HELLO FUTURE: The Future of the Olympics (Part 2)

Speaker 1 (00:08):
The Olympics are starting. I'm a big, big fan of
the Olympics, but the Olympics are changing this year. The
Olympics are Meeting the Future. Hello Future, It's me keV.
This is a dispatch from the Digital Frontier. The planet
is Earth, the year is twenty twenty six, and my
name is Kevin SERRELLI. I'm the founder of Meet the Future.
You can check us out at MTF dot tv. And
remember you can get all of the latest Hello Future
episodes by visiting your iHeartMedia app, and you can check
out all the latest episodes on our show on hosts
of different shows. I'm thrilled. I am so excited to
bring back to the program Jeff Bellonser, Professor Bellinzer, thanks
so much for showing up to Meet the Future, and
we're coming back. Everything is just influenced by modern technology.
So the actual Olympic torch, the essential torch herald that
lights the flame, was designed by a professor at MIT.
I mean, and you're thinking to yourself, I mean here,
I mean, how hard can it be to make a torch?
You know, you get a thing, you light it on fire,
and then I'm thinking to myself, Okay, well, play this
out for me. Can you imagine if you made the
Olympic torch and it's the Winter Games. I mean, I
just told you about a robot, folks who's logging one
hundred and forty thousand steps just to make the logo,
and they're in the snowfields. I mean, can you imagine
if that torch went out? I mean imagine being that
guy or gal who had one job. You had one
job to make an Olympic torch and it goes out.
So you don't want to be that guy. Carlo Roddy
he's a professor of the Department of Urban Studies and
Planning who designed this year's Olympic torch, and I'm thinking
to myself, Wow, this interview that he gave to MIT
is fascinating. He had all these engineers at MIT design
it so that the wind would have put it out.
He had to put the flame in the middle, and
it had the state of the art, latest technology burner
that they're holding. It looks like a metal thing. I mean,
this thing is not your big lighter, folks, which I use,
but I'll probably get in trouble. I just you know,
I don't smoke anyway. I like cigars. I've been known
to smoke a cigar too, But anyway, but it's also
got to stand a the relay when they're handing off
the torch. So the torch relay is an event in
and of itself. I mean, that's probably one of the
most iconic moments. Who can forget Muhammad Ali or all
of these other iconic moments of human storytelling with this torch.
And I was just really really impacted by this story
of how just in the last couple of months it
started in late November, it went to Greece. It will
have covered all one hundred and ten Italian provinces before
arriving in Milan. And he this professor carried the torch
for a portion of its journey. It's a sustainable torch,
and he wanted to showcase the greatest in terms of technology,
but the architecture of it. And again just making sure
that the flame doesn't go out, And that is such
a powerful statement, that the flame doesn't go out, that
that spark that connects us to ancient Greece and human
interests in everything that involves science, that involves technology.

Speaker 2 (03:20):
And involves so much of everything, like you said, history
and technology and science and the human spirit. I think about,
you know, I had a wonderful time at the A
four Olympics in LA going to a number of I
mean I went to I don't know seven eight events.
Whenever I can get my tickets, I can get my
hands on. I was out there track and field at
the Coliseum, gymnastics at poly Pavilion at UCLA. Baseball was
a demonstration sport at Dodger Stadium. It just couldn't get enough.
So I'm telling my students, like, plan your life around
where you're going to be in twenty eight. If you're
going to be a recent grad delay going out into
the world, you have the rest of your life to work. Like,
embrace the Olympics because it's a I say, it's a
once in a lifetime experience. I guess for me, it's
gonna end up being two in a lifetime in two years.
Incredible that we have will be the third Olympics thirty two,
eighty four and now twenty eighth that are going to
be centered in Los Angeles. But I think about Raper
Johnson going up to steps to light the torch in
eighty four. I was at the closing ceremonies when Lionel
Richie was singing all night long.

Speaker 1 (04:23):
How much do you think the Olympic torch weighs, Jeff,
Oh gosh, I'll tell you. This year's Olympic torch is
the lightest Olympic torch ever created, and it weighs in
at just under two and a half pounds. This thing
is nimble. It's got a PVD coding that is heat resistant,
so that means you're not gonna get burned. Because it's metal,
so you know when you're carrying it, it shifts colors
depending on the environment. Also, it can be recharged ten times,
so in previous years torches would be used once, but
this thing can be recharged, which causes a ten old
reduction according to MIT and the number of torches created.
Everything has a story, Jeff, And even the tour has a.

Speaker 2 (05:07):
Story, Kevin, and I would tell you, like, I'm all
in on that story now, like I would like, I mean,
that should be like a little mini feature. You probably
wouldn't have time for it on maybe the NBC linear broadcast,
but that's the beauty of having you know, streaming and
the many places you can go. That should be a
story that that peacock and the NBC app tells during
these games like there are just little jewel, little gems
of stories like that that to me, that just enhances
the whole experience. And I don't know about you, but
I the Winter Olympics are a little bit more of
an acquired taste. I think for especially those of us
that grow up in you know, warm weather areas, we're
not as familiar with the winter sports. But it's the
human element that overshadows everything, saying when you get into
the person in the sled, in the lose competition, the
currently you get the stories of the people, then it
doesn't it almost doesn't matter. It's winter, summer where what
it is. It's like it's about what it took to
get to that point and be the best in the
world of what you do.

Speaker 1 (06:17):
Jeff, before I let you go, thank you so much
for this conversation. It's been absolutely awesome. You know, you've
had the privilege of being very close to coach John Wooden,
and I know that you've also interviewed a USC alum,
a World War Two veteran and olympian, Louis or Louis Zamparini,
the track star, And I just wanted to. I loved
in our last episodes when we would talk a lot
about lessons and leadership, and you know what you've learned
from from these people. And I'm just curious for your
thoughts and your reflections of Coach Wooden and Zamporini, especially
because what an American hero Zamparini is just in terms
of everything he represents, having served in the military and
then also being you know a nineteen thirty six Summer
Olympics where he set a new lap record.

Speaker 2 (07:04):
Yeah, yeah, now, Kevin, I just sometimes I pinched myself
to think about spending the time that I spent when
I had when I met him, and I saw the
story was beautifully told. CBS did a wonderful profile. Your listeners,
your viewers can access it. Just go to YouTube and
it's Louis Zamprini nineteen ninety eight, noagin O Winter Olympics.
So really good timing that we're having this conversation. And
they did about a forty minute documentary feature Bob Simon,
the late Great Reporter, went all over the world chronicling
his journey, and it started in Torrance, California, USC and
then the Olympics and thirty six I mean he met
Adolf Hitler, he actually took a Nazi flag, grabbed it,
got almost got shot for doing it, but grabbed it,
took it home. He brought it out to me when
we were at his home Hollywood Hills one day, just
talking and he's he brought it out and it was
it was almost surreal to see it in front of
me because it wasn't just the not the swastika stamped
on the flag. It was sewn in to this flag
that he had taken off a pole there when he
was in Berlin. And he was a kind of a
like a bit of a hell raiser when he was
a kid, and and he channeled that energy into greatness
as an Olympic distance runner. So to hear his experience
in Berlin and what the Olympics meant to him, it's
it's it's well worth watching that feature. I show it
regularly in my class. Very very well done. And it
comes back to Louis on the set with Jim Nantz
in Nagano, and he had been a he had been
abused and tortured in a prisoner of war camp in Japan,
so now he was returning. He'd been back before, but
he was returning as a guest of the Japanese Olympic
Committee to celebrate his life on legacy.

Speaker 1 (09:01):
But that right, there is everything that you specialize in,
which is the storytelling for countries, for diplomacy. The imagery
that that of him returning to Japan, a country where
he was tortured abused, for him to go there, what
is that? I mean, I'm asking you the obvious question
about what that reveals about US Japanese diplomacy at that time,
about the human spirit, about the American spirit in particular,
in order to have one of our own do something
like that, it's very healing for the entire country.

Speaker 2 (09:41):
Yeah, it's And it's the power of forgiveness and that
was a big thing. It was a big thing for
Louis Zambri And he talked about love and hope and forgiveness.
He mentioned cheerfulness a lot too, because he thought it
was important to project you know, positive energy. And you know,
he was a he kind of went through ups and
downs and and and so we were, you know, once
his life turned around, he was, you know, Billy Graham.
He was he was converted, became a person of great faith,
and it allowed him to have great love in his
heart and forgiveness. So he was he wanted to go
back and he wanted to, you know, make peace with
the people that had been his tormentors. So he went
back a few years later to Japan and the fifties,
and then again for the Nagano Olympics Winter Olympics as
a guest of the government, and it spoke volumes about
him and the Olympic spirit, and he talks about that
in the you know, in the piece, you know, he says,
I'm feeling it right now as he's on the set,
you know, And I think you're struck by that when
you watch the Olympics and when you and you can
feel it, and you mentioned coach wouldn't And I think
I'll think of him as well during the games this
time because he talked so much about being at your
best when your best was needed. And you obviously are
having athletes that are the best in the world at
what they do coming together and they have to be
at their best. They've been at their best in their
training to get this far, and then to top it
off by you know, winning a medal. Even just competing
is the most important amazing thing. It's just competing sometimes
that we get so caught up, I think, especially in
countries where you know it's about metal count and keep
the gold medals. Number one. Are you a failure if
you get a silver or a bronze or if you
don't medal, but you've just competed And Coach wouldn't said that.
You know, in his pyramid of success, the top block
is competitive greatness. There's nothing in the pyramid about winning.
And he would always say, in that very simple, down
home Midwest country Indiana boy, you know tone of his,
he would say, sometimes the other fella is just a
little better than you that day. So you know, like
that's why you can't. You can't focus on winning as
much as you have. You you focus on being at
your competitive best. So being at your best when your
best is needed is something I always think about with Coach,
especially for an event like the Olympics.

Speaker 1 (12:15):
Professor Jeff Ellens USC focuses all things sports, diplomacy, sports business,
sports media, so much fun. I could talk to you
forever and I know you'll be back on the program.
Thank you friend. Great