Ale Loutitt Interview
An exciting day today on the show as we bring you your first ever taste of Ski Jumping by speaking with Canadian Ale Loutitt about the sport ahead of her Olympic debut in Beijing! We find out just how she got into the sport and her rapid rise through the ranks that are leading her to make her Olympic debut in 2022. We also find out more about the technicalities around the sport, including some of the very unique and odd rules that exist in ski jumping. Added to this we find out just why she was too young to try out for Pyeongchang, and the unique reason why she wasn’t able to compete at the Youth Olympics in 2020. It’s a fascinating, fun and informative chat that 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 coming to you today for another interview. And we are so excited for today's chat because it's a history making interview on the show today. Our first ever ski jumper, which means today we officially tick off the final sport that we have never covered from, from the Winter Olympic Games. That is right. Today, we reach 100% from speaking to an athlete from every single sport that is at the Winter Olympics. So it's a very exciting day. And it's an exciting day to chat with Ale Loutitt. Now, Ale is a 17 year old Canadian ski jumper who is on the cusp of making her Olympic debut in Beijing. She has reached the quota at the time of recording this, we should say, and is essentially going to the Olympics. But a few things need to sort of, I guess, be rubber stamped beforehand. So by the time you're actually listening to this, we would have an answer whether or not Ale is going there or not. But at least at the time of recording this, she's all but in. So unless some certain things don't go her way, she will be there competing in Beijing in just a few weeks time. But this is a great chat with Ale, learning about the sport, learning how she got into it. And some of the unique aspects of the sport. It's a lot more of a technical sport that I think people realise it is. If you're listening to us in Australia, and you really don't know much about the sport, it's not simply about jumping as far as you can. There's a whole lot more to it. So Ale goes into a little bit of detail about sort of how the sport is scored, how the techniques work, the training, everything along those lines. Some very unique discussions here about some of the very weird rules that exist in this sport and why a athlete's crotch is actually a very important part that is judged in the sport of ski jumping. That is a conversation that you will want to hear in this interview. It's fascinating. And Ale also goes into a lot of talk about her future goals and just how far she can go in this sport, because it's actually interesting to learn about the sport of ski jumping in Canada, in that it is a sport which Canada has never won an Olympic medal in. So there's history that could be made here at some point in the future with Ale. So great chat here. You're going to get a lot from it. Here is our chat with Canadian ski jumper, Ale Loutitt.
BEN WATERWORTH: I've always liked to think of myself as a bit of a collector. I always like to tick things off lists and collect things along the way. And one thing that we've been trying to do here on Off The Podium is collect the sports of the Olympics by chatting to athletes from all the different sports of both the Winter and Summer Olympics. Now, as people know, listening and watching this show, we classify the Winter Olympics as the real Olympics. And there's one sport in the real Olympics that we have not had an athlete on the show from until today. That is the great sport of ski jumping. And today we are finally chatting to somebody from the sport. I am so excited to learn more about the sport, her career, how she got into it, the length of the skis, and everything else in between we've been talking about off air. And I'm excited to learn more about this. It's a pleasure to welcome to Off The Podium, Ale Loutitt. I said it right. Did I say it right?
ALE LOUTITT: You said it right.
BEN WATERWORTH: You did get it right. Welcome to the show. It's a pleasure to have you on the show today.
ALE LOUTITT: Thank you so much for having me. I love the show a lot.
BEN WATERWORTH: You actually listen. You might be the first guest I've ever had who's actually listened to the show, and I don't know if that's a good or a bad thing.
ALE LOUTITT: I was like, I got it. Sometimes you get those DMs, it's like, is this really real? I'm like, I don't know. I'm not sure. Someone wants to interview me. I was like, I don't know if this is a scam, this is someone trying to steal my information. I was like, okay, well, go and listen to it. And I started listening to it. It's like, wow, this is actually really good. Okay, I should do this. This sounds like fun.
BEN WATERWORTH: I'm going to use that as a review. Actually really good. Off The Podium.
ALE LOUTITT: It's actually really good.
BEN WATERWORTH: Not a scam. Actually really good. Actual review that we can put on that. Can you actually go to our iTunes and leave that review? I'd really appreciate that. Actually really good. Ali, Canada. Five stars. I love that. But I'm seriously so excited to be able to talk to you about this book. Because you and I were talking a bit off air in regards to Australia. We don't really know a whole lot about this sport. Jarrod, co-host and I during Pyeongchang, we're staying up to 2 AM, weirdly fascinated by this book. But even in Canada, it's not the most widely, I guess, known or watched winter sport either, is it? So I would love to know, how do you end up jumping really far for a living, essentially, Ale? How do you get into ski jumping?
ALE LOUTITT: Well, I ended up joining Out of Spite. I know that doesn't sound great, but it is my competitive nature. And it, I think, has been what was a big driving force. But my brother got to try the Wind Sport Summer Camp. So if you're from Calgary, you know the Wind Sport Summer Camp. It is the summer camp every kid in town goes to. And it's a multi-sport summer camp where you get to try a bunch of different sports. And if you're any good at it, you get a phone call home. So me and my brother were registered in the same group. I ended up having to drop out because I was really sick. I don't actually remember what was wrong. I was like seven or eight at the time. It was a while ago. And my brother got recruited to do ski jumping. And so I was like, this is not fair. I am going to be the ski jumper. I want to go to the Olympics. And so my mum was like, OK, like, if you're sure. And my mum did not think it would last longer than a week because she saw the giant skis come out of the back cupboard in the training centre. And she's like, OK, this is going to be a week max. I can put up with this for a week. And here we are like eight years later. Eight years later, and I'm still carrying around those giant skis.
BEN WATERWORTH: And these are giant skis. These aren't just like put them on the top of your car and drive down to BAMP for the weekend, right? Like these are pretty darn big.
ALE LOUTITT: Like my skis are 230 centimetres. I don't know if that is in feet. It's over six feet. It's probably close to seven feet for those imperial blisters.
BEN WATERWORTH: So that's basically a sane bolt could run that in like 19 seconds by the time he could even get to the end of your damn skis essentially. That's ridiculous.
ALE LOUTITT: Two metres is a lot for skis.
BEN WATERWORTH: Oh, two metres. I'm thinking 200. You said I'm thinking 200 metres. Like I'm thinking like that's a big thing.
ALE LOUTITT: Centimetres.
BEN WATERWORTH: Centimetres. You mentioned about math. My math are really good, you know, with that one. That would be pretty big skis. 200 metres. Yeah. That's a different event.
ALE LOUTITT: Yeah, a little bit. I mean, our hill is closer to that size, but not quite.
BEN WATERWORTH: That's still pretty big skis to have. And I mean, when you kind of jumping ahead a bit here, when you first try them on and you do that side of things, I mean, had you skied other alpine, sort of Nordic, other events too? And what's that differential when all of a sudden you've got 200 centimetre skis versus regulation size skis?
ALE LOUTITT: Well, I had skied, like alpine skied my entire life for as long as I can remember. My dad taught me to downhill ski when I was like one or two. Like I was barely walking, I was like a toddler. And there's a video somewhere. I need to find this video because it is hilarious. Like that I am a World Cup skier now watching this video. Well, I didn't really turn in this, so I just go straight down the hill and my arms are sticking out and I'm like flapping like my arms like I'm a bird. And you know what? I think that video was really just a prediction of my career in ski jumping. You know, there's no turns involved. You're trying to fly, you know, and you have to stop at the bottom. That's about it. That sums up my career.
BEN WATERWORTH: That's a video we need to see. That's definitely fun.
ALE LOUTITT: I will try and find this video for you because it is an incredible video. And my dad's like, hell, pizza, pizza, pizza. He's like yelling at the top of his lungs, trying to get me to like stop because like when you're teaching a little kid to ski, you don't like say hockey stop or snow plough. You say like french fries is like your skis are straight and pizza, your skis are the shape of a pizza. Right. And so like my dad's like, not hot dog, he's like screaming it and like it's a GoPro video too. So it's like my dad is like trying to catch me down this hill and like he finally catches up to me and like picks me up and stops the side and the video like comes really close to my face. And my dad's like, are you okay? Don't ever do that again. And I'm like, okay.
BEN WATERWORTH: Instead ski jump. That's safer. It's funny, you mentioned the whole pizza like, it's not just children who learn that. I don't know if the episode you've listened to, you've heard my lovely story about my five seconds on skiing before I gave up promptly. But I remember promptly being told, pizza, french fry, pizza, french fry. I think I was barely in the restaurant door before I gave up, so.
ALE LOUTITT: It is like the typical way that, you know, a absolute beginner is taught to ski. It is like lesson one. That is what you get taught. And I also remember that video is the first time I got to ski on my own. So like, you know, have you ever seen been on a ski hill and seen a little kid on the harness with the leash and the parents holding them with the leash? That was me. And then after I got taken off the leash, after I got taken off the leash, I would ski behind my dad. And so it's like my dad would go pizza, french fry, and I'd mimic all his moves. And so he was like, OK, Ali, are you ready? Like, we're going to do this. You're going to go in front. And I was like, OK. I like start slowly like pizza, pizza. And then I just go like this and go like I straight my skis up. I go straight down the hill.
BEN WATERWORTH: That's crazy. Which, I mean, I guess growing up in Calgary, you've got a pretty good facility there that still exists. So is that kind of where this love of winter sports came from from the family that it was so accessible to you all?
ALE LOUTITT: Well, I think my love of sports is definitely from my family. My mum's side is like total, total hockey family. My mum was a ski racer, but most of her family played hockey. Like I had an uncle and my grandfather who were both like national hockey level, like not quite NHL, but you know, it's called Junior A. I know it means not a lot to most people who don't understand hockey rankings, but I had lots of family in winter sports, and like my mum was a ski racer, and my dad actually was in an extreme sport, but it was not a winter sport. He was a motocross rider, a professional motocross rider. So I mean, I think my adrenaline junkie came from my family. I think they influenced that a lot, and I looked up to both of them and both watched them go crazy on skis. And it was kind of like, oh, okay, this is normal.
BEN WATERWORTH: This is fun. They can't go off at you if you want to jump down a big hill, right? Because they're kind of doing that as well. I've got to ask, just on the subject of hockey, whenever I talk to somebody from Calgary, does that mean you go for a certain team that I may not get excited if you say that you do go for that team?
ALE LOUTITT: I don't know, if you spent time in Montreal, you might not like my answer.
BEN WATERWORTH: Ah, right. So you're a Canadians fan then?
ALE LOUTITT: No, I'm their opposing fan. I am a Leaps fan.
BEN WATERWORTH: How does that come on? I thought you were smart.
ALE LOUTITT: My stepmom is a big Leaps fan, and so my brother is a big Leaps fan too. And so it's just kind of like my family is Leaps fans. So I kind of hopped on the train.
BEN WATERWORTH: I feel Colin should be doing this. You've listened to our interviews. I'm sure you've heard Colin sort of talk. You know, I'll tell you the preps I went for this. I had this ready to go, just in case you were going to say.
ALE LOUTITT: OK, OK, that is a good team. That one I can live with. I kind of have. I actually started watching the Kraken. They're the new Seattle team. And I don't know, I'm starting to get a feeling for them. So we'll see. I don't think I'll ever abandon the Leafs.
BEN WATERWORTH: But they got Mr. Giordano, so I kind of they took out Captain. I look, I think I know.
ALE LOUTITT: Are you are you a Calgary fan?
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, well, I'm co Calgary, Anaheim, just because you can't grow up in Australia without going for the Ducks. I could have an American and Canadian team, but I guess Flames probably a little bit more so.
ALE LOUTITT: Yeah, OK, very acceptable.
BEN WATERWORTH: I did go to Calgary. One time I went to Calgary, I was deliberately to go to the Saddle Dome to watch a game. So, you know, that was kind of my my one time being in Calgary.
ALE LOUTITT: I've actually skated on the Saddle Dome ice.
BEN WATERWORTH: Nice. Yeah, that's pretty epic.
ALE LOUTITT: It was pretty cool.
BEN WATERWORTH: The fun thing I found about that was when I got my ticket and I think I had a I had a letter or a number, whichever one was in the note and I'm looking everywhere, I'm going, where the hell am I going? And I've done like five laps. I'm like, OK, I'm going to go see an usher. And they've looked at me and they're like, oh, you're all the way up there. And I didn't even know. I couldn't even see the seats from where I was standing. You go, what? Where? Oh, all the way. OK, how do I get there? Do I have to catch a plane or something or?
ALE LOUTITT: Yeah, it's like it's a pretty impressive arena. I mean, we're having I think I'm not sure if it's 100 percent yet, but they're constructing a new one.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, that's right. Yeah.
ALE LOUTITT: Yeah. And that's pretty exciting, too.
BEN WATERWORTH: Which is which is quite over because I think it wasn't again, we're getting off topic here, but this is what we're doing off the podium. I think wasn't that a big thing around the city not wanting to pursue the the Olympic bid for was it 2026? I think because they weren't willing to build the stadium at the time or something. Or?
ALE LOUTITT: Yeah, no, it wasn't that the hockey facility was the only one that the majority of the city was actually in support of. And so they said, why don't we put this funding towards an NHL stadium and said, because Olympic size rinks are different than NHL size rinks. So they're like, well, we can't have both.
BEN WATERWORTH: So, yeah, yeah, unfortunately, which I mean, 2030, there's whispers that Vancouver couldn't have the games.
ALE LOUTITT: Yeah, so I am quite excited that we're talking about a bid for that.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah. Well, Australia just got the 2032 one, so we know what it's exciting right now to get another Olympics. So, yeah, Vancouver's ready to go. So kind of why not bring it back? But you mentioned the camp, it's sort of a very standard one that people in Calgary do. So is it all just winter sports? Are you out there on the ski hills? You're on the ski jump. You're trying the luge. You're trying the bobsled. Or is this just kind of a variety of different sports?
ALE LOUTITT: I have to think about it because it was a while ago, but I can't because I didn't actually end up going because I was ill. But bobsled, they don't let young kids try. So it was just the luge start. Luge, knee jumping. God, I don't know what else is in there.
BEN WATERWORTH: I love how you said they don't let you try bobsled, but they're okay shoving you down a massive hill and still on a little sled. Well, bobsled is too dangerous.
ALE LOUTITT: So they have an ice house at Canada Olympic Park, and it's like 20 metres of track, and it goes down like the house steepest start is, and then it goes back up. And so basically, you get to do a start on that. And so it's not like an actual track.
BEN WATERWORTH: They're just the basics, basically.
ALE LOUTITT: And yeah, and I'd call that ski jump a bump jump. So that's what we refer to the little little hills. Like sometimes we'll joke that like a normal hill, like the smaller end of the competitive hills are bump jumps. It's like, oh, the small hill, it's a bump jump. Because, you know, it's just kind of like a little, it's just a little bump, not a, you got to fly over it. But it's one of my favourite sayings, it's a bump jump. They're funny.
BEN WATERWORTH: Bump jump. I like it. Which again, to show my naivety is the Australian who knows very limited amounts of ski jumping. Watching Eddie the Eagle in that scene when he's going over the little ones before working his way up to the big ones. I mean, obviously that's fiction, but there's some sort of truth to that.
ALE LOUTITT: There is some truth in that. The first hill I jumped was, I think it was an 18-metre hill.
BEN WATERWORTH: Right. That's still a fair distance.
ALE LOUTITT: Well, only if you're flying that far.
BEN WATERWORTH: To me, the Australian who can't even ski five centimetres, that's a bloody long way.
ALE LOUTITT: Okay, fair enough, fair enough. It's like, you know, seeing now, I'm like, oh, that's like an imitation hill. So like an imitation is like, we do like mock jumps is the best way to describe it, right? So we have like a basically it's roller skis and a piece of plywood drilled onto these roller skis into the binding mounts. And basically you set in run and you practise your takeoff and your coach catches you above their head. I have a video somewhere. I'll need to find it, but it's actually really cool. So we do lots of catches and we do really, really technical stuff on the roller board because it's super sensitive. And so if you're in a flat surface, you can. So I'll set my end run is one of my most important parts of my warm up routine because if I feel off and like, you know, it's like I feel on top and I feel like I'm centred and the board is moving something's off, right? Like my feelings aren't quite there. So I do like a whole reset. It's not super long. It's probably two minutes, but I reset and try again, you know, take a deep breath in, exhale and go into my in run. And then normally that like fixes it because, you know, it's all those like tiny little muscle movements that just like slightly alter your balance. And so when the roller board is hypersensitive, and if you roll off your toes, it's gonna go flying backwards or if you push off your heels, it's gonna go shooting forward. So you have to push straight down. So this is a common misconception of ski jumping, but you're actually like the feeling is like you're almost pushing backwards, but it's like you're pushing 90 degrees instead of diving forward.
BEN WATERWORTH: Wow, which is when it's fascinating. Because this is the thing I love about like learning about ski jump, because one of the other ones I always love, and we've had a lot of aerial skiers on the show, is that I think the common misconception is that you're the highest in which is what was aerial typically go high, but they're going more vertical, right?
ALE LOUTITT: Yeah, they're vertical. Like the way I would explain it is like, I agree. So they have a larger vertical change, and we have a much greater horizontal change like in the air. So if you're measuring from the point of takeoff to the point of landing, they go up and then down versus we go kind of just up a little bit and out. And you know, your flight path follows the shape of the hill.
BEN WATERWORTH: Which is also, I mean, I've never seen a ski jumping venue in person. I can imagine it's incredibly impressive. Do you remember sort of when you were starting seeing it? I mean, I don't know, maybe you'd seen the Calgary one before you would even kind of join the sport and seeing what it was like for the first time.
ALE LOUTITT: Well, they're definitely a staple of Calgary. So growing up in Calgary, I always knew what they were. And kind of, you know, they were always in rough shape, like, you know, that's why we had to close them. We couldn't maintain the facility any longer, which was really, it was really heartbreaking for us. I'm not going to lie. But I remember as a little kid driving underneath the ski jump. So we had three towers. And so the smallest tower, the 60 metre tower, which I would still consider a jump. But the hill was built like this. So the hill was built over the road, and you would drive underneath the road. And I remember that as a little kid driving underneath them, it was just magnificent. It was so cool looking at the jumps. And then on a family trip to Germany, because we have some family friends there, in the town that I later ended up living in, I remember I was like, wow, I was looking at the window of the car, I was like, my hands are pressed up against the glass, I'm looking at the Garmisch ski jump. So if you've ever seen the Garmisch ski jump, it is like the back half of the tower is a free standing tower. So it's like this giant white glass tower standing up out of the middle of the forest. And it's in the middle of winter too, so it's like the perfectly frosted over forest, and the landing hill is all nice and white. It's like a little kid pressed up against the glass, it's like, dad, I want to try that one. And he's like, no way, I'm not letting you do that. You're crazy. That's never going to happen. Just drop it. And I was like, okay. And well, a couple years later, I ended up getting into the sport. So it's like, I didn't actually remember this until the family friend who was in the car mentioned it to me when I moved to Germany to train. He was like, do you remember this conversation you had with your dad about how he'd never let you ski jump? I was like, oh my god, I totally do. Now that you brought that up. My mum's yelling at the dog. Sorry.
BEN WATERWORTH: We like the background noise. I thought she was just yelling. You're going, that's not how it was. You're telling the story wrong.
ALE LOUTITT: No, no, I think the dog's getting into his food. I can see him looking at me through the glass door.
BEN WATERWORTH: That's, I mean, it's it's insane because like, this is one thing that I love talking to winter athletes about. It's that uniqueness of the sports that you're taking part in. But it's also the fact that so many of these facilities are so unique in their own aspect. And a ski jump is obviously that. I mean, so if the Calgary one is no longer operated, is it is Vancouver the only one that exists in Canada? I mean, how many ski jumps you have in Canada that you can go to and compete in, say, a World Cup event if they have them?
ALE LOUTITT: One.
BEN WATERWORTH: So it is just the Vancouver is the one.
ALE LOUTITT: The issue with Vancouver is that like it's kind of only used for events. So it only has the funding and facilities for the events. So it doesn't have any summer jumps. So I'm going to explain this. This is a side note, important part of our sports. We actually have two seasons. We have summer and winter. And in summer, we jump on porcelain tracks with like ceramic bumps to create less friction. And then it's watered. And then the landing hill is astroturf. So it's like these long noodles of plastic. I don't know how else to describe it. And it kind of looks like a really thick broom, but just a single row. And so it's stacked down the hill, and there's thousands and thousands of these individual strands. So it's probably like 100 strands are melted. The tops are fused together with plastic, and they're basically put onto the hill. And the snow actually goes on top of the winter jump or on top of the summer jump. So they roll out these wooden slats that keep the snow from sliding off the slope, right? Because it's a pretty steep angle. And when the snow is super sticky and it starts to slide, the whole thing will just shift down the hill, and you'll end up half the hill uncovered. So these wooden slats keep the snow on the hill.
BEN WATERWORTH: And is it a case of, as you're saying, having a summer and sort of a winter? I mean, so you're not just chasing snow all year round, essentially? Because I guess it's difficult to do in ski jumping, really, because there would be no... Whereas, say, an alpine or a freestyle ski can come to New Zealand or Australia. Obviously, we don't have any ski jumps in this part of the world, so you can't really go to the Southern Hemisphere to chase the snow, can you?
ALE LOUTITT: Yeah, so I think that might be part of the reason why we ended up... Summer jumps ended up crazy. But I actually don't know, so I don't want to say and be wrong. But we are pretty fortunate. We have World Cups basically July to October, and then November to April. So we have one, I'd say, one of the biggest competition seasons, because we kind of have two. We have this weird lull from the... Our last competition is the first week in October to mid-November, where it's like... You don't really... You have two weeks where you kind of chill, strength twice a week, some cardio, you know, more fun exercise, and then you start ramping up your season again. So it's like... It's kind of an awkward pause. And, you know, they have to switch the hills from summer to winter.
BEN WATERWORTH: And is that... Is there different elements to competing in the summer versions versus the winter? I mean, is it kind of, oh, you're really doing... There's not a whole lot of differences you need to do when you are competing in the different seasons.
ALE LOUTITT: Well, I really think there's not a technical difference, but, you know, there's some people who prefer summer jumping over winter jumping. I personally prefer winter jumping. I just... I don't know what it is. Something about the ice tracks and the sound the skis make on the snow, and all of it just ties together nicely. But I know lots of people prefer when it's warm because setting your in-run feels different because your muscles are warm and you're not trying to keep warm at the top of the jump. Because our suits, they're not like downhill suits. They're like foam. I'm trying to figure out a good way to explain this. So it's like a layer of foam, a layer of plastic, like almost like a saran wrap. It's a little bit thicker and less fragile, but it's like foam, the plastic layer, and it has little holes in it, so there's certain permeability, and so you have to reach a certain permeability for it to be legal in any FIS events. So FIS is the Federation International for Ski. It's a Swiss organisation, or it's based out of Switzerland. And so, you know, they have a bunch of rules, right, that everyone has to follow, so it's even playing field that, like, that are associated with freestyle skiing, too, like alpine skiing, Nordic combined, cross-country skiing. Like, I think any type of skiing is under the rule of fist, like the ultimate rule of fist, and we're no different. We just have a lot of fun rules. So I wouldn't call them fun, but it's like when I tell people about them, they're like, how come that is a rule?
BEN WATERWORTH: Give us an example. What's a fun rule, then, that is very uniquely ski jumping?
ALE LOUTITT: This one is one that's my favourite, because it's absolutely ridiculous, but it's a lot of chicken wire in your suit. No.
BEN WATERWORTH: Is that a common thing that ski jumpers want to have?
ALE LOUTITT: Well, it used to be something that people would do to cheat. And so, like, you have a certain measurement for your crotch that you have to meet, because the crotch of your suit, if it's lower than your actual body, it's like a wing, like, you know, how like a wing suit has the extra span between your arm and your body. It's the same principle where it's same weight, more surface area, which gives you an advantage, right? More surface area equals better lift, and better lift equals a big, like, a further jump. And so basically, they had to make this rule so that people's suits weren't down to their knees. Anyways, so to get around that rule, people used to put chicken wire in their suit, and, like, they'd push their hands, like, they'd move their hands in a certain way, and the suit would slide down after they'd gone through equipment control.
BEN WATERWORTH: That's... That's crazy. And I got, I mean...
ALE LOUTITT: I know.
BEN WATERWORTH: I feel like I've got to ask a question. Like, we recently had Daniel Greg on Speed Skater, and we kind of, we got on to the topic about aerodynamics and the suits, and I asked the question to him. I'm like, does that reward men who maybe are more gifted in, like, is that ski jumping? Like, if you're more gifted in the crotch, like, do you have better aerodynamics?
ALE LOUTITT: Well, there's stories of, like, I don't actually know if people do this anymore, but, like, when the crotch rule first came up, where the guys would build, like, fake dongs and... Like, they, like, basically, like, yeah. I mean, I think that's kind of been abolished just because, like, you know, Fiss found out about that, and so people have stopped. But it's actually quite funny that, yeah, there's, like, a bunch of people who, like, you know, you always hear the stories of how someone got caught trying to, you know, stick a sock down their pants or whatever, but to get a lower crotch pressure right now.
BEN WATERWORTH: It's so funny, because we talked a lot during Tokyo that in athletics, and I really don't want to talk about crotch bulge this entire interview, but, like, we will talk about how, like, hey, André de Grasse, the Canadian men's team, they're very gifted athletes. Look at them go. Like, I think we need to keep attention during the ski jumping at Beijing to be like, hey, Norwegians, this is why they're good.
ALE LOUTITT: OK, do you want to know something really funny? Norwegians are notorious for cheating when it comes to, I shouldn't be saying this.
BEN WATERWORTH: I would have learned more about this.
ALE LOUTITT: But basically, they're notorious for having really low crotch measurements. Like, even the girls too. But it's just really funny. If you look at ski jumping suits, like when people aren't jumping, it's like they had to cheat somehow. Like, I don't know how you did this, but like, look at that. It's like down to your knees.
BEN WATERWORTH: Wow. And how much improvement, like, you know, seriousness.
ALE LOUTITT: Well, the thing about our sport is that, like, I mean, half a metre can be like fifth and first. Like, you know, depending on how close the competition is, you really want to push that boundary, right? Because, you know, half a metre could be a medal versus just top five. Like, and I mean, some people would be like, I'd be thrilled to come top five, but, you know, a lot of those really competitive guys would be, you know, disappointed with a fifth place, right? And so, you know, it's like that every little bit counts, you know, that.
BEN WATERWORTH: I'm so fascinated by this conversation, Ale, because I legitimately now can say that during Beijing, that legitimately the gold medal winner has probably got the biggest dom.
ALE LOUTITT: So I wouldn't say that for sure, you know, but I mean, if you'd like to say that, go for it.
BEN WATERWORTH: Oh, I'm saying it right now.
ALE LOUTITT: But I was going to say, do you know how you actually win in ski jumping? This is an author question that people get quite wrong.
BEN WATERWORTH: I was going to ask. So we did talk about this in a recent episode where we were talking about ski jumping, and it was a case of naive Australians watch it going, it's who gets the furthest. But it's not, is it? Because there's no points awarded to by the flight and the technique and everything, isn't it?
ALE LOUTITT: Yeah, that's actually one of the things I really, really love about life support is that, you know, it comes down to like that. Did I like, did I push it every little bit I can to get as far as I can? Because not only like, you know, the further you go, obviously, the more points you get because there's a point per metre, right? Or like however many points assigned per metre. But it's like that, you know, I really had to, you know, work to have my flight look this way. And, you know, that extra point five from that one judge sent me apart. And I got to, you know, I got the better score. I scored points. I, you know, came top 20, like that sort of thing, where it's like, you know, that little difference is just like, you know, I don't know, it's hard to explain. It just really is a driving force.
BEN WATERWORTH: Because the technicalities come down to, is it ski positioning and kind of body? Because like there are sometimes like in watching it, you notice sort of the great commentators who are explaining it to you were saying, like the technique was was bad, even though you see it. And visually it's like, wow, they jumped like 10 metres further, but their skis are like all over the place. So they're not done as well.
ALE LOUTITT: So it's, you start with 20 points and for every mistake or every little error you make, you kind of get docked points. So, you know, if you don't telemark, you lose seven points. That's the biggest thing you can do to lose points is not telemark. And so if it's kind of like a sloppy tele, you might get like five points docked, you know. And if you go really short, you typically get docked marks because, you know, they didn't really have time to look at your flight and, you know, see every little detail. But it's like it's kind of based on the aesthetic of your flight. And so it's like figure skating where you have five judges and the highest and lowest score gets dropped. And then so those scores, those points get added up, right? So out of the 20 points and your subtracted points for mistakes, so normally they're typically the same. You, those points get added up, and then those points get added to your distance points. And then that comes up with your overall score. And then so whoever has the most points wins. Pretty straightforward.
BEN WATERWORTH: So it's not golf, it's not lower score wins, right?
ALE LOUTITT: It's not golf, yeah.
BEN WATERWORTH: So any of the Eagles did not win in Calgary, just to clarify. Did not win, okay.
ALE LOUTITT: He did not win.
BEN WATERWORTH: Which, give us the trivia for that. We were talking about this off air. Who did win in Calgary? Come on, give us.
ALE LOUTITT: Matti Nikonet.
BEN WATERWORTH: There it is. Yep, thank you.
ALE LOUTITT: And fun fact, my science teacher worked in the bar at the time and actually got to serve Matti Nikonet on his gold medal night. Yeah, it was an interesting story when my science teacher was like, oh yeah, I met Matti Nikonet in 1988. And I was like, was he celebrating pretty hard? And he's like, yeah, I don't really know. All those Finnish guys were pretty excited for some reason.
BEN WATERWORTH: And it takes a lot to get a Finnish person excited, so you know something good is going to happen.
ALE LOUTITT: Yeah, it was pretty funny when my science teacher was just super casual about it.
BEN WATERWORTH: I was like, yeah, that's how it works. It's fascinating, though, because I can imagine when it comes to training, that the things you've got to work on, because yeah, it's about going as far as you can, but then it's that technical side of things too. So is there a weighted aspect to it? Are you one week focusing on the distance, next week focusing on the technicality, or is it a case of you've got to combine it all the time, you can't preference one over the other?
ALE LOUTITT: So my head coach, his name is Yonko Spitzer. I never say his name right. I'm so sorry, Yonko, if you're listening.
BEN WATERWORTH: Everyone, it's so easy to get someone's name right. You should never have to practise that or anything. What are you talking about?
ALE LOUTITT: Yes. Basically, he told me, and it was something that really helped me progress. And it was like, you know what? We'll worry about the distances later when they count. And so it was like, you know, you can't, if you're always looking down and looking where you're going, like looking at the ground and looking like, I'm going to land here. I don't really want to land here, but I'm going to land here. Instead of looking out and looking forward and, you know, kind of working on that to get you further, right? Because technique does play a role on your distance. So if you're focusing on technique, you will end up going further. So, you know, not fixating on those, like, distances, especially when they don't count. And, you know, not focusing on where you want to finish. You need to focus on what you want to do. So I kind of have, like, a little routine for myself. So I pass through equipment control, right? Make sure my crotch and my waist are legal measurements, right? So I can't pull my suit down, and my crotch is always at the same length. And, you know, I isolate my mind from jumping. So, I mean, I'm not like, oh, I'm going to think about ice cream. Like, it's not like that. It's like still focused, but it's like a meditate focus. So I have, like, a mantra that I say. And so I train myself to essentially slow my breathing, slow my heart rate by saying this in my head. So first I started meditating. And when I got good at the meditating, I started saying out loud this saying. And then as I got better and better, I started saying it quieter and quieter and quieter until I said it in my head. And then for like months, I would, like, this was during COVID. So all of COVID before I could jump, and it was like seven or eight months before I could go jump again. I spent seven or eight months training my body and my brain to respond to this mantra. And when I finally, finally got to jump and I got to use it, it worked so well. It just like, like this, my like brain is just like hyper-focused. It's precise. It's, you know, like, it's, I don't know how to describe it. It's like looking through, like, clean glasses almost. Wow.
BEN WATERWORTH: Which is, it's, it's, I love hearing that, the mental aspect of any sport and kind of what you, you need to do, because it's, the thing I also love about watching the sport, the many levels, I love, I love ski jumping. I really do. It's just that moment when you're at the top of the hill, and you just get that focus that is just in your eyes, staring that down, and kind of you've got that moment where what you're looking at, your coach, before they can drop you down, and kind of all that kind of thing that must be going through your brain before you start going down the jump.
ALE LOUTITT: So this is something that often you can't see just from the angle it's filmed at, but there's this box, and it has three lights on it. It has red, yellow, green, and numbers above each light. And so red means you can't get on the bar, you're putting on your skis. Turns yellow means you can get on the bar. And then you sit on the bar until it turns green, and your coach flags you. And in bad wind conditions, you can end up on the bar for 45 seconds. And usually when you get to 45, they pull you off. But you still have to be focused until the light turns red again. Because if the light turns red again, you get off. If it goes green, go. But you got to stay focused until you're either going or you're not. And so it's kind of tricky when you've been sitting there for 45 seconds and you're just staring at your coach and it feels like you're going like this. It feels like everything's pulsing and it's shaking with the wind. That is one of the hardest times I find focusing on the hill. And so that's one of the times I really like to use my little saying.
BEN WATERWORTH: Can you tell us your saying or is it a secret?
ALE LOUTITT: No, no, I can share it. It's just do what you do. And so it's something my dad always said to me. It's something he came up with. I don't know how he came up with it, but it's something I like to say. I have it written on the inside of my helmet, because when we after we go through equipment control, we take off our helmets and put our masks in. And so it's the last thing I see before I get on the bar is right. The same thing that brings me to focus.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, wow, fantastic. It's I mean, so you mentioned before you can be up there for 45 seconds. Is there a time limit? So like an archery, how they've got to shoot within a certain amount of time? What is the time limit?
ALE LOUTITT: So once it goes green, you have 10 seconds to go. And like there's been times where it's like my qualification jump for my like my most recent competition, I was like I was on the barn, I was on there for a really long time, and then it goes green and my coaches like nowhere to be seen. I just see a German flag flag me. I was like, well, you know what? I'm going to go. And I was like, I guess I'm going like, yep. You know, I have to go in green or I don't get to compete. So it's like, you'll see it later. It's on TV.
BEN WATERWORTH: You shouldn't have gone. Like, as soon as you go, you're gone. You're in that jump.
ALE LOUTITT: There's been moments where it's like, I've gone. I'm like, did my coach actually find me? Did I just go without thinking? Like, should I have gone? Sometimes I have those moments where it's like, maybe I shouldn't have done that. Whoops. There's my brother.
BEN WATERWORTH: Bring him in. Let's bring the whole gang in. We'll kind of have the whole talking.
ALE LOUTITT: A family chat.
BEN WATERWORTH: This might be a dumb question, but you're on Off The Podium. I feel like we need to see this. Like, all of a sudden, it's got... Benny Hill show is happening.
ALE LOUTITT: Yeah, you just walked in the glass door. Yeah, the bonus guest.
BEN WATERWORTH: I like this. Hello, Go Flames.
ALE LOUTITT: Say hello, Go Flames. He's also a Leap Spin.
BEN WATERWORTH: I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Whoa, he's getting things thrown at you right now all of a sudden. Which, I mean, again, this might be a dumb question, but you're on Off The Podium, so it fits the thing. But when it comes to the wind aspect, is the coach waiting for it to be behind you so it can help you? Because obviously, I'm guessing you don't want to... Is it the opposite?
ALE LOUTITT: Other way around.
BEN WATERWORTH: So it is the other way around.
ALE LOUTITT: A plane always takes off into the wind, right?
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah.
ALE LOUTITT: I don't know if that's pretty common knowledge, but our philosophy is the same. You have to create more lift jumping into the wind. So headwind is the best conditions for ski jumping. Sometimes when there's too much headwind, it's dangerous because you can end up going too far and hurting yourself. But I think we're always willing to take that risk. A bar jump is a bar jump.
BEN WATERWORTH: So do you then just become really attuned to wind? So if you're just at ground level, you're going, well, the wind is flying 17 kilometres to the west, and it's like you get so attuned, like a wind talker, basically.
ALE LOUTITT: No, because at the top of the jump, the wind, like the shape of the jump, the wind kind of goes differently up the hill. Like, we normally tap out at like six metres per second headwind.
BEN WATERWORTH: Right. Wow.
ALE LOUTITT: I mean, like we've jumped in it, but we won't compete in that just because it's inconsistent. And you get these huge point differentials. And when there's wind, so there's such thing as a wind comp, right? Level the playing field. So, you know, if I have headwind and the girl behind me doesn't have headwind, I'm going to have negative points because headwind is going to give me an advantage. So, you know, it's you get points added or deducted based on metres per second of the wind.
BEN WATERWORTH: So, is it a sport that, say, a world record exists or is it so different per venue, so you can still have like world and Olympic records?
ALE LOUTITT: Yeah, so I don't know what the Canadian Olympic record is. I know who holds it, but I don't know what it is. But I know the Canadian record and I know the world record. So I can tell you those. The Canadian record is women's record is 130 metres. And the world record is 253 and a half metres. Just a long jump. So yeah, that's ski flying. And women aren't actually allowed to ski fly, which is so unfortunate.
BEN WATERWORTH: We're just going to ask about ski flying. I've read about this. Why isn't this amazing?
ALE LOUTITT: Because there's not enough women who are competitive enough to ski fly. So they're kind of holding it out until we have enough women who are strong jumpers, because you're going 110 kilometres off the takeoff instead of 91. So it's a big difference in speed. So like crashes are significantly worse. And right. And like the majority of the women's circuit is smaller than the men's circuit. So, you know, the wind will hit the girls harder than it hits men. So they're just waiting until there's more sustainable jumping in the women's side.
BEN WATERWORTH: And I'm not sure if you know the answer to this one, Ale, but like, is that also why obviously it took us to 2014 until we had women's ski jumping at the Olympics? Is a lot of that around the different physicality of a female? Why did it take so long for us to get women's ski jumping at the Olympics?
ALE LOUTITT: Well, it was because originally it turned out as a sexism because it was introduced in the 20s. And it never was added in because there's never enough girls to jump in the Olympics, right? So it took so long to have girls in ski jumping in the Olympics because, you know, there were no girls to jump in the Olympics because they weren't allowed to be in the Olympics. So no one would join. Yeah, exactly. So it was like there's no older athletes or younger athletes. And since there are no younger athletes, there's no one to rise the ranks. Yeah, eventually that was broken, thankfully.
BEN WATERWORTH: And was that something that helped you? Sort of, I mean, you would have what been about what?
ALE LOUTITT: I joined in like September of like 2013, I think, just before. And so like it was really exciting because at that point, we already knew there were going to be women. It was like, well, like, look at these girls, like, look at them go. And like the two Canadian girls that went were both local girls. They're both from Calgary. And so it's like, wow, look at them. They're from the same place I am. And it's funny because now like I actually know them. I mean, they're no longer jumping. They both retired, but it's like, wow.
BEN WATERWORTH: But breaking that barrier to kind of be the first ever Canadian female.
ALE LOUTITT: Yeah, so there were two girls that went, Tsuku Tanaka and Taylor Henrick. And so those two girls kind of shattered the glass ceiling.
BEN WATERWORTH: Which it must be exciting to be able to have that, you know, as a young athlete, to be able to look up to that. Because I'm always fascinated when we talk to athletes on the show who maybe start off in a sport that at the time isn't an Olympic sport and they can gradually, it becomes one. But it's not that ski jumping isn't an Olympic sport. It's literally that females couldn't compete into it until the last decade.
ALE LOUTITT: Exactly. So we like ski jumping has been there since the first Winter Olympics, right? It's been around for quite a while, just not the women's event. And we still face those struggles today in our sport. This is actually the first season I know of. I'm sure it's happened before, but we actually have the same number of competitions as the men. And I know that the whole women's circuit is so, so excited. And so this summer, we actually had most of our competitions on a large hill. So that's anything bigger than a K105, I think, is the cutoff for a large hill. So we're so excited to be jumping the large hill as our main competition, because normally they only let us be on the smaller one. So it was kind of a step in the right direction. And I was actually, me, Natalie, and Abby were the first Canadians, first Canadian women to compete on a large hill in world championships. And I think I was third or fourth to start for that. Great. It was like I was literally one of the first ones down the iron in world championships for a woman, which is pretty phenomenal.
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, I was going to ask that in terms of the Olympic competition, you only have the normal hill or however you refer to it. So is that the progression of that now that that's at the World Cup that we might see in, let's say, Vancouver 2030, that we could have the large and normal hill?
ALE LOUTITT: I'm hoping that it becomes more popular. I mean, world championships tends to be like a cycle ahead of the Olympics just because it happens more frequently. But I'm really hoping that they'll incorporate the women's large hill and the women's team event, because those are both like, those are great events. And we're missing out on airtime because we just don't have the same exposure the men do.
BEN WATERWORTH: We've seen that a lot. I know during summer we had the canoeing, for example, we had the first women's canoeing for the first time ever. And it's interesting that there's so much talk about the equality and how they're still lacking that at the Olympics and making it sort of very gender equal, essentially. But it is very interesting to look at some Olympic events where it still doesn't. And I feel the Winter Olympics maybe is lacking a little bit in that. There seem to be a lot more male oriented events at a Winter Olympics versus a Summer Olympics. There seems to be more leeway to Winter Olympics because you've got less events, so you can add more events quite easily compared to a Summer Olympics.
ALE LOUTITT: I agree. It's kind of unfortunate. Winter Olympics is definitely male dominated, which is kind of sad. But I think we're definitely working towards more equality in sport, which you got to do that one step at a time. You can't make big changes fast or else they won't stay.
BEN WATERWORTH: Do you remember the first time you went, like you're talking about the bump jumps, like when you got to go on the proper jump, how old were you? And do you remember that first time?
ALE LOUTITT: I was nine.
BEN WATERWORTH: Nine. Wow.
ALE LOUTITT: I'm sure your dad loved that. Oh yeah. That's kind of like for a ski jumper, like lots of my teammates joined when they were five or six.
BEN WATERWORTH: Wow.
ALE LOUTITT: So you started off pretty young. And I always say they start us young so that we don't learn to be afraid. Because right, you know, you're kind of like, OK, like, I'll go.
BEN WATERWORTH: Go on to it.
ALE LOUTITT: And so I actually we have gates, right? So, you know, the lower the gate, the closer you are to the end of the jump. Right. So in a small hill, you use the gates to kind of kind of like work kids up to going from the top. Because on the smaller hills, you typically send kids from the top just because they need a little bit extra speed. And so I remember walking up and I never jumped before my first day. I was like, walking up, I'm like, what are those bars for? And my coach was like, just keep walking. And I was like, OK. And so like, I've always been like very spunky and bubbly and excited. Like I have, that's one of my biggest issues in sport is that I get too excited. I mean, it's a good issue to have, but not always.
BEN WATERWORTH: Not as a Leafs fan. Just sorry I had to say that. Yeah, I really need Colin on this show. He needs to balance the burns basically. So, you know, yeah, which I mean, that's it's fascinating to think that that at that age. And so when you do that, is it a case of, wow, this is what I want to do? This is this is where I want to set my three goals.
ALE LOUTITT: From the first jump, I was like, I'm going to the Olympics. I was like, I want to go. I took one jump and I was like, I'm in. This is it. This is what I want to do.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, so that was so you're eight. So you're 17 now. You were nine. Sorry, nine.
ALE LOUTITT: Yeah.
BEN WATERWORTH: So I think you mentioned to me for about eight years. I think you mentioned to me in the lead up to this chat that Beijing is the first that you're allowed to go. So what's the age cut off in ski jumping?
ALE LOUTITT: I think it's 16. But like, you know, it's just kind of. I am one of the youngest World Cup jumpers. I am the, I think I'm the third, I want to say third youngest jumper with points. So I'm like, I'm like the end of the barrel for age. Like, I'm like, I'm pretty young for a ski jumper, just at the level I am. And so I was actually too young to compete in the last games because I wasn't even old enough to compete in the lower level competitions. So, you know, being able to like, I like, I don't know, I was just not expecting to be able to even try to qualify for these games. Like up until last February, I wasn't even able to compete in World Cups because, you know, COVID kind of put a damper on the competitions that I needed to get points in to be able to make it to the world stage. So there's kind of three levels of this competition. So there's this cup, which is the bottom level of international competitions. And then there's the Continental Cup, which is the next step up. And so you need to have Continental Cup points to be able to compete in a World Cup. And so my first event on the world stage was World Championships. So that is a big jump from small COC in like rural Germany to showing up to World Championships. It was like, and so I didn't actually like even have the opportunity to try and qualify until I scored those COC points last February.
BEN WATERWORTH: That's crazy.
ALE LOUTITT: And then all of a sudden I was an Olympic contender and I was like, what the heck?
BEN WATERWORTH: Welcome to the sport. By the way, you're right on the cusp of that. Why is there, do you know why there's an age? Because like, I mean, we just seen in Tokyo, we've got 12 year olds winning Olympic medals. So why the hell can't you be going off competing as a 14 year old at the Olympics?
ALE LOUTITT: Well, just because ski jumping, we peak quite late is all. And so it's a sport that's hard on your body and pushing kids like hard when you're young. And so I think the cutoff for a fist competition is 14 years. I could be wrong. The rules could have changed. But when I was 14, it was you had to be 14 to compete. And so, you know, you have to be over 14 to score this cup points. You need this cup points to be able to compete in a CSE. You need CSE points to compete in a World Cup. So it takes kind of a season of scoring points to make it up to the World Cup. And it was I was shocked when I was became a Olympic contender. I was like, holy crap. Like, what am I doing here? I don't know how I ended up here. I'm with like the older girls now. I'm training with them like they're my friends now. Like, what is happening?
BEN WATERWORTH: Which so just to clarify, so you've qualified, you're officially going to Beijing. Can we say that?
ALE LOUTITT: So I have a provisional qualification. So we can qualify and qualification like the quota list can change up until oh god, I think it's January like 15th or 16th. So I have a bit of time. But I like remember when my coach told me that I had like a spot and it was like I've been my jumping and improved drastically. So like I had my first top 20 finish on the world stage. So that was like a huge thing for me. I wasn't actually happy with my jumping that day. I was happy that I was unhappy with my jumping rate because you know, it means a step in the right direction. I can finish in the like toughest competition of the season in the top 20 and be unhappy with my jumps. It's a sign that I'm moving in the right direction and making steps forward. Even if they're baby steps, it's a step. And so I was like, I was actually like on the verge of tears. I was so upset. I was like, I could have done better. Like I just, that wasn't enough. Like I know I like finished in a good spot. I don't even want to look at where I finished, but like I just I'm not happy with that. And so I was actually like 14th or 15th after first round. And so I was like super upset. My second jump wasn't very good. And I was just like sitting alone in the change room. I was just like so bummed. And like I hear the like click of the radio. It's like, and it's like my coach comes in like Miss Alexandria. And I'm like, yeah. And he's like, congratulations. I'm like, what for? I'm like on the verge of tears. There's like a tear like like swelling up in my eye. And I'm like, what is it? Yonko Yonko is my head coach. And he's like, you lady qualified for the Olympics. I just like start like crying. I was like, so happy. I was so like I was just so overwhelmed with emotion. It's like, you know, that like thing I've wanted to do my entire life. It just happened. It's like, I don't even know how to react. Like, I'm just so excited. And I'm still upset that my jumps were crappy. And I'm just excited to be here. And I just don't know what to do. I'm so overwhelmed with everything. And it's like, holy crap.
BEN WATERWORTH: Because it's that moment. I always love learning from our guests that moment when they realise they're going to the Olympics. And I think off the top of my head, Tom O'Halloran, Australian sports climber, might be the only athlete we've had on ahead of their first Olympics. They've never been to one. And kind of it's that mindset, which you're kind of in that euphoric, but competitive mindset where you obviously still need to tick the boxes to make sure you're on that plane. But you're basically there. So like, that must be a weird mindset to kind of be in.
ALE LOUTITT: It is. It's, you know, it's kind of working forward. So I have got some pretty ambitious goals, but I have to take them once up at a time. And like, you know, I need to take a moment sometimes. And I what works best for me to have results turn out is not thinking about the results because they don't like, you can't do anything about them if that's all you're thinking about. You can't do anything about them after they happen. They're just there, you know, you got to live with them. And it's something that you can be proud of, and it's something you can be upset about, but it's nothing you can worry about.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah.
ALE LOUTITT: So, you know, I focus on what I need to do. I need to feel. And so I, my mental coach tell me, feel, don't think. And that is something that stuck with me. And it's really changed my jumping because, you know, you know, you're thinking about those outcomes. You're thinking about how you want things to turn out. You're like in, like, just generally in jumping, too. It's like, I want my timing to be better. It's not, I feel on top. And when I feel on top, my jumping, like I hit the takeoff at the right time. I'm more powerful. I'm this and this and this. Because when you learn those feelings and you learn what those feelings are, you become very technically proficient and you become super strong all around, like not just physically strong, but that mental strength is a huge component of our sport.
BEN WATERWORTH: Which, going back to the point you mentioned about you peak sort of at a later age, what age are we talking about here for a ski jump where you are going to hit your peak?
ALE LOUTITT: It's kind of hard to tell because it's like pretty, like it's different for everyone. I know Sarah Takanashi, who is my personal hero, she is the most decorated ski jumper of all time, man or a woman, she's 24. And I wouldn't say she's peaked yet. I mean, you get athletes like her, and you get athletes like Manuel Fetner and Kasai who are in their late 30s, and Kasai retired when he was 40-something. And so you get those athletes who retire super late but have really successful careers all the way up to the end. And you get those athletes who are super strong out of the gate and kind of fizzle. And so it's hard to say when it's a sport that's based so much on mental strength. And it's like, how long can you keep this up? And how long can you physically and mentally push yourself to be better and be stronger and be the best?
BEN WATERWORTH: Because I'm trying to work out your path here, because you'll be 18 by the time Beijing, right?
ALE LOUTITT: Yeah, so I will not have even been 18 for a month when I go to Beijing.
BEN WATERWORTH: So let's pass this out for you then, Ali, that 2030 Home Olympics Vancouver will be your third Olympics, and you'll only be, what, 26. So I'm thinking 2034, you'll then be 30.
ALE LOUTITT: That will probably be my last, around the last one.
BEN WATERWORTH: Keep going, I'm 34. So by the time you get to 34, that'll be 2038. So that will be your fifth Olympics. And bugger it, go to your sixth. Keep going, 38, you can do 2040.
ALE LOUTITT: We've got one guy who's been, I mean, he's not super old. He's like 29, I think. I'd have to double check.
BEN WATERWORTH: Not super old, 29. Thanks for that. Just glad to do this. What cutoff do we get to super old? Am I super old, 34?
ALE LOUTITT: He has had a pretty good career for himself. He's been to, god, I think 2010 was his first Olympics. And so 2010 through to 2022, and I'm pretty sure he'll stick around for another one.
BEN WATERWORTH: Hopefully he'll stick around for another one. We had an Australian equestrian rider at his eighth Olympics, was 62. I want to see all the bronze in Tokyo. So, you know, did all right there. But it's, I mean, it's, yeah, it's fascinating just kind of that aspect. I always love finding out sort of the ages at people. It's like we've had gymnasts on the show and, you know, if you're 17 going to your first Olympics, you're almost, you know, at retirement age.
ALE LOUTITT: Retired, yeah.
BEN WATERWORTH: It's interesting.
ALE LOUTITT: For us, it's quite different. It's like I'm super, like, Abby and I, we're both super, considered super young for jumpers, right? And then, you know, gyms would be like, what are you kidding me? Like, you should be retired.
BEN WATERWORTH: You should be coaching.
ALE LOUTITT: Yeah, exactly. It's like completely different. I think it's just based on the person and their mental strength and capability. That's what our sport comes down to.
BEN WATERWORTH: Can you... Sorry, go ahead.
ALE LOUTITT: It's just one of the things I really like about it is that, you know, it's like you can't just physically be strong. You have to be mentally strong. I mean, I'm sure that's true with any sport, but it's especially true with this one.
BEN WATERWORTH: Which the other unique aspect of ski jumping is realistically outside of wingsuit jumping. I mean, it's probably the closest you've got to flying. I mean, can you describe that feeling of being in the air? Does it feel like you are flying?
ALE LOUTITT: Yeah, it does. So you can actually, when your skis are in the proper place, you can actually feel the lift under your skis. So you can actually feel the climbing, and, you know, like you feel that adrenaline build, and it's just like warm, like washing over your body, and it's like peaceful, but it's exciting. And, you know, I try to explain it as like an oasis. You know, like, it's like you're very present, but, you know, you're still not isolated, but you're sort of isolated, and you're like, it's almost like someone hits pause, and everything else is just moving in slow motion. The problem with that pause button is when something starts to go wrong, someone hits the fast forward button, and everything is in hyperspeed. And so it's like, you know, I mean, when you watch it in real time, it moves pretty quickly. It's a high-paced sport. But to us, like, from our perspective, you know, time kind of moves at a different speed.
BEN WATERWORTH: Which, how long on average are you in the air for?
ALE LOUTITT: Oh, God, I actually don't know the answer to that. I am horrible at telling time, and like, not like reading time, but like, my sense of time is so awful, I could not tell you.
BEN WATERWORTH: Which, because it's, I know, like, when we talked to Laura Hinkson-Dyer, I think she mentioned like 1.9 seconds from the 10 metre, and I think from memory aerials is about 3 seconds.
ALE LOUTITT: Oh, it's probably, yeah, it's probably like 5 seconds, I'd say, if that would be my guess, 5 seconds, maybe.
BEN WATERWORTH: Which, again, it comes back to that, I can imagine watching it in person.
ALE LOUTITT: But there's like that huge build that's like, you're going down, I don't know if I can send you videos on Zoom. Can I send you videos on Zoom?
BEN WATERWORTH: You might be able to share the screen, I think, potentially, to kind of go that way.
ALE LOUTITT: I have some videos on my laptop.
BEN WATERWORTH: You can send it to us after, Ale. We can sort of look at those and share those with the two. But it's, I mean, it's one of those, again, most sports, to me, are better in person. Most people would agree. But I could imagine watching sort of you guys jump off that and just seeing it in person is a completely different experience than watching a camera fixated on you.
ALE LOUTITT: It is. I would agree that it is. But sometimes the camera angles are actually better angles than the viewing angles, because you're just watching straight from the bottom. So you just see someone come off and kind of go down. But the camera angles, right, you get to see the takeoff and you get to see the flight path.
BEN WATERWORTH: And it's a slow mo sport. I love those sports when slow mo really act like I love those. Just the super slow mo of you in the air and you can see your facial expressions and just everything. It's amazing in slow mo.
ALE LOUTITT: Yeah, it is pretty magnificent. And it's like you can see all those little micro adjustments that are being made to have the longest flight possible or like fix those tiny mistakes. And it's like, you know, as a jumper, you're like, oh, like, look at his, like, left hip of his key. Like, it's like kind of wavering. He must have taken off from the other foot. And, you know, it's like when you know the sport and you know, the technical aspect, you can see those micro movements and like why they're making other movements. You're like, oh, he must have or she must have done this because of this. And so it's like, oh, like, like, there was a jump where I had where it was like my skis have like a wobble is the best way to put it. It's like they weren't super stable. And it's because I was late. And so, you know, you don't have the same leg effect that you do when you're actually hitting the table. And so, you know, you can tell because I was making those tiny adjustments, trying to stabilise myself and get myself as far as possible.
BEN WATERWORTH: Which I can imagine that helps if you're reviewing a tape with a coach that you can say like, OK, your left ski is point two millimetres to like work on this or things like that.
ALE LOUTITT: And so like a lot of the time, he'll video like our assistant coach will help us and he'll videotape us from behind so we can watch our symmetry, because that's a big thing that affects distance is the symmetry of the jump, right? And you won't get docked marks unless your symmetry is like really, really bad. But if you have good symmetry, then your flight will carry better and you'll be able to create better lift. Right. You know, like you don't want an airplane with one wing shorter than the other.
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, I mean, you know, it depends on what you're doing in that plan, I guess, but which I mean, on the physical side of it, you talked about the mental. But if you're hitting the gym, what are you what are you working on? Kind of what part of the body is the main focus of a ski jumper?
ALE LOUTITT: We do a lot of core and a lot of leg and our core and leg is all fast twitch, right? So, like, I mean, but our courts like firing for however long we're from when we leave the bar to when we come out of the outrun, because, right, it kind of is important for this, like stability. And when you're pushing it, you have a weak core, right? It's like pushing a string versus pushing a stick, right? Like a string is going to be floppy and it's going to wobble around versus a stick. It's going to just move where you push it. And so like strong back and strong core, we don't really do a lot of arms, not going to lie. Well, ski jumpers are not known for our arms, but my team specifically does a lot of like weighted jumps. So it's like this is one of my favourite exercises. And it's like you have a like a bar free weights on your back and you go down really slowly. You pause at the bottom where your legs, the angle of your legs and shins are what they are for jumping. And you jump up with the weight and your teammates catch the bar. And it's really funny when we're in the public gym in Slovenia and there's like these big dudes who are weightlifting. And then there's like the four of us like tiny girls who are like throwing the weights around, like literally throwing them.
BEN WATERWORTH: Wow. Which is one thing, playing the village when you're in Beijing, the guess the athlete game. So if you're in the gym and you're going, OK, well, I mean, I reckon it would be even trickier for winter athletes as opposed to because at least in the summer, you go, they're a weightlifter, they're a cyclist, they're a roller, like they're on the correct machines. But I can't imagine sitting there going, Nordic combined or maybe Luge. I don't know.
ALE LOUTITT: Yeah, like sometimes it's like that, we train in the CSI, so the Canadian Sport Institute. And sometimes it's like, I wonder what sport they are. It's like, I like don't recognise the logo that they're wearing. It's like, oh, and it's like, we're all like, oh, like, do you think that this sport? It's like, no, no, not this sport because of this, this mess. And so it's like, I wonder what they do or, oh, what do you think they do?
BEN WATERWORTH: You know, just keep guessing it. Wow, yeah, I love those sort of things to kind of do that. Just I mean, so with Beijing, obviously getting to the Olympics, you know, dream come true. You mentioned before about finishing in the top 20. Do you do you go in with a goal like top 20 or does it because it's your first Olympics? It's more about getting that experience under your belt and then maybe building towards Milan, Cortina a little bit in four years time there.
ALE LOUTITT: Well, my personal goal is definitely top 20, but, you know, sometimes with pressure, you don't always perform as well as you're going to want to. So my goal is just to make second round. So, you know, top 30 move on to the next round for all of those who don't know the rules of ski jumping. So you have 40 contenders and then top 30 move on. And so my goal is top 20, but I'll take a top 30 happily.
BEN WATERWORTH: The opposite, though, is sometimes pressure builds upon that. And who knows? I mean, I discovered that Canada has never meddled in ski jumping.
ALE LOUTITT: So it is that is one of my biggest goals is you could be the first Canadian. Yeah. So I think Horace Brewer, you know, I can't ever say his name correctly, was the first or like has the best Canadian like he has the best placement for Canadian in the Olympics and has the most Canadian World Cup wins. And I think he's the only one with a World Cup win that's more than one or like two. So he's the only like consistent World Cup winner. But I'm hoping to change that.
BEN WATERWORTH: I intend to say you will right now.
ALE LOUTITT: That's part of my plan. And yeah, well, I have some pretty ambitious goals, but I love.
BEN WATERWORTH: We I mean, you've listened to some of our episodes, I thoroughly suggest to avoid a bunch of them, but listen to any of our Tokyo coverage and you will hear some of our great daily commentary we did, we did it actually back in Pyeongchang when Jarrod famously did his mogul mogul mogul call, which was fantastic. But we got some tips from Britt Cox on how to commentate moguls properly. We're going to probably try and commentate ski jumping. Is there anything besides me staring at your crotches? That sounds really inappropriate, but there's a science behind that. What should we be looking out for besides that fact?
ALE LOUTITT: That's a good question. I mean, timing is a big thing in ski jumping, right? You can kind of tell. You kind of have to know this word a little bit. So I'd say maybe watch a few jumps to get the idea for it. And the landing is a very important part, the stability in the flight and kind of the aesthetic of the flight. So, you know, do they look really confident and powerful or do you know they kind of look passive and nervous and struggling?
BEN WATERWORTH: Right. And can we talk about like the pre-moment before you're hanging on to that? Is there like a moment in the warm up room? Like is there a pump up? Have you got the air pods in? Are you listening to something to pump you up? Is that something we can talk up?
ALE LOUTITT: Yes, I do actually have. There's one thing that my team does as a whole that I really love. We have a pump up song and we're black. Like we listen to music together going to the hill. And that's one of my favourite things is like, you know, it's like an individual sport. But, you know, it's like I have all these people who are in this with me. And it's like we are like our sound changes every now and again. But, you know, we listen to the song, we're screaming it. Our coaches are even singing. It's like everyone is like knighted in this moment. And it's like a really pure like moment. Like it's super wholesome. You know, we're all just like join. And it kind of lets you forget about all that pressure coming into the event, like into the stadium. And so after that, we normally like volley, like with a volleyball, we'll pass around the ball or what else we do. Sometimes soccer ball too, just to kind of like start our warm up and get the ball rolling. Haha, pun intended.
BEN WATERWORTH: Good job.
ALE LOUTITT: Kind of getting ourselves excited. I have an issue with getting too excited. I get super wound up and I have a tendency to jump early because I just cannot wait any longer. And I'm just so excited. I fixed that problem now, thankfully, but it took a lot of work to get over. So my coach actually had me playing like it was like bocce, but with frisbees. Oh, wow. So basically I was just like he would play with me so that I would have to do something that took a lot of focus and that I wasn't super good at. So I like took a lot of like technical thought that would draw myself away from that. I can't wait to jump. I can't wait to compete. I'm so excited. Look at all the people here. And when I get excited, I start like talking a million miles a minute. I mean, I talk pretty fast now, but like I get going. And so my coaches like have kind of found a way to take me down a notch or two.
BEN WATERWORTH: Take you down a little bit.
ALE LOUTITT: And so I now have, I carry, it's a cut off of a hockey stick and a ping pong ball. And I like bounce the ping pong ball on the hockey stick because it takes so much because I have really bad hand-eye coordination. I am probably the clumsiest professional athlete you will ever meet. Like, I am known for being a clutz. So I'm a disaster sometimes. But anyway, so it's like it takes a lot of focus and a lot of work for me to actually hit the ping pong ball on the stick. And so I use that to kind of like bring myself down and chill myself out. Because I just, you know.
BEN WATERWORTH: I like this. I like the science of everything that I've got, the technicality. I will probably be honest and say that if we send you our ski jumping commentary, you probably will hear some stuff which will, okay, well, he didn't listen to me, but I at least laughed. At least I hope you will. But I'm liking this idea of the ping pong ball. We had some fencer artistic swimmers, we sent us their commentary. And Max von Haas, our fencing guest, he loved our commentary to the fact that I think he tagged the International Fencing Federation. He was like, get these guys commentating. And all we talked about, I think, was the both competitors were fighting over each other's wives or something. I can't even remember. We did a lot of commentary.
ALE LOUTITT: Oh my god.
BEN WATERWORTH: We will try obviously. What's the song? What's the pump up song that you have?
ALE LOUTITT: My pump up song? The team song? I have a playlist more.
BEN WATERWORTH: Give us the secrets for both if you're allowed to disclose them.
ALE LOUTITT: Well, right. We listen to the song Friday a lot. Is that the It's Friday? Yeah, that's why we listen to that one a lot in the summer. And then it kind of switched to... God, what song were we listening to now? I can never remember the name of this song. I know all the words.
BEN WATERWORTH: You can sing it first if you really want to.
ALE LOUTITT: Oh, I can't sing.
BEN WATERWORTH: I can't ski jump, but hey.
ALE LOUTITT: I think it's like... No, I feel good. I think it's what it's called. It's a pitbull. Anyways, we listen to that song on full blast in the team car. It's pretty fun.
BEN WATERWORTH: Humps it works. I like that. Again, we'll remember this. Come the Olympics, and we'll make sure that it goes that way. Before we get to sort of our wrap up final questions, which I don't even have to pre-mourn. You know about these.
ALE LOUTITT: I know. I know these ones.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, you've written your answers. I expect you've drawn things already for me, Ali, I expect.
ALE LOUTITT: I was going to, but I actually ended up writing a practice exam instead.
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, you know, certain things can take priority, I guess. But you know, actually, I'm really intrigued. I'm always looking for a way into the Olympics. Again, I'm a bit older, you know, curling, I thought was always my, but I'm really thinking ski jumping, because as I said to you, Australia has never had an Olympic ski jumper ever. So, I mean, I feel that the quota should probably maybe, maybe there's just this Australian slot that is waiting that no one's ever taken up from. So maybe if I just get on one of the bump jumps, kind of get a bit of practice, then I can get into one of the suits, I would automatically be the Australian record holder straight away, and then just somehow like get to a point where I can qualify for the Olympics. I mean, do you have any advice for me? Should I maybe look at a ski jump and go, maybe that's for me, and maybe give it a crack?
ALE LOUTITT: I don't want to burst your bubble, but you would need to come top 30 in more than one World Cup.
BEN WATERWORTH: Oh, look, I'm up for a challenge?
ALE LOUTITT: Yeah, and we call that the Eddie the Eagle rule.
BEN WATERWORTH: Right, okay. Damn it, Eddie. You know, god damn it, I knew there was a reason why that movie sometimes annoys me. It's just ruining my Olympic dreams.
ALE LOUTITT: Exactly.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, which I mean, it's far more than Hugh Jackman with an American accent, which in all seriousness, because it's always fascinating. Whenever I've had Bob's letters on the show, I mean, straight away, it's like, oh, cool runnings, you know, like you get that particularly in this part of the world. But like, does a movie like that help or hinder the sport? Because obviously it brings new eyes to the sport. People know his story. But for someone like yourself, who this is your career, and you've got dumb Australian like me going, oh, I saw it in a movie. Like, does it weirdly also hinder it because there's a lot more to it than a fictionalised version of a true story, if that makes sense?
ALE LOUTITT: A little bit of both, I would say, because it did actually help a lot of ski jumping, like in Calgary specifically, just because a lot of the parents of the kids who ended up joining were actually there and watched Eddie. So we had an event where Eddie actually came. I had jumped with Eddie.
BEN WATERWORTH: Wow.
ALE LOUTITT: I had actually jumped with him. Yes, I was 12. And I had jumped him when I was 12. I like to say that because people are always mind blown when I say I outjumped Eddie the Eagle when I was 12 years old. But that event actually, that was one of the still to this day, I have competed in world championships and world cups. And that is still one of the most spectated events I have ever competed or jumped in. It wasn't a competition. It was just a show. Insane. But there were thousands of people there watching us jump just because Eddie was there.
BEN WATERWORTH: It was crazy. Which is those eyes though, you've got eyes on the sport, but it's a weird eyes because it's sort of...
ALE LOUTITT: It's like when you watch someone starting to stumble, you're like, I kind of want to watch this. I know I shouldn't, but I wonder if it's like that, where it's like a...
BEN WATERWORTH: If you're watching NASCAR just for the crashes, basically, when there's a lot more to it.
ALE LOUTITT: Well, not necessarily crashes. It's more like I want to see a normal person do this. It's like, this is someone like me. I want to see them do this. Not like these people are trained to do it, not these people who are spectacular at it, who have dedicated their whole lives, which is the unfortunate part is that people wanted to watch somewhat like a normal person, not someone who's dedicated their lives to it.
BEN WATERWORTH: Which it's interesting, because again on that aspect of saying that on the outside of Canada and Australia, and we look at Canada as a winter sports powerhouse, and we assume you're good at all winter sports, but obviously ski jumping. When we had Nathaniel on to talk about Nordic Combined, it's obviously not quite on that level that it is for hockey and speed skating, things like that. But it's fascinating to kind of think about how that can have a negative impact at the same time, because people associated, particularly like in Australia, I have no doubt that if I went to a random Australian and talked about ski jumping, the first thing they're going to talk about is Eddie the Eagle. It's no different if I said bobsled, they're going to talk about koreana. If I talk about ice hockey, they're going to talk about the Mighty Ducks, these fictionalised versions of things, which sure it brings eyes on it, but your sport is an amazing sport, and you're all highly trained athletes who are doing the best you can. It's a lot more than some random English dude who just happened to jump down a hill.
ALE LOUTITT: Exactly. And so, I mean, actually, I find this very interesting about my sport, but crashes aren't as common as you think they are because the people jumping the big hills and the dangerous hills are, like, trained to be jumping those hills and they've had years of practice, right? So it kind of eliminates the risk. I mean, there's always going to be a risk. Like, there's environmental factors, right? You can't control the wind, you can't control the rain, you can't control the snow. As cool as that would be, you can't. So, I mean, I have had my own crashes due to that. I mean, to be fair, one of them, I ran into a wall, but I... So, I just, like, I was trying to stop, and I kind of just stopped and tipped over into, like, a cement wall and hit my head on the wall. I don't really remember it. I had a pretty bad concussion. Yeah.
BEN WATERWORTH: That's, I mean, it's actually, I'm learning a lot more about sports in which I don't associate concussion with on this show.
ALE LOUTITT: See, jumping is not, like, when you do crash, you get pretty hurt. Like, torn knees is a pretty common one. Concussions, dislocated shoulders, broken ankles, things like that, you know? Standard injuries.
BEN WATERWORTH: I mean, it's also, and that's the element.
ALE LOUTITT: Yeah, unfortunately, they're not too common. Like, you can go a couple of events without having anyone even, like, slide out at the bottom. But...
BEN WATERWORTH: Because it's also, yeah, it's that danger element that I think a lot of people get drawn to about the winter sports. But it's also, I always love those sports where, like, let's picture this, that you are, you're leading in Beijing, you're in the kiss and cry sort of moment, waiting, watching, you've got the cameras on you, and you've got three competitors left. Like, deep down, you're going, crash, crash, crash, come on, I want a medal.
ALE LOUTITT: What you're actually thinking when you're, like, that one away from the position you want to be in, it's like, oh, like, come on, like, disqualification, not permitted to start, something happens, someone doesn't jump well, it's like, oh god, oh god, oh god. Exactly. I've only heard one story of that, and I don't know if it was actually a true story. I do know it's a rule, but I don't know if it's a real rule. Like, you know?
BEN WATERWORTH: Is there a website where I can go to to find all the weird rules of ski jumping?
ALE LOUTITT: I mean, I just Google it, but I'm sure...
BEN WATERWORTH: You'd have to read through this. I like reading extended sporting documents to find weird sporting rules.
ALE LOUTITT: I mean, you could create a website that's weird sporting rules.
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, they used to have those coffee table books, which were like weird laws that exist in America. And it's like, you cannot marry a horse in Alabama, like laws that legitimately exist. So, like, I'm sure there needs to be a sporting version. I actually don't know if that's a law.
ALE LOUTITT: I'm sure there is, but...
BEN WATERWORTH: I'm sure people in Alabama are listening and they're about to marry a horse. Maybe just look that up first.
ALE LOUTITT: Yeah, it might be a good plan.
BEN WATERWORTH: Possibly. Possibly. As I said, you know these and these questions, of course, which I'm really hoping they didn't do these for Tokyo as far as we know. So I'm hoping if they bring this back for Beijing Team Canada, that they will give you some of these, because these are great questions.
ALE LOUTITT: I did have a bunch of questions. So I don't know if I can actually talk about that.
BEN WATERWORTH: Oh, okay. We don't know. I didn't hear anything. I don't know what you're talking about. Now, sadly, though, Team Canada did not interview any ski jumpers. At least if they did, they didn't publish any of the ski jumpers on their website. So I've gone with a guest of ours, Andy Norty, a mogul skier, who was obviously retired now, but she came on the show just before Pyeongchang. So these are the questions. And these questions, I'm sure if you've listened to enough of these interviews, you'll see some of them change.
ALE LOUTITT: Yes, they're not always the same, but I know for the most part, they're similar.
BEN WATERWORTH: If there's a question you're dying to answer that I don't ask you, Ali, then please let me know and I will gladly ask you it.
ALE LOUTITT: I'll also, yeah, I can also let you know if I've already answered these for the Canadian Olympic Committee.
BEN WATERWORTH: All right. So you're subtly saying that maybe we can look out for these answers to use in Beijing, maybe.
ALE LOUTITT: Yes.
BEN WATERWORTH: Just don't tell anyone.
ALE LOUTITT: All right. Not yet.
BEN WATERWORTH: Let's start off with your favourite Olympic moment is?
ALE LOUTITT: Um, probably the first women's ski jumping event. I mean, that's like, I do remember the first event I remember watching was moguls in Whistler, women's moguls, or maybe it was men's. I don't remember. I was pretty young. I was like five or six. And, um, but for sure, it had to be the first women's ski jumping event. Like, that's pretty spectacular moment. It's a huge step in my sport. And, you know, it's like that shattering the glass ceiling, right? Those women who, you know, were told their whole life, they'd never be an Olympian because they're a woman. And, like, look where they are. Look what they've done. They've, like, created a pathway for, like, a generation of new jumpers and generations after that. So, you know, it's pretty spectacular when you're continuing on a legacy, not just for yourself and your country, but for an entire sport.
BEN WATERWORTH: 100%, for sure. I love that answer. Now, you sort of, I guess you've already answered this, really. As a kid, your favourite sports team was the Le... I mean, do you have any other sporting teams that you follow outside of the Leafs?
ALE LOUTITT: Well, as a kid, it was not the Leafs. It was the Flames and the Canucks.
BEN WATERWORTH: Oh, wow. Geez. What's going on there?
ALE LOUTITT: The Canucks.
BEN WATERWORTH: Because they were winning at the time or...?
ALE LOUTITT: Yeah, they were, but my mum's family is a fan.
BEN WATERWORTH: I see. Okay. Well, you got sort of... You were on the right page for one of them there, I guess. If you could be a superhero, who would you be?
ALE LOUTITT: Okay. This is one that I have actually answered before, but not for this Olympics. It was for Youth Olympic Games. But... And I said Superman, and I would like to keep my answer the same, because Superman can fly and so can ski jumpers.
BEN WATERWORTH: I think Superman would be very good at ski jumping.
ALE LOUTITT: I had a Superman obsession until I was probably about 15.
BEN WATERWORTH: What happened? Why not? What just fell out of love with Superman? Didn't like Henry Cavill?
ALE LOUTITT: It's not that. I actually have some original superhero comic books. It's pretty... That's how much... I'm just not as obsessed as I was, I would say. I had a Superman undersuit for mine. Wow.
BEN WATERWORTH: Could you not talk to Team Canada and be like, can we do something and make it look... That would attract the viewers. Like, hey, Team Canada are wearing Superman capes when it comes to the ski jumping.
ALE LOUTITT: Well, I think a cape would be illegal and would create too much drag.
BEN WATERWORTH: Just without chicken wire, though. Come on, you could work around it.
ALE LOUTITT: Yeah, maybe a little bit, but... Yeah, you have to have your suit sewn a certain way. Here we go. That's a hard one.
BEN WATERWORTH: You got there.
ALE LOUTITT: So you can't actually have anything, like, printed on it unless it's a sponsor. Unless Superman's willing to sponsor me, I don't think I can really...
BEN WATERWORTH: DC can sponsor Team Canada. There you go. I know. See, they've done that in Australia. They've had some weird sponsorships where, I think one of the rounds I had for, like, one of the rugby competitions, it was like they had makeshift, like one team would wear a Batman logo. They do it with Looney Tunes all the time here. Our basketball competition will have, like, the Sydney Kings will be wearing fucking Bugs Bunny on their shirt or something like that. So, yeah. It's come to Australia. Start up the Australian Ski Jumping Federation, and you'll probably get away with it. I'm sure it's dying to start up there. Just on that topic of movies, though, you mentioned to me off air, Star Wars. I need to ask you, which is your favourite Star Wars movie?
ALE LOUTITT: Oh, I always feel a lot of hate for this one, but The Empire Strikes Back.
BEN WATERWORTH: Good answer. Good answer. I'm glad you didn't go with any of the Disney ones. You know, we'd have a different...
ALE LOUTITT: No, those ones are OK. I just prefer... My order goes to the original three, prequels, and then the Disney ones.
BEN WATERWORTH: Because you're obviously of that age group where the sequels are your Star Wars. That's when you grew up. I grew up on the prequels, and my parents grew up on the original.
ALE LOUTITT: My parents are big Star Wars fans. Well, at least my dad is. I don't know if my mum is as big as a Star Wars fan. But I started with the originals, though. I think that's what it was, is that my parents started me off with the originals. And so that's where I got my...
BEN WATERWORTH: Worked that way. Just clearly, you mentioned sort of answering some of the questions for the Youth Olympics. So did you compete at the Youth Olympics?
ALE LOUTITT: I didn't end up competing because I had, like, a couple of weeks before, I actually got a concussion in school. I went to sit down in a chair, and someone pulled the chair up from underneath me, and I had my head on the ventral table.
BEN WATERWORTH: Because somebody pulled a chair from it. Wow.
ALE LOUTITT: It was pretty unfortunate. And it was like weeks... I think it was like December 15th, when I got the concussion, something like that, and right before Christmas break. And then Team Canada had their meeting in Montreal, the team hype-up meeting, on January 10th or January 11th, or something like that.
BEN WATERWORTH: I hope they got a detention for that. Hey, not only did you potentially hurt somebody badly, you cost them a spot at the Youth Olympics.
ALE LOUTITT: I don't remember. I don't know. I just don't remember a good amount at that time at all.
BEN WATERWORTH: Wow. Must have hit your head pretty hard then.
ALE LOUTITT: I did. It was like a steel table, and I just... Yeah.
BEN WATERWORTH: Wow. Note to self, don't go to school in Canada.
ALE LOUTITT: I actually went to training after that, and I just like lied down on the floor of the gym. And I go, just like, what happened to you? Like, are you okay? I think I hit my head on the table. He was like, what?
BEN WATERWORTH: That explains why you go for the Leafs. Hey, there it is.
ALE LOUTITT: I was a Leafs fan before that, so I don't know about that.
BEN WATERWORTH: I feel like I'm ticking off all the burns here right now. And Colin's listening to this, you know. You can get me back. Yeah, he would be. He would be proud. So, as you know, the drawing element. So if you want to draw, this is draw a picture of yourself. So homework, if you want to send it in. We've only ever had winter athletes do this before, Ali. So, you know, it's kind of.
ALE LOUTITT: I'll draw. I'll draw.
BEN WATERWORTH: It's trending. And what's that? Andy's drawing here. Quite a good drawing. So there you go. Your favourite music artists are?
ALE LOUTITT: So I'm from Alberta. So I'm going to have to say country artist, which is Luke Combs.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yep.
ALE LOUTITT: And then Matt Mason, which is a completely different genre of music. And God, who else do I like? I listen to a lot of different types of music. So it's kind of hard to say who my favourite artists are because it's all so different. And then I think Alt J. I don't know if you know who they are.
BEN WATERWORTH: I've heard of Alt J.
ALE LOUTITT: You probably would know the songs if you heard them.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, yeah. I've heard of them. The one thing that just weirdly came to mind, again, we're back on the Eddie the Eagle movie bandwagon, but the song they use in the credits, I think it's called Ascension, and it's sung by the guy who was the lead singer of Frankie Goes to Hollywood.
ALE LOUTITT: Love that song. I know what song you're talking about. Me too. I love that song too.
BEN WATERWORTH: That is a great song.
ALE LOUTITT: It's a good feel good song.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, yeah, which is... Yeah, I'm thinking of that song right now. I'm singing in my head. If you could eat one food for the rest of your life, what would it be?
ALE LOUTITT: I know the answer to this one already. It's going to be pho. Yeah, it's my favourite.
BEN WATERWORTH: And is that something that you sort of grow up on, or do you just go out one time and discover it?
ALE LOUTITT: I went to Vietnam as a little kid as a family trip, and I don't remember if I tried it there, but that's where I learned what it was. I do know that, so I assume I had it. And my mum would occasionally make it during the winter when it was cold, and so I've kind of picked up cooking, and I really love cooking. And so that was one of the first things I made when the season turned in Slovenia. I was like, okay, girls, I'm making soup. Who wants some? Basically, what happened? My roommates love that I am a cook.
BEN WATERWORTH: I can imagine that's a pretty good roommate.
ALE LOUTITT: Or it's like, I call it athlete-friendly baking, so it's like sugar-free, low carbs. I make zucchini brownies, banana bread, that sort of thing. So my teammates love that.
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, as somebody who's keto, those are good recipes that you feel free to share if you need to, because they're the ones that...
ALE LOUTITT: I have a good app for it. I'll let you know about that.
BEN WATERWORTH: Great. I like that. All this homework that we're giving you today, it's good. Your favourite place to compete is?
ALE LOUTITT: Oh, well, I'm trying to think. I had a really good time in Klagenfall, Germany, but there's a hill I would really like to compete on, and it's Garmisch-Partenkirchen. So I actually lived in Garmisch. I've done local competitions on that hill, but I would like to compete on the large hill in a World Cup. So there's no women's event this season on the Garmisch Big Hill, unfortunately. So I won't get to do that this season. It will happen eventually, but I consider that my home health. So I really just want to have a World Cup on it, and I think it would be spectacular. You know, I've got lots of friends there, and lots of what I consider to be family there, even if they're not blood related.
BEN WATERWORTH: I don't know if you know the answer to this one just at the top of your head. I know when we talk to, say, Bob Sletters, you know, lose rider skeleton racers, like this, what, 18 tracks in the world or something like that. Do you know how many actual, like proper ski jumps there are?
ALE LOUTITT: There's quite a few. There's actually, I have to Google that one. I don't actually know. There's like, I think there's a hundred and something. There's actually a lot. But I don't think all of those are FIST certified. So that cuts down the number a lot. And, you know, the hill has to be, like the venue has to be able to pay and fund it. So, you know, they have to have sponsors or, you know, out of the club's money. And, you know, they have to be able to host all these athletes, and they need to be able to have the facilities, like, and they need to be up to FIST standards. So that was one of the other issues with the Calgary Hills, was that it wasn't up to FIST standards. So you lose a bunch of funding when they're no longer up to FIST standards.
BEN WATERWORTH: So how many in the state, so I'm guessing what Salt Lake, Lake Placid, maybe is there more than?
ALE LOUTITT: There's Iron Mountain, Lake Placid, Norriggie, Steamboat Springs.
BEN WATERWORTH: So there's a few, essentially, there's a lot more.
ALE LOUTITT: I think there's five or six.
BEN WATERWORTH: Interesting, wow.
ALE LOUTITT: There's one in Minneapolis.
BEN WATERWORTH: Really? Interesting, wow. None in Hawaii, I can assure you.
ALE LOUTITT: I know. I think we should make a summer jump there.
BEN WATERWORTH: Australia, again, just saying.
ALE LOUTITT: Exactly. You guys could have a summer jump. I don't know what you guys are doing.
BEN WATERWORTH: We've got the great new sort of summer facility up in Brisbane for the freestyle skiers. So like just build a little bit more and make it a Nordic one as well.
ALE LOUTITT: Exactly.
BEN WATERWORTH: Do it that way. What is one thing that you have always wanted to do?
ALE LOUTITT: There is a library in Central Austria. I know this is going to sound crazy from an adrenaline junkie, but I'm going to say two things here. So one is I want to go to this library. It's called Admont Abbey. It is one of the most beautiful libraries in the world, like giant bookshelves, like gold trim on these bookshelves. Like the walls are all white and the bookshelves are all white, and they're like hundreds and hundreds of year old books, and there's thousands of books in this library. And, you know, I love architecture, and I love to read, so it's kind of a good combination. And then my next one would be skydiving.
BEN WATERWORTH: Okay, well, there it is.
ALE LOUTITT: But not just out of a normal airplane, but it's going to be something interesting, like, you know, like a...
BEN WATERWORTH: Hot air balloon.
ALE LOUTITT: Maybe hot air balloon. Yeah, that works.
BEN WATERWORTH: Was that guy, there was a Baumgartner jump from the stratosphere from the hot air balloon, right? Like I did the highest... You do that. Into the library.
ALE LOUTITT: Maybe after ski jumping, I'll do that.
BEN WATERWORTH: There you go. I like that. Wow. Combine everything, you know, make it all kind of fluid. What is your favourite thing to do in the summer?
ALE LOUTITT: Ski jump. Yeah, it's kind of hard to answer when I can do my sport all year round. So, I don't know, it's hard to ski jumping. It's always going to be my favourite thing, regardless of the time of year.
BEN WATERWORTH: That works.
ALE LOUTITT: Other than that, I would say I really enjoy to bake. I mean, that's something I do in season two, but, you know.
BEN WATERWORTH: It works both ways, baking and jumping. There's the name of your biography.
ALE LOUTITT: I can do it all year round. Baking and jumping.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, you know, five-time Olympic champion by the time you retire, of course, in 2040. So, you know, it works that way. What is your favourite movie?
ALE LOUTITT: My favourite movie? Can I pick more than one?
BEN WATERWORTH: You may, of course, pick more than one. Yes.
ALE LOUTITT: Star Wars. Just all of them.
BEN WATERWORTH: Except for The Last Jedi. No, I'm not.
ALE LOUTITT: Including like the even like Rug One and Solo, I enjoy too. I mean, they're not my favourite Star Wars movies, but I do love Star Wars.
BEN WATERWORTH: Here's a question for you just on franchises. And this ties in to Buggerhead of the Eagle. We've talked about that enough. I always then like to talk about movies based on sports where maybe there haven't been one. And usually I connect it to James Bond because James Bond has done a lot of sports. He ski jumped in For Your Eyes Only. So I'm guessing you would rather watch James Bond ski jump than Eddie the Eagle, right?
ALE LOUTITT: I would much rather that.
BEN WATERWORTH: Which is always... Do you like the Bond films? I mean, have you seen For Your Eyes Only just to see him ski jump?
ALE LOUTITT: I've watched them all, but I don't remember the majority of them. I have a really bad time remembering movies. I inherited that from my mum, but my family is a big Bond fan. So I think the other... Last night or the night before, my mum and stepdad actually had gone and watched the new Change Bond movies.
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, I'll say don't spoil it for me because at the time of recording this, I haven't seen it yet.
ALE LOUTITT: I haven't seen it yet either. And like last Halloween, our like family, friends, like our like neighbourhood friend group, I'd say, and so it's like my best friend, my mum's best friend, my stepdad's best friend, like one of my brother's best friends. We all dressed up as James Bond characters for Halloween.
BEN WATERWORTH: So who did you go as?
ALE LOUTITT: Well, I actually wasn't there. I was in Europe.
BEN WATERWORTH: Right, okay, who would have you gone as? Who do you think you would have if you could have?
ALE LOUTITT: God, I don't know. That's a hard decision. I can't, I can't decide.
BEN WATERWORTH: James Bond is a ski jumper.
ALE LOUTITT: I know. Yeah, I would do that. I would just wear my jumping gear and a little tie or something.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, a little tuxedo. Over my shoulder there. Die another day. If you want to watch that one, you'll, you know, make some of us happy on this show. Colin will be laughing right now. The next drawing one here, so it actually changes. Usually it's draw a picture of a Canadian animal. They're just written here, draw a picture of your favourite animal. And Andy's drawn a lovely picture of a cat here, which looks like a cross between a cat and a cow, if I'm being honest, but it's still a good picture. So I don't know if you have a favourite animal to draw, but.
ALE LOUTITT: I really love dogs. I have two dogs at home, and one of the first things I miss when I leave, is my family. And then I'm like, OK, I'm ready to see the dogs.
BEN WATERWORTH: Add it to the homework. There you go. Your favourite place of visit in Canada is?
ALE LOUTITT: Oh, this is a good one. So I have a few places. So my mountain place would be Kimberly, BC. And then it's tied with Georgian Bay, which is on the other side of Canada, which is in the Great Lakes. So it's in Ontario, and they're both pretty spectacular places, but completely different. Like, you know, if you didn't know any better, you would not guess they're in the same country.
BEN WATERWORTH: So it's good to have that sort of diversity and keep the East and the West Coast as happy on both sides there. Your favourite cartoon to watch growing up was?
ALE LOUTITT: Oh, I loved, loved, loved Phineas and Ferb. I don't know if you know that one.
BEN WATERWORTH: I know. I'm a bit old for that, but I do know what you... Yeah, I'm aware of it.
ALE LOUTITT: Like, there are two little boys who would always build stuff in, you know, were always told, oh, you're too young for that. Aren't you too young to do this? I always liked it.
BEN WATERWORTH: That's as long as you like it. That's the main thing. If you had to do... I love how this says if you had to do karaoke, like someone's forcing you. I'm going to change this. Well, we've all got that one song. Come on, Ali. Like, if there is one karaoke song, what are you going to?
ALE LOUTITT: Oh, that's a hard one. I'm not a big singer. That's a great. I'm a little pitchy. I'm not going to lie. That's like my worst nightmare.
BEN WATERWORTH: You might be listening to that one.
ALE LOUTITT: Well, if it's me singing, it's my worst nightmare. Other people are fine. It's just I can't sing. Oh, God, I really don't know.
BEN WATERWORTH: I love Andy's answer. She's gone very Canadian and said Celine Dion's My Heart Will Go On.
ALE LOUTITT: So, you know, that is a good Canadian one. I was going to say like Red Solo Cup.
BEN WATERWORTH: Oh, yeah. Yeah. Okay. That works. I like it. I'm a bit of a I believe in a thing called love by the darkness because you can go very high pitched. Mr. Brightside by the Killers.
ALE LOUTITT: Just that's a good one, too. That's all my hype up playlist.
BEN WATERWORTH: That's a good one to have. Really good. The final one here and actually hasn't got the question of your first Olympics. You remember watching, but I guess you are you answered Vancouver, right? So kind of.
ALE LOUTITT: Yeah, I think that was before we were recording. But yeah, which I the first Olympics I remember watching was Vancouver. And I come upstairs from my basement and my mum and dad were like sitting in the living room watching TV. I was like, Oh, what are you guys watching? And they basically like we're watching moguls. And they explained to me like we're watching all the different types of skiing and skating and, you know, all that different stuff. And ever since then, I was like, I want to do that. Like I just want to be there. Like that is so amazing. It's like I just had my heart set from the moment I knew what they were.
BEN WATERWORTH: But I was going to go true. Yeah, that's that's that's crazy. The last question, if you could be an Olympian in any other sport besides your own, what would it be?
ALE LOUTITT: That's a difficult one, because I did try a lot of sports before. Like I was a ski jumper. I mean, I continued to do other sports after, but as I became more competitive, I kind of dropped them off. Like I did hapkido, which was a like it's similar to judo and jiu-jitsu. So it's like martial arts. So maybe something there because I was I was good at it because I was just fearless. And I'd like get kicked in the face. I'm a bloody nose. And you know, I'd come back two minutes later covered in blood and my nose and stuff. Like, okay, I'm ready to go again.
BEN WATERWORTH: Bring it on.
ALE LOUTITT: Like we have a family friend who's like, he says that that's one of his like funniest memories of me is that it's like I got kicked in the nose. And like my like both nostrils went down my face. I like my mum takes me like washes off my face and gets my nose to stop bleeding. And like my leggy is covered in blood. And I like I'm like immediately ready to get back out there and start fighting again.
BEN WATERWORTH: This I love these these concussions maybe make a little bit more sense now.
ALE LOUTITT: But they say my first concussion was actually like leading up to Youth Olympic Games and like when I hit my head on the table. And so I've only had two concussions.
BEN WATERWORTH: And they were that's a good sign that you remember them though, Ali. Like if you started forgetting how many you had, there's a problem.
ALE LOUTITT: I just don't really remember them. But like my second they happened within a year of each other, which is probably not great. But I like the second one, I hit a wall in the Czech Republic and I got up and like I don't really remember this. This is just what like my teammates have told me. But I was like laughing like I like like a serial killer laugh is how it was described to me. And I'm like bawling my eyes out. Like my makeup is like running down my face like a mascara. So I had like black streaks down my face. And then I'm like talking to my coach and I'm like bawling my eyes out on the radio and laughing and like just like crying and laughing, crying and laughing. And it was like, OK, so you're done. And I go, I just thought I'm like straight face all of a sudden like like smudges of black makeup all over my face, which, you know, streaks of mascara all over my face. I'm like, no, I'm good. And I go up and I did like five more jumps with the concussion. I don't remember any of those jumps. Like I could not tell you anything that happened during those jumps. It feels like a fever drain. And then so my coach took me home and I was like lying on the couch, just like staring at the ceiling. Apparently, I don't remember any of this. And I had like all of a sudden, blood just slowly started dripping out of my nose. My teammate sitting next to me on the couch, she's like, oh my God, we need to call our coach. We need to get you to the hospital. She's like freaking out. I'm just like sitting there and I'm like, at least there's someone to care for me. At least she's there. It's not like she's letting me die on the couch. So I ended up having to have pictures taken of my head and whatnot. It turns out I just had a broken nose. But everyone was all up in arms. I sent my parents a text. It was the middle of the night. Then we were going to the hospital in check. So my parents got to wake up to that really lovely text.
BEN WATERWORTH: 50 missed calls.
ALE LOUTITT: I didn't call them or anything. I just sent a text, the group chat, with all four parents. It's like I have step mum, step dad, dad and mum. And so I just sent a text. It was like going to the hospital in check. Might concussed. It was like might have concussion or might concussed. Because it didn't really make sense, but you got what I was trying to say. So I was like, jeez.
BEN WATERWORTH: Wow, far out. I would have loved if during those five jumps, that you unlock some technique and set like five world records, and you just couldn't remember how you did it.
ALE LOUTITT: Yeah, maybe. That would have been rather unfortunate, but I don't think I jumped that great. I would encourage that with me, you know.
BEN WATERWORTH: Which actually, I was trying to say, not only does it make sense why you go for the Leafs, it makes sense why you listen to our show. There you go, you got concussion. There it is. You can leave that as a review. It's okay and great to listen to with a concussion. Yeah, understandable with concussion. Off The Podium, big fan. So you're unlocking so many secrets. Ale, before we let you go, for people who wish to stay up to date with your journey, the Olympics, everything else along those lines, social media, can people check you out? Can people follow you anywhere?
ALE LOUTITT: Yeah, I have an Instagram. It's Ale Loutitt, and Ale is spelt like ale, like the drink. So typically that's the way I explain it to people. So Ale Loutitt.
BEN WATERWORTH: And that works. And in Googling as well, I don't use TikTok, but you have TikTok.
ALE LOUTITT: I do have TikTok. I have a couple of videos that have had a couple of thousand views and one with like three million views, I think.
BEN WATERWORTH: Maybe we need to get on TikTok. I feel people are into this.
ALE LOUTITT: I think I'm close to like $9,000, $8,000, $9,000.
BEN WATERWORTH: Keep going into the Olympics and I can see some fun TikToks with concussion and everything. Not at the Olympics. Don't get it during the Olympics, please.
ALE LOUTITT: I'll try my best.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, try your best. That's good. Ale, seriously, it's been so much fun to be able to chat, to learn about ski jumping, just everything else. It's such a fascinating sport. And we are seriously looking forward to seeing you at the Olympics, commentating on the Olympics, looking for chicken wire and everything else in between. But we really appreciate your time on Off The Podium today.
ALE LOUTITT: Thank you so much for having me. I really enjoy your show. So it's awesome being on it.
BEN WATERWORTH: And a massive thanks to Ale there for her time, very informative, a lot of fun. And as always too, the video of that is available on our YouTube channel. So if you want to search for Off The Podium on YouTube, you can see that in video form as well. So a lot of fun to chat there with Ale. And I will say we've got a few more ski jumpers to come. We've sort of opened up the gates here, basically in the lead up to Beijing, that the majority of our episodes in the lead up between now and Beijing will actually funnily enough be with ski jumpers and Nordic combined athletes. So very excited to chat to more ski jumpers moving forward. Some of Ale's teammates. So very exciting times coming up here on Off The Podium. If you want to stay up to date with everything that we have going, of course, social media, search Off The Podium, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, we're there. Not on TikTok yet. Maybe we'll need to change that at some point. And of course, subscribe to us on the podcast platform of your preference, whatever that may be, search Off The Podium. Am I there? Leave some feedback. Take Ale's advice and go, not a scam. Pretty good. Not that good or better to listen to with a concussion. So some tips there for some of your potential reviews. So we'd appreciate the feedback and love to hear what you're thinking of the show. So much to come. Episodes every single day between now Beijing and the daily episodes during Beijing. We're busy little beavers here at Off The Podium, and you are going to love every single second of it. We love you tuning in. We appreciate the support, and we definitely thank you for listening and coming on board with us along this journey as we talk about the Olympics, because we love it, and we love chatting to people like Ali as well. Big thanks again to Ali. Special shout out as always to Jason Momoa. My name is Ben, this is Off The Podium, and as always, go left.
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