Beijing 2022 Paralympics Recap
It's time to recap an epic Winter Paralympics and go over our thoughts on all the incredible moments and achievements that we just witnessed over 8 massive days of competition. We go over all the highlights from both a Canadian and Australian perspective, as well as going over some other memorable moments that stood out amongst the rest. We also talk about why the Paralympics are just so damn entertaining as well as how the coverage does differ when you move to a different country. Added to this the celebration that comes with OTP winning another gold medal, the disappointment of Shuey Rhon Rhon and Colin somehow being the one to put his foot in it this time, it's an episode you won't want to miss!
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
Please note this is an automated transcript that may contain errors.
COLIN HILDING: Welcome to Off The Podium, a Paralympics podcast for the second time in 12 months. And it's not even the second time of these games. That's how dedicated we are, but we're busy, we're busy people, but we always find time, at least within the last six months, to talk about the Paralympics. And we get to talk about Shuey Rhon Rhon, that's what this episode is all about. And then we'll throw in some of the other game stuff in there. My name is Colin, and of course, also on the line, for the first time ever in three separate countries, which is exciting, we get to talk about three separate networks that cover this, or two of them, because I'm still thinking NBC is trying to put something together, and it may come in the future, we'll see. Ben Waterworth, coming to us live from New York City, New York, New York. Ben, hello.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yes, live from New York, it's Monday morning. Thank you, Colin. This feels weird, not hosting an episode with all three of us, but I appreciate your welcoming. My name is Ben, yes, we don't do that on this show, do we?
COLIN HILDING: No, but we can try.
BEN WATERWORTH: My name is Ben and whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, I'm a skier.
COLIN HILDING: And his name is Jarrod, and I am hearing rumours that he might be taking over the researching position for Channel 7. That could be why he's been a little bit inactive in the last couple of weeks. Jarrod, welcome and thank you for cleaning up Ben's mess.
JARROD LOOBEEK: No worries. Big shoes to fill at Channel 7. And I also am, it feels a bit weird not hosting this. I'm so used to it.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, Jarrod, come on, put your finger out. This is the sack of your behalf. Why are you so lazy today?
COLIN HILDING: I think one of the interesting things is that for the first time ever, we get to, I guess, bring perspective from three different countries or networks coverage and see what's different or what exists in each country. Jarrod, I don't know if you want to start us off just by telling us, well, compared to Tokyo, which I remember being quite good from what you guys told us about the TV coverage on Channel 7, what's Channel 7's coverage been like? Has there been coverage of this? Did they forget that there was a Paralympics this time around?
JARROD LOOBEEK: To be honest, it's been pretty bad. Oh my God. Just like a highlight show every day, like an hour long, that's all you get. One of the annoying times is that nobody watches it. It's just, I don't know. I've been watching stuff on the app, so at least they have that. But yeah, the coverage itself, not too great. It's kind of a shame, but I suppose it's good that we've got something at all.
COLIN HILDING: And Ben, you get to see what little coverage is available. I get to see what little coverage is of NBC, but I was pleasantly surprised on the first night that you were sending me, like, they had live coverage and they were showing real sports over on a sister network. So did that carry on throughout the entire Olympics or what's it been like there?
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, I mean, it's the first time I've ever seen any Paralympics or regular Olympics, not that the Paralympics, I hate using that word, Paralympics or Olympics in another country. And yeah, so they were showing it on the USA network. So kind of the room that I'm saying in has like a, you know, cable box and kind of you're looking through the guide one night. And then basically every night from about midnight, they would just have blanket coverage from it looked like on the guideline from midnight through to, I don't know, whatever time it would end. So every night I would come back and I would put it on and it was just live. It was just purely live on the USA Network. It was clearly the NBC coverage because you sort of had the NBC set and you had the NBC people and there was commentators and just all that kind of stuff too. But I don't know if that's a regular thing that they usually do during an Olympics or a Paralympics. It kind of like siphon off NBC coverages, another network like the USA Network. But yeah, it was on every single night live. So that was cool. And you said, obviously, that you, given that you get NBC, that you sounded like what was happening in Australia with Channel 7, that you kind of only saw like two seconds of it every single day.
COLIN HILDING: It wasn't even every single day. I think that's a really bad thing with NBC is that, I can't even remember specifically if Tokyo, I'm pretty sure they had a little bit more, but that also was during the summer where there's less on TV. But I kept waiting from day one to see what is NBC covering as far as like network coverage. And there was nothing. And it was only in the last two days. It was Friday night and it was Saturday night. They had a one hour recap show each day where they were recapping events from the entire Paralympics. So minimal effort put into the network coverage, but it actually does sound like the USA network coverage was probably even better than what we had here in Canada with CBC. With CBC, it's not that they didn't have TV time dedicated. It's probably the same as what we had for Tokyo. There would be about a two hour prime time show every single night. There would be a daytime show and there would be an overnight show. And if you add all that up, you're looking at probably six to eight hours per day. But there was a lot of reruns that was going on, which I think was unnecessary because there is, and let's also say there are fewer events being held for the Paralympics. So filling eight hours might be a little bit tricky, but it was just wheelchair curling all the time, which I understand this is Canada. And I mean, curling is a big sport, but I'm all wheelchair curling out. And I was kind of hoping to see a little more variety from the other sports. But I mean, still I can't really complain because at least we have the best network coverage here. The more frustrating thing for me was how abbreviated some of the sports were. Like when we're watching a downhill event and the runs are maybe 60 to 75 seconds, I see no need to edit that. And I mean, CBC every single time they had this on, even if they had a two hour block, it was, oh, this gear's going down and we watched the first 10 seconds and then it'll cut to the end. Like, no, I don't need that. It's only, you're looking for a minute and 10 seconds tops. Give us a little more, maybe cut a couple ends out of the wheelchair curling. But as far as variety of sports goes, I mean, is it a one-sport show in Australia, Jarrod?
JARROD LOOBEEK: It's pretty bad. Yeah, I feel like they do this thing with, because it's like an hour highlight show, like a day, they only really show the Australian athletes. And Australia just happens to have, I swear like 90% of our athletes are in some form of like alpine skiing. So I just saw a lot of downhill like, but I just got sick of it. I had the opposite problem, like they showed the entire runs because they're just showing the Australian athletes, but it was just like run after run after run of downhill and like the different disciplines. And it just got a bit boring. I was like, I'd rather just see other sports and see Aussies. Like it was great to see them and they would have had time. Like it's not like there were that many athletes. They could have shown the Australians and also shown other sport, but it was just purely like Australian highlights of just like their runs and just everybody seemed to be doing downhill of some sort.
COLIN HILDING: I know for NBC, they're two hours of coverage over nine, 10 days. They pretty much were focusing just on the American athletes. Although I was pleasantly surprised they opened up their second day with, I mean, there was an American silver in there, but it was actually one of the big Canadian golds. But USA Network, I mean, they're doing live coverage. So they probably couldn't predict it as much. But what type of variety of sports did you get? Ben, did you get a variety of sports? Because you told me it was almost exclusively one thing as well.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, well, it's funny when you said you saw wheelchair curling. I wish I bloody saw some wheelchair curling. I didn't see any. But similar to Jarrod, it was mainly just alpine. Every time I was watching it, I swear I was watching some form of alpine. But it was obviously live, and they would show the whole thing. I actually saw a bit of para cross-country. They showed a fair few of those, which was kind of unique and interesting, and biathlon as well. And obviously a lot of sled hockey right at the end. And I swear that was always kind of on when I was falling asleep. But the thing that I loved about the coverage here, and I've seen it here before in the US when I've watched Formula One here, is, and I don't know if they do it in Canada. I don't know if I ever witnessed it, but when they go to a commercial break, they actually put like picture in picture. So they actually will still have, like they'll minimise the screen. So you can still watch the Paralympics, like in the top left corner, while you've got your commercials going on, which they do that for Formula One so that you don't miss any of the race. You can still watch it. You've obviously got no commentary, you've got no sound, but you can still see what's happening. And I'm sure Jarrod, you watch any sport in Australia, and you know that. Like I know for a big gripe for Australian football fans is now this whole situation on free to air when every time someone kicks a goal, they'll play like one or two commercials. And I think they do it in rugby as well. Whenever somebody scores a try, so let's play one of, we can fit one or two commercials in in between the celebrations. And it's just bullshit. That's why everyone goes and pays for cable and gets, you know, Foxtel and gets Fox Sports and all that sort of stuff. But yeah, a lot of downhill, Alpine, a lot of, you know, but I love the biathlon. I didn't realise it like biathlon and cross country had guides as well in some of the events. I'm fascinated by biathlon with a guide. Like, to your left, to your left, to your right, to your right, shoot, shoot. Like, I mean, like that's brilliant. That is so, so amazing. But I didn't see any curling. So I'm disappointed. And actually, I maybe saw like one moment of snowboarding, which I mean, I'm guessing channel seven probably focused on that, given that's where Australia won one medal in. But yeah, I didn't see as much snowboarding as I thought I would either.
COLIN HILDING: Well, I mean, just kind of break it down here. I mean, obviously we're looking at in any Paralympics, probably a lot of medals, but not necessarily as many sports, because you will have the vision impaired medals. Yeah, exactly. And you're going to break up all those medals among vision impaired. And then you have to have, you know, people who have amputations just from this point on and then just from this point on. It's all very complicated for which event you can qualify for. But I mean, of the six events, alpine skiing, Nordic skiing, which makes up for the biathlon and the cross country, pair ice hockey, snowboarding, wheelchair curling. I mean, it's not surprising there is a lot more alpine skiing that is being shown everywhere outside of Canada, where wheelchair curling is the only sport, apparently, because 30 medals were given out in alpine skiing. The next closest to that was 20 in cross country, 18 in biathlon, eight in snowboarding, and then only in one in pair ice hockey and wheelchair curling. Pair ice hockey, kind of sad that we don't have a woman's version yet. There's no reason we shouldn't.
BEN WATERWORTH: Like I always thought there was a women's para ice hockey.
COLIN HILDING: Yeah, you know, I don't know. And I can only assume it comes down, you know, similar to a lot of them is it not enough competition or what they would say, but like get the competition out there. You're looking for a couple of countries that will be willing to participate. And we do know that those sleds, they cost a lot of money. When we had Wallace on a couple months ago, Jack Wallace on a couple months ago, I think he told us was something like $10,000. I don't remember the exact dollar. Do you remember?
BEN WATERWORTH: Not off the top of my head, no, but very expensive and obviously, the way they've got to transport them and fix them up and that. And there's only what, like, what? Seven countries competing in it as well. So it's, even on the men's side of things, there's obviously limited countries that do play it. So there's no disrespect to women. It's generally a lot of these sports, unfortunately have less women participation in it. So obviously that's probably even, you might only have like three or four countries that do compete in it. So that's, the curling's mixed, isn't it? So the reason why there's no men's and a women's wheelchair curling is that it's mixed.
COLIN HILDING: And I know I was talking about during the Tokyo games that, or sorry, not the Tokyo games, I don't wanna say regular, during the Olympics, there was actually, there was a nice story I read before the Paralympics, which basically was detailing, these athletes don't wanna be called Olympians. They're not Olympians, they're Paralympians. So, during the Olympics, not to confuse with the Paralympics, but I always say that I don't see any reason why you can't just have, curling is, men's and women's teams, like why do we need separation? It's not a sport where there's a physical advantage to be a man.
BEN WATERWORTH: But you hate mixed events, Colin. Like you just don't like mixed events.
COLIN HILDING: Well, I hate the mixed events where there is a clear advantage and there is none. But I could see in something like para ice hockey, which also, let's throw the correction out there, it's no longer sled hockey. Now, at least here, they're calling it exclusively para ice hockey. You'll still have the commentator slip and everything like that. But yeah, when you have a clear advantage, you can see how they can't have mixed teams. But that's why I think I appreciate the wheelchair curling because you can have men's and women's teams and there's not any type of issues with that.
BEN WATERWORTH: Sorry to interrupt. I feel you could have mixed para ice hockey. I mean, I grew up in a place where ice hockey is played with men and women mixed. There's like three women who competed in hockey in Tasmania, so they kind of didn't really have a choice. But I feel as though in para ice hockey, it would kind of work. It's obviously still a very physical sport. It's a very physically demanding sport, but I feel that if you were to mix up the handful of female, again, I don't know the participation rates of female para ice hockey players out there, but I mean, it could possibly be done. I don't think it would be the worst version of ice hockey to sort of mix the players up. I mean, I can tell you one thing, any female, able-bodied or non-able-bodied ice hockey player out there would kick my ass no matter what, so, you know.
COLIN HILDING: Well, and that's been a debate that's been open, at least here in Canada, since the Olympics, or what did we call it? The Games of the Winter Olympics.
BEN WATERWORTH: The Winter Games or whatever the hell it was, yeah. Olympic Winter Games.
COLIN HILDING: The Olympic Winter Games, yes. Ever since that, here in Canada, there's been a lot of talk because of the performance of the women's team and a lot of debate about the sport and how a lot of these women could compete on NHL level. To me, I don't think the issue is so much whether or not you can compete at the same level as the men. It's more the physicality of the game. And if we compare even Olympic ice hockey to para ice hockey, I would say para ice hockey is a lot more physical. It's similar to murder ball. It is a very violent game unintentionally. It's not even an intentional violent game, although there was one in there, which I'll talk about. And I think that becomes the bigger issue is that, are you going to allow a game where your male athletes are gonna be bashing up the women athletes?
BEN WATERWORTH: And you don't wanna say that.
COLIN HILDING: Exactly, yeah. And that has been kind of the debate over the, oh, we should allow women in the NHL. They're at the same skill level. And people think, I don't want to watch Alex Ovechkin hitting Mary Philip Pugan in the jar.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, of course they would. But that's the thing, because we just don't live in a world where people like to see, because I don't even know what movie it was. There was a movie in the last few years where, obviously part of the plot was, a male must have hit a female or something. And then there was a movie poster, which kind of implied a bit of violence on the man. It was all related to the movie. It wasn't just like, men bash women, the movie coming soon to see it in the EU. But it was, probably not gonna get a greenlit in 2022, but 1950s, they ate that shit up. But it, like people lost their shit. Like it was a big poster on like Hollywood Boulevard or something like that. And people are like, oh, that's, you know, you can't have a man hitting a woman on a poster. So it would just be hard to see. But like, I don't know, like there's just something about Para-Ice Hockey, which yeah, it's definitely physical, but it's not on that level I feel of in the Winter Olympic Games or the NHL, where, I mean, I've been to two NHL games in the last two days, and it's kind of just like, you know, people are there for the fights and like, you know, like pin them up against the wall. And all of a sudden, if you're saying, he's a vegans pulling up, you know, a female competitor against the wall, I'm gonna punch you. Like it also is like, whoa, okay, dude, like back up. Like if you're checking them into the boards, fine. But like, yeah, it's kind of, it's something a little bit different when you get a bit aggressive. Let's be honest, probably half the female hockey players are gonna be bashing the men anyway. So we're just gonna be like, and again, it's not even every single time, the men won't fight back.
COLIN HILDING: Yeah, see, it's not even an issue of that. But when we're looking at hockey, it's not even just the fights you have to look at, it's the fact that they're body checking and all that. And sure, the women may be able to hold their ground, but are the male players gonna be just as free to hold their ground as the women are? I mean, Jarrod, kind of give your take on this, mixed hockey, whether it be pair ice hockey or regular ice hockey.
JARROD LOOBEEK: I feel like para ice hockey, like it's a possibility, right? Because murder ball is mixed. So I feel like there's room for it. You just have to get, I suppose, the right type of person and whether it will work or not. And there's interest in what the ruling around it would be. Like whether there's like a quota of like women that you have to have on the team for it to be mixed, or if it's just, if there's somebody who wants to play, they can and they're good enough, I don't know. I think it could work though. I feel like the similarities is there with wheelchair rugby, so I feel like it's a possibility.
COLIN HILDING: I don't think I've ever seen wheelchair rugby, like literally ever.
BEN WATERWORTH: It's at the Paralympics, Colin, you should watch it. Wow, we talked about it last year.
COLIN HILDING: Yeah, during Tokyo, Canada covered nothing other than wheelchair basketball. That was literally it.
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, then Canada sucks, and they should have a, let's get an inquiry, CBC, why are you so discriminatory against murder ball with men and women playing against each other in wheelchair, come on Canada.
COLIN HILDING: But I don't know whether they had the TV coverage there for you, Jarrod, but with the pair ice hockey, I was kind of surprised we had those little TV coverages in Canada as we did. And I really think it has to do with how the Olympics or Paralympics started and ended for Canada, because the very first day it was Canada versus US, and we lost decisively. And then the gold medal.
BEN WATERWORTH: It didn't spoil that one.
COLIN HILDING: No, Ben did not spoil that for me last night. There's a gripe I'll get into in a bit.
BEN WATERWORTH: Jarrod knows all about that. You don't have to remind Jarrod about Ben spoiling things.
COLIN HILDING: Well, let's get into it now. So Ben and I are recording something else last night. We're literally recording during the closing ceremonies, which by the way, didn't we all love those opening closing ceremonies?
BEN WATERWORTH: Oh, I couldn't stop watching them. I've been on repeat ever since. I haven't missed a second.
COLIN HILDING: But in the middle of it, Ben says, oh yeah, and it looks like US won the gold. And I'm like, no, did they? CBC is very honest. If they have coverage of something, they're going to say, oh, we will bring you the replay of it. CBC flat out was lying to people during the closing ceremonies saying, oh, and there's one medal still to be awarded. And I've been awarded hours earlier, which I was thinking, I'm like trying to work out the math in my head. I'm like, are they going to be awarding this at like two in the morning? Beijing time? Like, I don't quite understand this, but they just decided they didn't want to carry this thing until the middle of the afternoon. And also even more confusing because the closing ceremonies, the coverage of this started at about 5.36 in the morning, and then the ceremonies didn't start to like eight. So they were doing two hours of reruns of other events. Show us the ice hockey, come on. But yeah, it didn't get as much coverage as I thought it would other than the opening game, the closing game and then the bronze medal game. But what they showed, I think it's interesting that the referees seem to be less lenient when it comes to penalties. There are a lot of penalties being handed out, a lot that were questioned here by the commentators. But then they seem to be more lenient with the fighting. And that was one thing that I didn't quite expect. Half of it came from just the Chinese and Korea game, the bronze medal one, where it was a very physical game and there was a lot of dirty hits going on. But they're allowed to get into a little scramble. And I think that's something that I'm not a fan of fighting in hockey typically.
BEN WATERWORTH: Ah, you're prude.
COLIN HILDING: Well, when it comes to NHL, I mean, there's a big difference. When you watch it, you could tell this is stage. It looks like the Jerry Springer show. And I was like, oh, of course, no, come on, drop the gloves. It's, we're at about the 10 minute mark here. We have to get a fight on for ratings reasons. It's a little bit too much, but these players can resist themselves when it comes to Olympic hockey. But they're allowed to kind of get in these scrambles. And I don't think that, you know, I'm as for fighting in regular hockey as I am in pair ice hockey. But I mean, did you get a chance to see any of the fighting that went on, Jarrod? Did you get a chance to see any of it?
JARROD LOOBEEK: I didn't see any of the of the para ice hockey. The only bit I saw was just in like the, in the montage package, which just like the American team celebrating their gold. That's all, that's all channel seven gave us.
BEN WATERWORTH: Wow, come on, Joe, that's not good enough. She's let a lap since I've left, Jesus.
COLIN HILDING: Was there at least like a sad Billy Bridges from Canada in the background, sad Billy, we got the silver.
JARROD LOOBEEK: According to the channel seven coverage, there was no actual games. It was just the American team being awarded their gold medal.
COLIN HILDING: By default, America wins another gold.
BEN WATERWORTH: I may as well have.
COLIN HILDING: Ben, I mean, go on your rant about how there was no coverage on your former employer, but also do you like the fights that you see? And is it different in any way from the NHL stuff?
BEN WATERWORTH: One thing I forgot, I feel I'm poisoned that I'm defending channel seven. When I was working during the Olympics and I talked to Joe about, because, you know, Joe's a huge advocate for the Paralympics. Like if you looked at her social media every day, she had like former athletes doing like a daily preview and she like was pushing channel seven to do more. But it just they just obviously again, went to Paralympics. I think we had seven competitors, Jarrod, you know, eight sports like it's just they're not gonna be doing what they did in Tokyo, unfortunately. So, but on a defence with channel seven, Joanna Griggs was a big advocate for them showing more. But yeah, I didn't honestly see many fights. I think every time I was watching it, I must've just been watching the tame games basically, because I never saw any, but I love, I love the sport. Like I remember when we had Jack on and we just, we talked about how exciting para ice hockey is. And I think it's just the physicality there, but just like the athletic skill, they're doing longer shifts than they do in sort of the Olympics and the NHL and just the arm movement. Like they've got, you know, just the fact they got that too. And then you've got that mix of, obviously, you've got some athletes who, you know, have no legs at all. And obviously you've got some of, you know, we've got like one and a half. Like it's just anything with Paralympics always fascinates me how you can combine that. But can we actually just talk about the absolute dominance of the US? Now, I want to like, the thing like, I'm sure they do it in CBC. So I've never obviously been in Canada for an Olympics coverage. We know in channel seven, they do it, they do these profile packages on athletes in between sort of, you know, events. And one of the first profile packages I ever saw was on the team USA goaltender, Jen Lee, and sort of a military veteran, I believe lost a limb in, I don't know if it was Iraq or Afghanistan, you know, and a very personable guy. I'd been on the team for a long time. He went, now, can we just point this out? You're never gonna get this in an NHL season or an Olympic games in, he didn't let a single goal in. He would shut out the tournament. So a 100% save percentage. The only goal that team USA let in, in the entire tournament, he wasn't in the net.
COLIN HILDING: That was day one too, wasn't it?
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, South Korea, Griffin LaMare, come on Griffin, pick your game up, mate. Like you let a goal in with Jen Lee, the entire tournament without letting in a goal, that is insane. Like not even like just ice hockey, like field hockey, soccer, like any sport involving a goaltender or a goalkeeper, like that's gotta be unheard of. Absolutely insane. Our man Jack Wallace, which can we just say, Off The Podium, second gold medal, there you go. Congratulations. And this time I was on the interview, so get on board. But I think he got a hat trick in one of the games, Jack. And for a defenceman to be in the top goal scorers, pretty good. He actually made the All-Star team. He was best defenceman essentially of the tournament. Didn't make the All-Star team, but selected as the best defenceman of the tournament was Jack Wallace. So yeah, Team USA thrashed everyone. Sorry, Canada. Sorry for spoiling that Colin the other day. But yeah, didn't see any fights, which was a bit sad. But you pointed out to me that we had a bit of a conflict of interest in that final, because I didn't realise that Sammy Joe Small's husband played for Team Canada. So either way, it was sort of a win for Off The Podium. But Jack Wallace, congratulations to another Off The Podium guest for winning a gold medal at the Olympics or Paralympics.
COLIN HILDING: And the game that had all the real fights was China and South Korea, the bronze medal.
BEN WATERWORTH: Oh, hate each other, traditional rivals.
COLIN HILDING: Well, it was also a, I wouldn't say it was a complete blow up. I mean, it was clear China was winning that thing from the beginning. Like I don't think I got a chance to see any really competitive games, which is unfortunate. But that China Korea one, I mean, they were like very aggressive. There were penalties on all sides. I mean, we're talking physical penalties, dirty hands-
BEN WATERWORTH: Mental penalties.
COLIN HILDING: But here's the weird, mental penalty is-
BEN WATERWORTH: I love these physical penalties. Mental ones, the Koreans ran the mental game.
COLIN HILDING: If you watch enough hockey, you will realise that half of the penalties are things like icing or whatever. So there are technical penalties. There are technical, physical, mental, and emotional penalties. So break them down. But yeah, like a lot of just dirty, dirty hits. And the crazy thing is the commentator and the guy who was commenting for Canada, he was our former goalie, I think up until Pyeongchang. He definitely brought a non-Canadian perspective to the game. I mean, he was a hockey player 100%. He was all for the physicality of the game. And his reasoning actually made sense to me. And this is somebody who is not into the physicality in hockey or the, I guess, violent aspect of hockey. Because he was saying that this kind of needs the same way that like a woman's hockey needs that competition to be a little bit outside of Canada, US and Russia, if they are allowed to be there. But he was saying like, we need a game like this and we need rivals, people who are getting heated or who are getting invested in this. So even if China and South Korea aren't nearly at the level of Canada, the United States, I mean, they came to win and they were going all out. And it made for, I think, the most exciting of the three games I was allowed to watch here.
BEN WATERWORTH: You were allowed to watch, basically.
COLIN HILDING: CBC banned us.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, like, I mean, I think literally, the only times I ever saw any of the games, it was obviously Team USA was in, and I think every time, I swear, you were saying Canada played each other every single time. But I just wanted to point out quickly to Jarrod, his beloved Slovakia. Unfortunately, not quite the fairytale and the para ice hockey.
COLIN HILDING: Well, they got close in wheelchair curling.
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, that's not para ice hockey, is it, Colin? Like this is Jarrod's beloved ice hockey, you know, which I mean, since we last spoke, Bratislava came to a standstill when the bronze medal team came back, and Team Finland got an entire stadium in Helsinki, like basically parting. So obviously a lot was happening. But so Jarrod, obviously there are only seven countries, ROC or RPC as they are in the Paralympics are banned, bad. Don't invade other countries, you will be banned. So obviously of the seven nations to go through to the quarterfinals, which I don't understand how you can have seven when there should be eight in the quarterfinals, but obviously the two teams go to the semis. Okay, I get it now how it works. Poroslavaki was the sole team that didn't make it through to the next phase. And they didn't win a single game, did they? No, seven nothing to China. Got close against Italy, two one in a shootout, well done. And three nothing to neighbours and former overlords, Czech Republic. So, yeah, Jarrod, not quite gonna go by the team Slovakia, sled ice hockey jersey anytime soon?
JARROD LOOBEEK: Not yet, but just think, given four years and the success of the ice cream team, everyone signed up for sled hockey.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, I think that half the team are just gonna be like, I'm chopping a leg off, I'm gonna be playing for the para team in Milan. So yeah, they're going for that.
COLIN HILDING: We do have to talk about the elephant in the room, which you brought up there. Shut up. We're talking about the Russian elephant in the room.
BEN WATERWORTH: Oh, rather than him.
COLIN HILDING: Those fat Russians, yeah.
BEN WATERWORTH: And Belarus too. Can we point out? Poor old Belarus, they were involved.
COLIN HILDING: Well, in all fairness, let's talk about the athletes here and not the countries, but at the same time, you can't kind of ignore the politics. I mean, this was the story before this ever started. And I feel like this was probably still the biggest story of the Paralympics. This was the Russian figure skater or Eileen Gu of the Paralympics. Like you couldn't go anywhere without hearing about Russia.
BEN WATERWORTH: How do we mention Eileen Gu on our Paralympics episode, Colin? Like, come on, I thought we were an Eileen Gu free zone at the moment.
COLIN HILDING: We're in Beijing still, it's China. I'm pretty sure they tried to qualify her somehow. Would you really be opposed- If we cut off a toe at least, would you be open to competing at Paralympics, Eileen? But Jarrod, politics, sport, it's kind of a tricky subject, but the whole Russia situation slash the whole Russia situation, you have any take on it, opinion, sympathy for the athletes, anything?
JARROD LOOBEEK: Yeah, it's a tough one. I feel sorry for the athletes, obviously, and I get the whole situation and why they choose to do it, but in my head, I'm like, is banning the RPC, is that really gonna have an impact? It's my question. I feel like where does that, surely it's not rating very high in terms of Russia's priorities of like, oh no, they banned our Paralympic team, like war oak. I don't think it's gonna, I get the logistics and the optics of it, as like looking, oh, we're showing support for Ukraine. But yeah, I just feel sorry for the athletes, putting in like all that effort over four years to get so close to the actual event. It's like, oh, we're fine with COVID, COVID's fine. And then, no, Putin could have waited a bit just for those athletes shortly. But Ukraine, I mean, Ukraine, that's the other side of the story. Ukraine did like amazing, which is not like unsurprising in like the Paralympic games, winter, draw, summer, but still like great achievement for them as well.
COLIN HILDING: The whole Belarusian-Russian situation, also reminding people that this, the decision was flip-flopping all over the place. I mean, it was first, oh, you can compete, but you'll be neutral. And then it was, well, you can compete and you won't have a shot at actually holding a medal or physically taking a medal and stuff like that. And then it's like, oh, you're just gone completely. Ben, what's your take on it?
BEN WATERWORTH: It is tricky, because again, it's not the athletes' fault. And you're not just seeing this with the Paralympics. I mean, I know, for example, in Formula One, the one Russian Formula One driver basically lost his seat because he was Russian. And we're seeing that a lot in different things. And it's just one of these things where it's like, again, yeah, cool, solidarity to Ukraine. Let's stand by. I get it, I get the sentiment. But it's just one of those levels where it's kind of almost like, is it hypocritical or is it a bit like double standards when it comes to it's like, well, you're letting these guys compete when how many of them took drugs and then sort of like, you're still finding them. And then it's, but it's even like, this isn't the only war going on in the world. I mean, there are other situations in other countries where it doesn't get the media coverage. Of course you're gonna get media coverage of a superpower like Russia invading Ukraine, you know? But like, I mean, I probably shouldn't say this in this country right now. I might get deported. But I mean, back in Athens, we weren't kicking out the US for invading Iraq. Like, I mean, like I just shouldn't say that. But like, it's other countries in the world too that are the aggressor over another country. I don't know the ins and outs and the politics and that sort of stuff, but somewhere like Azerbaijan and Armenia, there's like a war going on right there. Where's the talk of banning one of those countries? And it's like, if you start setting this as a precedent, then I feel like you're setting yourself a fine line of what you've got in the future. But I guess it's just the landscape we live in now. It's hard to avoid this. And you kind of, like you do feel a bit sorry for some of the Russian and Belorussian athletes, because again, it's not their fault. They're not bringing up Putin going like, hey, so after the games, I might just roll into Kiev and kill a couple of Ukrainians. Like, I mean, they're not doing that. So it's tricky, but I mean, you know.
COLIN HILDING: This is a situation where there's no right call one way or the other. I mean, you're going to have, a lot of the arguments that were being made before this started, when the idea was thrown around was, well, imagine how those Ukraine athletes are gonna feel competing against Russian athletes. I have to be honest. I don't think that Ukrainian athletes would have minded competing against the Russian athletes. Competing against a Russian Olympic committee. And I think that was the first decision that was sort of made is like, well, you won't even be considered Russian. The name Russia is not gonna be uttered. You're not gonna have the flag or anything in the national anthem. That's what I take. We're not gonna call you Russia. I don't feel like the athletes would have objected to that as much, even the Ukrainian athletes. So I still think there was a way to do this without having to take all of these athletes who were already in the village. This wasn't a decision that was made before they got there. And it was a decision that I think they had the timing to make before they arrived. They could have said, no, you can't come. But they're in the village and they're being told, no, you can kind of compete. No, you're gonna compete. You're gonna neutral. No, you gotta go home. That's the tough thing. Let's also keep in mind, these are disabled athletes. I mean, these are athletes who have gone through tragedy and heartbreak. And now you're giving it to them again. They've trained four years for this. So I feel more for the Paralympic athletes than I think I would have for the regular Russian athletes had there been a ban back during the Olympics. But the other thing that keeps getting thrown out was this Olympic truce, which I decided I was gonna read up on a couple of days into this ban or after they were sent home because everybody kept saying, it's like, well, there are Russians in violation of the Olympic truce. And I have to be honest, and this isn't taking one side one way or the other, but whether or not you should have banned Russia. Saying the whole Olympic truce that it was broken, if you read that thing, start to finish front to back, cover to cover, it's really stretching it to say that Russia broke a truce in any way that hasn't been broken before. That Olympic truce has more to do with host nations than does anything else. So I'm not really for removing of the athletes, although I think I would have been okay if they simply said, you can't use the name Russia, but I don't know, it's a truce.
BEN WATERWORTH: It's a truce anyway. Like, I mean, it's like obviously RPC and the controversy around that in RAC. It's like, but I mean, this is where, you know, put them as like, you know, what do they use to be like-
COLIN HILDING: Neutral, just neutral.
BEN WATERWORTH: Neutral, like they had, you know, like with the refugee athletes you generally have, or, you know, we've had things like that before, but it's, yeah, look, it's, I didn't realise that that truce thing was out there, but I mean, like, look, this is the problem. Many problems with say the Olympic and Paralympics is that, you know, it's always this, oh, we keep politics out of sport, blah, blah. But like, I mean, if anything, it's the complete opposite. I mean, we all remember the boycotts in the 80s and that clearly, because two of us were alive when they were happening. Well, Colin was like, baby. But basically, you know, I mean, some of the most politicised things in the world have been the Olympics, because that's the one global stage where, you know, no one gives a, like, let's be honest, do people give a shit that, oh no, Russia, you can't trade box goods between this country, we're gonna put a sanction on you, yet come to an Olympics if you ban a country or a country boycotts, that's making massive news. So, look, you can say what you want, Olympic and Paralympic committee about, oh, we're completely neutral, it's about peace. No, it's not. Like, I mean, this is the one part where it's the most politicised thing, but yeah, it's a precedent. It is definitely a precedent. If that truth is gonna be, because it's not even just wars. Like, I mean, you know, there are countries out there that commit, you know, heinous crimes against humanity and have terrible, you know, issues around sort of like homosexual issues and female rights and things like that, which if we're living in this age where the Olympics and the Paralympics are creating like, you know, faster, higher, stronger together, then like, why aren't we banning countries that, you know, murder people for being gay? You know, like, don't let women drive, things like that. Like, this is the standard you've got to set yourselves. If this is how strong you wanna be against these things, then great, stand up for these issues, but stand up for them outside of a war. You know what I mean? Yeah. So it's, you've gotta think about these things when you start setting these high.
COLIN HILDING: And you know, I understand the idea of we're gonna, McDonald's is gonna shut down all the McDonald's in Russia, and we are not going to buy gasoline from Russia. Like, those things make sense, even if it affects us here where our gas prices skyrocket, you know? Like, it makes sense to do that. But again, we're talking about athletes in the one thing that is supposed to be neutral, and even saying we're not gonna hold events in Russia, like that I've gotten how a lot of these World Cups have said, we're going to cancel the event that was supposed to be in Russia. Like, that's completely different. But it's like you said, it's a precedent that you're setting that's kind of dangerous, especially when, as I was saying, that this Olympic truce that everybody keeps saying, well, this is what they're in violation of. I'm not taking one side politically one way or the other. I'm just simply saying read this whole Olympic truce, and it really doesn't apply. It's very much stretching to say it applies. But as you said, Jarrod, I mean, look what's happened with Ukraine. I mean, we'll kind of go through the metal tally in a bit. But Ukraine, well, let's just go through it now. I mean, China on top 61 medals, which I think is the second highest of like the last 20 years, at least behind only Russia, which did 80 in Sochi. But 61 for China.
BEN WATERWORTH: Difference is they don't take medals away in the Paralympics. Like, oh, no, it's fine.
COLIN HILDING: Exactly.
BEN WATERWORTH: They're allowed from the Paralympics. Yeah.
COLIN HILDING: I mean, technically, in some of these cases, you will require drugs. Well, that's it.
BEN WATERWORTH: Like, how does doping work in the Paralympics? You have a banned substance. Yeah, I wonder why. I have no limbs.
COLIN HILDING: But, I mean, just the second place, quite a ways behind China, but Ukraine, 29 medals overall, 11 gold. So they're number two in the standings one way or the other. And then, of course, Canada, 8 gold and 25 overall. France, 7 gold, 12 overall. And United States, 6 and 20 overall. It is harder to predict overall medal standings for Paralympics because...
BEN WATERWORTH: Oh, you didn't get yours right? Jarrod did. Jarrod was spot on.
COLIN HILDING: You got Australia's, did you?
BEN WATERWORTH: No, actually, he's really good on Austria. He thoroughly predicts Austria's. He's very into the Austrian Paralympic movement. So, yeah.
COLIN HILDING: But I mean, it's slightly different from the Olympics, where a country could say, we want to aim for 30 medals, and they can get there. I mean, I'm sure Russia and China find a way to get to their goals one way or the other. But you can't just simply say, you know what, we need more people who are amputated from the knee down, who are good athletes. So, is anybody willing to take one for the team? Like, you can't do that. So, it is all over the place. But I mean, just talking about Ukraine, they are always sort of in the mix, like you mentioned, Jarrod. You know, they'll be top five finishers. To finish second, on one hand, I think you could say, well, Russia is not in these games. That would have had obviously a big factor on the overall medals one way or the other. But when you consider that what's going on at home and the fact that these athletes weren't distracted and they were able to have the success they did, I mean, you really can't ignore what Ukraine pulled off during these Olympics. I think especially because of the conflict that's going on at home for them and they have family members who can't watch them because they're dodging bullets or bombs. I mean, it is really impressive. But Ukraine performance, I guess, just overall medal standings. And Australia, if you want to throw it in there as well, Jarrod.
BEN WATERWORTH: That wasn't that long.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Yeah, I mean, from an Australian point of view, the one bronze, which I mean, we'll take. I mean, I wanted a little bit more, but we'll take it. And then China, I feel like everybody knew like it was coming for them to do so well. Ukraine, I just feel like Ukraine, it is that thing of just having something, I suppose, bigger to fight for and to kind of propel you on and to, I suppose, inspire people back home. So I feel like they're kind of the real talking point of the games.
COLIN HILDING: Ben, this is going to sound a little bit weird, but one of the things I was thinking about when I looked at Ukraine's total overall and just throughout the games, every time I won a medal, thinking about, well, this is how I pull off was a weird comparison to the Mandy Bujold interview that we did. And kind of, I guess, the opposite result from what Jarrod was saying, but she talked about in that interview. One of the things that affected her performance in Tokyo was that she had spent so much of her time and it wasn't lacking training or competition. It was just mental exhaustion from this legal battle she had to be able to qualify. That she's like, well, that was my fight. I had nothing left in me. But at the same time, I mean, when you talk about what Jarrod was saying, the athletes having something to really fight for, I mean, that definitely plays a part. Ukraine and overall metal standings, China, Canada, United States, Australia.
BEN WATERWORTH: Austria, New Zealand, Great Britain. Yeah, they had a disappointing Paralympics. I'm very disappointed in Burkina Faso. Yeah, I mean, like again, Jarrod mentioned a few times, obviously Ukraine actually do very well generally in Paralympics anyway. I think I can't remember where they finished in Tokyo, but it's a thing. And we actually see like, yeah, Russia, Ukraine generally doing very well in Paralympics. But it's great to see that, you know, everybody wants to see like positive stories right now from this. And it's inspirational when you see a country who's been invaded doing well on the sporting stage because, you know, they've all got it. So I saw, I think, like one of the Alpine events that was won by one of the Ukrainian athletes, you know, like sort of the emotion behind and like, oh, this is going to mean so much to them because what's going on? And absolutely, it brings kind of that level of attention and fight and point about how things aren't politicised. So, you know, they've got a world stage to do it. So it's great. I mean, it kind of almost takes away a little bit from China's achievements. You know, obviously, China did so well in the Olympics, considering what they won, like one gold medal in Pyeongchang to what? What was it like? 8, 9, 10 that they won during their home Olympics. So and it's a similar thing here. I mean, they've topped off the top of my head. I don't have it in front of me, but I believe they've never topped the Paralympics before in winter Paralympics, China. So, you know, 18 gold shattered in like double the amount of medals as Ukraine, which, you know, again, not to fuck Ukraine had a shit Olympics. I wonder why. Like, it's not that. It's, you know, it's great to see Ukraine do so well, but it kind of does take away a little bit from China. Just on Australia, quickly, like Ben Tudhope, who won the bronze. I mean, great athlete. He dominated sort of the world Crystal Globe winner and everything sort of in World Cup seasons. But it's actually his first ever Paralympic medal. I thought he'd won multiple Paralympic medals, but this is his first. And it's interesting kind of looking at our, you know, past history in the winter Paralympics, because I mean, it's kind of our lowest tally ever. But at the same time, it's our lowest number of athletes we've sent since Salt Lake. And a lot of that was disrupted by COVID, of course, as a lot of things were. And kind of, as you were saying with Mandy about the fight and everything, there was some athletes who were just like, look, this is too much. This is too much of an effort for me to do it. One thing I just want to say, when we had seven athletes in Salt Lake City, we won six gold and one silver. Not bad turnover for seven athletes. But we also had Michael Milton back then, and that guy was a freak, of course. So, yeah, anyway, one bronze. Again, I think, Jarrod, you summed it up. We'll take that. That's pretty good for a team of seven athletes to win a bronze from a summer nation. But, I mean, Canada's third? I don't know if you're going to bring this athlete up, but there was an athlete who won, he's like 16th or 17th Paralympic medal or something. Yeah, which that made news, I think. I was on news.com.au, because why wouldn't I be? And that was even a headline, like Canadian Paralympian creates history. So it was kind of, you know, that was cool. And I'm kind of sad that I didn't get to see a lot more of the Canadian side of things, because obviously USA, NBC is like, fuck Canada, you know, we've beaten them five-nothing in para ice hockey. That's the only Canadian coverage you're going to see. But yeah, I mean, you guys did okay, served on the medal tally. I'm sure you'll take that.
COLIN HILDING: Yeah, by the way, Ben, don't call para athletes freaks.
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, on the nicest way possible, that like the positive, don't put me in on a Paralympics episode.
COLIN HILDING: That's something we expect from Noah, not you. You're better than that. Well, you're not, but you're better than Noah.
BEN WATERWORTH: They know what they're talking about.
COLIN HILDING: One more thing just as far as the overall results before we talk about the Australian Canadian athletes, just say there were four full podium sweeps in Beijing. Three of the podium sweeps were Ukraine. They swept the men's 10K vision impaired, the women's 10K standing, and the men's 6K vision impaired. They did the same one twice.
BEN WATERWORTH: In biathlon.
COLIN HILDING: In the biathlon, yeah. And as far as other sweeps go, only one China, and that was in snowboarding. So, I mean, the host nation who won twice as many medals swept one event and Ukraine swept three. I mean, that's incredible. I don't know how any country, let alone Ukraine, could pull that off. The Australian results, I'm going to feel ashamed right here because I do know it was posted on our social media. You can clearly tell it wasn't posted by me. I don't remember the name of the guy. Ben Tahoe. Well, of course, his name is Ben. You're going to interrupt from that. He is a freak in the best way. Jarrod, can you talk about what type of reception he's getting over in Australia? Was this something that before his event came on, they were talking about all those chances and that he was a medal hopeful or a guarantee?
JARROD LOOBEEK: Yeah, I feel like Ben was the go-to athlete package that they played throughout the Paralympics, even throughout the end of the Olympics when they were kind of hyping up for the Paralympics would come in a couple of weeks. We were starting to see this package of Ben Tud Hope and his chances. So I think the reception has been huge. The fact that he got to be closing ceremony flag bearer when he'd been flag bearer before was another thing. The race itself, he was pretty much out of it, sitting in fourth for the whole thing, and he just had an amazing finish to the snowboard cross to even get onto the podium. So it's just really impressive.
BEN WATERWORTH: You might want to unmute yourself there, Boomer. There you go. Oh, Colin.
COLIN HILDING: All right. So before we talk about the Canadian stuff, Ben, you can fill us in on your opinions on good old Ben, the good Ben. But also, I guess, any of the American, I do know there's one. There's what's her name, Brenna Huckabee. She was one of the big wins and prevented a Chinese sweep in her event as well. I don't know how much attention she got there.
BEN WATERWORTH: Just quickly on Ben, we'd even shared a bit about him on social media in the lead up to the Olympics. It was that day back in, I think, it was January when we'd had a weekend where a lot of our winter athletes won medals. It was the most successful athlete weekend for Australian winter athletes ever in multiple World Cups. And Ben that weekend had also joined in the fray and won like a gold or something like that. So yeah, he's a pretty dominant figure in the world of snowboard cross in the parrot world and as at multiple crystal globes and that. So yeah, I even sort of, I remember during the Olympics coverage, Aaron Channel 7, them showing a lot of packages on him like as Jarrod was saying. So sad that I'm not there that I can't see the reaction because he seems like a genuinely nice guy. And so yeah, it's great to see him to get that medal. Yeah, not, look, there was one athlete, and I can't remember her name, and maybe it's the one you're talking about there, Colin, because there was, is she a cross-country skier or a bi-athlete who you're talking about, or is she?
COLIN HILDING: I think she was downhill.
BEN WATERWORTH: Okay, right, not the one I'm thinking of. But there was one which, I believe she's a cross-country skier, and she got a silver, but like I think she'd won like gold in Pyeongchang or Sochi or something like that. But they did an interview with her, and just like, there's just something about like Paralympic interviews, but sometimes they're a little bit more just like raw and a bit more like, you know, loose than sort of their Olympic counterparts. And she was just like some of the questions they were asking her, I can't even remember, but she was just hilarious the way she was answering them. But yeah, not overly, like honestly, like it's, it is kind of hard to be in a neutral country, which is not yours and get fully, because like, again, it's also America. It's not like I'm in Burkina Faso, so like, you know they're at like two athletes and you know everything about gym and you know, Sandra. Where it's like here, it's like every day, they're winning everything. So it's just like, oh, and another goal for the USA. Oh, here we go. So like, you kind of just get used to these like oodles, amounts of success that they all kind of blend in with each other. So all the Americans, you know, all the athletes are the same, they just win. So yeah, I don't know if there was anyone like, it kind of really ended up standing out to me that it was it was literally just Jen Lee. I was like the one person to me where I'm like, I love this guy, this guy's awesome. Like, you know, and he actually said, like, his interviews were quite fun as well. And I think he's like, he's maybe, is he in his 40s? Like, he's not exactly young. If he's in his 30s, I'm sorry, Jen, but like, I mean, the guy's like being around for a bit.
COLIN HILDING: And that's the other thing with the Paralympics that I think is interesting is you get so many more older athletes who can stick around forever.
BEN WATERWORTH: Oh, oh, I was just going to say, and again, I don't know the athlete's name, but there was one athlete, like an American athlete, where I think they'd been competing since like Salt Lake or something like that. And they literally interviewed them, like, also, you know, this is like your fifth or sixth Olympics. And he's like, no, I'm going on, like, bring on the line. Like, you know, I'm already in training. Like, I'm not giving up. What are you talking about? I'm still like 43. Like, I've got plenty more roomies. I was just like, yeah, you got you. Like, I was like, good on you.
COLIN HILDING: I know our opening ceremony flag bearers, one of them was a curler who was in their 50s, which is crazy that anybody could be. I mean, granted, you're going to have a little bit more of an advantage as a 55 plus curler than you are maybe para ice hockey. But Declan Farmer also, I guess, another one of the big American ones, the top scorer for the men's, well, the only para ice hockey tournament as well. But yeah, I mean, I can imagine so much as just their hockey team there. I did find on NBC, the one Canadian mentioned Brian McKeever, I'll talk about in a minute, that that was the one event that America didn't win that they covered on their very abbreviated NBC coverage was Brian McKeever's win. So I mean, it was historic, not just for Canada, just Paralympics in general. But a couple of the Canadians that kind of made news here, one Ty Turner, who was in the Snowboard Cross, which I mean, I love Snowboard Cross, period. Paralympics is that much more impressive just because the balance you have to have in something like Snowboard Cross. And even if they are going at a slower speed, I mean, it's just incredible. But he had like the most dominant victory I've ever seen. There was no contest all the way up until the finals. Nobody could really touch him. That was a big one here. Molly Jepson, who was our flag bearer for the closing ceremonies, she had won our first gold. She was an alpine skier and she ended up winning a silver as well. I think it was the same that she did in Pyeongchang. I should also mention our curlers here winning the bronze.
BEN WATERWORTH: Pick it up. Amazing.
COLIN HILDING: Well, I mean, I was going to say we tied our other Beijing record, the Olympic Beijing record. We won a bronze.
BEN WATERWORTH: So I roll my eyes. I think curling and you're only winning a bronze. I mean, Canada winning a bronze in cricket. Like, oh, yeah, go Australia. We won a bronze in cricket. Like, fuck that. We want the gold. We're where's prayer in cricket?
COLIN HILDING: I don't want to knock wheelchair curling. I mean, I think it's it's it's impressive to see anybody. But let's say probably the least impressive thing. When you're looking at para athletes, like I can't believe they lost their legs and they can still ski. I mean, these people lost their legs and they can push something on a long stick. I mean, to me, this does not warrant the two hours of coverage. It's it's fine. It sounds more harsh, but I can see you're in a wheelchair.
BEN WATERWORTH: You can push it. You can push a stone. You special.
COLIN HILDING: But what I'm getting at? Let me freeze myself.
JARROD LOOBEEK: I need a guy calling in like general, like able body killing as well. Tricks in the curling. What is it?
COLIN HILDING: Yeah, I want some. Give me some backflips. But my point being is great and semen. We don't have the sweeping aspect in this. We have them all lining up one after the other, and they push the rock, which I will say, what's more, just like with snowboard cross, having the balance to do that. What's more impressive than regular curling is you're not on your knees, lining the shot up. I mean, you're basically from an elevated position having to push. And the commentators are more forgiving that. It's actually impressive. They got as close as they did. But as far as the excitement of the sport goes, you know, it's not nearly as exciting as watching.
BEN WATERWORTH: It's boring to stop it.
COLIN HILDING: For curling, I will say for curling, it is compared to regular curling.
BEN WATERWORTH: You watch it for like eight hours a day for ten days, and they'll see me see you.
COLIN HILDING: Well, that's part of my problem. But you have Paralympic sports that are like, you know, I don't care if they're going slower. It is more impressive to watch a para-athlete snowboarding than it is, or the people who are vision impaired, doing alpine skiing, even if they have a guide. I mean, it's crazy. I love watching the biathlon or the cross-country skiing, where you have to be reminded these are vision impaired athletes when every once in a while the guide sticks their pullback so they can just hold on for a second. Oh, gotta go uphill. Like, it's unbelievable to watch these, in good way, freaks just be able to do that.
BEN WATERWORTH: Can I ask a question? I don't know if this is a great way to start a question, if this is appropriate or not, but how do you become a guide? Like, are you just a failed skier, or are you a better skier? Like, a serious question, because it's interesting to think that, you know, people who become athletes are obviously very competitive, very competition focused, but I would be fascinated to find out how you become a guide, because it's like, they obviously get a medal, which is great. Like, I love the fact that they get a medal, but like, I'm not being disrespectful to the guide, but like, I'm much more impressed by Ibrahim Akiva winning that medal, whereas like, their guide is just like, left, right, don't hit the pole, like, whatever. Like, I mean, it's a pretty lazy gold medal for the guide, whereas, you know, like, is that just the cheap way? Is that the way of copping out? Like, I'm never going to win a medal in the Olympics. I'm going to become a guide just because I'll get a free medal because I can be lazy. Like, I don't know.
COLIN HILDING: I thought about that. And actually, I'm very curious to talk to Brian and his brother Robin, because his brother is his guide. And that's kind of put a face on guides for the Olympic coverage at least we had here. Because I find that very interesting. And I was thinking the same thing. Are the guides, you know that you have to be competitive, because again, para athletes, it's not unimpressive. It's not like you're, if you are a failed Olympic downhill skier, and you become a guide on, I know I am.
BEN WATERWORTH: His career was cut short, tragically.
COLIN HILDING: Exactly. He didn't make the Slovakian team. It was unfortunate.
BEN WATERWORTH: Neil Mabuchina-Basso though, on the cusp.
COLIN HILDING: You know, if you become a coach or a mentor to the nine-year-olds, you could understand, oh, this isn't going to be a challenge, and we could do it. But these athletes in the Paralympics, they're still at a top level. You have to have some form of success, I would guess, in these sports, because you also have to guarantee you're not going to wipe out. You have to ski. You have to ski well. I guarantee you couldn't. I'm Canadian. I don't know how to ski. I'm ashamed of this country. But I find the guide very fascinating, especially with Brian McKeever, which I guess we'll talk about because he is the big story here in Canada, having his brother as the guide. I want to get those two on the show and talk to them because it's such an interesting story.
BEN WATERWORTH: Do it then.
COLIN HILDING: I will.
BEN WATERWORTH: Do some work on this show for once, Colin.
COLIN HILDING: I'm only hosting the episode here today, Ben.
BEN WATERWORTH: You're welcome.
JARROD LOOBEEK: I'm seeing him carrying the weight of all the interviews on this show.
BEN WATERWORTH: Eight hours a day emailing people. Colin, maybe you could email a couple of people for once.
COLIN HILDING: Ben, good luck getting those interviews that I did for you that you're asking for the video for.
BEN WATERWORTH: Oh, you did too. Good on you.
COLIN HILDING: I would love to count on interviews. I think I done my fair share.
BEN WATERWORTH: I'll give you the count of anything you want. I'll give it to you.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Go for it.
COLIN HILDING: I'm not saying you haven't done a lot of interviews, but we all know if there's somebody lazy on the show. It's Jarrod. It's not me. Jarrod, what are you doing?
JARROD LOOBEEK: No interviews from me. You can't. Haven't jinxed anybody. I haven't done a single bad interview. I don't know what more you want.
COLIN HILDING: It's become the war between Ben and Colin. We all know the real enemy here.
BEN WATERWORTH: Nominated for an award, and if we win, Jarrod's just going to be like, yeah, I'm part of that. Like, are you? We chop that up into thirds. You might get like a tenth. Lazy, Jarrod. You're killing Colin out too. The poor man.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Just send me, don't worry about the award. Just send me some Olympic cereal. That will be enough.
COLIN HILDING: But Brian McKeever. Now, I'm glad that he made the US coverage. He's the only non-American to make the US coverage. Because it is ridiculous. His accomplishment. 16 Golds from Salt Lake till present day. 19 medals overall. That alone is an impressive feat. You've had 19 medals and 16 of them are Golds. That's unbelievable. And I believe he's actually tied now as the most accomplished male Paralympian in history, like any country, all time. So it's an incredible achievement. My only disappointment with Brian McKeever is that he didn't really qualify. But no, it's the fact that he is ineligible to be our flag bearer because he was the opening ceremony flag bearer in Pyeongchang. And I don't even know if that's an official rule, if that's a Canadian thing, but we've never had, I think, one time.
BEN WATERWORTH: Too much success, he can't carry it again.
COLIN HILDING: We one time had somebody who was a flag bearer in back-to-back games, although it was different opening, closing ceremonies. But that's the only reason that they did not pick him. The only reason I could see that they wouldn't have picked him as the closing ceremony flag bearer because that was all Canada was talking about.
BEN WATERWORTH: He only won three gold. Why doesn't he get to carry the flag? Pick your game up, Brian.
COLIN HILDING: He didn't become the most decorated male peon.
BEN WATERWORTH: That's failure.
COLIN HILDING: That's failure. That's why Charles Hamlin was a disappointment because he only tied Sidney Claussen's record.
BEN WATERWORTH: Be a real athlete. Be Michael Phelps who never ties. He just dominates. Come on. None of this tie bullshit.
COLIN HILDING: But with Brian McKeever, there was so much going into these games that talked about him. And then every time he raced, the greatest thing about it, though, is that his final race, he lost. And it was the...
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, he was shitting on these athletes. It was so great when he lost.
COLIN HILDING: Bear with me. Bear with me. It's again how somebody loses. And the last event was the relay. It was the mixed relay or whatever. And I don't know if Canada was expected. I mean, he was... He started off and he was in the lead, and we kind of lost in the end. I think Canada had six overall. But he was in tears in that final one, and it was tears of happiness, because everybody knew that that was advertised. We're going to cover this live. This is Brian McKeever's final race. And the rest of the team basically saying, like, I would have loved to have given him the medal. They didn't even care about themselves. I would have loved to have given him one more medal, but I am so honoured to be part of his final race. I mean, this is kind of history ending here. This is kind of the way that it was with Charles Hamlin with the Olympics a couple of weeks ago. So, I mean, it's just incredible that anybody can win that many medals. And again, we're talking about older athletes. And a Canadian, you know. We're real freaks here. But you did say that there was some Brian McKeever coverage in the US.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah.
COLIN HILDING: Are you aware of it?
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, and like I said, even like just being on news.com.au, like there was just the headline of like, you know, Canadian Paralympian creates history. So yeah, it's great when you kind of you see that level of coverage when you have an athlete who does so well. Like, I mean, you know, I think it's important to achieve that. And I think like, in all fairness, we can sit here and go like, oh, we only ever saw American coverage. Oh, we only saw Australian coverage. I mean, obviously you're going to because if you're in that country, I don't know about you, Jarrah, but I don't necessarily want to see how the Thai para hockey team are doing. I mean, good for them. But, you know, obviously we care mainly about Australia. But when you then have an athlete who can come out and win that amount of medals, then obviously, you know, it needs to have coverage. I'm just laughing at Colin trying to control his child right now. It's fun. But, yeah, it's a great achievement by Brian. And I'm sure, Jarrod, we had no idea who this man was like 12 days ago. And now we do.
JARROD LOOBEEK: That's true. I feel like even I saw some of the coverage of him like online. I feel like the two was like him and then like the American like Oksana. But that was kind of I think she won seven medals. But it was almost like the story was like mixed because she had like Ukrainian heritage as well. So it's kind of more that angle. But it is nice when they do these stories on like these super athletes of the games who've won like multiple medals across multiple games. So it's nice that they get a bit of a mention and some coverage.
BEN WATERWORTH: Meanwhile, Jamie just won the gold medal in child herding.
COLIN HILDING: In case anybody is wondering, Jamie successfully got Casper out of the basement without giving him his boots that he wanted. They weren't even in his boots.
BEN WATERWORTH: Colin just like mutes himself. And then you see this child in the background. Then you see Jamie go, picks up Casper and then just like fuckers off.
COLIN HILDING: There is one athlete that I don't know if either you were even aware of him, an Austrian athlete here. Of course he would. But the big accomplishment being, I guess, the amount of medals he won. I believe he won four medals. Yeah, four medals, five medals. Here we go.
BEN WATERWORTH: Jesus, at least he did well.
COLIN HILDING: Johannes Aigner, if I'm pronouncing that right, Aigner, Jarrod, you can tell me if that's pronounced correctly, but five medals, two golds, two silver, one bronze, 16 years old. And again, you can't really ever predict how Paralympics are going to go because it's based on the amount of athletes you have with a certain impairment. But I find with Paralympics, it is one of the few situations where older athletes do tend to be more successful and you have more there. But 16 years old and five medals overall, I mean, this guy is going to be the next Brian McKeever or the next Ben Tutu or Tutu what? Tutuop, whatever.
BEN WATERWORTH: Next Michael Phelps, clearly.
COLIN HILDING: If either you have even heard about him or if you have any other athletes from other countries that you kind of had your eyes on, not that we're going to award an athlete the game, but if we don't, we'll just give it to good old Johannes here, 16 years old. Amazing. Jarrod?
JARROD LOOBEEK: Yeah, briefly, I just mentioned Oksana Masters from the US. Seven medals, three gold, four silver. And now she has a total of 16 career Paralympic medals, and I believe that's summer and winter. So yeah, just a really impressive achievement. And like I said, she got some coverage in Australia as well. So you know, that's like when you've like when you've made it as an athlete, when we've bothered to stray from our own athletes for two seconds to highlight somebody else. And we didn't try and claim her either. So like, that's pretty amazing. But then really must have been zero connection. She's never talked to an Australian or like, done anything Australian before.
BEN WATERWORTH: Never seen a movie in Australia.
COLIN HILDING: Never watched Crocodile Hunter, nothing.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, literally scratched the bottom, thorough researches for the Paralympics, all those clowns who did the Olympics. But literally nothing. Never even thought about Australia. Never seen a Tim Tam. Never looked at a kangaroo. Just nothing.
COLIN HILDING: Ben, do you have any other names you want to throw out there from other countries and other athletes we want to talk about kind of wrapping up the Paralympics?
BEN WATERWORTH: I don't. But the one thing I wanted to add, like Jarrod kind of mentioned about, you know, medal winners across multiple sort of like summer and winter. I think it's always fascinating when I was watching the coverage and they would be like, here's, you know, Jarrod Lubig from Austria, you know, competed in the this, that and everything else in the summer. And like these are athletes who were winning medals and competed at, you know, a summer Paralympics, what, eight months ago, seven months ago? Like just like it's insane generally in a two year cycle. We obviously talked to Jack, who was trying to do that with what was a canoeing, wasn't he? Trying to do that for Tokyo. And I just, it's just so much more common in the Paralympics that these athletes go for both summer and winter, which is just fascinating. Like it's any, you know, abled or, you know, disabled athlete who can do it. It's just something beyond belief. But it's just to win that amount of medals in both. Like Michael Milton went to cycling, didn't he? For like Beijing. And I don't think he ever won any medals, unfortunately. But it's just something that's insane that these athletes can put themselves through that. So, yeah, 16 year old from Austria doing that well. And here we all are. And we've never won a medal. At least, you know, Jarrod hasn't yet. But he's our only hope. Help us, Jarrod Lubik, you're our only hope.
COLIN HILDING: I have plenty of participation medals from my marathons in the background that's kind of blocked my journey.
BEN WATERWORTH: I have fake Olympic medals back in a box in Australia.
COLIN HILDING: We share a medal. We share a medal from the Canada Day Run a couple of years ago.
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, I mean, I don't share medals with anyone. I did that myself. I don't know what you're talking about. I didn't run half of that with you and like pass it off a bat and like, fuck you.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Which one of you was the runner and which one was the guide?
BEN WATERWORTH: Oh, I was definitely the guide. And Colin beat me by about like, took like half the time. I think I did like 10 hours.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Just around that corner, keep going. Yep, good job. Where's my medal?
BEN WATERWORTH: You know, I'm a bad athlete when I need a guide and I'm an able body athlete. I have one of them. I have like Ben Tudhope telling me how to snowboard. You know, like, that's how it works with me.
COLIN HILDING: I mean, the crossover with these athletes, it is unbelievable, the accomplishment. And I think that's the other thing with Paralympics. It shows that it's not people who have a skill. We're going to be doing an interview in a couple of weeks, or I'm going to be doing an interview, because I pulled my weight around here, Jarrod, but with a Canadian athlete who, two Canadian athletes who are sort of just recruiters, this new thing in Canada, they were sort of recruited for their sport and ended up winning medals. Stay tuned for that interview, though, because one of the best moments is where we talk to them about possibly crossing over into winter sports and how something failed miserably, and they were called out for not having strong enough legs, even though that is all they competed. But that's the thing, is that there are Olympic athletes who have ambitions that we're going to talk to in a couple of weeks who failed miserably trying to do an opposite sport, and here we have people who in a lot of cases lost their original sport when they were injured or whatever happened to them, and then they maybe picked up another sport or they continued on the sport they're in, and they find ways to cross over into winter. There is no... I wish we could do a full Paralympics coverage. It's just too much for people who work full time. And then it's also a problem for Ben too.
BEN WATERWORTH: And then the good Jarrod is just lazy.
COLIN HILDING: And then all the credit to Keep The Flame Alive, they're still covering Paralympics daily. That's dedication. But quick question just for Ben. Would there have been an option if you weren't leaving for New York, if you hadn't left for greener pastures, would there have been an option for you to continue researching for Paralympics?
BEN WATERWORTH: Hell no. They fired me the moment I walked out the door. They're not touching me again. Get the fuck out of our place. I don't think so just purely in the fact that, again, there was just such a limited coverage. I'm pretty sure in talking to Jo, again, I don't know Jarrod, you can fill me in, but I think she was just saying that she was doing it in Sydney remotely and just kind of doing like, oh, this is me standing in front of a camera. This is it. So because there wasn't that blanket coverage, it was more just like a hosting an hour package. It wasn't there. And I mean, I think I mentioned this during our Olympics coverage. I mean, the great thing about Joanna Griggs is that she, it's not like she doesn't come prepared. She's not Jarrod. She doesn't just rock up and go, Ben, who's on today? Like, help me out. Like literally, like she does half my job for me because she's prepared. So I can't imagine that if she's, you know, with the limited amount of resources and that they need for the Paralympics, she's on top of it all. So to answer it, no, there wasn't. They just couldn't wait to see the back of me. So, yeah.
COLIN HILDING: And Jarrod, how has the job been since you replaced Ben?
JARROD LOOBEEK: Easy breezy, you know. Our day show, just need athletes' names and where they finish. It's pretty good money.
BEN WATERWORTH: Didn't get COVID.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Nobody in this video to get COVID from, so.
COLIN HILDING: You don't even need to research hockey or curling because it's not like they're going to show it anyway. It's just one sport, right?
JARROD LOOBEEK: The green screen for the highlights is just spot on. Joe, in front of the green screen, you can never be able to tell it's a green screen.
BEN WATERWORTH: It must have been even easier than in Colin Canada, in Canada, Colin, if you're only showing the one sport, those lazy wheelchair curlers.
COLIN HILDING: Oh, it's just awful, you know, pushing a rock with a long stick.
BEN WATERWORTH: We talked about those freestyle skis in the Olympics. It doesn't hold a candle to those wheelchair curlers.
COLIN HILDING: Yeah, absolutely. I'm just saying this right now. I want freestyle skiing, some form of freestyle skiing in Paralympics. I'm sure that it exists. Maybe it's just a competition, but like we have snowboarding. I can't see that if somebody has the skills to do, you know, the snowboard cross or alpine skiing, a slalom, that you can't incorporate moguls in there in some way, maybe even just without the tricks. There's got to be somebody else there who is a freestyle skier and also has an impairment. Tell us if this is possible.
BEN WATERWORTH: I'm on board, Colin, with, I think you're underselling it. I want to see visually impaired aerials with a guide, like going up with them. I want to see visually impaired ski jumping with like a guide doing on that. Like I think that would work.
COLIN HILDING: Why can't we do figure skating?
BEN WATERWORTH: Like in all honesty, I was about to say, where's wheelchair figure skating? I'd watch that. That'd be fun. Can I just say one thing that I really loved when I was watching the Paralympics, which I don't know if this is a uniquely winter Paralympics thing. I can't remember seeing this during Tokyo. And I don't know if this is something that would work in the Olympics, because I don't think it really matters. Obviously, you've got like different criteria in certain categories. So for example, like in say, you know, a sport where it's based on, you know, missing a limb or kind of, you know, ultimately sometimes you got people missing two, one, like half, like how they kind of did that comparative time, like where it was sort of like, you know, like halfway down a hill, they could somehow work out some algorithm where rather than like a penalty system by the end of it, like, OK, this person is going to be faster because they've got this and everything else. Like somehow the clock could slow down and speed up. Like, I don't know if you guys saw that at all. Like that was, it was, I can't remember the name of it, whether it was just called the comparative time or something like that, but it was fascinating. Like there's so many of the Alpine events where you would legitimately like have an athlete like halfway down and you would see the clock like speed up or then slow down based on some algorithm. Like it was just, it was really interesting. And I don't know if that is something you could do and whether they did that at the Summer Olympics. I just didn't know if either of you two had that and noticed that. Or maybe, maybe that wasn't a thing and maybe just NBC was like, Oh, look at us, we're fancy. We can show you what the time is going to be. I don't know, but it was, it was very interesting.
COLIN HILDING: The advantage of watching the American coverage over Canadian coverage for once, they actually showed the entire run. They edited out, they edited out that time differential.
BEN WATERWORTH: The Shuey Rhon Rhon. No?
COLIN HILDING: Yeah. Any Shuey Rhon Rhon stories that you want to, either of you noticed that all, I like his little dance, like, whoo, which is basically the same as, Love the interpretation of that, Colin. People listening. They know what I'm doing. But like, I don't know, other than just kind of having a cool look, we didn't really get the personality of Shuey Rhon Rhon.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Yeah. I feel like there weren't enough Shuey Rhon Rhon moments. And maybe like, I think my ranking might have changed post games.
COLIN HILDING: I agree.
JARROD LOOBEEK: I think when Gwen's overtaken, just Shuey Rhon Rhon was the perfect shape to get stuck indoors. I didn't see any of it happening.
BEN WATERWORTH: I think the thing too was because like, yeah, we were so excited for Shuey Rhon Rhon, but like even the social media of like, Bing Duen and that post Beijing was better. Like they did that really cute little video where they had like that really like sad Chinese music of little Bing Duen Duen, and it was like time to say goodbye. And you see him like walking off the distance, he turns and he waves. No, Bing Duen Duen come back. But then they did like the handover to like Shuey Rhon Rhon. So you got little Bing Duen Duen like waving and all of a sudden Shuey Rhon Rhon pops up and like Bing Duen Rhon has got animation about him. He's got a bit of like sass and like I thought this was going to be Shuey Rhon. Shuey Rhon just kind of stands there and just like, I'm a lantern. I thought this was the greatest mascot ever when we first saw him. Like, fuck the panda, like bring on the lantern. No, lanterns are shit. Bring on the pandas. Like, sorry, Shuey Rhon Rhon, you let us down.
COLIN HILDING: You know, Bing Duen Duen set the bar so high with his antics that I don't think we even need to talk about the opening, closing ceremonies. I don't think there was anything to it. There was a record player on the ground in the closing ceremonies. That's all it was.
BEN WATERWORTH: Better than a treadmill.
COLIN HILDING: Of course, there's going to be children in these events. And when I saw Shuey Rhon Rhon, I kept thinking about it as a flashback to, I'm sure this happens everywhere and every kid has done it. But there was an event I did. It was rappelling down the tallest building in Winnipeg. And fun story, I got to rappel down to the themes for Mission Impossible and Jane Bond as I did that. But they had like a mascot there for the charity that it was for. And my youngest nephew at the time, who was, I think, maybe seven or eight, it's like, hey, you want to go see the mascot? He said, hey, punches him right in the gut. And then repeatedly kept doing it till you have the drag weight. I'm like, I just want to see these kids punching Shuey Rhon Rhon in the gut. Like then Shuey Rhon Rhon is going to get what he deserves for being boring, and we'll get some of this ridiculous falling on your back and can't get up that we got from Bing Gynran.
BEN WATERWORTH: I remember going to like hockey, like field hockey games as a kid, and we had a Tasmanian Tiger mascot. It was all about just pulling its tail, so they're like turning around like what's going on and all that sort of stuff. But yeah, I've met your nephews, and that probably doesn't surprise you, that they would punch mascots in the stomach. And true story, that mascot is still suffering internal bleeding after all these years.
COLIN HILDING: This nephew actually also punched Ben in the stomach the first time.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, I won't finish that sentence.
COLIN HILDING: Oh, let's not finish that sentence, all right. That's pretty much a wrap for the Paralympics, but we have some... I'll let Ben tease what we have coming up, because I already forgot the whole timeline of what you told me. We've got interviews, you can tease those, but I guess our next live interview or live thing we do, I don't know, maybe we will or won't do a live interview, but something big is coming up in the next couple of weeks.
BEN WATERWORTH: Sure, live interviews, why not? Mack Horton next week, big interview. Rio gold medallist, of course. Competed in Tokyo and did this interview, I can't even remember, it was like end of last year basically. He was in lockdown. I don't know if that was when he just flown back from the Olympics or had been somewhere else. Actually incredibly fun interview. Really, really good interview with Mack Horton. So I've always been looking forward to this one to come out. So that's next. But outside of that, the obviously voting for the sports podcast was done. Thank you to both of you who voted. It was a pleasure. Jarrod, I'm sure your multiple votes helped there. But that will be announced in about two weeks. So we've got all those fingers and toes crossed. Fingers and eyes. And eyes. And I don't know what else.
COLIN HILDING: Let's not finish that sentence either.
BEN WATERWORTH: No, that's not. But plenty to come, plenty of interviews and other things. And yeah, as we said during the Olympics, Commonwealth Games will do at least one or two during that, like we did during the Gold Coast. I'm sure it will be blanket coverage here in the US. I just can't wait to see NBC's 24-7 coverage of the Commonwealth Games. They love it here. I think the three people I've mentioned it to since I've here, I'm like, what are those? They don't even know what the Pan Ams are. When I'm like, you know what the Pan Am games are, right? They're like, what the fuck are they? I'm like, Jesus, like Pan Am games must be huge in the US. But the one I'm like super excited for later this year, of course, is the World Cup, because as we said, Canada, you need your bloody point, you're in. Australia, we need a bloody miracle, and we're in. So yeah, I'm the soccer freak on this show, so it'll be interesting to see just how you two, the band and also Jarrod and Colin, special guest Bono coming to our World Cup coverage later this year, how that plays out. So yeah, bring it on.
COLIN HILDING: Been in America for a few weeks, and he's already calling it soccer. Just disgraceful.
BEN WATERWORTH: I've always called it soccer. I'm Australian. I prefer to call it football.
COLIN HILDING: I don't think we ever talked about that.
BEN WATERWORTH: We call it soccer because football, I mean, if you're Jarrod, football is rugby and football for me is Australian football. But like I personally like to call soccer football because it is the true form of football. You only use your feet. And you're here in America and you in Canada. Why the fuck do you call your versions football when you throw the ball 98% of the time?
COLIN HILDING: One player is allowed to use their foot. Exactly.
BEN WATERWORTH: And that's football in North America. Okay.
COLIN HILDING: I actually, you told me about the Mack Horton one, I think a couple of weeks ago. And I was like, wow, you got Mack Horton. Because I mean, the Australian athletes, you know, there's a huge amount you can pick from. But that's one of those names that even if you're in Canada, you know who Mack Horton is. And she...
BEN WATERWORTH: I'm sorry, I was going to say, for Off The Podium, we started in Rio, of course, and he was our first gold medallist on day one. We were winning the medal tally back in Rio, of course, thanks to Mack Horton. So, yeah, like he's always been there. And, you know, obviously he had a disappointing Tokyo and he actually talks about sort of like what happened in not qualifying for the 400 metres. You know, that was one of the biggest stories come from Tokyo in the lead-up, which I don't even know if we really talk too much about was the fact that the defending Olympic champion in the 400 metres, like, you know, the great Mack Horton didn't even qualify for the individual 400 for Tokyo. So, you know, he talks about it. He's quite honest about it. Yeah, it's a great interview with Mack Horton. I think people will get a lot out of it.
COLIN HILDING: I already got a lot out of it.
BEN WATERWORTH: Jarrod got even more. Just being lazy, just sitting there. He's just like, fuck it. This is my jam. Don't have to do anything.
COLIN HILDING: So stay tuned for that. And also, as we said, the Sports Podcast Awards. Stay tuned for the announcement. See if we win or not. We're anxiously awaiting to see if we won or not. We've been wasted hours rigging the votes.
BEN WATERWORTH: What are you talking about? Both our voters will be offended at that.
COLIN HILDING: But we will wait and see for that. As always, Jarrod, thank you for pulling your weight. And I guess you're holding out hope for that Jack Wallace cereal box to soon be coming from Ben.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Oh, you know it. No worries. I'm always happy to carry this show.
COLIN HILDING: And Ben, you did it. You interviewed a gold medallist. We interviewed a gold medallist. You still haven't done it on your own. But congratulations, Ben. And thank you for all your contributions during the Paralympics on social media.
BEN WATERWORTH: They were very large contributions, weren't they? No, thank you, Colin, for you pulling your weight this episode and hosting one of these for once.
COLIN HILDING: I'll try to fumble my way through this. How do we close these shows?
BEN WATERWORTH: Rely on the other people who do the work. There you go.
COLIN HILDING: Shout out to a newly single, Jason Momoa. Stay away from my wife and always remember to...
BEN WATERWORTH: Not just to Jason Momoa, there's a bunch of other people that should be saying that sentence too. Just wear a t-shirt, stay away from my wife.
COLIN HILDING: Jason Momoa, stay away from any married woman. And because all the wives are on the right, Jason Momoa, go left.
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