Olympics Politics & LA28’s Epstein Problem

22:34John:Right, you know, I mean, again, because I've had a couple best-selling books on figure skating over the years, and I know the people and the characters and have the sources, you know, I've been able to break a lot of the LAML and the news, even little things like he was skating, he was going to skate the short program and the team competition, he was going to skate the long. And I should, I'm not, that doesn't sound very humble, I apologize. But at this point, longevity matters and I'm able to have this. So I do want to, I love covering skating, but I also, I know USA Today wants me to cover skating because I have those contact sources from covering it since really 88 in Calgary.

23:12John:And the Battle of the Bryans, the Battle of the Carmans, Katerina Vitt and Debbie Thomas. So, you know, that's for me fun. And then, yes, as I am hearing from colleagues in the mountains and seeing their posts and knowing how cold it is and they're waiting for a shuttle to get off the mountain and it's late and there's the shuttle and it's dark and they've been writing. And, you know, that being in a city, you can call the Uber, you get back to your hotel. You know, there's just things that I have no trouble being in the city. I'm going to stay an extra day. Maybe I'll hop on a train and just go up to Lake Cuomo just to actually like be in the mountains for an hour or two.

23:47John:but it's okay. I've been fortunate to be here a lot over the years in Europe, so it's fine. I just love the stories. I love to break news. I love to be a part of it. Now, I will say, here's an example of my day. The day that Elia Malanin, unfortunately, had that terrible meltdown on the ice that was Friday night here, wrote, well, I'd written a column that, obviously, as we all had. Eli Malin wins the gold, coronation, where does this place him in history? All of a sudden, he's, of course, fell twice making mistakes. And when he came on the ice, I could see it because I've covered him. I know him.

24:27John:I covered his mom in 98 in Nagano and she's one of his coaches. So I feel like I've been around the Malinins and know him and I could see his face. He just looked so nervous, so opposite of how he'd looked 40 minutes earlier when he came out for the warmup. nervous and shaking his head and trying to deep breath, you know, have deep breaths. I thought, yikes, you know, what is gonna happen here? But, you know, a couple of quads, he'll be fine. Everyone else has been falling. Anyway, so of course we know what happened and it was just a terrible skate for him and shocking, by far the worst performance ever in the Olympics by a big Olympic gold medal favorite.

25:08John:So, you know, that's just tough and he's 21 and he's going to bounce back. And he'll be, you know, obviously he's so honest and introspective. We can actually talk more about him, but just, you know, when you think of how he's handled himself, class, grace, dignity, answering every question, you know, we see people throw their helmets against the locker and, you know, break tennis rackets, throw golf clubs, you know, they have a fit, stalk away, refuse to talk, and they get to play again in a few days or they get to play again in a week or you lose the Super Bowl and you're kicking the cat when you get home.

25:45John:Well, you get a chance to play in the Super Bowl again. It was a shot at it in 52 weeks. Elia Malin has to wait four years, four years. So even more remarkable, his composure and the class and answering every question. It looks you in the eye. He lingers around us. He's willing to answer more questions. It's amazing. Great, great man, man. And anyway, so -

26:08Christine Brennan:I kind of want to ask you a quick question about that because I saw that, like, look, he's a gold medal favorite, you know, and he finished eighth. And, like, I'm a sports fan. I've covered the business of sports. I didn't even think twice about it. It was somebody who, you know, he choked and didn't actually perform. And then I saw his post interview, and it just tore at my heartstrings where he really did speak of just the pressure that he felt and that's been building through the, how long? For the year, the run-up to the games. And that just seemed to me to be sort of a story that many athletes, especially in the Olympics, could talk about.

27:01Christine Brennan:And you surprised me. And he said you noticed it almost immediately just because he wasn't acting himself on the ice. Like, walk me through sort of like that post, I keep saying post-game, but post-skate interview. Like, did it strike you as much as it struck people in America?

27:20John:Oh, absolutely. And in fact, you know, and again, I'm writing so much stuff, but I wrote a column about just how graceful, you know, again, when we see athletes, you know, throw stuff at their locker and refuse to talk and they get to play next week. And this young man, he doesn't get, you know, at this level, he'll have world championships in a month. I mean, he'll have competitions. But the next time he's on such a meaningful stage, John, is four years from now at the Olympics. He's got, and there's no guarantee, right? Injuries. You have no idea. And how he handled himself. Absolutely. You know, from that interview with Andrea Joyce at NBC, which I saw on social media, I mean, he had been on the, well, he had been on the ice probably five minutes after that.

28:01John:because he waited for his scores, saw the devastating scores. He already knew, of course, they were going to be terrible. And then, of course, spent time and hugged the gold medalist, you know, Mikhail Shadorov from Kazakhstan, who he knows well. In fact, last year when Iliot won the gold medal, the world championship in Boston, Shadorov was second, was the silver medalist. So they know each other very well. And he spent incredible time with that, with the gold medalists. I mean, think about that. Just think about that, everybody. He is devastated. He doesn't get another shot at this for four years.

28:39Have we ever seen an athlete be that gracious, like for a tournament or an event that you

28:44John:can play again in a couple of weeks, your next match or your next game or whatever it might be? That was remarkable. Then he immediately purposely went behind the curtains, went right to NBC and answered four questions from Andrea Joyce, honestly, fairly, looking in the eye, no pouting, no complaining. You know, I blew it, he said, honest in every way. And then what he does, to give a little, you know, view behind the curtain, is then there's like a maze-like structure that's set up that's called the mix zone. And that name, kind of weird, but it comes from the idea that we're mixing. The athletes and the journalists are all there.

29:24John:And there's usually a little barrier, a little wall about waist high that they walked through. And it's not like we're, you know, we're, I mean, we're, we're, we can be an inch apart, but we're standing on one side or the other of that. And as the athlete then comes through and runs the gauntlet of all these interviews, he had to do all the TV, the rights holders. So all, you know, European rights holders, you know, Asian rights holders, and just answer question after question after question. then the print quote unquote print uh which includes all the you know the ap and all the reuters and everyone and then uh it works his way to the u.s media amazing he was again kind the answers were uh even more forthcoming by the at the end with the u.s media uh the patience i i know i'm going on and on in a very positive way i don't know i've ever seen anyone handle to feed better in any sport, much less a guy that isn't going to be able to do this for another four years.

30:24John:That's how remarkable he is. He is a terrific young man. And I know there's people out there, John, and I'm not his PR person. Obviously, I'm a journalist. And I wrote very, very honestly about his meltdown on the ice and how significant it was. Of course I did. He's 21, but he's a major, major athlete who's going to get coverage just like I'd cover the NFL or anything else. But, you know, the idea of this man just handling it so beautifully and being so aware and being so kind, it's, I don't think I've ever seen, as I said, anything quite like it. And the honesty there then comes in to play when he starts talking about, in a social media, about the pressure and how hard it is.

31:10John:And he was saying that with us. And then, of course, a couple of days later, the post came as well, where he put that out on Instagram. And I think a lot of people are worried about him. His agent tells me, I know his team very well, as I'm interviewing them, talking to them, checking in with them. He's doing okay. And of course, he's going to skate in the exhibition. Normally, the eighth place person is not asked to skate in the exhibition. That's the gala on Saturday. Usually, it's just the medalist, but they asked him to do it. He's still the most popular skater in the world, and probably even more popular in some ways, certainly more sympathetic now because of what he's been through and getting more followers left and right on social media.

31:50John:And he will then, I'm sure this gala is basically a fun little let your hair down and entertain the audience. Well, we will never see a more important performance. I'll be there covering it than Elia Malanin's gala performance as this is the beginning of his comeback from this very difficult performance that he had.

32:10Christine Brennan:When you say his agent and his team was a little worried about him, what do you mean by that?

32:18John:Oh, well, I was checking in to see, because I think people around the world are worried about him. So, no, they say he's fine, and that's what I've been hearing every step of the way. Right, okay. The agent, the publicist, et cetera. I think people are concerned when they see the posts, like the Instagram post, talking about the battles, talking about the vile social media. But what he's doing there is speaking just as Simone Biles has, Michael Phelps, Naomi Osaka, and really this week. So that was Friday night. And I know we started on this because you were asking me my day. I finally went to sleep at five in the morning because we had our writing, of course.

32:58John:I had to completely write another column on that. Then do a couple of CNN hits. Brian Boitano and I taped a quick hit of our Milan Magic podcast, just audio version that, you know, obviously got tons of hits as we were analyzing it. And then and then more work and then finally made it back to the hotel room to sleep. But that that, you know, clearly, even then the concern was there. But no, he's, as I reported that next day, they canceled all his interviews, obviously. It was going to be a victory tour, right, of media hits. And it was all postponed. And that would have been Saturday. And he was in the village just being around all of the U.S.

33:39John:teammates and everyone, according to my sources. and also that probably getting an Olympic record hugs from everyone around the Olympic village, breaking whatever, I'm teasing, of course, there's no Olympic record for hugs, but for an athlete, because he really, you know.

33:56Christine Brennan:That was my follow-up question, Christine.

33:59John:Right. No, no, no, no. I just kind of made that up as I put that on X. But truly, he has become the story. I mean, the U.S. women, of course, Michaela Schifrin. I mean, of course, U.S. men's, women's hockey. You know, of course, there's many Jordan Stolls. There's many other stories here. But I think because of what we saw with Simone Biles back four and a half years ago in Tokyo, John, you know, this conversation about mental health, that's what I talked to as I'm Good Morning America this morning a little bit before talking to you. That's what, you know, that's the focus. And if that, you know what?

34:33John:I'm a Pollyanna. If there's one kid out there, one young man, one young woman who read Elias Post, who've watched how Elias handled himself, answered those questions, so kind, so polite, taking on the toughest answers and the toughest questions, giving the best, smartest answers, honest about I blew it. And I was, you know, I was lost on the ice, never had that before, understanding just the value, you know, the incredible impact of Olympic pressure. What if that helped one young child, one young person who was really in trouble and they all of a sudden read that post on Instagram from Elia Malin and thought, okay, I, you know, if he can do it, I can do it.

35:12John:If that's helped one person in the world, well, you know, that might be worth a lot more than an Olympic gold medal.

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37:31Christine Brennan:I also want to ask you about, on the other side of the coin, Casey Wasserman. He's the head of LA28. A bunch of his emails showed up in the Epstein files. He's in the process, according to several reports, including the Wall Street Journal and the LA Times, of selling his agency, the Wasserman Agency. And what has struck me is that he was very visible in Milan at the opening ceremony. I was in San Francisco at the Super Bowl. He was also visible there. He attended a lunch at Michael Rubin. Fanatics puts together every single year and was just milling around. I also happened to be at the NBA All-Star Game in Los Angeles, and Casey Wasserman was very visible there.

38:23Christine Brennan:So almost to the point of when I saw his visibility, I thought that he thought that he'd be able to sort of outlast this, like, you know, shrug it off. In your mind, in your reporting, what's the likelihood that when the cauldron is lit, in Los Angeles in 28, that he will still be in the same position that he's in with LA-28.

38:54John:Yeah, it's something where obviously I'm staying on top of and reporting, and I think all of us are. He is not in Milan now. I know he's in Los Angeles. Clearly, media availabilities or things that might have been planned or were in the works aren't happening here for him. Because, of course, the moment that cauldron is uh you know it goes out the light the flame goes out here it's all eyes 100 on la two and a half years from now and um that's that's you know just a big story huge story everything's focused then on the next summer olympics which of course are los angeles which uh the brainchild of and being run by casey wasserman um as as we speak and i you know who knows how things will develop over the course of the next few days and weeks but you know there's the report, the news that Karen Bass, the mayor of Los Angeles, has now called upon Casey Wasserman to resign as president, chair, CEO of various titles of the LA-28 Olympic Games.

39:57John:That's a very significant moment and decision, obviously, and that's big news that the mayor has called on him to resign. She had not done that till a few hours before we're talking here today. So, you know, I don't have a crystal ball, and while people are listening and talking to this and watching it, there may be more news. But that is an incredibly significant moment right there, for sure. A couple weeks ago, there were six at minimum, and that might be the final number, of either L.A. or California officials who were calling on him to resign. And I know that because I asked the question at the U.S.

40:38Olympic and Paralympic press conference, so I was referring to about how they were bending over backwards to be kind to the other nations.

40:45John:And I asked the question about how concerned they were, the USOPC leadership, because clearly they're working in conjunction with LA-28, about Wasserman's emails in the Epstein files, email to Ghislaine Maxwell, back and forth, I guess, a few emails back when he was married. And it was well before, as I understand it, we got to know the horrors and the magnitude of the awfulness and despicable behavior of Epstein and Maxwell. Nonetheless, they're in that trove of documents and the Epstein files at Wasserman. And then also that he had been on the plane, the Epstein plane with the Clintons and others.

41:31John:He had said publicly, Wasserman has, that that was well known beforehand. So I'm just quoting what he has said. But I asked that question. And the USOPC did not specifically answer the question, but they talked all about the successes of LA-28, John, and how things are going and sponsorships and painted a very rosy picture generally of what's happening with LA-28 without answering specifically how concerned they were about Casey Wasserman's name. emails appearing in the Epstein files. So that's what I know. I'm actually not going to speculate any further, but this is a story that clearly is ongoing and we'll be keeping an eye on it closely.

42:20John:And again, there might be a resolution by the time people are, there may or may not, I don't know, of what's going to happen by the time people are listening and hearing us. But just rest assured, clearly we're on it and keeping an eye on it. Because as I said, everything, once the last, That's what, five, six games in these Olympic, five, six days of these Olympics end. It's all eyes on LA-28.

42:41Christine Brennan:Let me ask you what is probably a really naive question. I go back to Casablanca. There's gambling happening here. But, you know, the IOC came out with a strong, I thought it was a strong statement of support for Casey. The LA-28 board voted apparently unanimously to keep Casey. What do you read into that? Obviously, there's some security there, but this is still a situation. Like you mentioned, Karen Bass and the L.A. mayor just on Tuesday, or maybe that was Monday, coming out and saying that he should step down. What do you make of the IOC, the L.A. 28 board's support of Casey Wasserman? Does that sort of, obviously it's helpful, but is it as strong a support as I originally thought it was?

43:34John:you know it didn't surprise me really because um as as casey wasterman himself has said in his statements that he believes strongly again these are his words not mine that the emails show that obviously uh as he said he apologized profusely terrible behavior while he was married um and very embarrassing and, you know, obviously all of the above on the emails to Maxwell, the back and forth that he had with her. But, you know, he has said that had nothing to do with Epstein. He didn't know Epstein. He'd been on the plane once with the Clintons. That is certainly a well-documented humanitarian trip, as I understand it, according to all accounts.

44:21John:So I'm not defending Casey Wasserman and I'm not indicting Casey Wasserman. I'm just saying the facts as they are, clearly then that meant something to his board and to the IOC. I mean, that's what we can surmise as journalists, that they were content, they were satisfied that it was minimal. Now, I'm not in the United States for these three and a half weeks, but I certainly am well aware of what was going on in the United States before with the Epstein files. And I'm, of course, keeping up on the news, John, of what is happening in Congress, and politics throughout the country, throughout England with former Prince Andrew.

45:00John:And so we know, you and I both know what the arc of a story looks like. And the arc of this story is clearly long. And we have no idea where it's ending and where it's going. The president, his role, people clearly, journalists, political journalists covering it. So again, I'm not at all, you know me, I would never shy away from saying what I know, but I also know what I don't know. And what I don't know is how this ends, except for the fact that with a story like this, it just seems to keep going and going. It is not in the sports world. I'm not covering that story. But I'm aware as a human being, as an American, as a journalist, I'm certainly aware of it.

45:45John:And as that story keeps going, then clearly anyone who is involved in it in any way, shape, or form, which Casey Wasserman clearly is, and he says in a very minor way, then that story keeps going. And that's the key question. How does it play out? I'm not going to guess because it is very serious. And as a journalist, I'm going to just let it play out, as I know you will as well. But clearly the story continues. And I'm on it. And I think many of us are on it. So it's a tough, well, the Epstein files and that you just feel, you know, I know we, it goes without saying, John, that we, the survivors, the victims, those who are alive, those who died, that's, that's, you know, that's where your heart is.

46:33John:And that's what, as a human being, you think of all the time, just the incredible awfulness of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell. and how Casey Wasserman fits into that or doesn't, that is playing out in real time as we're seeing. And we'll see how it goes.

46:48Christine Brennan:Christine, I kept you on way too long. You have an ice skating rink that you have to take off to. I can't thank you enough for joining the varsity today. And hopefully I'll see you when you get back. Hopefully your car is not too iced in.

47:04John:That's right. No, John, thank you. Always love talking with you. Thanks so much for the time. and the great questions. Honored to be on with you as always. Thank you.

47:16Christine Brennan:I love talking to Christine Brennan about the Olympics. One of the great things about reporting on the Olympics is you go into it and you have no idea what the actual storylines are going to be. They're always different from the ones that you think going in. And that's what makes covering the Olympics so different than really just about any other sport out there. So I want to thank Christine Brennan. for joining the pod this week. Believe me, there's so much going on at the Olympic venue that I'm thankful Christine found the time to join us. More importantly, though, I want to thank you for listening to The Varsity, an Odyssey podcast in partnership with Puck.

47:52Christine Brennan:I also want to acknowledge the executive editors from Puck. That's Gobby Grossman, Ben Landy, John Kelly, and the great team from Odyssey, Bob Tabador and Patrick Antonetti. And of course, our partners at Nessun, Greg Poth and Matt Colpitz. Mark Merlaca, he's off the Great Wolf Lodge, believe it or not, he has this episode off. If you like this podcast, make sure to sign up for my newsletter, also called The Varsity. Head over to put.news and use the code word TheVarsity. All one word for a 20 % discount. And I will see you on Sunday.

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