David Culbert Interview
Excited to bring you a chat today with legendary Australian long jumper and broadcaster David Culbert to learn more about his athletic career as well as his post-Olympic career that continues to get bigger and bigger! We found out from David just why his aspirations as a kid were to go to the Olympics and just why it was long jump that took him towards that dream. We also learn about his Olympic experiences as an athlete and just what it was like to have a conversation before his competition in Seoul with the iconic Carl Lewis. Added to this we find out more about his amazing broadcasting career and also learn more about his unique collection of Olympic memorabilia that he still maintains to this day from every single Olympics he has been a part of. It's an extraordinary chat that you won't want to miss!
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
Please note this is an automated transcript that may contain errors.
BEN WATERWORTH: It is Off The Podium, an Olympics podcast coming to you today for another episode, another interview and a very, very exciting episode for you today. We are speaking with two-time Olympic long jumper, David Culbert, competing at the Seoul and Barcelona Olympics, but you might know him best from his commentary days. He has called every single Olympics since the 2000 Sydney Olympics, mainly known for being behind the microphone in field events. And also a variety of other events was the man behind the mic calling Jess Fox's gold medal win in Tokyo and plenty of other sports across the years. A great man to chat to about two sides of the spectrum. We're going to learn a lot about his athletics career and a lot about his commentary career here as well. A very famous call that I remember from Sydney that he was part of talked to him a little bit about that. He goes into sort of techniques around the commentary box, those famous one liners that we do here in the box. We've heard a lot from past commentators on the show about how some of them are a bit pre-planned and he kind of goes into that aspect of things. But also talks in his athletics career, the experiences of competing in the Seoul and Barcelona Olympics, competing against the great Carl Lewis. Of course, he was in the same event as Carl Lewis, winning two gold medals, two of the four gold that Carl won consecutively in the long jump. And really just a great insight into all spectrums here of commentating and competing at the Olympic Games. So without further ado, here is our chat with two time Olympic long jumper, David Culbert.
BEN WATERWORTH: I'm always very excited to speak to guests on this show who combine their athletic prowess with a broadcasting prowess. And we've got a great guest on the show today, a two-time Olympian, and somebody who maybe is better well known to a lot of our listeners as a voice behind the last six or so Olympic Games, has been involved in a lot of coverage over the years. And I'm very intrigued to learn about both sides of his career. And we're gonna learn a lot about that today. Please welcome to the show Mr. David Culbert. Dave, first of all, welcome to Off The Podium. It's a pleasure to have you on the program today.
DAVID CULBERT: Hi, Ben, thank you. Good to be here.
BEN WATERWORTH: It's always exciting, as I said, to learn about these different side of things, because I can imagine when you were growing up and you had sort of Olympic aspirations, if you would have told yourself that you would have gone to about eight Olympics, you probably would have gone, okay, yeah, I'll take that. That's pretty exciting. And maybe not realising that maybe most of them kind of would have been behind the mic instead of being someone called on.
DAVID CULBERT: And now you're right. So every Olympics since 1988 now, and a couple of Winter Olympics as well, although I've never actually been to one. I've just been broadcasting them from back here in Australia. So no, you're right. I would have never have dreamt of that when you're a young kid growing up. You know, I didn't want to go and play AFL football. I liked playing it. I did play it, but I never wanted to be, wear a baggy green. I wanted to go to the Olympics and be an Olympian. But one of these other things that I used to be fascinated was with the coverage. So, you know, I'm that old that I can remember watching the old numero uno and Olympic minutes, so I called our little vignettes of the Olympic games. And they fascinated me just as much as the, as you know, competing. So, you know, I've always been a fan of the broadcast of sport, you know, whether it's the Melbourne Cup or an AFL Grand Final or, you know, an F1, you know, watching it and consuming it, looking at the way it's broadcast and how the commentators go and all those things. So, I've always been fascinated in both of those things, but I never would have thought that I would have, you know, been to so many games, that's for sure.
BEN WATERWORTH: In terms of those Olympic aspirations, obviously, we're going to talk about your long jump career, but sort of was that always the goal? Was it always to be a long jumper? Were you dabbling in a variety of different sports to try and fuel those Olympic dreams?
DAVID CULBERT: It was always athletics. So, it was never really anything other than athletics. I played hockey at school and, you know, I actually played in a school hockey team with a couple of players that went on to play for Australia at the Olympics. So, I was never at their level. So, it was always athletics, whether it was the long jump, I guess I should have been a decathlete. That would have been the event that I would have been better at, but we never really did pole vault at school or even in my club, there wasn't a pole vault coach or anyone that was able to teach that discipline. But I would compete on a weekly basis for my club and do every event other than the pole vault. And I was pretty handy all rounder, but there came a point in time, I guess, when I was 16 or 17, where the long jump was the event that I was edging towards. I wasn't fast enough to be a sprinter at that level. So, you know, and then the next thing you know, you're competing for at your first Commock Games and World Junior Championships and then Olympics, and, you know, off you go. And I was able to be competitive enough without being, you know, super at those events that I didn't have to change events either. So, you know, I've got a theory in the Darwin's theory of athletics is that everyone starts off as a sprinter. In fact, this applies for sport. If you're going to be anything in the world, you'll probably choose to be the fastest person on the planet, male or female. And so if you can't do that, then you move up to other events. And if you can't do other events, then you do other sports. And it's brutal, but I think if anyone in the schoolyard, you don't, you don't, I know I ribbed Steve Montagetti about this. At lunchtime at schoolyard, you don't see you can run around the oval, you know, as many times as possible before the bell goes. You run to the nearest pole, or you sprint to the nearest bench. So everyone starts off as a sprinter. And I finished up being a long jumper. So I probably got through about four or five evolutions of Darwin's theory of sport before I found the long jump.
BEN WATERWORTH: I love that too. That's a very good point, because I mean, you think about it, what's the only real sports that anybody takes part in school with if you're sporting or not, it's the athletics carnival, right? Like that, that's it. And what's the one that if you have to do it, but I'll just do the 100 metres, I can't be bothered doing anything else.
DAVID CULBERT: Yeah, probably. Although I think most schools probably have a swimming and athletics carnival, and you play, you know, we're lucky in Australia, play a range of different sports. And, you know, that's not to discount how good Ash Barty is. But, you know, I might suggest to you, if Ash Barty was fast enough to be the fastest woman on the planet, she may not be a tennis player. So she might argue with that. I didn't like doing it. But I would think if you're capable of being the fastest person on the planet, then that's what you do.
BEN WATERWORTH: And what's that progression like then when you're focusing to long jump? You're mentioning you're making Commonwealth Games, you're making, you know, all these big championships and that sort of stuff. Is that kind of all of a sudden when these dreams for an Olympics starts to really ramp up? I mean, I can't imagine going to a Commonwealth Games. I mean, straight away after that, two years away, Olympic Games. This is a realistic possibility right now.
DAVID CULBERT: It's incremental steps the whole way. You know, you go to, you know, 14 and 15, and you start doing school carnivals, and you go OK. So you enter the state championships and you go OK. And then you might get in. I got into a development squad that I was, you know, I went to the the IAS when I was in probably year 10, and all of a sudden there are people there that are in the Olympic team. So, you know, whether it was Ken Loraway or, you know, Ken and Robin Loraway or Vanessa Ward, the high jumper. And these are the people that you're seeing on TV. So you think, well, I'd like to keep doing that. I actually did my final year of high school in 1984. So Gary Honey was competing in the long jump. Darren Clark was running the 400 in the athletics team, Rick Mitchell and Co. And so these were people that I knew and had, you know, a little bit to do with. So, you know, I went from from class to class in 1984 with, you know, rolling the old television set that you used to have on. This is how old I am. You had the TV on a, not every classroom had a TV, so you had to roll it from room to room and then plug it in. And so I would just basically have my own TV for the period of the Olympics. And I actually took a note to school to say, David won't be coming to school tomorrow because the Olympic long jumps finals on by my parents. And so I stayed at home on the day of the 1984 Olympic long jump finals. So all these little steps. And then straight after school, I went to the AIS in Canberra. And then, you know, you're in a high performance scenario. And, you know, you're a sort of expectant. You're then part of your job. So you're expected to be in the in a games team. So that's how it happens. But it doesn't, you know, it doesn't happen in an instant. There's all these little steps up the ladder to get you to, you know, to being in an Australian team.
BEN WATERWORTH: What's it like then having someone like Gary then involved, you know, silver medallist? That'd be a pretty cool little thing to kind of have that somebody that you can sort of look towards and just coming back from the Olympics, having taken the day off school to watch him.
DAVID CULBERT: Yeah, well, he wasn't he ended up being a training partner, but he wasn't initially. So my first experience of all of that was up in Canberra at the beginning of 1985. So there are a lot of Olympic athletes there in a lot of different sports. So that was pretty pretty good environment to be in. Actually, one of my PE teachers at school was Alan Crawley, who was in the long jump final with Bob Beeman in 1968. So he was the head of our athletics team and our main athletics coach, PE teacher, et cetera, but he wasn't my coach. So the influence was strong, but not overwhelming. But I think most, and we saw it recently in Tokyo, where you see athletes of today with photos of their heroes when they're little kids. So it's all these little steps that you become exposed to all of these things. But Gary ended up being a training partner, still a great mate, a great influence and an unbelievably hard trainer. And the standards that he would set were extraordinary. So you have all these little moments throughout your career that gets you to where you want to be.
BEN WATERWORTH: Do you remember that moment when you were officially qualified for the 1988 Olympics and what that moment was like, reaching that dream that you'd set yourself out so young?
DAVID CULBERT: Well, I do, of course. It was actually the day the team was announced was the day of my 21st birthday. So the Nationals were in Perth and I flew back to Melbourne. And Judy Joy Davies, who was an Olympic swimmer, but was the herald son or the son, sports rider for athletics and swimming in those days. She was parked at my parents' place out in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne, waiting for me to get home. And the team was picked when I was on the plane. So they'd announced that it was happening. So I found out then. But I was injured as well. So I had a heel problem, which carried through to the Olympics. So it was more when I first qualified the first time I jumped 8m, I jumped 8.13m in the Victorian Championships that year to qualify for the team. And that was the big breakthrough that got me there, because I didn't qualify at the trials. I came second to Gary. I was trying to survive with a heel injury. So, yeah, I do remember that. I don't think about it very often. But I certainly remember that Victorian Championships and that jump that got me in the team, that's for sure.
BEN WATERWORTH: Because it's always, we've spoken to a lot of field athletes on the show where it's kind of that distance barrier. There's ultimately these little steps that you take in long jump, and as you're saying, getting over the 8m one. And it's always, as much as it's a physical sport, it's that mental aspect of it, too, to try and crack that. I mean, how much of a focus sort of in the 80s were things like sports psychologists and kind of things helping you with the mental aspect? Was that much of a big thing around sort of people like yourself back then, or is that something that's kind of only really taken off over the last certain amount of time?
DAVID CULBERT: No, it was. And certainly, not when I was, yeah. Well, a lot of it then is the amateur psychologist of the coach, right? So I had an old coach at Ringwood, Tony Lesbridge, who had a really broad squad, national and international level athletes. And we'd go there in winter at Proclamation Park, and we'd be doing our Rep 200s, and he'd be blowing his whistle, whatever the time was that he, you know, that you had to be at the finish line and then start the next one. So that was his, you know, you don't have to do it, he'd say. You don't have to do the next rep. You don't have to, but you won't be any good if you don't. So is that psychology? Probably.
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, kind of.
DAVID CULBERT: You know, you don't have to get to the finish line by the time I blow my whistle, but if you don't. So that was something that I always remember. But at the AIS, when I first went there in 85, you know, this was a world leading organisation then. And so, you know, it was in the beginning days of the sports science and medicine and the physio, you know, set up there was unbelievable. And there was a sports psychologist, a guy called Brian Miller, who is still around in Australian sport. In fact, he's on the board of Athletics Australia at the moment. He's had a very long and successful career. And look, did he... So you'd have sessions with Brian and he teaches some things and visualisation and all of those things. I was never too deep into it. I think I was pretty well motivated myself and had the coping skills and all of those things. But they were certainly there in those days. It's changed a lot now. If you look at what the mindfulness and those sorts of things, your social media age and the distractions are completely different than what we had when we were competing. But yeah, no, certainly they helped, that's for sure. And I think what you're getting to the distance, I knew I had to jump, it was probably eight metres. I can't remember exactly what it was, but it was probably eight metres to qualify for the team. You know, if you stood at the top of the runway thinking, I have to jump eight metres, you'd never have done it. So you were just concentrating on the five things that you needed to, or three things that you needed to achieve and do on that particular attempt to jump as far as you could.
BEN WATERWORTH: I can definitely see why now that someone like, you know, Nicola McDermott's writing in the diary to kind of just clear the old mind up there and kind of those sort of things. Cause I can imagine now that, yeah, with things that you're saying, social media, all this extra attention that you didn't have back in the day, you need to take a few moments to write some things down and just block the world out.
DAVID CULBERT: Yeah, possibly. Although I have to say, and I do talk about this to young athletes, I would have loved to have had social media when I was competing. I don't mind the haters. They sometimes invigorate me. I would have been one of those ones that would be tweeting from the runway. Should I bring my run up back afoot? Vote now. Should I wear the green socks or the white socks? I would have been all over that sort of stuff. I would have loved it to have that sort of interaction and build a base of supporters and haters and all of those things. I would have carried them all. It wouldn't have bothered me in the slightest. I would have liked it.
BEN WATERWORTH: Wow, that's a good point to have. I think I'd like to see more people doing that. Like, hang on, I'm just about to compete. Just let me tweet. What should I do here? Give me a second, guys. I'm not sure if the judges would like that eventually, but hey, look, there's always one person can start it off.
DAVID CULBERT: Well, I do a bit of it from the commentary box. It's a bit hard, but during the Olympics, I did a couple of, the recent Tokyo Olympics, I did a couple of things. And one was get out your tape measure and measure how high the high jump bar is right now, that Brandon Stark is jumping. Measure 230 and stick it up on your, in your house. And while you're at it, measure out eight. And measure, while you're at it, measure eight metres. If you've got a hallway that's long enough or your apartment or whatever has got a space, measure out eight metres and have a look at how crazy that was. And to see the number of photos that people were sending me of them measuring, the kids were taking of their dad standing on a chair with a tape measure, was extraordinary. And I tweeted the picture of the score sheet that I was using for Nicola McDermott's high jump when it was getting really complex in the count back. And this is how busy this is. And people loved it. And I think that we all sit there on double screens. I do when I'm commentating because you're getting information from a whole range of different sources. Yeah, so I would have loved to have competed in the social media age and not everyone is the same, but for me, I would have loved it.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, I think you might be the first person I've ever spoken to who wasn't in that age who actually wishes they were. It's usually the kind of opposite. People are often like, yeah, I'm glad I wasn't, we had Kieran Perkins on recently, and I think he kind of alluded to something about that that would have been completely different the amount of pressure he would have gotten ahead of Atlanta that he was already getting if you kind of add social media and everything to it.
DAVID CULBERT: Well, there's probably a big difference between Kieran and I, is he was the red-hot favourite to win the gold medal, and I was just about to try to make it into the finals. So I might have had a different situation if I was expected to win versus just there to try and get on the podium. So, yeah, it's-
BEN WATERWORTH: That's why you're on Off The Podium, Dave. That's why we're here. Well, correct, correct.
DAVID CULBERT: That's where I'm best suited.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, yeah. So do you go into each of the games kind of with different expectations? So your first Olympics, you're mentioning sort of an injury, is it a case of do my best? Both times make the final, both times aim for a medal? Kind of like, what's the mindset heading into both Seoul and Barcelona?
DAVID CULBERT: Yeah, absolutely. And the same with the Commonwealth Games. To do your best, that's the first thing. Prepare as best you can and do your best. So in Seoul, in the end, I had to have a pain killing injection in my heel. I had a cyst that was the size of a 50 cent piece. It was every time I took off, it was like someone was jamming a screwdriver into my heel. I was no good. I nearly made the final. I missed by about 10cm or something, but I was no good, had operation straight afterwards. In Barcelona, by that stage, I'd finished six in the World Championships the previous year, and I'd come second in the Commonwealth Games, and I'd had wins in Europe. And there was Carl Lewis and Mike Powell, and they were a long way ahead of the rest of us. And then there was me and 10 other people that potentially could have got a medal. But again, I'd had great years in 90 and 91, and by the time 92 came around, I got injured, had a quad injury that effectively ended up finishing my career. Almost didn't make it to the Games, was in terrible form, could hardly train, was jumping 6'7, 6'6, 7'7, and somehow I managed to jump eight metres in the qualifying round and qualified for the final. But the final was the next day, and I couldn't, basically the way to describe it was my leg, if my leg was a shock absorber, if I jumped two days in a row, I would lose 100% shock absorbing capability. So I basically just had no bounce. So I was like a tennis ball, if you sliced it open, it would land on the ground and just stop, rather than, I had no bounce, just couldn't go. And so, I finished 11th and jumped 7'7, something, and it still irritates me that I wasn't able to make the top eight in the Olympics. But that's the way it goes, and that was pretty much, you know, I was on the downhill from then. I had 93 off and came back in 94 and managed again to somehow conjure a performance at the Commock Games. Nearly won, came second again and retired.
BEN WATERWORTH: So there was no prospect of going on towards Atlanta, or just the body wasn't?
DAVID CULBERT: No, I went back up to Canberra and would have to have an hour of physio to loosen up my foot and ankle and quad to be able to even train. So, no, I was done completely. So, and then had the opportunity to start working. I was already working, but to work with Athletics Australia and set up their media and communications marketing area, promote mates and start commentary and do all of those things. So I'd had a pretty good run, but sadly, I just, 90 and 91 were the best years, most consistent, biggest distances, et cetera. And from then it was injury that cooked me.
BEN WATERWORTH: We always like to find out from our athletes kind of those Olympic experiences. Obviously you've been to so many Olympics and two of them as an athlete, but do you sort of remember those sort of moments when you say got to the village and everything back in Seoul, those initial like just moments where you're soaking in that Olympic experience? And then was it much different coming to Barcelona or were you sort of so focused on competition you weren't really able to kind of take those moments in at the time?
DAVID CULBERT: I'll make hazy because they're a long, long while ago. You know, I remember, and photos help, that's for sure. I remember, you know, opening ceremonies kind of, I remember, I don't remember much about Seoul. I remember, you know, watching the final. My parents were there, so I remember some moments of that in Barcelona. You know, I certainly remember, you know, being out there for the final and walking out there in the opening, for the final and thinking, well, here I am. I remember a lot more about, you know, the 91 World Championships, because you see it more. And that's that competition where Mike Powell broke Bob Beeman's world record, and I was great mates with Mike, so I was sitting next to him throughout the competition. And so I remember a lot more about that, but it's only superficial. It's only superficial. In fact, you know, this is how bad your memory is. I always thought that my last jump of my career at the 94 Commonwealth Games was a foul, and that I was filthy that I didn't, I fouled my last jump and I didn't improve and get that gold medal. And I found a VHS tape of it recently when we were in lockdown last year, and I was digitising them, and I found it and I came across the last jump, and I didn't actually foul. I jumped a pretty good jump, wasn't good enough to win it, but I felt a lot better about myself that I didn't foul. I just wasn't good enough. So that made me feel better.
BEN WATERWORTH: Wow, geez, that's incredible. I can also imagine too, obviously both Olympics you're in, Carl Lewis was in the middle of his kind of four gold streak there. And going back to that point where you're saying you took the day off school to watch it, you're watching Gary get the silver, but I can't imagine you watching someone like Carl Lewis back in 1984 thinking that I'm gonna be competing against this guy in the next two Olympics and kind of being part of this history-making run that he obviously famously went between 84 and 96.
DAVID CULBERT: Yeah, well, that's right. So that was, you know, he was the star. He's the athlete that you had on your, in the poster on your bedroom wall. And I remember I was in the same group as him in Seoul in the qualifying round, and Gary was injured, hurt his quad and couldn't compete. He was there, but had to withdraw. And we were in the call room, and I walked in, sat down, Carl walked in, sat down, he's sitting there and blah, blah, blah. And he said to me, hey, where's your teammate? Said, Gary, he said, yeah. Said, he's injured, not here. He goes, oh, that's sad. And I thought, how cool is that, Carl Lewis? You got no idea who I am, Carl. Still doesn't know who I am now, even though we're in the same competition on a number of occasions. And yeah, so that was exciting to be in that situation. But that lasts for five minutes when you're an elite athlete. The first time it happens, you think is really cool. And the rest of the time, they're the opposition. So you're not fanboying for very long.
BEN WATERWORTH: When it came to retiring and then switching into the broadcast side of things, you mentioned before that it always fascinated you. I mean, was it as an easy transition? Do you just kind of tap Bruce on the shoulder and go, Bruce, how are you doing? I'm about to join in the commentary box. Or is it kind of a little bit more work involved in kind of going behind the mic after retiring?
DAVID CULBERT: Oh, well, this is a question I get asked a lot by aspiring, you know, and kind of strange now that I'm in the situation where young people are asking, how did you get to what you're doing now? And it's a bit like your athletic career. It's a lot of little steps. You know, I would, I do the ground announcing for inter-club competitions and club competitions in Melbourne. And then I had the opportunity to do that at the national series meets. And then, you know, the ABC were broadcasting domestic athletics at the major, you know, at the Grand Prix level in Australia. And I was the expert commentator doing field events. And so I did that for a little bit. And then, you know, I started being able to call the field events. And then I was doing expert commentating on the track events and calling the field events. And then, you know, whoever was there wasn't available, I was calling the track events. So all of these little things happened. But then it was the 94, sorry, or the 98 Commonwealth Games, which was my first major event. And I was doing expert comment on the track with Terry McCall of calling the field events. And it sort of went from there. I worked at Channel 7 before the Sydney Olympics and had an opportunity to, you know, we've got a canoe slalom test event, World Cup at Penrith. You know, Dave, do you reckon you could call it? Yeah, okay, no idea what I did, no idea, no idea. But I'll give it a whirl. I worked with International Triathlon, so I was already calling, doing some triathlon stuff, and I played hockey at school, so I started calling hockey events. So all of a sudden, you know, these little things that, you know, you did a Champions Trophy hockey, or you did a test event here, or you did a World Cup triathlon, and then, you know, at the Sydney Olympics, I did triathlon, volleyball, athletics, did some hockey matches. I did all sorts of things, because I just needed people. And I guess if you didn't stuff it up, you got another chance next time, and it went from there.
BEN WATERWORTH: Which is-
DAVID CULBERT: All those little steps.
BEN WATERWORTH: Which is kind of part of the fun, isn't it? Isn't it? Like, I mean, I've always grown up wanting to do broadcasting sports commentary. And I know during my radio days in Hobart, you know, we would just go along to any event we could and do commentary. I mean, we were a bit more Roy NHG than Bruce McEvaney, but we would still be kind of having some fun with it. And it's a case of, sure, I'll call this sport, I'll call that sport. And, you know, once you get that opportunity, hey, you're gonna do a canoe slalom. Do you just kind of just grab a book, do what you can, or, you know, kind of read as much as you can? Or are you type of person who kind of can be natural and kind of know the basics and then put a microphone in front of you and then kind of go from there?
DAVID CULBERT: Oh, you could, but that'd be doing a serious injustice to the sport and the athletes. So, no, I do a lot of preparation. And just to go back to your point about, you know, the broadcasters, because I think, you know, there may be some people listening that want to know how they do it and what they do. And that's why the ABC is such a good breeding ground for our great commentators. And it's because of the ABCs in so many corners of Australia that young kids get the opportunity to call, you know, the local football and cricket. And then all of a sudden, you know, someone listens to the tape or hears it, and then you get the next opportunity and the next opportunity. And because there's so much streaming now, that's sort of like the modern-day ABC radio, that there are streaming, sports are streaming, local level, club level stuff. And if you're good, you know, that'll be, that's how Hutto started. It's how, you know, the late great Clinton Grivers started, Matt Granlin, you know, Alastair Nicholson, everyone. They've all come from somewhere doing something at a local level to be able to develop their careers.
BEN WATERWORTH: I remember Alastair Nicholson growing up in Hobart, in the ABC, like vividly, you know.
DAVID CULBERT: And a brilliant broadcaster, and he was part of the Seven Games team as well, is what he does with the ABC. Doing really good with the hockey.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, fantastic work.
DAVID CULBERT: And so your question about preparation, I do a stack and I take it very seriously, because in fact, it's, so I have a training program, like I'm an athlete. Systems, you know, schedule, you know, I hardly ever throw anything out. I've got boxes of stuff from previous games, which I whittled down after the games, and so it's ready for the next one with previous results. And then it's watching, listening, talking, you know, so for the Canoe Slalom, you know, I watched two years of World Cups in the two weeks before the games. I, you know, read, listened to podcasts, you know, got insights, spoke to coaches. And then of course, I had Richard Fox, Jess's dad sitting next to me. So, which only happened in the last week, so I didn't really need any of the stuff that I've done, because I had him sitting next to me. I could have just read out names. So, the tri-final, yeah, and the track and field, the same thing. And for the Paralympics, it was exactly the same. I do a lot of work. And, you know, Bruce has been the one that showed, if I think I do a lot of work in the lead up to a games, Bruce does 10 times more work. And to give you an example, if there's an athlete from Azerbaijan in lane three of the hundred, I'm pretty happy to know something about the athlete from Azerbaijan. Bruce would turn up knowing how every athlete from, you know, what's the best performance from Azerbaijan at the games so far. So it might be in weightlifting or it might be in judo or it might be in karate or whatever it is. That's the level that he goes to. So he knows all this to know about the athlete from Azerbaijan, plus their best events. I know where to find it if I need it. He's actually looked at it and he may never use it, which is his complete genius that he would use. He would use about half of what he's got at his disposal when he sits down to commentate.
BEN WATERWORTH: Look, we never seen any good Bruce stories on this show. And you talk about being in a room with Carl Lewis. I tell you one thing, if I ever ended up in any form of media situation with Bruce Mack, that's my Carl Lewis right there. I wouldn't speak, I'd just stare. I don't get starstruck often, but I'm just like, fuck, it's Bruce Mack. What do I do? What do I do? Which it's kind of, it's one of those moments. My favourite memory of your calling, and I'm sure this is one that probably gets brought up to a lot, I remember during Sydney, during the long jump, I remember the famous jumping Jai, it's time to fly moment for Jai to ream. I mean, when you're in those moments when, as a long jumper yourself, this is your sport, and you're in the midst of watching, you know, this great performance from an Australian, how do you kind of try and keep professional? And I'm sure deep down, you're heavily rooting for this guy. You're really wanting Jai to kind of get this goal that Australia's never been able to get in the long jump.
DAVID CULBERT: It's a good question. It's only really happened, it's happened three times probably where you're desperately wanting someone, when you're commentating, when you're desperately wanting someone to win. And Jai was one, Mitch Watt was the other in London in the long jump, and Steve Hooker in Beijing, because I've known Steve for a long time. And obviously I've been in, you know, as an expert commentator when Cathy Freeman or Yana Pittman have won world championships, and you know, Bruce is calling, and you know, I was there in Sydney in the commentary box when Bruce and Raylene were calling Cathy, and you're not actually talking, so you don't have to worry about it. You just turn your microphone off and watch. So it's interesting. I think I've been lucky that I've had a couple of really good producers. One was the very first one at the ABC, a guy by the name of Ray Hume, who, you know, was really good at giving you tips and how to commentate. And Seven had a mantra for a long time as well about the sounds of the games. So you don't have to talk nonstop. It's television. You don't have to speak. So I let the silence, and Bruce was a master of silence as well. Master, still is a master of silence. You don't have to talk the whole time. And the other one that has always stuck with me is the best ad libs are well prepared, which is a line from the head of sport at Seven. And so jumping giant's time to fly came to me six months before the games. And I'd write these little notes down about things, and Dennis Comedie with the heart of the line and the heart of Dixie, and the rare gold, the best kind of gold. They're generally, a good commentator's generally thought about what they're gonna say when the moment comes. And just wish had a giant had a one, then it would have been one of the great lines of all time. And I tell him that all the time, Jive, if you had a one, jumping giant's time to fly, would be one of the great lines. Yeah, so, and then when to use them and do other things. But you are cheering. You're cheering externally, but we're commentating for an Australian audience. So if you look at Jessica Fox, it didn't matter what Richard or I said during that race, because no one was listening. No one was listening to what we were saying. Like when they watched the replay and on the news and the grabs, they're listening. But Australia was on the edge of their seat. We could have said nothing for the entire time and it wouldn't have made any difference whatsoever to Australia's enjoyment of that moment, because they knew what was going on. Don't touch the gate penalty. Don't miss the gate massive penalty. Time clock pops up with plus or minus. Pretty straightforward.
BEN WATERWORTH: Which it still though must be strange in your perspective though, because yeah, you're right. Like it doesn't matter. We're watching it. But when they show the replay, your voice is going to be on that forever in a day. I mean, that is always what Australians will hear when they see in four years time, three years time in Paris. We're going to see that. It's always going to be there. So does that ever crush your mind as a broadcaster? Is that coming back to what you're saying? The best sort of lines are prepared, thinking that this will be a replayed moment over history?
DAVID CULBERT: No, because, well, kind of, yes and no. You don't commentate for grabs, but you actually have to commentate for the grab because that's the studio discipline of having pauses so that editors can edit clips. And so commentators aren't talking over the top of each other. If you've got an expert, Richard and I in Tokyo weren't in the same room. He was in Sydney and I was in Melbourne. So it was pretty easy not to talk over the top of each other because you had the moment extra silence because he was in Sydney and I could see him on a Zoom call. And so he was on a little computer monitor. And so you had that discipline. But that's just being a broadcaster in this day and age. And it's the thing that everyone hates the most as commentator, if everyone's trying to scream and shout at the same time. When the most, the caller calls, the caller calls until the caller doesn't want to call anymore, and then the expert has their comments. And so it's a pretty simple rule. And if you're in either of those two boats, and I'm lucky that I've flipped from one to the other, you know, in that canoe flail, and my job was to get them underway. Richard would take over once they went through the first lot of gates. And in that final, he actually didn't speak for probably three or four seconds longer than he would have on every other run. And it threw me a bit, and I just waited, and then he picked up and away he went. And then my job was to talk about up or down, up or down. And we knew what gates we'd get the up and down. And then once they came around the final gate, I'd take over. And that were there are rules. So you just follow those rules. And then, you know, your question about commentating for the highlights, you know, at the end of the day, it's the start and the end, isn't it? Unless it's a Cathy Freeman race, and you see the race, you know, all the time. And again, Raylene's job with Bruce was not to say a thing until Bruce had finished. Bruce said, you know, what a victory, magnificent performance. Pause, Raylene, what a relief.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah.
DAVID CULBERT: You know, just the greatest three words in expert commentating history.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yep.
DAVID CULBERT: Summed it up in three words, complete genius.
BEN WATERWORTH: Which it's interesting sort of going back to your point about how you were always fascinated about the broadcast side of things. I mean, I'm exactly with you there. And some of my favourite Olympic moments, I remember because of the calls. I mean, one of ones we use in our winter sort of intros when we've got winter athletes on, the Bradbury gold. It's, you know, Basil's famous call at the end. They all fall down, Bradbury is gonna come through and win gold. Like you just remember these. You talk about the Cathy moments and kind of all that sort of things. And it's kind of, it's interesting when you say you have future broadcasters coming to you and asking you for that advice. It's that, you know, speaking on behalf of these people, we're like, we're never gonna be an Olympian. That's kind of our Olympics. Like we're watching that. We're hearing those calls, those famous calls and dreaming of those moments. So it's kind of, it's interesting when you would have people come to you and say, I remember jumping Jaya time to fly, or the Jess call and kind of talking to you about those things that maybe, as you're saying, you're not necessarily thinking about that much.
DAVID CULBERT: Well, so, you know, Basil's a great com, Basil's M plus is a great commentator. You know, his call of Titmuss and Ledecky, and, you know, to become a legend, you've got to be a legend. Yeah, that was it. We saw him, you know, before the race, and he knew what he's going to say if the moment arrived. I can tell you, we didn't know what he was going to say when the moment arrived with Steve Bradbury, because there was no expectation whatsoever. So you've got to have, and Bruce, I don't think, you know, I might be putting words in his mouth. He's not a big deliverer of a pre-prepared line, but he never gets it wrong, ever. He's a complete genius. And we were watching the AFL Grand Final the other day, and there was a replay of West Coast and Sydney and Leo Barry, you star. And my son said, you know, before it came down, he said, Leo Barry, you star. And he goes, oh, you know, do you know the guy who was in CDS, Steve Quatermain? He goes, what a great line that was. And it's called as wasn't, you can't prepare that. But it is one of the great lines in, it's like hit the boundary line.
BEN WATERWORTH: Jess Alinko, you beauty.
DAVID CULBERT: Beauty, yeah.
BEN WATERWORTH: You know, things like that, that are just forever known, right? Like that's-
DAVID CULBERT: Yeah, so it's a privilege to be in that situation where you're calling those moments. I'm a small player in all of these things because the field events aren't the prime ones of the games. It's not the 100-metre final. It's not the swimming. And I sit back and watch what happens with our broadcasts in Australia of those events. And I'm in awe of how good our commentators are and how well they do in that situation and how that's been since Norman May and Dennis and Sandy Roberts and all of that, Bruce, of course, and incredible.
BEN WATERWORTH: Have you ever had one that you've written down and gone, this is gonna be perfect. This is gonna be so good if this moment comes and you've never been able to use it?
DAVID CULBERT: Oh yeah, all the time. Every, not every event, but absolutely, because Olympic gold medals are not easy. I've got an absolute ripper if we ever finish one, two in something. All right, can you share it?
BEN WATERWORTH: You're not gonna spoil it?
DAVID CULBERT: No, absolutely, all the time. And this is part of the thing that, when you're broadcasting, sometimes you're only thinking about it on the day. You know, but you can't be a slave to it either, because you can't crowbar it in. And I think that all the commentators would say the same thing. You might think of it, but you can't just use it if the circumstances don't allow. Because what works for a victory by one hundredth of a second doesn't work for something that is a cakewalk. Can't commentator 10-goal victory the same way you'd commentator come from behind one point win in the dying seconds.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, yeah, exactly, exactly. I mean, personally, I really hope that, you know, with some of those lines, I really hope we all go gobbledygook for Zach's double de cook was a pre-prepared, or if that was just off the cast, Basil, that was up there with some of the great calls that we need to remember.
DAVID CULBERT: Basil will be thinking about what he's going to say, you know, as you should. And if you're commentating the AFL Grand Final recently with Melbourne's win, and you didn't have something ready to go, there are 57 year drought, then you're not doing a job, are you? And every one of those broadcasters would have had had something in their mind to say.
BEN WATERWORTH: I think it was when we had Joanna Griggs on, she was telling the story about Rio, about Chloe Esposito's win, about basically the kerfuffle around the Channel 7 offices. All of a sudden, they've gone, shit, who knows how to call modern bed Tathlon? We need someone.
DAVID CULBERT: Well, I can tell you, I was there that we'd done the marathon, and we had a track session, I think, that day. And so we'd only just left to go and have a rest, to come back to do whatever it was, or we might have even been finished. Might have been in the last day. So we might have been finished. And Scotty McGrory walked in, just as we'd walked out. And anyone know anything about, it wasn't even anyone know anything about Scott, get in there, and he, what? He had no idea. And I would pass some bits of paper into him, and we didn't know how the, he did an unbelievable job. An unbelievable job in those circumstances. So that happens as well. And he's become, he's another guy who's become a, an Olympic gold medallist, an expert commentator, who's now able to carry the broadcast. He worked with Phil Liggett a lot in Tokyo, but he also did the track as a lead caller with Anna Mears. And they were just sensational.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, I agree. That was fantastic. Is there a sport that you've not done that you would love to have a crack at, if you ever got the opportunity?
DAVID CULBERT: Well, I would have loved to have called more AFL. I called two games of VFL semifinals in the days of C7, and Dave Barham called me one day and said, Oh, Andy Marr can't do it. And I said, Oh, I don't really guess. I'll send you the tapes. And there's only 22 players on each team. Can't be that hard to learn their numbers and et cetera. And I'd called hockey and et cetera. So I called those, I did two semifinals with Pete Donaghan. And Dave said to me, Oh, they're fantastic. Those calls are really good. You know, we'll get you doing the VFL matches all next year on C7. Went broke about two weeks later, went into liquidation and that was it. So that was the end of my AFL calling aspirations. You know, I've been, I do a lot of, I do the Australian Open every year and love that. And it's great to be involved in those things. I don't harbour the aspiration to be calling the final of the Australian Open, for instance, because you're surrounded by people that are better than you when you do it. So I know my spot. I'm very good at doing the mixed doubles, quarterfinals, semi-finals, finals, if you're lucky. But when it comes to field events in the Olympics, that's probably where I'm at, which is why I look forward to it every four years.
BEN WATERWORTH: Is there a sport that you've done that you go never again? Don't want to do that one again?
DAVID CULBERT: Not really, not really. Snowboard cross at the Olympics is pretty hairy, particularly given the format that they go from, once they do their seeding rounds, they basically go quarterfinal, semi-final, race for the finals straight off. So it's like two hours of nonstop. They basically just go straight back up to the, and they reorder the colours and do all of that. So I'm no good at memory. I couldn't call a horse race. So I'd have no chance of calling a horse race. And I did the store gift this year. And it was a bit hairy because those circular races where there's just colours, you know, Matt Hill could look at them and colour name straight off. Terry McAuliffe is a genius at doing that as well. He does, you know, just look at the colour and will know the name like a horse race. Whereas I'm terrible at that. So I have to have a big bit of paper in front of me to be able to do it. So it's a bit tricky. But I think if you know what your spot is, you know what you're good at and potentially what you're not at. So you try and avoid what you're not at as best you can.
BEN WATERWORTH: Have you been tapped on the shoulder already to be part of the Beijing coverage? Are we going to hear your voice in Beijing very soon?
DAVID CULBERT: For the Winter Olympics, probably. I hope so. I've done the last two Winter Olympics. So, and I love it. I've done the Slope Style. I didn't even know what it was. When Dave Barham said, do you know anything about Slope Style? I said, I don't even know what it is, Dave. What is it? Yeah, snowboard. I said, I know snowboarding, that half-pipe thing that Scotty Jones does. He goes, yeah, but there's this other event. Snowboard cross. No, I really like that. I hope so, because I love doing the Olympics and the Winter Olympics. And when we watched the Winter Olympics, the last two have been in great time zones for Australia, and audiences love them.
BEN WATERWORTH: So we've got great time zones. Gotta be again, obviously. We're advocates for Nordic Combined, David. I realise Australia won't have any athletes in the Nordic Combined, but if they need a 1 a.m. commentator, just put your hand up. Hey, Nordic Combined, absolutely. Let's get into it.
DAVID CULBERT: Well, you're part Norwegian, are you?
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, well, hey, I'll say yes to Channel 7. So I'll leave my details with you, and if they need some Nordic Combined commentary, I'm glad to put my hand up. One thing, actually, I'd love to learn, did you get to the bottom of the sand in Tokyo, Dave? I know that was something that you were very caught up on during the Olympics.
DAVID CULBERT: It's actually funny because a lot of people talk to me about how your inquiry is going, having an investigation. You got any investigations going this week? And it's funny when you say something just because you're a goose, and then all of a sudden I just say, well, I might as well just keep this going, see if people like it or not. So the sand, the sand was problematic. The sand was terrible. The athletes that I've spoken to said they've still got a gravel rash on their ass from the crap sand. Their spikes will never be the same. Apparently the volcanoes in Japan have less silica. And so our sand is that silica white, and they don't have that because it's volcanic. And so that's the different colours. And I'm saying, well, that might be true, but it's not a good enough reason to have black sand in your sand pits. They should have brought in some good old broom sand from the beaches of WA, pristine stuff, and put that in.
BEN WATERWORTH: They can ship snow places. They can ship sand. I mean, that doesn't melt.
DAVID CULBERT: No, that's true. Or created themselves. But no, it was, it grew a life of its own, didn't it? And everyone, of course, in Australia was in lockdown. So in most places, so they were watching it. I think they thought the sand was as stupid as I was saying it.
BEN WATERWORTH: We had a lot of fun every day, just, you know, trying to work out if you got into the bottom of that. You're involved, obviously, too, with the Commonwealth Games Federation. Sort of tell us a bit about that role and kind of how, what, less than 300 days away now from Birmingham. It's that unique aspect, aren't we, that kind of got a Commonwealth Games so quick to an Olympics now, given the thing, but how's things tracking for Birmingham? Are we going to retain our spot on top of the medal tally in not that long?
DAVID CULBERT: Won't be easy because we're on their home turf, that's for sure. And when we're in Glasgow in 2014, England, of course, because they compete for their home counties rather than Great Britain. So, but England will be very difficult to beat in a range of different sports. But no, I think that this once ever opportunity, and hopefully it is once ever that we go straight from an Olympics, Paralympics into a Commonwealth Games, next year is going to be incredibly exciting, but also difficult for our athletes because they've got to recover from an arduous Olympic campaign, which went for one year longer than they thought. And Paralympics, of course, come home and do the quarantine, which hasn't been easy for a lot of athletes. Most of them are still resting now. They might be just starting to get back into their training. Domestic seasons, which are still up in the air because of COVID. Trials. But then most sports have gotten World Championships, as well as the Commonwealth Games next year. Swimmers are in May or June in Japan. Athletics is in Oregon in the weeks before the Commonwealth Games. Our power athletes in a lot of sports have got their World Championships after the Commonwealth Games. So huge year. But if you love cheering for the green and gold, you don't have that two year wait between games. And we've got the Winter Olympics and Winter Paralympics in between. So we've got this double opportunity to keep cheering for everyone's favourite team. And I think we'll see a big benefit from that from a media perspective interest. We're happy to get right into the Olympics for a couple of weeks in the Paralympics. And then a lot of us are happy to... I'm not, but a lot of people are happy to bin it for two years or four years and come back to it. Whereas to go straight into a Commonwealth Games campaign, which people like and we're obviously good at, and it's world class sport, I think it's going to be really good for our athletes and their profiles and financially and all of those things. So hopefully we can make the most of that opportunity.
BEN WATERWORTH: One thing I want to just quickly add, Dave, I realise you're getting this question a lot, as we still don't know where 2026 is going to be. Now, New South Wales has been talked about. Perth, Basel put its hand up recently. Bugger both of them. Hobart. Now, I started back in the day, the Hobart Olympic bid. We didn't quite get the 2020 Olympics, but we're happy to just, you know, while Perth and Sydney fought over Hobart, we're ready to go for 2026, just saying.
DAVID CULBERT: Well, we need a host for 2026. There isn't one at the moment. And Australia does this better than anyone. So we would love to have the Games back in Australia in 2026. There's a whole range of reasons why that's important. The least, the financial benefits that spin to our members, sports and Commonwealth Games Australia, just like the Olympics, hosting in 2032, huge financial windfall for the AOC, and then therefore programs and things that they can do. Why not Tasmania? I don't know about Hobart itself. I think you might have to spread the love around the state rather than just have it.
BEN WATERWORTH: They can have like the bowls and something like that.
DAVID CULBERT: Bernie?
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, Bernie, host of the BMX. Smithton? Yes, Smithton. Queenstown, they've got the gravel football oval there.
DAVID CULBERT: Okay, so now you're talking. From a bid perspective, I think you've got, as long as you're a little broader than just Hobart.
BEN WATERWORTH: Tasmania 2026.
DAVID CULBERT: Well, this is the thing about the Commonwealth Games is that one of the things that has not scared off, might be the right word, of other bidding cities is that Australia has done this so well. So if you look at Melbourne and the Gold Coast in particular, unbelievable jobs. They don't need to necessarily be as expensive as they have been. They don't have to be as grand as they have been. And the Gold Coast did a pretty good job of this. Metricon built a couple of new stadiums, upgrade some others, build things that you actually need, and the upgrade in the Valodrome, the Anamir's Valodrome now in Brisbane, will be a key part of the Olympic bid. But they built light rail and housing and all these things are legacy items. So you do the things that you need to do, and you don't worry about the things that you don't need to do. You don't have to have a 20,000 seat swimming stadium as much as you'd like to have one. You don't have to build new this and new that if you don't need them. You just upgrade the things that you do need and build the infrastructure that will benefit you for years afterwards. And the MCG wouldn't look like it does now if it wasn't for the Melbourne Commonwealth Games. It might now, but in 2006 when it was upgraded and the Great Southern Stand and all of those things, it wouldn't have happened without having the deadline of the Commonwealth Games. So get busy, Ben, with a Tassie 2026 bit. You've got a mascot, that's all under control.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, we're trying to revive it. Again, it was fun back during the Hobart 2020. I've got now experience having worked at the 2018 Commonwealth Games, so maybe I've got a little bit more experience to kind of go and see what it was like. So there you go. So I'll start doing the groundwork. Before I let you go, Dave, now, obviously, people listening can't see what I'm seeing behind you, but you've got a great shelf behind you. You can build with Olympic. I have to ask about this. The idea of collecting Olympic mascots, you've got plushies from basically every Olympics, I think you're saying that you've been to. I mean, where did this idea come about, and which one's your favourite, and why is it Izzy?
DAVID CULBERT: Well, no one will know who Izzy you're talking about unless you're an absolute Olympic freak.
BEN WATERWORTH: I'm the only Izzy fan on this planet still, Dave. I love it.
DAVID CULBERT: Well, his full name was What Izzy?
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah. So still working that out.
DAVID CULBERT: Which of course was the Atlanta mascot. So how did it first start? Well, it must have been Seoul. So I've got the Tiger from Seoul. So it was probably the first one. I actually didn't get one from my first Commonwealth Games in 1986. So I clearly wasn't that fussed about having a mascot then. So no, I collected the first one, and then it went from there. So it's not really the sort of pastime that are, you know, ageing guy does collect plush dolls. But I must have, I don't know, there must be 30 there. So Commonwealth Games, Olympics, World Championships. And of course, now, you know, we had Sydney and Oli in Sydney. So there's three of them. Beijing got really greedy. They had five. You know, Olympics and Paralympics. There's a couple from each one. For the Gold Coast. So Borobi is probably, Borobi is up there. What is it? Is he's a very strange cat. You need to Google it if you don't have any idea what we're talking about.
BEN WATERWORTH: We always talk up Is he just because it's serious. I mean, they made a fricking video game on him, didn't they? I remember there was like, Is he collects the Olympic rings on like PlayStation? Probably the only mascot that's ever had his own Olympic video game. And was it Wenlock, the London one?
DAVID CULBERT: Yeah, and Wenlock and something else, because they had the one for the Olympics and one for the Paralympics. So there's some very strange things here. Kobe was the bear from Barcelona. He's pretty cool. He's sort of got a Salvador Dali type thing going on.
BEN WATERWORTH: Have you checked out the Beijing? Have you checked out Bing Duan Duan and Shui Ron Ron? The two for the winters. They're pretty good. We've got a panda and Bing Duan Duan, but Shui Ron Ron is a Chinese lantern. So that's to me up there with Izzy is one of the great all-time mascots.
DAVID CULBERT: I'll tell you what, it's not easy to... So I struggled to actually get... I don't have a Paralympic one from Tokyo. I've only got the Olympic one, and it was a struggle to get them, trying to buy them online impossible. And of course, because of COVID, they shut down virtually every merchandise out there. So there must be hundreds of thousands of these things sitting in a box somewhere.
BEN WATERWORTH: Just waiting to go. Do you have any tips or predictions for Brisbane 2032? I mean, I'm just saying, like I know Matilda Kangaroo from 82, can they bring back and like kind of do a reformed version 50 years later?
DAVID CULBERT: They should 50 years later. It's a no-brainer.
BEN WATERWORTH: It just works. The nostalgia factor, the giant, the winking, you know, coming into the stadium.
DAVID CULBERT: And it's still at a service station somewhere in Queensland. So it's a pain job. So, yeah, absolutely. I think that's a Matilda is locked in as far as I'm concerned.
BEN WATERWORTH: And I've already called it. We said this to Kieran and you can take this on board right now. So when you're calling it, when you're in the opening ceremony in 2030, hopefully I'm next to you, Dave, but Kieran Perkins is going to get the torch. He's ready to light the cauldron. And just as he's about to do it, he's going to fall over and Stephen Bradbury is going to pick it up and light the cauldron. That is the goal for Brisbane 2032. It has to happen.
DAVID CULBERT: It's not bad. Who does light the torch in 2032? I think we're a long way away from even having to worry about it. But what happened in Sydney with the great Australian women? John Coates is before his time on that. When you hear all the amount of banging on that we do about, you know, it's been great to see the women's cricket team playing test matches against India just recently and the AFLW and all these things. But 21 years ago, John Coates had Australia's greatest female athletes handing the baton one after the other after the other around the opening ceremony to open the games with Cathy. Wasn't a bad choice, that's for sure.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, fantastic moment. Dave, before we let you go, you mentioned sort of the social media. You're on social media, very active on Twitter. Where can people follow you if they kind of want to stay up to date with what you're putting out there, and also anything else you want to plug while you're at it?
DAVID CULBERT: Well, if you want to get takes on the Victorian political situation, you can follow me on Twitter at culbert.com. culbert.com. I'm not happy about that, I can tell you. When you've been in a world record lockdown, people keep telling you that we should be excited about how good we're going. I'm sorry. We're the footy team that hasn't won a game in two years, and our coach is screaming at us. It's not encouraging me to play better. It's not encouraging me to play get better, that's for sure. Look, so that's the main one. Follow our athletes. They're the ones. Follow our athletes. Find your favourite athlete. Follow CommGames at CommGamesOz, but follow the Olympic team. They're our sporting teams. Just like you do your favourite rugby team or AFL team or whatever it might be, follow our athletes and support them, because they're the ones that are out there doing the business for us. Get behind them.
BEN WATERWORTH: Fantastic. Great way to end. I like that. Great work there, Dave. Dave, it's been an absolute pleasure to learn more about both sides of your career and everything else in between. And yeah, I look forward to our Calling The Nordic Combined very soon in Beijing. Thanks for passing on my resume to Channel 7. I appreciate it.
DAVID CULBERT: Anytime, Ben. I look forward to not being your expert commentator on that, but I'll look forward to your call.
BEN WATERWORTH: And a massive, massive thanks there to Dave for his time. I'm in, I'm in the box, come the Olympics for Naughty Combined. I'm pumped. I'm glad that I've got myself a foothold in there. So the dream is being realised out there. And Hobart, Tasmania, 2026 Commonwealth Games, bring it on, it's happening. So all these exciting things that we can put a footwork here on Off The Podium, it's a pleasure to be able to be a part of, and a pleasure to speak to Dave there. Such a great chat there, learnt a lot. And I'm actually really jealous of his mascot collection. Really fantastic. And maybe I'll start off with being Dwen Dwen and Shui Ron Ron. Maybe I need to get myself a hand on both of them to do that. I've got my Borobie, so there you go. And I think I've got a Sib, Millie and Ollie, something somewhere in a box to do with the Sydney Olympics. So maybe I'll jump on board Dave's train there and start collecting some Olympic mascots. But Dave, appreciate your time. Thank you so much for being part of the show. We are so close to two things here on Off The Podium, our 200th episode and the Beijing Olympics. Both are right around the corner. Stay tuned, they are coming very, very soon. Of course, Beijing, we've got daily coverage like we do during every single Olympics. Colin, Jarrod and myself will be back giving you the results, the highlights. Commentary will be back as well. If you heard our recent Brit Cox interview, we got some tips from Brit herself, how to commentate moguls. So we're very excited for that. But stay tuned for all the great coverage in our 200th episode, where you're going to hear highlights from episodes 151 through to 199, as we celebrate bringing you the show that we love bringing you, and that we hope you love listening to. And if you want to keep listening to it, maybe this is your first time you've listened to Off The Podium, you can subscribe to us, of course, on all the good podcast channels, Spotify, Stitcher, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, you name it, we're on there, I Heart Radio, don't forget that one, that's a good one too. Search for Off The Podium, and while you're there, hit subscribe, leave us some feedback, leave us a rating. We'd love to hear what you think of the show. And jump on social media too, and hit us up there, Off The Podium, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, send us a message. What do you think of the show? We'd love to hear what you think. And also, any suggestions for guests or episodes, anything we always like to hear your thoughts as we continue to put this product out for you. Big thanks again to Dave for joining us. Big thanks to you, the listener, for tuning in today to the show. As always, a special shout out goes to Jason Momoa. And until we next speak again, go left.
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