Liam Mather on bubble hockey, dropped torch bearer, English ban, skeleton gains

An update on the Uyghur athlete chosen as one of the two final torchbearers (2:39). The Chinese men’s hockey team had their first test — and it was a blowout 8-0 loss to the U.S. team (4:30), but they bounced back well with a creditable 3-2 defeat to reigning silver medalists Germany (8:39). Things got strange at a press conference after the Chinese women’s hockey team played Japan, when goalie Kim Newell was prevented from speaking English (10:03), and a shoutout to former China Sports Insider Podcast guest Rachel Llanes, whose father passed away just days before she scored the winning goal against Denmark (12:04). Plus, China’s gamble in skeleton has paid off with a bronze medal in the men’s event — how did they do it? (14:06) 

Then, Beijing resident Liam Mather joins us on the show to talk about his work on the Olympic TV hockey production inside the bubble (19:24). As first mentioned by the China Sports Insider Podcast, he had a dramatic reunion with his father after 2.5 years apart — a story that’s since been picked up by both western and Chinese media (20:52). Liam tells us how the family has reacted (22:10), describes his job as a TV “spotter” (23:19), explains why the Canadian women’s team has been giving him daggers across the ice (25:03), relays his trip up to Chongli and reveals how close spectators can get to the athletes (26:16), plus, he gives us his thoughts on women’s hockey at the Olympics from his up-close perspective (28:07) and his assessment of both the Chinese men’s and women’s hockey teams at the Games (31:26).

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