Two Guys, Five Rings: Matt, Bowen & The OlympicsStill looking for some Olympic competition? Look no further than the 2024 Paris Paralympic games and the latest episode of the Two Guys, Five Rings Podcast....or should it be the Three Agitos now? Matt and Bowen spotlight the athletes and storylines that hopefully result in a gold medal finish! Continue touring Paris and join our hosts in rooting for Team USA as the 2024 Paris Paralympic Games get underway!
Ring ring ring, or should we say Gito at Gito at Gito?
Why you went there? I went there.
It's the Paralympics. We're still here, y'all.
You thought it was over, but it's really only just begune. Paris is still lit up with some of the world's finest and I don't mean little steaks, finest little steaks.
I love a steak free.
Yeah, that's friends, right, yes, of course, steak free. It's babe. I mean, can we just get into it. I love a steak what's your favorite type of steak free? You know it is really free free, free free that feels like a very like humor of the time, like like irreverent, like there's very lonely island. Instead say steak free, free, free, freed free that feels like a very lonely island ctir a two thousand and nine sketch.
Well, it's a very Matt Rogers, Bow and Yang circa twenty twenty four podcast conversation one hundred percent. I think steak free. You don't get any more chic when it comes to meat and potatoes. And if this were our other podcasts, that would be a role of culture. But it's not we can't, but it's not so we can't. It's literally meat and potatoes. Isn't that amazing?
It is amazing. It's what our ancestors ate. Yeah, and it's a staple and don't question it. I feel like steak Fretz. It's not when you go to the restaurant be I'm like, oh, I'm gonna have steak freetz, right, But it's always there and you're like, okay, you know what, that could actually be that girl, and if you order it, it will be that girl.
Oh see, it's funny that you're gendering it as that girl because I kind of think of state Freed as like an old flame, an old an older man.
You do.
It's like that guy that you forgot that you had a flaning with and you see him on the menu. Like you go to the restaurant and you're like, I'm going to order a nice you know, chicken breast, but then you go to the menu and then the steak free comes your way and goes, hey.
Yeah, it's me old faithful.
It's old faithful.
I feel like steak freed is security. Steak freed is it's knowing that you're gonna be taken care of, but you always think you want like seafood fraud diavlo, you know what I mean, get into it. You want to get into it, like you really want. You want to go to the restaurant and you want You're like, tonight, I'm spicy. It's like when you go to brunch and you're like, I'm getting shuck shuka.
I'm getting shuck shuka.
You know what I mean.
But then steak freight shows up.
Yeah, like it's just steak freits is It's literally a good metaphor because it's like, wow, I really should order the steak frets. I know that I'll be taken care of, but cut to me eating rassy food.
I think this segues so perfectly into our conversation today about the Paralympics.
Do you think so?
I think the Paralympics end up being the steak freights that you still get that you're still like, I'm not full yet on the Olympics, you know what I mean. And it's like, I think this is a very especially this year, especially with how wonderful these Olympics have been. Everyone's like, what am I gonna do with that? The Olympics honey. The Paralympics start next Wednesday. Yeah, and it's gonna be a good one.
The agdos are in the sky.
The agidas are in the sky. Now what are the agidos?
Those are?
It's not the five rings anymore. It's the three agdos, the flags, and you know what. Depending on my mood, sometimes I think the agito is a shaker logo.
The three agitos ye are colored red, blue, and green. These are the three colors that are most widely represented in national flags around the world, so this is bringing everyone together. The symbol of the Paralympic Games is composed of three crescents colored red, blue, and green, encircling a single point on a white field.
The ageto, which translates to I move in Latin agito agito, is a symbol of movement in the shape of an asymmetrical crescent. The three agitos in circle a center point to emphasize the role that the IPC has of bringing athletes from all corners of the world together and enabling them to compete. The shape also symbolizes the Paralympic vision to enable Paralympic athletes to achieve sporting excellence and inspire and excite the world. I mean, this is so beautiful. I move Agito.
It's so chic.
Anytime I think Agit, I think Agita, and that's not a great thing, you know. I Oh, I have Agita that we're taking Agito? Is you move?
Let me tell you something. When I'm at the club Agito, when you see me out, very likely I'm going to be representing Agito culture. I move. It's very Julia Robertson's best friend's wedding. I got moves. You never seen Agito like you've never seen.
It's very ludicrous. And that it's not when I move, you move just like that. It's when a gito u gedo, just like that, when Agito ug gedo just like that.
Hell yeah, hey, ded j a gito that back? Yeah, so we're really throwing it back to high school. Do you remember being a high school a middle schooler? Rather, this is really more middle school and going to your middle school social and agdoing.
I would a gido in ways that were so like not burdened by what has been shall we say, yeah, but not even burdened by like, oh, like am I dancing good? You didn't it didn't care Okay, just something.
I just it was an empty coffee cup that fell on the ground. Leave that in. I want them to know it was me. That's my new line. Whenever anything happens, I leave it in and I want them to know it's me, Like I'm very I want to know. I want us to know me.
Oh yes, middle school dancing a gido. How fast did you, as you know, your mile in high school?
Six? Wow? I'm so happy that you said that, because I only have a couple more opportunities to let everyone know that I ran a four to thirty six mile in high school at the age of seventeen, as you knowed fast.
As you do very fast.
This is so wow. I didn't even know it was gonna unlock so much. Yeah.
Absolutely, I mean I think Paralympics coverage is this perfectly. I'm gonna say untapped thing like I was gonna say, like anyone who's like, oh what am I gonna do? Now? Like the Paralympics are right there, They're going to get the same kind of human spirit, the peak of human experience and spirit are all still there and it all kicks off. Yes at the Plas deluc Concord eleven days of competition, forty four hundred athletes.
Yeah, on the twenty eighth of August, you can see the opening ceremony and they'll be plenty to look forward to. With that and that the Games in general, I mean athletes from all around the world will compete in five hundred and forty nine medal events across twenty two Paralympic sports. The City of a Light at gay Paris will provide a perfect backdrop for these athletes. And it's been roughly three weeks since the Olympic Games, so we've had enough time to sort of cool down, re energize and then open back up and agdo all the way through these Paralympic Games.
And hey, Paralympians use up whatever condoms the Olympians didn't.
Get through the village, and we could have helped with that. And I will say, we are not over not being invited.
We're not over not being invited Milan twenty twenty six. We better be there, We better be there.
Oh my god, I just thought about traveling to Italy again and I had a no Terror flashback.
You know, traveling to Italy you need to let go of control and of things going your way. Because even if they don't, these people are going to look you in the eye. If you go to a baggage claim a tenant and go, hey, I lost my luggage, they are going to look you in the eye and say, we survive fascism, and they won't care. They've earned their shall we say.
Relax, they are unbothered, unbothered and they've earned that. But good luck to everyone who's had it over there. For the Winter Olympics. We hope to do two guys five rings again in twenty twenty six.
Wink wink, nudge, nudge wink quink.
Nudge nudge to anyone in power that sort of wants us to continue this podcast. For example, this episode has been amazing. It's about the Paralympic Games, and I think we've said a few things about it. Let's talk about some of the sports that will be happening to get this. Blind football is happening at the Eiffel Tower Stadium. What better location for watching blind football history unfold than at this iconic symbol of a public park located at the foot of the Eiffel Tower will host a temporary arena that can welcome up to twelve eight hundred and sixty spectators. I'm sure those bleachers will be full blind football.
Can I just say that venue is my favorite venue of this Olympics year. It's so cool that arena in front of the Eiffel Tower. I think it was where they had a lot of the volleyball events. You can't beat that backdrop.
No, it's glamour and you did you know it was once the tallest building in the world for a time. It was for a spell, for a spell, for a spell.
We do have to point out the arena in the non Ter is transformed into a pool for the first time for the Olympic and Paralympic Game, So we're back the Nonter But we just need to say it was a concert venue where the Stones and Paul McCartney have played. But Taylor took the aerostour to Paris Lat Defonse at Nanterre less than four months before the paras ommers take the stage in style who wrote.
That they know that these tailors delusions are catnipped to us. You know though, there's tons of great storylines outside of all this that are going to be playing out at the Paralympic Games. For example, USA Men's wheelchair basketball and women sitting volleyball going for three peats here at the Games. Both teams won in Rio and Tokyo, and our favorite for gold in Paris. Can we say, whether it's the Paralympic Games or the Olympic Games, US, we got it, We got it, We got this.
Three peats.
That's there's no mistake. When you've win three, one, three times, no one can say anything to you. Lightning doesn't strike twice, it's sure as heck. Don't strike thrice. No, and if it does, you are crazy, unlucky. Oh my god, I'm so sorry for you. Can you imagine being struck by lightning once, let alone twice, let alone three times? You're not meant to be out.
In the world, No, but you are meant for gold it. Maybe this will be an everlasting love.
Have a blessed love. Headliners in the pool, Jessica Long, an SM mate, is going for her fifth consecutive gold, and Mallory Wegman is swimming to defend her gold in the SM seven classification. Now is a mother and fresh off hosting a studio show during the Olympic Games. Primed and ready to get in the water swim her way to Golds. Come on.
Now, there are different levels of mothering happening with Mallory Wegman. Wouldn't you say you're a TV show host during the Olympic Games, you are a new mother in the literal sense. You are defending your goal title in SM seven. This is of course a classification in the event. Now, I think this is what you watch for. This is the whole reason why we love sports, and so we will be tuning into for Jessica and Mallory and we applaud it and root for them. Sarah Adam is the first ever woman to make USA Wheelchair rugby. As the team faces tough competition to stay in the podium. The Americans have never finished off the podium at the Paralympic Game. This could be their year. I hope that Sarah is she leading the squad. No, but she's just making the squad. And I think she's competing mixed gender with the rest of the rugby team. So this is already so forward thinking in so many ways. But for Sarah to compete with the men for the rugby event is pretty incredible.
Moving over to the track, Ezra Freck is the world record holder in the men's high jump T. Sixty three and competes for a spot in his first Paralympic podium. The defending champus American Sam Grew, who was balancing med school as he returns to competition in Paris. Jaden Blackwell headlines the men's sprinters in the one hundred meters two thirty eight. Blackwell is expected to be the breakout star on the track in his first Paralympics and holds the world record in that event. And there's a little bit of a story about Ezra Freck. There's more going on here. So Ezrafrek's origin story began at the twenty twenty Paralympic Games in Tokyo, when, as he remembers not winning a medal, ignited in already burning internal flame. Ooh.
Missing the podium in Tokyo is definitely one of the more difficult moments of my life. Frek says, I thought to myself, I'm gonna use this moment as fuel to drive me to become the greatest Paralympian of all time. H Frek, a West Los Angeles native and Paralympian ambassador, was born with congenital limbed differences, missing his left knee left fibula and several fingers on his left hand.
Now nineteen, Frek continues his dreams representing Team USA in the Paris Paralympic Games twenty twenty four in the high jump, long jump and one hundred meters. This time he aims for a better finish than Tokyo, as the next chapter in his story remains unwritten, like Natasha Bettingfield wanted it.
With the twenty twenty eight Summer Olympics, hosted by La Frek, who hails from the city, aims to achieve what he calls the triple crown. Golden in the high jump, long jump and one hundred meters feet has never been accomplished in the history of the Paralympic Games, the Olympic Games, or even track and field history in general. Let's talk about Ali Truett. Ali Truett, This, this's crazy. She's headed to the Olympics after a shark attack. Roughly a year after losing part of her leg to a shark attack, Connecticut native Ali Truett is set to compete for Team USA in the Paralympic Games in Paris starting August twenty eighth, saying, I am so excited and just really can't wait to wear the American flag on my cap and races. Wearing the American flag to me stands as a thank you to the everyday American heroes all around me who have worked so hard this year to save me and are helping me rebuild my life. Y'all, if you go to Turks and Caicos like Ali did, be careful of the sharks. She since graduated from Yale University, where she competed as a Division one swimmer and was snorkling with a friend when she was attacked. The pair swam from roughly seventy five yards in the open ocean, with her saying me bleeding profusely still and both of us knowing a shark was still circling to get back to the boat to save ourselves. They did get back to the boat. A friend apply to tourniquet, which helped save Truett's life before she was airlifted to at Miami Hospital. There, on her twenty third birthday, doctors amputated her leg below the knee.
Truittz Prostetus connected her with another of his clients, swimmer Jessica Long, who's on her way to competing at her sixth Paralympics this summer and hoping to add to her twenty nine medals. Through it, and Long struck up a friendship and recently appeared on The Kelly Clarkson Show together. Can I say, I think that if I saw a shark in the water just anywhere around me, it wouldn't even need to attack me. It would be over right there.
You would black out and then yeah, yeah, this is a miracle.
It's insane.
It a miracle. It's just like you have stared death in the face and God for you to take that all the way to the Paralympics, incredible, incredible, Ali, we salute.
I mean, can you imagine like from going from shark attackt to gold medal that? I mean, it probably has been a movie. Wasn't it a movie? Wasn't there called Soul Surfer?
But that was Blake Lively?
I don't think it was.
I think it was.
No, it wasn't Soulsurfer was Ana Sophia rob Wow. Blake Lively was the Shallows. So Blake Lively was in a film where a shark absolutely terrorized her. But Soul Surfer I believe is about Ms.
Bethany, Right, But Ali's not a surfer. Who's Ali Ali Truett? This is a mess? Oh soulsurfer? Was Anna Sipia Rod? Yeah?
Yes, okay? What about the Woodhulls though they are an Olympic Paralympic power couple, we all were wiping tears from our eyes when Tara Davis Woodhall won the woman's long jump event at the Paris twenty twenty four Olympic Games just a couple weeks ago, who immediately ran to her husband and paralympian Hunter wood Hall to celebrate the special moment together. I've never seen love like this.
You know that the life rights are being optioned?
Oh babe. Period. So now, less than a month after his wife Tara won Olympic gold in the women's lung jump, Hunter would we'll be aiming at bringing new items to their home collection at the Paralympic Games. Woodhall has three medals to his name already and will be competing in the men's one hundred meter T sixty four and four hundred meter T sixty two in the French Capitol.
They first met at the Simplot Games Indoor Athletics meet in Idaho in twenty seventeen. Hunter says he was leaving the track after running the four hundred meter when Tara walked onto the track and said, I don't know why, but I just feel like I need to give you a hug.
It rights itself. Oh my god. After that, the two started to exchange messages on social media. They got on the DMS and months later they met again at the Arcadia Invitational Meet. That's when we started talking no stop, Tara Davis Woodhall said in a YouTube video. They posted about how they met and they continued a long distance relationship while both were competing for different universities. Hunter and Tara got married in twenty twenty two, and today you will hardly find an event where one of them is competing and the other ones not there.
Watching new development as we head into the Paralympic Games, Hunter has recently revealed that he he has contracted COVID amid training. He posted on threads I tested positive for COVID. Unfortunate timing, but I knew it was a risk. Being around so much celebrating and traveling won't be an excuse. Gonna kick this thing and I'll be ready for the Paralympics.
I feel like he's gonna come back stronger than ever. I really do. I mean like I would hate for COVID to sneak back in.
No COVID relax. You canceled twenty twenty games, You cancel Tokyo. It happened again in twenty twenty one, and it still was there. It was kind of there for Paris for the Olympics. But just leave the Paralympics alone, please enough.
Let these two have their gold medal ending. I'm serious, so so much to look forward to a bow at the Paralympic Games. I mean like it's gonna be an event like no other, like no other.
Let's give out our medals.
Gold medal, Hunter, Hunter, Hunter would all? I mean like that to me? I know this is gonna end in a positive way because the power of love will compel.
The power of love will compel. I guess we're going descending order.
Oh I suppose No, that's okay.
I'm going to give silver to Ali. I mean shark attack to swimming.
That is god.
I mean, if you're a swimmer, if that's your life and it almost kills you, ever you can still excel at it and to still want to tackle it head on and compete in it with the best of the world. That is incredible, and the bronze medal goes to the Eiffel.
Tower, so beautiful.
Sorry, Ezra.
Follow two Guys five Rings on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast platform, and be sure to watch the twenty twenty four Paris Paralympic Games August twenty eighth to September eighth on NBC and Peacock And you know they do such an amazing job with covering it.
Truly, we love you Peacock and iHeart
We ends every episode with a little too
