The Lost Olympians Podcast with Patrick Cairns, Lesley Cairns-Falk cover art

The Lost Olympians

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The Lost Olympians

By: Lesley Cairns-Falk, Patrick Cairns, Matt Fabbri
Narrated by: Patrick Cairns, Lesley Cairns-Falk
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About this listen

Introduction by Executive Producer Jessica Biel

In 1971, 12-year-old Lesley Cairns was a South African swimming phenom with big Olympic dreams. But because she was classified as “coloured” by the apartheid regime, you won’t find her swimming scores in the record books. Or anywhere. She crossed a line she didn’t know existed—one that led to a harrowing visit from the secret police. In this four-part series, Lesley and her brother, Patrick Cairns, dive into a family secret that reveals the role that sport played in their country’s liberation movement.

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Episodes
  • Trailer

    Trailer
    Jul 27 2023

    In 1971, 12-year-old Lesley Cairns was a South African swimming phenom with big Olympic dreams. But because she was classified as “coloured” by the apartheid regime, you won’t find her swimming scores in the record books. Or anywhere. She crossed a line she didn’t know existed - one that led to a harrowing visit from the secret police. In this four-part series, Lesley and her brother, Patrick Cairns, dive into a family secret that reveals the role that sport played in their country’s liberation movement.
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    1 min
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  • Part One: Sink or Swim

    Part One: Sink or Swim
    Jul 27 2023

    Lesley and her brother, Patrick, revisit the swimming event that landed her in the crosshairs of the South African security police - the law enforcement branch that brutally cracked down on opponents of apartheid.
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    30 mins
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  • Part Two: No Normal Sport

    Part Two: No Normal Sport
    Jul 27 2023

    Lesley and Patrick set out to understand the forces at play in 1970’s South Africa under apartheid and the lines that Lesley didn’t even know she’d crossed. They examine the role that boycotts played - not only in Lesley’s swimming career, but in the liberation movement.
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    34 mins
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About the Creator and Host - Patrick Cairns

About the Creator and Host

Patrick Cairns: "Lemme tell you a story..." will undoubtably be one of the first things Patrick Cairns says when you meet him. That story might be about growing up in the shadow of Table Mountain in Capetown, South Africa, where he spent his first 14 years restricted as a "coloured" citizen under the laws of apartheid. After his parents found a way for his family to emigrate to Winnipeg, Canada, Patrick began competing in track and field at national levels. As a graphic and visual artist, he co-founded Sports Masters, a digital magazine with a mission to create a community of peace, cooperation, camaraderie, inspiration and sport for mature individuals—master athletes, aged 35+—across the globe. In 2010, he partnered with Matt Fabbri to form 1310 Productions and tell his sister’s story of oppression in sport and swimming in apartheid-era South Africa. Teaming up with ATTN: and Jessica Biel’s Iron Ocean, Cairns and Fabbri brought The Lost Olympians to Audible. He and his wife Rhonda have raised six kids and four grandsons and live and work in Winnipeg, which sits on Treaty One land, in the heart of Canada.
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About the Writer - Matt Fabbri

About the Writer

While many of his childhood friends were playing outdoors, Matt Fabbri was under a tree with his nose in a book, engrossed in the greatest of stories, and creating his own. Matt's short plays have been performed at churches across North America and his full-length play, Twelve, an adaptation of 12 Angry Men, premiered at the Winnipeg International Fringe Festival in 2019. He has written and directed short films and was a writer on the limited television series Smoketown. Matt also teaches global issues, literature, and film to the next generation of young storytellers. He, his wife Christy—the director for The Lost Olympians—and their three children, live and work in Winnipeg, which sits on Treaty One land, in the heart of Canada.
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Additional Credits

Written by: Matt Fabbri
Hosted by: Patrick Cairns and Lesley Cairns-Falk
Executive Produced by: Jessica Biel and Michelle Purple for Iron Ocean; Patrick Cairns and Matt Fabbri for 1310; Matthew Segal, Jarrett Moreno, and Mike Vainisi for ATTN:; Martha Little for Audible
Directed by: Christy Fabbri
Produced by: Emily Berens, Dennis "Kosh" Jacobs, and Taye Shuayb for ATTN:; Jessie Graham for Audible
Editing and Additional Research by: Jessie Graham
Sound Design and Mixing by: Bart Warshaw at Cocoon Audio
Vocal Edit by: Christy Fabbri, with additional editing by Dana Gerson and David Palmeri
Location Recording by: Sean Quigley, Karli Quigley, and Dhashen Moodley
Associate Producers: Jonathan Steinfield, Meghan Buttner, and Casey Shatraw
We sincerely thank all who lent their voices and their stories to this series, as well as Anthea Metcalf, Drexler Kysser, Keith and Derick Orderson, Scott Taylor, Louis Myles, Jennifer Galvin, Kevin Dawson, and the work of Ashwin Desai.
We dedicate this series to the work of the cause. And to the memory of our beloved mother, Joanie Cairns, and all the others we lost along the way.
All stars
Most relevant
This podcast is so well-done. The story itself is shocking - an untold history of one of apartheid's (and racism's) many awful effects. I appreciate how they use it to give us more context of South Africa in the 1970s, and they powerfully transmit the stakes and the feelings of the people involved. I'm an audio person, and I'm struck by the great production values and top-notch scoring, too.

Fascinatingly terrible history, beautifully told

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It's always important to maintain these untold stories alive and so I congratulate the authors for telling their story.

Wonderful and insightful story

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