Beijing 2022 Day 3 Review
Well after a golden day for Australia yesterday it's time to celebrate a golden day for Canada as we come to you for a massive day 3 of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics! Does a gold for Canada today make up for the disappointment of the curling or are they still too sad to properly celebrate? How is Australia celebrating after their record breaking day yesterday? Which special guest will we have on the show today to help talk about the Olympics? Will we have much breaking news tonight and if we do why does it make us so excited and happy? Which event does Colin like even more because it helps put his children in a good mood? And why does our DAILY DALE work well with one of our celebratory athletes of the day? Click yourself away to listen away and get excited for one exciting episode!
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 for day three of Beijing 2022, a golden day for Canada! Finally, Canada are on the board. They're finally beating Australia, their traditional rivals in the Winter Olympics. It's been a long way to get here, but they've finally done it. They're excited, they're pumped, they're through the roof. The streets are going crazy in all parts of Canada, including Winnipeg, the craziest part of Canada. And I'm going to go there right now, because Colin Hilding is with us. Colin, how are you feeling? You excited? Is it just a trend right now in Canada to go buy some parrots?
COLIN HILDING: I'm feeling very Australian right now, because we decided to win a gold and something else. We're following your lead from day two. You're very influential, especially after the loss in curling. We're deciding we want to do everything the Australian way now.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, I'm looking forward to hearing about what's getting more news today, and we'll find out shortly. But other than Colin, we also have the esteemed Jarrod Loobeek on the show, direct from Emu Plains. Jarrod, the streets of Emu Plains are going off still, celebrating Canada's demise in the curling, and Australia's greatest win in sport. I'm just saying it right now. This was the greatest moment in the history of Australian sport. We beat Canada in curling at the Olympics.
JARROD LOOBEEK: This is true. The partying has not stopped. It's still going on outside. So yeah, what an achievement.
BEN WATERWORTH: What an achievement indeed. Huge, massive, giant. But I guess we should talk about Canada first. They did win a gold and a bronze today in the same event. So showing off in the men's snowboard slopes. Again, showing off. Got to win medals that we've already won. Max Perot, the gold. Great story with Max, which I'll get Colin to tell a little bit about in just a moment. And bronze to Mark McMorris. The silver in that one went to Su Yiming of China, who, if I'm not mistaken, is China's first ever snowboard medallist at the Olympics. Colin, I feel this is one of those ones that you didn't want to say anything about this the other day, because was this an expected gold medal for Canada? And how is Canada coping with your golden bronze in the men's slopeboard snow style?
COLIN HILDING: Slopeboarding. Oh, man. The way that Australians are taking up the sport of curling right now, we're taking up the sport of slopeboarding. Slopeboards are flying off the shelves. I don't know whether the gold was expected. I would say no, but I think that we had hopes we would get a medal in this, because back in Pyeongchang, both Max Perot and Mark McMorris had medalled. It was silver and bronze. But I think the expectation was, well, one of them will get there, not necessarily both of them. I remember even after the first run, I think Max was in medal contention, but Mark was maybe in fifth. The commentators were very tentative. They're like, oh, I think that we're in a position now to maybe win one medal. And of course, Mark McMorris' brother was commentating, which I was surprised he wasn't as enthusiastic.
BEN WATERWORTH: I don't know.
COLIN HILDING: Maybe they're not on good terms. Or maybe he just has a red objective.
BEN WATERWORTH: He choked.
COLIN HILDING: What's that?
BEN WATERWORTH: He got the bronze. He choked. That's why he wasn't that excited.
COLIN HILDING: Well, he got the bronze last time. It's still just as consistent.
BEN WATERWORTH: If Jamie got two bronzes in a row, don't come home. Bring home at least a silver, you dud.
COLIN HILDING: I mean, at this point, I guess, you know, Craig is going to be behind Team Max Perot because he's beaten his brother twice.
BEN WATERWORTH: This is his third bronze in a row, Colin, I'm seeing. His third bronze in a row. Like, come on, mate. Pick your game up.
COLIN HILDING: And yet he's the one who I think is on the box of Cinnamon Toast Crunch right now. It's the Mark McMorris Crunch cereal. It should be the Max Perot Crunch. Cinnamon Toast Peros.
BEN WATERWORTH: Who is he? Australia at the Winter Olympics? Jesus Christ, Mark. Pick your fucking game up, mate.
COLIN HILDING: But about Max upgrading to a gold's crazy. I tried so hard to stay up for it last night. I mean, I was going off of one hour sleep the previous night. I think it was going off for two hours sleep the night before that. This was one time like I really should be sleeping right now, but I need to watch this. And after the second run, just seeing the score that Max got, it was one of those feelings where I'm like, all right, if I happen to fall asleep, I think I'm comfortable in saying we're going to get a medal, maybe even a gold. And I was drifting in and out of sleep the entire third runs. But every single time I did come out of sleep and somebody would finish, they'd be like, Max Perot is still in the gold position. I was like, yes, yes, I think we got this now. So very exciting. And as far as the news stories go, just to kind of give you an update before we get into the curling, curling is sandwiched in between two separate Max Perot stories. So Max is definitely dominating the headlines right now.
BEN WATERWORTH: And of course, those sandwich are sandwiched in between the deferral points. This is hugging. So that's still breaking news in Canada. Breaking news in Canada.
COLIN HILDING: That story is ridiculous, how much coverage it's getting here. But I have to say, like when you really do more than just watch the fact that like yesterday, it was kind of silly. They just kept cutting to it. Although I will say even when they were cutting to it yesterday with the deferral points, I'm not an emotional person at all. As Ben knows, like I was getting almost emotional watching it because like here's the thing. I mean, both of them are pretty much royalty as far as Olympics are here in Canada. And I think that without anything ever having been said, it was almost assumed this is probably going to be Chloe's last Olympics, probably going to be Justine's as well. And I honestly believe that they were planning for this to be their last Olympics. And you could tell from Justine's fall and how emotional she was getting, even just demanding that they bring her her pole. And then the fact that I think what really has taken over the country here is the fact that she didn't just finish her run. She finished it like with as much effort as she could. She wasn't taking like the slow road down or let me just do a quick flip. Like she was going all out, even though she knew she had no shot. And then all the footage of Chloe comforting her. I think one of the things that's really clicked is that this is an Olympics where people don't have their family there. They don't have their friends there. So it's been rare for the last two Olympics to see anybody really have the opportunity to be comforted by somebody other than a teammate. So I'm not even joking. There are people who are saying as much as Justine and Chloe are going to be remembered for winning gold, silver, and the only sisters to ever be on the podium together in Olympic history. There are people saying they are going to be just as remembered for that one moment just at the bottom of the hill with Chloe comforting her.
BEN WATERWORTH: Breaking news in the short track speed skating. Canada could have a chance of winning another medal this evening. Kim Bhutan, is that what I'm saying it correctly there Colin? She is through to the final of the women's 500 metres. She is qualified. Sadly, Alison Charles has qualified for the B final. And a certain other Canadian who represents Australia, we'll talk about him very shortly. He doubted out thanks for that one. But she's got a 75% chance of adding to your medal, Tally Colin. So she's up against great Ariana Fontana who beat her in her semis. So we'll see that. And breaking news in the ski jumping, the mixed team first round is done. Eight go through to the final, the debut of this event, a sport in which Canada have never won an Olympic medal in features 50% guess from Off The Podium. Going into the final, Canada are sitting in fourth place. So, ooh. 30 odd points behind ROC, Norway in second, Slovenia in first, Japan, one of the powerhouses of ski jumping, only sneaking through, Germany eliminated, and the People's Republic of China eliminated. So, again, Colin, a sport, I don't even know if you've had a top 10 in the Olympics before, but you've never won a medal in ski jumping. 50% off the podium, yes. Come on, Ali and Abby, let's go team.
COLIN HILDING: Well, because if I'm right, I think our best finish was either just inside, like as in just number 10, or maybe just outside the top 10. So, I mean, this is dwarfing our greatest results ever in ski jumping.
BEN WATERWORTH: So, you're gonna get top eight, because even if you crash out and die, you're in the final. So, eighth place there. The other one we gotta talk about with Canada, of course, is the curling. Now, we were looking at it last night, and Dean and Tali pulled through, again, maybe the greatest sporting moment in the history of Australia. I'm calling it. And like, I never thought I would say this, but it is kind of a shame that we won a gold and a bronze medal yesterday, because this has gotten no attention in Australia. It's literally just like a couple of social media posts, like, yeah, yeah, so they ended up winning their last two games. Yeah, and I'm pretty happy with that. Good for them. But it's like, guys, this is Canada. We beat like the curling country. You know, this would be like, if Canada beat Australia in cricket. You know, it's a big fucking deal. Ended up winning at 10-8. Did lead 7-0, went to an extra end. So, nearly shot ourselves there. But that's not the big story with Canada, because today, you had to beat Italy to win. Obviously, that's what happens when you win. You beat another team. You had to beat Italy to make it through to the meta round. Otherwise, you would be tied with the sexy Swedes, and they would go through it because they beat you in the round, Robin. Again, went to an extra end, and you could not have had it closer, literally on the button, both of them, and they had to get the super fancy measuring sticks out. There was an agonising weight, and out go Canada, Italy through unfricking defeated. And I can tell you right now, breaking news in the curling, Italy are currently two nothing up over the sexy Swedes in the semi-final. So how is Canada reacting? The reigning gold medal, this is the only curling event, I believe, in Pyeongchang you even won a medal in, let alone a gold. So I mean, is this a big deal? Is the talks already started? We shouldn't have sent John and Rachel. They suck, like kind of what's going on there?
COLIN HILDING: No, like it's weird because I said in the previous episode, this is as close to the Avengers as Canada will ever get to a semifinal for the Olympics. Like this is our all-star team of curling. But yet from the very beginning, most of the media coverage I was seeing was saying it's going to be a struggle for them. And for a lot of the reasons that, you know, we talked about in the previous episode that they didn't have as much experience playing together as a lot of others did. And obviously with what we've seen in the last couple days, I think it's taken its toll on them. I was sort of saying to you off air, if you're reading the fact that they had the Czech Republic, Australia and Italy, and all three times, it went to an extra end. I mean, it was just a little bit too close for comfort. I don't think that Canada really, maybe we hoped that, okay, we could possibly get a medal, but there was no expectation that they were going to do as well as I think that they did, or maybe the expectation was they were going to do about as well as they did. I was saying from the beginning, I think that it wouldn't even be unrealistic to think that they could lose to Australia, you know? But the way that it happened, I think was the bigger story than just the fact that we lost to Australia. I think I sent you guys the headline, that basically said, mixed doubles, curlings goes bonkers on day two or whatever, which is the way to describe it. It's the fact that it was seven nothing, and then it was eight eight, and then it went to a very close extra end. I think the Italian one, everybody assumed we were gonna lose. The victory is that we actually pushed them as far as we did. But at this point, I'm starting to wonder if Italy can be beaten, because I think we were pretty much all calling Great Britain to potentially win this, right? But I don't know if that's even possible. I'm starting to think these Italians are, they're on COVID or something, because you can't stop them.
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, it is possible, because Britain are playing Norway in the other semi, and they're currently leading three, one, at the end of the third end. Sweden, zero. Italy, four, after three ends. So I called it. I said it worked today. I said, I think Italy gonna win the gold. Having said that, I initially did say that Canada would make it through and win the silver. So, good job for Ben. I was saying this to Colin off there. I tried curling tonight here in Melbourne at the O'Brien Ice House on a Monday night. They have a come and try night. And I want to send a shout out to Edward Wan for inviting us along. And I'm telling you now, that sport is fucking hard. Here I was, yeah, this is a breeze. I'll make the Winter Olympics in this, become Tasmania's first Olympian, all that kind of stuff. But yeah, I'm going to have to start taking up golf, I think, because it's, I mean, the sweeping is okay, because you kind of get used to the grips on your shoes and you realise you're not going to fall over. But it is the sliding aspect of the knee and the push off. And just, it feels completely unnatural. And again, coming from somebody who's last five seconds, yeah, five seconds on a pair of skis, I was never going to do well. So it is a lot of fun though. And I can see why we've had so many curlers on the show say that it's not a sport, you just sit around and drink beer anymore. Like it fucking is hard work. Jarrod, have you ever tried it before?
JARROD LOOBEEK: I have not. So it's still on my list. I know it's crossed off yours, but it's still on my list for potential Olympic debut.
BEN WATERWORTH: Look, I've got faith in you, Jarrod. You're younger, you're thinner. You're probably like, can you skate? Can you ski? Can you do things that require balance at all?
JARROD LOOBEEK: I can skate. I've never tried skiing.
BEN WATERWORTH: There you go. You can skate. I mean, you're halfway there basically. So Colin, do you have hope that, I mean, John was 43, you're three years younger. So, you know?
COLIN HILDING: Yeah. Do you know what I find more difficult? Again, I haven't curled since I was a kid, but it's the manoeuvring around the rocks that I think is the hardest part. You probably didn't even guess at what we had to do that. To me, that's where they look like superheroes out there, is that they're going at the speed they're going, and then they somehow manage to avoid six or seven different rocks that are all in the same vicinity.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, I would know any of that. But also the thing too is, it is the strategy, it is the placement, because I got to be Skip a couple of times, and then this guy's like, okay, where do you want them to position the stones? And I'm going, oh, I don't know, that looks good. And he's like, well, if I was you, I'd probably go there, because this would happen, and this would happen, and this would happen. I'm like, sure, yeah, let's go there then. That looks good. So I will say we did win our first game, but we lost our second game. We technically won the second game, but the stone that was closest to the button actually was put there by one of the guys helping us out, because the girl who shot it down the rink sucked. But I haven't seen that. I sucked more.
COLIN HILDING: So I'm just saying. I want to add though, that I'm hoping that maybe Sweden can get through. Jamie hasn't seen Sweden yet, but I discovered last night that as I tried, I so badly wanted to watch this last night. And I'm like, come on, Jamie, give it a chance. She goes, you have tried to show me curling for like the last two or three Olympics. Like, I don't get it. I don't care. And she cared by the end because she loves John Morris. So if maybe Mr. Swede can get through and Jamie takes a similar interest in him, I have potential that I could watch this and maybe even have Jamie give her commentary and opinion on the end.
BEN WATERWORTH: I guarantee if you show Mr. Erickson, you'll be pregnant by the end of the week. So I think I'm pregnant, basically watching him.
COLIN HILDING: She was watching John and Rachel, and she's like, this guy looks like he could be Superman's brother, and this girl looks like she could be Nicole Kidman's less plastic sister. Like, that's pretty accurate.
BEN WATERWORTH: We're talking about the Swedes here.
COLIN HILDING: No, no, Canada, John and Rachel.
BEN WATERWORTH: Oh, oh, Jesus.
COLIN HILDING: That's why I said John and Rachel.
BEN WATERWORTH: He's going to be, oh, true. Thank you. I wasn't, but you said Superman. You look like Superman. I'm thinking, well, you know, John Morris looks nothing like Superman. Well, she's smoking, so, yeah. And then Nicole Kidman, yeah, I can maybe see that. Jarrod, not much to talk about in terms of Australians today. I guess the reaction of Jekara and Testil. I mean, I don't know when Jekara's stamp comes out, so get on board Jekara's stamp at some point. But I mean, it's still pretty exciting. We had the medal ceremony on before, got to hear the Australian National Anthem at the Winter Olympics for the first time in 12 years. That was nice. How are you feeling with the reaction that has come from this golden bronze day?
JARROD LOOBEEK: Yeah, I think it's been fine. If anything, I kind of expected more hype, I think. Although I did have everything on in the background today, so maybe the hype was there and I just wasn't noticing it. I don't know how many replays we went to, but I didn't see too many.
BEN WATERWORTH: Oh, I could tell you. Not that I would know. And every single one was great. Thoroughly deserved to be shown, seriously. I wish they would show more. Yeah, I kind of agree with you. There's definitely been some hype, but it's not probably the extent of what it has been in the past. I don't know about you, outside of the curling, I don't know if there's even really been much hype around the winter. It just kind of almost feels like people don't really care, which is a bit sad in my eyes. Like, I don't know if that's kind of the vibe you're getting up there at all.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Yeah, no, I could agree with that. I feel like people were interested in the curling and that was it. Like they've already just lost interest in the rest. I think it's because, I feel like it's because the Aussie events are so few and far between, that people just can't be bothered to, like schedule their lives around like the one event, which you think if anything would be easier. But I suppose with the summer, you can just chuck it on. And in any moment, you're probably going to see an Australian in at least the heats of an event. So I don't know if it's maybe it's that that's causing it, but I agree it's been a bit subdued.
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, definitely today, when we literally only have one Australian in action, and he basically lasts all of like a hundred seconds. Thanks Canada for sending him. In all seriousness, Brendan, you're a great guy. You deserve to be the Olympics. I don't know if you saw the quarterfinal at all. Jarrod, he sadly, he did crash out actually, but he got disqualified anyway, because he was deemed to have made, even Stephen Bradbury was saying like, yeah, no, that was illegal, Brendan, bad Brendan. Did you see it and what did you think?
JARROD LOOBEEK: I didn't see it. I just saw the live results pop up on my phone. Although I did watch the replay, and I agree that it was a bit dodgy. It was very out of character for an ex-Canadian to go pushing people around.
BEN WATERWORTH: I know, I know, Jesus, you sent us your violet one, Colin.
COLIN HILDING: You know, we didn't even have a chance, though, to talk about the mixed relay event. I was gonna say for the Canadians, it's completely in character to be pushing people around because it happened twice in the mixed relay. That's why we didn't end up winning a medal.
BEN WATERWORTH: The Hungarian in that also, because he got disqualified for pushing Brendan. So basically Brendan only really like, I mean, he obviously didn't realise what was gonna happen later on, but if he had of not tried to make the movie, he would have gone through. The story of that one was Ferkin Aka, what a name that is, from Turkey, who eventually ended up doing a Bradbury and winning that quarterfinal. Sad news for him, though, is he ended up finishing third in his semi. So unless something crazy goes on in semi-final two, he will not make it through to the final A. But Stephen Bradbury was saying that apparently like, him making it to the semi-finals, he's going to inject like millions into short track speed skating in Turkey. Because I mean, you think about nation, I mean, we're living in one, nations that aren't really winter nations, but Turkey. Jarrod, name me one Turkish winter Olympian, besides who I just mentioned with Birkin. I'm telling you now, with this result that's still on my screen, if he makes it through to the A final, I might have to rethink my athletes of the day. We're having a Turkish short track speed skater make it to the finals of the Olympics. I mean, god damn it, 20 years of Bradbury. This guy should be on a stamp himself. Colin, was there any other Canadian ones of note that Canada is talking about? Sadly, the team figure skating, your medal streak is done, you got fourth in that. So sad for that one there. Sixth one in the ice hockey, a bit of controversy going on there. I don't know if you heard much about that over there. And if you did, you can update our listeners. Oh, you didn't, you didn't hear any. All right, I'll update you in a minute. But anything of other notes that we should know about while we're just going over some of these at the moment?
COLIN HILDING: I mean, our TV coverage last night was dominated by the figure skating team. And I was surprised by that because it wasn't looked like and we were gonna get a medal. And we had John and Rachel, you know, in their final match as we ended up discovering. But yeah, I think that, I'm not gonna say that, you know, Canada was disappointed or wasn't disappointed or whatever with the team event. But if nothing else, it's gotten Canada really excited. Because as I said, we have so many new skaters on the team here. And I can't even fully remember her name. It's Maddie Skibis or something like that.
BEN WATERWORTH: That's the one, absolutely.
COLIN HILDING: Canada has gone crazy for her. Because I think she gave us our best results in that event. And for somebody who's making her Olympic debut, basically in unknown and in the team event where you have some more experience, especially somebody like Eric Radford, which it was great to watch him last night. Actually, I'll have a fun story about him.
BEN WATERWORTH: I think his late inclusion was because he wasn't initially listed as being part of the team event.
COLIN HILDING: Yeah. So, I mean, just seeing how much attention Maddie is getting. I mean, if she doesn't end up winning a medal here, I mean, she's still going to become Canada's new favourite figure skater. I mean, Canada's gone nuts for her. She's probably the reason we got so much TV coverage last night. That's not even joking.
BEN WATERWORTH: Just want to quickly add, just I'll talk about it in a sec. Turkey have apparently competed in a lot more Winter Olympics than you think. 1936, they've first competed in, and they sent as many as 11 athletes back to 1968. But just for those at home wondering how they went in their very first Olympics in the Alpine skiing, DNS, DNS, disqualified, disqualified, did not finish, did not finish, did not finish, did not finish. So pretty good start. In the cross-country skiing, they went, did not finish, and then were ranked 72nd. And in the men's four by, that was the 18 kilometre, by the way. And in the four by 10 relay, they also did not finish. So Turkey did very well in their first Winter Olympics back in 1936. The ice hockey. So what happened in that is that Canada were playing rock, and essentially six members of Team Rock had tested positive for COVID. And so obviously Canada were a little bit concerned about the rest of them. They requested basically medical clearance from the Russian doctors to show that their players were okay. And Russian, surprisingly, would not give up information. So, nor what you're talking about. We all covered three. Absolutely. We compete for great nation of rock. We'd never do anything bad. What are you doing, Ukraine? Fuck off. Anyway. And so Canada basically refused to go on the ice. The game was delayed by an hour. And then they all had to play in face masks. And we didn't want to see hockey players with face masks on. What's the Canada Rock game from today?
COLIN HILDING: You saw the last time Canada took on anybody COVID positive, and it didn't go well. So, I mean, I don't blame them for being a little bit hesitant.
BEN WATERWORTH: I've got to say, 6-1 disappointing win there. Come on, guys, where's the double digits? Like, this is true. This is not good.
COLIN HILDING: Slowing down. Yeah.
BEN WATERWORTH: Should we mention with Max Perot that the guy beat cancer? Did you even mention that? Was I listening to you when you talked about that?
COLIN HILDING: Well, I can't remember. Was that before the last Olympics?
BEN WATERWORTH: I thought that that might have been before. I think it was 2018, it said, and then he got cancer in 2019. So pretty incredible story.
COLIN HILDING: Good.
BEN WATERWORTH: Lots of comments.
COLIN HILDING: I will confirm he beat cancer and also beat his fellow countrymen. What did they do wrong?
BEN WATERWORTH: Get back on the slope style, you bastard Pete, Pete, Pete. Goes around with a club. That's a paddler. Jarrod, how does that rank on the Jarrod joke scale?
JARROD LOOBEEK: It's about a seven.
BEN WATERWORTH: Oh, all right, I'll take it. It's only one below Akuna Matata. So do it all right there. Thank you very much. So I will say the other medal results today, the ones that we haven't talked about probably would be a good thing as I elongate this to try and find them in front of me. The Alpine skiing, we had the men's downhill was postponed till today, and is a Biat Fuse of Switzerland. Took the gold, Johan Clary, who became the oldest ever male Alpine skier to win a medal, 41 years old, if you don't mind. He took the silver, and Matthias Meyer, he could have become the first ever male to win the downhill twice. He didn't, he got bronze, but good for him. I'm sure he's very happy with another medal around his neck, but at least he's not like that choker, Mr. McMorris, winning three bronzes in a row. Jesus Christ. A bit of a boil over in the women's giant slalom, Michaela Schifrin, the USA goat. If I hear the word goat one more time in these Olympics, I swear to fucking God. But the goat crashed out, basically on what, like the 10th gate or something like that. So she's a fucking goat, Jesus Christ.
COLIN HILDING: I didn't even see that.
BEN WATERWORTH: Didn't you see this? No, she was out. It was quick. She basically got out and moved.
COLIN HILDING: Yeah, I think I was sleeping when it happened, but.
BEN WATERWORTH: Not good enough, Colin. You should know this. You should just wake up and go, oh, Macau Schifrin crashed out. Oh, like it should straight away be in your brain. Sara Hector of Sweden, the gold. Brioni of Italy, the silver. And Bremi Gu of Switzerland. Good day for Switzerland in the Alpine Ski. Now we're skiing up the hills are alive and all that kind of stuff going on there. Okay, the biathlon. Jarrod, did you catch much of the biathlon today? No, no, no, well, that's a bit of a shame. Colin, catch much of the biathlon when you woke up, did you?
COLIN HILDING: I caught zero of the biathlon.
BEN WATERWORTH: All right, well, I will update you both on how. And breaking news in the biathlon. The women's 15 kilometre individual, and as I predicted, Denise Hermann of Germany took the gold, thoroughly deserved by Denise. Good, good, good biathloning out there. She really did well. Annay Chevalier-Boucher of France took the silver, and Norway's Marte-Alder Roseland took the bronze. And I can tell you that Megan Banks of Canada, 33rd, she'd be pretty happy with that. That's Canada's gold in biathlon, I think. Emma Lunder, 67th, and you know, she's Swiss. Emily Dixon, 70th, oh, a lot of Canadians in this one. Sarah Budry, 80th, and I'm seeing here that, yeah, Susan Quilm of Estonia, she'll be disappointed with 82nd. She was expecting at least a top 60. So yeah, she'll be rethinking her life after that one there. Also today-
COLIN HILDING: Am I the only one that heard that, she needs to go home and rethink her life?
BEN WATERWORTH: Yes, Colin, that was the joke. Jarrod, how does that rate on the Jarrod joke scale? Harsh, harsh but fair.
COLIN HILDING: On the Oz network, it goes over much bigger.
BEN WATERWORTH: The team event in the figure skating, Rock took the gold, USA silver. Isn't that their third silver in a row? Is it? Or second silver in a row in that event. And Japan, the bronze, as we know, Canada fourth. We can't claim a medal because James Brown did not skate in that one, unfortunately. So Jason Brown, not James Brown. If James Brown wants to skate, I feel good. I don't know how he would go out there, but I mean, he can try. Other medals decided today. We went over the snowboarding, obviously. Big ones in the speed skating. This is actually pretty incredible. The legendary Irene Wurst, Wurst. We know who we're talking about. She became the first ever athlete, male or female, at either the summer or the winter Olympics, to win a individual gold medal at five consecutive Olympics. So well done, Irene. Not all in the same event, but she done that. She done that. In an Olympic record, too. At her last Olympics, she takes the gold ahead of Miho Takagi of Japan and Antoinette De Jong the bronze for the Netherlands and for Canada. And Danny Blondin, Blondin, Blondin, 13th. Madison Pearman was 24th. Colin, were you expecting better from Madison there?
COLIN HILDING: I think I was supposed to remember Madison's name. So I was expecting nothing.
BEN WATERWORTH: You can still, I can say you can answer the question. I guess you just did. But yes, great, great there. Did you see that, Jarrod? I ended up catching that, got back to the hotel after curling, and here was Irene celebrating another bloody goal. I believe it's about her 12th Olympic medal now. So as you do.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Yeah, I didn't see it, but amazing achievement. Far out.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, indeed. What is it with the Dutch and the skaters? Like it's just, it's, it's, it's redonkulous. I have no clue. Maybe I need to go to the Netherlands and they can teach you how to skate, and then I can learn how to curl better. So potentially on that one there. Just quickly as well, in the ice hockey, obviously I said Canada 6, Iraq 1, Denmark got their very first ever Olympic win in men's or women's hockey, because both men and women making their debut at these Olympics. Three-two over the Czechs, if you don't mind. And there's still two more games to go. They're starting in about 10 minutes, China and Sweden, and Switzerland versus Finland. Jarrod, what did you watch today?
JARROD LOOBEEK: I caught a fair bit of the men's downhill, and then the women's giant slalom. A little bit of the slopestyle, not much. A bit of the curling, and then also some of the skiing, skiing big air, which I can't say it's a great event.
BEN WATERWORTH: You're not a fan?
JARROD LOOBEEK: No, I think the big air works for the snowboard, but the skis, I think the ski slope style is better than the ski big air. It's just not enough. It's just, it's all spinning and not enough flips. Like they need to go upside down more.
BEN WATERWORTH: I'm more intrigued about the fact that Beijing have literally put this next to a nuclear power plant. I'm expecting these people to fly into the stack. So they get bonus points for that. What is this?
COLIN HILDING: Like, welcome to Beijing. Did you ever play Tony Hawk's Pro Skater?
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, yeah.
COLIN HILDING: This just reminds me of a level in Tony Hawk's Pro Skater. Like it's the nuclear fallout level.
BEN WATERWORTH: It's ridiculous. It actually is ridiculous that this is what they have done. But very proud of China of their nuclear. I love the fact that the stacks have a giant Beijing logo on them. Like it's not just like, it's just like, this is the local nuclear plant. Let's fucking brand these things. So it's absolutely insane. Colin, do you catch any of that? The big air and the freestyle skiing? What did you think of it? Do you agree with Jarrod's assessment of it?
COLIN HILDING: I think I agree with him that I probably prefer big air for snowboarding more than skiing, but I prefer slope style better for skiing than I do snowboard. I don't hate the big air though. I actually, I watched it only for maybe about 15, 20 minutes. More so because I was looking to see what coverage NBC had because CBC was re-airing just some old events instead of actually cutting to stuff that was live. I don't know why, but they're taking their cues from Channel 7. Am I allowed to say that?
BEN WATERWORTH: I don't know what you're talking about. Channel 7 are perfect. They would never do that.
COLIN HILDING: But yeah, I was actually, what I was more surprised about was that the big air was getting the coverage over the figure skating, which I mean, figure skating, that is the number one ratings grab for America and NBC. And they had a team in the finals. It's just they didn't care, apparently. What else? I did watch some of the figure skating. Actually, my number one memory of the Olympics from now until the end of time will be the fact that when Eric Radford and Vanessa James skated last night, we had already put the twins to bed. We were getting ready to put Casper to bed. And we put it on, and he just sat down and watched it quietly to the point where we're like, are you okay, Casper, are you there? And he's like, ooh, wow. It is the stillest that child has been ever, the quietest that child has been ever. And I woke up this morning and recorded that routine so that I could play it every single night before he goes to bed because it calmed him. And he wasn't falling asleep to it. In fact, he was very into it. He was commenting every once in a while. And then as soon as it was over and it got to, I think, the Japanese skaters that went next, he actually fell asleep watching it, which again has never happened. So I slept well last night because of Eric Radford and Vanessa James. Thank you. I'm going to watch figure skating every night now. And then as I said, I fell asleep to the slopestyle last night after watching the curling in between.
BEN WATERWORTH: Can I just actually really quickly, before I say what I watched. Jarrod, do you find that, I remember growing up when you watched the Winter Olympics, like figure skating was just shown to death. Like they just, they showed it like so fucking much. Whereas now, I feel like it never gets shown. Like they showed a little bit of the, I think a replay tonight during prime time, just a little bit. But I don't know, is it just me, or do we Australia not seem to care about the figure skating? I mean, there will be tomorrow, Brandon Carey is out on the ice, but yeah, I don't know if that's just me or not.
JARROD LOOBEEK: I feel like they never show it live. Like this Olympics, the figure skating, I feel is like their fallback of, we've got to fill in some time. Let's go to this. Cause I feel like more so than other events, it takes up a lot more time. So I feel like they can fill larger chunks with it. So it does seem to come up, like I think I've seen it every day, but I'm always like, I already know the result of this, cause it was on like two hours ago.
BEN WATERWORTH: I watched, yeah, a lot of things. The big air, I watched curling, some of the downhill, some of the giant slalom, I saw Irene Wurst win the gold, and when I got back to the hotel, some short track, didn't see any ice hockey, which I wanted to watch. It's just, it's tricky sometimes. And yeah, I think I caught most things today, just obviously not the ice hockey. One thing I should also mention, last night, obviously we had a couple of medals that were decided once we hit stop on the record in the ski jumping. Raihuku Kobayashi, gold for Japan, which apparently is the very first time Japan have won a ski jumping gold medal, not on home soil. So that'd be happy with that. Manuel Fetner of Austria, the silver, and David Kubatschi of Poland, the bronze. And in the luge, Johannes Ludwig, gold for Germany, Wolfgang Kindl, I'm sure he reads himself, I guess, silver for Austria, and Dominic Fischnerler of Italy, bronze. How's that in the Jarrod Jokes scale?
COLIN HILDING: Jarrod, yeah, that's gotta be below.
JARROD LOOBEEK: There was definitely a joke there, but I just don't think that was the one to go for.
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, come on, then you do better than to do this one.
JARROD LOOBEEK: See, it was predictable.
COLIN HILDING: Jarrod, can you start making up the actual, the scoring cards, like, and you can just all have three.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, we expect them by tomorrow night. But we should mention another absolutely fantastic result, Alex Falazzo, Off The Podium's Alex Falazzo. 16th place, the first time an Australian has ever finished in the top 20 in luge. So great, great result. He's pumped. He was, he was, he was over the moon with that. So great result. And yeah, similar to curling. I'm sad I didn't get a little bit more coverage today. I got some. So I guess we can, we can say that one as well. Breaking news in the curling, after four ends, Norway, two, Britain, three, and after four ends, Sweden, zero, Italy, five. Hoo hoo hoo hoo, Colin, mamma mia. What's going on here? Italy peaking four years too early, I feel here. They should be doing this on home ice, shouldn't they, four years?
COLIN HILDING: Oh, but imagine if they can do this here now. Imagine what they're going to do in four years.
BEN WATERWORTH: Jesus Christ, this is ridiculous. I mean, Italy have never finished higher than seventh in curling at the Olympics before in any event. This is the first time. And there's only one spot above Australia in the world rankings. So we missed our chance here, Jarrod. This could have been us.
JARROD LOOBEEK: If we'd won that first match, like I said, we would have been on a roll and that would have been us undefeated.
BEN WATERWORTH: Breaking news in the ski jumping. Canada are currently in third place. Having said that, though, I think we've, we, Canada, have jumped more than others at the moment. So it looks like based on how the scores are working.
COLIN HILDING: So I know that you're still, so I know that you're still claiming the curse is existing until we get a gold. But you're telling me that Ali and Abby could be our first OTP medallist of the games.
BEN WATERWORTH: They could be. And this could be Ben Waterworth's first ever solo medal, like solo interview medals here. I mean, this is as good as a gold if they get a fucking bronze in ski jumping. No disrespect to Abby and Ali. I absolutely love Chattenden. They're great. But like, I don't think realistically we ever put them on our list as potential medallists. So we just jinx it now. So oh, and they just lost a limb. The US, I believe, are not even in this event. So Casey Larson, we're not we're not battling off the podium. Oh, breaking news in the curling, Italy, six, Sweden, nothing, if you don't mind. Great Britain, four, Norway, two. So yeah, and sadly, Ferck and Aarqaar didn't make it through to the A final, so he's Fercked it up there, basically. Colin, I don't know if you got any other Canadian results for me. You haven't really been doing your job lately, but we've done Australia. Brendan Cora, that's it. That's all we had today. So, um, anything else you want to talk about today? Okay. I think you had somebody do really well in the downhill, did you not? Yeah, fourth. James Crawford was fourth in the downhill. Yeah, I caught him crossing the line. Naughty boy. Shouldn't have crossed the line. Bad. Bad Canadian James.
COLIN HILDING: There's not even a smile. I'm guessing that's a one or a two, right, Jarrod?
BEN WATERWORTH: Aw, that was better than the kindle joke, I think. But because I've seen a lot of like posts of social media from Team Canada in the lead up about sort of him doing well in the World Cup. And I don't know if downhill is a vent or not, but yeah, the fourth in the downhill was pretty good. Valerie Greiner in the giant slalom, Cassidy Gray. They apparently pulled a Michaela because they also did not finish. So maybe they just idolised her. And we're like, hey, oh my God, Michaela crashed, so will we. So that's what they did. Yeah, Colin can't be bothered. I mean, I went through the curling, went through the figure skating. You actually, I should be talking about the free ski, the big air, because you had the number one qualifier in that. Megan Ollum went through to the final in first place, and you also have another finalist to an Olivia Asselin. Colin.
COLIN HILDING: I should have kept watching it on NBC's coverage, because CBC couldn't be bothered.
BEN WATERWORTH: Wouldn't they just being endless about Eileen Goo, basically? No. She just, Jarrod on the goo train, you know?
JARROD LOOBEEK: No. Although our commentator got a shout out.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yes, she did.
JARROD LOOBEEK: It was great.
BEN WATERWORTH: I, no, I didn't see it, but I heard about the meeting afterwards, and the channel said we're happy about that. Let's just say that.
JARROD LOOBEEK: I just love that she was being interviewed by channel seven, and then like, do you want to say a shout out to like, anybody who helped you get here? And then she like, oh, there's this person, she's in Australia, she's commentating for, I think it's like channel seven, and then her, the interviewer was like, that's us.
BEN WATERWORTH: I was saying to Colin that Off Air was like, but she was like, uh, she thinks she's with channel nine? Oh, we've got to go back to the studio now. Takes you time, Eileen. I think channel seven are pretty desperate, I think, to have her win, just so that they can play Come On, Eileen. Basically, it's a celebration song. You did have a male qualify through as well in the men's, Evan McKeach, McKeachran through. Yep, that's the one. A Spanish skier by the name of Javier Liso is through. When I think of Spain, I think of skiing. They did bid for the Winter Olympics actually at one point, so there must be snow there somewhere. The Women's Luge has started right now. There's no Australians. Are there Canadians? I'm sure there is. Makena Hodgson is currently sitting in 19th after one run. Good for her. Alex is better. Short track, the Women's Final is just about to begin here. So potential other medal going on here for Kim. Are you watching this right now? Jarrod and Colin? Or what are you thinking about this?
JARROD LOOBEEK: I'm not watching the curling, so no.
BEN WATERWORTH: All right, Jarrod's on the curling, as we all should be. Colin not watching a potential gold medal, but okay, sure. You guys do you. I can't control it. And we went over the speed skating. So that's what I love about the Winter Olympics. It's just, you know, that's it. That's kind of, you're done. Breaking news in the ski jumping. Canada is currently now in second place, but I do believe you. I do believe you are jumping first. So I think your next jumper did just go.
COLIN HILDING: If it ends before we go off the air, do not tell me, because I want to be able to watch that.
BEN WATERWORTH: Okay, so I can see here that Ali's jumped. Then. Matthew Sukup has jumped.
COLIN HILDING: La la.
BEN WATERWORTH: I'm not giving you scores. I'm just telling you who's jumped.
COLIN HILDING: I thought you were giving me live commentary. Ali jumped.
BEN WATERWORTH: No, no, I'm literally looking at the statutes. I think Abby's just jumped. So you've got Mackenzie Boyd-Klaus left to jump. So, wow, this is, whoo. Japan dropped down the order a little bit as well. Poland, usually very good. Not so good right now. Okay, what else do we, what do we do on this show? I have no idea. Fails, commentary fails. Colin, anything for you today?
COLIN HILDING: I have literally nothing. Our figure skating commentary is minimal, which is what I watched last night. Our curling commentary is very, very expert and precise, which I think as you've already heard. Plus we have a former guest who does it. So good job, Mike Harris and the snowboarding. I was too drowsy to pay attention to what they were saying. So I'm going to assume that everybody was on their e-game.
BEN WATERWORTH: Just like Channel 7. What an amazing day for Channel 7 today. Seriously, just absolutely perfect. Still so good. And that 12 o'clock to 2.30 shift. Oh my God, Joanna Griggs just absolutely on point. So good. Jarrod, any commentary fails for you? Follow up with that.
JARROD LOOBEEK: You're right. It was just, it was flawless. It probably helped that I had it on in the background on mute. So, I mean, if they're failing while it's on mute, that's very impressive. So they haven't got to that level quite yet.
BEN WATERWORTH: I'm just, I'm waiting for us to get complaints. Like you guys have sold out, man. Like, you know, you were funny back in Tokyo when you would back out straight in coverage. Now, no, you, you've just sold out. Before we get to some of our day things, then we've got a clip to play, special guest as well on the show today. Just, I want us to go through the fan messages. The fan messages are just not the same. Like they're just, you know, they're just, cause I think they monitor them now and they have an admin or something like that. I don't know. But there was a couple of stories here that I just wanted to read a little bit. In the figure skating, there was an American born skater by the name of Zhu Yi, who went to skate for China. And she fell over basically on her first attempt at a trick into the wall. But apparently China are just absolutely ripping shit out into her. So Weibo, the sort of the Chinese Twitter, apparently the hashtag Zhu Yi has fallen, was trending, and gained 200 million views in just a few hours. And apparently just ripping shit into her because they were like, why is this American competing for China? Just a note to China, if you're listening, don't watch the men's hockey. Yes, Colin.
COLIN HILDING: I was gonna say, I don't know if they've said it over there, but the bigger part of that story is because China has recruited a lot of athletes from other places, including America. I didn't know that. Yeah, they have. Yeah, they went on a little bit of a recruiting trip, I guess. But none of the other athletes are getting the same criticism. The main thing it's come down to is apparently she doesn't really speak the language. And the people in China are taking more offence to that. It's not even necessarily the fall. I mean, she could have been flawless and still probably taken the same abuse just because she doesn't know the language, which I'm not going to say I agree or disagree with it. I still kind of have trouble when I see athletes from another country. It's different if you already have kind of that citizenship and you've maintained some of that country as part of your heritage. But when you're representing a country and you are not able to conduct an interview in that country, maybe you're not going to be the most popular athlete. Not that she deserves the type of abuse she's getting, but you can kind of see it.
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, look, I counter that. Screw you, Colin, for saying that sort of stuff. I mean, we had Dale Beck Smith and we took him. It doesn't matter. I don't think he spoke any language. He just kind of answered in roughs, but that's why we love him. You know, it was like, Dale, you just won a gold. Okay, am I allowed to say this, Jarrod? Is Jakara a bit of a Dale? I mean, I love Jakara. Great, great girl. Gold medal, yes, we can't complain. But, I mean, I just, I don't know how I feel about some of her interviews. Not a lot coming out. So, yeah, I don't know. Am I being a bit of a dick here? Cause we do watch Jakara on the show.
JARROD LOOBEEK: I feel like she's slightly more charismatic than Dale.
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, I mean, Dale is just a dick.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Although her biggest moment though, which was her hugging Brit and then Brit crying, which like almost like set me off because, oh, Brit, love you, Brit.
COLIN HILDING: Are you pulling me to throw the points, sister, or something?
BEN WATERWORTH: Oh, who cares about that? We've got Brit, let's talk about Off The Podium guests. When we were actually at The Curling, they've got the big screen up there, and they were showing Channel 7, how convenient. And they were showing a Brit interview, and I haven't seen it, and like Brit was obviously having a bit of a cry. So did you see that interview at all, Jareb? Was there anything of note in that?
JARROD LOOBEEK: I didn't, I did not see the Brit interview.
COLIN HILDING: Jareb, I have a quick question though, cause I mean, you're going to have more coverage of this, but I think I've told you before, at least I've told you Ben in the past that, the Australian mogul skiers tend to be very reserved with the media, even in person. You basically see what, as soon as they're done there, they're bolted and they're out of there, or they're off in a corner hiding or something. Brit is sort of like the one who's very bubbly. And maybe it's because she was on top for so long, she did so much more media than the others. But for someone like Matt or Brody or Sophie, I mean, are they more energetic with the media or are they all kind of like Jakara or Dale?
BEN WATERWORTH: I think I've only really seen Matt. Cooper Woods was brilliant the other day. His interviews, he was fucking fantastic. I don't know if you know who Mick Fanning is, Colin, a very famous surfer. And basically Cooper must be a massive Mick Fanning fan. So they got Mick Fanning to send a message to Cooper Woods. And so like, I think it was Richo who was doing the interview, you know, and like Cooper's just like, he's almost a bit like a test Cody. He's almost like going like, are you? Like he was just, he was great. But then at one point Richo was like, oh, so we got Mick Fanning to send you a message. He was like, what? Really? Oh, I'm gonna see this. Like, that'd be me. I wanted, you know, he didn't win a medal, but like made an Olympic final. And they're like, so we got Natalie Portman to send you, what? Like, I wouldn't, you know, Esseladega's dead. Where, where, where is she? But, and yeah, I mean, Matt, show, like he broke down the other day when he got interviewed, which a lot of Australia, like that was a bit hard to watch because like he was just, he was crying. And he's definitely one, I think, that doesn't show a lot of emotion. But no, I think Brit, Brit still was there. I haven't really seen much with Sophie, so I don't know. But I talked to her a little bit on Twitter the other day, and she's keen to come on the show. So, you know, just if, yep, okay, cool. All right.
COLIN HILDING: Before we move on, one thing I wanted to add, and I don't know if either of you have seen this, but obviously we're used to now in the Summer Olympics, the relays for swimming or even in the individual events, there is sprinting, we get the walk-ups, you know, the big entrance and they get their poses. Is anybody else really annoyed by the figure skating teams doing that before they'd have the judging? They'll all strike the same pose?
BEN WATERWORTH: Oh, is this like the whole Eurovision little kiss and cry thing? Is that what you're talking about?
COLIN HILDING: Yeah.
BEN WATERWORTH: Look, I saw bits of it. Jarrod, you're the absolute Eurovision expert. I mean, kind of what do you think? It is very Eurovision, I think, sitting at their little tables on the tally room floor.
JARROD LOOBEEK: See, I haven't seen the posing. I've only seen the dancing to the music, which is just, it doesn't annoy me, but it's just cringe.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, I haven't seen that. So, OK, I'm missing out. Yeah, I've got no comment to add, Colin. I'm sorry. I apologise. I should have done my research a little bit more. I've got the Ski Jumping open now, because we're literally down to the last jumpers.
COLIN HILDING: I will give my opinions on it when I see it for tomorrow.
BEN WATERWORTH: OK, well, I'm telling you now, you might have to mute it, because, yeah, they're about to do group four by the looks of things, and it's down to... I love this Ski Jumping course. Have you guys seen it, like, this UFO-like kind of thing hovering over the course? Like, it's fantastic. It is so amazing to look at. This is better than the fricking... the stacks of the nuclear power going on. So they're so tiny, are they not? Sorry, I'm enthralled by this Ski Jumping, Colin. You need to go away, I think, if you don't want to be spoiled. I really should also quickly look at breaking news in The Curling after six ends. Norway, five, Britain, four. They just got three on that end, the Norwegians. So look out. And Italy, six, Sweden, one after six. So Sweden finally get on the board. Come on, Oscar, use those chiselled features, the beautiful body. All right, the Czech Republic are jumping right now. So anyway, I'm distracted. Let's throw to a chat I had today. We're doing well on the guests, aren't we? Three in a row, this is good. Marnie Vinall now, she is a fellow researcher at Channel 7 at the moment. She actually worked on the Tokyo Olympics as well. And she actually hosts some podcasts on her own. So got to talking. She seemed very keen to want to come on as a guest. So I said yes. I want to bring more female representation to the show because I'm sick of staring at these two all the time. So I had a bit of a chat with Marnie, and this is how that chat went.
BEN WATERWORTH: Continuing a bit of a trend on the show, getting special guests. We never do this in the Olympics. We usually do stupid things like commentary, and now we're getting guests on because apparently that's better. I am excited to be speaking with a fellow researcher working on the games in Melbourne at Channel 7 Marnie Vinall. I did it, I did it.
MARNIE VINALL: You did, you pronounced that perfectly. Thank you so much. And thank you for having me. I feel like as a researcher, I'm very much working behind the scenes, so it's so nice to feel a bit shiny and be asked some questions.
BEN WATERWORTH: You're welcome. I mean, I hope you're not expecting good questions. I mean, this is Off The Podium. We usually ask people about like, draw us a picture of their favourite animal and shit like that. So, oh, you can swear by the way, I didn't probably tell you that.
MARNIE VINALL: That is very handy to know.
BEN WATERWORTH: Okay, just to let you know. So, first question for you. This is the first winter games you've worked on. What is your opinion of the winter games versus the summer games? Is it something you usually pay attention to when you're not working on them, or is this something that you bonus, I get to learn a lot more about them than you didn't know much about them before?
MARNIE VINALL: It's definitely the latter. Yeah, I'm a bit ashamed to say that I don't know that much about the winter sports, at least coming into the games, but that's made it so much more exciting because I've been able to learn about all these new sports, and I am quickly becoming a fan of so many of them, in particular, Curly.
BEN WATERWORTH: I was going to say, you did post yesterday on social media that you've become the biggest Curling fan. So, had you never seen it before, or just didn't really pay attention to it before?
MARNIE VINALL: I have some Canadian friends. So I had heard of it before, I had seen clips or images, but in my head, I had just assumed it was, we're sweeping towards the bullseye, whoever gets closest, that's it. I didn't realise how much strategy and tactics are in it, how much of a mind game it is. It was so thrilling. Oh my goodness. Kind of like, just waiting to exhale, cheering them on. And the Aussies did so well. I'm such a fan of Tali and Dean now. I'm gonna be following them on socials and following their careers as they continue. I'll see them again in, what, 2026 will be the next one?
BEN WATERWORTH: It will be, yes. And as we were saying yesterday, we might be challenging them for a spot if we do well in curling tonight. So you never know. It could be something that kind of leads into that. But I mean, it's exciting for the sport, isn't it? That it's, obviously at the Olympics, they've been there, they've done so well. I mean, they beat freaking Canada, like overshadowed by a golden bronze medal, obviously by Australia. But I mean, we beat Canada. This should be talked about so much more. This is a massive thing. So what a perfect way. And their coach as well, John Morris, I mean, they've been eliminated today. So we kind of fucked them over with that win.
MARNIE VINALL: And we were talking earlier, you and I this morning about how they should release some Australian specific curling merch, because I would be wearing that proudly.
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, I'm sure with your Canadian friends, like, I mean, god, curling merch is a thing, right? I mean, they're showing curling at like, you know, prime time TV every night in Canada. So, make it happen. Get the Dean and Tali shirts going up. I don't know, team... You were trying to come up with a name for them, weren't you, the other day, like the Broomers or something like this. So get a name like we do for all our other sports and then sell the merch with it.
MARNIE VINALL: Yeah, yeah. So I had the two names. I put a poll up on my socials between the Sweeperoos, instead of Socceros, and the Broomers, you know, kind of playing off...
BEN WATERWORTH: It works.
MARNIE VINALL: Broomers, I feel like I shouldn't have had to explain that.
BEN WATERWORTH: Some of the Canadians are probably going, what does that mean? So, you know, Colin, we just ignore him, he's alright.
MARNIE VINALL: Well, yeah, in Australia, we name all of our teams, you know, Matildas, Wallabies, Diamonds. Diamonds is a bit... It doesn't really fit the...
BEN WATERWORTH: No, it doesn't. I've always wondered about that one.
MARNIE VINALL: Yeah, but with the curling team, Sweeperoos, Broomers, if you have any other suggestions, please.
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, I mean, our ice hockey team are the Mighty Roos. So the Sweeperoos works extremely well. So I guess we'll keep an eye on that. Are there other sports that you've either watched and done research on that you've also found surprisingly entertaining, or are there ones that you're sort of looking forward to more that haven't started yet?
MARNIE VINALL: I mean, all of the ones with the Aussies, because we don't have a huge amount of Aussies. I mean, we have a lot more than usual. There's 43 in these Olympics, which is very, very exciting.
BEN WATERWORTH: So to interrupt, very proud of you that you remember, like your research job is doing very well. Channel 7 should be proud.
MARNIE VINALL: Thank you so much.
BEN WATERWORTH: Not of me, but that's another story.
MARNIE VINALL: They absolutely should be of you. Everybody's raving about your knowledge.
BEN WATERWORTH: I just wanted you to inflate my egos. There you go, Colin and Jarrod. Listen to this. There you go.
MARNIE VINALL: Amazing, amazing. I lost my train. Oh yeah, so there's just so many Aussies that every single day, I'm just kind of like seeing what events they're in. Well, actually I'm working a day ahead. So whatever events they're in, and those are the ones that I'll be watching, but the ones that have really taken my fancy, I mean, obviously it's got to be Tess Cote and Jacara Anthony. Just to see young women. Oh, like I just can't even breathe, and my whole body hurts in anticipation watching them. I'm a runner. That's as far as my extreme sports go.
BEN WATERWORTH: You can go for the bobsleigh. Why don't you see Brie and Kiara in action next week?
MARNIE VINALL: This is true, this is true. This is true, so I'm kind of just in awe of watching all of these sports. It just doesn't seem humanly possible. So as a new fan, who doesn't really understand that much logistically, I'm just like, what is, like how?
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah.
MARNIE VINALL: What is actually going on? Like I feel like my eyes are deceiving me a little bit.
BEN WATERWORTH: It's, I mean, look, we like to say on the show that these are the real Olympics, because, you know, no disrespect to our summer. We love the summer Olympics, but you know, when you got 30 odd sports, there's a couple of duds, whereas, yeah, the winter's 15th, but there's no duds amongst it. And particularly, people go, oh, Kaling's a dud. No, Australia's gone curling crazy. So not a dud. Like, I don't have to watch a sled dance. No disrespect to dressage, but I mean, come on, like, do we really want to watch that? I'm sorry, if you're a massive dresser, I didn't, we didn't discuss this. I feel like, Ben, I am on the dressage board. You shouldn't say that. But yeah, I mean, what's your least favourite summer sport? I'm gonna put you on the spot right now.
MARNIE VINALL: Oh, no, I don't, I wanna be like a mum. I love them all.
BEN WATERWORTH: That's not true. Come on, no one likes the dressage.
MARNIE VINALL: Okay, I mean, yeah, a question obviously is not my top.
BEN WATERWORTH: Sailing, like, you know, we could do it a bit more to entertain it, you know.
MARNIE VINALL: Oh, rowing. I mean, we actually did really well in the summers last year, so I should probably be a bigger fan of rowing, but I'm not.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, well, you're going backwards to win, kind of, you know. I mean, you're an Essendon supporter. I have to bring it up.
MARNIE VINALL: Yeah, so I'm used to that, used to just on the tail end.
BEN WATERWORTH: I need to ask you this, then, just random topic on that topic. Why Essendon? You know, just, is this a grew up in Essendon family connection, you know?
MARNIE VINALL: I actually get asked this a bit because there's no obvious connection. So I grew up in New South Wales. So I grew up South Sydney, Rabbit O's, if that means much. So I grew up in NRL territory, met Russell Crowe when I was a kid. So I was kind of just really taken. And then I moved to Melbourne in 2013. So quite a while ago, almost 10 years ago now.
BEN WATERWORTH: Wow, jeez. You should know the place very well, then.
MARNIE VINALL: And I knew a bit about AFL, but not too much. And it happened to be my first boyfriend who went for Essendon. I know, I don't really love that origin story, but he just took me to all of these games and I just fell in love with the team. And I remember the first game where I knew more stats than he did about certain players. And I was like, I'm here, I'm cemented. I'm in the heart of this team now. And we've now split, but Essendon, I guess, is my true love.
BEN WATERWORTH: I was gonna say, and that's why you two are no longer together, because you realise that. You've gone for them. They've never even won a final.
MARNIE VINALL: Well, the most bizarre part is I started to become a fan during the drug saga.
BEN WATERWORTH: Oh, so you were the only one, basically. Wait, are you trying to tell us something here? Like, you just say, oh, I love drugs, just go for that. That's interesting. That's very interesting, actually. I guess for Colin and non-AFL fans as a Colton supporter, I meant to hate Essendon, you know, we're not meant to get along. But I actually, 93, to show my age, when you won the grand final, I, at halftime, was very sad. And I said to my dad, oh, my dad, can I go for Essendon? And he's like, you can for the rest of this game. If you ever say that again, I'm kicking you out in the street. Again, I was six.
MARNIE VINALL: Similar with Sydney Roosters.
BEN WATERWORTH: So how did you end up going for the Rabados, then, if you like-
MARNIE VINALL: Oh, no, my dad with the Sydney Roosters would be saying that. Oh, right, okay. Because, yeah, he indoctrinated me into the Rabados, but he's a South, he's a South Australian crow.
BEN WATERWORTH: Ah.
MARNIE VINALL: Yeah. So he goes to Adelaide Crows.
BEN WATERWORTH: He goes to the place, interesting.
MARNIE VINALL: Because he was born in Adelaide, so he goes for all the Adelaide teams, except-
BEN WATERWORTH: Port Adelaide?
MARNIE VINALL: Oh, yeah, he's not into Port Adelaide.
BEN WATERWORTH: So then, I mean, I'm a shark supporter in the NRL. You don't like the shark? I mean, I don't mind the Rabados, I was-
MARNIE VINALL: I mean, unfortunately, it just makes me, it just conjures an image of Scotty Morrison. I'm sorry, I'm sorry.
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, like, the thing I hate about that, too, is that when I got asked my opinion of Scott Morrison, and I've been out of the country, and I'm like, I don't really know much, he goes for a good rugby team. That's all I say, basically. Which, okay, on the topic of supporting, we'll get back to the Olympics in a second. Now, I mean, I don't know how much of the ice hockey you've watched yet, but do you have a hockey team in the NHL knowing that you do? Okay, all right. This is a deal breaker.
MARNIE VINALL: The Canucks?
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, this has been fun. It's a well-known fact if you don't live in Vancouver, go over the Canucks, everyone hates the Canucks. Having lived near Vancouver, I actually, look, my ex goes to the Canucks, and I never minded the Canucks, but I'm a flames, I'm a flames and ducks. I cheat like only for two. They're not the worst Canadian team. So, Edmonton.
MARNIE VINALL: What are the worst Canadian team?
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, coming in with the, without a bit of a question there. Back to the Olympics then. So, right now, we're obviously recording this on day three. We're a gold and a bronze. As you said, great job by our women, but so many more to come. Laura, Brie, you know, so many more great ones. And obviously, even men, you know, Scotty still to come as well, looking ahead to some of those ones. I mean, if you had to predict right now medals, what are you thinking? Where will we end up on? We've got two already, so what are you thinking?
MARNIE VINALL: I feel like this is so dangerous because I don't want to G myself up.
BEN WATERWORTH: Oh, this is why we're doing this deliberately, so we can play this in like a week and a half, go, well, G was wrong.
MARNIE VINALL: Let's get two more medals.
BEN WATERWORTH: Crack that record. That magic will break the three.
MARNIE VINALL: Yeah, I want to break the record. I don't want to set us up for another gold. Let's see if we can get another silver.
BEN WATERWORTH: All right, yeah. So gold, silver, and then maybe two bronzes.
MARNIE VINALL: I think that seems achievable because Australia, we do well. We don't do amazingly in winters yet.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yet. Exactly. Well, I think the fact that if we can win any medal at a Winter Olympics, it is an amazing achievement given where we are. We are literally baking our asses off in this car right now.
MARNIE VINALL: Oh my God, I'm so sorry. Yeah, we're sitting in my car, so we're away from the wind, but I don't have air conditioning and I'm beginning to sweat.
BEN WATERWORTH: It's all right. We just, we want to actually be like, we're so bored watching snow and cold, we want to sweat right now. We are, I'm asking this on air. This is embarrassing. Are you still coming curling tonight? Or is this a thing that you're not going to anymore?
MARNIE VINALL: Well, I'm actually going on ABC Radio tonight now instead.
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, should have asked that off. We're very professional in the show. We'll keep that in. Well, when Joe and I go curling, we'll be sure to send you pictures.
MARNIE VINALL: I don't know if I can handle it. Okay, I'll come next week. Yeah, next week. You can book me in. If ABC call and say, come on radio, talk about the Winter Olympics, I'll say, I can't, I'm sorry.
BEN WATERWORTH: This is where we turn around and say, well, Off The Podium is more important than ABC Radio. I mean, did ABC Radio get nominated for a Sports Podcast Award? I don't know.
MARNIE VINALL: I don't know either.
BEN WATERWORTH: So come on, ABC. Exactly. It has been a pleasure, Marnie, talking to you. I'm sure we will get you on again during these games.
MARNIE VINALL: Please.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yes, because you are pestering me a lot. It's like, let me sleep.
MARNIE VINALL: There's lots to say.
BEN WATERWORTH: Actually, hang on. And where are these five jokes?
MARNIE VINALL: I actually started to look up some Winter Olympic jokes just to be prepared. But then, you know, actual work got in the way, unfortunately.
BEN WATERWORTH: Did you at least have one, maybe, that you could share with us?
MARNIE VINALL: They were all so bad.
BEN WATERWORTH: The bad or the better. Again, you're on Off The Podium.
MARNIE VINALL: Oh.
BEN WATERWORTH: See, I said the bad or the better. That's not even a sentence. This is exactly what I'm trying to say to you.
MARNIE VINALL: Oh, my goodness. I'm really letting the team down. I want to say it's like my latest Google has them up.
BEN WATERWORTH: See, Ray came in just as we swapped over, just in the shift, and he's just like, she's been looking them up. She's been, you know, and I'm just like, well.
MARNIE VINALL: Well, I started reading some to him, and he was like, these are all real bad.
BEN WATERWORTH: He's a dad. He should be liking them, right? Like, come on, dad jokes. This is the goal.
MARNIE VINALL: Oh, I just looked up Winter Olympic jokes, and the first one is just about women in curling. So you can imagine what we're dealing with.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, no, we don't want those. I mean, I could say a Winter Olympic joke. The Canadian mix doubles curling team. Oh, too soon. Sorry Colin. We'll be coming on the show in a couple of weeks as well. Thanks, thanks John and Rachel. We appreciate it. Why do Canadians do well in the Winter Olympics? Because they always bring their A game. That's actually quite good.
MARNIE VINALL: Is it good?
BEN WATERWORTH: That's like, that's my favourite Canadian joke. How do you spell Canada? C-A-N-A-D-A. Yeah, you can use that one. Marnie, thank you. And we will chat to you again.
MARNIE VINALL: Thank you so much. Appreciate it.
BEN WATERWORTH: And there you go. She's a Vancouver Canucks supporter, Colin. How do you feel about that?
COLIN HILDING: I mean, as long as she's not an Ottawa centre or a supporter.
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, I mean, is that worse than being an Edmonton fan? Like, you know, no. I mean, no, right? Jarrod, I mean, you're very anti-Vancouver, aren't you?
JARROD LOOBEEK: Yeah. All Leafs fans hate Vancouver, right?
BEN WATERWORTH: All Leafs fans hate everyone because they just can't win. Breaking news in the speed skating, the short track. Colin, do you want to be spoiled or not?
COLIN HILDING: Sure. You can spoil us.
BEN WATERWORTH: Gold goes to Ariana Fontana, who gets her 10th Olympic medal, if you don't mind. Most decorated short track speed skater of all time. Good for her. Suzanne Schultling of the Netherlands, silver and in bronze, Kim Bataan, third. You got a bronze, Colin. Well done. Bronze to Canada. Congratulations.
COLIN HILDING: And she was our closing ceremony flag bearer in the last Olympics, because she, with no expectations at all, all the expectations on people like Charles Hamlin, she ended up winning three medals, which I think tied the record for most winter medals, won in a single games and came out of nowhere doing it. So maybe she could top it this time. Maybe she's going to be four.
BEN WATERWORTH: I knew her name sounded familiar. I knew I'd heard of her at some point there. Who's jumping now? Where are you from Mr. Gold Helmet, Norway?
COLIN HILDING: La la.
BEN WATERWORTH: Don't worry. Athlete, what day are we celebrating today? Colin, let's go to Canada first. Tell us, I believe it's a ski jumper today as well, isn't it? This might be poignant.
COLIN HILDING: It is, appropriately. I thought that I was going to be putting up somebody who their accomplishment would stand, which is the most accomplished ski jumper in the history of Canada. As one of the two sports we've never won a medal in, his best finish through four separate Olympics he was in was seventh place in his home country of Calgary. That's Horst Bula. But Horst, who's a... For his accomplishments, being the greatest ski jumper in the history of Canada to place seventh place is in three separate Hall of Fame's. And we very well may be blowing that all away by the entire team in a matter of minutes. Which I'm still not watching.
BEN WATERWORTH: Is the other sport you have medalled in Nordic combined?
COLIN HILDING: Yeah.
BEN WATERWORTH: Oh, look at that.
COLIN HILDING: Really two sports tied together.
BEN WATERWORTH: Okay. Well, you want to know all the sports Australia hasn't medalled in at the Winter Olympics? We might be here for a while.
COLIN HILDING: Famous last words. This won't take long.
BEN WATERWORTH: Ice hockey, skeleton, bogey, bobsled, Nordic combined. So today, well, it's interesting you talk about having Canada's most decorated ski jumper. Today, I'm going to tell you the story of Australia's most decorated biathlete. Today is Karen Rimday, who is a three-time Olympian for Australia, funnily enough, and she actually scored... Actually, I'm not going to spoil this. Jarrod, tell me now, you might have seen the post today, so you might know the answer to this. I don't know. Pretend you haven't seen the post today. Where do you think Australia's highest ever finish in biathlon would be?
JARROD LOOBEEK: Well, I would have said low, but then you said, well, actually... I don't know, ninth?
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, you're very... Gee, what a great guess, Jarrod. You should take this up for a living. She actually finished eighth in Lilahama, believe it or not, that we actually had somebody... There's a pub trivia fact for you. Where's Australia's highest finish in biathlon? Oh, 57th, like, you know, 43rd. To have someone in the top 10 in biathlon for Australia is absolutely ridiculous, but Karen did do that. Also competed in Albaville and Nagano. So, what... I mean, if we didn't win a bronze medal in those Olympics, that would be the talking point, I can imagine, of those games. So eighth for her in the individual. She also got 21st in the sprint. So, great. That's just that's that's like, if you were to tell me the sports that we've finished top 10 in, I would never fucking guess biathlon. No, yes, sorry, I didn't direct that to anyone. I don't know where I was going. Colin, what do you think about that?
COLIN HILDING: I mean, you couldn't see it, but Colin was nodding if that makes you feel better.
BEN WATERWORTH: Do I need to get money back on? You guys zoning out here?
COLIN HILDING: I'm going to wrap this up so I can watch the ski jumping.
BEN WATERWORTH: Watch it at the same time?
COLIN HILDING: No, I can't.
BEN WATERWORTH: Athlete of the day, everyone. Let's go with you, Colin, Mr. Whatever Pants. Give us an idea of who your nominees are today.
COLIN HILDING: You know, I almost wanted to put up the figure skater you were talking about just for the abuse she had to go through. But that would be more of an honorable mention. Honestly, the only one that I really feel is a standout is good old Irene. Come on, Irene, not Eileen. So that would be my vote. I was going to say this week, this day, two days.
BEN WATERWORTH: She's on my list. Yeah, Jarrod, Jarrod's nodding. Is that is that a your kind of an agreeance there too?
JARROD LOOBEEK: I have a list of three and she probably makes the most sense. But the other two I had were Johann Clary, just like old man winning a silver medal, age of 41 in the downhill, like impressive. And then the other is also from the downhill. Good old Austrian. What's his first name? Daniel, Daniel Hemmitsberger. I don't know if you saw this. He, he hit himself in the face with his ski pole as he was going down the hill. And he makes it to the end. And his face is just like covered in blood, which you couldn't see because like, obviously you're watching it from the back. And then he gets to the end, he like turns around and there's just like blood everywhere. So he's my other nominee.
BEN WATERWORTH: Okay, so I've got Irene. I've got Johan. I haven't heard of that guy, but yep. I also put Max, because I mean, you know, gold medal for Canada also beat cancer. I also put the Italian curlers for going through the round robins as undefeated. But like, Colin, you need to step away here, my friend. Like I just, if this happens, I don't think we have a choice.
COLIN HILDING: I mean, let's decide on an athlete day then I'm gone. I'm out of here.
BEN WATERWORTH: But like, how am I meant to decide an athlete of the day if something's about to happen without spoiling it for you? Because I feel that we need to give it to a team if something happens here, because this is history. And I'm Canadian.
COLIN HILDING: I'm okay with not. I mean, Canada will have more history in these games. I guarantee it.
BEN WATERWORTH: Jarrod, what are you thinking here? Like, can you mute yourself for a second, Colin? Just take your headphones off. Can you do that? Have you done it? If he hasn't, I'll spoil it. Then I'm just I'm doing it, Jarrod. All right, Jarrod, it looks as though it looks I'm going to spoil this for Colin. It looks as though Canada are going to win a bronze in ski jumping. OK, hold on.
COLIN HILDING: I have decided it's going to probably be a few hours before I can watch this anyways, and I'm supposed to start work in 30 minutes. I've decided you can let me in on what's going on.
BEN WATERWORTH: Are you 100% sure?
COLIN HILDING: Yes.
BEN WATERWORTH: I think we're up to the last jumper now, although, because I'm looking at the scores different. Canada, I think, are going to win the bronze, which is ridiculous. So I am really for the fact that they've won the bronze. Canada have fucking won the bronze in ski jumping. This is insane. Off The Podium. Elliot Heppey.
COLIN HILDING: I'm going to say this, though. I thought the reason I'm like, OK, I'm not saying I regret having you spoil it, but I was leaning towards, OK, is Canada going to win it? The way Ben's talking, are we going to win a gold in this? Because if we won a gold and Canada medalled and we had our first gold medal ever for Off The Podium, then I'd say, yes, that is an athlete of the day. But I am OK with skipping a bronze, as incredible as this is.
BEN WATERWORTH: I know I'd like, but I'm not like this is this is baffling me that you can sit there and chuck a Tanty over freaking Penny, who wins more fucking gold medals in like most countries. You just literally want a medal.
COLIN HILDING: This this is honestly the difference. We're talking about a sport we've never medalled in, right? The difference is Penny became the most accomplished Olympian we've ever had in the Olympics. That would be like if Jakara became the most accomplished Olympian ever for you.
BEN WATERWORTH: Emma did it for us, and we didn't really give a shit. I'm changing mine. I'm putting up the Canadian mixed ski jumping. This is ridiculous. Like, this is on levels that you like you broke. Like, you are a winter nation who we assume wins medals in everything, and you've broken through one of the two that you haven't. And this is an Off The Podium connection. We have two guests on this show who have won two bronze medals that we didn't even remotely think would be possible. And thirdly, this is a Ben Waterworth win. My first ever individual interviews, and I've got two in one go. This is brilliant.
COLIN HILDING: Look, I'm perfectly all right with both because they're both great accomplishments. But we are talking about five gold medals by one athlete, which is tough. And I'm thrilled for the ski jumpers, like thrilled. But we also did not give it to Kylie for officially breaking our curse. So I think we have to remove the whole they're an Off The Podium guest, their Ben's first win.
JARROD LOOBEEK: What are you offering to send me this time, Colin, if I side with you?
COLIN HILDING: Here's the thing. This would be more what Ben wants to do because I don't care. Give it to whoever.
BEN WATERWORTH: I'm just waiting for that package you sent me. Colin hasn't arrived yet.
COLIN HILDING: I'm simply saying that, you know, hey, if we give it to the ski jumpers, great. If we give it to Irene, I think that's an incredible accomplishment. But if we're going off of our past criteria, Irene checks more boxes.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Look, Irene, we've already nominated somebody from the long track speed skating.
BEN WATERWORTH: And Irene, we gave it to Claudia the other day. But also the other thing.
COLIN HILDING: Oh, that's right. Okay. So there we go.
BEN WATERWORTH: But the other thing I'll say is Irene might be up again because she probably will win more medals. She's in like five events, so I mean, she could then become the most decorated winter Olympian of all time.
COLIN HILDING: Honestly, Jarrod can make the call on this. I'm fine with it. But yeah, that's a very good point. Long track has been up already.
BEN WATERWORTH: Jarrod.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Just go with the ski jumping. I'm upset for bloody nose because clearly that's a huge accomplishment, but I suppose we can settle for the ski jumping.
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, you also got to save our time skiing for Esther, right? Like she's got two events this time around. But I don't think we're going to have ski jumpers up again, are we? This is insane.
COLIN HILDING: When are we going to watch ski jumping again?
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, I don't know. I mean, Casey might be up again. Anyway, he's going to be up again. But like, like, is this literally even like I think we talked about this, Colin. I don't even think Canada talked about ski jumping in like a preview or anything. Are they? This is like athlete number two hundred and twelve, thirteen, fourteen and fifteen in Canada.
COLIN HILDING: I am not knocking the athlete at all. If anything, I have been going on and on about how Ali is probably the best interview that we've had and who knows how long. But there is a reason that she was a longer interview for us. And that's because we don't get media coverage here in Canada for ski jumpers. Like Off The Podium was probably the biggest media coverage she might have had going into these Olympics. I mean, when I tried to Google our ski jumpers, you might find a article in a local newspaper or the announcement of who's making the ski jumping team, which just every sport gets. So, I mean, this the fact that we have beaten Horst Bulao on Horst Bulao Day. Another big deal, I guess.
BEN WATERWORTH: And also can we point out that Allie is actually a listener to this show. She listens to his show like every single day. She actually like she's the one person that enjoys the show. So we have an Olympic bronze medallist who loves listening to our show. So I am legitimately like so fucking happy right now for them. Like that is just that is amazing. That is just so incredible. Like I'm not going to try and take away like if any of our other guests go on to do it. Like I'm so thrilled for Alex, for example, getting 16 and lose. Like that's such a great result. Dean and Tali for, you know, everything they've achieved. But like that is amazing. That is so amazing that and like I don't think anyone is going to look at Canada winning a bronze medal in the Winter Olympics and go, OK, well, whatever. But like that is just insane. I will be saying to Joe tomorrow, fucking mention this. Like this needs to be mentioned. And this is the first time this has ever been held at the Olympics, too. Slovenia, by the way, took the gold rock, took the silver. But I mean, you beat like Norway, you beat Poland, you beat Japan. Like Germany didn't even make the final. Like, I mean, great ski jumping nations. So just just wow. That's that's that's blown me away.
COLIN HILDING: But Jarrod, if we're being honest, we do know that Ben's main reasoning for this is because he interviewed them, right?
BEN WATERWORTH: I will be honest, there is definitely part of that there. But like I legitimately am saying some of this because I actually am genuinely like just shocked and thrilled. It's like, again, this is not meant to be disrespectful in how I say this. But like sometimes when you get guests on the show and you think like, OK, well, they've got to they've got a chance. At the point we interviewed Ali and Abby, like they sort of knew they were going, but they didn't 100 percent know. And I think even you wouldn't ask them legitimately, you know, are you hoping to meddle? And I don't think either of them would legitimately said like, Yeah, I think we can. Because I think from looking at World Cups and things like that, I don't even think they'd meddled in World Cups. You know, this was like a, you know, Canada, we're going into this like, you know, second in the world or something like this. Like, this is something that I just think has come out of absolutely nowhere. I barely didn't want to even look at the scores. I'm thinking, well, Canada is going to be like 10 years. But, you know.
COLIN HILDING: It's been a year, so I don't recall it all. But maybe you've heard it more recently. The interview I did with Nathaniel Ma, our last Nordic combined athlete of Canada. I remember asking him, like, how long is it going to be before we have a Nordic combined athlete in the Olympics again? And he figured a few Olympic games. And I believe he even said, you know, we might have some potential down the road for ski jumping, but it wasn't even like... And he's working for the ski jumping team Canada or whatever. And even he was very hesitant on it. Oh, yeah, there's a little bit more hope on the ski jumping side. So, yeah, huge accomplishment. And our entire team.
BEN WATERWORTH: But like in that interview with Nathaniel, how he talked about how like it takes a medal to bring money into the sport. You know, I mean, what's he's going to do for ski jumping in Canada all of a sudden? You know, so you know what, like, I'm you know, I'm I if we don't give it to another.
COLIN HILDING: I think it was very similar. I was a few days ago, Jarrod, when you were saying you didn't want to put up an Australian. Yet you're like, oh, but you know, what if we have somebody? I feel bad that we had yesterday with with Zoey Day, which we can't take away Zoey Day. Like what a day for Australia Day two was. You guys could easily put up Dean and Tally. I mean, that was a movie storyline. And then plus on top of that, Jakara. But I almost feel like, you know, I don't and test as well. There you go. But I almost feel like I don't care if Canada wins gold in every other event. From this point forward, this is still one of the greatest accomplishments the country can have.
BEN WATERWORTH: And like, I mean, you look at yesterday as well, like Frickin Alex would have been up every any other day for finishing 16th in the luge. Like, I mean, you know, like that you look at that. But yeah, just absolutely. Seriously, such big congratulations to Abby and Ali. Just so happy for them. So, so amazing for them to to being part of that team as well. So the only medal of it now that we are waiting for is the men's 1000 metres in the short track. There's no Canadians or obviously Australians in that one as well. But breaking news in the curling, Jarrod, I don't know if you watch this, Sweden won Italy eight. Italy are going to medal, and we hope the sexy Swedes can sneak in a bronze. And it's in the eighth end right now, Norway, Britain. Are you watching this, Jarrod? What's your call right now? Who's got this, do you think?
JARROD LOOBEEK: I'm not watching it, but I feel like maybe it's Norway's turn.
BEN WATERWORTH: Okay. Well, there you go. We could see that. We do have a result in the men's 1000 metres. China have won their second gold at their home Olympics. Ren Zhui has won two for China, actually. Li Wenlong, Silva, and one of the Liu brothers for Hungary, Shuang Liu has taken the bronze there. And just quickly in the ice hockey, I can do China one up over Sweden, Switzerland one up over Finland, and Channel 7 are showing. I'm seeing Ali on our screens right now. Look at this, they're showing it. I can see Ali Ludit is right now on my TV screen. There you go. I look at that for timing when I look up at that as well. Metal Tally at the end of day three. Wow, okay, this has come out of nowhere. Sweden are on top right now. Go Sweden. Three gold, zero silver, zero bronze. ROC second, two gold, three silver, two bronze. They're leading on total medals. Canada, by the way, second on total medals. Colin, congratulations. So Netherlands third, two gold, two silver, one bronze. China fourth, two gold, two silver, zero bronze. And Germany fifth, two gold, one silver, zero bronze. Canada now in ninth place, a gold, a silver, and four bronze, six in total. And Australia have dropped out of the top 10. Disappointment, 11th, one gold, one bronze. New Zealand, 13th, one gold. Still seems weird, let's be honest. And Burkina Faso currently ranked in 20th with zero gold, zero silver, zero bronze.
COLIN HILDING: Crack the top 20, yes.
BEN WATERWORTH: Best ever performance at a Winter Olympics. So I'm sure they're going off in the streets of Burkina Faso's capital, which of course is Colin. What is the capital of Burkina Faso? You know it, of the back of your-
COLIN HILDING: Burkina Faso city.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, that's the one. And Norway is through to the gold medal match in curling. They will go at least one better than they did in Pyeongchang. The world champs are out. Look, I should be happy that Britain aren't going to win a gold medal, but they're Scottish. They're not, you know, they're the good type of Britain. So Italy-
COLIN HILDING: Yeah, but they still have another event to go. So share the wealth.
BEN WATERWORTH: Italy versus Norway, the traditional curling rivals. Who would have called that? As the gold medal match in Mexico.
COLIN HILDING: Who do we have? Who do we pull in for? Italy.
BEN WATERWORTH: I'm going on Italy now. I'm out of the way. We don't know who the athlete of the day is tomorrow. I'm just going to CVC's website to see if the ski jumping is made. So the headlines on CVC right now. Live Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games. Morning featuring mixed doubles curling. Followed by Ottawa declares state of emergencies, police boost enforcement, target protest, fuel supply. Are these protests like playing tougher than the Senators right now, Colin or?
COLIN HILDING: Yes, absolutely. I was going to say I'd show you, but I don't have my camera on because I'm running three computers. But yeah, it's actually funny. The number one story is Kim Bhutan winning the bronze. Right below that, it actually says breaking news, Canadian ski jumpers win Olympic bronze and mixed team event.
BEN WATERWORTH: No, I mean, what I'm seeing here is Kim Bhutan wins bronze, Canada overcomes bizarre delay to beat Russia, snowboarder Max Perot, Canadian curlers. These Canadians have figured out a work-life balance, and so can you. Oh no, here we go. Now, this is where I can see the bronze. Canadian ski jumpers win Olympic. Oh, brilliant. Absolutely brilliant. Tomorrow. What a day. What a day. Tomorrow is the busiest day during these Olympics. We have 10 gold medals going up the most of any day for Off The Podium. Brennan Carey, our flag bearer is out in the men's short program. Scott Gow, can he get a biathlon medal for Canada, Colin? It's been a while. He's in the 20 kilometre individual. We're going to have Jason Brown, not James Brown, Jason Brown, also in the men's short program. And Casey Wright in the cross-country sprint, her pet event, she's out there tomorrow as well. But who gives a shit about any of them? We hate all of them. No, we don't, we love them all. Because who's on tomorrow? Her first event. Queen Esther is on the course tomorrow. The parallel giant slalom, the one that she was expected to win in Pyeongchang. And I don't think she's in quite as hot form as she is going into this as she was, but she's in three events now. So tomorrow is Esther Day part one. So I am a bit excited for this. Get to see Queen Esther. Jarrod, are we excited for Esther tomorrow? And what else? And I'll apologise for that, I guess. We do, of course, care a lot about you, and we are keen to see it all. So what are you excited for tomorrow, Jarrod?
JARROD LOOBEEK: I think it has to be Esther. It's just got to be the parallel giant slalom. Other than that, you know, a bit of this, a bit of that. I'll give the big air another go. I'm not expecting much. I hope we get, just give me one flip. The spins are good, but I just want to flip, you know?
BEN WATERWORTH: You just want to flip. All right, triple cork, 1080 with extra pike.
JARROD LOOBEEK: And then, of course, the curling finals.
COLIN HILDING: Flipping for Jarrod.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, hashtag flipping for Jarrod. Get it, get it trending. If they do a flip, I'll get a t-shirt made. Flipping for Jarrod, basically. Colin, are you on the Esther train tomorrow?
COLIN HILDING: Oh, absolutely. And I don't mind slalom. I mean, I've always watched it, but really Esther is what has this behind the sport. I mean, curling is going to be hard to beat. And I won't be able to stay up for it. I think that's the toughest thing. I'm telling you right now, I might not be here tomorrow.
BEN WATERWORTH: Oh, you're dying. Oh, means Jarrod and I might be able to recall that it's a decent time. Thank you. We're actually happy about that. Fine, talking to you. That's great.
COLIN HILDING: Jarrod, nine o'clock tomorrow, I want to be able to watch, I want to be able to watch some things before coming in tomorrow, and I don't think I have any options.
BEN WATERWORTH: I might be able to get to bed before midnight tomorrow night. Jesus, this is the best news I've had all week.
COLIN HILDING: You go for it.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, it's all about it tomorrow. I will say that to the 10 events tomorrow, the medals have been decided. We've got the Men's Supergene Alpine, the Biathlon, the Men's Individual, Cross Country, we've got the Men's and Women's Sprint, Curling the Mixed Doubles, the Big Air Women's in the Freestyle Skiing, the Women's Alluge tomorrow, both the Men's and Women's Parallel Giant Slalom, and the Speed Skating. Other thing to note tomorrow as well, Canada, USA, and Women's Hockey, which is always entertaining, of course. I believe the goal difference has never been more than three in the history of the Olympics, and you've got to go all the way back to Nagano when the USA beat Canada. This is why it's great when I'm on the research when I actually remember these stats at the top of my head. So expect Canada probably to, you know, all this hype around it, I'll probably end up choking. But we rely on the ski jumpers. And we're only a day away from the men's ice hockey starting. So not to take away from the women's, we love the women's ice hockey, but the men's ice hockey is very close to starting. Yeah, what a day. I love that we can do these things on air as well. Like this is just fantastic that we've been doing that. It's been a fun one. It's been entertaining. Thanks to everybody for listening. Thanks to Marnie for tuning in. We're tuning in for being on the show as well. And to our number one listener of Off The Podium, congratulations on your Olympic medal. I will say that. Abby, well done. Ali and Abby. I'm sure Abby listens as well. I'm just, I'm losing it. It's late. Like, subscribe, follow us on all the channels, do all the usual stuff as per usual, vote for us in the sports podcast awards. That's our Olympic bronze medal. Never have we won a medal in podcast awards before. So just, we're going to pull an Abby slash Allie slash the other two guys that we're not mentioning.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Can't wait to crown ourselves the Daily Dale.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, do we get one? Can we have a Daily Dale? The athlete of the day is Daily Dale, by the way. I should have plugged that anyway. The great thing about Jakara winning gold is that we get a lot of mentions of Dale Begsmith on TV all of a sudden. So that's always a good thing. But until tomorrow, Jarrod, thank you very much for joining us. It's always a pleasure.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Thank you. It's been fun.
BEN WATERWORTH: And Colin, get your children on some ski jump, because the country is about to go off. That sport is literally going to take off from this point on.
COLIN HILDING: I know curling is on its way out and ski jumping is on its way in.
BEN WATERWORTH: Just look at this. Your curlers let you down and your ski jumpers take the mantle. Like literally, if you had to say at the beginning of these Olympics, on one day you will have curlers and ski jumpers win a medal. You will be like, what's that dumb question? Ummm, you know? I'm telling you now, Jarrod, Casey is going to win a bronze medal in the cross country tomorrow. I mean, that would be about as big a deal for Australia. I have fucking nowhere. Casey Wright wins a bronze in the cross country. So, bring it on, Casey. Absolutely brilliant. Thanks for tuning in to Off The Podium. Big shout out to Jason and Moa, and until we next speak again, go left.
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