Kerri Pottharst Interview
A massive interview for you today as we get our first ever taste of Beach Volleyball on the show by speaking with the legendary two-time Olympic medallist Kerri Pottharst about her amazing career and Olympic experiences! We learn from Kerri how a random moment from her brother got her into the sport and how that lead to an amazing indoor career throughout the 1980s and early 1990s. We also learn about the transition into beach volleyball, what lead her to partnering up with Natalie Cook and what her experiences were like throughout her three Olympics. Added to this we find out just what it was like to experience that gold medal win in front of 10,000 screaming fans at Bondi Beach and everything else that followed, as well as just where the sport is at now in Australia and how the recent silver medal win in Tokyo by Taliqua Clancy & Mariafe Artacho del Solar will help spur on a new generation of volleyball players leading into Brisbane 2032. It’s an exciting chat with an exciting guest that you won’t want to miss!
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
Please note this is an automated transcript that may contain errors.
BEN WATERWORTH: It is Off The Podium, an Olympics podcast coming to you today for another interview episode, a big interview for you today. A two-time Olympic medallist, three-time Olympian, and a whole other bunch of superlatives that you will hear me say in just a few moments in my second introduction for her. I'm talking about Kerri Pottharst, Sydney 2000 gold medallist in the sport of beach volleyball, bronze medallist from Atlanta as well, and our very first taste of volleyball on this show, be it beach or indoor. Very excited to bring you this chat today. Kerri goes over a lot of great insight into her amazing career, including how the scene of indoor volleyball was in Australia in the 80s and the 90s. Just what brought about the transition across to beach volleyball, the key differences when it comes to playing between the two of them, and also how she's been able to use her two medal wins as inspiration moving forward across the way. So it's a great chat here. You're gonna learn a lot today in this interview, and I'm very excited to bring it to you right now. Here is our chat with two time Olympic medallist, Kerri Pottharst.
BEN WATERWORTH: It is an absolute honour to welcome our next guest here to Off The Podium. She is a three-time Olympian, a two-time Olympic medallist, a 25-time podium finisher on the World Beach Volleyball Tour. She's been inducted into the International Volleyball Hall of Fame, the Australian Sports Hall of Fame, and her biggest honour today is that she's gonna be the first ever athlete from the sport of volleyball, beach or indoor, to appear here on Off The Podium. It is a pleasure to welcome to the show today Kerri Pottharst. Kerri, first of all, honour to have you on the show today. Thanks for joining us.
KERRI POTTHARST: Oh, what a great intro. Thank you. What an honour to be your first ever volleyball athlete. I'm sure there'll be more to come.
BEN WATERWORTH: I'm hoping so. I'm hoping so. We're sort of going through a variety of all the sports, but I think your name easily tops it up there as people would love to get on the show to chat about this because volleyball, be it beach or indoor, is always one of these sports that fascinates me because it seems that in Australia, we only really ever get to see it during sort of the Olympics or recently more so in the Commonwealth Games, but it's such a great sport, Kerri. Why do we not like volleyball more in this country?
KERRI POTTHARST: Yeah, what a great question. And who the hell knows why not? I mean, yeah, beach volleyball especially. I mean, we're made to play beach volleyball. We have the best beaches in the world in this country. So many people are living and playing on the beach. You've got your lifesavers, the nippers out there all day. Give them a ball and give them something else to do other than run and swim, I say. And but, you know, look, it's tough. I mean, there's plenty of sports and things for kids to choose from. And volleyball's never been a big sport. It's very big in other countries. Like it's the highest participation sport, you know, in every, almost in the world, I think, behind soccer, I believe. And so, you know, I just don't know. I pull my hair out all the time thinking about how we can make it better. But I don't know. If anybody out there has any ideas, let us know.
BEN WATERWORTH: Exactly, we'd love to. I mean, I remember visiting Nebraska and, you know, a state which they don't really have a lot of, well, no pro teams basically. And they had just built, I think, a 20,000 seat stadium for their women's volleyball team to show how much not only that they love volleyball in America, but just, you know, that was a college team as well. So maybe we need to, you know, drink the Kool-Aid in the States to see what they're doing there. And we can get sort of 20,000 seat stadiums built for our teams here. That would be nice.
KERRI POTTHARST: Yeah, look, it's definitely huge in the States. The college system really promotes a lot of sport and volleyball is one of them. So they get a lot of athletes coming through the college network. And then now a lot of them are pouring into the beach as well over the years. Beach volleyball has been around for a long time, you know, almost 60 years or 70 years in the world. It started off, well, apparently according to the Americans, it started off in America.
BEN WATERWORTH: They always invent everything, don't they? Like according to them.
KERRI POTTHARST: Yeah, but well, the women's team actually won gold in beach and in indoor this time. So I think it's the first time that's ever happened. So that's gonna again, give it a massive burst in the States, especially for women in college. So the college system, I think is the key in the high school system, being in high schools as well. And they have big programs. And I think that's where we lack. We don't have those big programs. We often just have the clubs. We have the volleyball clubs. We have the soccer clubs, but we don't have really dedicated teams within school and university networks. And I think that's where we lack for some sports.
BEN WATERWORTH: With all that in mind, you started off, of course, in indoor volleyball, I believe, at the age of 17. I mean, kind of what led you into taking up volleyball? Were you just a very active in a variety of sports and volleyball was kind of where it stuck? I mean, how did it all begin?
KERRI POTTHARST: Well, it was quite funny, actually, I was, well, as you can imagine, being a young female, you're already a bit self-conscious. I was six foot tall, so towering above everybody, especially the boys when I was young. And, you know, I was pretty self-conscious about my height, but also my surname, I got teased a lot, you know, that Pottharst, you take the H off and the T off the end, and there's an ass in the middle. So, you know, I got teased all sorts of names and I was quite sensitive, and I'm quite a sensitive person still. And I think when I was first introduced to volleyball by my brother, he actually asked me to fill in in a social team. He didn't have enough players for the team. So he said, come and stand on the court. When the whistle blows, get out the way and we'll just play each point. But I kind of stayed on the court a little bit and tried to play with some of his mates. And at the end of it, he said, oh, well, you're pretty tall and maybe you could play this sport. So he dragged me along to his club team. And all of a sudden everyone in the club's like, oh, yeah, we'll have you. We'll teach you how to play, you know, six foot tall. So I'm being patted on the back for being tall. And all of a sudden my height was an advantage and it was something that people were, you know, jealous of and, you know, wanted me for. And I'm like, yay. So I found my tribe, I guess, in volleyball. And I just loved the teamwork aspect of it. You know, I'm a really social person. So I like to have people around me a lot, team. And so I really loved it, fell into it very quickly and advanced very quickly because I had some great coaches where I grew up. I had some national team players who had become coaches. And so it's very lucky to get good skill training at the very beginning.
BEN WATERWORTH: It's a sport that I don't often associate too much with height. It's, I mean, it makes sense. Of course, you've got a large net there, but I mean, obviously you think of sort of tall sports. I mean, basketball comes to mind, netball, sort of those sorts of sports. So is it a sport that really does favour height similar to those sports as well?
KERRI POTTHARST: Well, I mean, indoor more so than the beach. Indoor being six people, very specific, the taller you are, you still have to be able to chew gum and walk at the same time. So you still have to be reasonably athletic and, well, pretty athletic and be able to have good hand-eye coordination. So height obviously is a massive advantage. Some players who are a little bit smaller, but have great jumps or long arms and can reach high and have incredible skills, they can make it through if their height is a little bit less than the other players. But these days, for our Australian team, we're looking at players around six foot or a little bit under, but the taller the better, indoors. But then you go out onto the beach where you've got just a slightly smaller size court and there's only two of you to cover it. So you have to be incredibly skillful now. And then, so then if you find the balance between a really tall person who learns really good skill and can move through the sand, and that's the biggest thing, when you're tall, sometimes you're heavier, it's more difficult to move through the sand. I'm very tall, I'm kind of tall and lean. And so I found it easier to move through the sand than most people my height. And so, yeah, you kind of tall is good, but on the beach, it is more about skill and when you get to the top level, well, more about skill in the beginning than strategy, because then you need to add the strategy onto that and pick the right strategy to use at the right time. And then the very kind of pinnacle is you have to have, you know, a really strong mindset, because you lose a lot of points and you have to be able to, you know, get back up after every point and go again and go again and go again. So it's all about your mindset and your belief.
BEN WATERWORTH: There's definitely some mindset stuff I'm going to ask you about, because there's some very famous stories about what you and Natalie did in the lead up to Sydney, which I would love to learn a little bit more about. But during the 80s and sort of working your way out the ladder, you know, making the national team in indoor, eventually you went on to captain the team as well. What was the scene like sort of in the 80s, in the early 90s for indoor volleyball in this country? And obviously Australia's only represented at the Olympics in Sydney in both men's and women's, but what were the likelihood of qualifying for an Olympics back in the 80s? Was it something that was possible? Kind of was the sport just not there yet in the 80s?
KERRI POTTHARST: No, it wasn't possible at all. Wasn't even on my radar as a volleyball athlete playing for Australia. There was no way we were ever gonna make the Olympics. We were ranked 20 something in the world and they only take, I think it ran about 12 teams maximum to each Olympics. So you have to qualify. And we had to always qualify through the Asian zone. And we had China and Japan, Korea, who were really strong and had always, Korea I don't think had qualified all the time, but definitely the others. And so it was always never on my radar as a young athlete that I'd go to the Olympics in indoor volleyball and just playing for the national team. We all had full-time jobs. We trained before work with our clubs, after work with our clubs. We played competition in our states once a week. And then we'd go away for training camps, might have a two or three week training camp where we'd get flogged and you just couldn't walk at the end of it because you've never trained that hard in your life. Very different to now when as a full-time athlete, it's you can train so much more and you can recover and you don't have to work off. Most people still have to work because there's not a lot of money in volleyball, but yeah, it was a lot harder back then. And every moment of your spare time was spent playing or training for your sport. And so it becomes a passion and you only stay in it because you're passionate about it. And I loved everything about it. I loved the people in particular that I got to train and play with.
BEN WATERWORTH: You got to experience the taste of a professional athlete by playing pro in Italy for a season though. Obviously they love their volleyball and that part of the world, what was sort of that experience like?
KERRI POTTHARST: Yeah, well, Italy was the highest paying league in the world around that time. And obviously attracted a lot of great international players. They were allowed two international players per team. And I just had this random idea one day that I'd go and play in Europe professionally. And I thought, oh, I might as well go to Italy where there's a lot of money because I've never earned a cent. I've only ever paid to play for Australia. One year we had to give our tracksuits back for the next national team. Wow. That's how poor our sport was. It's a lot better now, but it was pretty bad. And so I quit a really high paying job. I was, I think I was 25. Yeah, I'd been playing in the national team for a long time. I was captain and, oh no, 27, I think. And I was, yeah, I was, yeah, I had a full-time job. I quit that. Everybody around me said, you're crazy. You shouldn't be doing this. You know, you'll never get that great job that you had again if you take a year off. And I just basically, through friends, found a club who was looking for somebody and it was good timing. It was only a few weeks until the season started and I was in Europe visiting my boyfriend who was working in England. And so we just drove across to this club in Italy from England and I just did a tryout in the club gym and they really liked what they saw and I got the contract and I was just absolutely thrilled. And then we went on and had another week of holiday and then I had to fly back. And I tell you, the first week of playing in a professional team where, you know, you're expected to be the best in your team was one of the hardest things I've ever come across. Like I'd be lying at night in a hot bath just going, oh my God, is it going to get any easier? Is my body ever going to get used to this? And it did eventually, but it was a completely different experience because when you're being paid to play in another club team, you have to finish the ball off. You have to be the best all the time. And so, you know, that taught me a lot, a hell of a lot that I think I was there for about eight months.
BEN WATERWORTH: Which I was going to say that experience I can imagine, yeah, like it helps you sort of on that journey moving forward. And I can imagine then that people back in Australia and the national team would have been loving to kind of have someone with that experience, even if it was just for one season.
KERRI POTTHARST: Yeah, look, it taught me more than I probably realise, you know, when I look back at it now, I don't talk about it a lot. I, you know, tend to just talk mainly about my beach volleyball career. But that eight months in Italy taught me not only to be a better player because I was surrounded by players. And that's the reason I wanted to go there, not to earn money, particularly. That was the bonus. That was a cherry on top. It was to actually get better. I'd got to a point where in Australia, I was one of the best players. And I thought, how am I going to actually get even better? Cause I know I can. And so I was surrounded by all these great players, but I was actually halfway through the season, we were losing. And they called me into the office and said, look, we're really sorry, but we need to get a stronger foreign player because we need to stay in the top division. We're in the A1 division. And so they were going to let me go and bring in a Brazilian player who was better than me. And yeah, they were really sad and disappointed, but they had to do it for the club. And they gave me two options. They said, you can either stay and train with the club and train with us every session, but you can't play the matches, or we can pay you out and you can go back to Australia. And it took me two seconds to decide what to do because I don't give up. And I said, I'll just stay and train with you. Of course, I'll be gutted that I can't play, but I'll stay. So I decided to stay. And within a couple of weeks, the Brazilian player had come over. She started training. They ended up calling me in the office a couple of weeks later. And I trained my absolute butt off for those two weeks to tell you I've never played better volleyball in my life. Because in my own self, I wanted to prove that I was worth keeping. And they called me back into the office and said, look, we're keeping the Brazilian player, but we've decided to keep you and sack the other foreign player who was a girl from Germany, who was a friend of mine, which was sad, but it was just like, oh my gosh, you know? So I learnt at that point how incredibly important it is to just keep on digging away and see the pun there, that's the volleyball term dig. Just keep on fighting for, you know, fighting for yourself and just don't give up. And it was massive. So when I came back to Australia, yes, of course I was a better player, but I think emotionally and mentally I was a much better person as well.
BEN WATERWORTH: What was the scene in terms of beach versus indoor? Like you mentioned sort of the history about beach had been around for a while, but obviously didn't make his debut at the Olympics until Atlanta. So was there kind of a growth in the sport sort of once they announced that and a lot more people were sort of switching? Well, it was a bit taboo for indoor volleyball players to go play beach. I mean, kind of, kind of, what was that scene like versus indoor and beach at the time?
KERRI POTTHARST: Yeah, well, around the time I've kind of finished my indoor career, cause I wrecked my knee, that was when in 1992, they had a beach volleyball as like a demonstration sport in Barcelona. So it wasn't a full medal sport. It was just like, hey, let's just see what this looks like. And they loved it so much that they made the sport a full-time sport in 1996, which was the first Olympics I went to. And Natalie and I were lucky enough to win the first ever medal given out because they gave the bronze women's medal out first. So we're like, yes, first.
BEN WATERWORTH: That works, that's history.
KERRI POTTHARST: But back in Australia, like at that time, leading into the first Olympics, there weren't a lot of people playing. Absolutely weren't a lot of people. And I started playing with my best friend, Annette, and she'd also retired from the indoor national team. And so we gave it a bash and played a couple of world tours. Really liked it, did well, did pretty well. And then I realised that I had a chance to get to my first Olympics. I thought, well, wow, if the Olympics are coming up in a couple of years, then maybe I could get to an Olympics in this sport. And then I had to look around and go, wow, well, I need to play with one of the best players. And Annette being a great player at the time and my best friend, which was really hard, I could see that she had already reached a level that perhaps she wouldn't get that much better. And I felt like I needed somebody who could take us to the next level. And that's when I looked around and there absolutely weren't many people playing it all out on the beach, but Natalie Cook was one of them. And that's when I approached Nat and we got together. But I think after Atlanta, after 1996, that's when a lot more players went, hey, maybe we could go the Olympics too. So we saw a bit of an influx of indoor players trying to get out on the beach. And we expanded our national program, which was based in Adelaide in the hope that we would get some more players, which we did. We had some great teams. We had three women's teams and three men's teams at the Sydney Olympics. We're two men's teams.
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, with Sydney in mind too, kind of obviously in the lead up to Atlanta, Sydney gets the games in 93. So when you kind of get that all of a sudden realization that, hey, I can become an Olympian and go to Atlanta, does that also spur you on to think, well, hey, if I do well and go to Atlanta, then I could potentially represent my country at a home Olympics, the Olympics after Atlanta.
KERRI POTTHARST: Yeah, I remember in 93, I was at a dinner when that was announced, when Sydney got the Olympics. And at that point, I was still recovering from my knee injury. And so I hadn't really made the switch yet. But I think leading into Atlanta, I don't think I was thinking about Sydney at that point. We were so focused. We kind of as an Olympic athlete, it's hard to focus past four years. Four years is a long period to focus towards. To think about the next one is almost taboo in a way, because it's such a big thing that you're going for. So Atlanta was so huge. But definitely after Atlanta, that was our focus 100 million percent. And we even split up for a little while as a team, because we weren't sure whether we were the best combination to try and win gold in Sydney. But when we came back together and we realised literally within the first five minutes of being together on the sand, that split that we'd had was actually worth it. And coming back together, it just felt like magic.
BEN WATERWORTH: When you first met Nat and you approach her and you kind of have that team and you build up to when you do go to the Olympics, I mean, when it comes to beach volleyball and your training together like that, what sort of aspects do you need to work on in terms of communication, mentality and everything? Because it's all well and good to hit a ball and play well on the court, but I'm sure there's also that comradery you need with your teammate to help you out there. So sort of in the lead up to the Olympics outside of the physical aspect, what sort of mental and sort of team bonding things would you and Nat do to try and really get that chemistry on the court together?
KERRI POTTHARST: Oh yeah, that's a big question because I believe that is the key to our success, that what we did do. Where do I start? Well, I guess, let me just point out a couple of things and we can dig deeper into those if you want, but the first thing we realised was that we had to have the right partner. So that split coming back together, we then had almost two years to prepare for Sydney. Then we looked at each other and said, okay, we've got the right partner, now we need the best team around us. We had a volleyball coach already, but then we thought, what else do we need? We needed somebody who can look after us physically and put all our programs together, work together with our volleyball coach, someone perhaps that's not involved in a program training a lot of other athletes, so we need our own guy. So we got Phil Morland on board to be our physical trainer. And then we thought, you know, as we kind of started to progress month by month, the thing that we realised that was kind of missing, but it was almost, we didn't know yet what this last person or this third coach could do for us was mindset. And we realised that in order to grow, we could also do a lot more growth off the court than we could on because there's a limited time that we can train. And all the other teams in the world were training the same amount of hours as we were on the sand and in the gym. And we had to try and catch up to the Americans and the Brazilians who were dominating our sport at that time. And so in order to catch up, we thought one thing that we can do is improve our mindset and work on that part of our game and work on our belief systems. So when we start to have fears and doubts about whether we can do something, our belief systems really support ourselves and can kind of overcome those fears, doubts, challenges, whatever. So we employed, or we didn't pay him. We asked somebody to come on board with us and his name was Kira Cashley. And he helped us develop all that part of our mind. And at the end of the day, all that added up to was just this unshakable belief that we had. So we did some crazy things. We walked on hot coals, we walked on broken glass, we did all these team building activities. We'd be blindfolded, holding hands with an egg on a spoon, trying to make our way through a forest, following a whistle. We did some pretty out there things that other people were scratching their head, wondering what the hell we were doing. And we were too at the time, I tell you, Natalie and I were just like, what the f... We certainly had some interesting conversations, but looking back, it was all part of building that belief. It was all part of pushing ourselves every single day out of our comfort zone and being okay with that and being used to that. So by the time we stood on the sand in front of 10,000 people, cheering us and willing us to try and win, it didn't freak us out. We were just with them. We were like, yeah, like we're here. This is where we're supposed to be. And we believed in ourselves 100%. So in both sets, we played best of three sets and we won two sets to nil. And in both sets, we were behind each time. But on our faces, when I look back at the video, there was not one little bit of doubt on our faces. And you can actually see on the video where the Brazilians who were playing, who had beaten us 16 out of 17 matches in the lead up to the games, we could see literally the doubt come over and the fear come over their face towards the end of the match where they just went, what the hell? Even after the first set we won, I still think that they felt, okay, we just got to finish these Aussies off and win the next two sets. But in our mind, it was like, no, we're not going to let you. And so you could see it in their faces. It's just a totally different mindset when someone gives up and somebody steps up.
BEN WATERWORTH: I remember the lead up to Sydney and kind of the talk around Bondi and all the controversy and everything around it, but then just it turned into basically one of the best venues, I think, during the Olympics. And it seemed to affect a lot of teams, didn't it? Kind of that all of a sudden, 10,000 people there, sort of the pressure of that Olympics. But I mean, to kind of hear that sort of helped you, all sort of all those methodologies that you did in the lead up. Is that now something that you kind of, through I guess, mentoring, coaching, talking to other people through your motivational speaking, that you would encourage athletes to kind of do that mental aspect of things to prepare them for a big stage like that?
KERRI POTTHARST: Yeah, 100%. I mean, we tried to prepare by playing loud music at training and all that sort of stuff, but it never really prepares you for that moment. It's a bit like what's just happened in Tokyo. Everyone was so worried about there being no spectators. Oh my God, those poor athletes. But they don't, like at the end of the day, the ones that did well, they didn't care. Of course, they would have liked to have spectators and it's really amazing playing that energy, but it can also freak you the hell out. Like the first time we stepped on the court in Sydney, you know, I nearly peed my pants and we nearly lost our first match against a team that was ranked 32nd in the tournament. So, you know, we were so scared. So as much as you can prepare for a particular moment, like playing loud music and imagining millions of people watching you until it actually happens, you know, you don't really know what it's like. It's not the best preparation, but what we were prepared for was being able to respond to our feelings and our emotions. So we could prepare for that uncomfortable feeling. We'd been uncomfortable so many times in the lead up doing so many different weird things. And so we were okay with being uncomfortable. We were okay with being a little bit scared and we just fought it and fought it and fought it and eventually we pulled through in each game. It became easier and easier. So yeah, really completely different experiences, Sydney and how the athletes would have been in Tokyo. But again, you know, you put your blinkers on, you get into that zone and it doesn't really matter.
BEN WATERWORTH: When it came from the transition from indoor to beach, I mean, how, besides the obvious, you mentioned slightly smaller court, there's less players, one you're playing on sand, the other you're not playing on sand. I mean, is there much of a, I guess, a difference when you've got to adapt from the indoor to the beach? And what were sort of some of the difficult things you found overcoming when you went from your indoor career to your beach career?
KERRI POTTHARST: Yeah, it's very, very different. Like I said before, running around in sand is completely different in bare feet than running around in shoes and knee pads on a hard floorboards. So yeah, completely different environment. Indoors, there's obviously no wind. You've got your artificial lights out on the beach. You've got the sun which moves around. So you could be staring into it one minute straight ahead because the sun's setting or it could be right up in the sky in the middle of the day and you have to look up to look at the ball and the ball is just caught in the ring of the ball of the bright sun as you're looking at it. So, there's so many different environmental issues. It can rain, it can pelt down. They'll only stop if there's lightning. The sand can be rock hard because of rain. It can be super deep. It can be grainy, it can be full of shells. It can have rocks in there that you're unaware of. We've been on courts in some places in the world where Natalie, for instance, she's a real gardener on the court. She just finds rocks with her toes all the time and she's forever going, hang on a minute. And she goes down and pulls a rock out and throws it to the side. So, obviously, that doesn't happen in the big tournaments because they're all beautifully manicured courts and the sand is often brought in and they're all made on artificial surfaces. I mean, in the middle of cities, in towns, very few big events now are actually on the beach. I think you'll probably see that, I don't know if there'll be another country ever, apart from Australia, Bondi and Rio, Copacabana Beach, where you'll see beach volleyball actually on a beach.
BEN WATERWORTH: Is it planned for Brisbane? Are they having it sort of, is it gonna be down on the Gold Coast similar to the way the Columna Games?
KERRI POTTHARST: They will, but often it's not actually on the beach. It's kind of like for the Gold Coast, they brought it back off the beach on the grass. That's right. So they still dump sand and make a venue. Even in Sydney, they dumped extra sand down to kind of even it all out, but it was actually on the real beach.
BEN WATERWORTH: Is it, I guess, similar in many aspects when we speak to some of our winter athletes, obviously there's different types of snow that certain, you know, snow athletes will feel. Is that a case for beach volleyball players as well, that you maybe have a preference to a type of sand, you know, more of a harder type or a softer type or something along those lines?
KERRI POTTHARST: Yeah, well, most athletes will tell you that the harder type is better because it's easier to move around. In Portugal, I remember, in Espanol, the sand there is like quick sand and we always didn't like going there because it made us shorter players as well. So if you're tall, it makes you shorter because you're sinking in. Of course, the shorter players are shorter too, but it's a whole different perspective on the game. Your timing is different because you go down deeper before you come up. You can't move as fast. So yeah, very, very different.
BEN WATERWORTH: Just touching on Atlanta, you mentioned obviously, the first ever, I like that, the first ever medallist ever in women's beach volleyball. That's a great way of selling it.
KERRI POTTHARST: No, in beach volleyball, full stop.
BEN WATERWORTH: In beach volleyball, full stop. So even before the men, all right, done. All right, sorry, we'll clarify that. But going in, did you and Nat sort of have expectations to medal? Was it kind of medal or nothing, or was it kind of a case of it was a bonus to walk away with a medal?
KERRI POTTHARST: No, we definitely set our goal of winning a medal. And that was probably the reason why we didn't make the final because we said we wanted to win a medal. Our biggest match was, and we were ranked sixth in the world at the time. And our biggest match was against the number one American team who was gonna be in the gold medal match, who everybody thought would be in the gold medal match with the top Brazilian team. And we beat them in the quarterfinal. And then we had a semifinal the next day against the second Brazilian team who we'd beaten a few times. It wasn't a walkover type game, but we definitely had wins against them. Obviously, we'd lost against them a lot as well. But when we were preparing for that game, we were frightened, we were scared. We were like, okay, we've come here for a medal. If we win this, we're definitely in with a medal because we'll go to the final. If we lose it, we could come fourth. The only thing that we kept on focusing on, instead of thinking we win, we're in with a medal, we focused on what happens if we lose, we could come fourth, fourth, fourth. That's all we focused on, both of us. When we've talked about it in the past, that we freaked ourselves out, that we were feeling that the worst possible scenario was a possibility. When we stepped down on the court, we were just totally freaked out. And it was, you know, Natalie talks about, I think the first point, she just looked across the court and went, we're gonna lose, you know, in her mind and deep in her heart. And, you know, with that sort of fear and doubt, there's no way you can play your best. And so we got absolutely thrashed. And then luckily we had some inspirational moments that night because we were pretty down. We had to come out the next day and play the second ranked American team to try and get the bronze. And then we beat them in the bronze medal match in Atlanta. And we'd beaten the third ranked American team in the pool place or the previous place. So we beat all the Americans in Atlanta, and then we beat all the Brazilians in Sydney. And to me, that's like almost a, you know, more, I don't know, bigger win that we did that because they were the, you know, the biggest players in our sport at the time. Now there's players from all over the world that can be-
BEN WATERWORTH: But Norway winning gold medals now in beach volleyball. What's going on there? I didn't know Norway had beaches.
KERRI POTTHARST: Yeah, well, there aren't many countries that don't. There are obviously a few landlocked countries, but yeah, they're off. A lot of them are indoor players that have come out, and indoor is obviously huge as we talked about in Europe and around the world. But now they're just building programs. You know, beach volleyball has become a major sport. They have major competitions with thousands and thousands of spectators just following the Olympics. Just last week, they had one of the biggest events that there's been for the last 18 months in Europe, and they had crowds, and they built this incredible stadium in the middle of Vienna in Austria. And it was just a stadium that went straight up instead of out, and it was all enclosed. And there was, you know, it was very COVID safe, but you know, lights and music and it's massive. So more and more people are making that, you know, transition from indoor or just becoming beach players straight out of, you know, university.
BEN WATERWORTH: Crowds, what are those again? I remember them. Just on that quickly, just when you start talking about the transition, do many people transition the other way around? Do many people start off as beach players and go, well, this isn't for me, I'm gonna try indoor?
KERRI POTTHARST: Not as much. What happens these days is, and my son who's 15, like a lot of people play both. So my son plays indoor, you know, normally, now, not at the moment, but would be playing indoor over the winter and beach volleyball over the summer. And then at some point, if you're really good at it and you wanna keep going, you make a decision to, you know, to go one way or the other. There have been a few players that have only ever played beach, not many, but yeah, mainly indoor to beach.
BEN WATERWORTH: Is there much rivalry between the two? Like are they both kind of, like, do the indoor players look down on the beach? Do the beach players look down? Like, or is it kind of just your work together, really?
KERRI POTTHARST: I don't really know what indoor players think of beach players at the moment. I think sometimes they may be jealous of the freedom and the travel and the fun, you know, that it looks a lot more fun. Obviously it's, I believe it's a lot harder than playing indoor and they probably would argue that. I don't think there's any kind of rivalry. I think the biggest rivalry is with the coaching stuff and the programs where, you know, beach volleyball sees an indoor player and says, oh, that'd be great for the beach program and the indoor coach is going, no, you know, I want to keep them on in-sides, so that's probably the rivalries more between the coaches trying to poach each other's players.
BEN WATERWORTH: Just quickly, in terms of the experience in 96, you're actually the first athlete we've had from Atlanta, funnily enough. I mean, it was a unique games, obviously the centenary games, and obviously marred a lot by the bombing that happened. I mean, was it a unique atmosphere to kind of be there through all those centenary celebrations and then kind of be marred by such an incident? Do you sort of remember how that mood was around the end of the games compared to the start of the games?
KERRI POTTHARST: Yeah, look, again, it's really hard as an athlete because you're often in your bubble. You really are in your bubble and we've used the word bubble now because of COVID. But the bubble is, you know, the bubble, you surround yourself with in the Olympic Village, for instance. You know, you're surrounded with your immediate team and then your Australian team and you mix a little bit, but you don't really know what's happening in the outside world. You're not reading the news. And back then, we didn't have mobile phones and we went on the Internet. So we didn't really know exactly what was happening around the place. The mood for us was just as per normal. But the day or the night that we had lost the semifinals, the night that the bomb had gone off. So our coaches and because we didn't have Internet and phones and stuff, our coaches decided not to tell us about it until after the match. So they kind of shielded us from what had happened. And yeah, we found out after, which was pretty shocking. And but again, the security is pretty high. I'll tell you what, it's one of the safest places to be. And that's why I knew Tokyo was going to be fine with COVID. There obviously were a few COVID cases, but for 10,000 people to be in an Olympic village, I only have a few cases. That was pretty, it really was telling of how tight the security and the health was there. And I think it would have been one of the safest places in the world.
BEN WATERWORTH: Between Atlanta and Sydney, as we know, as you mentioned, you obviously and Nat sort of broke up, got back together again. You had some success in the world stage and you go to Sydney 2000. That bronze, obviously you've come away with the medal, you've gone over the disappointment of the semis, but you still walked away with the medal. I can imagine though that that is also then the spurring point. Okay, we've gotten a medal now, it's gold or nothing basically at Sydney. Is that kind of the mindset when you guys sort of got back into that zone in the weeks leading into the Sydney Olympics, that it was gold or nothing?
KERRI POTTHARST: Yeah, it was gold full stop, there was no or nothing. It was just gold, like, why give yourself another option? And that's what our mindset coach really helped us with, really focus on what we wanted, but also focus past that as well, you know, what are you going to do after, how are you going to celebrate, you know, what are you, who are you going to talk to? So you know, as much as our thoughts are around what we were going to achieve in Sydney, it was also around what we're going to do after with it. And I talk a lot about, I love the gold medal itself. Well, to me, it's just a piece of metal, believe it or not. Obviously, it represents a lot. When people see it, they go, Oh, my God, it's just so amazing. And I go, Oh, is it because I mean, it sounds a bit, I don't know, it sounds a bit funny, but it obviously is special. And sometimes I have to really stare at it and go far out. Like, that was an incredible time. It's so long ago now, so it's sometimes hard to remember those feelings. But what I like to think about it, think about it obvious is that it's really the platform that's given us the opportunity to inspire other people. That's given me opportunities with speaking, you know, and telling my sharing my story around the world. I mean, I'm still speaking about how we achieved that goal, what we did, and the specifics and the strategies and sharing those with people who were able to then apply the same strategies to their life and their career or their sport. So for me, and it was a big part of why we wanted to do it, we actually wanted to win that so we can inspire other people, both of us had that in our mind, and both of us have done that ever since and will not stop doing that because it not only helps and inspires other people when we share our stories, it makes me feel good about what I've done instead of you know, you hear so many athletes have this down period and you know, they really suffer after retirement from their sport, but I've never had that feeling because I've always kept on sharing all the lessons I learned and it's not about, hey, I'm standing up there and saying, hey, I'm really good. It's what I see on people's faces when I share something else, the feedback that I get afterwards. For instance, I did a talk for a group of girls who are being mentored by women in business and one of the girls said, and these are disadvantaged girls, and one of them said afterwards to her mentor, I have hope now, you know, after hearing some of the strategies that I've used to deal with challenges. So, yeah, so that's what the medal is to me now. I can't even remember what the question was, but I don't know how I got on to that.
BEN WATERWORTH: This is how we always work on this show, Kerri. You'll start off, I'll ask you how the weather is, and you'll end up crying about your childhood next minute.
KERRI POTTHARST: So yeah, it's quite an emotional story, like, and it's quite an incredible story how Nat and I, you know, got there and, you know, it's interesting and there's a lot of fun and humour in what we did in the preparation. I mean, we collected gold stuff as well. We said to everyone, we're going to Sydney to win gold, and we were really kind of open about it. We didn't quite believe it at first when we said it, but all the preparation we did eventually, we did have that belief. But part of that was surrounding ourselves with gold. So we had gold volleyball, gold swimsuits, gold boxer shorts, gold sheets, gold this, gold, anything that came in the colour gold, we were collecting. And people were starting to give us that when we started to tell people about it, if we got a gift of some sort, they'd give it to us in the coloured gold.
BEN WATERWORTH: And I can also imagine too, it's hard not to get caught up in the atmosphere that Australia really was in in the lead up to those Olympics. I mean, we all remember what it was like, you know, in Australia with everything that happened and particularly I can imagine in Sydney as well. I mean, is that added pressure? Do you thrive on that kind of, you know, pressure that it's a home Olympics as well and how much the country was caught up in everything Olympic in 2000?
KERRI POTTHARST: I think it was all about how you perceive what's going on around you. And that goes to, you know, what's happening now in the world. You know, we can sit and be really negative or really scared or in a lot of doubt or we can try and find the positives and try and, you know, try and be grateful for what we do have and continue to kind of be a bit optimistic about, you know, we'll get through this. And for us, the crowds, you know, people were saying, oh, it's going to be pressure, it's going to be pressure. But for us, we kind of saw it as a positive pressure. We kind of felt it was like, okay, we'll get it. Instead of letting these people weigh us down and feel the weight of them on our shoulders, we're going to actually make it feel like they're lifting us up onto the podium. And so obviously, the first match, like I said, was pretty scary. But by the end of it, we really, yeah, we felt like everyone was there kind of wanting us to do something and lifting us and helping support us. And that's we just had to turn that perception around.
BEN WATERWORTH: I always like to find out from athletes about their Olympic experiences and kind of getting, you know, just invested in that whole Olympic moments that you're there. Obviously you'd experience that in Atlanta. And often we find that first Olympics, you're kind of there, I'm competing, you know, I'm very much business. But then by the second one, you kind of maybe can take a step back to experience what it's like to be at the Olympics a little bit more. Did you find a difference in between, say, Atlanta to then eventually Athens and kind of were they all, they're each unique experience across your three Olympics?
KERRI POTTHARST: Yeah, they were each unique experiences. So like you said, the first one, you're like a kid in the lolly shop, you're just kind of like, whoa, look at all this, this is amazing, trying to stay focused. And then you win a bronze, you win a medal, and then you're like, you know, on top of the world, and you think you're the best thing since sliced bread. And then reality sets in and you go, okay, another four years and you've got to go back and head down and go back to work again. Then you go to your second Olympics. And for us, we actually didn't stay in the village. We stayed out near Bondi. And so we didn't go back into the village until after we'd won. But we went in there a couple of times, you know, but so we were we were pretty much in a bubble. And so that was a completely different experience. At first, we were disappointed we weren't in the village. But by the end of it, I think we were grateful that we had our own little bubble. It just really kept us focused. And then once we went in the village, we just experienced everything we possibly could because we'd finished and we finished with the gold. So we were just dragged around by the media. Every like every event we were invited to, we went to watch all any Aussie that was still playing or competing. We went and tried to see so many different sports. We dragged a whole lot of friends of ours into the basketball women's final Australia against the US. And we turned up at the door with no tickets. We just kind of showed our gold medal and they let us all in. The gold medal was like, it got us free taxi rides, it got us free drinks. We got into night clubs.
BEN WATERWORTH: Oh, you're answering a question. I always love to ask people whether or not you try and get free stuff with you with your medals and you're, I think you might be our first to say that you actually did. I love it.
KERRI POTTHARST: Yeah, we did through the Olympics. I'm not the type of person that goes and waves it around afterwards and go, But look, funny thing right now, all the athletes in, not all of them, but a lot of the athletes in quarantine are posting on social media, all this free stuff they're getting sent. I think like Mariafe Artacho del Solar, one of our athletes, our silver medallists, so our Beach Volleyball girls, we haven't said that yet. They won silver in Tokyo. They, yeah, they're posting every day. Oh, I just got this. I go, oh, thank you very much. And naming all the brands and she needs another two suitcases to take home all the stuff that she's got.
BEN WATERWORTH: Lucky, lucky for some. Did you, did you do the opening ceremony in Sydney or was the competition too tight?
KERRI POTTHARST: Yeah, no, the competition was the next day, but we had a three o'clock game. And so we had to fight with our, our federation and our coaches to let us walk in that. But I'm really glad we did, because we'd experienced Atlanta and it was unbelievable how it feels walking into the stadium and just the thrill of it. So we wanted to have that feeling that was part of our preparation. And they were really worried that, you know, we'd be out too late walking. It would affect our first match, which we nearly lost. But I don't think it was because of that. It was because we were so freaked out. But yeah, we eventually, we eventually let the, they eventually let us, you know, make up our own minds and we decided to march in that. So that was incredible.
BEN WATERWORTH: I love that because I've always said that too, that I feel bad for, say, like the swimmers who you always hear like, oh, they're in the village because they're competing the next morning. I feel, and again, this is a non-athlete speaking, that I'd be the one going, fuck that shit, I'm marching in that opening. So you can't stop me. You have to drag me out of it because that's got to be up there with probably one of the greatest moments of your life. One hundred and ten thousand people at a home Olympics, you know, behind Andrew Gaze. I mean, wow, that would have just been insane.
KERRI POTTHARST: Yeah, we were all fighting to be on the outside so we could, you know, wave at our friends in the crowd. And I saw a bunch of my friends and to get on the camera so we could wave to our families. And but it was it was an incredible experience. It was just so loud, so loud. But yeah, we were lucky to do it. And then, you know, having being able to do it in all three Olympics. And so we haven't talked about it, but I did retire after Sydney. And then I came back and played with another girl in Athens. And that was, again, a completely different experience because I went in as a qualifier, a last minute qualifier and with no expectations. And we were just trying to do the best we could do. And we actually got knocked out by Natalie and her new partner.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, I was going to ask how that feels, Ed, to sort of, you know, go out that way.
KERRI POTTHARST: Yeah, that was pretty hard for all of us, all four of us. I mean, Nat and I are like sisters at the time. We didn't we weren't that close because we were competitors as well. And I'd retired from playing with her. She picked up a new partner. And then when I came back, I kind of said to her, Oh, look, do you want to go to Athens with me? And she thought about it long and hard. But she decided to say no because she wanted to go on past Athens. And so she figured if she, you know, didn't play with this girl, dumped to this girl, she just teamed up with Nicole, then maybe that would affect her post. So she decided to stay with Nicole. And then obviously it worked out for her. She beat us. And then they finished fourth just out of the medals. They made the semis and then lost their playoff. But her arm was falling off. She had bad shoulder and I had a bad knee.
BEN WATERWORTH: All taped together, basically. All those sort of ones there. We just, the day the gold medal match comes about, that was the day after Cathy, of course, won the gold in Sydney. Was it not?
KERRI POTTHARST: It was actually the day of. So that day... Yeah, so we won on the 25th. Tatiana Gregoreva, she got the silver. And then Cathy won the gold that night. So we were back in our accommodation near Bondi, having a big party with our family and friends, big barbecue, and we were watching on TV. But the next morning, we had the press conference. So every next day, they did a press conference with all the medallists. And so they had Cathy in the middle, Natalie and I on one side and Tatiana on the other. And I still remember the media, they were like, 15 questions for Cathy, five questions for Tatiana, and two questions for Kerri Annette.
BEN WATERWORTH: I don't know why that meant that it was a day after.
KERRI POTTHARST: We were just so grateful to be there, and it was incredible to be sitting next to two incredible other athletes as well.
BEN WATERWORTH: So I was gonna say with the atmosphere that what it was like, I mean, obviously, you know, generally how the Olympics worked, successful, you know, swimming campaign most of the time, and then it kind of gets into that second week. But Sydney, it just, we were winning gold left, right and centre. So I can imagine just everything around that, that whole, the reception you were getting, you know, not just bugger the media, two questions. I would have asked you more than that, Kerri, don't worry. But I mean, you know, you're talking about all the attention you're getting, you get a stamp. I mean, that's always a positive that you get a, I mean, who can say that they got a stamp for something they did? But you're back when you left that job to go play professionally, they would have never imagined that you'd be on a stamp one day, Kerri.
KERRI POTTHARST: Well, one of the jobs, my first ever jobs, and I worked for this company for many years was with Australia Post. So I used to sell stamps across the counter in a post office. And then one day, if someone told me then that I'd be on a stamp, that I'd be licking the back of my stamp, I'd be like, yeah, nah, that's not gonna happen.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, something to tell all Australia Post employees listening today can tell that, you know, one day you might be licking the back of my head, potentially. Did you get to do Roy and HD? Gee, did you get invited on the dream?
KERRI POTTHARST: Yeah, we did all of the shows. That was a funny one. But of course, we were just so media, I don't know, we were media virgins. We were just going like wide-eyed to every single opportunity. And yeah, it just comes and goes in a blink of an eye. So we did Roy and HD. We did all the shows. Yeah, we did everything.
BEN WATERWORTH: One thing I wanted to ask you, talking about the mental conditioning, I believe sort of in terms of the Olympic experience, you had spoken to people like Dawn Fraser, Herb Elliott, Pat Rafter, you know, people like that to try and help you in that mindset. How much does it help speaking to someone like a, you know, Dawn Fraser and Herb Elliott, Olympic legends, to really kind of get into that mindset of, you know, helping you more so competing at the Olympics?
KERRI POTTHARST: I think that's probably one of the most incredible things of being part of the Olympic family, that you have so many amazing humans around you, like not just great athletes, but great people, because I think sport really can build your character, and especially, you know, in team sports. But it doesn't just always happen the day before, or at the event, or overnight. Like we've been around these people, and we'd had conversations with people like Dawn and Herb, and you know, the swimmers and the tennis players. We'd been around them at events and things. So it was kind of, it built your confidence as well. You kind of feel like, oh, you know, we're one of you guys now, you know? And one amazing thing that I'm part of now is the Australian Institute of Sport have a program called the Gold Medal Ready Program. And we've been running now for a couple of years, or three years maybe now. I can't even remember with COVID, it's kind of been a little bit hard. We've been doing a lot of stuff virtually, but we, the main premises of the program is that as a gold medallist in this country from the last kind of 20 odd years, there's about 30 of us, and there's about kind of 10 or 15 of us that are involved regularly. But what we do is we just spend time with current athletes and we share stories, you know, the good ones, but also the bad ones, times where we've failed and how we've overcome it, you know, the stories of how we led into the success that we had winning gold. And we also joined up with this program with the army, so the commandos. And so we have these guys coming in and these guys like are incredible. What they've been through and you know, what they've had to overcome, you know, when they fail, they could die. When we fail, it's just a game. So when you hear some of the stories and the strategies that they use to deal with what they're doing, and you can take a little bit of that and mix it in with our gold medal stories. I mean, these athletes now have got this opportunity to kind of like get this experience, this lived experience from two groups of people in sport and in the army. And it's quite a unique program. I think it's incredible. So I think it has a lot to do with your confidence and just recognizing that, oh, okay, that person's felt how I've felt, and this is how they dealt with it. Maybe that can help me. And that's what those people did for us back then.
BEN WATERWORTH: And I can imagine too, the unique aspect that you also can find yourself in is that Australia will be hosting two Olympics basically in our lifetime, something which is kind of unheard of. And you can now not only, I guess, encourage and help these athletes moving forward, but you can also encourage and help them at a home Olympics, which again is a whole other kettle of fish. I mean, you can take, do you look forward to taking that experience from Sydney and then helping people over the next 11 years added to what you were just saying to go towards the goal of a home Olympics?
KERRI POTTHARST: Yeah, absolutely. So through the goal, hopefully I'll be still, you know, involved with the gold medal ready program. Hopefully the program will still be running. But if not, I mean, as a speaker, I'm always speaking to corporate groups, but every now and again, I speak to sporting groups as well. And so, yeah, I'm 100% on board anytime anyone wants to, you know, help hear out or have our stories, help them with their journeys. Absolutely, I'd love to. And there's nothing official that I'm involved in. And that is, it's not a paid role. It's all kind of voluntary, except when I get paid for speaking here and there. But I absolutely love it.
BEN WATERWORTH: Was John Howard at the Beach Volleyball that day? I know it was a bit of a good luck charm during Sydney that every event he turned up to, we seem to win a gold medal. Was he there on the day, do you know?
KERRI POTTHARST: Don't know if little Johnny was there.
BEN WATERWORTH: I'm just trying to connect all the gold medals. I think that was a bit of a thing they started pointing out. Well, John Howard showing up, there's gonna be a gold medal.
KERRI POTTHARST: Yeah, I don't think so. I don't remember seeing any photos of him.
BEN WATERWORTH: No, no little Johnny pointing out there. Obviously we just mentioned before about Tokyo and having the girls, of course, pick up a silver there. First medal that we had won in beach volleyball since you and Nat won back in Sydney. I mean, first part of that question, was it surprising that it took so long? Because as we said at the beginning of the episode, I think beach volleyball, you think Australia, we should be going to every Olympics, winning a medal. Was it a bit of a surprise that it took 21 years?
KERRI POTTHARST: Yeah, I guess in a sense that what's kinda happened. Well, first of all, I think, and I talked about this with Natalie the other day, and I think we were just a really unique team. I think at the time, we did stuff that was different. We invented stuff, just made it up, and we were very creative with the way we played our game, because we had to find ways to beat these people who were real purists and who could play our game, in a sense, in a way better than us. And then after that, I think what happened is the rest of the world got so much better, and so the depth in the sport was greater. And it took our, you know, we didn't have athletes that came in after us that were already involved. And so they then had to start learning. And by the time they got to that level, there were so many more athletes that were as good as they were. So I think it, yeah, I look, I don't know what the reason is. The men in particular haven't been in the Olympics since 2008 and they qualified at the last minute, which was great to see the men in there. So hopefully that inspires more guys to get out there. But at the end of the day, we just don't have enough athletes. You know, we just don't have enough athletes to choose from. And unless we get, you know, I think the two girls, Mariafe Artacho del Solar and Taliqua Clancy, again, they're a unique team. Like Taliqua is one of the most thrilling players to watch when she's on the top of the game. She almost glides through the sand. She just hits at a full reach. She's almost unstoppable when she's at the net. And Mariafe, just her passion and her determination. And again, a lot of her success is through her mindset that she's created just to never give up because she is one of the shorter players on the tour. So I think they're a unique team, a bit of a freak team that we've lucked upon, but they're gonna end at some point. One of them will drop out or both will drop out. And so who's next? And we need to just be filling the coffers now with players that are prepared to take that journey. And it's not an easy journey as an athlete to dedicate 10 years of your life to try and get to the Olympics. But there is an opportunity in 2032 to play at home. So, you know, it's the goodest part as any.
BEN WATERWORTH: Exactly, exactly. We were absolutely loving watching them both during Tokyo and we're sort of a co-Canadian Australian podcast. So our dear co-host Colin, not too happy in the quarters once his world champions got eliminated, but we were happy here. We enjoyed hearing your commentary too, Kerri. I mean, that must have been a fun experience to be able to kind of get behind the mic and call that, call them on to an Olympic medal.
KERRI POTTHARST: Yeah, look, I've done that a lot now over the last few Olympics. I started in my first Olympics as a retired athlete. I went to Beijing and did it for seven over there and just loved being able to talk about the sport I love and found that it was quite easy for me. I'm not an expert by any means, but I try and just bring the aspect of what the players might be thinking and feeling and what's kind of happening and try and keep it quite general. So people who don't understand the sport can understand what they're seeing. So yeah, hopefully I'll be able to go to Paris and LA and then maybe commentate if I'm still around in 2032.
BEN WATERWORTH: You'll be here, you'll be here. Come out of retirement, Kerri, you got plenty of time to get back in 11 years. You know, why not? Now that Andrew Hoy wins medals at 62, I'm just saying anybody can come back and just do things, right? You know, look up to Andrew.
KERRI POTTHARST: Hopefully, hopefully my son will be there, you know? You never know, he loves playing volleyball. You never know.
BEN WATERWORTH: You never, you never, never know. Now I wanna close things up with just a series of fun questions that we sort of close up our interviews with, but update what you're doing now. You mentioned sort of some motivational speaking, you're working with the program you said there, but is there anything else out there? I believe you've written a book as well. So I mean, what are you up to? Plug whatever you like right now, so I'll let you know what you're up to.
KERRI POTTHARST: I wrote a book 10 years ago, so your information is correct, a bit old, but it's called The Business of Being an Athlete. It's still available online and it just shares all our stories and strategies and everything. So that's something I'm really proud of. I've been speaking for a long time. Obviously at the moment, that's kind of a little bit sad because there's no events around to speak at, but I've been doing a lot of stuff virtually. And lately, I really feel like, again, I still have so much to give and help people. So I've decided to start coaching one-on-one. And I thought, what am I going to coach people on? And high performance is obviously what I want to coach people on, but it's more about the art of high performance and the human art of high performance. So really being able to work out whatever industry you're in, it doesn't mean sport. It means anything. How can I do my best in this industry and how can I improve myself as a human? And that's what we learned through our journey. And that's what I want to help other people with now. So coaching, and then I still love coaching volleyball. So I always think, oh, maybe I should be a coach. Maybe I should coach a team to the Olympics. But then that involves moving cities and it's, there's, yeah, that's not just an easy thing to do either. So I end up just coaching a bunch of girls down at Manly Beach and they absolutely love having me down there and I just get the enjoyment of that as well. So I'm always doing all sorts of other stuff too. Like I work with charities here and there, and I'm ambassador for certain products or programs or services. So I'm very fortunate that I can still kind of drive an income 21 years later from my success in sport.
BEN WATERWORTH: Fantastic. Always good to hear that. And actually, before we get to the questions, I always have to ask our medallists on this show, how rude of me, Kerri, is what do you do with the medals? I always love finding out what you do with them.
KERRI POTTHARST: What do I do with them or where is it?
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, both. I mean, where are they? And like, they often come out?
KERRI POTTHARST: I keep it in a safe to keep it safe, obviously, but I do use it and I do take it to my presentations and share them both around with people. So they're pretty dinged up and a bit worn out, but it doesn't bother me. They're well used and they inspire. So that's what I do with them. And yeah, I keep it close at hand, but in a safe.
BEN WATERWORTH: How, when you're handing them around, because I love the designs of metals and the Atlanta metal has always been one of my favourite designs. I love sort of like the dark green with the gold on the ribbon and just it's a beautiful looking metal. But I mean, do people care about them? Like I would care about the bronze. Like if you were handing them around, like a cool Sydney gold, great, I want to look at the Atlanta bronze because to me it's a beautiful looking metal.
KERRI POTTHARST: No, they don't care about, most people don't care about the bronze. They just want to see the gold, seriously.
BEN WATERWORTH: Come on people, get excited about the Atlanta metal. It's one of the most beautiful metal designs I think they've ever been.
KERRI POTTHARST: I always preface it by saying like, this is where the dream started. It's got to start somewhere. So, you know, it did really start from that point that when we started our whole journey and the whole planning and process from that metal. So pretty important.
BEN WATERWORTH: There you go. I like that. Now, as I said, Kerri, we close out with a set of fun questions now. These are based on, Team Canada used to do a questionnaire before the Olympics and they'd get to know the athletes a little bit better. And I always pull up a different athlete who's filled it out so we can get some different questions. I'm basing this off their 2016 interview with Canadian volleyball player, Gavin Schmidt. I'm not sure if he's one of your favourites. I don't know. Schmidty, we can call him. I think that's what we did call him during Rio. But anyway, we'll start off with, and you're allowed to answer your own as well. What is your favourite ever Olympic moment?
KERRI POTTHARST: Obviously standing on the podium and bashing out the National Anthem with the medal around my neck and my sister standing next to me, my volleyball sister.
BEN WATERWORTH: Nice, nice. Do you still have the sand from Bondi? I remember it was famously, you guys got a jar of sand from Bondi afterwards. Is that something you still kept?
KERRI POTTHARST: Yeah, still in my bathing suit. Still have to pick it out of my, no. I had the sand in a little container and unfortunately, somehow it broke and the sand came out. But I think I might have another one somewhere, but yeah. I think that definitely has.
BEN WATERWORTH: Do you just go back to Bondi now and is it just kind of like free beers for life at the local pub or something like that, that you can say, hey, I won gold here 21 years ago. Give me free beer.
KERRI POTTHARST: Oh, look, I wish it was free beers for life. No, they don't know us really. Occasionally, we still get recognised. If I say my name somewhere, they go, oh, are you that volleyball girl? But I don't think anymore. I think now it'll be like Taliqua Clancy, Mariafe Artacho del Solar. They're the names that you'll be remembering.
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, I'm sorry, but they're not on SAS Australia, Kerri. So, you know, come on. Like you've got that working for you right now. Yeah, exactly. If you could choose any Olympic host city, where would it be?
KERRI POTTHARST: Well, it's gotta be, well, Sydney. Pretty amazing. Like you can't go past Sydney, but I'm looking forward to Paris. That's gonna be special. And our event's gonna be under the Eiffel Tower. So the photos there will be incredible. I think every city is amazing. But of course, Brisbane in 2032, that should be like unforgettable.
BEN WATERWORTH: Now that they're alternating between the cities, of course, kind of going, I guess, from largest to smallest, Perth clue will be next. Adelaide, your home city, fifth in line for an Australian Olympics, do you think? Yeah, you know, 2017 or something along those lines. What do you reckon?
KERRI POTTHARST: Oh my God, yeah, no, I don't think Adelaide's ready for it.
BEN WATERWORTH: Hey, we're trying to get a Hobart Olympic pit, anything's possible. In your spare time, what do you most like to do?
KERRI POTTHARST: My spare time. Well, I've got a lot of it now. I love sleeping.
BEN WATERWORTH: That's a good answer.
KERRI POTTHARST: I love looking at a scrolling Instagram and looking at all the motivational stuff people put up, which is pretty cool, keeps me happy. I delete from my feed anything or anybody that's negative. And I love walking the beach and listening to music. That's probably my most favourite thing, is walking along Manly Beach, Manly to Shelley, and listening to music.
BEN WATERWORTH: What are you listening to? What's on the speakers?
KERRI POTTHARST: At the moment, I have like a Jumeriqua mix, which is like Spotify radio. So it's a bit of funk, you know, bit sort of upbeat that you can sing along to. I try not to, people think I'm weird, but yeah.
BEN WATERWORTH: No, nothing weird, that Jumeriqua, I greatly like that. I mean, we always put this out there, a bit of homework if you want to take it away, Kerri. They asked the athletes to draw a picture of themselves. So I mean, if you want to, you're welcome to send it in to us afterwards. The weirdest instruction a coach ever gave you was?
KERRI POTTHARST: Oh my God. When I was playing indoor volleyball, it was a really, really tough match for Australia. I won't say who our Australian coach was at the time, but I remember him coming out, like calling a time out. We were all pretty stressed and anxious, and he comes into the group and he just bellows at the top of his voice with all the veins in his neck hanging out. He's like, relax. That was probably the most ridiculous thing that he could have ever done, because yeah, it sure didn't make us relax.
BEN WATERWORTH: I'm picturing veins in the net. That's a good image. What is your favourite workout?
KERRI POTTHARST: Walking along the beach.
BEN WATERWORTH: Perfect answer. I like it. If you could have lunch with any one person, who would it be?
KERRI POTTHARST: I can't think of any one person. Right now, I'd have lunch with anybody to get out of lockdown.
BEN WATERWORTH: See, this question here wasn't done with a pandemic in mind, was it? This was just a normal life. You can have lunch with anyone, but no, that's a good answer. What is your favourite sandwich?
KERRI POTTHARST: I like a toasted, just plain ham and cheese sandwich. A good sanger, made in the toasty, I call it a toasty, loasty maker.
BEN WATERWORTH: Hey, that could take on, there you go. If you could have any superpower, what would it be?
KERRI POTTHARST: Flying.
BEN WATERWORTH: Flying, yes.
KERRI POTTHARST: That would be really cool. I think I'd love to fly.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yes. What is the best lolly? Well, the best candy in the world.
KERRI POTTHARST: Bananas. You know those bananas?
BEN WATERWORTH: Yep, the little soft ones.
KERRI POTTHARST: Little soft ones, yeah. Slightly coated with a bit of icing. Yeah, the yellow ones.
BEN WATERWORTH: I saw them in a long time. I remember those. They're great. As a kid, who was your favourite sports team?
KERRI POTTHARST: Whatever team I was playing on.
BEN WATERWORTH: Good answer, good answer. Being from Adelaide, do you follow AFL? Are you a Porter or a Crows?
KERRI POTTHARST: Oh, look, I didn't really, but I was pretty happy when the Crows won their first premiership 100 years ago. I don't know when that was 20 years ago. I remember.
BEN WATERWORTH: 1997 and 98 it was, yep.
KERRI POTTHARST: Yeah, yeah, my brother put his trailer on the back of his car and we all piled in the back of his trailer and drove around the streets with everyone else in Adelaide. And the police were just like, yeah, whatever.
BEN WATERWORTH: I'm a Carlton supporter. It's been longer for us. So I don't know. I'm too young to even remember that basically. What is your favourite sports movie?
KERRI POTTHARST: Wow. It's a night. Oh, maybe Chariots of Fire.
BEN WATERWORTH: Ah, yep. Classic. Good one. Is there any volleyball movies out there?
KERRI POTTHARST: Oh yeah, the dumb Tom Cruise one. What was it? The Worry Place Volleyball.
BEN WATERWORTH: Oh yeah. That's right. I mean, shirtless Tom Cruise and Val Gylmer Beach Volleyball. I mean, it suits some people watching it, I guess. If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be?
KERRI POTTHARST: Sydney, Manly Beach.
BEN WATERWORTH: Manly Beach, perfect. When you were little, I like this question. We asked this one in a previous interview the first time. This is the second time I'm asking this one. When you were little, what was something you always thought?
KERRI POTTHARST: I'm too tall.
BEN WATERWORTH: Okay, that works. I would say I sympathize, but I don't know what it's like.
KERRI POTTHARST: No fun when you're taller than everyone else. Yeah, I think I, yeah. And I didn't like losing, so I'd always be thinking, how can I win?
BEN WATERWORTH: How can I win? I'm too tall. I like it. So the final one, do you have a favourite joke to tell?
KERRI POTTHARST: Oh gosh, I'm hopeless at remembering jokes, and when I try and tell jokes, I always stuff up the punchline. So pretty much no.
BEN WATERWORTH: All right, I like how Shmitty answered, any good dad joke?
KERRI POTTHARST: Yeah, that's a good one.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, I don't mind a dad joke.
KERRI POTTHARST: I like the dumb dad jokes better than the clever, smart ones.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, no, I'm with you there. Kerri, before we let you go, anything you wanna plug, social media, website, people can check out what you're up to and say up to date?
KERRI POTTHARST: Oh, look, you know, I'm not a big plugger of stuff, but obviously I'm all over socials, but it's just my name. So Kerri Pottharst on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn. I don't really use TikTok or anything, or anything kind of what it's the other one. The kids use Snapchat, all that sort of stuff, but just the main ones.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, we'll get you on TikTok and Snapchat eventually. Ahead of Brisbane, your triumphant return in 2032. Kerri, it's been an absolute pleasure having a chat with you today to learn more about your career and everything else in between. We really thank you for your time, and we eagerly will watch our screens on how you do on SAS Australia, because I know I'm intrigued. I'm very intrigued to see how it all plays out.
KERRI POTTHARST: Yeah, excited, me too.
BEN WATERWORTH: And a massive, massive thanks there to Kerri. A lot of fun. And I stand by the fact that the Atlanta medal is one of the most beautiful medal designs I have ever actually seen. Maybe we'll have to do a ranking the Olympic medal designs at some point. Might get a little bit tricky pre-Atlanta, because I think the medals were quite basic pre-Atlanta before they started introducing sort of the designs around the ribbons, sort of saying what Olympia they were from. I believe Lillehammer was the first to actually do that. So perhaps we need to maybe do a rankings of Lillehammer medals onwards and ranking the designs. Cause I think that would be fun. I think that would be a fun episode. So Jarrod, Colin, if you're listening, there's another one to put out there as a potential episode coming your way. Next week though, another great interview coming your way. Another new sport to tick off the list. We are speaking to our first ever canoeists. And I say that with plural, with an S at the end, cause we have two of them for you. And husband and wife pairing Alyce and Jordan would also just returned from Tokyo. So like last week, when we of course spoke with Alana Goldie, we will have some returning Tokyo Olympians. And Alyce and Jordan give a great insight into the sport. They let us know how most Australians get into the sport of canoeing, called the differences between canoeing and kayaking. Kind of, you know, sort of the confusion around that. Whether or not it is the ugly redheaded stepchild of rowing. We bring that up in the interview as well. And going over their experiences competing in Tokyo, they of course also competed in Rio. So kind of comparing the two experiences of being in both Rio and Tokyo in what is a very unique and unusual Olympics. And during that interview, they were actually in quarantine. So kind of sharing their quarantine experiences and who their neighbours were, which was quite interesting to learn. What other Australian Olympians were around them at the time of that interview. So Alyce and Jordan Ward, it's another great chat that you will enjoy next week. In the meantime, if you've missed out on any of our past episodes, and you want to stay up to date with all of these, remember to subscribe to the channel on all good podcast platforms. You can of course go and listen to all our past interviews, past episodes, keep up to date with everything along those ways. And while you're there, leave us some feedback. We'd love to hear what you think of the show. Let us know if you like this interview, love this interview or super love this interview. Let's be honest, there's a three reactions that you would have had to this interview today. And of course, social media as well, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, stay up to date with all of those channels to get up to date with everything that we are doing here on Off The Podium. Big thanks again to Kerri. Tune in next week for Alyce and Jordian. Jordan, we can call him Jordian. That can be his new nickname. Until next week, my name is Ben. I'll speak to you next time on Off The Podium. Good night.
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