PyeongChang 2018 Day 13 Review
As we get closer to the end of another Olympics it's time to recap on a day that New Zealand will remember forever and Canada will want to forget as Ben, Colin & Jarrod reflect on the 13th day of PyeongChang 2018. Just how is Canada coping with the loss of both the ice hockey and the curling? How is New Zealand still celebrating winning two bronze medals? How is Hungary celebrating by finally winning a gold? How is Australia celebrating in really not achieving anything? It's all there and more in another action packed day that we know you'll want to listen to immediately!
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
Please note this is an automated transcript that may contain errors.
BEN WATERWORTH: Welcome everybody to Off The Podium. An Olympics Podcast as we come to you for a very packed, a very full, a very exciting, a very silver and bronze day. 13 of the Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympics. A day, of course, that is celebrated still to this day in the history of the world by New Zealand, who I believe are still parting nonstop over there for a double bronze day that we, of course, went over a little bit yesterday. But so much to talk about. So exciting. There's first gold for countries. There's no gold for countries that should have won it. And once again, there's no medals for Australia. And speaking of which, joining us is the number one expert when it comes to winning no medals in Olympic Games from Emu Plains. Jarrod Loobeek. Jarrod, welcome back to the show.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Thank you. Yeah, I have the distinction of doing equally as well as the Australian team on the 13th day.
BEN WATERWORTH: Me too. Me too. It's a good feeling. And also joining us is a man who is in mourning right now. I believe that the whole nation of Canada is mourning the fact that New Zealand technically had more of a successful day in some aspects on the day of the Olympics in Canada. It's Mr. Colin Hilding. Hello, Colin. Welcome back.
COLIN HILDING: Harsh but true. But there is a light at the end of the tunnel because officially today, one of Off The Podium's guests did win a medal. The curse is up, people.
BEN WATERWORTH: He got a bronze. Yes, the cover everybody wants. The New Zealand medal. Congratulations. Charles Hamlin, was that a big celebration point for you? I mean, they should have won the gold, let's be honest.
COLIN HILDING: Yeah.
BEN WATERWORTH: I was watching that.
COLIN HILDING: I was just happy to not see him get disqualified for once. I mean, I thought that he'd fallen into a groove, and that was just his new thing.
BEN WATERWORTH: And speaking of Off The Podium, one of our biggest whipping boy, bag, girls, whatever, in the history of our show, the funniest country on the planet, Hungary, absolutely laughing their way to the bank this morning because they've won their first ever Winter Olympic gold medal in the same race. Hungary, the great nation of speed skating! Hungary have won a gold medal! I mean, you know, let's go back to Rio. We ripped a fair bit of shit into our Hungarians as not being funny people. Jarrod, do you think this has brought a bit of a smile to their face? Because they look like they were sort of smiling when they won this gold medal last night.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Yeah, I think if you win gold, you get kind of a ten second window to smile, and then after that, it's just straight back to the blank face.
BEN WATERWORTH: How is it, though, Colin, for you? I mean, this was an interesting race of 5,000 metre relay. I mean, because Canada were winning pretty much right at the end, and it was only really the last two laps that they kind of went backwards. But how does Canada react to losing to Hungary? I mean, you know, this is the great nation of Hungary in speed skating when you think of all these amazing short track nations to lose to a country who until, you know, about 12 hours ago never won a Winter Olympic gold medal.
COLIN HILDING: I mean, we're coming off of losing to the United States in curling, so I don't think anything... United States in curling and hockey, now Hungary in speed skating, like, we might as well just become a summer nation all of a sudden.
BEN WATERWORTH: It really wasn't a good day for Canada yesterday. Shall we just get this over and done with? I mean, I was watching the ice hockey on the app because Channel 7 decided not to show it live. They decided to show it on about a two-hour delay and then showed it about another three times last night at the expense of live sport. But I went down to the penalty shootout. I went down to the sudden death portion of the penalty shootout. And let's be honest, the greatest save by an American goalkeeper since Julie the Cat Gaffney at the Junior Goodwill Games got them the gold medal. That's not an original Ben Waterworth joke. I'll explain where that came from later on. But it must be disappointing. I mean, you did talk about this yesterday. This is the one that would hurt the most, and that's got to hurt the most that way.
COLIN HILDING: Yeah, and I think especially because it's an exact reversal of what really happened in Sochi. You know, we were ahead going into the, well, pretty much right up until the end of the third period, and then we just lost this lead, and then losing it in a shootout. I mean, I'm glad it was a dramatic game. It was a good game. It's just coming off of this streak. You know, it's funny that you watch this even on Canadian TV, and afterwards, of course, that's when, I'm not going to say the excuses come out, but it's like, well, the US team wore the heavy favourites going into this. I'm like, really, you played six games with them leading into this over the last few months, and won five out of the six. How were they the heavy favourites? But, I mean, Canada, we still find a way to be like, we're silver medallists. I mean, it's exciting. We won a medal in women's hockey. I mean, have we ever not won a medal in women's hockey? I mean, we've only missed out on the gold once. But between curling and hockey, it really is just kind of a sad day right now.
BEN WATERWORTH: I mean, this is the thing, though, I do like about you guys, is that from what I'm seeing on social media and other reactions, you still seem to put a positive light on it. Like, I mean, if this was Australia, and this was, I don't know, the Australian football gold medal match that, you know, we're certain to win and we lose to New Zealand. I mean, Jarrod, we know what's going to be happening. There's going to be inquiries. You know, our Prime Minister is going to be on TV. This is so disappointing. Everyone in Australia is going to be sulking. I mean, we've got to be more like Canadians, don't we?
JARROD LOOBEEK: Yeah, I mean, if that team loses, they're not coming back to Australia if they're heavy favourites. So, yeah, I think just kind of let it go. I did appreciate the person who just chucked a silver medal away straight away, took it straight off straight away. I thought that was impressive, but yeah, for the most part, just sort of roll with the punches.
BEN WATERWORTH: That's very un-Canadian. I didn't see that. I mean, the good news for Canada, though, on a day in which you picked up, what, two silvers and a bronze, Kim Boutain, Boutain, Poutain, Kim, three medals now, she's won at these Olympics, so that's pretty good for her, and she was happy. I liked seeing her reaction. She crossed that line there, you know, good for her. And also, I think the better news is that Norway didn't win a gold medal. So Germany did, though. So they're both on 13 gold, so shit, no gold to Germany or Norway in the coming days to tie your record in Vancouver. But, you know, you won medals. You won one more than New Zealand. That's a positive.
COLIN HILDING: We did, and I like the way you described Kim Boutain's reaction. It was almost as if to say, suck it, social media. I'm a three-time medallist.
BEN WATERWORTH: The gold to the Netherlands in that one, actually. It's rare to see that in the short track. We'll go over some of those in a second. Jarrod, obviously, from our perspective, I finally saw the Dominic Demtschar slalom failure. That was a bit awkward. And Greta Small, sadly, did not finish the combined portion of everything. Now, as we mentioned, Sammy Kennedy Sim, we went over that one yesterday, of course. And that was really it. No other Australian is really in action. I mean, I didn't see Greta. Did you see Greta at all go down? Because, again, when I'm watching Channel 7, they felt obviously bad for not showing the ice hockey live, so they thought they could make it up to you by showing it like 20 times last night.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Yeah, I didn't see it live either. I did see an interview with her at the bottom of the hill, and she just sounded like she was super unwell and sick. She barely could even talk. So props to her for getting up there and giving it a go in the event, really.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yes, yes. It's weird for Channel 7 when they don't have a whole lot of Australian action to show on a day, which really came down to two Alpine skiers not finishing and Sammy Kennedy Sim just putting in a run to get him ninth, qualifying. So Channel 7 didn't know what to do. They were like, oh, let's bow down to our American overlords and show them winning the gold in the ice hockey 30 times. So the medal events yesterday was obviously a record day. 10 gold decided, which was a record for the Winter Olympics. And we had two Alpine events. Men's slalom. Andrea Muher of Sweden beat Ramune Zennhausen of Switzerland, and Mikael Matt of Austria took the bronze. The women's combined. The good news is Lindsey Vonn didn't medal. Michele Gieson of Switzerland, not only did she medal, did she choke big time. Because she was what, fastest? Wasn't she in the downhill?
COLIN HILDING: All US media coverage today is still talking about her as the greatest skier in history.
BEN WATERWORTH: It's like, they really pump her up here on our coverage. But like the thing that, like the difference between her and Ryan Lochte, Ryan Lochte's got an aspect about him that you kind of almost like. Like, you don't. But like there's a part of you where you just are like, oh, he's a bit special, he's a bit dumb. So like, oh, well the poor guy, like, you know. I'm sorry, Lindsay Vaughan just seems like an arrogant so-and-so. Like there's a difference between the two of them, which if I'm in a bar, and there's Ryan Lochte on one side, Lindsay Vaughan goes drinking their sorrows. Ryan Lochte, how did I get in this bar? I'm going up to Ryan Lochte to talk to him. I don't know about you guys. Not for those purposes, if anybody's implying that I've really turned the other way on this podcast. I mean, Jarrod, who are you going to want to hang out with more, Ryan Lochte or Lindsay Vaughan?
JARROD LOOBEEK: Oh, probably Ryan, because you know it's going to be an interesting night, and what he says is happening is probably going to be more exciting than what it actually does.
BEN WATERWORTH: Exactly, you'll be on the news, you'll have a reality show made out of you. Colin, I mean, I don't know, who are you choosing in that?
COLIN HILDING: You know, it's tough. I mean, I think you can laugh at anything Ryan Lochte does. With Lindsay Vaughan, you kind of just roll your eyes half the time. I think the other problem is the attention, as I said, not just media attention, but fan attention. It legitimately is. Everybody's saying, she's the greatest skier in history. You know, with Ryan Lochte fans, you laugh at them too when they make those claims. With Lindsay Vaughan, it's almost annoying at times that they make her out to be the greatest thing ever. I think I would probably have more issues with Lindsay Vaughan fans than it would Ryan Lochte's as well. So yeah, it's Lochte hands down.
BEN WATERWORTH: I think the difference is, Lindsay Vaughan seems to be so much more successful outside of the Olympics. She's dominated World Cup events and World Championship events. She's only going to leave with, what, three Olympic medals, a gold and two bronzes. Whereas Ryan Lochte, I mean, I know swimming has obviously got a lot more events, but he's got 12 Olympic medals and he lives in an era of Michael Phelps. So on the success side of things, I think Ryan Lochte, more complete athlete than dear old Lindsay.
COLIN HILDING: And I mean, when Ryan Lochte fails, you know, eventually, very, very late eventually, he does own up and be like, you know what, I did something stupid. With Lindsay Vaughn, I swear, I don't want to hear about her injuries one more time, because all it is is, oh, well, you know, it's unfortunate that I've had so many injuries. Like everybody else has had injuries. I mean, there are people who won medals in these Olympics who were injured at the time. I don't want to hear about your injuries. Oh, I missed Sochi because I was injured. I'm like, well, so did the one who won the gold today. It's no different. Like, shut up about your injuries already. Nobody cares. Stop with the excuses. Ryan Lochte's not making excuses.
BEN WATERWORTH: Exactly. Exactly. He's just admitted that he's dumb. Like, you're just annoying. So the gold went to that to Michelle Gisen, Switzerland, Michaela Schiffran of the US got the silver, and Wendy Haldin. Good day for Switzerland. Bronze there. That was in the combined. Canadian got six there though, Colin. Valérie Grenier. So that was pretty decent. Only 18 people in total completed the entire both runs. So very interesting there. Just in the Men's Slalom 2, I think only half the field as well, and that completed as well. And that was the event we had. Just looking here, the ones who did not finish, we had an East Timor athlete, Johan Goud Gongkowls, 104th out of however many there were in the field. There was a Malaysian, Lebanese, Pakistani, Icelandic, Samarino. This is where all the nations were competing in the slalom. So, has our Tongan cross-country ski would have competed by now, hasn't he? Did that just not make the news?
JARROD LOOBEEK: Yeah, it wasn't like a big deal. He didn't finish last though, so...
BEN WATERWORTH: Okay, well that's good. Good for him.
COLIN HILDING: I mean, he had his shirt on the whole time. There was nothing to talk about.
BEN WATERWORTH: Couldn't recognise him. Yeah, exactly. The biathlon, the women's relay was gold to Belarus! Their second gold of the games, I think that is Sweden silver, bronze to France, Canada were in 10th position. In the men's halfpipe, obviously we went over that yesterday. We don't need to repeat that New Zealand won a bronze medal. Sadly, yes, Canada silver in the women's ice hockey gold to the US of A in that one. Nordic combined, everybody's favourite. The Germans took that one out. Norway silver, Austria bronze. Of course, that's the only sport that Canada does not have any representatives at the Olympics. That was the Team Large Hill 4x5 kilometre in the Nordic combined. The 1000 metres, Suzanne Schuteling from the Netherlands, who I like the look of her. She's quite attractive. She took the gold, Kim Butin silver, and Ariana Fontana the bronze, both the Koreans taking each other out in the final. Kind of had to laugh at that. Sorry, Korea. And the 500 metres, there was a four-man final, which included a Canadian, Samuel Gerard, and he finished in fourth. Sad for Sam. I was watching that one. But Wu Dejing, a world and Olympic record, taking the gold. That's China's first gold of these games, interestingly enough. Hwang Diheon of South Korea, the silver, and Lim Hyo-jun, the bronze. Disappointing, though, for Samuel, because he kind of got the raw deal of that start. Because it's such a power race, isn't it? 500 metres, boom, boom, boom. You get a bad start, you're screwed.
COLIN HILDING: Yeah, but at the same time, I mean, I was watching it in, I think it's short track speed skating. I mean, things happen so quickly, you know, in the first five laps, even if it is, you know, a 5,000 metre, you can have every person overtake every person over the course of only five laps. And I mean, he was just at the back the entire time. So I don't know if it was, if there are any problems with the start. I just don't think he was in it.
BEN WATERWORTH: And he got lucky. He wasn't in the semi because he got kind of pushed out of it. And he's what a bit of his skate got stuck on the ice, and they kind of restarted it. So, you know, I thought he was out of that already in the semi, but they restarted there because that was dangerous on the ice. The 5,000 metre relay, as always, I love the relays in the short track. As we said, Hungary, Golden Olympic record, if you don't mind, China, Silver, Canada, Bronze, and South Korea fell again. So not a very good night for the South Koreans in the short track. We went over the big air yesterday. Don't need to repeat, New Zealand won a medal in that one. Curling, oh, Colin.
COLIN HILDING: You really want to move on from that.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, we really want to move on to the fact that curling, what's going on? You peaked at the mixed doubles. Your women don't even make it, and you lose to America in the semi-can, and you're only going to be playing for Bronze, Colin.
COLIN HILDING: Yeah, let's move on. I think we talked about the yesterday too, didn't we?
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, but the gold will be between Sweden and the US, and Bronze will be between Canada and Switzerland. Like, my goodness, Canada. I want a national inquiry into that. Why do I have ice hockey open twice? Apparently, I'm Channel 7 all of a sudden. And that was basically it. All the events were medal events, except for the ski cross, which we already covered yesterday. So the medal table after 13 days in is Germany still second? Yes, they are. Norway are on top by the fact that they've won more silver medals. 13 gold, 12 silver, 10 bronze, 35 in total. Germany 13 gold, 7 silver, 5 bronze. Who would you rather top the medal tally with a 14th gold? Colin, Germany or Norway?
COLIN HILDING: Oh, it has to be Norway. I mean, at least that way, they can petition to have like the best pantsuit in for the 2022 Olympics.
BEN WATERWORTH: I feel like you're going to side with Colin there, Jarrod. Are you team Norway or team Germany here?
JARROD LOOBEEK: Oh, Norway, absolutely.
BEN WATERWORTH: Team Germany, come on. I don't know. I have nothing against Norwegians. I've never met a Norwegian in my life. I think I went over this before, but I don't have. Joppie was Norwegian, wasn't he? That was a bit rude of me. Sorry, Joppie, if you're listening. We're in Oslo to work with the show, with a bloody Norwegian. But I like Germans better, so hashtag Team Germany. Canada third, though. You're hanging on to that. Nine gold, seven silver, eight bronze. Now, the US have jumped up into fourth with eight gold, seven silver, six bronze. But the good news is, should they win another gold, by the fact that you've won two more New Zealand medals of bronze, you will hold on to third spot. The Dutch, they're having a great game. I know they've all come in speed skating, but now they're dangerous in short track as well. So look out, Beijing 2022, where the Netherlands are going to probably win 15 gold purely on speed skating and short track alone. So South Korea still four gold, four silver, three bronze. The hosts, Australia still in 22nd, two silver and a bronze, and New Zealand are an equal 25th with Spain. Two bronzes there. But Hungary, good result for them, as we said. Their first ever Winter Olympic gold medal puts them up with 19th place, Ukraine equal there. Good result for them. Jarrod, what did you watch on day 13?
JARROD LOOBEEK: Not a whole lot, given Channel 7's remarkable coverage. But the things that I did see was pretty much the events that New Zealand won, so it kind of leaves a sour taste in your mouth.
BEN WATERWORTH: Third, third, Jarrod, not one, third.
JARROD LOOBEEK: And the big A, as well as I did catch the end of the Women's Gold Medal Hockey match.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yes. Colin?
COLIN HILDING: I obviously watched the two events that we covered yesterday, and then I tried so hard to stay up to watch them. I mean, it was 10.45pm, I think, when the gold medal game started here, and I made it, I think, up some point into the second period before I just couldn't stay awake any longer. I was able to catch the end, but I only had so much time before I left for work, so I kind of fast forwarded through the end and watched all the dramatic stuff in the third period over time, and shootout and everything. And the only thing I really had a chance to watch were the short track events, which I was able to catch on my lunch day at work, so I was lucky enough to get through all three of those within half an hour.
BEN WATERWORTH: Beautiful, yeah. I saw the ice hockey, saw the short track, and yeah, what obviously we covered yesterday as well. So yeah, nothing really outside of the realms. I sadly didn't see any of the Nordic combined. I was a bit sad about that, but you know, there's always Beijing, clearly, because I think they're all out of the way now. Athlete of the day, let's go with Colin first. Do you have anyone today?
COLIN HILDING: I mean, I think the obvious choice would be just the Hungarian team, just for being the first gold medallist. But I'm going to go with the coach of the day instead, because I talked yesterday about Eve Merehead and her team beating Canada and how happy I was for Canada to lose in women's curling. Didn't even realise that their new coach, Glenn Howard, is a former Canadian curler. And this, I'll send you guys the link to the page. But just showing, like, not all Canadians are polite, or at least when it comes to something that we take very seriously, like curling, nobody's polite. Somebody took a page out of the Oz Network slash Off The Podium's book and edited his Wikipedia page immediately afterwards, because Great Britain has a Canadian coach. And legitimately, this is what his Wikipedia page said after that. Glenn William Howard, born July 17, 1962, is a Canadian trader curler. So he was branded a trader by Canadians on Wikipedia briefly before they updated his page.
BEN WATERWORTH: That's crazy. I swear we're similar like that in Australia, because wasn't that the case, Jarrod, that didn't an Australian go over to coach the British swimming team, or something like that, and they basically helped Britain win a bunch of medals in the Olympics. I don't know what sport it was. Was it swimming? I can't remember. I don't know if you know anything about that, but I remember there's a similar thing here in Australia where they did that, too.
JARROD LOOBEEK: No, it sounds about right. I feel like it happens with Australians in like a lot of sports, particularly sports that we generally are good at, like swimming or netball. The other teams always have Australian coaches, and it's like, well, is this really fair?
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, I know it was, I think, our rugby union coach, Eddie Jones, Eddie, whatever his name is, he went and coached the English rugby union team to a fair bit of success. So yeah, that's, I like that, though, Trader. They're stealing our jokes, but we'll take it. Jarrod, do you have anyone?
JARROD LOOBEEK: For the same day in a row, and I feel bad doing this, but I'm going to go with the New Zealander, just because Nicoportius, just to the fact that, like we mentioned yesterday while we were recording, the fact that he phoned in his third run, when he's sitting in second place at the time, there's like six athletes left to come after him. He could potentially have won gold if he'd done an amazing thing on his last turn around. And then the fact, yeah, that he just phones it in, does this stupid thing, and then just holds on for bronze when really that could have gone south so badly, like fourth place, fifth place. I think that that's just hilarious and classic New Zealand act.
COLIN HILDING: You know, I actually went back and watched that so I could hear the commentary and hear the Canadian commentators. They were just silent for like the first 10 seconds, like, I'm not entirely sure what his plan is here. Is he injured? I don't know. I mean, there must be something. Well, maybe he just thinks he has this as a lock at this point. Like, what were the commentators like there?
BEN WATERWORTH: I had mine on mute. I don't know, Jarrod, if you went back and watched it.
JARROD LOOBEEK: I think ours were, yeah, like pretty much the same. They're like, um, so it looks like he's just putting in a safety run. Uh, not sure.
BEN WATERWORTH: Um, I like the fact that both, and I don't know if we really went over this as much yesterday as we should have, that both of their bronze medallists are 16 years old. Um, so like, you know, add them together, they're basically my age. Um, and the fact that I've read an article here in Stuff.co.nz that they're like neighbours and that they've grown up with each other and so very New Zealand. Uh, so this is like the next big darling couple of New Zealand sports, because, you know, all those international New Zealand sporting couples that we all know about. Uh, I probably couldn't even name five famous New Zealand athletes on my hand right now, let alone couples. Um, but yeah, two 16-year-olds who weren't even remotely close to being born the last time they won an Olympic medal. Um, so, that's, that's insane. Um, I'm gonna go with the bronze medallist in the 1000-metre short track Ariana Fontana. Now, similar to Kim Boutine, she's a multiple medallist at this Games. She's now completed the set. She's gone bronze, silver and gold. Uh, she got the gold and the 500 metres and the silver as part of the 3000-metre relay team that really shouldn't have won a silver medal. That was a ridiculous result, but whatever. Um, she came into these Games having won five previous medals throughout her career in Turin, Vancouver and Sochi. Never a gold. Um, so she's a bit of a journey woman, Ariana, and I think she needs a bit more props. So good for her. She's only 27 as well. So, uh, that made her the ripe old age of 16 when she first competed in her home Olympics of Turin back in 2006. And I've seen a picture of her biting the ugliest Olympic medal in the history of the Olympics, the Turin medal. Um, can we just establish how ugly that medal is, everyone? The donut medal. Um, yeah, so Ariana Fontana.
COLIN HILDING: Makes me hungry.
BEN WATERWORTH: Makes you hungry? That just makes me want to vomit. It doesn't look like an Olympic medal. That's ridiculous.
COLIN HILDING: I know, but who doesn't want a donut? I mean, I'd rather chew on a donut than a medal.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, but like this just literally looks like someone's got a piece of medal with a hole in it tied a ribbon around and going, oh, he's an Olympic medal.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Yeah, cost-cutting.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, cost-cutting. I don't know. Here's a random one for you. 2006 wasn't a good year for medals, because does anyone remember the Melbourne Commonwealth Games medals? It was kind of like jewellery as opposed to a medal. It was this thin piece of like, you know, chain with an ugly medal at the bottom of it. I don't know. I just feel like a medal should represent a high prestige event. And if you've got an ugly ass looking medal like the Turin medal or the frickin Commonwealth Games from Australia, I'm glad the Gold Coast medals look slightly better than the Melbourne ones. But anyway, this is Medal Oz coming soon to the Oz Network and Off The Podium. Coverage, now, any CBC fails? Are there any interesting from CBC at all?
COLIN HILDING: Yeah, this one was kind of fun. Again, I only caught it because I went back to see their reaction to Nico and his phone it in run. But what was the name of the guy who won the gold again?
BEN WATERWORTH: That was David Wise. Alex Ferreira got silver.
COLIN HILDING: So after Wise had his run, the commentators, well, you always have the one commentator and then the analyst. And the commentator was just going on and on about an incredible run here, and what a great day for the United States. And then they're cutting to a shot at the top of the hill where the two coaches are watching Wise's run. And they're just like pumping their arms up in the air. They're like, yeah, yeah. And it's just like silence from the commentators. And then the analyst guy just goes, America. Like, it's just imitating the two guys as they're pumping their arms up in the air.
BEN WATERWORTH: That's almost as good as the Scotty Jaynes one from Australia's perspective. When he crashed, there was just dead silence and all you hear is bugger. That's hilarious. Jarrod, did you have any Channel 7 ones?
JARROD LOOBEEK: Well, two things caught my attention. One is the fact that, like you know, the coverage is bad when Channel 7 acknowledges that it's terrible. And Mel McLaughlin, with her great wording, said, If you want to watch anything, you can go to the app. I mean, it was true because there was nothing on TV.
BEN WATERWORTH: That's brilliant.
JARROD LOOBEEK: And then the other that just made me laugh was, I don't even know what time it was on, but this banner just came across the screen probably when they were replaying the hockey for a hundredth time. And then it was like, breaking news, Channel 7 hacked, watched the full story on Sunrise Tomorrow. I'm like, yeah, no wonder you were hacked. It's some disgruntled watcher of the Olympics who's trying to take over your coverage because you're terrible.
BEN WATERWORTH: I had to be a bit of a troll on Twitter. They posted a poll on Twitter, and it was like, which is better? And it's like, ski half-pipe or snowboard half-pipe? And I replied with, third option, live sport. Didn't really get any traction. I've got a different one outside of Channel 7, which I'll get to. But the one I had to laugh, though, was Hamish McLaughlin trying to come off as this ice hockey expert. He's like, they're showing the ice hockey for the third time. Yes, and of course, here in ice hockey. It's a well-known fact that when it's tight, it's sudden death, 20 minutes, sudden death goal. And then they go, he's just trying to explain. Hamish McLaughlin, you're a douche. You know nothing about ice hockey. But I flicked over onto our pay TV service, Foxtel, and was watching Fox Sports News at about 11 o'clock at night. And you had the comedy duo going on of these two young guys who were recapping the Olympics. And at first it started off as pretty shit, but then it was actually quite hilarious, because I think the rules are with non-broadcast networks, you're only allowed to show 60 seconds or two minutes worth of Olympic footage per day on your news service. That's it. So they were talking about the slalom guy, and then they had this little story, which at first I thought, really, this is not news. This is terrible. They get there and they're talking about Killarney Crane, how she's up to about 130,000 Instagram followers since she's started at these Olympics. That's thanks to Off The Podium, of course. It's not actually thanks to the Olympics since she's been on our show. But then they've got this story, and I'm like, oh, this is so bad. Then they cut back to the desk, and he's like, what are these guys on his phone? And the guys turned to him and go, John, what are you doing? He's like, oh, sorry, I'm just following Killarney Crane on Instagram. Check her out. I'm like, oh, yeah, man, she's pretty cute. He's like, all right, yep, moving on. And then, like, we're talking about the shootout, and this is where I had to get my joke from because they came back at this guy straight away. He's like, oh, the best save by an American goalkeeper since Julie the Cat Gaffney at the Junior Goodwill Games. And they just started laughing. And they're like, oh, The Mighty Ducks, what a great movie. Absolutely agree, Tom. Moving on. That was just so funny. That's not even a bad thing. I just want Fox Sports to cover the Olympics, because I would be rolling in stitches all the time, which they did. Jarrod, wasn't it during... It was London, wasn't it, where kind of Channel 9 offsold some of the coverage to Fox Sports, because that's where you could get the app. And like Eddie McGuire would host... That was actually really good, that coverage. I don't know if you ever had the app during London, but that's when they did that. I wish they would do that again.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Yeah. It's just so... Like anything is better than how it is at the moment.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, I'm so scared for the Commonwealth Games. I mean, this is just... Anyway, my name is Colin. Yes, my name isn't Colin. It's Ben. But your name is Colin. And you're going to tell us whose name it is today.
COLIN HILDING: Yeah, so I'm going to go with one of our ice dancers. And again, I'll send you the link, because he does something very clever at the beginning here. When they're given this questionnaire, there's obviously some sections that aren't actually put on the website. But this time they had to, because they have like the whole right at the beginning, please answer the following questions with a pen or pencil, no markers, please. But right at the top, it says, Hi, my name is blank and I'm Canadian, just titling what it's called. And he circled the word blank and put an arrow towards it, saying, No, my name is Paul. So this is Paul Poirier, who's one of our ice dancers. And it gets better from here. My favourite Olympic moment is walking in the opening ceremonies of Vancouver. As a kid, my favourite sports team was Canadian Olympic team. He puts nerd emoji in brackets. Draw a picture of your favourite animal. He drew an octopus here that I think has only seven limbs. Canadian octopus. That's a disability of the Canadian. That's why we don't do well in the pool. If I could be any superhero, this is what my wife would love. He would be Tuxedo Mask from Sailor Moon. Here's a good one. I'm going to take a deep breath here. My favourite music artists are Queen, Shintaro Sakamoto, Pink Floyd, The B-52s, Talking Heads, Feist, Cat, Power, Sia, Air, Black Box, Fujiya and Miyagi, Julie Doran, Bok, Dreamlight, Bokurini, Mendelsohn, Kate Bush, Joni Mitchell and Portishead.
BEN WATERWORTH: I just love how there's such diversity. Queen, Pink Floyd, all these pop artists, and all of a sudden, Bok! Thomas Bok?
COLIN HILDING: Oh, yeah, his pop album that he released with the guy from Mighty the Eagle. Casper's screaming in the back.
BEN WATERWORTH: Casper's loving Bok.
COLIN HILDING: Here he does it again. If I could only eat one food the rest of my life, it would be roasted root vegetables, peanut butter or burgers or curry and roti. I can't choose. And then he again drew arrows saying, not fair, I am indecisive with a frowny face. My favourite place to compete is Japan. Draw a picture from your hometown or province. He drew, oh, this does not look like the CN Tower.
BEN WATERWORTH: I think I could do better than that.
COLIN HILDING: And the Sky Dome. And he put Sky Dome, easiest thing to draw. Yes, I still call it the Sky Dome. One thing I've always wanted to do, is visit South America. You should just branch out into a summer sports. Just drive there. My favourite thing to do in the summer, is go cycling around the city. My favourite movie is The Princess Bride. My favourite place to visit in Canada, is La Ville de Quebec. My favourite cartoon to watch growing up, was The Magic School Bus.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yes, that's the second one. We went over that the other day. I was asking Jarrod about that. Another athlete said that the other day.
COLIN HILDING: Oh, nice. It's very popular here in Canada. Great show. It's right up there with Peppa Pig. If I had to do karaoke, I would sing, I love all the songs, don't make me choose.
BEN WATERWORTH: Oh God, don't start again. You'll sing a Bach song.
COLIN HILDING: Yeah, Bach.
BEN WATERWORTH: That's Beethoven.
COLIN HILDING: Wrong one. And if I could be an Olympian in any sport other than my own, it would be short track. Everybody's looking to take over for Charles Hamlin.
BEN WATERWORTH: I like this guy. This guy is pretty. You see like, you know, the next big thing.
COLIN HILDING: Did you say this guy is pretty?
BEN WATERWORTH: He's pretty awesome. I mean, he's pretty too. I mean, don't get me wrong. He actually looks like Michael Jackson's son, like a blanket or whatever. No, Prince Michael. Look at Prince Michael, Michael Jackson's son. He looks like him. So maybe this is him. Who knows? I'm noticing on the fan messages, Jarrod, that they have not updated this now in two days.
JARROD LOOBEEK: What is going on? I mean, I said yesterday, we've already named our flag bearer. The AOC has packed up and gone home. Jarrod Hughes is the only person left in Pyeongchang. Even our people competing in events have actually just gone home and left. The Australian team not there anymore.
BEN WATERWORTH: I think that legitimately, if you refresh the page, it's going to start having the Tokyo 2020 banner on it. Like, learn about our summer sports. They're just like they have. They're legitimately the same messages for the last two days. So there's nothing even here to read. I think we just move on to our messages. And we're up to Deanna Lockett on our list here. I think just every single one should be like, Testing, testing one, two, anyone there? Name, Australia. Portiana, look, it's the only message she's... Text, send me a message! Text, send me a message! Poor Deanna Loggett, the only message she's... Oh, someone sent me a message! Testing, testing one, two. Hello, AOC, anyone there? Poor Deanna, she seems such a nice girl. I think we could easily get her on the show. I mean, she didn't win any medals, so she's basically already been on the show. Oh, we've got some of our Bob's letters. Yes, Colin, was that you? Did I hear you?
COLIN HILDING: What?
BEN WATERWORTH: No, I thought somebody talked. I'm going loopy here. David Murray, one of our Bob's letters. All right, name, John Candy, email johncandy.hotmail.com.
COLIN HILDING: How about, who's your favourite music artist? Queen, Pink Floyd, B-52s, Talking Heads, Sia, Air, Black Fox.
BEN WATERWORTH: Queen, Sia, Bach, Black Fox, B-52s. Portis Heads, so many to choose from. David Murray, who I believe, if he's the one I'm thinking of, thinking of, that sounds inappropriate, was voted one of the sexiest athletes of the Olympics. I think he was listed in some list of the sexiest athletes of the Olympic Games. Not that I know, a friend told me. And bottom sled Lucas Matter, ervblitz.com. If you're nothing without a gold medal, you can't be anything with one.
COLIN HILDING: See no to weights in the front of the sled.
BEN WATERWORTH: What was it? 16 years ago, I did the stupidest thing in my life. I cheated. I let my coach down. I let my country down. I know, I can't remember quotes. Feel the rhythm. Feel the ride. Get it up. It's bobsled time. I'm sure it's not the only... Tallulah. Tallulah. That was my mother's name. We win the Olympics if we get that published. Alrighty. So, with only a couple of days to go, we've only got... David Morris is next. We've got David Morris, Laura Peel, Lachlan Reedy, Jessica Rich, Greta Small, Hayden Smith, and that's it. We've only got six athletes to go. One, two, three, four, five, six. We've done well. How's the Canadian list going, Colin, with our 50 athletes a day that we've been sending the messages to? Yes, remember, Pyongchang... 2018olympics.com.au forward slash fan messages if you don't want anything published because they've all gone home. So, that leads us now into day 14. We're on to the final three days here, folks. It's getting sad. We have got a grand total of four medal events happening today, or tomorrow, whatever you want to say, the men's relay and the bias one, the ladies' singles in the figure skating, the women's ski cross in the freestyle skiing, the men's 1000m in the speed skating. They're the medal events. Outside of the medal events, of course, we've got the, well, the curling bronze medal game is today, Canada, Switzerland. Oh, imagine if Canada got fourth. The women's semi-finals are on today, South Korea, Japan, Sweden, Great Britain. The semi-finals in the men's ice hockey, Germany, Canada, Russia, Czech Republic, is going to be big there. And from an Australian perspective, we, of course, have Kalani Crane. I look forward to having that repeated 38,000 times today on Channel 7. Sammy Kennedy Sim will be up in the ski style, the ski cross. So as you know, she won't win a medal based on the fact that she's been on Off The Podium. And Daniel Craig is back on ice on the 1000m. Daniel Craig? Jarrod, are you excited to see all 100 replays of Kalani Crane skate today?
JARROD LOOBEEK: Yeah, if she's one thing, it's consistent. So it's a shame that the ladies figure skating isn't just the best of 10 events because we'd have that hands down every time.
BEN WATERWORTH: 66% of Australia's athletes that I have appeared on Off The Podium, so there's a slight positive somehow. Colin, I'm guessing it's all about the Isocchi semi-finals today for Canada, isn't it?
COLIN HILDING: I thought it was about which one of the three of us is Caitlin Osmond choosing, but yeah, I guess there's that going on too.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, well, you know, we know it's going to be me. Yeah, I mean, I think that this is going to be worth staying up late for Germany-Canada, and you know, surely, has this been talked about, the fact that you're playing Germany, aside that again, really not expected to be there in the semis?
COLIN HILDING: No, I think up until now, there's been a lot of media coverage on it, but because of the women's finals today, nobody's even talking about the men. So I expect tomorrow there's going to be a lot of talk about it, you know, win-lose or, well, those are the only two options, win or lose. You could draw, sort of. I'm just hoping whatever happens that it's going to wipe the taste out of our mouth of the women's finals. So I guess they have to win in order for that to happen.
BEN WATERWORTH: I'm trying to find the current world rankings, if there's anything. We found that, didn't we, when we were doing Miracle? Because what was it? Bulgaria was so far the list, that it really wasn't anything. So Canada apparently currently ranked number one in the world, so I can tell you that. And Germany currently ranked number seven in the world. And that is their highest ever rating. Can we just point that out? So Germany have peaked. So that's interesting. And of course, what do we have in the other one? It's Russia versus the Czech Republic. So, well, technically the Olympic athletes of Russia, but they're just Russia. So Czech Republic are currently ranked number six in the world, and Russia are number two in the world. So you would expect it to be a Russia-Canada gold medal match, but, you know, Germany have made it this far, so who knows, it could be a Germany-Czech Republic one. What an event that would be. Any other events either of you are looking forward to outside of Australia? I mean, you know, the ski cross should be good. You know, anything else there, Colin?
COLIN HILDING: No, the ski cross was the only one I was going to mention. Just curling, hockey and ski cross, that's all that's going on for Canada.
BEN WATERWORTH: Jarrod, outside of what we've already talked about, anything else there?
JARROD LOOBEEK: Yeah, I might try to catch the curling. We'll see how I feel. I've boycotted it since the Norwegian team went out. So I'm just not sure if it's worth it or not to be disappointed by the one-coloured pants that I'll be seeing if I watch that.
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, I'm going to stand up for the biathlon, I feel. I'm going to try and pay close attention to the men's relay today. So go to the men and relay the shit out of that sport. If you like our show, then like us on Facebook because we appreciate being liked because we have low self-esteem. So like us on Facebook, Off The Podium Podcast. If you're on Twitter, hashtag Off The Podium. And if you like us and you hate Channel 7, by all means, troll them and just rip shit into them because you can. Jarrod, oh, it's fun. Appreciate it. We look forward to having you back on the show tomorrow.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Yep, looking forward to it.
BEN WATERWORTH: As with you, Mr Colin Hilding, thank you very much.
COLIN HILDING: Thank you.
BEN WATERWORTH: And we will be back tomorrow. Until then, enjoy the next day of the Olympics, and we'll speak to you soon.
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