Latest / The Rocker Skating Podcast / VIDEO: Olympics x Pins with James Hernandez, Anthony Ponomarenko, and Madeline Schizas

Transcript

VIDEO: Olympics x Pins with James Hernandez, Anthony Ponomarenko, and Madeline Schizas · The Rocker Skating Podcast

• 0:00
  Well, hello everyone. This is Jackie Wong of
• 0:03
  rockerskating.com and this is a rocker skating podcast, but it
• 0:08
  is very different. Today we are going to talk about
• 0:10
  pins and I've got three of the pins connoisseurs of the 2026
• 0:21
  Winter Olympics here with me. Battle and skis, A2 time
• 0:26
  Olympian and and very much a resident expert of pins.
• 0:30
  James Hernandez, a first time Olympian and very much a
• 0:36
  connoisseur of pins. And Anthony Panamarenko, who I
• 0:40
  had no idea what his pin game was until he put it out on
• 0:45
  Instagram. I like, I literally Anthony, I
• 0:48
  saw you in the mix zone and I was like, oh, he like he doesn't
• 0:54
  seem like he's like a pin trader.
• 0:56
  So I'm not going to talk about him about talk to him about
• 0:58
  pins. And then you you showed that.
• 1:01
  So now I know. How are you all doing?
• 1:05
  Chilling, chilling back home. Oh yeah, very good.
• 1:10
  Yeah. Are you, are you all somewhat
• 1:12
  recovered from the Olympics yet? I mean, it's only been a week.
• 1:15
  I would say like, I'm getting there, I'm getting there.
• 1:17
  Couple more nights, couple more nights, yeah.
• 1:21
  Well it's nice just to be home again and and experience real
• 1:24
  life. Yeah, you're kind of in a bubble
• 1:27
  when you're at the Olympics, like, and so it's nice to just
• 1:29
  be home and like, not, not in in the bubble, you know?
• 1:34
  I, I mean, I don't know about you all, but like I completely
• 1:37
  lost track of time over the last over the three weeks.
• 1:42
  Like it was like every day felt like a Saturday.
• 1:45
  Every day felt like nothing is going on outside of Milan.
• 1:48
  It's just like, you know, hey, the, the world is the practice
• 1:52
  rink and the main rink and, like, pizza and pasta, Yeah.
• 1:56
  Yeah, that's that's what the Olympics are like, right?
• 1:59
  You, you, you get so used to like competing on like similar
• 2:02
  days, but I feel like all of us competed on the randomest days
• 2:05
  of the week And then like then your your mind is just gone.
• 2:09
  Like you're like I don't even the days don't exist anymore.
• 2:12
  Yeah, no, totally. Well, we're going to talk about
• 2:17
  pins because this is the main part of this podcast, but I'm
• 2:23
  going to start with you, actually, Maddie, you, this is
• 2:26
  your second Olympics. And I remember your first
• 2:30
  Olympics, you were, you already knew about the whole like pin
• 2:35
  trading extravaganza. Like how has your understanding
• 2:39
  of pins at the Olympics evolved? OK so going into my first games
• 2:42
  I had no idea about pin trading but I got voted like at our
• 2:47
  nationals as the person who would be most into it that year
• 2:51
  so. That's where it started.
• 2:52
  That's where it started. Everyone was like, oh, Maddie's
• 2:54
  going to love pin trading. And I'm like, what is this?
• 2:56
  What's pin trading? And I had been to the Olympics
• 2:58
  in Vancouver, but I didn't know anything about like, I was
• 3:01
  little. But it's funny because my
• 3:04
  roommate had also been in Vancouver and knew all about pin
• 3:06
  trading and we're the same age. So like, I just didn't know
• 3:08
  about it, but so that's where it started.
• 3:12
  And so I was like, well, if everyone thinks I'm going to be
• 3:14
  good at this, I'm going to have to step up.
• 3:18
  But this time was a whole nother level.
• 3:20
  Like I learned things at my first games about pin trading
• 3:24
  and I I took that experience to be even better.
• 3:28
  I mean, it's it's like the the unheralded sport of the Olympics
• 3:35
  is pin trading. Like it's not medal, but I mean.
• 3:38
  I mean, these are all, all of these are your medals, right?
• 3:41
  Yeah, it's true. It's true.
• 3:43
  Pretty amazing. James Anthony, you are first
• 3:47
  time Olympians. What were your experiences like
• 3:50
  with like? Did you know anything about pins
• 3:53
  before you got to the village? James, let me start with.
• 3:57
  You absolutely nothing. And, and funnily enough, my
• 4:01
  first conversation in the village other than my skating
• 4:04
  partner and our team leader was with Anthony and I.
• 4:10
  I was venturing out into the village for the first time and
• 4:14
  you were there and you were already stacking up pins on your
• 4:18
  lanyard. And I was like, oh, I've got a
• 4:21
  chance to be competitive at something other than skating.
• 4:24
  Let's go. And that's where it begun.
• 4:26
  So Anthony, you could say that you sparked my very interest in
• 4:31
  this. And I feel at a disadvantage
• 4:32
  because, Maddie, you, you had a few games to go off.
• 4:35
  We were, we were just babies, you know?
• 4:37
  Yeah. Well, you have to make, you got
• 4:39
  to make the most of it. But I was prepared.
• 4:41
  I did come prepared for this. Yeah, well, we'll talk about the
• 4:45
  preparation, Anthony. So.
• 4:48
  So you were already on it when you got in.
• 4:51
  Yeah, like I heard rumors about this infamous pin training.
• 4:56
  So I brought like 10 with me at anything that I can find and in
• 5:01
  any drawers tucked away somewhere.
• 5:03
  And I brought 10 with me and then US also gave us 10.
• 5:06
  So I had about 20 to start and my my first thing I wanted to do
• 5:13
  was collect every single ice dance country from both team
• 5:16
  event and individual. So I have that.
• 5:18
  That was kind of like my first project of the of the games was
• 5:23
  collecting all those pins. You set goals.
• 5:27
  Jeez. Oh yeah, yeah.
• 5:29
  That's insane to me. Oh my gosh.
• 5:32
  You need to have, you need to have KPIs to like understand how
• 5:35
  you're going to do this. Spoken like a true consultant.
• 5:38
  Exactly, exactly. OK, that's I, I, I love these
• 5:45
  stories. You kind of all come from
• 5:46
  different backgrounds. And in some ways, Maddie, your
• 5:51
  preparation for these Olympics was to make your own pin.
• 5:56
  I mean, to to Anthony's point about like, you got to, you got
• 6:00
  to be here and like have a starter set to get to other
• 6:05
  people. Otherwise you're not getting any
• 6:06
  pins yourself, right? Like when did you decide to do
• 6:10
  that? So I knew probably a year ago
• 6:14
  that this is something I wanted to do if I qualified was that I
• 6:17
  wanted to get my custom pins made.
• 6:20
  So I'm going to show you my custom pin.
• 6:22
  It's of my dog. Can you see his name is
• 6:24
  Sebastian. So they're my Sebby pins.
• 6:27
  So because that yes, you have one too.
• 6:28
  So this was my chief complaint at my first games was that I ran
• 6:31
  out of pins in like 3 days. They give you like 15 of them.
• 6:35
  I was like, I ran out of them immediately.
• 6:38
  So I had custom pins made. I had 150 custom pins made.
• 6:41
  But then I also hit up my member of Parliament, like our
• 6:44
  government, my representative and and my university.
• 6:49
  I sent out emails and I said, can you give me pins to bring to
• 6:51
  the the Olympics? And of course they said yes.
• 6:55
  So I came in with another like 100 that way.
• 7:00
  Yeah, I came in with a lot of pins and I didn't trade them
• 7:02
  all. Like I'd give them the kids and
• 7:03
  stuff. Every kid at my rink got it got
• 7:07
  a sevy pin. Like when I'd see kids I'd give
• 7:09
  them the university pins. When you were getting shaken
• 7:12
  down by the security outside the rink for a pin like.
• 7:15
  I what's that? That was not only my experience,
• 7:19
  that was all everybody's experience.
• 7:20
  OK, Yeah. You needed you needed decoy pins
• 7:23
  for this. I could not believe how
• 7:26
  aggressive they were at the security being like, give me a
• 7:29
  PIN, give me a pin and I'm like. Anthony, you have a good story
• 7:33
  about this, don't you? Yeah, well, like we were walking
• 7:36
  in and two police officers walked up and blocked the
• 7:39
  entrance of the village. And we're like, we won't let you
• 7:42
  through unless you give us a pin.
• 7:45
  And all I had on my at the time was like the really, really nice
• 7:49
  rare like Team USA pens. So I had to give up both of
• 7:52
  those to get into the village. Oh my God.
• 7:57
  Yeah. I had decoy pins for this
• 8:00
  purpose. I had ones.
• 8:01
  From my university for this, yeah.
• 8:03
  After that I had I had just like throwaway pins I kept in a
• 8:07
  baggie. You know, I know we haven't
• 8:10
  gotten to show an offer our pin collection yet.
• 8:13
  You guys are using language that I'm just being like introduced
• 8:16
  to you right now, decoy pins. Yeah, you need a decoy pin.
• 8:20
  I just had to like, you know, when the volunteers were like,
• 8:23
  we need a pin otherwise we won't do our job.
• 8:25
  I just would get flustered and run.
• 8:29
  Well, at. Least you ran.
• 8:30
  I mean I didn't want to give them like this is like our
• 8:32
  Government of Canada pin. You get like three of them.
• 8:35
  Like that's not a. Good.
• 8:36
  Wow. You don't need like I'm not
• 8:37
  giving them a deep my. I don't want to give it my good.
• 8:40
  Pins out. Yeah, to get through a security
• 8:42
  checkpoint, you know what I mean?
• 8:44
  Oh, you got one too? That's one I didn't get.
• 8:49
  Yeah. I got to say though, the the the
• 8:53
  number of skaters who made their own pins this year was pretty
• 9:00
  cool. Like, so there's Maddie's pin,
• 9:03
  there's Adam Seow's PIN, there's Olivia Smart's dog, and then
• 9:09
  there's Amber's PIN. There's got to be more that I
• 9:14
  didn't see. There's Maddie and Evans.
• 9:17
  Oh yes, the dogs. The dog ones.
• 9:20
  I'll try to. I'll try to.
• 9:22
  I have. There it is.
• 9:24
  I feel like I had to keep both of them.
• 9:27
  When someone wanted one, I had to say no, Sam.
• 9:31
  I've only got they're they're. Siblings.
• 9:34
  I've only got Stella. I didn't get either.
• 9:37
  I didn't get either. Of those two, I have Henry and
• 9:39
  Stella here. I got I.
• 9:42
  Forgot about them. Personal pen I got was from it
• 9:46
  was from the women's double luge.
• 9:49
  I forget her name, but she made these.
• 9:52
  Have you? Did you see these on it?
• 9:54
  Yeah. I saw on it.
• 9:55
  She made these like 2000 of these pens.
• 9:58
  She like ceramic handmade pens. Wow.
• 10:00
  We need to get her on the pod. Yeah, no, it's insane.
• 10:04
  So she like made 2000 pens by hand for the Olympics women's
• 10:09
  double. Like, back to the security
• 10:11
  thing, though, were there times where like people, people like
• 10:16
  stop doing their purpose? Like, like get dinner.
• 10:19
  You were like trying to get dinner.
• 10:20
  They were like, they were like waiting to give you pasta until
• 10:23
  you gave them a PIN and you're like, hang on a minute.
• 10:26
  Or sometimes I'd give out. Taking you a hostage?
• 10:28
  Yeah, sometimes I'd give out my little, like I have little
• 10:31
  trillions and stuff like from my province, and I'd hand them to
• 10:34
  them and they'd be like, oh, we don't want this one.
• 10:37
  And I'm like, I know, I know, I know.
• 10:38
  They didn't like them and I'm like, it's a little flower.
• 10:42
  It's so cute. What do you mean you don't want
• 10:44
  it? It's from my home province.
• 10:46
  They kept being like, Oh no, I wanted ones with Olympic rings
• 10:50
  on them. And I'm like, that's fair.
• 10:53
  Like I walked up and I was like, the can I try the famous lava
• 10:58
  cake that everyone's raving about?
• 11:00
  And they're like, for a pen, I'll bring you one.
• 11:04
  I did hear an unnamed skater and I'm not going to I'm not going
• 11:08
  to name names an unnamed skater. Country.
• 11:13
  I actually, one of the reasons they are unnamed is because I
• 11:17
  don't remember who it was. So I can't even give you the
• 11:19
  country. But an unnamed skater, you know,
• 11:25
  You know how the Tinas, the Tina plushies were incredibly rare?
• 11:30
  There was somebody who gave somebody behind the counter like
• 11:35
  a rare pin and they would stash a couple of Tinas for them to,
• 11:42
  to be bought at some point just for them.
• 11:46
  So like it was I, I don't know who it was who was saying it,
• 11:49
  but wow, that's somebody was saying that the that, that it's
• 11:53
  like currency, right? Like it is a currency, it's a.
• 11:55
  Currency under. The currency.
• 11:57
  Yeah, for sure under. The world and and apparently
• 12:01
  Tina plushies were being bought with rare pins.
• 12:04
  I just bought wine with EUR with €65 but.
• 12:07
  I mean, at the end, at the the end of the whole thing, it was
• 12:11
  only, I think athletes and anybody who was in the village
• 12:14
  who even had access to them. Like I went to the megastore on
• 12:18
  the second day of the Olympics and they were already all out.
• 12:24
  I went to one of the like smaller stores that nobody
• 12:26
  thought to go to. That's where I bought mine
• 12:30
  pretty early. But Maddie, your your
• 12:33
  preparation has been. Just.
• 12:35
  Incredible. Your own pins you've got, you've
• 12:38
  got the Underworld Tina store, Yeah.
• 12:42
  You know. My preparation My preparation
• 12:44
  was in smooth talking people out of their favorite pins.
• 12:47
  Hey now you now you know you can make some new make some pins for
• 12:51
  your next Olympics you got. To like the the definition of
• 12:55
  learning is like making making a difference, right?
• 12:58
  Like making a change. So I certainly learned about pin
• 13:01
  trading at my first hours. Maddie, this this is coming to
• 13:06
  you at Worlds. I cannot wait.
• 13:08
  I I can't wait. Can you actually see?
• 13:11
  It Yeah, I can. My favorite?
• 13:13
  Not cool. Wow, my favorite hockey pants.
• 13:17
  Are these are this is this is my heated rivalry?
• 13:20
  Pants. That's cool that I created right
• 13:24
  right when they decided that they were going to go do the
• 13:26
  torch relay. Those pins are so cool like.
• 13:30
  Copen. I'm I'm excited to these are
• 13:33
  there. There are only 100 of these in
• 13:34
  the world. OK, let's do some show and tell
• 13:41
  because I, I know you all brought your pins, Anthony,
• 13:46
  since since you had, you were the one who inspired this whole
• 13:50
  thing. I I want to see you also like
• 13:54
  you have, you have your lanyards of pins, you have a box of pins
• 13:57
  like tell me all of them I have. Even like a little cup as well.
• 14:00
  As a cup of pins. So I mean, we'll start with the
• 14:04
  ice dance collection. Since I met, I mentioned that in
• 14:07
  the beginning, we have obviously the figure skating pin, which
• 14:10
  was sold out quite early on in the Olympics.
• 14:13
  So this one was a tough one to get.
• 14:16
  And then you have every ice dance country, including the the
• 14:22
  fun moose, the Canada moose. And then at the end here, given
• 14:26
  the ice dance result and some of the controversy behind it, I
• 14:30
  found this France and USA pin together.
• 14:34
  I thought it was a very symbolic, symbolic way to end my
• 14:37
  ice dance collection. Wow, what controversy?
• 14:42
  I have no idea what you're talking about.
• 14:45
  And then from there, I got this one.
• 14:47
  Andrew Torgeshev was my roommate.
• 14:49
  He's the pizza King. So I thought I'd get the pizza
• 14:52
  one just in honor. Honor of him.
• 14:54
  Oh is that? Is that the one from Athlete
• 14:56
  365? No, this is this is from our
• 15:00
  welcome experience, Team USA welcome experience.
• 15:03
  Oh, OK. And then Maddie.
• 15:05
  Maddie obviously gave me the Ontario, Ontario and the
• 15:09
  Trillium. That was a fun one.
• 15:11
  We have the Snoop Dogg pin and what I was shocked about, well,
• 15:17
  this was from Eritrea. This is one of my favorites is
• 15:20
  the only athlete to represent. The country.
• 15:24
  And what I found shocking was the pin traders that stood
• 15:28
  outside the village all day, every day.
• 15:31
  They had all these fun retro pins from way back in the day
• 15:35
  like 8492. Yeah, yeah.
• 15:39
  This is yeah. So like, holding it all up.
• 15:41
  I've I've. I've just got so much to show.
• 15:43
  But. And for the sake of time, I'll
• 15:46
  just show you some of my favorites.
• 15:48
  I have this one as well in honor of Mikhail Chaidorov.
• 15:51
  I thought this would be a fun one.
• 15:54
  Traded this on the last day of the Olympics at the closing
• 15:58
  ceremonies. That's very cool.
• 16:02
  And then I really liked the the unique Canadian ones.
• 16:05
  Maddie can maybe touch more on it, but the ones that were kind
• 16:09
  of one-on-one of one. The Lululemon ones, yeah.
• 16:12
  And I have this one as well. This this leaf was I was looking
• 16:16
  for it, but one that was extremely popular and hard to
• 16:22
  get was the the Ralph Lauren teddy bear.
• 16:27
  Oh my God. I.
• 16:28
  Couldn't find that one. That's my biggest one.
• 16:31
  This one was just people were willing to give up their gear
• 16:35
  for it like it was crazy. Wait, did you also, were you
• 16:40
  also trading gear? Because I know there were like
• 16:43
  jacket swaps and like hat swaps and those things.
• 16:46
  A little bit. Yeah, some beanies.
• 16:48
  I definitely gave up some beanies for for some pins.
• 16:52
  That was one of the my regrets from my first games was not
• 16:55
  trading any gear. And then my absolute favorite,
• 17:00
  which I'm holding on to is as this full, full collection
• 17:04
  including every kind of ice sport and they all have some
• 17:08
  sort of fidget quality to it. Oh my God.
• 17:12
  Anthony, how did you? How did you?
• 17:14
  There he goes. There you go.
• 17:17
  You're back. You're back.
• 17:18
  Yeah. How How did you obtain the
• 17:20
  Alibaba tear? So I'm, I went to Alibaba every
• 17:26
  single day. Once per day I made an effort to
• 17:29
  go over there and trade 1 pin and one that one day went over
• 17:34
  right at 4:00 when they had their special promotion going
• 17:37
  on. And there was a clear ball that
• 17:39
  you had to catch and there was one left.
• 17:42
  And but a lady in front of me was going for it.
• 17:46
  And I was like, Oh no, I'm not going to get the special prize.
• 17:49
  And then she went and missed the clear ball and I was like.
• 17:52
  Yeah, yeah. So but then I I got it first try
• 17:57
  and ended up getting it. Oh my God.
• 18:01
  Rooting for someone else's downfall to get.
• 18:04
  Paid out. Sometimes it's.
• 18:05
  Competitive. Sometimes at the Olympics you
• 18:08
  just have to do that. And then I we all got this, but
• 18:12
  this was when we completed the pin quest game.
• 18:14
  We got a yes, we got a set. Which that's interesting.
• 18:18
  Can, can, can you talk about that a little bit?
• 18:20
  By the way? That's it.
• 18:21
  I don't think anybody knew about this besides like people who are
• 18:24
  in the know. Yeah, like, oops, it was cool.
• 18:29
  You just had to get 10,000 points on their Pin Quest app,
• 18:32
  which was a very fun interactive app where you walk up to other
• 18:36
  players and and answer questions and gain points that way.
• 18:41
  It was very fun way to learn more about the Olympic movement
• 18:45
  and the different actions and things that they're they're
• 18:48
  working on, but also then earning points for pins.
• 18:53
  And this was a, this was a thing that you all did in the village,
• 18:56
  right? Like anybody who was in the
• 18:58
  village had the, had the access. I I got a Yi Kuan gave me the
• 19:04
  sweater. The sweater.
• 19:06
  That's. I love this one because I was
• 19:08
  like Oh my God nobody has this outside of the village.
• 19:11
  What's everyone's favorite athlete 365 pin because I think
• 19:16
  we've all got them. No, I.
• 19:17
  Kind of like the one that said Chow on it.
• 19:19
  Like the Chow one? Chow I like the the the goggles,
• 19:24
  these ones the. Goggles.
• 19:26
  I love their goggles. Yes, I'm a big fan of the the
• 19:30
  golden Italy like where it's the outline of the country.
• 19:34
  I traded that, you know. That's.
• 19:36
  You traded that one. I traded a few of the the
• 19:39
  athletes. 360. 5 ones. They became like a a back pocket
• 19:44
  trade those some of those athlete 365 ones.
• 19:47
  Yeah, yeah, yeah. Could you get more than one of
• 19:50
  those or it was just one you? Can only get one, but if you
• 19:53
  let's say had a coach who didn't care about pin trading, you
• 19:57
  could take your you know, you could convince your coach to to
• 20:00
  do it. Wow.
• 20:01
  Didn't think about. Didn't think about Wow dude
• 20:03
  Maddie has so many fun strategies.
• 20:06
  You could also convince your team leaders don't pin trade to
• 20:09
  give you their pens. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 20:13
  Like I I made a trade with one of our team leaders for the rest
• 20:17
  of their pens at the end. Yes.
• 20:20
  And then last but not least, I got the Hello Kitty pin that
• 20:24
  Isabel was looking for as well. That was sort of heard.
• 20:29
  About those, yes. I think that's from the last
• 20:33
  games. It's pretty cool, but it's
• 20:36
  pretty cool. Anthony, I need to give you a
• 20:38
  pin. You're the You're the only one
• 20:39
  out of these this group here who doesn't have a pinpoint.
• 20:42
  Yeah, the PST 1 sounds awesome. The PST 4.
• 20:47
  Yes, we love the PST fours. Yeah, I wanted, I wanted a
• 20:52
  choreo, rhythm sequence, exclamation mark, but it felt
• 20:54
  like a bad omen. You.
• 20:56
  Want a stationary lift base? That's the one I chose.
• 21:00
  I mean, I've never done a stationary lift, but that's the
• 21:02
  one I wanted. I mean, if there's one that you
• 21:06
  would do it, then it would be a base level 1.
• 21:10
  OK, Anthony, that's like people think my pin game was heavy.
• 21:15
  This is like out of control. OK, James, you.
• 21:22
  I think I saw you on like the second day I was there after
• 21:25
  practice and you had already amassed a whole bunch.
• 21:29
  Yeah, but you also then had another three weeks left to
• 21:33
  amass more. So like what?
• 21:34
  What happened? So I started off with some GB
• 21:40
  ones, not many. And then people who were better
• 21:43
  educated at pin trading than myself, like these two other
• 21:47
  people on here clearly were like you can't keep giving away your,
• 21:52
  your country's pins because you only have so many.
• 21:55
  So then that was when the hustling on Athlete 365 started.
• 22:00
  I think I didn't socialize for half a day, but I did secure the
• 22:04
  Athlete 365 box and that became sort of a the starting point.
• 22:11
  And then I gained some traction when I scammed Paul Hannah Lim.
• 22:17
  We were like on the first days of practice and I gave away one
• 22:22
  of my least favorite Athlete 365 ones and convinced her that it's
• 22:27
  actually really rare and she posted a TikTok and I some some
• 22:31
  hate came my way. We resolved it.
• 22:33
  We resolved it with future trades in which in which I
• 22:37
  obtained one of my favourite little Team Korea Lego men.
• 22:43
  That's cute. So all is well there.
• 22:49
  Our friendship has remained intact, but it kind of just, it
• 22:52
  kind of just spiralled. And then, oh, we were lucky.
• 22:56
  I run out of Team GB pins fairly early on.
• 22:58
  But then we had a Team GB kind of dinner with some of our, the
• 23:02
  sponsors of our, of our federation and they had, they
• 23:08
  had these sort of baskets of pins at the entry for all the
• 23:10
  sponsors to take, like all the people that pay for us TNGB
• 23:14
  athletes to be there, you know, the National Lottery, things
• 23:16
  like that. And all of us athletes just went
• 23:18
  straight in. We were like taking handfuls.
• 23:22
  And that came in really handy, to be honest, over the course of
• 23:26
  the games. But.
• 23:28
  Yeah, I suppose same. Thing may or may not have
• 23:30
  happened at our our foundation. There were there were some some
• 23:35
  pins being taken for sure. You have to right?
• 23:38
  You have to make the most of those opportunities you.
• 23:41
  Really have to, I mean. And at some point there was like
• 23:44
  debts owed and there were people like being, oh, you owe me a PIN
• 23:48
  and now you got to pay, repay your debt.
• 23:50
  And like, it was just crazy. I feel like we have one of
• 23:53
  those, Anthony. I feel like we have one of.
• 23:55
  Those no, we we resolved that one.
• 23:57
  We resolved the debt. Yeah, Maddie and I had a pretty
• 24:01
  long. Yes, yes, we had a standing.
• 24:04
  Train saga. Yeah, we did.
• 24:06
  We resolved it. Well you wanted a train, which I
• 24:09
  I think it might have been the volunteer pin or maybe the
• 24:12
  foundation pin, but I never found figured out which one pin
• 24:14
  you were talking about. OK.
• 24:16
  Was that the NBC one? No.
• 24:18
  Tuomo from. Canada and I said we don't have
• 24:20
  a Tuomo. From Canada and I asked.
• 24:22
  I literally asked like our staff.
• 24:24
  I asked all these people and they're like, that doesn't
• 24:26
  exist. You know.
• 24:28
  I think it might have been this guy, I think it might have been
• 24:31
  the volunteer one. Yes, it was.
• 24:33
  I was thinking about it today and I was like, because yeah, it
• 24:37
  was the volunteer 1. And I was like can.
• 24:39
  We can we can you bring that? We'll we'll have a discussion
• 24:43
  with. OK, we can I we can have a
• 24:45
  discussion at Worlds about this. What you can do for me?
• 24:51
  I was literally at the foundation dinner and I'm asking
• 24:53
  people like at the foundation, is it a foundation pin?
• 24:56
  And they're like, no, this is the foundation pin.
• 25:00
  Well, I'm glad you've got to the bottom of it because I gave that
• 25:03
  away, but. You could have found one of
• 25:04
  those pretty easily because it was just a volunteer pin really.
• 25:07
  Yes. But like not just a volunteer
• 25:09
  pin, but you have to find a Canadian volunteer.
• 25:10
  But they were. These are the ones they had.
• 25:13
  OK, Live and you learn. Live and learn.
• 25:15
  I'm glad. I'm glad.
• 25:16
  I'm glad that this trade's going to take place and, and I don't
• 25:19
  know if I'm going to take no for an answer.
• 25:21
  So you need to have a look at what I've got.
• 25:22
  We can. We can.
• 25:23
  We can make something happen. Figure it out.
• 25:27
  But James, what were your what were some of your favourites?
• 25:29
  Oh, some of my favourites. So the Dutch clogs were fairly.
• 25:34
  Oh yeah, people don't even like him anymore.
• 25:41
  Anthony, I know you're very proud of your Eritrea, but I
• 25:44
  managed to bag myself one too, so apologies on that.
• 25:49
  Which I saw somebody selling an Eritrea pin online for €80.80.
• 25:55
  EUR So people. Are actually like selling these
• 25:57
  Eritrea pins? That's nuts.
• 26:00
  OK, all fairness, the the the Eritrean athlete, he, he started
• 26:06
  working really hard. He started doing like live
• 26:10
  Instagram locations where he would give people 30 minutes to
• 26:14
  get to his location in exchange for a limited edition pin.
• 26:19
  Wow. And I still, I still now follow
• 26:21
  him on Instagram and I don't know, I think he's got a
• 26:25
  business there, to be honest with you.
• 26:27
  Yeah, good for him, good for him.
• 26:31
  A few of my favourites This Tokyo sports pin that I got from
• 26:37
  AI Believe, a camera operator for one of the Japanese
• 26:40
  broadcasting companies. I really like that one.
• 26:45
  Big fan of the Guinea Bissau pin I obtained.
• 26:50
  That's a good one. In a random hotel where we had
• 26:53
  some media, but I got like you say, Anthony, the the pin
• 26:59
  traders outside had some really cool stuff, but I always felt.
• 27:03
  Retro. Yeah.
• 27:04
  But I always felt aware that like I wanted 2026 once because
• 27:08
  like, what happens if in 20 years I want my next career to
• 27:12
  be in professional pin trading? No one's going to.
• 27:15
  They're not going to think I was in, you know, the 94 Olympics.
• 27:18
  So I try not to get too many, but go to Columbia 2008, Beijing
• 27:23
  one. Whoa.
• 27:24
  That's cool. So Speaking of professional pin
• 27:28
  trading, you I don't even get can't.
• 27:29
  See this? Oh, he's a person's personal
• 27:31
  pin. Luis, the king of pins, like he
• 27:35
  was walking around. He like he was one of those guys
• 27:38
  who just like traded these things for for like, you know,
• 27:42
  like a hobby and he was like walking around with these.
• 27:45
  So that was a cool one. That is cool.
• 27:48
  However, it was also the old. Kind of very, very pin man.
• 27:53
  There's the infamous Pin Man that was there.
• 27:55
  He's like, this is my 20th games.
• 27:57
  I'm like, that's crazy. That guy, but I heard about him.
• 27:59
  He had a rucksack with sleeves. I mean sleeves.
• 28:02
  This. This man had been documenting
• 28:05
  the games pretty intensely. This feels like a documentary
• 28:11
  that needs to be made. Right.
• 28:13
  I think yeah, I. Think well, you don't know about
• 28:15
  it until you are living it. Absolutely.
• 28:18
  True, true. I'll rattle through.
• 28:22
  I'm luckily I actually sit next to the the lovely Johnny Ware at
• 28:27
  the ice rink that Phoebe and I train at.
• 28:30
  And so he came in clutch and got me some NBC pins.
• 28:36
  So I have the I have the Duomo. I love that.
• 28:42
  One pretty cool. I'm not sure if any of you who
• 28:45
  will have seen this one because I only got given one which meant
• 28:48
  that someone was willing to give up theirs.
• 28:51
  And it's the apparel spritz. Oh my.
• 28:54
  God. I did see that one.
• 28:56
  That one was. Cool.
• 28:58
  So those were cool. And then I met the Kenyan
• 29:00
  athlete, the Milano Cortina team, Kenya.
• 29:05
  Cool. I actually didn't ask what sport
• 29:07
  he was involved in. And it's hauntingly it's.
• 29:10
  Probably skiing I feel like. I think so.
• 29:14
  But and then country. Oh wow.
• 29:16
  Oh, you used your box? Yeah, I use my box.
• 29:19
  I think this might be up there with one of my favorites.
• 29:22
  The Chinese speed skating that is.
• 29:24
  Isn't that just so cool? Holy moly, yeah.
• 29:28
  Team Team Lebanon, I'm not sure. I'm not sure where I got that.
• 29:32
  And I, I, I was going to trade it because I really, really
• 29:37
  wanted this Team USA one, which Anthony, you convinced me is
• 29:41
  rare. Is this rare or were you just?
• 29:43
  OK, I don't, I don't quite see it in the frame, but that one's
• 29:46
  rare. That one's like the first one I
• 29:48
  ever got. That one I I've I've seen a
• 29:51
  couple of only. OK, Mongolia, I have Closings
• 29:57
  too. That's a good one.
• 29:58
  OK, quickly you guys, I do have a quick story and then Maddie,
• 30:01
  it's your turn. But at the closing ceremony, I
• 30:04
  was with our only long track speed skater at the games and we
• 30:08
  checked in our bags before the closing ceremony and then we
• 30:12
  lost our entire team. Like we couldn't find them.
• 30:15
  And in Verona, they kind of shot all of the streets.
• 30:19
  So it's just kind of athletes and people walking in the
• 30:21
  closing ceremony. But it was big, like it was
• 30:23
  spread out. And so I for the life of me
• 30:26
  couldn't find anyone from our team.
• 30:28
  So we just went into the flag bearers 10 and the our long
• 30:33
  track skater Ellie and I basically just went along the
• 30:36
  countries to the people we didn't get the pins from and ask
• 30:38
  for their pins. Yeah, it was like.
• 30:41
  It was brilliant because the countries were literally labeled
• 30:44
  so that that evening I secured Australia, I secured Mongolia,
• 30:51
  the Korean love heart pin. That's a rare one.
• 30:56
  I think that's when I got the Lebanon one.
• 30:58
  I got another couple Italy ones and I finally re re got my
• 31:03
  Germany one because I traded that.
• 31:05
  So it was. That was a a wonderful evening
• 31:07
  of of celebration. I cannot believe that this this
• 31:11
  Germany won. Yes, I had traded mine away.
• 31:14
  Trade this one. This is one of my favorite ones.
• 31:17
  Is I love. It it's such a beautiful pin.
• 31:20
  Well, yeah, I think, I think that should win the pin award.
• 31:23
  I actually think that's the prettiest pin.
• 31:25
  Yeah, I think so. Yeah, it was beautiful.
• 31:27
  But Maddie did an amazing job saving a lot of her pins for the
• 31:31
  closing ceremonies. And I waited.
• 31:33
  I learned from my first games. I learned so.
• 31:38
  I. Got a bunch of rare countries
• 31:40
  because you don't see like since we're not in the mountains, you
• 31:42
  don't see some of these countries that only do like have
• 31:44
  one athlete in skiing. So I got like Madagascar, I got
• 31:48
  Ireland, I got Haiti, I got a few other Mongolia at closing.
• 31:54
  Oh, I got Greece because otherwise you don't see these
• 31:58
  these countries, right? Yeah, Oh.
• 32:00
  Muddy. Now you know.
• 32:03
  Did you, did you, Did you all get Ireland though?
• 32:06
  I got. That's a good one.
• 32:07
  I didn't. Get that one.
• 32:08
  I can't find it now. I had Ireland and it's like not
• 32:12
  in my pile of pins anymore. I was going through them with my
• 32:15
  friends, like here, and I was like, Oh my God, I don't have it
• 32:18
  anymore. Yeah, and we're like looking
• 32:20
  through the bag. Or some of the security in the
• 32:25
  airport? Yeah, smuggled it, but I raise
• 32:28
  you you're Guinea Bissau pin. I got one with the bird on it.
• 32:33
  Oh wow, wow. Yeah, mine really pales in
• 32:38
  comparison to all of yours. It's funny though, because Pin.
• 32:40
  Trading. You were.
• 32:41
  Busy you were. Busy, I mean.
• 32:45
  I I. With like normal people is very
• 32:47
  different than like athlete pin trading.
• 32:49
  It's a very different vibe and a very different like game.
• 32:54
  Yeah, absolutely. Which I didn't realize.
• 32:59
  Let's go to yours. OK, I'll, I'll keep it quick.
• 33:03
  I got a couple favorites. So I think my ultimate favorite
• 33:07
  that I got at the opening ceremonies is this Hong Kong,
• 33:09
  China, can you see it? It's.
• 33:14
  Dim sum. It's their dim sum pen.
• 33:16
  Wow. I think that's.
• 33:18
  The ultimate one. After three weeks that was still
• 33:20
  my favorite. And then this is another one
• 33:24
  that I had to treat 2 pins for. But the Snoop Dogg Paris pen?
• 33:27
  This one. Smoking the ring.
• 33:28
  Smoking the ring? And then my other I traded
• 33:34
  Anthony for this one that I still consider a favorite.
• 33:37
  Yeah, yeah. Pretty cool because I sit
• 33:39
  somewhere between like a regular person and like an athlete in
• 33:43
  the pins. I want where I want all the
• 33:44
  countries, but I also want ones that are really pretty.
• 33:46
  Oh, you have the. Is it the same one or is?
• 33:48
  It the hockey player, Yeah. Hockey player.
• 33:50
  That's cool. That's very.
• 33:53
  And then, yeah, I got a bunch of rare countries.
• 33:54
  That's my other. That's like my others, the rare
• 33:56
  countries. They're my favorites, yeah.
• 33:58
  There are also all these Lunar New Year ones that were like
• 34:04
  around that nobody wanted to trade because it was like, oh,
• 34:08
  it's I, this is my horse pin. Like I want the horse pin.
• 34:11
  And I'm like like. Well, I remember more of that in
• 34:14
  Beijing, the Lunar New Year ones, because we were in China.
• 34:16
  So everyone seemed to have AI remember more of that.
• 34:19
  And it was the year of the Tiger, I think.
• 34:22
  Yeah, it was the year of the Tiger that year.
• 34:23
  So there's a lot of Tiger ones. We shared accommodation with
• 34:27
  Team China and they, they decorated the, the elevators,
• 34:31
  the lifts with the year of the horse stickers and everything.
• 34:36
  And a few of us were in the lift and we were really excited
• 34:39
  because the one of them was wearing a, a pin with the year
• 34:42
  of the horse and we asked to trade it and it was probably the
• 34:45
  quickest. No, I think I experienced the
• 34:47
  entire games. I know.
• 34:49
  It's kind of crushing, to be honest.
• 34:52
  The the anybody with a horse pin, like I, I did not find one
• 34:56
  person with a horse pin who wanted to train it, trade it.
• 34:59
  So OK, I I have AI just have a few because you all have like a
• 35:05
  bunch that already you're very excited about Australia.
• 35:09
  Oh well. That.
• 35:11
  Was cool cool. Wow, that's from from Hector and
• 35:15
  and Stasia. I mean, we already, we already
• 35:19
  talked about the Kazakhstan pin, which was that?
• 35:22
  Kazakhstan one's so nice. It's I it's it's like, it's like
• 35:26
  in a box. It was very like, it was very
• 35:29
  interesting. This is a a Venessia pin, like a
• 35:33
  Venice pin. Like you can't really see it
• 35:34
  what it that it is, but it's like a very cool and intricate
• 35:38
  that that a volunteer or one of the fans gave me.
• 35:42
  Oh, multiple, multiple lanyards. But yeah, 2 lanyards and then
• 35:50
  and then the the Chinese Taipei pin from from Yushang Li.
• 35:55
  Oh, that one's magnetic, which is cool.
• 35:57
  Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So just just a few.
• 36:00
  Just a few. Well, very excited to have been
• 36:05
  able to nerd out about pins with you all now.
• 36:10
  Excited to see you all at at Worlds in a few weeks.
• 36:15
  Any any pin trading in in store for Prague or is this like?
• 36:20
  I believe we have a deal. Yeah, I think.
• 36:23
  They're like the last minute, yeah, last minute transactions
• 36:27
  before we put them away for four years.
• 36:29
  Yeah, exactly. You do.
• 36:32
  You do forget about them for four years and then you're like,
• 36:35
  Oh my God, I did this whole thing with all these pins like
• 36:37
  it's, it's a, it's a cool time. What are you all going to do
• 36:40
  with yours? Are you going to put them on a
• 36:42
  board or like keep them on the lanyard?
• 36:45
  What's your I'm? Thinking a board for mine, but
• 36:47
  right now they're in a plastic bag because I'm I'm moving in
• 36:49
  the spring and I don't want to like have one more thing to move
• 36:52
  with like you're. Going to lose some more if you
• 36:53
  do. That yeah, I'm going to lose
• 36:54
  some more if I do that. So I'm I'm waiting but I'm
• 36:56
  thinking like a fabric board or a pin board or like a cork board
• 36:59
  or something. And I'm thinking either my
• 37:03
  lampshade or on a scarf like how the pin traders had it.
• 37:07
  Like one or the other. I'm still deciding.
• 37:10
  From my, from my first Olympics in 2018, I had, I think I got
• 37:14
  like, I don't know, 10 pins from that Olympics And I was like, Oh
• 37:17
  my God, look at all these pins I got.
• 37:19
  But I, I framed it because it was my first Olympics.
• 37:22
  I framed like it. They used to give you tickets
• 37:26
  for the figure skating events because you needed like as
• 37:29
  press, you needed actually to have tickets to go in.
• 37:33
  They don't do that anymore. And, and it's like all
• 37:35
  electronic now. But so I, I framed a couple of
• 37:39
  my tickets and then put a like had a foam board and put a
• 37:42
  couple of the pins on there and just, it's like it's now framed
• 37:45
  in my, you know, in one of my rooms, so.
• 37:48
  Cool. I like that.
• 37:49
  Yeah. Neat.
• 37:50
  That's neat. So you could do like something
• 37:53
  like a shadow box sort of thing where you can like open it up
• 37:56
  and like, well, I don't know. If you can see I have this box.
• 37:59
  I collect a shot glass from everywhere I go.
• 38:01
  There you go. I feel like I don't know whether
• 38:04
  I could like round the edge, do all the pins.
• 38:07
  That might be cool. There you go.
• 38:10
  Plenty of possibilities. But the photo is just too it's,
• 38:14
  it's my mug shot. It's.
• 38:16
  I don't need that for you. It's bad, yeah.
• 38:18
  And if you got any, any of you got any like cuts on your neck
• 38:20
  still I've got yeah it. Was hurting.
• 38:22
  After a bit I was like, oh, I'm running out of space.
• 38:25
  See, the people think this is a game, this is, this was serious.
• 38:28
  This is like. This is why I always wear my
• 38:32
  credentials like this, like I always have some.
• 38:37
  Kind of. Under the hood.
• 38:39
  I started wearing it, kind of. Like had to wear sideways after
• 38:42
  a while, yeah. Yeah, so it looks more like a
• 38:46
  Boy Scout, Boy Scout satchel. And by the end of it.
• 38:50
  I mean, Amber had a like a pin bag that she was carrying
• 38:54
  around. Like it was literally like she
• 38:55
  had a, she had a bag and it was all the pins and she'd like,
• 38:59
  it'd be like one of those. Wow.
• 39:01
  Yeah, Marjorie, I did that too. Marge did that.
• 39:05
  Well, no for next time. Yeah, exactly for next time.
• 39:11
  All right, Well, Maddie, James Anthony, thank you so much for
• 39:15
  joining me. This is really fun.
• 39:18
  Skating fans, I hope you enjoyed this because it's a glimpse into
• 39:24
  what the athletes actually experience, which is much more
• 39:26
  than just a competition. This is a this is an experience
• 39:30
  and the pins are a big part of it.
• 39:31
  So thank you all and we'll see you in a few weeks.
• 39:36
  Thank you. Bye.
• 39:37
  Bye.