Up First from NPR - U.S. Men's hockey overtime win and the Olympic sport that produces the best athletes

Episode Date: February 19, 2026

If enjoyed this, check out the Up First Winter Games Video Podcast. You'll find it at youtube.com/npr. This bonus episode of Up First was edited by Eric Whitney. Our visual editors include Nicole Werbeck, Elizabeth Gillis, Grace Raver and Pablo Valdivia. It was produced by Lauren Migaki, Brianna Scott, Ana Perez, Barry Gordemer and Elizabeth Baker.We get engineering support from Jay Czys, Andie Huether, Becky Brown and Josephine Nyounai. Our Executive Producers are Adam Verdugo, Jay Shaylor and Samantha Melbourneweaver. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

This is a special edition of Up First. We have our gold medal team in Italy, and they're here to talk about the big storylines. You'll hear about the big names, such as Michaela Schifrin and Jordan Stoles, and all things Team USA. I mean, Martinez, and you're listening to an audio sneak peek of a first winner games, a new video podcast from NPR during the Olympics. New episodes will post throughout the games at YouTube.com slash NPR. Stay with us for a preview of the show. The overtime thriller on the ice As Team USA survives a sudden death face-off against Sweden

and skates on to the men's hockey semi-final. NPR's Becky Sullivan was there. Sweden turned the puck over a couple times, which led to these quick breaks for the Americans, and of course set up that awesome game winner by Quinn Hughes, which was just like marvelous. The arena went nuts. It was so fun.

Handle with care. You've probably seen the stories about Olympic medals breaking. What's causing this glitch in the glory? NPR's Juliana Kim finds out. For a long part of Olympic Games, medals weren't intended to be worn. They were actually just meant to be like in a nice box that you admire from afar, which I probably do because I break a lot of things. So he says that this is kind of an age-old question of how to make metals wearable.

Plus, which Olympic sport produces the best athletes? Yeah, you can go ahead and, Put your guess in the comments now. However, NPR's John Lambert has the right answer, and it's all backed by science. There's this metric that kind of captures aerobic capacity that scientists measure. It's called V-O-2 Max. V-O-2 Max. Yes.

Everyone is talking about VOTUX. I mean, Martinez, and this is up first winter games. This message comes from Alian's travel insurance. You've packed your bags, booked your flights, and you're all set for the beach resort vacation of your dreams. Then you see the nightmare weather forecast. You were hoping for hurricane cocktails, not an actual hurricane. Always make sure travel insurance is a part of your packing list. Trip cancellation benefits might be your silver lining when all you see is clouds.

Learn more at aalianstravel insurance.com. U.S. speed skater Jordan Stoll's bid for a gold medal sweepball short as he takes the silver in the 1,500 meters. He still has one more race to go. Heading into these games, Stoles was being cut. compared with speed skating legend Eric Hayden, the five-time gold medalist who swept the individual events at the 1980 games in Lake Placet, a feat that has yet to be topped. Hayden has been watching Stoles closely and sees some familiar traits.

NPR's Pinguong caught up with the Olympic legend. Now I really pay attention to Jordan, and if I get the opportunity to be close somewhere where he is going to skate, I will take the time out to watch him skate because it is really fun to watch him. that guy's skate. You know, it's so interesting for me being at these races and watching everybody's because they're all so fast, but what is it that's making Jordan just that much faster? I would say the biggest thing, technically on the turns, he's very good.

He's very powerful on the turns. He's very efficient with each one of his strokes. He is not going to have the fastest legs, like a sprinter, but he is going to get the most out of each stroke. And then his physical strengths as the races get longer. If you watch him skate, sometimes like 1,000 meters or 1,500 meters, he may not open up as quickly as some of the guys who are known as sprinters, but guaranteed the last lap.

He might even be down by 20 meters with a lap to go. And I keep watching him come back. And a lot of it is just his power and strength over the, Let's the races get longer. At the press conference, after Jordan won the 1,000 meter, he said that he was going to be hanging out with you after. Did you guys, in fact, hang out? Jordan, if I get a chance to sit down with him and have dinner,

we take advantage of that opportunity. What I say sometimes comes with a lot of influence and wisdom. I don't not want to get in the way of what him and his coach are doing. So we try to keep the skating talk to a minimum and kind of catch up on what he's doing. and it's fun because it's scary. It's almost like Eric Hayden reincarnated, you know? Say more about that. Oh, I grew up in Wisconsin.

He grew up skating on a pond behind his family's house. I grew up on a skating on a lake behind my grandparents' house. I was in the Olympics for the first time at 17, and then my career took off. He was in the Olympics first time in 17, his career took off. He loved skating. I loved skating, the challenge. And you look at him and he doesn't get all that anxious or nervous about the competition. He just wants to get to the starting line and shoot the gun.

It's like a racehorse. And sky's the limit. Do you think that he will have longevity in the sport? Like, what advice would you give him, given that you retired shortly after your career high? I think he's got a long career ahead of him. And I think if he just stays focused on what he's, doing doesn't change things all that much. I think we're going to see Jordan Stoltz. I wouldn't be surprised if he was not skating when we had the Olympics back in Salt Lake in 2004 and still be really

competitive, if not one of the dominant guys. An emotional moment Wednesday for Michaela Schifrin. After winning gold in her last race this Olympics, she reflected on the run and what it meant to her. And this was a moment I have dreamed of I've also been very scared of this moment. Everything in life that you do after you lose someone you love is like a new experience. It's like being born again. And I still have so many moments where I resist this.

I don't want to be in life without my dad. and maybe today was the first time that I could actually accept this like reality and instead of thinking I would be going in this moment without him to take the moment to be the moment to be silent with him. Schifrin lost her father, Jeff, after a tragic accident at their home in 2022. And we have another Olympic engagement. This time for U.S. hockey captain Hillary Knight and fellow Team USA star speed skater Brittany Bow. The two met at the games in Beijing during the COVID-19 pandemic, Night breaking the news on Instagram writing, The Olympics brought us together. This one made us forever.

Now think about it. The Olympics iconic logo is five rings, and this Olympic Games, yeah, five athletes have gotten engaged. See, they liked it and they clearly put a ring on it. In men's hockey, it was an overtime thriller for Team USA. They survived a close one against Sweden to one in sudden death to advance the semifinals against Slovakia. The U.S. is chasing its first gold medals since the Miracle on Ice Game in 1980. NPR's Becky Sullivan was at the weekend. game. Becky, this was one. They had to sweat out. Yes, I think they must have been pretty

terrified by my count was about five minutes between when Sweden tied it up with 90 seconds left in regulation and then three and a half minutes into overtime. The USA's Quinn Hughes scored the game winner. So a very scary five minutes in between that period where everybody thought, oh my goodness, this run might be over a lot sooner than any of these Americans had hoped. I mean, so Becky, was this game expected to be as close as it was? Yeah, I think a lot of people thought that this was going to be a tight one. Every single player on Sweden's roster is an NHL player. They're the only other team besides the U.S. and Canada for whom that's true at this Olympics.

And so, yeah, I think it was expected to be close. Sweden, I think, coming into this tournament had been expected to go further, but they stumbled in the group stage, got upset by Slovakia, which led to them sort of dropping to this number seven seed. And then when the sort of group stage shook out and the U.S. got the two seed, looked like, oh, shoot, that Sweden setup, that was something people saw coming from a little ways away. And so I think people had this one circled as a tough matchup, and it showed the moment they all got on the ice.

You know, afterward, the U.S. winger, Matthew Kuchuk, one of the biggest stars for the American team, said that, you know, a lot of people have this idea that when you get two really talented teams on the ice, that it's going to lead to a lot of offense, a ton of goals, like back and forth, up and down the ice. But he said actually usually it's the opposite. And that's exactly what we saw last night. It's super tight game. No goals in that first period.

It took the U.S. a while to get to score in that second period, that one goal. And then, of course, that led to this amazing super tense third period. Sweden was just throwing everything they could at that goal to try to even it up, which, of course, they did with 90 seconds to go to set up that awesome overtime. You know, Becky, when I used to talk to sports fans every night doing sports talk radio, the hockey fans would be the ones that would always argue that their postseason was the best postseason of any postseason. And watching three out of the first. four quarter final games going to overtime.

They're making a case. It was friggin' awesome, eh? And the fun thing, actually, about the Olympic overtime format, too, is it's like totally manic, frenetic, because it's three on three. They go straight to three on three, sudden death, golden go overtime. And when you take all those players off the ice, normally, of course, hockey, you've got five skaters in a goalie. So instead you're playing three on three, it just opens up the ice.

So much more skating, so much more fun. Sweden turned the goal over a couple of times, which led to you. to these quick breaks for the Americans and of course set up that awesome game winner by Quinn Hughes, which was just like marvelous. The arena went nuts. It was so fun. Yeah. So that wasn't the only tight game because also Canada. Canada had to deal with a squeaker. Absolutely. Yeah. So they were playing Czechia and this one was more of a surprise. Canada is the top overall seed in this tournament and the favorite for the gold. Their team is incredible stacked top to bottom with stars, household names, whether that's Sidney Crosby or Connor McDavid or Macklin-Sellibrini. This team is

amazing. And so when they came up against Chequia and Chequia gave them everything they got, including with about eight minutes to go in the third period, Chequia took the lead three to two, which was madness. And then Canada, you know, they just turned it on. You can't stop. They scored that goal to even it up with about three minutes to go in the third period. And then of course got that overtime goal. But I'm thinking people in the Olympics maybe must be a little relieved because it did look like there were six men on the ice when Chequia scored. that three to two go-ahead goal in the third period. If you take a look at the replays, the photos, the screenshots, you know, it's like that one

probably should have been caught, probably should have been stopped. And I think maybe everybody's breathing a little sigh of relief that Canada won ahead anyway, and we can all just forget about that. And you know what? You mentioning all of those NHL names throughout this that we've been doing right now reminds everyone that this team, that Team USA and all the teams are all NHL players. And so the comparison, if someone wants to make one between Team USA now and Team USA in 1980, is not the same. Those guys were plucky college kids going up against the Red Soviet Army.

Yeah, I mean, definitely. This has gone back and forth over the course of Olympic history with hockey. Inchal players have played sometimes, sometimes they haven't. This is the first since 2014 since NHL players have gotten to participate, and not everybody in the tournament is an NHL player. In fact, coming up this semifinal game, the U.S. having to play Slovakia, Slovakia only has a handful of guys who are playing in the NHL, which in theory should give the U.S. a big advantage.

Everybody on the U.S. roster is an NHL player. But you never know. Semifinals of the Olympics, I think anything can happen. And I think the games that we saw yesterday, three overtime games, the top two seats taken to the brink, I think that shows you. Yeah, and the Kachuk brothers, too. They're also a big part of those Olympic games. Definitely.

I mean, there's a lot of stars on the American roster, but the Kichuk brothers are two of the most prominent. We're talking about Matthew Kachuk and Brady Kich. Back home, Matthew plays for the Florida Panthers, and Brady plays for the Ottawa Senators. And they really rose to prominence last year, actually, in this tournament organized by the NHL called the Four Nations Faceoff, where we had the national teams of the U.S. and Canada. Sweden and Finland all play in this little round-robin tournament with a final. And this actually took place just a few weeks after President Trump came back into office. In his second inauguration, he started turning up the heat on the U.S.-Canada relationship, was talking about tariffs on Canada, making Canada the 51st state.

That kind of thing. And then the Florida Panthers went to the White House to celebrate their 2024 Stanley Cup win. Matthew Kachuk warmly thanked the president for inviting them there. And then just a few days later was this sort of epic opening match between U.S. and Canada and Montreal, where you might remember, A, people were booing the national anthem, booing the Star-Spangled banner. There were a bunch of fights on the ice in the first few seconds of the game, including Matthew Kachuk, Brady Kach, drop in the gloves. And it was a thrill to watch. The U.S. won that game.

ultimately lost to Canada in the final and overtime, this epic final match. Connor McDavid scored the game-winning goal, which is just like incredible star power from Canada. But obviously, that whole experience gave Americans the Americans and especially the Kachucks all the motivation they needed for a little revenge here. I'm going to guess that NBC probably wants USA Canada in the final. I think that's safe to say. Safe to say. Maybe not just NBC, but maybe broadcasters everywhere.

Certainly the CBC too. I think there would be a ton of eyes on that game. So much star power in the game, I mean, it would be epic. This is definitely no shade at all on the other two. So my finalist, Slovakia and Finland, who are great teams of their own. But I do think a US-Canada matchup would just have a ton of drama and be a lot of fun. Well, so speaking of Team USA versus Team Canada,

we're finally going to find out who the Olympic champion is going to be on the women's side. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That gold medal matches tonight here in Milan. That one's going to be super epic. I mean, since women's hockey came to the Olympics in 1998, There have been seven gold medals handed out, and Canada or the U.S. have won all of them. Canada has won five, the U.S. has won two. So there's a little room for the U.S. to make up.

But over the last few years, the U.S. has really invested heavily in sort of developing young talent, giving young talent the opportunity to compete in these big international events, these big international games. And you've seen the U.S. make a ton of progress on Canada, especially over just the past year. They played a bunch of times in rivalry games, and the scores you could see kind of kept going up and up and up and up as the U.S. kept winning by more and more and more. That happened here at the Olympics. There was a preliminary game between the two of them, that the U.S. won five to zero.

Canada in that game was playing without their best player and captain. She'll be back tonight in this game. But, you know, I think this could be like a situation in which the U.S. not only wins this one, but sort of changes our understanding of who the real power in women's hockey is. Yeah, leading up to this game, Team USA has outscored their opponents, 31 to 1 in Olympic play. That's just unbelievable. MPR's Becky Sullivan. Thanks a lot. You're welcome, A. The Olympic medal. It's one of the most coveted awards you can get as an athlete.

But at the Winter Games, medalists are celebrating cautiously, and that's because there's been a number of medals breaking off their ribbons. Here to talk more about the metal snafu is NPR's Juliana. Kim, Juliana, what do you think of my bling? I mean, it's a look. It's a vibe I'm going forward. I love it. I think you should do it every day moving forward. Why not, right? I mean, what do you think? How does it compare to the ones that are given out in Milan and Cortina? You know, I'd say that if yours aren't breaking, you might be giving the games a run for their money, right? As you mentioned earlier, there have been a number of athletes who have come forward saying that their medals are breaking off, specifically from the ribbon

that's leading to dense because the metals are falling to the floor. And it's a In one extreme case, the medal actually broke in half. This issue emerged pretty quickly after the Olympic Games started. You know, American skier Breezy Johnson, who we know as being the first to capture gold for Team USA at the Winter Games. She said that her medal broke pretty quickly after she received it. And at a press conference on Sunday, she warned fellow athletes, you know, be careful and specifically don't jump in them, which I think would be hard to do, right? Right. That would have been helpful advice for a certain German biathlet, Dristis Strello. He was celebrating with his teammates and the exact moment when his metal fell off was actually caught on camera.

And you can see kind of the awkward pause and the teammates looking nervously over to make sure everything was okay. American figure skater, Alyssa Liu, this also happened to her. But she actually poked fun at the situation. You know, in a video posted on Instagram, she proudly showed off. for gold medal as one would with the words, my metal don't need the ribbon, right? Yeah, how deflating? I mean, you spend your whole life going toward this goal

to win an Olympic medal and then all of a sudden you've got to worry about it breaking. I mean, any leads on what's causing them to break? I mean, this year's metal issues appear to have stemmed from a clip that attaches to the ribbon. Reuters reported that the clip is actually a safety measure to prevent the athletes from getting strangled by the ribbon, which, you know, is arguably an important function.

I asked Doug McIndoo about this. He's a numismatist. Try saying that three times. That's someone who specializes in coins and metals. And his guess is that there was a manufacturing glitch between the clip and the metal. And because cast metals, when they're molded and hardened, they tend to shrink. And how much they shrink is kind of unpredictable. Another interesting titbit that he told me, though, was that for a long part of Olympic Games, metals weren't intended to be worn.

They were actually just meant to be in a nice box that you admire from afar, which I probably do because I break a lot of things. So he says that this is kind of an age-old question of how to make metals wearable. Collectors and designers also don't love when there's a hole in the metal. So they've had to come up with innovative ways to attach the ribbon. So all of that to say, as you can see, it is not easy designing Olympic awards. Yeah, apparently not. But is it fixable? It seems so.

You know, the Olympic organizing committee has been looking into this issue for a few days now. And they said a solution has been identified, even though they didn't mention specifically what the issue was. They're saying that they're going to recheck all of the medals to make sure that this issue is avoided in the future. And they said that the National Mint of Italy who crafts these awards are going to repair the faulty ones. A few days ago, American skier Breezy Johnson, who I mentioned earlier, said she actually got a replacement medal. She told Reuters that this was a little bit different from the one that she got before. Like this one doesn't have the engravings on it. and that she actually prefers her original medal

and that she wonders if she could get that one back. I would want my original medal. That's the one I earned. That's the one I want. I mean, that's just me. And I agree with Breezy on this one. But, okay, it's still, even if it's maybe broken or damage somehow, it's still an Olympic medal.

So it's got to be worth a lot of money. More than they have in past games for sure. And this is because there's been record prices for gold and silver. Part of the reason is because of President Trump. tariffs, which caused economic uncertainty in financial markets around the world. And that then, you know, is making Olympic medals worth more, too. But question A, how much do you think Olympic medals cost right now? Let me see.

One billion dollars. That's a little bit higher than, you know what? Precious metals expert Peter Krauth told me. Wrong again, A. Martinez. Yeah, wrong again. That's my whole life, Juliana, being wrong. Just by a little bit, you know. He says right now gold metals are going for about $2,300.

That's because they only have about six grams of actual gold in them, or 0.2 ounces, and the rest is made with silver. Now, it's been over a century since gold medals were made of just full, pure gold. And if those were still around today, that would be about $79,000 to $80,000. All of that precious metals talks aside, you know, I think what really gives Olympic medal, medals, their value is that they're from the Olympics and that you have to earn them. And each edition is so unique. I want to mention a little bit about this year's design. You know, if you haven't seen it, it looks like two halves coming together. It's supposed to symbolize that behind every success, it's not done alone. It's the result of both the athlete and their family, their coaches,

their trainers, their support system. And I just love that message. Yeah, that's a nice one. You know how the Olympians, they take a bite out of their medals? You know, to see. How many of these do you think I can put in my mouth, Giuliana? I'm scared to know the answer. We won't be able to find out. They're real, real heavy. My neck is killing me. That's FPR's Juliana Kim. Julianna, thanks. Thank you. Watching the Olympics, summer or winter, you see all kinds of different athletes.

Speed skaters, 100 meters, sprinters, gymnasts. It's hard to say, though, what sport produces the best athletes since it's somewhat subject. So we asked NPR's Jonathan Lambert to take a look at the science to help answer that question. Here now, that conversation. Welcome back, John. Good to be back. All right. So I want to turn this question to you. What sport do you think produces the best athlete?

As much as I would love to say marathon running, I've got to, for me, a sport where you're fighting for your life, like boxer or MMA fighter. Yeah. That's a me. I mean, getting punched in the face and then still being able to. Yeah. That's a good argument. I want to disagree because science offers a somewhat objective answer to this question, and that's cross-country skiing. Cross-country skiing. Why that sport?

So cross-country skiers have to work really hard. They're often skiing uphill, and they just need big aerobic engines to do that. Their heart and lungs have to work really hard. And the sport just produces, like, stellar athletes. And the science actually backs me up on this point. There's this metric for that kind of capital. captures aerobic capacity that scientists measure, it's called V-O-2 Max. V-O-2 Max. Yes. Everyone is talking about V-O-2 Max. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And if you look at the lists of who has what that kind of athletes have the best V-O-2 max, cross-country skiers consistently rank on top. Yeah, because when I watch these running videos, I watch a ton of like running influencers and they're always talking about V-O-2 max. And I'm looking at myself. I'm like, I don't know. Do I, am I doing this right? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So, tell us what V-O-2 max is. So V-O-2 stands for volume, O2 stands for oxygen. And it's basically a number that reflects how good your body is at using oxygen. So to back up, our cells need oxygen to produce energy. But for really short bursts of exercise, something like sprinting 100 meter dash all out, your cells can do that without using oxygen. But they max out pretty quickly and the longer you go, they need to be replenished with oxygen. And so for endurance sports, the more oxygen that you can take in and that your cells can use, the harder you can go. And so VO2 kind of ascending.

actually captures that. It captures how good you are at breathing in oxygen, transporting that oxygen to your lungs, to the arteries, to the capillaries, down to the cells and how good those cells are at taking that oxygen and converting it to energy. So the size of your engine inside or power that's a good way to think about it. Cross-country skiers, then, do they have the highest volume of VO2 max that they produce? They do tend to have the highest VO2 maxes. And VOTU max isn't the end-all be-all. It's not as though the best cross-country skiers have the highest V-O-2 max, strength and technique kind of dictate how much of that aerobic power you can translate into forward movement. So if you've got like a huge engine but you're just kind of like flailing around out there, you're not going to be able to go very fast.

But the aerobic engine still matters a lot. So how does it measure? So basically the way to measure it is to get on a treadmill or a stationary bike and go all out for like 10 minutes while you're hooked up to this mask that measures oxygen in and carbon dioxide out. And scientists have been kind of measuring athletes for decades to see kind of how different sports stack up against each other. And cross-country skiers consistently come out on top

with very high VO2 maxes. Now, when it comes to other athletes, because I'm sure other athletes would be raising their hands saying, excuse me, what about me? Yeah. What about some of the other athletes? Yeah, there are cyclists and runners and rowers too, but pound for pound for both men and women,

cross-country skiers are overrepresented at the top of these lists for a somewhat obscure winter sport like cross-country skiing. So what makes them so special then? So it's a good question. It comes down to basically how hard they're working all four of their limbs. So they really are just like working their arms with their poles, working their legs with their skis. And that makes kind of what drives their V-O-2 max.

high. So, okay, you just said arms and legs and how they're using them. That makes me think that Michael Phelps or any swimmer would rank pretty high on the VO2 max list. That's true. So swimmers are using all their limbs, but they're horizontal, whereas cross-country skiers are vertical. And so cross-country skiers have to pump all that blood to all their limbs and work against gravity, whereas if you're a swimmer, you're working those limbs hard, but it's just easier for the blood to move horizontally because they're not fighting gravity. And for For other upright sports like running, you're moving your arms, but they're not really working that hard. And, like, biking, they're just stationary.

So let's watch a video to illustrate this point. All right. So you can see here, Jesse Diggins, an absolutely incredible skier for my home state of Minnesota. She's just going all out. She's, like, working those arms, double-polling. Oh, wow. Pushing her legs. It's like, it's super hard.

And she collapses here at the end of the race. I actually grew up cross-country skiing and doing track and cross-country in the warmer months and at the end of a cross-country skiing race, you just feel like totally spent in a way that's different than running races. And there are, at the end of ski races, a lot of collapsed athletes because it's just so tough.

Yeah, it looks absolutely brutal. Like the worst thing you could put your body through. All right, so do cross-country skiers then naturally have a super high V-O-2 max capacity, or is it just maybe because of what they do and practice it all the time? Yeah, there might be some self-selection, like people with high VO2 maxes get drawn to endurance sports, but you can definitely improve your VO2 max over time. And I think skiing is such a good way of doing that because you're really working all four of your limbs, and it's just a great way to boost that aerobic capacity.

Your heart gets stronger. You actually grow more capillaries in your muscle cells to deliver that oxygen more. and over time, skiing is just a great way to make that whole system more efficient. All right, so this definitely applies to elite athletes like we see in the Olympics. And as I mentioned earlier, it's on all of my websites and advice videos.

I mean, it's all about V-O-2 Max, but I'm not an Olympic athlete. I know I may appear, John, to be an Olympic athlete, but no, nowhere near it. So, I mean, for anybody that's thinking about this and saying, well, should I measure it myself? I'm a weekend runner, or maybe I'm a weekend warrior, Is that something relevant for them?

It could be relevant. There's been a slew of studies in recent years that find this link between longevity and VO2 Max. And that's kind of led to maybe a lot of hype around the idea that if you train to boost your VO2 Max, you'll be setting yourself up to live longer. And you can measure this yourself. Some smartwatches have ways of measuring it. And there are like online fitness calculators that you can use to get an estimate. Those aren't as good as the treadmill tests. but it's a start.

All right. So if I want to increase my VO2 max, how do I go about doing that? So basically exercise. But one point that I'd like to make, and I talked to Stephen Siler, who's an exercise physiologist at the University of Agder in Norway, about this question of like whether it's good to, whether we should be, whether everyday athlete should be kind of like honing in on their VO2 max. He said that there is some truth to the idea that boosting your VO2 max,

is likely a good way to live healthier and longer, but he casts doubt on the idea that hyper-focusing on the number itself is the best way to do it. A lot of those studies that found that link in normal people, not like super athletes, but just normal folks, they were using not that treadmill test to measure the V-O-2 max, but just general fitness metrics. And that suggests that, like, just focusing on boosting your overall fitness and running your normal running route a little faster than you did last year is probably a better way to go about it than getting hyper-focused on the number itself. The big take-home point is that boosting aerobic fitness is a good way to live healthier, and cross-country skiing might be an especially good way to do that if you're lucky

enough to live where there's snow. I live in L.A. So much for that. You can roller ski, but it's not as much fun. That's NPR's Jonathan Lambert. Jonathan, thanks. Thank you. I'm you, Martinez, and that's a special audio preview of Up First Winter Games. If you're an Olympics fan like me, and I know that you are, you can catch the team on video every afternoon on NPR's YouTube page. That's YouTube.com slash NPR. And don't forget to smash those like and subscribe buttons. Today's special episode of Up First was edited by Eric Whitney. Our visual editors include Nicole Wurbeck, Elizabeth Gillis, Grace Raver, and Pablo Valdivia. It was produced by Lauren McGaqi, Brianna Scott, Anna Perez, Barry Gordner, and Elizabeth Baker.

We get engineering support from Jay Sizz and the Huther, Becky Brown, and Josephine Neoni. Our executive producers are Adam Verdugo, Jay Shaler, and Samantha Milporn Weaver. Want to hear this podcast without sponsor breaks? Amazon Prime members can listen to Up First sponsor-free through Amazon music. Or you can also support NPR's vital journalism and get Upfirst Plus at plus.npr.npr.org. That's plus.npr.org.