Brazilian cross-country skier Bruna Moura joins us to talk about her continuing gritty journey to become an Olympian. A former mountain biker, Bruna took up roller skiing to help her recover from surgery. She found a love for the sport and transferred to snow to achieve her goal of representing her country at an Olympics.

She was supposed to realize her dream in 2022 when she qualified for the Beijing Winter Olympics at the last minute. However, as she was riding to the airport to fly to China for the Games, she was in a horrific car crash, in which she sustained several serious injuries.

That setback hasn’t deterred Bruna from achieving her goal, and she is back on the cross-country skiing circuit trying to earn enough points to qualify for Milan-Cortina 2026.

We talk with Bruna about how she found her sport and how athletes from underrepresented nations cobble together training, equipment and travel on the cross-country ski circuit. We also discuss her almost-journey to Beijing and how her accident fueled her drive to keep going toward her goal.

Follow Bruna Moura on Facebook and Instagram!

Our friend Nick Zaccardi wrote a great article about her journey – check it out here!

Also on today’s episode:

The International Olympic Committee has pressed pause on its plans to hold an Olympic Esports Games in 2025. Sports Business broke the story (paywalled), and we talk about what that could mean for the future of the event.

Perhaps the new IOC President will have thoughts on the direction that event should take. This week, the seven candidates meet in Lausanne to present their candidacy to IOC membership.

Plus, we have news from TKFLASTAN, including results for a number of our winter athletes and some great honors for our para archer Matt Stutzman.

For a transcript of this episode, please visit http://flamealivepod.com.

Thanks so much for listening, and until next time, keep the flame alive!