Couple Things with Shawn and Andrew - 263 | What Happens at the Olympics Off-Camera
Episode Date: June 4, 2025In today’s episode we dove into all of your questions about the Olympics! We know this isn’t an olympic year but we get so many questions from you guys asking about the ins and outs of how the oly...mpics work we wanted to answer them! From the food in the Olympic village and how kid-friendly of an environment it is to translators, tie breakers, coaches and more! We felt so grateful to attend the 2024 Olympic Games as a family and truly made memories we’ll never forget. Hope you learn something in this episode! Love you guys, Shawn and Andrew Beam Kids is now available online at https://www.shopbeam.com/COUPLETHINGS Take advantage of our exclusive discount of up to 40% off using code COUPLETHINGS Follow our podcast Instagram ▶ https://www.instagram.com/shawnandandrewpods/ Subscribe to our newsletter ▶ https://www.familymade.com/newsletter Follow My Instagram ▶ https://www.instagram.com/ShawnJohnson Follow My Tik Tok ▶ https://www.tiktok.com/@shawnjohnson Shop My LTK Page ▶ https://www.shopltk.com/explore/shawnjohnson Like the Facebook page! ▶ https://www.facebook.com/ShawnJohnson Follow Andrew’s Instagram ▶ https://www.instagram.com/AndrewDEast Andrew’s Tik Tok ▶ https://www.tiktok.com/@andrewdeast?lang=enng=en (00:00) why are we talking about the olympics? (02:14) how kid-friendly is the olympics? (04:24) what are the languages like? (06:49) how do they design the usa uniforms? (10:50) do family members get in for free? (14:46) food and drinks at the olympics (16:00) how do you get tickets? (17:48) staying for the paralympics and olympics (18:33) if you could add another sport to the olympics... (19:26) being a former olympian and my view of the games (22:01) has the food at the olympics improved over the years? (22:56) do the athletes actually eat in the village or prep their own food? (25:22) how do the coaches work in gymnastics? (28:24) my favorite event to watch at the olympics (28:43) does being shorter help in gymnastics? (30:13) when do olympians usually get their olympic ring tattoos? (30:25) are there “bad seats” at the olympics? (30:45) why aren’t all medal ceremonies broadcast? (31:25) are there tie-breakers? (32:00) when you’re done competing, do you have to move out right away? (32:24) do alternates get medals? (34:28) does anyone get paid to go to the olympics? (37:00) snoop dogg at the olympics (37:17) do you feel safe at the olympics? (38:09) what’s in the medal box? (39:10) will you be going to the la olympics? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Transcript
Discussion (0)
What's up, everybody? Welcome back to a couple things.
With Sean and Andrew.
Today, we're going to be answering a lot of questions about the Olympics.
Yeah, there's a lot of people that want us to do this episode.
I first came across this concept and I was like, this feels old and irrelevant.
Here we are almost a year out from the Olympics.
What are we doing?
Yeah.
But the questions we are going to answer, actually, I imagine this will probably be your episode.
The questions I'm going to be asking Sean about the Olympics are timeless, I would say.
Uh, if you guys don't know if you're new here, let me give you a little bit, two little background things.
One, I competed in the Olympics.
Casual flex.
So that's kind of one of the reasons why we're going to talk about, like, a lot of this.
I was a gymnast.
I competed in 2008.
Um, but most recently last year at the Paris Olympics, Andrew and I took our three babies who were at the time, five, three and one.
I was just still two.
Five three and one.
Yeah, five three and one.
and we did a month in Europe
and it was absolutely incredible
we did everything you could possibly imagine
and because of that
we've had so much like a huge influx of questions
about other people wanting to take their kids
and how to navigate it and just curiosity
that has
yeah I don't know come out
I honestly feel so fortunate to have had that opportunity
it was so much fun
it was also overwhelming at times
and we had
a lot of conversations about logistics, a lot of conversations about safety.
There's a lot of planning that went into it.
So we'll, I'm sure, be answering all these type of questions.
It is by far, I think, my favorite trip we have ever been on.
I agree.
I agree.
It'll be a lifetime memory.
I went to the Olympics in 96 when they were in Atlanta.
We didn't go to an event.
Iconic.
Yeah, iconic.
But I hadn't been to an Olympics as an adult.
And so this was a real treat.
It was really special.
You ready for the inside scoop?
Also, if you made it this far, please subscribe to the show, give it a rating.
It really helps us out.
We have some fun episodes planned, some fun interviews that you'll be seeing on this channel, so there's more to come.
But now to today's episode.
Let's do it.
First question, how kid-friendly is the Olympics?
Super.
I think the Olympics are the same as taking a kid to Disney on ice.
Okay.
So every event at the Olympics has the same vibe as like going to your local stadium or like indoor arena and going to an event there.
So you have like your tickets, you're going to stand in line, you're going to go through security.
You're going to have like concessions.
So that's how like friendly it is.
It's just there's thousands of events.
Does it vary based on who the host is?
Lydia's. You've been to how many four or five Olympics?
Very. I do think it definitely varies. I want to answer the question as literally as possible,
though, because like the Olympics themselves, right, are kid-friendly because you're talking
about a ton of sporting events. There's always concessions. There aren't, like, age
requirements to get in. You just have to buy tickets and you have to go. It does probably, though,
very, if it's in Russia versus Korea versus China, Australia, Atlanta.
And the logistics would, I remember when you were in Brazil, the travel logistics of getting
from venue to venue or from your hotel to the venue was very complicated.
Yes.
In Paris, what I realized was it's not like the Super Bowl where everyone's going to one stadium.
On any given day, there's going to be like dozens of events going on.
Yes.
So it's almost like a carnival.
that is citywide, and there's different people going different places.
We did have several conversations about safety.
We had trackers.
We had a whole system.
We set the kids down.
We did this whole thing because when there's that amount of people, that amount of attention,
there's always worry that there's going to be some shenanigans as well.
So I think we heightened our sense of safety, but I agree it was very kin-friendly.
Question number two.
What is the language like at the Olympics?
Are there translators everywhere?
the Olympics no there are not translators everywhere the Olympics are run ran by volunteers and employees from the host city
so Paris France everybody spoke French I will say for the most part though you could because you have so many people from around the world flying into the Olympics at the same time there is a vast majority of people who are speaking all
different languages, and it is something they have accounted for.
So while I don't remember there ever being, like, designated translators, people who are
volunteering to work the Olympics usually are bilingual in, you know, a different language,
if not multiple.
Yeah, and at the, at the sports venue, there'd be like a help desk, pretty much, or someone
wearing a color vest that would be qualified.
English is a predominant language, and so every,
everything was operable for us.
Also, what a time to be live with the phone, like, as far as getting Uber's from place
to place or even, like, the Google Translate app, I think Apple has a built-in translate app where
you, like, speak into it, and then it texts the opposite language out.
And the Olympics is kind of, I don't want to say mastered because, like, there's always
room to get better, but they've kind of mastered this idea of, like, a universal language when
it comes to, like, signage and the symbols used for, like, what direction and what events
and versus like where the ticket lines are,
like all of the symbols themselves
were so self-explanatory
that they have done a really good job
to make it as accessible as possible.
It's really beautiful, honestly.
It really is so fun.
I freaking love it.
When we were sitting at the restaurant,
I'll never forget right by the Eiffel Tower,
and we were at a restaurant
and there's 20 different countries there.
Everyone is wearing their jerseys.
It's like, oh my gosh, this is,
there's nothing else like this.
Maybe the World Cup.
And everyone's celebrating the same thing,
which is so special.
Yeah.
that's the other thing I feel like this goes for all travel but in our time being in other countries where English was in the predominant language usually if you're asking somebody for something it's like bathroom food the venue and people kind of know those words no matter how much or little so like you're usually fine and then you have technology for the rest so yeah wasn't a big hurdle question three how do they choose the uniforms for team USA and is it a different designer always this is a
essentially a contractor bidding system.
So kind of like you were to see four years, eight years, 12 years out, you see all these
cities bidding to host the Olympics.
You also have on a smaller scale companies bidding to like own the uniforms.
So it's usually Nike or Ralph Lauren.
But Nike usually in some capacity owns like the metal podium uniform.
so what athletes are wearing when they're wearing medals
and whatever
whatever company wins that bid
they get to design them
like they're the
Olympic organization is not
having a voice in that
but when you were competing Adidas was the Olympic sponsor
so you have the athlete sponsor
you have the organization like the USA
Gymnastic sponsor and then you have team USA
Nike was the Olympic sponsor when I can well
for USAG or for Sean
Okay, so there is so many, this simple answer is a company will bid to be the official uniform for Team USA.
But Team USA is made up of USA gymnastics, USA triathlon, USA running.
But in the context of Team USA, they're talking about like opening ceremonies where all athletes are together.
That is a bid.
Someone is saying, like, I want to own that.
That's always Ralph Lauren.
Okay, Ralph Lauren.
Ralph Lauren crushes that.
Then you have someone bidding for like all of your athletic wear that you're like wearing.
So you're...
Leotard?
Or jumpsuits?
It's usually jumpsuits.
It's usually like your Team USA gear.
So like your t-shirts, someone's bidding for that, your athletic wear.
Backpacks.
Yes.
You're like generic t-shirts, pants, tennis shoes, not.
sport specific but athletic clothes okay okay but Nike usually wins that okay that's
crazy they've had that forever and so that's like what you're wearing on the podium that's
what you're walking around the Olympic Village in anytime you see a team USA athlete
they're usually in the Nike however where it gets a little bit more complicated is
each um sports team so like USA gymnastics USA diving USA whatever
has a sport-specific uniform.
Think a speedo swimsuit or a leotard or grips or whatever it is.
That is bid by a third company.
So for us, when we competed, my leotard was Adidas.
My warm-up jacket was Nike.
And my suit that I wore walking through closing ceremonies was Ralph Lauren.
But what about your personal apparel?
that you get sponsorships for
because all these Olympic athletes
depend on these sponsorships
is that a whole different thing
that's a whole different thing
that's level four
that's level four
oh my gosh but that gets really
convoluted because
then you're going to like
the fine line prints of like
by the time
Ralph Lauren Nike and Adidas
have their categories
you have to figure out
what categories are left
to have sponsorships for
we have a friend
the devil's in the details there
we have a friend who made a living
off of seeing
what sponsorships
weren't accounted for
so like for the X-Games
headware was not in the contract
so like whatever Burton
owned all the
outerware except for headware
so he created a whole company
just to fill in the gaps of the sponsorship
casually drop the
drop the company no I don't need to
it's fine he did well though so anyway
read your contracts everybody because it matters
next
do the athletes parents and family members
get into the Olympics for free.
No.
Not even remotely.
Simple answer is 100% no.
Every single person going has to buy a ticket, including mom and dad, husband, child, coach.
Everyone has to buy a ticket.
The only caveat to that is within your federation,
which is a lingo that you would call
my federation was the USA Gymnastics Committee
under the USA Gymnastics Committee
they could raise funds
whether it be through booster clubs or endorsements
they could raise funds to cover those tickets for families
not everybody does that though
not everybody does that
USA Gymnastics didn't do that when I was there
that was kind of the heart behind the moment makers
scholarship
also I mean yeah it's not like going to a college football game or definitely not like a high school football game where it's like hey I know the door guy Jimmy you're like this is a ticket it's like there I was just struck by the number of different parties involved so you have like USAG then you also don't forget have all of the other governing bodies for Russia all the like China all the 20 countries competing in the single event then you have that international gymnastics
Federation. Then you have the U.S. Olympic Federation above that. And then you have...
You have the International Olympic Committee, the IOC, U.S.O.S.A.G. That's one sport.
But then you have local police. You have the international police. You have all these different
like National Guard type, the military. So no, like...
All drug testing federations and organizations. You have...
The media. And so there's so many people involved. There's no like, hey, let me just
slide you this free ticket. It's like, no, you buy the ticket. And yeah. Yeah.
No one gets free tickets.
The logistics of how it worked for us.
So every single event that you saw us attend, we bought flat out just general admission
tickets.
You can buy those as you walk up.
It was a little interesting this Olympics because it was the first fully virtual, fully
is it virtual?
Digital Olympics to where there were no paper tickets.
So even though you could technically buy.
tickets at the door, you had to have service on your phone and you had to buy them,
you'd like scan a QR code at the ticket counter and buy it, which was really interesting.
Yeah, and they controlled the resale of it too, which was kind of a pain.
We got scammed a couple times or once, but that was an interesting system and we definitely
learned a lot. I spent a long time on the phone with customer service, which was why.
I actually, I understand the like,
It was great being all digital because you weren't, like, wasting a bunch of paper.
But I do vividly remember the other Olympics I went to.
There was something so easy about going to the ticket counter and saying,
can I get my judo swimming basketball and you get literally four tickets handed to you?
And also they were always so stunning that you could frame them.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So I miss that.
And as far as the cost goes, so like there's certain events that are higher in demand than others.
and the price reflects that.
So, like, think swimming, gymnastics, track and field,
the major competitions in those will be marked up substantially.
But you can go to, I mean, we went to BMX,
and it was like $12 a ticket, right?
Yeah.
So if you're just going to go to the Olympics,
you could do so without buying these, like,
incredibly expensive tickets.
And it's kind of, that's what I love about the Olympics.
It's kind of like the sports you don't usually watch.
Yes.
So, anyway.
Okay, can you bring food, drink, snacks,
into the Olympics, or do you have to buy it all there?
No.
You cannot bring food, drink, snacks into the Olympics.
Security's tight.
Very high security for obvious reasons.
But you also have to think the Olympics are not one venue.
So there are dozens, if not hundreds of venues, spread out amongst an entire country.
We took a four-hour train ride to a soccer venue in South France.
Yeah.
So it's like the Paris Olympics, but it's all over France.
So I think in a lot of people's minds, they like enter the Olympics, you know?
You don't ever like enter the Olympics.
So as far as like bringing food, drinks and snacks, you're just walking around the streets of a city.
So you're buying food, drink snacks from like local restaurants.
But when you go into a specific venue, you cannot take anything.
Yeah.
And a lot of times, I mean, the intrigate to the venue, you might be walking a quarter mile to a mile like at Palace of Versailles,
which is 45 minutes outside of Paris
Another venue
It was a lot of walking
With strollers, bro
So anyway, that's just worth considering
If you're like, you know, doing the snack thing
Or strollers even
Yeah, it's good
The next one says
How do you go about buying tickets
For the Olympics for certain events?
We kind of told you you can buy them at like a ticket stand
Otherwise, if you start following the Olympic Games
Like if you follow the winter games coming up
Or the summer for L.A.
There's usually a bid process where the year leading up to the Olympics, they will slowly release tickets for pre-purchase.
They will not release all of them, so they will always hold on to some tickets that you can buy when you're there, but it is very few.
But for the most part, like one year exactly out from the Olympics, they'll release like a big wave of tickets.
And you can go online and purchase them.
And then you just keep following back on those Olympic websites and they'll continue release.
I would say it was kind of an easy process honestly it was ticket tickets I mean that whole
ticket master thing with Taylor Swift like it's it's not usually a seamless process there's always
kind of headaches but like super manageable it's just are you willing to put up with the little
little headaches it's also a little bit more confusing because with the Olympics you aren't buying
like a package ticket that gets you into every event there's no such thing you are literally
buying individual tickets to individual days of competition yeah and you have to be diligent knowing
this is a different venue where is that venue what's the date of that is this the actual event
i want to go to or just like a qualifying thing for gymnastics so whatever or even like for us at the
gymnastics venue um there were gymnastics competitions going on from 9 a.m to 9 p.m.
like back to back to back to back to back our ticket gave us access from like 9 a.m. to 11 a.m.
And then you literally have to, like, get out.
Otherwise, you get like...
Yeah.
But it is rather simple, yes.
Yes.
Okay.
Question seven.
Do people stay and watch the Paralympics?
If so, would they be there over like a two-week period?
I hope so.
Yeah, I hope so.
Usually a lot of people do.
Yeah.
And it's a two-week period just for the Olympics and then another 10 days for the Paralympics.
I feel like a lot of people would come just for like a couple days surrounding the
main event they wanted to go to and then maybe like threw in some extra side events so I don't
think I mean I'm sure there's people that were there for four or five weeks but that would be a long
trip yeah I do think too in Paris there was a a lull so they weren't fully connected like one day
after I think there was like a week in between yeah or like reset this is for you Andrew
if you could add another sport to the Olympics what would it be in why
Oh, I mean, football, just so the U.S. could crush?
That'd be sick.
Shoot.
Well, what sports did they just take out that was crazy?
Is women's softball back in?
I'm not sure.
I know women's softball was taken out, so I would say put back in, but I should probably check.
They do rotate these sports in and out.
What sport?
I don't know.
There's so many in there.
There are.
Yeah.
Like X games are in now.
CrossFit?
Would be interesting?
Breakdancing made it.
CrossFit technically is
because each individual skill
in the CrossFit games
is in the Olympics.
No, it's totally different.
Don't talk down on CrossFit like that,
but totally different.
All right, question nine.
Does being a former Olympian
give you a different perspective on the games?
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Does being a former Olympian give you a different perspective on the games?
I just appreciate it a lot.
I get really sappy and sentimental and yeah I love the Olympic just like a football player loves football I love the Olympic
what do you love about it I love that it's so unifying I think being able to go to one place
and see every country in the world there respectively like cheering for the same thing is really special
I will never forget walking around the Olympic Village
and seeing every size, shape, color person
from all over the world speaking every language
and, like, we're all there for the same reason.
It's just really, really cool.
It is a beautiful iteration of sport
and the unity that can come through sport.
Thank you for that.
Yeah.
Has the food in the Olympic Village changed
or improved over the years?
I don't know.
I have only been
So this is something else
The Olympic Village has the tightest security
Of any part of the Olympics period
That is where every majority
athlete is being housed
So the security there is very, very tight
You can't just go to the Olympic Village
Like we didn't
We can't get in the Olympic Village
So I have only ever seen the food
In the Olympic Village at my Olympics
And it was absolutely incredible
It's this massive cafeteria
where majority of the continents and a lot of the countries, but not every country, has their own food stand of, like, a huge buffet, if that makes sense.
Like, we imported our own food to that American athletes could have, like, a consistent diet.
So, yeah, I thought it was phenomenal.
Okay, next question.
Do the athletes actually eat the food in the village or prep their own?
We ate in the village.
I don't know how you would prep your own.
People are like, I mean, we're talking about athletes in their peak state.
I'm sure the nutrition requirements are really nuanced.
I also know, like, each different sports and different teams have different, two different things.
Like, USA basketball does not stay in the village.
They stay somewhere else.
They bring their own chefs.
They have, like, they're very dialed in.
In regards to my personal experience, we eat in the cafeteria for every meal.
And it was really good.
Did they have a McDonald's in there?
Oh, yeah.
And that line was so long.
Every day.
It was free?
Everything in the village is free.
Yeah.
So you just go and say, hey, give me a Big Mac?
Anything you want.
And then just give it to you?
And then it's like, do you just wave at them and say, have a good day?
I mean, I personally don't know.
I don't stand in the McDonald's line with that.
Okay, okay.
Sean, some of the stories you tell are in the cafeteria and it's like, there's LeBron or there.
And everyone's kind of in there.
Yeah, it's crazy.
Yoming.
Like, there's Phelps.
It's all the countries in the same stuff.
Every sport, every country, all in the same spot.
You think about the athleticism that it's just captured there.
It's crazy.
It's interesting.
That's what I mean by like it's, that's what I love so much is our team would sit down across from who knows who.
And you're just having a conversation.
And you're like, oh, you're the world's fastest swimmer.
Had no idea from Romania.
Yeah.
Or water polo or like, Tableton.
It's just fascinating.
Is it fun or intimidating?
Both.
It felt intimidating to me because I was a kid.
I think it would still feel intimidating.
Is it clicky?
I don't know.
We had a different experience being young girls.
So we had like full-time armed security walking around with us.
so we couldn't, so we were cliquy, you know.
Did you witness any fights?
Like, were there brawls on the village?
In the village?
No.
Never know.
I mean, there's a lot of testosterone floating around there, you know?
I think other things happen probably in the village.
Not fights.
Okay, all right.
All right.
Do the gymnasts work with their own coaches or just a team coach?
Is there overlap there?
How does that work?
There is overlap.
So each individual gymnast has their own individual coach,
and then there's a coordinator who is technically the, like,
like overseeing coach.
A coordinator.
The coordinator basically is like the head coach of the team,
but doesn't technically individually coach each athlete.
That makes sense.
So describe your training regimen individually and with the team.
So individually, so we would,
individually at home, you know,
my coach would tell me every single thing that I did on a daily basis.
We would go into a competition as a team.
my coach would still travel with me, as does every person's individual coach still travels with
them. And when we're like in an arena as Team USA, the coordinator or the head USA coach who right now
is Alicia Sacrimony and Chelsea Memmel, they would say, okay, our goal, they would line us up and say
our goal today is to do this. We have 30 minutes on bars, 30 minutes on beam. Let's try to get five
routines in on each one, you know, get warmed up for the day, get ready for the competition
tomorrow or whatever and they'd say like go and then as I get on the beam to do my routine
my coach steps up and he's um like in the most individualized way critiquing and coaching me
she's not but in normal training I'm saying you're in Iowa for X amount of time you're in
the team for I'm in Iowa training with my coach 99% of the time but then you're
you would go monthly?
We would go monthly for four days to Houston, where we would train as a team.
But that is still under the guidance or under the scrutiny criticism coaching of your coach
overseen by the coordinator.
So your individual coach is still there pretty much anytime you're with Team USA.
Yeah, you are never without your coach.
Yeah.
And they're the one giving you the most impactful feedback.
or did the coordinator ever say anything
that drastically change your...
I mean...
Is that controversial?
It's not controversial.
It's probably controversial for what I'm about to say.
I was always told never to listen.
So my coach would reiterate to me every single day.
He's like, I give you your feedback.
I give you your criticism.
I give you your changes.
Anything else heard goes in one ear or not the other.
Which makes sense.
They know you the best.
They do.
And I will say for the most part
with my experience, the coordinator was never giving me, like, specific detailed changing.
If they ever did, my coach would be like, ugh.
Maybe it would be like, we need more of power from you or something general like that.
If it was ever technical, my coach was literally, like, would step in between and be like,
you know.
All right, other than gymnastics, what event was your favorite to watch?
I loved watching diving in person.
I thought it was always fascinating to see how tall and far and stuff, but...
Would you ever be a commentator for the Olympics?
No.
Would you?
No.
I would never have the opportunity.
Thank you.
This is a genuine question.
Does being shorter and height help you be a better gymnast?
A lot of the Olympic gymnasts are so petite.
Yes.
Physics.
What do you mean?
You have smaller mass to flip around to a central point.
so you're going to flip faster, higher, easier than someone who's taller.
You also naturally weed out from the Olympic level,
people who are over five, seven, five, six,
because it's a universal sport,
and like there's universal standards and rules at the Olympic level
to where you cannot raise the bars or raise the beam.
So if you're over a certain height, you're going to hit the floor.
Or I think about the distance between the high bar and the low bar,
and you're like, dude, you still have to swing your legs out with how short you are to not hit them.
So if you're super tall, that just gets obnoxious.
Think of like a whipping a small towel versus whipping a long, like a big towel.
A small towel is easier to whip and flip, like manipulate.
I think it relates to something we learned in engineering where it's like the moment,
if you're doing like beams or whatever, the force over a distance.
It requires, yeah, like holding a weight out with your arm straight is way different than holding a weight in close to your body.
I guess that pertains to flipping and how much that comes naturally or what effort that takes.
Yeah.
When do athletes usually get an Olympic rings tattoo, right when they get home or before they go?
Usually right when they get home.
I have one.
I got one right when I got home.
You want to show it?
No.
Is every seat usually a good seat or is being?
high up hard to see. I don't think we had a bad seat and we sat the very, very, very last
row top seat. Yeah, but it's just like a normal stadium. There's going to be, there's going
to be primetime seats and then there's, you know, the high rises. Yeah. Why don't they
share all the medal ceremonies? I only saw three watching on TV. The complex
way to answer this is every single country has different TV rights. So, and
NBC only has so many hours in a day to show you the thousands of hours of things that
are going on at the Olympics.
They are going to focus on the highest paying events, the highest populated events, and
Americans.
You go to China and you're watching TV in China, you're going to see only the Chinese
athletes and the Chinese ceremonies.
So you're never going to see it all on TV.
Do they ever have to do a tiebreaker in the Olympics for gold, or could two people
win gold for the same event?
Depends on the sport and depends on the event, but yes, they have, I don't, they never have
rematches for tiebreakers, but they have tiebreaker rules to where some events will break
a tie based off of a preliminary competition and award a gold or a silver, or some will
actually award two golds.
I think it's high jump.
They do two gold, like tied for gold.
think so when you're done competing do you have to move out of the Olympic village or can you
stay the next morning you have to move out really yes because they have new athletes coming in
the staggered schedule of events is directly proportional and relational to like capacity of
Olympic Village wow that would take just so much logistics that's just crazy do alternates get
medals too in gymnastics um traveling
alternates do, non-traveling don't.
How many traveling and non-traveling alternates are there in gymnastics?
I actually don't know anymore if they do.
Weren't there two?
So in my year, we had two traveling alternates who were in China with us.
We had two mid-traveling alternates who flew to Japan instead of China.
So they were training in Japan in case we ever needed someone.
They would fly them in, but they were still in the same time zone.
and then you have alternates at home, too.
Wow.
I think maybe one alternate gets a medal,
but I don't know the answer to that.
I want to fight for it or something?
What do you mean?
One gets it?
It's like your first in line.
Okay, so they gotcha.
Usually you'll probably have an alternate on the floor with you.
Who could, like, jump in.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Does anyone get paid to go to the Olympics?
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Does anyone get paid to go to the Olympics?
I don't know.
Walk them through the retainer and what does it mean to be on Team USA financially?
Again, every single sport in every single country does it different.
USA Gymnastics back when I competed, when you made the national team, you had like a stipend that you got every month.
I think ours was like a thousand dollars a month
and that was to help cover your training or like rehab
or your leotard cost, your grip costs.
That's what you get for qualifying to be on Team USA.
Yeah.
If you are an active USA national team member,
you get paid $1,000 a month back in the day.
I don't know what it is now.
And then when you competed,
different competitions had different purses,
but dependent upon the federation or the organization,
like a lot of our purse went back to USA Gymnastics.
And like every once in a while,
dependent upon the competition,
we might have seen like a bonus or a payout.
At the Olympics,
based on each country,
each country decides their own purses per medal,
if that makes sense.
So like the U.S. Olympic Committee
decides if you win or maybe it's not the US Olympic I don't know someone decides for
the Americans in gymnastics if you win a gold medal at the Olympics you get so much money
like 50 grand is yeah I think it was 25 and then the monthly retainer for being on team
USA is like one to eight thousand dollars maybe depending on the sport I feel like what's the
retainer the stipend yeah yeah I don't even know I have no idea about other sports
sports look like. But I do know
in other
countries, there are countries where
like they haven't
seen a gold medal in 20 years.
So if someone wins a gold medal,
they win millions of dollars, which is actually
really exciting. It just happens to be,
I think, a lot of the purses for
Americans tend to be smaller
because we have so
many people competing.
And then people get paid through
sponsorships too. That's not guaranteed,
but we're familiar with that. Like with
the NIL stuff going on in college sports now.
It's kind of that same vibe.
So a couple different ways, yes.
Did we get a picture with Snoop Dog?
We did not.
No. Did you?
I have years and years and years ago.
Oh, yeah, you did a couple events with him.
Yeah, he was the captain of my celebrity football team.
Oh, my gosh.
The stuff Sean has done, like she forgets all this crazy stuff she's done because
she's done so much crazy stuff.
All right, next.
Did you feel safe at the Olympics?
Do they have a lot of security there?
I feel like we felt pretty safe
I mean it depends
Like do you feel safe when you see a bunch of armed guards with M16 rifles?
Yeah
Like yes it's it's like humbling you know you're like okay hey
I think there's more of a awareness of safety
Which has this weird
Side effect of like not feeling as super safe
I
I we were a little bit nervous going into the Paris Olympics
Just because of like political climate
and you just never know.
We have a lot of like strong connections
to people helping us with security
and they weren't
fully confident about everything.
But I will say when we were there,
things felt under control and secure.
I agree.
What was in the box when you won a medal?
What was in the box given to the athletes this time?
The box that was given to us
and the, like you get a medal
and then they give you a box.
that box is empty it's for the metal but it's like a velvet i don't know yeah it's it's different
every olympics they get to like design their own metal box but the the boxes that they're handing
people are boxes for that metal around their neck to be put in and stored in sean's metal we did a
video on this years ago sean's metal box it's like a beautiful silk box so it's like a pillow
kind of soft around wood you open that up and then you have a red
box inside that's more of like a mahogany red thing and then there's a box that's it just like a
then you open up the box the box inside the box and that's like this yellow velvet yeah where the
metal actually sits like a jewelry case it's stunning yeah it's cool they're like custom jewelry cases
maybe we should do another video on that yeah uh last question will you be going to the next
olympics as a family well it's in l-a i would be a blast they probably will that would be a blast
They will be a blast.
We had a great experience.
I would like to go again.
I'll tell you that much.
I'd like to go again too, baby.
Yeah.
All right, that was fun.
Thank you, babe.
Thank you.
It's always fun.
Not a lot of people have the experience of going to the Olympics.
Yeah.
I feel like I know a little, and then I don't know a lot.
And it does change country to country year by year.
How many people are traveling on Team USA, whatever.
Like, there is a lot of moving parts.
Yeah.
Good stuff.
All right.
Thank you.
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That's all we got today.
See you next time.
I'm Andrew.
I'm shot.
Out.