Today, June 23rd, is Olympic Day, a day celebrating the Olympics around the world. In honor of this day, local NPR station KPCC hosted a discussion panel with several US Olympians at the Crawford Family Forum in Pasadena, California on Tuesday evening.

At the event, several Olympic pin collectors displayed the hundreds of pins they have collected by trading at several Olympic games. It was interesting to hear their stories of how they started collecting pins and their memories of attending several Olympic games. I have some pins from when I attended the Summer Olympics in Atlanta in 1996 and the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City in 2002, but my collection pales in comparison to the pins they acquired through trading.

The moderator for the panel discussion was Olympic Hall of Fame swimmer John Naber (1976 Swimming, 4 gold and 1 silver medals). Before the discussion, John introduced Gordy Crawford and he spoke about the US Olympic and Paralympic Foundation and encouraged everyone to support Team USA – even a small gift makes a difference in helping our athletes train for the Olympics!

John asked questions of each of the Olympians about their experiences at the games, what they remember and the lessons they learned. With a diversity of sports represented, it was interesting to hear their perspectives about what we can expect from the US Olympic Team at the Rio Games this summer.

The panelists included:

• Shirley Babashoff (1976, swimmer, eight Olympic medals)
• Dwight Stones (1972, ’76, ’84, high jumper, two Olympic medals)
• Connie Paraskevin (1980, ’84, ’88, ’92, ’96, speed skater and cyclist, one Olympic medal, four world titles)
• Paula Weiskopf (1984, ’88, 2012, volleyball player and coach, two Olympic medals)

The Olympic panel. Front row L-R: Shirley Babashoff, Connie Paraskevin, and Paula Weishoff; Back row L-R: Dwight Stones, Gordy Crawford (Chair of the US Olympic and Paralympic Foundation) and John Naber.

After the discussion, all the athletes mingled with audience members, and I spoke with Dwight Jones about his broadcast career – he will be reporting for ESPN International in Rio, calling play by play for track and field, and Shirley Babashoff about her soon to be released book, Making Waves, and the documentary about the 1976 games and the East German swimmers that she knew were doping at the time (but no one else seemed to acknowledge this) – The Last Gold. Shirley brought along her 1976 gold medal in the 4×100 relay and let all of us hold it. What an honor!

What an honor to meet Shirley Babashoff.

An Olympic gold medal!

It was an honor to meet these Olympians, and I thank them all for representing our country at the Olympic Games. I am excited for the games in Rio this summer.

Happy Olympic Day!