Stars on Sports Intro: It's time for Stars on Sports! A podcast-radio show dedicated to sharing stories about our athletic program at Lansing Community College. LCC athletics has a strong tradition. 24 national championship wins! Over 170 All-Americans! 19 MCCAA All Sports trophies! Stars on Sports will introduce you to individuals that have contributed to our program success and give you the backstory on what it takes to develop it. We'll also dive into and break down the topics and issues facing athletic departments across the nation and right here at LCC. This is Stars on Sports!

Hello and welcome to another episode of Stars on Sports. I'm joined by our assistant athletic director, Stephen Cutter, and our producer, Jereny Robinson. And today, gentlemen, we're going to be talking about a topic that I think consumes the sports world every four years, sometimes in between. But as we record this podcast, the Olympics are taking place in Paris, France, and they're one of my favorite events to follow every four years for the summer and then the winter in between. But in America, you know, NFL football is starting and the baseball deadline is starting. So those still cover, you know, take a big spot of our media today. And in the US, we're starting, you know, as we record this tomorrow, our, our fall sports start. So very exciting. And, you know, that monopolizes our time in the office. But when you have some free time and it's every four years. I like the Olympics, and one of the reasons I like the Olympics is the history. I like sports history. And I believe we owe a lot of our job and our place in society due to history. And I feel we owe it to the, to the Greeks because of, you know, gladiator fighting is one that I always refer back to, like, to the start of sports. And the american gladiators. No, the roman gladiators, real gladiators, which was entertainment back then, too. But it was, it was fighting, it was battling. But the Greeks, you know, the Olympics in 776, and they went for a couple hundred years, and then they took thousands of years off and, you know, brought it back in the late 18.

Hundreds, which is interesting off season right there.

It sure is. And it was, and it was religious purposes is kind of why the Olympics started and then why it stopped. And some would argue sports today is like a religion to people, you know, fanatics, the loyalty. And I think the Olympics, you know, symbolizes all of that. So there's so many interesting angles we could go today or directions. So I just wanted to talk in general and even tie into the Olympics to other things. And I have, you know, a bunch of little facts so you don't have to Google today. I can give you all the things you want to know on the Olympics, but I was actually reading a neat article last week and it talked about, you know, I think she was a professor, but she studied Olympians throughout history. And what made them the highest level, because for the most part, they're the elite athletes for their country, um, in that particular sport. And the, the two things she kind of, you know, specified in the article was, and I know you're going to love the first one, coach, is consistency. They're consistent. And the second one that was intriguing to me is they take a skill, they break it down, they master that skill, and then they go on to the next one. And the skill could be something even like when you're throwing motion and even breaking it down to. She used elbow rotation or something and she thought those were two attributes that helped them become Olympic skill athletes. And I think they're true to what you believe for the most part, especially the consistency part.

Consistency is a superpower, definitely with the athletes. They'll, they won't. You know, as I've watched a little bit of it, there's been a true theme that when they interview the people that have achieved gold medal status, they don't get quite as deep into how they got there. But so they use more general terms and you hear them say often, it's just been a lot of hard work. And that's the more general term that they'll use because I think people across our nations can understand that it takes a lot of hard work to get there, but it's through the consistency. And most of what you're seeing on tv right now didn't happen just that day. It didn't happen a month before. It's been years in the making. And that's what truly having. You know, we've talked about telescope and microscope goals. That's what's what it looks like to truly have long term visions and long term goals. And so it's really special when you see people try to encapsulate what it's taken to get there and it comes back down and you just see your hard work. Hard work, hard work.

Coach, we don't prep this, but, you know, I like talking about things that you and I like think about or cross our minds throughout the week leading into this. And that's crazy you bring that up because that's actually going to be my message to our student athletes on Friday for our formation welcome back day. That excellence, it doesn't start today. It started before they come to LCC's campus. And how soon we forget that, that we just show up and it's there. But there is a lot of hours, and. And we've talked about hard work before, too, and it's more than that. I watched a swimming, um, final this weekend in the Olympics, and, you know, the. The one person was winning the whole way, but on the last stroke in the finish, the other person just had a little more push and beat them by 0.4 seconds, and no one knew who won. You know, the one thought they probably won because they were winning the whole way, but. And that hard work, definitely, and excellence of preparing before that. But I. Some of these are so close. You need other things that take place. So I was watching mountain biking, which I never watched before, and it's incredible. They're riding on these hills and these rocks for an hour and 20 minutes.

Whoa.

And uphill. I mean, the endurance they have. But one lady, she was in second place. She got a flat tire. And they have pit crews because they do like, six laps of this course, and she took fifth because of a flat tire. And so, you know, you put all these. And I think that's what makes the Olympics even a little more special, is because it's four years you got to wait to get another chance at it.

Instead of, you can work really hard and still have adversity hit you, and you might not necessarily get to where you want to get to, but you can still finish and end up in a really good spot. That's the meaning behind hard work does not always equal success.

And we're talking about her today because she had to handle adversity. She didn't win, and she did, and she still took fifth. But even breaking down the sports, you know, how, you know, we've talked about separators before and even learning about the. I don't know, all these sports, you know, interesting. Sprinting, wrestling, and chariot racing have been in every Olympics. In the winter Olympics, skating, fencing, and artistic gymnastics are also sport, I think, that have been in every Olympics. But even swimming, which I, you know, we don't have at LCC, but I had at the high school I was at, I learned that when they do the turn, they go deep, they get away from the wake so they can get farther out. And just little things like that that they've studied and all the cameras underwater that you can now, you know, the technology in these sports. You mentioned technology before we got on the podcast on one of those sport that you watch that, you know, that doesn't help them perform better, but maybe they don't have to reach over and get the ping pong ball. So, you know, it's interesting learning. That's a neat thing, I think there's 35 sports, 400 events, I think. But it's interesting learning some of those sports we might not be as familiar with that other countries are, are pretty good at the one I was going to bring up. That's really intriguing to me that, you know, Jereny and I talked about rugby.

Yeah.

Before the podcast today. And I think that's a sport that, coming from the Olympic, that the US might try to be better at moving forward.

Oh, they. The girls are there. Yeah.

It's even. I think rugby's at the NJCA level. I think, you know, it's a sport. It's an emerging sport or a sport that, that is growing. I know some high schools in the state of Michigan have it as a club sport, so the Olympics and bring attention to that. Another one for me is handball, which is like a combination of soccer, basketball, hockey, and the european countries are really good at it and people are mad that the US isn't good at it. And I remember playing it in PE class when we were little. We would play it for like a couple weeks. So, like, you get three dribbles and you gotta pass it and you gotta shoot it from like outside the three.

Point line, you know, but amazing jumping, I love it.

Yeah. And jumping, and it's amazing. But a lot of people are mad that the Americans aren't any better in that sport. Have you watched that one at all? Have you seen that one?

No. That's good.

Which one have you watched, cutter?

Well, I've watched some table tennis, I believe it's called. I call it. I call it ping pong. And you were hitting on it a little bit. They have an automatic ball feeder that pops up on the table. I was extremely intrigued by that because the guy that was pushing the button, that was running, it had no facial expressions or anything, so he just pushed and boom.

Doing a job.

Watch some swimming and watched some gymnastics. And that's kind of where the hard work themes came in. I know I've studied Olympians for quite a long time just because they are typically all high performers and they've typically had to do whatever sport that they're doing. They've done it for a super long time. And their journey looks so much different than the average person's journey in that sport. And so it's just always intriguing to see what that looks like. And, of course, there is hard work, there's consistency, there's an extreme dedication to whatever they're doing. And their identity and belief system really is wrapped up into whatever that is that they're doing. And it's pretty special to just dive into it and try to understand how. How they're processing things, because it's so much different than what an average person is processing in a day.

Yeah. And I agree. They are high level athletes. And, you know, some stories get of countries, like, I think of Jamaica having a bob slut team. You know, that is a little outside their comfort zone of what their country can provide. Cool and great. Yeah. Yeah, it is a good movie. But even, you know, us athletes going back and competing for their native country, so, you know, having those opportunities and, you know, so in some team, you know, some countries only have one athlete. Some have, you know, some, you know, I saw somewhere which I thought kind of downplayed the Olympics with a person that never did that event before with participating in that event. So I. You know, because it is. When I think of Olympics, I think of the highest level athletes had been blurred between amateurism and professional athletes over a long time. Actually, that. That topic has inputted journey. What have you watched in the Olympic third? What stand out?

I'm happy y'all came to me, man. So events that I became, like, eight years ago, I became a big Olympic fan. So sevens rugby's men and women are amazing. I watched America do they thing and come back and beat Australia, which was super upset at the last second. Got the ball, she broke free, ran all the way down the whole field to score, and people became in tears. It was great. Fencing is amazing.

One that they didn't.

Every Olympic skill level is crazy. Just watching people parry and then hit them, I'm like, oh, that's cool. Three v three basketball. That is good because it's like, anybody can win. Cause it's so fast and nonstop. Like, after they make a shot, you have to get the ball yourself and then pass it out. And the clock starts right away. It's only a 15 2nd. 15 2nd shot clock. So as soon as they get the ball. So I got to watch China beat France, which was, like, kind of an upset, but, like, it was just. It came down to the last second shot, and she shot it, made the two. It was good. So it's a couple skateboarding, too. I saw that America took bronze and silver, and this guy from Japan did a trick at the last second to get the gold.

And again, that's the neat thing about the Olympic, though, those upsets that we talk about in all sports. But I think it means more because of what's on the line. It's for your country, which is the highest honor, and it's every four years. So it's not like you can come back next year and try and redeem yourself or something. You gotta wait four years, which a lot changes. I mean, there's some young olympians I want. I don't know, I didn't look up what the youngest Olympian was at the. But it's probably like 14 or 15 in there. I think there was a ping pong player that was 50 that was playing, and she was good.

You know, when a rugby women, she was about in her forties and she was retiring that year.

But I'm just saying, though, that four year difference can make a big deal that is not guaranteed coming back. Time breakdancing is a new sport. I don't know if it started yet. We were talking to coach Ingram, our basketball coach, before we came here, and his brother in law is help, is working with a wrestler that's in the Olympics. And he talked about they get to go to the opening ceremony and then they go train somewhere else that they don't even really. They're one of the last events we talked about. If you're one of the first events that seems like those student athletes can hang around after and watch events, but it's a social thing for them. You know, the Olympic village started in 1924 in Paris, and it, you see a lot of, you know, relationships and connection that developed by them hanging out in the Olympic village. I saw a woman us athlete show all the clothes she got, and it was unbelievable. I want to say they're like. I wouldn't say, I want to say 20 outfits was low for what I saw. Again, they're at the highest level, so they've earned and deserved. They don't get paid a lot to.

Be a lot changed where they just used to go on wheaties boxes.

Well, the first Olympians were naked, so we. Our uniforms have come a long way in society.

Wow.

Yeah, they performed naked. So, you know, the Paralympics started in 1948. Soldiers did it for like, rehab. You got the X Games that the Olympics. But a lot of things that have spanned off, especially the different sports and such, to participate, and they change sports every four years, which kind of. I can't. It's hard to follow. You know, add some. Like, we talked about break dancing.

Yeah.

And such. But do you have a favorite historical memory? Of the Olympics?

Well, I think, I really think of two things. When, when you ask that question, I, watching the successful ones at the Olympics, I believe that life kind of favors the devoted. And so you see the, the outcomes of that. When we talk about favorite moments in olympic history. I think of the hockey team beating Russia, and there's been movies that have played off of that, and the speech has floated around for a long time. So I think about, like, stuff like that. I think about Summer Olympics and people like Carl Lewis.

You're going.

You're right on with Mike and stuff like that. They become such a big piece of history that it just gets told and told and told.

Yeah, you're right. That's interesting. And it's told every four years because we reflect on it then. So that's a great point, actually. You have any historical, like, growing up.

He'S gonna talk about Ben Johnson.

And I was gonna talk about Usain Bo. Yeah, right. That was just watching him to run like it was a must see tv when he stepped on the track. And the fact he dominated everything he did made it so cool.

Kind of like Michael Phelps.

Yeah, yeah.

Michael Phelps has the most olympic medals at 23.

Well, didn't he win eight one year?

I think he did. Yep. Yep.

Yeah. And that's a whole, that's potentially another thing to talk about, because if you pay attention to these people that are competing, be getting a bronze or a silver to them is still failure. And then to some, getting a bronze or silver is just absolutely incredible to their country, to them, to their sport. So it's, it's really wild. It comes down to where their standards are or where their standards have been set for them by others.

Yeah, that's a great point. And again, they put a lot of emphasis on the metal stand. So you do see those people that are related to get silver or bronson, and then you see those people that just are so mad and, you know, not representing well because, you know, it was all in for a gold medal or they were expected to win a gold medal. For me, the miracle on ice is by far in sports moments. And I have a lot of good sports moments. Bringing a Cleveland fan not. But the miracle on ice. I remember listening to it on the radio, but, you know, the 1996 Olympics where they had the bombing in Atlanta. I was born in 1972, but that's the terrorist thing they had there, you know, a lot of political tie ins with the Olympic 1936 Jesse Owens. And so I think that, like you said, kind of history kind of covers that and keeps it in the forefront. Carl Lewis. But you know, I, I'm a track person. I ran track coach track. So the track events are pretty fun for me to watch. And you know, the hundred is now called the, you know, the fastest person on earth race. So I think that whoever, when that event gets heightened, to your point though, the Wheaties box celebration. So I want, you know, certain events or, you know, that lead to more public. But I think the Olympics also, as I mentioned, kind of allude to earlier, some of those sports you don't think of that, you know, like the one yesterday that seemed to be going around with the men gymnast, that was one that did the pommel horse and he just needed to have a steady routine. He's not a, for the US, he's not a all around gym. That's his specialty, the pommel horse, which they don't normally put in the Olympics, but he's that good that they wanted him to be there and he was in the spot where they needed him and he had to do a thing and, and he hit it out of the park. But, um, you know, to your point of, you know, that specialty versus that, you know, jack of all trade thing, then you see a little of that, like Michael Phelps winning in a number event, not just being a sprinter or a distance swimmer, it's hard to, you know, switch domains. But, you know, again, that, that's heightened, I think when they're, when there's, you're at that elite level and there's minimal separators.

Nancy Kerrigan, Greg Lugenis.

Yeah, right. Yeah.

What's the gymnast that's killing it right now? They say her stuff is so difficult that she fail and still got a higher score than people.

Yeah, but that's true in ice skating too, as you mentioned. But, yeah, the level of difficulty and it seemed to, you know, with, with the strength in the conditioning and the technology, how farther along each of these sports are that some of the things they're doing, it's hard to comprehend that they can do it in gymnastics and diving, in skating, even in like bicycling or other sport that, again, I'm just not as familiar with. But it's crazy, the, the performance that they are doing so, you know, and the Olympic, that controversy, you know.

Oh, yeah.

Performance drugs, scoring boycotts. So, you know, nothing is, you know, I do feel it's kind of a microcosm of our society and such. But in the end, you know, a lot of people think, you know, it's about bringing the world together, which you know, we've talked about sports and music. Do you know, the model of the Olympics is faster, higher, stronger. But, you know, sportsmanship is important. You know, countries coming together that, you know, might not normally compete against each other or even get along politically. So I think that helps, you know, the world, you know, understand, you know, come together and say, hey, this is bigger than sport too.

What I like is that it allows for me and like for my, like my son to watch it because in America we get so stuck on these certain sports. I think that the exposure of different sports allow people to understand that they can do something different and still be great because like you may not be the fat, you might be a decent sprinter, but your speed might be amazing on a rugby field. You know what I mean? So like, I, it transfers to different things. So if you give, if you just think, oh, I just want to be NBA player, you're done. Like one of the volleyball players was a high, a gold medal, high jumper, but he did beach volleyball this year and killing it. So like, you can, you can do different stuff and not be putting one to box and your athleticism still can transfer somewhere else.

And it is about athleticism. I mean, we've talked about that. We talked about coaches. If you're a good coach, you can coach pretty much any sport. And most athletes that have that natural ability, like back to my handball argument, the one radio person doesn't do, why don't the twelve people that make the Olympic team for basketball put them on the basketball team, take the next twelve and make them handball players? You know, why aren't we taking our best athletes and making them? And we see that there's Olympic training facilities all over the country, all over the world. I mean, some countries got a bad rap for starting their kids so young and putting, taking them off and sending them and, you know, almost 24/7 you know, training them to be an Olympic athlete. So, but it is an elite level again, it combines elite level talent with sportsmanship and bringing people together, which is a great partnership for sport. Anything else on the Olympics before we go to our question? All right, good. So we talked, I had two, but because we kind of talked about one before our last podcast.

You always have two.

I have a whole list.

I like them. So I like you talking. I have a ton of topics we can talk about. So hot dog toppings. We kind of had a neat conversation last time before our podcast on the hot dog toppings.

So are we talking like concession stand or are you going to a hot dog?

Oh, this is good hot dog.

So, like, at the ballpark or a hot dog restaurant?

Restaurant.

Okay. Really?

If you want a good hot dog, what are you putting on it?

Hmm. All right. I get looked at first. So it's stages to this hot dog. It's you in a move for a chili cheese dog.

Uh huh.

Cause that's a whole nother category. Certain things you put on, like a chili dog, some onions and mustard. And if you feeling, you know, jiggy enough, you can throw a little ketchup if you want to do. But mustard is good enough for a chili dog. Regular hot dog. I'm a relish man. It's levels. Cause it's a Chicago dog where I can have my green onions levels to it, you know?

And I think our society likes hot dogs. I'm not sure they're good for you. I saw a study out there that hot dogs take years off your life. But. But you're right.

I think there's a good parallel to the hot dogs in the Olympics. Not everybody wants to see what goes into the work and prepared for the Olympics. Not everybody wants to see what goes into.

Right.

Very similar.

It is true. I don't want to know. I prefer all beef hot dogs. But what about you, Cutter? What are you having on your.

Just as journey had said, there's levels, you know, so if we're. There are. Yeah. That's crazy. I find myself with what I do, I'm around a lot more concession stands instead of hot dog shops. You know, I'm at ballparks instead of, you know, the restaurants. And so I think that a hot dog, it really has to have mustard on it. And depending on how much it sat in the warmer and got overcooked, you might have to put some relish on it, too.

But.

But really kind of, you know, no one on ketchup on hot dogs and no on ketchup on brats. I think that you just got to stay away from the ketchup there. Maybe for the fries or something. But. But hot dogs, I mean, there, as it was already said, there are certain levels of hot dogs. There are some really good hot dogs, and then there's just not very good at all.

Well, I'll disagree with you, cutter, because if it's a hot dog, I want ketchup and relish on it. That's my hot dog right there. I'm not a big mustard person, but if I'm going to have a. Just a plain hot dog, I want ketchup and relish on it. If I'm going to have a chili dog, which I really do like chili dogs. So that's a whole nother level and that's a good level. I want chili mustard, cheese and onions on it.

So which then goes into your bun. You know, you want a good bun that support all that stuff too.

Well, that's the dumbest thing. Why are bun packages different than hot dog packages in the numbers? Like eight hot dogs buns but twelve hot dogs, you know, it doesn't seem like they ever line up. Is that true? That seem right.

Great question.

I don't have an answer for it. I didn't research that, but, and breasts are a whole nother category. That's like a high level hot dog. But sports world is. I don't even think it is. It's not a hot dog. It's not a hot dog.

Actually, it's an upgraded hot dog.

You make x dollars a year. You can eat brats.

But, you know, I was listening to a podcast this week that the, a pro baseball team had like dollar dog day and the line was long and you had a limit of six dogs. But, you know, but how people just gravitate towards because they think it's a deal where you still could get them cheaper at the store for twelve, but there were still people buying the premium. They were smaller hot dogs, you know, than their premium, one that caused like $6 at a, at a pro store. But there are still people that didn't want to fight the line that were going to get the premium dog, but people were just buying the heck out of the cheap dog cause they thought it was such a great deal. So my point is, in sports world, a hot dog is a big food topic for us. So I thought that's why. Anything else to add on a hot dog? All right, we'll get my next question next time, then. So until next time, go stars.

Stars on Sports Outro: Stars on Sports is recorded live at the WLNZ studios. Engineering and production assistance are provided by Daedalian Lowry and Jereny Robinson. You can listen to this episode and other episodes of Stars on Sports on demand at LCCconnect.org to find more information about our athletic program, visit LCCstars.com thanks for listening. Go Stars!