Abdi Abdirahman Interview
In what may our final interview before the start of the Tokyo games, we thought it was fitting to bring you an interview with an athlete who's about to head there himself. We chat with Abdi Abdirahman about his history as a distance runner in the Olympics going back over 20 years to Sydney, his preparations for Tokyo, and why he has no plans to retire yet. He also tells us all about his new book titled Abdi's World which will be coming out very soon.
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
Please note this is an automated transcript that may contain errors.
COLIN HILDING: Welcome back to Off The Podium for another interview. Maybe our last interview before we get to Tokyo 2021 and how appropriate it is that we're actually going to be speaking to somebody who will be there in Tokyo 2021 competing. And we heard a couple of episodes ago on our 99th episode, we were speaking to Pat Melgaris, who wrote a book on one of the Olympic coaches in this sport. We're talking again to a distance runner. This time, somebody was about to compete in their fifth Olympics, which is absolutely crazy. Today we have on the show Abdi Abdirahman, who himself also wrote a book that's going to be coming out in the coming weeks, I'm guessing just post Tokyo. In this interview, you're probably going to hear him say that the book is coming out in July, which we're in now, but the book actually is going to be coming out in August now, while we've heard. So still plenty to enjoy of Abdi, as we're going to be able to watch him in the Tokyo Games. We're going to be providing daily coverage, I'm sure we're going to talk about his event. But then post Tokyo, look for his book that's going to be out there. And this was a great chat, much like the one we had with Pat, it's great to be able to talk to anybody in a new sport, and distance running is something that's interesting to me. Not just because it's the only sport that I can perform myself, definitely not at a competitive level, but it's something that's even become more fascinating for me to watch on TV for a long drawn out event. There can be a lot of drama packed in there. So please enjoy our interview with Abdi Abdirahman.
COLIN HILDING: So, we're thrilled to have our latest athlete. This time, we're going to the Summer Olympics. I didn't even realise until before we did this interview how long it's been since we talked to a summer athlete. And we're now within weeks of the Tokyo Olympics, and we get to talk to somebody who's going to be there, who's getting prepared, who's taking time out of his busy schedule to be here. We're talking to, now he will be a five-time Olympian, five-time, five-time, five-time, how many times can we say that, Abdi Abdirahman. He is going to be competing in distance running at the Tokyo Olympics coming up. Abdi, thanks so much for joining us today.
ABDI ABDIRAHMAN: Well, thanks for having me.
COLIN HILDING: Abdi, we start all these interviews by asking, how somebody got into the sport. I mean, when it comes to something like running, I would assume most people learn how to run. I mean, I've got two toddlers upstairs who were two years old. They were running around today. But as far as competitive running, how did you actually come into the sport?
ABDI ABDIRAHMAN: I was a late plumber to the running sports. And I started running, I'm not sure, just my first year in college. And the reason I started running was because a lot of my friends, they were athletes doing different sports. Some played baseball, soccer, basketball. So I was only the one who wasn't doing any sports. So for me to fit in, I decided I want to do some sports too. And all the sports that I feel like I could do was running. And that's how I started my running career.
COLIN HILDING: Did you ever run lots as a kid? I mean, was it something that you had any interest in, even if it wasn't competitively? Were you fast as a kid? Did your parents have trouble keeping up?
ABDI ABDIRAHMAN: No, no, no. I was a decent runner in the neighborhood kids. I was in the passes, but also I was in the slowest. I was an average kid. But also, no, my strength was just running long. I never get tired. I didn't have the fast twitch muscles, but I could run forever.
COLIN HILDING: I'm actually interested in something you said, because this is the first time that we've had somebody on where I have some knowledge of the sport. I mean, I'm not super competitive or anything, but about five or six years ago, I got into doing half marathons. I still haven't worked up to the full marathon. I mean, I tip my hat to you for being able to do that. And so many people I talk to who do half marathons and everything, they always say that the first couple of kilometres are always brutal. When you have been competing as long as you have, and you said kind of at the beginning that you just never really would get tired, how are those first few kilometres, or at what point do you really start to feel the intensity of the run?
ABDI ABDIRAHMAN: Well, and I think people, when they say that the first kilometres are the hardest, I think they're true because that's when you, the first five, six, seven kilometres, the hardest because your body's not warm up. You know, like just, you don't have that rhythm, but as the longer you go, the warmer you get, the rhythm, it gets better. And your breathing gets better, so which is true. But for me, as an elite athlete, we warm up before the race, and that's one of the reasons why we warm up. We do like a three or four miles warm up before a race, do some strides, and suddenly we're ready to go. We're ready to run fast right away. So I kind of agree with your theory, to be honest, like 100%, so just the first kilometre is harder even. That's why the elite runners run the three or four miles warm up before a race.
COLIN HILDING: And you've competed, or you've at least been on the official teams. This will be your fifth Olympics, that's right?
ABDI ABDIRAHMAN: Yes, this is gonna be my fifth US. Olympic team. Yep, and I made my first Olympic in 2000.
COLIN HILDING: Wow, so in Sydney, because I know you've competed in multiple distances, I guess primarily the 10K and then as well the marathon you've competed in. When it was back in Sydney, did you have one distance you were going? Because I didn't even know how it works with, we see with sprinters, we've talked to several sprinters last year, and they're like, oh yeah, I'll do the 100 metre, the 200 metre. I can imagine, there's probably not a lot of options if you're going into an Olympics, say I'll do the 5,000, 10,000 marathon. I mean, did you have a distance that you had been selected for as in like, the team selected you, or do you go out specifically and say, I wanna do 10,000 or a half marathon?
ABDI ABDIRAHMAN: No, it doesn't work the other way, to be honest. Like for like any, like you have to go to the US Olympic trials, and you know, there's a lot of athletes who are trying to qualify 5,000, 10,000 metres. So, but on a year, like two, three years out of the trials, you'll figure out what events you wanna do, what your strength is, which race do you have the best chance of making it. It's all about playing your cards right. So, you know, just for me at the beginning of my career, I was 5,000, 10,000 metre runner. So, it was easier for me to make the 10,000 metre since I wasn't like a, you know, I wasn't a marathoner at that time, and you know, I was a distance runner. I wasn't like long distance runner. So, I choose to do the 10,000 metre, 5,000 metre at the beginning of my career. And as I get older, I move toward the longer distance, like a marathon, half marathon. So, you know, just, and that's how it works. So, you have to go to trials. No one's gonna select you, and you don't say like, oh, I'm gonna run the 5,000 metre. So, it doesn't work that way. So, you have to go to the US Olympic trials, finish top three at the trials, then you will be selected and have the Olympic standards.
COLIN HILDING: When you were qualifying for those first Olympics, like was that something that you thought this is a possibility? You know, I might make the team, I might finish top three, or did it come as a surprise to you?
ABDI ABDIRAHMAN: No, it didn't come as a surprise to me, to be honest. As a professional athlete, and you know, as just, I knew everybody was going to make the team, and that was the pinnacle of our sports, you know, just as a distance runner or any sprinters, you know, pinnacle of sports is making to the Olympics. So, and that was the dream of mine, just every Olympic trial I went to, I prepared my best, my best of my ability, and just get ready, just like, you know, and I always liked my chances.
COLIN HILDING: Do you remember what the experience was like going to the Olympics? Like, did you have a moment where you were just, wow, I'm actually at the Olympics, you know, fulfilling a dream, or do you get so into game mode, where you're just like, you know, it's just about the race? Because I know a lot of athletes, they go there and they're like, I didn't even appreciate it until after it was over.
ABDI ABDIRAHMAN: You know, you have to appreciate it, just I knew you also appreciated, like right when you make the team, that's when you just, just most of people realise what they accomplish, how big it is, you know, just at the end of the day, representing your country, there's no bigger honour than that, besides serving as a military person, you know, just the next to that is like maybe just a representative. Basically, you go into a world, all the world, where every country bringing their best of their athletes, and that is a competition, that's a friendly competition. Just so, and I think it's the second best thing to do for your country, like, you know, just to say, I put our servicemen and women, they are the best, you know, what they do and there's no comparable to what we do. But for us, it's a little thing what we do. And I think that's the, it's just amazing, you know, just to put that jersey, you know, when you say for USA and beyond, it's what you do. And so because you're representing a whole nation, you're representing your state, you're representing your city, you're representing your community, you're representing your neighbours, you're representing your family, it just kind of throws down everything. It starts from the country all the way to your family. So, you know, it's kind of, it is a great thing.
COLIN HILDING: When did you actually transition into doing, like when was your first marathon, whether it was through, you know, Olympic trials, or did you ever just compete in, you know, the local marathons in Arizona, you know, just for fun?
ABDI ABDIRAHMAN: No, I never run in the local marathons in Arizona, to be honest. I always, my first marathon was in New York City Marathon. In 2004.
COLIN HILDING: That's a big one too.
ABDI ABDIRAHMAN: So, you know, just, and at that time, I was already two time Olympian. So, you know, it just was the next move for me to do it. So yeah, and that was my first Olympics in New York City Marathon.
COLIN HILDING: Yeah, did you go into it thinking, you know, this is where I'd like to go with my career and eventually maybe do, you know, a longer distance, do a marathon at the Olympics? Or was it something you just thought about doing just for the training, just for the fun?
ABDI ABDIRAHMAN: No, it's just something that like I was, I was more transitioning from shorter distance to a longer distance at that time. I started doing road races and, you know, the marathon, and then marathons are, for us is the marathons where it's a lucrative business, you know, if you can run good marathon, you can make a good lead. And at the end of the day, and that's what attracted me, and I just, road wasn't cutting it, so on the track it was okay, but I knew I was going to be a good marathoner, so it was just a matter of time, and I think it was the right time to do it, it was right after the Athens Olympics.
COLIN HILDING: I find distance running to be so fascinating because on the surface you think, well, I'm not going to sit down and watch a two hour, two hour, 15 minute event or whatever, what excitements are going to be. But some of the most exciting things that have ever happened in the Olympics have been in the marathons. Just from half marathons I've run in, you could be chasing somebody down for two, three, four minutes before you even pass them. When you're doing a race that's that long, do you even have a gauge as to where you are in the positioning, or even for that matter, what your time is? Do you pace yourself? Do you have a watch? Are you figuring, I'm running a little bit too slow, I gotta pick it up in the next kilometre?
ABDI ABDIRAHMAN: That's a good question. It's hard, actually. It's more about competition. When you're in the middle of a competition, like everybody's different, and not two people are the same when they're racing. Some people like to go out, some people like to sit down, sit in the back, come from back. For me, it's a pure competition. What I like to do is I just wanna get to the front and stay as long as I can. And also, I will try to stay as relaxed as I can if my body allow me to do it. But sometimes the marathon is so fast that there's some guys who are way better than the other people. Someone like Yuliu Kipchoge, yeah, like Lalisa. Those guys are so great. Sometimes there's no way we can handle our pace. And I don't wear a watch. I try to go with them. If I can handle the pace, I will stay with them. If I can't, I'll just back off. I just run to my comfort zone. Yeah, but sometimes if I wear a watch and you see how fast you're running, you kind of get discouraged because sometimes you're running too fast. Sometimes you're running too slow. So it's kind of messed up with your mind. That's what it does to me. For me, I just like to run, feel. Just how my body's feeling.
COLIN HILDING: And again, because you're doing it for two hours at a time, it's probably got to be hard when you get close to the end to even be able to judge. Like, are you capable of judging how much gas you have left in the tank? So if you're, you know, if you need to make a sprint right at the end because you want to come in top three or whatever, you know, do you even know, okay, I have, I've reserved this much. Let me pull back a little bit. Or is it just, you know what? If you have it, go for it.
ABDI ABDIRAHMAN: Marathon, they say marathon is not over until you cross the finish line. Yeah, if anything can happen, the last one mile you can go from being the first place to be dead last place. It just, that's how tough the marathon is. It's just how your body holds and what kind of training you have done. For me, unfortunately, I did have some great races and I have some bad races too, but most of my races have been great, thank God. And also like, you know, it's always good to have something reserved. It's always like, people don't plan it, but it's just how you're feeling. That's what they reserve. You don't burn out yourself. You don't go out too fast. You don't go out like just something that you're not capable of, something that you never done in training. Like if you go out like a 440 while your capability, your max capability is five minutes flat, it's totally to different. You're a 22nd, you might not even make it to the halfway. But if you go out to five flat and you make it halfway, and you still have some laps or so.
COLIN HILDING: If you tried to be so strategic, I guess, where you're like, you know what, I'm just gonna pull back a little bit. I mean, who knows something could go terribly wrong. I mean, cause like you said, you've had some good races, some bad races. You know, can you think about what like the worst race you ever ran was? Was weather something that sometimes factors in, you know, because it's all outdoors, you know, spectator distractions, anything like that?
ABDI ABDIRAHMAN: I think one of the worst, I wouldn't say worse, it was just, it wasn't like, it was something out of my control. It was the mother nature. It was in Boston, I think, 2008, 2018, in Boston, 2018, just when there was windy, rain, rain, everything that you could ever, everything that you don't want to run, we had that day. We had the wind, we had the cold, we had the rain, we had everything. It was like a 30, 40, 50 miles an hour, six miles an hour, headwind, raining, everything. Water, just like you're soaking wet, just like that was one of the, that was one of the toughest races. I wouldn't say the worst, but that was one of the toughest races I ran. And I have no idea how I get to the finish line. And through this day, we talk about me and my buddy. My buddy was less than a second in front of me, but I never even see him. I don't even remember him being there.
COLIN HILDING: Just a complete blur.
ABDI ABDIRAHMAN: Yeah.
COLIN HILDING: How do you deal with the heat? I guess that's another thing, because these races outdoors, and you're doing it, it's gonna be July, August, sometimes the hottest month of summer. I mean, here, I live in Manitoba. I mean, we get hot during the summer, but I'm lucky to all of our marathons are either in the early spring months or in the fall. I can't even imagine being out there when it's 30 degrees outside and sun's beating down on you. I mean, do you kind of just pray for clouds that day?
ABDI ABDIRAHMAN: Yeah, you know, to be honest, there's not a lot of marathon that happened during the summer months. I think there's a few marathons happened, but as a lead for us, the marathon that we run usually like in New York City is the fall, Chicago is the fall, and Boston is the spring. So we kind of like pick and choose. But I know what you're saying, you know, it's very tough to run a hot weather, just like, the best thing to do is the hydrate and the humidity is the worst, and the heat, the heat you can kind of deal with, you can hydrate and, you know, just can pace yourself, but humidity is just the toughest.
COLIN HILDING: What's the training like, whether you're doing the 10,000 metres or a marathon? Do you have a certain amount of time you give yourself, like eight weeks, 10 weeks, where you need to build up that distance, or do you just sort of go year round where you just continue to do these distances in training? Like, what is your training regimen like?
ABDI ABDIRAHMAN: Yeah, you know, marathon, you should do like a 12 week build up while you already fit. Like, for us, we only take like maybe a month a year just to rest, one month a year, and the rest of the year, we just kind of maintain fitness. And then as soon as we find out what race we do, we usually like, everybody's different. There's people who train all year round and people who just need like eight week build up. Like for me, I usually do like our programs 12 week build up.
COLIN HILDING: So here we are, at least at the time recording this, we're within, let's say, five, six weeks from the Tokyo Games. What's the average amount of miles or kilometres that you put on per week, just getting ready for this?
ABDI ABDIRAHMAN: I do like maybe like 200 kilometre per week.
COLIN HILDING: Do your shoes get burned out? Because it's funny, one of the first interviews we ever did in the show was with a race walker. And I was shocked to learn that like he said, oh, probably every three weeks I have to change my shoes. But I mean, you're running, that's even more aggressive, wear and tear on these shoes. Like how often do you have to change your shoes doing that?
ABDI ABDIRAHMAN: Oh, you know, I just, I never even thought about that because I have like unlimited shoes, so you know, I'm a Nike athlete, so I just, I never even thought about that. But maybe, I know how difficult it could be, you know, like if you don't have any shoe sponsor and you're doing the same thing that I'm doing, you might be going through few shoes a month.
COLIN HILDING: Yeah, it might've last for a year, that's crazy. Did you have a favourite Olympic experience of all the ones you've been at?
ABDI ABDIRAHMAN: I don't know, I loved every, everyone, everybody, every Olympic was special for me, just like at the end of the day, making the Olympic team never gets old, to be honest, you know, just my, make, I remember making the Sydney Olympic team, that was my first Olympics dream come through, and then I remember going to Athens again, just was amazing, Beijing, it's amazing, and then going to London. Yeah, I just, I have a great experience each Olympics that I've been to, and I'm looking forward to being a part of the US team in Tokyo, so it's gonna be fun.
COLIN HILDING: You have to let me know, because no matter what you look for online with you, it always says the same thing, and I don't know if you take this as a pat on the back or anything, but everywhere I go, it always says you are the oldest athlete competing, I guess, in athletics or on the US running team. Is that something where you take it as a badge of honour? Because technically, are you the oldest that they've ever had on the team?
ABDI ABDIRAHMAN: I don't know, maybe, just to be honest, I never Googled it, I never thought about it.
COLIN HILDING: It's all over.
ABDI ABDIRAHMAN: Yeah, I know it is all over, I know, but at the end of the day, it's just like maybe something people are interested in, to be honest, I know. I am told, okay, I guess the truth is I am 44 years old, and I cannot deny that. But at the end of the day, no one gave me the spot, say, hey, you're the oldest guy, go be a represent. I earned it, I beat the young guys who want to beat the Olympians, so I took their spot. So I guess I'm younger than them, they're probably older than me, that's the way I look at it.
COLIN HILDING: That's what makes me feel good, because I mean, I won't give the exact number, I'm a couple of years younger than you, but I'm like, there's hope. I mean, if Abdi is going to be in the Olympics at 44, at 44, you know, I want to be beating the 18, 19 year old kids.
ABDI ABDIRAHMAN: Why not?
COLIN HILDING: Yeah. Now you have a book that's going to be coming out as well. So we do have to talk about it. I have to ask you, before we even get into the book, the full title is Abdi's World The Black Cactus on Life, Running and Fun. Now, first, you got to tell me, where did the name The Black Cactus come from?
ABDI ABDIRAHMAN: You know, the name Black Cactus came from, you know, I will never say I'm a, you know, I'm like, I'm Arizona native. I grew up here. I lived here since I was a little kid, never moved to another state, always Tucson, Arizona, like stuff. Went to school here. Just all my life lived in Arizona. And one day, just my neighbour just wanted me to come up with a nickname. He said, how about Black Saguaro? And I said, no, not Black Saguaro. How about the Black Cactus? And he said, oh, Black Cactus sounds good. And that's where the name came out, you know, it's just been, and I live a lot of cactuses around my house. So, but also like, and I remember, and I remember Shaq came to the Phoenix Sun, so he called himself Big Cactus.
COLIN HILDING: Is this something that like the other athletes on the team know, you're known by and all that?
ABDI ABDIRAHMAN: Oh, yeah, a lot of my friends, a lot of my teammates and the people who run against me, they know me, so I even have a t-shirt line.
COLIN HILDING: Oh, that's amazing. I'm going to look up your t-shirts now. What compelled you to write this book or to do a book? You know, is it something where you've had five, you know, almost five Olympics, you know, behind you now, and you've got that many stories to tell? Or anything specific that kind of compelled you to pick up the pen and write a book?
ABDI ABDIRAHMAN: You know, just to be honest, like, at the end of the day, you know, the five-time Olympian did help a lot, actually, to be honest. You know, that's a part of it. You know, just at the end of the day, to make a five-time, to be a five... I almost become a six-time Olympian. I also missed the 2016 due to injury. It's not like I make it. I've been to the trials five times, and I made all five times. You know, just at the end of the day, I want to share my experience in the Olympics, my life journey to the US. You know, and also like some young guys, something that they can learn from my, you know, my long career, my long career I have in running. You know, just like at the end of the day, running is just... It's what you put into it. You get out of it. So it's not like... At the end of the day, just you have to listen to your body. I just like it. There's so many good things that little kid or just even life lessons in general, just setting goals, everything.
COLIN HILDING: I'm actually really excited to pick it up myself. I mean, because I really... Especially since doing the show, I really love the sports biographies, the ones written by the athletes themselves. And then, of course, running is a bit of a hobby of mine. So, I mean, it sounds fantastic. With the book, it's going to be coming out in July, I understand, but you've got the Olympics right around the corner. I have to ask a little bit. We did talk to, the last time we talked to a summer athlete, it wasn't even somebody who had qualified yet. So, this is the first time we've been able to have somebody on here who's able to tell us, I'm on my way to Tokyo. But last year, I mean, we had several athletes on where the postponement of the games sometimes positively affected them, sometimes negatively affected it. There are athletes who said, I wasn't ready for Tokyo in 2020, but I might be in 2021. How has the delay in this been for you? Is it something where you kind of wish you'd been able to go back there last year, or did you look at this as an extra year just to get ready for it?
ABDI ABDIRAHMAN: You know, to be like... And that's the other thing, and that's what makes me different from other people, to be honest. For me, I look at it, the Olympics postponed it last year, 2020 Olympics, even though I was ready to go, I was prepared for it. I went to the trials, made the team. You know, I was hoping for the best, but we were dealing with a bigger issue than Olympics, you know, life and death. We were dealing with the pandemic. And for me, after I found out how bad the pandemic was, the COVID-19, how it affected all, not only in the US, but everywhere in the world, every other country, the last thing we want to do was just think about the Olympics. So I never thought about it for me. I thought about it more, I thought about it as well, being with my friends, my family, my loved ones, and also like my community. So just to be honest, I think postponing was the best thing that ever happened, you know, just, and not only Olympics, because all other sports have been postponed, like everything just happened, like halfway, like the NBA Championship, there was no people, they were on the bubble, you know, just the whole world was on a limbo. It wasn't full function. And for me, just the Olympics happening now, 2021, and things getting back to normal, what a better way to start the normality on, for us getting back to life, than having the Olympics and showing the world, we say we overcome the bad time and we defeat the pandemic. What a good way to celebrate. And that's the way I look at it for me.
COLIN HILDING: Yeah, and you're going to be competing in which events in Tokyo?
ABDI ABDIRAHMAN: And I'm going to be competing in the marathon.
COLIN HILDING: The marathon, okay. I mean, we're going to be watching, we're going to be glued, because we have a great track record here interviewing people who go on to medal. I hope you know that. So we're going to be rooting for you. Now, just quickly before we let you go, we do a final set of questions here, which is a little bit fun. Some of the questions more serious, you know, sports related, some of them a little bit less formal. This is actually taken from the Team Canada website. It's something they get the athletes to fill out in their own hands and everything. And every question is sort of different for each athlete. So run through a couple of these here with you. First of all, your favourite Olympic moment is, whether it be your own or somebody else's.
ABDI ABDIRAHMAN: My favourite Olympic moment was the opening ceremony in Sydney Olympics 2000, walking into the stadium.
COLIN HILDING: And that's going to make my co-host very happy because he's from Australia. So anytime that gets mentioned. If you could choose any Olympic host city, what would it be?
ABDI ABDIRAHMAN: Olympic host city? Sydney.
COLIN HILDING: You want Sydney again? Are you going to, you know, whether you compete or attend, are you going to be there for Los Angeles? I'm guessing that's going to be an easy trip to make.
ABDI ABDIRAHMAN: Oh, definitely I will be there.
COLIN HILDING: I'm hoping to be there. We can watch the marathon together.
ABDI ABDIRAHMAN: I might be competing. You never know.
COLIN HILDING: I was hoping. I mean, hey, you could be a seven-time Olympian by then. That's crazy.
ABDI ABDIRAHMAN: You know, as for today, I'm going to compete. So I haven't announced my retirement yet, so why not?
COLIN HILDING: Keep going for it. Here's a good one. The weirdest instruction a coach ever gave you was?
ABDI ABDIRAHMAN: Weirdest instruction was doing a double workout in one day.
COLIN HILDING: What was the workout entailing? What did you have to do?
ABDI ABDIRAHMAN: I had to do a 10-bar on in the morning, and then I had to come back and do a truck workout in the afternoon.
COLIN HILDING: Did you sleep well that night, at least?
ABDI ABDIRAHMAN: I didn't sleep real well.
COLIN HILDING: I hope so. What is your favourite workout? Another workout one.
ABDI ABDIRAHMAN: 12 times 1K.
COLIN HILDING: You're very ambitious. Here's a good one. If you could have lunch with any one person, it would be? President Clinton. If you could have any superpower, it would be?
ABDI ABDIRAHMAN: Make the world a better place.
COLIN HILDING: See, again, people are usually saying, I want to teleport or I want to fly. We've had two athletes in a row who give very logical, smart answers. I'm liking the change and shift here we're having. As a kid, I don't know if it's going to be an Arizona team or not, but as a kid, your favourite sports team was?
ABDI ABDIRAHMAN: Inter Milan.
COLIN HILDING: Sorry, it was what?
ABDI ABDIRAHMAN: Inter Milan soccer team.
COLIN HILDING: Oh, soccer. Okay, there we go. So it's not the Phoenix Coyotes, because I guess you weren't a kid at that point.
ABDI ABDIRAHMAN: I think the Phoenix Coyotes didn't even exist at that time.
COLIN HILDING: Well, see, I'm from Winnipeg, so we gifted our team to you. You're well known. But we got another one back now, and I think Phoenix is still kicking. If you could live anywhere in the world, it would be?
ABDI ABDIRAHMAN: That's a tough question.
COLIN HILDING: You can even pick Tucson or Flagstaff.
ABDI ABDIRAHMAN: If I could live already here, I'm already here, so that's the one thing.
COLIN HILDING: That's not a wish.
ABDI ABDIRAHMAN: Yeah, if I could live anywhere in the world. That's a tough question. I'll say Flagstaff.
COLIN HILDING: Yeah, good answer. Why mess with success, right? Last question here. Well, actually, second last question is the last one we'd like to ask everybody. Your favourite sports movie is? Do you have a favourite sports movie?
ABDI ABDIRAHMAN: Favourite sports like Billy Mills, Running Breath.
COLIN HILDING: What's that about? Is that something we can find online?
ABDI ABDIRAHMAN: Yes, Billy Mills is like a 1964 Olympic champion, 10,000 metre from the US American.
COLIN HILDING: We'll put it on the list to check it out. We like to do movie marathons around the time of the Olympics. Final answer to you, who is the greatest Olympian of all time? Feel free to say yourself if you want.
ABDI ABDIRAHMAN: Greatest Olympian of all time. In any sports or...
COLIN HILDING: Any sport.
ABDI ABDIRAHMAN: I'll say Michael Phillips.
COLIN HILDING: He comes up often. Abdi, it's been great talking to you, especially with a new sport. I don't think we've ever talked to a distance runner before. Again, your book, Abdi's World, The Black Cactus on Life, Running and Fun, that's going to be out very shortly. And then Tokyo's around the corner. You're excited about Tokyo, I'm guessing?
ABDI ABDIRAHMAN: I'm very excited.
COLIN HILDING: We're going to be watching you and cheering for you. And yeah, thanks again for being on the show. And if at any point you happen to make your way up to Winnipeg around the time of the Manitoba Marathon, let me know. You know, I could try to keep pace with you or watch you from a distance.
ABDI ABDIRAHMAN: Thank you, thank you, thank you.
COLIN HILDING: Great talking with Abdi, and again, if you want to find his book, it's called Abdi's World, The Black Cactus on Life, Running, and Fun. And I'm ordering a copy of this as soon as it comes out. I'm going to pre-order it, and I'm actually really excited to read it, especially after talking to Abdi. We are now so close to Tokyo 2020, which sounds weird considering we're a year removed from 2020, but we're so close to Tokyo 20, or Tokyo 2021 as we want to call it. I don't even know if we're going to have any other episodes before we actually get there. And we watch Abdi and all the other athletes that we're cheering for. But just to give people an idea of what we have coming up. Obviously during the Olympics, we're going to be having daily coverage, starting from the opening ceremonies all the way through to the closing ceremonies. Every day we're going to have all three of us on here, myself, Ben and Jarrod, who you don't usually get to hear from Jarrod unless we're not doing an interview, which we've been doing so many interviews lately. And a lot of the fun ideas that we're kind of tossing around, possibly going back and doing reviews of the Olympic films you can see on the Olympic channel, maybe even the Tokyo 64 games. There's a video game out now for Tokyo 2020, which I'm looking forward to playing. Maybe we're going to do a review of that. We're going to have lots of variety coming up as well. Lots more athlete interviews to come. Make sure as always to subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, wherever you might be able to find us. And you can follow us on Facebook and Twitter. And if you don't hear from me again, my name is Colin and you will hear from me again when we're in Tokyo, but I won't be in Tokyo, but somebody will be in Tokyo. And we'll be talking about Tokyo.
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