Episode 242: Bitches Be Laborin'
In this episode, Amira Rose Davis and Shireen Ahmed join forces for a spectacular grab bag episode about all the sports madness of March. But first, Amira quizzes Shireen on memorable March Madness moments that Shireen hasn't seen. Then, they dive into the a myriad of sports news in recent weeks, including what's going on with the Premier Hockey Federation and the Professional Women's Hockey Players Association, Naomi Osaka being heckled at the Indian Wells tennis tournament, Canadian bobsleigh and skeleton athletes calling for executive resignations and how dominance curiously impacts fandom of the Champs League.
Following this discussion, you'll hear a preview of Shireen's interview with Jenny Nguyen about The Sports Bra, a bar for women's sports in Portland, OR. Next, they burn the worst of sports this week on the Burn Pile. Then, they celebrate those making sports better, including Torchbearer of the Week Lia Thomas, the Penn swimmer who is the first transgender athlete to win an NCAA DI championship in any sport with her 500-yard freestyle victory. They wrap up the show with What's Good in their in their lives and What We're Watching in sports this week.
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
Amira: Welcome to Burn It All Down, the feminist sports podcast you need. I'm Amira Rose Davis, and today we have bitches be laborin’ – part two!
Shireen: Woo!
Amira: That's right. I am joined today with Shireen Ahmed. It is a melanated takeover of Burn It All Down. Hi, Shireen, good morning.
Shireen: Morning, Dr. Davis.
Amira: On this episode of Burn It All Down, you'll be treated to a grab bag of sorts. There's a lot going on in the world of sports in the month of March, and we are going to try to break some of that down. Then, of course, we're going to have our burn pile, we're gonna lift up some torchbearers of the week, and we're gonna tell you what's good. But first, before we jump into all of that, Shireen, I know you've been super busy and not keyed in to March Madness. So I wanna do a fun game called March Madness Out of Context. And I wanna know if you saw anything on Twitter that was utterly confusing about this March Madness tournament that you wanted me to explain and/or let me offer you the most confusing things out of context.
Shireen: Okay. So I haven't even seen anything. I've seen some highlight reels. But I've seen the men's tournament where this beautiful young player lost and is sobbing into the arms of his coach, and I'm really moved by that.
Amira: Well, I think you actually watched a beautiful young player sob into the arms of the coach of the team that beat him. [Shireen gasps] So, that was Juwan Howard, coach of Michigan, after beating Colorado State. And he was consoling a player from that team, and you have that viral moment of him crying into his chest while Juwan Howard comforts him. So, that is the clip that you definitely probably saw.
Shireen: I did. And I was like, I'm so moved by that leadership and that generosity of spirit and that very sincere comforting of a young player. And you know I'm up in my feelings all the time. You can imagine that I was tearing up in this like 25 second clip. But it's something that we don't see, particularly in light of young athletes in the college level, in Div I, in this huge tournament, like, the machismo surrounding it, we don't see…And we're only starting to talk about mental health of women athletes now. So, talk to me about emotions in the tournament, Amira.
Amira: [laughs] Well, I would say, before we get to emotions, I have two best things that I want you to try to guess. One, the best mascot.
Shireen: Oh my god.
Amira: And I'll give you a clue. This mascot comes from a team that is defying the odds and keeps winning, even though nobody knows where this school is or what they're called, [laughs] but everybody's just now discovered what their mascot is.
Shireen: Is it the geology school? [laughs]
Amira: It is not the School of the Mines.
Shireen: It's not UConn! It's not the Huskies.
Amira: It’s not. I will give you a clue: it's St. Peter’s–
Shireen: Russia?
Amira: It's the St. Peter's Peacocks!
Shireen: [gasps] The guy on the plane with the peacock!
Amira: [laughs] You remember that video? Well, my favorite story about the Peacocks is not just them. Their Spirit Squad was unable to go to the games, and they posted an image saying we're cheering you on from away, and Peacock TV said, “What!? Birds of the feather MUST flock together.”
Shireen: Oh, I love that.
Amira: “Pack your bags, Spirit Squad. We're getting you to the game.” And they responded, “Wait, are you serious?” And they said, “Flock yes! Check your DMs.” [laughter] And they flew the Spirit Squad out to the Peacocks’ second round game in which they improbably won against Murray State. And so they are still dancing. They will be playing on Friday vs #3 seed Purdue, 6:00pm central, 7:00pm eastern on Friday, March 25th. They are in the Sweet 16 for what I can only imagine is the first time, but somebody please correct me if the Peacocks have been there before.
Shireen: Where are they from?
Amira: Right. So, St. Peter’s. [laughs]
Shireen: Where is that?
Amira: I don't know! [laughs] I don’t know.
Shireen: Tressa, do we know where…Jersey! They're from Jersey.
Amira: They're from Jersey, that's right. Some people were like, “Jersey pride!” Never knew. Never knew. They have never even won a tournament game before they took down Kentucky in the first round.
Shireen: I just want you to know that…Because in our pre-production, Jessica didn't know that females are peahens and the men are peacocks. And I know this because of South Asian lore and the peacocks are a hugely important animal. Also, you eat the peahens, not the peacocks when you roast…I don't know if you need that or if that's important to know. [Amira laughs] Not that this information is relevant to Brenda. She wouldn't need a peacock or peahen. But the colors are beautiful.
Amira: Yes. So, that is the thing. And then the random heroes of March Madness…Have you seen a picture of this, Shireen?
Shireen: The cheerleader?
Amira: The cheerleaders, absolutely. The Indiana cheerleaders. There was a ball stuck behind the backboard, as it does. And they formed a tower and they went and got it down and people said, madness! This is indeed March.
Shireen: Oh, love it.
Amira: The other great thing I'll leave you on as we move in is after, you know, ridiculous Darren Rovell tweeted out that there was no upsets in the women's tournament, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, we saw #2 Iowa lose, we saw #2 Baylor be stunned by #10 South Dakota. We saw Georgia go down at the hands of Iowa State. But listen to this call from the end of the Creighton-Iowa game, where Iowa transfer sinks a three at the last minute to move on and send Creighton into the Sweet 16…
Announcer: Back to Jensen for the lead! And she’s got it! Time out Iowa! It’s the Hawkeye transfer!
Amira: Oh, and how could I fail to mention #11 Princeton doing it for all Ivy League folks in the tournament, stun Kentucky, fresh off their SEC tourney win, 69-62.
Shireen: Love all of that. Oh, god, I need to start watching this.
Amira: The other storyline you need to know from March Madness is that the refs have decided to lean all the way into madness and either never call fouls or call them randomly on only one team – on both sides. I mean, the men…Jess said to me at one point, gee, I'm so glad the refs are terrible on the men's side too, because now we could just say, what are they doing? [laughs]
Shireen: That doesn't do great things for my anxiety, but yes, I hate that.
Amira: Well, welcome to the jungle. [Shireen laughs] Here we go. March Madness. All righty, flamethrowers. It is time for the grab bag to end all grab bags. It is melanated, it is full of fun, and it is with me and my Shireenie. I am so happy to do this segment. Me and Shireen have both been laboring – bitches be laborin’, as we keep telling y'all. And we just literally have been missing each other, whether it's on the recordings that you see, or just generally in life. We both have had a lot of things going on. So it's really fun, Shireen, to reunite with you today, because there is a lot happening here in March, in the world of sports, from basketball, of course, to tennis, to women's hockey, to bobsled, to Champs League. There is a lot to talk about. And so, Shireen, I wanna kick it off by asking you a question. Listen, I don't understand a lot of things about women's hockey [Shireen laughs] because there's a lot of acronyms and I find it frankly very confusing to keep track of what it all means.
Shireen: Yeah.
Amira: But I saw some reports about whatever PHF is, and so I wanted you to A) tell me what these acronyms mean, and if these reports actually mean anything, or is this more of like shenanigans?
Shireen: So, I've been really occupied with women's hockey. It's been taking up so much of my brain space, which is great, which is wonderful. But I think it's really important with nuance to understand, because there's the PHF, which is the professional hockey association, which was formally the NWHL. You will know it as NWHL.
Amira: Yes, yes I do. I remember this name now.
Shireen: So, the reason that, under former commissioner Tyler Tumminia, they changed the name, was because there are trans players in that league and they wanted to be more inclusive, which I think is a really dope move. So, the PHF currently is that. Now, they have teams in the United States, and then the Toronto Six is in Canada. And they're actually in the middle of the Isobel Cup right now. Toronto Six is actually, I think, top of the standings. And I was able to go to a PHF game when they beat Boston in overtime with an amazing goal. So, that was awesome. And they're unbeaten at home, Toronto, you know, I'm gonna rep that. So, what you've been hearing about, all the acronyms you've been hearing in that, you probably would've also heard PWHPA, which is the professional women's hockey association. And you have national team members and Olympic team members who associate with PWHPA.
Now you're probably like, well, why didn't they just join the league to begin with? And there's many reasons for that. One, because there's two different visions. And I'm somebody who believes like the more hockey, the better. You don't have to have one specific vision for something. It’s okay for two things to coexist. And also, you know, the needs and the wants of the players are different, and that's fine. Now, there have been people saying not necessarily kind things about the other league, that this was a glorified beer league, et cetera. That was Hilary Knight who said that. And the thing is, is that that is contextual, and also for that time, right? We’ve seen millions of dollars, including $25 million being invested in the PHF. We're seeing sponsorships coming up for PWHPA. So, it's a really incredible time and momentum in women's hockey. So, you've also seen reports of those two sides.
And I do wanna say this, people are trying to play up – and when I say people, I mean hockey media and their shenanigans. So when you ask me about shenanigans, it's men who don't know shit about women's hockey. They’re like, let's talk about the rift. Do you have many people I had in my inbox asking me to talk about the rift? I'm like, I'm not talking about any fucking rift. This is not the narrative that I'm interested in. And I will just say this, I said that to Erica Ayala on Twitter, and Sarah Nurse liked my tweet. [Amira laughs] So, that's affirmation for me right there. The point is, it's okay to have two different visions. Again, I'm editorializing. This is me. I think there's space to support women's hockey, period. There is. And there's this tweet coming out saying that the NHL is not prepared to support this until Gary Bettman gives his blessing. Can you see my face right now?
Amira: It's perplexed. “[Stares in brown confusion.]”
Shireen: Who the fuck wants Gary Bettman's blessing? Like, you know me. You know my go-to meme has always been that Bend It Like Beckham mad face from Pinky and Jess, like, that's my face right now. Like, no, Gary Batman, keep your blessings. I'm not interested. And neither is women's hockey. Well, me not caring on behalf of women's hockey. All this to say, the product is there. We've seen the Canadian women win gold, the US women win silver at the Olympics. These women are the best in the world. This is unarguably one of the best rivalries, Canada-US, in the world, in the history of sport, in my opinion. I’m fairly biased here. But also there's a momentum, and let's get the storyline straight. If you think there's a rift, fucking talk to people at the head of it, like, talk to them. There's actually no commissioner at the PHF at the moment. But you know, talk to people, see what they're saying, see what they're gauging.
And right now, Canada's super busy in a post-Olympic tour and the PHF is rolling forward with the Isobel Cup. So, there is going to be, there have been games. There was a rivalry matchup in Pittsburgh a couple of weeks ago. Canada won in overtime, of course at the stick of Marie-Philip Poulin. But the point is, these two teams and this entire explosion of excitement, it's a good thing. And I love that the numbers are up. You can watch the Isobel Cup on the ESPN2 broadcast. You can also watch it on Twitch. So, watch it. Support women's hockey in whatever way, shape or form it comes to you.
Amira: Well, thank you for that. I have not been keeping up with women’s hockey, so that was helpful.
Shireen: Amira, I have a question for you from when I was asking you about emotions.
Amira: Let me know.
Shireen: And I'm specifically asking about Naomi Osaka, because very recently at Indian Wells she was heckled, and she cried, and she cried while she was thanking the audience in this incredible way that she does. And she said it wasn't only that she was heckled, it’s that she was heckled in Indian Wells, California.Can we break that down a bit? Why was that so impactful for her?
Amira: For sure. She watched a video of Serena and Venus being heckled at Indian Wells, which of course they experienced this when they were much younger. And they experienced racial abuse at Indian Wells. The fans were accusing Richard of sitting Venus out with an injury, and they were insinuating that he was fixing everything. And because of the abuse they experienced there, they left that. They didn't return to Indian Wells for like 16 years. And they finally returned just a few years ago. So, Naomi watched a clip of them being heckled. I don't understand why, personally, like, I get knowing going into it, but this is not the first time they've been at Indian Wells. And so when somebody said “You suck,” she started crying. It really profoundly impacted her. And she talked about that after. She said, it got replayed in my head a lot. Like, it was very hard.
And I think it engendered this conversation, because I heard a lot of people saying, well, it was just “You suck,” like, people get yelled really terrible things at them. And she's been outspoken about her mental health journey. She's been outspoken about her emotions in ways that at one point were applauded, and it felt like the discourse around this was kind of like, is there an expectation for thicker skin, you know? And it was frustrating because at the same time it's like we have become so accustomed to shouting whatever we wanna shout – at refs, at players, et cetera – that the rethinking sports culture is at the level of, “Do you need thicker skin to be an athlete?” and not geez, like, why do we shout these things knowing that this is somebody who's talked about a certain type of mental fragility around confidence? And I don't know. I don't think there's a lot of easy answers. I think it's one of those things that's both and, in my opinion. And that's just like personally. I think we're naive to expect people to stop yelling, and I hope that we have conversations about things we need to prepare ourselves for, even though we shouldn't have to.
And Shireen, me and you are parents of Black and brown kids, and we have to do this a lot, right? We have to prepare you for things you shouldn't have to do: where to keep your hands when a cop pulls you over, you know, how to act to people of authority, how to maneuver and navigate through airports. These are things we shouldn't have to prepare to do. Like, we even know it ourselves. Shireen, I watch you get terrible tweets and hate mail and things like that, and that doesn't stop you. But we've had to figure out how we deal with hate mail. And you know how it is. You can just be having a bad day, and it's just like that one message that one day that on a Tuesday wouldn't have impacted you, but this Wednesday was gray and you were already fighting with your kids and whatever, and it just felt like too much. And so like, I see that, and that's kind of how I thought about this with emotions with Naomi. Like, maybe we also don't go back to Indian Wells.
Shireen: So, one of the things that really made me angry in all this is that she actually went to the umpire and said, can you eject that person? And the umpire said no. I was livid, because there's no supports, it seems like. And I don't do tennis a lot. I did go to one game just to watch Serena at the Rogers Cup in Toronto, and I ate chips and I didn't realize you're not supposed to eat loud stuff and you're generally supposed to be quiet. So, tennis is not exactly a sport that's associated with the same type of heckling in hockey or baseball. So like, how is this fucking allowed to happen?
Amira: Yeah, I mean, they said, oh, if it happens again we'll go do it. But like I said, there's lacking mechanisms for doing this, which I think sporting spaces around the world are dealing with. So, yeah. But I think that we can continue to think through like the place of emotion in sports. There's some emotions that, like we just talked about earlier, like, happy tears, right? Or English of defeat. Like, we know what to do with some emotions. And there's other emotions like moments where you're lacking confidence or where you're upset or where you're triggered, that we don't quite know how to place onto the terrain, you know, of the middle of a match. One of the other things that you've been paying attention to which I have not is Canada's bobsled team. I have seen your tweets, so like, I see that there's things happening. There is a report. And can you explain how or if this latest report out of Canada Bobsled is related to Kaillie Humphries, which is what I kind of know about, or is it a new report? Like, what is happening?
Shireen: So essentially, post-Beijing, Canada, although it medaled in bobsleigh and monobob, it didn’t necessarily achieve the podium levels…And the problem with the binaries within winning are that you either hit the podium or you don't. But what ended up happening is I saw this unravel – you know when you see a story unravel in front of you and you’re like, oh, shit's gonna hit the fan. There was an interview with a woman for Own the Podium, which is a program in Canada that actually really fosters development of athletes. And she was talking about the supports that the athletes have, but the athletes are sitting there at home – like, social media, bless. They're at home and they're watching. They're like, what the fuck is that? That's not…We weren't. So the thread of that actual tweet was you saw all the athletes coming up going, “This is not right. I had to pay for this. I was not funded for this. We had to pay out of pocket.”
So, what ends up happening now is, after the Olympics, 80 athletes with Canada Bobsleigh write a letter asking for the removal of two particular executives. And so the response of obviously the organization is we're gonna meet with our athletes as soon as possible to talk about it. But it's like, bitches, please. You had time to talk to them before. This is why they're complaining. And like, you don't wanna do it now. So they're essentially asking for the resignation of Bobsleigh Canada and Skeleton president Sarah Storey and high performance director Chris Le Bihan. So, as a result, Humphries actually came forward publicly, and so did Elana Meyers Taylor, whom we love on the show, came forward in support and in solidarity. One of the problems…And Cynthia Appiah, who is a Canadian, she's a Black bobsleigh athlete, said that she was part of the development program, so even though she was at Whistler, BC training, she didn't have access to medical care. She didn't have access to physio, to assessments. Like, that's a huge problem. And they're also citing toxic culture.
So, these are things that I think we really need to pay attention to, because abuse and maltreatment and lack of support and neglect are things that are under the umbrella of that type of abuse. And I would really implore our listeners to pay attention to this. Amateur athletes, Olympic athletes rely heavily on these spots to get potential sponsors, and they feel that if they speak out, their place will be cut – which we have seen that power dynamic being used. And just to parallel this really quickly, Amira, I listened to the Dominique Dawes episode of American Prodigies, and in that – and everybody should listen to that – you talked about the power dynamic and the vulnerability of those athletes. And that's a strain that we see here. We see the need to have to acquiesce to things that may not be safe for you because you want that spot on a team. I wanted to actually ask you about dominance.
Amira: Yeah. [Shireen laughs] What about?
Shireen: I had framed this initially in the Champs League stuff, because you see the same teams going over again. Like, I'm sorry, I'm never gonna get bored of a Madrid derby. It's not gonna happen. Or a Manchester derby. You know we're excited about that. But why is it so invigorating? Why is it not boring? Like, why do I care so much? And how does this relate to dynasties and how does this relate to other sports as well?
Amira: Yeah, no, I think it's a great question, because everybody has like, you know, what do we think about dominance? When do we think about dynasties in sports? You know, we kind of always have the old adage that like, people are like, oh, dominance is terrible for women's sports, but it's something they love in men's sports. But I also think it has certain arcs regardless of where you're watching it, right? Where a team that people love starts being dominant and then people love to hate them, right? And you need a heel in sports. I think we all have teams that our big powerhouses that we love to hate – obviously in football, the Patriots became like this, the Cowboys were like this in the nineties, right? Like, people grow up not just with a liking of their team, but knowing who to hate, right? Whether it's the Yankees or whatever. And a lot of that has to do with dominance.
I think at the same time, it's familiar, you know? There’s a way in which this past Super Bowl featured two teams, the Ram, the Bengals, like, people you wouldn't expect to be there. And people were like, ugh, like, this boring Super Bowl! And it wasn't just like defending advertisers who didn't want it. They were like, ugh, this is so random. And it's like, there's a certain comfort with having familiar teams there, and especially when they come with their own storied rivalries. So like, why will you never get tired of having these potential matchups going into the quarterfinal of Champs League? It's like, you still want…As much as at the beginning of the year, you're like, here's a random team that I hope will disrupt their group stage or like shock everybody. At the same time, you’re coming into March and April and it's like, yeah, you wanna see these teams that you know have storied rivalries allowed to play for, who are are going for a certain type of glory. You wanna see them match up on the pitch. I think that there's just like a pull to that.
And so I think maybe the best thing is a mix, right? Where you have these like heavyweights…March Madness is a perfect example of that. You have these heavyweights coming into the postseason that's really great that you couldn't expect to be there. And then you have to have a few Cinderellas. You have to have the Peacocks of the world, right? You have to have Creighton, you know, draining a three and getting Iowa out of there. You have to have that. And I think that's actually what makes the drama. So, I don't know. That's where I am. This is what I'm telling myself anyways. Obviously I'm very upset about our early Champs League exit [laughter] but you know, this is where we are. This is where we are.
Shireen: I got worked up at the the El Clásico every single time, and I've seen maybe 15.
Amira: See?
Shireen: There’s just…You know how it is.
Amira: So, I have three lightning round questions for you to close out. I just need a yes or a no. It's gonna be very hard for you, because when people tell me to limit to a sentence, I'm like, here's some run on sentences for you.
Shireen: Whew. Okay.
Amira: So, one of the things that was recently announced was, in tennis, the grand slams are all adopting the same tiebreaker. So, for those who aren't familiar, the tiebreaker rules across different slams were different. [laughs] How they would go to tie break, and then what tie break they would use. Now, they are all adopting a permanent move which basically means the first player with at least 10 points in a 2 point margin will win the tie break. It is a one year trial, starting with the French Open, but then it should be embedded. What say you, Shireen? Are you happy that there will be uniform tiebreak rules across tennis? Or do you like the chaos of every slam having its own thing when you get to a fifth or a third set?
Shireen: Yay, chaos!
Amira: Shireen is for chaos. You heard it here. She is not a fan of the new tiebreak rules. Although I know our own Jessica Luther very much is, and hopefully soon she will break down why.
Shireen: Can I just clarify that I know nothing about what you just said.
Amira: I know. They know. [Shireen laughs] They know that you know nothing. The other news out of baseball – which is back, by the way – is that the NL is picking up the designated hitter, so there is no more having one league, one side of the baseball, whatever, using a designated hitter, and in the NL not. It was one of the most contentious things every season. And so here we are. Are you happy, Shireen, that the NL is adopting designated hitters? No more pitchers hitting.
Shireen: Oh, Blue Jays.
Amira: Blue Jays do play baseball. Yes.
Shireen: Go Blue Jays.
Amira: [laughs] The answer to my question of are you happy about the NL adopting the designated hitter is: “Go Blue Jays.” You heard it here first, friends. And my last question, for teams who don't get into the official March Madness tournament, there is the national invitational, the NIT. On the women's side, we saw two curious refusals. We saw West Virginia University saying, listen, between injuries and the transfer portal and the money that it would cost to send our women's team to the tournament, we are declining our invitation to the WNIT. That was also put together with Duke, run by Kara Lawson, who just like refused to be selected for it. They said they were going NCAA tournament or bust, which was really eyebrow raising because the WNIT has been a launching point for people who just missed out on March Madness, won that tournament, and then come back the next year in contention, you know? Or in two years in contention. So, Shireen, if you had a basketball team, would you…And you said, hey, it's postseason or bust, it’s NCAA or bust. Would you stick to that after you didn't make it if your girls had a chance to play in a WNIT?
Shireen: Is our mascot a peacock, though, is my first question about this.
Amira: No, it's not a peacock. They're the Blue Devils. West Virginia are the Mountaineers. Does that make a difference for you?
Shireen: If I had a basketball team? Well, I would confer with Tim Duncan, who would clearly be coaching with me.
Amira: Of course.
Shireen: And I would then would call Becky Hammon and go for lunch.
Amira: As one does. Yes.
Shireen: And then, you know, Tim, he would fall in love with me. And then I would probably say no, because it would be in our honeymoon. So… [laughs]
Amira: They would be on their honeymoon. Sorry, lads. Sorry, ladies. You cannot play in the WNIT because your coach is off on a honeymoon with Tim Duncan and their BFF Becky Hammon. You heard it here, folks. Those are Shireen’s hot takes for other news of the day. Thank you for joining this melanated, magical grab bag. See you next time on bitches be laborin’. [laughs] They're gonna be like, did you change the name of the show? LOL.
Shireen: Tressa, can you put some Get Ur Freak On by Missy Elliott in there?
Amira: This week, Shireen speaks with Jenny Nguyen about The Sports Bra, a bar for women's sports opening soon in Portland, Oregon.
Jenny Nguyen: And it was like that clicking moment where it's just like, have we gotten so used to the quality and level of viewership that we have in public spaces for women's sports that we don't even notice something as huge as having the volume on? And so, yeah, it was at that moment that I had said something to the effect of, man, the only time we can ever get a women's sports game to play, like for real, is if we have our own place.
Amira: All right. Shireen, it’s just me and you so we really have to burn this shit down today. Can you get us going?
Shireen: In the week following one of the funnest celebrations of the year, St. Patrick's Day, can the Chicago Bears be more terrible? Now, I understand that there is probably a young 20 something social media intern in charge of the Twitter. But for those that don't know, the Chicago Bears released a tweet where usually the Chicago river is dyed green, so they add whatever they need to turn it green to celebrate St Patrick's Day. So what some clever person who clearly knows nothing about history or world events or anything changed it, so it looked like the river was dyed orange instead. So they were like, oh, let's be different. But the problem is when you do shit and you don't check with a historian or don't check with somebody, that can be offensive. So what ended up happening was the Chicago Bears unknowingly actually released a very anti-Catholic message. Now, for those of you that don't know, the flag of Ireland is orange, white, and green. Orange representing Protestantism and the green representing Catholicism. Now, what happened in that is the Bears obviously did not know this. They had no idea.
So, it just got absolutely retweeted. People were a little bit appalled, because this isn't a joke. This is actually centuries of battle and toil that's steeped in colonialism and forced imperialism. It's really bad. Like, you may have seen me tweeting about like Palestinians in solidarity with Irish prisoners in terms of injustice, in terms of persecution, in terms of all these things. So, you're seeing a rallying about this. So this isn't to be taken lightly. All this to say is sports are political, but please, sports people, do your fucking research if you're attempting to wade into the waters of politics, and particularly if you're attempting to wade into waters where you wanna dye it green – don't even get me started on the environmental effects of dying the Chicago river any color! We will be adding that also in the show notes to read up about it and how important it is. I'm here to say, I went to St. Pat's high school in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Erin go Bragh and all that shit. But if you understand, and if you don't understand, please go learn. So I wanna take that Chicago Bears tweet and I wanna burn it to the ground. Burn.
Amira: Burn. Okay. Obviously with American Prodigies, Jessica and I have been living in the gymnastics world, and this burn therefore comes as no surprise, but it's still stomach churning. It was announced that Valeri Liukin, gymnastics coach, will be named as the coach of Team USA in the upcoming DTB Pokal Team Challenge and Mixed Cup international gymnastics competition. This is one of the most powerful jobs in USA Gymnastics, being in charge of the team. Liukin's name has been over the years floated as the successor the long term heir to the Karolyis. His name might seem familiar of course because he coached his daughter, gold medalist Nastia Liukin.
But at the same time that he's being considered and now named to this position of coach of Team USA, he is currently – yes, currently, yes, right now – under investigation from SafeSport, an ongoing investigation that was initiated after multiple former gymnasts reported suffering verbal, psychological abuse while in training with him down in Texas at the World Olympic Gymnastics Academy and at the Karolyi ranch. Back years ago, when people were exposing a lot of the harm and abuses in gymnastics, multiple gymnasts identified his coaching methods as ways that have harmed them, about body shaming, about witnessing him pushing his own daughter into a wall, et cetera. I just wanna say this one more time: the man who was just named to coach Team USA is under an ongoing SafeSport investigation. And we know these SafeSport investigations are a mess. We know that they take a long time to start, they drag on for years. We know that there's very little transparency.
There's a lot of issues with them. But the fact that he is still under a SafeSport investigation about abuse, about his training practices, and is also being named to the head of Team USA is just, like, what is happening? I ask again, where are the adults? Will the real adults in USAG please stand up? Will the people who care about harm, will the people who spent the last few years on this sad ass apology tour saying they've cleaned house and they're repairing things and doing that, would they please come to the front and explain how appointing Liukin to this position while there's an ongoing SafeSport investigation does anything to change the culture of USAG? Huh? I can't hear you. Where is the logic? Where is the sense? Where is the care? I am so over this organization in ways that I can't even begin to articulate. This move is especially disgusting. Toss it on the burn pile, burn it all down.
Shireen: Burn.
Amira: After all that burning, it’s time to lift up some torchbearers of the week. But first, I just wanted to offer condolences to the families of Scott Hall, storied wrestler, who passed away this past week at the age of 63. And also to the University of the Southwest golf team who was involved in a roadside collision, leaving its golf coach and six college golfers without their lives. We wanna send condolences to the families of all of those involved. Shireen, can you kick us off? Who is one of our first honorable mentions of the week?
Shireen: Just wanna take a second to shout out Ali Farag, who is #2 seeded in the world. He's a squash player from Egypt. He, after winning the title at Wimbledon Club in London this past week, he actually made a really astute comment. He said, “We've never been allowed to speak about politics in sport, but now we're allowed. I hope people look at the oppression everywhere in the world.” He was speaking to not only the pain and the devastation and the struggle in Ukraine, he was pointing out the fact that it's been happening in Palestine for a very long time. So, just wanna shout that out, and keep shouting it.
Amira: Absolutely. Our skier of the week is Mikaela Shiffrin, who won the overall world cup title for the fourth time this past week. She had a really good run in her speed races, she was in a battle with Petra Vlhová going into the final downhill. She emerged victorious. Later she said, “There’s been some high moments this season and some really difficult moments as well.” Of course, alluding to the Olympic Games. Shiffrin went on to say, “Ending it on a high and finding some really nice moments on the last races, that's really important and very special.” Congratulations to you, Mikaela. Shireen, who do you have as our jockey of the week?
Shireen: Rachael Blackmore became the first female jockey to win the prestigious Cheltenham Gold Cup when she rode A Plus Tard to victory on Friday.
Amira: And our league of the week is the nation's first Black owned professional lacrosse league! The National Lacrosse Association, NLA, launches this summer. The travel based league will showcase Black, Indigenous, Hispanic, Latino, and Asian lacrosse talent that hasn't traditionally been granted professional opportunities. And now, can I get a drumroll, please?
Shireen: I'm gonna do Phil Collins right now.
[drumroll]
Amira: Our torchbearer of the week is Penn's Lia Thomas, who won the 50 yard freestyle at NCAAs. Thomas becomes the first known transgender athlete to win an NCAA Division I championship in any sport.
Shireen: Yay!
Amira: Congratulations, Lia. It is wonderful to see. We also wanted to send a small shoutout to Yale's Iszac Henig, who wore a message on his arm saying Let Trans Kids Play. And also to Emily Sullivan, who not only had a good showing at NCAAs helping Texas win the overall title there, but also for penning a story in Newsweek supporting her competitor, Lia Thomas, circulating a story of them embracing in the pool after Lia’s championship swim, and especially for not allowing herself to be a kind of wedge symbol used by circulated images out of context that claim that she does not support Lia, which she does. All of this was heartening to see in the midst of lots of gray clouds. So, congratulations, Lia Thomas, you are our torchbearer of the week. All right, Shireen. What's good with you?
Shireen: Okay. So, friends, my dad had knee replacement surgery a couple weeks ago and I went to Windsor to help him. And I wanna just shout out Nancy. I wanna shout out Riley, people that have been giving him his physio, that have been giving him care. It's a tough rehab and he's been doing it. I'm proud of him. He got a hundred degrees in extension and then inflection. So we're very proud of him. Spent March break, which was last week, mostly in Windsor. I do wanna say that I've started this new thing called not returning emails on Saturday, and I'm really proud of myself because I didn't return emails. So if you've given me an email after 4:00pm on Friday, I'm not giving it to you til Monday. And that is fine. Nothing was devastated. The world did not collapse. It was good. I went to my niece Aisha's birthday on the weekend. She turned three. She’s fabulous. It was literally two years of a delay because two years ago we wanted to have her birthday and COVID shut that down. So this is her first birthday party with family and extended family, which was total chaos, and kids running around. And I loved every second of it.
Lewes FC, we've talked about Lewes FC on this show. The last show that I was a part of, we talked about ownership and we talked about club ownership and Lindsay and Brenda and I discussed this. That prompted me, preparing for that show, to actually finally do what I've been meaning to do for years, is get a membership with Lewes FC. It's a community based football club in England, and I'm now a shareholder, and I got a toque and I got a little card that says owner and I get like 10% off at the pub there. So if I'm ever in that particular small village at the pub, I can get 10% off. I'm very excited about it, anyway, like, it's just been dope. So I'm excited about that.
And lastly, my daughter is going to a Bridgeton themed ball this week, and Amira, I'm gonna take this from you, because I noticed it in your what’s good, but yes, the Ton is coming back and I'm excited, and I'm excited to help Jihad come up. It's gonna be really interesting because Regency dresses are really low cut and she wears hijab so we're gonna try to figure out how to do it. Is she gonna do it turban style, like a hat with feathers? Are we doing gloves? Like, I'm very invested in this. Of course I have so much fucking work to do this week, but this is where my focus will lie.
Amira: [laughs] Yeah, yeah, absolutely. There's so many shows coming back. Bridgeton, also Atlanta and Starstruck this week alone. Derry Girls is coming back soon. It's like the universe wants me to not work. So, you know, there we are. My what's good, South by Southwest is wrapping up here in Austin. I had the pleasure of being on a panel last week with members of the collective with Monica McNutt, with Max Kelley who's the head of socials for ESPN. Risa Isard moderated the panel. We had a wonderful time. There was a little girl and her mom who came up to me after to get a picture, and I took a picture with both of them, but then later the girl came back because she wanted a picture alone with me to show her second grade glass! Which will never…Like, I'll never stop telling this story. It was the best thing that's ever happened to me. It was also great to see our friends at South by Southwest, including Katie Barnes, Chris Mosier, Brad Stuver who's our new friend, Dan Le Batard, a few other folks. It was just great to catch up and say hi.
After that, I jetted off to LA with Samari for spring break and it was great. I did a little work. I got to go to lunch with Wyomia Tyus, which is lovely to catch up with her, always. Also saw Courtney and my friend Janelle. We went and saw Andrew Garfield talk for 90 minutes about his career, and it was glorious. He made me ugly cry into my mask, and that was a thing that happened. But he's hilarious. And Samari went to her first college visit, unofficially got a tour of UCLA, which was a lot of fun. We had a great time in LA.
And then I came back and me and Jess went to Austin FC together yesterday. And we've both been to games before, but we realized we've never been together, even though we went to the first game ever in the stadium when the women's national team was in town, but had just never gone together. So, the two of us went, took in the game. It was a 1-1 draw, but this team is better than last year and that's a lot of fun to watch. And also, NWSL Challenge Cup is started. Sam got the start for Portland and Ellie got in, subbed in for Gotham. I have jerseys for both of them and I need somebody to make one of the combined jerseys for me, so when I fly out to Portland in July to go to their game against each other, I can rep both of my girls. So, if you know how to do that, hit me up.
Shireen: The split shirt.
Amira: Yeah, absolutely. And also shout out to Erica, our friend Erica Ayala, who followed up her New Jersey Devils call with being the first voice for the Angel City game for the Challenge Cup. So, all exciting things all around. And that is absolutely what's good in my world.
Shireen: As we transition to what we are watching, we’re gonna add a special category of what we are listening to, and that would be American Prodigies. I also really wanna thank Dr. Amira Rose Davis for dropping the episodes when I'm traveling back and forth to Windsor, because I'm so grateful that you did that so I have an episode to listen to when I'm driving for a couple hours. So, I love you.
Amira: You're welcome. I did that just for you. [laughter] What we're watching this week is women's cricket world cup.
Shireen: Yay!
Amira: Also like we said, the NWSL Challenge Cup goes on, and March Madness is all around us. Next weekend will be the Sweet 16 and the Elite Eight for both the men's and the women’s, check it out. It's been great so far. 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 is part of the Blue Wire podcast network. You can follow Burn It All Down on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram. Listen and subscribe, rate the show wherever you listen to us, on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, et cetera. For show links, transcripts, check out our website, burnitalldownpod.com. You'll also find a link to our merch at our Bonfire store there.
And thank you, thank you to our patrons. Your support continues to mean the world to us. If you wanna become a sustaining donor to our show, please visit patreon.com/burnitalldown. We have some exclusive March Madness content going up over there and a fireside chat coming up soon. So, be there for sure. Burn on, not out. This is me, Amira Rose Davis, Shireen Ahmed, bringing you melanated magic on this Burn It All Down episode. We will see you soon, flamethrowers.