Transcripts for KDNK 88.1 FM [KDNK Community Radio] KDNK 88.1 FM [KDNK Community Radio] 20171231 230000

You know if you've seen the streets of San Francisco as in cars flying through the air that's those kind of hills without bricks you know because what you really wanted to do even as a little kid is he wanted to fly Yeah and when Lincoln was 18 years old he met one of the pioneers of the derivable and he got this young guy Lincoln beachy to be his derivable pilot and what is it a ritual it's a big floating sack of hot air that's that's the basic idea Ok Sim says you could steer this thing sort of because it's kind of an early blimp Yeah but for beachy just well enough he wanted to fly in a plane planes were the future keep in mind this is early 1910 years after the Wright brothers flew their 1st flight planes were pretty primitive basically like a flying bicycle or even so people were getting really excited about aviation so they were going to air shows that had every kind of flying machine that didn't work and be cheap and he tracked down the guy who put together most of the really big airshows says hey you know I can bitch you know I'm like you know really popular and cool and everything and would be glad to fly for you and he said no I don't think so we don't need another pilot but Beatty says How do you need a good mechanic and so he got on as a mechanic I have heard stories that he would sleep in a tent near the plane factory and he would actually get up at dawn and sort of sneak into these planes so he could fly them before other people were around and his big break came at a show in l.a. When one of the big time show pilots goes up gets injured and the organizers like. Who's going to get to show the rest of the planes and I'll do it but so they sent for beachy up in this plane and he got up to about 3000 feet and the motor stopped stuff I don't like to stop so there is 3000 feet in the air and the plane touched to drop down down but it's not just dropping is spinning no one has ever gotten. Out of this in 1901 in 3 flights ended in disaster because whenever this happened the pilot would try to do sensible things like turn the plane the opposite direction it makes it worse or try to pull up makes it way worse that Lincoln Beatty in a split 2nd decides to do something totally odd he realized what he's going to have to do is dive into it in other words turn into the spin and down he came rather have it did way he came right out of it mean he landed the plane yeah he he when you dive into the spin when you do the absolute worst thing you can think of then all of the controls come back so suddenly the plane just stop spinning and he was able to land he just pull he just put he just curls out of it pulls out lands and flips it down and he said I suddenly could feel that you're learning as though it was part of his body. And from that moment forward. Aviation was never the same. He he went by manners. When you go see an aerobatic show and you see them do all these fancy this isn't that he invented them the figure 8 the vertical drop the dip of death. He was the 1st person to point his plane straight down and achieve terminal velocity. At the time medical science said if you achieve terminal velocity would die from fear he would dive out of the out of the sky from thousands of feet spinning at the ground and at the last 2nd pull out then fix the handkerchief if you mean no. No yes oh yes he invented aero Batek pick up a handkerchief and his wink from from where the ground yet he gets well that's crap is no way that is no way I. Will never know for sure because these things are wrapped within legends within legislatively but a lot of people saw wonderful things happen everybody and recognized that this is was nascent this was new the population United States was about 90000000 then 17000000 people saw him that one year alone he was a he was a pretty big deal he had a girlfriend in every major American city I talked to people who watched him buy diamond engagement rings by the dozens. And he always had one in his vest pocket I Thomas Edison praised him Carl Sandburg wrote a poem about him railroads changed their schedules to follow him around the country Orville Wright called him the most wonderful aviator anyone has ever seen people are ga ga and most Ga Ga of all are pilots so many people are dying imitating him the city of San Diego considered doing an injunction a legal injunction to bar him from flying but for Beatty nothing could stop him for a while at least nothing could stop him and tell he mastered this one particular trick the trick. Of all tricks loop the loop What is that basically it's like a exactly like a roller coaster where you go level then you go upside down you come back going the same way difficult thing to do in humans are evolved to fly it's very easy to lose your equilibrium to you know get it screwed up on what's up what's down still be she thinks I'm going to do this thing can't stop me but one day he's on a train he's going to speak a bill in the club and Charlie Walsh's wife naturally watches one of his dear friends he just died 2 days before trying to do a beach as has dozens did meaning trying to do a trick that the chief did it's called doing a beachy and so Charlie was his wife sees him changing trains and she crashes against him so new killer Charlie he's in the baggage car in a coffin and it really it really got to him and it started him thinking about all the people who had died trying to imitate at one point he said he felt like he had murdered some of these people that's how hard he took this and at that point he decided he couldn't go on with that he decided he had to retire so he arrives at the Olympic Club as everyone's cheering stepped up to the podium comes up and says you cannot make me enter a plane again at the point of a revolver I'm done that's really what he said that's really what he said but he had of a kind in a parting thought I am tormented with the desire to loop the loop in the air I know I can do it but I know no one else can do it and I know that if I ever go up into the air again I will pull off this loop the loop and then many men will be taken by death in trying to do the same thing because I have done. So he retires. For 3 months and. That's not exactly going to get here is a very daring those 3 months the unthinkable happened. Somebody else does the loop the loop for the 1st time some Frenchmen he couldn't stand that someone else had loop the loop before him and he decided he was going to be the best Looper in the world and in Turkey him a few months of practice but he did it he eventually out did the Frenchmen and he would start falling you know 456 loops in a row again and again and again and when he finally did the loop de loop I want to I want to read you what he wrote. The silent reaper of souls and shook hands that thousands of times we've engaged in a race among the clouds plunging headlong into breathless flight diving in circling with awful speed through a series of space and many times when the dazzling sunlight has blinded my eyes and sudden darkness has numbed all my senses I have imagined him close at my heels. On such occasions I have defied him but in so doing have experienced fright which I cannot explain. Today. The old fellow and I are past. Suffer me for a 2nd while I wax philosophical do it something happened in the psyche of humanity you can realize for 100000 years millions upon millions of people have wanted to fly and frankly if some people saw beachy loop the loop so many times so effortlessly. It was a turning point if you could do that you could you were free in the air we were no longer just managing to fly now we own the sky. 1915 the World's Fair is going to be held that year in San Francisco California which is beach his hometown now at the time he was working on a mano playing a single wing airplane it was a brand new thing it hadn't been tested but the fare fishes had seen it they said would you show would you fly is your new one because it's. So smart for it to. Be cheap to take this thing up for its very 1st flight some people say they're up to a quarter 1000000 people at the expo and most of them were watching him so he goes up above over Alcatraz and 3000 feet above Alcatraz it starts diving and that structural metallurgical Smarts had been developed enough yet no one single we in the airplanes and they both of those winds cracked that. Someone said it sounded like a ship mast just snapping cracking right now he fell 3000 feet. They estimated him going at 250 miles an hour and he hit the water right at the foot of Fillmore Hill. When a doctor looked at him later he actually only had a broken leg from the impact but what got him was he was strapped in pretty tightly and no matter how hard he struggled he could not get out of the straps plane had him wrapped in so tightly it just dragged him down to the bottom and he drowned in the bottom of San Francisco Bay. After that show for 24 hours straight you couldn't make a phone call in San Francisco because so many people were calling in and out with nudes and rumors about what had happened to Lincoln Beatty so he took down the entire San Francisco phone system so why has he been released from the common historical memory I mean you hear about flying aces removed 180 Rick Perry and you hear about. Charles Lindbergh of course and you hear about the millionaire. But you don't hear. Well after the war we had new heroes and he slipped into obscurity except. For one thing the jump rope chain. Link n.b.g. But I wasn't there you know little little kids would say it seems that and that he felt he got a lot to have him anyway so it went. Thought it was a dream to go out to heaven in a flying machine the machine broke down and down he fell instead of going to happen when he went to get bt but it wasn't the goal at hand and. The machine broke that in that he. Had when he went. To dream. Machine the machine. Can be seen as a dream to have my machine the machine and he's already got it. Thanks Sam Kean author of The Disappearing Spoon and other true tales of madness love in the history of the world from the Periodic Table of Elements and thanks to Frank brain oh my book is Lincoln beachy the man who own the sky and banks to the cap of the Chief for being our link in the cheek and lastly we want to thank again our jump rope or is it c s 200 here in Manhattan and this talented group of singers at the La Guardia school the arts I name is a more craft Kelly of the new show Egan very own as a runner Ruby firm and Ruby wrote range what you're hearing. Was a dream. In the city. And thank you to Robert apostle of Guardia and Brenda Addison at c.s. 200 I'm Jad Abumrad I'm Robert Krulwich going up we meet another daring Duerr who also defies gravity and the rules of the game do this no not in the year no no it's sort of in the air but mostly mainly really it's on the ice sort of like in that air space just above the ice the liminal space between the ice the moisture in the frozen part is the zone I like to call 1st yes yes yes we're going to go we're going to go to this show. Calling from Bloomington Indiana where do you have a supporter I believe. This place like that portion in question radiant customers for a printer that harm us. Ok so then if that's how we're going to introduce this how would you convince the many people listening today listen it is it's a great story it doesn't matter that it's figure skating it's like a really good story is a good story that like pops off of it's like a I'm jabbering Ron I'm Robert Krulwich Radiolab and I've never been a huge fan of figure skating but like this story I think asks a really interesting question the question would be what if you with all your heart want to be the very very best at something Lincoln beachy in the last segment he was arguably the best aerobatic pilot of his time was recognized as being the best but what happens if the people who judge what's best at whatever it is you want to do don't share the best in this with your sense of best the so you do your best in their best and your best are different and now you can't best it out when he do or you do story comes from our producer lot of Nasir and also producer Tracey hunt Ok Ok Ok all right Ok so let's start then so Ok so we're starting in 1908 we're dealing picks in Nagano Japan Japan and so we simply go orning up on the ice you have this woman this figure skater surreal Bonnell it's a useful Syria you are why she's French 24 years old she's black 5 time European champions but also also probably particularly good tree problem she's got an Achilles tendon that's been stitched together all the muscle she's on painkillers and she competed for France in 1904 and just missed the boat she's never meddled with the Olympics before this is her probably her last go in in front of the world. The France it was surreal totally and it was joining this performance that surreal bodily did something that had never been done by any anyone ever and you could either see it as a as a kind of middle finger to the establishment like this huge f you. Think if I was. Just this beautiful. Moment of self affirmation. What you do. Get there. Hello hello how are you pretty good things I laughed out loud when I when I heard you say that you would call me on your Zamboni break. I don't like it's only done like Ok for to really understand just the context of all this and the stakes of that moment we got to go all the way back so how did you how did you 1st get into skating well I did skating because of my mom actually so Syria was actually adapted as a baby by this white couple in the south of France she grew up in nice My mom was a sports coach and she was able to be like a volunteer for a domestic club and skating close so even though you know I was small tiny tiny she just put me on the ice and say hey those hanger on and she'll only ice you know and I spend lots of hours or just waiting for my mom and one day I go find out that's you know. Some skating boots who feeds me. She started skating Yeah fortunately I was good at it pretty soon she had a coach from the local ring I guess a coach kind of call and have a meeting with your parents say hey you know be nice if you could come back 2 times a week probably now would be nice Hulu maybe 4 times a week well how about every day and so. Here we go. So by the age of 10 she decides she wants to spend her life figure skating it was my dream to you know to do it and I know I can so she would go to these ice shows like Holly they are nice I want to see is a sure I love being being I love the show time and just you know those fantastic costumes see would see all these famous skaters I had my eyes grew on those skaters they would just be flying through the air I thought it was like amazing and she would go to practice and. She would practice all of the things she saw all the the double axle in the triple toe loops and speed. You know quadruple the triple axle do you have any idea what you're saying no no these are all just words to me he was very fussy and prove every week every month you can see a difference. And speaking of difference you know if we fast forward a little bit here she is on the world stage here you know but I'll wait in line for maybe 9 when she appears at the World Championships. The thing that becomes really apparent is that she is different you know because I was a black cells like people like what's French black so I'm black and I definitely remember when she was about to ski My mom would be like the black girl skating so we all had to like pay attention and so people. Can if curious just go it's very different oh it was it was arrest that stunned it Howard senior writer for e.s.p.n. Dot com So you want to leave is a striking and exotic figure on the ice just arrested her eyes when she skated the contrast of her skin on the ice with it. And then there were these fanciful stories that sprung up about where she came from we are now taking you about as far away from the skating world as possible pretty much as soon as she hit the scene you started hearing these rumors that she had been adopted from a coconut strewn beach in Reunion Island off the coast of Madagascar are in unlikely places like a world class figure skater and that she had. That fit she what was it for this she never cut her hair for you has not come through here since her birth that she existed on a diet of bird seed and you know all these things yeah I mean I guess I do like 60 some kind of black forest princess or something Zack Exactly yes serious says you know at that age she really didn't know too much about what was going on you know as a kid I was like whatever my coach deal it's you know he's a woman speak English she barely speak English she was really 16 she was young baby I you know I did talk to the guy he was coaching her at the time this guy named Diddy a guy and and he told me he planted these. Tori's we use the press very well where was he said that he made up the beach thing he made up the hair thing because he was trying to she was a start and where do you want to hear stories right so we made some stars some good ones do you know what I mean I'm just saying that we making up stories because you want to hear them that is just creeped out yeah you're absolutely right it's. Fine to see where he was going because what he was trying to do with it he was trying to present her to the world as this like radically new kind of skater because the female skating at that moment. Where nice cute girls especially for ladies you like to keep little girls pretty flowers for Catarina so famous skater like Catarina the ravishing Catarina of it all the money so you know hey maybe they were like Oh totally like me woman you know pretty graceful make those men's you know crazy when you were watching it seem to you were also why. Would I say they had a certain conception of females Kitty. We didn't have the same one and it wasn't just that she looked different she also skated different. It was a totally different approach Syria was always very like. Elvis Stojko is in the building the 3 time world figure skating champion juniors 990 For me it was sort of. The new face on the stage these are like the fresh to go to the world for the good everyone's imagination Tonya Harding style skating she was so exciting and there was just no boundaries for her this is Tonya Harding. And she and $30.00 were friends d. The strength and the power she'd step on the ice and I people were crazy so we're going to. See strike a pose and then just take the Syria would go for one and speed across the on why to meet with powerful stroking her opening shots to give her also she comes. Soaring through the top with our full spin. And teaching jumping really was a cool. Combination of the combination another example of Pico to teach a triple triple jump to do it pretty spread eagle and. Everything it's a very 1st step she she had the stepping gliding the running. She had. Talent. The crowd here appreciated. The jumping ability. There's no so what she bonded she. Outside of competition she didn't ice shows and exhibitions and that's when you would see like what she can really do all kinds of other jumps the one even allowed in comedy is you know back flips by hand but yes well it's very 1st time that I ever saw her do a backflip I mean I just my mouth just dropped open that's tiny hiding and I was like How did you do that because it's really dangerous Elvis Stojko told us that one time he. I did and it did not go well I came down right on my face and I split my my eye open and almost broke my neck and I was a psych you know I don't think this is going to be a good thing but this little teenage girls only no problem just doing it like you know he was just absolutely fearless and the crowd loved it people like when they stand up a 2nd making noise and top defeats into the ground I can feel like the whole building so I'm like I swear it's like 0 point but. Here's what happened and this is where things kind of get confusing as Syria blows up and all these people who never like figure skating fall in love with her over and over the judges don't just take you pressure was a crowd you don't like to mock such a savage no doubt fire even with so she doesn't get high scores no years begin to flow help at all Thomas Cade but somehow I think it's not for me was for you so the judging system in figure skating goes from 0 to $6.00 and on Syria's artistic marks she would get scores like 505051 yeah you get your low fives which like sounds like it's a good mark but that's not a good mark for him was What do you think of those who are or were in their life for the very very disappointing group the Rams and I for you which say there she said never mind that's life I'm used to it afloat it's still sports sportsmen China inch every day I try to do the best split I could do you do your bias is fine but clearly there were some times where I got her there was that one time we found on You Tube where she. Was she boos the judges or she gets hurt or the whole crowd is bully who why was she getting bad marks to begin with what was the what was the problem well that's a question and it's kind of complicated Yeah I think there's several things John Howard that yes can right or she says the 1st thing you've got to now and this is take a quick little dive into the weirdo world of figure skating Let's dive is that there is this fundamental tension in the sport of figure skating between artistry on one side in athleticism on the other powerfulness Reza pretty nestlé they want these people to look like little ballerina's but leap into these jumps liked. Predators and at the time skating was sort of locked in this loud and fractious debate about what do we want to be and Syria was sort of the epitome of almost the end point like could happen if somebody with an rival about bloodless ism and no aversion to risk was willing to go after it and I think there were a lot of people in skating that didn't want to I went through it I know all about it now Tonya Harding she said that she had this issue I didn't want to skate like what they wanted skating to look like Elvis Stojko to but in Surya's case there's a lot of work to be done on the car over for yet there's a lot of work to be done on the grace all those words used to criticize her skating a lot to. I don't like to see you start jumping for 6 months to skate we're just a little bit more loaded they would say things like oh more time to do this a lot of raw talent but it's not hasn't been refined and it's for us like non skaters like that's been one of the challenges of the story I guess is like trying to see like is that a legit criticism or is this just a way of saying that sees black it was last season I had the courage to say because she was black so this is Marie ren Laguna and she is a former French figure skating official and she was part of a team whose job it was to decide which girls to send to the World Junior Championships and they have to choose to only 2 girls and we had 3 possibilities she said that she backed Syria and the Med to retail is that people didn't want the black skaters. Are they saying it out loud look we don't want them but we don't want her because she's black Well it was very sceptical in fact according to her what they would say they would say the kind of things like she was too muscular or she wasn't elegant and well yes I have to say that's what elegance many times I have heard that well she's. Marie Wren is an outsider in the figure skating world these days because of an unrelated scandal and so we weren't totally sure what to think about that but how did Syria feel about all this well I asked her did you feel like any of the difficulty was because you're black. I know you like I know it was about race no no no no but then moments later she said well you know when you block you know everybody knows that you have to do better than anybody else who is white Well I think the idea that she was held back in March in her marks for any other reason other than the quality of her skating I think is incorrect that Sandra has it been involved in the skating world my whole life as a competitor as an Olympian a commentator and actually as a commentator I'd like to see and stop jumping for 6 months just to see what's kind of hard on Syria yes and when we asked her why this is what she said everything about skating is built on circles. The radius could be huge but it's still a circle everything is about edges and leaning into those edges and leaning into the turns and carving massive circles on the ice and that is our sport which leads to Syria you know if you watch your jumps there they were on straight lines and if a jump is on a straight line then it can't land with the flow because the idea is to land with as much speed and flow as you had going into it and that's something that she couldn't do because she was jumping on straight lines and then the other thing about skating that you don't necessarily get on camera. Is the sound of the edge. The sound of a beautiful skater going from edge to edge from lean to lean What does that sound like it's. Ok it's a beautiful sound it's a sound that we all love it's a it's a gentle carving. Like sound I have in my head is like like a hockey but that's probably not a no no no no because there's no I can tell you there are no scratches it's a glide. It's just it's a harm by gosh I wish I had a good word to describe it and there are different sounds I mean like there's the sound of Brian Boitano spac crossovers that you know used to like excite me when I was in the rink with them but then there's also sort of the gentle almost soundless . Quality of say you can. Where they're like a whisper across the ice and yet they're. You know flipping from one edge to another edge. And forward to backward and it's almost it's just this glad I haven't got a good word for it so when when Syria was getting would she have that sound no she would be scratching. Male We should say that wasn't the sound of Sirius getting We just like miked up a whole bunch of like pretty good figure skaters with a professional skin and yeah yeah yeah these are legit scarce national figure skaters and we sent the clip to Sandra and she's like. So she gave me the thumbs up that we got her right let's see I don't miss you here whatever it is she is hearing and think Yes I mean the sound different but not even that different really so that's exactly the problem I see getting is largely about past that So as far as sports go it's like kind of in it's own category like if you're talking about Serena Williams who's facing a lot of these same kinds of criticisms it doesn't matter there's a whole line on a court and it's either inside or outside there are rules whereas there are these rules when it comes to beauty it's it's super slushy and that makes someone like much more vulnerable so it ended up happening well after a couple of years of getting these kinds of marks the she doesn't soul searching I mean I was a bit more much in 1900 the age of 18 new changed my whole skating walls you know watching coach shows and she decides to take the note she actually travels to California and works with Frank Carroll who's like this legendary American coach and what she's doing is that she's trying to you know be more graceful more beautiful more accurately more Certainly yeah and after that you kind of see a different Yeah you can even watch the You Tube videos from that period and it's like she's a different gator yet does it work yet in 1903 in the world championships she comes in 2nd and then by the time $9094.00 rolls around she is a favorite She is she is. Probably going to win and what happens. Things. That went right after the break. Technology. This is Radiolab to get back to our story about Syria bodily or born Ali as it said French from producers Tracy hunt and lot of Nasir I was really curious what what happened at that at that medal ceremony in 19940 is a Walsh and the chimp how in the world can image not the 06 none of the M.P.'s know well we had this Washington ship in Japan. 7 Olympic title 17 World Championships just to set this up the World Championships are the 2nd most important event in figure skating after the Olympics and at the Olympics which are just a month before the top 3 ladies 16 year old Oksana Baiul Oksana Baiul got gold Nancy Kerrigan is fit to carry game got silver 10 Lou got the bronze in 4th place was Syria now those top 3 ladies Oksana Nancy out of the picture out of the picture for various reasons injuries and some turn pro and stuff but whatever the point is at these world championships the highway had been cleared for serious she was going to take it so it was hers for the taking. Winning season wanted to go for jumping forward to the final day of the championship Surya's in 2nd place she takes the ice years old from Nice So the prince starts her program. Immediately starts with this double axel right after that is just. Triple triple triple triple triple and then landing when. It was just one of the best skates of her life I know I did my best I did everything you will so not perfect because nobody's perfect but pretty good come to completion overall Eventually after about 4 and a half minutes. Thank you this is risky variable right but I think you know to know that with difficulty with the right thing. I want to thank you for the right to speak up and goes over. Off to the side to a bench with her coach to await her results before you have to do was have was so my said Please sir it was my of those I was any We've see was when she gets remarks she jumps into 1st place and there's only one skater left. It's a skater who usually finishes below Syria and competitions. Again that Sandra has a we all know you can skate she's the kind of state that puts a smile on your face and you feel it was you know one of these really lyrical skaters making is return Elvis Stojko and you had this very very beautiful very diverse stating this gentle almost soundless quality like a whisper across the ice basically heard skating style was the exact opposite end of the spectrum from Sirius. Was some talk you know if you know she gets up. Does her final skate in for the home crowd you can as one of my favorite skaters but she's not the combination of what finally did she leave for jumping up with her triple a and see. Why it's her 1st jump crowd love that she did she did go at it she had maybe less triples and me but she was maybe people prettier in her routine there are these moments where it just looks like she was just sort of skipping across the ice. It's very Billette make moves I know she's good and no thanks and this one here Michael Hardy of them Center For me the local playwright you know shocked however by now it's down to the judges to whether the gold medal belongs to us. Ottawa Japan orbitally all frightening so you can you know gets off the ice she goes to wait for her marks the 1st marks of course for Jellicoe marriage phone Elise trying to decide Thank you John so well and every one of those marks except the Finnish judge go to the bone only she wins made out of 9 technical merit but when it came down to the artistic marks just the opposite the book marked 8 and 9 judges and all but the French judge giving her higher marks those go to. What this is going to be close it actually ends up being a tie. So it goes to being a tie breaker and that's when the the judges basically pick 1st 2nd and 3rd and in a $54.00 decision. She's got life was before she learned the truth her off to the dressing room for the new chapter she'll be back shortly level so it was. What happens next is one of these moments that really defines serious story for a lot of people right my right after all the results were out he set up the medal ceremony they called out the skaters they 1st called out Uka thank you very much waves smiles on everybody and then after about a minute how we had our silver medal he called out. Was saying I'm aware is the European champion was riding around and there was she didn't come out. That immediately was a late arrival here she was she skates out onto the ice she waves that her face isn't smiling now and then when she gets to the podium She congratulates. But then was only has chosen not to stand on the podium she just stopped before getting on the podium she just stood right next to the podium and I think this is a form of protest was I really hope she doesn't go through with this was she would stand out and she was crying Elvis actually was in the crowd watching I felt bad for her as I know what she was going 'd through where you know you out skated your competitor and they just wouldn't give it to you 'd and I was like Syria just get on the podium take the medal National c.b. Thank you thank you was the figure skating official who's giving up the medals he gives you could the gold puts it around her neck but then when he turns to surreal was he just sort of stands there or looks it or he says something but you can't hear what it is she shakes her head he puts the medal around Syria's neck shakes her hand and then he close on to her hand just kind of like pulls her onto the plane wasn't thang. I thank you for broken voice she takes off the metal. She takes this old Rimadyl off of her head like oh my God All these actually doing this there was huge it was a huge It was a huge deal the camera zooms in on her face and she is just keeping what's going on inside. So after the medal ceremony is over she just gets mobbed by reporters or yeah why did you not accept the medal What was the problem. To make they find hundreds of them to see you every day under there to use or yeah right by the judge is unfair to you it's what I would say here go if you feel you were robbed tonight is that what you're saying. Did you deserve the gold medal Syria and eventually what she says is I'm just not to take you I'm I'm just not lucky. What what was going on like what happened you I think it was more like a point to say is this Is it stop not you know it's I mean you put your your face on a on a table Is it Ok not enough is enough that's it I'm not done and I'm getting sick you know I'm sick of it I keep my eyes open because it's not fair we have just has to stop and knows just so depressing and it was so not fair what about it felt unfair just at Suno up and over and over so many times it's every time it's never me because whatever I can do how many Tripler I can be pretty I can have the best car gruffer I can so everything was made to be on the top and still what do you need more me to do at this point you know how many troubleshoot will you want me if I don't do you kill me if I do you don't care and anyway you took some what you choose somebody else then I think that that's a little unsportsmanlike Yeah totally absolutely yeah but if she was all these other girls have worked just as hard as she has one presumes sure but Ok so Picture yourself if you're at that position you're in that position you find yourself getting 2nd 2nd you feel like you're not she came in 2nd then it was the margin was so close it was so close I think ways close yeah I can I like yeah. I I just more like felt empathy for her for her I can't imagine what it must be like well I can't imagine what it must be like but I you know in that kind on that scale to be the only one and there isn't. Anything for you know. A friend of mine once told me that racism can make black people crazy . With a very very broad way of looking at it in the sense that you kind of almost never know why people are reacting to you the way that they do and it's kind of you're always sort of 2nd guessing you know was that you know the did they know that guy just came and he said hi to everybody in the room but he did say to me what is that what was that about and so yeah there's no obvious thing about it but it can make you feel a little paranoid a little crazy now I cannot put myself I can't imagine how you know Syria felt in that moment. But I didn't necessarily like think that you know these prejudiced people had tonight or this if anything I felt more like man it really must suck to be the only black person speeding at that kind of level and not really understand why things are happening or maybe it must feel like a very confusing situation to be n. And that is and it was more like empathy I don't know you know if there was racism quite frankly you could saddle is an amazing skater and I think you're right it's very legitimate to feel like you can't quit your finger on this feeling which never goes away now and never resolves and is always there and always makes you feel. We have and what happens after the That's our producer Matt Keelty after the ceremony I think that I think the the rep that she got after this moment was that she was a sore loser and that she was to find that she had a bad attitude and that she quit at this point and now she has gone she competed again in the world championships in 1905 the very next day and she came in 2nd again and again for 3 years in a row in a similar pattern was there like just the one sort of that one wasn't as close but she was 2nd again for the 3rd year student of the competitions after 95 I think there you know European championships you know Skate America yes she was doing a lot you know when not of the Olympics not at the World Championships now so she never gets 1st oh. Well I guess it depends on how you define 1st what he means or you'll see that that actually takes us right back to the beginning. We're here by the 10 am on Saturday morning in Japan so for it to be but rewind we're now going to Japan in 1980 Winter Olympics I know it was my last Olympics in the last major major be competition and everything was fine until the day before the short program. I pull a muscle. Her left leg and I couldn't leave I could do anything to make matters worse Syria at that moment was already recovering from a ruptured Achilles tendon people had to leave to carry me to walk stairs because I couldn't get stitches so they have to lift me to go to my room because you know I don't want to be relayed I couldn't walk you know even I'm broken I'm damaged I'm like I use cars I was ready good good for you know for trash Oh like you know really I was so messed up between my legs well and my killers I was like oh as does disaster and the doctor say maybe we should we've gotten I know I'm already here you know I don't want to just maybe retire smile probably my last question I don't want to address retire like that just to give you anything you can I have to keep going and so on the final day she says she you know between maybe see my size acupuncture appeals she goes back out on the ice is now getting ready to skate for her country she's in the suburban blue sequined outfit and she starts a routine. You can tell she's favoring one leg but she manages to I mean did you say to yourself then she falls. She gets back that. Keeps going through with her victory. As the triple sell and then she says she just got to this point where she just knew she couldn't do it. It was so much in pain and towards the end of the program I was supposed to go for 2 more triple and I say no what's not again I don't feel it I know I'm going to crush I can do I'm not capable my legacy was minimal and then what comes to her is that there is this move that she has in her repertoire that she can do but it's a legal I had a special thing in my backpack and say hey I can do it is my last is my last come to show that it's all going through your mind as you were skating you know you have taught it you know me as like a computer you know if I would have missed something a jump also Ok here I can fit a triple here obviously I can do a combo triple triple I know I need to fits of that you're like the g.p.s. Lady you're like recalculating Yeah totally rerouting Ok really do we have you know right now so in her rerouting she turns around from skating forwards is getting backwards picks up speed just like she's about to do triple but still. She does a backflip but not any old back flip she swings one leg over does the splits in the air upside down and then she lands. On one. Boat if. You could go over some stock but when you do the back foot do you go do your skates go up towards the ceiling and then come back down underneath the back it's a bit like this the kind of I don't know I don't know why why was it illegal it's illegal because it's so dangerous Also she says you're supposed to land all your jumps on one foot but she did that here oh. You did it in one photo just hold whole other one just hold and she couldn't be like totally illegal because sales lonely is laying on the one food maybe will be. Wolfing about Athens very well yeah that would be good. And you know usually is that you skate you perform you smile in front of the camera to give his remarks next skater for he took like 10 minutes seriously 10 minas people 55 What should we do it was like oh my god I didn't know what to do with me and I say whatever just put a 0 and so we can move on here are the more I'm going to get nailed and I have absolutely 0 for a 5 you know how do you know if you don't think I'm going to go back so they didn't change their mind about back at the end Nope so she ends up finishing 10th I finish then it's Ok. And you know afterwards a lot of people interpreted that backflip as a big fat middle finger to the entire skating world I know you don't want me to but I'm going to do this anyway but when I asked surreal if that's what was happening she said no I don't know why but keep saying as us you know I was just trying to be happy she said she just wanted something that was her Yes yes you know had anyone ever done this backflip on to one blade before no no. No no no I'm the one who created this one his wife calls a banal Oh that's another one I'll hear you know you know I'm so anyone who did it wow you know you're the 1st person in the history of the human race who has done that yeah yeah yeah yeah so knock on wood I hope you know I'll be able to die in peace don't steal my back face it's not often like Yeah that's yeah it's mine. So I'm just curious like what's happened since this story ended well she retired from figure skating after the 98 Olympics she continues to do to ice shows occasionally but right now I think the main thing that she's doing is he's coaching she lives in Minnesota and she's coaching and skaters Yeah but but like when we asked people like oh did she did she change the sport did she change figure skating answer they were giving it to us was no no no she did a lot of you were like you know you're not like all this that in you know figure skating rinks across the country across the world are flooded with little black girls learning their soccer balls and their letters and things like that I will say from my from from what I can tell for the 1st time that there are there's more than one black skater competing at the same time internationally at least backflips I their back flips and no no ballot access Lee are they still legal they are still illegal yes so she was just the sort of like almost the sort of blip on the skating scene where she was is. You know no one was like her before and there hasn't really been anyone like her since but but there is this kind of ironic thing I guess which is that if you took her and you put her in competition today if she was competing on the world stage today she would probably do better than she did back then they've changed the the scoring system so so now you get points for doing the kinds of power moves that she was doing way back when then and even if you if you spill even if you fail at those moves you still get points you get points for trying yeah just for daring and Syria was was was daring she was a dare. Producers lot of. Interesting. Traces but the last few months with us producing this story is part of the fantasy Fellows Program Tracy with. A lot. Of. The piece was produced by Matt Kilty original music from and also from. Special thanks to Vanessa Riley Moira North skeeters Elisa. And Christian Irwin from the ice theatre of New York and to Ed Haber for reporting in and a very heartfelt thanks to Marilyn weekends. Thanks for listening. On your. Phone And then you're going to. Reveal that. That. Is our director. Earned. Senior editor. You know until you know our employees on an ad or grand affair David Gable empty the crew we being in love even after. They've had an area and Molly Webster with help from Alexander the Great the Han Anytown And Mike the. Fact Checker are even better and the cell hair I wonder if you can hear the track I. Came in on behalf of everyone at the Radio Lab and to listening. And it's message. If you're a member. Carbondale community access radio Springs Carbondale the Roy. And. A backup an entry points along the Us Mexico border means some asylum seekers are for now getting turned away on any given day they add to a 100 people who end up showing up and trying to get across for Sunday December 31st this is All Things Considered from n.p.r. 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