Emily Abbot & Alannah Mathews Interview
We have a great chat for you today as we bring you our first taste of Rhythmic Gymnastics by speaking with two members of the history making Australian group team from Tokyo, Emily Abbot & Alannah Mathews! Both Emily & Alannah tell us about their different journey into the sport of Rhythmic Gymnastics and why it is a sport that needs to be talked about more in Australia. We also learn about how concussion is a possibility in the sport, just how strenuous that training routines are in the lead up to an Olympic Games as well as all the finer aspects of the technical side of the sport and just what on earth a koala has to do with their competition. Added to this a large dose of nicknames, ABBA and perhaps the most philosophical answers you will ever hear, this is one fun and entertaining chat you won’t want to miss!
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
Please note this is an automated transcript that may contain errors.
BEN WATERWORTH: It is Off The Podium, an Olympics podcast coming to you today for another great interview. Very excited for today's interview. A dual interview, two athletes on the show at once. From a sport that we have never had any guests on for the sport of rhythmic gymnastics, Jarrod is pumped and excited to hear today's guests on the show as you'll hear me talk a little bit about in this interview. Emily Abbot and Alannah Mathews made history during the Tokyo Olympics. They were members of the first ever Australian side to compete at an Olympic Games in the group category of rhythmic gymnastics, and a fantastic effort for that history to be made at the Tokyo Olympic Games. And it's a great interview with both Emily and Alannah, learning about how they got into rhythmic gymnastics, helping us explain some of the subrouties of the sport, why it's actually a very amazing sport that we should all pay more attention to outside of an Olympic cycle, and just learning a great deal about the pair of them too. This is a very fun chat, which I know you are going to love. I'm not even gonna say anything more. I'm gonna go straight to the interview. Here is our chat with Australian Rhythmic Gymnasts, Emily Abbot and Alannah Mathews.
BEN WATERWORTH: We always get excited on Off The Podium when we're able to bring on athletes on the show from a sport that we haven't talked about before. And while we've had a gymnast on the show before, we've not had people on from the sport of rhythmic gymnastics. And for any long-term listeners of the show who listen to our coverage throughout the Tokyo Olympics and way back to Rio, you'll understand certain topics that we've talked about around the sport of rhythmic gymnastics. Now, I'm telling people now, Jarrod is not on the line right now, so it's just me. I'm here to talk about the realistic nature of the sport and found out how amazing it is. We don't have Jarrod on here to say all those weird things he said, which I'll explain to the girls in a little bit, a moment, because I'm genuinely excited to hear about the sport and learn about both of our guests' experiences in Tokyo today. They were part of history as part of the first ever team from Australia to compete in the group competition of rhythmic gymnastics in Olympic history. And not only did they create history, but they were able to have amazing experiences and generally look like they probably had the most fun out of any of the Australian Tokyo athletes there. Pleasure to welcome on the show today, first of all, Emily Abbot, one part of the team. Emily, first of all, thank you very much for your time on the show today.
EMILY ABBOT: No, thank you so much, Ben. I'm so excited to talk to you today.
BEN WATERWORTH: So excited to talk to you as well. And also your teammate, Alannah Mathews, also on the line with us today too. Alannah, thank you.
ALANNAH MATHEWS: Doing well, doing well.
BEN WATERWORTH: I feel like I need to clarify my introduction there. When we first started, way back in Rio, we had a discussion about our history of the Olympics, and we were sort of, you know, why we loved it, why we started doing the show. And one of our co-hosts, Jarrod, sort of started talking about sports, like, oh, I love these sports and that sort of stuff. And he's like, oh, and yeah, there's some sports, which maybe I don't know too much about, which I'm intrigued to talk about and everything. And he's like, yeah, rhythmic gymnastics, I don't understand it, I don't get it. I don't know what they do. Like, why is there a ball? Why is there a hoop? You know, why are there everything else? And during Tokyo, we did many moments of commentary. We may have commentated on rhythmic gymnastics. We had a lot of fun doing it. And I think this is one of the sports that, when Jarrod brought that up all those years ago, I'm like, we need to talk to some athletes about the rhythmic gymnastics. This is a sport that I don't know if I know, or many Australians know too much about, because I think people think gymnastics, they're thinking of the floor, they're thinking of pommel horses, they're thinking of rings, they're thinking of all of that type of stuff. So is this something that each of you get a fair bit when you say, oh, I'm a gymnast, I'm an Olympic gymnast, people automatically jump to that conclusion. Maybe I'll start with you, Emily, kind of like your history around what it's like explaining to people that it's rhythmic gymnastics you do and not artistic gymnastics.
EMILY ABBOT: Well, it's actually kind of funny because I started rhythmic gymnastics thinking I was starting artistic gymnastics. So I actually never heard of rhythmic in my life. And all I do is cartwheel everywhere, like even on side streets. So I started gymnastics, I wanted to learn how to do flips. So I was confused when I got given the hoop anyway, but I fell in love with it as soon as I started. So that's kind of funny, but no, I always get asked what sport I do, and I say rhythmic gymnastics. And normally it is, oh, so you dance with the ribbons. We don't really dance with ribbons. So it's a little bit more complicated than that. And I even sometimes get asked if I do the horse. Now the horse isn't even, that's not the real name for the apparatus. It's the male artistic gymnastics apparatus. So people do get a little bit confused. And even my grandparents to this day still ask me how my aerobics is going.
BEN WATERWORTH: Wow, even the family kind of sort of do that. I mean, Alannah, with you, I believe you got into the sport because your family were rhythmic gymnastic. Maybe it was a little bit, you didn't get quite as confused when you rocked up to the local gym that weekend.
ALANNAH MATHEWS: Yeah, no, I wasn't confused. I started gymnastics because my mum used to do gymnastics. She used to do the artistic gymnastics. And she told me, well, it's like you can break your ankles and stuff like that, doing that gymnastics. I was like, oh, okay, I'll do the other one. So I started rhythmic gymnastics, but you're exactly right. Rhythmic gymnastics in Australia is not well known at all. And maybe even gymnastics as a whole, like Emily was saying, people just get really confused. They don't know what's what. But genuinely, generally, when you say, oh, I do the sport with the hoops and the balls and the ribbons, they understand. And then they proceed to ask, oh, can you do a flip? And you have to explain, well, you don't do flips in rhythmic gymnastics.
BEN WATERWORTH: You do koalas though. Can I ask about the koala straight away? Like I was fascinated watching this in the lead up to this interview about this whole idea behind a koala. How do you explain that to people who don't know what that is?
ALANNAH MATHEWS: It's hard to explain without showing a video or something, but I'll try my best. So in our group routines, we have things called collaborations where all five gymnasts on the mat, we essentially collaborate to each other, throwing to each other, doing a rotation. And this skill that we have named the koala is kind of like a lift that leads into a rotation. Yeah.
BEN WATERWORTH: That works. I'm picturing it. I've seen it, but I'm picturing it now if I hadn't seen it. So I think that kind of works that way. It is fascinating sort of with many of the Olympic sports, how you have sort of these disciplines, which generally one is more known than the other. I mean, it's sort of not the same, but kind of the same. We talked recently to some canoeists, Elise and Jordan Wood, and we said during the Olympics that canoeing is, I think, perceived as the ugly redheaded stepchild of rowing, because people know rowing, but then they forget canoeing exists. But let's be honest, canoeing is generally more entertaining and exciting than rowing, because they're going forwards, where the rows are going backwards. So, you know, there's kind of a few things there. It's kind of like that, I feel like, with rhythmic gymnastics, because all the attention in the first week is always on the artistic counterparts and everything. And then when you get to the rhythmic, I feel that the attention's like gone away from that point. But then when you watch it, because it's sort of so unique, you have such unique apparatus and things that you're doing out there on the floor, it's just, it's amazing. And you guys look like you genuinely have more fun, like you're smiling more in rhythmic gymnastics, like the costumes are cooler, like the music is better. I mean, is that kind of also what draws you more so to that? I mean, Emily, when you realise that this is the type of gymnastics you're doing, you're like, actually, I'm doing the cool ones, so I'm glad I'm doing rhythmic.
EMILY ABBOT: My favourite thing about competing is performing. I absolutely love going on the floor and performing. I think in artistic gymnastics, they don't have such a big emphasis on the performance part of the sport, whereas our sport, like every single count, the music, every single thing you do has to be in character with the music, and you get judged on artistry, which should do an artistic as well. There's just a lot more emphasis. But for me, I know I just absolutely have a ball when I hit the floor. And I think that's what sets Australia apart from the other countries, is that we're not, you know, we're not, we're self-funded athletes. We're not paid to it. But we, our difference is we hit that floor and we show the love we have for it, if that makes sense.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yes. And I also like what you did there, have a ball. Yeah, there's many there. Alannah, is the similar thing for you kind of, it's just, it's that fun aspect of rhythmic that kind of, you know, helps you out when you do compete.
ALANNAH MATHEWS: Yeah, definitely. Like Emily said, the performance is a big part of our score and a part of how the sport is judged. And that's something that I think we all enjoy expressing to music and kind of telling a story when we do a routine. So that I'm glad that that shines through and you notice that we look happy because we're trying to look happy.
BEN WATERWORTH: Which it's interesting because I know SYNCHRON-ized swimming recently got renamed to artistic swimming. And I mean, to me, artistic swimming, to be, you know, politically correct nowadays is very similar in some aspects, I think, to what you guys do, because I mean, they're very happy. They're very kind of, you know, out there doing stuff to the music, all that sort of stuff. So it's interesting how now you've still got artistic gymnastics is called artistic gymnastics. And it's kind of you would think they're more similar those ways around. I mean, you can't really, I guess, call you guys synchronized gymnastics, because you don't have to be synchronized. Is that one of the elements to it? I'm guessing it's not one of the elements to be synchronized, right?
ALANNAH MATHEWS: Yeah, there are parts where we have to be synchronized. But yes, it's also very confusing to us as well. We don't quite get the artistic and rhythmic side of it.
BEN WATERWORTH: Why they've changed. We haven't, we're yet to have an artistic swimmer on the show, so I'm not sure if it's like offensive now to say synchronized when they've changed the name of it.
ALANNAH MATHEWS: I don't think they find it offensive. We were training at the AIS for our pre-Olympic camp and the artistic swimmers were there. And we asked them like why the name of the sport was changed, and they said it was to attract more people to the sport. I don't know how that works, but...
BEN WATERWORTH: It's one of these sports that I feel it's attractive enough, because like it's so unique and interesting. We talk about this all the time when we, you know, be it winter or summer Olympics. It's the great thing about any Olympics, is it brings attention to sports that most people don't really see outside of an Olympiad. You know, maybe if it's lucky enough to be at a Commonwealth Games, there's a bit of an attention, but even then, you know, I feel we struggle to kind of get focus on rhythmic gymnastics at a Commonwealth Games. So it's kind of that uniqueness. And I guess for both of you, in terms of just the Olympic side of things, Emily, I'd love for you to share your story first about your Olympic aspirations, because I read your Instagram post when you got selected for Tokyo about how you were always set basically on being an Olympian, particularly going to Book Week as an Olympic rhythmic gymnast, which I don't know how many books I've read on rhythmic gymnastics, but I'm sure you found a loophole there in the rules on how Book Week usually works.
EMILY ABBOT: Yeah, there just isn't, there isn't a book about that.
BEN WATERWORTH: You wrote a book. That's the excuse, right?
EMILY ABBOT: No, so yeah, I started gymnastics when I was about to turn 10. I was 10 in year five, and I have little notebooks. I actually got gifted them a frame of it last year from my mum because she went through all of this stuff that my grandma had gave her. And there was all these notebooks of my drawings from when I was 10 saying, like quote, I am Emily Abbot and I want to go to the Olympics for rhythmic gymnastics. Rhythmic was spelt wrong, Olympics was spelt wrong. But I always had that dream. And yeah, book week in year five, you're supposed to dress up as your favourite book week character or your favourite book character. No, I went as an Olympic rhythmic gymnast. So I was always set on it. And even with setbacks, I've had a couple of hip surgeries and we've all had our setbacks, but I've always been totally set on going to the Olympics. And that's why I was so excited when Alannah messaged me about trialing for the group in Brisbane three years ago now, because I knew that my dreams could become a reality because they were the dream team. They were six time national champions, and I wanted to be a part of something really special.
BEN WATERWORTH: I'm looking at the drawings now, and that might help out later on when we come to our closing questions if you guys want to do some homework. So I'll just keep that in mind with that. Alannah, did you sort of have similar aspirations when you got into the sport that it was, say, the Olympics, that's the ultimate end goal with this sport?
ALANNAH MATHEWS: I'm a little bit different to Emily. So it wasn't something that I really thought about as a kid. I was just kind of doing the sport because it was so much fun, and I was just a really active kid, and I liked being involved in sport. But the sport kind of changes from being fun and enjoyable as a kid to a more competitive side, and it kind of switches when you're about 15 or 16. So that's when I kind of pulled my head together and thought, all right, I've been training for however many years now. Do I want to keep going and make it, or am I going to stop here and continue with something else? So I just made the decision like, yeah, this is it. I'm going to go for the Olympics, so let's just give it everything we've got.
BEN WATERWORTH: The one thing I appreciate about both of your posts on your social media when you got selected is that, you know, so many athletes sort of had the Get Up, the Tokyo 2020, the Qantas Ticket, you know, we're going to the Olympics. But I mean, both of you, and I'm guessing all your teammates too, kind of do, you've got to do the gymnast pose, right? You kind of like, you know, Alannah, you're sort of like on a bridge or sort of a walk there kind of with the legs completely, you know, going that way in the splits. And then Emily, you've sort of got the leg up, kind of like that sort of stuff. I mean, you're just showing off. It's great. I love it. Like more, I want more athletes to do this. That's the fun part of it, right?
ALANNAH MATHEWS: I mean, you've got to use what you've got.
EMILY ABBOT: Like even if we take, you know, a pose in a line, we've got to pop the leg. You've got to add a bit of pizzazz to your photo.
BEN WATERWORTH: Is that the technical term, pizzazz? Like, is that what the judges are looking for? Yes, of course. I like that. I need to learn these technical terms, though. So come Paris, if we're doing commentary again, we can make sure we add sort of these words to it in that way. I mean, Emily, you sort of mentioned there about how, you know, Alannah gives you the call several years back to sort of join the team. Were you the last addition to sort of the group of five that kind of, you know, went from those world championships to the Olympics? And if so, sort of what was it like sort of joining the girls, sort of had been together for a little bit and kind of how quickly was it until you were sort of able to, I guess, adapt and join and sort of become a little sisterhood that you guys obviously are today?
EMILY ABBOT: Yeah, well, Alannah's our team cat and she's just a superstar. She's like a sister to me. And funny, we actually started Rhythmic together in Adelaide. So grew up together, been sister for years, and then she moved away. So I continued doing gymnastics for however long, eight more years in Adelaide. And yeah, I've got that message. And because it's everything I ever wanted, I was like, Oh, I have to go for this trial. Mum, I packed a suitcase, one pair of pajamas and no return ticket home. So I didn't know I'd be away from home for three months with one pair of pajamas. So that was a little bit of struggle. But thank goodness for that Brisbane sun, because that dried that out quite fast. But no, I knew three of the other team members. So I came in late 2018, but I didn't know Lexi. But we all, it was a little bit difficult coming into a dynamic where they'd been so strong together for so many years, and I'd never worked with any of them before. But we all have our own little quirks. We all have, you know, we all became sisters. And like, no matter what happened, we stayed strong through all of our setbacks and that sort of thing. So we built a very special bond. So while it was difficult for me coming in in the beginning, I can truly say that I have had the best time of my life, the three years with these girls, and I wouldn't have been able to achieve my dreams without them.
BEN WATERWORTH: Perfect, perfect. Alannah, for you, I mean, obviously then as a team captain, I can imagine sort of maybe being with the team the longest. I mean, do you sort of remember, you know, back when it was sort of formed, how that was all, and was kind of, I guess, the end goal with that to kind of, as I said in the introduction, go on to create this history and become the sort of the first group from Australia to compete in the group competition in the Olympics.
ALANNAH MATHEWS: Yeah, this Australian group journey started a little bit before my time. So the gymnasts who were the first kind of group, senior group athletes, they're retired now, but they started this journey. And I was a year too young. So I had to wait till the next year to join the group. But Jamaica, who's a member of our team, was in that initial group way back in 2014. And then in 2015, I joined. And I was with the group for five years after that until we decided that we wanted to go to the Olympics. So we needed to find a fifth member because one of our gymnasts had decided to retire and continue with studies and stuff. So that's when I contacted Emily to get her over. And yeah, like she said, at the start, it's kind of challenging to get the group going, you know, kind of adjust the dynamics and everything because we had been together for so long. But as a team captain, I guess that was kind of one of my responsibilities and something that I've got to work towards even all the way up to the Olympics. We got to make sure that the dynamics in the group is good.
BEN WATERWORTH: And, you know, yeah, it sounds like the Avengers that you kind of just getting, you know, everyone together basically to come to battle. I mean, yeah, that's exactly right. Yeah, kind of moving it that way, which when it comes to rhythmic gymnastics, when it comes to, say, forming, you know, a group and aiming towards that goal of pushing towards a group qualification, is it a simple case of just you can get a bunch of five individuals and form a team? Or is it really a case of you've got to somehow work out who would be best dynamic? Because, I mean, I guess the overall question with that, the long-winded way of getting to it is what are the key differences between, say, I'm an individual athlete in rhythmic gymnastics and I'm a group athlete in rhythmic gymnastics?
ALANNAH MATHEWS: We were all individual athletes at one stage, but there was a point for all of us where we realised that joining group is going to give us a better chance at representing Australia at the Olympics, because trying to make it as an individual is pretty tough because they only take one person and there's pretty big competition in Australia. But for group, there's a lot less competition. And you get to take five girls to the Olympics. How good is that? And I think that after we've been this year for Tokyo, I think that in the following years, people are going to start putting their heads together and going, group is the future for this sport in Australia. So I hope that we've kind of made that statement.
EMILY ABBOT: And what's so cool is to be the first group in history. It's taken my coach, who's taken three people to the Olympics as individuals, it's taken her 25 years to get a group to the Olympic Games. How hard it has been to try and get a group of five girls over the age of 16 to commit six days a week, twice a day, to achieving a dream. But even having those people, it's been that hard to try and qualify as someone. So that makes it even more special to me as the first ever group in history because it was such a trial to get someone there, if that makes sense. That's what makes it more special.
BEN WATERWORTH: And with only 14 teams in the group at the Olympics, what's the qualification process like? And is this just a designated regional zone? Was this the first time that there was a designated regional zone for Australia? And how does that work for Australia to qualify a group for the Olympics?
EMILY ABBOT: It sort of all began in... It began with you guys in Worlds 2018, didn't it, Lance? Because that's sort of when the qualification process started. So really, that started, and then I came into the team and basically every competition we did, you know, was being looked at. But we were supposed to... We qualified for the Pacific Rim Championships in 2020 in February, and we were supposed to go to New Zealand in April to do the Pacific Rim trial, which was to qualify the Oceania Wild Card for the Olympic group event. So unfortunately, COVID hit, and we couldn't attend that event, so that was cancelled. And then we were supposed to go in May of this year to China for the Asian Games to qualify, try and get that qualification spot. But we couldn't get over there, and that event was cancelled as well. So our qualification, our final one was at the Continental Championships. We were at the National Championships in May, and we had to get a certain score. So it was a really high pressure event, and we just knew we had one chance to secure that spot. It was score or no score, that was whether you were going or not.
BEN WATERWORTH: And what's the score? Because I find that interesting, because obviously I know there's a lot of sports where, say, there's a qualifying target, like a time, say, in athletics or a distance in a field event. Whereas I could imagine sort of in a judging based sport that that maybe is a little bit more tricky, but obviously not. I mean, what's kind of the score that you know you have to get to qualify for the Olympics?
EMILY ABBOT: We had to get two 17s. So, yeah, two scores of 17s. And we finished the first apparatus. I think we got a 26-point something. So we knew we were in a good way leading into the second routine. So at the end of the second routine, we kind of, I knew we'd just done enough to qualify. And so I started crying as I hit that final position. Like, there's just a photo of me. The music hadn't even finished. I just put my hands on top of my head, and I start crying on the competition floor in front of everyone. But no, so we knew the score. And yeah, that's why that event was so special because walking off that floor, you just knew you'd just done enough to go to the Olympics. You've been working for 15 years, and your team had been working so hard for years, day in, day out.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, and Alannah, was that similar for you? I mean, obviously as a captain, I mean, and you'd sort of been on that journey for a long time. And what was that moment like when you knew you guys were going to the Olympics?
ALANNAH MATHEWS: Yeah, that moment was really sensational. It was just like, yeah, I've explained it like this before, but massive weight was lifted from our shoulders. There were tears, there was happiness, there was all sorts of emotions that day. But yeah, it was incredible to know that we had made it.
BEN WATERWORTH: You both sort of mentioned a little bit about the age factor. I mean, obviously a lot of people think gymnastics, you're thinking of people, I guess, as what young as like 13, 14, all that kind of thing, particularly on the artistic side of things. And it's also a sport where I guess often you hit sort of your late teens, early 20s, and you're a veteran of the sport and you kind of obviously don't have a longevity of some other sports. I mean, it sounds like it's a little bit opposite in rhythmic. I think, Emily, you mentioned about being 16 and more. I mean, is there an age range where it's kind of a little bit different? And on that, is it a form of gymnastics where you can maybe stick around for a little bit longer? That when you get, I mean, you're both obviously in your early 20s, all of a sudden you're not going to get to 25 and you're considered well and truly a veteran at that point. Maybe, Emily, either of you chime in for that one.
EMILY ABBOT: Well, let me just put it this way, Ben. I'm 24 and I'm the oldest rhythmic gymnast in Australia.
BEN WATERWORTH: Wow, jeez. So I've got no chance and it's 34. So I shouldn't start right now.
EMILY ABBOT: I think individuals is really, really taxing on the body. I've had two hip surgeries and it took me one and a half years to come back from. So that's when I was 19. I had those two hip surgeries. So that was even getting old in the sport, but I decided my job wasn't done yet. But I have also decided now that my job's still not done at 24. I want to go to the 2024 Olympic Games. But I think the most important thing is making sure that you look after yourself and your body as much as possible. And the beauty about the group event is because my hips, you know, they're very interesting after the surgeries, especially. You don't need that extreme flexibility to do the group. You need heaps of skill and you need to be able to collaborate with white people and do crazy catches and be one with five other people. So that makes it a little bit easier for the longevity. For me, I know that for me, that the longevity will be longer being a group gymnast than an individual gymnast.
BEN WATERWORTH: 24 and a veteran. Alannah, you're 22.
ALANNAH MATHEWS: I'm 22, yeah.
BEN WATERWORTH: So how does that work for you then?
ALANNAH MATHEWS: Well, I could keep going if I wanted to. I think the sport is changing a little bit with age. Like it used to be younger, I swear. It used to be done it. Like 22, that's it. Like you're done. But now it's kind of 25. You could even go into your late 20s. Yeah, so I think that's cool.
BEN WATERWORTH: Is it a serious question? Is there such thing as male rhythmic gymnastics? Is it a thing?
ALANNAH MATHEWS: It's starting in European countries, yeah. When we were in Tokyo, actually, there was a male rhythmic gymnastics display before all of the RG competitions. And they were amazing, so skillful.
BEN WATERWORTH: Interesting, interesting. It's one of these sports which, I mean, I guess, on the long grand scheme of things, you think of a certain way, so you're thinking like, oh, are the men going to go out there in the nice sequence sort of tops and kind of go that sort of way. But I mean, in all seriousness, there's nothing stopping it, because I can imagine that would have been a spectacular thing to kind of see the men out there doing it. I mean, is it something that you feel just on a quick tangent that, who knows, by Brisbane, this could be the debut of male, you know, rhythmic gymnastics or something along those lines?
ALANNAH MATHEWS: I think that would be really cool. When we watch the display, it can actually be quite masculine, like the sport. Yeah. There's a lot of skill involved in it, and they are incredible.
BEN WATERWORTH: So you're saying there's a chance for me, Alannah. Again, I start training. I'd be 45 by the time Brisbane's around. I mean, what was it? Oxana in the artistic. She was in her 40s, wasn't she? So I mean, you know, like it's spring chicken. I'm still trying to work out all these ways of getting into the Olympics. Andrew Hoy is my go-to now. He was 62 and he just won two Olympic medals. So I've got time. You do? I've got plenty of time to try and do it. I'd love to get maybe the briefest, simplest explanation of how a routine works, how you're out there scoring. Because again, from me, the armchair critic who knows nothing about the sport, I'm seeing you in amazing costumes, doing great techniques and routines. You throw on balls, you throw on hoops, you got ribbons, you got all these kind of great apparatus. But if I'm a judge, how am I scoring you? How are you getting points by doing great things with these apparatus?
EMILY ABBOT: So basically, we have two routines. So one has five balls, and the other one has two sets of clubs and three hoops. So basically, you build up the scores in a routine through the difficulty. So say you have collaborations, so that's where you all collaborate, you do cool things. The higher the difficulty score is by what you add into it. So say if you door throw, you rotate, and then someone lifts you in the air and you catch it with your legs out of sight in the rotation, you can build up the difficulty. So in rhythmic gymnastics at the moment, there is no endpoint for the difficulty. So you can chuck as many things as you want in that routine to build the difficulty. You just need to execute it. And say if you drop, then you get deducted. And if it goes out the area, then you get deducted even more. And you even get deducted for things like your leotard not fitting properly and that sort of thing. So there's a lot of things. And artistry, there's so many things that go into a composition. And goodness gracious, if you go 0.01 seconds over that music, you get deducted for that as well. So there's lots of things that go into a score.
BEN WATERWORTH: It's fascinating the whole thing around the leotard and sort of not fitting, because that's something that is not really in your control in the middle of a routine. Like if all of a sudden something breaks or something happens on that. I mean, how much, I'll ask about the routine in a second, but how much work goes into the leotard then to ensure that everything, I guess, is perfectly in place so that all of a sudden you're not getting a deduction from it?
ALANNAH MATHEWS: We get our leotards designed and made by professional people. The leotards that we wore at the Olympics, where were they from, Anne?
EMILY ABBOT: I'm pretty sure they were from Russia.
ALANNAH MATHEWS: Yeah, they're all over it. They know exactly how to do it to make sure it fits properly and isn't going to rip on you or anything like that.
BEN WATERWORTH: And are you allowed to design? Like in terms of once they get them, like, can you say, okay, I want to, this bit of here, like our team costume is going to look like this to represent this? I mean, how much sort of effort in the costume design department is there?
ALANNAH MATHEWS: We get a lot of saying that we, I think for the process, the leotard design process this year, we sent in our music and they came back with a few designs and we picked which one we liked. Then we send in our body measurements. They take progress photos when they're making the leotards and then they get shipped to us. So, yeah.
EMILY ABBOT: And there's an emotional process that goes on, Ben, because leotards are very expensive. So we do most of the diamounting ourselves. So diamounting thousands of extra diamounties onto that leotard. I'm not a very creative thumb, so that's quite emotional. But there's also been lots of uproar sort of thing about our leotards in the media because of, I don't know, body image and that sort of thing. So we've been getting lots of comments about, you know, saying, you know, we can't be show girls and like to let the sport speak for ourselves. But when I put on that leotard, we've got a leotard underneath that leotard. I feel totally secure and, you know, it's something we've gone through the design process of, and it's a part of our performance. Like, I don't think it detracts from the sport at all. So no, it's interesting.
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, it's interesting just on that because obviously a lot of commentary, I think it was, was it the German artistic team had sort of gone for more of a body suit, wasn't it? Sort of that. And sort of they, you know, made a statement with that. But I mean, is that, is that something that is changing in the sport or something that is a discussion amongst gymnasts that is kind of taken seriously? Or is it a case of that? It is the media kind of making it a little bit more of a thing and that, you know, the people who are following and watching Rhythmic Gymnastics aren't watching it for the reasons that maybe the media are implying that people are watching it for.
EMILY ABBOT: Well, I never watched Rhythmic Gymnastics and think, oh, that's a tacky leotard. But I think that's because I've been brought up competing in it. I just see it as a part of the performance. But I don't have a problem with competing in leotards. But if someone does, you know, feel uncomfortable in a leotard, unitards have always been a part of Rhythmic Gymnastics since like the 19, from the very beginning stages of the sport. So you can always choose what you feel more comfortable in as well.
BEN WATERWORTH: And it is in terms of the feeling, the comfortable thing, like is there much of a performance difference that if you are, are you wearing like the unitard? Like, I mean, is it easier to kind of wear the leotards like you're wearing right now in terms of how you're able to move and kind of do the performances, or is there sort of not much of a difference when it comes to both of them?
ALANNAH MATHEWS: With the, like performance wise, there's some parts of the routine maybe where you need to use your legs to like hold the apparatus, say the ball behind your knee. And if you're wearing a unitard, that might not be possible. So I guess that kind of like comes into play when you're thinking about what leotard you want to wear. But just like fashion changes, leotard fashion changes a lot as well. But unitards are one of the things that have always kind of stuck around. So that's always an option.
BEN WATERWORTH: Emily, you mentioned the music choice. Where does it come down to choosing a piece of music? And are there rules? Because I know obviously in some sport I think was figure skating changed it recently, how you used to not be able to have lyrics, but now you can. I mean, is that a similar thing in rhythmic where you maybe can only have instrumentals? I mean, I think one of the commentaries we did, one of the gymnasts was doing it to Smooth Criminal by Michael Jackson. So therefore there were lyrics. So I mean, I don't know if that's the case in group or how that works.
EMILY ABBOT: Well, it's actually funny because in 2013, that's when lyrics were sort of introduced into the sport. So I thought it was so strange. I never wanted to use music with lyrics. And then I started in 2015. So that's sort of how the sport progressed. But going back to the beginnings of the sport, gymnasts did routines to piano. So there was a piano player right next to the floor playing music. So it always changes. So actually next year, because we're only allowed right now to have one piece with music, but next year you can have both pieces with music. So that's sort of how the sport evolves to keep it interesting. The rules of the sport change every four years in the code to make it more interesting and for the Olympic to show the sport at the Olympics the way that everyone sort of wants to see it and to make it more exciting.
BEN WATERWORTH: And how does that work then? I mean, Alannah, as a captain, are you sort of the final say like, no, we are not doing Smooth Criminal, we are doing Taylor Swift. We are doing this. I mean, but how does that sort of come up? And is it more about this suits our routine more? Or is it just like, hell, I want Beyonce at the Olympics? You know, like it kind of comes down to that.
ALANNAH MATHEWS: I don't always have the final say. I think our coach has a final say. I definitely express my opinion. Like there were definitely some pieces of music that were brought forward that I wasn't particularly keen on.
BEN WATERWORTH: Oh, go on, elaborate, elaborate what pieces?
ALANNAH MATHEWS: Bitter, Bitter Ricky Lee.
BEN WATERWORTH: Wow, Ricky Lee at the Olympics.
EMILY ABBOT: Bitter Ricky Lee, but just not for gymnastics.
BEN WATERWORTH: Oh, come on, there's got to be video footage of this. Ricky Lee's listening to this, getting his ass nearly an Olympian basically.
EMILY ABBOT: He's got his ass nearly like Black Betty.
ALANNAH MATHEWS: Oh yeah, Black Betty was one of them. Black Betty was definitely one of them, but the coach wasn't the biggest fan of that. It was a bit too like rocky, which is fair enough.
BEN WATERWORTH: What was the piece then that you did go for the Olympics?
ALANNAH MATHEWS: Our ball music was a really fun piece. It was from Pitch Perfect. It's called, is it Tribe? Tribe On Top? It's kind of like, yeah, it's kind of like a women empowerment type of song, which is cool. And our mixed routine was a bit more, it was an instrumental piece, so no lyrics, and it's kind of like epic music. Is that how you describe it? More dramatic, yeah.
BEN WATERWORTH: Kind of like a trailer epic music that you have on YouTube. And I mean, how sick of the songs do you get though? Because I can imagine that in the space of a training, you guys are training 30 odd hours a week. I'm sure you hear those songs a lot. Do you get to a point where you're like, I'm never watching Pitch Perfect again after this?
EMILY ABBOT: For some reason, I've never got sick of the music. The only time I've got sick of the music, because fun little thing, I got a concussion at the end of 2019, and a part of my rehab program was to sit on a bike for 40 minutes, peddle my feet, listen to the gymnastics music in my ears and visualise. And there's not so much of that 40 minutes you can be visualising your music. So that's the only time that I really could not listen to anymore. But in terms of training and visualising at home, not on the bike for 40 minutes, I've never got sick of the music. I think we connect strong with it. And because we're doing so many tricky things in that routine, and it's changing each day, like the routine evolves every single day you're out training, you don't get sick of it.
BEN WATERWORTH: I love this, like, not loving that you got concussion, Emily, and that's not what I'm trying to say, but we recently spoke to a fencer who mentioned about getting concussion. There's some sports I think of where I'm thinking, okay, concussion is not a part of that sport, you're pretty safe. But fencing, concussion, rhythmic gymnastics, concussion. So concussion is not immune to all these different... How do you get concussion? I have to ask him, how do you get concussion in rhythmic gymnastics?
EMILY ABBOT: We were doing a routine and there's something called a make, so that's a routine where you have no drops and we were determined for the makes. And I forward rolled into the floor, but I didn't tuck my head under, so I sort of just like... Ouch... . granted into the floor and then I woke up and the music was still going. I was like, oh, we're getting a make, we're getting a make. So I kept going. I went to training again that night. I went to the service station and I knew, I knew I had a concussion and I'm a psychology student and I was just in denial and I couldn't speak properly. Like I went to the service station to fill up my petrol and I was trying to say something and I couldn't get it out. I was just absolutely... One of my teammates had to drive me to the hospital that night. And the thing was we had an Olympic qualification event one and a half weeks later and I couldn't do it because of it. And seriously, out of all the injuries I've had, the concussion has been the hardest one to overcome. Like, it's taken me... I still get headaches, you know, almost two years later, but it's been the hardest one to overcome. So that's been interesting. But the moral of the story is tuck your head under in a forward roll.
BEN WATERWORTH: Noted, noted. How do you describe that, Alannah, to your coach if she's not there or kind of like as a captain, like, how on earth does one of my teammates get a concussion?
ALANNAH MATHEWS: Well, the coach was lucky enough to witness the event. So she saw what went on. But we have a reserve athlete who I haven't mentioned yet, but her name's Alex. She's from Sydney. And she was a part of the trialing process to select the five girls. But yeah, she's been a sensational part of the team. She is always there when we needed her. So, for example, when Emily got concussed, we got an Olympic trial in a week. She steps in and does a beautiful job. So yeah, we were pretty lucky with that.
EMILY ABBOT: We wouldn't be here without her. She's been absolutely incredible.
BEN WATERWORTH: And just on the topic, while you're mentioning sort of your teammates, give a shout out to your other three teammates too, who obviously aren't on the line. You know, maybe just, you know, say hello, and I guess explain why they're all so awesome at the same time as well.
ALANNAH MATHEWS: We've got Lexi, we've got Felicity, and we've got Hamaka, three amazing girls. They're, yeah, incredible. I don't know why they're not here, but we'll have to get them on next time.
BEN WATERWORTH: Gosh, what can I say? This is not good enough. You know, expecting a full team here today on the show, and just, too busy.
ALANNAH MATHEWS: They're probably sleeping in, enjoying quarantine too much.
BEN WATERWORTH: Good times, right?
EMILY ABBOT: We can't forget about our amazing coach, Gina, as well. She's just a superstar. We wouldn't have been here without her. She's like our second mother.
BEN WATERWORTH: And if anyone deserves a sleep in, it's Gina. She needs a sleep in, right? Yeah, dealing with all you lot over the last few years. Come on with that. Emily, you mentioned before about the routine constantly evolving and everything. Do you have a set point where you lock that routine in because you know that that's what you're going to be competing at the Olympics, or is it the one that you qualify with and then you adapt along the way? How long are you working on that routine before you get to the Olympics?
EMILY ABBOT: Well, because it's a group of five people on the floor, it's not really like an individual routine where the choreography is pretty set early on. Of course, there's always changes, but you've got a group of five girls, you've got doing heaps of intricate things with apparatus, and you've got to evolve the routines because everyone else in the world is evolving their routines and making them harder and increasing their difficulty. So basically, every day we made a change in that routine. Up until, I say, a week before the Olympics, we were like, nope, no more changes. We've got to just make sure that we set in stone what we're doing, so that when we hit that floor, that we've got a concrete routine. But even in the routine at the Olympics, we were changing and adapting to things on the floor because you just don't know what will happen in a competition. So always adapting, always evolving.
BEN WATERWORTH: I'd also love to, I always love to find out from athletes on the show the training regiments for their individual sports outside of the obvious ones when you're practising the routine. I'll start maybe with you, Alannah, like what's an average gym day for you when you're going there? I mean, kind of what's the key focus when it comes to that physical aspect that you have to work on when you're training your body?
ALANNAH MATHEWS: So we're in the gym for about five or five and a half hours a day on Monday to Saturday, then Sundays we get off. But at the start of the training session, we do what's called conditioning, where it's like a bit of cardio strength, like working on your abs, you know, that type of stuff. And then after that, it's either you do some skills, so practise your balance pivots and leaps, which are like our three difficulty criteria in the sport. And then we jump straight into routines, which is the majority of the training session, because essentially that's what you do on the big day.
BEN WATERWORTH: I like the abs section. You're working on the rig, basically.
ALANNAH MATHEWS: Yeah, you've got to work on the rig.
BEN WATERWORTH: You've all got six packs, basically, just working that way. Emily, I mean, on that, I mean, I'll ask it to both of you, not just Emily, but I mean, do you have your favourites and your least favourites? I mean, is there such a thing as a leg day, where you're like, oh, fuck this, I'm not doing leg day, or you just kind of, you know, leg day is the best day. I mean, do you have your favourite?
EMILY ABBOT: We have a ballet day.
BEN WATERWORTH: A ballet day, alright. Much better than leg day.
EMILY ABBOT: We have an elastic band day. We have a gym day. We have all different days. We keep it interesting every day. And I think that's been the secret to not getting bored of something at training as well, is that you make sure that warm up's all, you know, fun, different, and working on all different areas on the body. But outside of gymnastics as well, so I go to the gym a few days a week as well. Alannah's a Pilates instructor, and she does a lot of Pilates outside. We all do stuff outside of gymnastics as well to make sure that our body's in tip-top shape. And that's also going to like appointments and that sort of thing. And we also work in our spare time because we're fully self-funded athletes, so we've got to make sure that we can afford things. So that's what you have to do. You have to work as well in your spare time.
BEN WATERWORTH: Which I can imagine... I always find it fascinating, you know, talking to athletes who obviously have to work, because that's a great conversation to have. I can imagine going to your boss and going like, oh, hi, can I have a couple of weeks off in July? Oh yeah, what are you up to? Oh, just go on to the Olympics. I mean, what's that like when you get to kind of, you know, have that conversation and kind of, you know, be a bit proud of like, yeah, well, I'm not just, you know, going down to the Gold Coast for the weekend. I'm actually, you know, doing something a little bit more significant.
ALANNAH MATHEWS: Yeah, it's so cool to be able to say that. It's like you're not just flaky and just trying to get some time off of work. You're doing it for something as cool as going to the Olympics. And the bosses are normally very understanding and super excited for you, so yeah.
BEN WATERWORTH: I'd hate to say if they weren't, but also, oh, we can't spare you. Sorry, we're very busy in July.
ALANNAH MATHEWS: Sorry, you're fired.
BEN WATERWORTH: I guess you'd risk your job for that, maybe. Go to the Olympics versus your job. You don't have to answer that. Your bosses might be listening. It's all right. One thing I love about Rhythmic Gymnastics, too, is I guess it's the spread of countries that you kind of see doing well. One thing we found out during our coverage of Tokyo, we sort of got the conversation of America being so good at everything. It's like, oh, America win every single sport. And we're like, surely there are sports that America have never meddled in at the Olympic Games. And one of the five sports they had never meddled in in the history of the Summer Olympics was Rhythmic Gymnastics. And it's weird because I think of gymnastics, I think of America. You know, you think of kind of them as a strong country. So what is, I guess, the field like when it comes to Rhythmic Gymnastics? I mean, outside of, you know, the powerhouses, you know, the rushes, obviously Bulgaria got the gold in your event there. I mean, is there kind of a more of a diverse spread where other countries that maybe you don't associate with gymnastics are able to pick up medals at international competitions?
EMILY ABBOT: This year at the Olympics was sort of the exception to what's been for basically ever. So the Russians weren't first and second on the podium. So normally in individuals, they're one and two on the podium for many years. This year was the first year that a Russian wasn't first on the podium. And I don't know how many Olympics and that's the same with group. So it was very cool to see, you know, Italy and Bulgaria and who else? Oh, gosh, I've had a mental blank. Belarus?
BEN WATERWORTH: We're in the individual?
EMILY ABBOT: All the European countries are so strong. And that's been the really cool thing about this Olympic cycle is it was like a big fight for that first, second, third position. So it was really cool to see that happen. But yeah, European countries are more dominant in the sport. We went to a Belarusian training camp at the end of 2019. And, you know, it's like eight hours a day, just rhythmic gymnastics. So it's a totally different world. They're all professional athletes. They all get paid to do it. They get paid to travel, to train and that sort of thing. It's a whole different world to what we are exposed to. So that's why that training camp was a real eye opener and so important for us in our qualification process.
BEN WATERWORTH: They don't have to ask the boss for two weeks off in July. That is their job.
ALANNAH MATHEWS: Rhythmic Gymnastics over there is kind of what football is here.
BEN WATERWORTH: And what's it like then going to a country like that to experience that? I mean, is that something where you're like, wow, this is a dream, I want to move to Belarus? Or is it kind of more of a case of like, wow, okay, maybe I'm a bit glad it's sort of not, you know, you're not walking down the street getting recognised. Like, oh my God, it's Alannah Mathews and Emily Abbot, our national heroes.
ALANNAH MATHEWS: I think the way to describe it would be really eye-opening. Like, you just kind of get to understand what it takes to win medals at the Olympics and how far Australia still has to go, but like how well we're doing as well. So eventually, hopefully, we'll maybe in Brisbane, we'll be standing on the podium.
BEN WATERWORTH: Not maybe, it will be Brisbane, come on now. That's, you know, I mean, we're 100% in terms of at least trampoline gymnastics for medals. I mean, obviously, we try while it's winning back in Sydney, so next, you know, home Olympics, we can add to the gymnastics medal tally. That's kind of what we're hoping to see. I always love to hear about the Olympic experiences outside of competing. You know, obviously, Emily, you said sort of it had been a dream to get there. Alannah, kind of that sort of the end goal from your journey. But take us through what it was like to kind of walk into the village and experience everything, because obviously it was a bit of a different Olympics this time around in Tokyo. But were you able to sort of soak in everything, realise that you're an Olympian, kind of rub shoulders with other team members? I mean, I think, Emily, I saw you getting a selfie with Kate Campbell, you know, kind of like bumping out. I think you had Patty Mills in one of your photos as well, didn't you? So, I mean, you guys look like you're soaking up the whole Olympic lifestyle there in Tokyo.
EMILY ABBOT: I even got a photo with Dean Boxill, the number one.
BEN WATERWORTH: Oh, nice. Yes. Most energetic man in Australia.
EMILY ABBOT: Exactly. But no, for me, I didn't know what to expect sort of going in, because I knew it was going to be a very different Olympic Games. But I tell you what, it didn't feel any different for me at all. Like it just was the whole time I was there, I felt like I was in the best dream. I never wanted to leave and I never wanted to wake up. It was just magic. Like even because we couldn't really interact into our competition was over with other countries. So we sort of stayed in the Australia HQ. But you're like sitting next to, you know, Kate Campbell drinking a coffee or you're like in the lift. And I can tell you what, every single person on that Australian team, it was such a nice community. I had talked to so many amazing people. You'd just be in the lift taking your washing down and you'd be walking with another athlete to take your washing to the washing centre. And you'd have the best chats. But I can't even explain how amazing the Japanese people were as well. They went above and beyond. They're just so beautiful. And, you know, I got my nails done and I got my haircut for free after my competition. But I felt so sad leaving. As soon as I sat on that bus, a sort of reality was hitting and I was leaving somewhere that had been so magical. And my aim was to soak up that experience. I don't know if you've seen any videos of me at the Olympics, but I'm on the closing ceremony live broadcast for about a song.
BEN WATERWORTH: I was going to ask you about that. Don't worry.
EMILY ABBOT: I was moving from like dancing, moving my booty from side to side, but I just had an absolute bull. And yeah, I just can't explain how magical it was.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, no, don't worry. The closing ceremony was going to come up because that got some attention, I think. I mean, in all seriousness, it was great kind of watching the closing ceremony and just seeing every member of the Australian team having fun. And it was obviously a unique closing ceremony, but closing ceremonies are kind of all about the fun. And I can imagine, you obviously didn't get to the opening, but getting the chance to do the closing would have been at least a fun experience. Alannah, do you have similar memories and experiences through your time there?
ALANNAH MATHEWS: Yeah, just bouncing off of Emily, you had to look up and pinch yourself every five seconds just to make sure you took it all in, because those nine days just go so fast and you want to make sure you take in every single moment of it, because it is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and you just got to make the most of it. It was just so cool to be at the Olympics with Australian athletes who are at the top of their game, like Kate Campbell, Patty Mills, and you're there with them on the same team as them, and the team-manship was incredible.
BEN WATERWORTH: And the vibe too, I can imagine, amongst the team, obviously being quite a successful games, 17 gold and 46 medals. I can imagine just it's a great atmosphere to be around there, given how well Australia actually did during the Olympics.
ALANNAH MATHEWS: Yeah, we got there just as the swimming had finished, and that was a really successful part of Australia at the Olympic Games. So they were all on top of the world, and yeah, it was really cool to see them celebrate.
BEN WATERWORTH: I've got to ask about the competition side of things. So do you go in sort of, what sort of goals do you set yourself in? Is it a case of like, let's make top eight, let's make the finals, is it, let's get a certain score? I mean, kind of going in as athletes, what was the target competing at the Olympics?
ALANNAH MATHEWS: Our goal was to get two makes of both of our routines, which is like Emily explained before, two routines with no drops. We didn't really have a placing goal because we are the start of Australia, Australia, of representing Australian group, sorry, at the Olympics. So yeah, we didn't have a placing goal and yeah, we just wanted to get those two makes. But unfortunately, on the day, it wasn't our best performance, but that's what sport is sometimes, you know? So.
BEN WATERWORTH: Comes down to that. And I mean, even though you don't sort of make that, and maybe you don't have the best performance, and both of you can sort of talk from your perspectives, but reflecting now that it's been a couple of weeks, I mean, can you at least sort of look back and go, okay, maybe we didn't perform the best of our day, but we did do, you know, we worked so hard on this, we got to that ultimate stage and you can kind of reflect and, you know, think about the history that you were able to make by at least, you know, going there and able to have that opportunity to compete.
ALANNAH MATHEWS: Yeah, sorry, you go, Em.
EMILY ABBOT: Before the competition, I talked to Dominic Clark. He's the trampolining male gymnast from Australia, and he made the finals and he's absolutely incredible athlete and an amazing, beautiful person. And I was talking to him and I said, what is your advice? Like, how do I hit that Olympic stage? And he goes, just go out there and enjoy it and soak up that performance. So I wanted to go on that stage, and that's what I did. I just made sure I enjoyed every single moment. I didn't overthink anything. I just let my body do what it had been working so hard for 15 years to do. And I genuinely had a ball, that whole ball again, yes.
BEN WATERWORTH: Geez, you're on fire. You gotta add clubs now, like hoops in there. Come on, Emily, you've ticked balls off already.
EMILY ABBOT: It was just incredible, I had the best time of my life. I've never felt like that competing. It was magical, like electricity goes through your body as soon as you step onto that floor. But even when things were going wrong, like, you know, you just gotta pull things up. I've never felt like that. And I knew despite there was no crowd, it felt like there was a big crowd. And I just knew there was so many people back at home and over the world watching and supporting us. So it just felt like a magical experience. I've used magical a lot, but that's how I can explain my whole experience. It was just magic.
BEN WATERWORTH: Would you agree, Alannah? Magic, that's the word of the day?
ALANNAH MATHEWS: Yeah, it was magic. Obviously on the day, I think we're all pretty devastated that we didn't do our clean routines that we wanted to do. And the day didn't go as we imagined, as we had dreamed about. But after, it took me a few days to kind of step back. And like you were saying before, you gotta think about the big picture. Like people aren't gonna remember us at the Olympics for the little mistakes that we had, but for being the first group in Australia to go to the Olympic Games. So you just kind of have to step back and think about that.
BEN WATERWORTH: And is it a case of too, sort of Emily you're mentioning about people watching back home, but the hope that maybe you've got a young girl watching or a couple of young girls watching who are inspired to see what you're doing out there and that will lead them to maybe competing. In Brisbane, 2032, a home Olympics, you know, sort of, if you can inspire a couple of people out there to take up the sport and continue on the legacy that hopefully you're starting for group rhythmic gymnastics in Australia, that that's what you can achieve as well.
EMILY ABBOT: Yeah, I got a little DM on Instagram saying that their daughter watched us perform and then that she's starting rhythmic gymnastics because of it. And we even did it really cute. Lance and I have been doing little zoom calls with schools in New South Wales, little school in New South Wales, and you know, answering questions. And it's been so beautiful. And a little boy unmuted himself yesterday during it. And he said, I just wanted to say that you're amazing and I absolutely loved watching you. And it was just this little year four boy that watched our performance. And you sort of forget that you got little people that you were once that little person that was looking up to Olympians and so inspired. And you know, this little boy just unmuted himself in front of, you know, 50 other people on this zoom call and said that. So, you know, it's cool to be inspiring little people as well.
BEN WATERWORTH: It's not just little people. Can I just say, again, God, I'll just name age dropped myself 34. I'm still looking up to Olympians because I'm still hoping to be one one day. So it's just kind of like, hey, you know, look at this. I can, you know, I don't ever want to get one of the, you know, 13 year old skateboarders on the show because then I'll be like, wow, okay. I really haven't achieved anything in my life. But yeah, it's that I can imagine just sort of perks of, perks of the job, I guess, because, you know, you're obviously both in quarantine right now. And, you know, in a few days and when you're out, you'll sort of experience it a little bit more. But you can never take away the fact that you're both Olympians now. That will be with you for life. So it's something that you can take to a next level, be it at your, you know, your workplace around the water cooler. Hey, what did you get up to last month? I just went to the Olympics. What about you? Oh, cool. You're in quarantine versus, yeah, going to schools and everything. So do you do you have ideas of other ways that you can sort of take that out there to inspire sort of other younger people to continue a journey of gymnastics potentially?
ALANNAH MATHEWS: It's very cool. Like being an Olympian is a part of our life now, and it will always be a part of our life. I think we both have intentions of staying connected with the sport and being involved. I kind of made a goal to myself, and I hope Emily has the same one that every group that goes to the Olympics from here forward, we will have something to do with that group, whether it be coming into training sessions, judging or coaching a little bit. I want to still be a part of that.
BEN WATERWORTH: Similar, Emily, for yourself as well?
EMILY ABBOT: Yeah, well, I want to go to the next Olympics. That's my goal. I want to... The fire's not out yet. I'm not ready to give it in. I reckon Australia can do some pretty cool things, and I want to be a part of that as well. So we've already done... We were the first group ever to go to the Olympics, Rhythmic Gymnastics. It took so much to get there, and I reckon that more incredible things can happen in the sports, and I want to be involved in that over the next few years as an athlete.
BEN WATERWORTH: Emily's mentioned a couple of times about Paris, Alannah. I haven't heard you mention it at the moment. Is sort of Paris not for you? You're kind of... You're moving on or what's happening?
ALANNAH MATHEWS: I'm being strategically quiet on that one, Ben.
BEN WATERWORTH: All the athletes... I found this. I shouldn't be asking these athletes, you know, in quarantine and kind of that, because they're just like, yeah, don't ask me that. Like it's, you know, too soon. I've just gotten back. I'm eating my crap breakfast. Come on. Like, you know, this isn't a- Yeah, too soon. Too soon.
EMILY ABBOT: It's my sponge eggs.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, your sponge eggs. Exactly, sponge eggs. Now a couple of quick questions just before we get to our final set. Emily, you mentioned sort of talking to Dominic there in terms of trampoline athletes. Is there much comradery between the disciplines in gymnastics? So, I mean, with rhythmic, are you associating with the trampoline guys, the artistic guys? Like, I mean, is it very separate or are you sort of still kind of, you know, associating with each other? I mean, are you allowed, like, is it frowned upon? Like, oh, the rhythmic don't associate with the artistic. Like, no, like, they're on one side of the locker room and you're on the other and we don't associate.
EMILY ABBOT: What was really cool about this year is I'd never really associated with the other athletes until this year. So before we went to the Olympics, we had to go to a bubble in Canberra for two weeks. And that's where the male artistic gymnastics high-performance centre is. So for basically, for two and a half weeks, we were in the same centre as the boys. And it was really cool to spend that time with them because we see them at events, and we see them on social media and that sort of thing, but we'd never really got to know them as people. And they have the same goals as us, and they're all really good guys. And I'd never talked to the trampolinas until I went to the Olympics and was in the village with them. And I can genuinely say that Dom is the most beautiful boy and Jess is absolutely stunning girl, and I'd never talked to them before. So I hope going forward that we can be more of a community because it's really special to have those relationships with people outside of your small sport, if that makes sense.
BEN WATERWORTH: Can you do that as Captain Alannah to kind of make that a thing that kind of, you know, like the clicks are gonna basically come together now in the gymnastics lunchroom, essentially?
ALANNAH MATHEWS: Yeah, that would be very cool, especially after having that pre-Olympic experience like Emily explained before this year. It was very cool. And I wish that there was more connection with all the gym sports in Australia. And that's something that would be cool moving forward if that was still a thing. I think it's just kind of hard because we're all kind of spread out. So yeah, I think the only thing that brings us all together is the national championship. So maybe in future years, we can do something to like bring us together a bit more.
BEN WATERWORTH: I love just finding out kind of these sort of, I don't say rivalries, that's not the correct word, but I guess the different disciplines in sport, because, yeah, we mentioned we talked to Alicia and Jordan Wood in canoeing, you know, but flat water and slalom are very separate. Jess Fox isn't really going to be doing the same things as Jordan and Lisa. And then on the winter side of things, you know, we've talked to some biathletes and you kind of think, well, biathlon is just cross-country skiing with shooting, so probably they're all associated and it's not really the same thing, like they're kind of very different. So yeah, bring all the sports together, like kind of, you know, we don't need all this rivalry and all this kind of fighting and sort of stuff. One thing I'd love to know too, we mentioned sort of at the top of the interview about sort of how close you all are as teammates, sort of this almost a sisterhood, you're all sisters and everything along those lines. Like when it comes to like the sort of the bonding outside of the competing, I mean, I can imagine that that's very important just for that comradery, that chemistry between you all. But what are the go-to activities? Like are you all just kind of hitting the town on a weekend, getting up to mischief? I mean, are you hanging around playing video game? I mean, I don't know. Like what are the team bonding exercises that really lead you to becoming a group of sisters, essentially?
ALANNAH MATHEWS: We do definitely try to hang out outside of gymnastics because I think that's really important. You have to know each other outside of the training hall because when you're in the training centre, everything's super intense and just full on, and you need to have that time to kind of relax and just get to know each other as friends rather than training partners. So after morning trainings, we'll like go out for coffee with each other, go out for breakfast. We go to dinners to celebrate birthdays and stuff. Some of us go to festivals, concerts, you know, we're all pretty close. I've managed to get Emily to a club once.
EMILY ABBOT: Yeah, I was there from, I think it was 5.30 to 6.00 at night, and I got a soap.
ALANNAH MATHEWS: And that was enough.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, not on the clubbing scene.
ALANNAH MATHEWS: Which is fair enough, it's not for everyone, and that's fair enough. So we figure out things that everyone enjoys, which is cool.
BEN WATERWORTH: Okay, so Emily, if you're being dragged to a club, what are you dragging Alannah on, if maybe she doesn't, something that she's out of her comfort zone?
EMILY ABBOT: See, I wouldn't mind going to a club. I've sort of had the, I'm sort of very focused on gymnastics. So I made the rule that until after the Olympics, I'm not going clubbing and I'm not drinking alcohol. So I've sort of had those blinders on. So now that the Olympics are over, I can go to my, I know I'm 24. I've never gone to a club and I've never had a drink of alcohol, which may sound absolutely, yeah, I know it's a bit wild. That's sort of the way I've done gymnastics. And that's very, I think going forward in the sport, I need to know that I need to have a bit more of a life balance. So I'll do that. But Alannah and I, we love Australian music and we're very similar tastes in music. We're going, if it goes ahead, please COVID. Young Blood is a singer we love that's coming to Australia in December. So hopefully we can go to that. And that's perfect.
BEN WATERWORTH: I like this. I'm fearing the Queensland clubs the weekend after quarantine ends for you two. Like look out.
EMILY ABBOT: What's that?
ALANNAH MATHEWS: I think we've had some talks about going out in our Olympic blazer, but I thought about it last night and like, what if it gets ruined or something? I'm not sure if I want to do that.
BEN WATERWORTH: That's, I mean, I've got, I mean, like, it's not the same, but like you can get the sort of the makeshift merchandise from, you know, Assix to kind of do it. So you can kind of get the backup ones that aren't the official ones that you've got and maybe kind of make a makeshift thing and kind of add that way. So you're not losing the gleam of your, you know, the proper ones essentially. So there's an idea.
EMILY ABBOT: Don't forget that some of the Russian gymnasts have gone out to clubs in their leotards. So that's always-
BEN WATERWORTH: Wow, I'm telling you now, that will get you free drinks. Like right then and there. If I was at a bar and somebody's in a leotard, I'm buying you a drink. I don't care who you are. Like that is on the list there. Wow. So I always like to ask the medallists, like do they get free stuff with their medals? Like do they walk in with a medal around their neck? But I think we need to expand that question to just the uniform. Because again, yeah, like walk out, like I'm sure you, I know you didn't go to the opening ceremony, but I'm sure you still get given the opening ceremony attire. So like wear that, it's very formal, it's very proper. I mean, people would stand up and take notice of you. So yeah, do it.
EMILY ABBOT: Yeah, and I got some free tea the other day. And I got contacted for a free teeth whitening kit. So, you know, you never know.
BEN WATERWORTH: Do you take that as somewhat maybe offensive? Do you go like, what are you saying about my teeth?
EMILY ABBOT: They say they smile at the Olympics, but no, it's like kind of strange. That's what I'm struggling with a little bit at the moment, because I just feel like I've just been doing gymnastics for 15 years, doing what I love, and it's kind of strange to be, you know, we got so many beautiful messages from people, and it's been really overwhelming. And for someone to contact you and go, oh, we'd love to send you, you know, a package. I'm like, oh my goodness, what are you talking about? I'm just, you know, did what I've always wanted. I've never experienced something like that before. So it's been very strange.
BEN WATERWORTH: And then you get the very strange requests that are coming on this show. So I'm sorry about that. It can't all be gifts, sadly, with that one. Now we like to close off our interviews with a series of fun questions, sort of almost a get to know you style questionnaire. And this is based off a Team Canada questionnaire that they gave their athletes before both Rio and Pyeongchang. I always like to try and find an athlete from the same sport, just to kind of keep it on the same page. And unfortunately Team Canada has not interviewed any rhythmic gymnasts. So I kind of have to go back to when we interviewed Jaya Wallace, I got Rosie McLennan's profile up, the only gymnast that they have sort of on there. So we'll go with the trampolinist. It's, I mean, it's gymnastics. It's not the same, I'm not gonna say that, but it's under the same umbrella. We'll say it that way. And again, there may be homework involved here, which you may or may not wish to do when it comes to drawing. So we'll see how we go with that. The first one is draw a picture of yourself. So again, if you both, couple of days left, want to send it through, you're welcome to. There's always that keen look on the face of, no, I'm not doing that, Ben.
EMILY ABBOT: I think you'll be more shocked about my drawing ability than the thought of me drawing.
BEN WATERWORTH: Now you have to follow through with that, Emily. Now it's just a case of I need to see that. To each of you, I'll kind of separate you each and let you take it in turns. We'll start with you, Alannah, for this one. To you, who is the greatest Olympian of all time?
ALANNAH MATHEWS: Wow, that's a good question. And the first person that popped into my mind was Oksana, the 40, is she 46? Incredible woman. Like, I don't know how she's been able to do that, but I think it was just pure commitment, determination, you know, and that really shines through. I think she's so cool.
BEN WATERWORTH: Which for both of you again, Brisbane, perfect goal. And Alannah, you're not thinking about it, Paris, but I mean, don't think about Paris, think about Brisbane. It's simple, you know, it kind of works that way. Emily, who to you is the greatest Olympian of all time?
EMILY ABBOT: For me, Anna Mears is like the most amazing athlete of all time. She's so inspiring. I remember reading her book and just, I cried multiple times. And she came and spoke to us at school like 10 years ago, but oh, she's just incredible. She's so resilient. I think she embodies what an athlete should be.
BEN WATERWORTH: Great answer. I love Anna. So I'm glad we can get her answer for that one. Now, this is the question I'm scared of because you're going to make me feel really old, but we'll start with you, Emily, for this one. What was the first Olympics you ever remember watching?
EMILY ABBOT: The first Olympics I ever remember watching? Well, the first one I really enjoyed watching was the London 2012 Olympics. And that's because Ron Atkinson was in the ceremony in that very special moment. So that's the one, that's when I sort of started really watching the Olympics because I'd been involved in gymnastics and that was my goal. So that's the one that sticks out to me.
BEN WATERWORTH: Still to me, the best opening ceremony I've ever watched.
EMILY ABBOT: Best, best.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, I mean, and you know, we've had a common trend on this show that the last few opening ceremonies have been pretty crap. So, I mean, London kind of set the bar high. So there you go. Alannah, your first.
ALANNAH MATHEWS: Mine's the same, London 2012.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, you're making me feel old. The first Olympics I remember watching was 20 years before that. But anyway, we'll ignore that. We'll start with you Alannah for this one. If you could be any superhero, who would you be? Yeah. Wow.
ALANNAH MATHEWS: I'm just saying the first thing that comes to my mind. I'm sorry, I'm just speaking my mind.
BEN WATERWORTH: I would love to see the Hulk perform rhythmic gymnastics. That would be an image.
ALANNAH MATHEWS: Would be very cool.
BEN WATERWORTH: Don't know how the leotard rules would work with the Hulk.
ALANNAH MATHEWS: You'd have to have some extreme stretchy Lycra.
BEN WATERWORTH: There's some weird images going on in my head right now. Emily, can you top the Hulk?
EMILY ABBOT: You stumped me a little bit there and Larn's question stumped me even more. Wow, we Larns, that was good one. For some reason, the thing that popped into mind first was the Incredibles. So Elastigirl, just saying that.
ALANNAH MATHEWS: That's such a good answer.
EMILY ABBOT: That was the first thing that popped into my mind. And for some reason, that little baby popped in. I can't remember what the baby did, but I think of superheroes, I think of the Incredibles.
BEN WATERWORTH: It's actually, there's never been an answer before because they're superheroes. I mean, you get your standards, your DC and your Marvel characters, but yeah, no, that works. I like it. Okay, I'm trying to remember what the baby did too. The baby catch fire or something like that, or maybe, I don't know. It's been a while since the Incredibles. We'll start with you for this one, Emily. Your favourite ice cream flavour is?
EMILY ABBOT: See, I'm not really an ice cream girl. I know I'm more of a carb girl, but if I'm to choose an ice cream, oh, wow. Well, Gelatissimo do this magical, am I allowed to say brands?
BEN WATERWORTH: More than Merrier, we want to get sponsored eventually, so go for it.
EMILY ABBOT: They do a really good maple pancake flavour.
BEN WATERWORTH: So that's delicious. Yeah, sponsor us. Exactly. Go on, get on board with it, Alannah.
ALANNAH MATHEWS: The Connoisseur vanilla ice cream, the most top tier, top tier vanilla ice cream you will ever eat.
BEN WATERWORTH: I always get excited when people answer vanilla because it's got such a negative reputation, vanilla, because that's the go-to if you're plain and boring, right? But no, vanilla is the best flavour. It is amazing. And when you've got that really vanilla-y vanilla flavour, like connoisseur, it's amazing.
ALANNAH MATHEWS: Yeah, and the little black vanilla beans in it, that's how you know. That's the legit shit right there.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yep, absolutely. So you redeemed yourself from the whole cancer with that one. Good job. Now, I mean, it's an interesting question, this one, because we talked about music. So this might be slightly different. I don't know if you sort of have a pump-up song before you go out there and perform, or you kind of want to get into your routine music. But if you were a baseball player, what would your walk-up music be? Alannah, we'll start with you for this one.
ALANNAH MATHEWS: Oh, um, uh, Gimmie Gimmie by Abbot.
BEN WATERWORTH: Ah, love it. There you go. Wow, that's great. You know, the reason why I love that even more is to me, the greatest song of all time is Hung Up by Madonna, who samples Gimmie Gimmie in that song. So I like that great, great choice there.
EMILY ABBOT: Hey, Ben, can I just interrupt you for one moment?
BEN WATERWORTH: Always, always.
EMILY ABBOT: We both listen to Triple J and Like A Version, I think it was last week, they did that song by Madonna. And I sent it through to Lance because we were big ABBA girls, but it was a bomb like a version. And she goes, oh yes, we love ABBA. She didn't even know it was a Madonna song. She thought it was them putting a spin on ABBA.
ALANNAH MATHEWS: I'm more of an ABBA fan than a Madonna fan.
BEN WATERWORTH: Hey look, our co-host on the show, Colin, who couldn't join us today, he loves you saying those words because he gives me shit all the time for liking Madonna. So I own my Madonna love. I've got Die Another Day poster behind me. I'm owning my Madonna shit. So no, no, I'll be honest, when I first heard Unharp, I don't think I knew it was an ABBA song. So I mean, it kind of works all the way. Does that mean that like Mamma Mia is your favourite movies that you just kind of, you're loving watching it? Because I don't want to watch Pierce Brosnan sing, so I'm kind of scared to watch it.
ALANNAH MATHEWS: I think Mamma Mia is a great movie. Not my favourite, but I think it's great.
BEN WATERWORTH: Emily, your pump up song.
EMILY ABBOT: I've got a playlist that I actually play before a competition that pumps me up. So I have a couple of like Flashdance. We like a bit of Flashdance.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yes, yes.
EMILY ABBOT: There's Kung Fu fighting in there. And who can go wrong with a bit of Thunderstruck, ACD?
BEN WATERWORTH: Ah, yes. Can you perform to that? Can we see that in Paris, that you're doing your routine to Thunderstruck?
ALANNAH MATHEWS: We have had Thunderstruck as music a couple of years back. It was an old ribbon, five ribbon routine, and it was epic. And I wish we had that music this year, because it's like Australians. It would be cool to have that.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, the one that we watched was Smooth Criminal. That's better than Smooth Criminal. Come on.
ALANNAH MATHEWS: Yeah, 100%. The gymnast that represented Rio, Dani Prince, she had in excess for her ball music, and I thought that was sick.
BEN WATERWORTH: Nice. I like this kind of, has anyone ever done You're The Voice or Horses? Kind of standard pub fare? I don't know how that would work, but.
EMILY ABBOT: I reckon Horses, you know, 24.
BEN WATERWORTH: No, hang on, hang on, hang on. I'll top all of it right now. And you're welcome to use this. This is, you know, just credit me. Strawberry Kisses by Nikki Webster.
EMILY ABBOT: Oh, wow.
BEN WATERWORTH: Come on. Keep up the Olympic theme there, our Nikki, you know.
EMILY ABBOT: That was my first ever CD. That was my first ever CD. Hey, well there you go.
BEN WATERWORTH: It comes full circle, the Olympic dream, followed by performing to Nikki Webster. I mean, it just sells itself. Come on. That's perfect. Oh, I feel like we need to do karaoke right now. I should have some music already to play. The best nickname that you have ever been called, Emily.
EMILY ABBOT: Oh, no. The thing is, I'm not cool enough to be given a nickname. I'm the one that creates them for myself. So when I lived in South Australia, I was about 15 or 16, I thought I was fabulous. I called myself M Fab Ab, Emily Fabulous Abbot. So a couple of people still call me M Fab Abbot, but that's the extent of my coolness. That's my cool nickname, M Fab Abbot.
BEN WATERWORTH: M Fab Abbot, that's where we go. I like that. You haven't called me B Dubs in this interview.
EMILY ABBOT: B Dubs, that's your nickname, everyone.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, I like it. Do we have a land mat or something like that? I mean, kind of how does that work for you, Alannah?
ALANNAH MATHEWS: Nothing quite as cool as that. A lot of my friends call me Lani or Lans, but my mum calls me Lana Banana. I think that's pretty cool.
BEN WATERWORTH: Lana Banana.
ALANNAH MATHEWS: Yeah.
BEN WATERWORTH: I see it. If you weren't an athlete, what would you be, Alannah?
ALANNAH MATHEWS: If I wasn't an athlete, what would I be? I don't know the answer to this. Emily, can you take over?
EMILY ABBOT: I think I know what I want to be because I've been... Wow, let me restart that. I want to be a developmental psychologist. So I work with children with special needs in my spare time, and it's just the most beautiful job ever. It's not even a job. It's one of my most special things that I do outside of gymnastics. It's changed my life. It's so rewarding. So developmental psychologist for sure. Perfect.
BEN WATERWORTH: I like it. Important work, Alannah. Come on.
ALANNAH MATHEWS: I'd be a uni student. I've got it now. I'd be a uni student.
BEN WATERWORTH: You'd be a uni forever, just until you're like 60. Just stay at uni.
ALANNAH MATHEWS: Yeah, because I'd never be able to graduate.
BEN WATERWORTH: Too busy partying, going out in the weekend, you know? Taking your teammates out to clubs, all that kind of fun stuff. Your guilty pleasure snack is, Emily.
EMILY ABBOT: Oh, wow. This is kind of sad. And my mum even sent them to my room. It's father beans. I'm not father beans. There's these little chickpeas that are lime roasted with pepper. And I just love them. I know that's really sad, but that's my guilty pleasure.
BEN WATERWORTH: I was about to call you Hannibal Lecter there. Like you were gonna have some Chianti there with your father beans or something along those lines. But that's, I like that. That's sort of a-
EMILY ABBOT: That's very rhythmic gymnastics snack, isn't it?
BEN WATERWORTH: That's a good snack. I think of rhythmic gymnastics. I think of father beans. That's literally all I think about. I don't think about balls or clubs or ribbons. It's father beans. That's the association I've got there. Alannah, can you top that? I don't think you can top that.
ALANNAH MATHEWS: No, I don't think I can. Mine's pretty generic. It's just chocolate. Chocolate. I like chocolate.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, that works. You know, one's fancy, the other's normal. It's all good. Now, I always get confused with this question because I feel this is a very difficult question. It's all well and good to ask someone what their favourite song is, but your favourite song lyric. So, I mean, I don't know. Maybe you've got to go to, or this one's a tricky one. Let's start with you, Alannah, for this one. Do you have a favourite song lyric? Wow. Yeah, it's very specific, isn't it?
ALANNAH MATHEWS: I haven't really thought about this before. I don't know, Emily, have you got one?
EMILY ABBOT: Oh, I think Queen is like one of the best bands of all time. And, but I think Show Must Go On is one of the best songs of all time.
BEN WATERWORTH: Oh, yes.
EMILY ABBOT: It's like just the line, show must go on, because in life, it's a show and you just need to go on. That's all I can say.
BEN WATERWORTH: Oh, look at that, deep and meaningful. Wow, geez, Alannah.
ALANNAH MATHEWS: That's so good. I can't top it because all I'm hearing in my head right now is, gimme, gimme, gimme, your man of the midnight.
EMILY ABBOT: Mine was going right in on the horses.
BEN WATERWORTH: Wow, this is turning karaoke. This is what we need to do with our guests on this show, just kind of keep going along those ways. Now, this is probably a very valid question, because I can imagine you've probably done a lot of this in quarantine. The most recent TV show that you binge watched is, let's start with you, Emily, for this one.
EMILY ABBOT: I am the worst binge watcher in the whole entire world, Ben. The extent I go to binge watching is, I watch 10 minutes of, not even 10 minutes, a solid eight minutes of Schitt's Creek, and then I'm done for the day. I'm loving Schitt's Creek at the moment.
BEN WATERWORTH: Right, it's the shit, you might say?
EMILY ABBOT: It is, it's amazing, I love it.
BEN WATERWORTH: Okay, and just also correction there, you call me Ben, it's B-dubs, just to-
EMILY ABBOT: B-dubs.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, I want that to stick. Alannah, what was the last show you binge watched?
ALANNAH MATHEWS: The last one I binge watched was season two of Outer Banks.
BEN WATERWORTH: Ah, okay, right. Recommended for people who haven't watched it?
ALANNAH MATHEWS: Yeah, I definitely recommend, it's a very good TV show. I wasn't sure about it at the start, but once you get into it, you're hooked.
BEN WATERWORTH: Perfect, I like it. Growing up, who's your favourite sports team? Let's go with Alannah for this one.
ALANNAH MATHEWS: Favourite sports team growing up? Why can't I think of these things? Oh, okay, AFL, let's think AFL, because I used to live in Adelaide, and AFL is pretty big there, and I was a big pro supporter, so I'll go with that, Adelaide pros, yeah.
BEN WATERWORTH: I won't judge, I won't judge. Emily.
EMILY ABBOT: Following up from Alannah, I am from Adelaide. I am a big AFL girl, and crows all the way. Calm the crows.
BEN WATERWORTH: I was about to say, we're gonna have a showdown here, if all of a sudden you went to the power, but wow, okay, I'm a Carlton supporter, and Adelaide's not the worst team you can go for, so let's just, can I say that? I remember, look, this is gonna, again, age me. That was before both of you were born, I believe. Maybe, actually, no, Emily, you might have been around for this. When Adelaide won the back-to-back premierships, I remember vividly as a 10- and 11-year-old actually cheering for Adelaide on those days. So, I was an Adelaide crowd supporter for a day, twice in my life.
EMILY ABBOT: And you stole Eddie Cameron, you stole Eddie Betts from us.
BEN WATERWORTH: Hey, hey, you stole him from us first. Thank you. Come on, you took him from us first, and then we got him back. All right, let's, you stole Bryce Gibbs from us. So, yeah, he wasn't as good as Eddie. Yeah, oh, Eddie, what a man. Your favourite place in the world to compete? Let's start with you, Emily.
EMILY ABBOT: For me, well, obviously the Olympics was absolutely incredible, right? Oh, amazing. In terms of being able to go out and see the world sort of thing, it was Pesaro in Italy. It's this seaside town, and it was just absolutely beautiful. Was it the Adriatic Coast of Italy? I'm not quite sure, but the food was so fresh, and oh, it was just so beautiful. Cobblestone streets, colour buildings, amazing.
BEN WATERWORTH: Beautiful. Alannah.
ALANNAH MATHEWS: Yeah, so when we went to Tokyo this year, we didn't get the opportunity to go out and sightsee and everything like that. But for me, we've been to lots of places all over the world. Pesaro was definitely a highlight, and also Bulgaria. We've been there a few times, and yeah, I think that's a beautiful country as well. Really rich country.
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, I can imagine that's a great thing about Rhythmic Gymnastics, going back to what we're talking about, the countries that compete and sort of the diversity there. Like, I mean, you get to go, like, who's ever gonna be able to say, I went to Bulgaria? Like, it's kind of one of these countries that I can imagine you would probably never put on the bucket list. Have either of you competed in Tasmania? What's the Rhythmic Gymnastics scene like down here? Is it big? Do I have a chance?
EMILY ABBOT: Starting up B-Dubs, it's starting up.
BEN WATERWORTH: All right, gonna work on my leotards and all that sort of stuff. My sequencing. All right. Okay. Well, I'm gonna perform. If you don't perform to Strawberry Kisses, I'm stealing that. So I'm just saying that. The final question, and it's a deep one. I'm looking forward to your answers. Start with you, Alannah, for this one. Your biggest fear in life is?
ALANNAH MATHEWS: My biggest fear in life. This is more probably like a current answer. I'm sure it will change, but that's being an Olympian is like the only great thing that I'll ever do.
BEN WATERWORTH: Wow, deep. Wow, I don't even know how to respond to that.
ALANNAH MATHEWS: That's all right. You can just take it in.
BEN WATERWORTH: No, all right. I was soaking the atmosphere here with that one. So Emily, the pressure's on you now. Last answer of the interview, really. I mean, God, how do you top that?
EMILY ABBOT: That hit me, because for me, before the Olympics, oh my goodness, someone keeps calling me, and I did put it on, I bet it's my sister.
BEN WATERWORTH: You're popular. It's everybody wanting you to come clubbing.
EMILY ABBOT: I put it on silent, and it's all the way over there. We just need a moment.
BEN WATERWORTH: Call it your sister if you're listening. She's wondering why you were screening her calls that day. You did that random interview. There's a reason.
EMILY ABBOT: The second call I had in the interview, Charlotte, to you, sis, she's third in the world for bagpipes yesterday for a jig. She's a true star.
BEN WATERWORTH: Wow, third in the world for bagpipes. That's great.
EMILY ABBOT: She's a star. So no, before, now that that's over, go, Eden. For me, before the Olympics, my biggest fear was never not achieving my dream of making the Olympics. That was my biggest fear in life. But for me now, after the Olympics, of course I want to go to the next Olympics, but my biggest fear is not being happy. I think the most important thing in life is to live a happy and fulfilling life. Yeah.
BEN WATERWORTH: This is getting very deep. This is, wow, started off one way, here we are. I don't know how I'm gonna react now once I hit stopping this. I've got to reflect on my life all of a sudden. Before we let you both go, I mentioned sort of your social medias before and everything, but plug yourselves and plug anything you want to. Plug those sponsors, Emily. Get us some sponsors here on Off The Podium. But yeah, each of you, where can people sort of check you out, follow what you're up to, and kind of see the journey along the way, which is next for both of you guys.
ALANNAH MATHEWS: Thanks for listening to us. My Instagram is Lani Mathews, L-A-N-I-M-A-T-H-E-W-S. Only one T in the Mathews. I've had to say that many times throughout my life. My TikTok is the same, and my Facebook is just Alannah Mathews.
BEN WATERWORTH: Perfect. Emily, over to you now. The floor is yours.
EMILY ABBOT: The floor is mine. Well, my Instagram is Emily E. Abbot, A-B-B-O-T. I'm the same with Lans. I don't have two T's at the end of my name. I know that's a big shot for a lot of people. I majorly just use Instagram, and I've been showing what quarantine life is like, and you can see sort of the insides of the Olympic Village and all that fun stuff. So now I've been posting a little bit on there.
BEN WATERWORTH: Beautiful, beautiful. Everyone check them out. It's been an absolute pleasure to chat with both of you, learn a lot more about Rhythmic Gymnastics. I hope Jarrod is listening to this, so that Come Paris, all the ball and the ribbon and the club jokes can just stop, it's done. We've moved on from the rhythmic gymnastics talk on that side of things. But honestly, great chat to both of you. MFAB Ab, thank you very much. It's a pleasure to chat to you.
EMILY ABBOT: No, thanks. B Dubs, it's been so much fun, thank you.
BEN WATERWORTH: And Lana Banana, I'm gonna use that now for life. Maybe I'll put that in the promo for this episode, but I appreciate your time on the show as well.
ALANNAH MATHEWS: Thank you so much, Ben. This is awesome.
BEN WATERWORTH: Awesome. And a massive thanks there to both Emily and Alannah. Or should I say, MFAB Ab and Lana Banana. I think that's kind of how we always need to refer to them as moving forward. A lot of fun there. And really enjoy speaking to athletes from sports that we haven't actually had on the show. Obviously, our long-term goal on this program is to get an athlete from at least every single Olympic sport. And to get rhythmic gymnasts on the show, we are very much pleased for that. We've now spoken to Trampoline Gymnast, Rhythmic Gymnasts, we've got Artistic Gymnasts still to come. And I can tell you now, without spoiling who it is, we do have a guest lined up. So stay tuned for that, and you will get to learn a little bit more about the other discipline of gymnastics along the way. And speaking of staying tuned, stay tuned, because we have got so many great interviews coming your way that we don't even know how to keep up right now. Obviously, we've got so many from Tokyo, we've got ones in the lead up to Beijing, we've got winters, we've got summers. And outside of that, we've also got people behind the scenes of the Olympics, not just Olympians, we've also got people who cover the Olympics and learning a little bit more about what they do with that one. And one of those people, Robert Livingston, the man behind the website gamesbids.com. Now this is a website that has been around for quite some time and specialises in bringing news about the bidding process of the Olympic Games. Now this is a website I've personally followed for a very long time, it's very, very fascinating. And it's got a great bunch of information there in regards to cities that are bidding for the Olympics, also things about sports that are on the agenda for potential Olympic Games in the future, and just general Olympic news as well. And Robert Livingston has been covering Olympic bids now for more than 20 years, and definitely a fascinating chat to bring to you to learn a little bit more about his career, but also a little bit more about the Olympic bid process and how we are looking right now in terms of the Olympic bids and cities wanting the Olympics. Obviously, we saw Brisbane getting the Olympics in a history-making announcement earlier this year when it came to 11 years out from an Olympics. So how is the bid process changing for Olympic Games, and what does Robert think about everything along those lines too? So that is our next interview. Stay tuned for that one. In the meantime, stay tuned to our social media if you want to stay up to date with all of what we've got going on. Of course, sometimes you will see that we'll advertise an interview, or maybe we'll have an episode in between that and another interview. Obviously, we're kind of on a bit of a floating schedule right now, the more interviews we get and other ideas we have for episodes. So stay tuned to our social media to see what we do have coming your way. Subscribe to our podcasts and all the good podcast channels, Spotify, Stitcher, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Amazon Podcasts, I Heart Radio, all those places and more. Simply search Off The Podium, hit that subscribe button. And while you're there, leave us some feedback. We'd love to hear what you think of the show. It helps us get out there a little bit more and it helps us know what you think. And if you've got any guests' ideas or any other episode ideas that you might have for us, you can also hit us up on social media. Simply search for Off The Podium and you will be able to find us there and snap to date with everything to do with the show. Big thanks once again to MFAB, Ab and Lana Banana. This has been Off The Podium. My name is Ben and we'll speak to you next time. Good night.
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