Athletes for Hope with Jason Belinkie and Jenny Sichel
Keep the Flame Alive
You know how Olympic and Paralympic athletes go around and speak at schools and do other types of education-related events? How do they get those gigs? Well, there are organizations who help with that. is one of those connecting organizations who work with athletes on causes that are near and dear to them and connect them to schools and non-profits so they can do speaking and other types of advocacy work. Today we’re talking with Jason Belinkie, chief executive officer of Athletes for Hope and Jenny Sichel, a Rio 2016 silver medalist in para mixed fours rowing to learn how Athletes...
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Sydney 2000: Better Than New: Triathlon, Women's Pole Vault and Modern Pentathlon
Keep the Flame Alive
All year long we're celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Sydney 2000 Games, and this month is the actual month of the Games' anniversary! The Sydney 2000 Olympics opened on September 15, 2000, and over the next 17 days, won over the world with its competitions and amazing hospitality. On this episode, we look at new sports and events on the Olympic program: Triathlon (new sport), women's pole vault (new event) and women's modern pentathlon (new event). All three had amazing debuts--what made them worth adding to the program? And did anyone's uterus fall out? For a complete list of...
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Back to School with Olympic Luger Ashley Farquharson
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It's back-to-school time, so we wanted to hear what it's like for an elite athlete to go back to college. Olympic luger Ashley Farquharson explains how she's taking advantage of the Guild/Team USA partnership and getting her bachelor's degree at Purdue Global. Follow Ashley on and . She's @far.quhar.son. On go to: facebook.com/farquadstarsquad. Plus, Will Whiston, EVP at On Location, talks about the company's hospitality packages for Milano-Cortina 2026. Learn about all the offerings and book your experiences at: In other news, LA 2028 has some venue updates, Team Keep the Flame Alive...
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Brooke Nunemaker and Brad Roethlisberger on Officiating Women’s Para Ice Hockey
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History is in the making this week with the first-ever women’s para ice hockey world championships. This is a big step forward toward inclusion in the Paralympics. To talk about the women’s game, we are talking with para ice hockey officials Brooke Nunemaker and Brad Roethlisberger, who have some great insight on the game. (c) 2025 Kiss & Cry Productions LLC
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World Games: Chengdu 2025 - Week 2
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It's the final week of the World Games - Chengdu 2025! We're joined by John Moorhead, 2017 World Games athlete and current USA Fistball secretary, to get some insight as to how the athletes in Chengdu have enjoyed their time at the World Games. Jill and Alison also recap their week 2 watching, with thoughts on: Boules Breakdancing Cheerleading Gymnastics Drone Racing Flag Football Inline Skating Motosurf Billiards Racquetball Plus, we recap an amazingly short Closing Ceremony. It's been fun, Chengdu! We'll see the World Games again in 2029 in Karlsruhe, Germany! In other news, LA 2028 will...
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World Games: Chengdu 2025 - Week 1
Keep the Flame Alive
The 12th edition of the World Games, Chengdu 2025 is underway! We discuss what sports and events we and other listeners have been bingeing on our feeds. We start with the excellent Opening Ceremonies, which took a cue from Paris 2024. Sports we discuss include: Canoe Polo DanceSport Dragon Boat racing Finswimming (we have a lot of thoughts about freediving) Floorball Gymnastics (including thoughts on the new format) Orienteering Parkour Squash Tug of War Wakeboard Plus, our traditional Games question: What volunteer or officiating job would we want to do? And (surprise), we've got some...
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Sydney 2000: Eventing, Para Sailing, and Wheelchair Rugby - Oh, My!
Keep the Flame Alive
It's our monthly look back at the Sydney 2000 Olympics and Paralympics! This time, Jill looks at the Olympic equestrian eventing competition, including venue construction, difficult quarantine processes, and a vastly different competition format than you see in today's Olympic eventing. Check out the cross-country course and its amazing fences: Then Alison takes to the harbor to discuss the first appearance of para sailing in the Paralympics, with Australian legend Noel Robins. Plus, one other very important sport had its debut at Sydney 2000: Wheelchair rugby. Alison looks back...
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Book Club Claire on "Above & Beyond: Tim Mack, the Pole Vault and the Quest for Olympic Gold"
Keep the Flame Alive
is back for our summer reading selection: by Bill Livingston. Tim Mack won the gold medal at the Athens 2004 Olympics (perhaps a surprise winner), and this book details his very long journey to the top of the podium and the unique training methods he developed that helped him achieve his goal. What did we think of the book? Listen to the show to find out! Our next selection is by Seth Berkman. This tells the story of the combined Korean women's hockey team that competed at PyeongChang 2018. We're looking forward to reading a story that took place during the life of this podcast!...
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2x Paralympian Noelle Lambert Talks Running Blades, Paralympics
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Today we are talking with 2x Paralympian Noelle Lambert who competes in the 100m and long jump. We get into the details of running blades (and how much they cost), how she improved her 100m between the Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024 Paralympics, and how she's training for LA 2028. Noelle is also the founder of the Born to Run Foundation, which raises money to provide sports prosthetic legs for amputees. Born to Run is having its next bi-annual golf fundraiser on September 22. Go to or its to learn more. Follow Noelle on TikTok and Instagram: @noellelambert Also on this episode: London 2012...
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Keep the Flame Alive Celebrates the Big 400!
Keep the Flame Alive
This week, Keep the Flame Alive is celebrating a big milestone: Our 400th regular episode! This episode is an online party with many citizens of (Team Keep the Flame Alive, which are our guests and listeners of the show), and we're thrilled to be joined by: Past guests Sean Colahan, Harry Blutstein, Rich Perelman, Roy Tomizawa and Listeners Ean, David, Mark, Patrick from Chicagoland, Meredith, Sarah and Tommy Producer Ben and Book Club Claire Like all great party conversation, it runs the gamut and includes Milan-Cortina's ever-expanding budget, potential politics at LA 2028, the IOC...
info_outlineWe sail back in time to Sydney 2000! Alison explores the origins of the official Olympic mascots, Syd, Millie, and Olly, and the Paralympic mascot Lizzie. But Sydney doesn't stop with the mascot fun--the hosts of the Sydney 2000 recap show The Dream brought us Fatso, who stole the athletes' and fans' hearts....and caused some controversy along the way.
See one of Fatso's best moments here: https://youtu.be/dJZS6DdS9xI?si=BjalIj50J6EA4-WB
Then Jill heads across Sydney Harbor to the sailing competition to revisit the men's sailing competition, specifically the Two Person Keelboat (Star) and One Person Dinghy (Laser). Death looms in the background of both of these competitions, the fat lady eventually sings, and karma says g'day.
See some of the wild action between Ben Ainslie and Robert Scheidt here: https://youtu.be/twM3ZBS1irA?si=l8za0HTllVz-fFuH
For a transcript of this episode and a full sourcelist, please visit http://flamealivepod.com.
Thank you to our ongoing contributors and patrons! This show thrives because of our listeners. Want to give back? Learn more here.
Thanks so much for listening, and until next time, keep the flame alive!
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Keep the Flame Alive: Games History Moment with hosts Jill Jaracz & Alison Brown is released monthly. In 2025, these episodes explore the Sydney 2000 Olympics and Paralympics Look for our regular episodes every week, with daily editions during the Olympics and Paralympics.
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