Transcript

Ilia Malinin’s historic Olympics, Chloe Kim’s silver and Wisconsin’s influence on the games

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· 27 min · 4,949 words · 60 timestamped sections

This is the full, timestamped transcript of "Ilia Malinin’s historic Olympics, Chloe Kim’s silver and Wisconsin’s influence on the games", an episode of NPR published February 13, 2026 (27 min, about 4,949 words). It mentions 16 people, works and ideas, including Khloe Kim, Scott Hamilton, Gown Choy, University of Wisconsin Madison, NPR.

What this episode is about

This analysis covers the emotional journey of snowboarder Chloe Kim as she narrowly misses Olympic history, the potential shift in her career, and the impact of Wisconsin athletes on the success of the US women's hockey team. Additionally, it features insights from former Olympic champion Scott Hamilton on the importance of maintaining the Olympic spirit above political discussions during the games, alongside milestones achieved in men's curling, including the participation of the oldest American competitor in Winter Olympic history.

Who speaks in this episode?

What is discussed, and when

  1. – 5:00: Khloe Kim, Gown Choy, NPR, Breezy Johnson
  2. – 10:00: Jesse Diggins, Khloe Kim, Gown Choy, University of Wisconsin Madison
  3. – 15:00: NPR, Mark Johnson, PWHL, Alon's Travel Insurance
  4. – 20:00: Ilia Malinin, Scott Hamilton
  5. – 27:21: Scott Hamilton

Notable quotes from "Ilia Malinin’s historic Olympics, Chloe Kim’s silver and Wisconsin’s influence on the games"

  • All right, congratulations to the happy couple. US Halfpipe star Khloe Kim was chasing history Thursday, aiming for a record- setting third gold medal, but in the end, it was…
    about Khloe Kim · at
  • Lays down this amazing run. It looked like maybe she had it in the bag right out of the gate. Then Gown Choy, this young 17-year-old challenger, comes in and actually falls on two of her runs.
    about Gown Choy · at
  • Pain than Jesse was showing in that moment. And so clearly those ribs were just killing her and she still managed to grab that bronze medal. It was remarkable.
    about Jesse Diggins · at
  • It's in their blood. King Gustaf of Sweden was in the stands for the competition this week. That's how big this is back in the Scandinavian countries. And so what you're seeing…
    about King Gustaf · at
  • We're talking about athletes from the University of Wisconsin Madison. There are six players this year, current and former athletes at the Badgers that are in Milan. And there's just WMadison has a powerhouse women's hockey program.
    about University of Wisconsin Madison · at
  • Want to play on the same ice that these highlevel athletes have played. And their coach, Mark Johnson, has Olympic experience, too. He was key to the 1980 Miracle on Ice game, scoring two goals to beat the heavily favored Soviet team.
    about Mark Johnson · at
  • Which is based out of Minneapolis and St. Paul, they also have six players on the ice in Milan. And the Seattle Torrent, which is Knight's home professional team, they have…
    about Hillary Knight · at
  • He's going for gold Friday in the men's long program. He's in first place after the short program. And joining us now is 1984 figure skating gold medalist and NBC Olympic host…
    about Scott Hamilton · at

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

People

  • Khloe Kim — Person · Primary subject (featured athlete) · 6 mentions · first at
    Central storyline: the U.S. halfpipe star misses a historic third gold, discusses pressure and possible retirement while 'passing the torch' to a younger rival.
  • Scott Hamilton — Person · Main guest (interviewee) · 4 mentions · first at
    Provides expert commentary on figure skating scoring, Ilia Malinin's dominance, the backflip history, and his view that the Olympics should be above politics.
  • Gown Choy — Person · Referenced athlete (rival / new champion) · 4 mentions · first at
    Portrayed as the 17-year-old challenger who wins gold over Khloe Kim, symbolizing a 'changing of the guard' and a mentorship/friendship dynamic.
  • Jesse Diggins — Person · Referenced athlete (news segment subject) · 4 mentions · first at
    Her bronze medal performance despite rib injury is used to illustrate toughness and the broader strength of the U.S. cross-country ski team.
  • Ilia Malinin — Person · Referenced athlete (topic of expert analysis) · 2 mentions · first at
    Discussed as the leading contender for Olympic gold in men's figure skating; used to explain scoring margins, technical evolution, and the backflip.
    Probably going to be pretty good. the margins of victory that Ilia Malin has had over the last three years is over 40 points. And he won the Grand Prix final this last…
  • Breezy Johnson — Person · Referenced athlete (news segment subject) · 2 mentions · first at
    Highlighted for winning gold and getting engaged during the Games; her proposal goes viral and draws a congratulatory note from Taylor Swift.
    Boyfriend, or as she's now calling him, ex-boyfriend Connor Watkins, waiting for her with a ring. She said yes, so she's leaving these games with a gold medal and a blue…
  • Mark Johnson — Person · Referenced coach (program driver) · 1 mention · first at
    Explains why UW–Madison produces Olympians: he has Olympic pedigree (1980 Miracle on Ice player; later Team USA coach) and builds athlete confidence.
  • Ben Ogden — Person · Referenced athlete (team progress example) · 1 mention · first at
    Cited as a breakthrough for U.S. men's cross-country skiing with a silver medal in a sprint—first U.S. male podium in 50 years.
    Team. Remember, it was Jesse Diggins who broke a long drought for medals for the US. And during these games, Ben Ogden from Vermont, he captured a silver medal in a sprint…
  • Hillary Knight — Person · Referenced athlete (example in analysis) · 1 mention · first at
    Used as a prominent example of Wisconsin Badgers-to-Olympics pipeline: a five-time Olympian who played at UW–Madison.
  • Connor Watkins — Person · Referenced person (non-athlete in story) · 1 mention · first at
    Appears in the Breezy Johnson segment as the proposer/fiancé (called 'ex-boyfriend' in a joking way) tied to the viral engagement moment.
    Filed this report. Alpine skier Breezy Johnson fell during her Super G race yesterday, but she picked herself up, dusted herself off, and got back down to the finish line where…
  • Taylor Swift — Person · Referenced celebrity (cultural tie-in) · 1 mention · first at
    Mentioned because Connor Watkins used a lyric from her song 'The Alchemy' in the proposal, and Swift publicly congratulated the couple.
    Proposed with a wooden etching of a Taylor Swift lyric from the song The Alchemy. and after their proposal went viral, Swift herself offered her congratulations. For anybody…
  • King Gustaf — Person · Referenced dignitary (audience/importance signal) · 1 mention · first at
    Mentioned to emphasize how culturally central cross-country skiing is in Scandinavia—royalty attends in person.

Companies & orgs

  • University of Wisconsin Madison — Company · Key contributor · 1 mention · first at
    Noted for its strong women's hockey program that has produced multiple Olympic athletes, contributing significantly to the US women's hockey team's success.
  • NPR — Company · Media coverage · 4 mentions · first at
    Provides coverage and reporting on the Olympic events, including interviews and analysis of the competitions and athletes.
    That's Wisconsin Public Radio's Jenny Peak. Thanks, Jenny.
  • PWHL — Company · Emerging league · 1 mention · first at
    Mentioned as a new professional women's hockey league that represents a growing platform for female athletes beyond collegiate and Olympic play.
    That way. One other thing I would add that I think is kind of interesting is that, the women's professional hockey league, the PWHL, only was founded in 2023. And so that…

Sponsors

  • Alon's Travel Insurance — Product · Sponsor · 1 mention · first at
    Sponsored the podcast segment, providing travel insurance services, mentioned in the context of supporting adventurous activities.
    Support for Upf First Winter Games comes from NPR sponsor Alon's Travel Insurance. Get ready to give ordinary the cold shoulder with protection for adventures that give you the best kind.

Full transcript with timestamps

Heartbreak in the halfpipe for US snowboarder Khloe Kim. The two-time Olympic champion falls just short of making Olympic history. What she's saying about a possible retirement. Could this be the last winter games for one of the titans of the sport? Khloe talked about passing the torch. And if Khloe keeps competing, she's going to be facing these young, really dynamic athletes who are bringing big moves, big new techniques. So, we're just going to have to see what Khloe decides to do. US women's hockey has dominated the competition so far these games. So, what is their secret? Might it be the bunch of Badgers on the team? We'll explain.

And my conversation with former Olympic figure skating champion Scott Hamilton. When I see, you know, athletes trying to make some sort of political statement, it's like, take the day off. You know, we're above that, right? The Olympic movement is above politics. There's going to be problems in the world always. There always has been. There always will be. And if you got a voice, use it. Whatever you want to do is fine. But I do think for the 16 days of the Olympic Games, let's celebrate the world coming together in peace and harmony. I'm Martinez and this is Up First Winter Games.

It's Friday the 13th, the day Americans like to blame for bad luck. But did you know that in Italy it's Friday the 17th that gets the side eye? So at least our team in Italy won't have to worry next week. All right, so here's what you need to know. In men's curling, the US team could not recover after a slow start against Switzerland. The squad led by Jenzir Danny Casper, however, did manage to make history during the game. Rich Ruinan became the oldest American at 52 to compete in a Winter Olympics event. He's a personal injury attorney from Minnesota and started curling in the fifth grade. Now, in case you're wondering, the oldest American to ever compete in any Olympics was 71-year-old archer Thomas Scott. That was way back in 1904. And in other news, congratulations are in order for Breezy Johnson. Not only has she won a gold medal already these games, but she's now got some new bling. NPR's Rachel Trezman

filed this report. Alpine skier Breezy Johnson fell during her Super G race yesterday, but she picked herself up, dusted herself off, and got back down to the finish line where she saw her boyfriend, or as she's now calling him, ex-boyfriend Connor Watkins, waiting for her with a ring. She said yes, so she's leaving these games with a gold medal and a blue engagement ring. He also proposed with a wooden etching of a Taylor Swift lyric from the song The Alchemy. Um, and after their proposal went viral, Swift herself offered her congratulations. For anybody worried that this has upstaged Breezy Johnson in any way, fear not. She later said that she had dropped plenty of hints that she actually wanted to get engaged at the Olympics.

All right, congratulations to the happy couple. US Halfpipe star Khloe Kim was chasing history Thursday, aiming for a record- setting third gold medal, but in the end, it was another young star that took home the gold. NPR's Brian Man is in Cortina. Brian Khloe Kim has millions of fans all over the world. They were really hoping that she could set this record. Uh did not fell short. What happened?

Well, you know, it's that moment when history collides with what actually goes on out there on the Olympic playing field. And that's what makes this so dramatic. So, what happens is that Khloe Kim comes in and lays down this amazing, powerful, confident first run. And the way this sport works on the halfpipe, they get three runs, they take the best points of the three. And so Khloe Kim lays down this amazing run. It looked like maybe she had it in the bag right out of the gate. Then Gown Choy, this young 17-year-old challenger, comes in and actually falls on two of her runs.

Fell so hard that it appeared at one point she might have to actually drop out. But she came back. She laid down one final run. She had this shot where she was powerful, graceful, and nailed it. Then the moment came where Khloe had her final shot, one more run to see if she could top what Gown had done and she fell. And so in the end after all of that back and forth, this was Gown's moment and uh Khloe had to settle for silver. Yeah, it's still pretty good though. Silver is still an excellent, incredible achievement. But as I mentioned earlier, the world really wanted or at least most of the world wanted to see Khloe Kim see if she can make that record setting performance happen with a third gold medal. Um, do you think that she was feeling any of that outside pressure for her to win?

You know, she talked about that pressure. She's one of the superstars at these games. That history moment was definitely in the air, but she also pushed back against that quite a bit. She talked about wanting to get to the joy of snowboarding, wanting to just feel, you know, the thrill of competition. And I have to say a I've been covering winter sport for a long time and I've seen a real shift in the psychology of these athletes. It used to be do or die, especially for an athlete at Khloe's level. It was gold or nothing. Uh incredible psychological pressure and heartbreak if they fell short, but there's been a shift toward athletes really focusing on their process, taking their best runs. And you've heard Khloe talking about that here. Uh she says she's felt amazing about this. And and as you say, to be clear, this is a remarkable achievement.

She was best in the world two Olympics in a row. In this third Olympic, she takes silver. That's an amazing feat for an athlete. Khloe Kim was 17 when she won her first gold medal. Now, Gown Choy is 17, winning this gold medal. It kind of feels like a changing of the guard, and sometimes that rubs people the wrong way, especially the one that seems to be on the way out. Uh, what do you know about Khloe Kim and Gown Choy as far as their competitiveness and maybe a friendship?

You know, the winter sports world is really small and and so these athletes know each other and these two are are really close. Uh, Gown and Khloe have trained together. They've been friends. Khloe has mentored Gown through the years and you could see that energy uh in this competition and afterward. Uh afterward, Gown said that Khloe had joked to her or said to her that maybe it was now the opportunity for her to retire. We don't know how serious that was, but speaking publicly after this competition, uh Khloe talked about passing the torch. And so that is a moment we're clearly seeing here. If if Khloe keeps competing, she's going to be facing these young, really dynamic athletes who are bringing big moves, big new techniques. So, we're just going to have to see what Khloe decides to do.

All right. Now, shifting gears to cross-country skiing. Jesse Diggins. I know you spent time with Jesse Diggins. Uh, she captured the bronze medal on Thursday. This coming after she injured her ribs. You were there, Brian. Um, you think that injury might have affected Diggins in any way?

Oh, it was it affected her from start to finish in this race. I was positioned right at the finish line. Was able to watch throughout on the jumbotron how she was racing. But in the final meters of this race, she was struggling. You could see real agony on her face. She was skiing almost like a a hockey player, just grinding through the snow, pitched forward, face down afterward. One of her fellow athletes went to help her afterward. told me uh in the mix zone later that she had been in EMT uh in in her past life and she'd seen people with broken bones uh showing less pain uh than Jesse was showing in that moment. And so clearly those ribs were just killing her and she still managed to grab that bronze medal. It was remarkable.

Yeah, she was wincing too. I mean you could see it. I mean I almost put myself in her spot to imagine what that must have been like. Just absolutely brutal to watch. All right. So, outside of Diggins though, the US cross country ski team. How's it shaping up?

You know, this has been a really solid Olympics for the US cross country ski team. Remember, it was Jesse Diggins who broke a long drought for medals for the US. And during these games, Ben Ogden from Vermont, uh, he captured a silver medal uh, in a sprint race. This was the first time in 50 years that we've seen a man from the US climb the podium. So really an astonishing moment there. One thing that I think is important to say though, especially to sort of US audiences that don't follow cross country that closely is that for Scandinavian teams, this is sort of like their version of US football. Cross country skiing. It's in their culture.

It's in their blood. Uh King Gustaf of of Sweden was in the stands uh for the competition this week. That's how big uh this is back in the Scandinavian countries. And so what you're seeing this American team try to do, this US team try to do is really play their game at their level. There's huge progress during these games. They're not quite there yet, but we're seeing some breakthrough moments.

All right, that's NPR's Brian Man in Cortina. Brian, thanks a lot. Thanks, A. The USA women's ice hockey team looks like a strong contender for the gold medal game. And at least some of their strong teamwork might come from the fact that many of these players have shared the ice with each other before as teammates who have come from the same college programs. Jenny Peak is here from Wisconsin Public Radio because there are a lot of Badgers on the US women's team this year. So Jenny, what accounts for that?

Yeah, that's right. And not the animal. We're talking about athletes from the University of Wisconsin Madison. There are six players this year, current and former athletes at the Badgers that are in Milan. And there's just WMadison has a powerhouse women's hockey program. They've won more championships than any other college women's hockey team in the nation. So, it's just like in their blood.

Yeah. And you also are a WMadison grad, right? Yes, I am. All right. So, you know the place very, very well. I mean, what is it about the place though that turns out so many hockey Olympians?

Yeah, so they've really built a reputation for turnurning out Olympic level athletes. Take Hillary Knight for instance, five-time Olympian. She played at WMadison from 2007 to 2012. It makes young players want to go there. They want to play on the same ice that these highlevel athletes have played. And their coach, Mark Johnson, has Olympic experience, too. He was key to the 1980 Miracle on Ice game, scoring two goals to beat the heavily favored Soviet team. He also coached Team USA at the 2010 Olympic Games in Vancouver, and they won silver. So, like, he knows how that magic works. I talked to some of the players and they said he just really works on building their confidence. He tells them to minimize the noise, focus on the game. There's a lot going on in the Olympics and they just really like key in and focus on what's going on. So once it once a program really leads the way, I think it draws a lot of people

that way. One other thing I would add that I think is kind of interesting is that, you know, the women's professional hockey league, the PWHL, only was founded in 2023. And so that collegiate and Olympic level play is really the pinnacle for a lot of these athletes. And so I think they want to go somewhere where they know that they're going to play some of the best hockey of their lives. And that's happening at these campuses like WMadison, the University of Minnesota, Boston College, Northeastern. So I think that's another big draw.

Yeah. You mentioned uh Minnesota because Team USA is all about Badgers. There are some Gophers mixed in there, too.

Yeah. So the University of Minnesota has five players playing on the Olympic team with ties to the Gophers. That's their mascot. And Northeastern and Boston College also each have four athletes. And then when you take it to the pro level, I was talking about the PWHL a little bit ago, the Minnesota Frost, which is based out of Minneapolis and St. Paul, they also have six players on the ice in Milan. And the Seattle Torrent, which is Knight's home professional team, they have four athletes in Milan. So, a lot a lot of players from a lot of these like highbrow teams over there.

Yeah. How much does it matter that they have so much experience playing with each other, playing, practicing with each other?

Yeah. So, I talked to three of the Badger Olympians that are current Badgers and in Milan, and they really talked about built-in chemistry. So, they practice every day. They're on the ice together. They know the moves that their teammates are going to make. They know what hypes them up. They know how to calm them down. Kirsten Sims, who scored a goal in that Canada game the other day, she said that it's like bringing a little bit of home with her to Milan. And I thought that was really cool. like what a way to calm down those nerves when you're competing on such a stage. There's also this built-in rivalry. So, you we tal we've talked about the Gophers and the the W Madison Badgers and the University of Minnesota Gophers are like very much in a heated rivalry and we call it the border battle here. You know, in like pretty much every collegiate sport there's like this intense rivalry between those two

schools, but especially so in hockey. And then, interestingly enough, this rivalry was actually a huge issue in the 1980 Miracle on Ice game. They had athletes from the University of Minnesota and Boston College. And at the time, these teams hated each other. Like, didn't want to even be in the same locker room together. And so, they came together to win gold. And obviously, I think that that's the goal for these young women athletes as well. Although they did mention that a lot of them have been playing together since they were little kids. And so despite them maybe playing for different college teams or different pro teams across the nation, I really do think that uh they feel a little bit more like friends than maybe this Miracle on Ice team did.

Now, as far as uh the quarterfinals, that's where we are right now with women's hockey. Uh what's the vibe like on the campus at WMadison?

Yeah, so I mean this is a sports town. It's a college town. people get really excited about the Badgers, about Badger Vibes across the nation. So, so far it's been a little bit quiet, but now that we're in this knockout series, I think that we can expect a lot of celebration. And I talked to the head coach when I was doing some reporting, John Releski, and he said that just the tremendous fan base here in Madison is another big draw for these athletes to come here and compete. And I think we'll be showing up for them just as we're expected to.

That's Wisconsin Public Radio's Jenny Peak. Thanks, Jenny. Thanks so much. E, go Badgers.

Support for Upf First Winter Games comes from NPR sponsor Alon's Travel Insurance. Get ready to give ordinary the cold shoulder with protection for adventures that give you the best kind of chills. Learn more at alonsrains insurance.com. The quad god, American figure skater Ilia Molinin, is one step away from cementing his place in Olympic history. He's going for gold Friday in the men's long program. He's in first place after the short program. And joining us now is 1984 figure skating gold medalist and NBC Olympic host Scott Hamilton. So Scott, I mean, who has the best chance possible, if it's possible, to catch Malin at this point?

Well, it's it's up to Ilia, honestly. I mean, you know, if you're up against Ilia Malanin and he has a five-point lead after the short program, you're thinking to yourself, okay, Silver's probably going to be pretty good. You know, uh the the margins of victory that Ilia Malin has had over the last three years is over 40 points. And he won the Grand Prix final this last December. He was third in the short program and was way behind Yuma Kagayyama who is his biggest rival and he ended up winning the competition by over 30. So, you know, it's a it's a pointsbased system and I and for you know people that don't you it's really hard to understand point totals and how they get there and everything. So, if you're a football fan and you see that there was a three-point victory that came down that could have come down to the last second of the game, right? True. Wow.

So that's really tight. If it's a sevenpoint victory, that means that one team had a distinct advantage over another. Ilia Malin and won Skate Canada by 74 points.

Wow. No, no, no. I mean, these kind of numbers have never really happened before. I think if you're going to try to beat Ilia Malinin and you're going into the long program, you're going to need about a 30 plus point lead. Scott, when you were competing back in the day, I mean, what was considered the hardest thing to do on the ice?

Uh, that's when the Brians were doing triple axle and Fedev was doing triple axle as well,

but you know, but then triple axle, three and a half revolution jump. Brian Orser was the first one to really land at Swish. Um, it was 81 worlds.

I was in third place going into the long program and uh I skated uh very close to the end. Uh, I might have been the last one to skate, maybe. I don't remember. But anyway, I knew that he was going to do triple axle and nobody at that point had seen a beautiful one. And when I tell you that Brian Orser's triple axle was perfect, it was perfect. So, I I had to find a stairway where I wouldn't hear the applause when he hit it cuz I just didn't want that to be in my psyche.

And so, I found this empty stairway that was going up and down in the back of the building. And I was in there. I was like LA and I HEARD WOW.

So how does that happen? How how does this evolution happening? Is it just training? The athletes are getting better. How what's what's the main reason?

Um I think a lot of it happens because um coaches know that they'll need that little extra. When I learned how to skate, it was up and in. Right.

Up and in. Okay. Right. So you jump up in the air and then you start rotating. Well, Iliam Malanin is rotating the second his feet leave the ice and the physics of that I think gives him a second up because it gives him that height. It just the rotation of it carries him in the air.

Yeah. And it's almost like he's he's suspended there. It's almost like he's defying gravity.

Well, he's got to start the spin early though, doesn't he? I mean, to get all the second the second his feet leave the ice, he's rotating. If I would have learned triple axle, how they're teaching it today, totally would have had it.

Now, Scott, one of the things that you two have in common is the backflip. Um, Mullin does a backflip. You did a backflip.

Thousands. Yeah. Give it give us a history of the backflip because I mean, it's still I know it's been done before, but it's still impressive every time I see it. Well um it's funny that uh there's this guy in the 1940s, his name was Skippy Baxter, and he was really good. He was really talented. He could do anything. And from the way the story is told, um he said, "You know what? I bet if I go backwards really fast and stick my toe in the ice, I could get over on a backflip."

And so he did that. And he got over on a backflip. He did his last backflip at 70 years old.

70 years old. A backflip. Wow. And when I turned pro in 1984, I joined the ice capes. I um I started working with a gymnastics coach. He taught me how to get over in a backflip. And then some of the ice show skaters um would tie a towel around my waist and they would spot me going up and down in this flip until my body learned the motion.

And I remember I was in Salt Lake City the first night of my second year of ice capes. And I put the backflip at the beginning of the program because I didn't want to do it on tired legs cuz I didn't want to like land on my head.

Smart. That's really smart. Well, you know, so I come around, I'm building up speed. Nobody ever saw me do anything like that before. And the adrenaline was flowing so thoroughly that I I I went up in the backflip and it felt like it was in the air for 20 minutes. It just wouldn't come down. And a second my feet hit the ground, the reaction was so outrageous that I said, I am never leaving the house without one of these bad boys in my in my suitcase. So for the next 19 years, I did back flips in my programs and on the ice. And a lot of people think I invented it. You know, Terry Kabika did it in the 76 Olympics and got marked down. You know, he got penalized for it. And there's a lot of people like um you know,

why was why was that penalized? I mean, it's one of the most amazing things that anyone could ever see on the ice. Why is that something that's been like taboo for so long? Well, I I was a delegate at the ISU Congress one year and the newly elected president of the ISU said, "Okay, I'm going to take some questions and and I I raised my hand." He said, "What's your question?" I said, "Why are back flips illegal in competition?"

Now, he's a short track speed skating official, so I I know that it was not probably a fair question.

And he stared at me for probably five seconds. And then he said, "Next question, please." I like, "Okay, I'll sit down."

Did he ever give you an answer? Did you ever get an answer? No. It was just one of those things where they just felt like it was a carnival trick. I think, you know, the way figure skating, you know, in general, yeartoyear, um, has struggled, you know, building fan base. Um, we could spend two hours on that, but um,

right, it it came down to we need to start giving people more of what they want and what we think will ignite conversation. So,

when you see um, Jookovic watching the men's short program and I does a backflip and he absolutely freaks out, it's like, okay, there's something here to mine. You mentioned giving the fans what they want because a lot of times with uh with skating, it kind of shifts every so often between artistic expression and also just pure athleticism. And here's the thing with artistic expression sometimes it's up to the person seeing it how artistic it is. But when you land a quad, I mean, everyone knows that it's like between, you know, power hitting, hitting a home run and hitting singles. There's a difference, right? One impacts the game more than the other. Uh where do you think that pendulum is right now between artistic expression and athleticism?

Well, I think you know skating by its nature, even the jump elements, they have to be aesthetically attractive, aesthetically beautiful, aesthetically well performed, you know, meaning that they have a takeoff, they have this beautiful rotation that's straight up in the air, and then they toe edge on the right foot, they land, and they present this landing. I've seen too many skaters sort of just blow off their landings and it just it's like really how many times did you fall in that jump to learn it? Now you're just going to like blow it off and go on to the next thing. It's like there's got to be this beautiful um marriage of of aesthetic look like what you're wearing is is important because nothing h can stand out to be jarring or um something that pulls focus, right? So the way that you present your music, the way that you connect your elements through choreography, the steps and the

difficulty and the intricacy, all these things are really important to creating a complete performance.

Scott, one of the things I think everyone feels about you is that you are as about as passionate as the Olympics as any person on the planet. So I need to ask you when you think of the word Olympic, what does that word mean to you? Wow. You know, it's kind of goes back to City of Salius 40. It's faster, higher, stronger. It goes um the Olympics is sort of the one event where all eyes are on the games and you look at um you know the the main qualities of an Olympic games and that is people are watching who may never watch your sport. Right? So the audience is bigger. It's deeper. And then you look at the Olympics as um the world coming together in peace to have friendly competition and a celebration of culture and diversity and all the things that we as human beings should embody like year in year out every single day. But the Olympics showcases all of it. All of it in such a beautiful and powerful way. And when I

see, you know, athletes trying to make some sort of political statement, it's like, take the day off. You know, we're above that, right? The Olympic movement is above politics. There's going to be problems in the world always. There always has been. There always will be. And if you got a voice, use it. Whatever you want to do is fine. But I do think for the 16 days of the Olympic Games, let's celebrate the world coming together in peace and harmony and celebrating youth and excellence and sport and and and it's beautiful and everything about the Olympic movement um is is beautiful. U when I think about what other global governing body could say lay down your arms for the next 16 days and they'll do it. the Olympic movement, you know, because people respect it and they admire it and they want to protect it and they want to make sure that that this movement stays strong and alive and vibrant and influential. You know, I I I

think um the Olympics are so much greater than the sum of its parts, but in that I think it all inspires us to maybe just be a little bit better in whatever capacity, be a little bit more um acknowledging of other people's uh identities and cultures and and it's and it's really an amazing thing that the world can come together and just celebrate life.

That is Scott Hamilton, Olympic champion and NBC host. Scott, thank you very much for the conversation.

Oh, my pleasure. That's up first. Winter games for Friday, February 13th. Don't forget to click subscribe and you can donate to help keep our Olympics coverage going. Just hit the blue button to give today. I'm Martinez. We'll see you right back here Saturday and most days during the Olympic Games. Have a gold medal day.

Questions about this episode

Who speaks in "Ilia Malinin’s historic Olympics, Chloe Kim’s silver and Wisconsin’s influence on the games"?

Martinez (Host), Khloe Kim (Guest), Scott Hamilton (Guest), Brian Man (Guest), Jenny Peak (Guest).

What is "Ilia Malinin’s historic Olympics, Chloe Kim’s silver and Wisconsin’s influence on the games" about?

This analysis covers the emotional journey of snowboarder Chloe Kim as she narrowly misses Olympic history, the potential shift in her career, and the impact of Wisconsin athletes on the success of the US women's hockey team. Additionally, it features insights from former Olympic champion Scott Hamilton on the importance of maintaining the Olympic spirit above political discussions during the…

What is mentioned in this NPR episode?

16 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including Khloe Kim, Scott Hamilton, Gown Choy, University of Wisconsin Madison, NPR, Jesse Diggins. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "Ilia Malinin’s historic Olympics, Chloe Kim’s silver and Wisconsin’s influence on the games"?

The episode runs 27 min; the transcript is about 4,949 words in 60 timestamped sections.

More from NPR

About this transcript: the episode's spoken words as captioned on YouTube, split into timestamped sections. Reclip.Me locates every person, work and idea in the text, keeps the time it is first named, and quotes the words around it verbatim. Last updated February 15, 2026.