Blind Landing
4.9/5
Critic Rating
Blind Landing is an award-winning independent documentary podcast. Hosted by Ari Saperstein, the series goes behind the scenes in the world of Olympic sports including gymnastics and figure skating. Blind Landing has been featured in dozens of publications around the world, including The New York Times, Rolling Stone, Vulture and Elle. The series was named one of The Atlantic’s Best Podcasts of 2021, a 2022 Webby Awards & AIPS Awards honoree, and won the 2023 Ambie Award for Best Independent Podcast.
Critic Reviews
Score: 5
Keelin • Mentally? A Magpie. • Feb 14, 2022
"(Season 2) Blind Landing is an eye opener for the people not knee deep in the sporting world. It's interesting, captivating, and so easy to listen to. It's one of the podcasts I suggest for people who "don't know what to listen to" or "really don't want to listen to true crime anymore"."
Score: 5
Stephen O. • Podcast Delivery • Feb 14, 2022
"(Season 2) Blind Landing celebrates the different identities within the rigid confines found in figure skating and culture it brings. In overcoming preconceptions, figure skating may offer a template for us all to be inspired by so we can stick the landing while having a say in way things ought to be."
Score: 5
Lauren Passell • Podcast The Newsletter • Feb 7, 2022
"(Season 2) It has everything but not too much, and I simply enjoyed the experience of listening to it. I was surprised to learn this show is a totally independent passion project made by a small team of journalists in their free time on nights and weekends. It feels much bigger than that."
Score: 5
Lauren Passell • Podcast The Newsletter • Jan 10, 2022
"I liked this big story that all started with a two-inch discrepancy. And ultimately, it’s about something the gymnasts (and many of us at one point) have had to do—live their lives without closure."
Score: 5
NZ Herald Staff • NZ Herald • Aug 7, 2021
"...interviews really capture the personalities of the athletes involved, it's a rivetingly told story about how a small mistake can have big consequences."
Score: 4.4
Nicholas Quah • Vulture • Aug 5, 2021
"The tape of Saperstein interviewing several of the gymnasts who went through the 2000 Olympics experience is fascinating, and the show does a compelling job — to my untrained ears, at least — describing the technical elements of what actually goes into a vault attempt...But the podcast is also fairly rough around the edges. Its five 30-minute episodes are packed with a decent amount of narrative repetition, which suggests that there’s a world in which Blind Landing could have made a tight, solid hour-long episode of a magazine show. Nevertheless, Blind Landing remains a worthwhile listen for what it is."
Score: 5
Keelin • Mentally? A Magpie. • Jul 30, 2021
"This podcast is an excellent example of true crime vibes without being true crime. Full of suspense, this podcast has exceptional forward momentum."
Score: 4.9
Wendy J. Fox • PodcastReview.org • Jul 28, 2021
"The first-person voices that Saperstein includes are one of the best features of the podcast, and it is these personal stories that build the show’s narrative arc. Condensed into five short episodes, Blind Landing is a thoughtful exploration of a decades-old scandal."
Score: 5
Emma Dibdin • New York Times • Jul 20, 2021
"This compelling new investigative podcast series tells the little-known true story of one of the biggest mistakes in Olympic history."
