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