Speaker 1: Guess what will what's that mango?
Speaker 2: So you know what my favorite part of the Winter
Speaker 2: Olympics is, all.
Speaker 3: Right, I think I want to guess on this one.
Speaker 3: I'm gonna guess the bobs led.
Speaker 2: I mean, that's super fun. But my favorite armchair sport
Speaker 2: at the Olympics is trying to spot the carpetbaggers.
Speaker 1: The carpetbaggers.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, you know you see it in the Olympics,
Speaker 2: but especially in the Winter Olympics, Like at Sochi, there
Speaker 2: was this couple from Long Island in their late forties
Speaker 2: who thought would be fun to compete at the Olympics
Speaker 2: for Dominica, which is this tiny island nation in the Caribbean.
Speaker 2: And you'd obviously have to be super fit to be
Speaker 2: in your late forties and make the US ski team, right,
Speaker 2: but in Dominica you kind of just have to have
Speaker 2: a pair of skis in a passport.
Speaker 3: So, I mean, how prevalent is this carpetbaggering? How do
Speaker 3: they get away with this?
Speaker 2: I mean it is discouraged, but sometimes it's like elite
Speaker 2: athletes who couldn't make cut in their country where they live,
Speaker 2: but then you know they want to compete for their
Speaker 2: country of origin, and sometimes it's athletic mercenaries, like Bahrain
Speaker 2: is notorious for buying Kenyans to long distance for their nation.
Speaker 2: And then there are these wealthy crazies who could just
Speaker 2: buy their way in, like Germany has this prince named
Speaker 2: Hubertus who was born in Mexico, but it's competed for
Speaker 2: Mexico in slalom six times. I believe wow at Sochi,
Speaker 2: he was fifty five years old when he's doing this. Yeah,
Speaker 2: and you might remember him from wearing this outrageous spandex
Speaker 2: mariachi outfit.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna look him up.
Speaker 2: I don't remember this, he said. If he wasn't gonna win,
Speaker 2: at least he could name for best dressed. Getting excited
Speaker 2: to spot these Olympic outcasts made me wonder about all
Speaker 2: the other things at the Winter Olympics, like when did
Speaker 2: the Winter Olympics start? And why does Norway dominate the games?
Speaker 2: And why does curling get to be a sport. So
Speaker 2: let's stay in.
Speaker 3: Hey, their podcast listeners, welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm
Speaker 3: Will Pearson and it's always I'm joined by my good
Speaker 3: friend Mangesh hut Ticketter and on the other side, of
Speaker 3: the soundproof glass, showing off his brand new Winter Olympic
Speaker 3: stuffed animal pal. I don't know how he got a
Speaker 3: hold of that. That's our friend and producer Tristan McNeil.
Speaker 3: Look over there, Mango at Sue Harang, you know, the
Speaker 3: white tiger mascot for the upcoming Games.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'd recognize them anywhere. So I love that the
Speaker 2: Winter Olympics get their own mascots. It's actually one of
Speaker 2: my favorite things about the Olympics.
Speaker 3: Well, you know, the winner Games might play second fiddle
Speaker 3: in terms of scale and viewership, but I feel like
Speaker 3: the mascots, those things can go toe to toe with
Speaker 3: their summer cousins. In fact, one thing I learned while
Speaker 3: preparing for today's show is that we actually have the
Speaker 3: Winter Games to thank for this whole idea of these
Speaker 3: Olympic mascots. You know, they didn't start out as this
Speaker 3: cute and cuddly animal like Sue Harang might be just
Speaker 3: look at it over there in Tristan's lap. But the
Speaker 3: very first one was this creepy caricature of this armless
Speaker 3: skier I don't know why, with his manic red face.
Speaker 3: His name was Shush after the term for the straight
Speaker 3: downhill ski run. And then he popped up as this
Speaker 3: unofficial mascot of the nineteen sixty eight Winter Games that
Speaker 3: were in France. And even though his simple, big headed
Speaker 3: design led to most fans calling him the skiing sperm,
Speaker 3: Schus was a big hit with attendees and so he
Speaker 3: kind of paved the way for the first official mascot
Speaker 3: four years later, and that was that multicolored dot son
Speaker 3: named Waldy who appeared at the Summer Olympics in Munich.
Speaker 2: So Schuss is great, but if we're talking unnerving mascots,
Speaker 2: I'm gonna go with Schneeman.
Speaker 1: Shush, and Schneman.
Speaker 2: Schneeman was the first official mascot at the Winter Games,
Speaker 2: and this was back in nineteen seventy six, and he
Speaker 2: was basically just a snowman head on tiny legs wearing
Speaker 2: this big, floppy red hat. It's almost like a kid
Speaker 2: started building Schneman and then gave up after realizing there
Speaker 2: was an Atarian cide where it was warmer.
Speaker 1: I'm done with you, schneaem It.
Speaker 3: Well, obviously, today's show is all about the Winter Olympics,
Speaker 3: and we're getting pretty excited around here for next month's games.
Speaker 1: In Pyeongchang.
Speaker 3: So we wanted to take the opportunity to dig into
Speaker 3: some of that weird history and the surprising controversies that
Speaker 3: surround these lesser known Olympics. So, Mega, where do you
Speaker 3: feel like we should start?
Speaker 2: Well, you know, I always like starting at the beginning,
Speaker 2: you Which actually wasn't that long ago for the Winter Olympics.
Speaker 2: So the first official Winter Games were held in France
Speaker 2: back in nineteen twenty four, which was only twenty eight
Speaker 2: years after the first modern Summer Olympics in Athens. But
Speaker 2: the Winter Olympics were known by a different name originally,
Speaker 2: So the first event was actually called Winter Sports Week,
Speaker 2: and it was this twelve day program consisting of six
Speaker 2: sports and sixteen events.
Speaker 3: That's such a weird name, like it sounds like something
Speaker 3: you'd participate in in college or something.
Speaker 1: So why did they call it this?
Speaker 3: Was it like a test run for the winter version
Speaker 3: of the Olympics or what?
Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly right. So, figure skating and ice hockey were
Speaker 2: actually part of the Summer Games already at that point,
Speaker 2: and the idea of giving cold weather sports their own
Speaker 2: showcase was first floaded by the IOC in nineteen twenty one.
Speaker 3: So, I mean it seems like the interest was there.
Speaker 3: So why did this first event get such a like
Speaker 3: a watered down name.
Speaker 2: Well, I mean some Scandinavian countries boked at the idea
Speaker 2: of a separate event because they already took part in
Speaker 2: their own competition called the Nordic Games and they didn't
Speaker 2: want an official winner Olympics to steal their thunder. So,
Speaker 2: you know, the committee made this Winter Sports Week. But
Speaker 2: the Games were this huge success. There were ten thousand
Speaker 2: paying attendees who turned up to watch sixteen countries compete
Speaker 2: in sports like speed skating and bob sled and curling,
Speaker 2: and the events were such a smash hit that just
Speaker 2: one year later, the IOC retroactively declared it the first
Speaker 2: Olympic Winner Games.
Speaker 1: Huh.
Speaker 3: All right, so who were like, you know, like the
Speaker 3: Michael Phelps of the first Winter Olympics. Were there any
Speaker 3: standouts or were the athletes still trying to kind of
Speaker 3: figure out what they were doing in the competition.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so, you know, the Scandinevan countries, like I mentioned,
Speaker 2: had this leg up because they'd been holding their own
Speaker 2: competitions for over twenty years at this point. So Norway
Speaker 2: in particular, has always dominated the Winter Games, and the
Speaker 2: first one was no exception. They had this incredible athlete,
Speaker 2: thorleaf Haw, which is about as Nordica name as you
Speaker 2: can have, i'd say, And he was this legendary skier
Speaker 2: who won three gold medals in three different events that year,
Speaker 2: and he also took home a bronze medal for the
Speaker 2: ski jump competition. But this is super weird. Fifty years later,
Speaker 2: it was discovered that a scoring mistake had actually happened
Speaker 2: and the medal actually belonged to this US athlete named
Speaker 2: Andrews Hoggen.
Speaker 3: Wow, fifty years later, I mean, I guess better late
Speaker 3: than ever, but still that is a long time.
Speaker 1: So were there any other US victories that year?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 2: Actually, the very first gold medal awarded went to this
Speaker 2: American speed skater named Charles Jutra, and he was this underdog,
Speaker 2: but in the end he beat out all twenty six
Speaker 2: other skaters by completing the five hundred meter event in
Speaker 2: just forty four seconds. And my favorite underdog though, is
Speaker 2: this Norwegian ice skater who's named Sonja Henny. And not
Speaker 2: only was she only one of eleven female athletes competing
Speaker 2: that year, she was also only eleven years old.
Speaker 1: Eleven years old. Wow, so did she win?
Speaker 2: No, she came in dead last time. But the nineteen
Speaker 2: twenty four Games were actually just the start of her career.
Speaker 2: She won a gold medal at each of the next
Speaker 2: three Winter Olympics.
Speaker 1: Wow, and she grew up to.
Speaker 2: Be this Norwegian movie star.
Speaker 3: I mean, Norwegian just really do kind of own the
Speaker 3: Winter Games, don't they.
Speaker 1: I mean I was reading that Norway has actually won.
Speaker 3: More gold medals in the competition than any other country
Speaker 3: After Sochi. Their record stands I think it's one hundred
Speaker 3: and eighteen gold medals and something like three hundred and
Speaker 3: twenty nine total.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and they're actually one of only three countries the
Speaker 2: other two being Austrian Liechtenstein, that have actually won more
Speaker 2: medals in the Winter Olympics than in the Summer ones.
Speaker 4: Hm.
Speaker 3: I mean it makes a lot of sense given their
Speaker 3: geography and the climate. But you know, that cold weather
Speaker 3: advantage is actually kind of at the root of one
Speaker 3: of the Winter Olympics' biggest controversies.
Speaker 1: You know, put things in perspective.
Speaker 3: There are ninety countries that are set to compete in
Speaker 3: pyeong Chang this year, which is a far cry from
Speaker 3: the more than two hundred countries that participated in the
Speaker 3: twenty sixteen Games that were in Rio. You know, the
Speaker 3: reason for that disparity isn't so much a lack of
Speaker 3: interest as it is a lack of resources.
Speaker 1: You know, being able to compete.
Speaker 3: In events like lusing and figure skating and Bob's letting.
Speaker 3: I mean, all of that requires this practice and these
Speaker 3: very expensive facilities. And his Olympic historian David Waalachinsky puts it,
Speaker 3: if you want to run one hundred meters or even
Speaker 3: a marathon, you can just step outside your door and
Speaker 3: go do it. If you want to play soccer, you
Speaker 3: can do that anywhere. But if you want to compete
Speaker 3: in the luge, I don't think so. So obviously, you know,
Speaker 3: something like the alpine skiing is it's an expensive hobby
Speaker 3: and if you're trying to compete, just think about all
Speaker 3: the equipment and training and also just the regular access
Speaker 3: to these facilities that you'd need to have.
Speaker 2: Yeah. So, I know in tennis they say if you
Speaker 2: don't play for two days, you lose some of your
Speaker 2: muscle memory and you're basically relearning your strokes. Yeah, which
Speaker 2: is crazy, right, But if you think about something like that.
Speaker 2: For skiing, I mean, the climate dependent nature of the
Speaker 2: events definitely hurts your chances if you're from a tropical place,
Speaker 2: and the Winter Olympics have also developed this, you know,
Speaker 2: elitist stigma because the cold countries also tend to be
Speaker 2: richer and whiter, which is probably one of the reasons
Speaker 2: that they still aren't as popular as the summer counterparts.
Speaker 2: Which isn't to say that more temperator even downright tropical
Speaker 2: countries don't get a chance to shine. I mean, everyone
Speaker 2: remembers cool runnings, right and the Jamaican bob sled team
Speaker 2: from the nineteen eighty eight Calgary Games. But there's still
Speaker 2: a long way to go if the Winter Olympics want
Speaker 2: to be an event that's truly representative of international athletes.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, And since we're talking about controversies and
Speaker 3: you mentioned the eighty eight Olympics, I just have to
Speaker 3: take a second to talk about Eddie the Eagle.
Speaker 1: So I'm not sure I know that mascot.
Speaker 3: I know it sounds very cuddly, but Eddie the Eagle
Speaker 3: is actually one of the nicknames for Michael Edwards, and
Speaker 3: he was this British plaster who always dreamed of competing
Speaker 3: as a downhill skier in the Olympics, and after determining
Speaker 3: that ski jumping would be cheaper and less competitive in
Speaker 3: order to be able to prepare, Michael became the first
Speaker 3: in British history to participate in the event. Now, there
Speaker 3: was only one little problem, and that was the fact
Speaker 3: that he was terrible at ski jumping. In fact, he
Speaker 3: crashed at the World Championship in nineteen eighty six, kind
Speaker 3: of became the laughing stock of the press and they
Speaker 3: not so lovingly referred to him as mister Magoo. But
Speaker 3: you know, Edwards was undeterred and he managed to fulfill
Speaker 3: his dream by competing at the Calgary Olympics just two
Speaker 3: years later. Although he successfully landed his Johnbie, he didn't
Speaker 3: score even like half the total points as any of
Speaker 3: the other competitors. But nonetheless, Eddie the Eagle, as he
Speaker 3: was called by the President of the IOC, became this
Speaker 3: national star and you know, an unexpected point of pride
Speaker 3: for England.
Speaker 2: So I'm guessing where the story is going, right, It's
Speaker 2: just like that little Norwegian girl who rallied and came
Speaker 2: back to clean house at the next Olympics.
Speaker 1: Uh, definitely not Now.
Speaker 3: Edwards competed for a spot I think in the next
Speaker 3: three Winter Games, but the Olympic community had raised the
Speaker 3: qualifying standards at that point and that was really to
Speaker 3: box him out.
Speaker 1: And you know.
Speaker 3: Still he claims about seventy percent of his income now
Speaker 3: comes from speaking engagement, so it wasn't a total loss.
Speaker 1: For the guy.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And as far as controversy is going, that one's
Speaker 2: pretty innocent, Like most Olympic scandals are a little more
Speaker 2: tinged with, definitely. And so I was reading about Orton Enderland.
Speaker 2: She was this East German Lewes champion who wound up
Speaker 2: forfeiting her gold from the sixty eight Games when it
Speaker 2: was discovered that she and her teammates had actually heated
Speaker 2: the rails that are sled just prior to the race.
Speaker 2: I mean, I didn't realize the physics of this, but
Speaker 2: the extra warmth had reduced the sled's friction with the ice,
Speaker 2: which gave them a much faster run time. And so
Speaker 2: the three women were disqualified, but the East German Olympic
Speaker 2: committee never took responsibility. Instead, they blamed it all on
Speaker 2: a capitalist revenge plot.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, that must have been a capitalist revenge plot.
Speaker 3: You know, it's funny because I know about like corking
Speaker 3: your bed or deflating a football, but I honestly have
Speaker 3: no idea how to cheat in winter sports. I mean,
Speaker 3: it wouldn't even occur to me to heat the metal
Speaker 3: under your luge. That's also a sentence I never thought
Speaker 3: I would say. But all right, well, speaking of East Germany,
Speaker 3: there's one interesting thing I came across, and that was
Speaker 3: that West and East Germany actually reached across the Iron
Speaker 3: Curtain and they decided to compete together as this unified
Speaker 3: team of Germany. This happened in three Olympics, fifty six
Speaker 3: and sixty and sixty four. But that's when the truce
Speaker 3: came to an end because this alternate for an East
Speaker 3: German team, I think on the toboggan team. They used
Speaker 3: the games as a way to make a break for freedom.
Speaker 3: And so her name was outa Gawller, and apparently she
Speaker 3: fled for West Germany while her teammates were celebrating during
Speaker 3: a reception one night.
Speaker 2: That's crazy.
Speaker 1: Did she make it?
Speaker 3: She actually did? And you know what, she actually wasn't
Speaker 3: even the only one. According to the Associated Press, there
Speaker 3: were thirteen fans from Eastern European communist countries that also
Speaker 3: escaped under the cover of the Olympics.
Speaker 2: That's amazing and you kind of have to admire people
Speaker 2: who saw an opportunity and seized it. So one of
Speaker 2: my favorite Olympic controversies centers on this guy named Stephen Bradbury,
Speaker 2: who depressed dubbed the accidental gold medalist. He was on
Speaker 2: the Australian speed skating team that won the country its
Speaker 2: first medal at the Winter Olympics back in nineteen ninety four,
Speaker 2: but his most triumphant moment came at the two thousand
Speaker 2: and two Games in Salt Lake City, and by that
Speaker 2: point Bradbury had suffered a number of debilitating injuries and
Speaker 2: was no longer at the top of his game. In fact,
Speaker 2: he only made it through the quarterfinals that year because
Speaker 2: another athlete was disqualified, and he made it through the
Speaker 2: semis because a number of his competitors fell down on
Speaker 2: the track. Oh wow, And that fall actually gave him
Speaker 2: this great idea for what would turn out to be
Speaker 2: a winning strategy when it came time for the big race.
Speaker 2: Bradbury figured his best shot was just to hang back,
Speaker 2: you know, on the off chance that another fall might
Speaker 2: clear the field for him, and amazingly the plan worked
Speaker 2: like in spades. As he was racing, there was this
Speaker 2: disastrous fall that caused all four of his competitors to
Speaker 2: collapse in him. Yeah, it was just before the finish line,
Speaker 2: and Bradbury kind of just skated slowly around them, claiming
Speaker 2: his coal metal.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 2: The craziest part was like the crowd was booing and jeering.
Speaker 3: I mean, I kind of love that story. It might
Speaker 3: not be like a glorious win, but a win.
Speaker 2: Is a win exactly. And Bradbury's sort of admitted that
Speaker 2: he won by sheer luck, and he used to sort
Speaker 2: of be upset about it and conflicted about it, but
Speaker 2: now he kind of considers his reward for you know,
Speaker 2: this entire career hard work.
Speaker 3: I mean, you know, like we were saying earlier, the
Speaker 3: Winter Olympics don't always favor these warmer weather countries, and
Speaker 3: Australia certainly being one of those, so.
Speaker 1: You have to take what you can get.
Speaker 3: I think there's actually one other long running controversy I
Speaker 3: do want to mention, but before we get to that,
Speaker 3: let's take a quick break.
Speaker 1: You're listening to.
Speaker 3: Part time genius, and we're talking about the little known
Speaker 3: origins and shocking scandals of the Winter Olympics, all right, Mega,
Speaker 3: So the last controversy I wanted to mention is just
Speaker 3: how long it took for a British curling team to
Speaker 3: receive its gold medals.
Speaker 2: And why is that?
Speaker 3: Well, Great Britain won the curling competition way back in
Speaker 3: the inaugural Winter Games of nineteen twenty four, but the
Speaker 3: winner actually didn't get their gold until a whopping eighty
Speaker 3: two years later. So what was the hold of Well,
Speaker 3: the delay stem from some confusion over weather curling had
Speaker 3: been an official event at the first Games, or whether
Speaker 3: it was what they called a demonstration sport. You know,
Speaker 3: these are the events that are mostly there for promotional
Speaker 3: purposes and kind of build interest in these niche sports.
Speaker 2: Yeah. So, my friend Dave was a ski archer, and
Speaker 2: he was like tenth in the world and number one
Speaker 2: in the US when we were in college. It's not
Speaker 2: a big sport here, but it is in Europe, and
Speaker 2: I was always hoping they'd make ski archery a sport
Speaker 2: just so I could watch him in the Olympics. But
Speaker 2: it never happened.
Speaker 3: You know, I've met Dave before, and he never bragged
Speaker 3: about this unel I would start every conversation with I
Speaker 3: was number one in the world at.
Speaker 1: The ski archery thing.
Speaker 3: But you know, it's weird to think about things that
Speaker 3: have been these demonstration sports, like, you know, everything from
Speaker 3: pigeon racing and ballooning to even volleyball and tennis. But
Speaker 3: at some point those were outsider sports. And also there
Speaker 3: was a sport called I think corfball. I don't know
Speaker 3: what that is, but I'm a big fan just because
Speaker 3: of a name. Anyway, some of the demonstration sports wind
Speaker 3: up becoming official events, but until they do, they actually
Speaker 3: don't give the winners of these the proper Olympic medals.
Speaker 3: So even though curling was played at the first Winter Olympics,
Speaker 3: it didn't reappear in the Games until nineteen ninety eight,
Speaker 3: and its first appearance became accepted as you know, just
Speaker 3: being a demonstration event.
Speaker 2: So what changed over the course of those eighty some years.
Speaker 3: Well, for some reason, the IOC did this deep dive
Speaker 3: into its records and they ruled that curling had actually
Speaker 3: been intended as part of the official program back in
Speaker 3: nineteen twenty four. So even though the original team members
Speaker 3: were long gone by this point. They were given the
Speaker 3: long overdue honor of being upgraded to these full Olympic
Speaker 3: gold medals.
Speaker 2: Well, I'm glad you brought up demo sports because I
Speaker 2: actually spent some time looking at old Winter Olympics And
Speaker 2: have you ever heard of skigering?
Speaker 1: No, is that like corfball.
Speaker 2: It's exactly like corfball on skis. So this comes from
Speaker 2: the nineteen twenty eight Games. But basically competitors on skis
Speaker 2: were pulled over jumps and other obstacles by riderless horses.
Speaker 2: Why it was this one off event that never returned
Speaker 2: to the Olympics, But it actually still has a following,
Speaker 2: and there's a World Skeetering Championship that's held in Whitefish, Montana,
Speaker 2: every single year.
Speaker 3: I mean, I have to admit that sounds like a
Speaker 3: sport that happened by accident where somebody like fell off
Speaker 3: a horse.
Speaker 1: It was still attached to it. But I've never heard
Speaker 1: of that.
Speaker 3: I mean, I did know that dogs made an appearance.
Speaker 3: I think it was in the nineteen thirty two Winter
Speaker 3: Olympics that were like Placid, But this was just part
Speaker 3: of a demonstration for this sled dog racing, and so
Speaker 3: the sport re emerged at the fifty two Games in Oslo,
Speaker 3: but you know, surprisingly it never quite made it to
Speaker 3: official event status.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's kind of crazy because sled dog racing seems
Speaker 2: like a natural fit. Yeah, I mean, I guess they
Speaker 2: always have the Iditarod, but sadly for like a lot
Speaker 2: of other sports that they don't have, like their own championships.
Speaker 2: So there's one called ski Ballet or across Sky, and
Speaker 2: it was pretty much what the name suggests. So competitors
Speaker 2: take to a smooth slope and they performed these highly
Speaker 2: choreographed ski maneuvers and it's all set to music.
Speaker 1: Huh, which sounds awesome, right, yeah it does.
Speaker 2: It cropped off at two Winter Olympics. It was shown
Speaker 2: in Calgary in eighty eight and then again in France
Speaker 2: in ninety two, but it never really found an audi
Speaker 2: and in fact, the International Ski Federation for some reason
Speaker 2: stopped holding formal competition for the sport in two thousand
Speaker 2: and that's kind of when the dream of ski bala died.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's kind of weird, but I'd probably watch it.
Speaker 3: In fact, I think i'd be really good at it,
Speaker 3: all right, Well, one of the weirdest official sports of
Speaker 3: the Winter Games was called the Winner Pentathlon. So in
Speaker 3: addition to cross country skiing and shooting, the event also
Speaker 3: featured get this, skiing, horseback riding, and of course fencing.
Speaker 2: Wait, how did this not catch on? Skis, horses, guns, swords,
Speaker 2: something for everyone?
Speaker 3: You're not kidding, I mean, I feel like everybody can
Speaker 3: find something awesome in this. But I suppose it was
Speaker 3: deemed a little too complicated for the Olympics. But it
Speaker 3: actually is still held every year as part of the
Speaker 3: Military World Games.
Speaker 2: So here's an event that, despite fan outcry, was also
Speaker 2: deemed too complicated for the Winter Olympics. Chicken sled racing.
Speaker 1: All right, that can't be a real thing, No way.
Speaker 2: I know it's only sort of a thing. So a
Speaker 2: few years ago, KFC and this ad agency hired two
Speaker 2: members of the Team USA Bob Sled Team to help
Speaker 2: promote their new chicken strips. And the breakman for the
Speaker 2: team is this guy. Jim Carril was filmed eating chicken
Speaker 2: from the KFC Go Cup while racing down the track
Speaker 2: at seventy miles per hour with a force of five
Speaker 2: Gee's so friendly. This is some sort of feet. According
Speaker 2: to carryl, no other bobsled team out there is pulling
Speaker 2: five g's while eating chicken, and he's right and more
Speaker 2: casual fans of chicken sled racing may not know the
Speaker 2: physical demands five g's puts on an athlete. Do you
Speaker 2: know how much an extra crispy strip weighs at five
Speaker 2: g's It's almost a half pound. Seriously, don't try this
Speaker 2: at home.
Speaker 1: I love how serious he is with that. That's pretty great.
Speaker 3: And yeah, I am guessing the sport never made it
Speaker 3: to the demo phase though.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so, I mean, the company started this social media
Speaker 2: campaign that include this petition to make it an official
Speaker 2: event at the twenty eighteen Games, but as far as
Speaker 2: I know, it won't be debuting there.
Speaker 1: That's probably for the best.
Speaker 3: But all right, well, speaking of Bob's ledding, did you
Speaker 3: ever hear how the sport got it start? Actually kind
Speaker 3: of a three for here, because there were two other
Speaker 3: winter sports that involved the icy track. You've got the
Speaker 3: luge the skeleton, and those can also be traced back
Speaker 3: to the same source.
Speaker 2: So, I mean, I know what loses it's when there's
Speaker 2: like a single person on a sled face up and
Speaker 2: feet first. But remind me what's skeleton again.
Speaker 3: It's pretty much the reverse, like you sled face down
Speaker 3: and face first, which is just awful.
Speaker 2: It's terrifying. It just makes me like nervous thinking about it.
Speaker 3: I know me too, But the story is pretty strange
Speaker 3: as well. So apparently lose skeleton and bob sledding. All
Speaker 3: owe this huge debt to a Swiss hotel owner. His
Speaker 3: name was Casper Badrutt, and in the eighteen sixties Casper
Speaker 3: hit upon the idea of a winter resort and this
Speaker 3: was kind of a way to fill empty rooms during
Speaker 3: the freezing winter months in Saint Marins. So he convinced
Speaker 3: English tours that there was plenty of fun to be
Speaker 3: had by speeding through the town's streets on kind of
Speaker 3: a modified sled that that happened to be popular at
Speaker 3: the time among local delivery boys. It was only one
Speaker 3: problem to this, and that's an i'mateure. Sledgers were routinely
Speaker 3: smacking into unsuspecting pedestrians. They were just trying to walk
Speaker 3: down the street, and I guess in some ways that
Speaker 3: wasn't great for business. So Casper came up with a solution,
Speaker 3: and that was to construct this icy halfpipe, and so
Speaker 3: people could, you know, no longer have to recavoc in
Speaker 3: the streets, and they started experimenting with new configurations. They might,
Speaker 3: you know, strap two sleds together to make somewhat of
Speaker 3: a bob sled, And within a decade this recreational sledding
Speaker 3: had morphed into a few distinct competitive sports, and by
Speaker 3: the time the Winter Olympics rolled around in nineteen twenty four,
Speaker 3: bob sled or bob slag as they used to call it,
Speaker 3: it was kind of a natural inclusion on the program.
Speaker 2: That's kind of funny because it's actually a similar thing
Speaker 2: that happened with the snowboard. So the basic idea of
Speaker 2: snowboards first cropped up in the eighteen hundreds, but they
Speaker 2: didn't become a commercial product. And I didn't realize this
Speaker 2: but until the nineteen sixties. And that's when a Michigan
Speaker 2: man named Sherman Poppin strapped two skis together to make
Speaker 2: a new kind of ride for his daughter. And you'll
Speaker 2: love this. He dubbed the invention the snurfer snurfer and
Speaker 2: he sold over a million of them in the next decade,
Speaker 2: and then athletes made their own adjustments and improvements, just
Speaker 2: like with the bob sled, and then the sport became
Speaker 2: a full blown craze in the eighties and nineties. Also,
Speaker 2: I really do wish we could keep calling it snurfing.
Speaker 1: Yeah, let's try to bring that back if we can.
Speaker 3: But yeah, it's wild to think about how recent a
Speaker 3: breakthrough something as familiar as snowboarding really is.
Speaker 1: And what's weird.
Speaker 3: It's kind of the same with figure skating too. I mean,
Speaker 3: ice skating has been around for hundreds of years, but
Speaker 3: you know, the expressive acrobatic version that we think of
Speaker 3: with figure skaters, that didn't come around until the mid
Speaker 3: nineteenth century. And believe it or not, it was an
Speaker 3: American who actually popularized it. The guy's name was Jackson Haynes,
Speaker 3: and he was looking for a way to combine his
Speaker 3: ballet dance training with ice skating at a time when
Speaker 3: most of the skaters were focusing on just doing these
Speaker 3: complex patterns and the ice and so moving gracefully to
Speaker 3: music and all the spinning and jumping. That was something
Speaker 3: that no ice skater was doing at the time, and
Speaker 3: it all seemed too theatrical, I guess for some people,
Speaker 3: so this restricted view frustrated Haynes, and so he left
Speaker 3: for Europe and this international style, as they started to
Speaker 3: describe it, it began to thrill these audiences in London
Speaker 3: and Paris and other places that they were taking it.
Speaker 3: And so we chriss crossed the European continent as this
Speaker 3: skating celebrity for over a decade. And so today people
Speaker 3: remember him as the father of figure skating.
Speaker 2: Oh I love that anyway. I know there are plenty
Speaker 2: of other innovations connected to the Winter Olympics like we
Speaker 2: should probably talk about, but first let's take a little break.
Speaker 2: So Dave Bergart is a dear friend of mine. This
Speaker 2: is how far we go back. So I was on
Speaker 2: a study abroad trip to Tibet, and I knew no
Speaker 2: one on the program. And as I was walking onto
Speaker 2: this bus as a total dork. I mean, I think
Speaker 2: I had a sketch pad in one hand and a
Speaker 2: ukulelea in my other, and I had this ridiculous little
Speaker 2: suitcase while everyone had these awesome hiking backpacks. And by Dave,
Speaker 2: and he was on this bus just playing with a
Speaker 2: Rubik's cube and he was wearing a Coffeels T shirt
Speaker 2: which was a little band from Delaware, and I thought,
Speaker 2: another cool dork. I found my people. But then later
Speaker 2: Dave was so humble about this, and I was shocked
Speaker 2: to learn he was number one in the country and
Speaker 2: ski archery and and the fact that he was a
Speaker 2: real athlete just blew me away. But that's what I
Speaker 2: wanted to talk about today. So Dave Brogart, welcome to
Speaker 2: the program.
Speaker 5: Hey, thanks mangusch And we can debate real athlete with
Speaker 5: ski archery.
Speaker 2: So I'm always interested in these like fringe sports, and
Speaker 2: I'm so curious, like how did you even learn about
Speaker 2: ski archery and how did you get into it?
Speaker 5: Yeah, that's a good question. So you know, obviously I
Speaker 5: grew up as a competitive archer. I was just like
Speaker 5: I think I was one of those kids. I just
Speaker 5: went to summer camp and you know, picked up archery
Speaker 5: and you know, just fell in love with it. And
Speaker 5: it just happened like the camp counselor like lived down
Speaker 5: the street for me, and he shot archery year round,
Speaker 5: and so he invited me to, you know, start shooting
Speaker 5: with him, and so like in I don't know, elementary school,
Speaker 5: middle school, like I was kind of going around the
Speaker 5: East Coast doing all these archery tournaments, and then like
Speaker 5: I hit high school and like, archery is fun. I
Speaker 5: learned a lot from it, but it was like a
Speaker 5: little bit too mellow, and all my friends are doing
Speaker 5: Nordic skiing and so I just picked it up and
Speaker 5: then like learned about it and I'm like, wait, I
Speaker 5: can combine these two things and this really obscure sport,
Speaker 5: Like that sounds awesome and it's like the.
Speaker 2: Most amazing ben diagram of things I'd never.
Speaker 4: Put together totally.
Speaker 5: And so yeah, I just started racing in the the
Speaker 5: archery archery Bathlon and like I just was at the
Speaker 5: right time, like it was starting to get bigger internationally
Speaker 5: and had some opportunities to start traveling and racing, and yeah,
Speaker 5: I did that from like nineteen ninety eight to like
Speaker 5: two thousand and seven ish or so, and I raced
Speaker 5: all over Europe in Russia, and yeah, it was a
Speaker 5: good experience.
Speaker 2: That's amazing. So when you started, how many people were
Speaker 2: you competing against in the US?
Speaker 4: Like pretty small?
Speaker 5: I mean, you know, Nordic skiing is a pretty small
Speaker 5: niche and then like if you add like biathlon, which
Speaker 5: is the sort of the cousin sport, which just uses
Speaker 5: you know, rightful instead of a bow and arrow that's
Speaker 5: even smaller and then if you like take, it's like
Speaker 5: even a smaller piece of that.
Speaker 2: And chess boxing, which you know is that where they're
Speaker 2: like rounds of chess and followed by boxing, Like it
Speaker 2: has to be an okay chess player, but it helps
Speaker 2: to be a really great boxer like Mike Dyson would
Speaker 2: destroy Gary Kasparov. But do you have to be a
Speaker 2: better skier archer and ski archery?
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's a good question. I would probably say skier.
Speaker 5: You have to be good at both for sure, but
Speaker 5: fast gears tended to do better I think than just
Speaker 5: straight archers.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and so I know when you traveled abroad to competitions,
Speaker 2: families would put you up. Could you tell us about
Speaker 2: your Russian host family and how they welcomed you and
Speaker 2: your computing there?
Speaker 5: Man, Yeah, this cracks me up because you know, there's
Speaker 5: this one race I did in like a Siberian outpost
Speaker 5: and there's like no hotel. So yeah, I was put
Speaker 5: up by host family, and uh, you know, I was
Speaker 5: like in shape and like kind of living a monk lifestyle,
Speaker 5: like eating pretty healthy and they were so tickled to
Speaker 5: have like an American in their house. They wanted to
Speaker 5: give me like the best hospitality possible, and they, like
Speaker 5: the night before the race, like insisted that I just
Speaker 5: take like vodka shot after vodka shot, and like then
Speaker 5: they're like heated up there like wood fired sauna, and
Speaker 5: like you know, like would accept like no.
Speaker 4: For an answer.
Speaker 5: So I went out there and like kind of craziness
Speaker 5: just ensued with like a local policeman coming and all
Speaker 5: of a sudden, we were firing his gun at like
Speaker 5: pepsi cans in the backyard. I was not in tip
Speaker 5: top race shape the next day, but I didn't know
Speaker 5: if that was a yeah, part of like my competitors'
Speaker 5: plan or what. But you know, years later, like I
Speaker 5: don't think it mattered how we did in the race.
Speaker 5: It was a pretty fun story and cool cultural experience
Speaker 5: and yeah, I feel really lucky.
Speaker 2: That's pretty awesome. So we want to put you to
Speaker 2: a quiz because we always put our favorite guests to
Speaker 2: a quiz. So this is called real discontinued Olympic event
Speaker 2: or something we made up. I love it, Okay, So
Speaker 2: the first one is tug of War. Is this a
Speaker 2: real discontinued event or something we made up.
Speaker 5: Oh, I I'm gonna go real event. I bet, I
Speaker 5: bet in the old like you know. Really, I could
Speaker 5: see this in early nineteen hundred, so I can see
Speaker 5: I can see Tug of war.
Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely right. They had eight men team and England
Speaker 2: was particularly good at it. And it was from nineteen
Speaker 2: hundred to nineteen twenty. All right, one for one solo
Speaker 2: synchronized swimming.
Speaker 4: I'm gonna have to go made up.
Speaker 2: I don't know if we so I thought it was
Speaker 2: it was fake too, but it's a real event. This
Speaker 2: is from nineteen eighty four to nineteen ninety two, and
Speaker 2: despite the name, apparently the synchronized is actually with the
Speaker 2: music and not with other people.
Speaker 4: Oh that is so good.
Speaker 2: Isn't that crazy?
Speaker 5: We missed ot calling that gosh.
Speaker 2: H tandem horse dancing.
Speaker 6: Oh god, I want to say false, but after that
Speaker 6: last one threw me for a loop tandem horse dancing,
Speaker 6: it's I have to say false.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's false, but I want it to be a
Speaker 2: real event. For two men's snowman construction.
Speaker 4: Two men, I'm gonna go false. I hope this is false.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's also false and number five swimming obstacle.
Speaker 4: Course, well, we've only had one true one so far.
Speaker 4: I don't know if that two hm true?
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's right. So according to the Guardian, the discipline
Speaker 2: required swimmers to clamber over a pole hovering just above
Speaker 2: the surface of the water, scramble over a row of
Speaker 2: parked boats, and then swim under another row of little ships.
Speaker 2: And apparently people who grew up in harbors would tend
Speaker 2: to win this competition.
Speaker 4: That's amazing.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So Dave one astounding four for five, which entitles
Speaker 2: him to our top prize. A hand written note to
Speaker 2: his wife or boss, singing his praises Dave Virgart, thanks
Speaker 2: for being on Part Time Genius.
Speaker 4: That's awesome, Thanks so much.
Speaker 2: Welcome back to Part Time Genius. So one thing I
Speaker 2: noticed while prepping for this episode is just how many
Speaker 2: breakthrough innovations happened to coincide with the nineteen sixty Winter Olympics.
Speaker 2: And it's not an exaggeration to say that the Games
Speaker 2: would never be the same again after that year.
Speaker 3: Oh it's a big statement, right, So what kind of
Speaker 3: stuff were you thinking about?
Speaker 2: Well, for starters, nineteen sixty was the year of the Zamboni.
Speaker 1: The Zamboni So like the thing on the hockey rinks
Speaker 1: and stuff.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so Frank Zamboni invented in nineteen forty nine and
Speaker 2: he used it at his family owned rink, and then
Speaker 2: it started to catch on with the public in the fifties,
Speaker 2: especially after Sonya Henny bought one to take along on
Speaker 2: her travels. And you remember Sonia Henny as the Norwegian
Speaker 2: young kid.
Speaker 3: I do remember her. And it was his name, really,
Speaker 3: Frank Zamboni. That's awesome, Yeah, it was.
Speaker 2: And when it came time for the nineteen sixty Games,
Speaker 2: Zamboni's were finally ready to make their Olympic debut, so
Speaker 2: they used Frank's padded method. The machine actually shaves the
Speaker 2: surface of the ice and then sweeps away the shavings
Speaker 2: and then it washes the ice though it's nice and
Speaker 2: slick for skaters, and all these years later, Zamboni's are
Speaker 2: still the gold standard.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's an interesting fact.
Speaker 3: I'm still not one hundred percent convinced you didn't sneak
Speaker 3: that in just so you can say Zamboni. But anyway,
Speaker 3: what else was big for the nineteen sixty Games.
Speaker 2: Well, Zamboni's and Bonie's Ambonie well, the biggest game changer
Speaker 2: that year was that the Olympics were televised for the
Speaker 2: first time. And it's kind of hard to imagine today
Speaker 2: when you can watch round the clock live coverage of
Speaker 2: every single event, But until the nineteen sixties and the
Speaker 2: nineteen sixty Games in particular, the only people who could
Speaker 2: watch the Olympics were those who attended them. And that
Speaker 2: changed when CBS paid this tiny, paltry sum of fifty
Speaker 2: thousand dollars for exclusive broadcasting. Oh wow, yeah, I mean,
Speaker 2: it's so little money, right, but it totally paid off
Speaker 2: for the network and they saw record setting ratings that year,
Speaker 2: but the athletes and organizers actually benefited from it as.
Speaker 1: Well, So all right, so how's that?
Speaker 2: Well, I mean, there was some confusion during the men's
Speaker 2: slalom skiing event that year, and officials were unsure whether
Speaker 2: one of the skiers had actually missed a gate during
Speaker 2: his run. But thanks to this new deal with the
Speaker 2: TV network, the officials actually had this chance to resolve
Speaker 2: the matter, and they asked members of the CBS team
Speaker 2: if they could review the tape to confirm what had happened.
Speaker 2: CBS obliged, and in doing so, they actually came up
Speaker 2: with something that became indispensable in all sports, the instant replay.
Speaker 2: So that all started from the Winter Olympics.
Speaker 3: Oh, that's pretty cool. I guess you're accurate. So nineteen
Speaker 3: sixty was a pretty big year for the Winter Games.
Speaker 3: But you know, actually one of my favorite innovations didn't
Speaker 3: come along until almost thirty years later. It was in
Speaker 3: the eighty eight Games in Calgary, and that was the
Speaker 3: year when the National Research Council of Canada devised a
Speaker 3: special all weather Olympic torch. This was to be used
Speaker 3: in the traditional relay before the Games, and unlike previous torches,
Speaker 3: this one was designed to be especially lightweight and it
Speaker 3: was powered by this special fuel that allowed the flame
Speaker 3: to stay lit during its eighty eight day, eleven thousand
Speaker 3: mile trip across the Canadian tundra.
Speaker 2: That's amazing across the tundra. And actually it reminds me
Speaker 2: of something I read about this year's Olympic Torch relay,
Speaker 2: which is going on right now. But apparently in December
Speaker 2: there was one leg where the torch was carried by
Speaker 2: the South Korean robot named Hubo.
Speaker 1: Wait is that allowed I think it all had to
Speaker 1: be people.
Speaker 2: No, it can apparently, And the best part was that
Speaker 2: Hubo used a power drill to cut a hole in
Speaker 2: a wall and then he passed the torch over to
Speaker 2: the inventor who created him.
Speaker 3: That is a little bit ridiculous, but I mean also
Speaker 3: a good reminder that the Olympics can be, you know,
Speaker 3: pretty entertaining.
Speaker 2: Sometimes, especially when you add robots to the mix, which
Speaker 2: is something South Korea is going all in on this year.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, I was reading about how their Ministry
Speaker 3: of Science is working with these local companies and so
Speaker 3: they're rolling out new technologies all through the games. Like
Speaker 3: apparently they've been testing these multilingual and autonomous robots at
Speaker 3: the airports so they can guide visitors to correct gates
Speaker 3: or provide information about flight times, and then when they
Speaker 3: aren't busy with guests, they just roam around and clean
Speaker 3: things up.
Speaker 1: That's awesome.
Speaker 3: And so the hope is that the bots can be
Speaker 3: put to work in pyeong Chang as a way to
Speaker 3: get visitors around this language barrier there.
Speaker 2: That's pretty neat And from everything I read, this year's
Speaker 2: games are going to be like this true Techi paradise.
Speaker 2: So aside from the full on robots. Hyundai has these
Speaker 2: self driving buses that risk visitors around the host city,
Speaker 2: and they've got a fleet of aerial drones they'll be
Speaker 2: watching over the proceedings. And that's not just to help
Speaker 2: broadcast events, but also for security purposes and maybe also
Speaker 2: part of the entertainment offerings.
Speaker 1: I don't know, we'll find out.
Speaker 2: But the thing that'll catch most nerds attention is that
Speaker 2: the Winter Olympics will be the test site for the
Speaker 2: new five G mobile network, and so most of us
Speaker 2: won't be able to connect to this new platform until
Speaker 2: twenty twenty, but for those in attendance, the network will
Speaker 2: actually provide data speeds up to a thousand times faster
Speaker 2: than the current networks.
Speaker 5: Wow.
Speaker 2: I mean that's fast enough to download almost a gig
Speaker 2: of data in a single second.
Speaker 1: That's pretty well all right.
Speaker 3: Well, we've talked about some of these very you know,
Speaker 3: tech heavy innovations that we should be seen, but there
Speaker 3: are also some non tech based first that we should
Speaker 3: look forward to as well. There was one of I
Speaker 3: was reading about, you know. For example, Adam Rippon will
Speaker 3: compete in figure skating as the first openly gay male
Speaker 3: athlete to represent the US and the Winter Olympics, which
Speaker 3: is kind of hard to believe that it's not until
Speaker 3: this year that that's happening. But you know, all the
Speaker 3: next activity aimed at homosexual athletes during the twenty fourteen Games,
Speaker 3: and so Chi Adam's performance hopefully will be an uplifting
Speaker 3: moment for many people at this year's event.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and one of the first I'm most looking forward
Speaker 2: to this year is Nigeria's debut at the Winter Olympics.
Speaker 1: Huh.
Speaker 2: The African nation will become the latest warm weather country
Speaker 2: to buck the cold climate trend and that's all thanks
Speaker 2: to its women's bobsled team.
Speaker 1: Oh wow, So it's kind of like cool Runnings all
Speaker 1: over again.
Speaker 2: Yeah, definitely, And just like with the famous Jamaican bob
Speaker 2: sled team, Nigeria's team is a total labor of love.
Speaker 2: So they actually crowdsourced the seventy five thousand dollars they
Speaker 2: needed on GoFundMe for like sleds and equipment and fees.
Speaker 2: And according to the sled driver, her name is Seon
Speaker 2: Attigan and anyway, this is her quote. I was inspired
Speaker 2: to start the Nigerian women's bobsled team in hopes of
Speaker 2: being the first ever African representative men or women to
Speaker 2: qualify for the Winter Olympic Games in the sport of
Speaker 2: bob sled.
Speaker 3: Well, mission accomplished on that one. That's pretty neat and
Speaker 3: I can't wait to see how they do. You know,
Speaker 3: this year more than others, I'm really.
Speaker 1: Looking forward to the Games.
Speaker 3: You know, things feel pretty divided these days, so it
Speaker 3: does seem extra important to have this event where people
Speaker 3: from all different regions and all different cultures they can
Speaker 3: come together and you kind of celebrate what humanity is
Speaker 3: capable of, and to do so in this friendly spirit
Speaker 3: of competition that the Olympics.
Speaker 1: Is really all about.
Speaker 2: I know, and in South Korea, Yeah, no kidding, but
Speaker 2: will I know the opening ceremonies are still a few
Speaker 2: weeks away, but would you say we kick things off
Speaker 2: early with the men's freestyle fact off event?
Speaker 1: You know what, Mango, I say, let the Games begin.
Speaker 3: So did you know that only one person has won
Speaker 3: gold at both the Winter and Summer Olympics, and that
Speaker 3: honor goes to American Eddie Egan. He won the light
Speaker 3: heavyweight boxing event in the nineteen twenty Olympics, and over
Speaker 3: a decade later he was part of the four man
Speaker 3: Bob's led team that took gold at Lake Placid. There
Speaker 3: are three other athletes that have won in winter and summer,
Speaker 3: but Egan is the only one to take gold at both.
Speaker 2: So I know, we were just talking about the Jamaican
Speaker 2: bobsled team that got so much attention for the Calgary
Speaker 2: Olympics and cooled runnings, and you know, the team was
Speaker 2: kind of a punchline for a while, but they eventually
Speaker 2: won their fans over because of their hard work and determination.
Speaker 2: But what I didn't remember, and what most people probably
Speaker 2: don't remember, is that the team still competes and they've
Speaker 2: actually gotten much better. In fact, only six years after
Speaker 2: those nineteen eighty eight games, the Jamaican team actually beat
Speaker 2: both US teams in the event.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 3: I didn't know that either, all right, So, which country
Speaker 3: is most dominant in a single sport? I was looking
Speaker 3: ato this and you may remember that four years ago
Speaker 3: in Sochy, the long track speed skaters from the Netherlands
Speaker 3: took home something like seventy percent of the medals in
Speaker 3: that sport.
Speaker 1: I mean, just completely dominant, right.
Speaker 3: But the Atlantic was looking back at metals over the
Speaker 3: past eleven Olympics and they found that the most dominant
Speaker 3: country in a single sport, those would be Germany's losures,
Speaker 3: and they took home something like thirty seven percent of
Speaker 3: medals over that period of time. Now, I should note
Speaker 3: this would include East and West Germany as well as
Speaker 3: the unified Germany, so they did get to have more
Speaker 3: competitors over that period of time.
Speaker 1: But that's still pretty remarkable.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's amazing. So the only winter sport where an
Speaker 2: American athlete has never meddled is the biathlon. But you know,
Speaker 2: I have a feeling that they're gonna pull it off
Speaker 2: this year. Yeah, But I mean, the truth is, I'm
Speaker 2: saying that, like I know anyone who competes it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't even know exactly who does that, but
Speaker 3: I hope that we win one there. So all right, Well,
Speaker 3: earlier we mentioned Norway being a powerhouse in the Winter Olympics,
Speaker 3: and it's even more impressive if you look at their
Speaker 3: performance per capita. But approximately five million citizens, they're roughly
Speaker 3: the same size as my home state of Alabama, and
Speaker 3: they've won approximately one Winter Olympic medal for every seventeen
Speaker 3: thousand residents. Now, I don't know if that sounds like
Speaker 3: much or not. But compare that to the US, where
Speaker 3: it's one for every one point two million.
Speaker 2: So I like the fact, but I can actually top it.
Speaker 2: And that's because everyone forgets about Liechtenstein.
Speaker 1: I forgot about lickeden Stein.
Speaker 2: So they've won a total of nine medals all in
Speaker 2: alpine skiing, and that's actually close to one for every
Speaker 2: forty two hundred people there.
Speaker 3: That is pretty crazy that one out of every forty
Speaker 3: two hundred people that.
Speaker 1: Live there has won a medal.
Speaker 2: That is, it's on all the recruiting materials.
Speaker 1: Well, Mango, I have to admit it.
Speaker 2: You have won it.
Speaker 1: You win this week's fact Off Trophy.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much.
Speaker 1: Well, thank you guys for listening. That's it for today.
Speaker 3: If we've forgot any great facts about the Winter Olympics
Speaker 3: or just the Olympics in general, we'd love to hear
Speaker 3: from you. It's part time genius at HowStuffWorks dot com.
Speaker 3: You can always call us on our twenty four to
Speaker 3: seven fact Hotline. It is still twenty four to seven mango.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker 3: One eight four four pt genius. You can also hit
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