Speaker 1: The Armstrong and Yetti Show. The greatest female swivel of
Speaker 1: all time, Katie, look take you to the wall? Who
Speaker 1: like a Sullivan to pick up the silver? Finishing one
Speaker 1: and two in the swimming there that Katie Ladecki, who
Speaker 1: was uh supposed to? That's the wrong thing to say,
Speaker 1: expected to. That's not fair either. I don't like that
Speaker 1: that they decide who's gonna win the golds ahead of
Speaker 1: time and then if because then if you finish anything
Speaker 1: short of gold, it's a failure. Um. Anyway, there are
Speaker 1: a couple of races that she was expected to win
Speaker 1: and she did not, but she won the gold. There.
Speaker 1: We have been doing pretty well the swimming. Let's check
Speaker 1: it on the Olympic story with Sally Jenkins. She's the
Speaker 1: sports columnist for the Washington Post. We've had her on
Speaker 1: the show before. She's won all kinds of awards and
Speaker 1: honors for being a sports uh columnists. How are you
Speaker 1: this morning? Sally? Doing great? Thank you? Um. Just in general,
Speaker 1: just kind of a general overview of the Olympics, I'm
Speaker 1: having trouble. I feel like the bloom is off the
Speaker 1: rows of Olympics to a certain extent. Um. I don't
Speaker 1: feel like people are paying as much attention as they
Speaker 1: have an Olympics past. I grew up with it being
Speaker 1: just a monumentally huge event. You know, the world would
Speaker 1: come to a stop. It felt like to me when
Speaker 1: the Olympics was going on. I don't feel like that's
Speaker 1: happening now. Is that just my own life or do
Speaker 1: you feel that. I think there's something to that. I
Speaker 1: think part of it is some disillusion with the International
Speaker 1: Olympic Committee and the way they've gone about their business.
Speaker 1: I think people have some real objections to, you know,
Speaker 1: sending the games to Russia under Putin and to China
Speaker 1: under Jim Paying. I think Americans have the sense to
Speaker 1: know that doing business with dictators is not great for
Speaker 1: the Olympics. You know. I think it's a combination too
Speaker 1: of you know, the COVID year and being a little
Speaker 1: unsure about the wisdom of this Olympics, and you know,
Speaker 1: I think it's a combination of factors that that add
Speaker 1: up to maybe less an enchantment. Yeah, and uh, we've
Speaker 1: been talking about how things just change. You know. American
Speaker 1: Idol was the number one show in America for several
Speaker 1: years and forty million people have tune in and then
Speaker 1: they just saw enough of it. And when I was
Speaker 1: a kid, boxing was the biggest sport in the world.
Speaker 1: Every kid in my class always knew who the world
Speaker 1: heavyweight champion was. There's nobody in my son's class that
Speaker 1: would know that. I mean, so, you know, things come
Speaker 1: and go, and popularity, it's just a fact they do.
Speaker 1: What doesn't go out of style is the excitement of,
Speaker 1: you know, watching a really great performance. You know, watch
Speaker 1: watch somebody win a medal. Michael Phelps, I think, was
Speaker 1: you know, just an epic an epic athlete to watch.
Speaker 1: And um, you know, the athletes always cleanse the Olympics.
Speaker 1: I mean, that's the thing. The performances take over and
Speaker 1: they start exercising a charm over the whole affair that
Speaker 1: that kind of can draw you back in despite your
Speaker 1: best intentions not to watch or you know, not to
Speaker 1: give it that much attention. Yeah, I'm I'm mostly speaking
Speaker 1: for the ratings and just other people I talked to.
Speaker 1: I love the Olympics. My my son and I we
Speaker 1: watched the opening ceremonies. I'm trying to have have him
Speaker 1: have the same experience I had as a kid, because
Speaker 1: I I've always liked the Olympics, and we're gonna we're
Speaker 1: gonna take in a lot of the stuff this this weekend. Um,
Speaker 1: the way it's laid out on peacock, you know, and
Speaker 1: it's all there to watch whenever you want it. You
Speaker 1: can just you know, kind of all a card. It's interesting.
Speaker 1: We're talking with Sally Jenkins, sports columnist the Washington Post.
Speaker 1: It's interesting you got a column about what people are wearing.
Speaker 1: We got off on a thing the other day about
Speaker 1: why do they make the women beach volleyball people playing
Speaker 1: their underwear because it looks like it's women playing in
Speaker 1: panties to me, and and I just I just I
Speaker 1: feel uncomfortable with that, and I think, why are they
Speaker 1: doing that? I agree? And then you watch the men,
Speaker 1: and you see the men and and you know, and
Speaker 1: they're somewhat baggy short right right, Just just to wait
Speaker 1: a minute, you're not doing this to the guys. You're silly. Yeah,
Speaker 1: just to jump into a second. I want to hear more.
Speaker 1: What you have to say about that is, you know,
Speaker 1: it was just a man's perspective I was given the
Speaker 1: other day. But um, we got a number of texted
Speaker 1: and well, they have to wear those clothes because the
Speaker 1: sand would get in here. Yeah, it doesn't seem to
Speaker 1: affect the dudes. No, No, that's silly. No, No, if
Speaker 1: you and I this is partly why I wrote the
Speaker 1: column in the Washington Post the other day. If you
Speaker 1: actually take the trouble to to pull up the beach
Speaker 1: volleyball rules, you can't believe the difference in the instructions.
Speaker 1: The uniform instructions for the women then the men. Seven
Speaker 1: times it says that the women must wear closely fitting
Speaker 1: this or fitted closely that. I mean, it's all about
Speaker 1: outlining their body. Really creepy and weird. Well so so
Speaker 1: so it's overtly they realize. I guess that the ratings
Speaker 1: are pretty good for beach volleyball, particularly the women, because
Speaker 1: it's hot women in their their panties exactly with very
Speaker 1: fabric covering. I mean, it's the same at the top two.
Speaker 1: Like one of the one of the rules is like,
Speaker 1: if you like, your neckline has to be uh, twelve
Speaker 1: centimeters deep. You know. Wow, that's something I didn't realize
Speaker 1: it was that that on purpose. No, it's very overt,
Speaker 1: very overt. And one of the reasons is, and you know,
Speaker 1: I'm not big on this stuff, but you know, if
Speaker 1: you look up the makeup of the executive committee in
Speaker 1: the sport, I mean it's like it's like sixteen men
Speaker 1: on the on the executive committee of twenty three people.
Speaker 1: I mean it's overwhelmingly male eight year old men who
Speaker 1: are taking cash handouts from the Chinese and the Russians.
Speaker 1: That's right, I mean, that's exactly right. I mean, you're
Speaker 1: not you're not exaggerating when you say that. I know,
Speaker 1: we we've only got a few seconds. If you could
Speaker 1: just jump in with the Simone Biles thing, what what what? What? What?
Speaker 1: What do you think of that? Well? I think people
Speaker 1: need to understand the term twisties. It's a phenomenon in gymnastics,
Speaker 1: and the lay person probably doesn't get it and probably
Speaker 1: watched her walk off that floor and went, you know,
Speaker 1: you know what the f um But in gymnastics people
Speaker 1: instantly understood what it was. The twisties is when you
Speaker 1: develop disorientation in the air. It's like a pie let
Speaker 1: losing the sightline of that is that is interesting. I
Speaker 1: did not know that. I will do a little more
Speaker 1: research on that. I'm afraid we're out of time. I
Speaker 1: really appreciate you jumping on the air with US Today.
Speaker 1: Sally Jenkins, sports columnists, Washington Post read or Stock Armstrong
Speaker 1: and Getty