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Speaker 1: Many people think what's going on with some of the

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Speaker 1: Olympians is also a big problem. Some of them have

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Speaker 1: openly criticized domestic policies instead of just focusing on their sports.

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Speaker 1: You've got the freestyle skier Hunter Hes. He said that

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Speaker 1: he had mixed emotions about representing the United States because

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Speaker 1: he disagrees with current US policies.

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Speaker 2: I feel heartbroken about what's happened in the United States

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Speaker 2: when you know, I'm pretty sure you're referencing Ice and

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Speaker 2: some of the protests and things like that. I think

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Speaker 2: that as a country, we need to focus on respecting

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Speaker 2: everybody's rights and making sure that we're treating our citizens

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Speaker 2: as well as anybody with love and respect. And I

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Speaker 2: hope that when people look at athletes compete in the Olympics,

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Speaker 2: they realize that that's the America that we're trying to represent.

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Speaker 3: It brings up makesed emotions. To represent the US right now,

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Speaker 3: I think it's a little hard. There's obviously a lot

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Speaker 3: going on that I'm not the biggest fan of, and.

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Speaker 4: I think a lot of people aren't.

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Speaker 3: If it aligns with my mora ofvalues, I feel like

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Speaker 3: I'm representing it just because I'm wearing the flag doesn't

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Speaker 3: mean I represent everything that's going on in the US.

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Speaker 3: So yeah, I just kind of want to do it

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Speaker 3: for my friends and my family and the people that

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Speaker 3: support me getting here.

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Speaker 1: So Donald Trump has publicly blasted him on truth social

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Speaker 1: calling him a real loser and suggested that he not

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Speaker 1: be cheered for.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, a lot of people are upset about this and

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Speaker 4: this one.

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Speaker 5: I am more upset about Bad Bunny, you know, being

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Speaker 5: the Super Bowl halftime show. Okay, whatever, at that doesn't

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Speaker 5: get me outraged, but this one does a little bit

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Speaker 5: more because you would think a lot of things for starters,

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Speaker 5: all of these kids are come from the absolute most

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Speaker 5: privilege for the most part one percent elitist in American society.

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Speaker 6: It's expensive to do this.

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Speaker 5: All winter sports are horrendously expensive. These are nothing but

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Speaker 5: a bunch of whiny, spoiled, entitled rich kids.

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Speaker 4: Who are you got a whole country.

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Speaker 5: That want to support and you just go out there

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Speaker 5: and crap all over the United States while you're on

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Speaker 5: foreign soil and supposedly representing this country. I mean, Mikaela Shiffern,

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Speaker 5: we didn't hear from her in that clip, but she's

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Speaker 5: one of the big female downhill skiers. She owns a

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Speaker 5: four million dollar house in Colorado. Her parents are her

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Speaker 5: dad is a neurosurgeon. She grew up in the absolute

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Speaker 5: most wealthiest elitist conclaves in this entire country. So for

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Speaker 5: them to come across, I mean, they just come across

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Speaker 5: as a bunch of whiny cry babies.

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Speaker 4: And really not all that smart.

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Speaker 5: Because as we know, as we get told all the time,

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Speaker 5: every other country in the world subsidizes their Olympic athletes

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Speaker 5: and showers them with cash and gifts whenever they win

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Speaker 5: gold medals.

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Speaker 4: That's not the case here in the United States.

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Speaker 5: Federal government doesn't give any funding whatsoever to the US

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Speaker 5: Olympic Committee.

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Speaker 4: And to these athletes.

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Speaker 5: So all of these athletes are out there looking for sponsors,

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Speaker 5: they want sponsors, and now all of a sudden, you've

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Speaker 5: made yourself super controversial, which I'm gonna give you a

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Speaker 5: little tip here.

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Speaker 6: Not gonna help you with your.

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Speaker 5: Flodsers try to shy away from controversial.

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Speaker 6: Yeah.

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Speaker 1: So you've also got the figure skater Amber Glenn, and

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Speaker 1: she referenced hardships face by LGBTQ plus community under Trump's administration.

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Speaker 6: Check this out.

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Speaker 7: Yeah, it's been a hard time for the community overall

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Speaker 7: under this administration. It isn't the first time that we've

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Speaker 7: had to come together as a community and try and

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Speaker 7: fight for our human rights, and now especially it's not

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Speaker 7: just affecting the queer community, but many other communities, and

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Speaker 7: I think that we are able to support each other

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Speaker 7: in a way that we didn't have to before, and

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Speaker 7: because of that, it's made us a lot stronger. I

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Speaker 7: hope I can use my platform and my voice throughout

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Speaker 7: these games to try and encourage people to stay strong

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Speaker 7: in these hard times. I know that a lot of

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Speaker 7: people say, you're just an athlete, like, stick to your job,

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Speaker 7: shut up about politics. But politics affect us all. It

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Speaker 7: is something that I will not just be quiet about

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Speaker 7: because it is something that affects us in our everyday lives.

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Speaker 7: So of course there are things that I disagree with,

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Speaker 7: but as a community, we are strong and we support

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Speaker 7: each other.

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Speaker 4: Ooh, well, she's given us a ted talk.

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Speaker 5: Hey, thanks, I appreciate this is this is your own

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Speaker 5: personal podcast?

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Speaker 4: Okay?

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Speaker 5: Who is doing the media training for these Olympic athletes.

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Speaker 5: It was just a week or two ago we saw

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Speaker 5: at the Australian Open, which was the tennis competition, where

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Speaker 5: again you saw some of these quote unquote journalists at

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Speaker 5: these press conference that just love to rage bait people.

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Speaker 5: They were doing the same thing asking the American athletes

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Speaker 5: during the Australian open press conferences, Hey, talk about your country,

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Speaker 5: what do you think of it? All of them had

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Speaker 5: two brain cells to rub together and we're like, yeah,

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Speaker 5: I'm not going to talk about that right now, or

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Speaker 5: I just want to talk about, you know, competing and

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Speaker 5: having a good time.

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Speaker 1: She reported that she's now been receiving death threats about

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Speaker 1: her political comments and said that she would now limit

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Speaker 1: her social media use for her safety.

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Speaker 6: She opened that Pandora's box.

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Speaker 1: She invited it in, and when it got too hot,

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Speaker 1: she backed away. So, yeah, the Olympics should be about

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Speaker 1: athletic performance and national pride, not turning the world's biggest

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Speaker 1: sporting stage into their own political soapbox. Now on the

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Speaker 1: other side, you have this athlete. Her name is Mensa Stock,

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Speaker 1: and she's the one who actually carried the flag in

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Speaker 1: for the open ceremony. This is what Americans want to

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Speaker 1: hear from their Olympians.

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Speaker 6: I feel to represent your country like this, it feels amazing.

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Speaker 4: I love representing the US.

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Speaker 3: I freaking love living there.

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Speaker 4: I love it and I'm so happy I get to represent.

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Speaker 7: You US A.

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Speaker 6: Yeah, that's what you want.

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Speaker 5: You want that well, and that's what we had for

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Speaker 5: our Olympic athletes. For decades and decades in this country.

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Speaker 5: You had athletes that were proud to represent the United

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Speaker 5: States of America. You had viewers and everybody in America

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Speaker 5: cheering on our athletes. We have no idea who they are,

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Speaker 5: and we never watched speed skating any other time of

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Speaker 5: the year except once every four years at the Winter Olympics.

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Speaker 4: But man, we're cheering on our people.

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Speaker 5: And when you've got an athlete that says something like that,

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Speaker 5: of course we're going to get behind you.

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Speaker 6: Here's a really good lesson.

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Speaker 1: I thought that this athlete handled it pretty well because

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Speaker 1: there was a Canadian journalist who was trying to get

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Speaker 1: her to say something negative about the country. This is

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Speaker 1: another country trying to get an American athlete to bad

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Speaker 1: mouth their own country, and she handled it pretty well.

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Speaker 3: I seeing a lot of the American players just how

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Speaker 3: it feels to play under the American flag right now,

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Speaker 3: and I'm curious how you feel.

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Speaker 8: Yeah, I mean, I was born in America, so I'm

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Speaker 8: always proud to represent my country, and yeah, a lot

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Speaker 8: of us are doing really well, and it's great to

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Speaker 8: see a lot of you know, great athletes on the

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Speaker 8: women's side, on the men's side, so yeah, like we're

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Speaker 8: all doing a great job representing ourselves. And sorry, do

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Speaker 8: you want a black home? Sure?

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Speaker 7: Sorry, I'm just so clarify a little.

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Speaker 2: I mean, sort of in the context of the last year,

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Speaker 2: wrote everything that's been.

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Speaker 1: Happening in the US.

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Speaker 8: Does that to complicate that feeling at all? I don't

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Speaker 8: think that's relevant.

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Speaker 6: Good for her, not relevant. I'm an athlete. I'm here

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Speaker 6: for sport, not political commentary.

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Speaker 4: And what a dirtbag journalist did?

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Speaker 5: He kept trying, didn't get the answer he wants, and

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Speaker 5: so he's like, hey, no.

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Speaker 1: No, this is what I mean, talk bad about your country.

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Speaker 6: She was like, Nope, not relevant. Okay.

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Speaker 1: So you had Lindsey Vaughn, legendary US skier, crashing hard

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Speaker 1: just thirteen seconds into her downhill race, and.

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Speaker 6: I think she said this was going to be her

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Speaker 6: last Olympics.

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Speaker 1: So she has hopefully she'll recover from it, but I

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Speaker 1: don't believe she plans on competing anymore.

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Speaker 5: That's what she said, although these athletes tend to change

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Speaker 5: their mind a lot so.

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Speaker 4: But she's also forty one years old.

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Speaker 5: But what I think is so fascinating about this, For

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Speaker 5: these Olympians, nothing is guaranteed for them. And here you've

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Speaker 5: got Lindsay Vaughn, who is one of the most accomplished

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Speaker 5: American skiers in history. She's been a superstar. I think

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Speaker 5: this is her fifth or sixth Olympics, something crazy like that.

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Speaker 5: It was an amazing story. She's forty one years old.

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Speaker 5: She tears her ACL at the World Championships a week ago.

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Speaker 4: She rubs some.

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Speaker 5: Dirt on it and gets back out there and she

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Speaker 5: crashes in spectacular fashion, and it was absolutely heartbreaking to watch.

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Speaker 5: But I think that that's one of the most fascinating

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Speaker 5: things about this. You've got this great story in Lindsay

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Speaker 5: Vaughn and it didn't work out for her, and then

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Speaker 5: you have this amazing story in everything that's going on

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Speaker 5: with the Olympic, the US figure skating team that did

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Speaker 5: end up getting the glory and did win the gold

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Speaker 5: medal last night at the Olympics. So it's just fascinating

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Speaker 5: how things are never guaranteed and just because you've got

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Speaker 5: a great story doesn't mean you're guaranteed of success. And

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Speaker 5: we saw that in spectacular fashion with Lindsay Vaughn. She

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Speaker 5: broke her leg. She was airlifted off the mountain, and

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Speaker 5: a lot of heartbreak and sorrow for her in her career.

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Speaker 1: She fractured her left leg and under one orthopedic surgery

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Speaker 1: in the hospital in Italy, she was listed in stable condition.

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Speaker 6: I feel like she was rushed back into it.

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Speaker 1: She just had a torn acl and days later she

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Speaker 1: was gonna do that downhill and they go fast, and

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Speaker 1: they catch a lot of air. There's just one bad

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Speaker 1: land and yeah, she's gonna hurt herself.

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Speaker 6: I thought it was a rush to glory.

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Speaker 4: Yeah that she was.

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Speaker 6: I'm gonna do it. I can handle anything, and she couldn't.

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Speaker 5: But I think that speaks to the mentality of these

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Speaker 5: ultra successful athletes. I mean, you look at Michael Jordan,

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Speaker 5: I mean he's probably not if you saw the Last

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Speaker 5: Dance documentary and you know anything about Michael Jordan.

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Speaker 4: He's not really a nice guy. Probably not a nice

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Speaker 4: guy to.

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Speaker 5: Be around, maybe not somebody who might want to be

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Speaker 5: friends with, because he is psychotically driven to be competitive

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Speaker 5: and he will do it at all costs. And I

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Speaker 5: think part of that lives in Lindsay Vaughn, that she

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Speaker 5: sits here and says, look, I don't care if I

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Speaker 5: can stand, if I can get on two skis. I

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Speaker 5: don't care if I just tore my ACL a week ago.

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Speaker 5: I'm going to go and perform in this race at

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Speaker 5: the Olympics. But you have to have that mentality to

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Speaker 5: be successful at this ultra high level of athletics like

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Speaker 5: these people do.

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Speaker 4: I don't know.

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Speaker 1: I think there's a difference between being inspiring and needlessly

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Speaker 1: endangering yourself. For the story, her teammate Breezy Johnson went

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Speaker 1: on to win gold and during the national anthem, she

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Speaker 1: was crying