Abigail Strate Interview
Let's get you back in the zone of Ski Jumping as we inch closer to the Beijing Olympics by speaking with Canadian Ski Jumper Abigail Strate about her career and her amazing sport! We find out from Abi about her pathway into ski jumping and why she is so addicted to the sport that she loves. We also find out what it was like growing up without being able to experience the usual high school life most teenagers did and why going to Europe for most of her school year always ended up being more fun. Added to this we find out why she is tempted to come to Australia to help start up a ski jumping program and just why a volleyball and soccer ball are helpful to her when it comes to her sport. It's a fascinating and insightful chat you won't want to miss!
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
Please note this is an automated transcript that may contain errors.
BEN WATERWORTH: It is Off The Podium, An Olympics Podcast coming to you today for another interview in the lead up to Beijing. We're days away now from the Winter Olympics. We are speaking to another ski jumper today, Abigail Strate from Canada. On the cusp of being at the Olympics, at the time of recording this, basically had a spot for the games, just needed to confirm it. So by the time we're airing this, we will know of course, whether or not she is there or not. But this is a great insightful chat. As they all are, as Abi tells us about her journey through the sport, what made her get into it, how her parents were so cool and calm, and basically like, yeah, you can do ski jumping, it's fine. And maybe not what a lot of parents would generally say when they find out their child wants to do ski jumping. And the journey through the ranks, what it was like, I guess, missing out on regular high school life, rather than going to high school and experiencing what a lot of teenagers do, basically being off in Europe, training and competing, and kind of how that's affected her. And hopes and aspirations for Beijing and everything else in between. This is a really fun chat that I know you are going to enjoy, and you're about to hear it right now. Here is our chat with Canadian ski jumper, Abigail Strate.
BEN WATERWORTH: We are getting closer and closer to the Beijing Olympics and continuing to talk to athletes from the sports that we're gonna be seeing at the Beijing Olympics, potentially seeing our guests at the Beijing Olympics and just learning a lot about their careers and what it means to be an athlete in their chosen sport. We are doing ski jumping once again, a Canadian ski jumper, an esteemed ski jumper, who I'm so excited to learn about her journey in the sport, hopes for Beijing and beyond, and everything else in between. It is a pleasure to welcome to Off The Podium, Abigail Strate, Abi. First of all, welcome to the show. It is a pleasure to have you on Off The Podium today. I'm trying to give the big intro to get you pumped up and excited to talk about this. So do you want me to kind of give you more, like is there more energy here that you want me to kind of bring to the table?
ABIGAIL STRATE: No, my internet cut out for like five seconds, and all of a sudden you're like, you're on. I didn't know if you asked something, so I just said hi. I thought like that couldn't be wrong.
BEN WATERWORTH: You missed the really big question there, like the in-depth, like super hard question. So it's all right. You escaped that.
ABIGAIL STRATE: Oh no, I've already messed up.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, goff. Terrell, get off, Abi. We don't, no, come on, you know? You don't have to put out this with all your other teammates. They brought excitement and professionalism to the table. But we've been learning a lot about ski jumping, really, with a whole series of ski jumpers from both Canada and the US over sort of our last few episodes. And it's a sport that still fascinates me. I absolutely love ski jumping, as I've talked a lot about in all these chats. But for our listeners out there and our viewers watching on YouTube, how did you get started in ski jumping, Abi? Sort of how did this journey of this great sport begin for you?
ABIGAIL STRATE: I got into ski jumping. I was six or seven years old, and I went to a summer camp in Calgary. We tried a bunch of different sports, everything, biking, skiing. And then one of them was ski jumping. And I went off this little ski jump on some alpine skis. And yeah, from there, I just got recruited. And my parents were like, sure, I guess she can keep doing this. And I haven't stopped doing it since then.
BEN WATERWORTH: Great, I love the fact that the parents are on board straight away. This is in a case of like, oh, maybe not ski jumping. Why don't you do that tennis? That looks more safe for us. Not jumping off a giant hill.
ABIGAIL STRATE: Yeah, I don't know if they expected it to progress so far. Maybe they were just thinking I would stay on the small jumps, but. That didn't work.
BEN WATERWORTH: Didn't work? I don't know if there's much competition out there for people who just want to stick on the small jumps. Is there the small, tiny jumps, ski jumping out there for people who don't want to progress up the ranks?
ABIGAIL STRATE: Not really. Not on the world stage, but if you just wanted to do it for fun, I guess, you could go hang out with the little munchkins on the small hills.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, that's me. That's where I'd probably be going if I gave it a try. It seems to be a bit of a thing, this camp that people go to, and this is where ski jumping is discovered. Does anybody go to the other sports or ski jumping, just the popular one? Everybody wants to do ski jumping and bugger all the other sports that are at these camps.
ABIGAIL STRATE: I think that's the complete opposite. I don't think ski jumping is a very popular one that people pick. I don't know how many kids get recruited into the other sports, but yeah, ski jumping is a pretty rare sport to start up in Canada.
BEN WATERWORTH: We've just been lucky that we've kind of had you all on, the ones that have chosen basically to go with skiing. What other sports, is it purely winter sports that are at these camps, or is it sort of a mixture of winter and summer sports?
ABIGAIL STRATE: Well, now thinking about it, I said that I tried biking and skiing, and that is incorrect because this was a summer camp. So I tried, I did not ski, but yeah, they were, I can't even remember. It was like an all-around summer camp. We also did like a bunch of crafts and stuff. I remember we tried mini golfing. What else did I, I can't really remember what else we did. It was so long ago, but I guess ski jumping was one of the things. Oh, we bungee, we did bungee jumping, or like on a trampoline type of thing. Sounds like a fun camp.
BEN WATERWORTH: Jeez, this is something I wish we kind of had in Australia. Like, I mean, I go on school camps, but all I remember is maybe a ropes course or like, hey, let's go down to the beach and build a fire. Like, I mean, I don't, never ski jumping or mini golf or bungee. Like I'm missing out.
ABIGAIL STRATE: I guess, I guess you could say that, yeah.
BEN WATERWORTH: I mean, none of these have taken me to the Olympics. I don't think potentially with that sort of stuff. But do you remember what it was about ski jumping that you fell in love with at that young age?
ABIGAIL STRATE: No, I think I just, I was just kind of going with the flow and I enjoyed it. And I seemed enthusiastic. Like I would just go, I was going around and around and around, and I was going off the jump again and again, and I wouldn't stop. And I think that's why they kind of picked me out of the crowd and said, yeah, you should keep doing it, because lots of the kids would kind of get bored and wander and, you know, start picking grass and stuff. But yeah, I think I remember I was pretty fascinated looking up at the really big towers at the top of Canada Olympic Park, and I was like, who would ever do that? Like, what is that? But I don't know if I made the connection when I was six. I don't know if I made the connection between that and what I was doing. But yeah, I guess I just had fun.
BEN WATERWORTH: I love the fact that there's these kids out there that were just picking grass, who are maybe probably going to be staring at the TV screen soon, watching you at the Olympics. Going, oh God, if only I had have just taken one more jump. Could have been Abi's teammate, but I was too busy picking grass.
ABIGAIL STRATE: Yep, those grass pickers, they'll regret it.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, unless they become like a gardener or something like that, you know. Park ranger. Yeah, well, exactly. They could be keeping, you know, the Olympic park there in Calgary. But I have to ask a question, Abi. Everybody I get from Calgary, I need to ask a question. Who do you go for in the NHL? Is it the correct answer in the flames or is it somebody else?
ABIGAIL STRATE: Oilers.
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, it was nice having you on the show, Abi. Thank you for your time.
ABIGAIL STRATE: I'm probably going to lose a lot of followers from that now. I think it was just that I grew up with my dad being an Oilers fan, so that was kind of what I followed. Yeah.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, well, we seem to get a few people leased.
ABIGAIL STRATE: Sorry, Calgary.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, you know, the leased. I mean, leased are in the same province.
ABIGAIL STRATE: Yeah, I'm going to go lock my door now.
BEN WATERWORTH: People are going to track you down. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. So, I mean, were you outside of when you switched doing ski jumping, that's kind of your sport of choice. Were you still active in other sports? Were there sort of other sports you were pursuing at the same time before you eventually decided to focus on ski jumping?
ABIGAIL STRATE: Yeah, when I was younger, I did horseback riding for a little bit. My sister actually ended up being the one that went all the way with that. She's still horseback riding competitively, but I did that for a bit. And then I also was in karate for quite a while. I did all the school sports, volleyball, basketball, badminton, track. Actually, when I was young and in ski jumping, we did a lot of other sports as well. We did gymnastics, we skied, we cross-country skied, skated, mountain biked, so everything, and a few of those have stuck with me as hobbies. So that's pretty cool, I think.
BEN WATERWORTH: I noticed one thing about all those sports you're mentioning, all Olympic sports. Was the Olympic something growing up that was a sort of a fascination with you that you kind of enjoyed and thought that this could be something cool to pursue a dream to make it to the Olympics one day?
ABIGAIL STRATE: Yeah, that's always been a big goal and dream. And I think for a long time, like I remember being in kindergarten and being known as the ski jumper, like you're going to go to the Olympics. You're the ski jumper. So it's definitely always been something that's been a goal and the dream.
BEN WATERWORTH: So fantastic, which I mean, at that age, so women's ski jumping wasn't just at the Olympics yet. So if I'm doing my math based on your age, it was sort of just on the cusp, obviously, when it came into 2014. So do you remember watching it in Sochi and maybe going, well, hey, this literally is a dream now, now that women's ski jumping is an Olympic sport, this is what I can go towards?
ABIGAIL STRATE: Yeah, for sure. I did watch and I had some older teammates and role models that I cheered for in Sochi. Actually, this is the first time I really thought about this, but when I was really young and I had this crazy Olympic dream, I don't think that it even occurred to me that women's ski jumping wasn't in the Olympics. I didn't even know that it wasn't going to be an option because I was a young girl. I just still had this dream, I think. So I would have been 13 during Sochi, and it was right around that time that I started realising how much inequality there was in the sport. So it paired up nicely in that when I realised maybe it wasn't going to happen, it actually did end up happening in Sochi.
BEN WATERWORTH: It's kind of in a weird way, though, a great attitude to have as a child, isn't it? That gender isn't a barrier no matter what. That you, I guess, aren't aware that at that point as a female, you couldn't compete in the Olympics and that sport based on that not being. But your attitude was, it doesn't bother me, I'm going to do this one day. I don't care what barriers are in place in front of me right now. So in a weird way, it's like a great attitude to sort of have that confidence when you were growing up aiming towards the Olympics.
ABIGAIL STRATE: Yeah, that's very true. I think maybe I need to go back and adopt my seven, eight year old mindset and just ignore all the barriers that might be in my way. Yeah, pretend like they don't exist, I guess.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, that's something we all probably could go back and do. I mean, sort of going through that point though, seeing Sochi and going through then realising that this could be a thing. What's that progression like as you're getting through the ages? We've heard from a few of our guests how it is working up through the ladder and kind of everything in the sport. But for you, what was your journey like growing up in the sport and then kind of progressing further and further up to where you are today?
ABIGAIL STRATE: Yeah, so like I said, started when I was young in Calgary and kind of from there, I just trained with the same group of people until I think I was about, I was 13 or 14 when I went to Europe for my first time, first international competition, kind of like testing the waters a bit. I don't know if you've if you've heard from from other ski jumpers, but you have to get fifth cup points in order to compete in a continental cup, and then continental cup points in order to compete in a World Cup. And then World Cup points are what counts towards Olympic qualifications and world ranking, etc. So first thing first was hunting those fifth cup points. And then it was the continental cup points. And then I started on the World Cup when I was pretty young. I think I was 16. And then at that point, I was on the national team. And yeah, from there, it's been a blur, honestly. I've just been kind of coasting along, I guess.
BEN WATERWORTH: Doing your thing, kind of making a way. What is that like, though, going off to Europe for your first competition at that age? I mean, had you even been overseas before you ventured to Europe to compete like that?
ABIGAIL STRATE: I had gone on a trip with my family. We went to France and the UK, but this was a bit different. There was no parents, and it was just me, the team, the coach. I remember I used to miss home a lot. I used to miss my parents, miss my siblings, miss my pets, everything. But it just feels natural at this point. But back then, yeah, I mean, and I was missing so much school. All my friends, I remember when I was in high school in grade 11, that was the lead up to the 2018 Olympic Games. So I was hitting all the World Cups, trying to get a spot. And I remember I came back to school one day and someone just looks at me and goes, you still go here? Because I was gone for the entire semester. I was like, yeah, I still go to the school. I still live here. So it became the norm for me to be away for so long.
BEN WATERWORTH: How do your teachers take that? Because I guess it depends on your teachers and your subjects. But hey, miss, hey, sir, just training to go to an Olympics. Can I have a couple of months off? I mean, are they pretty? Okay, fair enough. Here's some homework. Take on the road to you, you know.
ABIGAIL STRATE: Yeah, I was lucky. Like I went to a regular public school, but my teachers were really, really helpful and supportive. And the school itself was actually really supportive. And I ended up doing a lot of classes online, and I fast tracked a lot of my courses. So I did like, I fast tracked math. So I was done it in grade 10, and I got a lot of things out of the way so that my later years in high school were really light, lightly loaded. But yeah, I mean, I managed. And like I said, I did a lot of the courses I did online and a lot of the course material was available online. So that made it a lot easier.
BEN WATERWORTH: Which is one of those things that, because you're so driven to this goal, you're pushing towards that dream of an Olympic Games that you kind of aren't too focused on some of the regular teenage things that you're doing at school, like having friends, you know, going out to parties, you know, boys, girls, like all the kind of regular things that we're all going through teenagers. I mean, do you, are you able to kind of put all those things in the back of your mind because you are so focused towards that Olympic goal?
ABIGAIL STRATE: Yeah, I think there was definitely some times where I felt like I was missing out from some of those experiences, and I think my parents felt that most. Like my parents were just like thinking, like obviously they were super proud of me. I was out doing all this great stuff, but at the same time, they were like, oh, I feel like, you know, I'm missing all the high school stuff, all the normal people stuff, as you said. I think at the end of the day, though, I didn't miss out on much. I still have friends. I still, you know, do fun stuff. And I hope that all the work and all the sacrifices that I've made will pay off in the end. I ended up, yeah, I'm realising that now. But I did have a pretty significant injury in 2019, which was my grade 12 year, I think. And that's obviously I couldn't travel, I couldn't compete, and that forced me to stay at home, go to school. And finally, I had like this taste of normal life. And I think I got a bit bored of it pretty fast. I was like, all my teammates are up doing this fun stuff. I want to be back at it. So sometimes, you know, you have to take away what you, I don't know how to say it properly. The grass is always greener on the other side, I guess.
BEN WATERWORTH: But it's that level that I guess any athlete has who commits to a sport. It's an addiction in some way, isn't it? That you're so addicted to your sport, to achieving the best you can. And when your sport's an Olympic sport, aiming towards that ultimate goal of an Olympic Games, which, as you were saying there, you go back to this normal life. And we see a lot of athletes struggle after retirement, right? But I mean, you've kind of got a taste of that right there about, oh, fuck, I'm injured. Oh, God, these people. Yes, I should go here. But it's like, it's just that taste of like, when do I get better? I want to get back out there onto the hill.
ABIGAIL STRATE: Yeah, that's exactly it. I think also like ski jumping, there's a winter season and a summer season, but there's a few months in the spring and about a month in the fall where there's an awkward between season kind of thing where the weather's not good enough to do summer or winter jumping. And I always find myself coming off of the season, and that's where I just feel completely lost. Like you said, that loss of adrenaline, that loss of drive, you go from having something to do and somewhere to be every day to kind of, you know, your job at that point is to relax and to recover and to get ready for the next season. But it feels almost wrong because you're just so addicted to everything to do with the sport.
BEN WATERWORTH: So basically those days, if I'm trying to go to the gym a couple of times a week, and I basically am like, fuck, not today, I'm too lazy, that I should just kind of take you for motivation and be like, well, think about you when you're injured. And like you physically can't, but you want to go out there and train. I'll see what Abi would do. Come on now, Ben, go to the gym. You can do this. Come on, your body's fine.
ABIGAIL STRATE: Exactly, that's the mentality. And I guess I should be adopting the, when I need to take a rest day, I should be thinking of other people, other people's workout motivation.
BEN WATERWORTH: That balance kind of thing going on there, which yeah, it's the thing that I found really fascinating about speaking to yourself, some of your teammates and even some of our American guests is that as an Australian, we look at any winter sport in your part of the world and think, oh, Canada, winter, ski jumping, it's funded well, you've got so many facilities, it's easy. But obviously, ski jumping is not one of those sports for Canada as we have learnt. You really only got the one facility in Canada that you can compete on. You were telling me off air about how it's sort of even then, it's not like you can just go and whistle on a Saturday and train. You sort of only open a certain thing, which is that something that, how can that be improved, do you think, that for Canadians who want to get into ski jumping, is it going to take a middle to break this drought, to kind of help the sport get more attention? I mean, I guess my long-winded way of asking this question is, what do you think can be done to get more people involved in ski jumping to improve how Canadians get into the sport and go onto the world stage?
ABIGAIL STRATE: I think, unfortunately, right now, for anybody who's hoping to get into the sport of ski jumping in Canada, it's pretty tough to do. But I think the biggest part that's missing is the grassroots programs. We need small hills, we need 18-metre hills, 30-metre hills, 60-metre hills, everywhere, all over Canada, every province, so that you can get kids started and involved in the sport. And meanwhile, me and my national team members will continue performing at the world stage and getting good results, and like you said, hopefully getting a medal, and that will inspire those kids to start ski jumping, to start in the sport. But that's hard to do when, if a kid were to see one of us on TV doing great, getting an Olympic medal, and then say, Mum, I want to go ski jumping, and there's nowhere for them to start, then they're not going to get very far. So we definitely just need more small jumps.
BEN WATERWORTH: Is that something that, obviously, you're still in your career right now. It's not something that you're looking at to retire anytime soon, but is that something that you see yourself being involved in and trying to, I guess, grow the sport within Canada and maybe recruiting some young girls and boys into the sport more and help with exactly what you're saying, facilitate it further?
ABIGAIL STRATE: Yeah, I'm in a bit of a crisis right now because I'm in school, but I don't really know exactly what I want to be doing. But I do think that I want to stay involved in the sport in some way or another for the rest of my life. I feel like it's kind of a mission of mine. I want to bring the sport back in Canada. I don't know what that's going to look like, but if it's starting a club somewhere or becoming a billionaire and building little ski jumps all over the country, then I guess that's what it's going to take.
BEN WATERWORTH: I love that. There you go. Become a billionaire and build ski jumps. Like that works. That's kind of a good way of looking at it. Actually, I keep trying to recruit some of you or your teammates or our American guests, because Australia has never had an Olympic ski jumper, Abi. So, I mean, if you can't quite get this grassroots thing happening in Canada, fly out to Australia. You could be part of history, be part of the first ever Australian ski jumper. It just takes one to get the sport up and running, you know? You never know, right?
ABIGAIL STRATE: Seriously, I'm going to take note of that after this interview. That's going to be a top secret plan. You just go down there and build some summer jumps, and then all of a sudden out of nowhere, out of nowhere show up at a winter World Cup with some top notch Australian jumpers.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, we had a Nordic combined athlete back in the 60s. He was a Norwegian expat. So we've ticked that, but it's the ski jumping aspect. And we've got a great new summer training facility now for our freestyle skiers. So I'm just thinking you've built your mogul jump. You've built your aerials jump. You've got the pool there. Just add a bit of a bigger jump next to it, and get the Nordic sports in this country, because I think we can do it. You know, we're crying out for some representation in Australia.
ABIGAIL STRATE: You know, that is very true. I should, and if all else fails, if not Canada, if not Australia, maybe I'll just run away to some island and train some locals.
BEN WATERWORTH: Fiji, Fiji, give Fiji, just not New Zealand. Do Australia before New Zealand, they can wait longer.
ABIGAIL STRATE: Okay, New Zealand is X.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, just leave them alone for a while, okay?
ABIGAIL STRATE: They're not ready?
BEN WATERWORTH: No, no, all right. It took them too long to get their second winter medal, and we want them to wait longer for their next one. That's basically like, we are Edmonton and they're Calgary. You don't really want to associate, right? Actually, other way around. What am I saying? Australia is Calgary, New Zealand is Edmonton. Come on, put that the right way around, Ben.
ABIGAIL STRATE: I was trying to help you out there. This sounds like it's getting personal between Australia and New Zealand.
BEN WATERWORTH: Never on this show. What would I say to that? You mentioned sort of the lead up to 2018 Pyeongchang. How close were you to making the 2018 Olympics? And was this something that realistically you were setting your sights on, or was it always towards Beijing? And if Pyeongchang had have happened, that would have been a bonus.
ABIGAIL STRATE: No, I did definitely have my sights on Pyeongchang. I think me and all my teammates did, but we were so young at that point, and we got thrown right into the World Cup circuit. We hit it hard. We didn't have the best resources, the best equipment to be competing with the top in the world. And I did have some pretty good results in the summer leading up to Pyeongchang, but it just didn't carry through the winter. And I don't actually have never actually looked at the statistics of how close I was, but we were fighting the whole season right up until Pyeongchang to try to get a spot because, I mean, one really good result and you're in. So there was always that hope, and it was pretty crushing to not go. But then, I mean, like I said, I was young and as soon as it passed, I had my sights already on Beijing.
BEN WATERWORTH: Because it's that very unique aspect of the sport, isn't it? That as Canada, you are fighting for spots for you to go to an Olympics as a team, but then internally, you're also then trying to be in that position that if you get one spot, two spots, you're in that top one, top two or top three, however many you get. So it must be a very unique aspect of your sport, in which you're trying to get as many spots at the same time, but also be the best you can so you can be in prime position to have that spot.
ABIGAIL STRATE: Yeah, exactly. Exactly. It's kind of interesting to earn a spot and then to have it. It's not your spot. It's Canada's spot. But yeah, I mean, I think we're all just working towards the same goal. And as a team, we'll just push each other to try to ideally earn four spots, a spot for each of us, and I'll go. And yeah, and if not, like you said, it'll just depend who's at the top of their game at that point.
BEN WATERWORTH: Because then also, now that we've got a mixed team event in Beijing, I'm guessing, does that then help if you secure two spots and the guys secure two spots? Does that then guarantee you a spot as a mixed team? Because you've got four athletes there, or is there a little bit more to getting a mixed team spot at the Olympics?
ABIGAIL STRATE: We actually, I'm pretty sure we do have a mixed team spot currently. I think we just needed at least one boy and one girl to qualify individual spots, and then you automatically get a mixed team. It's kind of interesting because you could have a guy and a girl competing individually, and then they kind of bring in two other people that wouldn't have individual spots, but would be able to compete in the Olympics as a mixed team. So that's pretty big for us.
BEN WATERWORTH: Because that's, I guess, similar to what you would have in athletics or swimming, where you can say qualify third in an event, miss out on the top two automatic qualifications, say for the 100-metre freestyle, but because you're third within a certain time, you're going to be on the plane because you're going to be in the relay team. So is that, I mean, how does that work then for you as an athlete? The fact that, again, you're all competing to give as many individual spots for all of you and your teammates. But say Canada has one spot, and then you know then in the back of your mind, if you can't make that spot, there's potential to still go because you've got that extra spot for the team. I mean, does that change things mentally, or is it still just that solid goal of, I'll worry about that closer to Beijing? Right now, it's all about securing as many spots for Team Canada as we can.
ABIGAIL STRATE: Yeah, I mean, I think the goal always just has to be to perform your absolute best, whatever that looks like. And I mean, the goal would still be to be getting as many spots as possible regardless of the, oh, well, there's a chance to still go with the mixed team. I think everybody would want to still represent with an individual spot. So that's always the goal.
BEN WATERWORTH: One thing I've loved learning about ski jumping through all these interviews is this mental aspect of the sport. And I think many people have explained it's almost 80% mental, 20% physical. Do you have a go-to technique to really help you with your mental training at all? I mean, do you have sort of things that you do that other people don't? Or I mean, kind of how do you get into that mental aspect of the sport to really help you get better at it?
ABIGAIL STRATE: Well, in training, I do a lot of journaling. So like right after a training session, I'll just kind of blah, blah, blah, write down a bunch of stuff so I don't forget it. And that's a way that really clicks for me in my brain. And sometimes I go back and read. If I go back and read at a point in time when things were going really well and why it was working, blah, blah, blah. And that seems to help clear my mind a bit and keep me on track. When I'm competing, I've always kind of had a trouble with competition, anxiety, getting nervous, cracking under the pressure kind of deal. But I figured out a few things that work for me. And one of them is I play with a soccer ball, like I juggle a soccer ball with my feet before I compete, like when I'm warming up and that just like totally tunes me in, zones me out. I forget about ski jumping, and I'm just like there with this ball. I get in this weird little head space. Like my teammates know when we're warming up, we usually warm up the four of us with a volleyball, and we'll be volleying, volleying, and then they know, okay, well, we're all going to go and do the rest of a warm up. Here's the ball, Abi. They give it to me, and I just sit there and like, doot, doot, doot, play around a bit. That just calms my mind.
BEN WATERWORTH: Great. So, I mean, I hope you don't accidentally then take it up on top of the hill, and then all of a sudden you're there on the bar, oh, shit, coach, take the ball.
ABIGAIL STRATE: No, that, that, I would have to be pretty zoned out to do that, I think.
BEN WATERWORTH: Which, I mean, do you find things like music at all? Like when you're with the ball, do you have music playing in the room with your teammates? And if you are, like, is there certain types of genres of music that kind of help with the mindset at that point?
ABIGAIL STRATE: I definitely listen to music. I'm like 100% always have music playing. It kind of depends on my mood for what I want to listen to, but I think I can imagine this being different for every athlete, but I would prefer something that wasn't so hardcore, like intense, pump up, get you energised, because I feel like that energy comes naturally for me. And when it comes time to compete, I actually need the opposite of that. I need to chill out, relax a bit. But not something that's going to completely put me to sleep, so something in between, indie, you know?
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, because it doesn't seem like a sport in which you need to get yourself that pumped up, because it is that level of calm, right, that you need at the top of that hill, and the focus, the mindset, and everything that you're talking about there. So you're not going to be going out there listening to some doof, basically, to really kind of pump yourself up there at that point.
ABIGAIL STRATE: Yeah, I think that's part of one of the things that makes it such a tricky sport, is it's such a strange balance between needing to be relaxed and needing to be activated. You need to be calm, chill, flexible, all this stuff. But at the same time, there's that split second that you need to be putting down every ounce of power you have in the takeoff. And that's a lot of activation. So it's kind of a weird balance, but definitely I would prefer being chilled out at the top versus like shaking, hyped up, ready to go kind of thing.
BEN WATERWORTH: I think I've tried to equate a few that it's not like a field event in track and field where you kind of clap in the crowd like, come on, yeah, let's do this. Like, it's not quite that. You might let go of the bar too early if you do that as well.
ABIGAIL STRATE: Yeah, I think I would stand out a bit if I was at the top of this key jump getting the crowd pumped up.
BEN WATERWORTH: Hey, bring it to Australia. We could be the first. You're like, you Aussies, you're crazy. Come on. Start cheering that way. When it comes to that takeoff aspect with the power aspect, when it comes to the physical training, is that simply a case of you're never skipping leg day? I mean, does the power come from the legs or is there a little bit more to the core or something like that when you are doing the physical aspect of the training?
ABIGAIL STRATE: Definitely legs. Ski jumpers definitely never skip leg day, and you'll never see a ski jumper doing an arm day ever.
BEN WATERWORTH: You're the lucky ones.
ABIGAIL STRATE: Yeah, no arms for ski jumpers. You basically don't use your upper body at all. But leg, yeah, lots of the power comes from the leg, and we do a lot of strength training. We do a lot of plyometrics, so jumping, speed, all that kind of stuff. But the whole goal is to stay strong and lean and light. And yeah, you don't need arms, though. You may as well cut them off.
BEN WATERWORTH: Just cut them off, wow. So I mean, I don't know if this is a dumb question or not. Bear with me for this one. But if you say we're an amputee, can you compete in able-bodied ski jumping? I mean, I don't even know if there is sort of a Paralympic version of ski jumping. But I mean, just with that in mind, if you don't need arms, I'm guessing if you had an amputated arm, you probably still could compete.
ABIGAIL STRATE: I think I might have been exaggerating a bit. You need arms a little bit because you kind of use them to steer a bit in the air. But honestly, they're a third case. So Paralympic ski jumping does not exist, although that would be so, so cool. But I think, like, I definitely know a lot of people that have broken their arms and still jumped like with the cast or whatever, because they just want to keep training. And I think it would be doable. I mean, I'm not an amputee. I don't know how that all works. But I mean, if I ever got the chance, I think I would keep trying to ski jump if, you know, hopefully that never happens. But that happened to me.
BEN WATERWORTH: So I've asked thousands of questions on this show. I mean, I don't know if that might be the weirdest or dumbest question I've ever asked, but it just came to my mind. I'm like thinking like I'm just imagining this, you know, you might need to hold on to the bar, probably need at least one arm, but maybe people would like to see it.
ABIGAIL STRATE: Maybe, maybe one day.
BEN WATERWORTH: There's got to be, there's something, there's something out there with that too. Right now, we're talking to you, you're in Slovenia at the time of recording this, just before sort of the season kicks off. When we air this would have been going well into, into time at that point. But tell us how you're feeling right now, kind of as you're going into this season, in terms of your form, your mentality. I mean, how are you thinking Beijing is? Is this completely realistic for you, and is this just purely right now, my mind, Beijing Olympics, this is gonna happen for me?
ABIGAIL STRATE: I, yeah, I feel really good right now. I mean, I've been training, training really hard. I've been, I've taken a lot of jumps this summer, and I've prepared really well. I think I also got some good results this summer. So I have a, currently have a spot at Beijing. I just have to kind of keep up my streak through the winter and hold on to it. So I'm feeling pretty confident, and yeah, I'm looking forward to see what the winter brings.
BEN WATERWORTH: Which is, it must be again, I love learning from our winter athletes of the uniqueness about winter sports and qualifying, because not only does it come down to those spots we're talking about before, but you're literally weeks away from Beijing and you still don't 100% know. So many of our summer athletes, they qualify a year before the Olympics. They know they're going, but it's just fascinating. And as you were saying, you've basically got that spot, but it's just basically a case of now doing what you're doing, not getting injured, not fucking up, and just kind of doing what you're doing right. Which again, I can imagine it's a 50-50 either way. It's a great feeling to know that you just keep doing what you're doing, you're going to be there, but also the case of like, okay, just let's make it 100% happen and not knowing until right before the games, essentially.
ABIGAIL STRATE: Yeah, exactly. I'm still like hesitant telling people. I'm like, but if it were to not happen, I would be crushed. So I don't know. I just got to keep focusing on ski jumping and what I have to be doing each competition to keep my results good. And yeah, it'll work. It'll work if I do that.
BEN WATERWORTH: Lots of soccer balls and volleyball, I'm imagining, just kind of to keep kind of that mindset. Just on the journal, you mentioned the journal, and obviously I don't want to ask a person their private entries in a journal. But I mean, is it really more on the technical aspects or kind of keeping things that a coach maybe says to you at one point? Or I mean, can you do other things? I mean, Nicola McDermott, an Australian high jumper, got very well known during Tokyo. She won the silver medal. But every jump, she would be writing in a journal and kind of all aspects of things like that. But do you do other things in it besides just sort of the technicalities or the sports based things, like maybe write down a little poem or something like that that kind of helps you, things like that?
ABIGAIL STRATE: No poems, no poems for me. But I definitely just, I don't know, I really just ramble. If I feel like there's something on my mind, I just write it down. So that can be anything from just like, you know, what I did that day, how I'm feeling, if I have an idea or if I have like some random inspirational thought that comes to me, I'll write it down. I do a lot of like to-do lists in there. It just kind of depends on the feeling. I like writing. I like having a pen in my hand and writing down. So just whenever I'm bored, honestly, I just kind of sit there writing stuff whenever it comes to mind.
BEN WATERWORTH: So I'm seeing Beijing in between jumps. You'll be like going, OK, did well, form good, awesome. Oh, Australian podcast Off The Podium, Contact Australia, reski jumping. OK, got it. There you go. Just hit you in the Olympics. I mean, that's perfect timing for it, right?
ABIGAIL STRATE: Exactly.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, I'm just giving you these ideas, right, Abi, just to kind of really make sure that you kind of go through that with everything along those lines. I'd love to know, like, Slovenia is a country. It's one of these countries that I've always looked at and gone, I'd love to go to Slovenia because it's literally not... I don't think anybody grows up going, I want to go to Slovenia. No disrespect to our Slovenians. It's not a top of the tourism pile country, but what is it like? Again, I'm bringing out the weird question today, Abi. I just want to know, like, can you describe what Slovenia is like and why more people should go there? Because it does seem like such an amazing country to visit.
ABIGAIL STRATE: Yeah, it is an amazing country. It is so small, but it's beautiful. Like, it's got everything. It's got huge mountains, lakes. It's a big skiing country, so there's lots of ski resorts. What else can I tell you? You're also, if you want to come to Slovenia, you're also just a, like, two-hour, not even an hour drive away from Italy, so you could pair it up with that. But think of it, so many people want to travel to Italy, but the culture kind of seeps between Slovenia and Italy a little bit, so you get a little bit of that taste when you're on the, what would that be, eastern, eastern Slovenia, yeah. And yeah, you end up, I don't know, there's, it's really great here. It's beautiful, it's, like, quiet. Everyone, all the people are really nice. Everybody in Slovenia speaks English. Like, they just grow up watching English TV and they end up becoming fluent. So everyone's super welcoming. And yeah, it's great here.
BEN WATERWORTH: Because it must be pretty exciting then, as you're saying, being so close to somewhere like Italy and all these other places. I mean, I've never been to Europe, but I mean, that's always what's fascinated me is that you are so close to other countries. And as somebody who grew up on an island state, on an island country, I mean, when I was in Canada or the US and I crossed a border into another province or a state, I got excited. I lived in Canada. I could walk up the street around the corner over the water. There was a US. I got excited every single time I saw it. It was like, wow, that's incredible. But just to have that so that if you do have a day off, not sure if you do or not, but if you do, hey, what are we going to do this weekend? Let's go to Italy. Why not? Like, I mean, something that you can't exactly, when you're in Calgary going, let's go to Italy. We'll be there in an hour.
ABIGAIL STRATE: Yeah, I mean, you grew up in Australia. I grew up in Canada. You can drive. I don't know how long it takes to drive across Canada, but you definitely, I mean, it's huge. And here, like you said, you can drive through four countries in a day easily. We did do a few fun trips this summer. We went to Croatia for a few days. That was really, yeah, we had a little like team retreat down there. That was pretty beautiful. I went to Italy with my mum and with one of my teammates. I also went to Germany with my brother for a bit. And yeah, it's pretty cool knowing that if I ever need a break, I can just drive to Venice.
BEN WATERWORTH: As you do, why not? Venice, sure. It's funny because when I asked you the question before about like, had you been overseas before? Literally as an Australian, me going to any other country is overseas. Whereas it's funny because, again, I lived in Canada, or I've been to America plenty of times, but it's funny, I turn around and I'll say to a Canadian or American, like, oh, have you been overseas? Oh, no. I'm like, oh, if you're a Canadian, have you been to the States? Yes. I'm like, well, you have been overseas. Well, no, because it's the same piece of land, but to an Australian, it's that weird balance of like another country to an Australian is always overseas. When to a Canadian, going to the US isn't overseas, right?
ABIGAIL STRATE: Yeah. Yeah. I've never really thought of it like that.
BEN WATERWORTH: It's interesting sort of the way to put that.
ABIGAIL STRATE: Yeah, it is. And being European, you could go to what hundreds of countries and not still not be overseas or being on that continent.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah. I mean, how many landlocked countries and all that sort of stuff that they don't even know. It's kind of funny. I loved it when I lived in Canada and it was like, let's go to the beach, Ben. Great. And I'd rock up to a beach and this isn't a beach. It's rocks like this. That's not a beach. Do you know what a beach is? And it's like, this is a beach in Canada. Not a beach to us Australians. We like to close out with a series of kind of fun, get to know you style questions, Abi. Before I get to those, a couple of things I wanted to touch on. I believe your nickname is Frank. Now, can you clarify kind of like how this came about?
ABIGAIL STRATE: Frank, one of my teammates, Natalie, calls me Frank. And that's from the TV show Catch Me If You Can. It's got Leonardo DiCaprio in it. And one of my old coaches started calling me Frank because it's Frank Abagnale Jr. Not Abigail. So that's where that one came from.
BEN WATERWORTH: Great. And do you like the movie? Or like, had you seen it until, you know?
ABIGAIL STRATE: Well, I hadn't seen it until I started getting called Frank, but I do like that movie. It's a good one.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah. I like kind of like the connections that you can kind of, you know, do that with that. And kind of when it's like an obvious nickname, like, okay, I see where you get that. But then if it's actually like got more of a story behind it, like, that's pretty cool. Also, again, in my deep seated research of you online, I believe you have a bit of thing for bees. Now, where did this love for bees come from?
ABIGAIL STRATE: I just, I started, I took a beekeeping course with my dad. I think that would have been like close to four or five years ago, four years ago. And we have a few hives back home. We live on a little acreage. And yeah, we get, it's nothing big at all. We have like, we've had max four hives and we just get honey. And yeah, I think these are really, really cool. Like everything they do is just absolutely fascinating. And I love talking about them. Like if someone asks me questions about bees, I'm like a dictionary, I just go off. But, and then I kind of thought, okay, well, I'm Abi. I love bees, bee. This could be a whole thing. And now they're everywhere. They're all over my equipment and people, like if I have fans that send me messages or anything, they always use like a bee emoji or they like comment that and stuff like that. So I think it's sticking.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah. Well, I was going to say, like, can you like design skis or like helmets? Can you put like, you know, do you have free, does Team Canada allow you to get a bit personal with some of these things?
ABIGAIL STRATE: We can do helmets. You can, like one of my teammates has a custom painted helmet with a white tiger on it. That's her thing and can do that. I just need to maybe win a few competitions and get some money first before I invest in a custom painted helmet. But a bee might be the way to go if that ever does happen.
BEN WATERWORTH: Olympic medal might help with that. Just, you know, give you a bit of a boost as well. You never quite know with that one. Also, now we spoke to one of your teammates, Natasha, recently, and brought up with her this vlog that you guys had done for a little bit on YouTube. I discovered your little adventures that you were doing with your vlogging. I brought up what stopped it. Like where did they go? I mean, is this something that you want to bring back the vlogs? Because I enjoyed the vlogs. I was enjoying your lifestyles there in Europe and kind of your travels.
ABIGAIL STRATE: Yeah, good news, Ben. So yeah, we did that vlog for a little bit with our team. And this past summer, we vlogged. Mostly I vlogged, but my teammates were the stars of it, because I would just capture them doing funny stuff. But I didn't post them on YouTube. I put them on. They're on my Instagram. They're on my like IGTV. But I've been told I need to go back to YouTube because that is like, that's the platform for vlogging. So this winter, that's my plan. So keep an eye out. They'll be going on that same channel, I think.
BEN WATERWORTH: All right. Good.
ABIGAIL STRATE: The vlog will return.
BEN WATERWORTH: I want you to swear more. Don't listen to your teammates when they're telling you not to swear. Like as an Australian, you have permission to swear. If you're coming to Australia, Abi, to start up our ski jumping program, you've got to learn to swear. So, you know, just use it.
ABIGAIL STRATE: So let loose. Let loose is what you're saying.
BEN WATERWORTH: All the way. Go just completely let loose. Do you want to know? I'll tell you one right now. The greatest Australian phrase that ever exists. And this is a real phrase that you can use any day of the week, and people will think you're weird, but it makes sense when you know what it means.
ABIGAIL STRATE: Let her rip.
BEN WATERWORTH: All right. So the phrase is, I didn't come here to fuck spiders. Now, have you ever heard that phrase before?
ABIGAIL STRATE: I have not.
BEN WATERWORTH: Okay. Let me give you some context on this one, because straight away you're thinking, what's going on here? Okay. So let's hypothetically say you show up to the ski jump tomorrow. You're ready to go. And then all of a sudden, somebody comes up to you and goes, Abi, are you here to ski jump? Are you? And you'd be like, well, I didn't come here to fuck spiders now, did I? There you go. That's what you would say to them. Yeah. See?
ABIGAIL STRATE: I've got to use that one.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, exactly. Put it in your vlog. That will get you some likes on YouTube. You'd be getting the subscribers.
ABIGAIL STRATE: Yeah. Perfect. It's like, what else did I come here to do?
BEN WATERWORTH: Exactly. It makes sense in itself, right? Like straight away, it's kind of like, you know, it's the perfect Australian place. I actually think that even to our Australians listening, we need to use it more in everyday speak. I feel as Australians, we don't use it as much as we probably should. So maybe we can start this trend of bringing it back into our language. And people think we're weird already, right? So I mean, why wouldn't we use that?
ABIGAIL STRATE: I think it's great. I don't think it's weird. I think it's perfect.
BEN WATERWORTH: Good. I'm glad that nobody, nobody thinks we're that entirely weird, essentially with all that. As I said, Abi, we like to close out with a series of kind of fun, random, get to know you style questions. Now these are a questionnaire that Team Canada athletes got ahead of Rio and Pyeongchang. Now we, as we've said, we don't know if they got given to our Tokyo athletes because they never published anything on their websites. We're hopeful based on some answers that we may have been given by some of your teammates and other Canadian athletes that these might be being given to you ahead of Beijing. So you might get to answer these properly for the Team Canada website coming very soon. But just a bunch of fun, get to know your questions. And you mentioned you like to draw or do things with pen and paper. So if you fill up to it, there is a drawing element. You can do some drawings, such drawings as draw a picture of your favourite animal, draw a picture of yourself, and there's even sometimes a draw a picture of a teammate option here. So again, if you want to do something creative, draw, take a photo of it, send us in, we'll put it on our social media. Because I believe you're a bit artistic as well. You like to do some sort of artistic things too, don't you?
ABIGAIL STRATE: Yeah, I do, I do. I draw quite a lot.
BEN WATERWORTH: Okay. Well, there you go. All right. See, look, no pressure on you at all then, Abi. This is something that, you know, we might get some good drawings. We have to take away from our two that we got set in. But hey, like, you never, never know. I'll start off with the first question. What is your favourite Olympic moment?
ABIGAIL STRATE: Favourite Olympic moment? Ooh, that's tough. I mean, I really enjoyed watching Tessa and Scott win gold in Pyeongchang. That was one of my favourite things to watch, and I followed them quite a lot and I love their energy. Yeah, I like that a lot.
BEN WATERWORTH: Good answer. I like that. As a kid, oh, well, we know the answer to this one. As a kid, your favourite sports team was. Do we need to go over this again?
ABIGAIL STRATE: No, I don't think I should say it again. I think we've cleared that one up.
BEN WATERWORTH: Which, I mean, outside of the Oilers, I mean, do you follow any sort of other sports or sporting teams at all?
ABIGAIL STRATE: Mostly, I follow ski jumping. Honestly, I'm a fan just as much as I am a competitor. So that was what I watched when I was younger. All my friends were watching hockey and football, and I was like, oh, but ski jumping. And they're like, what is that?
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, I always tell this story. That's where every single time we have a ski jumper on, but I don't care. Jarrod, one of our co-hosts and I, during Pyeongchang, we'd basically be messaging each other going like, it's two o'clock in the morning. Yeah. Are you watching the ski jumping? I'm watching the ski jumping. This is amazing. Because we don't see ski jumping in Australia ever, except for the Olympics at two o'clock in the morning, apparently. So, you know.
ABIGAIL STRATE: Yeah, it's a really exciting spectator sport, I think. And I mean, same thing in Canada. Nobody in Canada watches ski jumping unless it's going to be in the middle of the night on TV for the Olympics.
BEN WATERWORTH: Just wait when you get that medal. It'll be on all the time.
ABIGAIL STRATE: It'll be on everywhere.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah. Which I mean, look, as this naive Australian, when I moved to Canada, not realising that curling legitimately was on prime time. And you talk to any Australian about curling and would probably make more fun of it than ski jumping. I'm not to take away from curling. I love curling as well. Curling is a great sport. But it clicked. I'm like, oh, I'm really in Canada if curling is on at like eight o'clock in prime time. It's a fun sport. It's a fun sport.
ABIGAIL STRATE: That's true. No ski jumping though. They got to get on that one.
BEN WATERWORTH: No, no ski jumping. Yeah, we'll change it. We'll change it. If you could be any superhero, who would you be?
ABIGAIL STRATE: Any superhero? Who would I be? I feel like maybe the Flash. I think I would be the Flash. I think that would be really cool. Just like be able to go anywhere really fast. But I was trying to think of something that might benefit me a bit more in ski jumping. Like if I was really any superhero that could fly, I feel like hands down, that would just be cheating pretty hard, but nobody would have to know about it, right?
BEN WATERWORTH: Nobody has to know. I mean, Superman, Superwoman, I feel the standard. But like, I also like to say that you as a ski jumper, maybe is the closest athlete in the world to actually being Superman or Superwoman because you already are flying. So, you know.
ABIGAIL STRATE: Yeah, I think so. Maybe, yeah, maybe that's kind of a lame answer then. I mean, I think Black Widow is pretty cool too. Yeah.
BEN WATERWORTH: She's got some sick moves.
ABIGAIL STRATE: Throw hands at anyone.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, exactly. Get Scarlett Johansson into ski jumping. I mean, that would bring people to the sport. Like, come on.
ABIGAIL STRATE: Yes. Yeah, I would watch more than I already do.
BEN WATERWORTH: I think we all would probably. We touched on music before. Who are your favourite music artists?
ABIGAIL STRATE: Ooh, big Fleetwood Mac fan. I love Fleetwood Mac. Who else? Oh my gosh, I listen to so much music. Oh, now I'm blanking. You put me on the spot. I love everyone, but I'm lots of lots of indie, lots of, yeah, I can't think.
BEN WATERWORTH: Is there a song? Oh, I love that. You can get props if you want, if you've got your phone or kind of want to look at any Spotify lists or anything like that.
ABIGAIL STRATE: We're always down for props. An Australian band called Sticky Fingers.
BEN WATERWORTH: Oh, yeah.
ABIGAIL STRATE: I like them a lot. Yeah. Sticky Fingers. I like a band called The Growlers. What else we got here? I mean, my music case has just changed so much over the years.
BEN WATERWORTH: That's the best thing, though, isn't it? Right. Like when you're growing and you're kind of discovering these artists. I like that you said Fleetwood Mac, though. I mean, that's that's.
ABIGAIL STRATE: Yeah, that's my all time favourite.
BEN WATERWORTH: Do you have a favourite Fleetwood Mac song?
ABIGAIL STRATE: Yes, Little Lies. That's my favourite.
BEN WATERWORTH: Okay, nice.
ABIGAIL STRATE: Nice.
BEN WATERWORTH: I'm a big fan of The Chain. The Chain's probably my favourite. Good song.
ABIGAIL STRATE: Yeah, that's a good one.
BEN WATERWORTH: You know, just that guitar like at the end, like the dung.
ABIGAIL STRATE: It hits in the soul. It hits the soul.
BEN WATERWORTH: Really, really good. Have you seen them? Have you seen them perform at all?
ABIGAIL STRATE: Yep. That was my graduation gift from my parents. I got to go see Fleetwood Mac with my little sister. That was one of the coolest things.
BEN WATERWORTH: Thanks, mum and dad. Great.
ABIGAIL STRATE: Shout out, mum and dad.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, exactly. Just so casually, yeah, ski jumping. That's fine. Yeah, Fleetwood Mac. Like, coolest parents ever. Come on.
ABIGAIL STRATE: Yep.
BEN WATERWORTH: If you could eat only one food for the rest of your life, what would it be?
ABIGAIL STRATE: Sushi.
BEN WATERWORTH: Sushi?
ABIGAIL STRATE: Yeah. Salmon in general. I really like salmon.
BEN WATERWORTH: Nice. Now, is that on the nutritional plan as a ski jumper? Are you allowed to eat sushi and salmon? Is it within the realms of, you know?
ABIGAIL STRATE: I usually eat salad, lettuce, but salmon is good. I mean, that's a good, that's a really good source of protein. I don't think you can go wrong as long as you eat it in moderation. And sushi is a treat, you know? Everything in moderation.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah. Yeah. That's what I like to tell myself too. Yeah. Your favourite place to compete is?
ABIGAIL STRATE: Honestly, I love competing in Whistler. It doesn't happen very often, but those are some of my favourite hills. And, you know, home turf. I also, I've got a few, I guess, I've got a few. I really like Lillehammer, Norway. I really like, I really, really like we compete in Japan as well, because that's just such a cool place to travel to. And, you know, sushi. It's perfect.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, well, exactly. Right, right there too. Which, I mean, 2030, Vancouver possibly, you know, going for another crack at the Olympics. So again, you're still young, Abi. There's potential for home Olympics in, what, about nine, eight years.
ABIGAIL STRATE: I might stick around for that one if it happens.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, I think so. And then 2032, Brisbane Olympics, technically being held in winter in Australia. So again, we can maybe push for the IOC to go, well, technically, it's in winter. Can we have ski jumping? And then we get the ski jumping facilities in Australia.
ABIGAIL STRATE: That sounds perfect, Ben. That is your mission. That is how we're going to get the sport into Australia.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yep, exactly. And as we're learning, the summer aspect of ski jumping exists, so it's not just all about the snow.
ABIGAIL STRATE: Yep, exactly.
BEN WATERWORTH: It works. I love this, draw a picture of yourself. So I'm using the questionnaire that was given to hockey player Bailey Bram, and just the picture of herself. Yeah, I don't know how to describe this, but it's interesting. Is it flattering?
ABIGAIL STRATE: Did she get all her best features?
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, it's better than a lot of the stick figures I see that athletes draw. But I don't know if it feels like this should be in some sort of like Nickelodeon cartoon or something like that. It's a bit odd, but I'm looking forward to seeing your version of this. So drawing a picture of yourself potentially there. One thing that you've always wanted to do.
ABIGAIL STRATE: I always wanted to do one thing, eh? I've always wanted to travel to northern Canada, like up in the Yukon. My mum lived there for a little while, and she taught skiing, and I don't know, I feel like that would be a really, really cool place to travel to, because I'm so used to travelling, you know, other places, but I feel like I've never explored Canada as much as I could have, as much as I can. And yeah, northern Canada just seems so beautiful, and kind of I feel like-
BEN WATERWORTH: So it's billions of dollars when you're building those jumps, you know?
ABIGAIL STRATE: I know. Just go build some up there. Perfect excuse. Go MIA for a few years. Why not?
BEN WATERWORTH: Everyone deserves to go MIA in the Yukon once in a while, like it's standard.
ABIGAIL STRATE: Yeah, I agree.
BEN WATERWORTH: Bucket list, right? Like just why not?
ABIGAIL STRATE: Bucket list.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, exactly. Your favourite thing to do in the summer is?
ABIGAIL STRATE: Ski jump.
BEN WATERWORTH: Doesn't matter the season.
ABIGAIL STRATE: Other than ski jumping, summer, I like to bike, like mountain bike a lot when I'm at home, if I have my bike. We swim a lot. Yeah, that kind of thing. I mean, like to jump off cliffs into water, stuff like that. Yeah, anything I can jump over or onto or off of, that sounds like summer to me.
BEN WATERWORTH: Good answer. Your favourite movie is?
ABIGAIL STRATE: Favourite movie, I've got a few. One of my favourite movies is called The Hundred Foot Journey. It's about an Indian family that moves to England and opens a restaurant across from this Michelin star restaurant, and they have to overcome a bunch of barriers in order to succeed. And I think it's just really wholesome. And I love food, and it's also about cooking, and it's got so many cool artsy shots. So I just think of this specific shot when they're cooking an omelette, and it just makes my mouth water every time.
BEN WATERWORTH: I love the thought process you put into that, right? I like food, I like the wholesome story. I like Jurassic Park, it's got dinosaurs in it. So that kind of just like, it's when you straight away can go to that end. But yours is more deep. I like it. There's a scene with an omelette.
ABIGAIL STRATE: Hey, there's a scene with an omelette, hands down. You got me.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah. Perfect. I like this. This is very in-depth, Abi. Like, I like your answers for this one. Your favourite cartoon to watch growing up was?
ABIGAIL STRATE: I feel like I watched quite a bit of Spongebob growing up. That was a big one. What else? Phineas and Ferb. Fairly odd parents. I don't know how many of these exist in Australia, but the basics, like most of my friends I talked to watched the same ones.
BEN WATERWORTH: So I think Phineas and Ferb, like, yeah, Deb, like somebody asked that recently and they're like, oh, have you heard of that? I'm like, well, I've heard of it, but I think it's a bit out of my age range. Like I think kind of I was maybe a bit old for that, but a Spongebob. I mean, I sort of, you know, in the cusp of, Spongebob has been around, I think a lot longer than people realise. So maybe I'm just making myself sound old for that one.
ABIGAIL STRATE: No, I think Spongebob has been.
BEN WATERWORTH: If you had to do karaoke, what would you sing?
ABIGAIL STRATE: Oh, maybe Little Lies, Fleetwood Mac. I feel like I would get really, really into that one. Yeah, good answer. Probably couldn't quite nail it, like Stevie Nicks, but I could try, definitely not a singer. It's not one of my talents.
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, one of these days, I'm just going to surprise people. I'm like, well, hey, now that you've mentioned it, let's cue it up. Here we go.
ABIGAIL STRATE: Yeah, cue it up right away.
BEN WATERWORTH: Pull the duet open there, and we'll just kind of, you know, like get our Olympic guest to sing, you know?
ABIGAIL STRATE: I would probably leave the call so fast then.
BEN WATERWORTH: Hey, I put up with you being an Edmonton supporter. You can put up with some singing. Last question. If you could be an Olympian in any sport other than your own, which sport would you choose?
ABIGAIL STRATE: Ooh, that's tough. Winter sport, probably snowboarding, and summer sport. Now that surfing is a sport, I would probably do surfing.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, get to go to Tahiti in a couple of years. Now that's gonna be for Paris. So, you know, good answers. I like it. Abi, this has been a lot of fun. Before we let you go though, you mentioned your Instagram and your YouTube. We're gonna be seeing this. Where can people follow you? Stay up to date with you on social media in the lead up to Beijing.
ABIGAIL STRATE: My Instagram is abby.straight, A-B-I dot S-T-R-A-T-E. And my YouTube, I think, is just my full name, just Abigail Strate. I actually don't know. I haven't really checked and updated it yet. That's my mission for this week, but probably under the same name.
BEN WATERWORTH: I found you pretty easily, I think, on there when I was digging around there to find the vlog. So I'm sure if people kind of want to see that. I'm so intrigued to see. I feel like this should be some sort of like addictive binge-watchy show now, because I remember there was like a sink, I think, in an apartment that was like smaller than your hand or something like that.
ABIGAIL STRATE: Oh yeah, that's pretty typical European sink.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, was there a gift of pepper on somebody's birthday or something like that from memory as well?
ABIGAIL STRATE: Probably, you should check out the summer ones. We had a pretty fun time. And yeah, I've heard from my friends that they're binge-worthy.
BEN WATERWORTH: Secret life of ski jumping. It's like a new show, right? Netflix should be picking this up.
ABIGAIL STRATE: That's a good name. Yeah, you can have it for free, it's yours.
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, you're welcome. All right, you are welcome, no problem. We're happy to help out our guests here, okay? When you start making those billions of dollars, just remember where it started, and maybe throw us a couple of dollars here and there. A couple, just a couple. Just a couple, just a couple. Yeah, well, yeah, exactly. That's all we care about, right? It's about growing the sport of ski jumping. Maybe you can train me up, and my dream of being an Olympian, I can reach before I'm like 40. Maybe, we'll see. Long way to go. Abi, it's been an absolute pleasure learning about everything to do with yourself and the sport, and everything else in between. You've made me ask some of the most random questions I've ever asked on the show, but hey, it's bound to happen. But we're crossing all those fingers and toes and everything for Beijing. And let's just say it right now, when you're there, we look forward to getting you back on after with that medal around your neck. It's gold. I don't want to say with that medal, with the gold medal around your neck. Come on then, let's be that positive.
ABIGAIL STRATE: I think positivity is the manifestation. That's the way to go. So I can't wait to talk to you again with that gold medal around my neck. Next.
BEN WATERWORTH: And a big thanks to Abi there, or should I say Frank? I love that nickname, it's a great nickname. And very much looking forward to her being the guiding light for ski jumping in Australia, the founding mother of the sport in this country. So we look forward to having you on this side of the world, Abi, to really help out with the sport there. If you wanna see the video of this interview, of course, search on YouTube for Off The Podium. You can find this chat as well as all our other great chats that we've had on recently, and see their faces as they talk about their sports. It's a lot of fun, and love bringing that visual aspect to the show. We're days away from Beijing. As you know, we are continuing episodes every single day, right through until the closing ceremony of Beijing. And technically the day after the closing ceremony, of course, we have a wrap episode that we will have after the closing ceremony. So, so much to cover. We've got so much content to keep you excited throughout the next couple of weeks. It's Olympic time. You're pumped. You're excited. You're thrilled. And you're ready to get into the Olympics because I know I am. It's the happiest time of the year, every four years essentially. And we've been obviously spoiled for choice the fact that we're getting another Olympic Games in the space of what about eight or so months. So bring on Beijing. I can sniff it. I can sniff the snow. I can sniff the China, the Beijing, the Great Wall, dragons and stuff. I don't know where I'm going with that. We've got more great content coming your way and hopefully better than this closing section of the show. Search for Off The Podium on social media, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Saturday with everything that we've got to produce for you and all the past episodes you may have missed. Leave some feedback. We'd love to hear what you think of the show. And of course, if you subscribe to us on all the good podcast channels, you can never miss an episode and have these delivered directly to your speakers wherever and however you listen to the show. Big thanks again to Abi for joining us. Big thanks again to you for listening. Special shout out as always to Jason Momoa. Hope things are going well for you, my friend. And until we next speak again, my name is Ben, this is Off The Podium. And remember, go left.
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