Alex Ferlazzo Interview
Another great winter athlete interview coming your way today in the lead up to the Beijing Olympics as we chat with two-time Olympic luger from Australia Alex Ferlazzo about his amazing sport and amazing career! We find out from Alex just how his preparation is going for Beijing and why the new track is exciting him ahead of his third Olympics. We also learn about the unique way he got into the sport and how he was able to pick it up so quickly. Added to this we find out just how his close bond with the Canadian team gave him a unique nickname and just why we should love doubles luge more. It's a great chat you won't want to miss!
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
Please note this is an automated transcript that may contain errors.
BEN WATERWORTH: It is Off The Podium, An Olympics Podcast coming to you today for another interview episode. So close to Beijing, days away right now, and we're speaking to a two-time Olympian, an Olympian that should be going to Beijing. At the time of recording this, not 100% confirmed, but should be going to his third Olympics. Australian illusion, Alex Ferlazzo competed in Sochi, competed in Pyeongchang, and as I said, should be also in Beijing as well to compete. And this is a great, great chat, learning a lot about his journey through the sport. Started very late in the sport and a unique way of getting into it, and just what it's like coming from far north Queensland, of all places, to a sport in which is probably as far away as you can get from that part of Australia as you can. When he first went on a luge on a track, he had never seen snow before. That is how unique he is to this sport. And he goes through his experiences at both of his Olympic Games, his Youth Olympic experience back in 2012, winning a Junior World Cup event against a very esteemed luge, who is one of the gold medal favourites for Beijing, and learning just a lot about some of the specifics of sled set-up, sled technology, and how, as he describes it, it's more of a sport of mistakes, which is a very interesting way of putting it. So lots to learn here from Alex. You're going to get a lot out of this interview, and we're going to hear it right now. Here is our chat with two-time Australian luger Alex Ferlazzo.
BEN WATERWORTH: It is very exciting today to return to the sport of luge. A couple of months ago, we spoke with Hannah Campbell-Pegg about her time at the Olympics, and she talked a little bit about another Australian, a two-time Olympian, competed in Sochi and in Pyeongchang, and is on the road to go to his third Olympic Games in Beijing, a man by the name of Mr. Alex Ferlazzo. And we're here today to talk to him about his time in luge and everything luge-related because it's a great sport, and Australians need to learn more about it. Alex, welcome to Off The Podium. It's a pleasure to have you on the show today.
ALEX FERLAZZO: Thank you very much, Ben. Yeah, it's good to be here.
BEN WATERWORTH: It's a sport which I am glued to every four years. When I am watching the Olympics, it's always one of these ones that I am straight to watch. I love it. I think this is a sport that as Australians, we need to watch more outside of the Olympics. We should be watching World Cups. We should be just watching luge 24-7 basically, because this is this is one of the best sports, most entertaining sports. And can you even describe what it is like to be involved in luge, Alex, and experience what I'm excited just watching on a couch, let alone being on a sled?
ALEX FERLAZZO: It's truly incredible. There's a lot to it. Like obviously the learning aspect of figuring out how to slide to begin with. And then, you know, once you got the hang of it, there's so many small things to work on. And it's a sport of mistakes more than a sport of getting things right. You got to really weed out the mistakes to have the perfect run. Once you make a mistake, there's no finding that time back in any way. So it's a sport of perfection. But at the end of the day, it's a sport of mistakes.
BEN WATERWORTH: So I love that explanation for it, because one thing that I really learnt from our chat with Hannah was just the level of subtlety and skill that is needed, because she talked a lot about how Roy and HG famously, back in Salt Lake, basically made it look like a sport where you just jump on, lay down, and that's it. But obviously, there's a whole lot more to it. And I kind of love that explanation about the sport of mistakes, because there's, I mean, a few sports where I think really you would kind of base it on that aspect of it. But it's interesting to hear it put that way.
ALEX FERLAZZO: Yeah, it's just about, you know, going into each run, we're trying to minimise as many mistakes on the way down. And right now, as a great example, I'm learning the new track in China at the moment. And everyone, no one's been here before. So all we have to work on is mistakes. So you have your three runs a day, you drill those mistakes into your head, you go to sleep at night, and then you wake up the next day and hope that your brain has figured out how to fix those mistakes in a way, you know? And that's pretty much the circle I'm on at the moment.
BEN WATERWORTH: And so, as you said, you're in China, and so this is the Beijing track that you hope to be sort of competing at the Olympics, and is it sort of a case now where there's a lot of people right now, they're testing it out, kind of checking it out, or are you sort of in a unique position where you're able to do that at the moment?
ALEX FERLAZZO: No. So the entire Luge community flew over from Frankfurt on a charter flight, and we've been here for five days now, testing out the new track and just getting to know it as best we can before the Olympics in February. We have three weeks here. The last week is an international race. It's the first World Cup of our season. So it's nice to have the first race of the year in China and then the last race of the year at the Olympics, also in China, so.
BEN WATERWORTH: Kind of nice bookends there. What are the initial impressions like of the track? I mean, kind of, is it something that's suited to your style, Alex? Are you enjoying it?
ALEX FERLAZZO: I've had 12 runs so far. I am, I'm really enjoying it. I mean, it's completely different to any other track in the world, mainly in the way that the profiles are built so open. So on most loose tracks, the corners come up on such an angle that you get planted into your sled, like the g-force pushes you into the sled and you can feel the pressure around curves. But this track is, the corners aren't so steep. So you're, it's hard to feel where the steers are on the, in the corners. So yeah, there's not much pressure to work against. So learning the track has been a bit more difficult if you're not a slider that usually relies on feelings on the way down. But you know, it's super long. And I had my first like clean run today without a skid and any walls. And that's that's saying a lot because everyone is, everyone is just eating shit at the moment. So it's, it's going well. I mean, I've really, the first, the first day just, it blew everyone away. It just felt completely different. We're like, Oh my God, what is going on? You're like, I can't figure this out. And then, you know, we just slowly pieced it together from the top. Okay, we need to do this, you know, we need to steer against the pressures to actually get the feeling into the sled, rather than, you know, just try to lay back and absorb the pressures going into curves. It's, we found that you actually have to steer to feel the pressures, which is an interesting way of sliding, but it's becoming to feel more normal the more we do it.
BEN WATERWORTH: Which I can imagine that going into something like that, it kind of creates a level playing field, I can imagine. Because again, you're all sort of trying it out for the first time. So you're all able to experience what you're saying there, you know, from the best guys in the world to the newer guys in the world, that you're able to experience that and create that sort of more of an even playing field while you're getting to learn it.
ALEX FERLAZZO: Yeah, no, that's exactly right. It's pretty sweet in that sense that this is truly, like, especially the first few runs, it just comes down to pure instinct sliding abilities and takes a lot away from, you know, sled setup and experience on tracks. It's just how you're able to get it down the hill, you know, without knowing every... Because, you know, you go over to Germany or Austria or, you know, Russia, and the Russians and the locals know the track inside and out, and we're always playing catch up in those locations. But come to a new track, everyone's on the same playing field. And it's a lot of fun.
BEN WATERWORTH: And it's also, I guess, going to a country where the sport isn't exactly a common sport. You know, you're mentioning the European nations there, where it's very big. But I can imagine Pyeongchang might have been a similar case, and now going to China, where luge isn't exactly the household sport of that country. So I can imagine, create something a little bit different, whereas you're saying if it's in Germany, the Germans are maybe going to create a track that is maybe a little bit more suited to their riders.
ALEX FERLAZZO: Yeah, that's right. And luge is different in the way that it's quite a big learning curve, where the Chinese athletes have had probably close to a thousand runs since the track has been built. And they still can't get it right because they don't have the years of experience that the rest of us have. But it takes a lot of years to get this sport, and it's so different, right? Like lying down on your back and steering with your feet and your hands and your shoulders, and it's just different to anything else. And it's so precise. I mean, our steels are sharp, so every steer you make is going to point you in the direction that you steer it towards, where compared to bobsled and skeleton, they have more round, they have rounder steels. So they don't really grip into the ice as much. They can steer in pressures, but when they're on straightaways and when they are in pressures, they can't get under the steers as well as we can. And that's why I think the learning curve is so huge in Lush.
BEN WATERWORTH: I love your story about how you got into the sport, that essentially a friend suggested it to your mum and then kind of the rest is history. How does that conversation go down? What are your mum and your friend talking about to all of a sudden go, hey, Alex, should try Lush. Why doesn't he give it a crack?
ALEX FERLAZZO: Yeah, I mean, I'm not sure, but I'm guessing it went along the lines of, you know, how's your son doing? You know, what's he doing for sport at the moment? And my mum was probably like, you know, he's just been he's bouncing off the walls. He can't sit still. He's he's he's doing as much sport as he can. And when he's not outside, you know, on the soccer field or at the athletic at the athletic track, he's, you know, jumping on doing backflips on the trampoline and all other types of insane, you know, adrenaline kind of junky things. So and then, yeah, she just she mentioned to mum that I reckon I got a sport that's good for him. And she was right. You know, I loved it from the beginning. Yeah.
BEN WATERWORTH: Fantastic. So I mean, was it always luge or were there any sliding sports with skeleton bobsled kind of there? Was it just luge all the way?
ALEX FERLAZZO: No, it was it was luge all the way. I mean, I didn't even know about pretty much any winter sports, to be honest, when I first started luge. And I was only 15 at the time from North Queensland, Townsville. So winter sports isn't huge there. And yeah, I mean, I first so it all started in Townsville. Mum met Karen, and then mum told me and then we went to Sydney for a like a recruitment camp with probably 15 or 20 other people. And then they did some physical testing, you know, push ups and med ball throws and a bit of information, you know, a PowerPoint presentation on a screen and just gave us the rundown of what Lucia is all about. And then we rode down a hill on a sled with wheels. And that's just got just got the idea of how, how to do this sled. And then the group went over to New Zealand, and tried a natural track for the first time. They have a small natural track over there. I think it's about 300 metres roughly. But that was that was a great experience. That was my first time overseas and first time like seeing snow and being cold. And I think that sliding natural track before loop for artificial track really ingrains the steering mechanism on a sled, especially on ice because the steers are natural. You don't have any, you know, banks to steer and no g-force to steer on. So yeah, I mean, that was a great place to start, I think. And then the group probably halved after that. And then about six months later, we went to Lake Placid, New York to try Luge on an artificial track and spent a week there sliding from a tourist start from, you know, the 12th curve out of 21 or 19 curves in the Lake Placid track. Geez, I don't even know. I think it's 19. I think it's 19.
BEN WATERWORTH: We'll go with 19, sure.
ALEX FERLAZZO: And yeah, I mean, I had a great time. I didn't hit a wall the entire way down. I mean, the entire week. So I still loved it. And then from there, I was travelling each year for close to six months of the year over to Europe on learning all the tracks in Germany and Austria and Norway and Canada and America from then.
BEN WATERWORTH: It's like when you say that you go to Sydney for this camp and they're showing you a PowerPoint prayer, it just reminds you of that scene in Cool Runnings when John Candy is doing the whole like, everybody come to the town hall, this is a bobsled, you're going to get hurt. Who wants to do it? Put your hand, everyone's left. Basically, the room's empty. So it's incredible to think that because I don't know if you know the answer to this, Alex, but I mean, are there any other winter Olympians that have come from far north Queensland or are you it? Like, are you the only one?
ALEX FERLAZZO: I don't know. That's a great question. I should know that.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, I feel like should have some resets to back that up too, because it's definitely not the part of the country that you would imagine that winter Olympians are coming from. Is that part of Australia?
ALEX FERLAZZO: No, no, it's an odd one for sure.
BEN WATERWORTH: Which is when you say you saw snow for the first time when you go to New Zealand, like that. You haven't even seen snow before. That's crazy.
ALEX FERLAZZO: Yeah. Yeah, it's insane. But in another way, it's perfect. Living in Australia, I mean, well, technically I'm in perpetual winter, right? Spending winters in the enormous hemisphere and then the winters in the southern hemisphere while during the off season. But being in far north Queensland during the winter is probably the best place to be in Australia during the winters, to be honest, so it just worked out really well.
BEN WATERWORTH: Which is, I keep trying to sell with Brisbane having the Olympics in 2032. It's technically a winter Olympics for Australia because it is being held in July. So it's technically Australia's first ever winter Olympics. So they could maybe throw a luge, I don't know, like sort of a weird version of it essentially there. You mentioned sort of all the other sports you were playing. Was there ever a dream as a kid to go to an Olympics? Was this something you sort of looked at when you were growing up?
ALEX FERLAZZO: No, no, it was never a dream to go to the Olympics. I mean, I, you know, I loved watching it, but it never crossed my mind or I never had the spark of, you know, you hear a lot of athletes talk about, you know, they saw an event and they got inspired and wanted to go to the Olympics that never really crossed my mind. And I fell in love with the sport first, and then the Olympics came afterwards. And I think that's a healthier relationship with the Olympics and sport in general, to be honest.
BEN WATERWORTH: It's a journey, though, to start a sport at such a late age compared to what some people are starting sports at. I mean, we've just seen in Tokyo, there were athletes winning gold medals at 13, and yet you're starting the sport at 15. But that progression, because you obviously end up in Sochi in 2014, before then you're at a Youth Olympics, the very first Winter Youth Olympics in 2012, which is very close to when you start. I mean, do you remember sort of what it's like to go to a Youth Olympics when you've barely been doing the sport for less than two years at that point, and you're already at a Youth Olympic Games?
ALEX FERLAZZO: Yeah, that was overwhelming. It was. Going to the Youth Olympics was overwhelming, but I guess afterwards, it put me in a better sense of what to expect going to Sochi in a way. But yeah, as you said, I was new to the sport. I only been to the track a few times beforehand and learnt a lot from that experience. But yeah, it was awesome. You know, going to the first Youth Olympics in Austria, too. I mean, Innsbruck, Austria is an amazing location. I love that place and it holds close to my heart and yeah, it's a good time.
BEN WATERWORTH: It's well spoken to many of our athlete guests on the show, being to Youth Olympics, sort of that dress rehearsal aspect of it towards an Olympics, which I can imagine experiencing something like an Olympic Village and being able to see some other winter sports that, again, you may be not even familiar with until you're there and meet these athletes. I mean, does that help you towards Sochi? And like as you were saying, kind of not just for the competitive side of things, but just everything else that an Olympics brings preparing you for that.
ALEX FERLAZZO: Yeah, most definitely. I mean, I'm still friends with a few athletes that I went to the Youth Olympics with, you know, and I've seen them at each Olympics since then. And that's like the only time I've seen them. So it's nice to have that connection going into my first Olympics, you know, at least knowing a few faces beforehand.
BEN WATERWORTH: What's that then also like for schooling at that age and explaining to your teachers, hey, I've just got to go off for a little bit. I'm competing in luge. I mean, is that again, like I'm thinking Cool Runnings when they're going around asking for sponsorship and they're being laughed at because, you know, Tropical Nation going to, are they doing similar things? Luge, what are you doing?
ALEX FERLAZZO: I mean, I don't even know. It was a blur. And I remember actually getting to finish. I started my, so, grade 12 or 17, I got to stay late that year to graduate. I can't remember what month we graduated in, but I stayed in Australia a few weeks later, so I graduated. And then I took off for the remainder of the season. And the seasons before that were only short, you know, just over Christmas break, like two, three months, well, two and a half month trips, so, yeah.
BEN WATERWORTH: What was that process like then in the lead up to Sochi? And were you realistically thinking that Sochi was achievable, given that you're so fresh in the sport? I mean, was it a case of the results were backing up that this could be a possibility, or was that kind of a bonus? And maybe you were looking towards, say, 2018, and sure, if I can make it to 2014, that would just be a bonus towards that goal.
ALEX FERLAZZO: So 2014 was Sochi, and I obviously didn't have any expectations going into Sochi. I was having a lot of fun. I was 18 years old, still picking up the sport pretty quickly, and sliding well on a lot of tracks, but really just enjoying the Luge community and just having a lot of fun on and off the track. It was definitely a bonus going to the Olympics. I remember finding out and being super excited about, I'm going to represent Australia at the Olympics. But it was never really a goal. But the last season leading up to the Olympics for every Luge athlete is just all about the Olympics. But, you know, in another sense, I've been lucky to really be the only athlete competing in Luge for Australia for the last eight years. So actually qualifying for the Olympics isn't too difficult for me. And that's a lot of weight off my shoulders, you know, going in to the Olympics. But then in another sense, it makes it more difficult to slide under pressure because a lot of other bigger nations that have to race off against their teammates, you know, and that creates quite a competitive environment for every training session and every single training session they have to be on their game to beat their teammates, where I've kind of had the opportunity to just go along on my own pace.
BEN WATERWORTH: And does that then also add where you try and feel that sense of teammate camaraderie when you're training, say, in Latvia and the US to kind of get immersed amongst other loose riders in a team, given that you are Australia's basically only loose athlete for the last eight or so years, to feel that sense of, you know, camaraderie that you can have by having teammates in the same sport?
ALEX FERLAZZO: Yeah, that's it's been super important to me to have other teammates to, um, to compete against. And, you know, the Americans for the last few seasons have been great for that of, um, you know, I'm sliding competitively against them and, and, um, just, just competing in all areas of, you know, every single training session in the gym everywhere. And just having that, um, that banter along the way is, is really great for, um, for, you know, goal setting and yeah.
BEN WATERWORTH: We spoke to Hannah a bit about, you know, obviously her breaking that drought in 2006 of not really having an Australian Luge Olympian for 12 years, I believe at that point, you then broke another drought for the fact that you're Australia's only second ever male athlete since Roger White back in, in Lillehammer, do you, do you take that on board sort of when you, when you go to Sochi, you get that achievement and that it is a sport where, I mean, I don't have the numbers in front of me, but I can't imagine Luge is maybe the least amount of athletes we've ever had in an Olympic sport. I know Nordic combined, we've had one, so that's a limited sport, but I mean, does that sort of mean something to sort of think that, you know, you're in that really select group of Australians who have ever been to an Olympics in a sport like Luge?
ALEX FERLAZZO: Yeah, it does. And you know, being on circuit as well as the only Australian is quite special, you know, especially now that I'm actually, you know, quite competitive against a lot of athletes, where you know, this, they used to see me as, you know, the only Australian, but now they're like, okay, this Aussie's, he's got some pace and we better watch out for him, you know, that's, that's been really neat. So I, I'm, you know, I'm super proud to be representing Australia with around these group of people. The, um, the luge community is, is fantastic and they've been great to me and I'm just trying to give it back to them as best I can as a competitive slider, you know.
BEN WATERWORTH: Did you go into Sochi setting yourself a goal? Was it a case of, I want to finish, you know, top, top 30, you know, like, you know, set a time or was it just kind of, again, racking up the experiences and just making the most of the opportunity?
ALEX FERLAZZO: I probably did have a goal going to Sochi, like a finishing, you know, a place goal. I can't remember what it was. It was probably, I don't know, top 30 or something. But we have a, everyone in the Lush community, we have a decent sense of where everyone's going to be placed before the race begins. Since, you know, all the training runs, you can see who's going to, you know, you can potentially pick the top 10 athletes before the Olympic starts. But yeah, sorry, what was the question?
BEN WATERWORTH: Like the goal going into Sochi, like, you know, was it like a place or things like that sort of that you were touching on there?
ALEX FERLAZZO: Yeah, I've made that mistake before many times of setting a place goal. But I think this season and this Olympics, my goal will will be to be happy with my performance, not my result at the end of the games is because at the end of the day, the best I can the best I can do is put it down the hill straight and be proud of my performance. And if that if that puts me in a decent position at the end of the Olympics and at the end of each race, then then that's a bonus, you know, so.
BEN WATERWORTH: And is it a case to I can imagine when you go to Sochi and sort of the eyes going back to my point at the very beginning of the episode where I said Australia generally only watch luge every four years, but you might have a little boy, a little girl watching you on TV and going, wow, okay, this is achievable. And as an Australian, I can do this and maybe start to recruit more people from the sport in luge. We talked to Hannah a little bit about that, but it's sort of something that maybe somebody is going to be seeing and can be joining you as sort of an Olympic luge athlete in the future.
ALEX FERLAZZO: You know, that's that's something recently as of as of grown as an athlete and got a bit more mature and older, I've realised and starting to get really excited about the future of luge. You know, I've I've accumulated so much experience from the last eight years of sliding and so much knowledge with, you know, sleds and how the sport is run and every single track and, you know, the right people to talk to. And I, you know, the end is, you know, at the end of the tunnel, I see a potential pretty awesome program. If I'm able to be a part of that, I'd be stoked because, you know, I've I feel like I've trained my whole career to be an awesome coach for someone else, potentially in the future. So, you know, it is exciting to me. And I hope to be able to pass on that knowledge to some other Australian one day, you know?
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, it's sort of Hannah spoke a link to a lot of about that sort of drive for the sport. And we're spoken to several bobsled athletes, and this seems to be kind of like a good pathway that's going on with bobsled at the moment. And I mean, obviously, bobsled, luge, you know, different sports, but I mean, obviously similarities in some aspect as well. So do we need to just stop sending these athletes to bobsled and give them to lose? I mean, lose is better than bobsled, Alex, isn't it? Come on.
ALEX FERLAZZO: I could not argue with that. I think lose is far better than bobsled. And I think if you could learn how to drive a luge sled, it would benefit any bobsled driver as well. So everyone should start on a luge sled and then move out of bobsled if, if, you know, if they want to. But everyone should start on a luge sled.
BEN WATERWORTH: How can you take us through sort of a general setup for a luge sled? Like how much tinkering goes on between between a run at a competition? Like if you're on run number one, all of a sudden something feels a little bit off with the sled. There's some tinkering going along. Kind of like how does that generally set up of a sled at an event?
ALEX FERLAZZO: OK, so the the sled is extremely technical from, you know, it starts in the beginning. So a typical World Cup week, we have five training runs before a World Cup before the race. And so the first the first two runs I've made for practice. So you set up quite safe, you know, you just just make it down and learn the track and get a feel for the track. And then the next day you got two more runs and therefore starting to tinker with a few things, maybe the angle of your steels into the ice or the parallel of your your steels. And then also like the suspension too, you know, on certain tracks, you need to change suspension and then and so so that's the second day. So you start tinkering with a few different setups and then these the the Nations Cup, which is the qualification race before the World Cup race. And that's that's for also tinkering, but you also want to qualify, so you kind of want to be safe there, too. So you're just working, working with what you've learned over the last few days. And then the World Cup race is weather dependent. So depending on the weather is how you would set up your your angle into the ice. You know, if it's if it's frosty in a warm day or if there's snow on the track, you want a high angle so you're not pushing too much snow, where if it's cold and hard, you want a low angle, but pretty hard steel. So, you know, you still have grip, but only grip in straight lines and not sideways pressure where and then the parallel to say you want fairly parallel steels from the front bridge to the back and then, you know, a little bit toed in at the front. But and then for the race, you know, you just kind of just got to gauge it the best you can. So the first run you set up according to the weather and then the second run, you either run the same most of the time or running the same setup. But if something dramatic happens like a weather change or, you know, my position, if say if I screw up the first run and there's nothing to lose, I'll go all or nothing on the second run, you know, try to make up a few spots. But yeah, I mean, there's a lot of tinkering on a loose lead. And that's a huge part of it for me. I've really enjoyed learning my way around a sled. And, you know, I've learned something new just about every day, you know. I've had the opportunity to, throughout my career, to talk and learn from a bunch of different coaches from different nations. And they all have a different idea of how a loose lead should be put together. So, you know, I've got all this knowledge from different areas, and I'm starting to put it all together, you know, taking the best bit from, you know, the best parts from Latvian sled, and the best parts from American sled, and the best parts from a Slovakian sled, you know. So, just put all that together, and hopefully I can find something that's pretty nice.
BEN WATERWORTH: I love just that technical aspect of it, because, again, going back to my point how, you know, Roy and HG sold this as a lot of just a simple sport of laying there and going for a ride, but it's just so technical. And I love that from Hannah, where she just told us about the aspects of your body, that you're steering and just everything along those lines, and what you're telling me there about that technical aspect of the sled. Like, it just adds such an extra layer when you're watching it, which does that then when you come to Double Luge, I mean, is that then even more complicated, because you got two guys there basically having to work it out?
ALEX FERLAZZO: Oh, yeah, that's a whole new beast, Double Luge. I don't know a thing about Double Luge sleds. I mean, you know, the basics of it are quite similar to a single sled, but man, there's a lot going on in those double sleds.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, which again, that's the disadvantage of being the only Australian. It's not like you can sort of have, you know, like form an alliance with somebody to kind of do that. So come on, we need another Aussie out there so Alex can go on the Double Luge. Come on in 2026.
ALEX FERLAZZO: Actually, I had a go at a double sled once probably in 2013. There was a Turkish team from in Kuninze from S3. They kept crashing out of Krasel. And the coach was like, all right, Alex, I reckon you can get the sled down with this bottom man. Give it a go. And I was like, all right, I'm going to make it through Krasel. It was different. You're so much higher. You can see a lot more. All the steers are delayed. And then I made it. I made it through Krasel. And then the next corner, I crashed off the end. And it hurts. Yeah, it hurts so much crashing on a double sled because you got so much extra weight on you, right? You got your body weight and then someone else and a sled pushing you into the ice.
BEN WATERWORTH: It's not fun, which it it seems like it's one of the more closer sports between athletes. But it's also a case of it's also that weird, like it just looks absolutely insane that at some point in history, somebody's like, Looch is great, but let's add another person. Well, why not? Let's let's let's give it a crack. Who cares how it looks? People are going to laugh at it. Sure. But this is awesome. Like it's just it's such an odd sport.
ALEX FERLAZZO: Yeah. Yeah, it is. It's strange from the from an outsider's perspective. But, you know, we have so much respect for those guys. And, you know, being able to lose in a team environment, that's that's pretty cool. I mean, all the single sliders, we only got ourselves to rely on, right? We haven't got anyone to talk to about how the run went. I mean, we can talk to each other, but those guys, they are they form a pretty cool bond, you know?
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah.
ALEX FERLAZZO: And I have to.
BEN WATERWORTH: You're that close.
ALEX FERLAZZO: Yeah. They're lying on top of each other. Let's just be honest here. But yeah, I mean, it's once once you get past that, it's two men lying on top of each other. It's actually pretty cool sport. Believe it or not.
BEN WATERWORTH: In all seriousness, this might sound like I'm trying to take the piss, but I'm not. How do you decide who's the top and bottom? Like, is it a little weight thing? Like, is it like, how do you decide?
ALEX FERLAZZO: It's a weight and tall thing. So the taller, bigger person lays on top and the bottom man is is you want them as small as possible. So the top, so you want the bottom man smaller. So the top man feels like he's the only one on the sled kind of.
BEN WATERWORTH: Interesting.
ALEX FERLAZZO: Think about it like that. And then also aerodynamically, it's better to have the bottom person a lot smaller as well.
BEN WATERWORTH: So it's probably, is that the only sport that you can think of where the bigger person is on top, basically, because usually the other way around, right? Like in sort of, yeah, yeah, yeah.
ALEX FERLAZZO: I mean, I guess another reason the bigger person is on top is because in their start, right? These, the top man is sitting on a stool that's quite a lot higher from the ice, so they need longer arms as well. So it's fascinating.
BEN WATERWORTH: It really is. And one of the more fascinating aspects too, and this is why we need to get more Aussie, you know, losers out there is the team event that we saw in Pyeongchang. The relay. Now, that was epic. That was absolutely incredible. One of the most exciting events I've ever seen at an Olympic Games. I mean, have you had a chance to experience that where you can do like a test run with, say, your Latvian teammates or your American teammates when you're doing it? Because I can imagine that's one thing that you'd be kind of sad to miss out on because that just looks fun.
ALEX FERLAZZO: Yes, it is. It's a lot of fun. I mean, I've pulled a lot of the reaction start is is awesome. Like, you know, starting to win the gates open. That's that's a whole other aspect to the to the sport that I think needs to be put into just a normal race, to be honest. You know, it's it's so awesome the reaction. And then, yeah, I mean, I've I have got to do it before when I was a junior and they were first introducing the team relay. They were throwing together teams from everywhere. So I had a relay team with an Austrian, a Swiss and myself, you know, at a like a Junior World Cup event. So that was that was pretty sweet. But then with the Latvian team, we trained a lot in the in the fall for team relay. So I have it's it's a bunch of fun. And I am jealous of those guys for forgetting to participate. You know, I need I need two other men and a woman to put it together.
BEN WATERWORTH: There you go. We've got to get those recruiting shoes on and we'll get them happening. Milan, we want to kind of see it pointing out. After Sochi, you created history for Australia. First ever lose medal at a junior World Cup event. You did that in Canada. Gold, if you don't mind. What was that experience like kind of topping a podium again, only a few years after you've picked up this sport?
ALEX FERLAZZO: Yeah, that was that was a special day. It's special few weeks, you know, Whistler is a awesome track. It's super fast. It's not too technical, but for some reason, I was sliding the best I have ever. I think it's because it was my first event after the Olympics. So all the nerves, everything was off my shoulders, right? I was just relaxed and very flowy all the way. Every single training run, I was nailing. It was it was incredible. To be in that mindset sliding in sport is just phenomenal. And I had it for two weeks straight. And then the race come around, and I didn't really feel nervous. I was just focused and calm, and it all came together. I won by one thousandth of a second after two runs.
BEN WATERWORTH: Pretty nice feeling. And also on that podium, you beat current two-time world champion Mr. Roman Repelov. How does it look back? You see the photos of you on the podium next to him now after all the success. I mean, he's probably got a bit more pressure on his shoulders going into Beijing, I can imagine, but that's a pretty good feeling.
ALEX FERLAZZO: Yeah, it's pretty cool to look back on that photo. It was Roman Repelov, and I think it was Jonas Müller, the Austrian athlete. I think he's sprint world champion or something in the moment. So two top guns, but it's unfortunate that I come from a smaller country, right? Because once we went to the senior circuit, those guys got given awesome sleds. And I was stuck trying to put a sled together, so they just got to take off in their careers, and I'm catching up now, I feel. So it's a shame the technical aspect is such a huge part of the sport, but you've got to love it and hate it at the same time.
BEN WATERWORTH: You've still got that photo, though, Alex. I can imagine, I'm sure there's somebody back in a junior swimming carnival in the US who's beaten Michael Phelps, right? There's a photo, and you're always going to show that photo. At that time, Michael Phelps only got third in that race. I got the gold, I beat Michael Phelps.
ALEX FERLAZZO: Yeah, I guess so. It's funny, because that race, after the first run, I was second. And after the second run, individually, I was second. So two second-place runs win a race if you're consistent enough. And to come down to one thousandth of a second, too, after two runs combined, is pretty special.
BEN WATERWORTH: It's the beauty of the sport, though. It's just those thousandths of a second that can obviously make a difference. The experience in Pyeongchang, did you go into that different mindset? Because you'd been to an Olympics now, you'd been on the circuit a little bit longer, you'd obviously had some success in the Junior World Cup. And does that change the mindset going into a second Olympics than it did going into a first?
ALEX FERLAZZO: I felt slightly more prepared. I was on a faster sled, but it wasn't really sliding the way I wanted to. And to be honest, I was quite burnt out by that Olympics. I had a huge season beforehand with so many ups and downs, and I was having troubles dealing with being away from home and the mental side of things. So I wasn't really in the greatest state of mind in those games. But I learnt a lot from it. Obviously, that Olympics, I look back now and realise that I need to pace myself through the season. It's a long season, especially for me being away from home. For seven months it will be before the Olympics. I've been away since June. Olympics are in February. So just learning to pace yourself is the lesson I took away from those games, to be honest.
BEN WATERWORTH: Is it something that you can reflect now? 28th, which is the highest Australian male has ever finished at an Olympic Games. I mean, can you reflect now and be proud of that achievement? Or is it a case of, well, I'm still not done yet. I've still got more Olympics in me, so I can better that moving forward.
ALEX FERLAZZO: Yeah, I mean, yes, it's the best result an Australian has done at the Olympics, Fallouj. But, you know, after the first run, I was in 15th. So and that run was good. And so that showed potential. I think with three other runs, like my first one, I would have been around, you know, 10th or 15th, like 10th to 15th place. And that's, that's, I mean, that's, that's a consistency side of the sport, you know, and that's just being able to deal with the pressure and not burn out. You know, I was I was under so much stress going into those last runs over, you know, built up through throughout the last, you know, three seasons.
BEN WATERWORTH: So, yeah, I mean, that's something I'm really focusing on going into the next games, which, given the delays that have had through COVID, is that something where obviously it's going to hinder you to a point? But is it a weird way that you've got a bonus amount of rest that you can go into a fresh season that you're about to kind of face and take that differently as if you had been just in a regular sort of yearly cycle that you would be in a general Olympic cycle?
ALEX FERLAZZO: 100%. I think that time off for COVID for me was extremely beneficial. I learned how to for that whole last year, I didn't slide at all, right? So I went 16 months without being on a sled. And in luge, it's known that you need to do it or you lose it. So throughout those months that I should have been sliding, I kept every track fresh in my mind. I had an alarm set on my phone reminding myself to do mind runs. I do four or five mind runs at a time. And then the next day, I do it again for the entire week. And then the next week, I do a different track. So I'd keep every track fresh in my mind. And also I learned how to stay calm and focused. I spent a lot of time, you know, like meditating, you could say, and just getting to know my emotions a bit better. And I think that's a huge part of the sport, too. The mental thing in luge is massive. And I think it's massive in any sport. Just being able to stay focused and calm without being so amped up is very important. But it was interesting coming back to sliding again, right? My first run was in Russia. And I was nervous. I was extremely nervous. But I was calm, too. I wasn't so jeered up. And I knew what I had to do. I've stood on that track before. And as soon as I pulled off the handles, did my three paddles, laid down from lady start, it just come back to me in a split second, which was really, really cool, you know, having that all just flow back in straight away. And suddenly it was, you know, I hate to say it, but it was like riding a bike. I just jumped back on it and away we went. And I think not only did I get back to sliding right away, I think I also improved in the sense that I've weeded out a lot of the bad habits that I had before. Just little things like, you know, steering more, like feeling your hands and pointing your toes is my cue for sliding now. So I lead with your toes and feel your hands, where before I was kind of like leading with my shoulders and feeling my knees more. So just like weeding out the bad habits I had before over the whole year of drilling in those mind runs was a good cue too.
BEN WATERWORTH: And when you have that break and you go back into it and you're sort of saying about that, that sort of passion that gets ignited there, is it something that, you know, heading into what will be, say, your third Olympics, 26 years of age to have three Olympics, pretty good sort of, you know, track record. I mean, is this something that you just want to keep on just pushing because you love it so much? I mean, I believe Albert Demchenko back in Sochi was, what, 40 when he's winning, like, a silver medal. So, I mean, you know, you've still got a good 14 years till you get there. I mean, you could be a six-time Olympian if you're kind of that, or is it something that you just take it each cycle as it comes and sort of review it every, at the end of every sort of cycle like that?
ALEX FERLAZZO: Yeah, I've pretty much decided that I'm going to continue for the next cycle after this. So, I just feel like I have a lot more in me now that, you know, I am, I've decided to, you know, I've got to an age now where I've decided to really take this seriously. If I'm going to do it, I'm going to do it well. And I'm, you know, going to put everything I can into it. So I'm going to go another four years after this because I feel like I'll be ready these Olympics, but not 100% because of that year off. There's a few sled things that I just don't have time to figure out now that I need to sort out before the next Olympics. But it's an experience-based sport, right? We have to learn each track, and you need runs on each track. So the longer you have to learn each track and really ingrain those lines into your head, the better you'll be.
BEN WATERWORTH: It's a very select club, a four-time Olympic club, a four-time Winter Olympic club for Australians, let alone that aspect. So that's incredible. And to think that, again, it wasn't exactly something that growing up, you're like, I'm going to be an Olympian. It came about, which, I mean, it's a great story behind that.
ALEX FERLAZZO: Yeah, thank you.
BEN WATERWORTH: Is the track in Milan, is that one that's given, that is being built, or is it something they upgrade, or is it going to be completely new? I mean, do you sort of know what that process will be for 2026?
ALEX FERLAZZO: I have no idea. I'm just focusing on these games first, and we'll take it from there afterwards, you know?
BEN WATERWORTH: Because is this, like, what, less than 20 in the world or something like that? Tracks or like a very select number of these sort of tracks? So, you know, it's sort of interesting.
ALEX FERLAZZO: I heard a rumour that they're not going to build any new tracks after these games or maybe the next games, because it is, it financially doesn't make sense to keep building new tracks at every new nation. It's just insane the money they pour into these tracks, you know, especially for a lot of tracks that don't get used again, you know, like Korea, we haven't been back to Korea since the Olympics. That's really sad. But I feel like China is unfortunately going to, that's sort of what's going to happen as well here in a lot of sense. It's such a European based sport. And without having, you know, three tracks to go between in Asia, it's not really financially, doesn't really make sense. You know, I mean, it's a shame that Nagano closed down in Japan, because then you have a circuit here in Asia that we could have slid on, you know, Beijing, Pyeongchang and Nagano. But I mean, you know, never say never. It'd be nice to go back to Korea. I mean, I've kind of blanked that track out of my head. I've just forgotten everything about it, because I wasn't really happy with my result. But it'd be good to go back and get some of your redemption, you know.
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, I'm just thinking Brisbane 2032 again, like, you know, maybe we can call somebody out there to build, you know, the Southern Hemisphere's first loose track, right? Like we were overdue. Come on.
ALEX FERLAZZO: Can't argue with that.
BEN WATERWORTH: Exactly. It'd be handy. Now, before we wrap up with a series of sort of questions we just like to close out with, one thing I wanted to touch on, I believe I brought this up with Hannah. I remember back in Sochi getting to remember you as an athlete because you had the fro going on. Like you've got a bit of a fro sort of, it looks like it's sort of coming back. Like, is this something that like helps or hinders when it comes to luge? You know, like, does it help in that helmet or, you know, bring back the fro, Alex?
ALEX FERLAZZO: I know Hannah keeps trying to get me to bring back the fro. It comes back every now and then. I mean, I just, you know, I just cut my hair and then let it grow for six months and then cut my hair again. But, you know, I got a haircut recently. So by the Olympics, it might be okay. See if the fro is growing.
BEN WATERWORTH: Do it. Like, let's get the kids involved. They can see it. Like, I mean, we're seeing the return of like the dirty mullet, right? So like you could kind of, you know, we saw that during the Olympics with Cam Smith, right? And like sort of the mullet and just everything. So like, I'm thinking that we can do this, like get the kids involved and lose by with the mullet or the throw. Like, it's going to work.
ALEX FERLAZZO: Okay, I can't argue with that. Let's do it. I'll grow it out. I'll grow it out to the games. Promise.
BEN WATERWORTH: Good. All right. All about the kids getting them in the sport, right? We want you in doubles and mixed relays come Milan. So, you know, we've got to start getting them involved, Alex. All right. So I'll take it up if that's what it takes, you know, like you twist my arm. All right. You know, there you go. Now, as I said, we wrap up our interviews with a set of fun sort of questions. These are based on a Team Canada questionnaire they give their athletes a head of Pyeongchang, they did, and Rio. And I am always excited when I can actually use an athlete from the same sport. And I found a questionnaire they gave to Tristan Walker. Now, are you friends with Tristan? Do you associate with him much? I mean, how do you think he's going to answer some of these questions?
ALEX FERLAZZO: I got a pretty good idea of how to answer a lot of these. We get along well. We've been on a holiday together to Thailand. So we're good mates.
BEN WATERWORTH: All right, then. Well, I feel I need to let you know his answers along the way here. So there you go. And as always, again, completely optional here, Alex, but there is a drawing element if you want to do some homework. Draw a picture of yourself, draw a picture of one of your teammates. I'm seeing in the picture he's drawn of him and his teammate. He's very interesting. It's a stick figure, loose doubles pair. But hey, cool. He tried. So I'll start off with, your favourite ever Olympic moment is...
ALEX FERLAZZO: Favourite ever Olympic moment?
BEN WATERWORTH: You can answer your own, like if you want to say like any of your own, like that is, you know.
ALEX FERLAZZO: You know, Chris Mazda winning the silver medal at the last games, that was pretty cool. I mean, that whole podium at the last Olympics was pretty special to watch from the sideline. So I'm going to say that.
BEN WATERWORTH: Stick to your spot, I like that. Tristan said here, Donovan Bailey winning 100 metres back in what was out of Atlanta. So very Canadian answer, of course, he's going to say that. If I could have any superpower, it would be?
ALEX FERLAZZO: Teleportation. I could just go home for a second and then come back to lose, you know, every now and then.
BEN WATERWORTH: Simple, easy. Tristan's gone with the ability to fly.
ALEX FERLAZZO: So, yeah, same, same. Depends how fast he can fly.
BEN WATERWORTH: Exactly, exactly. Now, this is a pretty, he's given a very standard answer for this question, a very winter Olympic athlete answer. Your favourite sports movie is?
ALEX FERLAZZO: Sports movie? Oh, okay, I'm going to, Cool Runnings.
BEN WATERWORTH: He's answered Cool Runnings. So, he's gone with that one. We're getting a few more Eddie the Eagle's notes now, though, so kind of...
ALEX FERLAZZO: Okay, that is a good one. I have to rewatch that. It's been a while.
BEN WATERWORTH: I mean, that basically is just Cool Runnings, but with ski jumping. But I mean, still, it's a great movie. It's got Hugh Jackman in it. Who's going to complain about that, right? And Christopher Walken's in that movie, so why not? Your favourite pump up song is?
ALEX FERLAZZO: Pump up song? At the moment, it's Alice Ivy, Get Me A Drink.
BEN WATERWORTH: Nice. Good song. He's gone for Back For More by Five Finger Death Punch. Yeah, I'm not sure if this is on the Thailand playlist or something along those lines. The most recent TV show that you binge watched is?
ALEX FERLAZZO: The Squid Game Count as a TV show. All right, Squid Game.
BEN WATERWORTH: Done. He's went with Game of Thrones. So, you know, standard. Your least favourite foods, and I'll just say Tristan's literally answered, I like everything.
ALEX FERLAZZO: Oh, man, that's you know what? I'm actually with him there. I don't really I mean, we travel so much. We were kind of forced to eat everything, so I'm just going to eat everything.
BEN WATERWORTH: Go for it. Was there anything in Thailand that you were kind of like, yeah, give me that. Bring out your dead. I'll eat it. Come on.
ALEX FERLAZZO: Oh, I would wrap my lips around anything in Thailand in food wise.
BEN WATERWORTH: Go for it. Go to town. If you weren't an athlete, what would you be?
ALEX FERLAZZO: Oh, that's a great question. I have no idea. Probably probably an electrician or a tradie of some sorts, most likely. Just that word. Yeah.
BEN WATERWORTH: You're a keen fisherman, I believe. Anything sort of you get out in the water or kind of do that as a profession?
ALEX FERLAZZO: I don't know if I do it as a profession, it might take away from the fun of it, you know?
BEN WATERWORTH: The fun of it, yeah.
ALEX FERLAZZO: If you have to be forced to do it every day.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah. I see where you're going there. Tristan's gone with fighter pilot. So he likes to fly clearly, so he's kind of got there. Now, I love this answer, the fact that you've mentioned you've been on a holiday with him to this place. He's answered Thailand for this question.
ALEX FERLAZZO: I love the East, the New South Wales coastline. Yeah, surfing and the North New South Wales coastline is a pretty awesome place.
BEN WATERWORTH: Byron Bay kind of sort of around that area.
ALEX FERLAZZO: Yeah, Byron to Newcastle is pretty sweet.
BEN WATERWORTH: Beautiful. Good answer. Coming from a Queenslander too. Pumping the tides in the New South Wales. Not common. There you go, it can happen. What is something that people usually describe you as?
ALEX FERLAZZO: Describe me as? Well, I don't know. Thank I don't know, they say, they're running joke is I'm a looja, so, looja, looja.
BEN WATERWORTH: Looshpangs, didn't realise they existed. I like it. Okay, I'm going to test you on this one. What would you describe Tristan as? And let's see if it matches up with his answer.
ALEX FERLAZZO: Oh, man, he's a... Oh, he's energetic, I would say. He's got lots of energy, he bounces off the walls. He's a big personality.
BEN WATERWORTH: What's he got? He's answered fast. So... I do like here that Team Canada have included a photo of his Instagram, and it's got sort of a picture of him with his arms crossed, looking all tough and menacing. But I kind of like this rooster sort of crest hairstyle he's got going with a bit of the, you know, the shaved blend look. So, you know, like just... Apparently, we lean to hairstyles during this interview today, Alex. I don't know what's going on with me. If you could be an Olympian in any other sport besides your own, what would it be?
ALEX FERLAZZO: Surfing.
BEN WATERWORTH: Nice. That works. He's gone for hockey. Very Canadian. All right. I always struggle with this question just because it's one of these ones that I feel you either have an answer straight away or you don't have an answer at all. Your favourite song lyrics are?
ALEX FERLAZZO: Oh, all right. So it's a disclosure song. And I don't I don't remember the song name, but it goes where your where your energy weight, where your attention goes, your energy flows. And that's kind of a mantra I've been running on lately.
BEN WATERWORTH: So I like that. That works. Can you can you like stint all your sled? Like, is there any customisation? You could like include that on like your sled?
ALEX FERLAZZO: Yeah, that's that's not a bad idea. I might have to get the marker out. Put a little message somewhere.
BEN WATERWORTH: Do you name your sled at all, Alex? You sort of go that path at all?
ALEX FERLAZZO: Oh, I used to, but no, not anymore. It's part of me. It doesn't need a name.
BEN WATERWORTH: Doesn't need a name. Right. I put that out there because I've tried to get half the Australian bobsled team to call their sleds Ben. So I can say I've been to the Olympics again. If you feel that need, you know, I won't say no. Tristan's got very Canadian. He's very proud to be Canadian, Tristan. He's just gone with True North, Strong and Free from the National Anthem. So why not? OK, your guilty pleasure is?
ALEX FERLAZZO: Guilty pleasure. Oh, I mean, I eat a lot of chocolate. I love chocolate. I don't I don't feel guilty about it. As you shouldn't, as I shouldn't.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, I feel a bit bad if you don't fit into the suit after a big chocolate binge.
ALEX FERLAZZO: But hey, hey, the biggest the biggest stone rolls fastest down the hill. So you got to pack on the power and eat more chocolate.
BEN WATERWORTH: You got an Olympics to go to. You can just be coming and chowing down a couple of family blocks. What are you doing? I train for the Olympics. I've got to eat all the chocolate. So, you know, it kind of works. Yeah, Tristan's gone for a DQ Blizzard. They're pretty good. So, you know, yeah, yeah, take those, all right. Alex, before we let you go, people want to follow your journey in the lead up to Beijing and beyond social media, anywhere that people can sort of start up to date with your progress?
ALEX FERLAZZO: Yeah, pretty much only Instagram. I do post to Facebook, but I just share everything off Instagram to Facebook, and my Instagram account is at PinkShortsHoola.
BEN WATERWORTH: PinkShortsHoola, all right. Now, where does that come from?
ALEX FERLAZZO: So, before the last Olympics at the training camp in Korea, the team, so I'm good friends with the Canadian team, and I was beating them all at the start, all the Canadian athletes, and I was really, you know, stirring the athletes and the coaches up a bit while doing this. And during the Canadian team meeting, the coach, he's a German guy, and I quote, this pink shorts hula Australian is, come on guys, he's beating you at the starts. And I was told about this from the Canadian teammate, and I was like, oh, you know what? That's a pretty sweet name.
BEN WATERWORTH: Lock it in. Wow. That's great. Yeah. Geez, the best names come from those moments, don't they? So, yeah, love that fantastic Alex mate has been so much fun chatting to you today, learning about lose your career and everything. Fingers crossed for everything going towards Beijing to Milan to 2030, 2034, 2038. Keep on going. The sky's the limit. But we really appreciate your time and we look forward to racing down that track again very shortly in Beijing.
ALEX FERLAZZO: Awesome. Thank you very much, Ben. And I'm gone.
BEN WATERWORTH: And a massive, massive thanks here to Alex for his time. Fascinating insight into the sport there, and I'm kind of interested now on getting nicknames from Canadians. You know, sort of obviously a German coach, but working with Canadians. So, Pink Shorts Hula, maybe we can sort of come up with some ideas along the way for some, I don't know, nicknames for our Canadian friends on this show, or Canadians can come up with that way. Or maybe we just need to get some more Germans on the show to come up with that. So, great insight there from Alex. And as I should always say at the end of these interviews, and often forget, if you want to watch the video version of this interview, you can hit us up on YouTube, search Off The Podium, and you can watch the video interview with myself and Alex there. As of now, we are days, days away from Beijing, and we're continuing episodes every single day, right up through to the closing ceremony of the Beijing Olympics. We have some great content coming your way. Daily recaps, of course. We will have a special preview episode, where I will be joined by Jarrod and Colin to give our takes on everything, our last-minute thoughts ahead of the Olympics, and also a bonus episode that we will be having. We're calling it Athletes To Watch Beijing 2022, where we essentially bring you clips of all of our guests who will be at the Beijing Olympics to hear their thoughts ahead of the Games. We do want to pinpoint that this will be athletes who have had on the show since Pyeongchang right through until Beijing. So obviously, we had a couple of athletes on before Pyeongchang. That will be at the Games as well. But of course, we didn't get them on after Pyeongchang to talk about their lead-up into Beijing. So I will kind of preface that by saying, if you're wondering where our Clarnie Crane interview is, Sandy Kennedy's Sim interview, we sort of had them in a different cycle. But we're obviously still focusing on them as former guests of this show. So we'll explain it a little bit more in that episode as well. But if you want to stay up to date with everything that we have got going here on Off The Podium, because it is getting busy, and you don't want to miss a single second of what we've got out there to produce, search us on social media, simply type in Off The Podium on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. Hit us up on whatever podcast platform you use, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, iHeart Radio, Amazon Podcasts. We are available. And while you're there, leave us some feedback. We'd love to hear what you think of the show. We often don't talk about the feedback and sort of everything else that we get lauded with this show, because often we record these out of cycle and the fact that we pre-record a bunch of these and then things happen. And then when Jarrod and Colin and myself get on board, we talk about it, whether we're being nominated for an Australian Podcast Award or recently discovered that we were included on a New York Times podcast list of top six Olympic podcasts to listen to. All these great honours that we are so absolutely thrilled to achieve. We want to point out there that we thank you guys out there for listening to help us achieve these things, because without you listening and sharing the show, we're not going to achieve these things, which obviously mean a lot to us. So we thank you for listening and helping support the show and continue to support the show too, by listening, interacting with us on social media, and everything else along those lines. So from the bottom of my heart and everybody else involved here at Off The Podium, we definitely thank you for joining us throughout all of these episodes and also continuing to join us as we get very busy during Beijing. Bring on the Olympics. I'm excited to close this episode right now. Not because I don't want to keep talking to you, but you want me to end this episode because you want to get yourself prepped for the Olympics by listening to some more great Off The Podium episodes. Big thanks again to Alex. Special shout out to Jason Momoa. My name is Ben. And as always, go left.
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