The Shintaro Higashi Show - 3x Olympian Angie Delgado Talks USA Judo Athlete Commission | The Shintaro Higashi Show

Episode Date: August 25, 2025

Three-time Olympian Angie Delgado returns to the podcast with Shintaro Higashi to discuss her candidacy for the Team USA Athlete Commission, her vision for the future of USA Judo, and the financial challenges elite athletes face. From personal sacrifices to funding strategies and athlete development, Angie shares what it really takes to succeed at the highest level of judo.🚨 LIMITED-TIME OFFER: 40% OFF 🚨The All-in-One Instructional Bundle just got even better.Every major instructional. One complete system. Now at our biggest discount yet.Grab yours now at 40% off : https://higashibrand.com/products/all-instructionalsThis won’t last. Build your game today.🔥 Get 20% OFF FUJI Gear! 🔥Looking to level up your judo training with the best gear? FUJI Sports has you covered. Use my exclusive link to grab 20% OFF high-quality gis, belts, bags, and more.👉 https://www.fujisports.com/JUDOSHINTARO 👈No code needed – just click and save!Links:🇯🇵 Kokushi Budo Institute (The Dojo) Class Schedule in New York, NY 🗽: https://www.kokushibudo.com/schedule🇯🇵 Higashi Brand Merch & Instructionals: https://www.higashibrand.com📚 Shintari Higashi x BJJ Fanatics Judo Courses & Instructionals Collection: https://bjjfanatics.com/collections/shintaro-higashi/David Kim YT/Instagram:  @midjitsu ​

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Hello, everyone. Welcome back to the Shantara Higashi show with David Kim. Today we have a very special guest, Angie Dogato. She's a three-time Olympian. That's crazy. You know, because back when we were on the same team together, you know, we were like, you weren't a three-time Olympian, but now you're a three-time Olympian. I actually, after I retired, had the chance to watch you competing on judo TV and stuff,

which is really amazing. And actually, I haven't spoken to in like 10 years, kind of nuts. I know, just commentating on my fights. How are you? What's going on? I'm good. Well, I'm six months, well, a little over six months pregnant now, so I haven't been competing or doing much to judo.

I go to the dojo and tell other people what to do, so that's been fun. That's exciting. Are you still in the game? Like, what is your capacity with judo these days? Like, are you running a program out there? Do you want to get back out there again? Ooh, yeah. That's like the big question everyone keeps asking you, if I'm going to come back,

if I'm going to come back for 2028. I think this is my first child, so I don't really know what's in store for me, you know. But I'm kind of seeing how it goes. I mean, my plan was to kind of continue this year. I competed in Paris, but at 57 kilos instead of 52, which anyone that knows me knows how hard it was for me to maintain 52 kilos for four quads. That's wild. That's so wild.

And then so what are you doing for work these days? Are you working or what's up with your life? People want to know. Yeah, right now I'm not. I'm not working. I was going to take a job with the city of Miami. But because of how the government is right now and everything, they kind of have a hold of freeze on some of the government jobs here.

They've had to let a lot of remote workers go. So I'm kind of in limbo right now, which didn't come at a bad time. because I'm letting Alex, my husband, kind of carry it for both of us. He's working hard. No, no, no. He works the same. He works for the government. He works for the city.

That's got to be crazy, right? Yeah, he has a big point out. That's got to be nuts. Go from, like, professional athlete to like, all right, now I've got to get a job. That's got to be crazy, right? Exactly. You miss training? Yeah.

I mean, luckily, I do a lot. luckily i finished my bachelor's before uh Tokyo before 2021 yeah so i have always i always have that to fall back on but i i miss you don't yeah i miss it i go i go to the dojo at least like once or twice a week and um the last time i went i did like a little bit of wichikongi but it's it's a sauna at kitsu si like it's freaking burning in there so it's gonna be fun to watch chris velasco now doing the thing and right you must be like oh man i want to work out right Yeah, I remember when he was born, so it's super weird for me, but he's doing, he works so hard. You know, everybody at the dojo works so hard.

Dominic Rodriguez, too. He's coming back from ACL surgery and stuff, but I think our kids, like, they really want it. They're hungry, and that's what kind of always said him apart. How's the dentist doing? Is he still around? You know, or? He helps. He comes to the dojo because his wife's, um,

It's still active. She's still competing, too. She's a two-time Olympian from Panama, Christine Jimenez. So, yeah. So she's still active. So he'll show up to the dojo, do a little bit of Randori. No warm up, just stray Randori. He's a freak to him, man.

He's so great. So today we're having you on because you're running for a position with USA Judo. And you kind of wanted to get the word out. And you have some ideas and visions that you want to share with everybody. So what is your vision with USA Judo? in this position? So I actually got invited in January along with Marty Maloy. I know you know her.

Oh, yeah, Marty, of course. But I got invited as an interim AC rep for the Athlete Commission in Indianapolis. And we met together with, like I said, all the representatives from about 45 different sports. And for me, especially, I would be honored to represent USA. judo in this capacity. Like you said, I'm a three-time Olympian. I've also been around the USOPC, the United States Olympic Committee and Paralympic Committee since I was about 20, 21 years old when I made the first Pan American game team. And I know kind of the ins and outs. And when I got invited in January, I got to see kind of how the athlete commission works. And it's a commission

run by other athletes, mostly retired athletes, which I may or may not be. But I, um, I I can see how other national governing bodies, not just USA judo, but USA track and field, USA wrestling, you know, they all have their own representatives and I can kind of see how a successful NGB would run. And I've made also connections with other Olympians, other world champions that serve on this committee. And I'd really like to kind of bring my knowledge and bring my experience to to USAJudo. So this isn't a board position for USA Judo. This is a completely separate thing. So as an athlete rep on the AC, I would have a board position. Okay.

But there's another two athlete representatives that are already on the board. So I would just be added. Right for the athlete's position or no? Or is it two? No, no, no. There's two. Two, okay. There's two.

Yeah, there's two already on the board. And then I would be added. And essentially, yeah. Yeah. They wouldn't be, like, they would retain their positions as athlete reps on the board on USA judo board. Yes. But I would be added as like an AC rep, which is like a liaison between the team USAAC, which is a separate athlete commission entirely and then USA judo. So how did that thing happen?

Like, does this new position just got added on out of thin air or? No, no. Marty was the past AC rep, but her, they didn't make an election last year. when her term expired. So they're doing this election now. So are you running for that position or do you already have that position? I'm running for this position. So they have to hold a whole other boat and enlist athletes and all that. Today is actually the last day that you can register to vote.

Oh, shoot. Okay. Yeah. Am I registered to vote for this already? Because I voted for the last day. No. So if you voted last time, you're not automatically registered. You have to read register to vote. I know it's super complicated.

they make it. I don't know why they make it so complicated. I don't even know about this. Exactly. Yeah. Wow. It's a little confusing. It's a little confusing,

especially when the other two athlete representatives that are already on the board, they're running for this position also. So it kind of makes everything a little confusing. How do you run for that they already have athletes' position, represented a position? They're also running for a commission. Yeah. They also want to sit on this athlete commission that has to do with Team USA.

So they want basically one of them wants both basically to essentially represent both. Okay. So who's been running for this whole thing? It's me, obviously, Ari Berliner, who's already an athlete rep and Nicole Stav, who's also an athlete rep as well. Why are they both running for that? Out they married? No.

They're not married? They're not married? They're related. Yeah, okay. But they're not married. She's married to Cal? Yes. Okay.

Gotcha, gotcha. Wait a minute, so there was a vacancy because Marty vacated the position and then so now they're going to run and they're going to have another seat on the board also or no? I think they would just

they'd essentially keep their seat as an athlete representative. They would just have this added kind of title of the Team USA Athletes Commission representative so they could essentially do both.

they would sit on both seats. So what are your visions for USA Judo? How do you think USA Judo could sort of be where we want it to be? For me, at least I always think of it. I mean, I'm not so far removed from being an athlete. So I always think of it in terms of what's best suited for our elite athletes. You know, for me, like that's the most important part, especially considering that we're going to have, if I get voted in,

I'll have this position for the next four years and going into LA 2028. Shantaro, we're going to have 14 Olympians. We're going to have 14 Olympians for 2028. But we don't know how it's selected yet. We don't know yet, but that doesn't take away from the fact that we will no matter what have 14 Olympians. For Judah, that's absolutely incredible. Insane. Insane.

Was it three or four? Me, Maria, Jack, and John Jane. Four. That's crazy. We'll increase it. We'll increase it by tenfold. So my vision is to put athletes first, especially to put elite athletes that are sacrificing every day, putting their own money, their own dollars that they can't work and they have to somehow sustain themselves like I did for four quads, for four Olympic cycles, you know, paying my own sports psychologist, paying my own nutritionist, paying my own strengthening coach. So those are things that we really need to reinvest in.

to reinvest in our athletes and put them first because we're going to have quadruple the amount of Olympians coming into 2028. So if we want to be successful, we have to make it more professional. We have to make it so our athletes are put first. What sort of financial compensation or help or assistance is in play right now? I've been out of the game for so long. I have no clue what it's like now. Can you tell us a little about that?

People are interested. Yeah. I mean, there's so much misinformation. there people think that it's solely USA Judo that gets a say in who gets what and that's not the case. For example, our stipends, like the money that we get on a monthly basis, it's, you know, a salary essentially. The only people that get that are those people that are within the top 20 on the world ranking list. And that's like bare minimum. I think number 20, like if you're top 20 on the world ranking list, you get a thousand.

$250 for a month. Huh? Which is it really enough? It's not. If you consider feeding yourself, if you consider travel expenses, if you consider, you know, if you consider all these things and training yourself, you know, most, in most cases, like I said, I had to pay for my own training additionie coach. I had to pay for all these things.

I would make an athlete successful. And I wasn't going to compromise. You know, I'm fighting against the best in the world. I want also the best in the world. So, you know, it doesn't cover the bases, you know, especially if you have to pay bills, if you have to pay rent, if you've got, you know, it doesn't cover anything. And you're talking about top 20 in the world. But, however, that doesn't come. I think only if you crack the top 10 in the world, which I think only Maria Laborde has in the past four years, you get $2,000, which.

USA judo? From the USOPC. So that's where people get confused. Okay, okay. Yes, okay, let's talk about it. That's where people get confused. They think that USA Judo puts all these rules and regulations as to who gets what. It comes directly from the USOPC, from the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee.

They set these standards. They set these rules and USA Judo has to abide by them. Let me ask question. So does tennis, not tennis, let's say like swimming get more? So it depends. A lot of like Olympic caliber swimmers, they get separate. Olympic medals when it comes to one Olympic Games. So I think I'm not exactly sure.

I'm not the CEO of USA Swimming. I have no idea how, you know, they would cut those stipends and cut those checks. But I'm sure they get paid a lot more than we do. We haven't gotten. I know before, I want to say, 2016, 2016 and up until 2020, I was getting paid a little bit more

because we were riding kind of off the coattails of Kayla and Travis getting Olympic medals. That's what you're too. Like the more the athlete sport produces, the more money gets allocated to that sports. Exactly.

Exactly. And the less Olympic and world medals we get, the more it gets cut. Of course. Just keeps getting cut and cut and cut. Even like the New York Athletic Club also. Like if they don't produce world champions, Olympians and national champions,

like they just keep cutting the funding and then giving it to rugby or track or something like this, you know? Waterpoles. of yeah it's how to live here with the other club they have a good program you know I don't compete against that right they're like three time consecutive uh Olympic champions

the women especially like they're incredible but that's why also I mean I'm also a member of the NYC and it's so important for them to have national champions as well because it looks good on the club it looks good that's what they care about for

judo so they care about all those milestones you know so It's nice. Simple. National's World Olympics. That's it, right? So it's kind of a nice thing. So, okay. So you have US OPC giving you a stipend. You have the New York Athletic Club helping you with travel. Did you have other sponsorships too that you have to line up for yourself? No. That's it. That's it. That's it. That was really it for me. Yeah. I mean, I can't, when I was growing up and really if I ever needed anything, my coach, one of my coaches, Johnny Prado, a five. ever, you know, like if USA Judo said, oh, give us your credit card and we'll pay you back in a year for this tournament or this hotel or whatever, he would always, he would always be my backer and he would always help me. And that was the case since I was about 15 years old. So that's me personally. I owe him a great deal. And I know other athletes like Adonis and stuff, they had, you know, similar relationship with him.

Yeah, he doesn't love for the program down there for sure. He does. He does. He does a lot. events helping out young athletes and it doesn't pay a job with that stuff exactly so I mean

that's not always the case you know but as down the path of like all right let me also have you know because I feel like

your Instagram and all that stuff it's not like a big portion of like you're not like a social media person I hate it hey I'm fundraising

you know because there's something I hate it I hate it good at that no I hate all that I hate all of it

I don't know I just hate like I want to be in the moment. I want to be present during my trainings and like there's nothing. I mean, Shantaro, I know you're older than I am. I'm 34 years old. I'm going to be 35 this year. But there's nothing more than I hate than like having a hard practice and then like

hopping on the phone and being like, hey, everybody, just finished a grueling training. Like, you know, I just, it doesn't, it's not something that comes natural to me, you know? I can sit for an interview. I can sit with like the best reporters and have a thousand people there watching me and I'm not I can talk I can talk all day but when it comes to putting myself out there like on video and doing the reels doing TikToks doing all that stuff like I'm I just I hate it teach for money though you do privates you do seminars I know you do so yeah I do I do that offsets I mean when I when I have the time now I have a lot more time

Obviously, I'm freaking pregnant, but now I obviously have a lot more time. I've done like two clinics during this time and then I'll have another one in August and that'll be like my last, my last bit. For a little bit. Yeah, for a little bit. But that always is a nice offset, you know, to doing this. But when I was competing and training full time, you know, I would spend a month in Japan or a month in Spain and it would be impossible to book these things because you always

want to put your training in yourself first. Very true. Very true. So now you're going to be in a position of authority if you get voted and good luck with that. What would be sort of the path for a lot of these younger athletes that are going through what you went through, or maybe they're 20, they're kind of nationally getting, I'm about to try to make it internationally. Like, how would you help those guys achieve what you did sort of from a financial standpoint? I'm currently one of the athlete representatives on the high performance committee as well.

And I can kind of see, you know, what path we're headed towards in terms of qualifying for 2028 or qualifying for certain tournaments like Grand Sam's Grand Prix, even World Cups, you know, Continental Opens, I might see. and I kind of see what is necessary in order to get there. And I've also been around the newer generation, like you said, at Kitsasai with Chris Velasco and Dominic Rodriguez and all the kids there. And they're doing a great job of starting them out as juniors are doing a lot of junior European cups. Which wasn't really a thing back then. It wasn't. And now they have cadet European cups. They have junior European cups.

They have the South American Cups. Um, and they're able to kind of form that base in order to kind of keep, keep grinding and jumping to the next level. For me, that's super important, starting off, starting off where you can win and they have the, they have the opportunity now. They have the opportunity where they can fight other kids their age and they don't need to jump like I did at 15, 16 years old. I remember my first training camp was the Paris Grand Sam training camp and I was getting my butt work. But it's unnecessary now. They can start at a level where they're comfortable at or they can get some good matches in. They can get four or five matches in a tournament and kind of build on that.

You know, so I would think investing right now like we're doing in our juniors to then see them, you know, get to that senior level, that elite senior level and kind of jump into the Grand Prix, Grand Slams. Yeah, I think Jimmy says something like that too. You know, there's no reason for some of these kids to jump into the Grand Slam of the Grand Prix. He's just going to get smoked. Yeah, I did that in Europe. I went to the opens out in England and soft for the first time, a young guy, international, getting smoked.

And it's like the most demoralizing thing. Like, what? Do I even belong out here? And then, you know, the answer to that was no, I don't belong out there. I should have been doing the junior opens. They didn't exist, you know? They didn't have them back then when we were, when we were competing. You had to be, you were 15, 16.

If you wanted to compete in Europe, you had to run with the big dogs. Like, there was no, you know, there is no in between now they have the opportunity that they can you know do these training like they just had the the cup the junior european cup in check republic yeah probably yeah so they were able they were able to do that to fight compete in that and then they were they had a camp in between and then this past weekend they competed in hungary in packs so they have all these yeah they have all these opportunities so it's crucial for us to invest in in the juniors because they're our future

you know infrastructure wise they have these opportunities for juniors now at the IJF level. How are USA judo working to get those kids there and fund those kids? Because when you're talking about the US OPC stipend and the New York Philadelphia Cup, we're not talking about junior, we're talking about senior level. So how do we raise money for the John Yang, the Chris Velasco, the, you know, Lenny's, how do we do that? I think two out of the three you mentioned are sponsored by the New York Athletic Club,

just in actual life. But I just don't know any of the other. just so you know. Let's just say they're not. Let's just say they're not. How do we, how does we do it for USA Judo? So USA Judo, they currently also sponsor those kids. Oh, great. Because they have Pan American Championship medals and they've also won consecutive national medals. So if they're, I believe, within the top one or two in their way class. And they're making a junior world team as well. Like if they just won Junior Olympics, if they're on the Junior World. team. They have opportunities for them now during the summer, especially because they're out of school. And they have opportunities for them to travel. They have incentives for them. I think they pay for their airfare. And some of them are fully funded. Also, they pay for the airfare in the hotel. So there are a lot of opportunities for it. What is a good number to give these athletes you think? Like, what do you think is a good reasonable number? You know, we talk about like more money

for the sport, more money for the athletes. Like, and then we hear numbers like, oh, if you're top 20 in the world, it's 1,200 a month. Top points in the world's really hard to do in judo. You know how competitive judo? You know how it is. If you're listening to I know. You don't have to tell me. You don't have to tell me. I mean, compared, especially, I mean,

a lot of my friends call me a judo snob because I think judo is the hardest sport in the world. And especially, I want to I always compare it to other combat sports, like wrestling, like taekwondo, like boxing, and just this

sheer amount of competitors there are in any given grand slam and any given world championship i'm not talking about this year because we're kind of in a we're in a layoff year not a lot of the heavy hitters have come back you know they're taking a year off to then you know get ramped up again to qualify for the next games um but i mean just sheer competition like any any given tournament at 52 kilos i had 50 maybe 60 girls competing on one day leading up to the quality. You're the worst division. The hardest division.

52 and 57. Yeah. Maybe like 52 57 for, get it. It's like the worst division, I think. I know. It's like 73, 81 for men. It's just so ridiculously pack, you know. Yeah.

It's like a good middle weight for women too. So 115, 125, you know. I would also argue it's harder in the U.S. Because you have to travel. to Europe for these events. If you're wrestling in New York, you could take a bus and go to Pennsylvania and then have the best wrestling, the access

to the camps. It's so easy domestically to fly around and go to this camp or that camp or this camp tournament. For you to get good training, you have to go to Japan. You have to go to France. I have to get away. I have to, there's no way around it. I have to, I have to be a way. Like, for me to get the

best training possible, I can't stay here. And that's the case. That's the case for most of the divisions. Like, for example, Jack, Jack Yonazuka, like, he can't, as a 73-kil male athlete trying to crack the top 20, trying to crack the top 10 in the world, there's no way that he can stay here and train. So there's nobody domestically that can give him a challenge enough to be, you know, one of the top contenders in the world. There's just no way. And that's for most cases, you know, for most of the divisions. There's not one division.

Yeah. Maybe here's a good number. you know unlimited training right and then what that's going to cost airfare hotels food all that stuff if that's all covered competition expenses all covered and then they get a small stipend of maybe two three grand a month because they're on the road all the time they don't need to pay hefty red than like new york city of chicago they stay with their parents when you're at home but majority of the time you spend away training that would be a good number right it's like all right 2500 a month that's your stipend all your travel expenses all your expenses when you're overseas training

addition covered. It's covered. So like we need to come up with that number and then be like, okay, so how do we fund 14 Olympians to do that? Yeah, I think with what the, yeah, with what the USOPC is giving us, they don't really understand that we can't, we can't stay here domestically and train and get the results that they want. So, I mean.

number used to be 800,000 and now it's 400,000. Did I hear that correctly or am I making that up? Yeah, every, it feels like every year, especially a year after the Olympics, they keep cutting, they keep cutting the amount by like 25%. So do you know how much it is now? I don't, I don't know exactly. I don't know exactly how much they got this year. I know that by February or March, they had cut.

cut about 25, 20 to 25% more. So how do you raise the money? Yeah, I spoke to many people about this issue, right? Like Jimmy and all these guys who are really high up in the, say, judo governing organization, who's been around. They say, it's not finding guys with money who have done judo as well and they give. It's having that trust from them that they're going to spend it in the right place. Therefore, they don't want to get it.

There's plenty of people that would give, but they don't want to give it because they feel like it's going to be misappropriated somehow. So what would you do to kind of build that trust again if you're in the position to be able to do so? So actually in one of the talks that I heard in January when they had the CEO for USA Track and Field come and kind of speak to all the athlete representatives in Indianapolis, one of the things he said is that they want to meet. These types of sponsors and people that are going to donate hefty sums of money, they want to meet and be around and rub shoulders with our elite level athletes of people that are going out there. I think if you get, not just myself, if you get Maria, if you get Jack and you hear their stories and you kind of see the struggles that they're going through and you put them out there a little bit more and you highlight and you showcase. you know, I think that

I know Hannah Martin is doing a great deal with our social media right now. I mean she's trying her best, but we need to do more. I think he said in one of the nationals for track and field, they held like a mixer or they held like an athlete

area where they had the sponsors come and like meet the guys and the women that had just placed on the podium or they had just won their heat. And they had like an athlete cool down area, but they also allowed their sponsors to kind of mingle and meet those athletes. And he said that after that event, they were extremely successful in, I think, allocating like $2 million more or something like that. Because you get to rub shoulders, you get to hear stories.

I mean, what's the most beautiful part of any sport? It's the stories of the athletes, you know? It's the stories of like your struggle, what you had to go through. You know, most people in other sports have no idea that. that we travel so much that you know that we as growing up as juniors we have to foot so much of the bill ourselves like i i'm i'm in debt like i'm in even as an olympian you know they think that oh everything was always paid for but most of the time USA judo doesn't have the funds yeah the funds to to get me exactly where i need to be if i'm if i'm to compete with an amandine bushard

with an utta abe with you know these high these top five exactly so if I want if I want if I want exactly if I want yeah I did we're actually one one in one or one and two yeah yeah yeah but she's like she's a writing and does a lot of drop and that really didn't bother me so much yeah if you're gonna be good against that kind of stuff but um yeah just kind of putting our athletes in the forefront and their stories and stuff and and I think you'll they'll end up donating. Yeah, I mean, I would love to see

Angie Instagram with technique highlights and this and that. But yeah, the media training I'm horrible at editing. If you have somebody that could edit my videos, you know, I'll do it all day long. I'm just terrible at editing and cutting and splicing stuff together.

Yeah, wow, that's really, that's an amazing idea, though, being close to those sponsors. Like, you know, the story about your father who came from Cuba that like you know people don't know any of that stuff you know I kind of do because I remember

that actually from you know back where we were on some teams together and you know right but I mean like people should hear those stories and then that way they're more invested in following your career and they can feel like they're part of the thing

and they could be close to the action and when they tune into Judo TV they have someone that they're rooting for not just like exactly you know when I'm on Judo TV and it's like sometimes I look at the roster I don't know any of them

because I've been so far out of the game and it's the job of USAG you know to kind of market these athletes as well and say like this is this kid that's their story that way there's something there like look at look at Jack he's a generational talent

Maria Labort for example that had to defect from Cuba she waited almost six years to get her citizenship and was able to come back and place at World Masters like all these her entire story of her defecting at a tournament in Mexico and crossing the border into Mexico by herself it's just incredible so if if people heard these stories heard these things

they you know you'd be hard pressed to find harder workers than the the athletes that are competing for USA Judo yeah I mean you get one guy who can kind of relate to that story it can fund her whole career exactly who was that guy there's a guy for USA Judo he fund a lot of this these events a guy from USA Judo I mean he does IGF stuff too it's like Volki something

I think you know what's talking about and he's also an immigrant he's the Latino American guy he's at these events but like for him and Maria to kind of get together and you know

speak at one of these events like you're talking about yeah like that's a thing so would you do that if you were on the on the board oh 100% if it met

If it meant getting more funding, if it meant getting more money for the athletes, if it meant like better conditions for them, you know, the athletes that are, you know, 100% in it that this is their entire life because it was. Can I float an idea about you? Yeah. I just did an episode with the guys who run the veterans, you know, rate marquees, you know? I think so. Yeah, so he runs USAVeteran.com.

He runs all these events for veterans. He's pro like, hey, you know. And he has a roster of veterans that compete. and travel internationally. And then I was a senior level athlete, you're like, ah, these old guys, whatever, right? Let me tell me something. They have disposable ink.

They have tons of money. And when you're at one of these events, and then they do a little bit of a mixer, current national level athletes, and the veterans athlete, and they could kind of mingle, right? Because the veterans' athletes love the senior athletes. But the senior athletes give no respect

to the veterans athletes, you know? Because they haven't been there yet. They don't know. Yeah, exactly. They're back hurts and they're still doing it. And let me tell you something. A hip replacement. And the biggest difference between those two generations is the athletes are broke and these guys have money.

And these athletes over here at the veterans level, they just kind of want to be a part of it. And they want a little bit of validation. I think that's the perfect mixer right. You know, because then you get guys like Billy, you get guys like Billy Gabbigan. I don't know if you know, Ray Marquez, they're at the tail end of their career. just selling all valetheets because they're like we don't really want to work anymore all they want to do is like give back to judo but they don't really know exactly how to do it that's the perfect mix right that's a really good idea actually and i always say you know um people always ask me like oh why don't more uh former olympians want to get involved in judo want to stay involved with the osa judo and the answer is always like oh we're they're so fed up by the time that they finished their own careers like they want nothing to do with the sport anymore you know and that's really sad for me especially because i i'm i'm dying to get back out there like i i love judo so much

it's been the one constant in my life since i was a kid um so i do want to give back i you know if it's if i can contribute monetarily right now maybe with my time and with my experience but I do want to get back and I think kind of reaching out to these former Olympians maybe that they don't have money but they have other sources resources you know resources

you know and kind of like bringing them back and getting them more involved too I think would be amazing I think having a mixture like you just kind of mentioned that's a great idea that you know you drew on your experience from being in that position that you were in with the track and field CEO

like that's a huge one I think yeah they have I mean, all those successful national governing bodies, like you mentioned, USA swimming, USA track and field, even USA wrestling, they, they know how to bring in people that want to invest. It's the old guys, you know, I was just doing a thing with Cornell wrestling, right? I went over there to translate Ray Higuchi was an Olympian for wrestling, and they needed a grappling dual-language person to kind of translate. So I was there. And then they had these things where these older guys who were a lumpy. who have been out of the sport 34 years.

They're in their 50s and 60s. They're just doing well, just working. They just want to be a part of the program and they interact with the current athletes. And some of these guys are still competing at the master's level. And like that's just they have this like relationship. You know what I mean? I think it's a two way thing, you know, because these old guys want to be around, you know, the athletes.

And I think the athletes need to be want to be around those older veteran guys too. I think some of them don't don't realize. Because, you know, it's like a symbiotic relationship, you know, you got to... It should be. You know, you know, Bert Mackey? Yeah, of course. Because he competed in the nationals won like nine, you know, veterans. And when I was in my 20s and he was coaching us at some...

We went to Brazil for like a USA versus Brazil thing. And then he was like, you know, yapping away about veterans. And I was like, oh, my God, shut up. That doesn't count, you know? Because we've been there, you know? Yeah, but I mean, they just want to stay involved in the sport. Like, they love you. so much they loved you know so much and i think because since i'm at the tail end i'm you know

i'm getting old and i can relate now age why i am technically when the minute that i turn 30 herman and johnny would not stop bothering me about that so i was like actually technically you have to be a year out of fighting for on the i jf circuit in order to fight veterans so not yet i don't know that not yet yeah yeah yeah well that's amazing well good luck to your with your election. So can when is the vote at?

So the voting will happen July 22nd through the 24th and today is actually the last day to register to vote so you have to get

your ballot you can go to USHUdo.com and you can register to vote. I know but those people that do have

their ballot I mean you know you can make your choice. Any last words for the people who are listening? Just that I really truly love judo

And I want nothing more than to see USA judo succeed Especially for the athletes Because those are the people that give their odds their entire life You know and my entire life for so long For the better part of 15 16 years Was the sport I was all in it And I want to help represent those people

So thank you so much Angie Thanks Trinthar And what do they find you on Instagram at juji j uj uj i underscore angie a n g i e g i e g i yes but not huge they want i mean yeah you do no that's the irony of it man i was like i was like i was like 18 17 or 18 and i was like what rhymes with angie and is a judo technique i was like juji angie you know it's funny like i mean yeah i'm on instagram you know and your stuff pops up every now and then it says juji angi i'm like i don't I've ever seen Angie hit a juji.

Hey, man. Hey, towards the end, as I got older, as I got older, I relied a lot more on their interwasist stuff than just, you know, I was like, because when I was younger, I was like, I just wanted to go for the big, beautiful throw. You just want to slam somebody. So I didn't really pay attention too much to any of the groundwork aspect. And then actually, when I got together with Alex, he's like, you're like a great, you're like amazing. Tashiwaza, like, you're, like, lights out.

And then you're like a green bell in Nauazza. So we got to work on that. So, yeah, because of him. He is. Yeah, he is. Yeah, he is. May it back, was it? Uh, no, he's from Utica.

New York. Yeah, upstate New York. Yeah. New York State. Not New York City. We're real New York down here. I always talk crap to him because he's always like, oh, I'm from New York. And people.

assume like Manhattan and I'm like no no no yeah but yeah nice see Angie thank you so much Sincarro thanks yeah good luck with everything thanks thanks yeah it was nice talking to me bye