(upbeat music) - Coming up next on News Depth, who day!

Ohio's football heroes fumble what would've been a historic victory.

A high jumping skier spreads the Olympic spirit in Beijing.

Why is everything so expensive?

It's called inflation.

And you've heard of a plant-based diet, but these plants, have a meat-based diet.

News Depth, is now.

(upbeat music) The Bengals attempt to end Ohio's super bowl drought falls short.

Hey everybody, I'm Rick Jackson.

Thank you for joining us.

After a hard fought game at SoFi stadium in Los Angeles, the Cincinnati Bengals fell to the LA Rams in the Super Bowl.

The Bengals got our hopes up with a small 20-13 lead in the third quarter, but a fourth quarter touchdown sealed the deal for the Rams.

Los Angelenos got their Hollywood ending.

This was the first Super Bowl win for the Rams, but it was a tough pill to swallow for Ohioans.

Although home to two professional football teams, the Bengals and the Browns, the state has never seen a Super Bowl win.

The Super Bowl is usually the most watched television event of the year, and certainly here in Ohio, all eyes were glued to the screen.

Not only because this was Ohio's first Super Bowl appearance since 1989, but also because many of the players, have ties to the Buckeye State.

Probably the best known as the Bengal's quarterback, Southeast Ohio native Joe Burrow.

- Being from Ohio and being the quarterback of the Bengals is something that I'm really proud of.

As a team, we're excited to put a product on the field that the fans are proud of, and that kinda gives them bragging rights.

They haven't had that in a while.

So, I'm excited to give that to them.

- In his hometown of Athens Burrow, isn't just known for his success on the field, he's known for raising over half a million dollars for the local food pantry.

Back in 2019, when then college quarterback Burrow won the Heisman Trophy Award, He said he was accepting it on behalf of all the kids in his home county, who didn't have enough to eat.

That's when donations just poured in and they've continued as he led the Bengals to the Super Bowl.

He may not have won the Super Bowl, but he did win our hearts, for sure.

Now among those in the crowd at SoFi Stadium, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine.

Not only did he fly out to root for the hometown football heroes in person, he officially declared Super Bowl Sunday, Cincinnati Bengals Day, by signing a proclamation.

A proclamation is a public or official announcement, as part of their jobs, governors are able to issue proclamations to celebrating and call attention to events in their state.

Ah!

A proclamation or not, football in Ohio is a big deal.

And that's no surprise because the Buckeye state played an important role in the creation of professional football.

Up next, I'll toss it to Mary Fecteau as she tackles Ohio's football history.

(upbeat music) - Thanks Rick, but I like to leave the football playing to the professionals, and many of those professionals happen to be from Ohio.

And it's not surprising considering Ohio was instrumental in shaping professional football, as we know it.

The game of football was derived partly from a different game, rugby, and was played at colleges like Harvard and Yale in the late 1800s before it became a professional sport.

Although the first professional football game was technically played by our neighbor, Pennsylvania, Ohio quickly became the center of professional football during its formative years in the early 1900s.

Way before there was a National Football League, there was an Ohio football league and Ohio was home to more football teams than any other state, before the Browns and the Bengals, there were the Canton Bulldogs, the Massillon Tigers, the Dayton Triangles and the Akron Professionals to name a few.

By 1920 the Ohio League expanded to include other states and became the American Professional Football League, which is the precursor to the National Football League, we know today.

In fact the NFL was headquartered in downtown Columbus before moving to New York city back in 1939.

As a tribute to the role Ohio played in the creation of professional football, the pro football hall of fame was built in Ken, the city where the American Professional Football League was founded.

So as you watch 'em toss around the old pig skin in the Super Bowl, spare thought for the rough and tough Buckeyes who played the game before all the glitz and glamor and protective gear.

Back to you Rick.

- Thanks, Mary.

You've really kind of gotta work on that throw.

So while we're on the subject of history, Olympian, Erin Jackson, no relation, I don't think.

Made history over the weekend, becoming the first black woman to win a speed skating medal, at the winter Olympics.

Even better, her medal was gold.

The 29 year old from Florida One in the 500 meter Speed Skating event, after finishing a disappointing 24th in the 2018 winter Olympics.

If at first you don't succeed, try and try again.

Congratulations Erin.

Another female athlete soaring to new Heights in Beijing, Eileen Gu.

Who snatched the gold in Women's Freestyle Skiing.

But the San Francisco native, isn't competing for team USA, but rather for her mother's homeland, China.

Up next, Coy Wire introduces us to China's ice queen.

♪ Let's get these things started now.

♪ (upbeat music) - [Coy] She's fierce, fearless, move over Elsa, there's a new snow princess in town.

- My name is Eileen Gu, I'm from San Francisco and I'm a free skier.

- The 18 year old sensation was born in the U.S., but her mom, was born in China and Eileen decided to compete for China at these games.

- My family's always been super supportive of me.

I come from a long line of engineers, so, it definitely wasn't expected and I don't think anybody really thought that I would become a professional skier or professional athlete in general.

- [Coy] But she's so much more than an athlete.

The Chinese speaking, horseback riding, piano playing prodigy graduated high school in just three years.

And she's already been admitted to her dream school, Stanford.

She's the poster child for snow sports in China, starring alongside Chinese actor, Jackson Ye, in an official Beijing games promo video being played throughout China.

She says her decision to compete for China, instead of USA, stems from a strong mother daughter bond.

Yan Gu taught Eileen to embrace her heritage, honor her ancestry.

- My mom has always been super, super supportive.

My grandma is the most motivated to win person.

She has the most competitive mindset that I've ever met, ever.

So I think my grandma gave me that competitive drive and kind of supported me in that way.

And my mom kind of taught me the work ethic aspect, so anybody can want to win but I think it was my mom that taught me how to get there.

- [Coy] And now Eileen wants to inspire the next generation from her mom's Homeland get there too.

She says she's competing to unite people, promote common understanding, create communication and forged friendships between nations.

(camera shutters) - Olympic athletes like Eileen Gu, might seem superhuman, but to compete at the highest level, they've gotta keep themselves healthy.

And that includes eating the right foods, but how do they know what the right foods are?

They consult the experts.

These folks are called dieticians.

Dieticians or nutritionist, are experts in using food and nutrition to promote health and managed disease.

They plan and guide people on how to eat in order to live healthier lives.

Sometimes they create healthy menus for hospitals and for cafeterias.

Sometimes they work directly with people and sometimes they do research.

Dieticians must be good listeners and have excellent credit thinking and decision making skills.

They must be able to listen to their clients, and come up with solutions that work for them.

Now they usually earn a bachelor's degree from a college or a university and some are registered dieticians.

That means they've had additional training and passed a national exam.

In Ohio, it's expected there will be about 180 or so openings for dieticians each year, with a bright outlook for even more spots to be needed in the future.

It's considered an in-demand career.

Now up next, we hear from a registered dietician at the Cleveland clinic, who tells us how to eat like an Olympian.

- [Journalist] Going for the gold, athletes now seeing action in Beijing, hoping their hard work leads to victory, and you can win too, when it comes to healthy eating habits if you view food as fuel.

- What this means is generally, a diet rich in carbohydrates, which gives them the preferred fuel for their muscles and their brain when they exercise, and they want protein to help repair muscles and sometimes build muscle and fats, which are important for vitamin absorption and just to feel full after meals.

- [Journalist] Cleveland clinic psychologist and registered dietician David Creel, says athletes choose specific foods that help them stay both mentally and physically healthy.

He says we should all strive to eat like an Olympian.

That means eating things like lean proteins, fresh produce, whole grains and healthy fats like avocados or nuts.

Creel says the timing of meals is also important.

He suggests nuts, skipping meals and eating in moderation.

Another part of being healthy, making sure you stay hydrated, drink plenty of water and give your body the rest it needs.

- If someone doesn't sleep well, they get up late, they skip breakfast, they make poor choices throughout the day, or they may overeat late at night.

- [Journalist] Creel says food plays a huge role in your health and nourishing your body, can help you succeed.

- While the Olympians like Eileen Gu and Erin Jackson are winning hearts, there's someone else stealing the spotlight at the Olympic games and he's not even an athlete.

In fact, his physique would be best described as, fluffy.

Of course, I'm talking about Beijing Winter Olympics mascot, Bing Dwen Dwen, or has his fans call him, BDD.

In Mandarin, Chinese, Bing has several meanings though the most common is ice, while Dwen Dwen means robust and lively.

BDD is a playful giant Panda wearing an icy shell.

The giant Panda is of course native to China and considered a national symbol.

BDD can and be easily spotted at event sites on stands, on the signage, on flags, in fact he's so popular, souvenir shops have already sold out on BDD stuffed animals.

Past Olympic mascots include Soohorang, a white tiger, who served as the official mascot of the 2018 Winter Games over in South Korea.

And Vinicius, yellow cat-like creature who was the mascot for the 2016 Olympics, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Now that brings us to this week's question, we wanna know, if the Olympics were held in your community, what kind of mascot would you create?

Tell us their name and describe what they would look like.

And of course, if you're artistically inclined, you can always send us your drawings.

Now, last week we asked, "What is something that you think should be a competition, in the winter Olympics? "

And I can't wait to see what you had to say, let's open up our inbox.

(upbeat music) Atilio from St. Peter Catholic School told us about a sport he'd be sure to win.

"I would put snow shoveling in the Olympics.

I had to shovel the drive today and I was fast because I was in flip flops and shorts.

I would've gotten a gold medal."

Maybe Atilio try some boots and pant next time.

Cammy from Rushwood Elementary thinks the Olympics should get a little frosty.

"I think they should add a snowman building contest.

I think it would be fun for competitors to express their own creativity.

I also think it would be less stressful for the competitors.

For example, instead of being judged by skill, it would be judged by creativity or height.

They would not worry about doing anything right, since building a snowman is based on creativity."

Talia from Harding Middle School has an idea that I think would be fun to watch.

"I would add snowball fights because everyone can do it.

Though you might need to be good at throwing and your aim would have to be good.

Another reason I think a snowball fight would be a good winter Olympic sport is because, it's fun and all ages can play.

You don't have to have that much experience in order to throw snowballs at people."

Ella from Summit Elementary has an idea that gave me the chills.

"I think the activity where you go for a polar bear clutch, because it it's really cool, and many people do it in competitions already.

So why not add it to the Olympics?"

Kelsey from Strongsville Middle School wants to see a favorite snow day activity in the games.

"I think that the activity that we should add to the Winter Olympics, is a sledding race.

Competitors would speed down a steep hill or track as they were timed.

It would be a bit like skeleton, a sport in the winter games where people slid down a track head first except, safer, and without a track.

The first one that got to the bottom of the hill first wins.

That's the activity they should add to the winter Olympics."

Thanks everybody.

Now, when we read through the letters this week, we noticed a lot of you wanted to see sledding, in the Winter Olympics, but as Kelsey just mentioned there, there is a sport in the Olympics that's very similar to sledding.

It's called skeleton.

Skeleton is a winter sliding sport in which a person rides a small sled down a frozen track while lying face down and head first, ha ha ha.

It's pretty similar to sliding down a huge hill.

And as one family in Littleton, Colorado discovered, it's a ton of fun.

The Spawn family created a miniature skeleton run in their front yard in honor of the 2022 winter Olympics.

Jason Spawn has been building sledding hills for his kids, for 12 years, each with a different theme.

This year, it's the Olympics.

Complete with the Olympic rings, and USA on the side of the slope, along with American flags.

But they're not the only ones inspired by the Olympic games.

Last week we told you about curling.

No, no, no, no, not that kind of curling, curling as in the Olympic sport.

Yeah, there you go, that's the one.

And curling teams take turns sliding stones on a sheet of ice toward a target area.

It's hugely popular in other countries like Canada, but most Americans have rarely have ever heard of it.

But after seeing it in the Olympic games, a group in Idaho decided to give it a shot.

Steve Dent has that story.

- I love the strategy.

I love the uniqueness.

It's just different than every other sport.

And you don't have to be, you know, the greatest athlete in the world.

You don't have to be a toned fit 22 year old to be really good at it.

You can be in your fifties and still competitive at the highest level.

- [Steve] On Sunday nights, the Boise Curling Club host a clinic to teach people the fundamentals of curling.

And sure, there are some growling pains.

(player growls) Learning how to slide the rock down the ice while also learning the proper way to sweep.

- [Player] Yep!

(players talk over each other) (players cheering) - In curling, scoring works like this.

Each team gets eight stones, two per shooter in a standard match.

And they aim for the button, the center of this bullseye inside what's called the, house.

And the winning team in an end, think baseball inning gets one point for every stone that's closer to the button than their opponents closest stones.

- [Player] Yeah!

- I thought it was wonderful.

I've only ever watched it on TV.

I've never, I thought it looked pretty easy, but boy, you come out here and it's way harder than it looks.

- How much force does it take to get it down there, Right?

- Okay.

- [Steve] And that's what I found out too, because the people trying curling for the first time were able to pick up the sport, pretty quickly.

But when it comes to the details of the different shots, like the draw freeze or takeout, I could see how that would take a long time to develop any sort of accuracy and consistency.

- Like I love curling.

It's the best game.

And I have so much fun and I've met so many good people and just wanna keep the club going and reach as many people as we can.

- So we've told you about a couple of the lesser known Winter Olympic sports, but there are some sports that actually became so unpopular, they're no longer even played in the Olympics.

Among them, skijoring.

A sport in which skis are attached to a horse, which begins sprinting, allowing the skier, to perform amazing tricks.

It only appeared Olympics in 1928, but skijoring competitions are still held, around the world.

Another lesser known Winter Sport, ski ballet, which is similar to figure skating, but on snow instead of ice.

Skiers perform elaborate routines complete with jumps and flips and spins all set the music.

It did appear as a demonstration event in the Olympics back in 1988 and 1992.

And now for this week's poll, we're wondering which lesser known Olympic sport would you like to try.

Head online to vote skeleton, curling, skijoring, or ski ballet.

And last week we also asked, "What's your favorite snow day activity?"

Most of you, 40% chose to spend the day sledding down a giant hill that was followed by a group at 24% who preferred to catch some Zs, 12% of you would spend the day making something out of snow, 23% of you said you'd wanna get cozy with some cocoa.

Now you might not have noticed, but the price of that cocoa has gone up, and pretty much so the prices of everything.

Economists have a fancy word for this, it's called inflation.

Inflation is the general level of prices going up.

It means you'll need to pay more money for goods like cocoa.

Inflation rose dramatically at the end of 2021 because people had more money to spend on goods, but the supply of those goods, was limited.

In addition to inflation, customers are being impacted by shortages of goods.

Maybe you've seen some empty shelves at your grocery stores while one important Valentine's day staple also suffered a thorny supply chain, that's right, flowers.

Many floors came up empty for the big day, due to customer demand, weather and a global flower shortage.

But maybe some of you Valentine's out there just needed to think outside the box, here's a suggestion.

Skip the roses next time, get your true love a carnivorous plant just don't get too close to it.

Carnivorous of course means, it feeds on animals.

A carnivorous plant, is able to trap and digest, small animals, especially insects.

In this week's Spot on Science, Margaret introduces us to some of these unusual, meat-eating plants.

(upbeat music) - When it comes to food chains and food webs, we're used to thinking about just three types of organisms.

Producers, like plants that use the sun, water, soil and air to grow.

Then there are consumers, you, me and the animals that chow down on the producers.

And of course, decomposers, mushrooms, fungus, things that break down producers and consumers after they die.

But some organisms don't fit neatly into one category.

I'm talking about carnivorous plants.

Not only are they producers, but they are also consumers.

It's pretty crazy and surprising to me is that we have them right here in Ohio.

To find out more about these hungry plants, I met up with Adam Wohlever, from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, at a park in Kent.

- So a carnivorous plant is a plant that has adapted to get the nutrients that it needs from other sources, mainly by eating insects.

So a carnivorous plant, while it does do some photosynthesis to get the energy it needs, the soils here are really poor in nutrients.

So it eats the insects and it's able to digest them and get amino acids and the nitrogen that it can't get out of the soil through those insects.

- [Margaret] So while normal plants are able to get everything they need from the environment, these fellas need to make up for a lack of nutrients.

I know what you're wondering, Carnivorous plants, do they eat animals?

Could they eat me?

- Eat me.

- [Adam] In Ohio, they Don typically eat animals, but there are hundreds, if not thousands of species of carnivorous plants throughout the world, some of 'em are so big that they've been known to eat lizards, rats, small mammals, but we won't see any of that here.

- Okay.

Now that I know it's safe to get up close with these plants, let's look at the three species found at the Triangle Lake Bog State Nature Preserve.

We've got the Northern Pitcher Plant, the Roundleaf Sundew, that one sounds nice.

And the Bladderwort, Ew.

They each have a specific way of luring insects to snack on.

- A Pitcher Plant has what we call a pitfall trap.

So the pitcher, okay, or the container itself is a modified leaf.

And it's got all sorts of little colors and venation on it, and sometimes it secretes a bit of a nectar and this attracts the insect.

The insect lands on this pitcher leaf, and it begins to crawl around.

Well then eventually as it crawls around, it becomes to a point on the leaf where it's really slippery and it can't get any traction, and it falls down into this trap and it starts to break down and become digested over time through enzymes and bacteria and it's absorbed and converted into amino acids that the plant can use.

So that's kind of the process that takes place.

Some of the other plants that are out here, like the Roundleaf Sundew, this is really similar to like the Venus flytrap, which people are really familiar with.

It uses a fly paper trap.

So it has this kind of open leaf and it has all these little glands that secrete nectar and that attracts the insect but once they land, they become stuck and this leaf begins to kind of close around the insect and like almost like a stomach and digested that way.

But that movement of that leaf moving, expands a tremendous amount of energy.

So it has to really be successful in capturing insects so it can survive.

The third one that we have here, the Bladder Wort, it has a bladder type trap.

So underneath the surface of the water is where all the action takes place.

And there's these tiny little sacks of bladders and they're negatively pressurized.

And they've got these little trigger kind of guard hairs on the bladder.

So what happens is, a small almost microscopic organism called zoo plankton, when it comes close to these bladders, it opens up, like in the blink of an eye, it just sucks all the water and all the insect in really quickly and digests it through that process.

So there's all these different kinds of traps, all these different kinds of mechanisms that have to be working for each one of these plants to be successful and survive.

- Wow, lots of patients and work to catch and digest such a tiny meal.

But carnivorous plants are more than just fascinating.

- The carnivorous plants are very important to the ecosystem.

One, they control insects, right?

So a lot of people think, well, this must be great for mosquito control.

While that's somewhat true, it's actually beneficial for mosquitoes in some aspects, there's actually a species of mosquito that carries out its life cycle inside the pitcher of the Northern pitcher plant, which is a carnivorous plant.

So the plant itself is beneficial to the life cycle and the of life processes of certain insects, as well as eating them for its own purposes.

So it's kind of an interesting relationship.

- We're lucky to have so many species of carnivorous plants here in Ohio, they can teach us about absorbing nutrients and adapting to survive in difficult situations.

Some scientists are even studying the plants to find new ways to make super slippery surfaces and to reduce the mosquito population.

But we play a big role in making sure the hungry plants are able to stick around.

Adam says that the plants and their habitats are rare, many species of carnivorous plants are threatened or even endangered.

So it's up to us to protect their natural habitats.

- Thanks Margaret, watch your fingers.

Now there's some students who are hungry for success.

Do you know what a BHAG is?

It stands for Big, Hairy, Audacious Goal.

It's a goal that somebody sets for themselves that will really require them to step up their game to achieve.

While the Cloverleaf Elementary Student Ambassadors, CESA for short set a BHAG over the holidays.

This week's A-Plus award goes to CESA, for setting and reaching one impressive BHAG.

Now CESA as a group of 32 fifth graders at Cloverleaf elementary school in Lodi, they have to apply to a group of teachers to even be accepted in the group, and the group's main goal, is to make the school and community a better place to live and learn.

This year, the group set a goal of collecting 4,000 cans for their local food bank for Thanksgiving.

But that's not all they do, they also sponsor a two toy drive.

This year they collected more than 350 toys for kids in their community.

That's an impressive amount of toys if you ask me.

They also help younger students with classwork and lend helping hands around the school.

Kenna who's a part of the group CESA, said that they also do big fundraisers for a wide range of charities, and they do black history programming to help teach about the importance of diversity.

According to Kenna, the opportunity to help is really important.

Now, for those of you who are wondering, CESA did reach their goal.

They collected a whopping 4,532 cans for the local food bank.

So this week's A-Plus award goes to the Cloverleaf Elementary Student Ambassadors for setting big goals and for reaching 'em.

Keep up the great work.

Actually News Cats inform me she has a BHAG of her own, or maybe it's like a BHAPS?

A big, hairy, audacious petting zoo story.

Let's see what the cat dragged in this week.

(cats meows) News Cat is up and ready, this time I must have been inspired by all those Olympic athletes earlier in the show, right?

Well unfortunately there's no gold medal for fast typing Felines.

Oh, like there are some golden retrievers, 1500 of them.

News Cat's found a story about an international golden retriever day celebration.

To find out why these golden girls and boys, descended on this Colorado town, click the petting zoo button on our website.

Thank you News Cat.

Another dog story, strange for her.

Now we wanna hear from you and there are plenty of ways to stay in touch.

You can send a letter, we're at 1375 Euclid avenue, that's Cleveland, Ohio, zip code here is 44115.

You can email us at newsdepth.ideasstream.org, or you can tweet us, our handle is @NewsDepthOhio.

Thanks for joining us, happy Olympics.

I'm Rick Jackson, we'll see you right back here next week.

(upbeat music) - [Narrator] Your steps has made possible by grant from the Martha Holden Jennings Foundation.

Career call out featured in News Depth they're funded by the Ohio Broadcast Media Commission.

(upbeat music)