Paris Olympics: Event Finals (with Betty Okino)

Blind Landing

Ari Saperstein

Documentary, Sports, Society & Culture

4.8 • 1.7K Ratings

🗓️ 10 August 2024

⏱️ 31 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

As we wrap up our coverage of the Paris Olympics, we look back at the images that have come to define women's gymnastics at these games. Betty Okino, an Olympic gymnast & USA Gymnastics National team staff member, joins us to compare the past and present of camaraderie and representation in the sport. Betty talks about the rise of Black gymnasts in the sport, Rebeca Andrade’s reputation, how Suni Lee and Jade Carey help set the tone for friendships at national team camps, and a conversation she had with Oprah about gymnastics. Blind Landing is an award-winning, independently produced podcast hosted by journalist Ari Saperstein. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	And now on being Elizabeth O'Kino of the United States.
0:07.0	35 years ago in 1989, a young genus named Betty O'Kino flew halfway across the world from America to Australia.
0:14.3	Elizabeth mounting with a round-off back-hand spring onto the beam. Betty was representing
0:19.8	the United States at her first international gymnastics competition.
0:23.3	One of the juniors sent here for this competition only 14 years of age.
0:28.6	Betty went up on balance beam and she did something that the commentators were not expecting.
0:33.7	She's performing amongst world-class competition.
0:37.6	Oh, a double twist!
0:42.4	It's a requirement that all gymnas have to do some kind of spin on the balance beam, but when you're four feet off the ground, turning on a surface, it's only a few inches wide, a lot can go wrong. Most people do just a full turn. So the commentators
0:56.0	were surprised to see someone do a double turn. That was a really hard
0:59.8	skill and still today it's pretty uncommon. Now that's original, that'll certainly give her bonus.
1:06.0	But here's a thing.
1:08.0	Betty didn't do a double turn.
1:10.0	Betty did a triple.
1:12.0	Pirouette with three turns.
1:14.0	Amazing stuff.
1:16.0	It was so surprising and she was so fast
1:20.0	that the commentators only realized it happened on the replay.
1:23.4	I'm left speechless after that performance.
1:25.8	She would be one of the few girls in the entire world to perform such a movement with three
1:31.0	pirouettes.
1:31.6	Betty wasn't one of the few gymnasts in the world to do it.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Ari Saperstein, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Ari Saperstein and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.