Sarah Spain had quite the time covering her first Olympic Games in Italy, where women’s sports media also became a newsworthy protagonist. In this Q&A version of a Scouting Report, Sarah answered the Great Game Lab’s most pressing and hard-hitting journalistic questions, like what was it like to sing with Flavor Flav and which pin was she most excited to trade for.
Great Game Lab: As the host of Good Game with Sarah Spain, the flagship daily women’s sports show on the iHeart sports network and the first ever daily women’s sports podcast, you became part of a Winter Olympic story, one about the rise of women’s sports media that was getting some good coverage during these Games. As a historian, I think that we’ll see the Milano Cortina Games understood to be an important moment in the history of both women’s sports and women’s sports media. What has it been like to be part of a pivot point in history?
Sarah Spain: It's an incredible honor, and a role I take on feeling a tremendous responsibility. For such a long time there's been a dearth of accessible, fun content about women's sports that's also properly vetted and researched. Thoughtful profiles have long existed, fun recaps are becoming more and more common across the podcast and digital space, but combining the two so people find the space both accessible and educational is a real goal of mine. I also understand that as the only daily women's sports podcast at a time when so many new women's leagues are starting or expanding offers my show the chance to be an archive for future study. What were the first athletes of a league or team saying about their time as groundbreakers? What were the challenges of the moment and the wins that might (hopefully) feel quaint in 20 years.
GGL: Do you have a particular story that illustrates the significance of the presence of women’s sports media at the 2026 Winter Games?
Sarah: Getting nudged further and further back in the pack of people interviewing Mikaela Shiffrin after her first individual race at the Games reminded me of being in the locker room for the Chicago Blackhawks or Chicago Cubs, trying to reach an arm through the huddle of reporters to get my microphone in range to catch audio. The Olympics has always been a uniquely equitable place for coverage, but as the U.S. women continue to out-medal the men (this was the sixth straight Games where that was the case), there are even more people interested in telling the stories of women athletes and teams.
GGL: Am I right in thinking that this was your first time covering an Olympic Games? What are some things that make this event different from others you’ve covered? Give us the cool, the weird, the hard, the glamourous, the funny, the gross (if there’s a gross).
Sarah: First Games, yes. Unique to Italy, perhaps, were the hills. I got a workout every day climbing to the alpine events, the sliding events, etc. Long bus rides began and ended the days, but in between it was thousands of steps. Not a job for the weary! And when not walking, certain events with superstars competing required tremendous patience. Hours spent in the mixed zone waiting for winners to finish the podium ceremony, TV interviews, wire interviews and more before getting to you. Not glamorous! And for those of us creating daily shows after the events were done, 17-18 hour days were the norm. Not nearly as many pasta dinners as people back home imagined! Getting one sit-down meal a day felt like a victory. It was cool seeing athletes around Livigno or Cortina between events, and a reminder that they're normal people and not living in cryogenic bubbles in between their legendary performances.
GGL: It was very cool to see national news outlets incorporating your interviews into their reporting, Sarah. I was driving in my car, listening to NPR, and there you were, on my radio explaining to Marco Werman on The World about the wildness of the tie – twice – for the silver medal in the women’s giant slalom by Sweden's Sara Hector and Norway's Thea Louise Stjernesund. And it was also very cool to hear NPR play clips from your interview with Eileen Gu. Tell us why it matters to you that everyone hears women’s sports coverage.
Sarah: The stories are worth hearing! The athletes are worth knowing and understanding and respecting. And in the case of someone like Eileen Gu, a multi-millionaire model, spokeswoman, Stanford student and the winningest freeskier of all time, what she has to say is infinitely more thoughtful and interesting than a lot of what the biggest names in men's sports offer after games. Defaulting to men's sports as the only thing people care about just reinforces that idea! Give people the chance to learn about women athletes and teams and they'll buy in just the way they do for the men. It's a failure of the media (and society) that we still default to men when it comes to sport. Doing the kind of accessible but educated coverage I mentioned earlier will hopefully help change that.
GGL: The pins! Tell us about your favorite pin that you traded for.
Sarah: Obsessed with the pins! My faves are anything with animals -- a panda bear curling, Tina the mascot with a biathlon gun, snowboarder Maddie Mastro's pup Pippy!
GGL: Which sport at the Games was the one most different from your expectations of what it would be like?
Sarah: Alpine skiing. It's wild how each event at the Winter Games has such different rules and formats -- three runs and one counts; three runs and two count; one race to advance; two races that get added together... and sometimes the rules for a particular event don't feel particularly fitting or intentional. In the case of alpine skiing there are dozens of competitors and the first heat goes favorites first down to the lowest seeded. Second heat starts with the bottom racers of the top half of the field (still following?). So, say, 30, 29, 28 and so on will go until the top-ranked after heat one races, knowing what she'll have to race to win. But after that the rest of the field still has to go, even though there's an almost infinitesimal chance they'll factor into the competition. So the winner wins, then waits for another 20 or 30 racers to go before their podium moment.
GGL: Most unexpected celebrity sighting?
Sarah: Meg Thee Stallion at long track speed skating!
GGL: What’s it like to sing with Flavor Flav?!
Sarah: Pretty surreal. Certainly not on my life Bingo card! And Hall and Oates "Sara Smile" of all things! Not even "Fight The Power."
GGL: I know that many athletes at these Games are The Best People with The Most Inspiring Stories. Who’s one person whose Olympic experience has stuck with you and will stick with you that we should know about?
Sarah: Elana Meyers Taylor. 41 year-old mom of two deaf sons, one whom also has Down syndrome, winning her first gold in her fifth Olympics. Hugging her nanny first after the win. Signing "Mommy won!" to her sons. It takes a village... her nannies, husband, kids, family, Team USA sliding sports staff... such a powerful moment. For years she's been fighting for women athletes and Black athletes, and now also people with disabilities, and winning along the way. (Seven career Olympic events, six Olympic medals. Unreal levels of clutch.)
GGL: What did I not ask you about that you want to tell us about?
Sarah: Can anyone look up the laws on marrying a mascot? I'm LITRALLY obsessed with Tina the stoat.