Couple Things with Shawn and Andrew - What REALLY Happens at the Olympics… (Q&A)

Episode Date: February 19, 2026

We’ve been absolutely hooked watching the 2026 Winter Games and after our last breakdown, it was clear you had a lot of questions about my experience and what it’s really like as an athlete at the Olympics! So we went straight to Instagram, pulled your questions, and nothing was off limits. In this Olympics Q&A, we break down: • What the Olympic Village is really like • The pressure of competing on the world stage • What’s changed heading into 2026 • My honest thoughts on this year’s Winter Games There’s so much that doesn’t make the broadcast and as someone who’s lived it, I’m giving you the real perspective! If I didn’t get to your question, drop it in the comments for part two, we love you guys!! Shawn & Andrew Check out www.https://covesmart.com/eastfam or use code EASTFAM at checkout for up to 70% off your first order. And if you get a survey, be sure to let them know you heard about Cove from this podcast!! Go to www.https:// kachava.com and use code EASTFAM for 15% off!! David is offering our listeners a special deal: buy 4 cartons and get the 5th free when you go to www.https://davidprotein.com/EASTFAM. Caraway’s cookware set is a favorite for a reason, it can save you up to $190 versus buying the items individually. Plus, if you visit www.https://Carawayhome.com/EASTFAM you can take an additional 10% off your next purchase. This deal is exclusive for our listeners, so visit www.https://Carawayhome.com/EASTFAM or use code EASTFAM at checkout. Caraway. Non-Toxic kitchenware made modern. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Good morning, good morning. I'm Andrew. I'm Sean. And this is a couple things live. These are my favorite. What you guys didn't hear us say was what's going to go out this time, the video or the audio. Turns out it was the audio, but we're back, baby. We're back.

We were talking about the Olympics and we are here to talk about the Olympics. And I was saying, since you couldn't hear, my favorite thing about the Olympics is just like how you, unifying it is and how beautiful it is when you have the world's best athletes from every sport and every country around the world in the same place on the same stage and you have everybody cheering it's just so beautiful and our kids have gotten into it we've been explaining to them the olympics and we got them into cool running we've been trying to prime them into what the olympics are yeah and how uniquely amazing they are so we've been watching different sports movies because I felt you know we're trying to get out of the phase of just kid cartoons and more

into phases of movies that Sean and I also like to enjoy though blueie is pretty epic to be but uh so cool running's was one of these movies and it was one of my favorite movies growing up yeah I think it still hits my favorite movies list today because it makes you laugh it makes you cry and it also shows how amazing sports are where it's like you just don't get anything as emotional or vulnerable or inspiring outside of sports. And I know I'm biased. I know we both are very biased because we're sports people. But it has been fun.

We've had this Olympics on nonstop in our house. And our kids are into it. They have been really invested in learning what the different sports are and how they work and how they operate and how the scoring is working. Yes, a four and a six-year-old have been asking about this. And they're like what's good and what's bad and like they have been into it. What do you think their favorite has been so far? Skiing has been a favorite.

Yeah. And anything with jumps for Jet, I feel like he's loved. I also think the bobsled because of cool running. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. They were like really into. The bobsled. We also, well, Jet, speaking of cool runnings, really love the lucky egg concept. Yeah.

So much so that he carries around an egg now. and we've cracked them all over the house and then we thought we would get clever with it so we would hard boil them but then we would find peels everywhere it's just all for the beauty of a four-year-old. Yeah, there's nothing like it. This is part of our Olympic series though

and we thought what an opportunity to talk about the Olympics given that we have half of us here are Olympians ourselves and that's Sean of course but we thought maybe we just get some questions from you all because there's been a couple of questions that we've gotten, especially on the last episode, about, you know, how does the trainer situation work? Do people have their own individual trainers and doctors? Or is there like the governing body doctors? How does that work? And just little nuances that they don't really talk about on air. So we have collected a lot of questions from you guys already. But if you have live questions, please put them in the comment box. And I and we will try to answer as many. as we can for you.

Actually, I'm just here to be the moderator. So I'll share questions with you. You don't need to just be the moderator, right? I've taught you so much. Yeah. Honestly, I'm spoiled and it's so fun to like watch these events with you because you always have these like low-key golden insights. And to like, oh, did you know that?

Or you also know half the people there. But let's start with this first one from Erica. Yes. Who asks, how do they watch for cheating in different sports? Do they check all equipment before? So every different sport has their own protocols. However, the Olympics have a lot of different governing bodies when it comes to the anti-doping, there is an anti-doping, world anti-doping agency, which controls like the cheating and the-the-drug and doping. Yeah, drugs.

They control the drugs. So they have a huge system in place when it comes to testing all the athletes and having like a consistent. history with every single athlete. I don't know what the exact organizational bodies are called for equipment checking, but yes, there are definitely a lot of different systems in place for checking equipment and having standards to where things are made sure everybody's like playing on an equal playing field. And in most sports on the stages, what you see on TV,

is not just the first time that they have raced or performed. A lot of times they have performed many times on that same exact stage during preliminary rounds or training rounds where there are a lot of eyes on them. So cameras, people are looking at like techniques, making sure that things are fair play. We talked about this when we were in Paris, but the amount of different governing bodies involved in an event like that is crazy. So at any given moment, you probably have six or seven events.

going on at the Olympics. So like this year's Olympics is in Milan, Cortina. There's a couple different cities hosting, you know, a handful of events each. Those events need security. They need ticketing systems. They need each of the individual sports governing bodies. They have each of the individual nations, each coaches, like there's so many moving parts. And, you know, along with the sport oversight, I would say. There's, like Sean said, the World Anti-Doping Agency WADA. And, you know, there's, like, a lot of different people who have input and insight. It's, like, incredible that they're able to coordinate it all.

And to give you guys, like, a tiered, specific example into one category. So let's say, doping. So at the Olympics, there is the Olympic governing body, which is like literally the Olympic governing body. And they're like the heads of everything. Then in the category of doping, you have WADA, the world anti-doping agency. Their job at the Olympics is to make sure everybody plays on play,

even playing field under the same standards and rules. However, every single country then has their own doping agency. So in the United States, we have USADA, United States anti-doping agency, who has their own sets of standards and rules that are in, you know, conjunction with WADA, but things can get more intense per country

or just more intense per global stage. Yeah. So trying to keep all of those organized in one category is crazy. Did you ever have an instance where I know there's a couple different manufacturers of gymnastics equipment? Did you ever have an instance where

there's like a standard set of equipment for U.S. competitions and then it's different in the world for me? Matt. Oh, yes. We're a couple months into the new year, and one thing we always try to do this time of year is reset our routines at home and make our space feel a little more organized and functional. Yes, once everything settles after all the chaos, the new year, you kind of get back into the rhythm. I always get the itch to refresh things. Think about like spring cleaning, new bedding, update a few rooms, getting the kids spaces back in order, and Wayfair has honestly been

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That's W-A-Y-F-A-I-R.com. Wayfair, every style, every home. Really? And it really throws you off. Really? Oh, my gosh. So there are probably four very, very common manufacturers of gymnastics equipment. The vault bars being floor and men's apparatuses.

Apparadites. Apparati. I have no idea. I have no idea. And the one that we most commonly use in the United States has its, it's, particular feel, right? Firmness, balance, springs, how they make it. So the balance beam at the gyms that I'm familiar with,

it's almost like a sandpaper texture and it's extremely hard. But there's another equipment. And it's super sandpaper rate, like super, super duper. But there's another manufacturer that it's almost like a basketball where it's like... That one's not legal. Oh, okay, gotcha. Throw that one out. That was introduced into our sport where they were trying to cover.

the vault and the beam and essentially like a basketball material. And we all loved it except for when you got sweaty, it became slippery. Oh, gotcha. Interesting. But that one feels crazy. However, you're on the perfectly right track. There is another manufacturer of gymnastics equipment

that is very commonly used in Europe. That instead of having this super sandpaperish feel, it's very smooth. like think like smooth leather and I hated it also all equipment used on an Olympic stage has to be manufactured in very particular ways so even though I'm saying these manufacturers that I competed on had almost like a different material it was still made to a certain standard that met you know the the requirements it had to meet. So it was still four inches wide.

It was the same height, same width, same springiness, like everything. But those tiny little changes make a huge difference. So for all of these different sports, the pools, the slopes, the everything, it's all different. Well, I'm even thinking for like ice skating. You take a zamboni,

Zamboni. A zomboni, buddy. A zombie. A zombie. But you think about, okay, this Zamboni is going to release a different amount of water than like their home ice Zamboni which gives it a different sheen or different finish.

Now the athletes do practice on it and you see them skating in warmups and so like it's not like they're just going out there in competition and it's the first time ever touching it. But like it's different than the thousands of reps you put on at your home ice and to adjust to that feel would be, would require, you know, finesse and nuance. Oh, it was one of the things.

It's the reason why when we competed, we would fly out to, it was very dependent upon where we were going to, how different the equipment was going to be, the standards, whatever. But we always flew out on average a week before competition so that we could use an entire week to get acclimated to specifically the equipment.

That's crazy. Allison, go ahead. No, I'm going to beat a dead horse. but like another very specific example that stays within, you know, the requirements for gymnastics, but like a gymnastics floor made in the United States,

the manufacturer that we would use, uses springs under the floor, hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of springs. In Europe, they use foam blocks. That's got to be totally different. It is totally different. So though it is still springy, the rebound time, and like the way that floor responds to tumbling

is completely different than you would, than it would respond in the United States. This is so interesting because we're, I mean, we're paying high-level athletes, like they're not able to adjust to these little things. Like they are more capable than anybody else to deal with equipment change, right? Like they're the most experienced.

But again, given the fact, that they have done this more than anyone else, they have their own setup and system that, you know, it creates unexpected moments, I think. Yeah, I will say, though, in the context of, like, the Olympic Games, only speaking from my experience, we knew a year in advance.

Oh, really? Interesting. What we were, I don't know if it was, like, guaranteed, but we pretty much knew what manufacturer they were going to use. So then we actually changed out all of our equipment in our own personal gyms. Wow, I didn't know. not know that. Is there like a pamphlet that the competitions will send to the different athletes or governing bodies? No, that would be sick. And that would be really luxury and bougie and nice.

It's more so doing due diligence of like for us, we are going to compete in Beijing. We knew Beijing competitions. 99% of the time used this particular manufacturer. So it's like the athlete and coaches responsibility? Oh yeah. You got to do your research, babe. When you go to your training national team events, do they help you out at all? Or is it literally Sean, who's trying to make the national team to make the Olympics, has to figure that out? Both. It depends on your governing body. It depends on the level of your governing body's success, I would say. So we were lucky with the USA gymnastics governing body. They were very meticulous about that kind of stuff. So even though we knew, they also knew as well. So when we would go to the national.

Team Training Center, all of that equipment was switched out. Gotcha. As well as mine in Des Moines, Iowa. Wow. That's fascinating. I enjoyed that. I learned a lot there. Okay, so Allison says that she loved when we said patriotic for the world.

Need a fun word for that, she says. I like that, too. I like that concept, too. We're on the same team at the end of the day. It's fun to have, you know, rivalries going on. It's fun to see USA versus Italy and curling. but we're on the same team. If you guys didn't watch our first Olympic episode,

what we're referring to is I said there's this feeling at the Olympics that I felt as an athlete, and I feel like you feel even as a viewer, where there's almost like this patriotism for the world where like I could care less what country you're from, what politically charged things are going on

because in that moment, I just see you for who you are as the athlete, which is like the best at what you do. And we've all satisfied. sacrifice so much to get there and I just want the absolute best for you. Yeah. And it's this like unifying feeling. All right.

This question's from Rachel. Which Olympic sport would each of you compete in if you had to pick one? In the winter games. In the winter games. I think I'd be good at speed skating if I learned how to skate. Yeah, because you got super quads. I grew up doing like track cycling. And so yeah, my quads are just made for it.

I feel like the M.O. Dunder dies. Dunder dies. I have a couple for different reasons And I apologize Because I'm going to answer it Not as it's asked Which is pick one I would love to do the

Ski Jump The big one The big one Only because I want to know what it feels like to fly Like that was always my thing as a kid Is like I wanted to fly I feel like you're flying Yeah that'd be nuts

And then I also love I don't know how to snowboard So I'd have to learn how to snowboard first But you know the snowboard the race one. Yeah, it's sweet. That, like, jazes me up. That's, yeah, because there's different type of competitions, right?

You have these individual sports where one person's out there performing, which is beautiful and amazing. But then you also have, like, the sports where there's head to head, which is, I think, growing up a football fan, like to see people going against each other is really exciting. And there might be less of that in the Olympics, I feel like, true head-to-heads. Track and field, bro. In the Winter Olympics, sorry. Yeah, in the Winter Olympics.

But anyway, okay, so here's the next question from Jayhawk. What was the wildest Olympic village scene you ever saw? One of my goals this year was just to cook at home more and make our kitchen feel a little calmer and more organized. And honestly, switching to Karaway has helped with that more than I expected. Yeah, clean meals. deserves clean kitchenware is something we've been talking about a lot. Carraway's cookware has a third party tested non-toxic ceramic coating that's made without forever chemicals, which makes you feel better about what you're cooking with every day. I also love how easy it is to actually cook with.

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Plus, their stuff actually looks so beautiful sitting on the stove. It really does. And it makes sense why over 100,000 people, have rated their Caraway Kitchen five stars. I had been looking at the whole Carraway setup for, I think, over a year, and I finally pulled the plug, I am obsessed. Carraway's cookware set is a favorite for a reason. It can save you up to $190 versus buying the items individually.

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nobody's getting like, there's no like wild parties happening at the Olympic Village. What's lay the scene for us? It's that the scene. The Olympic Village is usually think like an apartment complex community. So there's always like high rises.

Every high rise is usually a country, bigger countries have more high rises. Smaller countries will split the high rises together. In those high rises, like in our apartment high rise, one of them for the United States. In the lobby area, usually the first floor or the first and second floor is reserved for like sports psych, PT, massage, snacks, like everything that you're bringing for the United States teams. Do they, the U.S. ring masseuses? Really? We will fly over as the United States Olympic team.

You will fly over an entire team of like supportive staff. So you have like primary cares. You have PTs. You have, um, dietitians, like everything. You have like the supporting staff of the, the entire U.S. Olympics. What's the scheduling look like for that?

If I'm an athlete and I want a massage. I don't know if it's, I'm speaking from 2008, so I don't know if this has changed, but you would go in and, like, make an appointment. Or you could just walk in and be like, can I use your ice bath? Can I, can I, you know, roll out? There's, like, all the supporting equipment and staff there that you need. So, and that's different than the Team USA House? Yes. So every country will bring in their supporting staff of whatever capacity that they want. Some probably smaller countries don't have that luxury. So, like, as a large,

larger country, we definitely have probably more resources at our disposal than others. The team houses that you hear, like Team USA House or Team China or whatever, live outside of the Olympic Village. And they're, for the most part, buildings, houses that countries rent for the entirety of the games to be the supporting staff for family, friends, and athletes of the games. Is it like sponsorship too for sponsors to have some place to meet and stuff? Yeah, it's a place where you can go and watch. They usually have like a lot of big screens, a lot of TVs, a lot of food that is usually like in the Team USA house, you'll have a lot of American food.

So it's kind of like bringing our country home with us as we travel to the Olympics. And it gives sponsors a place to go, families and friends a place to go. there's a lot, there's doctors there. There's like concierge services that can help you figure out the city that you're in. You almost think of it almost like an embassy. But you're bringing all these different countries' embassies to a certain extent into the Olympic Games.

They're incredibly hard to get into, as we learned in Paris. Understandably so, but they are very incredibly, did we tell that story? I we were in Paris I was working for the Olympics so I was technically like staff under the Olympics but because of the families and competitors that will go in and out of these team these houses these team houses the security is so so tight as it should be and Jet was with us in Paris and he got incredibly sick he was having like a reaction to where he was having a hard time breathing and he needed a steroid whatever long story short um we had gotten turned down and turned away by two hospitals which is baffling to me

they wouldn't admit like a kid and so i was directed to go to the team USA house because they had a doctor there who could see him and we couldn't get in i was literally standing outside the gates trying to figure out like, okay, I can't get in. Who do I call? So we can like go see this doctor and whatever. And out of nowhere, a team USA person was like, Sean, what are you doing on the other side of the gate? And I was like, I'm just trying to get in to see the doctor with my son.

And she's like, just come in. I was like, they won't let me in. Which a couple things. We were not expecting special treatment because Sean was an Olympian. But we did know there were doctors in there. And we had a four-year-old who needed some help. So that was quite the adventure. There was a lot of stories from that.

Paris was wild. This is another Olympic Village question. Autopsy wants to know what the food is like in the village. Oh, I loved the food in the Olympic Village in China. I, again, cannot speak to Milan. However, in China, we had a massive, massive, massive cafeteria. And in the cafeteria when you walked in, picture like the world's longest buffet line. But then every 30 feet, it was a different country's food.

Wow, that's cool. So there was like the Italy food, the United States food. You could eat from any of them? Yeah. Oh, man, what a treat that would be. There's always McDonald's. What? There's always a salad bar.

There's always a... Yeah. I would love to take a food tour of the world. But for like us in Beijing, one of our big sponsors was Tyson. So Tyson chicken. So like Tyson flew over like Americanized meat that was specific to our buffet stand. Is the food like super healthy? Like we remember when we were in Cincinnati for the Arnold Classic and it's all these bodybuilders and all the restaurants around town just had like they had a special menu that was just chicken and rice. Is that what the vibe is or is there like, hey, you can have ice cream and you can have... I mean, you can have whatever you want.

It's at your disposal. Do they have it all there? Oh, they have everything. Wow. They have every possible option. So you have like, yeah, you have dessert bars and cookies. And again, there's like an entire McDonald's inside the Olympic Village cafeteria. Even at like our buffet, you, I remember back in Beijing,

there was like lasagna and salad and chick, like there's so many options. So it's not just like pristine dietary options. It's everything. But they're trying to cater to the world's athletes, right? Yeah. Some people have a metabolic thresholds of like 6,000 calories a day before they train. Yeah, it's just.

Wow. This is interesting because. Honestly, you and I haven't really talked in depth about the Olympics much. I know this is, Sean gets asked one of three topics when people meet her. It's like, how are the Olympics? How was dancing with the stars? And so typically we just don't, you really dial into this specific event much. So this is kind of fun to hear all these stories.

Let's see. Another Olympic Village question, Marissa asked, how does the Olympic Village work if the games are in two different cities? interesting. They're not for... Okay. I would have to research this. Maybe ladies, we could research

behind the scenes for two different cities, but I'm pretty sure I just need to confirm it, that there is still only one Olympic village in that there might be outside housing if someone is only staying in a secondary

city. But for the most part, you have like a true host area and city where they're going to set up. One thing we've talked about recently is just simplifying the stuff that sits in the back of your mind, the things that you don't want to have to worry about every single day. For us, home security is one of those things. Having Cove set up has honestly just given us a lot more peace of mind, especially when

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Olympic villages this year in Milan and Cortina. That's crazy, but also cool. I don't know if I would like that better or not as much. Let me give you more perspective too on the Olympic Village. Talking about security for like the team Yosei houses, the highest security of like the games is at the villages. Because you have free roaming Olympians from every possible country in the world all converging in one place.

So it's always gated. There's always like armed guards. There's 24-7 surveillance. You cannot get in, you know, unless you're an athlete or you have clearance of some kind that you've gotten through a very, like, specific process and protocol. Don't let media back there.

They do, but not free-willing. Like it's, you have to, it has to be scheduled. You go through government. like background checks and processing and like you have to you have to go through the works to get your ticket to go in. Oh that's a whole other realm

that needs to be coordinated. The credentials. Yeah, the media credentials. There's a whole other setup because there's thousands of media people from around the world, each with different levels of access. So they have different passes.

It's a whole ordeal. It's nuts. Let's see. Julia asks, how often do you get to see family at the Olympics? I think that's dependent upon And each athlete and team.

So family cannot house or live with you in the village. You also, as teams, have the option to not stay in the village. So USA basketball, for example, never stays in the Olympic Village. They always stay somewhere else. And they stay, like, with their families and, like, closer to everybody. So it's at free will. I did not. The USA Gymnastics team,

we were under very, very strict security because of our age. We, you know, being 16, they have to make sure they're keeping track of minors. So it's not like I'm leaving to go with my parents one day and then someone else is like, that just gets really messy with a bunch of minors. So for us, we were on a very strict schedule to where I saw my parents when I left

and I saw my parents when I finished competing. And you were there for two weeks and didn't see them? You were locked in like that. I mean, yeah. Wow. I would have liked to have seen them. Is it the coach's call or the governing body's call? Governing bodies call.

Interesting. Gotcha. Gotcha. Let's see. Erica wants to know, do you have an Olympics rings tattoo? If so, where did you get it in the U.S.? I do have an Olympic rings tattoo? Prove it.

No. It is on my hip I got it in the United States I got it in Portland, Oregon when I was on tour after. Was it a whole squad? It was a whole squad. Wow. Did everyone get the same style?

No. I was a very, very young 16-year-old which is crazy to say because I was also very mature and living in Beijing, China. But I thought it was very cool the peace sign back in the day. So I turned one of my Olympic rings

into a peace sign. Love that. Like the circle one with the... Yeah. All right, Allison wants to know what's your dream host city. Are you excited for the Olympics in L.A.? Dream host city.

I mean, having it here in the United States is going to be incredible. I have not experienced a United States Olympics personally or like been to one. So I think seeing it LA will be really, really cool. Outside of the United States. What do you look for in an Olympic

City? A place that has good transportation. We had that conversation with the electric bus CEO, which was so fun. You could find that on the podcast channel. I've been to Olympics with horrific transportation. I've been to Olympics with phenomenal transportation. There's a huge difference. Like ease of access and movement around the city because they haven't been used. are all over the place. Yes. Probably like a culturally significant place, which I guess everywhere kind of is.

But yeah, what do you look for in Olympic City? Someone that has a infrastructure to deal with all that. Yeah. I don't know. I don't know what I... Pick a spot. What sounds amazing? Let's go...

Let's go back to Brazil. Oh, wow. Well, no. Wow, no. I'm good with Brazil. Let's go back to Brazil. Brazil was just a party the whole time. Yeah. That would be fun. I was in training camp when you were down there, so I missed the whole thing.

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That would be fun. We've never been to Australia. I've heard Australia is a super family-friendly place. We should all go. by the way since the winter Olympics are going on we took the kids skiing recently and that's why they're interested in skiing uh it was so fun to watch them our kids are at a great age they're great age they're like learning they're capable they're like they're just doing their thing and i feel like it's more of a it's it's more of a i can't wait to watch you do things and less of a

like I have to do all this stuff for you kind of face. So our kids love skiing. I feel like our daughter has Sean's same intensity where she's like so inwardly confident. It's amazing. She locks in. She's unfazed and she'll just go out there and do the thing, which is pretty cool.

Let's see. A question from Tara asked, how come some sports get multiple attempts and others just get one shot? dependent upon the sport dependent on the sports governing body their rules yeah

great question I wonder if she's talking about like you know swimmers have so many different events versus like a sprinter only has two events like a 100 meter and 200 meter sprint or even even like skiing and snowboard

where like they go down and do like a huge crazy flip they get three trips They get three runs. Right. That's what I'm saying. It's almost two, there's two separate questions. Yeah.

There's one where why do some sports have so many different types of events? And the other is why are some just one takes? The creativity of sport? But even in the snowboard ones, they take the cumulative score, right? Mm-mm. Just the best one?

Yeah, because you'll see some who will, like, make a tiny mistake in the first two seconds, and they just ski down the hill and they, like, scratch it. They take their best. Other sports, they take the cumulative. Yes. There's a lot of different scoring mechanism. out there. Actually, we have a friend, we've done some work with the X games and a lot of these

extreme sports that you'll see in the Winter Olympics. I feel like there's more extreme sports in the Winter Olympics than there are in the summer. That you have skateboarding now. A lot of X games, though, are all winter driven. But the scoring is such an interesting conundrum because, you know, there's complaints that it's subjective of like, hey, the judge that it was XYZ. And anyway, there's like a lot of attempts at solving that problem. And there's like new technology to try to rate it, which is, it'll be interesting to see how it changes. Does party like the subjectivity of the scoring or how do you think about that?

I think you have sports that are not subjective at all in the sense of you cross the finish line. It's a photo finish, you know, it comes down to who hits the laser first, which I know there can be subjectivity nuances within that kind of stuff. But like, or you have subjective sports where it's all about interpreting the boundaries you've been given and executing it in the way that you most see fit. So if you're running a 400 round track, there aren't boundaries that you can play with. with. You can't take a different lane. You can't like whatever. Those are very concrete rules. And things like gymnastics and the half pipe and like more of the X games type style or figure

skating, they give you your rules. And then you have the entire playbook of 200,000 skills to piece together and interpret those rules as you wish to try to give what you think is the best performance. Which allows for more art, right? Yes. But it's also, do I wish that to go away? No, because if you make it so rigid to where you take away the interpretation and the art and the subjectivity, then you have a sport that doesn't have as much creativity.

Everybody would be doing the same exact thing. and it would be who can execute the same exact thing the best, which is a different, which is not gymnastics, which is not, you wouldn't see the Simone Biles of the world because you wouldn't have the freedom to progress the sport. It's funny because football, there's like very little subjectivity. There is a little bit where it's like, was that a catch or not? Did the ball touch the ground or not?

There's like minimal subjectivity. And then in your sport, it's almost reverse where there's like, I don't know. I know there's like standards in scoring. I just can't wrap my mind around having. The margin by legal fine print. Okay, follow me here. By the actual fine print of like the rulebook of judging.

The margin allowed for subjectivity. in scoring is very small. Now, does that exaggerate itself per judge and does that get more politically charged?

Yes. But by fine print there is not a ton allowed How does the judging work? Are there three judges for every sport or what does it look like? Every single sports judging is completely different.

There's no standard protocol or standard process or... So in the NFL there would be if you have a conference game, you'd have a conference referee. You had like a bowl game, there would be a non-affiliated... conference referee officiating that game. You have that in every sport at the Olympics. Is it like every country has? What is that? So I cannot speak to every sport because I don't know the nuances of the judging of every sport.

But for the most part, yes, you have judging of every sport representing every country. So like in the Olympics for gymnastics, we would. have eight judges per event. Those eight judges were representing eight different countries. Four of them are scoring one thing. Four of them are scoring another. And it's very similar in different sports. Like you have to have, you have to see the world's perspectives. You know, you have to have different countries all weighing in. But then above judges in every sport, you have some sort of, call it a ref. to where if those judges don't agree then it's going to go to the next level up

and if that person doesn't agree it's going to go to a next person up all being brought in to represent different unbiased parties I mean they have truly tried to think through all of the complexities of judging

in every sport to give it the greatest chance of being the most fair though just like you saw in ice skating and people talking about the complexities of judging you have a judge because you have judges representing every country watching their own person compete of course you want them to do well you're probably going to allow even subconsciously unconsciously oh that wasn't that bad it wasn't and then you're going to see a different

country who is really close and you're going to be like, I really want the U.S. to win, you know? It's so hard to control. Let's see. Amy has a question. By the way, before we get to this one, if you're watching live now, hit the thumbs up on the live stream

and feel free to share a question if you have one. But Amy asked, what is one of your most cherished moments from the Olympics? yours I think she's talking about you winning the gold medal or another that wasn't necessarily as big a moment most cherished Olympic moment my most cherished Olympic moment

is when I don't know I don't know if there's like one for the most part my own personal experience I did try to numb myself a little bit while you're experiencing the Olympics and that sounds weird to say but like you don't you actively try to like keep yourself

locked in and not experience the gravity of what you're doing you try not to be like oh this is the frigate 11th like nothing good comes with that so I did my job and really like kept my nose to the ground but um

one of my most cherished moments I would say is like when I finished my beam routine which is my very last routine of the entire Olympic Games being able to like feel the decompression of the pressure and give my coach like a true hug and be like we did it like we like that was our finish line and be able to like look up in the stands and see my parents and be like I'm done that felt like such a like you said a cherished moment of I can breathe I did it wow I can imagine

yes you can it's different there's a whole different animal the Olympics. Diana wants to know on that note you saying you numb yourself. How hard was it mentally to tune out the noise? We've had a couple of questions like this. Someone was asking about Ilya and the pressure of like the media and stuff. I think it was a lot easier for me to tune out the noise in 2008 than it is for any athlete in today's world. In 2008, we had newspapers, magazines, and the news. I think Twitter was technically

out, but it wasn't anything that we really used or listened to. For me, my coach had very strict rules, and I think it was a blessing leading up to the Olympics of, like, how many interviews I could do. I wasn't allowed to read newspapers, magazines, listen to the news about, you know, the upcoming competitions, or what people saying. I wasn't allowed to listen to the announcers. I couldn't look at, you know, I, he was keeping me very zoned in and not in tune with the voices around. In today's time with these athletes, they are consuming so much of this noise without even trying. And for even Elia to pull up Instagram and see himself and the world saying, he's the best in the world he should walk away with the mess like that's something that you that makes it really

difficult to tune out and I think that adds so much pressure so much pressure yeah the moment where you need to just focus on the one thing that you've been focused on for so long it's like the hardest to do that right and on top of that something that a lot of people probably don't know is you know when you go into the olympics and you're watching and you see people wearing a nike swoosh or representing whatever brand it is, doing their promotions, getting promoted. A lot of times these athletes are incentivized in these contracts to win medals, meaning they're told, oh, if you win a medal, we'll pay you X amount on top of everything else. And if you do this, you'll get on a Wheaties box.

And if you do that, like, it's all so many layers of added pressure that it gets so much more complex. than just like fulfilling a dream. Let's see. Question from Lindsay. How did, how do you help high school varsity athletes deal mentally with a hard or demeaning coach? This is less of an Olympic question, but.

High school athletes, hard or demeaning coach. Let's draw a line here and say, there's a difference between, There is a difference between being a hard coach and being a demeaning coach. I think a demeaning or inappropriately not kind is not an effective way of coaching. Therefore, maybe shouldn't be a coach. A hard coach teaching a high school athlete how to deal with a hard coach. if they're hard because they're pressing into you

to be a better athlete, and you're being faced with criticism or critiques or workouts or standards or milestones or expectations that feel really hard, then allowing yourself to put trust in the wisdom of your coach to know what you're capable of is really important. Does that make sense? So if we can come to a conclusion, whoever's listening, that this coach is good, right?

Good human has best intentions, not just trying to tear someone down for the act of having power as a coach. Then I would say you teach your high school how to have trust in their coach and know that their coach has the ability to see what their potential is. Mallory has insight here. She said hard can be good. The meaning is unacceptable. Great. I think there are hard coaches. I think there are phenomenal coaches,

even my coach, who can be very hard on me in a way that is very beneficial to me that might not go over well with another athlete. Does that make sense? Yeah. But I think if a coach

is just a demeaning coach and just tends to be demeaning across the board, that's not appropriate. Yeah, it's interesting the words to use because it's actually helpful. Like, a good coach, might be a hard coach, but it's because they see something more in you

than you might see in yourself. A demeaning coach really is just belittling you and sees less of you than you are. Right? Yes. Man, coaches have such a tender spot. I have been so impacted by the coaches in my life. Same.

And like, fortunately, most of them have believed in me and been good coaches with good intentions. But, uh... I have seen firsthand bad coaches. I have not had bad... Well, I have not had bad coaches. I had Chow and Lee, who were phenomenal coaches. I have seen bad coaches. Bad coaches are bad coaches and are not worth your time.

So if you have a bad coach because of their character or their moral compass or their, like, inability... to see good and kids and find their good and progress that, then move on. Two more questions. One is from Banana. Banana.

What would we be most surprised to learn about the Olympics? That it's so much easier and better to watch on TV. I don't know. I can't think of something that's like surprising.

Definitely cheaper to watch it on TV. Can you think of anything? I mean, it still comes back to like, these people are on the world stage, so the best in the world of what they do, millions of people are watching them, and a lot of them are not able to have it

as a full-time job. Yeah. It's just interesting, you know. Yeah. Last question. Okay. From Nikki. What was it like,

after the high of the Olympics and to return to reality afterwards. I need a whole podcast for that. For me, very, very difficult. I didn't know how to operate as a human being. This sounds really dramatic to say, but for 13 years, I started gymnastics when I was three, I competed in the Olympics when I was 16.

I did gymnastics. I signed professional and made the USA national team at 12. So I'd say for four consecutive years, six days a week, I devoted every single decision I made on every day towards the goal of the Olympics. My coach told me where to be, what to eat, how to act, what to do, when to go to sleep, everything. My school schedule was determined based off of gymnastics, my vacation schedule, everything. And then the Olympics come around. I compete. I do exactly, you know, as I was told and like follow all the directions, whatever.

I finish my last routine. I go through this like media circuit. And then I wake up the next day and I no longer need any of that. And I think for a lot of athletes, this happens to them exactly the same. When you wake up after you have accomplished a goal that you have obsessed, about for so long, I didn't know how to function. I didn't know what to eat for breakfast. And it sounds dramatic, but it's like, if I'm not training for the Olympics now, what does a normal person eat for breakfast? What time do I go to bed? What do I do in a day? Do I work out?

If I work out, how long does a normal person work out? Three hours, six hours? 30 minutes I coming back from that is just such a identity shift because you don't know where to begin

how to start over you've also talked about everyone you spend time with if you're done maybe they're still at the gym and so now all of a sudden very quickly you're like not a part of that friend group in a way where it's like

oh we were spending hours a day together not anymore. And then you show up to the other friend group and they're like, they don't know what to talk to you about. Actually, nobody knows what to talk to you about. Family, friends, anyone, because they're like, you're not doing gymnastics anymore? And for years it was, what's the next competition?

What do you learn? What's a new skill? And you don't have anything else yet to talk about, really. And for me, it was interesting because throw into it, I was 16, went to the Olympics, came back, all of this happened. You know, I don't know how to act. I don't know what to do.

I'm not going back to the gym. So I've lost kind of that friend group because they're still at the gym. And then I try to go back to high school. And the high school, I was like too much of a distraction because they had this Olympic person who was there.

So then I don't have that friend group. It is. It's just very isolating. It's very isolating. You've done a great job. Thanks, Fred. You do a great job then. You do a great job now.

Thanks. Do you have any other insights you'd like to share? Not until the next time. So we should be doing one more episode about the Olympics next week. And then we're on to a new series. We have a lot of big plans for this spring. So we're excited. Sean, thank you for sharing your insights.

Andrew, thank you for the interview. I learned a lot. That's fun. And thank you all for your questions. If you haven't yet, please like the show and give it a rating on whatever platform you're listening on. And that's all we got.