Gold Coast 2018 Opening Ceremonies and Days 1-3
We are back, and coming to you live from the Gold Coast.... well, at least one of us is. Ben takes time out of his busy day working the Boxing venue to tell us all about his experiences behind the scenes of working the Commonwealth Games. Who will come out on top between the Aussies and Canadians in the pool? Which boxer could fist bump Ben to the ground? Which Canadian commentator just cuts in and out of coverage as he pleases? What was the giant inflatable whale like up close at dress rehearsals? What is DAZN and why is it not carrying Netball? Why is Colin demanding Olympic success from his 2 year old son? And how many places in Queensland can one run into Tom Daley? It's the on the scene podcast coverage of the Commonwealth Games that will make you scream Jai Ho!
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
Please note this is an automated transcript that may contain errors.
COLIN HILDING: We're back on Off The Podium, so soon after the Pyeongchang Olympics, so soon after our preview episode for the Commonwealth Games, where we promised everybody that we may or may not be back during the Commonwealth Games. So we have lived up to our promise of may or may not be back, and we've decided to lean on the be back side. We're now what, four days in, three, four days in to the Commonwealth Games, and we're minus one person here today because I'm sure he's competing or something in the Netball. Now that's equality in the Commonwealth Games. My name is Colin, and I'm joined by... What is your official title? Are you allowed to say on here?
BEN WATERWORTH: Can I first of all say, Jingiri everybody. That is the official welcome that everybody who's working here is getting sick of saying, but we love saying it at the same time. Yes, I am the Mixed Zone Manager for Boxing. Otherwise, it's just easily referred to as Press Operations. Yes, I'm allowed to say my title. I'm not, I don't know, some secret job. What job can't you say your title? Secret Agent for Russia Poisoning People in Britain or something like that.
COLIN HILDING: I don't know.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yes, CIA. I'm not a CIA agent. I'm a barista.
COLIN HILDING: But when you said Mixed Zone Manager or whatever, I was picturing like Mickey from the Rocky movies, like in the corner, you know, stay down, Rock, stay down. But you don't get that close to the Boxers, do you?
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, actually, I mean, I get extremely close to the Boxers, as I can explain. I'm just looking at my accreditation. Sorry, I'll rephrase that. Mixed Zone Group Leader Press Operations. That's what it says on my accreditation. But I'm blue on my accreditation, which means I get field of play access. So I could go in the ring if I wanted to, which I don't want to. I've seen these guys up close. I don't want to.
COLIN HILDING: I mean, we did kind of mention on the preview episode, you're going to be working the games. So there is a reason. It's not like, you know, we just pulled some guy off the street. This is the same guy who's been hosting with us for the last couple of Olympics. And now he's moving up in the world. And pretty soon he's going to be swimming in the pool next to Ryan Lochte, bleached blonde hair.
BEN WATERWORTH: And winning too. Winning, yes.
COLIN HILDING: But I mean, we're going to talk a little bit about the opening ceremonies and the first few days of the games and how things are going for Australia, Canada, everything else. But you want to just start out by talking a little bit about the experience leading up to this. Like, because you were there, I guess, you know, a couple of weeks already. Have you seen everything kind of come together? Like, what were you actually doing? What were you being paid for the last couple of weeks?
BEN WATERWORTH: Training, basically. It's, yeah, I mean, I've been in the area for, gosh, what are we, April? Yeah, I got here at the end of February. So, you know, I was about here sort of a month, sort of before I started. And then, you know, a couple of weeks before the games, I got to go to the headquarters of Goldock and kind of do some training there. Then I've been on site. So the boxing is at a place called Oxford Studios. It's generally known as Village Roadshow Studios because it's smack bang right next to a big theme park called Movie World. And then on the other side, there's another theme park called Wet and Wild, which is a water park. It's not like some big, you know, adult experience or something like that. But yes, Oxford Theatre has squash table tennis and boxing and it's generally where movies are filmed in Queensland and the Gold Coast. So Thor Ragnarok was filmed there. Aquaman that's coming out this year was filmed there. The latest Pirates of the Caribbean. Fascinating place. But, you know, on site kind of, you know, get to see the venues and everything. And really kind of seeing it all come together, I mean, everywhere you go around here, you know, sort of I'm in between Brisbane and the Gold Coast. The places are kind of gelled into one for me. But, you know, there's just everywhere is just advertising signs. You know, everyone's like being warned not to go on the highways, you know, catch public transport, all this sort of stuff, which apparently has led to empty highways. Now no one is using the highway. Someone who was talking about this yesterday that they've never driven so quickly on the M1 to Brisbane to the Gold Coast before. But yeah, I mean, it's just, it's amazing to see everything come together. Every day I'd walk into the boxing arena before competition, things would be, you know, even more complete, like I just gradually got up there. The squash venue was looking great, table tennis. And just the atmosphere is one thing too. So many people walking around in sort of the uniforms, like the volunteer uniforms, which is kind of also what the employers wear as well. And it's just everyone's talking about it. Everything is just so efficient. And since the games have started, just how amazingly well organised everything is. It's crazy. Like you want to get to a venue, you just get on a train and all the sort of announcements over the PA system is basically, you know, this is your stop if you're wanting to go to the gymnastics or the, you know, the triathlon or the swimming and like just the signage and just, it's just been so easily accessible and so well organised. So yeah, everything's come together well. I think everyone, you know, you get on the train and you've got someone sitting next to you who realises you work with the Commonwealth Games, so they just start this conversation with you. What are you doing at the Games? How are you enjoying it? Or you've been busy? And yeah, and just also sort of, you know, in the lead up going into some of the main hubs and seeing a bunch of the athletes kind of just walking around in all the team uniforms. You know, I got to meet the Fijian Netball team. I got my photo taken with them. I was lucky enough to get a brief tour of the Athletes Village a couple of nights ago as well and just seeing everybody walk around there. So yeah, it's just been an amazing experience so far.
COLIN HILDING: Your stories are giving me flashbacks to both the Canada Games that were here in Winnipeg back in the summer, but the Pan Am Games back in 99. I mean, this isn't your hometown or anything, but I mean, I'm assuming you've been there before, like in years prior to this. Have you noticed, this is my experience with Pan Am Games. Winnipeg was many, multiple times, voted the most beautiful city in Canada, even leading into when the Pan Am Games were here. But I have to tell you, I remember going downtown in Winnipeg in 1998, and then going downtown in Winnipeg in 1999. It was like, obviously, it was like, let's put our best foot forward here. I'm like, this city was a dump before the Pan Am Games came. They fixed so many things up, just because they knew people would be coming from all these different countries. I mean, does it seem like the city itself is maybe a little bit extra clean or more well maintained?
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, the fascinating thing about the Gold Coast is like when you think of a city, you kind of think of, you know, tall buildings, skyscrapers and kind of like one main sort of downtown district filled with like, you know, suburbs or boroughs or regions. The Gold Coast is kind of a weird place where it's really just a big collection of suburbs. People sort of see the picture of, you know, the tall buildings across the beach. That's called surface paradise, but that's not really like a downtown city district because it's so many hotels. All those tall buildings are just hotels, resorts, you know, apartment blocks. And for such a long period of time, the Gold Coast kind of has this, you know, image in Australia of kind of being the trashy point of Australia because it's so very over the top. They call it the glitter strip, you know, like it's very much associated with, you know, your bleach blonde women and your big buff men, you know, with not many brain cells between their heads. And like, you know, you also you have sort of this is the point where like, I guess our version of spring break called schoolies happens every year. You know, we have an Indy car race around the streets around service paradise, which is just, you know, associated with women showing their boobs and men just getting drunk. So it's interesting to kind of see that sort of image really kind of go away because you go into that area, surface paradise, it doesn't feel that trashy. Not that I ever think it's that trashy, but you know, maybe that was like a long time ago. But yeah, it's cleaner. To me, just, you know, the amount of work that's being done to kind of make the place look, you know, extremely presentable, which it's just crazy. And like you've got all these live sites popping up at all different parts around the Gold Coast. You know, I was on the opening ceremony night, I nearly was going to go to service paradise, had a big stage set up on the beach where, you know, they were having artists perform and you could watch the opening ceremony. And in the opening ceremony, of course, you had the part with the baton still underneath the sign that said service paradise. They put the fireworks up and got into the convoy van and drove off to the stadium. I knew that was going to happen because I was at the rehearsal, so I was like, hey, I should go there and that would be a great photo to kind of see that happen. But yeah, I mean, it's pretty good. And it's not just Gold Coast, because, you know, Brisbane obviously is an hour and a bit up the road. And I'm technically living in Brisbane, even though I'm sort of halfway between the two. But because Brisbane has two different venues, you've got the cycling and the shooting being held in Brisbane. And even in Brisbane, too, you feel it. Like, it's interesting, because Brisbane hosted the 1982 Commonwealth Games, so it's not like they're not used to it. So it's just kind of this whole Southeast Queensland region really just has, yeah, transformed since the last time I was here.
COLIN HILDING: You mentioned there was the one set of athletes you've met. But are there a lot of them? Because I remember when the Canada Games were here back in the summer, we kind of made it our mission. Every single night, they had a festival here at the Forks, and they would have athletes. You could see athletes every single night. We're like, let's get a picture with athletes from every single province, which I think we came up for short. But that was something like, I guess, some of these athletes I noticed here at the Canada Games, the track stars, they were just used to it. Maybe because there was an older age limit on track stars, and a lot of these had already been in universities and everything and slightly bigger stars. But then we come across some people where they were just like, I remember when we finally found Manitoba athletes wearing Manitoba jackets and we asked, oh, can we get your picture? They're like, why? We're trying to get pictures with athletes from all provinces. They're like, oh, okay, sure. Are there lots that you're running into or what are you finding? Like the athletes, you know, I guess is there like fame that's surrounding them or is it, you know, more relaxed?
BEN WATERWORTH: I mean, it's very interesting with that because like the one thing I'll say, given the hours and I'm working and everything, I'm really not getting an opportunity to go out to any other venues. I'm just at Oxford basically all the days, but in the lead up kind of seeing the athletes, you know, I'd constantly say to Mallory like, Oh, I see athletes. I want to get a photo. I want to get a photo. And you kind of saw them, but at the same time, a lot of the sort of the officials sort of wear the same uniforms and that, of course, too. So I wasn't trying to be rude to that. It was like, I don't know what country they're from. So these people, they're definitely not athletes. I'm like, Oh, hang on a minute. They could be like shooters or lawn bowlers. I'm like, they're definitely not gymnasts. You know, they're like in their 50s and, you know, slightly, you know, built a bit overweight. You know, like, OK. But yeah, I mean, it's there are a few real big names here. I think when I was in the Athletes Village, Tom Daley walked past us. I don't know if you know who Tom Daley is. Yeah, yeah. The English diver. And because two of my bosses are English and they were kind of with me and they were the ones who kind of spotted us. I was like, Oh my God, it's Tom Daley. He just kind of like sort of just walked past us. And, you know, when we talk about the boxing, I'm meeting these guys every day. They're right next to me when they're training, getting out in the ring. They're fist bumping me. They're shaking my hands. I'm getting very much up close and personal with the boxers. And also to kind of walking between, say, like the media centre and my venue at Oxford. I've got to walk past the actual athlete drop off, where every, you know, all three sports, the athletes have to meet at this point to get taken back to the village. And, you know, you're constantly walking past there, and there's just a flourish of, you know, team uniforms, colours and everything along those lines. And, you know, we're meant to be professional. You know, you're not meant to go up and get photos with them. So when I'm working, I'm not necessarily going on there. Although I did kind of get a photo last night after we had finished with a BBC presenter who apparently is a pretty big deal back in the UK. Very attractive, very nice. I posted that selfie last night. Her name is Jessica Crichton. So, yeah, she was super nice. When you said that about the selfie with the Manitoba athletes, I said, oh, you know, excuse me, can I get a picture? And she's like, I think you're mistaking me with someone else. And I'm like, no, I'm mistaken with someone awesome. So, yeah, it's been fun. I'd love to get more pictures with these people, but, you know, I'm kind of doing a job. And I would like to keep doing this for other games in the future. I don't want to get blacklisted.
COLIN HILDING: You also were able, we'll talk about the opening ceremonies now too, but you can bring another perspective because you were able to see, I guess, the dress rehearsals live. And I don't know if much has changed from then to, you know, what we saw on TV. But obviously you and Jarrod were probably watching this thing live as it was going on. And I actually have been technically on vacation. I just call it a staycation this week, just staying at home. But for whatever reason, on my vacation, I was waking up earlier than I was normally was. So five o'clock in the morning and I'm like, oh, I've missed the first hour of the opening ceremonies. So I started playing it on my DAZN app, which we'll talk about a little bit later on. And I eventually was able to catch up just by skipping some of the very long musical performances. But you got to tell me this. Can you explain from either the rehearsals or maybe just being Australian, what was with the 20 minute long opening about summoning aliens from the outer reaches of the universe? Like that made no sense to me whatsoever.
BEN WATERWORTH: When you said you missed about the first hour, I'm like, oh, you were only up to like Saturn at that point, weren't you? Like, I mean, you didn't really miss much. Yeah, look, that's not an Australian thing. That was just the way they wanted to do it. I don't know. I mean, it was unique. I think watching it on TV, it felt longer than it did when you're at the stadium. So I didn't really notice it too much when I was there. But yeah, watching it on TV, I'm like, holy crap, how long does this thing go for? But I mean, it really didn't change. The only thing that was any different from the dress rehearsal to the final thing was the fact that obviously the dignitaries were there. Charles was there. Camilla was bored. You know, like it was there. And yeah, we didn't know who the batten bearers were. So like when they kind of did the rehearsal, you know, the car pulls up in the stadium, they're like presenting batten bearer number one. And then they like pass it off to the little girl. And they did all like that cool, like the video screen thing was like the roller coaster and all that sort of stuff. And then afterwards they got out and like, here's batten bearer number two. And finally, batten bearer number four.
COLIN HILDING: Are you like politely applauding at that point? Yeah.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, I'm turning to Mallory going, thoroughly deserved. I definitely picked it was them. Like they are outstanding athletes. Other, you know, like subtle little things. I don't think there was many fireworks during the rehearsal. Obviously, like they did like a mock athletes parade, which, you know, the thing was really disappointing is I found out some volunteers and work people got emails asking to volunteer for the dress rehearsals to pretend to be athletes and flag bearers. And I would have done that in a heartbeat. But it was just it was just hilarious when they would come out into the stadium. So like particularly Jamaican, you know, the fake Jamaicans come out and everyone's just cheering like all the crowd are cheering like they're, you know, really the athletes. It's like Australia come out and everyone's up on their feet. They're cheering, you know, like, whoo. And like when Canada comes out with Mallory, we're like, you know, absolutely cheering. And I was trying to do it for like every single country because my new favourite country is and I can't say it properly, like Niue. It's like this tiny little Pacific Island nation, which I liked them because they had one boxer, you know, one category. This guy seems super awesome. And of course, the other night there was one bout which didn't happen because the boxer missed the way in and was disqualified. And who do you think that was? My favourite athlete from Niue. So I didn't even get to see him box. But I mean, it was just it was an incredible experience. I've never been to anything like that before. I mean, we were lucky because there was two dress rehearsals. I went to the one on Monday night. Mallory is working at Carrara Stadium. So she went to both. One she was working, one she sat with me, and she actually got to work the opening ceremony. So she got to, she was allowed to sort of sneak out of a little hut and go down to the area and film Canada walk past her. So she's like Snapchatting that with me. She actually bumped into a few sort of athletes going to the bathroom. So she got a couple of photos of just random people, I think like some Malaysians, Gaianan. I can't remember where else. Tom Daley.
COLIN HILDING: Stand next to him at the urinal.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yes. Why is she in the urinal?
COLIN HILDING: To get a picture with Tom Daley.
BEN WATERWORTH: Tom, I'll hold it for you. But yeah, so the Saturday night, apparently like with the performers, they just had like people lip syncing to like the songs. But on Monday night, we actually had the real performers. So I mean, you wouldn't have known who pretty much any of them were. But I mean, I don't know if you know who Jack Thompson is. He actually was Owen Lars's dad in Star Wars 2. So when that narration like at the beginning was happening on the dress rehearsal, he wasn't out in the middle, but I hear the voice. I'm like, that's totally Jack Thompson. Australia's Morgan Freeman, as people have been referring to this week. But then he was obviously actually out in the middle of the stadium. But yeah, like Christine Arnoux, when we had the Aboriginal rap to My Island Home, which was pretty cool. Delta Goodrum, right at the end, she was there on Monday Night Amazing. Ricky Lee, we didn't have the bum flash of the surfer people. I don't know if that made the news over there. No, nothing's making the news here. True, true. In the beach section, when they're all sort of like dancing, and Ricky Lee's on this surfboard thing, one of the female performers bent over, and her things fell down, so you could see a bum, like clear as day in the middle of the screen. But yeah, I mean, it was incredible. It really was. I mean, you know, it would have been great to be at the actual opening ceremony, but I mean, 98% of what happened at the opening ceremony was there when I was there, and I'm going to say it, I liked it better than the last two Olympic opening ceremonies. I thought it was better than both Pyeongchang and Rio's opening ceremonies, to be honest.
COLIN HILDING: You'd messaged that to me and Jarrod, I guess, well, before the opening ceremony took place, after you'd seen the dress rehearsal. And I mean, the bar's pretty low there, when you're saying it's better than the last two opening ceremonies. But I mean, I will agree. I think that outside of just the confusion of that 20-minute-long opening of exploring the solar system, and then the weird hippie guys, the hippie surfers, which...
BEN WATERWORTH: Oh, the director people, like the yellow and red guys dancing when the athletes come out?
COLIN HILDING: No, the video clip that they showed, which set up the whole time ago. And a tripping thing.
BEN WATERWORTH: They were very Gold Coast guys, but going back to my point about people with not many brain cells between their head. That's what people think when they think of people from the Gold Coast. No offence to the people living where I am right now.
COLIN HILDING: I fully expected that this whole closing ceremony would have ended, and it just would have ended up... The twist would have been revealed. This was just a really trippy dream of some stone surfers.
BEN WATERWORTH: The thing that fascinated me was that they fired from the root of, let's watch a little kid go through all these sequences of everything. I was totally disappointed they didn't get Nicky Webster 18 years after Sydney 2000. The thing I don't know if you could see there on the screen, but it absolutely pissed down with rain in the opening 30 minutes. It absolutely bucketed down with rain. That's what they were worried about all day, because Wednesday it was rainy, it wasn't good. They were like, oh, it's going to hold off, it's going to hold off. And nope, it just absolutely pissed down. But yeah, I mean, it's, I think to me, definitely better than the last two Olympics. If I had to say, in terms of Commonwealth Kings, I can't remember a lot of Glasgow. I know Susan Boyle was there, Rod Stewart was there, Scottish people were there. Delhi, can't remember too much of that one. I like Melbourne 2006 better, to be honest. If I go that far back, you probably wouldn't remember that opening ceremony. But interesting fact is that Delta Goodrum who sang the song at the end, she also sang the big main song at the MCG back in 2006 too. So pretty much we like Delta Goodrum here. So there you go.
COLIN HILDING: There are a couple other moments that I did like it here. I mean, the inflatable whale at the end, I don't understand the significance of it, but that was pretty cool. The parade of athletes, or I don't know if there's something specific that they would call that, if it's any different. I don't know, I found myself more interested in it than I do with the Olympics. Maybe because you don't have as long to take, like for some of the bigger countries of the Olympics, you're like, okay, we're on four minutes now of the United States entering, and you kind of just zone out. But also, I mean, it seems like we're getting a more prominent role for countries like Malawi, you know? It's not often, so maybe a little bit more representation there. The weird thing, this is a commentating thing, because the, I guess, coverage we have, which, by the way, a little bit more impressed than I thought I would be with DAZN, which I found out, as they call it on air, it's not DAZN, they call it Dazone. Which for the most part, they're picking up coverage of European hockey leagues, European rugby leagues, all these different sports around the world. They also have the coverage of NFL, the streaming coverage of NFL and Major League Baseball here in Canada. But I guess this is the first thing where they're producing the video content as well. And talking about some of the different sports, they will just pick up the Australian coverage. So when I'm watching swimming, sometimes the Australian coverage. But then, I don't know, like after...
BEN WATERWORTH: Are you hearing Basil Thorpey and John Rooney?
COLIN HILDING: They're the ones who would do the swimming one?
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, yeah.
COLIN HILDING: Occasionally, but here's the thing. The Dazone coverage, which they have some pretty esteemed commentators they picked up just for this. The one main one, Mark Lee, who just seems to be there for everything. They just have them on standby 24-7. We'll watch like two heats, and then all of a sudden, a Canadian will come in and heat for swimming. And all of a sudden, it will just cut out of the Australian... The video has not cut. They'll just all of a sudden cut to Mark Lee commentating. And then they'll cut away from him. Like he's, okay, I'm going on break now, guys. But he was doing the full opening ceremonies, which I thought was cool, because he's this pretty famous commentator here. But he mentioned this thing I have to ask you about. They were talking about cricket. What is this cricket cheating scandal? Like they mentioned specifically something to do with Australia about this cheating scandal. Was somebody deflating bats or something? Like what is this?
BEN WATERWORTH: No, so in cricket, this sounds a bit dodgy the way you describe it, but just bear with me. There's a thing called ball tampering, where basically if you alter a cricket ball in any form to, you know, make it spin a certain way, that's like a big no-no. That's cheating. And we had a test series of Australia playing South Africa. And about two weeks ago, one of our players got caught pulling a bit of sandpaper out from his pants to alter the ball, like clear as day. And then basically it was brought up in the press conference after that day's play and our captain admitted to it and was like, yep, you know, I told him what he didn't tell him to do. Basically, long story short, there were three of our players involved in ball tampering and it was just we just got caught out completely. These three players have been banned for like long periods of time and just shame on it, because Australia is kind of always being, you know, this nation in cricket where, you know, we're always like telling everybody else off like this country is cheating, this country is cheating, we're Australia, we're perfect, we will never do anything wrong. And now like this is just completely embarrassing for us because we just we're cheaters now. So England loved it, all their presses like big front pages, picture of our cricket team cheats. And you know, so it's been a bit of a shameful few weeks, I think, for Australia in sport. So a lot of people in the lead up to these Commonwealth Games are like, come on, this is our chance to, you know, renew Australia's glory in the sporting world by like not being cheats. So that's amazing that even Canada is picking up on that at the moment.
COLIN HILDING: Yeah, I mean, it was one of the few moments of commentary we had. So we had to contribute something. There is a commentary fail, which I'll add, because it's weird watching this. I'll just, I don't know how much of your coverage, your Channel 7 coverage is. I probably have seen more Channel 7 coverage than you have, because that's what we're piggybacking off of.
BEN WATERWORTH: You would have. You would have.
COLIN HILDING: But it's kind of weird with this app. I'm impressed because they really did go all out. Like they're presenting this like it's their own network. And even for the opening ceremonies, they had their own pre-show. You know, they've got obviously they're doing this sort of in conjunction with CBC because they have Perdita Felician, who's probably our most famous Olympian to never win a medal. And she's doing like the coverage there on location. They've got commentators, you know, Mark Lee popping in for sports just whenever it tickles as fancy.
BEN WATERWORTH: Hi, I'm Mark Lee.
COLIN HILDING: Yeah, exactly. Well, we're cutting out here in the third round of this fight because the Australian commenters don't know what they're talking about, which I'll cover that later too. Your Australian boxing commentator is awful, by the way.
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, look, I don't get a chance to hear it, but I'll take your word on it.
COLIN HILDING: But yeah, I mean, the app is pretty good. You know, they present a lot of sports. I thought this would be kind of like the CBC one where you'll get a little bit of every sport. It's more like they have four feeds going on at any given time, and stuff will be played live and then you can watch anything. But I guess once something happens, if they miss coverage, because it's basically just a lot of swimming, cycling, gymnastics. And you mentioned to me the boxing fight last night with a Canadian, Eric Bazrin, and I was looking on the app and I didn't see it at all. And then all of a sudden, completely out of the blue this afternoon, they added the fight last night. So I guess they've got their schedule, and then they'll go back and add things later on. But in a way, I'm kind of disappointed because I wanted to watch the things like lawn bowling and netball, and I dealt that those are going to become important enough to Canada, that they're going to add those events later on. But has the coverage from what you've seen there been any good?
BEN WATERWORTH: Look, I'll be absolutely honest with you. The first time I actually got to watch Australia winning gold medal was last night after the media... Yeah, hi Casper... . the media centre for boxing finished.
COLIN HILDING: Yeah, Ben's talking right now. Do you have something you want to add on the channel's second coverage or Dazone? No, he's leaving us now.
BEN WATERWORTH: Go, Casper. What do you think of Dazone, Casper?
COLIN HILDING: Continue.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, so I walked into the media centre after boxing had finished last night, and the swimming was still on, so I saw the 4x2 relay to women's, and when your guys really gave it to us, I thought you were about to overtake us in that final 200 metres, but you got silver and we got the gold. So I barely seen it. Besides the opening ceremony, I mean, I think kind of what you're saying about them showing swimming and all that, it's just what I've heard. That's all they're showing here, of course. And I think our app, I think it's kind of reverted to the fact that if you just watch the free version of the app, you're only getting seven, seven, two and seven mate, whereas if you want to specifically select the sports, you got to pay like the $20 premium fee, which if I wasn't doing this, I probably would. I know that similar like with boxing, for example, my dad texted me the other day and said that, oh, they cut to show an Australian fighting, and then they just cut away from the boxing. But I think that the funny thing is with like Channel 7, is that Channel 7 actually don't have commentators for the boxing here. So like the commentators you would have heard would have been just from the host broadcast. They just have obviously like the generic feed, which other networks can just pick up. But like on our first day of competition, because where I am, I'm sort of in this little hidden area, and on the other side of the wall where I am facing the ring is the host broadcasters, the TV people. So Dazon might, I might get to meet some of them if they show. I don't know. I've been looking out for Canada. I've only really seen the BBC, like their everyday TVNZ from New Zealand are there. We've had some Kenyan host broadcasters, some Cameroonians, and a couple of others. I can't remember what other one we had. We had a radio from the BBC. But Channel 7, like they weren't there the first day. The second day, I see like this person, I see this woman in the camera and sneak into this area and sneak out. They're in and out Australia, Australia. I'm like, Oh, that must mean Channel 7. Hi, bye. And then so yesterday we had the Australian boxer Jack Bowen, who sadly lost, but they were there for that. And they're one of our sort of volunteer technical officials was kind of walking around sort of in my area and I'm kind of like, Oh, you know, are you OK? And she said, looks at me and she's like, Yeah, that's my son in the ring right now. I can't watch this. So I quickly walked around to the Channel 7 lady and I'm just like, Oh, hey, just letting you know that Jack's mother is behind here like he's a volunteer. And she's like, you know, she's really shitting herself right now. So she's like, Oh, thank you. So she kind of came around and I don't know if they did a story on her or something like that. But yeah, barely seen Channel 7 there.
COLIN HILDING: But from what I've seen. Yeah, give us a tear lady.
BEN WATERWORTH: Cry, damn it. But from yeah, from what I've seen, it's just been standard Channel 7. Really? I mean, this, you know, summer ones are always more interesting than the winter ones, because obviously they got a lot of focus on, but they still obviously focus purely on the swimming. So, you know, that's how Australia works.
COLIN HILDING: I can also tell, you know, there's a bit of a difference sometimes when maybe even we have our commentaries, like you were talking about the four by 200 relay or even the four by 100 relay. I was listening to Mark Lee's commentary, but you could tell because it's one of those things where they just have swimming all day and then they cut his commentary in and out when it's very clearly the Australian TV coverage because all of the closeups are all on McEwen or the Campbell's or something like that. And I'm like, well, he's talking about the Canadians and they're just showing Australians. So I'm starting to see what you and Jarrod are talking about. It's like all you really hear about is Australians. And if an Australian is not doing it, they don't want to talk about it.
BEN WATERWORTH: But I mean, it's kind of like what I'm liking about my experience is that, you know, ultimately, you know, liking seeing the Aussie Boxers, you know, we've won every single bout except for one. And, you know, obviously the crowd sort of gets more pumped. Last night was the loudest. I'd heard it in the ring. We had another Australian boxer, Terry Nicholas. It was his second bout and he won. He's through to the quarterfinals. And yeah, just the crowd was just absolutely crazy. But what's really interesting is there's so many like the different countries and the chanting that like the African nations, they're chanting and cheering is fantastic. Like we have the Lesothan fans who are kind of doing almost like African tribal chants in the middle of their bouts. You know, the Indians are always very passionate supporters. The Ghanans, you know, we had the New Zealand fans the other night sort of doing like a haka sort of thing. The Scottish fans are just absolutely crazy. Their kilts, their flags. Even when Eric fought yesterday, like we had these Canadians up there who just were very vocal, very loud. So yeah, I mean, it's just a great experience to hear all these different nations sort of cheering and everything. Because, you know, it's interesting what you were saying before about how, you know, these athletes, you know, don't, aren't used to getting photos taken of that at the Canada Games or some of the ones, you know, have been to these other ones and have. But like for a lot of these, you know, particularly some of these smaller nations in the boxing, like, you know, the stories are that so many of these countries don't even have a boxing ring. They're just fighting in their backyard or just like, you know, in some sort of building. So, you know, I get to hear a lot of these athletes being interviewed. And like one of them, I can't remember which one it was, but he was saying this is his fourth ever bout ever. He did really well. I thought he was going to win. But he was just like, you know, I've never been in a stadium like this before. I've never had this experience before. It's amazing. They're all so happy and willing to talk to the press. They play up to the cameras. They've got a camera right in their face. You know, we had a Cameroonian guy do this massive backflip in the ring the other day. We had one sort of doing this weird sort of turning thing on his legs yesterday. It's just fantastic to watch these guys who, you know, this is the biggest stage they've ever even been on and just, you know, really playing up to it and really soaking it all up. It's great.
COLIN HILDING: Now, how did the entrance musics go? Because I couldn't help but notice you wouldn't have picked it out. Only Canadians would have. But like when Eric Bazrin, the Canadian, was entering, the song that was playing was the, I guess, the first big hit that the biggest band in music history here in Canada had, the tragically hip. Their song New Orleans Is Sinking was playing. And I'm like, oh, he gets to pick his own entrance music. But then they just kept the music playing for his opponent. I don't know if his opponent didn't have his own entrance music or something, but I mean, obviously, I don't know if you would even know, but the athletes have to have some type of choice for their music. I'm just wondering why the one guy just entered to the Canadian music.
BEN WATERWORTH: Look, I don't know about the specifics. We kind of had the floor manager people sort of next to us. And one of them the other day was saying that, I can't remember which country they were from, wanted a Rage Against the Machine song, but it had so much swearing in it that they were like, oh, we probably can't use this. So yeah, I mean, it's kind of my era. I can sort of hear the music, but I can't. Basically, when you see them walk on through those screens, I'm directly next to that in the little area. I'm on the right hand side. So I'm right next to the boxers as they're standing, their shadow boxing training and all their training. Come on, come on, you can do it, you can do it. And it might be that the first boxer out gets to choose and they keep it that way. I don't know. I know that every time an Indian boxer wins, they play Jai Ho. And again, I don't know. I'm assuming that's a choice. Otherwise, our Australian, you know, people in that building are being slightly, I don't know, is that racist? Or like, hey, an Indian one played Jai Ho. But I think for the most part, they get some sort of choice because I know that like, when the Australians win, there's some different types of music being played and all that sort of stuff. So yeah, I don't know the specifics, but it's interesting that they had that. I didn't, you know, clearly I'm a huge fan of Tragically Hip and clearly I didn't understand that.
COLIN HILDING: Going back to the opening ceremonies for a second, the instrumental music that plays during the Parade of Athletes. Now, I picked out, like, I come from a land down under, I picked out, I think it was I Need You Tonight from NXS or something. Why was Funky Town by Lips Inc. being played repeatedly? I didn't realise it was Australian.
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, so there was an Australian band called Pseudo Echo in the 80s who did kind of a rock cover of it. They got actually really big. So it was all, yeah, and the funnest thing about that was sitting next to Mallory and, like, getting excited for, like, every single song. And she'd only heard of, like, maybe one of the NXS songs, Land Down Under, they played Sia, I think they played Gotye, you know, somebody I used to know. But, like, so many just, like, iconic Australian sort of bands. So, like, the bit where they had the Commonwealth Games flag, for example, and they did the, I don't know if you've ever heard of the song You're The Voice, John Farnham, it's just an Australian anthem. It's kind of like Australia's living on a prayer, basically. You know, you play that in a pub, every Australian's going to stand up and sing the shit out of that. So when they start a play that I'm singing it word for word, and Mal is looking at me like, what the hell is happening right now? And I'm like, this song is a classic! This is like Australian anthem! But, yeah, I loved the music in the Parade of Nations. And it was interesting because they did land down under, like, early, and then they sort of played this song called Evie when Australia came out, but then they reverted back to land down under, because I don't know if they were trying to avoid it, because I remember, I think, in Sydney when Australia came out, they played land down under. And that's generally like, I know when I went to a Socceroos game in Australia, they straight away start playing land down under. So it's kind of like, hey, Australia want a medal, Australia want a match, let's play land down under, which is fantastic because it's a great song.
COLIN HILDING: Of course, as is Funky Town. I got to find that version of Funky Town.
BEN WATERWORTH: It's good, it's actually really good. Pseudo-echo, Funky Town, you'll like it.
COLIN HILDING: I don't know if you've seen any other events. I'm just sort of looking on the D-A-Z-N slash Dazone app here. And the way they kind of work it is they do have, I guess, a recap at the end of the day. It's a half hour show where they sort of recap all the biggest moments throughout. Otherwise, they have about five hours of coverage in the morning and then five hours coverage in the evening, where they'll just switch back and forth between sports is basically the equivalent of watching TV. And then looking at what's on today, they have the the Race Walk Finals, because I could see Evan Dunphy's face right on the front of there. Somebody we interviewed could still win a medal.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yes.
COLIN HILDING: Heats for Swimming is coming up in three hours. Athletic Finals coming up, Artistic Gymnastics Finals, and then Women's Basketball Australia versus Canada. Those are all the things on the schedule for today. And then obviously, if anything else big happens, they'll add that tomorrow. But for the first couple of days, are there any, I mean, you said you haven't seen much. Are there any events that even you caught highlights of? Or what are the big stories in Australia for the win so far?
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, just before I get to that, I will quickly say, I mean, I've both day, well, except for yesterday, I decided to rest my feet for three hours because those things are throwing. But the first day, I kind of went in and watched some squash. Literally, this game I watched was over basically by the time I walked in the building. It was like an English lady up against, I think, a Malaysian. She just absolutely kicked her ass. And then I went in the next day to watch some table tennis, which is interesting, because on the show court, you've got two next to each other, and it was Australia versus Wales in the team. I think it was quarter finals, and I think it was Guyana versus Singapore on the other court. But the Wales team, of course, which really made the news here, I don't know if they made news over there. They've got an 11-year-old athlete, a Welsh table tennis player. So she's a big deal sort of around here. And I think I believe Squash today has their first gold medals decided. So it's getting a bit busy. I believe the Squash didn't finish last night. It's about one o'clock in the morning. So it's kind of interesting. But I think the big news here really obviously has been the swimming. I mean, you know, I know we have won pretty much as many gold in the cycling as we have the swimming, but it's always swimming here. There was a sweep too.
COLIN HILDING: There was like a clean sweep in one of the women's events.
BEN WATERWORTH: I think we've had two.
COLIN HILDING: Oh, wow.
BEN WATERWORTH: I think we've had two. I think we had another one. So I think we've had a couple of sweeps. I know that Mack Horton won the 400 after, you know, winning it in Rio. And Kyle Charmers, our 100 metre gold medallist from Rio, I believe won the 200. I think our women's four by one team broke the world record from what I kind of saw. One of our Campbell sisters actually didn't pull a Campbell and won a gold for once. It was for her and 50\. The big one sort of for me, like Arianne Titmuss, who was kind of going into this, was sort of a bit of a, you know, the next big thing in swimming. She's actually technically Tasmanian. I mean, she moved to Queensland, but she's from Tasmania. And her dad, who's become a bit of a viral sensation here in Australia because of his reactions to your Canadian beating her in the tours at the 200 Freestyle, you know, by 0.4 of a second or whatever it was, they had a camera on her dad, like just going, like cheering absolute crap out of her. And you know, these reactions have just gone viral here. He actually used to be the head news reader for one of our main networks in Tasmania growing up. So and I'm friends with him on Facebook. So it's interesting seeing all these posts and everything on there. Another one of the stories I think that made something was in weightlifting, Tia Claire Toomey won a gold in the women's 58 kilo. It's our first gold in weightlifting, I think, since 2006. I caught a bit of the footage of our bronze medallist in the men's 77 kilo, Francois Etouindi, who I think he was on for gold and he kind of slightly, like he dropped it like 0.1 of a second or something before he could have gotten the gold. But he was like, he did this backflip thing when he got his medal, he seemed super nice. And yeah, I mean, I think that's really the ones that I've sort of seen outside of my little bubble. I think I'm just looking here, because the interesting thing is, again, I don't get to watch this. I'm generally on my app in between sessions or kind of in bouts, when I'm just looking at my phone going, oh, we've just won another couple of medals. You know, and it's different, obviously, from the Olympics, where it's like, oh, my God, we won a gold. It's like, oh, we only won four gold today. But like the fascinating thing is, is that looking at this medal tally, I'll show you a talk about this, the fact that we won 57 medals after only three days. We are nearly at the halfway point of total medals of what we won in Glasgow four years ago. So it's only been three days. So I think kind of it's been a bit of a, you know, a great start for us. And I think the main thing after day one was, oh, crap, we're behind England again. But we're pulled ahead of England now. So I think we're I think we're happy with that. So, yeah, I think it's it's it's a bit different than the Olympics. There's so many things going on with medals and all that sort of stuff. But, you know, 20 gold after three days, I think that's pretty good.
COLIN HILDING: And that four by 100 relay, I think was a camera was a four by 100. It was the four by 100 where it was the World Record.
BEN WATERWORTH: I mean, that was the four by two was when I watched last night. So it would have been the four by one the other night.
COLIN HILDING: Yeah. And that was just incredible. And I mean, even the four by 200 was by the four by 100. It was there was such a landslide. And I think Canada won silver in both of those as well. For us here, I mean, it's looking a little bit more your your prediction of Canada for the medal tally might be a little bit close to mine now, because we seem to be doing much better in swimming than we have in the past. And this is what's kind of fun, because we were less than two years removed from the Rio Olympics, where going into it, I wasn't talking any expectations of Canada to win any medals. And then we come out of it with like Penny Alexiak being like this huge star. And obviously at the World Championships last year, she didn't really deliver. But then we had Kylie Mass, who in the backstroke delivered. And so now we had like two big swimming stars. And now coming to these Commonwealth Games, it's all Taylor Ruck, who is the one you mentioned, who won in the 200 metre, I think was the freestyle. And I think now she's won. She's set two games records. I know that at least. I think she's won three medals already, like a gold and two silvers. I don't know exactly what it is, but like she's all over all the media coverage here that the zone has. It's all Taylor Ruck. So it's just weird that within two years, less than two years, we've established three massive swimming stars here in Canada. And Kylie Mast, who won the World Championships last year for the backstroke, she just won again today, which was again another spectacular win. Penny Alexiak is the difficult one, though, because she did kind of, I'm not going to say tank. It's kind of mean to say that about a 17 year old. She didn't live up to her real promise of the World Championships last year. And going into these games, I think there was more expectations that, you know, that she would succeed. But it was like the day of, I guess, the start of swimming. I see this tweet, which is her basically announcing that her grandmother died or something like that or her grandfather. And all the interviews, everybody who keeps interviewing her, they're asking her about this. I mean, that obviously has to affect her a little bit. And I think the first event I saw her in, she made like the finals, but came in like second, last place, just picked up the silver in the relay. So, you know, obviously there's still more chances for her. But I don't know, it seems like we're transitioning from just Penny Alexiak being our number one swimming star to now this huge swimming team. So that I think it's gonna be fun to see if that just continues to grow and how many other swimming stars we can see come out of this.
BEN WATERWORTH: Outside of that, yeah, I saw that with Penny Alexiak, just sorry to interrupt, I saw when I saw the Taylor Ruck win the gold, I thought, oh, was that Penny Alexiak? Because I just saw that Canada won a gold in the swimming. And then I looked at the full thing to see her finishing seventh. And I think she was she the lead swimmer in perhaps because I think when I just put it on, they were talking about Alexiak. But I mean, I think she's probably got a couple of silvers based on the relays. But yeah, nothing obviously individual just yet. But her pet event is 100, obviously up against our Campbells.
COLIN HILDING: Yeah, I mean, there's still a lot of chances. And she's already performing better than she did at the World Championships. But you have to wonder like how much that's affecting. But I mean, it's just it's it's incredible to see that, you know, we have now these three massive stars that are getting more media coverage than any athlete that we've had in summer games in a long time. And two of them haven't even really done anything in the Olympics yet. So swimming is kind of because this this sort of happened here in Canada, not Olympics related, but this happened a couple of years ago, the year where Milos Ronic and Jeannie Bouchard both did so well, Wimbledon and Jeannie went on to the finals there and just suddenly tennis became massive here in Canada. I think that's basically what's going to happen. I know that we signed our son Casper, who just made a cameo on here, up for baby swimming classes for the first time. So I kept thinking the whole time, I'm like, you better be the next Penny Alexiac. I'm paying $52 for eight weeks of classes here. Give me my money's worth, kid.
BEN WATERWORTH: I want people to replay this clip in like, you know, what, 16, 18 years time, if he gets like a bronze medal or something like Canada's gold in the Olympics. And here's his proud father 18 years ago. You better get a medal, kid. You better be making pennies like that, kid.
COLIN HILDING: Give me my $52 worth, kid. I mean, it's mostly tax deductible, but still, I put up good money in advance office. And it is cool. I will just say, one of the things that sold me off, someone was telling me, you know, you can sign them up as young as six months. I'm like, oh, that's cool. And they're like, yeah, it's tax deductible. Like, that's even better. They're like, oh, you could do it at the Pan Am Pool, which is the pool that's like two minutes from my house, which is where the Pan Am Games were held. I'm like, you mean Casper could swim in the same pool that Olympic athletes have been in? And I only realised afterwards is like, he's in a kiddie pool right now. I mean, I don't think that the Olympians are all the Pan Am Games medallists were in the heated kiddie pool playing water basketball or things like that or going down the mini water slide.
BEN WATERWORTH: Just throw him in the big pool. Cast my swim. Olympians cramming his full.
COLIN HILDING: Just drop him off the diving board.
BEN WATERWORTH: Throw him off the 10 metre.
COLIN HILDING: You got to set something up. I mean, the other ones that made a little bit of news here is the gymnastics. I think the men's gymnastics still around. I forgot to mention, despite the fact that no networks wanted to pick this up, maybe because they made some deal to get the CBC commentators, Dazon has now provided some of their coverage. CBC, I just looked on TV this afternoon, and CBC has two hours of Commonwealth Games coverage every Saturday afternoon. So this week and next week.
BEN WATERWORTH: Once a week for the one bit a week of the games.
COLIN HILDING: I mean, it just ended. I watched the first half of it before we started this, and it was basically just recapping all the main things I'd already seen, like Taylor Rock's win and then the relay, and they were just showing the men's gymnastics or whatever. I mean, Canada won the gold in the women's team gymnastics, which is huge, because I think it's been decades since Canada won a gold, and considering our showing in the last two Olympics have been an improvement. So I think gymnastics is going to be the next swimming. It went tennis, swimming, gymnastics, and netball, I'm sure, will be like four years down the road, but has netball started yet?
BEN WATERWORTH: The question I've... Netball has, long balls has, yes, both have started. Is there trampolining in the Commonwealth Games? I don't think there is, is there?
COLIN HILDING: I don't think so, no. I mean, there's beach volleyball now, like, what, 20 years behind the Olympics?
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, yeah, it's fascinating hearing all these things around the Commonwealth Games sports and everything, so obviously this is the first time, but apparently because like Judo was removed for these games and it was in Glasgow, but apparently Birmingham have already said, no, we're having Judo back. So it's just kind of like the back and forth, because obviously this is the first time basketball has been back since the last time the Commonwealth Games were in Australia back in Melbourne. So it's kind of interesting how they do these, you know, altering of the sportsing things. But yeah, I mean, I know the Lawn Bowls have started because the first day, like pissed down with rain and people sharing photos on sort of our internal things like, is this Lawn Bowls or water polo? And Netball definitely started, because I think Australia thrashed, I think it was Northern Ireland, like 80 to 20 or something like that. So it's all leading up to our, you know, generic Australia v New Zealand final. Although I did hear a whisper that New Zealand aren't in very good form right now, so it could be Australia vs England final. So that would be interesting.
COLIN HILDING: I just want to say how exciting it is that if you go on the official Commonwealth Games website, I don't know who this runner is. They got a story on a South African runner here, but then they have their little slides.
BEN WATERWORTH: Casa Semenya.
COLIN HILDING: Yeah, yeah. Is that a big deal?
BEN WATERWORTH: You don't know the story behind her?
COLIN HILDING: No, no, no, I don't. Are you going to tell me?
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, she's the one who... She was born hermaphrodite, so... Are you sure you know what that is? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So she was the one who competed as a female, and a lot of people saying it was wrong. She had more testosterone and a lot of controversy around her for a long period of time. But yeah, she's one of the stars of the... Johan Blake is here, and they keep dubbing him the second fastest man ever. Well, I've got the official program, which we should note the very public faux pas that they listed England as part of Africa, which just made a lot of news over here that they couldn't even get that right. But I also bought the official preview magazine, which has listed the names to watch. And I believe Andre de Grasse was the number one athlete to watch at the Commonwealth Games, and uh-oh, he pulled out.
COLIN HILDING: Yeah, two weeks ago, I get it on the way home. I'm 15 minutes away from recording our episode, and I see the tweet. Oh, I've decided to pull out. Thanks, Andre de Grasse. You wrecked this for everybody. Well, I was going to say, I mean, there's this, I guess, the little scroll slideshow below Semenya there. They have some guy, I don't know, throwing a frisbee, and then they've got Seaboard and Mass hugging it out there. I'm like, come on, that's like Australian, Canadian heroes hugging out. That should be the front page. But I guess, you know, Maphrodites that trumps Kylie Mass. Yeah.
BEN WATERWORTH: I agree with that.
COLIN HILDING: Metal tally. So we have Australian first, if you're counting either by gold or total medals, 20 golds. The second place would be England with 14, and that's 57 to 32 for the overall medals. So Australia is at 20 golds, 17 silver, 20 bronze. I don't know if you have our predictions in front of you.
BEN WATERWORTH: I'll find them if you keep talking.
COLIN HILDING: All right. And how many days are there? There's 11 days. So we're what? Four in now or three?
BEN WATERWORTH: Three in at the moment. So there's still what? Eight to go.
COLIN HILDING: So let's figure we're about 25% of the way there. Canada is at five golds. Well, England 14 golds, 12 silver, six bronze, 32 in total. Canada is at third place for both golds and overall medals. So five gold, seven silver, six bronze, 18 medals in total. And then depending on how you're ranking, I mean, Scotland is right behind Canada for overall medals with 15, but they only have three golds. So then you have like India, South Africa, Scotland, New Zealand, three golds, four silver, five bronze, 12. They're getting pretty close to Canada. This might be this might become the battle of the Olympics. It's kind of like when New Zealand was challenging you in the winter Olympics. But we never speak of that. Here's the big one, Jamaica, one silver. So yeah, heroes.
BEN WATERWORTH: There's one Jamaican boxer, which hasn't boxed yet. I can't wait to see him. But yeah, we have to see him into the ring. Well, custom is from South Africa, not Jamaica.
COLIN HILDING: But yeah, I too, I wasn't confusing them. All right, we can't tell the difference.
BEN WATERWORTH: The one thing I want to say about New Zealand is they're actually there. I think I think England are too. There's a couple of nations that are undefeated so far in the boxing ring. I'm thoroughly enjoying the New Zealand boxes. The super heavyweight guys went the other night. This big, massive New Zealand boxer. I cannot remember his name. I need to pull it up. He was up against this big Scottish guy. And the Scottish guy just kept laying punch after punch after punch on him, hitting his head. And this New Zealand guy just like basically is getting punched in the head. And he sort of starts smiling. Is that the best you got? And he just absolutely whooped this guy. And comes through the mix zone, gives me a big fist bump as he's finished speaking to the media. And this is a guy that like, he gives you a fist bump, you fall down to the ground. And I started following him on Instagram. And you go through all these pictures, he's got like the smallest, cutest little dog. And he's like a picture of him training. Oh, I love me little boy, like whatever his dog's name is. You'd think he'd have like this big pit bull or something like that. This tiny little fluffy little dog. He's a big softy. I like this guy. But yeah, the Kiwis have been doing really good in the boxing. And decently on the medal tally too. I mean, this is their time to shine. It's kind of like yours. You know, oh, bro, we can win lots of medals here, right? So, yeah.
COLIN HILDING: Before you get to our predictions, did I ever tell you what we covered on our other show, The Oz Network, we covered a couple of episodes of Smallville and the guy who played the green arrow, Justin Hartley, who since has gone on to become a huge star with the TV show, This Is Us. Did I ever tell you my story about meeting him?
BEN WATERWORTH: I think you did.
COLIN HILDING: Well, there was a Comic Con where they had several Smallville actors there, and that's where I met Erika Durrance, who played Lois on Smallville. But I kind of realised that as the show progressed, they had to cast very tall actors just because of how big Tom Welling, who plays Clark Kent, was on there. Because when I met Erika Durrance, I mean, she was huge and she had to bend over to get in the picture with me, which is how it led to me being able to see all the way down her shirt, because I'm much shorter than she is. She's like six foot two or something like that. But Justin Hartley played the green arrow. I kind of had the same experience with him. I didn't realise watching the show how big he was. He's like six foot three, six foot four, a really big guy and he had finished signing autographs or something. And I see him holding his little girl's hand, at least I hope was his little girl's, otherwise he kidnapped some local girl. But she was maybe like two years old. And he was holding the tiniest toy poodle I had ever seen, clutching it in his arms. And he had a black eye. And I just remember asking him, like, what happened to your eye? And he's like, oh, it was a stun accident. I'm like, you know, you should be telling people that you got, like, in a fight with Tom or say something like, you know, you should see what I did to Tom Welling or something like that. Because the image of this man holding this toy poodle, this little girl in a black eye just didn't match it. So he kind of gave me like a bit of a smile and dirty look like, yeah, thanks buddy. It just walked away. What is it with these big muscular guys and their tiny dogs?
BEN WATERWORTH: I know, right? I'm going to say that to this Kiwi guy. Should he win again? If he loses, I'm not talking to him, because he'll probably punch me in the head. So I'll just be careful with what I say.
COLIN HILDING: All right. So predictions, what did we have for, I mean, yours was the most extreme. So let's just go based on yours for now. What was your total for Australia for total medals?
BEN WATERWORTH: So I have 213. So I'm about a quarter of the way there after day three, which is pretty much, I might be on track here. I had 76 gold, 53 silver, 84 bronze. And for Canada, I had 40 gold, 31 silver, 62 bronze, 133.
COLIN HILDING: Although they are saying we're going to top, I think we got 80 last time. They're figuring we're going to fall somewhere between the 80 we got in Glasgow in our all time best, I don't remember what year that was, which is like 121. So they're expecting us to fall around 100.
BEN WATERWORTH: I'm being very nice to Canada. I'm already being known around sort of my work people as the Canada guy, because I'm always the one cheering for Canada and excited for those as a Canadian. Like every single time I've met a Canadian, we had this Canadian team doctor come to us about two days ago who wanted a tour of the backstage area. Let him in, let him in, let him in. I had this Canadian photographer last night got sent to me by mistake, you know, super nice guy. And then I met finally met the Canadian press attache last night. She was kind of in and out really quickly. She was really nice. I'll be back tomorrow. But you know, I think you've got two Canadians competing today from memory because Eric was your first fighter. It took three days to finally get to the Canadians. But anyway, Jarrod had 29 gold, 20 silver, 27 bronze from Canada and 53 gold, 47 silver, 49 bronze for Australia. You had 51 gold, 45 silver, 41 bronze for Australia and 33 gold, 20 silver, 31 bronze for Canada.
COLIN HILDING: All right, so we're on track. There's too many numbers there to keep track. We'll just update you.
BEN WATERWORTH: I hope you remember them all.
COLIN HILDING: Yeah. If you're the Canadian guy, can you just go around lying to people every time a song plays? Can you just tell them, this is the Tragically Hip, the most famous band in Canadian history. Funky Town's playing, did you know this is the Tragically Hip? Yeah.
BEN WATERWORTH: Just everyone is just screaming, this is the Tragically Hip, people, do you not know Canada music?
COLIN HILDING: I'm guessing you don't have any commentary fails, unless there was something in the opening ceremonies?
BEN WATERWORTH: No, I mean, I think, the only one, it's not really a comment, like it was more of an announce a fail at the opening ceremony, was when New Zealand came out to the opening ceremony, the person who's announcing was like, and now welcome our nearest neighbour, New Zealand! And they're not our nearest neighbour, Papa New Guineas. So, hello to all our Papa New Guineas listening, hope you like not being our nearest neighbour anymore.
COLIN HILDING: I've got one Dazon fail, and then one for Channel 7. So, I'm going to contribute here since I was able to listen to your terrible boxing commentary. I'll save the boxing one for last. So, the Dazon one, Mark Lee. I don't know if it was so much a fail, it was just sort of like an awkward timing thing. Whoever he was, I'm just going to say, whoever was the other commentator that was with him, it was some guy who won, I guess he is a two-time Commonwealth Games winner in some sport. He won a Victoria and either the Games before or after that. And he contributed nothing. It was literally just like 30 minutes of silence, and everyone was like, yeah, yeah, this country is, they're going to be on the board. They're just stumbling through stuff. And the other guy eventually said when they were talking about the Commonwealth Games, and this is how great of a colour commentator he was, they said they're calling this the biggest sporting event of the year in 2018. And then you hear a long pause. He goes, in this country. Like as if he said that, somebody muted him and said, the Olympics, you idiot.
BEN WATERWORTH: I mean, the World Cup soccer is on this year.
COLIN HILDING: Super Bowl. No, okay. In here, this country.
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, that's how they've been advertising the Commonwealth Games here. They get there and they're like, this is the biggest sporting event Australia has hosted this decade.
COLIN HILDING: In the month of April in 2018, the biggest sporting event of the month.
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, I've started hearing them now saying it's the biggest sporting event they've ever had in Queensland. So I mean, that would be true. But yeah, I think it's just funny. This decade. Sydney technically happened this millennium.
COLIN HILDING: Now here's the Channel 7 one. I don't know who's doing your boxing commentary, but you got to at least have one expert on there.
BEN WATERWORTH: And it's the feed. Okay, this is the one point I'm really defending Channel 7 here. It's the generic host broadcast the feed, not Channel 7.
COLIN HILDING: You know, everybody's seen those events that go on for a long time, and the commentators, after a while, you just struggle to come up with something to say, or you have like, you know, a low spot where you're like, nothing's really happening, so let's come up with some conversation. Let's come up, throw some stats out there. No joke, 30 seconds into the fight, they're struggling for something to say. And the Canadian boxer, Bazarin, he has this thing where he kind of yells when he punches.
BEN WATERWORTH: You hear that very loudly from where I'm standing, yes.
COLIN HILDING: Well, maybe it was just that distracting. It wasn't that they were struggling for things to talk about, but 30 seconds into the fight, the main commentator says to the other guy, he's like, how do you feel about that kind of yelling in the ring? And then the other guy goes, I mean, if somebody does it at the gym, I probably wouldn't like it too much. But here, I guess it's okay. I mean, if it works for him. Like that was 30 seconds into the fight. And then actually, it gets worse because in the third round, they're again having like really awkward banter back and forth talking about it. And all of a sudden, the other guy, the colour commentator, just stops what he's saying. It was something like, yeah, you know, this camera, what was the country he was facing? I didn't even heard of it.
BEN WATERWORTH: Curebass.
COLIN HILDING: Yeah, so Curebass, they have a pretty good boxing program. And all of a sudden he stops and goes, ooh, that was a really big punch there. You can't even think of a way to describe a punch. That was a really big punch there.
BEN WATERWORTH: So I can actually go up, because where they are, it's called the Press Tribune. So I actually can go up there. They feel like, you know, I mean, not that I really have the time, because I'm sort of busy doing my stuff. But so when I went into the table tennis the other day, I was actually standing next to the table tennis commentators. And I'm like, look at this guy going, you have the easiest sport in the world to commentate, because again, similar tennis, you don't commentate while the play is happening. And then something happens and the commentators decide, oh, yes, that's something you don't want in table tennis. No, absolutely not. And then like the next play happens again, go, oh, very difficult shot there by the Welsh player. Good shot, though. And then like it just moves on to the next bit. Yeah, they're definitely controlling the play here. Absolutely.
COLIN HILDING: You know, like you have the best job. We could bring life to that. Like we get Jarrod on there. It's going to back forth, back forth, back forth.
BEN WATERWORTH: Mogul, mogul, mogul, mogul, mogul, mogul. Paddle ball.
COLIN HILDING: Yeah. I'm guessing you don't have any other commentary fails. Those are the only ones I have.
BEN WATERWORTH: No, there's one thing I'll just quickly add just on the boxing. That was funny. Our very first bout that we had in the entire competition lasted seven seconds. There was a technical knockout and they both clashed heads. And then, yeah, last night we had a knockout, which if I think I've been told the correct information is the very first knockout in the history of Commonwealth Games boxing. So, yeah, I'm not sure if that's true or not, but I heard that from someone. So there you go.
COLIN HILDING: It's the same commentators that were debating on where the scream would be annoying. If you ever run into those guys, can you just ask them like if you're here, if you hear the screaming or something like that, you know where sounds like that would be really annoying? In the gym. But here, totally okay.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yes, fine, fine. Absolutely fine. Let him do it.
COLIN HILDING: Do you want to put up an athlete of the week for the Australian side?
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, because I've been paying so much attention to everything. Or any country. Look, I want to go and I'm going to try and find his name. I think I need to name him Patrick Malata, the big Kiwi guy in the 91 plus kilogram category. He's definitely a big softy with his little doggy. And he's just awesome to watch. I mean, so many of these guys are awesome to watch. So, yeah, I mean, one that I'm really looking forward to seeing today is this Indian Marycom MC. She's in the 45 to 48 kilogram, the little lightweights for the women. But she's actually an Indian senator back home. She's a politician. She's one of bronze medal in boxing at the London Olympics. She's won basically medals in every single world championships and everything. She's about 35 years old. She's hanging on to the Commonwealth Games because it's one major event. She's never won a medal in. And she's apparently a big bloody deal back in India. So I'm expecting a lot of media to be there for her. She's in second second cab off the rank today, basically. So I'm looking forward to seeing her box today. So she could very well be my athlete next time we talk. I don't know. She could get knocked out in seven seconds. And then maybe it's all been up for nothing. Like my new UEE athlete the other day who just, you know, was there and not there. But yeah, I mean, it's kind of it's been hard for me to really look around and everything and see everything else. But yeah, I'll give it to my Kiwi friend. Me doing a Kiwi athlete of the day or athlete of the first three days.
COLIN HILDING: Controversial. I really have nobody to put up other than Taylor Ruck, just because all I've really been able to watch is swimming. I mean, I saw a little bit of the triathlon and maybe 10 minutes of a basketball game. But Taylor Ruck's like the new swimming superstar here. And you know how athletes, they come out of the pool. This is going to be a very superficial thing, but athletes come out of the pool and their hair is always like, you know, completely wet and straight and everything like that. Taylor Ruck must have like the cruelest hair ever because she comes out of the pool and it literally looks like a long haired Ronald McDonald. Like it instantly frizzes the second she's out of the pool. So I mean, she's got a very distinguishable look, but I'll put up Taylor Ruck and I'm sure by week two, we'll have somebody to put up from badminton.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yes, which I'm going to watch on my one day off. I'm going to watch hockey in badminton.
COLIN HILDING: Is our guy, our badminton guy from the Rio Olympics?
BEN WATERWORTH: Yes, sorry, sorry, singing. Yep, yep.
COLIN HILDING: I looked him up. The tweet that kept on giving for about a year and a half where every once in a while I see somebody likes the tweet that we sent him.
BEN WATERWORTH: No, he's there and probably could win a medal. And it's interesting, actually, because the hockey session I'm going to is technically like the semifinals of that night that were sold out. So I've gotten, you know, like the ninth versus tenth, or the eighth versus ninth playoff. And there's actually every chance that Canada might be in one of those. So I might get to see Canada play hockey, but of the field variety.
COLIN HILDING: Oh, that's right, field hockey. I saw field hockey too, which usually isn't a big deal here, because it's not real hockey here in Canada. It's kind of like... It's like what you play indoors during the summer here in Canada in gym class. But no, field hockey is fun. To me, it feels a little bit closer to like lacrosse. I don't know if lacrosse is a big thing there. No.
BEN WATERWORTH: I know what lacrosse is.
COLIN HILDING: Have you heard of basketball?
BEN WATERWORTH: We did, I think, play it in gym class a couple of times in high school. But yeah, I mean, it's not the extent, it's not our national sport like it is for you guys.
COLIN HILDING: Yeah, that's right. I mean, I still saw field hockey, so I'd like to check out more of it. I also just want to quickly say, how great is it to have the open roof pool, the outdoor pool area? Like it looks fantastic.
BEN WATERWORTH: It's been a bit controversial. A lot of people have been complaining about the backstroke because I don't think like it because they don't have the roof to kind of go off.
COLIN HILDING: But yeah, I mean, it sets a record in the Commonwealth Games. Backstroke is not good enough.
BEN WATERWORTH: I nearly had the opportunity to go. I didn't say nearly. I did have the opportunity to go and watch the trials like a month before the games. I just didn't go. But yeah, from what I've heard, my housemate's been there and she said it's pretty amazing. So yeah, I mean, obviously, it's been sellout, completely sold out for all sessions, heats and finals. You know, it's the sport that everyone here is paying most attention to. So athletics start today, so it'll switch over to that soon. But yeah, it looks good. It looks very Gold Coast to kind of have that sort of, you know, because when it's sunny here and not raining, it's, you know, beautiful beaches, sand. It's Australian, right?
COLIN HILDING: Just like Canada this time of year. They might as well just hold it here in Winnipeg. I don't know how much more we're going to be able to cover this. I don't know if you have the time or availability, because based on your time of day, I'm at work if it's not on my sort of vacation. So I don't know if you and Jarrod will be able to do episodes throughout the week. Otherwise, I'm sure we can come up with something, you know, before the end of the games, maybe just a games wrap up at the very least, but I'm sure there'll be something we can come up with.
BEN WATERWORTH: I'm sure we will. And even if we're back in a week's time or something like that. But, yeah, I mean, definitely want to be able to have more of a chat about it all as it gets to the pointy end with things. And, yeah, go over these predictions, because, you know, I'm confident about my Australia one. I don't know how I'm feeling about my Canada one right now, though.
COLIN HILDING: Yeah, that's a little bit outrageous.
BEN WATERWORTH: Bloody Canada.
COLIN HILDING: Let's just say we're looking forward to seeing Jarrod in the Netball, too. So, Jarrod, you better not let us down. We'll be back eventually. So, the only way you're going to know if we're doing an episode is if you like us on Facebook, if you subscribe to us on iTunes or Stitcher. I would say follow us on Twitter. We don't have a Twitter page. But look for hashtag OffThePodium if you look for that.
BEN WATERWORTH: We'll get an episode out.
COLIN HILDING: We battle with a guy who has a podcast on piano, I think. Yeah, yeah. Ben, continue to enjoy the games and work hard and keep those boxers safe.
BEN WATERWORTH: But you, Cole, and I will do that. Thank you.
COLIN HILDING: And everybody out there, download Dzone right now at dzone.com.
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