Chloe Esposito Interview
The time has come for us to finally welcome royalty to the show as we sat down with the one, the only Queen Chloe Esposito to talk about her amazing career, her Olympic experiences and of course the incredible sport that is Modern Pentathlon. At what moment did Chloe discover the sport and how was she able to turn that into a career? What are the main challenges when it comes to training for five uniquely different sporting events? How close was she to qualifying for Beijing at the ripe old age of 15? How did her experiences in London help spur her on to her success in Rio? What moment after her win in Rio turned into a special tribute to her grandfather? How has her success helped grow the sport in Australia? And why can we look forward to Chloe Esposito Stadium being opened in time for the Brisbane 2032 Olympics? It's the episode you've been waiting for and the episode you simply can't afford to miss, so get to listening and be amazed!
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
Please note this is an automated transcript that may contain errors.
BEN WATERWORTH: It is Off The Podium, An Olympics Podcast. Coming to you today for the greatest single podcast in the history of podcasting. That is right, we are interviewing Chloe Esposito. That makes it automatically the greatest podcast in the history of podcasting. Modern Pentathlon Gold Medallist from Rio in 2016, also competed in London. Just an absolutely amazing interview we have for you today with Chloe. Of course, long-term listeners to this show would remember our excitement over this win back in Rio. Remember us championing the sport of modern pentathlon in our very first episode. There's a long journey for us to get from day one right through here to Chloe, but an even longer journey for Chloe and how she got from picking up the sport as a 10-year-old right through to winning Olympic gold in Rio. It's a fascinating story. Just a chance box opening of her dad's tracksuit from the Los Angeles 1984 Olympics that led her on to an amazing career in the sport. A career that's still going, of course, too. Obviously, it wasn't in Tokyo, but setting her sights on Paris. And just everything about this interview is so fascinating. Learning more about the training involved in modern pentathlon. Obviously, five very unique sports that don't really equate to each other. How you balance the training, the mental aspect of going through the training for each of those sports. Just how close she came to qualifying at Beijing as a 15-year-old, and how she can now use her win to help spur on the next generation of modern pentathletes to really go out there and continue this legacy, which Chloe has legitimately set right now, and particularly also for female athletes. This is a fantastic chat. It lives up to every single expectation you can ever have of us talking up Chloe Esposito over the last five years. So without further ado, here is our chat with Olympic champion in the sport of modern pentathlon Chloe Esposito.
BEN WATERWORTH: Back in 2016, when we first started this show, on our very first episode, I championed a little sport called modern pentathlon, saying that this was the greatest sport in the world, and that more people needed to pay attention to it. Now, during those Olympics, a certain athlete won Australia's first ever medal in the sport of modern pentathlon. It just happened to be a gold medal. I then championed it, saying that was the greatest Olympic moment in the history of Australia, that this is my point. We needed to celebrate it even more so along the way. And I am so excited to be able to say that today, on Off The Podium, we are speaking to that very athlete who won that famous gold medal back in Rio 2016 in modern pentathlon. And for the first ever time on this show, not only are we speaking to somebody from modern pentathlon, but royalty, because we are speaking to a queen today, Queen Chloe Esposito Chloe. Welcome to the podcast. It's a pleasure to have you today.
CHLOE ESPOSITO: Thank you very much. What an introduction. That was lovely.
BEN WATERWORTH: I had to live up to expectations. I feel like, you know, I like to say we have some sort of responsibility in your gold medal win back then for doing that in our very first episode. So it's like we've got to pick up to this massive intro when we when we talk you up.
CHLOE ESPOSITO: So that was no, that was lovely. Thank you.
BEN WATERWORTH: It's I have to say it is the most unique sport in the entire world to think that you can take five different sports, put it into one and then have to find a way to compete in all of them to then go on to to to win it. It's absolutely incredible. And obviously, you grew up in a household where this was kind of part of your family. Do you remember as a child speaking to your dad going like, Dad, what is this sport? And then do you remember at a moment when you think, OK, I want to try this? This sounds crazy enough that I want to give it a go.
CHLOE ESPOSITO: Yeah. And funny, funny enough, it was exactly like that. But dad, he's really modest and he doesn't like talking about himself. So I always knew he did sport, but it wasn't till until I was about 10 years old, where dad told me about his Olympic journey and what he did. So it was a while. And I remember him going into the garage and grabbing out a big suitcase. It had Australia plastered across it and pulling out all his Olympic memorabilia, like his track suit, his fencing uniform. And my sister was there with me and we were trying it on and fencing one another and just being silly. And that's when he told us about his journey. And I remember from that moment, I said to myself, I want to go to an Olympic Games one day for modern pentathlon. So it was pretty, it was exactly like that.
BEN WATERWORTH: Does he have footage of it? Like, was this something that, like, you know, somebody had taped back home watching the Olympics?
CHLOE ESPOSITO: No, I don't have any footage of the, I don't think so, but I have seen some videos of him and he's got a lot of photos and stuff as well. So he has shown us a lot of photos, but I don't think we have any footage of his Olympic Games, unfortunately.
BEN WATERWORTH: Because I can always imagine it's one of those things when you sort of, you know, you're at an age, or I guess you can appreciate what your parents do or have done and that sort of stuff. It's always kind of fascinating. But to just sort of see all that memorabilia and everything along those lines, too. I mean, were you much of a sporting child before that point? Were you sort of competing a lot in sports before the age of 10?
CHLOE ESPOSITO: Yeah, so in school, I'd always go because my parents, they've always been around swimming pools. My dad used to lease a big public pool, now they own and they run their own swim school. So I've always grown up around pools. So swimming was something that I've done from a really, really young age, and I'd always go in the school swimming carnivals, had joined a swimming club, and then also athletics. We go in school cross country, little A's as well, and carnivals. So I was only really running and swimming before about, yeah, then. But yeah, I love sport. I absolutely love sport. But once it was, once dad told me what he did, I really want to, I don't know if you remember the show called The Saddle Club?
BEN WATERWORTH: Oh, yeah, absolutely.
CHLOE ESPOSITO: I was obsessed with The Saddle Club. And once dad told me about what he did, I wanted to start horse riding straight away because I love the girls on The Saddle Club. So that was one thing that I really, so I did the swimming and running. And then the horse riding was the next for me to start, which I was just obsessed with. And I still am. I love it.
BEN WATERWORTH: I have to admit probably as a child, I watched that every now and then. I don't know why. I probably wasn't on the right, you know, demographic. But I weirdly discovered recently that Chris Hemsworth was on that for an episode or two, I think, back in the day. So prior to his Home and Away days, he was a Saddle Club cast member.
CHLOE ESPOSITO: I will have to go back and watch some episodes.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah.
CHLOE ESPOSITO: Oh, that's really interesting. I have to go watch some.
BEN WATERWORTH: It's always interesting when you kind of discover these sort of actors who maybe are in those kind of shows like that. When you are 10 years old then and you want to get into modern pentathlon in Australia, kind of probably helps have a dad who went to the Olympics in it to have some connections. But how on earth do you go? I mean, it's not like you can just go down to the local modern pentathlon club. I can't imagine there's sort of one down there. So how do you then take those steps for that journey?
CHLOE ESPOSITO: So what we did was we spoke to dad. We kept doing what I was doing, my swimming and my running. And then I picked up the horse ride. I think though I was probably 11 when I started horse riding. And then it was basically only dad. There were some other pentathletes, older ones in New South Wales, but most of them lived down in Victoria and based in Melbourne. So there was a few competitions down there. But so dad, I picked up the horse riding. Then when I was 12 years old, I was able to get my shooting licence. So I got my shooting licence at 12 and then started fencing. So by the age of 12, I was doing all five sports, and I went in my first competition when I was 12 years old. It was just a small youth competition. So I didn't have much horse riding experience then, but it was from, yeah. By the age of 12, I was training for all five sports.
BEN WATERWORTH: And of course, that wasn't too long after the Sydney Olympics when women's modern pentathlon made its debut, was it not? So that kind of obviously I can imagine, sort of the women's side of the competition was really taking off, given that it just made its an Olympic debut at that time as well.
CHLOE ESPOSITO: Yeah, so modern pentathlon had been in the Olympics since the first Olympic Games, but it was only for males. And then in 2000, they introduced, females were able to compete at the Olympic Games. Before that, the women would have like their World Cups and World Series and stuff like that. But 2000 was the first Olympic Games. That was really exciting, knowing that I would have a chance to try and qualify for an Olympic Games for Australia.
BEN WATERWORTH: And did you go to watch any of the modern pentathlon at Sydney?
CHLOE ESPOSITO: No, I don't think, I didn't watch any of them. I remember going to watch like the athletics and the cross-country show jumping. I watched that. That was awesome. But I can't remember watching any of the pentathlon.
BEN WATERWORTH: Wow, I'm surprised your dad doesn't get front row tickets or something like that to it. Isn't there some sort of legacy program there that he should get automatic entry?
CHLOE ESPOSITO: I think maybe he went to watch some with some friends, but we went to a few of the other events, which was still awesome.
BEN WATERWORTH: Which I can imagine then when you're switching focus and you're kind of combining all these and going to school and sort of, hey, what do you play? Oh, I play soccer, I play netball, I play football. What do you do? Oh, I'm a pentathlete. I mean, how do you sort of describe that then to your friends? And I mean, what sort of questions must you get asked when you say, I'm a pentathlete?
CHLOE ESPOSITO: Yeah, no, everyone at school thought I was like the weird sports girl, especially in high school, not so much in primary school, because in primary school, and I do a few talks at schools, and I tell the kids like I wasn't naturally talented, and I didn't win in primary school any races or anything like that. It wasn't until high school where I started to get, because I was training more, so I was improving. But yeah, everyone thought it was just like a weird sport, but they knew that's what I did, and that's what I was known for. I think that's how, otherwise, if I didn't go to that school, no one would have really known about pentathlon, because it's such a mixed bag, and there's hard, I think maybe now in New South Wales, there might be about three or four athletes that do pentathlon. So, oh, no, no, sorry, we have a few more now. We have a few more in New South Wales. I was thinking Sydney. Maybe about 20, I think we have now. In New South Wales, which is all right, which is good.
BEN WATERWORTH: What was it like when you were getting started? What were the numbers like for both men and women?
CHLOE ESPOSITO: Yeah, no, it wasn't big at all. Especially dad used to tell us when he did it, there was a lot more athletes, and then I think it just slowly died off. And then it's picked up again now. But when I was doing it, we'd always have to go down to Melbourne for competitions. And in competitions for the women, I think we'd get maybe, this is senior and junior, maybe maximum 8 to 10, not even. And the males were about the same. There was, or maybe even, there was hardly anyone that did it. So we'd always have to travel for competition and stuff because that's what you just have to do. Because there wasn't really too many comps being held over Australia. So when there was one, you definitely want to get there.
BEN WATERWORTH: I think the reason why I'm fascinated by it, because I'm a big Winter Olympics fan, and I'm always fascinated by the journey of the athletes in Australia to getting to a Winter Olympics. And I kind of equate modern pentathlon almost to that of a winter athlete, because it's obviously a very small sport in Australia. It's very big in Europe and everything along those lines. So it's almost like you have to go through the same hoops to get to that world stage. And particularly, as you're saying there, with such small participation numbers. I mean, just fast-forwarding a little bit to after Rio, did you think it would have taken something like your win in Rio to really boost participation in sports so people can have eyes on it? Because I guess we don't ever see bottom pentathlon in Australia, do we, until an Olympics? And even then, it might be a one-hour highlights package at 1am on Channel 7 or something like that, isn't it?
CHLOE ESPOSITO: And still on TV, they don't really... I think now on KO sports and stuff, they have some of the World Cups and World Championships on there. But this was the first time, so it was lovely sitting here and watching the Tokyo Olympics because Channel 7 played most of the sports now. And I remember in Rio, they... No one really was there to film because no one really expected anything. And then I think it was maybe halfway through the last event, the running and shooting, they realised, oh, hold on a second, this girl might have a chance. And I remember one of the commentators telling me, someone ran into the media room and said, okay, we have a chance at Pentathlon. Does anyone know anything about modern pentathlon? And they were like, and one guy put his hand and said, I think I might. And so we've got a little bit of airtime then in Rio, which was amazing. But Tokyo, sitting down and watching, I got to watch the whole games, which was incredible, which was awesome. So I think it took the gold in Rio to finally get some airtime on TV, which is nice.
BEN WATERWORTH: We had Joanna Griggs on recently, and she told the story about the sort of the bedlam that it was when they realised that you were about to medal. And she had people like Basil Zemplas and all that going like, no, we have no idea. So it was sort of just going through the motions with everything along those lines, which is always kind of fun to see. And I see, you know, as I said at the beginning of the interview, we were championing this all night. We were counting it every day. We were doing Rio coverage. Okay, it's only two days to modern metathalon one day. And of course, because it was sort of on the middle of the night here, I remember going to sleep and then kind of, you know, I fall asleep with the TV on because I'm weirdly obsessed with the Olympics and wake up. And I remember kind of gradually looking at the screen, and I think I'm saying, oh, yeah, cool. Someone's done well overnight. All right. Kind of then all of a sudden, oh, yeah, modern metathalon. And then it all clicked. And then I'm seeing you on screen. I'm seeing them. I'm like going, am I dreaming? Like, we've been talking about this sport for two weeks, and now we want to go, no, this is not true. What's happening? And then all of a sudden, it clicks because this is the one event real. I think that, as you said, no one was paying attention to. And then it's like, not even in the middle. Got a gold.
CHLOE ESPOSITO: It was crazy. I know it was. It was pretty. It was nuts, actually. And especially hearing stories. Like you said, it was on. I think the last event was maybe on like at 630, seven o'clock in the morning, Australia time, like in Sydney. And so that's when people were waking up and seeing what had happened. But it really hit me when, like after it happened, my friends are sending me articles in the newspaper and stuff. Okay, yeah. But when I got off the plane and got home, people were like saying, Chloe Esposito, modern Patathlon, like pulling me here, pulling me there for an interview. How do people know what this sport is? And how do people know? That's when people are like, oh, my goodness. People actually know what the sport is now, which was nice.
BEN WATERWORTH: When it comes to training, obviously, five very unique disciplines. I can imagine you've got to spread it out a little bit. I mean, is there one that always kind of takes precedence over the other, whether that comes down to the fact that you always feel that's the one you need to work on, or is it more of a strategic thing that you need to sort of do more training in one? I mean, how does a general week work for a pentathlete?
CHLOE ESPOSITO: So leading after I competed in the London Olympics, and in London, I came seventh, and I made a promise to myself when I crossed the line that I wanted to go to Rio, but this time I was going to be on the podium, but I really needed to improve my fencing. That was my weakest event. So I had to make a lot of improvements in my fencing and a lot of changes. So one of the things we did was we moved overseas to Europe, and like you said before, it's very popular. We moved to Budapest in Hungary, and like swimming is here in Australia, that's what pentathlon is like over there. Everyone knows the pentathletes. They're like famous. So it was like the hub for pentathlon. So we went there and trained. So I really need to work on my fencing, and the fencing is amazing over there. So fencing was one that I really had to put the hours in. But a normal week for us before Rio, full time training, was four to five sessions a day. So it wasn't like just focus on one sport one day. We did quickly. It was, assuming we did five sessions a week. Running was five sessions a week. Fencing was four free play fencing sessions. So that's when you fence like about other athletes, and that went for two hours. Then we'd have another three individual fencing lessons with a coach. Then we'd do three horse riding sessions a week, four to five shooting sessions, two gym sessions, and I think that's it. I'm pretty sure that's it. And then we'd have to fit in like a massage and recovery sessions as well.
BEN WATERWORTH: It must be mentally insane to try and just not only keep up physically, but mentally to be able to kind of do all of that. Because again, it's not like you're quite fencing to riding much often or running to swimming. It's crazy to think what that must do to you as an athlete mentally as well.
CHLOE ESPOSITO: Yeah, it was full. That's why we'd always have Sunday be a rest day, unless there was a competition on or something. But Sunday, we'd always just have a rest day and do something like not involving sport or talking about sport. Sometimes, because I've been so busy during the week, I just love to sit down in the lounge, watch Netflix and like not move or something. Or we go out, go to a restaurant, do a bit of shopping, just anything away from sport. And that's, I think, what kept me sane as well, just having that time away from sport on a Sunday.
BEN WATERWORTH: Is it a sport, we see obviously say like in the decathlon and the heptathlon, that often athletes will have obviously a preferred event. They're kind of better at the high jump, they're better at the run or whatever along those lines. I mean, is it a sport where that is common? You're going to be a better rider and you're going to make it up for it? Or is it a case of you really got to be, I guess, consistent among the five disciplines to really be a good pentathlete?
CHLOE ESPOSITO: Yeah, so what we've always said, we, as my family, if you're consistent at all of them and you peak at one event, I think that's what makes a good pentathlete. So I think in Rio especially, I was consistent throughout all of them, and then my peak event was the last event, the running and shooting. So yeah, consistency is key.
BEN WATERWORTH: With that then, does it come a case where say you come back from London and as you're saying also you're working on your fencing and everything along those lines, but is it a case that you can kind of go through peaks and troughs, so all of a sudden your fencing improved, but maybe the swimming's gone down a little bit or kind of the riding goes down a little bit or that sort of stuff? Or is it all about, as you're just saying, that consistency where you don't want to get yourself in that zone where something like that happens?
CHLOE ESPOSITO: Yeah, but there was, sorry, also there was times where we were able to let, if we weren't close to a competition, I was able to let maybe my swimming drop a little bit and really focus on my fencing, because I had that time before, when I knew competitions weren't coming up, that I could really, really put in the hours for fencing. So I was able to let the others drop a little bit, knowing that we had nothing really important coming up. And then once that time was over, I'd pick up everything back to normal again. So there were times where I could drop things off, pick up other things a little bit. But once we were in full on training for, we had a goal of a competition, it'd be consistent.
BEN WATERWORTH: Obviously, your first Olympics was London, but you actually tried to qualify for Beijing at the ripe old age of 15. How close were you? Because I believe you were doing very well, and we're right on the cusp of that qualification spot, were you not?
CHLOE ESPOSITO: Yeah, so I had won all the qualification comps in Australia. And I think just because I was so young, I was really nervous. And actually, our qualifying comp to qualify for Beijing was in Tokyo. So I remember going, and I was so, so nervous. I shot terribly. Not what I normally should, just because the nerves kicked in. Fencing was horrendous because I hadn't had much fencing experience then. So I'm fencing all these experienced fences all from overseas. I just basically froze. Horse riding, I had terrible, terrible horse ride. I remember my mum couldn't watch. She had to walk off somewhere. I think she was crying because she was so nervous for me. And then, because back then also, the shooting and the running weren't combined. It was five individual sports. Swimming, I swam good. And my running was good, but I was just too far behind. So I didn't qualify. But back then, I was upset. But I guess because I was so young, it didn't really hit me that hard. I thought, you know what, I'm still young. I can train hard for the next Olympics. So after that, I was like, I want to qualify for London. So yeah, but only 15 years old.
BEN WATERWORTH: In hindsight, how did you qualify? Do you think that would have changed much over the journey? Like giving you a bit of extra experience, maybe the medal could have come at an Olympics early in London?
CHLOE ESPOSITO: Or is it kind of hard to tell? Yeah, I think definitely I would have got more experience because going from London to Rio definitely helped me competing in London because I had that experience that helped so, so much. And I was able because London, like my first competition in Tokyo, I was so, so nervous. So definitely if I had gone to Beijing, I think I would have had more experience. But I was still in London. I was 20. I think I was one of the youngest in the field still. So yeah, it's hard to say, but definitely more experience. And it would have been nice to have another Olympics under the belt.
BEN WATERWORTH: We always like to hear from all our guests on the show, I guess, the Olympic experiences outside of the competing. You mentioned sort of at that young age, discovering what your dad did, setting that goal to go to an Olympics. I mean, do you sort of remember just the atmosphere and the feelings when, first of all, you made the Olympics in 2012, and then just little things like going to an opening ceremony, experiencing the village, kind of all those sort of things that you did when you first got to London?
CHLOE ESPOSITO: Oh, I was so, so excited. I was so excited to get all the uniform, and then because we've got telephones and stuff, like all the free things there, and the food that was in London was incredible. But because Pentathlon is on the last day, we had a training camp in France before. So I flew to London for the opening ceremony because it was my first Olympics. And because dad had been already, he knew what it's like after when other athletes finish, and everyone just goes out and parties, it's lots of distraction. So he said, we'll go for the opening ceremony, and then we'll fly back to France. I went for the opening ceremony. Amazing. It was something so, so special. Walking in with the Australian team. It was just amazing. And you know what else? In London, I was so upset because Pentathlon was on the last day. I missed out on the closing ceremony because after we finished, we didn't finish till like seven o'clock, and then I had to be drug tested, and I couldn't go to the bathroom. So I was sitting there for hours and hours, and the Spice Girls were playing at the closing ceremony in London. And I was so upset because all I wanted to do was see the Spice Girls. I missed out on the closing ceremony in London, but I made up for it in Rio. But it was incredible. But then also having that experience, knowing what it's like in the village, before Rio, we decided not to go to the opening ceremony, and we had a training camp in Mexico, and I didn't arrive in Rio until I think it was four days, oh no, three days before my event.
BEN WATERWORTH: It must be just also for the family, like to have your dad, you know, compete in the Olympics and then to see his daughter grow up to go to an Olympics as well. I mean, kind of, do you remember, did he give you any advice? Did he sort of say anything to you beforehand when you would qualify? I mean, that must be a pretty special moment for him to kind of have you go to an Olympics.
CHLOE ESPOSITO: Definitely. It was very, very special. But dad's always, he's sort of the quiet guy. He doesn't say too much. He likes to say things through the results that we get. So and he always says to us, training is the hard part, competition is the easy part. So he'd always in training, he'd always be saying things to us. Of course, in competition, he'd help us if something was going wrong. But he's like, in training, that's where he'd give us a lot of advice or get cranky. We weren't doing something or training hard enough or give us positive feedback then. And the Olympic competition, it was, as he always said, it's the easy part. You've done it in training before. You just need to do it again in competition and try to have a really relaxed outlook. And we never ever spoke about results at competitions or even before. We never spoke about it because he said that that wasn't important. If you do it in training, you'll be able to do it in competition.
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, I'm going to mention a result. You finished seventh in London, which was the first time an Australian pentathlete had finished top 10 since Donald McMiken back in 1964 in Tokyo. I mean, must be a pretty incredible feeling to get a top 10 at an Olympics. I mean, did you walk away from London happy with your performance? Did you think you could have gone better and walked away with a medal win? How did you leave London feeling?
CHLOE ESPOSITO: I was over the moon with my result in London. And I remember before London, dad, we had a meeting with someone who was helping us out, like a sponsor, and they said, realistically, where do you think Chloe is going to finish in the London Olympics? And dad said, top 10. And I was like, he'd never said that before. And I was like, dad, you're crazy. You're not. I'm not going to be in the top 10. It's my first Olympic Games. I'm competing against some of the best women in the world, but dad knows best. And yeah, I came seventh. So I was over the moon with seventh. I was just absolutely wrapped with that result. And that's when I said to myself that I wanted to go to Rio and be on that podium. So yeah, I was too happy.
BEN WATERWORTH: In terms of sort of saying, talking to sponsors and that, I mean, I can imagine that, you know, going back to my point about how the sport isn't maybe as big here in Australia as in other parts of the world. Is that a case that a lot of the time, too, you're having to find sort of sponsorship to help you go to competitions in Europe? I mean, is that kind of help by the federation? I mean, kind of how does that aspect of the sport work?
CHLOE ESPOSITO: Yeah, before London, we didn't have like the federation don't get much money. So I didn't have really any like it was mum and dad, basically, were my sponsors before London leading into Rio, we got a bit of help, which was good. But it wasn't until after Rio, that's when I got more help to go compete and live overseas again, because I competed in sub training in 2017-18. So it was after Rio took the gold medal to be able to get a bit of help, which was nice. But as I said, it's not a popular sport. And that's another thing like going for meetings to try and find sponsors. It's not about then ask what's your like results. How many followers do you have? It was more about the social media aspect, which was a bit disappointing. But what can you do? That's how it goes, and it's not a popular sport. And I do it because I love it.
BEN WATERWORTH: It's one of those moments that I can imagine that once you get the gold, do you feel like going back to some of these maybe sponsors who are maybe a little bit not as nice and go, hey, just FYI, gold medal, you could have been attached to this.
CHLOE ESPOSITO: But still after the gold, the first six months was crazy. And I didn't have a manager. And that's one piece of advice I give some athletes. I wish I had a manager even before just to help me with little things, because if I had got home and had a manager straight away, it would have helped me so, so much. And it took a while to find the right manager. And I'm now with the best manager ever, Robert Jusky. So he's awesome. But I wish I had been with him before the Rio Olympics, because after he just it took me a while to find him. But he's helped me so, so much. He's been incredible.
BEN WATERWORTH: It must have also been incredible, of course, to in Rio, going there with Max. Obviously, have continued the family legacy along the way as well. I mean, gosh, I know you said your dad's kind of a quiet man and kind of doesn't speak that much. But I mean, surely there's got to be some bursting point. We're all of a sudden now we've got two of his kids at the Olympics come Rio.
CHLOE ESPOSITO: Well, Max makes up for everyone. He talks a lot and he is the joker of the family. And that's another thing that kept me sane during the whole lead up to Rio as well, just because we moved overseas to Budapest. So living with dad Max, my mum came over as well and he was my fiance then, now husband came over in stints back and forward. But Max was just so lucky because he was my training partner. Although he was faster than me in the swimming and the running, we just do absolutely everything together. And he was the best thing to have there. I'd be able to try and chase him in the running, although he flogged me. Have him in the swimming pool next to me. And just when you finish a set, getting to the wall and although you're buggered, he just always was able to put a smile on my face. So it was the best thing ever having in training with me. So dad, yes, you're very, very proud. And it was just, yeah, in Rio, we were lucky enough in our room to have. So dad was the coach. We had a friend who was the high performance manager. My mum was able to come over as assistant coach. And then my brother and myself. So we had an awesome room. Everyone got along well. It was good.
BEN WATERWORTH: When it comes to the camaraderie with your fellow Australian teammates at an Olympics, given that you're doing five different sports in one, do you kind of try and like, if it was like a locker room or a lunch room at school, are you hanging out with the equestrian kids more than, say, the swimmer? Because you could just basically kind of fit into every single click there, I can imagine, Chloe, can't you?
CHLOE ESPOSITO: Yeah, but I didn't really know any of the... Because I had been overseas for so long, so I didn't really know any of the swimmers, like individual swimmers or the athletics team or the horse. I'd heard of names, so going into the village, it was like when I'd see these people walking around, I'd be like, oh, my goodness, I don't know them, but I've seen them, I know about them and stuff. So no, we didn't really have like... Pentathlon didn't slip into like one sort of sport. We're just like the pentathletes stuck together, but it was so cool seeing everyone in there.
BEN WATERWORTH: Was there anyone that you got like completely starstruck, maybe got a sneaky selfie with or something along those lines?
CHLOE ESPOSITO: No, it was awesome after, especially like meeting Kate and Bronte Campbell. That was really cool. And I had known Jess Fox for a while before, because my sister competed in the Youth Olympics in 2010 with her. So my sister had always been really good friends with her. So it was lovely seeing Jess in the village. And especially after I'd won the medal, like walking back into the village and everyone cheering for you. It's like, this is really cool.
BEN WATERWORTH: And all of a sudden people know what pentathlon is. It's kind of sort of the benefits of that. You mentioned before about how shooting used to be separate. It wasn't part of the run. Now, I believe was Rio the first Olympics to have it combined?
CHLOE ESPOSITO: London. London was the first. And back then it was only three rounds of shooting, and you do a kilometre run in between each shoot. So it's 3000 metres run and total of 15 shots if you got all of them. And they changed that. So in Rio, we did four lots of shooting, and it was 800 metres between each shoot. So it was 3200 metres.
BEN WATERWORTH: And was that a benefit for you, or did you prefer it sort of more separate? I mean, kind of how did that work with your abilities?
CHLOE ESPOSITO: No, I did like the shooting. When there's change, everyone always gets upset about it. And I was not, because I thought it's not even like real shooting anymore because we changed to laser pistol as well. But it did help me. My shooting was good. I want to tip my own horny, but my shooting was good. But also putting the running and shooting together, I think it did help me. And then adding the extra 200 metres and extra five shots as well in Rio did help me because I knew my shooting was strong. And I liked the longer distance running. Even though it was only 200 metres, I think it can sometimes make or break people. So I think it definitely did help me out.
BEN WATERWORTH: When you say laser bullets, I'm just picturing like a laser beam.
CHLOE ESPOSITO: It's a laser beam that just comes out and basically hits the target. So it's a lot of electronic targets, and you've got like five lights on top. So when you get a successful shot, the light goes green. If it's a fail, it's red. Yeah, so you've got to get the five green lights and you can go and run.
BEN WATERWORTH: So I'm just thinking now that all these days playing laser tag can actually lead to an Olympics now. It's essentially an Olympic sport.
CHLOE ESPOSITO: Literally. And then after, but after I had an event where we all went and played laser tag as one of the activities, but I was terrible. I thought I'd be really good, but it was so much fun. It was so much fun.
BEN WATERWORTH: We did some commentary during Tokyo of some different events, and we tried to spice it up. So for sailing, Chloe, we added the Pirates of the Caribbean theme. It was a bit of fun. Wrestling, we added some walk on music. I'm thinking now modern pentathlon, we need to add Star Wars, you know, pew, pew, pew sounds every time you're shooting like that.
CHLOE ESPOSITO: It literally is like that. And also with the fencing too, although it's not a laser like sword.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, goodness. You could have the riding, like the sort of, you know, some of the spaceship sounds going on there.
CHLOE ESPOSITO: But pentathlon, it did come originally from a soldier delivering a message to a king. So that's what it's based off. So the soldier had to ride his horse, fight his way with a fencing sword, shoot, swim across the lake or river, whatever it was, and then run and deliver this message to a king. So that's sort of it. But that's cool, yeah. The Star Wars would be awesome.
BEN WATERWORTH: Good work. It's also one of these sports too that, you know, we're always talking about gender equality, having mixed events and all that sort of stuff at Olympics. Obviously, there used to be a team event and the men's, but I'm saying take it to the next level. Have a mixed event, but combine everything at once. So I want you on a horse with your fencing sword, then you've got to shoot at the same time, then you've got to somehow run with the horse and then jump in a pool altogether. Do it all at once, somehow combine it all.
CHLOE ESPOSITO: That would be crazy. Actually, they were trying to fight in Rio to have, because there is a mixed teams event that we have at World Cups and on the World Series, and they were trying to get that into Rio, but unfortunately it didn't. But that was sort of a... They changed it a bit where the running and shooting had... It was a bit weird. Running and shooting had obstacles in it and stuff. So, who knows? It could be next Olympics. It could be on the cards all at once.
BEN WATERWORTH: Brisbane, at least by 2032, you'll be fine for there. Come on, at least. Home Olympics for that too. One aspect that is so fascinating with the sport, of course, on the riding aspect is that you get your horses basically given to you at random. Now, how is that something to overcome? Because obviously on the day, you can just have an absolute shit show of a horse. We saw that with Anika Schlyer in Tokyo. How bad that turned out for her. I mean, how is that something like when you get given your horse, can you sort of tell, can you say, oh, this horse is a little shit. I'm not going to like this one. Does it wait till you get on it and think, okay, well, this is how this is going to go?
CHLOE ESPOSITO: Yeah, there has been a lot of controversy recently about Anika and what happened in Tokyo. So I think there will be some big changes coming to the sport. But what it is, so they do an owners round like two days before, three days before. So where the owner actually rides the horse. So the country that's hosting the competition will supply the horses. In Rio, they were all military horses. So they had someone who obviously rides the horse all the time doing the course. So they can prove that the horse can do the show jumping course. And if they can't, if they get too many stops or too many knockdowns, they won't put the horse in the draw. And An Olympic Games, they do want to put on a really good show, so they put the best horses that they can find in. In World Cups and stuff like that, that's not necessarily the case, because obviously not a lot of people are watching. So sometimes you do get some horses that aren't that great. But yeah, it is. So you get to watch it in the owner's round, see what it's like. Then they give you like a list and tell you if you need to, certain things you need to do, or if it's a go-e horse or if you need to push it along a bit more, and the equipment you need. You get 20 minutes to warm up with it. And no, you can't change a horse in 20 minutes. So you basically have to deal with what you've been given. And that's what Pentathlon, it's always been like that. And that's something you have to train for. And in my heart broke for Anika watching her because yeah, it was unlucky. And always in the Olympic Games, two people ride the same horse. So she was ranked number one. So the girl who was 17, ranked 17th, rode the same horse before. So we got to watch it go around, and it did basically the same thing to that girl. In that case, I think they should have, there are reserve horses, and she could have protested and asked for the reserve horse, but obviously they didn't give it to her. So yeah, you just sort of have to deal with what you've been given, which is, yeah, sometimes it's very, very unfair.
BEN WATERWORTH: Because I can imagine, in that case, that if you're seeing the horse that you're riding with somebody else who's not doing it, that's got to be a mental thing, like, okay, this isn't going to be good.
CHLOE ESPOSITO: Definitely. And sometimes you see someone riding a horse and the horse is sopping, they're falling off. Then again, it comes down to the riders, and in Pentathlon, I know for a fact a lot of people don't place that much emphasis and they don't think that horse riding is that important. So they might ride once a month, or they'll wait till it's close to a competition to ride. Whereas my brother and I, we'd religiously ride three times a week. So saying that, I don't know, did you watch the riding in?
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, I was hooked to it. I remember watching Anika and just like, I was almost in the verge of tears because it was just, it was so just tragic to watch that.
CHLOE ESPOSITO: But a lot of the Pentathletes that rode before Anika, there was a lot of falls, there was a lot of refusal. But that and people might say different, but that came down to the riders. There was a lot of people like riders that needed a lot more experience, which and I was sitting here talking to like my dad and stuff, and I was saying it was a bit embarrassing for the sport as well. It's like you made the Olympic Games. You want to put that practice in. I'm not talking about Anika that she, the horse wouldn't go, but other riders as well. It's like you need to put in the work. You know, you're at an Olympic Games, and it's just as important as any other sport because it can literally put you from first all the way down to the bottom, whereas most of those horses were good. It's just, yeah, like Anika's horse, that was very unfortunate for her.
BEN WATERWORTH: Which I remember one of the press conferences you gave after, Rio, talking about how much you and Max were training and sort of how that was almost looked down upon by some other penthouse. Why is that? I would imagine that training more shouldn't be looked down upon. I mean, if anything, it's a positive, right?
CHLOE ESPOSITO: Yeah, some people would say we train too much and it's going to cause injuries and stuff like that. But it's what we've known since, just to work really hard. And sometimes, yes, we did get injuries, but if we did get an injury, it's not like my dad was a psycho and said, oh, you got to keep training. Because he had a few injuries before in his time and he knew when to pull back. And he was really, really cautious of them, made sure we looked after ourselves. But yeah, people always called us the crazy Espositos because of how much we train. But, you know, it's in the results.
BEN WATERWORTH: I mean, a gold medal around the net kind of speaks volumes for how it works, right?
CHLOE ESPOSITO: People can say what they want to say, but we've got the gold at the end of the day.
BEN WATERWORTH: The proof is in the pudding, as they say. So I think that kind of works out there. Now, of course, famous story, sevenths going into the laser run, you make up the 45 seconds, go on to win the gold. Before I get to that moment, going into that final race, I've heard you talk a lot about how you felt you could make that up, because 45 seconds sounds like a lot, but as you've said in many interviews before, you've made up time in that before. I mean, just how were you? Can you think back to that now and just think, okay, I'm getting a gold medal today? Or was it, I'm getting a medal? What was the actual point where you were thinking, this is what I'm going to go? And how focused, had you ever been that focused before going into the final round at any event you've been in?
CHLOE ESPOSITO: Yeah, no, definitely. But going into it, yeah, I was not thinking about medals or anything. I didn't want to. Of course, it's always in the back of your mind, but I just didn't want to think about that. And like I said, my dad and I never spoke about medals before. And he just said to me before, you've done this in training before, you can do it again in competition. And I knew I was going to move up a few places. I just didn't know how many, because I knew that was my strongest event, and I could move up. But it wasn't until the last run shoot, the last shooting series where I went in third, and then I just really had to focus on myself. I knew there was two girls in front of me, but I literally tried not to look at them. Sometimes even going into the shooting range, I put my head down and then just go to my bay, grab the gun, shoot. Although the girls are next to me, and just one really important thing, do not look at their target, because the lights are up there, so you can see them flashing red or green. So I had to, yeah, not look at them. It's like I had blinkers on though, and I was saying to myself, of course, the rhythm and everything, but I was just saying to myself, okay, I've got another run, and then I was just pretending like I've got another shoot after. This isn't the last one. So that's what I said to myself, another shoot after this, it's fine. And then once I got the fifth shot, I put down the gun and ran, and that's when I realised I was in first place. So that's when it hit me, and it wasn't until maybe about after running, I think maybe about 200 metres. But I heard the commentator calling the shots of the other girls and saying they were missing. And when they finally left the range, I looked back, no, I shouldn't have looked back. It's one rule not to look back. But I looked back and I knew they weren't going to catch it. And that's when I had realised that I had got the goal. So it was a very big pinch me moment.
BEN WATERWORTH: Which is one of my favourite moments of watching that was that when you put down the pistol, you've got this look on your face. It's almost like that realisation of, shit, I'm in first. And it's just kind of like the look, run. And like, that's, I think, my best memory of it. It's because I love seeing emotions that of athletes no matter where they are and kind of when you're seeing them in the midst of competition. And it's just, it's that literal moment of pistol down, holy crap, and then you're just running. And it's just, I swear that look didn't leave your face until you crossed the finish line and then relief comes over you.
CHLOE ESPOSITO: Yeah, it was incredible. And then my mum told me after the only thing she was thinking was just don't trip. Don't trip. And it was so special because especially my grandparents were there. My grandfather had coached me a lot in the swimming event when I was in Australia. My now husband is there, my brother, my sister, my friend from America, my mum and my dad. Dad was actually at the finish line. I don't know how he got down there, but he was at the finish line.
BEN WATERWORTH: He's got connections, right? Come on. He's got those connections as a former Olympian.
CHLOE ESPOSITO: He's got them. And running down that straight and seeing my family in the Grands, it was just, that's when I looked up at them and still watching that. I can see, like if I watch it back, I can see myself looking up at that and seeing them cheering because the camera is behind them. And it is, it always brings tears to my eyes when I watch it. And then crossing that finish line and just knowing that like a whole team, like we'd all done it and they were there to support me. It was, it was incredible. I gave dad the biggest hug. It was like amazing. It was just, yeah, incredible.
BEN WATERWORTH: Which it's just all the layers to it too, Chloe. I mean, obviously for yourself personally to kind of achieve the peak of what you can in sport. But going back to what we were talking about before, that the recognition it adds to the sport in Australia, I mean, even for the Southern Hemisphere, you know, in a sport dominated by European nations, you know, to have the host network scrambling to find a commentator to call it, you know, all these kind of levels. And an Olympic record too. I mean, gosh, like just incredible to think of everything that came from it. I mean, is it something that you kind of, it's a pinch me moment, all of a sudden it hits you. Is it something that never hits you kind of what all of that meant to that moment?
CHLOE ESPOSITO: It took a while for it to actually hit me. And I don't think it was probably until last year where I actually, I'm not trying to say I'm big headed or anything, but I was walking, I forget where I was, and then I was just thinking about it. And I'm like, wow, that's actually pretty incredible what I did. And that's when it sort of really hit me. And like people always ask, has it sunk in? And it sunk in before that. I was like, yeah, but that's when I think it actually had really sunk in. Probably wasn't until about last year or something. So it was, yeah, it was a lovely moment. I can't believe it's been five years already.
BEN WATERWORTH: Insane. And also one of my favourite moments too is watching you when the National Anthem is playing. I really respect the fact that you've got not just one hand on the heart, you've got double hands on the heart. This is like, America can have the one. Let's start the trend of Australia with the double hand on the heart. I mean, I respect that Chloe. I want the trend to take off more so with our Olympians to do that.
CHLOE ESPOSITO: Yeah, that's actually one of my favourite stories. But ever since I've been a little girl, my grandfather, who was lucky enough, I was fortunate enough to have there because he had a bit of a scare before he thought he wasn't going to be able to make it. And then he came to watch me, which is beautiful. He'd always said to me when I was a little girl, when you get on that podium and win gold. He never said if, he always said when. He said, can you do me one favour and put both hands on your heart? And I said, of course, grandfather, I'll do that for you. And when I crossed the line, I saw him and he looked at me and he did that. And straight away, I was thinking it straight away. Of course, I was going to do that. So it was a really, really beautiful moment.
BEN WATERWORTH: That's a great story. Adds even extra weight to that. That's fantastic to kind of hear that too. One of the perks I always love talking to about to our gold medallists, particularly from Australia, you get to be in a stamp, Chloe. What's it like to come back to Australia and hey, here's your stamp.
CHLOE ESPOSITO: Yeah, I know. That was actually someone the other day sent me a message, and they had about 10 of them. And they said, look at that. And I was like, oh my gosh. And mum and dad still have some at home in the safe.
BEN WATERWORTH: Which must be weird if you get a letter, and it's just, I don't know, a bill or something like that. And there you are.
CHLOE ESPOSITO: Oh, there I am.
BEN WATERWORTH: I'm on my own mail.
CHLOE ESPOSITO: I know it is pretty cool. I know there were some awesome things that did happen after the games, which is great. But one of my favourite things after the games was hearing people's stories, like yourself, of what they were doing when it had happened. And it was just really special to hear those. And one of my family friends, actually, my mum and dad run a swim school, one of the teachers, she was driving somewhere out in the country. And so she had it on the radio. And then she hears that I've started to move up. So she pulls over. She's full of emotion. She's screaming. She's getting upset. She's standing out the front of her car because she can't control her excitement and crying. This lady from her house hears her. It's like she's in the middle of nowhere, comes out the front of the house because she thinks she's having a heart attack or something. She goes, you're right. She goes, I know this girl, I know this girl. And she goes, I'm watching on TV. Come in and watch it. So she went in and watched it with her, which I thought that's one of my favourite things is hearing what people do. And that story, I think, is just so special.
BEN WATERWORTH: I mean, were you getting inundated with messages like on social media? I mean, you're talking about sort of, you know, the followers before. I can imagine your followers all of a sudden go up and the sponsors are probably going, well, look at these followers now.
CHLOE ESPOSITO: Yeah, it was crazy. My phone did not stop. And that night after, I didn't sleep, I think maybe one hour or so, because I was just so excited and I was calling all my family and friends, the messages, and it was crazy. My phone just did not stop.
BEN WATERWORTH: And then Max competed the next day, did it not? Was the men's not the next day? So then you kind of only had to put those emotions that you wanted to go cheer your brother on as well.
CHLOE ESPOSITO: Yeah, so when I watched my brother, and that was another really crazy thing, because they had announced that I was in the stadium watching him. And they said, Chloe Esposito, gold mails from yesterday, he's here sitting watching her brother. So many people came, and I was not used to this at all. I literally did not stop taking photos all day. And then one, I just said to my mum, I need to go somewhere where no one's around just to sit for five minutes. I said, like, this is, it's getting a bit like, it was lovely, but it hadn't happened to me before.
BEN WATERWORTH: You wanted the T-Max on you, you wanted to kind of have that moment.
CHLOE ESPOSITO: Yeah, and then so I went away. I think we went to one of the athletes' lounges, and I just sat there for five minutes on the lounge with my eyes closed, and I said, what the hell is going on? People would stop me, like, when I was walking from different events to get photos, which was beautiful, but it's just something that a pentathlete from Australia wasn't used to.
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, I'm saying right now in terms of how much it, you know, I got excited for. I'm sitting here wearing my modern pentathlon T-shirt.
CHLOE ESPOSITO: Oh, wow!
BEN WATERWORTH: I'm just saying that this is, you know, led to... I don't know if I'm the only one who bought one on the AOC store when they had all the sports available. I'm like, no, I'm buying modern pentathlon. That's the one I'm going for.
CHLOE ESPOSITO: That's awesome.
BEN WATERWORTH: So it's working wonders for that. But when you get back to Australia, I remember all the Welcome Home Parades I had. I went to the Hobart one. You went to the Hobart one. It was exciting to kind of see that. I mean, that's something that I don't know if you participated in the Welcome Home Parades after London, but to come back with a medal around your neck and going back to that aspect that people are there, like photos and that. But I mean, I guess when you left for Rio and you thought you're going to come back as a two-time Olympian, you didn't think you're going to get that reception and all these Welcome Home Parades.
CHLOE ESPOSITO: Oh, yeah, that was crazy as well. Just going to all the different states and we were only there for like 24 hours, but it was just not like everyone coming up, congratulating you. It was really, really beautiful and lovely to see so many young kids excited. And that's when it sort of hit me that people were actually looking up to me, which was, it was awesome.
BEN WATERWORTH: Do you then get any little girls coming up to you and going, I want to go out and be a pen tathlete. How do I do it?
CHLOE ESPOSITO: I did a few talks at like some all girls schools as well after, which was amazing. And it's so lovely. I love talking at all schools, but there was one school that I spoke in at Armidale, which is really, really special talking to these young group of girls. And the school was on, so they had horse riding there. They had a swimming pool. The athletics track, it was incredible. So it was, yeah. And a lot of people, they did want to get involved. And it was, yeah, it was so, so nice to be able to give other young people dreams, which is really, really nice.
BEN WATERWORTH: For sure, for sure. I always love to find out from our medallists on this show, Chloe, what do you do with the medal? Is it on display? Is it in the sock drawer? Kind of like, what do you do with it?
CHLOE ESPOSITO: Yeah, literally in the sock drawer. I know it should be, yeah, but it's very, very well loved. It's got so many scratches on it just because of all the different places I've taken it to show people and schools and everyone's. I went to, I remember going to one school and I think I was maybe like 600 kids. And the teacher said, OK, we can all go around now and have a look at the medal. So I literally stood up the front of the assembly and all the kids came around and touched it like that and just had a little touch.
BEN WATERWORTH: That's all I wanted to do. Which I can imagine every time you get a pair of socks out, though, it's a pretty cool thing. There's my gold medal. There it is. There it is. You know, grabbing my socks today.
CHLOE ESPOSITO: Yeah, I know. And even this interview has brought back a lot of memories, which has been really nice.
BEN WATERWORTH: Which we like to try and do. At least the good ones. You know, we don't try to dig up the bad ones too much. Well, it depends on how the questions go. Which obviously, you know, life changes. Olympic gold medallists moving on then, though, to focusing on the next Olympics. So a lot happened in your life, obviously, in between Rio and Tokyo, but a couple of World Cup successes. And I also, in the lead up to this interview, watched an interview where you were talking about the next step is another Olympics. You'd like to win a world championships as well. I mean, how frequent are the world championships when it comes to pentathlon? Is it a four yearly thing? Is it a two yearly thing? And kind of how did that aspect change that I'm an Olympic champion? Let's switch focus to try and get that world championship gold medal.
CHLOE ESPOSITO: Yeah, so world championships is every year in pentathlon. So it's once a year. So we're lucky to be able to have that opportunity. But after the Rio Olympics, something switched in me and I just got all this confidence. And in 2018, I had the best season of my life. I had won a couple of World Cups, and the last competition actually I competed in was the World Cup final. And I won that, which was, I was over the moon with that result. I noticed something changed and I knew how hard I trained. And I just, and again, this sounds, I don't want to say I don't want to sound big headed, but I knew that I was training harder than anyone else. And I knew that how much I had deserved it. Not all competitions went to plan, but I knew if I kept working at it, that eventually, and that's what I always said to myself even before Rio, if I keep working hard enough, it might not happen in a year, it might not happen in two years, it might happen in ten years or something, but it eventually will happen. And yeah, I just got all this confidence, and I had the most successful year of my life in 2018. It was incredible.
BEN WATERWORTH: Which, when you leave an Olympics as an Olympic champion, obviously, I can imagine your competitors will obviously look at you a little bit differently. You know, this Olympic gold medallist, we've got to treat it differently. I mean, did you feel that people looked at you, like your competitors, and like this is something now that I don't know if there's any sort of like sledging or kind of, you know, a bit of rivalry and that sort of stuff that you are treated differently now that you walk away as an Olympic gold medallist by your competitors?
CHLOE ESPOSITO: 100%, because before I had won the gold, Australia in Pentathlon was looked at like nothing. Like we were basically rubbish, like they're never going to do anything in the sport. You could tell that also in some of the training, when you'd go overseas or for competition or like here coming fencing, I'm just fencing Australian, it's going to be easy. After that, winning the medal, I think we had a lot, they had a lot more respect for us and realised how hard we work and that, hey, we can actually do something in this sport, which was nice to prove that little Australia we can do, although we don't have many pentathletes, we can do it.
BEN WATERWORTH: Is there sledging in pentathlon?
CHLOE ESPOSITO: No, in pentathlon, no, all the girls are really, they're really quite friendly and everyone gets along really well. Always after competitions, everyone go, there's an after party or people hang out and stuff. So everyone's really, really lovely in the sport.
BEN WATERWORTH: I'm just thinking, though, that if you're shooting and maybe having a bad day, you can maybe like be, hey, nudge them, take them off. You'll piss off your own blast. I'm just going to poke fun at these people next to you. You've never sort of been tempted to do that?
CHLOE ESPOSITO: No, maybe with my brother when I train with him and in fencing and stuff, but not with the other athletes.
BEN WATERWORTH: Not quite that way. Obviously, as I said, a lot happened between Rio and Tokyo. You become a mother, you get married, all that kind of stuff. The postponement of Tokyo almost kind of opened that door up to you, to all of a sudden go, OK, I couldn't compete. Now there's an opportunity. What was that period like when you found out the games were postponed? And how did that change? Did you really consider going towards Tokyo then? Or what happened in that aspect?
CHLOE ESPOSITO: I thought maybe it could be an opportunity, but I knew I wouldn't be fit enough for the games because it was basically a year after I had Ted, the little one, and I needed more time than that. I needed maybe at least two years to get back into training and fitness and I didn't want to go knowing that I was just half fit, if you know what I mean, like I wanted to make sure I was able to put everything into it. Sometimes it crossed my mind that I could have, but I wanted to go knowing I was able to give it the best chance that I could.
BEN WATERWORTH: What was it like? You mentioned before it was great, obviously Channel 7 was showing it, and obviously with the app as well, but it was a bit of both really they were doing there. But then watching it, seeing how Marina and Ed did during the games, what was that experience going from competing in two Olympics in a row to all of a sudden sitting on the couch and having to watch it?
CHLOE ESPOSITO: Yeah, well, it was very, very different. And it was actually really beautiful. A lot of people messaged me during the game saying, how are you feeling about it? But I absolutely loved it. It was just a different experience to sitting here with the family, watching all the sports and then the pentathlon in the last couple days. I loved it because I've never really got to watch also the other athletes compete. So this was the first time I was able to sit down and watch how the other girls are going, how the other males are going. So it was good. I absolutely loved it. And it was good to cheer on our Aussies, Ed and Marina too. Marina's first Olympics and Ed's second. So it was nice to see Aussies there. It was really, really good.
BEN WATERWORTH: The thing that was amazing about it too, and I'm not sure if this is a common thing, say, in World Cups and around the world, is the fact that they had everything in the one stadium. They had made the makeshift pool, the kind of the fencing section. Is that common or is that the first time they've ever done that?
CHLOE ESPOSITO: That was the first time they ever did it, and they had put on an amazing, it looked incredible. They put the pool in the middle, you have the horse riding, the running shoe, the fencing. It looked amazing. I think it would have been an amazing experience there. And yeah, no, Tokyo, the Japanese, they did an incredible, incredible job. So I think that's what they're planning to do maybe from now on, just so you have like, because before that, you'd go from one venue, you might have to get in the bus, travel 20 minutes to another one, another venue. So it's like you get, you buy your ticket, you get your seat and you get to watch the whole show.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, which we were saying, it's a shame there were no crowds there, because like that would have been insane.
CHLOE ESPOSITO: Yeah, it was disappointing, but hey, it's awesome that they were still able to be on.
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, I'm thinking, come Brisbane, that it needs to be its own separate stadium. I want them to build the Chloe Esposito Stadium in Brisbane.
CHLOE ESPOSITO: That would be actually really cool. Oh, I have to put in a word there.
BEN WATERWORTH: I think, yeah, you've got some sway now. Just wear the medal, you know, kind of go along that way. Bring your dad, bring your brother, bring everyone along. You know, we're all Olympians. Come on now.
CHLOE ESPOSITO: I want the Chloe Esposito Stadium in Brisbane.
BEN WATERWORTH: Lock it in. Were you sad to see your Olympic record go when Kate won the gold?
CHLOE ESPOSITO: Not really, but you know what? Because it's different. Like the swimming pool is 25 metres there, so it was shorter. Normally, it's 50 metres. So the times are different. The running tracks are different. And it was broken. But you know, I'm so, so happy. I actually thought I had my bets on her that she was going to win in Rio. I thought I had my money on her to win in Rio. So I was so, so happy for it. And GBA actually took out both gold. Joseph Chung and Kate French. So I was, yeah, really, really, and my husband's from England too.
BEN WATERWORTH: Kind of, there's a slight, you know, loyalties on two sides there basically. So that kind of works. And I mean, Laura created history too, becoming the first ever two-time medallist in the sport.
CHLOE ESPOSITO: Oh, yeah. I was meant to mention that before. She, in the combine, she started 52 seconds behind the leader. And I was calling up my dad before, and I said, Dad, she's going to be on the podium. And he goes, 52 seconds. I said, Dad, I was at 45 seconds. And I go, that's her event. She is such a strong runner and shooter. I said, she'll definitely get up there. I thought she would have got the gold, but she was close. It was incredible.
BEN WATERWORTH: Which it's fascinating to think that that was the first that had ever been done, that there's kind of multiple medallists, because it's sort of, I mean, I guess it's a very unique sport. But yeah, sort of a history-making moment. I mean, I'm saying right now, though, Chloe, you were there. You would have done it before Laura. So I'm just saying, you know, clearly, that would have been you.
CHLOE ESPOSITO: That would have been nice.
BEN WATERWORTH: The history would have been made there. Before we sort of close things off with a series of fun questions that we like to do with that, obviously, though, Paris now, that's the goal kind of obviously we keep saying, only three years rather than the four and sort of, I guess, what's the journey looking like between now and Paris?
CHLOE ESPOSITO: It's at the moment very different because of lockdown. So there's not too much we can do, just make them do the most I can at home or just around in my five kilometre radius. But yeah, that would be lovely to compete in Paris. So we'll just have to wait and see after when things open up again. I've always said I would love to go and train back overseas, but now I've got the little one. It's I just have to sit down and have a talk with my dad, manager, my husband and just see what the plan is. Now we might have to maybe face ourselves more here in Australia. We just have to have a good talk about that at the moment and see what happens. But it would be awesome to have three Olympics under the belt.
BEN WATERWORTH: Is it something that when Ted gets to 10 and kind of you can then tell him about your journey, you get the tracksuit out and kind of this is what mum did that kind of continued the family tradition?
CHLOE ESPOSITO: Yeah, that would be great. And that's another thing. Like if I did compete in Paris, just having him there watching would be amazing. It would be incredible to have him there watching his mum compete. But yeah, it would be nice. I know. So we'll see what happens when he's about 10. I'll pull out the suitcase and my fencing gear. And maybe he might have another brother or sister and they can fence on another. And maybe that could be his dream then.
BEN WATERWORTH: Go for it. Yeah, I like it. It's like the family business. It's like Esposito and sons and daughters just going along the way. Going all that way. Now, as I mentioned, we close out every single interview with a series of fun questions now. As we explain in every one of these, based off a questionnaire that Team Canada gave their athletes ahead of Rio and Pyeongchang. Bit of fun. And as always, there's some homework. If you want to do it, you don't have to. There's a drawing aspect to this. As always, you're welcome to send in these pictures, but no pressure. You're a busy person, so it's fine if you don't need to. But all right, first question, and you're allowed to answer your own, Chloe. What is your favourite Olympic moment?
CHLOE ESPOSITO: Oh, no, I do have another one. It would be the 2000 Olympics. I don't even know. I think it was the 4x100 or 4x200, the smashing guitars moment.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yes, the 4x1.
CHLOE ESPOSITO: 4x100. That was with the male swim team. That was probably my favourite. And that's something that I will never forget. And I was actually talking about this the other day. If there was one athlete I could meet, and I would be starstruck, it would probably be Ian Thorpe. Growing up, there's someone I always watch on the TV, like the Olympics Australian Swimming Championships. It was all about Ian Thorpe. So that moment when they did the smashing guitars, incredible.
BEN WATERWORTH: You know what surprised me? I think you're the first person to ever answer that moment. And I'm surprised it doesn't get answered more, because that is an amazing moment. And I also think, Chloe, you've got some connections there. You could probably meet Ian, I think. That would be nice. Wear the gold medal. You've got a bit of a club going on there, I'm sure. I think you could pull some strings there. Just contact Channel 7. He's on their books now. So maybe do it that way. If you could have any superpower, what would it be?
CHLOE ESPOSITO: A superpower, I think to fly would be good, because then, or be transported from one place to another, so then I wouldn't have to sit in the plane for ages, go to competition, be quick, maybe chat Ted on my back, take him with me. Yeah, probably flying or to transport from place to place, like in a second.
BEN WATERWORTH: Love it. Your favourite sports movie is?
CHLOE ESPOSITO: Oh, have you seen the movie Pentathlon?
BEN WATERWORTH: No, I have not.
CHLOE ESPOSITO: It's terrible. So it's definitely not that. My favourite sports movie? Oh, I don't know.
BEN WATERWORTH: I'm intrigued about Pentathlon now. I always like to ask if there's a movie based on a sport.
CHLOE ESPOSITO: So is it based on modern Pentathlon?
BEN WATERWORTH: Delph Lundgren?
CHLOE ESPOSITO: Yes, he plays the main actor in that. My favourite sports movie? I don't know. Sorry, I can't answer that one.
BEN WATERWORTH: That's okay. I'm putting down Pentathlon as your answer, just FYI. Now again, homework, draw a picture of yourself. I'm seeing here the athlete we're basing this off is drawing a lovely stick figure. I'm not too sure about that. But hey, probably no better than I could do. So what can I say? Your funniest childhood memory is?
CHLOE ESPOSITO: I don't know if it's not really funny. Or you could say it's a little bit funny. I don't know why this stuck in my head. My first ever athletics carnival, I cried my eyes out before the 200 metres running because I was scared of the start gun, and I was bawling my eyes out, and I ran the whole race holding hands with the girl next to me, running the whole way because I was terrified. No, no, it is funny. That's stuck in my head my whole life.
BEN WATERWORTH: And just think that how many years later, that same thing helped you kind of win an Olympic gold medal. So full circle, you got over that fear eventually. What is your favourite pump up song?
CHLOE ESPOSITO: I've got like a random, random playlist that I play. It's a mix of like 90s Euro dance with a bit of Blink 182 in there, with songs from now. So it's just a mixed bag.
BEN WATERWORTH: That sounds like an amazing playlist. 90s Euro dance.
CHLOE ESPOSITO: A bit of MGMT, like just electric feel, you know, all that stuff. That timbre, that's a mix of everything.
BEN WATERWORTH: I need to ask, and if no one's done it, then maybe we need to be the first to do it. Has anyone ever put together a song about you to the tune of Despacito by Justin Bieber?
CHLOE ESPOSITO: Funny thing is so many people have like sung it to me. And then my cousin, so her name is Grace Despacito. Apparently she went to get her driver's licence, and they turned around and they started singing Grace Despacito. So a lot of people have thought about it though.
BEN WATERWORTH: I was doing some commentary in Canada for some hockey, and there was a player on one of the teams whose last name was Esposito. And I dropped a line where he made some play, and I'm like, also Esposito, my favourite Justin Bieber song. And my co-commentator just gave me the weirdest look and just moved on. And it was like, OK, human not landing very well here in the commentary box today.
CHLOE ESPOSITO: I would have laughed at it.
BEN WATERWORTH: I'm glad that finally that joke landed a couple of years later. The most recent TV show that you binge watched is?
CHLOE ESPOSITO: What did I watch recently? I have, what's the name of it? What did I watch? I can't even remember the name of it now. It was on, oh, The Collection.
BEN WATERWORTH: Ah, yes.
CHLOE ESPOSITO: On Stan.
BEN WATERWORTH: OK, I was going to say, like, is it just a bunch of kids shows at the moment?
CHLOE ESPOSITO: Oh, you know, because Wiggles are on, like, a lot at the moment.
BEN WATERWORTH: You're sick of hearing hot potato. You're done. No more hot potato.
CHLOE ESPOSITO: But I'm loving the new ads. Have you seen the ads with Simon Cowell?
BEN WATERWORTH: Yes, yes, the black Wiggles. Yes. Wow, that would be an interesting change to that group, wouldn't it? If you could be an Olympian in any other sport besides your own, what would it be?
CHLOE ESPOSITO: Well, you know, I've always wanted to, if I didn't do pentathlon, I think I wanted to do boxing. Ah. So I think I'd like to be a boxer, but then also, yeah. Well, I look up to Ian Thorpe so much, like it'd be cool to be, but swimming is my least favourite sport out of the pentathlon, and I don't think I could ever just be a full-time swimmer. So I'd get a boxer, I reckon.
BEN WATERWORTH: Okay, you could maybe contact Skye Nicholson, Caitlin Parker gets some advice from them. You know, Harry, you know, there's kind of a bit of an upturn of boxing at the moment in the country, so that kind of that would work. Growing up, who's your favourite sports team?
CHLOE ESPOSITO: Oh, Dragons, NRL.
BEN WATERWORTH: My dad would be happy with that answer. He's a big Dragons fan.
CHLOE ESPOSITO: And I was lucky enough to go when they won their last grand final. I was there to watch it, which is really, really cool.
BEN WATERWORTH: Nice. Always good to have those moments. What is your guilty pleasure? Now, this is a bit open-ended. It's usually guilty pleasure snack, but this is just guilty pleasure in general.
CHLOE ESPOSITO: Well, I do love my sweet treats.
BEN WATERWORTH: Okay.
CHLOE ESPOSITO: But I'm not really feeling guilty, I'm afraid. I don't know.
BEN WATERWORTH: Is there a particular one that you like with the sweet treats?
CHLOE ESPOSITO: Oh, I do love like a jam and cream cake or doughnut or something like that. I do love my cream. Like growing up, yeah, big sweet tooth. And my whole family is really, really big sweet tooth. Like when we used to go on family holidays with our family friends, they would serve it up and then their children would say, no, we want an Esposito serving, which meant like about five times bigger.
BEN WATERWORTH: Can we can we steal that now? Just take that as an example. Like a big serving is just called an Esposito serving.
CHLOE ESPOSITO: With cream, ice cream, custard, the works.
BEN WATERWORTH: Sounds like that episode of Friends when Rachel cooks the damn trifle thing or whatever it is and there's everything in it. So now I might even know the answer for this because of course you were in the the Woolies Heroes book and they sort of asked their people about favourite veggies. But what is your least favourite veggie, not your favourite veggie?
CHLOE ESPOSITO: Oh, least favourite. Um, what don't I like? I like the looks. I have my blueberries as my favourite fruit. Um, but least favourite. I don't think I have one. I like pretty much anything. Maybe, parsnip. I do love roasted parsnip. And I eat broccolini lots, brussel sprouts I even like.
BEN WATERWORTH: I think you might be the first person I've ever met who likes all vegetables. This is great. Listen to this kids. Listen to this kids. You can like all your vegetables. It's possible.
CHLOE ESPOSITO: What do some other people say?
BEN WATERWORTH: Oh, look, I think generally broccoli gets answered a bit. Yeah, brussel sprouts are kind of the standard ones. Somebody had to answer carrot though. And that always confused me that you can't like carrot. Carrot.
CHLOE ESPOSITO: Yeah, I do like carrot.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, interesting.
CHLOE ESPOSITO: When I have them, like if I have a carrot, I'll dip it in some hummus or something or some tzatziki or stuff like that. Or brussel sprouts you can put a little bit of bacon or something, you know, slice it up.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, all the different ones. Is it more of an honour, Chloe, to be on a stamp or be on a Woolworth Ozzie Hero sticker?
CHLOE ESPOSITO: Oh, I don't know. It was pretty special, though, being in the Woolies sticker. I got so many messages of parents or their kids holding my stickers saying they were so proud. And because my parents own a swimming school, I teach swimming there, and I have my little swim classes. And the kids were like, I think they knew what I had done, but it probably really sunk in once they got my sticker at Woolies. They were like, oh, my goodness. That was pretty special, being able for them to look up to. It was awesome.
BEN WATERWORTH: See, it was the opposite for me. Every single time I opened a damn sticker and it wasn't you, I was pissed off. I'm like, come on, like, this is like my fifth Emma McKeehan. Like, I love her, but come on, where's my Chloe? Like, jeez.
CHLOE ESPOSITO: Finally got two. They sent me out one, but I was lucky I got a few of me. I just finished mine just about when the Olympics finished. So I finished the whole book.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, no, I ended up doing it too, and I think I got a spare one eventually of you. So, OK, the effort was worth it. That was my Olympic gold medal. I finally got there. If you weren't an athlete, what would you be?
CHLOE ESPOSITO: Good question. Yeah. I know I did. I was always like, I'd like to be a school teacher. But now, I don't know, seeing all these parents, the homeschooling and stuff like that, the teachers having to homeschool online, I don't think I could do that. I like helping people. So I think in some kind of field where I was able to help people, inspire them more, the younger generation, helping in some way.
BEN WATERWORTH: I think you're doing that already, Chloe. I think you're kind of achieving that at the same time. I like that, the balance. Your favourite vacation spot is?
CHLOE ESPOSITO: I was talking the other day, I said, after COVID, where was one place I could want to go to? I love Japan. Tokyo, because I've been there a couple of times. It's amazing. But Mexico. We've had a few training camps there. It is incredible. The food, the people, the atmosphere. And I haven't got to go everywhere yet. I'd love to go to some of the holiday destinations there, but even the training camps have been phenomenal. So Mexico, Japan. If I was in Australia, there's so many places that I haven't been yet that I need to try, though. So I think that's one thing. When the borders open, I'll be able to find some more places in Australia.
BEN WATERWORTH: When you came to Hobart for the parade, I remember it was sort of Saturday morning. It was a Salamanca market day. Were you able to sneak away after the parade to kind of go around Salamanca? Or was it very controlled? Like, you've got to go here, you've got to go here, and then get on a plane.
CHLOE ESPOSITO: And then get on a plane, go home. Yeah, no. But I would love to come back. That was the only time I've ever been. Oh, no, sorry. I've been there once before for cross-country nationals.
BEN WATERWORTH: Nice.
CHLOE ESPOSITO: That was back when I was, I think, maybe in year eight or nine. But yeah, that's the only other time I've been. So I can't really remember too much back then either, because we weren't really doing, allowed to have your competition and stuff. So I'd have to definitely come back.
BEN WATERWORTH: I was going to say come here and start the Tasmanian Modern Pentathlon Federation. I don't know if it exists. But I mean, hey, there's always room for it.
CHLOE ESPOSITO: We'll get it off the running.
BEN WATERWORTH: Exactly. Final question. What is one thing that people usually describe you as?
CHLOE ESPOSITO: Had a few things after the Olympics. One was humble and like the girl next door type of girl.
BEN WATERWORTH: I see it. I like it. Awesome. I love here. So I should mention, we've based these questions off Elizabeth Vaith, a skeleton racer, and she's written here, hardworking and silly.
CHLOE ESPOSITO: Maybe she's seen some of my brother and I were filming some YouTube videos when we were overseas, so she's probably seen some of those.
BEN WATERWORTH: Perfect. I like that. Now, Chloe, before we let you go, if people want to follow your journey between now and Paris, or just kind of stay up to date with what you're up to, where can they find you on social media? Plug anything you would like right now.
CHLOE ESPOSITO: Instagram, it's just Chloe Esposito, and Twitter, Chloe Esposito, or Chloe Esposito 91 on Twitter, but Instagram is just Chloe Esposito.
BEN WATERWORTH: Easy, that simple. Chloe, absolute honour to have your time today to learn more about your journey, your career, the sport of modern pentathlon. And I just want to say right now, you talk about yourself, you're allowed to talk about yourself, and say your skills, you're an Olympic gold medallist. I right now just want to say, you're welcome for us putting modern pentathlon on the map, just before you, like two weeks before the gold medal, so it was kind of a good time.
CHLOE ESPOSITO: Thank you very much. No, thank you so much for having me, and it actually did bring some really, really nice memories back, which was, I'm going to go now and talk to my husband about them. It's special.
BEN WATERWORTH: And a massive, massive thanks to Chloe there, such an incredible chat. And I'm still smiling. I'm still sitting here smiling. In my Modern Pentathlon T-shirt, who can say out there that they own a Modern Pentathlon T-shirt and interview a Modern Pentathlon gold medallist? I can probably say I'm at least the only Tasmanian to ever have done that in the history of the world. So going on my bucket list right now, going on my resume. Not my bucket list, it's something I've ticked off my bucket list, going on my resume. That is an achievement that I have done. So taking that moment to inflate my own ego here today. Good job, Ben. But Chloe, massive thanks for having her on the show and for her time today. We've got so many great more interviews coming your way here on Off The Podium. We've got winter athletes, we've got summer athletes. We're talking about so many different sports, and you are not going to want to miss a single second of what we've got to come for you in the coming weeks in the lead up to Beijing 2022. If you want to stay up to date with everything that we're going on, hit us up on all the social media channels. We're on Instagram, we're on Twitter, we're on Facebook. Send us a message. Tell us what you think of the show. Tell us how amazing Chloe is. Queen Chloe. I'm going to keep saying that. Queen Chloe. And if you've got any guests that you would like us to track down, any ideas for episodes, shoot us a message. We're always open to those ideas, and we'd love to hear what you think and what you have in store, what you might think we should do. We're kind of open a lot to those sort of feedbacks. So maybe teach me how to speak very well at the end of these episodes, because apparently I've just lost all ability to do that right now. Also, subscribe to the podcast. We're on Amazon Podcast, Google Podcast, Apple Podcast. All the channels, search for Off The Podium. While you're there, leave us some feedback, leave us a rating. Five out of five rating for today, let's be honest. Could it be anything else? No, five out of five rating for today's episode. We love to hear what you think about the show, and of course it helps us out there. Get the show spread out to more people, which means that we can get more exciting feedback, more exciting requests, and more people to hear Chloe Esposito, which is at the end of the day, what we want to have. That's very true. Thanks again to Chloe. Thanks again to everybody for tuning in to Off The Podium. My name is Ben, we'll speak to you next time. Good night.
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