Looking Ahead To Pyeongchang 2018

For the first time since the Rio games the entire gang of hosts are together as Ben, Colin & Jarrod discuss a variety of different things as we continue to push forward towards the next Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang next year! Through discussing various sports, getting the mascots names wrong and finding out what name Colin can come up with for Chumpy Pullin every five minutes, you'll be glad to have the boys back together once again!

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EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Please note this is an automated transcript that may contain errors.

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BEN WATERWORTH: What a fantastic new introduction, that one is really getting you into the flavour of all things wintery and winter Olympics. And we're back, we're back for a brand new episode, and it's not an interview, you're probably disappointed, you're like, oh they've got the same bolt on! No, we're back for an even better interview, because for the first time since the Rio Olympics, I can collectively say that all three of us are here together talking about what we love to talk about the most, that is the Olympics and other multi-sport events. So you haven't heard one person's voice on this show in a good seven, eight months, however long it's been since August 2016. From the plains of Emu, it's Jarrod Loobeek. Jarrod, welcome back!

JARROD LOOBEEK: It's great to be back, we've got our own, I mean we could form our own curling team, a curling team's teams of three, I don't know really, shows how much interest I have in the Winter Olympics, but it is great to be back.

BEN WATERWORTH: Well, I know one man definitely would know how many people are on a curling team. I think it might be four. Let's confirm that. Colin Hewing from Canada. Colin, welcome back.

COLIN HILDING: I think the correct answer is five, because that's one sport where the coach definitely counts as a member of the team.

BEN WATERWORTH: Wow, wow. So we just need two more people, is that basically what we're saying? Yeah. Well, we will definitely try. Catherine Skinner, of course, from our interview, she's on board to curl, so we can get her on board, you know, an Olympic gold medallist in a different sport. But anybody listening, you want to be the fifth member of the Australian-Canadian national curling team, then shoot us a message. We'll gladly start it up. But it's exciting to have everyone back. We're here, obviously, to kind of give that long overdue episode where we've been saying at the end of every one of our recent interviews, oh, coming soon, we've got an interview episode where we're all talking about the Winter Olympics. And here it is. We finally have got it together. We're going to be focusing a lot on the 2018 Pyeongchang Games, which are now less than a year away. Also give a bit of an update on some other Olympic things that have happened since we last talked, and probably even mention the Commonwealth Games as well, because that's something that we're looking at covering. Colin, I want to start with you quickly. You and I have been busy getting some interviews done. You've even done a couple during the week, actually, that will be being aired very, very soon. It's been a bit of fun, hasn't it, us being able to catch up with these people that are maybe a bit better at athletic, sportive things than we are?

COLIN HILDING: Yeah, I think a lot better. That would be the better way to say it. I keep talking to these athletes and wanting to identify with them, and then they'll go through their bad days of training, and it's twice as of what I could do on my best day of running or anything else, so I'm kind of pathetic compared to them. But it is great to be able to talk to a lot of these. People should go back and listen to some of these interviews we've had. Definitely listen to the ones coming up, because we're transitioning now, as we have, with our opening theme. Wasn't that a great opening theme? I can't remember what the song is now.

BEN WATERWORTH: Gangnam Style, the only Korean song that I think anybody knows.

COLIN HILDING: Let's touch on that for a second. We're all brainstorming, but we're using a theme song, and I'm trying to think of myself, is there anything else that's Korean? And then Ben just shoots it through one day, here's the new theme, and I'm like, all right, he went there, okay. But we deserve credit, it's appropriate.

BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, exactly.

COLIN HILDING: We're transitioning to an Winter Olympics theme. We've got a Winter Olympics episode here. We have Winter Olympics interviews coming up, particularly the ones that are recorded this week, which is in my favourite sport, moguls. So, yeah, we're going to have lots to talk about. And some of the athletes that are coming on here now have been in Pyeongchang in the last couple of months, you know, just testing out these facilities on the World Cup circuit. And that's been really interesting to hear about.

BEN WATERWORTH: And let's be honest, I think we can all put a safe amount of money on the fact that Psy will perform at either the opening or closing ceremonies at Pyeongchang 2018. So, between Psy and, I don't know, Team America's Kim Jong-un or Il, you know, and he's North Korean. I really don't know any other singers from North Korea that we've had in popular culture in the last, you know, 15 or so years.

COLIN HILDING: Like, there will be a huge K-pop medley there. We know that's going to be in the server.

BEN WATERWORTH: Yes, well, I mean, one of my very good friends, actually, she's literally about to move to South Korea, and she's incredibly into K-pop. So, if she listens to this, she's throwing stuff at the speakers, like, you don't know these bands, Ben, I've tried to educate you. And I'll be honest, some of them are very catchy. So, I could have gone with one of them, but then everybody knows Psy, everybody knows Gangnam Style. Jarrod, I guarantee you, you have Psy on your iPod or whatever digital device you listen to music on.

JARROD LOOBEEK: Oh, absolutely. I mean, it's always cranking in the car, trying to do the actions while driving slightly dangerous. But I mean, it's worth it. You have to dance when you hear that song.

BEN WATERWORTH: Absolutely. And if people would listen to our intro and didn't, then I'd be disappointed. Jarrod, I mean, are you kind of sounded like then that you might not be that much of a fan of the Winter Olympics. I don't know if this is something we've really touched on too much on Off The Podium. I know Colin clearly is a fan of the Winter Olympics. He's Canadian. It's born into him. I'm a huge fan of the Winter Olympics. Where do you stand on them?

JARROD LOOBEEK: I feel like my fandom is increasing. I think probably Vancouver was probably the first games that I probably watched more religiously than others. But I just love the Winter Olympics for more so the funny moments. I mean, your Stephen Bradbury moments of, I don't know, unexpected winners or just people doing stupid things and wiping out. Not necessarily people getting hurt. You kind of have to temper that reaction to wait to see if they're okay. And then you start laughing at them. But I just love those moments of wipe outs and just stupid mistakes and people's dreams being crushed, really.

BEN WATERWORTH: So, Jarrod, you basically watched the Winter Olympics and turned it into like Australia's Funniest Home Videos, essentially. You put the funny sound effects in the background and the silly commentary over the top of them.

JARROD LOOBEEK: Exactly.

BEN WATERWORTH: I'm just going to ski down this mountain.

COLIN HILDING: We really have to do a live commentary at some point. We talked about potentially doing that in real, but of course, we launched this show with about 24 hours notice before the real game started. But we have to do a live commentary, and we'll just have some music playing in the background.

BEN WATERWORTH: Get the Benny Hill theme going in the background. Yeah, it's fascinating. The Winter Olympics, to me, I've always had a bit more of a thing than them, than the summer games. You know how it's the same with the summer ones. But I just enjoy seeing these sports that really just get no coverage in Australia at all. I mean, you know, I think this is where Colin's really getting into his element because we kind of had that through Rio when, you know, we joked about, Oh, Canada got fifth today. That's a win for Canada. Whereas, you know, obviously, when we cover these next year, it's kind of like, oh, we only got a bronze. This is so disappointing for Canada. This is not good enough. Whereas Australia would be like, bronze, yes, street parade for Australia. And I love being able to see just, you know, I'm a huge ice hockey fan, obviously. That's something we'll talk about very soon with some news with that. And just everything else that comes between it. I mean, things like the skeleton. I mean, that is just the craziest sport. Whoever thought, hey, let's put somebody face forward down a sled, down a giant tube of ice, you know, something fun. And then you look at things like bobsled. Obviously, you know, cool runnings for Australia. It was like not just here. It was a big movie all around the world. I mean, that was pretty much for a lot of Australians, our first exposure to something like bobsled. So, yeah, I can't imagine, Colin, what's it like in Canada in the lead up to a Winter Olympics? Here I am trying to get excited for it. And we only hear about in Australia like an hour after the opening ceremony has started. Oh, everybody, the Winter Olympics are on. Whereas you've probably got some countdown clock in every city in Canada right now.

COLIN HILDING: Yeah, well, I mean, every Saturday and Sunday, on CBC, our Olympics network here, they have probably two to four hours of coverage, two to four hours Saturday, two to four hours Sunday. And it'll just cycle through different Olympic sports. You'll be watching speed skating for two hours, and then it'll jump to moguls. And then the next day, it'll be figure skating for two hours, and then it'll jump to bobsled and skeleton. So I mean, it's on all the time. I honestly don't even have... It's on and up here that I don't have time to keep up with it all. And I basically can only keep up with maybe two sports a year.

BEN WATERWORTH: Gee, I'm definitely moving to Canada. I would just be on all the time. Actually, one of the networks on our cable here, Foxtel, I've been watching sort of in the last couple of months because they've actually been showing a lot of the World Cups for all the winter events. So, you know, we've had like the freestyle skiing World Cups, the snowboarding World Cups, the alpine skiing World Cups, and it's really good to kind of flick the channels. Even have the biathlon World Cups, you know. And I mean, that's literally a sport that no one in Australia has ever watched, even during the Olympics. I think we've maybe probably had like two athletes that have ever been from Australia that have competed in the biathlon. And that's probably, we've got about as much chance of winning an Olympic medal in the biathlon as Canada does at winning an Olympic medal, I don't know, in what's something you would never win an Olympic medal in, Colin, not having snow. I don't know. That's a really bad comparison there, Ben. But it's been exciting being able to watch it. But again, Colin, I can imagine half of those are just, you know, primetime TV on a Saturday night.

COLIN HILDING: Yeah, I mean, even right now, we're on the last days of the NHL, and even considering like we have our afternoon coverage, curling is so big here that on TSN, which there's five separate TSN channels, that's our version of ESPN, on the five separate channels, you can get at least two channels any given day for the last month, month and a half, that's showing the world championships of curling. It went through two weeks of the Women's World Championships, and now it's going through two weeks of the Men's World Championships, and it's not just during the Canadian stuff. I mean, I think it showed Switzerland against the United States earlier, or Russia against Korea or something. It's just exactly that age-old rivalry. But yeah, I mean, it's great here. There's tons of stuff. So by the time the games come on, we know who all of our athletes are. Can you say the same thing?

BEN WATERWORTH: Well, I was going to say this to Jarrod, actually, because it's interesting saying that I've been watching all that coverage on Foxtel, but I mean, we've got some Australians that have done bloody well. We've got world champions, world cup winners. I mean, Colin, you can talk about one of your interviews you did, obviously, because I mean, Colin actually interviewed an Australian. This is where it comes from, the fact that a Canadian has to interview the Australian. But I mean, Jarrod, we basically get nothing of this, do we? We really don't hear any of these winter athletes' success until they kind of do the daily preview show of the Olympics the day before they start next year.

JARROD LOOBEEK: Yeah, that's exactly right. I mean, if it was any other sport, you can guarantee that it would be plastered kind of all over the news, and you'd get sick of it. Kind of like the Campbell sisters. But with this, yeah, you just hear no coverage until the winter Olympics. Like, winning a gold medal in the winter Olympics is the only way that you can get exposure in a winter Olympic sport.

BEN WATERWORTH: I feel weird joking about the Campbell sisters. I met one of them since we've done this show, so I got a photo with her in a medal. The one that you didn't win in your individual event.

COLIN HILDING: That's the last time she'll ever be posing a photo with you.

BEN WATERWORTH: But it's, I mean, it's so true, Jarrod, with that. And what the most unique thing is, I know we've talked about this previously before and mentioned it to several of the athletes that we have interviewed in the last couple of months, is that Australia really now is getting those high expectations into winter Olympics. I mean, again, it was back in the day. We obviously had Zali Stegel on recently. That was such a big deal. Zali Stegel wins a bronze medal. It was celebrated. It was so great for Australia. I remember, you know, what, three years ago in Sochi, we came home with, I think it was two silvers and a bronze, and that was a disappointing result for Australia. Jarrod, how is it a disappointing result for a nation that basically has as much snow as Canada has beaches? And I shouldn't say that, because I know Canada has more than a few beaches, but we shouldn't be celebrating the fact that we can win three winter Olympic medals.

JARROD LOOBEEK: Oh, exactly. I mean, those athletes should have been on a Swiss multivitamin ad for sure. But it's just that typical thing of we hype everything up so much, get so far ahead of ourselves, realise, oh, hang on, it doesn't really even snow that much here. Most of our athletes train overseas. We don't really have that much to do with them, and then we expect them to go out there and win gold, and we get disappointed when they don't. I think that attitude is fair enough in the Summer Olympics, when expectations are understandably high. But in the Winter Olympics, for me, it's like we made it past qualification. That's pretty much the Australian version of a gold medal in the Winter Olympics.

BEN WATERWORTH: Well, exactly. I remember you mentioned your first ones that you really paid attention to was Vancouver. I do remember seeing snippets of Lilahama, but again, this was back when Winter Olympics in Australia were really not that well covered. And Nagano sort of broke the mould a little bit. We got a lot more of that. And Zalek Stegwood, you mentioned that in your interview that she was saying that was really probably the first Winter Olympics Australia really went in with a really professional sort of mindset. But I remember during those games outside of Zalek, we had so many sort of top 10 results or people doing really, really well. And they were just so celebrated. It was really, really good. I mean, we ripped shit into Channel 7, but they would do it quite well back in the day really celebrating an athlete finishing 12 out of 14 competitors. But they would still be like, oh, well, they weren't last. Well done, Australia. But then, like I remember for Sochi, it was, you know, someone like Chumpy Pullin. I mean, Jarrod, I don't know for you how much you watched Sochi. If I heard Chumpy Pullin's name one more time on that Channel 10 coverage, I was almost going to like jump off a Chumpy Pullin building because seriously, he choked. He didn't win anything. I was sick of hearing his name.

JARROD LOOBEEK: Yeah, a bit of a Matthew Delabadova situation where the commentators just can't get enough of the name and keep using it.

BEN WATERWORTH: Are you a Chumpy Pullin fan, Colin?

COLIN HILDING: I was just about to ask you, can you spell that for me?

BEN WATERWORTH: Chumpy, C-H-U-M-P-Y, Pullin, P-U-L-L-I-N. Chumpy Pullin.

COLIN HILDING: In all honesty, it sounds like a nasty insult. You know how certain countries have, the way that we look at Australia, you just have these weird slangs like, hey, you're Chumpy Pullin. That's what I would assume it is, like it's some weird slang from some of the semi-English countries.

BEN WATERWORTH: Well, he's a snowboard cross athlete, and he's one of the best in the world. I'm just looking here, actually. He's recently got a silver in the Winter X Games, he's two-time world champion, also a gold medallist in the New Zealand Winter Games. Wow, that looks good on his resume. So, but he went in to Sochi basically as the favourite, and was eliminated in the quarterfinals. And this was blanket coverage. One thing that Australian networks do during Winter Olympics, you get sick of seeing swimming during the Summer Olympics. There's less sports, less athletes for Australia in the Winter Olympics, so it's generally blanket coverage of the one athlete that might win a medal that week. Oh, let's take a look at Alex Pullin's baby photos one more time, just ignoring the fact that there's actual Winter Olympics sports happening right now. So, but Channel 10 don't have the Olympics next year, it's back to Channel 7, so it'll be interesting to see that. I've just actually, so to compare the nations, because again, Colin's going to love this when it comes to covering it, because we talked about how successful Australia had been at Summer Olympics in Canada, maybe not as successful, but it's the opposite this time around. In the history of the Winter Olympics, Australia has won 5 gold, 3 silver, 4 bronze, a total of 12 medals. Now, in Sochi 2014, Canada won 10 gold, 10 silver and 5 bronze, a total of 25 medals. Canada won double the medals in one Olympics, and Australia has won in all of the Winter Olympics.

COLIN HILDING: And I believe that was down from Vancouver too, wasn't it?

BEN WATERWORTH: Exactly. Oh, that was a bad game. You've won in total at the Winter Olympics, 62 gold, 56 silver, 52 bronze, 170. I mean, do they have this own the podium thing going on for next year, Colin? And do they set a target of how many that they want to win, or is that not been announced yet?

COLIN HILDING: If they do announce it or make a big deal about it, it's not public. The Summer Games is always public because we're always trying to do better and always disappointed with where we finish. For the Winter, I think it's just assumed we're going to do well. I think the own the podium thing really started with Vancouver though, because they wanted to own the podium on home soil. And once that was done, it was kind of like, well, we don't want to be disappointed. So at this point, I think it's more just maintain and make sure you don't humiliate yourself out there. Funny enough, in Sochi, we got a lot more attention for the amount of sports we finished fourth than where we're like, we should have medaled. Meanwhile, you run down those numbers, it's nothing to be embarrassed of for sure. It's not like we're Australia or anything. Ben. I do want to add something, because you were mentioning earlier about the media coverage and everything and how, Jarrod, I think you said you have to win a gold medal to get any attention here. It's funny that there are so many athletes we have that do medal that you really have to go above and beyond here to get a lot of immediate of the media attention. I think the two gold medallists that probably got the most attention within the last 10 years would be Justine Deferla Point who won the Women's Moguls last time, which had more to do with the fact, A, that her and her sister were gold and silver, but also the fact that she just freaked out when she won, and that just kept playing on TV over and over again. So it was her personality that got her a lot of attention, and the other one would be John Montgomery, who again freaked out, like completely spazzed out when he won, and they ended up making him the host of The Amazing Race Canada, which is the number one show in the country. So here in Canada, it's like if you just have a really good freak out for winning, then you're guaranteed a ton of media attention.

BEN WATERWORTH: It's either one that was it, I don't know, who did the really good impersonation of him? Was that you, Jarrod or Noah, or somebody did that really good one on The Amazing...

COLIN HILDING: I think Noah's really good. Noah's really good with John Montgomery.

BEN WATERWORTH: I was just thinking about that. Yeah, it's interesting kind of on that sort of notion about the media coverage, because I'm just, I mean, I'm looking here, so I mean, I can literally name all of Australia's winter Olympic medallists because again, we've only won 12 medals. But like, I mean, out of all of these athletes, out of all the ones who I guess you would say you would know who they are in Australia, like every day Australian would know these athletes. Tora Bright would be number one with the bull, and I'm sure you'd agree with that, Jarrod. You know, everybody...

COLIN HILDING: I agree with that. She gets more attention here than our athletes.

BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, I mean, everybody would know who Tora Bright is in Australia. Probably say after her would be Alyssa Campland, of course, our aerial gold medallist, and then bronze in Turin. I mean, Lydia Lassler is known, but I still would feel there would be that many people who wouldn't. Stephen Bradbury obviously is up there, but, you know, the thing with Stephen Bradbury is that a lot of that just comes down to the Aussie Larrick, and, ah, Steve-o got that gold, what a bloke! You know, it's not, like, celebrated for being a great athlete. So, no one in Australia would know who Dale Begg-Smith is. People everywhere don't know who Dale Begg-Smith is. Dale Begg-Smith doesn't know who Dale Begg-Smith is. Um, David Morris, no, no one would have a clue who he is. Arlie Stegl even, you know, we obviously, I'm a huge Zali fan, I'm not going to own my Zali love again, but I reckon you would struggle to find anybody who would know who she is on the street. And then our three other bronze medallists from Lillehammer who were onside with Bradbury, Kieran Hansen, Andrew Murtha and Richard Naziski, no one would have a clue who the fuck they are. Jarrod didn't even know who they are, did you?

JARROD LOOBEEK: No, I looked at the Wikipedia page right then, no idea.

BEN WATERWORTH: I was about to say, Jarrod, name me the other three teammates of Stephen Bradbury winning our first Winter Olympic medal in Lillehammer. Whereas you look at, like, say, our Rio gold medallist, you know, I mean, Mack Horton's been in a lot of things, you know, obviously the Campbell sisters, just go away, Campbell sisters. Didn't they have, like, a massive TV interview and, like, a current affair or something about, like, why we choked or something like that?

JARROD LOOBEEK: Sounds about right.

BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, I remember seeing it, like, advertised, like, it was the story of the Olympics. Now we sit down with both of them. And they were, like, crying. It was all, like, emotional and, you know, get over it, all right? We've moved on. But even you've got to look at, like...

COLIN HILDING: She's really regretting taking that picture with you now. She's listening and saying, why did I pose with this jerk?

BEN WATERWORTH: I got my Chloe Esposito picture. I was set. But I think even this week, remember the Australian Swimming Championships are on, and we're getting, like, lots of coverage on that, live on TV, and this is just the National Championships. I don't think there's any qualification for anything this year. Have you been following it, Jarrod? I don't really follow it too closely.

JARROD LOOBEEK: No, not really. I'm kind of over-swimming.

BEN WATERWORTH: How's the Canadian Swimming Championships covered, Colin?

COLIN HILDING: I mean, if it's going on right now, it's not being covered. Because we're watching curling on three channels at once.

BEN WATERWORTH: Wow. What is it like? Extra angles with the curling? Like, how is that? We don't even get, I think, curling for three minutes during the Winter Olympics in Australia. Like, how can you cover three different channels?

COLIN HILDING: Well, I mean, you have usually four games going on on the same rink. So, you know, you got to show at least half of the games out there. And then maybe if you're lucky and they're shooting from the side, you can catch in the background the games that they aren't covering.

BEN WATERWORTH: Is curling like a big spectator sport? Like, if Winnipeg hosted the World Curling Championships, would that like sell out in five minutes?

COLIN HILDING: Um, I'm probably going to go for the finals. But the funny thing is, like, we've had World Curling Championships here, and even the Canadian Championships they've had, you don't see huge crowds for the most part. Yet it gets big ratings. Like, I just turned here right now in the World Men's Curling Championship. It's Switzerland and Sweden, so I don't know if this is a bronze medal or something, or if it's a semi-final. But yeah, the crowd's full here, but I mean, this isn't... Yeah, this isn't Edmonton, it says. So yeah, I mean, the bigger games, you get further along, but when you're watching, like, the opening rounds, I mean, you're still looking at, you know, what you'd see anywhere else. It's like, you know, 16 people in the crowd. But yet, it's so big here. I mean, we're covering, it's on two channels right now, two out of our five channels. Right now, we're showing World's Men Curling Championships.

BEN WATERWORTH: It is the Canadian version of the NRL. Nobody goes to the games, but they watch it on TV. Basically, that's, I mean, that's fascinating because if I was in Canada and there was like a big curling event on, I would totally want to go to it just because it's like, I couldn't imagine it would be a very crowd engaging sport. There's like soccer chants and people lighting flares in the stand and getting kicked out for racial slurs or things like that. I mean, you know, I don't think it's that passionate.

COLIN HILDING: My favourite memory of Sochi for the curling wasn't the fact that we won gold in Man's Head Women's or the fact that the women's curling team literally play about 10 minutes from my house. It was the Russian curling team which didn't do that well. The women's Russian team who had like these huge spectators in the stands that were screaming and cheering for them and stuff like that. And they were commenting to the media that it bothered them because these fans didn't understand the rules of the game. Like that just shows you. The curlers, they don't want you freaking out. It's like, shut up, I'm trying to play here.

BEN WATERWORTH: Didn't we drive past the centre of curling? I remember there was like a big portrait of one of the curlers on the wall or something like that.

COLIN HILDING: Yeah, that was the St. Patel curling club. That's where the women's gold medallists played out of last Olympics.

BEN WATERWORTH: Right, right. To update our listeners who are thinking like, what the hell, they live in the other side of the world, I did visit Colin in Winnipeg since we've last all been on air together and experienced snow. I brought the first snow of Winnipeg for the year to them. A lot of fun.

COLIN HILDING: All the cauldron for the Pan Am games from 1999 here.

BEN WATERWORTH: Yes, indeed we did. We, I think, promoted Off The Podium in some book we signed from memory, did we? Or was that baguette? No, one of them. Both probably.

COLIN HILDING: Although we should mention, we also did go to the Royal Canadian Mint where they had all of the medals from the Vancouver Olympics on display.

BEN WATERWORTH: Indeed, we saw them there, and I learnt actually, I don't know if it was with you, or I went to the Mint also in Ottawa, that if you were to get all of the Vancouver medals, like all of them that they ever gave out, and put them all together, they all form a giant image, I believe, of the killer whale, orca, the native Canadian, whatever that image was. I'm sorry, I was respectful there to the native image there. But it was all done deliberately, and then also the contours of the medal were all unique, and they kind of like connect with each other. They did it all deliberately. It was all very well planned out, so there you go.

COLIN HILDING: Yeah, I don't think you learned that here. If you did, I wasn't paying attention.

BEN WATERWORTH: You were too busy listening to that little shit of a kid asking all the questions to the tour guide. Shut up, little kid. We're trying to hear things.

COLIN HILDING: We have brought that up on every podcast we have. A little kid who just wouldn't shut up.

BEN WATERWORTH: And the most patient tour guide. Well, isn't that a great question again?

COLIN HILDING: It's not a question, little kid from South Dakota.

BEN WATERWORTH: I mean, Jarrod, I think with Curling Here, we don't get a lot of coverage when it comes to the Norwegians who always wear the really weird pants.

JARROD LOOBEEK: Yeah, I was just about to say the same thing. That's like our only coverage of it. Kind of similar to that stupid hair segment in the Summer Olympics. We just get like a pant segment.

BEN WATERWORTH: Jarrod's favourite segment. Still bringing it up from Rio. I'll whip my hair back and forth. I miss Channel 7's coverage. Basil Zimpla's got into trouble, actually. One of our favourite commentators. During an Olympic sport, we had the Australian Open, what, in January? Did you see all the hoo-ha that came about that when he's comparing Serena Williams to Michael Jackson instead of Michael Jordan? Like, he's big stuff up. So basically, he's there because there was Serena Williams' 23rd Grand Slam, so Basil Zimpla says like, Number 23, one of the great numbers, Corso, of course, famously worn by Michael Jackson, meant to be Michael Jordan. It was like live on TV, so everybody written him a new one on social media. Somebody like, locked up an image of Michael Jackson in Michael Jordan's uniform. Good old Basil. I like Basil. Actually, I tweeted Basil and asked him to come on the show, and he said he would, but I didn't hear from him after that. He probably listened to an episode, so... Sorry, Basil, for that. Just looking... So, with Pyeongchang... Are we saying that correctly, Pyeongchang?

COLIN HILDING: Yes, I've heard the athletes say it like that, so that's what I'm going with.

BEN WATERWORTH: So, we're now less than a year away. Originally, we were planning on doing this about a year on the day, but that was in February, and we're now in April recording this. But just want to point it out there, I don't know, Jarrod, if you've seen the logo. I'm sure you've seen the logo, Colin. Probably the most boring Olympic logo I have ever seen. It is literally a stick figure star and a stick figure box. What is that, Colin? What the hell is that?

COLIN HILDING: I'm not from Korea, don't ask me.

BEN WATERWORTH: You know more about the Winter Olympics. Maybe it's like a thing, I don't know.

COLIN HILDING: It's not terribly exciting. Until we see the mascots, we can't really judge how boring it is. I will say I do like, there's one I'm looking at here where they have an alternate logo where it looks like it's written like Asian style, like Korean writing. I kind of like that one. But yeah, I mean just a box. I mean, there's no significance. I mean, at the same time, that Vancouver, I don't even know what you'd call it, the stone statue pillar thing or whatever, that made no sense to me at all until I heard it explained on TV. So maybe one day they'll be like, you know, the great star that came down and built our four walled dwelling here in Pyeongchang.

BEN WATERWORTH: It's size house. I mean, the Vancouver one, I felt like when I was in Vancouver, that literally was being sold everywhere. Everywhere you went, you could buy that. Because as you said, it was like an actual symbol that was related to the Vancouver people or something like that. So you could buy that, that was a symbol. But I'm actually reading here, so this is what the explanation is. I don't know if we're basically just offending Korean culture now by ripping shit into this really weird logo. It's a styled representation of Hangul letters, P and CH being the initial sounds of Pyeongchang. Additionally, the left symbol is said to represent the Korean philosophical trinity of heaven, earth and humanity. And the right symbol is to represent a crystal of ice. Look, that's all nice and all, but it's still boring as shit. Like that is a terrible Olympic logo. I'm sorry, remember, do you both see the Tokyo one that they had to get rid of because it had like copied somebody else's? You're both Googling it right now. I can see, but it was...

COLIN HILDING: Yeah, you can hear the typing, right?

BEN WATERWORTH: It was terrible. That Tokyo one was terrible. Their replacement one really isn't all that much better, but it's still better than the one that got banned because I think they found out that they had like copied it from somebody else in like Sweden or some other country, some different logo. But actually, you mentioned the...

COLIN HILDING: The one that kind of looked like, I don't know if there's a red circle in the top right corner.

BEN WATERWORTH: It almost looks like an L. It's meant to be a T, but I think it looked like an L or something like that. But you mentioned the mascots, Colin. I'm sorry to say, they already have been announced. I'm going to send you both the link in our box there. Suhrang and Banderby are the official mascots. Suhrang is a tiger. Yeah, white tiger. And Burang is an Asiatic black bear. And they actually look like pretty decent mascots.

COLIN HILDING: Wait, is this how you pronounce Banderby? Because that's what I'm reading.

BEN WATERWORTH: Oh, Suhrang. Oh, hang on. I just thought Suhrang and Burang. Yeah, Banderby. You think we'd edit that out to make me not look like a dick, but clearly we've kept that in. Oh, aren't you looking forward to the games next year when Ben Waterworth rips shit into Korean culture? Hello to all our Korean listeners out there.

COLIN HILDING: That's on the best of right away. Let's talk a bit about these mascots here. I like Suhrang. Burang or whatever you call him.

BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, Burang's great.

COLIN HILDING: He just kind of looks like, I don't know, Dark Teddy Ruxpin with a Santa hat on. What? I don't know what this is.

BEN WATERWORTH: Who's Dark Teddy Ruxpin?

COLIN HILDING: You don't know Teddy Ruxpin?

BEN WATERWORTH: I don't know if I've ever heard of that before in my life.

COLIN HILDING: All right, here comes another length. Teddy Ruxpin was like a toy. I guess you would consider it the first interactive toy. It was an animated series, but they made the animated series out of a toy that you'd put a cassette in it, and it would talk to you, and its mouth would move in it.

BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, my sister used to have a thing like that, but it was Mother Goose. It was like you put a tape in it, and it would read stories, and it used to scare the shit out of me.

COLIN HILDING: Well, if it wasn't a bear, and if it wasn't wearing a sweater, then it's not the same thing.

BEN WATERWORTH: That is creepy. That bear is creepy. It looks like one of those, what's that Five Nights At Freddy's video game things? It looks like one of those things is going to kill you. That's terrifying.

COLIN HILDING: I watched one of these so bad when I was a kid, and the show was amazing. The show holds up still today.

BEN WATERWORTH: That honestly looks like it's going to kill me. Go ahead and roll on there, Jarrod. You think that's freaky too, right? I'm not the only one. It's an Australian thing.

JARROD LOOBEEK: Yeah, that's nightmare material.

BEN WATERWORTH: Canadians love it, but Australians are like, get it away from me.

COLIN HILDING: Oh, it was huge here. I got another one I'll send you where he's eating his own circuit board, it looks like. So this will give you nightmares, especially zooming a little closer.

BEN WATERWORTH: That's not a circuit board. That's a small child. That's Jimmy. That's little Jimmy. He's dead. Honey, what happened to little Jimmy? Oh, don't worry about it.

COLIN HILDING: So what I'm gathering is that you're a bigger fang of Boorang than you are a Teddy Rush man.

BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, Boorang looks sweet.

COLIN HILDING: With his Santa hat.

BEN WATERWORTH: Actually, you got it.

COLIN HILDING: I'm guessing it's supposed to be a moon or something, but it looks like he has a bib on.

BEN WATERWORTH: What's the hat he's wearing? It looks like the Russian flag. It's white, red, blue, it's green on there. But why is Boorang promoting Russia?

COLIN HILDING: They're calling him Boorang.

BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, stop banning me. It sounds like BAMmy. Boorang and Soorang are so much better. You know what it looks like? It actually looks like the Moscow bear. Was that Misha? The Moscow bear from the 89s? Google that. Google Misha. I'm actually looking at it right now. It's very similar. Where's the copyright suit against this that the Pyeongchang Olympics just ripped off the Moscow Olympics? The Russian aspect is there again! The Koreans and the Russians are together!

COLIN HILDING: Talk about creepy! This Moscow one is terrifying! Oh, no! It's not like someone's belt on and stuff?

BEN WATERWORTH: Can we do an episode just on the mascots?

COLIN HILDING: Yeah, mascots. Can we get the mascots on? Can that be our next interview?

BEN WATERWORTH: Let's bring back Izzy!

COLIN HILDING: We'll just bump our moguls preview, because we have to get the mascots on.

BEN WATERWORTH: Oh, yes. Between Izzy and the giant one-eyed penises from London, um... What were they called? What were their names? Wenlock.

COLIN HILDING: Boorang. Can I tell a story as we're on the mascots right now, since this is just an episode all over the place. It is winter related, so let's just say that. My wife loves to go to thrift stores, and I hate them. Like, I hate the smell of thrift stores, I hate the look of thrift stores, I hate the employees of thrift stores, I'm sorry for all our thrift store workers. Wow. A thrift store to me is basically like the shoppers there match the items, like they're all at least 20 years past their prime, and you couldn't pay somebody to take it off your hands. But occasionally, I get dragged to thrift stores. And I was killing time, trying to look around the toys for my son. He was, I don't know, this was like six months ago, so he was only like five months old. And he didn't really respond to toys at that point. And I found one of the Vancouver mascots. It was like a secondary mascot. I think it was like a squirrel or a badger or something like that. It's called Muk Muk.

BEN WATERWORTH: Of course it is.

COLIN HILDING: I wasn't even showing it to him. I hold this up and I turn over to my wife, I'm like, Jamie, look, Vancouver Olympics. And I look back at my son Casper, and he's staring at this bear, like smiling ear to ear. And so I take it away, and a minute later I hold it up to his face and he smiles. And still to this day, he has the exact same reaction more than any other toy he has. If you hold this thing up to him, he loves it and he smiles and he giggles. So, Vancouver Olympic secondary mascot Muk Muk, you brought the first bit of joy into my son's heart when it came to a thrift store toy.

BEN WATERWORTH: I just love the fact you're ripping shit into thrift shops. My experience with thrift shops in America, the girl I dated was obsessed with thrift stores. So when I was with her in Florida, we went to plenty. And then when I was in Nashville with former Survivor contestant Gretchen Cordy from Survivor Borneo, she also was obsessed with thrift stores and took me to several. I'm just ruining Colin's illusion of the great Gretchen Cordy.

COLIN HILDING: You know what the sad thing is? My wife drags me to thrift stores when we go down to Minneapolis, and we go down to Fargo and Grand Forks. And it's the same thing there. I'm like, come on, this is just as bad as Canada, except they're charging us more. Why are we here?

BEN WATERWORTH: They do have a unique smell, I will say that. But you're clearly not a fan of a Macklemore then, Colin. You don't like these big hits. What is it? Thrift Shop? He has that song, didn't he? That's how I learnt what a thrift shop was. We just called them what do we call them? Salvos basically, Vinnie's, Jarrod. We call them by the brand.

JARROD LOOBEEK: Op Shop.

BEN WATERWORTH: Op Shop. There we go. That's what we call it. Op Shop.

COLIN HILDING: But hey, there's great. I also found that same day an official Vancouver Olympic scarf. So you know what? Maybe I'll go back to a thrift store someday soon. I will wash them thoroughly before I wear it or hand it to my son because he's just going to suck on muck muck.

BEN WATERWORTH: Jarrod, I love how we talk about mascots here. I mean, I remember having, we had what? Sid, Millie and Ollie. I still call them Sid, Millie and Dickhead because that's what Roy and HG called them during the dream. I had like a, who was the kookaburra? Was that Sid? That was Sid, wasn't it?

COLIN HILDING: Ollie, I think. Ollie.

BEN WATERWORTH: I had like a little toy, like a little figurine, and we've actually still got one of our coffee mugs, which is kind of the one we give to our guests when they come over, you know, would you like a coffee? Sure, I'll get you your guest coffee mug. It's a Sydney 2001 with the mascots on it. But our mascots weren't that bad, were they, Jarrod? Like, I mean, no one's sort of saying that they're going to kill their children or anything.

JARROD LOOBEEK: No, I think ours are pretty family friendly. I feel like I have like all three of them maybe from like a Happy Meal or something. They were very big back in the day. Yeah, I think they're friendly enough.

BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, I mean, Fatso was the star through Roy and HG in the Dream. Everyone wanted a Fatso toy. There's actually, I, so also between, since we last recorded, I was in the Home Bush area because I went to the NRL Grand Final, and I'd never actually seen the, kind of, all the monuments for the Sydney Games. And apparently, isn't there, Jarrod, somewhere, I didn't see it, but isn't there, like, a bronze or something Fatso statue within the Home Bush precinct, because it was such a big deal during the Olympics, it became, like, the unofficial mascot for the Olympics?

JARROD LOOBEEK: Um, I don't know.

BEN WATERWORTH: I think it is. I'm pretty sure it is there somewhere. Do you know who Fatso is, Colin? Are we just completely making you run away?

COLIN HILDING: Is he like, is he like Chubby Scooby or whatever that guy's name was?

BEN WATERWORTH: Chubby Pullin. He basically, so, yeah, the dream with roaring HG, which again, you really need to watch Colin if you've ever gone back and watched it. But, you know, obviously, big TV show during the Olympics with the comedians roaring HG. And they were so, they didn't like the Sydney mascots, hence why they called them Sid Milly and Dickhead. So they created their own, which is a wombat, and they called it Fatso the Fat-Arsed Wombat. So Australian. And basically, it got to the point where actual Australian athletes, once they won medals, would get Fatso and bring him onto the podium. And they got into trouble. The IOC was kind of like, oh no, you can't have any non-Olympic sanctioned mascots with you on the podium. And I think they might have even done something with it in the closing ceremony kind of before it started. They had like a real joke larrikin segment before it officially started. And I think even on the Wikipedia page for official Olympic mascots, it's listed as unofficial mascot Fatso the Fat-Arsed Wombat. It was that big of a deal. And you're probably asking the Australians.

COLIN HILDING: Maybe that's how Muck Muck started.

BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, well, exactly. I reckon most Australians would remember Fatso rather than the three mascots for the Sydney 2000. It's actually, just quickly, we'll stop talking about mascots, but actually this Bu-Burang Bbandibi, whatever the fuck it is, he's like, not only has he ripped off Misha, he's actually ripped off the bear from Sochi as well. I'm looking at, like, do Koreans not have any form of originality with their bears, or do all Olympic bear athletes have to look the same? Because the one from Sochi, you've got that really creepy looking tiger, is it? Cat? What the hell is that? A rabbit and a bear with a blue scarf, that I swear is exactly what Bu-Rang is, except it's got a moon turned black instead of having a scarf. Like, come up with an original bear idea, Olympic mascots.

JARROD LOOBEEK: See, I think they save money. They buy all the leftover Sochi merchandise, dip it in some black dye, and then done.

BEN WATERWORTH: That's why it's got the Russian hat. Now, we don't really have many new sports in Pyeongchang, do we? It's kind of stayed the same. I think they've added a few sort of to the ski cross and all that sort of stuff, because they're generally the ones that are kind of coming across. Is there any, Colin? This is a question I'm putting all of us on the spot. We should have really researched this.

COLIN HILDING: Can we strike an edit point here?

BEN WATERWORTH: I don't know. No, we won't, because I'm actually reading here right now. I should have just gone with this. It says, in June 2015, six new events were approved for the inclusion. So there are four snowboarding big air. Oh, that sounds exciting. Oh, here we go. Curling mixed doubles. Whoa, they're progressive in curling. Speed skating mass start and an alpine skiing team event. So two events that have been dropped, the parallel slalom in snowboarding. Oh, I enjoyed the parallel slalom. They were dropped to make room for big air. What the fuck is big air?

COLIN HILDING: That's like jumps and stuff like that. I'm a fan of the parallel too, but I think big air is probably going to be a little bit more exciting for your typical viewers.

BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, they're generally sort of, they're trying to get those X Games crowd across to basically there. So, I mean, the Wichita Olympics obviously only have, what, 15 sports. There are 27, 28 in summer games, and there are about to be about 47 in Tokyo. But I mean, it kind of seems weird. 15 doesn't sound that many, but just going through them here, I mean, we will do a proper preview show. People are listening to this if you're listening to an Olympics podcast. You know the sports, but this is mainly for Jarrod to kind of catch him up on the ones that he might not know. Alpine skiing, it's the tradition. That's the athletics, I guess, of the Winter Olympics. Biathlon, everyone loves a good event where you can ski and shoot. Bobsleigh, brilliant. We don't even need to know the best. Cross-country skiing, which Colin, that's just basically biathlon without the guns, right? The marathon of the Winter Olympics. Curling, best sport ever. Figure skating, Australia's favourite sport to show that doesn't involve Australians. That is just blanket coverage in Australia. Freestyle skiing, the sport that Australia is good at. Ice hockey, we'll talk about that shortly, because again, there's been some news of that. Luge, I love the luge, especially the doubles luge, the most homoerotic sport in the Winter Olympics. Nordic combined, the modern pentathlon, of the Winter Olympics. That's like ski jumping and cross-country skiing, or is it biathlon? What's the combined element there? Do we know? Colin, our Winter Olympic sport?

COLIN HILDING: I don't know, you've got it in front of you. I stopped Googling when you said, I've got it right here.

BEN WATERWORTH: It is, what is it? It's definitely ski jumping. I'm going to say it's biathlon, because that makes sense. The little infographic looks like he's got a gun on his back, or she. Short track speed skating, the other one that Australia was good at once. Skeleton, reverse luge. Ski jumping, which is awesome. I love ski jumping, that's one of my favourite sports. Snowboarding and speed skating. What's your favourite out of those, Jarrod?

JARROD LOOBEEK: I'm a really big fan of world curling, obviously. Not that we see much of it. And I like all the snowboarding events, particularly Snowboard Cross, because it has lots of wipeouts.

BEN WATERWORTH: I like the ski cross too, I'm glad they brought that in the other year. Colin, it's a stupid question to ask you. You're Canadian, you like them all, right?

COLIN HILDING: Yeah, I think I've made it painfully clear at this point, moguls, freestyle skiing, that's my number one. And then hockey, number two, obviously. I don't think there is a single winter sport where I'm like, I'll skip this one. You know, there's no sailing in winter sports.

BEN WATERWORTH: It was actually cross-country skiing, not biathlon. Sorry to all our Nordic Combined listeners listening out there. But in all seriousness, that is the modern pentathlon. Any sport that can combine sports is awesome in my book. I'm waiting for Australia's Chloe Esposito to come through in the Nordic Combined. You thought Australia was shocked that we won gold in modern pentathlon. Wait till we wake up and see Australia's won gold in Nordic Combined.

COLIN HILDING: I'm just pumped for the day when we have a slalom curling combination.

BEN WATERWORTH: Mogul's ice hockey. That would just make you excited. Get to the end of the event and have to shoot a puck into a net. Yeah, I mean, it's such a good... I'm with you though, Colin. There isn't really a sport... Like, if I'm watching the Olympics next year, and all of a sudden they're like, we're going to now cross out to the figure skating. Like, that would be one I've grown about maybe the most. But I still watch it. Like, you know, it's still a winter Olympic sport. But yeah, it's...

COLIN HILDING: You still have a future wife to find. So of course you're watching it.

BEN WATERWORTH: Hey, exactly. And they're more generally of a legal age than the gymnasts. It's pretty good. I mean, I nearly found a future wife in Jamie Saleh back in 2002, but she...

COLIN HILDING: Oh, everybody remembers her, yeah.

BEN WATERWORTH: What's she up to these days, Colin? You're Canadian. I'm sure she's on the news every... Isn't she the Kardashians of Canada, surely, by now?

COLIN HILDING: Quickly Google Google it! I didn't put anything other than her name, but hey, you might as well throw it in Google if you want.

BEN WATERWORTH: I just have actually Googled her. Wow, she posts for FHM. Just bear with me, keep talking.

COLIN HILDING: Yeah, no, I mean, every once in a while, you'll see her pop up on different commentaries and stuff like that. I have a feeling she's married to somebody, not the guy she was with. Who is she married to?

BEN WATERWORTH: Not me.

COLIN HILDING: No, I know that. I thought it was somebody important. Yeah, Craig Simpson.

JARROD LOOBEEK: He's important.

COLIN HILDING: He's a commentator now, but I know he was a player for the Oilers back in the old days as well.

BEN WATERWORTH: Of course he was.

COLIN HILDING: Yeah, so former hockey player and current commentator on CBC. That's who she's married to.

BEN WATERWORTH: I actually think I did read about them once, because I think during Salt Lake, people have no idea what we're talking about. I don't know about Jarrod. Do you know what we're talking about when we say Jamie Salé?

JARROD LOOBEEK: No.

COLIN HILDING: They were the pairs figure skaters in Salt Lake City, the Canadians, and they ended up winning silver. And it was booed because everybody knew they should have won. And then they eventually found out that some of the judges had been bribed to give the Russians gold. So they upgraded them to shared gold. Yeah.

BEN WATERWORTH: So it was hugely controversial.

COLIN HILDING: Now you remember, right?

BEN WATERWORTH: Jarrod's like, oh, that.

COLIN HILDING: That's like my recognition with Bumpy Salinger or whatever.

BEN WATERWORTH: Bumpy Salinger. Wow. Chumpy's name just keeps changing. Boorang and Bumpy Salinger. I hope we get an interview with Bumpy Salinger. Welcome to Off The Podium. Bumpy Salinger. That's what he's going to be referred to on from now on. Next year when he wins gold. Oh, great gold medal by Bumpy Salinger. But I think I read about Jamie Salinger because they weren't together, were they, during Salt Lake? But then I think they got together and was checking here. They had a kid together, then they got divorced. And now she's with that important ex-Oilers player.

COLIN HILDING: Yeah.

BEN WATERWORTH: Anyway.

COLIN HILDING: Slash great commentator.

BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, of course. Now that we're giving.

COLIN HILDING: Yes, please shut me up. Well, if you haven't thrown her in Google and do it now, that'll shut you up. All you do is put her name into Google. And it's funny because back when she was figure skating, she seemed like very modest and polite and everything. You throw her in Google now, and it's like all, you know, semi nude FHM poses. And like that, you don't put her name, Jamie Saleh, FHM, Jamie Saleh bikini or whatever. But that's all that comes up with her. Like, man, Craig Simpson has been good to her.

BEN WATERWORTH: The one thing I will notice, I've shared an image in our chat here of her looking very nice in a white pair of...

COLIN HILDING: Google search.

BEN WATERWORTH: But we noticed the website, which I'm kind of creeped out, is pics.wikifeet.com. The fact that it's a wikifeet.com. I don't know what to think about that. Now, we will tease a little bit about ice hockey. I guess kind of again, we will do a really full preview before the Pyeongchang. A bit more professional, perhaps. We've only got about 11 months to prepare for that. But I guess really the big news that has come recently for the winter games, obviously the NHL have allowed players to go to the winter Olympics since Nagano. So they've sort of turned it professional, similar to what they do like the basketball and the summer games. But they've announced that they're not going to have a break next year for the winter Olympics. Basically meaning that players who, you know, professional players in the NHL, basically going to have to stay in the NHL. I'm not sure, Colin, in terms of whether or not some of them will want to be released to go for the Olympics. But essentially this means that we may be back to an amateur form of ice hockey at the Olympics next year. It's a pretty big thing.

COLIN HILDING: Yeah, you know, we talked about this in relation to tennis at the beginning of Rio, about whether it's a good thing or a bad thing that we have these very professional sports. And I think in some cases, like tennis or like hockey, people go pro so young that you really don't have an option. I mean, you kind of want to have the best athletes in everything. I remember when they first did this, I was kind of on the fence about it. You know, any year since obviously I look at it, now we're winning, now we've had all these golds, I'm like, oh, this is a great idea. But I mean, when I was a kid, I remember loving the idea of the amateur athletes. You're not seeing people you'd seen all the time. So in a way, it's a good way to get exposed to different players. But I don't know of a lot of instances where, you know, somebody was 25, 26, you know, not an NHL player, really huge in the Olympics. They're like, hey, the Leafs just picked him up or whatever. I mean, I don't know. I guess ultimately you want to see the athletes go somewhere. And it's unfortunate that if you only do have all these, you know, nonprofessional athletes in hockey, in a sport where it's not like basketball, where it only really benefits America to have them in there, you know, this is like Canada, Russia, Sweden, the United States. You have a lot of countries, and it's going to completely mess things up. And now we're looking at putting together teams with only a year out. I mean, I really wish that this, if they had made this decision, it would have been maybe a couple of years ago and not this close to the games.

BEN WATERWORTH: And what's the reaction been like in Canada? Has it been generally people are, oh, you know, fair enough, we want them to keep playing in the NHL, or are people up in arms about this? Because I mean, personally, from my opinion, I think this is ridiculous. Like, I think, I mean, ice hockey has a world championships every year. It's not like, you know, where they have it every few years. So the Olympics really is the pinnacle of, you know, international ice hockey competitions. So this is a pretty big deal. And I don't know how Canada taking this.

COLIN HILDING: You know, I haven't had a lot of time to really get to my reactions. I know I'm hearing a lot of people saying, oh, this is kind of disappointing and everything. I'd like to do more research to find out all the reasons for this. The most interesting thing is that on Hockey Night in Canada, which is like the highest rated sports broadcasting Canada, I was just watching and the first segment has Don Cherry, who's a former hockey player and coach and probably the most famous Canadian in the entire country. And he has just this segment commentating on hockey and they touched on it. And he was saying that he's the type of guy who's always really pro players and that this is something that's more disappointing for the players. But in this instance, he's supporting the decision. And that's just kind of surprising. So I don't know if there's more going on. You just have to do more research for it. But it's just strange that somebody who normally would be all four, let's send them to the Olympics, is saying no, it's not a good idea.

BEN WATERWORTH: Because you only really want to take like a two, three week break during the middle of the season. That's obviously because the NHL season is on at the same time. And I think I read it was something to do with the International Olympic Committee wasn't willing to provide funding or fees or something along those lines for the players and they usually have and something along these lines.

COLIN HILDING: In all fairness, do they need it when you're at that level?

BEN WATERWORTH: Well, exactly.

COLIN HILDING: The worst player on the team is clearing, you know, six million a year.

BEN WATERWORTH: I'm sure Sydney Crosby is like, no, I'm only going to the Olympics if the IOC pay for me. I was like, yeah, you need that Sydney. But it's I mean, it's just it's really going to be interesting. And I feel this is something that people are maybe if they don't really think too much of it. I think they will come February next year when we've got, you know, Colin Hilding is suiting up for the Canadian national team at the Olympics because they can't find anyone else. Jarrod and I have been recruited by Finland and Sweden.

COLIN HILDING: Yeah, it's going to be a bad thing if that happens because I'm one Canadian that does not know how to skate.

BEN WATERWORTH: And I thought I was bad that I couldn't know how to skate. You're Canadian. You're born and put on the eyes, aren't you?

COLIN HILDING: Yeah, well, you walk on it nonstop, but you don't have a need to skate if you're walking and sliding.

BEN WATERWORTH: Can you skate, Jarrod?

JARROD LOOBEEK: Can I skate? Sort of.

BEN WATERWORTH: Well, so we do know that out of all three of us, Jarrod is the one who will probably get selected. Sort of. But we'll see how that goes. It's definitely, yeah, interesting. But, you know, again, we'll see how they feel about this in February next year. Now, just a few other things we can touch on. Jarrod, anything else out on the Winter Olympics before we move on? I should really ask this first.

JARROD LOOBEEK: Not particularly.

BEN WATERWORTH: No, didn't want to bump anything up there with Bumpy Salinger on your thoughts on how he's going to go next year?

JARROD LOOBEEK: No, I think Bumpy Salinger is probably not a good shot at the medal.

BEN WATERWORTH: Oh, big call, big call. Wow. Definitely.

COLIN HILDING: What about Chumpy Hoodoo or whatever his name is?

JARROD LOOBEEK: Chumpy Hoodoo, also probably not going to see his name in connection with the podium.

COLIN HILDING: Can you tell me what the real name is? I honestly cannot remember.

BEN WATERWORTH: Chumpy Pullin. Chumpy Pullin.

COLIN HILDING: Chumpy Pullin, okay.

BEN WATERWORTH: How Australia's actually don't know these names more often because winter athletes have very unique names. Chumpy Pullin, Tora Bright, Dale Begg, Smith, this is not like John Jones. They're very unique names basically. Colin, anything to add on the winter Olympics before we touch on a few other things?

COLIN HILDING: I guess just going back to what you were talking earlier about how the media coverage is so different. We will talk more about it in a second, but you kind of teased earlier I did an interview with a huge Australian athlete who's dominating like nobody's ever dominated in a winter sport. And I asked her in the interview about what the media attention is like, and she's like, well, there's not really a lot of media attention here just yet. And I think she's kind of anticipating, yeah, maybe once the Olympics comes, and yet here in Canada, she's all over our news, and it's not even a Canadian athlete. And when you look up interviews of her online, you're finding interviews that she's done on Canadian networks. So it is kind of funny that there's such a huge difference there.

BEN WATERWORTH: Do you want to say who it is, or...?

COLIN HILDING: Well, yeah, I guess we'll tease that now. So one of the things that we want to do is, I guess, preview these different sports that are going to come, and some of the athletes who may be there next year. And I kind of lined up my favourite sport, as I said, moguls, as a bit of a preview sport. So we have two interviews coming up. We have a Canadian, Andy Notti, who finished fourth this past year, who is probably more than any interview we've done. We're big fans of Survivor, and being able to talk to Survivors is great. Ben and I did an interview with a Bond villain who was also in Die Hard, two of my favourite movies. And yet I was more fanboying for Andy Notti, the number four female mogul skier, than I have anything else. And then also following that, I also interviewed Brittany Cox, who's the number one female mogul skier. And again, just talking about the differences and what it's like in Australia versus what it's like here in Canada. I mean, it was really interesting just to see that there's not that much attention just yet. And yet she's able to succeed despite not having this huge amount of media attention.

BEN WATERWORTH: Now, how do you spell, is it Andy Notti or?

COLIN HILDING: Yeah, N-A-U-D-E.

BEN WATERWORTH: Okay, I've typed in Andy Notti, N-O-D-D-Y, and I've got a picture of a little kid cuddling the Notti character. I'm not quite sure if that's the same person, but yeah, it's interesting. I find that fascinating, the fact that when we've been organising the interviews, Colin's like, oh yeah, I've got Brittany Cox. It's like, you know, he's Australian. I'm like, I knew who Brittany Cox is. I'm sure, Jarrod, you're a huge Brittany Cox fan. But it's like, it would be interesting. That would be like me saying to Colin, oh, I've got to do with Penny Alexiak. Which, let's be honest, we wouldn't say no to. Hello, Penny, if you're listening. I know you liked one of our statuses, I think, during the games, whether that was legitimately your page or not. Yes, we're going to have more. A few lined up, of course. We actually did track down one of the other people, one of Stephen Bradbury's teammates, Kieran Hansen, and we were hoping to get him lined up at some point. I actually did speak to the great, the fantastic, and I've gone completely blank on her name right now, Jana Pitman. There it is. The great, the legendary.

COLIN HILDING: Are you ready for this, people? This is a name you will never forget. They're so important. They are so big. They are so amazing. That their name will stick with you forever. I'm stalling here. Ben, you forgot to mute it.

BEN WATERWORTH: Again, any professional podcast would edit this out, but no. Yana Pitman, the great Australian herder turned bobsledder. I believe the only Australian athlete to ever compete in the winter and summer games. Got her lined up in the coming weeks too. So stay tuned. Watch this space. We've got lots coming. A few other things to touch on. I keep saying this. Commonwealth Games, we want to cover them next year. They're in Australia, of course. They're now officially a year away. It was the year to go anniversary this week, I believe. April the 4th. And I'm excited. I actually... Can I just point this out? I got a friend to nominate me to carry the Queen's Baton Torch. I'm in it. I'm going to carry it. It's going to be the closest I've been selected yet. But I'm at least in with the shot. I'm in the pool. People listening from the Gold Coast Federation. I hosted an Olympic podcast. I once started a bid for the Olympics. It turned a bit more serious than I hoped it would. So I've got credentials for the Commonwealth Games.

COLIN HILDING: I also want to add to that, that Winnipeg is getting the Canada Games this summer. And I will be in attendance for some of those events.

BEN WATERWORTH: The Canada Games.

COLIN HILDING: And may or may not be able to see future Olympians up close before they become too cool to ever do something like the Canada Games. Probably like Penny Lexiac, who will probably not appear there this year.

BEN WATERWORTH: So the Canada Games, is that just what? So like the middle tally is the provinces, like Ontario is doing a lot better than Manitoba.

COLIN HILDING: Yeah, exactly.

BEN WATERWORTH: We need that here, Jarrod. Could we have the Australia Games? You reckon you think that would be a thing?

JARROD LOOBEEK: Oh, I'm all for more sports, particularly when it's state versus state. So yeah, I think that would be good.

BEN WATERWORTH: That's actually a pretty good idea. And, you know, of course, New Zealand would be like, I'll include us. It's like, shut up, New Zealand.

COLIN HILDING: You know, the only thing with this is that I think you have to be like under 21 or 22 to compete. They have like an age cut off. And so like people like Andre Degrasse this past year, you know, he was in the last Canada Games. So you do get future Olympians. The only sad thing is that you get people like Penny Alexiak, who's well within the age range to compete. And I almost guarantee she's not going to have the time to do the Canada Games.

BEN WATERWORTH: And is this like, do you have different sports in it that aren't in the Olympics? Are these kind of like Olympic sports basically or?

COLIN HILDING: I think it's mostly Olympic sports. I can look it up right now if you're really that interested.

BEN WATERWORTH: I can hear you googling it.

COLIN HILDING: This is going to take longer than I thought.

BEN WATERWORTH: Is it a big thing? Like, I mean, is this something that is like hugely covered? I mean, and how does Manitoba go in the Canada Games?

COLIN HILDING: Honestly, it's not something that I ever really watch.

BEN WATERWORTH: Except when it's in Winnipeg.

COLIN HILDING: Yeah, exactly. I don't know if the TV coverage is that big for it. I mean, we will have some. But even just looking up right now, they mention some of the athletes who competed in the Canada Games and then went on to win, like Cindy Clausen, Sydney Crosby, Anna VanCouverton, Steve Nash, who's of course at NBA. Some big athletes do start here. But yeah, it doesn't really get a lot of TV coverage. I'm sure there will be something, but I want to be there in attendance because I might not be able to turn on my TV because they're going to be covering reruns of March's curling games sometime in the middle of June and July.

BEN WATERWORTH: I'm just actually looking here. The last ones were held in the great place of Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, Quebec, and Manitoba finished eighth with three gold, 11 silver, 21 bronze. You really are the Canada of Canada.

COLIN HILDING: And we have sailing in it too. Maybe I'll be there for some sailing.

BEN WATERWORTH: Oh, you beat your great rivals of Prince Edward Island. Ontario, Jesus, they are really the America of the Canada games. They won 95 gold, 69 silver, 49 bronze, and Quebec were in second. And oh, poor, is it Nanavut? Is that how you say it? Yeah, that too. The Yukon and Northwest Territories sadly didn't win any medals. But Newfoundland and Labrador won a silver and a bronze. There's a place called Labrador. What?

COLIN HILDING: Well, Labrador is a city. It's not a province.

BEN WATERWORTH: Is there lots of dogs there?

COLIN HILDING: I've never been there myself. I wouldn't know.

BEN WATERWORTH: So Newfoundland and Labrador is the most easterly province of Canada. OK, there you go. Wow, we're learning so much here. Jarrod, who's your tip to get the most medals at the Canada Games?

JARROD LOOBEEK: I think with a name like Labrador. Probably got a good shot.

COLIN HILDING: There's no flin flon. They're part of Manitoba, but they should be on their own.

BEN WATERWORTH: If we ever start this Australia Games, Jarrod, clearly New South Wales will probably win the most medals. But look, Tasmania, we might win a bronze. I'd be happy for that. Go us. If we think Kim Brennan would win gold, you know? Come on, Kim. That would work. But yeah, we will talk about the Commonwealth Games, won't we? A year to go.

COLIN HILDING: We'll vote for the Olympics before that, I think.

BEN WATERWORTH: Are you excited, Jarrod, for the Commonwealth Games?

JARROD LOOBEEK: I am excited. I think it's a great chance to win some medals. We talk about pressure going into Olympic Games, pressure going into the Commonwealth Games is that much higher because nobody really competes in it. Yeah, and it's just great to see some sports that aren't in the Olympics. I mean, lawn bulbs, how is that not in the Olympics? Great addition to the Commonwealth Games, so looking forward to that.

BEN WATERWORTH: I'm just looking here, actually, the Queen Baton relay, in all seriousness. This looks like it covers more than the Olympic torch because it already started. I mean, again, a year out, and it's got the international map here I'm looking at. I don't know if this is going to every single Commonwealth country. It is going everywhere. It's coming to Canada, Colin. The 27th of July to the 2nd of August, and it will visit Vancouver and Toronto. So if you really want to go see the Queen's Baton relay, off you pop.

COLIN HILDING: Drive for a few days.

BEN WATERWORTH: But I know it's going everywhere in Australia. I'm sure it probably could come to everybody's house in Australia. It's just like that's the map that it's going to. How are the Commonwealth Games covered in Canada, Colin? I mean, to me, the Commonwealth Games are kind of each time they're on getting forgotten about more and more. I mean, literally the 2022 ones have been stripped from Durban and there's nobody to host them yet. So how are the Commonwealth Games treated in Canada?

COLIN HILDING: It's hit and miss. It really depends. They may have a lot of coverage on it one year and then nothing the next year. Obviously, when it was here in 94 in BC, it was huge and you could watch it around the clock on TV. I think the last time that I saw it, and it may have been on since then, but maybe just at odd hours, the last time I saw it was the last time it was in Australia, and that was, what, like 10 years ago?

BEN WATERWORTH: Melbourne, 2006, yeah.

COLIN HILDING: I mean, obviously, that is Australia's games. I mean, you're the number one country every single time. I don't think...

BEN WATERWORTH: Except for 2014. Fuck you, England.

COLIN HILDING: Maybe Canada. This is our year.

BEN WATERWORTH: Well, the thing is, it's like I've always... Yeah, the sole reason I really love the Commonwealth Games, I mean, again, I get behind any multi-sport event, you know, particularly the Canada Games. I'm looking forward to those. But it's... Yeah, this is... I've always said, it must be how America feels at the Olympics, because we generally kick ass. And it's like, this is like the one games. And again, I'm sure the blanket coverage in America, you know, oh, we only won 17 gold today. I mean, that's basically what it's like for Australian coverage of the Commonwealth Games. A bit of a disappointing day today in the Commonwealth Games for Australia. Only 33 gold. We were definitely aiming for 50. So we're very sad about that. But yeah, no, 2014, we were beaten, Jarrod. I don't know if you remember this day, but you and I at least have been alive on this earth long enough to never have to see England beat us in anything, and particularly at the Commonwealth Games. I mean, this was a day of national mourning, wasn't it?

JARROD LOOBEEK: Oh, indeed. It's the flow on from London 2012, all that money that they put into their sports, rubbing off. But I mean, enjoy it while it lasts, because it's not going to happen again.

BEN WATERWORTH: I really hope it doesn't, because we can't do two in a row. I think it was the first time in about 30, 40 years since Australia hadn't topped the medal tally. England, yeah, 174 medals. We had 137. Canada in third. It's not often Canada gets third in a medal tally, is it, Colin?

COLIN HILDING: Unless it's the Winter Olympics.

BEN WATERWORTH: True. 32 gold. How is it to Canada? 32 gold in a summer multi-sport event. Wow, how do you not like this more?

COLIN HILDING: I mean, I think we got 32 gold in the last Canada Games as a nation as a whole. So, I mean, at least on level with that.

BEN WATERWORTH: I'm looking here at the 32 gold that you got. The great Canadian gymnast, Patricia Beza Boinko. One, two, three, four, five gold medals. Wow, go you. Do you know who Patricia is?

COLIN HILDING: She's right up there with Chumpy Loodley or whatever his name is.

BEN WATERWORTH: He's got a different name every single time. Looking at the sports you win gold in. Oh look, Canada won a gold medal in badminton in Glasgow 2014. Michelle Lee, is she a national hero?

COLIN HILDING: I've got a framed picture of her right above my eye.

BEN WATERWORTH: I'm sorry, but maybe we do not cover the Commonwealth Games. Any multi-sport event that Canada can win a gold in badminton is just a bit warped. Wow, that's crazy. Did Australia win a gold medal in badminton? If we didn't, something's wrong. Canada can't win it. Oh, this is going to be fun. But yeah, we really want to cover it. Look, in all seriousness, I'm hoping to go to the Commonwealth Games because I've never been to a multi-sport event myself. Missed out in Sydney 2000, missed out on Melbourne 2006. Jarrod, you at least, I think, went to the Olympics. Would you be interested in going to the Commonwealth Games, Jarrod? Or you really don't give a shit about it?

JARROD LOOBEEK: I think I'd rather watch from the comfort of my lounge room.

COLIN HILDING: He was inviting you, Jarrod. Yeah, Jarrod.

BEN WATERWORTH: Hurts my feelings, Jarrod.

JARROD LOOBEEK: If you can get tickets to the sold out badminton, then I'm in. But if not, then there's a no go.

BEN WATERWORTH: Well, look, we didn't win any gold in Glasgow and the badminton in Canada got one up on us. We did win gold in squash. So that's good. I'm holding out for the lawn bowls. That's my go to event. We talk about curling lawn bowls. Edithy, what else have we got here to add quickly? I was going to mention you, of course, had a great interview you had recently, Colin, with Evan Dunphy. Some news actually coming out during the week. There's a very high likelihood that the 50-kilometre race walk is to be dropped from Tokyo 2020. Evan Dunphy tweeted out during the week to get you to sign a petition. We will get behind this because obviously Jarrod Talent, our greatest ever athletics medallist in the history of the Olympics, he's in danger of not being able to win five consecutive medals. I mean, this is pretty big here, Colin. No 50-kilometre walk. What's going on there?

COLIN HILDING: And I'm seeing this all over the place, not just Evan Dunphy pushing it, but that's making pretty big news here, too. I think in large part because we're like, we were this close to a medal. Let's hold on to whatever we have. Enough with these fourth place finishes. But I think it's sad if you eliminate any sport. And something like that, like, I really like the endurance ones. I understand that you're not going to get as many people watching it. You know, ratings aren't going to be great. But those are kind of the most trying events. And it's just grueling what the people go through. And race walking, particularly, because they have a crowd there, I think it's a lot more interesting than some of the other ones. And yeah, I'd be all for, you know, actually even checking out a race walking event if they had one. As we learned, Evan Dunphy had one in Hobart that you probably noticed.

BEN WATERWORTH: I did listen to that. He said it was like the hottest day we'd had on record. And it did sound very Hobart, the fact that you're going down the street and all the people in the pubs are just there. And yeah, actually, I think I do remember the event because I do from memory. I mean, one of the classic interviews we played was with Jane Saville. Obviously, you know, we've gone over her before, but I think it might have been around about that time because I do remember Jane mentioning about the national championships being held in Hobart. So obviously, Evan came down for those. I think he was mentioning. So if that's the same one, then hey, there you go.

COLIN HILDING: One of the hecklers.

BEN WATERWORTH: I would gladly.

COLIN HILDING: One of the drunken hecklers.

BEN WATERWORTH: Well, that's just the Hobart way. Everyone's drunken heckling. You landed the airport. We're in a fucking Hobart wanker. Just throwing stuff at you. Jarrod, you don't want the removal of the 50. I know you're a huge 50 kilometre race walk fan.

JARROD LOOBEEK: Oh, absolutely. And I just I don't know why they would consider getting rid of this over the 20Ks. I mean, I understand that there's probably issues with scheduling and timing, but I think just combine the two into one and you get to that 20K mark, and then you decide, am I going to take the medal in this or keep going for the 50Ks? I think that's kind of the happy medium that we're looking for.

BEN WATERWORTH: It's actually a semi good idea, Jarrod. That's entertaining. Like, does the race leader risk it? Like, I'm winning right now. Would I rather win the 50? I mean, you probably would risk it because you're about to win the Olympic. I mean, that's a stupid thing to say, Ben. But no, I'd rather win a 50 kilometre one.

COLIN HILDING: Sounds like something out of Deal or No Deal.

BEN WATERWORTH: Do you wish to take your gold or risk it for another? There you go.

COLIN HILDING: Now we've got some viewers.

BEN WATERWORTH: Hey, that may have Andrew O'Keefe pop up. Is there a Canadian Deal or No Deal with the Canadian host or did you just get the American one?

COLIN HILDING: Well, I mean, there actually is a Canadian Deal or No Deal and our host is Howie Mandel because he is Canadian.

BEN WATERWORTH: Right, OK. I'll say he's the American. OK, I didn't actually know who the fuck Howie Mandel was, but just like you had no idea who Andrew O'Keefe is. Now probably a good thing. Finally, the one thing that I mean, this is the biggest news out of all of the Olympics, saving the best for last. There's controversy happening amongst two of the big sporting bodies heading into Tokyo 2020, fighting over who will lay claim to stand up paddleboarding, which will be included in the 2020 Olympics. Now both the International Surfing Association and the International Canoe Federation are claiming that they should run this event because surfing, of course, is going to be included in the 2020 Olympics. They're saying that they have organised competitions for years and it is a surfing sport. However, the International Canoe Federation are saying, no, fuck you surfing, it's got a paddle, it's automatically canoeing. So, Jarrod, are you hashtag team surfing or hashtag team canoe?

JARROD LOOBEEK: Listen, I'm going to have to go hashtag team canoe here. I think they make a great point about the paddle. Obviously the paddle was originally for the canoe, so I don't think you can take that away from that sport. And I think that, yeah, they've got a good point. They've run a lot of events. They've got the backing. They've got the history. Give it to them, I say.

BEN WATERWORTH: Colin, what side do you go on here?

COLIN HILDING: Well, I mean, Canada has had some successful canoe athletes in the past.

BEN WATERWORTH: Have you had an international surfer?

COLIN HILDING: Well, I mean, I remember back in the days of PlayStation 2, who's that surfing guy who got his own Tony Hawk style video game? Do you remember that?

BEN WATERWORTH: Yep, I do, but I don't know his name.

COLIN HILDING: I think it's Kelly Slater, yeah.

BEN WATERWORTH: Kelly Slater. I thought there was another one. I think I was thinking of it. I mean, we all know Kelly Slater is, of course.

COLIN HILDING: Yeah. So, I mean, I'm waiting for the Adam Van Covertin's Extreme Canoe Video Game. So I'm all on board with Canada's second national sport canoe.

BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, I'm definitely hashtag team canoe. I think surfing can't lay claim to this. I mean, unless it's on a beach with a giant swell, generally I'm assuming it's going to be like on a flat lake or something like that. I'm standing up. I mean, that actually is a fascinating sport that you stand up. I mean, I can't even balance on like a skateboard that's on the ground, let alone it's something balancing on water. Yeah, people listening, please tweet out hashtag team canoe or team surf. We'll see what we can do.

COLIN HILDING: Let's get this trending, people.

BEN WATERWORTH: It's such a weird thing to debate. It's like the International Swimming Federation, the International Athletics Federation. No, the 100 metres is ours. It's like they're different people. But we'll keep an eye on it. Who will win that battle? Find out next on Off The Podium. This has been a lot of fun. I've actually just googled great Canadian surfers. It's literally come up with nothing.

JARROD LOOBEEK: Did you mean Canadian curlers?

BEN WATERWORTH: Yes. It comes up with goo. What the hell are you googling? But I was super glad that we're back here. We don't know when our next collective group episode will be. I'm sure it will be sooner rather than later. Pyeongchang. But yeah, we're obviously going to have lots in the meantime. Colin's got a couple of those great interviews coming. We'll have more. Jarrod, you got any interviews lined up for us as well?

JARROD LOOBEEK: I don't, but I think I might have to get in touch with the Canoeing Federation to get a more in-depth report on their bid for stand-up paddleboarding.

BEN WATERWORTH: I look forward to your interview with the person in the mascot suit of Boorang. What's it like being Boorang? It's a lot of fun, and thanks everyone for listening. Jarrod, thank you for being back. It's all serious. It's good to hear your voice on this show, and we look forward to hearing it more in the future.

JARROD LOOBEEK: No problem. It's been great to be back.

BEN WATERWORTH: Colin, to you as well. Thank you. It's good to be on an episode here with you as well, even though I've kind of heard your voice a lot in the last coming months with different shows, but they're also available for iTunes. Thank you, Colin. And yeah, please, next time we come on, please keep updating us on how Bumpy Salinger is going as well.

COLIN HILDING: Yeah, I'm sure he's doing just as good as Clumpy Moody here.

BEN WATERWORTH: And please, everybody, send us in your favourite Chumpy Pullin name. Come and see the chumpypullinnamegenerator.com. Guess which one's his real name, and you will win a prize of a stand-up paddleboard. But you can, of course, like us on Facebook, just search Off The Podium Podcast, and iTunes, subscribe to us on there. That's generally a good idea. Leave us feedback. Notice we did actually have some ratings on iTunes, which I really should have prepared earlier, so you could have read them, and they weren't all ones that we posted on there, too.

COLIN HILDING: I'm googling it right now.

BEN WATERWORTH: I'm sure I can quickly pull it up. I'm not going to tease people. I mean, I think it was literally three on there. So it's not like it's going to take too much time. Oh, actually, hang on. We've got four on there. What am I going?

COLIN HILDING: In all fairness, we were a two-week podcast up until like a month ago.

BEN WATERWORTH: And our other podcast, The Oz Network, also available on iTunes, has none. I just think we have one. So anyway, people clearly think we talk about the Olympics better. The Shedmeister, I believe that's our good friend Catherine. Hello, Catherine. She says, after taking a hiatus from Survivor Oz and knowing new episodes of Eurozvision, which I'm still sad about, Jarrod, we need to revive that, I feel, next month. Indeed. It's nice to hear Ben back on the... Oh, thank you, Catherine. Oh, isn't that sweet? She doesn't like you too. Thanks, Catherine. Collenna...

COLIN HILDING: I'm going to cancel Survivor.

BEN WATERWORTH: Is this you, Colin? Collenna says, Ben, Colin and Jarrod have a lot of fun watching the Olympics. No serious commentary, just the fun that you would have chatting with friends on the couch, watching all the events, except for sailing. No, that doesn't really say that. But that's what we do. We're all sitting on a couch, watching the events. JohnJohn81. So good. Love hearing their take on Rio. Lighthearted and funny. Deserves a gold for their efforts. The Thomas Bach comedy is gold. That lasted for like one episode, John. And Ooh I Want To Take Ya is awesome. Bring on more. Forgot about Ooh I Want To Take Ya.

COLIN HILDING: Oh, I can't wait for the Best Of episode.

BEN WATERWORTH: And Carly and Oz, these guys should be doing the official commentary. Well, I don't know about that, but we'll take the job if it's going, Carly. And a big thanks to all our family members for posting those ratings. You'll get an extra slice of cake at the Christmas table this year. You can join in with John John, Shedmeister, Chloena and Carly and Oz by leaving some ratings for us. A lot of Chumpy Pullin names I expect on iTunes in the coming days. Thanks everybody for listening. We'll be back soon with the great interviews that Colin did and some other ones and everything else in between. This is Off The Podium, and let's fade out with a bit more sigh. Thanks Bumpy Salinger for being alive. Good night.