we are speaking with a former olympic athlete samantha retrosi .he is a luger and competed in italy in 2006. when we return, we will be joined by jules boykoff, who has just written a book "celebration capitalism and the real cost of the olympics." we will also be joined by dave zirin and canadian professor helen lenskyj was just finished a book, "sexual diversity and the sochi 2014 olympics: no more rainbows." we will be back in a moment. ♪ [music break] >> this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with nermeen shaikh. as we continue our conversation, before we widen the discussion to be joined by a number of guest, we want to stay with samantha retrosi for a moment. did not gethings we to talk about before the break is what happens in corporation, when you are -- when you're a single corporate sponsor pullout. you are dependent. in your case, it was verizon. what happens when a pullout? what options do you have as athletes for support? increaseially, you outside work hours. a lot of the u.s. luge athletes

thank you, samantha retrosi. guest: thanks for having me.ost: coming up, we will continue looking that deal of experience up next, the history of the olympics and the politics with the athletic director of drexel university as "washington journal" continues. >> at least the honorable member has the guts to stand against her -- she would've been swept from office and dump them in garbage. will go verytation successfully, indeed. it will go very successfully, indeed. can pontificate in light of the facts instead of what the honorable gentleman -- >> a whole list of what has been ruled as parliamentary expressions. indeed, a few weeks ago the present prime minister was required by the speaker to withdraw i remark he made that of theed that the leader opposition was in some ways less than honest. i don't remember the details. course, iting, of was said, churchill was once construct it by the speaker to withdraw an accusation of lying. instead of accusing whoever it was of telling a lie he is said a have said -- i will call it terminological and

eric zillmer, i do not know if you heard, but we have been talking with samantha retrosi, a former luger. guest: her question is are athletes privileged and should they be given a free ride. and it isathletics really difficult to make an olympic team. you have to be very talented. you have to put a lot of time into it. and how you get supported is really part of the puzzle. separate the athletic events from how you are going to be supported to actually engage in those athletic events. peter, iscountry, doing this different. that is why the olympics are so interesting. during the cold war, east germany would have academies where athletes would live and practice and eat and would be by theely 100% supported country. whereas the united states of america, we are much more capitalistic and entrepreneurial so bode miller, who, by the way, has the fastest practice time for the downhill race sunday, he is just a kid from the hampshire who was skiing in his backyard and somehow he was able to make the olympic team and is one of the gold-medal favorites. that is the beauty about the olympics, too.