Race to the Games: An LA 2028 Podcast Episode 1

(upbeat music) - When you think about the Olympic Games, you think about sport and competition. - But have you ever wondered what it takes for a country to actually put the games on? - Hi, I'm Molly Beatner, and I'm Caitlin Cwillman, and we are first used at Clareont McKenna College. - We'd like to thank the Kick Center for International and Strategic Studies for sponsoring this podcast. In this episode, Dave Stowe talks to us about his role searching for Olympic venues to host athletes on Tario and the Five Seas in involvement with the games, political complications for both athletes and workers attending visas, his unique experience as a gymnast growing up in Orange County, then traveling around the world and much more. Now, let's hop into race to the games in LA 2028 podcast. (upbeat music) - We're here today with Dave Stowe, president of Stowe Sports Management, former associate director of the US Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista, and an all around experienced person in the world of the Olympics. - Do you think you could give us just some background information about what you do and what your role in the 2028 Olympics is? - Yep. All right, I'll try and keep it simple 'cause it can get all spiderweb real easy. But so my background, I worked for the US Olympic Committee for a little for 20 years. Our head corps in Colorado Springs, but we have Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista, which is South San Diego. And so I ran that for 21 years. And then after the games in 2016, the Olympic Committee decided they don't want to own property anymore. So they gifted that property to the city of Chula Vista. So now it still operates under the same premise, but is a city owned and city operated facility. So the Olympic Committee got out of that operation. So now they just find teams to go train there. So as a model, they just don't have to pay all the maintenance and upkeep of it. But during that time at Chula Vista, it was responsible for kind of like the daily operation. I've been making sure it worked. It was very much like a college campus, except you're going off to train, right? So you guys kind of understand the sport model. You have US soccer, USA Track and Field, USA Rowling. All those NGBs would come in a weekend, book a week, book a month, some athletes lived there full time. But they went in and basically did all their preparation for national world championships, Olympic games. So we would meet with all the coaches, make sure we had the appropriate venues set up for them. We had the full-sert fists in the dining room, so nutrition, the medical, all the support services. And then during the Olympics, we would all go to the games and do different roles at the game. So sometimes I was assigned to a team as a liaison. Sometimes I was in like the hospitality section of the friends of family section. Sometimes I spent weeks at the airport just collecting all of our athletes and coaches that they came into the country and made sure they got out of the airport, okay? Right? So different games, different experiences. And then I left that facility, 'cause I stayed on for the new management for a couple years. I left that facility in 2019, moved up to Midwest and ran a youth sports complex for a while. But heading into LA, I knew I wanted to test the Olympic movement again. So a couple of buddies of mine, we got together collectively. I think I'm the one for least experience. I have eight Olympic games. The next guy has 10 and the next guy has 20. So we have a few Olympic games experiences under our belt. But we realize that every country that goes to the Olympic games needs to come in a little bit early, right? You can't just show up the day before the village opens, check into the village and then compete the next day. That's just not gonna work, right? So most of the countries come out probably two, sometimes three weeks before the Olympics start and they get acclimated. However, there's no access to the Olympic venues. Can't get into the village. So you need a place to stay, you need food and you need your training venues. So we've spent probably the last year and a half, almost two years, literally scouring something California from Santa Barbara to San Diego, looking at every possible training location. Most of the universities, some are private clubs, but some go down to like city college level. But really, what we found are the universities that have housing, quality venues, especially track and field and swimming. Those are the two key ones. Those are the ones that the world wants to go to stay at. Quick note, both Caitlin and I are swimmers at CMS and have swam our whole lives. We told Dave, which was exciting, and we had the opportunity to ask him a few questions about the sport. As swimmers, we especially appreciate the Olympics for its international competition and unity. That's one of the reasons why we are excited to discuss and learn more about this topic. Now back to the show. You know, countries come up two weeks before the games, they won't get acclimated. But really, as we look at all the locations, so I use the Santa Barbara, Long Beach State, Cal State Fullerton. I'll say Claremont Colleges, but when I say Claremont Colleges, it's specifically CMS, Ampomona, right? 'Cause those are the two of the athletic departments in all the venues. And then you even look at UC Riverside and they keep on going south into San Diego and you have San Diego State, UC San Diego. Anyone with a 50 meter pool, a track and field venue and a grass field, which is getting harder to find. Something California, everybody's moving to artificial turf. But especially rugby, they don't wanna play on artificial turf. They wanna play on natural grass, just like they do internationally and in the Olympics. And even soccer would rather be on natural grass. So those are the venues we look for and that starts narrowing down the pool, right? The Coliseum is gonna have track and field. Swimming is actually gonna be in self-isolation, so that's pretty cool, right? 60,000 people watching a swim meet, that'll be all right. But then, Long Beach will probably have a little pocket of events. They don't know where they're gonna put some of the cycling events. So everything's gonna be scattered around. So some areas are just really gonna be difficult to secure. So we would love to get into Long Beach State, but Long Beach State is kinda tied up by the LA organizer. So it's not for rent. So we can't get in there. So as we're looking literally through everything, we happen to find our way out to Claremboa. And, you know, met with Miriam and in Erica. And actually, I've known Steve Graves forever. Like back in the 80s when we both, I had hair and he had no gray hair. So it's fun to reconnect with someone at the university. But we just found that the Claremboa College is really had a great set up, right? You had double the athletic venues in some case if you're building another track. So we have what, three track and field venues is gonna be awesome. But multiple pools, all the gymnasium spaces and then the housing right there, it just made a really neat collection of venues. So really, that's one of the premier spaces. But we've started touring around different countries. So we're probably on nine or 10 different countries that we've all around Southern California, from Australia, Italy, Ireland, Nebulins, French, they just keep going. And some of them are chasing medals. And some of them just participating in the games is their experience, right? When you think about all the athletes that are coming to the games, only a small percentage win medals for so many of the Olympians being an Olympian, getting the sweats and going to opening ceremonies, that's the event, right? And so something that we're also packaging in our presentation to all these countries is proximity to other things that Southern California shopping, they love shopping. Everybody around the world loves shopping. Presumably Disneyland, proximity to the mountains and home springs. You know, there's just certain Southern California cultural things that everybody wants to do after the Olympics do, right? So, but let's say, I'm just gonna try and pick what I say at participating country rather than a performing country. So Columbia, right? They're gonna have probably, two potential metals, right? And man, when a country like that wins a medal, it's a national celebration this wild. And then we get mad that we don't win 100. So it's just kind of a fun thing. But they'll probably send say 75 athletes. So if they send both their soccer teams or up to 150 athletes, and for them to come out and get two weeks of training, good food, live in a community such as Claremont that has a really neat, like intimate feel, right? The little, I think it's your little village or downtown area. You have to go and have a dinner, have some coffee, walk around, go shopping, fail to sleep right next to your venue, get up trained. You're not going to train crazy. You're just going to keep your body in tune. So you're probably going to do one session a day. And then your family can come out and stay in the same area, get on the little light rail and head right on into LA. We probably wouldn't do that as locals, but foreigners would like they'll be that up. They'll do that in the heartbeat. I was wondering if you could speak to how sort of international politics kind of play into what you do as a business and like working with different countries, Olympic committees. Right. It's always changing, right? So I'm kind of going backwards. So I was a gymnast back in my day. I went to the UC Santa Barbara. And when I was on the national team, everything we did was on paper, right? So to get our visa to go over and compete in Romania to months and months and months, there was no such thing as just going online, click, click, click, click, putting in a credit card number. And two weeks later, you had a visa. Like didn't exist. So I've lived through the paper part of life. And then there was the pre 9/11 life where we could travel with anything, right? We could take so many bags. We could bring anything we wanted. You'd give a guy in customs a pin or a sticker. And they just let you ride on through. And then 9/11 hits. By the way, that was six months before we hosted the Olympics in Salt Lake City. So we went from building a certain model where the Olympic Games come to the US to the entire travel industry, the entire security industry, the entire large gathering of people, industry, changed forever because of 9/11. But every country you go into culturally is different. So some of it is just really simple. Like going to Canada, MACE is illegal. So we have to tell our athletes, take your MACE out of your purse, backpack, whatever. You can't bring that in there, right? When you go to Russia, they have certain things going down to Brazil and just realizing that if you wear backpack or a purse or something, there's a lot of just literally drive by on my own heads. And someone's just going to grab that strap and it'll break off your shoulder and they're gone with your bag. You have to be careful in certain parts of town. But we were talking about this earlier today with a buddy in mind and one of the biggest things right now going into LA is visas. After this moment, visas and foreign access in the US is a little difficult. And so there's a real struggle right now trying to figure out where the visa application process is going to be, what length of time is needed to get visas for athletes, we're three years out. But right now, all the workforce for the LA organizer, so much of the workforce is foreign. The people that activate and operate Olympic Games, we call them Olympic newmans, the guys like myself and others who have worked in the industry forever. But they just live in whatever city that Olympic Games is being held in for three to four years. And when those games end, they pack up and they apply. But most likely, they're going to be higher because they're the best in the world at it. And they just move to the next Olympic city. So I have friends that do that. And they don't have families. They're just global, wonderful people. But they don't have roots. And so now that the Paris Games are over, all these experts that know how to do this are trying to come to LA and work. And they can't get visas. They can get like three month visa, six month visa. But they can't get a working visa. And they can't get a three year visa. So everyone in the LA organizers office, they're staring each other going, well, we need to find domestic workers. But there's not really a workforce in the US that has that skill set, right? And so that's probably one of the biggest, most immediate struggles within the Olympic movement right now is workforce. - So going off of that, does that create any concern for kind of like the logistics behind the Olympics? And whether or not the LA is going to be able to like pull off the Olympics without a hitch. - Yeah. (laughs) If you were to sit in my little coffee circles, I literally was talking to one of my former interns who is deep, deep, deep in the Olympic movement right now talking to him today. And he's just shaking his head. He doesn't know how it's going to work. Like any event, it's going to work somehow, some way. You know, there's all these little things that still didn't work. It's just not going to be, maybe as glamorous or smooth, there'll be so much more chaos behind the scenes. But at the end of the day on the TV screen, it's going to work. - We are also wondering since, or based on your experience, like how long afterwards do visitors stay in the Olympics location? And do you think that LA is going to make money off the Olympics? 'Cause we also know that countries are trying to avoid hosting the Olympics because they lose a lot of money. But since LA is using like, already built arenas, do you think that's gonna make a difference? - You know, I'll go back to staying for a staff member. We were in the country of the games for probably four to five weeks. 'Cause you're there, a little bit beforehand, and then you have roughly two weeks of the games. But we also have the Paralympic games afterwards. And so you have the change over a period. And then you have another two weeks of the Paralympic games. And so if you're pulling the double, and you're gonna work the Olympics and the Paralympics, by the time the Paralympics are done, you just want to double and be real fed, right? However, for the athletes, athletes love to stay in the country, right? Family flies over, and we really, really try and have the families and the athletes understand. Although your family is here, your focus is the games, right? So, politely say no to your parents about having breakfast and dinner with them, focus on the games. And then when the games are over, then stay later. The trick again is visas. If your visa is tied to your accreditation and the Olympics, and then typically your visa is gonna run out. So it all depends on the country, but I think every host city, host country would love for athletes and their families to stay because you want everybody to enjoy your city. But we've had members of our delegation so we say accidentally stay too long. (laughs) And now that's a little bit of an issue. So there's always that government relations piece afterwards I go and you're here on a visa for three weeks and you stay for six weeks and then you have a process. But yeah, for the most part, I think most countries would love everybody to stay. LA, yes. Countries lose tons of money on their Olympics and let me correct that to where it's not necessarily the country, it's the organizing committee. So the United States is the only country in the world where the government does not fund the Olympic program. So that means it's private entities that have to figure this out. We as the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee, we don't host the Olympic Games. There's an organization in LA and it's the organizing committee for the LA Games. That's the group that's responsible for every dollar, every process, every organizational piece and we as the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee, we attend the Olympics in our country, right? The we don't put it on. But we obviously want to do well in the US on our own soil. So there's a lot of money going into it. So you mentioned you're raised in Orange County or that's where you grew up. Is there anything that. that you're specifically looking forward to, like having the games here. - So I was a junior in high school when the LA games were there. I volunteered and actually, I'll say dance in the opening ceremonies. So again, I was a gymnast and we were a practice one day and this guy comes in and he had this big overcoat on and a big scarf and really flamboyant. This comes bursting in the door and we're like, let's go on on over there. And he was talking to all the coaches and our coach walked over to us and he said, hey, this guy over here is the producer of the opening ceremonies and he's been trying to get dancers to learn how to tumble. So we went out and we had about a hundred male gymnasts all high schoolers just opened to clines and they started teaching us these kind of goofy little dance steps which we unsure we never perfected. And we were put into the opening ceremonies basically doing a whole bunch of back handsbrings and back flips and a couple goofy little dance steps and it was a great experience and it was my first kind of real touch and feel the Olympics. So the 80 games remember we boy-cotted and so I didn't get to see any of the 1980 games and then in the 1976 games I was kind of young. So it was really like, oh wow. And at the same time I was a gymnast trying to make the Olympics. So I had this little touch of the candy, right? And so kind of looking at it now, I've always thought that LA would be a great look and to my Olympic experience, or at least my hands on Olympic experience. I plan on still attending and watching the rest of my life. But probably not up for the exhausting work. But to volunteer in '84 and then be able to touch and feel and have some type of involvement in these I think is a pretty cool Olympic career. But yeah, I'm curious of just how the organizers are gonna really put it all together. The Olympics have changed. There's more security, there's more events, there's different events. I've fallen into the newer emerging sports, deep connections in the surfing skateboarding climbing, BMX space, and these are all newer sports on the Olympic program, but they aren't really being embraced globally by their Olympic committees, right? So my buddies and I, we've been on admission of trying to get the Olympic committees around the world to support these newer sports at the same level that they support basketball and gymnastics and some of the traditional sports. And I think LA is really gonna show off those newer sports in a respectable way because of so much of the Southern California culture. I mean, skateboarding surfing, BMX, those are all born and bred Southern California sports. Did you guys watch closing ceremonies from Paris? - Yes, we did, or I did, at least. So I thought they were cool. - But the closing ceremonies were cool, but the little LA segment of Red Hot Chili Peppers and Philly Eyelish on the beach and Long Beach, where everybody was saying it was a Venice, but it wasn't, it wasn't Long Beach. It's just sad, right? We have so much to do here to elevate the show. It's LA, like we have the capability, but like we got to bear the what we showed the world during the closing ceremony. (laughs) But yeah, we have a task. - And I have one more question about swimming that I've been wondering, I think, since we were studying this. - All right. - But with Olympics swimming being long course in a lot of the local pools, like long course meters, and then a lot of the local pools being like short course yards, which is something that rest the world doesn't have. How are other countries looking at that from a training perspective? - It's one of the biggest things, right? So there's a lot of 25 meter pools out there, and we literally just go like that right away, right? Oh, not worry about you. Once we find a 50 meter pool, okay, now we'll talk to you. And so most countries won't even touch a 25 meter pool. Or a 25 meter pool, right? 25 yard, 50 meter, there we go. Can I get my swimming term in knowledge, you're right? Yeah, they don't want short course at all. So thankfully, there's a 50 meter pool. So you guys are in the game. (laughs) - Great, thank you. - Yeah. - We appreciate it. - No worries. Let me know if you have anything else or you know how to find me. - And that's a wrap on our first episode of Race to the Games, an LA 2028 podcast. A huge thanks to our first guest, Dave Stowe for joining us, and once again, to the Keck Center for International and Strategic Studies for sponsoring this podcast. And finally, thanks to you, our listeners. Catch you in the next episode. (upbeat music)