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Matt Farrell on the US Synchronized Skating Championships this week at the Maverik Center, US Figure Skating programs + more · The Sean O'Connell Show

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  Speaker 1: You were listening to a Sean O'Connell show, your source
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  Speaker 1: for the best utes football company. Here's OC from the
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  Speaker 1: Murdoch Hyundai Studio of ESPN seven hundred ninety two to one, alf.
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  Speaker 2: Am, Welcome back to the Shawan O'Connell show. Welcome in
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  Speaker 2: Matt Farrell, CEO US Figure Skating ahead of the US
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  Speaker 2: Synchronized Skating Championships this week at the Maverick Center starting tomorrow,
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  Speaker 2: going through the seventh Matt Farrell, Welcome to the show.
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  Speaker 3: How are you hey doing great? Great to be here.
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  Speaker 4: So Utah hosting this event for the first time? Is
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  Speaker 4: that correct?
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  Speaker 5: It is, and it probably bears a little bit of
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  Speaker 5: explanation of what the event is. But synchronized skating is
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  Speaker 5: like this blend of certainly ice skating and marching band
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  Speaker 5: with like the atmosphere of a cheer competition kind of
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  Speaker 5: all all into one.
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  Speaker 4: Wow.
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  Speaker 5: And this is the US champions This is the US
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  Speaker 5: Championships here at the Mavericks Center this weekend.
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  Speaker 4: Okay, So with that description, give me a sense is
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  Speaker 4: it uniform? How many young men or women are on
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  Speaker 4: the ice at a certain time, Like what's the give
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  Speaker 4: me like the flour breakdown of what we're going to
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  Speaker 4: see visually.
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  Speaker 5: So in most cases it's either twelve to sixteen athletes
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  Speaker 5: on the floor or on the ice, and can be
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  Speaker 5: a mix of.
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  Speaker 3: Women and men.
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  Speaker 5: That leans a little more female athletes, and they're skating
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  Speaker 5: informations and doing different maneuvers that's very intricate based to music,
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  Speaker 5: and so you'll see kind of skaters going in and
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  Speaker 5: out of each other and it's a coreyographed routine on ice.
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  Speaker 4: And is this judged similarly to the Olympic events that
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  Speaker 4: we all just I'm sure you're fully aware of this cycle.
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  Speaker 4: Every four years we all become big time experts on
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  Speaker 4: figure skating for like a two week period, and then
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  Speaker 4: we kind of go back to our regular habits, and
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  Speaker 4: then four years later we're once again big time experts.
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  Speaker 4: Is it the same judges or the same type of
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  Speaker 4: judging criteria?
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  Speaker 5: Similar in concept, and you know, you find yourself incorporating
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  Speaker 5: the word twizzle into your conversations daily, which you didn't
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  Speaker 5: normally do, but similar in concept. You know, it's obviously
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  Speaker 5: about the precision on the eyes, the synchronicity and kind
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  Speaker 5: of really just how the you know, anywhere to the
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  Speaker 5: twelve to sixteen athletes move is one.
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  Speaker 4: Well, we spend a lot of time. I mean as
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  Speaker 4: much as I joke, we did spend a lot of
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  Speaker 4: time during the Winter Olympics focusing on sports that we
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  Speaker 4: don't typically talk about on a regular sports talk radio show, right,
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  Speaker 4: figure skating being one of those. And we come off
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  Speaker 4: a hockey gold medal and all this, and especially here
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  Speaker 4: in Utah, we're like, okay, what is this going to
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  Speaker 4: do for the both of these sports? We see what
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  Speaker 4: Alyssa loud with her success, and you know, the sort
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  Speaker 4: of pop culture phenomenon that Jack Hughes is with the
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  Speaker 4: broken teeth in the gold medal, and I imagine there's
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  Speaker 4: an opportunity here for figure skating with you know, the
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  Speaker 4: popularity in the gold medal success that we just had
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  Speaker 4: in these games. So how do you capitalize on that? Matt?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's a great question.
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  Speaker 5: You know, everything from there's something really really special about
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  Speaker 5: a female Olympic champion in the United States and we
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  Speaker 5: hadn't had it since Salt Lake the Games in two
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  Speaker 5: thousand and two with Sarah Hughes. So and it creates
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  Speaker 5: this demand, it creates this interest in the sport we
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  Speaker 5: might call it a halo effect of what we're seeing
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  Speaker 5: is just absolute phones ringing off the hook at learned
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  Speaker 5: to Skate sessions, skating rinks of people wanting to actually
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  Speaker 5: try the sport and introduce it, and so some Olympic
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  Speaker 5: sports you can see from a membership standpoint growth from
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  Speaker 5: five percent to ten percent.
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  Speaker 3: The Olympic Games can really.
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  Speaker 5: Be a huge catalyst in terms of just driving interest
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  Speaker 5: in the sport. And you know, something like skating is
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  Speaker 5: a great one because you can do it for the
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  Speaker 5: rest of your life, and whether you want to be
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  Speaker 5: the next Alyssa lou is not the point. But it
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  Speaker 5: has this real, you know, gold Medal to grassroots type
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  Speaker 5: of impact in communities. And we're seeing standing clubs across
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  Speaker 5: the country from Utah to Albuquerque saying, my gosh, we
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  Speaker 5: can't keep up with the demand of the calls.
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  Speaker 4: Right now, pretty cool with respect to the Synchronized Skating
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  Speaker 4: Championships this week at the Mavericks Center, tickets available, go
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  Speaker 4: to the Maverick Center website. We're talking about that grassroots growth, right,
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  Speaker 4: I mean, you come off of I have three daughters, okay,
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  Speaker 4: so we come off of watching the Olympics together and
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  Speaker 4: now they're like, hey, we should dad, we should go skating.
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  Speaker 4: Let's why don't you let us go skating. Let's take
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  Speaker 4: us skating? All right? Cool? And then you know, there's
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  Speaker 4: figure skating, there's hockey, there's whatever. And then maybe they
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  Speaker 4: see an event like this. Are the funnels to individual
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  Speaker 4: figure skating or pair skating and these synchronized skatings in
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  Speaker 4: a large team format? Are they similar funnels? Do you
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  Speaker 4: these people come from the same academy, schools, coaches. Is
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  Speaker 4: their crossover between the athletes? Because I think some of
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  Speaker 4: us are familiar with the figure skating that we see
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  Speaker 4: on Olympic television less so with the synchronized skating you're
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  Speaker 4: talking about. Are they the same people doing these things?
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  Speaker 5: You know, you almost self select a little bit in ways,
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  Speaker 5: And the analogy I always use is like it's the
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  Speaker 5: Harry Potter sorting hat of what's what's the best path
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  Speaker 5: in the sport for me? And in the Olympics in
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  Speaker 5: an odd way, can actually cloud things, because not every
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  Speaker 5: kid who's six, seven, eight years old wants or even
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  Speaker 5: thinks about being the next Olympic champion. They want to
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  Speaker 5: be on a team and on the ice with their
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  Speaker 5: friends and that's where a synchronized skating is awesome, And
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  Speaker 5: so that does tend to be a different mindset and
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  Speaker 5: a different person that might say I want to be
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  Speaker 5: part of a team with my friends and do that
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  Speaker 5: all the way through my high school and college years,
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  Speaker 5: as opposed to know what, I'm driven to be the
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  Speaker 5: next Dorothy Hamil, Peggy Fleming, alaslou Christy Amagucci. And so
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  Speaker 5: it's just an outlet for different people who want different
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  Speaker 5: things in sports, because we don't all always want to
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  Speaker 5: be the next Olympic champion. Sometimes it's really about community
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  Speaker 5: and team.
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  Speaker 4: Some of us realize when we're watching those Olympic skaters
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  Speaker 4: that it's a beautiful and graceful and incredible and that
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  Speaker 4: we are not ever capable and never work capable of
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  Speaker 4: such such things.
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  Speaker 5: Well, not only that, and then the pressure of it.
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  Speaker 5: You think about it like every other sport, whether you're
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  Speaker 5: swimming or wrestling or even playing golf, there's somebody else
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  Speaker 5: out there with you. In many ways, yes, golf's an
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  Speaker 5: individual sport, but the caddies out there, your opponents are
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  Speaker 5: out there. Skating is just this unique You are out
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  Speaker 5: there performing completely alone, and it just adds to the
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  Speaker 5: pressure of the event and kind of the excitement of
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  Speaker 5: the event, and then you have to be artistic as
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  Speaker 5: you're being athletic. So it's really this unique mix.
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  Speaker 4: And by the way, you get this big super Bowl
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  Speaker 4: event every four years instead of every year, and you
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  Speaker 4: got to go back to the drawing board if it
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  Speaker 4: doesn't go all that well. It's incredible what Olympic athletes
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  Speaker 4: and every sport go through your perception of when there's
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  Speaker 4: these little, you know, tabloid things, the controversy around judging,
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  Speaker 4: or there's a you know, the the rumor mill buzzing
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  Speaker 4: around about certain pairings and why those pairings are put
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  Speaker 4: together and how they overcome our US pair that deserves
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  Speaker 4: this gold medal and they've only been together for one
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  Speaker 4: year instead of twenty years, and how did they leapfrog
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  Speaker 4: us and all that stuff. I mean, it's a tension.
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  Speaker 4: And there's always that adage of there's no such thing
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  Speaker 4: as bad publicity. But for US figure skating, when the
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  Speaker 4: Olympic cycle brings us all to the forefront. For the
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  Speaker 4: average sports fan, you're the CEO of US figure This
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  Speaker 4: is your life every day, So what do you think
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  Speaker 4: of those moments?
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  Speaker 5: You know, at the end of the day, you certainly
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  Speaker 5: want a fair competition. And with any sport that has
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  Speaker 5: a degree of subjectivity to it, there's always going to
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  Speaker 5: be some argument to it, and so I think figure
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  Speaker 5: skating certainly has that spotlight on it.
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  Speaker 3: But I often tell people, I mean.
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  Speaker 5: We're still arguing about past interference calls from last college
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  Speaker 5: football season. There's subjectivity or what's a foul in the NBA.
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  Speaker 5: There's subjectivity every sport. Maybe that's a little more magnified
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  Speaker 5: to determine the final outcome and a figure skating but
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  Speaker 5: that's part of the human element of sports, and that's
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  Speaker 5: just part of the culture of who we are, and
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  Speaker 5: so you really have to just own and embrace that.
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  Speaker 5: And so are there times where you feel like, Okay,
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  Speaker 5: maybe some decision was a little bit farther of an
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  Speaker 5: outlier in what I would consider fair versus what you
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  Speaker 5: could would consider fair, And I think you come to
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  Speaker 5: an acceptance that that is part of the sport and
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  Speaker 5: part of the culture of the sport. But at the
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  Speaker 5: end of the day, you know, you graciously accept the
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  Speaker 5: results whether they go your way or not. And our
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  Speaker 5: athletes in Milan, in particular, I think We're just awesome
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  Speaker 5: about that when we had some highs and lows.
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  Speaker 4: Are you already laying groundwork projecting out Is there anything
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  Speaker 4: being done for in preparation for Utah twenty thirty four.
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  Speaker 4: It's eight years away, but I imagine in your world
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  Speaker 4: that comes around quicker than we think.
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  Speaker 5: One hundred percent. I mean one is synchronized skating what
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  Speaker 5: you'll see at the Maverick Center. We're being very open
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  Speaker 5: and transparent that we think that should be an incredible
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  Speaker 5: sport on the Olympic program in the future and certainly.
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  Speaker 3: Hoped by Utah.
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  Speaker 5: But Utah to me obviously hosted in two thousand and two,
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  Speaker 5: will host in thirty four. We're of the belief that
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  Speaker 5: Utah will host again in sixteen or twenty years after that,
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  Speaker 5: And so US Figure Skating is really starting to focus
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  Speaker 5: on what can we do to build grassroots and youth
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  Speaker 5: skating in Utah. How can we make our skating clubs stronger,
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  Speaker 5: how can we bring in more leak coaching into Utah,
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  Speaker 5: and for lack of a better word, really invest in
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  Speaker 5: Utah and make it a hub for skating activity, because
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  Speaker 5: we just think this is going to really be a
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  Speaker 5: tent pole state and market to build long past. You
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  Speaker 5: know when I hang out my skates on this job.
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  Speaker 4: Well, we appreciate you jumping on today and answering our questions.
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  Speaker 4: The US Synchronized Skating Championships this week starting tomorrow at
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  Speaker 4: the Maverick Center. Tickets are available for all four days
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  Speaker 4: it goes Wednesday through Saturday, but they are going fast,
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  Speaker 4: so go to the events ticketcenter dot com slash Maverick
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  Speaker 4: Center and get those tickets. Matt, thanks so much for
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  Speaker 4: your time.
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  Speaker 5: Oh you bet, I appreciate it, and I'll make one plug.
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  Speaker 5: There's this Starlit blades from Salt Lake that are in
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  Speaker 5: the Novice division on Friday, so you can see some
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  Speaker 5: Utah flavor this weekend as well.
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  Speaker 4: All right, so if you're in for the local flavor,
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  Speaker 4: Friday is your day again. Tickets available through the Maverick
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  Speaker 4: Center website.
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  Speaker 3: Thanks again, Matt, Share talking to you, Matt
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  Speaker 4: Farrell, CEO of US Figure Skating Synchronized Skating Championships