Emma Freedman Interview
A special treat for you on the show today as we speak with one of Australia's favourite broadcasters Emma Freedman about her amazing career and her time involved in broadcasting the Olympics! We find out the unique story behind how Emma got called up to be involved in Channel Seven's Olympic coverage for Tokyo and just how she loved every single second of working on them. We also find out just why she watched the Olympics differently as a kid and which star of the Sydney 2000 Olympics she idolised and wanted to be like. Added to this we find out which Olympic superstar she got to spend an hour with, just how amazing it was to work with Matt Shirvington during Beijing and teaching us some more amazing stories about the legend that is Bruce McAvaney. It's an incredible 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 once again today for an interview. We are so excited for today's guest, Emma Freedman, who of course is a bit of a household name in Australia, particularly if you are into sports, and I'm assuming if you are into sports, that's why you're listening to this show. She's been seen on screens on Channel Ten, on Channel Nine, and of course, Channel Seven, as a recent host during both the Tokyo and Beijing Olympics. And during Beijing, performed a great duo alongside Australian sprinting icon Matt Shirvington, hosted the afternoon shift daily, and had, let's say, the best chemistry. I'm not probably meant to say that, but I'm saying right now, they had the best chemistry of any hosting pair on Channel Seven. But it was a fantastic chat that I have here with Emma, learning about how she got involved in the Olympics coverage. And it's a fun little story, particularly ahead of Tokyo, how it all sort of fell into place and how it all came about, and then her time during Beijing working with that. Even here talking about her time growing up watching the Olympics, her memories of watching the Sydney Olympics back in the year 2000, and her passion for the Olympics, and then how that is brought into her coverage during both Beijing and Tokyo. This is a great chat. You're going to learn a lot from Emma here. So sit back and relax and listen to our chat with Australian broadcaster, Emma Freedman.
BEN WATERWORTH: I'm pumped to be able to welcome our next guest here to Off The Podium, one of Australia's favourite broadcasters. You know her from radio, TV, everything else in between, Dancing with the Stars, but most importantly for this show, you know her as a host recently on Channel Seven during their Tokyo and Beijing Olympics coverage, and we're here to learn a little bit more about her time involved in that and everything else in between. It's a pleasure to welcome to Off The Podium, the one and the only Emma Freedman. Emma, first of all, welcome to the show.
EMMA FREEDMAN: It's great to be with you. I haven't seen you since we worked on the Beijing Olympics together. But yes, it was a wild time, had a great time. And yeah, my first two Olympics, hoping that there's many more to come.
BEN WATERWORTH: It's exciting to be able to do this because that was basically a couple of months. How's that been a few months now, Emma? Like it's crazy to think how quickly that has gone by and that we are now sort of approaching, I mean, a Commonwealth Games, sort of, you know, kind of one thing to the other. But it's a wild ride that it goes by that quickly.
EMMA FREEDMAN: Yeah, it is funny as well. Like I was speaking to someone the other day, like how lucky are we to have not only as sports fans, but as broadcasters and, you know, working in broadcast, but also the athletes around the world to have had a winter Olympics, a summer Olympics and a Commonwealth Games all within one calendar year. Like it's a, that's never going to happen again. It's a crazy thing to have experienced. And it does feel like, you know, now in the middle of, or nearly in the middle of 2022, a summer Olympics is really only like, you know, 22 months away. Like it's not like that far away again. So growing up, I, you know, I loved, I loved everything Olympics and didn't get to the Sydney Olympics when I was younger. I was living in Melbourne with my family at the time, would have loved to have, but that's the Olympics. I probably remember the most as a kid, obviously Kathy Freeman, but the other big one for me was Marion Jones. And it's probably, you know, a bit weird to talk about now, but back in the day, you know, her winning that hundred metres was like, I thought it was the most amazing thing in the history of sport. It's amazing how times can change.
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, cause that was the whole push, wasn't it? For five gold, wasn't it? Cause she was in five events. And I think she ended up getting three of them, didn't she? I mean, she doesn't have them now, of course, but I mean, at the time, it was, I remember all the hype and publicity around her. That was huge.
EMMA FREEDMAN: Yeah. And I was only 12 years old and I bought into all the hype. I loved it. I thought she was, you know, she was quite outspoken. She was quite brash and, you know, she was her own person, which I always love with athletes, you know, you've got to be yourself. And, you know, there's some athletes who are naturally quieter and meeker personalities, but she was this big, bold personality. And I don't think I'd seen too many women in that sphere behave like that before. And I definitely bought into the hype and that hundred metres, I think, was, you know, the crowning glory of her campaign. But as, you know, as we talk about now, I mean, she doesn't have the money.
BEN WATERWORTH: No, they're kind of given to other people who may be behind her and everything on those. I also remember too, because it's interesting just on Sydney to think about what we've had in athletics since, you know, obviously on the men's side of things, the same bolt has dominated a hundred metres. But I remember even the hyper and Maurice Green and everything that kind of came from that. And then Michael Johnson, of course, as well. Like, this is pre-assain bolt. Imagine, remember those days. But I mean, even pre Michael Phelps, when you think about Thorpe and then Peter van and Hugenband, who was born at those Olympics, Inge de Bruijn in the women's swimming. Like it was those. I mean, you're obviously just one year younger than me because I was 13 during those Olympics, but I bought into everything with all those athletes that we were learning back then in Australia, weren't we?
EMMA FREEDMAN: Yeah. And I remember one of the other times around that period was El-Garouge, the middle distance runner. Like I was a big fan of his as well. I remember going to back then it was Melbourne Park, I think. So we're like Amy Park is now and we must have had, goodness, I must, I should have looked into this. Was it a, was it a, was this some kind of championships? I don't think it was a, wasn't a world. I mean, it must have been an Australian championships or something. And he was there to compete and we went along to watch him run in the 1500 metres. I remember. And I just like was in awe of, you know, all these, I guess, these athletes from around the world. And that's one of the great things about the Olympics as well, is when you're younger, it exposes you to different corners of the world via athletes that you might not have thought about. I think he's Moroccan. Yeah, he is. Yeah, he is from Morocco. And like, you know, when you're 12 years old, like you haven't heard much about Morocco. You don't really know much. But when you then you, you know, follow him and follow his journey and how successful he was. And then you end up getting, you know, diving into their culture and other great athletes from those corners of the globe. So yeah, you're right, it was a real golden period for the Olympics. The Dutch dominating the swimming, as you mentioned, I do remember that really cleanly. And then, you know, Thorpey as well and, you know, having Thorpey on the Channel Seven coverage now, like we're so crazy to think that he was winning those gold medals 22 years ago. Like how, how on earth is that 22 years ago?
BEN WATERWORTH: Exactly. And he's only a couple of years older than us, Emma, too, like he was doing that at 16, right?
EMMA FREEDMAN: I know, what were we doing?
BEN WATERWORTH: Exactly, sitting there.
EMMA FREEDMAN: Sitting at home, like wide-eyed, like this is the most amazing thing. I have no athletic prowess at all.
BEN WATERWORTH: It's crazy, which I mean, so on that, like obviously remembering Sydney, but I mean, you come from a sporting family, so you're obviously around sport, but like were the Olympics kind of that, that jewel every four years or even every two years, if you were watching the winters as well? I mean, was this the thing you always looked forward to?
EMMA FREEDMAN: Yeah, I did really look forward to them. I think I probably first like acknowledged the greatness of the Olympics in 96. So Atlanta, I was eight. And then it was Sydney, which is the same for so many Australian kids of our generation that really, you know, took your breath away and inspired you as just like, you know, a kid in year seven athletics or whatever it was that you were competing in at the time. And then beyond that, it probably during high school, yeah, it kind of rolled around every four years as it did for everyone else. I loved watching the Australian Open as a kid. I really, being from Melbourne, you know, get a ground pass and go watch some of the greatest on the show courts, on the outside courts. Obviously with my family history, the Melbourne Cup and all of the great racing carnivals that we've got in Australia as well. The Winter Olympics probably took me a little bit longer. I didn't ski until I was in high school, but then I did really take hold of it. I also weirdly dated a professional skier for six or seven years. And yeah, yeah. So he introduced me to more of the freestyle events. And, you know, I was really mesmerised.
BEN WATERWORTH: It wasn't Dale Bigg Smith, was it?
EMMA FREEDMAN: No, he wasn't a mogul skier.
BEN WATERWORTH: He was going to get me excited there. You got to connect to the Dale, you got to hook us up.
EMMA FREEDMAN: He is now, he's a cameraman as well. So he exposed me to big air events and more of those freestyle events, which now are so huge. You know, we've just had the Beijing Winter Games and, you know, they're the highlights for everyone. You know, Scotty James in the half pipe, or, you know, so many of those girls in the big air, Tess Cody, you know, she did so well in all of her events. So, yeah, I think it took me a little bit longer to get into the Winter Games. And I think that's partially due to the fact that the Winter Games have evolved so much in the last decade or so. It's not just now Alpine skiing and your moguls and, you know, the aerial skiing and things like that, that have been there for a long time and have a very devout traditional following. It's now bringing a new audience to these snow sports.
BEN WATERWORTH: And we have talked a lot about it on the show too. It's even just the coverage in a country like Australia. Like obviously we have sort of a co-Canadian-Australian production and Canada, it's obviously a little bit different because they're all about the winter, it's not so much about the summers. But, I mean, I remember sort of growing up watching Nagano and kind of that was a pretty put together coverage, but then Salt Lake came about and that was even more. And every winter that basically was broadcast in Australia got more and more and that really came with success. So it's also a lot more accessible now for us to be able to watch the Winter Olympics, and it was 20 years ago.
EMMA FREEDMAN: And I wonder if that's also helped so many of our young athletes become as good as they are. So say someone like Tess Cody, who is Tess 2021.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah.
EMMA FREEDMAN: You know, she probably at the age of 10, we know that she was snowboarding and she loved it. And she was, you know, a little little park rat, and she was stoked on life. But I wonder if partially, obviously, it has a lot to do with athlete talent and development and the facilities available to you and coaching, if your parents can travel you around the world and get involved with competitions and camps. But I do sometimes sit back and wonder, going, is the coverage that we're part of, and we help bring to air, and you know, the lounge rooms of everyone at home, does that help inspire, you know, young groms to get out there and give things a go? Like, I certainly know that, you know, in 2000, after that Marion Jones 100 metres, I was at athletics the next, like, week, trying to do my best, trying to break that 12 second mark.
BEN WATERWORTH: I'm not doing everything Marion did, Emma. I hope you know, like going to the extent she did.
EMMA FREEDMAN: Like, I couldn't run a strong 400 like Cathy, so I had to go with my one and my two hundreds when I was doing school athletics. But, you know, I do wonder if like the coverage and how amazing and how enthralling it is and the technology that we use nowadays and how many different angles we can get in the half pipe or whatever it is, if that does help inspire a new generation to get involved with whatever sport they choose to do. Because even looking ahead to these Commonwealth Games coming up, like our swim team, holy moly, it is extraordinary. And we had such a great campaign in Tokyo. And like heading into the Comm Games, it's going to be like off the charts. And that just can't be because, oh, this group of athletes, they've got great coaches. That's definitely got to be a huge part of it. But I wonder if it's one or two go, oh, you know what? I really want to give this a go after enthralling themselves in the Olympics.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, and particularly when America is not there, so we can win like triple the medals rather than the other one too. Which I mean, talking about the inspiration, I always love hearing from people sort of on the other side of the camera, like in front of the camera rather than the athletes, I mean. It's growing up sort of, I guess, deciding you want to do media. Do you watch, say, the Olympics as a kid and look at someone like Joanna Griggs or Bruce McAvaney or these people sort of who you're watching going like, hey, that's what I want to do, you know, as much as you're looking at Marion Jones going, I want to run fast, when you've got that media switch going, do you kind of take a closer eye on those sort of people?
EMMA FREEDMAN: You're just bang on, Ben. Like, that is 100%. Like, I used to watch Grigsy when, you know, this is 20 years ago and she'd hate me saying this and I'm like 12 years old and you've worked with her.
BEN WATERWORTH: She's all right.
EMMA FREEDMAN: Like, I loved Grigsy when I was younger and now I just worked with her and the same with Bruce. Like, I mean, Bruce is the guru, he's the god. And like, I get to work with Bruce every Saturday at the moment, like, what is my life now?
BEN WATERWORTH: You're making me more envious of you more and more. I missed out on the two times Bruce showed up in Beijing. I was in COVID or I got sent back to Hobart.
EMMA FREEDMAN: Oh my gosh, he's the most lovely man and so well prepared and well studied. I think everyone who follows sport knows that, you know, Bruce doesn't just say things, he researches and he thinks about them a lot. And that's why he, in my mind, is perfection when it comes to sports broadcasting. But you're right, like you sit there for me going, I love sports so much and I want to be involved. I know I don't have the talent to swim or to run or to play hockey or to play netball, whatever it is. Like, I was at school pretty good, okay, at most sports, but not like to the point where I was going to national championships. So you go, okay, what's next best? Do I get into athlete management? Which is something that still interests me in a weird way. Do I get into administration? Do I get into media? And because I can talk the leg off a chair, that was naturally headed. But yeah, definitely Grigsy and Bruce as forms of inspiration for me. And I feel very lucky that I still look up to them. Don't get me wrong. Like I still have so much that I want to work on and want to do in my own craft. And the inspirations to be able to do that are Grigsy and Bruce and like a whole. And most of the people we work with at Channel Seven, like Hamish McLaughlin, Richo, who I've known for a long time, but Richo is just an absolute superstar. And a hoot as well, but he's so good at what he does. You know, there's so many and I get to work with Matt Shirvington. Like what is going on? Like I'm working with Shirvo. What?
BEN WATERWORTH: It's so funny when you were talking about that, that meet before sort of, I remember I didn't actually get a chance to tell this story to him when I was there, but I was 2002 when they used to have the little tool that went around Australia with the athletics in the summer. Going along to that meet and he was competing, Cathy was there, like all the golden names of that period were there. And I remember going up, they did the autograph session, getting Shirvo's autograph. Oh, great. And I was with my grandma and she's like, Ben, I love him so much. Like, please, like, I'm like, oh, come up with me now. No, I'm too nervous. Go and sign this for me. So like I had to go up and get a second autograph. And I think he like remembers, like, hey, you already got an autograph. This is for my nan, do you mind? But it was like, you know, because, you know, there's Matt Shirvington, you know, everyone knows that. And then, yeah, I remember meeting him when I was there at Channel Seven because Joe's giving me the tour. And all of a sudden, everyone's wearing face masks, of course. Yeah. So all of a sudden, it's like, oh, this is and I'm not good at remembering names. I'm just like, oh, that was sure. So when all of a sudden, like, oh, Ben, this is Matt. I'm like, oh, fuck, it's Matt Shirvington. Hey, you know, it kind of took me two seconds to realise. I'm like, this is an interesting experience. But he's a great. He's amazing. He's hilarious and he's amazing.
EMMA FREEDMAN: And I hadn't I'd met him before working on Beijing. And, you know, when I got the call saying, oh, do you want to be part of the Beijing Olympics? I'm like, yeah, hell yeah. And they're like, yeah, you're going to be co-hosting with Matt Shirvington. I'm like, are you absolutely kidding yourself? Anyways, and when we got to rehearsals and, you know, that research period before we're on air and with the Winter Olympics, it's not really like it's not a two week Olympics. It's a three and a half week Olympics, let's be honest, because events are like day minus five. Like what is that about? Anyways, yeah. And I didn't know what to expect because I feel that, you know, Matt, as an athlete, would be like very super like driven and focused and drilled down in his work. And he is, but he's also fucking hilarious. And we had so much fun. And it was a really joyous surprise to find out this other side of Sherbo's personality. And as a result, yeah, we had a really fun two and a half weeks. And, you know, afterwards we'd get people going, you two, what are you two like? How many coffees you had? You're like a few, a few coffees. But we were bouncing off the walls. And most of that was due to the fact that we just loved watching every single athlete and every single event. And we felt truly invested in cheering on our Aussies in Beijing. You know, you'd wake up in the morning going, Oh my God, it's Scotty James Day or we've got it's Tescote Day or, you know, whatever it was. And yeah, it was just, it was a great joy. Great joy.
BEN WATERWORTH: You did some, I think it was a bit of competitiveness going on there about who would be on air when the medals were being won, right, so you were Tess Coady, weren't you, that were on air?
EMMA FREEDMAN: We take that.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, yeah.
EMMA FREEDMAN: We take that. I think you were technically... Joey Grigsey was technically on air. Like our shift was like around two till seven around that time. And you know, we were a lot of heats and prelims and, you know, not a lot of finals at that time of the day. But when we got like, we had Tess Cody on air with us on when she returned from Beijing.
BEN WATERWORTH: I was sitting in my bedroom back in Hobart, sad, because I'm like, I should, you know, I've been sent home the night before, Emma, and I'm like, damn it, why does all the good shit happen when I go?
EMMA FREEDMAN: And she was just magnificent. She was everything that you hope a young woman to have.
BEN WATERWORTH: Did she know the Richmond guys were there? Like when you had the... Because like she seemed genuinely surprised like on air when you brought out the, I don't know who it was, from Richmond.
EMMA FREEDMAN: She's a goose. So one of our other hosts on the Olympic coverage, Abby Gelme, her boyfriend, Kane, plays for Richmond and we wanted to get Kane in to do what he did, which was, you know, present a test with a Guernsey and membership and whatever it was and say, you know, we'd love to see you down at Richmond in the future. And so we introduced her to him before going on air and she knew who he was. She was like, oh, okay, like, how are you? And then when he came on air to like do the presentation, she was genuinely shocked. It's like, what's going on your head?
BEN WATERWORTH: It legitimately seems like it was like, oh, like a spur of the moment surprise. Like she had no idea.
EMMA FREEDMAN: So, okay, wow, she was, she was just so like, and I'm using a test codyism, like she was stoked to be there. She, she was so happy and so gracious to share her experiences and her medal, her bronze medal from Beijing and everything that she went through. You know, she ended up snowboarding over there with like a broken leg pretty much.
BEN WATERWORTH: And you got that exclusive, didn't you?
EMMA FREEDMAN: Because I think no one knew that until she revealed that there. We knew she'd had a, had a stack and we thought she might've, you know, her knee might've been a bit bruised or her ankle might've been a bit, you know, iffy, but she hasn't had a break. Like it wasn't a serious, you know, fracture in her leg. It was a tiny, tiny, tiny little bit. That's why she says, I know it wasn't really a break because she hasn't had any time off to heal it. Like she's back touring around the world. But yeah, that was a crazy, like a crazy story. Like if I stubbed my toe, I'm like, I gotta go for a run.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah. I mean, I can't even stay upright on skis, let alone do it with like half a fricking foot or whatever it was. But yeah, because so yeah, because Scotty James, that was Joe was on air for Scotty because that was, I think when I was out with COVID. So I don't count that as one for, you know, I wasn't there for that. But I remember Tess, like was a start maybe on with Joe because I definitely remember being in the lunch room watching her win that. So I feel that like maybe it started with us on air, but you were on air when she one won it. So is that a half and half on there then who gets the medal for that?
EMMA FREEDMAN: Yeah, that's a half half because if Joe threw to it and then we picked up, that's a half half. So we got half a bronze medal in our shift.
BEN WATERWORTH: And then Hamish and Abby both got Jakara. Well, actually, no, it was Baz and Georgie got Jakara because that was one in the morning. But they got, I'm sorry, not Jakara, so Jackie and they got Jakara because that was at night. So yeah, it's got spread out pretty much with everyone then, Baz and I.
EMMA FREEDMAN: Yeah, yeah, it did. And it didn't matter that, you know, if you didn't get a medal in your shift, because we were often looking forward, especially in that first week with the moguls, you know, we were really looking forward to seeing that whole team, you know, eight, nine athletes do so well through the first few days. So we were there to build hype and also let viewers know as to what they could expect that evening. Someone like Jakara, like, could she have gone into that Olympics in better form? She was just on fire. And I think we all knew she would do something special that night. And as soon as she put down that final run in the super final, you go, that like, just got like give her the gold, like, let's just, we don't even need to look at the scores. We don't even need to look at the scores, because that was, in my mind, pure perfection. But, you know, and then there was the heartbreak of Matt Graham, and that was, that was devastating for him coming into the, the game's probably expected to medal, if not get that gold medal against Macaulay Kingsbury. But yeah, some things don't go to plan, do they?
BEN WATERWORTH: No, sadly not. And then you just think about all the other great stories outside of that, though, and the other heartbreaks. But like, I mean, God, how obsessed was Australia was curling in that first week? I mean, for God sakes, I mean, had you even thought about curling? You did it, didn't you? Yeah, I did.
EMMA FREEDMAN: You went for the ice house and gave it a whirl.
BEN WATERWORTH: It's bloody hard. It's really hard. Yeah, it's harder than it looks. So yeah, so all the props to Dean and Tali. But I mean, I mean, at the time of recording this, they're currently in the World Champs right now doing okay. So it's kind of good to see that that sort of momentum is going on there with a bit of coverage for them. But it was just great to see. Like some of my best memories of working there were in between being on air, everybody literally watching and everyone became an expert, didn't they? Like, oh, well, I wouldn't have put the stone there. No, that's bad move. What's going on? Right. And but it was so enthralling, wasn't it?
EMMA FREEDMAN: You're so right. Like we'd be often the matches. I think we had a couple in our shift, but you know, they had three, I think, time, time periods for those games throughout the day. So there was one in the morning, one in the afternoon, then maybe one in the evening, one at night. So like it was curling all day long. And I remember sitting in the office and literally like you'd see them like mid game and everyone's like, Oh, what are you done? What have you done? Like, because we know, like we have no idea that we're so obsessed with it over the period that you think in you, Oh, God, she stuffed that one, that it's just a disaster or terrible when something went right. We'd all be up cheering, going, what are we doing with our lives? That's the beauty of the Olympics, isn't it? Like, I think some of my friends before they were going, what's this curling about? Obviously, because Tali and Dean were the first Australian pairing to ever make it into an Olympics. People going, this is like, this is rubbish. And it's not. It's really not. It's so entertaining. And I had those same friends, Ben, afterwards going, Oh my God, how good was the curling? And you go, yeah, come around, didn't you? Yeah.
BEN WATERWORTH: And then in four years' time when, you know, they're back there again, and like, we're going to be expecting there to be like a men's team and a women's team outside. Just you know, bring bring that dedicated rink and everything along those lines. Just want to backtrack a little bit to just before Tokyo. Growing up sort of going back to what we're saying before about watching the Olympics, looking at people like Greg Z and Bruce and that sort of stuff. Do you remember that moment when Channel Seven came to you and said, Hey, Emma, we'd like you to be involved in Olympic coverage for Tokyo and what that was like.
EMMA FREEDMAN: Yeah, because it happened 10 days before the Olympics.
BEN WATERWORTH: That quick?
EMMA FREEDMAN: So I have two little kids and at the time, so this would have been June last year. My little girl was not even one. She was eight months old, right? So I've got an eight month old and a two year old at this period. And I had been doing like little bits and pieces in racing. But obviously during COVID and having babies, I was kind of on a spell, so to speak. Like I wasn't working a huge amount because I couldn't. I had two very small children, but also COVID was a real dampener. So anyways, I don't know how the initial call came about, but I got a call from Nick Barrow, who is one of the best Olympic producers in the world. And I'd never met Nick, but we like chatted every now and then, I guess, you know, during my time working. And he goes, so I think, would you be keen to do an Olympics? And I'm like, what? The one in like two weeks? This is not a joke. I go, you absolutely kidding me? He goes, yeah, yeah, yeah, the one in two weeks. We've had two because of COVID. There was a lot of toing and froing with staff because they couldn't travel from Melbourne to Sydney, Sydney to Melbourne, la, la, la. And I was not even on the radar. He goes, yeah, I'd be hosting the seven two coverage, which was, or seven mate coverage. And so that's voice only, but the shifts are like eight or nine hours long and you're watching every bit of, like it's crazy. It's the hard job, right? It's the, for me, that's the hard one. Like that's where you learn the most. Anyways, there was a couple of poor people in Melbourne who couldn't come up to Sydney, which is where we had to do that hosting because of the facilities available. And luckily for me and very unluckily for them, I was the only person in Sydney who was available to do it. Anyway, so this is, I'm not kidding you. It's like two weeks, 10 days out. And he goes, right, you're gonna have to cram. You're just gonna have to cram. So I was in between my kids having naps and sleeping. I was cramming for sports that I hadn't even looked at for like four, you know, four, six years watching Olympics. And then when I got there, I'm going, oh, this is a disaster. Like, I'm not gonna be able to do this like on a 10 day prep, how you got it done. And then they asked me to come back from Beijing.
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, obviously, what I was gonna say, like clearly that you did a real right job. They're kind of bringing you back.
EMMA FREEDMAN: I got the call 10 days out.
BEN WATERWORTH: 10 days?
EMMA FREEDMAN: So what do you choose to cram in those 10 days? So a lot of it is formats of sports. So like how sports progress. So whether they start off with pool matches, that kind of stuff, which when you're a regular punter watching an Olympics, you kind of have a semi idea on, but you're not entrenched in it that you go, okay, so if they win this, then they go there and then they'll probably really play that. You're not thinking about that in depth. So that was one of them. The second was like, okay, so when it comes to swimming the first week, there's some people you know, if the back of your, you know, they're stored in the back of your head, like the Campbell sisters or Emma McKeehan or, you know, they're just-
BEN WATERWORTH: Karen Titmuss, people like that, yeah.
EMMA FREEDMAN: But there's other ones like Zach Stubblety-Cook, who you're like, really know much about Zach, right? But I know he's a gun chance going into these Olympics. So it was cramming on athletes as well. And then some of it was like venue names and, oh mate, it was just, like, Nick and I laugh about it now, because like who doesn't Olympics with like a 10 day prep? Like it's absolute ludicrous. Like we have had a big laugh about it. And then when it got to Beijing, I was like, this is a piece of piss. I've had like four months to like get myself really Olympic ready for this.
BEN WATERWORTH: You know everything by then, you know, all the Dutch skaters and the, you know, the Norwegian biathletes, you're on top of it all.
EMMA FREEDMAN: It's just a joke. And like now going into the Colby Games, I do have the same, you know, I know that I'm doing it so I can look at it. And the beauty of that is that we've had a Summer Olympics less than a year before. So there's a lot of carry over there, which will help.
BEN WATERWORTH: Did you take moments, were you able to take moments in during Tokyo to kind of just stop and go, I'm working on an Olympics right now? Every day. Every day?
EMMA FREEDMAN: No, every day. So like my shift was on air 5.30 till like 2, I think. Like they're long, it's on air. You know, you'd have to be like to your producer in the control room. Hey, can I go to the, can I quickly run to the toilet? Like 30 seconds every day, like I would get up at, you know, four o'clock or 4.30, whatever it was. And I'd be like, Oh my God, I'm working on Olympics today. This is so cool. And everyone talks about when you work on an Olympics, whether it be in broadcast or, you know, whether you're working there in, I know food and beverage or whether you're working there on the gate doing ticketing or whether you're working, I don't know, you know, driving the cars. My grandfather, who sadly is no longer with us, he was a volunteer bus driver at the Sydney Olympics. You know, the one of those jobs. Yeah. Everyone talks about the dick that everyone goes through on about day seven, eight, nine, ten. Do you like, we've all talked about it because you've put in so much energy and so much like of yourself into that job without a break for the first, say, 10 days. Because as I mentioned, Olympics aren't two weeks. They're like three weeks. It gets to that day seven of the actual game, seven to ten. And everyone talks about this lull. I didn't experience it because I was just every day, oh my God, I get to work on an Olympics. I'm so lucky.
BEN WATERWORTH: It's insane to be like pumped that way because it's really like, it's an adrenaline based thing. But when I guess you are so invested in what you're doing and like this is something that you've grown up loving that it just goes like that. And did you then feel withdrawal once it's finished? Like, fuck, what do I do now? The Olympics are over. I've got to wait now to Beijing. Like it's kind of a weird thing.
EMMA FREEDMAN: The post-event depression, like not joking about it, but you know, after you go on holidays, like my husband and I always joke about the post-holiday depression, like you come back and you're like, back to work.
BEN WATERWORTH: I was called Sals, severe Olympic withdrawal syndrome. That's what I've always called it. Sals.
EMMA FREEDMAN: Oh my God, I'm going to take that.
BEN WATERWORTH: Please do.
EMMA FREEDMAN: Yeah, I probably did a little bit, but then we were in, so what was that? We finished in August. Was it? Yeah. Then I was into racing in two weeks. So I knew that I just had to get back on the horse and we were back into like full speed racing. And I was also working at Fox league at the time as well. Like that's actually the other crazy thing. So during the Olympics, cause I only, I wasn't signed with seven, like I was working at Fox league as well. So on a Sunday, so there's three Sundays during the Olympics. I would do the five, five 30 to two, two 30 shift on seven. I'd go home, have lunch, have a shower, go back into the same building in Sydney and go and do a shift with Fox league on a Sunday night.
BEN WATERWORTH: Hope you didn't get confused and like walk in there and start talking. You know, you're like in the recap of the, the rabbit, those and the sharks and yes, he did win a gold medal. Oh shit. Sorry. Wrong thing.
EMMA FREEDMAN: Like, I forgot about that. Yeah. I did do that. Christ. That's mental. Wow.
BEN WATERWORTH: Geez.
EMMA FREEDMAN: So I just kept working and yeah, I'm, I love working and I love working with the great team that we have on seven horse racing and seven Olympics. Like I think I did it. And then I did a Bathurst.
BEN WATERWORTH: Like I was going to say, you did Bathurst too, didn't you?
EMMA FREEDMAN: So like it's kind of just ticking all the boxes there and I love hanging out with people and I love learning about athlete stories and pumping them up and building them up and, you know, having a laugh with them and having a joke. So it doesn't feel like work to me. And I'm very lucky because I know there's so many people in the world who, you know, they get up and there's the grind of going to work every day. And yes, there is a grind. Like let's be honest, working some days, like on Tuesday this week, I worked like a 16 hour day and it was like, hey, it's a travel. And it was crazy, but like I got home and I was like, how good was that day? That was hectic, but that was such a great day. And I, that's a, I, for me working in what I do. And I, I think a lot of, I tried, you know, when I have conversations about work with my friends, they work in completely different industries. For me, it's like, it's three things. It's work hard, have fun, be nice. Like they're the three things. Yeah, I think it's a nice way to live because sometimes you get up and you cranky and you're like, Oh God, this person's giving me the shits. They're not really giving you the shits. You're just tired.
BEN WATERWORTH: Like, that's a good way of looking at it.
EMMA FREEDMAN: Like, yeah.
BEN WATERWORTH: Or I, there are some people that let's be honest, they do give you the shits. Like, come on.
EMMA FREEDMAN: Oh yeah. Some people do give you the shits, but sometimes you just got to put them away. There's another great thing that I saw the other day. I don't know who said it, but I saw it the other day. If you're angry at less than three people, it's on them. If you're angry at more than three people, it's on you.
BEN WATERWORTH: Oh, deep. I've got a cat in my head. Hang on a minute. Let me check. Um, no, it's on me. Clearly.
EMMA FREEDMAN: Like if you're in a workspace and you've got the shits with like eight people, it's not the eight people. It's you. Like go and sort yourself out. Right?
BEN WATERWORTH: Okay. All right. I'm going to take that as gospel. I like that. I work on that. 16, like you say you have a 16 hour day. Like it's those days where, like if you get to hour three and you're like, fuck, I've still got more to go, but like when all of a sudden you get to like hour 15, like fuck, I've been here for 15 hours, but I don't care. I can keep going. Like that's when you know you're doing a job you love. And it's as you say, less work. It's more kind of just that life balance that you enjoy.
EMMA FREEDMAN: Yeah. It is important to have. And, you know, don't get me wrong. There's periods where we all go through periods of my God, I just cannot be stuffed doing this today. Like this is, holy, Julie, I don't have this with me, but you get there and I don't know, just pull yourself together. Yeah. I say that to my kids sometimes, you know, like if, if Will's got my little boy's got the shits with something, I go, mate, we've got to pull ourselves together. We just got to get through it. We've got to get through to dinner, bath and bed. We just got to pull ourselves together. And he looks at me like, you're fucking crazy woman.
BEN WATERWORTH: He doesn't say that to you.
EMMA FREEDMAN: No, say it in a, go away, mummy.
BEN WATERWORTH: Which is translation in kids speak to you're fucking crazy.
EMMA FREEDMAN: Like it's going to get to the point where like I'm not a pushy parent. Like I just want my kids to find something that they love and are passionate about. Like I think that's one of the great keys to life is finding something that you're passionate about so that you really enjoy life. But I am that parent who like, yes, you can, you can do this, you can do this. Like there's a big hill near our house and was like a jet on the scooter. Like he's just a monster. Like he goes, he's like 200 metres ahead of me on the main road. And people looking at me going, you're crazy for letting your son do that. I'm like, look at him though. Like he's fucking good at it, mate. Anyways, he can't get up this hill. And every few days he goes, mummy, I can't do the hill. I go, yeah, you can on your scooter. You've done it before. Go up. You can do it.
BEN WATERWORTH: Geez.
EMMA FREEDMAN: I mean, wow.
BEN WATERWORTH: No, a little bit. But also you could be a great parent. And like, maybe he's going to be an Olympian in something. Like he could be a skier.
EMMA FREEDMAN: The aim is just resilience, mate. It's a hill. You could get up it. It's two minutes. I'm not carrying that scooter. I'm going to carry your sister.
BEN WATERWORTH: That's literally life, though. Like you're faced with big hills and you've got to get up them, son.
EMMA FREEDMAN: You got to get up them. You got to get up.
BEN WATERWORTH: Journey for life. Right. This is a metaphor. You got to remember this moment in life.
EMMA FREEDMAN: PS is three.
BEN WATERWORTH: I say you got to learn at some point, Lime. There you go. Simple as that. Did you have a favourite moment during both Tokyo and Beijing that you sort of sat back on and go, I mean, let's go with one that you were on air with, that you were honoured and happy that you were on air right then, being part of that moment.
EMMA FREEDMAN: Well, we've spoken about Tess, and Tess was the one for me during the Winter Olympics because I just love what she's all about. I love the events that she competes in. I love that she's just got that attitude of get up and go. Like, I don't think much phases, Tess. Like she's just naturally positive, happy, like unapologetically herself person. And I, so it was as much about the event as it was about Tess. I think as well, Jackie Naricott, who briefly mentioned before, that was extraordinary. You know, when the silver medal and the skeleton. And she, that moment, oh, which I loved so much, where during the medal ceremony, they gave her the medal, they presented the medal around Jackie's neck. She picked it up in her hands. And the, oh, God gives me chills. The way she looked at it, like you're mine and I get to keep you and everything's been worth it. Like it makes me teary because, you know, some people get their medals and then, you know, waving to the crowd, yahooing and that's fine. That's absolutely glorious. You celebrate your win, whatever it might be. But this was like, it was like she forgot the cameras were there and she forgot that hundreds of millions of people were probably watching at that point in time. Like it was just this special moment for her. Then during the summers, oh, goodness gracious me. What did we have during the summers that we, where we met when I was on air?
BEN WATERWORTH: I don't think that nothing happened during those games. Did Australia do anything of those?
EMMA FREEDMAN: No, not at all. I think, I think the story that really captured me and it wasn't when I was on air. I think maybe for his heat I was, but Peter Boll. So he was a revelation in the 800. Just an extraordinary talent. And what, again, his backstory, what he went through, coming from Sudan and moving all over Australia and he was leading that pack in that final. Like that's absolutely amazing. And again, it lends back to that personality, it seems, with Peter. I have never met him. I'd love to one day. I'd love to have a chat with him. But he seems like that guy who's just got get up and go about him. And he's passionate about life and he's passionate about what he does. And I find that really infectious. But I mean, it was a great games. There's so many amazing moments, but is that weird to whittle it down to someone who didn't even medal? Like, I think that was really special.
BEN WATERWORTH: I was gonna mention what was so good about Tokyo is the success that Australia had, but you do often think about some of these moments that weren't medal moments. Peter Bowles, one of them. I'm thinking of Rowan Browning. I mean, the guy who wins a heat, and it's kind of, you know, he's arguably probably more well-known in Australia than some of our medallists. You know, I mean, no disrespect to our great sailors who won great medals, but I mean, I can probably imagine most people in the streets would remember Rowan Browning and probably couldn't name our sailors who won medals.
EMMA FREEDMAN: So it's things like that. I think the other good one was Kayleigh McEwan and the swearing. Like that was just, I just loved it.
BEN WATERWORTH: Fuck you, oh shit. Like it's followed by a shit. Basically as soon as she says, fuck you, oh shit. You know.
EMMA FREEDMAN: Like that was just amazing.
BEN WATERWORTH: We had some fun with that.
EMMA FREEDMAN: If you can't get around that and see the joy that, I know that she's cursing and stuff, but if you can't get around that, like fuck off, like honestly. It was just one, what a gold medal. She's absolutely stoked with herself and she's, she just cannot believe it. Like that's what sport is for me, is those moments. It's the grind, it's the hard work, it's the day in, it's the day out, it's getting there. And then when you're getting success, like just absolutely revelling in it, as you bloody well should.
BEN WATERWORTH: Exactly. And that's the beauty of the Olympics in those moments. As like you mentioned there with Jackie, like it's little moments, whether it be winning a medal, a gold medal, silver medal, or even like you see some of the emotion that somebody finishing fifth gets or something along those lines. So with Brie in the bobsled, I mean, she was a medal, you know, chance, but she finishes fifth and we're thinking, oh, she's going to be disappointed. She's thrilled with fifth at the Olympics, things like that, which is just insane. And I guess like in your profession, obviously with what you're doing, you know, mentioning how before like, you know, a week later, you've got Tess next to you, she's in the studio. So you get to not only be part of the broadcast and witness these with everyone else in Australia, but then you have that honour of being able to chat to these people as part of your profession. Do you have a standout, be it from the Olympics or any part of your broadcasting career where you've had an interview with somebody and it's kind of just, it's left an impression of you for whatever reason.
EMMA FREEDMAN: Yeah, it's a great question. Tess was one of them, but I mean, I was very lucky that eight, 10 years ago, I got to sit on set with Usain Bolt for an hour. Like, he's best mates with John Steffenson, who I'm very good friends with as well throughout our time at Nine. And yeah, he was in Australia, as he has been many, many times before. You know, he's done some pretty crazy, crazy things here. Like he's, you know, remember the soccer career? Like-
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, I was literally about to say that. Remember he was a Central Coast Mariners player.
EMMA FREEDMAN: Yeah, remember that? Like, that was we, like, I think we forgot about that. That was-
BEN WATERWORTH: We saw Usain Bolt play in a field with giant sauce bottles. I mean, like, who would have ever thought?
EMMA FREEDMAN: So this was pre all that, but, and this was at the peak of Usain's powers. So this was still when he was, you know, racing all around the world. And he was meant to be just a special guest on Wide World of Sports for like 10 minutes. And it was literally on the day he's like, can I say, can I hang with you for the whole hour? Rundowns out the window. We're like, all right, it's Usain now. Let's do it.
BEN WATERWORTH: You don't say no to that. No, it's the same. We've got a very tight schedule.
EMMA FREEDMAN: And he was the nicest guy. And he was so generous with his time. And, you know, got to we just basically it was, this is your life's, you know, wide world of sports style. And we just chatted to Usain for basically an hour about everything about his life, about his loves, about what he wants to do, about working with, you know, Steph as well, who, you know, they've got a great bond together. And I think some of the other, some of the other ones that I've loved in the years gone by, like I'm mates with Scotty James, and I always love chatting to Scotty, but I did some great pieces with Chumpy Pullen when he was alive. And he was, he was one of those people that you'd never, like you can never forget, he was just so vibrant, so energetic, so spirited, so lovely. So I think getting to chat to Chumpy multiple times, whether it be at the training facility in Narrabin in Sydney, or down at Perisher or Threadbough, that was very, very special as well. There's so many people I'd love. I mean, how long's the list that you want to chat to though? Like it's as long as my arm of people.
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, that was going to be the next question, is there one? Like if you had, right now, I had the power for you. I mean, you can have anyone you want right now. Who would it be?
EMMA FREEDMAN: Oh, goodness gracious. I hope you can edit out this big pause, because I want to think about, I should have thought about this knowing that you probably would have asked it.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, that's standard cliche question that we're going to ask, you know. Just tick them off the list. I can play some Jeopardy thinking music or something here right now. Just because he'd be a fun guy to chat to, like he'd be fun, but difficult, yet very tricky.
EMMA FREEDMAN: I've seen some chats with him where he's just like, I don't give a shit. But hopefully you could get him in a space where he is willing to have some fun and tell some good stories. And I think he's just the most prodigious talent, like he's just, when he's on song, when he's up and firing, it's mesmerising, right? Like you just cannot take your eyes off him. In terms of our Olympians, goodness gracious, that is such a hard question.
BEN WATERWORTH: We ask one every now and then on the show, you know.
EMMA FREEDMAN: Like, so in years, like athletes gone by, you know, those heroes of all of ours, like I'd love to chat to Cathy. I've never chatted to Cathy before. And I think she, you know, she, I'd love to just get into her world for a time as to what to Sydney 2000 was all about, but nowadays, this is going to sound silly, but we're pretty lucky in that we do get access to all of these athletes. And, you know, we do get to chat to them from time to time. So wishlist going forward, Rowan Browning, I think, you know, he's going to make a massive splash at the calm game. That's going to be just amazing. I've chatted to the Campbell sisters before and they're, they're absolutely terrific. Ariane, I've never met my dad, but my dad has. My dad had like this weird meeting with her.
BEN WATERWORTH: Like a meeting.
EMMA FREEDMAN: Like, not a meeting, not like a business meeting, like this weird meeting.
BEN WATERWORTH: Sit down Ariane, we've got some business to discuss. She, hang on, if you have an exclusive here, is she getting into like something to do with horse racing right now? Oh, breaking news.
EMMA FREEDMAN: I think she was an ambassador for the Magic Millions, just gone by, or she did a photo shoot and maybe it was with one of dad's. Oh no, it was for the Melbourne Cup. She was the ambassador for the Melbourne Cup last year. This is all starting to bleed into one. Anyways.
BEN WATERWORTH: You've had a busy year, Emma, it's fine, like it's all good.
EMMA FREEDMAN: As you said, things are starting to bleed into each other, like I'm losing the plot. She did a photo shoot up on the Gold Coast and my dad, maybe she was using one of dad's horses for it or something. Anyways, she signed a cap. My dad has merch for his job and he has a Lee Freedman racing hat and she signed it, which was weird. I was like, why did she sign your merch? It's like you signing her swimmers. It's like a weird man.
BEN WATERWORTH: Hey, eBay could lap that shit up, like a rare signed hat from Freedman with the RM. Why not?
EMMA FREEDMAN: That is so strange. I think, yeah, she'd be, she'd be, who's on your list? I'm probably blanked out and forgotten.
BEN WATERWORTH: Oh, look at you turning the page there. I honestly, I mentioned his name before, and I think long-term listeners to this show would know that Dale Begg Smith is a bit of a white whale out there for anybody in Australia who loves winter sports. And he's probably off on his island in the Caribbean right now, just not giving a shit.
EMMA FREEDMAN: What kind of life does that guy live?
BEN WATERWORTH: I know, like, oh, what am I doing for? Mike, I win an Olympic gold medal, and then I'll go sell some spam on the internet. And like, speaking to, I actually, I'm that weird geek who has all this old Olympic footage on my computer because I'm that guy. And so during the Olympics, I talked to Jo a lot about Turin, and she was like, oh, I interviewed Dale Begg Smith, you know, like very interesting guy. I found the footage of her interview with Dale.
EMMA FREEDMAN: Jo saying very interesting guy is like, she's so, she's so funny. She cracks me up like very interesting guy. Like that doesn't mean very interesting guy. That means so much more in Jo's speak, don't you reckon?
BEN WATERWORTH: Oh, absolutely. And like the interview is like, he would be the trickiest interview anybody would have. He doesn't give a shit. He doesn't like, he just doesn't do interviews and he's just so monotone and whatever, but that would make it so fascinating. And you can tell when Jo's interviewing him, she's very Jo and just doing this sort of stuff. He's just like, doesn't give a shit. But like, I mean, that guy, like if you can untap Dale Begg's mismind, like you've got yourself a winning interview right there.
EMMA FREEDMAN: I think that's some of the beauty of like when you ask, oh, who would you like to interview? And you do naturally go for the curly ones, so to speak, because, you know, a lot of these athletes nowadays, they're media trained, which I don't necessarily love because I like the rawness of people and I love them being themselves. So that's why I think I said Nick, because Nick doesn't give a shit. Exactly. I love it that he doesn't give a shit. And there's probably a time where I probably wasn't his biggest fan, you know, maybe during a period where he was particularly rambunctious. But now at the moment, especially after the Oz Open, we've just had like, I'm all in his corner for just, he tries to do good in the world and yet maybe sometimes people read it wrong. But I think he's just, if he could bring all that together, like far out, you know.
BEN WATERWORTH: And I think I've always got this feeling that he will. And I also think that like, I try to always equate him a bit to Leighton Hewitt in the fact that when Leighton Hewitt was at his peak, everyone in Australia didn't like Leighton Hewitt. He was a pain in the ass, so he gives a shit. But then when he retired, it was like Australia was like crying as one, you know. So like I feel it's going to be that way with him. Exactly, exactly, and everyone loves Leighton. So I've got a feeling Nick will be that way one day, at least hopefully.
EMMA FREEDMAN: I've got great hopes. I think that that kind of personality, you know, that doubles with, like, I was scheduling my day around those matches in January. Like my kids would be like, well, what's going on? We're not going to the park now, guys. We are going to do some drawing and mummy's going to watch the tennis.
BEN WATERWORTH: It's actually that was the first. I'm a big Formula One fan, so the Grand Prix was always what I went to every year. And this year I actually went to the tennis because I was in this part of the world for the Grand Prix the other week. And it was it was amazing just to I'd never experienced it before. And like, as you're saying, with the ground pass and everything, but it's just the atmosphere and everything that just the whole city gets behind. And with them doing what they're doing, with Ash obviously doing how she did, it was just I mean, I mean, look, I'm not even from Melbourne, Emma and I say it's the greatest city in Australia and the sporting capital of the world and all that kind of cliché. So that's true. Like I've never been to a city in the world that gets behind its sport as much as as as Emma does. True. As much as Melbourne does. Like it's yeah, great part of the world.
EMMA FREEDMAN: Yeah. And the Formula One as well. Like how good I mean, I always liked it, but now I especially have to drive to survive. Like everyone loves their everyone loves their F1 a little bit more after that. And you know why that is? Because we've got to learn about the personalities in the sport. And it's not necessarily the behind the scenes, but like, and I know it's we all know it's edited and it's, you know, a little bit proddy and whatever. But that's what sport for me needs more of going forward, because not everyone's going to sit there going, oh, what ties are they starting on? Like, not everyone cares about that, but, you know, say something like Verstappen and Hamilton, or, you know, that that kind of jewel at the end of the year, like people buy into that and that puts eyes on coverage.
BEN WATERWORTH: And it's so fascinating with it too, because I'm sure this would be the same like with you and sort of your background, that if there was a horse racing one on Netflix where new eyes are being...
EMMA FREEDMAN: A ride to survive is...
BEN WATERWORTH: A ride to... Yeah, that works. I would love to do it.
EMMA FREEDMAN: I would love to do it with the Olympics.
BEN WATERWORTH: You've got some connections. You might be able to get it there. But it's just fascinating because when you grow up and you... I know Formula One, but my entire life has basically been involved around the sport. So to see new eyes coming to it and meeting people who are like, oh, I'm really into Formula One because of this Netflix show, it's fascinating to hear perspectives of people when you know so much about it. So as I said, it would be the same like with horse racing, I can imagine that something I maybe I don't know a lot about, but if I got addicted to Netflix and saw it and you'd be seeing kind of the new eyes of people because it does bring exposure to something like that, which is great.
EMMA FREEDMAN: I think it's special and I know that, you know, say in your world, if you've grown up with F1 and you're, you know, like a devout follower of it, it might give you the shits every now and then that people are going, oh, I love my F1, if they don't know it as intrinsically as you do. But the thing about it is, and even that, you know, the coin flipped, as you said with me, if they did a, if we did a ride to survive, which I think would be trademarked, that trademark, that name, that's a great name. You know, you'd be going, oh yeah, people don't know the intricacies of the sport, but you don't need to know the intricacies of every sport to love sport. And if that was the way it was, then no one would be going because that's not the, that's just not the point of it. The point of it is to be swept up in something and to support something and to, you know, to be carried away for a couple of hours, whether it be a Grand Prix, whether it be, you know, an eight race card at Randwick, whether it be, you know, a five hour, five set epic in a Grand Slam, you know, like it's the point of, it's just being invested and going along for the ride and supporting someone. And if a show like Drive To Survive can do that, fucking hats off. Absolutely.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah. And I mean, a small caveat of that is here in the States, they're about to have three Grand Prix's in a year now. Yeah.
EMMA FREEDMAN: So there's one in Miami as well.
BEN WATERWORTH: Is that right? So Miami, at the time of recording this is next weekend. You have the Texas one and then they're doing a Vegas one in 2023.
EMMA FREEDMAN: That's right. I saw that.
BEN WATERWORTH: Literally going down the strip.
EMMA FREEDMAN: So that's going to be off the charts.
BEN WATERWORTH: And I went to the Austin Grand Prix back in 2016 and this was pre Netflix. And of course it's like, oh, Americans don't care for Formula One. That place was packed. Was it? Yeah, they went crazy for it. So it's, yeah, it's, and it's actually even here in New York. I have literally seen people walking down the street wearing like Red Bull, like Max Verstappen staff and Ferrari staff and McClark. Like it's, you do see it randomly. Like it's no New York Yankees cap, which is like every second person. But like it's still you, when you see like a Red Bull, like, oh, Max Verstappen. Like it's cool in New York City. It's like, well, okay, it's catching on.
EMMA FREEDMAN: So I did just get one of the new Danny Rick Long Sleeve T-shirts. Like I'm sporting the orange Danny Ricciardo and purple Long Sleeve T-shirt.
BEN WATERWORTH: They're quite nice, those shirts.
EMMA FREEDMAN: Super cool. Yeah. So I wear a lot of just jeans and Long Sleeve T-shirts because that is the easiest thing to wear. And yeah, so I'm one of those merch people.
BEN WATERWORTH: Look, I am a merch person for sure. But like it's weak because obviously I love me some Danny Ricciardo. But growing up in my household, the word McLaren was a swear word because I'm a Ferrari fan. So I would never be caught dead wearing anything McLaren. So I love you, Danny Ricciardo. Like go back to Red Bull or come to Ferrari, please.
EMMA FREEDMAN: He's another one I'd like to chat with. Like even I'm not an F1 guru at all. And I know this is an Olympics themed podcast, but geez, he's a...
BEN WATERWORTH: I've spoken to him a couple of times like back in the early days, and he's just exactly how you think he is. Like he's just...
EMMA FREEDMAN: He's a fucking legend.
BEN WATERWORTH: You can't fake that. Like it's just, he's just... I'd be one of the nicest guys in sport. And he's just amazing. Before we wrap up with a set of fun sort of Olympics, I'll get to know you half and half questions. But a couple of things I wanted to quickly touch on. You mentioned the Commonwealth Games. They're obviously coming up. Can we expect to see your face on our screens? Are you going to be with Shervo? I mean, anything you can give us today, Emma and all, that we can learn about this?
EMMA FREEDMAN: Yeah, the dynamic duo are back. We are back. We are going to be on air very early in the morning. And you know what the great thing is this time? We have been given a bit of a vote of confidence, Shervo and I, because we are 3.30am, which is horrific, to 7.30am. But that is, that is medal city. That is medal time. So because the Comm Games are in Birmingham, that is finals time for athletics, for swimming, for everything. So that's exciting. Time change is going to hurt, but it's a Comm Games. And you don't get to do them every year. And you've just got to get through it for the two weeks. And we're in for such a treat. I mean, I think projections have us winning over 60 medals, 60 gold medals.
BEN WATERWORTH: It's insane. It's just insane to think that, isn't it? Yeah, it's great. And I like to say, too, think about now that you've got this in the pipeline. Four years time, of course, are now going to be in Australia again in Victoria. And then ten years time, you've got a home Olympics. So you've got all these little things to think about. The more and more you and Matt get this chemistry going, you're going to be hosting Brisbane 2032. You guys are just going to be on everything.
EMMA FREEDMAN: I'll leave that to the gurus. Haym and Abby can do that. We just have our little fun.
BEN WATERWORTH: They're done by 2032. Come on, you guys are the new. You're Haym and Abby by then.
EMMA FREEDMAN: We have a lot of fun. And I'm, you know, Shervo and I are lucky, or we both feel lucky. Can I just tell one quick story about Shervo as well? This tells the mark of a man, right? So you finish an Olympics and you buggered like you're tired and got to the last day and we both, I think I had to go, we all had to fly out. You know how crazy that was? It was like there was no rap party because we were still in serious COVID restrictions, remember? And we all wanted to have a party and everyone was like, no. So that was, that was annoying. So I got home to Sydney and the next day with the kids and ginormous bunch of flowers rocks up in the front door. And I either thought they were from my husband, obviously, or I thought they might have been from Seven, like, you know, as a nice token of whatever. They were from Shervo. And it was like, I had the best two weeks with you. Can't wait to do it again in the future, Shervo.
BEN WATERWORTH: I'm like, fantastic.
EMMA FREEDMAN: So then I had to obviously return the gift. And the asshole wouldn't give me his address, because I don't know, I've never been to his house.
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, he's a big celebrity, Emma, too, like he doesn't want to stalk her now.
EMMA FREEDMAN: Yeah, I'm pretty sure his house is like five times the size of mine as well. He wouldn't give it to me. I was harassing production in Channel Seven. I'm like, please, I'm not going to go over to his house. This is for a gift. No, he wouldn't give it to me, because he's obviously smart enough to tell them, don't give my address to Emma. She's going to give me a gift. Anyways, part of my family owns a brewery in Victoria, and they make some great beer. And I got him a slab of beer, and I sent it to Channel Seven in Sydney and made them just leave it on the floor with his name on it. And he stumbled past and he's like, you're a dickhead, like there's a slab of beer here at work that I have to carry through and everyone's going to bite. I'm like, well, bad luck.
BEN WATERWORTH: Should have given me your address, you cheap bastard. Wow, that's awesome. Well, there you go. So nice. We love hearing those stories. Actually, and just on that, now that you brought up stories, we mentioned him before, every time we bring up Bruce McAvaney, I'd like to give an opportunity for any Bruce McAvaney stories that we like to hear, because we've got a list growing up, just adding to the legend that he's Bruce. Do you have a great Bruce story you could share with us today?
EMMA FREEDMAN: Oh, goodness. I... Oh, let me think. He's, you know what? Bruce is really funny, because Bruce is actually quite cheeky. Like, does anybody ever told you like that before?
BEN WATERWORTH: No, I don't think I've heard a cheeky Bruce story. I like this.
EMMA FREEDMAN: Like, he's just funny. Like, he'll say things sometimes on air, and they'll wash over some people's heads, and then other times I'm like, that is so, so funny. Like, there's this horse at the moment going around called Kiss On All Four Cheeks. Like, the way that Bruce talks about him, cracks me up. Like, I don't have a specific Bruce, because I've never actually sat next to Bruce for like a time. Like, we're always down the line. He's in Adelaide, or I'm out and about in the field in Sydney and he's on set hosting. So, I'm hoping to gather some really great ones, but I reckon if you pressed people a little further, you would discover that Bruce has an epic sense of humour. Like, when he's relaxed and happy.
BEN WATERWORTH: I'm going to, because like this repertoire, we're getting this like nice little Bruce Bank. I like to call it the Bruce Bank.
EMMA FREEDMAN: A Bruce Bank.
BEN WATERWORTH: A Bruce Bank. And if we ever get Bruce on the show, like obviously, you know, we press him on it. Okay, here we go.
EMMA FREEDMAN: Yep. This is just funny. This is not like an epic story. But so recently, my uncles, Michael and Richard, they were training in partnership in Sydney, and they have gone their separate ways. So one is training. They're both training outright from each other. Anyways, we always joke that my family's like, it's a mess. Like there's so many of us and everyone's, there's someone always warring with someone else. Like it's just game of Thrones style. It's game of Thrones, right? In our family. And Bruce sends me a text a couple of weeks ago. And all it said was, Hi Emma, hope you're having a great day. Goodness, your family is, has more drama in it than the Kardashians. And I wrote back and I said, yes, Bruce, just like the Kardashians, all the drama, but less plastic surgery. And he wrote back and he went, are you sure?
BEN WATERWORTH: Wow, that might be the most epic thing I've ever heard because on so many levels, Bruce texts you in itself, and he knows the Kardashians. Like, do we just picture Bruce sitting there at home on like a Friday night? Just like, oh, let's watch the card. What's Kim and Chloe up to this week? Special, look at them go, delicious. Like I just, I want Bruce to commentate on the Kardashians all of a sudden.
EMMA FREEDMAN: He's just the nicest man. Like he's just the best. I don't think anyone would ever have anything bad to say about Bruce. Like, yeah, like he's, thank God he's still going. Like, I'm just so pleased that, you know, he cherry picks what he wants to do nowadays because he can, right? So he's going to Birmingham for the Comm Games. He'll be there because it's the Comm Games. Bruce has to be there. Yeah. And then with racing, you know, he does, he's been hosting on air for like two months on every Saturday. And Bruce doesn't have to do that if he doesn't want to, but he wants to do it because he loves it. Yeah.
BEN WATERWORTH: I mean, it's, it's, AFL has just not been the same the last two years without his voice. It's, it's been weird, but it's yeah. As you said, he's still with us and he's still going. I mean, hopefully we're getting to get a few more Olympics out of him. At least one more with like a farewell.
EMMA FREEDMAN: Oh, there'll be more than that. The next one's only in two years. Like he's fighting fit. He's still, you know, he's still got it. I mean, Bruce isn't 80. He's, you know, he's still got many years, I reckon, ahead of him of, of, of contributing to broadcast. And it might not be, you know, doing those eight hour shifts, but just having Bruce there for a half an hour slab and getting those little gems is, it's worth its weight in gold. And for all of us little minions hanging around, get to hang out with Bruce and suck some of that knowledge and passion and energy from him. That sounds awful, but you know what I mean?
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, I think we know exactly what you mean for sure. And the fact now that I might mean we want to watch the Kardashians, if Bruce McAvaney, if it's good enough for Bruce McAvaney, it's good enough for me.
EMMA FREEDMAN: I reckon he's a big Chloe fan.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, absolutely. And also before we get to the questions, the one thing I wanted to bring up, you talked about sort of watching Marion Jones, you know, being spurred on, that sort of stuff. Of course, you did win Dancing With The Stars, Emma.
EMMA FREEDMAN: Yes.
BEN WATERWORTH: You did beat two Olympians. You did beat Matt Mitchum and Kelly Cartwright. So, like, I mean, you beat Olympians. So, like, you may not have become an Olympian, but you can hold that high. You beat an Olympic gold medallist, for God's sakes. I mean, that's got to be something.
EMMA FREEDMAN: The highest scoring dive in the history of the Olympic Games, is that correct? Does he still hold that record?
BEN WATERWORTH: I think it got beaten. I'm pretty sure it did recently. I think there was a Chinese diver who beat it, but you know what, you're right.
EMMA FREEDMAN: No, Matt's a great fella. He is living in the UK at the moment with his husband. And I think really enjoying life. So good on Matt. We trained together every day. Like, so his partner during Dancing With The Stars was married to my partner. So it was like this weird little team. And yeah, so we hung out a lot. And then Kelly, oh my gosh, Kelly. She is just divine. She's funny. She's just brash like me. She's bold. And I have a feeling Kelly's career as an athlete in some capacity is not yet done. She's not done. She's had her two kids and she's in the gym and she looks, oh my God, so fit at the moment. I just, I wouldn't put something else past Kelly in the future. I reckon she's still got something.
BEN WATERWORTH: I like those little like maybe dangles of like exclusives we're getting here on the show. It's kind of, you never know. I feel like we're going to bring that up. Did you not get invited back for All Stars? Like what was going on there?
EMMA FREEDMAN: I did get invited back to All Stars. I got invited back for the one at the end of last year, but it was coming off the back of the Olympics. I was doing too much racing. And to be honest, for me at the moment, the priority is actually doing the work, not jumping on dancing, which was a great show. And I absolutely loved it, but the timing is just not quite right. And again, I have two kids under three, so I need to pick and choose my battles. I don't know if they're going to do one more. If they do one more that fits in, I might try and wrangle my way in. But I have had a few people go, how dare they not ask you? And I don't know, they did get asked, but it just wasn't the right time.
BEN WATERWORTH: Do you then also, because I love talking to Jo about this, because she's hilarious when she's like, oh no, I would never do a show like that. But then there's like seven or like nine or 10, like do they ever been asked to like, celebrity, get me out of here, survive? Like any of these shows, is this something that you constantly get asked to do? And what's the weirdest one you ever got asked to do?
EMMA FREEDMAN: She's been asked to do a lot as well. She has.
BEN WATERWORTH: She said she's been asked to do a few, but she just doesn't want to do one.
EMMA FREEDMAN: Yeah, like I don't want to do them either, to be honest, because I just enjoy doing my work too much, like what I'm doing. I was asked to do, I think it was the first series of, I'm a celebrity, get me out of here. And I was like, I'm not a celebrity. Like, so why are you asking me? So I thought that was really strange.
BEN WATERWORTH: You're a star, not a celebrity. I see what it is there, Dancing With The Stars.
EMMA FREEDMAN: No, the Dancing With The Stars one I wanted to do because it's like you're learning a new skill and it's like...
BEN WATERWORTH: Sure, Emma, sure. Just turn it up. Come on. You're a star.
EMMA FREEDMAN: But yeah, I was asked to do that and I haven't been asked to do anything else. So...
BEN WATERWORTH: I'm hoping survivor. I'm a survivor nut. So I was like, you know, you could have gone up against Bradbury.
EMMA FREEDMAN: Our producer was like, on my shift, Glenn, who is a terrific producer. He works primarily on the AFL. He's like, are you going to do SAS Australia? I'm like, no, Matt. It became this like running joke that he wanted me to do SAS Australia, which is obviously on Seven and it's a great show. But I'm like, no, I'd rather watch those people in huge amounts of pain and do it myself. Like, as I said, the work for me is the ultimate priority because I want to be working on Olympics for many years to come. And to do that, you've got to be doing the work.
BEN WATERWORTH: You've done Seven, you've done Nine. I think you did a brief thing on Ten. You were a guest host on The Circle of the Earth. Have you done SBS and ABC? Like are you ticking off all the networks? You've done Foxtel as well. So I mean, you know, SBS, ABC.
EMMA FREEDMAN: I'd like to have remained in one place, but the way the world works, it hasn't really worked out for me like that. So I was at Nine for a long time. And then I got the flick from there. And then I went back there.
BEN WATERWORTH: It's called boned at Channel Nine, isn't it? Isn't that the legal term at Channel Nine?
EMMA FREEDMAN: I went back though. How did I go? I went back for like two or three years. That's mental. And then, yeah, like now I'm just kind of hips, like skipping around a bit, but mostly with Seven. So yeah, it's a, I think a lot of people, except for Bruce and for Grigsy, like they're so lucky they've been at the same place for so long. And now I hope that going forward, I am just with The One Network because I'm getting really sick of changing security passes.
BEN WATERWORTH: There you go if you're listening to this, Nick. That's why she wants to stay with Seven.
EMMA FREEDMAN: I like working with Nick and Louie, our big boss in sport. He's terrific as well. We've, you know, we have a laugh and I love Louie's calls that, you know, call me randomly. You know, we're going to do this, okay, stand by. And then that's the end of the conversation. Like, cool, mate.
BEN WATERWORTH: I got the, when I was, the day that I was like bedridden with COVID, check the phone and he actually had left me a voice message.
EMMA FREEDMAN: This is so nice.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, I think I met him once. And then sort of, I think I told Joe the next day, he left a voice message, wow, that's not like him. I was like, oh, I don't know, like, what am I doing?
EMMA FREEDMAN: No, he's just so like, I got COVID in January and I was super, super stressed because obviously that was just before winter's. Like we went to, we went down like the end of Jan's. I think I got a second week of Jan from Magic Millions when I was up there working for Seven as well. I was so distraught because I was going to miss one weekend of racing. Like what is wrong with me? I was so upset with it. Louis called me and he's like, Em, we'll get around you, it's absolutely fine. You know what the best thing is? You're going to be clear for the Olympics. This is unreal. This is actually the best timing for you to get it because we're all going to get it. So like that is, and I know that's, you'd hope that's the attitude of most workplaces around the country or the world at the moment, but I don't know if it necessarily is. And so literally within an hour, I, and I couldn't get any rat tests. Like this was during the rat test shortage. Do you remember that? Now you can go buy them like at a 7-Eleven.
BEN WATERWORTH: Like, yeah, exactly. Giving them away.
EMMA FREEDMAN: This was during the rat test shortage, like the great rat test shortage of 2022.
BEN WATERWORTH: January 22nd, yeah.
EMMA FREEDMAN: And so literally within an hour, someone from Seven was at my door with like 30 rat tests. Cause I had to test, everyone in my family kept having to test.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah.
EMMA FREEDMAN: And I was like, this is pretty cool.
BEN WATERWORTH: I mean, I like, Thanks for caring guys. Yeah. Well, I mean, I can't, I can't express how well I was treated in that whole series. It was ridiculous. I think I had two people buy me groceries that afternoon. It was like, Jesus, all right. Like I'm happy with one lot of groceries, but sure. And so Stephen Bradbury gave me beer. I was like, what else can I say?
EMMA FREEDMAN: Oh, he's in Stephen just, what a nice guy. What a good guy.
BEN WATERWORTH: That's one of those moments you're talking about, like the 20 years ago, Thorpey watching him working with him, all of a sudden you're literally 20 years when we were doing that, weren't we?
EMMA FREEDMAN: And you've done a chat with Stephen as well.
BEN WATERWORTH: Tad him on a couple of weeks ago. Yeah. And the funniest thing with Stephen is that I interviewed him like, I want to say 2009 for a breakfast show I had in Hobart. And so when I met him in person, I said, oh, like I interviewed you, like, you know, blah, blah, blah. And he sort of looked at me and he's like, wow, you know, you made it when you're on breakfast radio in Hobart. Like, just all in good fun. Bang. Yep, that was great. Burn. Sweet. Thanks, Stephen.
EMMA FREEDMAN: But his stories are made, like I could talk, I could talk about, but I could listen to his story, be talked about.
BEN WATERWORTH: Have you read his book? Have you read his autobiography?
EMMA FREEDMAN: I haven't read the book, but my husband went to a, he did a, he does, you know, obviously does corporate speaking. I'm not sure if he still does it. This was probably a decade ago. And he, this was a big corporate chat that my husband went to and he learned so much, not only about his will to win and his determination, but his history, because a lot of people thought, you know, that gold medal was, oh, you know, doing a Bradbury la la, but his history and his form going into those Olympics was actually extraordinary. And he was a deserved winner.
BEN WATERWORTH: Absolutely. And like, I, I'm not a big reader as, as Colin listening to this would laugh based on jokes and other shows that we do together, but it's, it's seriously one of the best autobiographies I've ever read. And yeah, all the detail that you're talking about there, like the injuries he went through and just everything. And even when he was on a couple of weeks ago, he sort of, you know, said that like, you know, he had that one sort of heat in Salt Lake and he, he skated his best. And that was, that was good. Like he, four Olympics, he hadn't skated his best and finally he did. And then he goes on to win a gold. So it's an incredible story. And we like to wrap up every into series of, I guess, get to know you style questions. Now these are based off a Team Canada questionnaire they gave their athletes ahead of Rio and Pyeongchang. Just a bit of fun. This will be weird, won't it? Yeah, I might have to tailor some of these around the fact that you haven't been to an Olympics, but we can work with that. As always, you should be, it's really disgusting that you haven't been to an Olympics. You gotta work on that. Yeah, not the first person to say that on this show. There's a drawing, you don't have to, but if you feel the need, there's a couple of drawing questions. So there's a question, you draw a picture of yourself, you can draw it and send it into us, we can put it on social media.
EMMA FREEDMAN: Okay, I was trying to look for a pen, I couldn't find one.
BEN WATERWORTH: Oh no, you don't have to do it live, it's all good. There's like draw a picture of your favourite animal. So things like that. If you're bored today and you want to send us in, we'll gladly accept it. Cool.
EMMA FREEDMAN: Was that it? Oh, it's starting again.
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, thanks for the show, Emma, well done. She's like, fuck, hurry up, Ben, I've got to go, this is shit.
EMMA FREEDMAN: No, no, no, I was like, that's really random, no, if that's what Team Canada gave all of their athletes heading into an Olympics, I'd be like. They're very basic. Did you take us seriously?
BEN WATERWORTH: Just draw a picture and you're off to the Olympics. There you go. We'll start off with, you kind of, I mean, answer this sort of when you were broadcasting, but this is overall your entire life, watching the Olympics, your favourite ever Olympic moment is?
EMMA FREEDMAN: Oh, like everyone says, Cathy, but it is, but it probably is that moment because if you're as an Australian, it's got to be up there.
BEN WATERWORTH: We all remember it. I mean, we also all remember Bruce's call. Like I can recite Bruce's call off the top of my head, basically, it's that famous, so.
EMMA FREEDMAN: I think that is, and then the other one, which is the Jackie Naricott looking at the medal, like that is, that's something that I will never ever forget is just that look on her face and how joyous it made her. So, I mean, they're a bit boring and cliche, but that's why they're the best.
BEN WATERWORTH: I hope your answers get better from this, Emma, because this really, I expected better from you. That was a shit. As a kid, who was your favourite sports team?
EMMA FREEDMAN: Oh, well, I'm an Essendon fan in the AFL, so.
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, this interview has been fun, Emma. Thanks for joining us.
EMMA FREEDMAN: Are you a Collingwood fan?
BEN WATERWORTH: Oh, fuck off. I'm a Colton man. I'm not that bad, but I'm sick sort of.
EMMA FREEDMAN: You're on all. We're going to win the Premiership this year. We're back.
BEN WATERWORTH: Been saying that since 1996. Come on.
EMMA FREEDMAN: Yeah, no, Essendon. I mean, hey, we put in that Anzac Day game. We were better. We were better. So hopefully.
BEN WATERWORTH: You came within, like, double digits this time. Good job. It was an effort.
EMMA FREEDMAN: Honestly, it's been a grim start to the year.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah. And do you, like, when you go to Sydney, do you get on board and doing stuff on, like, Fox League? I mean, do you, are you allowed to say who you go for and you have to be unbiased in terms of?
EMMA FREEDMAN: Oh, well, I'm from Melbourne, so I'm a Storm fan, which has been great the last 10 years. But also my dad is a bunnies man, so I've got a bit of a soft spot for the bunnies. And then I live opposite the SCG, so I would have to say the Roosters as well. But no, I'm more of a, like, if the Storm are playing, but in terms of, like, devout following, like, I'm a paid up Essendon member, like, I'll go when I can. I've done some work for the club before, so that's, if there's one club that I'm really die hard for, it's the Bombers.
BEN WATERWORTH: And I always love hearing the story. Was that just like, you grew up in an precedent household, like you go for the Bombers or you move out? Or was there a moment like growing up where you're going like, I'm going to go for the Bombers?
EMMA FREEDMAN: Yeah, so my dad was a North Melbourne fan. Oh, that's grim. You're talking about...
BEN WATERWORTH: They have fans? Wow.
EMMA FREEDMAN: My dad's a North Melbourne fan and he always wanted us to be, you know, to go for the Kangas as well. But we did swimming lessons at Windy Hill, which was the, at the time, the Essendon training base. And I remember going to one and outside of the pool was the oval and they were training. And I stood there for like 20 minutes after my swimming lesson, just watching training and I was like, I'm a bomber now.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, so is that like Lloyd Hurd, like people like that back in the day?
EMMA FREEDMAN: Yeah, it was, yeah. So it was like the early, not early mid nineties. So they were there.
BEN WATERWORTH: Um, you'd have, you'd have had like bomber Thompson back then and, and people like that probably as well.
EMMA FREEDMAN: He might've just been wrapping things up, I guess. Blake Carosella. Yeah.
BEN WATERWORTH: Oh yeah.
EMMA FREEDMAN: Yeah.
BEN WATERWORTH: Good names. I look, I would be completely. Gavin Wanganine. Oh yes. Yes. I, um, as a kid, I actually did have a bit of a soft spot for the bombers. I will say, uh, I remember 93 turning to my dad at halftime going, dad, we're losing. Can I go for Essendon? Not a good thing as a Colton supporter to say to your dad and he nearly kicked me out of home as a six year old.
EMMA FREEDMAN: But I still say that now on weekends. Like if you think, you know what? Now I'm a Lions fan. My sister actually, she was an Essendon fan until she met her fiance and now she goes for Geelong.
BEN WATERWORTH: See, that's just wrong.
EMMA FREEDMAN: It's so wrong. Is it?
BEN WATERWORTH: It's, I'm sorry, you never change teams. That's just, that's just not on.
EMMA FREEDMAN: We're all sore spot in our family.
BEN WATERWORTH: Stee, I would disown her. She's no longer your sister. Like what the hell?
EMMA FREEDMAN: I know.
BEN WATERWORTH: If you could be any superhero, who would you be?
EMMA FREEDMAN: Oh my God, I'm not really a superhero kind of person if I'm being honest, but like Batman would be pretty cool. Is Batman a superhero? Like I'd like to fly.
BEN WATERWORTH: He absolutely is. Yeah.
EMMA FREEDMAN: I'm not really into it. I don't even know the difference between like DC and Marvel. Like I know, just get me out of here now.
BEN WATERWORTH: Marvel, like this is unpopular opinion. People are going to shut me down. I'm a DC over Marvel guy any day of the week. So Batman's DC.
EMMA FREEDMAN: It's not my bag. So yeah, there you go.
BEN WATERWORTH: Okay, cool. Awesome. Your favourite music artists are?
EMMA FREEDMAN: So like I am a Devout Bombers fan, I'm a Devout Kylie Minogue fan.
BEN WATERWORTH: Oh, there you go. You redeemed yourself. Good job.
EMMA FREEDMAN: I've always just absolutely loved her. Red Hot Chili Peppers, they're like a full gamut of really strange different music, but like so love them so much that I went to their Sydney concert when I was 30 weeks pregnant with Will, I think.
BEN WATERWORTH: Wow.
EMMA FREEDMAN: And was standing up dancing and people looking at me like, who is this really pregnant woman?
BEN WATERWORTH: She went dancing with the stars. She's a celebrity. Sorry, a star, not a celebrity. Oh my God.
EMMA FREEDMAN: So the chili peppers, yeah, I love, I've always loved them. And then, yeah, Kylie's just my, like, she's my North star.
BEN WATERWORTH: I just Do you, in your days in radio, like, did you get to interview her? Have you interacted with Kylie? No, it hasn't happened.
EMMA FREEDMAN: Never.
BEN WATERWORTH: What's your favourite Kylie song?
EMMA FREEDMAN: Favourite Kylie song? Probably probably can't get you out of my head because it was so different and iconic and new for the time like that white jumpsuit that she was wearing with the hood was like, this is just phenomenal. Like it was just so brand new. But then the album that she did, like maybe this is getting in deep, like maybe 10 years ago, it was called Aphrodite. There's some great songs on that song.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah. Yeah, no, that's a great album. Yeah.
EMMA FREEDMAN: Get Out Of My Way. Is that one of the ones that's called?
BEN WATERWORTH: Yes.
EMMA FREEDMAN: Yeah. I love that song. I think that's a, you know what, that's a great song for an Olympic promo package.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, absolutely. Channel Seven, if you're listening, come on, that's um.
EMMA FREEDMAN: I'm going to just give it to the editors and say, make it.
BEN WATERWORTH: That actually, I'm glad you brought that album up because that is an underrated Kylie album.
EMMA FREEDMAN: He's an underrated Kylie album.
BEN WATERWORTH: It gets forgotten along the way, I think. And even like the title track, Aphrodite, that's just stuck in my head all of a sudden right now that as soon as you say that. And what was the one she did? God, we're really getting to Kylie Minogue territory now.
EMMA FREEDMAN: I know.
BEN WATERWORTH: Had like two hearts on it. Was that the one before Aphrodite? I think that had like two hearts on it. Was it called Two Hearts? The album? I don't know. Anyway, good album. Oh no, it was X. It was Kylie X.
EMMA FREEDMAN: Yeah, I think that wasn't my favourite, to be honest, obviously, because I'm a fan of that one. But I like the Aphrodite album. I was like, this is if you like Kylie, like if you don't like it, don't go listen to it because it's pure pop.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah. And the great thing about Can't Get You Out Of My Head, as soon as you mention over in this part of the world, Kylie, I know they look at you and you go can't get you out of my head. Oh yeah, I know who you're talking about now because Do they really? She's not that big in America.
EMMA FREEDMAN: She's big in the UK still, isn't she?
BEN WATERWORTH: I think she's bigger in the UK than Australia almost, isn't she?
EMMA FREEDMAN: Yeah, right.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah. He's a bonus question for you. Do you think they'll get her to come back to Neighbours now that Neighbours is ending? Do you think they'll like, Like for like a last little appearance, like how big would that be final episode of Neighbours? They get Kylie Minogue back.
EMMA FREEDMAN: Maybe she's like, you know what she could be? She could be like, um, she could be like at the waitress at a cafe or something like that and just like a little cameo, you know, just like no one even knows it's her.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah.
EMMA FREEDMAN: Yes. Oh my God.
BEN WATERWORTH: I mean, she's failed.
EMMA FREEDMAN: Poor Neighbours.
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, I mean, when ER ended, they got George Clooney back. So I mean, you never know. Like they could do it. So if you could eat only one food for the rest of your life, what would it be?
EMMA FREEDMAN: One is, is peanut butter a food?
BEN WATERWORTH: Hey, it is now. It's got grapes in it.
EMMA FREEDMAN: If I could like eat just like good sourdough and butter for the rest of my life and not get fat, I can't just do it because I just like good bread and butter is just unbelievable. Like it's unbelievable. I could live off that. But I can't. So simple for me.
BEN WATERWORTH: But no, simple for a reason that works for me. Have you ever made sourdough? Was that the thing you didn't lock down at all?
EMMA FREEDMAN: I didn't do the sourdough starter. I didn't get into that. I, my life was going better than that. You know, a friend of mine who I used to work with, he actually ended up like he was always a good baker. And then during lockdowns, he got really into like doing sourdough starters and stuff. And now he's like quit his job and now he works at a bakery.
BEN WATERWORTH: Wow. Okay.
EMMA FREEDMAN: Actually lockdown was like a massive career change for him.
BEN WATERWORTH: That was just a sliding doors moment for him. It was like, boom, this is where you're meant to be.
EMMA FREEDMAN: Sometimes a sourdough starter actually can be the starter for something else.
BEN WATERWORTH: Who knows? Me podcasting might lead to me actually doing a job for him someday. You might know some people, Emma. It's fine. Now, this is your favourite place to compete in. Let's go with your favourite place to like work in. Let's go like, have you been like, what's a Bathurst or like the Melbourne Cup? Like, where's your favourite place where you kind of like to work?
EMMA FREEDMAN: It's Royal Randwick. So which is, you know, a great racetrack for non-race, race fans, racing fans in Sydney. It's probably the preeminent track in Sydney. And it's just, it's gorgeous. It's just got a great vibe. You know, a big race day at Royal Randwick. I just can't beat it. Having said that, Bathurst was unbelievable. I was a bit like sketchy on it going, I don't know if I'm going to like, how much I'm going to love it. I loved it. I loved it.
BEN WATERWORTH: The one thing I think I find with anything super cars is they are maybe some of the most approachable athletes in any sport. Like they're all just so approachable and down to earth. That's the one thing I'll say about supercar athletes, the drivers.
EMMA FREEDMAN: Access is unbelievable. Like you can walk into any garage and be like, Hey, so-and-so, do you want to chat? Yeah, cool, no worries. Do you want to do it now? Yeah, is that okay? Or is it any other sport? I feel like you have to put in like 30 requests with media managers and you might get 90 seconds. They've got a lot of sports, have a lot to learn from supercars, I think.
BEN WATERWORTH: Completely, completely great. And just on the racing side of things, as a proud Tasmanian, did you ever get to the Hobart Cup, Emma?
EMMA FREEDMAN: I have not been racing in Hobart yet.
BEN WATERWORTH: Not me so much. It's fine.
EMMA FREEDMAN: Oh, okay, really? So don't go? Great recommendation.
BEN WATERWORTH: I've been going a few times as a kid and it was just like, you know, okay, cool.
EMMA FREEDMAN: Next on the list is probably the Darwin, the Darwin meeting, which I've never been to. So the Darwin Cup, which is in the middle of the year, that's probably like I've been to Birdsville. That was pretty cool. That was if you haven't seen the Birdsville races, which happened only a couple of weeks ago. So in April, that's a spectacle.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah. All right. I guarantee you better than Hobart Cup. You're welcome to learn that. What is one thing that you've always wanted to do?
EMMA FREEDMAN: Like work?
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, the answer for this one, the athlete here said run a marathon. So maybe like a bucket list thing that you've always, you know, like.
EMMA FREEDMAN: Yeah. Well, I've done a half. So I've done a few halves. I'd probably like to be able to do a full, but I'm not going to.
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, if you've done two half marathons, you've technically done a marathon.
EMMA FREEDMAN: Yeah. No, to be honest. And this is not just because we're on an Olympics podcast, but it is to go to an Olympics to work at an Olympics. So I've done them in studio now and hopefully Paris. If we're still all happy days and I'm seven, I've got the rights and I'd like to go to an Olympics because I don't think anything would beat the spectacle of it in real life.
BEN WATERWORTH: And I think you've got a few good ones for the next summer. Paris, great. Los Angeles, pretty great. Brisbane, home Olympics, great.
EMMA FREEDMAN: The next three are actually so good. And like, that's not to say that the others have been not good, but they're cities that you can see hosting Olympics, right? Because there's been other ones where you go, what is that? Sochi, right?
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah.
EMMA FREEDMAN: Is that happening?
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, sure. Sochi, great. That looks pretty good now eight years later, doesn't it? How that played out. What is your favourite movie?
EMMA FREEDMAN: My favourite two movies, I am a real musical fan. Greece and the Sun music.
BEN WATERWORTH: Nice. All right. You'd love it here. I've been to a couple of Broadway shows over here. I mean, you need to come over to New York. Like it's just a feast for the eyes of all the music.
EMMA FREEDMAN: Like I can't wait to show my kids that. And like they've just seen a little bit of Mary Poppins and my little boy runs around going, step in time, step in time. Come on, matey, step in time.
BEN WATERWORTH: Wow. Learning a lot.
EMMA FREEDMAN: It's a very diverse education in our house.
BEN WATERWORTH: I can see.
EMMA FREEDMAN: On the week. Actually, this morning, he's got a yellow race car and we always have the Grand Prix on recorded on a Monday morning, just like during breakfast. You know, that's we don't really have the TV on any other morning, but on a Monday morning and a Saturday morning because we have to watch Sky Central just to get like scratchings and stuff for the race day. But on Monday morning and we'll said, we watched fast cars this morning. I said, no, that's on a Monday, but that's on a Monday. What day is it? Wednesday. Oh, he was really sad. So on the weekends, it's all sport. And then during the week, we're Mary Poppins singing Dick Van Dyke.
BEN WATERWORTH: Standard week. That's generally how all kids should be raised. If you ask me. Now, this question is my favourite place of visiting Canada, but let's change it up to my favourite place of visit in Australia is.
EMMA FREEDMAN: Oh, my husband's family has a great beach house in a town called Port Elliot, which is about an hour out of Adelaide, which we spend a lot of time to. And it's kind of a happy place. We got engaged there and it's a great pub and beautiful beach and just a very relaxing time. If I'm going on holidays or anywhere up, like anywhere in in Queensland, I feel like we haven't been on a holiday for forever and a day. So we did a family trip. Yeah, I know. We did a family trip to Noosa a few years ago with Noosa. But it was so good. It is really nice.
BEN WATERWORTH: I know it's like you can't not say it like I'm going to go somewhere off the beaten track somewhere about Bush.
EMMA FREEDMAN: I know. But Port Elliot is the happy place. I think. Yeah.
BEN WATERWORTH: Okay. I like that. Your favourite cartoon to watch growing up was?
EMMA FREEDMAN: Oh, God almighty. Cartoon to watch.
BEN WATERWORTH: If you get sick of the cartoons now, if you got kids like you might be like, well, we're just deep into Bluey at the moment, which is have you watched it? I'm about, I think, 20 years older and don't have kids. I watch.
EMMA FREEDMAN: I really enjoy it. Yeah, it's a little just it's there's some pearls of wisdom there. They're kind of designed for the adults as well. When I was a kid, we were really old school with just Disney films. Like we didn't watch a lot of actual cartoons, but we watched, you know, Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King, The Little Mermaid, like all those really old ones on rotation. And then there was like just a heap of sound of music. So I didn't really have, God, it sounds like I came from a really strange like household, but we didn't sit and watch a lot of cartoons.
BEN WATERWORTH: So it sounds this rotation though, as you're saying, like now you got kids, you watch Mary Poppins and sport, and you were doing the same, but with sound of music, yes, that's exactly right.
EMMA FREEDMAN: And you've just you've just hit the nail on the head. Maybe I just couldn't put my finger on it, but that's exactly what it was. We watched a lot of there was a lot of racing on telly, and there was a lot of sport on telly, and those classic movies, and that's kind of what's happening in our house now, apart from Bluey. So yeah, it works.
BEN WATERWORTH: There's a reason why, right? Like it just keeps cycling, and then you know, now your kids will do that, and they'll just keep going up.
EMMA FREEDMAN: They'll continue. Yeah. Strange like a child, strange childhoods for my children's children.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah. Who knows what they're going to be doing in like 30. We might be able to the pandemic by then. Maybe. Who knows? Now this relating to the music question before, I don't know if this will be the same answer. You might have a go to for this one. If you had to do karaoke, what would you sing?
EMMA FREEDMAN: Oh, something from Matchbox 20. Rob Thomas is so like, he can really put on that, that like accent, don't you feel? Like it's a real twang when he sings.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah.
EMMA FREEDMAN: Probably something from like Matchbox 20.
BEN WATERWORTH: Are they still around? Like have they released anything? Like how is old Rob in Matchbox?
EMMA FREEDMAN: You know, like, I think Rob was like, Rob's a bit of a guru. Like, he might not be for you, but or for anyone at home, but I think, yeah, I think they're great karaoke songs.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, no. Well, I mean, but that's the thing I think with like, it's all well and good to have like your favourite artist, but there's a difference between a karaoke song, right?
EMMA FREEDMAN: Oh, yeah. No, no, no. You don't want to do your favourite artist for karaoke, because then you're not doing it.
BEN WATERWORTH: You're ruining it, you know. Correct. Exactly. Whereas a karaoke, like, absolutely. And it's also, I think when you do a karaoke song, sometimes you realise like, yeah, there's a reason why I'm not a singer and these songs are hard to sing.
EMMA FREEDMAN: Yeah, yeah. But also you need to choose songs that like will get people like up and about or that they know as well. Yeah, I reckon, but my sister-in-law, she's taken to doing Shallow from A Star Is Born recently. For karaoke. And that's like, it's great, but it's also like pretty depressing.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, I was going to say, it's not the most upbeat song, is it?
EMMA FREEDMAN: The other one that was good at her wedding recently was two guys who were absolute crackers. They did that song. There's a Western song called Wagon Wheel. Have you ever heard? I hadn't really. Go look it up. That's funny. And there's actions to it. So that's a good one for karaoke.
BEN WATERWORTH: Any song with actions.
EMMA FREEDMAN: Yeah.
BEN WATERWORTH: Wins. Wow. Okay. I'm liking this homework. Last question for you today, and now the question here is, if you could be an Olympian in any sport other than your own, what would you choose? We're going to choose this right now. If you could be an Olympian in any sport right now, you are an Olympian. Are you going to be doing the Marion Jones 100m steel? Or is there another sport you'd like to give a crack to become an Olympian?
EMMA FREEDMAN: No good at team sports. So that's off the table for me. Can't look at a black line for hours on end. So swimming's off the table for me. I did a bit of diving as a kid, but like when I was doing getting into like inward dives, whereas you stand on the, you know, people know I'm talking about you're saying on the edge, looking back at the board and going in inward. I'd get terrified that I was going to bang my head on the board, which I never was going to do. So diving's off the chart of the cards for me as well. So it'd have to be athletics. It would have to probably be like the 100 is like that gold metal kind of blue reband event. But I think in terms of like a spectacle, like we just keep talking back to Kathy, but the 400 is just, I think the 400 is a great test of both endurance and also spring capacity as well.
BEN WATERWORTH: Completely agree. I've got to ask you, and Life agrees you're there too. You've just got like a ding going on there.
EMMA FREEDMAN: That's a text from a producer at Channel Seven going, can you re-voice this opener for the weekend? I'm not joking you, which I will.
BEN WATERWORTH: Wow. They know we're talking about them basically. I mean, I just wanted to quickly ask. So, I mean, obviously, you know, I'm going to put the connections between horse racing and equestrian because they've both got horses and it's clearly the same thing. Ever been tempted to get involved in dressage at all? And like, do you even know what the fuck's going on in dressage?
EMMA FREEDMAN: Zero interest, like love watching it. A great appreciation for people who do it. But I have got, I sound, I have zero talent in that area. Like I just, I can appreciate it. And it's so much hard work. It's also super expensive. It's just one of those sports that you've got to pour so much money and time and energy into. I've got a great friend who's back on her horse at the moment after having a couple of kids. And, you know, she's not Olympic standard dressage rider, but she's, you know, she's giving a good crack. And, geez, the travel and the time and the money and the effort that has to go into that is something that just doesn't appeal to me at the moment.
BEN WATERWORTH: I'm going to get on the bottom, to the bottom of that one day, just what the hell they're doing with those things and everything.
EMMA FREEDMAN: Yeah, there's a lot going on. Who was it that did the commentary, Snoop Dogg, during the...
BEN WATERWORTH: And Kevin Hart, right?
EMMA FREEDMAN: Yeah, in the Tokyo Olympics. They're like, these horses are dancing. Who bloody knows what's going on?
BEN WATERWORTH: Exactly, but any sport then when you got the legend that is Andrew Hoi winning medals at like, what, 62 or whatever he was in Tokyo?
EMMA FREEDMAN: I mean, he's a marvel.
BEN WATERWORTH: Just insane, just insane. Emma, before we let you go, for people who wish to stay up to date with what you've got going on in your life, social media, website, where can people stay up to date with what you do?
EMMA FREEDMAN: I have a Twitter, but I haven't looked at it in eight years, so don't go there, I'm not joking you.
BEN WATERWORTH: I'm going to look at it now, see what you were thinking back in 2014. You were talking about the Special Olympics probably.
EMMA FREEDMAN: Honestly, I don't use that. The only one I use is Instagram, so I think I'm... Am I... You're asking me!
BEN WATERWORTH: Hang on, I'll look this up for you, but don't worry.
EMMA FREEDMAN: I think it's M underscore Freedman, or EM underscore Freedman, or is it Emma? Oh my god, I should know this.
BEN WATERWORTH: Emma underscore Freedman.
EMMA FREEDMAN: Emma underscore Freedman is my Instagram, and I don't use Facebook, and I don't have a website. I'm pretty much technologically illiterate, so I only can manage one thing. I have made myself sound like the world's biggest Jerry.
BEN WATERWORTH: You are an Essendon supporter, Emma. So it's fine you're allowed to do that. But this has been a lot of fun. I really appreciate your time and learning about everything. And it's always good to have a star on this show and not a celebrity.
EMMA FREEDMAN: You're a joke, mate. I'll see you soon. See you back here for Congo.
BEN WATERWORTH: And a massive thanks to Emma there for her time. Fun chat, dancing with the celebrities doesn't quite sound as good, dancing with the stars, Emma's a star. And it's always fun to get people like Emma on the show who are maybe known for a little bit more outside of what they've done for the Olympics, of course, Emma, from racing royalty family in Australia, and really known for her coverage of a lot of racing events in Australia. And just to learn a little bit more about her passion for the Olympics. We had that last year, of course, when we had Lisa Staliker on the show. Of course, a legend in Australian cricketing circles. Obviously wouldn't really get to chance to talk much about her Olympic passion. So always good to be able to chat to people like Emma and Lisa about that. And we obviously appreciate Emma's time on the show and learning a little bit more about her involvement in the Olympics. So a lot of fun to be had there. We have a lot of fun to come, of course, when it comes on this show. We have got some great interviews and great guests coming up. But next week, you are going to hear a clip show because you love clip shows. And it's our biggest clip show yet. It is the best Off The Podium part five in our 250th episode. How is that happening? How are we at 250 episodes? I have no idea. So you are going to hear clips next week of every episode between 201 to 249. There's a bunch of great guests. And of course, all the coverage that we had of the Beijing Olympics. We had so much fun doing those Olympics earlier in the year that you will hear the best bits of those days. Of course, we covered every single day, except for one really, because some of us had COVID. So we had to take a day off in the middle of those Olympics. But a lot of fun to be had. And you also hear, of course, some of those little moments that led to us just winning an award. We like to mention that every now and then. We are an award winning podcast now. So of course, that will be next week in the best of Off The Podium Part Five. Get excited. Get behind that. If you like the show, if you like what we're doing, we appreciate your support. Hit us up on social media, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and of course, YouTube, as well to see video interviews with some of our guests. And of course, if you like the show too and never want to miss an episode, you can subscribe to us on all the good podcast platforms. Simply search for Off The Podium wherever you get your podcast. Mash that subscribe button. And while you're there, why not leave some feedback? We'd love to hear what you think of the show. And as always, if you want us to get a guest, track down somebody on the show. There's a particular topic you'd like us to bring up in an episode when Jarrod and Colin join me. By all means, let us know. We'd love to hear from you. We'd love your feedback and we'd love the support that you give. So thank you for listening and that's how you get involved. Big thanks again to Emma. My name is Ben. Of course, shout out to Jason Momoa as always, and remember, go left.
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