you always, always to our patrons. Your support means the world. Really. If you want to become a sustaining donor to our show, visit patreon.com/burnitalldown. We are appreciative every single time we do this show. And on behalf of Jessica Luther and Shireen Ahmed and myself, burn on and not out.

Shelby Weldon