PyeongChang 2018 Day 9 Review
It's time to finally bring back a Canadian perspective (given they're wining medals and Australia isn't) and get ourselves worked up over some terrible judging as we recap the 9th day of PyeongChang 2018. Just how much bullshit was coming from the judging of the men's aerials and why is David Morris just such an awesome human for taking it so well? Has Colin recovered from basically being dead and can he survive long enough to survive so much alpine skiing being shown? Can bobsledders actually draw and why do we need to tweet them to work out what it is they're drawing? And how excited is Jarrod about the Norwegian curling team and their pants? It's clicking away and no replays away with another episode of your favourite Olympic podcast!
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
Please note this is an automated transcript that may contain errors.
BEN WATERWORTH: Hello everybody, and welcome back to Off The Podium, An Olympics Podcast, as we continue our coverage of the Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympic Games. We're on to day nine, Sunday the 18th of February, a day that, well, it's got some mixed opinions, I feel, on today. I don't know how I'm feeling about this right now as we're recording this, but we're going to discuss a lot today. There's medals, there's controversy, there's Channel 7, and there's medals that didn't happen for some reason. Joining us as he has so far every single day of these games, it's Mr. Norwegian Happy Pants himself, Jarrod Loobeek. Jarrod, welcome back.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Thanks, it's good to be back. Yeah, definitely an interesting day, but at least the Olympic athletes from Russia, they've cooked on My Kitchen Rules, and they're currently sitting in the gold medal position.
BEN WATERWORTH: Good to know. And joining us, it's been a few days, he's here, well, half of him's here. You can make your own mind up how much of him is here when he's about to talk. From Canada, it is Mr. Colin Hilding. Colin, welcome back.
COLIN HILDING: Hey, what have I missed?
BEN WATERWORTH: I don't know, a few days here and there. I think Canada might have won, so I don't know. What did you miss?
COLIN HILDING: Oh, I'm sure I've missed everything. I apparently missed something to do with pants. Very flashy pants.
BEN WATERWORTH: Been watching the curling then, I see.
COLIN HILDING: Yeah.
BEN WATERWORTH: Paying close attention to it. But welcome back. It's, you know, are you okay? All our Canadian listeners are worried about you. Not really Mallory too much, but that's another story. But yourself, I mean, God, is Canada okay? Is the entire nation still around at the moment?
COLIN HILDING: Well, I mean, nobody's actually worried because this is Canada in the winter and everybody's on the verge of death. So I think I'm doing pretty well considering the way most of this country is feeling right now.
BEN WATERWORTH: You're pretty much the healthiest Canadian right now. Is that what you're trying to say?
COLIN HILDING: I am the single most healthiest Canadian you're going to encounter, including those competing in Pyeongchang.
BEN WATERWORTH: Beautiful, beautiful. Well, I'm telling you one person who's not healthy, at least from an Australian perspective, it's Chinese aerialist people and judges that are happening right now, because we're coming into this just after the men's aerials final, and absolute bullshit. Traversey, I want an appeal, I want an inquiry, I want something to happen that is just explaining to me how the hell that what happened tonight happened, and David Morris got eliminated in the first round, considering that the guy who then went on to win silver, Jay-Z or whoever he is, Beyonce's, whatever, gets the silver medal after he crashed on his first run. And David Morris didn't, they get judged exactly the same on their landing, and yet somehow we're sitting here, madly angry at this Chinese guy getting it through. Colin probably doesn't give a shit about this, but Jarrod, I'm rope-able, this is the angriest I've been ever in the Olympics ever, this is bullshit!
JARROD LOOBEEK: Yeah, this was just a total farce. Yeah, what even, I just can't even, I still can't process it and get over it, and the fact that I was angry enough already that he beat the score, but then when they came to the point and they're like, yes, he's been awarded the same for the landing, I could understand if it was like, yes, his jump was ten times harder, so he fell, but he still got a higher score, but when they're like, no, he got the same score for landing, this guy who was out of control, fell over, did a flip. And the thing that shows that he didn't have control and it wasn't good was the fact that he fell, and then this guy punches the ground, he's pissed, he's not even trying to sell it to the judges. At that point, the judges should have been like, he's angry with it, obviously he didn't have control. If he knows the rules and he can fall after a certain amount of time, he falls over after that ten metres or after he has control, and he's like, oh, well, it doesn't matter, but he thought that that jump shouldn't have counted, and he didn't think that he should be through. And that is what should have told the judges that, no, he shouldn't have gone through, he should have got a zero for that landing.
BEN WATERWORTH: And there was a Chinese guy, I think, in the next run who basically did a barrel roll on his landing. He got up and pumped the air like he'd won the gold medal, and yet he was promptly eliminated. And that was a little poor form. But I don't know, Colin, if you got up and watched this or anybody who may be just tuning into this, don't know what we're talking about. Essentially, in the first final of the men's aerials, Dave Morris controversially finished in 10th, of course, only the top nine go through. I mean, Dave landed slightly awkwardly, but he didn't crash. He kind of just had a bit of a wobble when he was up. And from my perspective, like, okay, that's fine. That should go through. He got a 111.95. And we're talking about Jay Zong Yang, Jay Z, basically we're referring to him as. He got 118.55. But this is a guy who crashed incredibly awkwardly, did not have any control over his landing. And by the time he got to the bottom of the hill, was flat on his face. And essentially on the judging, they both got a 6.8 on their landing. Can we just refer to that again, that one guy flat on his face, while David Morris just had a slight little wobble, and yet they get the same score. Colin, I don't know if you watched any of this, but all of Australia right now is ready to invade China. Where's that piece of?
COLIN HILDING: No, I tried to tune in about 20 minutes ago, and I guess it was just wrapping up, because it just faded from a shot of a hill into the Pyeongchang logo, and I'm like, well, I guess it's over. I didn't think anything big would have happened, but everything you're saying makes sense, because in watching the women's aerials finals and then remembering the aerials finals from Sochi as well, it pretty much is the sport where one person just is able to stay on their feet, and they by default get a gold medal. And it seems to be the only one where silver and bronze medallists get rewarded for crashing and for landing right on top of your head. I don't know what it is with the sport, but nobody really ever seems to do it right, and they keep giving medals to people. I mean, I'm probably both speaking the truth right now, and then also insulting everybody who loves the aerials. But I don't think anybody lands properly in this sport.
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, we saw that in the women's the other day, basically what the top two in the final round landed and the other four crashed.
COLIN HILDING: Yeah, and then in Sochi, it was only the gold medallists who landed properly, and everybody else had crashed.
BEN WATERWORTH: And it was kind of the opposite, though, in the men's tonight. There's only really a couple of crashes. Like a lot of people were landing, and that's kind of, because David Morris went like halfway through, so it looked like, oh, he's still got six people after him. At least, he only needed one person to crash, and he was through. And then as soon as Jay-Z, he crashed. We're like, yes, he's through. But I just want to go through the scores. I don't generally do this, but just to kind of put our point through here of maybe where Jay-Z got the extra points. So they both scored a 6.8 on their landing. Jay-Z got a slightly higher score by.6 on his air, and.3 on his form, and he had a slightly higher degree of difficulty, too, by.1 of a percentage there. But on the landing, 6.8. So the Canadian judge scored Dave Morris from Australia a 2.5, scored Jay-Z a 2.2. So the Canadian judge is very sound and should be judging still. The Swiss judge or the Swedish judge, depending on where you are in the world and what you're thinking here, 2.4 for Jay-Z, a 2.3 for Dave Morris. Clearly the Swiss are drunk. The Japanese judge, 2.2 for both. So, you know, okay, fair enough. The Russian judge or the Olympic, the judge athlete from Russia, scored Dave Morris a 2.8, and Jay-Z a 2.0. So, okay, the Russians, clearly the drugs not working with him. That's good. And the final judge just happens to be from China, 2.2 to Dave Morris, 2.5 to Jay-Z! Bullshit! Um, this is ridiculous.
COLIN HILDING: But do they wipe out the top scores and the bottom scores like other sports?
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, they do. So, there are a few here with crosses through them. So, Canada's and Japan's did not count for Australia, and well, China's and Russia's didn't count for theirs. But still, they both got a 6.8. And I think kind of what a lot of people were referring to was because Jay-Z kind of crashed sort of at the bottom of the hill. So, maybe the judges, seeing this in fast motion, thought he had enough control of it and didn't count that crash at the end. But the fact that, you know, your bias Australian commentator saying this is ridiculous, to have Lydia Lassler at the bottom of the hill, you know, esteemed Lydia, one of the greatest Olympians of all time, you know, and I know she's Australian, but she's still very kind of calculating her viewpoints. She was even questioning it. And even sort of when they interviewed the extremely humble and incredibly fantastic Dave Morris, who was still head held high, he's like, look, I just finished 10th in the Olympics, I'm still gonna be happy. Like, just a great, great guy, one of the greatest humans in the world. He even was like, yeah, the coach sort of went and questioned the call. You know, maybe it was a little bit, you know, but he was trying to like, he's so, like that's the angriest Dave Morris will ever get based on that still being happy and smiley. And I just love the fact that everyone on Twitter is going on.
COLIN HILDING: Until somebody breaks the news to him that this has happened to every Off The Podium guest, then he's gonna be really angry.
BEN WATERWORTH: We might bring that up to him if we get him on again. But through all of this, gotta say, bit of karma for Jay-Z though, Jarrod. Like, I will admit, I think his jump in the final final was better than the Ukrainian who ended up winning the gold, but he missed out on the gold by half a point. And you can tell the shocked look on Jay-Z's face, because I think everyone thought he'd done enough to get the gold there, but I'm not gonna be sad with the guy, because I think that was just karma.
JARROD LOOBEEK: No, I think this was a bit of the judges potentially realizing after, I suppose, the Australian coach went up and kind of had some words. They're probably like, oh, and they might have seen a replay by this point, and they're like, oh, we probably really shouldn't have put him through. Okay, we better not give him gold. We'll just make sure he's just off it. Give him the silver.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yes, yes. So obviously it ended up being a gold to Oleksandr Abramenko from Ukraine. He had 128.51. Jay-Z got 128.05, and it was bronze to Ilya Burov from the Olympic athletes of Russia. And can I just say, special props to Pavel Krotov, who got the fourth place medal, the tin. His reaction to when he saw Jay-Z landing it. Like, it's not often, you kind of see Olympic athletes so humble, like, oh, sadly I've missed the medal. Like, you know, oh well. He was pissed, I loved it. I loved seeing how angry he was when the Chinese guy landed. He was like, oh, fuck, I've missed out on the bronze, and he kind of like stormed off. It was great. That was kind of like last night, wasn't it, when we had the Belarusians throwing their skis everywhere. These aerials, they get pissed off quite easily, Jarrod.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Yeah, yeah, very temperamental people.
BEN WATERWORTH: And for Colin, Olivier Rochon, fifth place for Canada. You know, is he a household name in Canada, Olivier Rochon, or is this the first time you've heard of his name today?
COLIN HILDING: I mean, we've heard of all winter athletes, but I'm sad to report it's the first time I've ever heard of his name. I don't think aerials are the biggest sport here.
BEN WATERWORTH: Oh, that's sad. It was probably one of the few winter sports that's bigger here in Australia than it is maybe over in Canada. It's probably the one winter sport that we, you know, obviously we've sadly broken our streak of consecutive medals in the sport. But yeah, no, we're quite fond of it here in Australia. Now, before Colin, maybe, go over if you've got any Canadian ones. I don't know how you've kind of been looking there. Obviously, you know, you've got a few to catch up on in the last four days. We've been waiting for you, Colin. Just the quick other Australians outside of David Morris, of course, obviously 10th overall. So he's still very happy with that. In the Giants slalom, our two men there who've no doubt been buoyed by all the fan messages that have been sent there. Dominic Demsher was 37th, and Harry Laidlaw crashed out, sadly. And it says he was disqualified. I think that's just put like did not finish. That's a bit mean. Australia in their first run in the two man bob, Lucas Mata and David Murray were 22nd, the time of 49.88 as the time of recording this. They're due to go down very soon, I believe. I think Jarrod, you're gonna iron that. Have they gone down for the second run yet?
JARROD LOOBEEK: I don't think they've done the second run yet. This is the first.
BEN WATERWORTH: Okay, Russ Henshaw in the Slope style. He was 17th overall, didn't make it through. But I mean, that's still a great story for Russ. He didn't have like two broken legs or something like this, or something ridiculous. His knees were gone. I don't know if you saw much of that, Jarrod. But I mean, just for him to get 17th, top 20 in the Olympics, he will take that.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Yeah, it sounded like he injured himself right before Sochi and then was kind of looking good and did a similar thing right before the lead up to Pyeongchang. So yeah, just good for him to get on the slopes and get down to clean runs, really.
BEN WATERWORTH: I'll correct myself and say he's actually 19th overall. But the good news is he did beat one New Zealander. Jackson Wells was 25th, sadly got beaten by another New Zealander. Finn Billo, it's a French sounding New Zealand name, who really gives a shit. We also had in action today, nobody else, David Morris is the other one. So we've covered the Australians. Colin, Canada, as we went to air last night, I said to you, you got a gold and a bronze. So congratulations there. I think I falsely said that you got a bronze in the skeleton. I kind of leaked ahead a little bit with the skeleton because we thought it was over, but there was a couple more runners obviously to go after we announced that Canada won another bronze. But I believe you got a bronze today, at least in one sport.
COLIN HILDING: Yeah, it was Men's Ski Slope Style, which I think is the first medal Canada's ever had in ski slope style. So Alex, I don't even know how to pronounce this. Alex Bulemoshan.
BEN WATERWORTH: Correct, that's what I would have said. That's it.
COLIN HILDING: Sorry, I'm having a stroke here. Give me, Alex Bulemoshan, the first ever medallist. I did actually watch that. I kind of, I don't know, I don't always feel like I need to watch ski slope style after I've watched snowboard slope style. Basically the same sport, but I did watch this and it was cool to see him win. I mean, the big one are the ones that I think we, or you already mentioned that you missed yesterday. Kim Bhuten, or Bhuten, or- Kim Bhuten, who of course previously won a bronze. I don't think you've touched on it because it's probably not in the news anywhere else, but there was like a lot of controversy after she won and she's been pretty much abused on social media since her first bronze medal. Have you heard anything about that?
BEN WATERWORTH: Absolutely none. Inform us about the abuse of Kim Bhuten.
COLIN HILDING: Well, I guess some people were upset because she was advanced to the final when another skater had been disqualified. This was for her first bronze medal. And afterwards, she was getting severely abusive messages on social media, the point where the RCMP had apparently.
BEN WATERWORTH: Mounted, make everyone cough, it's fine. It's fine. It's fine.
COLIN HILDING: Yeah. So the RCMP had actually intervened in everything, and we're taking this as a very serious matter. So then, of course, she went again yesterday and I believe also was advanced to the finals through another disqualification, as everybody is in short track speed skating and won another bronze. But I guess the bigger deal was going into these Olympics. We had Charles Hamlin, who was having his final Olympics ever, and they didn't even say it's going to be a possibility. It's he will become the most accomplished Olympian of all time, beating Cyndi Clausen just by winning two more medals, and he's yet to win anything.
BEN WATERWORTH: Can he still win any?
COLIN HILDING: I think there's still a relay, so there's a chance for one. He could tie Cyndi Clausen, but I think the ship has sailed on him being having the most accomplished Olympian ever.
BEN WATERWORTH: We're sorry, Canada, it's Off The Podium's fault, sorry.
COLIN HILDING: I mean, we should have gotten Sam Girard on there because here he is with a gold medal now. And Charles Hamlin's fiancee, Marianne Saint-Gilay, of course, she just keeps getting disqualified in all of her races, and Kim Booton's getting in there and taking all the abuse on social media. So two medals in speed skating, not the ones that we expected, but I guess just officially passing the torch. And outside of that, I don't know what else you have or haven't talked about. I don't remember much. I've kind of been out of it for a few weeks now. Half on the verge of death. All I know is that we're officially starting to win in women's curling now.
BEN WATERWORTH: After the first possible start. We've been what? We've been paying attention to that, Colin. What's going on in curling in Canada?
COLIN HILDING: Yeah, and there are some funny ones. They brought Jennifer Jones on, who of course won the gold. And this is kind of what I talked about, about how curling is just so big in Canada that it's not like you'll be consistent and have the same team every single... Are you undressing or something right now?
JARROD LOOBEEK: What is that noise?
BEN WATERWORTH: Jarrod, I think, is putting on his Norway pants. That's what he's doing. Oh! And here's the word curling. He's like, shit, put the pants on.
COLIN HILDING: Yeah, I've got to put the pants on. But yeah, it's just... It's not... I'm not going to say inconsistent. It's just literally anybody can win on any given day in Canada. So your Olympic gold medallist can be bumped. So we had the Sochi gold medallist on talking about what was going wrong with Rachel Hallman and her team. But I don't know, we're officially getting some wins now. So there's still hope for us in curling, but it's not looking great. And then of course hockey is fantastic. You know, I think we've had losses, but overall it's still looking good for both the men's and women's.
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, that was the one I was going to quickly mention to you. I was glued to that yesterday, and sadly in the penalty shootout. And we know with Czech Republic beating Switzerland today that basically Canada won't directly go into the quarters. You'll have to play another elimination to get into the quarters. So you'll have to have an extra one. But was that talked about? I mean, I assume you guys might have been disappointed that you kind of lost that one, or was it a case of, well, we went out in the shootout, it was a close game. This happens, it's hockey.
COLIN HILDING: You'll have to remind me, was that men's or women's?
BEN WATERWORTH: The men's one where you lost in the shootout to the Czech. Oh, and the women's are doing great guns. You're undefeated. Did you wait to play USA in the gold middle match?
COLIN HILDING: Yeah, well, I mean, the last one I actually watched in women's was the US versus Canada, which was a great game too. But yeah, I mean, I didn't realise it was that close with the Czech game, but I think everybody's kind of forgiving anything that happens in men's hockey just because of how it started with those two weird upsets of Slovenia and Slovakia getting major wins over, I think it was US and Russia. Ever since then, it's a complete crapshoot. Nobody really knows what's gonna happen. So if you suffer a loss, nobody's gonna be crying about it. I mean, even if it's against Slovenia, I mean, apparently they're now the top dogs.
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, the other one I want to quickly mention because you weren't here for it, Jarrod and I are so into the Luge relay. We are just going off with Luge relay. And after you guys obviously finally got your first Luge medal, you backed it up with the silver. I mean, God, is Canada going Luge crazy? Is Winnipeg on the verge of building like a track in the middle of the downtown area now and every major city in Canada because you guys are so successful at it now?
COLIN HILDING: I mean, we really should have something like that in Manitoba just because, you know...
BEN WATERWORTH: It makes you confident the thought of it.
COLIN HILDING: Oh, yeah. It's getting me worked up here. I'm going to start sneezing if I get even more excited. But I mean, John Montgomery, you know, the great skeleton. So, skeleton, luge, bobsled, any of that. The most exciting thing hasn't even been the luge. It's been the skeleton for me. Not the Canada's, you know, been doing as well in the skeleton, but just having John Montgomery on commentary, which he commentates exactly the way he is on The Amazing Race Canada. Like, he's supposed to be on the US The Analyst, and he just completely takes over. It's great. But, you know, he's like Manitoba's pride. And I thought to myself, like, well, how does a guy like that even get into skeleton? We don't have any, like, luge or skeleton or bobsled tracks here. But, no. I mean, he had to be living in Alberta to do that. So, we need to build it here, and we need to just call it the John Montgomery track.
BEN WATERWORTH: Done. I think, Jarrod, you'll be behind that as, you know, you're a big John Montgomery fan, I know.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Yeah, absolutely.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yes. I really wish we had Noah on right now to give us his impersonation, because, I mean, I didn't just remember his celebration when he won the skeleton. I don't remember. I've never seen the Amazing Race Canada, so. We'll go over the medal wins that we've got so far, and then obviously a few going on right now as we are on air, and some of the other results as well. Just to clarify on yesterday's episode in the skeleton, jumped the gun slightly with that result. So the official result in the skeleton, Britain still did win the gold. Lizzie Yarnold took the bronze, oh, the gold, sorry. Jacqueline Lowling, the silver, and it was actually another bronze to the UK. Laura Diaz took the bronze there. So golden bronze in a Winter Olympic event for Britain. That's something that's not that common. And the ski jumping, the large hill. I was watching that as I went to bed last night. Very entertaining. Camille Stock, back to back, I believe, that made it in the large hill for Poland. And Andreas Vellinger, who was trying to go for the large and small hill double, missed out only very slightly there. And our moustached friend Robert Johansen, back to back, you know, double bronze in the ski jumping. What a time it was to see that moustache flying through the sky again. Today, the middle ones, did you see that, Colin, or?
COLIN HILDING: No, I mean, I've been asleep for the last eight hours, so if it's occurred in the last eight hours, I missed it, but I've got it recorded, so I can't wait to see his moustache powers activate.
BEN WATERWORTH: Sorry for the spoiler there. The albino skiing today, the giant slalom, Marcel Hirscher took gold for Austria. No, sorry, sorry.
COLIN HILDING: No, you better apologise. Henrik, sore spot right now.
BEN WATERWORTH: Sore spot, why? Because I'm spoiling it, or because you don't like Marcel Hirscher?
COLIN HILDING: No, I'm so done with any type of downhill skiing. I swear it's all there showing for like, you know what happened? Is that it got delayed, what was it, like four or five days in a row, and now they feel like that's all they have to show on TV. So it's like three or four straight hours. I'm like, I can't take any more downhill.
BEN WATERWORTH: But you can't, like, okay, I get that, but like you are familiar very much, we talked about this at length yesterday with the great Esther Ladeca from the Czech Republic and her achievements yesterday, right?
COLIN HILDING: I was, you know, really invested in yesterday's episode that I wasn't on, so. You have no idea what went down.
BEN WATERWORTH: Okay, well, essentially, and I've actually fact checked this too, this is a good point I bring this up because Jarrod and I had a question about this yesterday. So essentially, Esther Ladeca, Czech skier, she's actually not a skier, she's a snowboarder. She's a world champion in the parallel slalom, and she basically is like, oh, I might give my go at, you know, down here, alpine skiing, just give it a crack. She came into this event, no one even rated her. I was even, they had more about her on Today. Essentially, all the TV broadcasts cut away from her final run because they had assumed that Austria's Anna Wiethe had won it, they're like, oh, Esther can't win the gold from here. And essentially, she crossed the line 0.01 seconds ahead to win the gold. She just, like, is there an absolute shock, not believing. She said in all her interviews, like, I had to look at the screen, I thought they'd made a mistake. And the big story with this is, she's still competing in the snowboard, where she's actually the favourite to win the parallel giant slalom this coming Saturday. And I put the question out there, has anyone ever won multiple medals in different sports in the same Olympics? It's actually been done multiple times. In the good old days of Athens and the early London Olympics, there was a guy who won medals in both swimming and wrestling in the same Olympics. And there was a skier I looked up who'd won at Nordic combined and cross-country skiing in the same Olympics. So it hasn't been done in a very long time. So I mean, now that you're familiar with this, you gotta be excited if you ever get to see this run, Colin, from Esther Ledecker. She's an idol, she's huge in the world now.
COLIN HILDING: Yeah, well, just doing a little bit of Google research, she shares my birthday as well, which is cool. Oh, well, there you go. Go March 23rd. When you said, though, that every channel cut away, I guarantee that's true for every channel but CBC, because I'm sure that they're still showing it right now. And they ditched hockey to show Esther Ledecker.
BEN WATERWORTH: And to make it even better for you, Colin, you also missed the line that apparently Lindsey Vonn was caught overheard saying, I can't believe I got beaten by a fucking snowboarder. So, she, Lindsey Vonn, not too happy with her. I think she was fifth or sixth. Yeah, good on you, Lindsey. In that event, Canada's Eric Reid was 11th. You're probably a long time. At least you were sick of it, Colin. Phil Brown was 18th. James Crawford, 29th, and Trevor Philip, 27th. And for those listening to us all the way, of course, in Macedonia, you'll be sad to know that Antonio Rizetsky did not finish that result. So sorry to all our Macedonian listeners listening to the show today. The biathlon, that means Mastad. It was gold to France. Boo. Martina Forcade took it ahead of Simon Schempp of Germany, and Emil Hegles Venson of Norway. No Canadians or Australians in that one.
COLIN HILDING: Did you see how close that finish was though?
BEN WATERWORTH: I did not, in lightness. For the biathlon? No, I didn't.
COLIN HILDING: Oh, it was like a photo finish that was like super close.
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, we had, didn't Jarrod had a tie in one of these events in the bronze yesterday or something?
COLIN HILDING: Hmm, yeah.
BEN WATERWORTH: So they've obviously fixed their photo screen there. They don't just give it out to, for Germany, we'll get to the medal tally soon. That's obviously hard news for them because they've slipped back and they're not on top anymore, the Germans, because Norway had a very strong day today, including in the cross country, four by 10 kilometre relay, they took the gold in that. Silver went to the Olympic athletes from Russia and France. Good day for them. They took the bronze. Canada in that one, ninth. And good news is that America were last. In the freestyle, in the men's slope style, obviously we already said Canada got a bronze in that one. Oisstein Braten of Norway took the gold and Nick Goipa. Nick from the US, I believe he got the bronze back in Sochi, took the silver this time around, and obviously as we said, Canada bronze. Didn't realise the esteemed actor James Woods was now competing for Great Britain in slope style, but he took the fourth place today, so good luck there for James, well done. We already went over the aerials. Ukraine took the gold there. Aleksandr Abrenko cheating Jay-Z. It wasn't really his fault, it was the judge's cheating. And Ilya Borov, it's from Russia. The bronze, the 500 metres in the speed skating is about on right now as we are talking, and actually no, it's finished. I've just refreshed the page. Japan, golden that one. Nao Kodaira, a head of Lee Sang Hwa of South Korea, and bronze to the Czech Republic, Carolina Urbanova. So the Dutch, obviously not very good at the super fast on the speed skating side of things, but Japan walking away with the gold. Now the non-metal events, I believe actually, do we not have, no, that is all the metal events. I thought there might have been another one going on. Outside of that, the bobsled, two men started today, and I can tell you after one run, it is the great bobsledding nation of Latvia on top currently 49.08. Canada sitting in second, Germany currently in third. Now there's a bunch of, how many Canadian teams you have? Stop hogging the bobsled, Colin. You've got at least four teams, three teams. Australia is well down the order currently, but the good news is that we're beating Brazil, our strong bobsled rivals there. Curling the men's, now Canada dropped a game yesterday, if I'm not mistaken. They did do so again today. Two in a row, now the men are starting to choke, Colin. The Canadians went down 6-8 to Switzerland. Japan defeated the US. Is that a sore point still, or is this again curling, you know, fickle sport?
COLIN HILDING: Well, I mean, I was watching the Switzerland one, and I was kind of having flashbacks to, you know, the Swiss just quitting on us and expecting it to happen again, so it didn't really go my way. I was hoping for a lot of defeat and just giving up out of the Swiss.
BEN WATERWORTH: And, well, just the Swiss surprise you sometimes. Yeah, Japan beat the US. Norway beat Denmark. So the standings currently in that, Canada's dropped down to third. I mean, am I just assuming the top four go through to the semis here, Colin? Is there anything more to it than that?
COLIN HILDING: Beats me, I've been in a coma for three days.
BEN WATERWORTH: Okay, well, you know, I just thought Canadians knew this. Sweden is still undefeated on top. Switzerland, again, Paul Mallory just has no clue what's going on in the top two there. Canada's third, Japan is in fourth. That is in the men's. In the women's, Canada knocked off the Swiss. That's good for them. There's about two or three in a row now. 10-8, Sweden beat the Brits. South Korea beat China. So that means the standings in the women's. Sweden, they're dominating the curling, the Swedes. They're also undefeated in the women's. Japan second, South Korea third, China fourth. Canada have moved up a few slots now, so good for them. Now the women's ice hockey. We just had some classification games today. I mean, I don't think we really give a shit about that if we really do, but for those playing at home, Switzerland two, nothing over Korea. Japan two, one in overtime over Sweden. So Switzerland and Japan will play off for fifth, and Sweden and Korea will play off for seventh. Go teams. The semifinals are tomorrow. Canada against the Olympic athletes of Russia. USA versus Finland. So we're looking forward to, obviously, Canada USA gold, Australia and Finland in the bronze. Australia just got a late wild card entry. Now, I just want to say about the men's tournament here, Colin. Like, I don't even see the point of them having this round robin crap, because every single team makes it into the knockoff phase. Like, you basically, you are basically trying to qualify the highest you can to go direct into the quarters. If you don't make the quarters, you still get a playoff where you, if you win, you make it into the quarters. So it's kind of like, it's just rankings in these groups, and essentially, that's how it works. I mean, you could just conserve all your energy and just get belted in every single one of these games, just to take the hard route and show that you really made it. That's what the US are doing, because they got belted by Russia last night.
COLIN HILDING: Well, I mean, you still need it, because without the right amount of wins and the right ranking, you could end up playing Slovenia, and then you're screwed.
BEN WATERWORTH: True, very true. I didn't actually, the thing I didn't realise is that how many former NHL players are actually playing, like Jonas Hiller is still the Swiss goalie. And Canada has a couple of guys, obviously, who have played in the NHL, not just Canada, a few of the others. But yeah, I mean, it's still, I was thoroughly entertained by the Canada Czech game. I watched the Czech Swiss game today, where the Swiss coach decided to pull Jonas Hiller with three minutes to go, even though they were only one goal down, they ended up losing that match 4-1. So it was a pretty good move there by the Swiss coach. But yeah, I'm looking forward to seeing how that also will play out. Germany beat Norway. Go ahead.
COLIN HILDING: I was just gonna say, you know, we talked about whether it's the same if you don't have the top players, and are we just sort of getting the B team now? And I think the one thing that most people underestimated was how much playing the Olympics would mean to these guys. These guys who was like, well, they had an NHL career, but then their careers sort of cut short. You know, they're not really on top anymore. And so many of these players are coming out now and saying like, this is something that I never thought would happen. This is now officially the greatest moment of my life that I'm on an Olympic team. And I don't know, I'm finding myself more interested in the men's hockey now, just because it means so much to these players.
BEN WATERWORTH: I think it would have been interesting to get Wayne Gretzky out of retirement. I mean, he's only 57. I mean, you know, he doesn't have a contract anymore. So I mean, surely he would have been available, right?
COLIN HILDING: Yeah, although I did watch him play in the alumni game of the O'Hellers and the Jets last year. And it was a bit of a sad sight. I don't know how much value he would have brought to the team.
BEN WATERWORTH: I think it would be funny if Pittsburgh Penguins were like, oh, yeah, we're not happy with Sidney Crosby anymore. No, we're ripping up his contract. Sorry, he's been demoted to the AHL. Oh, but that puts him available for the Olympics. Yeah, I wonder if that would have worked. Germany beat Norway today. Sweden and Finland's about to happen. It's actually on right now, I should say. And I've said the Czechs beat the Swiss. And the last night, the Russians thrashed America for nothing. Do you believe in miracles? Not anymore. The one I wanted to say for you to last, because Jarrod, you and I last night had a bit of a discussion today about the men's team pursuit in the speed skating. We mentioned how we had a couple of quarterfinals. We thought, well, Canada should breeze through. New Zealand have a tough one against Norway, so bad luck for New Zealand. And we just said whoever's gonna end up against the Netherlands, well, tough luck for you. Can we just establish New Zealand have made it through to the semi-finals of the men's team pursuit in speed skating, where they will skate off against the top ranked side South Korea. So it was actually a ranked thing. It wasn't just a knockout phase. So this is, I think, happening on Thursday. I looked this up. South Korea will take on New Zealand in one semi-final. Netherlands and Norway in the other. So there is a very realistic possibility. New Zealand have got, what, a 75% chance of winning an Olympic medal. I mean, how do we feel about this, Jarrod? I'll kind of say this again. New Zealand are into a semi-final in the Winter Olympics.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Yeah, not great. They did lose, though, didn't they, to Norway in their, I suppose, because it's not knockout. They must have had an okay time, but they did lose, right?
BEN WATERWORTH: They did. They lost by 1.09 seconds, but basically they were the fourth ranked of the team. So that's why Canada was eliminated, the US were eliminated, Italy were eliminated and Japan were eliminated, because they were all slower than New Zealand. Canada was slower than New Zealand.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Yeah, I feel a bit better that they've lost, though. They've already lost. It's in their minds. It's probably going to psych them out. So I'm feeling good about them finishing fourth.
BEN WATERWORTH: Oh, just, it'd actually be quite funny if they got to this pace and they still didn't get a medal. But yeah, I don't know how I feel about that. The medal tally right now, at the time of being on air, top five, Norway have jumped to the top, nine gold, nine silver, eight bronze, 26 in total. The Germans have gone a few days now without a gold after starting off so strongly. Nine gold, five silver, four bronze. The Dutch, six gold, five silver, two bronze. Canada, fourth position, five gold, five silver, six bronze. If you win one more gold, Colin, you will go ahead of the Dutch, so you go up into third. And the US, fifth, five gold, three silver, two bronze. South Korea, host nation, three gold, one silver, two bronze. They're in ninth. Australia, we're in 21st still. Zero gold, two silver, one bronze. Britain, 16th, one gold, three bronze. And did you notice yesterday, Colin, that Lichtenstein picked up a medal for the first time in 30 years? That made news in Canada.
COLIN HILDING: Oh, well, which sport?
BEN WATERWORTH: That was also in the Super G. So, it was very entertaining, the women's Super G. And you hate this sport all of a sudden, it was very entertaining.
COLIN HILDING: I'm sure it was, in small doses, and not 24-7. They're renaming CBC the Super G channel, I think.
BEN WATERWORTH: Right, well, you know, at least kind of you get live sport, though. So, just take that on note, at least. What have we watched today, gentlemen? I'll start with you, Colin. You might want to fill us in what you've watched over the last week when you've not been in your coma. What have you watched?
COLIN HILDING: I mean, I already mentioned watching the Ski Slope Style and some of the curling, little bits and pieces of hockey, which, I don't know, they seem to air every single hockey game. It's on at least one channel at any given time. A couple of days ago, obviously, there was, you can see my profile picture, Patrick Chan, his final skate. Some people would consider him one of Canada's all time greatest figure skaters. Obviously, he didn't finish that well, but that's sort of the big story in Canada. A lot of people don't even seem to care that he finished in ninth place. They're just like, wow, we just saw Patrick Chan skate for the final time. So that's, I don't know, that was fun, regardless of whether he was going to succeed or not. He's kind of a legend here. One thing I did get to watch, and this is a bit of a fun story, is we went out to the mall the other day, and they had this big set up at Centre Court at the Polar Park Mall, and it was like a CBC set up, and they had Olympic stuff there, like jackets and everything, and we weren't sure what it was. So just before we left the mall, we went and checked it out, and they were giving away stuff like official programs that have the schedule of what's on every single day, and then those cardboard box viewing things for VR. Do you guys have a VR app for...
BEN WATERWORTH: Oh, God, that would involve Channel 7 actually giving a crap about the Olympics, Colin, come on.
COLIN HILDING: Oh, so there's no Channel 7 VR app.
BEN WATERWORTH: There's barely a Channel 7 app!
JARROD LOOBEEK: Repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat.
BEN WATERWORTH: What's the ad for Australian Spartan in Virtual Reality?
COLIN HILDING: Well, it was cool, though, because they're giving away these free cardboard viewers for the VR app. I came home and I was trying it out, and of course, the app itself wouldn't work for six hours. Me just trying over and over again for six hours, and it wouldn't work. Eventually, I got the thing working, and I show it to James. She said, wait, let me see. And she's looking at it, she's like, wow, this is so cool. I think I was showing her the 1500 metre, the woman's 1500 metre for speed skating. And she's like, this is so cool. And then I put it on and I looked, she's like, it's too bad I can't take a picture because you look really stupid. So she was really excited by it, but she gets more entertainment out of watching me watch it for how stupid I look looking through this cardboard box. But it is official CBC merchandise. So I was watching some old stuff just on the VR app here, because we're so advanced here in Canada that we get VR. But that's, I don't know, I've watched a ton of stuff. I haven't been on for four days. So let's just say everything is what I've been watching.
BEN WATERWORTH: If you go back to that thing and they're giving away all these competitions to win one of those jackets, like, can you please win me one? I'm in love with your Canadian team jackets. I think they're amazing.
COLIN HILDING: You know, the funny thing is they have this CBC setup in the mall and everything. And you know, when they're saying, oh, you could take this, you could take this, take a couple of them, you know, they give you all this free stuff. And then they're like, you know, we're just here to make sure people know that the Olympics are on CBC. They're like, it's on like 24-7, by the way. And I'm like, it's the only thing on television. How are we going to miss it? But maybe there's another big difference. Like, it's the only thing on television, and they still send people out to malls to remind you to watch the Olympics. And I doubt it's like that there in Australia. I mean...
BEN WATERWORTH: I think somebody needs to go to Channel 7 and remind them to show the Olympics.
COLIN HILDING: You go to the front reception desk, and it's like, excuse me, what's on tonight? Uh, not sure.
BEN WATERWORTH: We've got a scheduled replay of the replay of the replay to be shown at 9 o'clock. A five-minute window there to show some Olympics. Jarrod, what did you watch? Did you catch any ads for the Commonwealth Games trials? I still don't know when they're on.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Yeah, it's a bit hard to tell. I think I need to run a couple more. No, I watched the curling. So I was very invested in the Norwegian match. I think they did manage to get a win today because it's not looking that great overall where they're sitting, and I'm hoping that they can kind of scrounge their way into the top four because every match is a new pair of pants. And I mean, if they don't make the semis, then I'll never know what they were going to wear for the semis in the finals. So fingers crossed that some other teams can consider that and potentially throw a couple of games. Apart from that, I mainly watch the ski slope style, which I just found really... I don't know if it's me, but I find this sport really boring.
BEN WATERWORTH: No, no, it's not just you. Really? I mean, it's... I don't necessarily know if... It's just slow compared to the snowboarding. It's just... It kind of just seems like they're walking the course. And it's... I don't know how I feel about it because the snowboarding one is engaging, whereas this one, it's kind of like, oh, they're on a pole. Oh, they're falling down. Oh, they're skiing backwards. Oh, no, they've crashed. Let's go to the next one.
JARROD LOOBEEK: I feel like there's, like, too many people in the final, and they shouldn't get three runs. Like, this is, to me, seems like a sport where they need to, like, half the final in half, and then give them two runs instead of three because it just felt like it went on forever, and then Channel 7 decided to replay it forever.
BEN WATERWORTH: Oh, did they ever?
JARROD LOOBEEK: When it turns to the Olympics at night, it was... It's still happening. I'm just living Groundhog Day here with the Slopestyle because it's the only thing that they're showing, and it was just... I'm like, this is really boring. Hurry up.
BEN WATERWORTH: I legitimately was, like, I think at about 8.30, 9 o'clock. I'm like, okay, cool, getting close to the Olympics. I'll just... Let's see what's going on in the main channel. You know, he's old Ed Weiner of Hassanoff to Hamish. Good on you guys. And then they're like, now we're just going to have a bit of a look at the ski Slopestyle. I'm like, oh, for fuck's sake. Come back like 20 minutes later. Oh, and check out the ski jumping from last night. I've watched it last night. I saw it this morning. I saw it again this afternoon. And I've checked on the app. There's curling that's on live. There's ice hockey that's on alive. And I love how they always constantly tease. They did it even just before I came in to record here. You know, after the aerials final. Coming up, we've got some ice hockey for you. They legitimately showed 10 minutes of ice hockey just before they close out the broadcast. My dad has kept saying to me, when are they showing the ice hockey, Ben? When are they showing the ice hockey, Ben? Like, it's ridiculous. And I've noticed that Australian Spartan starts next week at like 7 o'clock on Channel 7, which if I'm not mistaken is about the time the men's gold medal match will be being played during the Olympics. You know, to me, the best event of the entire games. So either they're going to show it on 7Mate, or we just have to be resounded to the app. I'm getting Channel 7 bashing out of the way, but that coincides into what I watched today. Whatever Channel 7 decided to replay. Anyway, Athlete Of The Day. Jarrod, do you have anyone today?
JARROD LOOBEEK: Well, I did manage to catch a little bit of the eye-sucking. It might have been similar to what you saw, but it was the Slovenia-Slovakia match, and I'm going to have to give Athlete Of The Day to the Slovenian goalkeeper, Gaspar Krozelj. I don't watch a lot of ice hockey. I don't know if it's similar to other sports that have goalkeepers, but he just saved five of the six penalty shots or four of the five, and in other sports and penalty shots, if they save one, it's this amazing thing, but there was no getting the puck past him in the penalty shooter, and I just thought it was really impressive.
BEN WATERWORTH: I have to say, though, and I think, Colin, you'd know this as well, given you know more about hockey than me, because it's your national sport, but I think ice hockey is the one sport where the goalie generally has the advantage in the penalty shootout.
COLIN HILDING: Sorry, I didn't follow what you just said there. I'm still in a coma.
BEN WATERWORTH: It's fine. Most of our listeners are thinking the same thing, as if not following me, not about you. Ice hockey is generally one of the, if not the, sport where the goaltender generally has more of an advantage than the shooter. In a penalty shootout, I mean.
COLIN HILDING: Yeah.
BEN WATERWORTH: Glad we established that. What was your athlete of the day? Expert comments, Colin Hilding. You should join Channel 7.
COLIN HILDING: Usually asking a question just requires an answer.
BEN WATERWORTH: I think we just got interrupted by the Finnish Olympic coverage there today. That was a very good jump. Can you take it through it? He landed. Thank you very much, Sven. Colin, your athlete of the day.
COLIN HILDING: I'll just go with the entire team of Switzerland for the men's curling, because they successfully faced Canada and not only didn't quit, but won. So yeah, go Switzerland.
BEN WATERWORTH: I was going to go for just the cliché David Morris. I mean, such an awesome gentleman for taking that bullshit on hand. But I kind of either want to give it to Liu Zhongqing, the other Chinese aerialist, who basically landed, did a forward barrel roll, got back up on his feet, and then started pumping his fist like, Yeah, that was so awesome. Look at that. He was trying to like sell it to the judges. But I kind of want to backtrack and go back to when I was talking about Pavel Krotov, the Olympic athlete from Russia who got fourth, just for his brilliant reaction for not getting the bronze medal as soon as Jay-Z landed. He was like, Ah, fuck, I've lost the bronze. And he stormed off. So I'm giving it to Pavel, because I like some emotion like that, even though, you know, he might have been a bit of a sore loser. But I also think he was doing a little bit. It didn't seem too serious. So I want to say he was kind of doing it with a bit of fun. So Pavel.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Yeah, well, losing to a guy who shouldn't be in the final anyway, you're allowed to be a little bit angry about it.
BEN WATERWORTH: I feel like Pavel needs something today besides his tin medal. Now, Colin, do you... CBC, it just sounds like you're giving them the fail just purely based on the Alpine skiing coverage. I mean, have we missed anything in the four days you haven't been away? Anything that stood out in terms of commentary fails or just coverage fails?
COLIN HILDING: Yeah, we had... Well, as I mentioned, Jennifer Jones, who won the gold medal for Women's Curling, they had her on to talk about what was going wrong with the team this time, and she just gave this weird comment that just didn't really make sense to me logically, where she was talking about the benefit of losing your first three games in a row means that now you can just win everything else from this point on and have no stress about what else you're going to lose, which just logically makes no sense to me that you're saying you got all the losing out of the way. So now if you win everything, there's no more stress about losing.
BEN WATERWORTH: That's been the Toronto Maple Leaf's motto for about 50 years.
COLIN HILDING: Yeah, that's harsh but true. But the other one that was really good, this was from a couple of days ago, this is when the pairs skating was going on, and Duhamel and Radford who won the bronze, I can't remember which country it was that won the gold, it might have been Germany or something like that, but they were talking about the Germans and how much it meant to them that they won the gold because they had to suffer with the bronze for two Olympics in a row. And the commentator was saying something along the lines of, you know, after everything they've been through, the last thing they wanted was to walk away from here with another bronze medal. And then there's a pause and they go, congratulations to Canada's De Hamel and Radford as they leave as Olympic bronze medallists. Let's talk about how devastating it would be to leave us with a bronze medal and then congratulate us for winning the bronze medal.
BEN WATERWORTH: Good job, good job. Jarrod, did you pick up anything today that can match that?
JARROD LOOBEEK: No, I feel like I've gotten to the point coming into kind of this second week where I've gotten very good just kind of tuning out Channel 7. So it's kind of there's commentary, I'm sure they're making gaps and doing terrible things, but in my head, I'm like, I'm not watching Channel 7. I'm just going to pretend this is some other broadcast. So I didn't pick up on anything.
BEN WATERWORTH: The ones that I, there was only one really that I picked up, but I just wanted a quick note, because if you do watch the app and kind of click on the specific sport rather than the Channel 7 feed, you will get different commentators. So when we were watching the Ski Slopes I won today, Mallory was kind of watching and saying, oh, the commentators are so boring. And I'm like, oh, this is one of the few Australian commentators I think is actually pretty good. And she was kind of getting like a Scottish person and an American person doing it. They didn't sound that interested. But the one that I thought was kind of just Channel 7 being Channel 7 was during the Slope Style today when whoever he is basically said the point like, yes, an Australian Spartan, of course, coming to Channel 7. And if any Olympic sport was like Australian Spartan, it would be the Slope Style. It's like, what? I thought no one can do it alone or something like that. It's a fucking team going up a mountain or something in this stupid Spartan thing. Like, I mean, talk about segways. I mean, where was Basil Zemplas tonight going, yes, of course, the Russians kicked into gear tonight in My Kitchen Rules. And if any sport was like My Kitchen Rules, it would be the aerials. Like, I want them to compare it. Like, I want them, yes, of course, Home and Away. Weeknight, 7 p.m. on Channel 7. If any sport was like Home and Away and Summer Bay, of course, it would be the bobsled. Like, just, you know, how Stuart Flaminick going down the pipe. They're just stretching for it, aren't they? And it was actually interesting to see all the Twitter reaction to Dave Morris tonight. And actually, Channel 7, you know, milking it a little bit. You know, was he robbed? And there was, you know, like, 100 replies to Channel 7's posts. And this is the first time I've ever seen that many replies to a Channel 7 post without people complaining about Channel 7. So they were quite happy about that, let's be honest. Colin, do you have a My Name Is today?
COLIN HILDING: I do, and I don't know if you've been covering these while I've been away.
BEN WATERWORTH: We've done a few. We have done a few. I couldn't tell you which ones, because I forgot.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Duplicated a couple?
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, I forgot which one you did. I started going back to Games of Throne. And you just sent one here. Did we do this one, Jarrod? I don't think we did. No. No, we did not do it.
COLIN HILDING: This one's very colourful.
BEN WATERWORTH: She did the worst. No, I definitely have done this. And the ones we've done have been very boring. So give us an entertainment.
COLIN HILDING: Alright, so this is a bobsledder, as bobsledding is big in Canada, as you've said. Alicia Rissling. And that says, Hello, my name is Alicia Rissling. And she's got very colourful purple writing. And if you watch throughout, I post this here, she's using different colours of purple at different points. My name is Alicia Rissling, with a heart dotting her eye, and I am Canadian. My favourite Olympic moment is, Too many to count. Elvis Stoico. All of 2010, Vancouver. Women's soccer, 2012. Well, I count three, so I don't know how high she can count. If I could have, although she did say all of 2010.
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, you know.
COLIN HILDING: If I could have any superpower, it would be teleportation. Imagine everything you could get done if you could eliminate travel with an airplane drawn next to it. My favourite sports movie is Mighty Ducks plus the Sandlot. That was like the famous crossover that they did from the Mighty Ducks universe.
BEN WATERWORTH: I remember it.
COLIN HILDING: The Mighty Ducks meets Sandlot.
BEN WATERWORTH: The extended universe of the Mighty Ducks. The M-D-E-U.
COLIN HILDING: Yeah. Draw a picture of yourself. She drew a picture. To me, it looks like the Unibomber with a curly wig. And it says, I am the worst doodler.
BEN WATERWORTH: I'm saying now, though, Colin, that's the best one I've seen in the last four days. Every single one we've had is just a little stick figure.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Yeah, she's drawing Edwina's outfit.
COLIN HILDING: My funniest childhood memory is I built this awesome Quinze. Oh, that's an igloo. Yeah, it's kind of like an igloo. It took hours to dig out. My friend and sister got jealous and jumped on it and it collapsed on me. Now it's funny, but at the time, I was so rattled, we still talk about the effort I put into that thing. So it's funny because she put all this effort in and that she almost got trapped inside of a collapsed igloo.
BEN WATERWORTH: We had one the other day that they dressed up, got dressed up as girls or something, wasn't it Jarrod, or she dressed up her brother as a girl or something like that?
JARROD LOOBEEK: Mmm, yeah.
BEN WATERWORTH: Good times.
COLIN HILDING: My favourite pump up song is Humble by Kendrick Lamar. The most recent TV show I binge watched is Game of Thrones. Like five years late, I know. Draw a picture of one of your teammates. She drew Cynthia here. I don't know who Cynthia is, but she also looks like a Unabomber.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, she looks like Aubrey or Hannah from Survivor.
COLIN HILDING: Well, except with the mermaid hair and the arms that are jacked.
BEN WATERWORTH: Is she Russian?
COLIN HILDING: Exclamation mark and arrow. Jacked arms. My least favourite foods are onions and potatoes.
BEN WATERWORTH: His least favourite food is potato. That's like the one food everyone likes.
COLIN HILDING: Yeah, well, except I had a pregnant wife, and all she ate was potatoes and garlic and onions. I definitely had my fill of them for a while.
BEN WATERWORTH: I'd happily get pregnant with you then. I was going to say pregnant with Jamie. That's a bit awkward. I want that to eat for nine months. Yum.
COLIN HILDING: I'm not going to get you pregnant. And not just because of the diet. If I weren't an athlete, then I would be a chiropractor. My favourite vacation spot is Hawaii because I love surf, sun, hibiscus flowers, and pineapple. She drew, I don't know if this is supposed to be a pineapple, or if it's a strawberry.
BEN WATERWORTH: It's like a strawberry or a tomato.
COLIN HILDING: It's the wrong color. Or maybe that's, you know, another... What is that?
BEN WATERWORTH: What is that?
COLIN HILDING: It looks like a fish. Alicia, what is that? Yeah, it looks like a fish.
BEN WATERWORTH: Do you have Twitter?
COLIN HILDING: I can't even identify. People usually describe me as determined and a bit ridiculous. Bad drawer? Ridiculous. If I could be an Olympian in any sport other than my own, it would be hockey or beach volleyball. My favourite song lyric is Jungle Remix by Ex Ambassadors featuring Jay-Z. I don't know if she realises this, but my favourite song title is what she mentioned, and they asked for favourite song lyrics, unless one of the lyrics by Ex Ambassadors is Jungle in brackets remix. I also love how her purple and pink pens keep alternating back and forth. My guilty pleasure is Starbucks, Cinnamon Buns, and Barstool Sports. And here's the best one here. If you were an animal, which would you be? She's drawn an incredible looking wolf here, and she writes, Why do you guys keep making me draw? This is supposed to be a wolf, because it's a powerful animal, loyal to its pack, or confident on its own. So we learned a lot about wolves today from the Unabomber, aka Alicia Wristling.
BEN WATERWORTH: I am literally typing a tweet to her right now.
COLIN HILDING: Yes, what is it?
BEN WATERWORTH: Hey Alicia, you rock! Question, can you settle something for us on our Off The Podium podcast? What is this on your... My name is... profile, a pineapple, a strawberry, a tomato, a fish.
COLIN HILDING: A hibiscus flower.
BEN WATERWORTH: She legitimately has...
JARROD LOOBEEK: A mistake with garnish.
BEN WATERWORTH: I have more followers than she does, and she's an Olympian, so she better reply. She also has a website, if anybody at home wants to go to Ristling or Ristling bobsleigh.com. She's got a Bobsleigh bio, schedule results. We can sign up for a newsletter. Sponsor, oh, a team t-shirt. Here we go. Who wants to be team Ristling?
COLIN HILDING: How long does it take to deliver it?
BEN WATERWORTH: Probably faster than Ryan Lochte. Oh, it's just a white t-shirt with the maple leaf, and it says Ristling Bobsleigh, men's unisex shirt, $30. I love how it says men slash unisex. Isn't unisex both changes? What? Oh, she's something else. She could be our new Ryan Lochte. So, fan messages, have they updated this year, Jarrod? I haven't checked today.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Oh, yes, there is very good news on the fan messages.
BEN WATERWORTH: Oh, how many did we make? Are you saying we got some on?
JARROD LOOBEEK: Have a guess out of the three, how many?
BEN WATERWORTH: I'm going to say, judging on your positive sounding tone, I'm going to say all of them.
JARROD LOOBEEK: You are correct. Hey, Ken, I bought a Segway off you when you visited Latvia. It's still running well. 10 out of 10 would buy again, get published. I think I have to say, they've changed the moderator, and they've just had such a backlog of messages that they've just approved everything and haven't looked at them.
BEN WATERWORTH: I'm disappointed to see, unless you found it here too, that Colin Hilding's message to, who was it? To Chumpy, wasn't it, or something like that? Snowboard, snowboard, snowboard, snowboard. Snowboard, snowboard, snowboard. Oh, I found it. Hey, Cad, there's a second one. Oh, I'm on there, Ben Waterworth. Hey, Bell, great job. Sorry, couldn't win the small final. That would have been awesome. My favourite singer is Britney Spears. Do you know her? Probably, because you're famous anyway. Do well in your next event. Love, Ben. Oh, and Johnny too. I forgot about Johnny to Emily Arthur. Hey, Emily, I'm Johnny. I'm in year five. We watched you loved all your nine gold medals. I hope you win a tenth. Did you know my best friend is Peter? I like chicken. Do you like chicken? Please answer. You rock best. Olimpo and since Brett Cox. To clarify, Colin, there was somebody the other day that sent a message to Brett Cox and was like, we love you. Congratulations on your nine gold medals. Oh, Jarrod, we are on a roll. All right, there is a bunch. They still actually sent to you from yesterday, so they still got a backlog. I'm blaming Annette Shoebridge for David Morris' bad luck tonight. Good luck. Thanks for all the hard work you have done to get to the Olympic final. It's your time to shine. No, it wasn't. Bridget Victoria to David Morris. Hi, it's Bridget from Team Adrenaline. We were watching you on the couch, and my whole family went wild. When you got your score and placed second, we were all throwing pillows around the room. And I wish you so much luck for tomorrow. You've got this! Train well, compete hard, bring out the big guns.
COLIN HILDING: You think that's the reason he lost because of their pillow fight? It has nothing to do with Off The Podium. They were watching you on the couch and throwing pillows around, and that's what screwed him over.
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, this one here runs Sydney Mills in New South Wales. He decided to shout this one. It's all in capital letters to David Morris. You are simply a real Australian champion! I know you can fly! You make Australia proud! I swear this one's a subtle dig at Channel 7. See if you can pick this one up here to our esteemed skeleton racer Jackie Naracod. Go, Jack, go! Love watching you race. Good luck, darling. Me and my daughters are waiting patiently for you to come on the telly. We love you. And, PS congrats on Dom's Bronze. Wishing you also get bronze. How bloody awesome would that be? Lots of love, Laura Charley and Victori-ger. Well, this one's a bit stalkery, this one, actually, to one of our bobsledders, Lucas Matter, from Heather Sparrow in Western Australia. You don't know us, but we are following you. Look behind you in the bobsled. You don't know us, but we are following you. Your mum was the mentor teacher for an American student we hosted. You may remember Jessica. Go well. Thank you for all the work and commitment you have made to the sport. Now is the time to just enjoy. Good luck. Oh, God, these are amazing. It was when they actually... Can I just point out? Go for it.
COLIN HILDING: I just want to point out that apparently everybody in Australia thinks that these athletes know somebody they know. Do you know Johnny? I know Johnny.
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, it's Australia, Colin. I mean, come on, there's only like three of us. Well, here's another one on that note. Back to Jack Linaricott again from Lindell Hick in Queensland. Good luck, girl. I work with your dad, and he shows me how talented you are. What? That's a bit rude. Can't wait to watch you race tonight. Best of luck. You got this, chick. I got a crew here cheering you on. We're right behind you.
COLIN HILDING: Literally.
BEN WATERWORTH: I'll go to another one.
COLIN HILDING: Watching you as we speak.
BEN WATERWORTH: David Whiffen. Everyone knows Jacqueline. Jacqueline, hi. Melanie Whiffen, who played soccer with you at the Brighton Bulldogs. And I, your assistant coach, wish you all the very best in Heat 3 tonight. Not in Heat 4. It's only Heat 3. We are all very proud of you for your dedication and commitment. Go well, take those turns perfectly, and make the top 8 as you have planned. Go Jacqueline, dot dot dot dot. Oh, and somebody actually has messaged their daughter-in-law. Here we go. We've still got a few Off The Podium people to jinx, and one of them, of course, is Sammy Kennedy Sim in the snowboard cross, sorry, the ski cross, from the Sim family to our wonderfully talented daughter-in-law, who has so much determination and courage. You deserve to get on that podium. We will be all watching together in Winterwood, Grandma included, and sending all of your positive energy. Lots of love to you, Sammy, John, Sonia, Mel, Toby, Claire, Grace, Anna, and Grandma.
COLIN HILDING: You know that one of our messages has to be us as the in-laws for somebody competing.
BEN WATERWORTH: I just love the fact that they're so close, her family, that they have to resort to a fan message. He's an honest one from Joe Zack overseas fan to Brendan Carey. I'm usually not that interested in figure skating, but your Pink Floyd performance was captivating. Great job. I thoroughly enjoyed your performance. In brackets, go USA. Oh, there's a Tassie person here. Graham from Tass. Best of luck, Jess. This is to Jessica Rich. Best of luck, Jess. Fly through the air and safe landing from Tassie. Star, star, star, star. Wow, that's going to get her through in the snowboarding. Oh, this one's a bit mean to John Farrow. Ashley Brackens calling him fat. You have guts, mate. Good luck. Oh, my goodness. I cannot believe that those Segway ones made it. Like, I legitimately expect Jarrod to see this time tomorrow, that one we sent to Carly, to Kalani Crane from Tonya Harding saying, wish us to take any competitors out. All right. Who we got on our... If we're doing this alphabetically, we've got to do Dominic Demsher. He went today, John Farrow and Alex Falazzo, all ones that have already been and gone. So we'll get on to them. I feel like we just need to just send... start sending to the teams and start cheating again. All right, Dominic, who can this be from today? Jamie Hilding. She's very into downhill skiers. All right, at hotmail.com. She can be from Tasmania. All right, give us some messages. To this Demsha family.
COLIN HILDING: How do you feel about potatoes and onions? How do you feel about potatoes and onions? Done. Can you look at this picture and tell me if it's a pineapple, a strawberry, a fish?
BEN WATERWORTH: I found a lump today on my knee. Should I get this checked out?
COLIN HILDING: What?
BEN WATERWORTH: What did you think of the Russian score of My Kitchen Rules tonight? I thought Manu was a little bit harsh. Ah, Skeleton, we're at the John Farrow. Name, I don't know, Skellington? No, John, Johnny. Johnny comes up again. Email, johnny at hotmail.com, Queensland. I'm just gonna go with it. Do you think I should get this lump checked out? It's a bit greenish. Oh, hang on, I can't stop. It's greenish, and I think it could be bad as it's grown in the last few days. Thoughts?
COLIN HILDING: Please help me, it itches like crazy.
BEN WATERWORTH: I'm bleeding from the eyes. This can't be good.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Can we send one to Daniel Greig ahead of his speed skating tomorrow?
BEN WATERWORTH: Of course, absolutely. We haven't sent one to Daniel, have we?
JARROD LOOBEEK: If he fell, I feel like he needs a good message to help him home. I've got a good message in mind.
BEN WATERWORTH: Oh, look, I like it, Jarrod, when you're forward thinking here. All right, hang on a second. Let me just get this up. The only one speed skater, Ben, don't get too lost here. Do you have a name for this one, or you just got the message? Should we come up with a name here?
JARROD LOOBEEK: Yeah, I'd like to send this from Mr. H Dumpty.
BEN WATERWORTH: Mr. H Dumpty. All right, I like where this is going. Dumpty. And it's just... Okay.
JARROD LOOBEEK: There's two words for this.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yep.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Stand tall.
BEN WATERWORTH: Now, that's getting published. I don't think they look at the names. Oh, Lord. All right. So, just looking at our list here, we've got one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, seven, eighteen, nineteen to go with what? Seven days left. So, yeah, we're getting there. You know, good luck doing this again for the summer games. All right, so Channel 7 promoted Saturday as Super Saturday with the most gold medals on offer. Nine, I think there were yesterday. Not that we saw any of them on Channel 7. Tomorrow has to be Mopey Monday, or I don't know how you're going to promote this. Three gold medals are up for grabs tomorrow, three. Australia is going to win more than that in the morning session of day three of the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games, so we have decided for the medals, the Bobsleigh Two-Man, the Ski Jumping Men's Large Hill Team, and the 500m Speed Skating. Now outside of that, the non-medal events, it's actually, I think, the quietest day of the Olympics, so curling obviously continues in the men's and women's, we have good news, we've got the ice dancing short program and the figure skating. Let's get involved, the qualifying rounds of the women's half pipe in skiing, which is always interesting, they do ski half pipe. I think probably the big ones, definitely from Canada's perspective, and you can talk about this in the second column, of course, a little bit more if you like, the semi-finals of the ice hockey, of course, tomorrow, Canada taking on Russia and USA taking on Finland. Qualification round, I'm actually looking forward to this one, the women's big air in the snowboarding gets underway tomorrow, qualification rounds, and the heats of the women's team pursuit in the speed skating. Now, I happened to purchase the official Olympic winter video game on PlayStation 4. It's basically an upgrade to a snowboarding game called Steep, and you just download a $20 pack or something like that. Anyway, it's only skiing and snowboarding events, and one of the events on it is the women's big air and the men's big air, and it's actually like, I'm really excited for this. I've never heard of it before. They basically just go down the most tall as giant as ramp in the world and have like a massive jump to do as many tricks in one jump that they can do. Is this a thing, Colin, that Canadians are familiar with? I mean, I'm sure you follow snowboarding very closely outside of the Olympics.
COLIN HILDING: I don't think I've seen it myself. I believe it's another one of the X game events, which they're just sort of bringing over. I mean, there has been so much talk about it, though, if for no other reason, that a lot of our biggest athletes get to now compete in the second event. So we're going to get to see Mark McMorris again, and who's the other guy, Max Perot and everybody. So that's what's going to be exciting about it is the athletes being able to double up on their medals. So hopefully we're going to get Canada getting another gold, another silver, another bronze and so on and so on.
BEN WATERWORTH: And I just want to quickly add on that video game as well. It's very weird the fact that so far I've managed to achieve a silver and a bronze, and both times they played the Australian National Anthem for me winning the silver and the bronze. So I don't know if they're just taking the piss out of Australia, saying you'll never hear your national anthem, or there's some weird glitch in the game where they feel that the national anthem gets played for every single medal that there is. Jarrod, what are the three medal events or any of the other events are you looking forward to seeing tomorrow?
JARROD LOOBEEK: Yeah, I suppose the main thing I am looking forward to is that speed skating. Look for Channel 7 to have promos for. It's a redemption story, and they'll have the slow-mo of the fall from Sochi, and it's four years later, and he's wiser and he's stronger. Yeah, so just keeping fingers crossed that Daniel can get over the line standing up this time.
BEN WATERWORTH: Is there much talk just back on Canadian perspective, Colin, on Moir and Virtue again tomorrow in the ice dancing? I mean, they've obviously already got one gold each. I mean, they're back on the ice again.
COLIN HILDING: Yeah. The weird thing with Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir is that, for the most part, Canada were very respectful with the athletes, that you really just want to keep involved the sport and everything. But I swear, everything I see online about Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir is still, do you think they're banging in real life? Like that's everything you read about them on the internet. I mean, I read one yesterday where they made every case for every move they did and every way that he held her thigh. That's just the fascination people have had for years with these two is whether or not they're really screwing.
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, are they? I mean, I feel like you didn't answer the question.
COLIN HILDING: Yeah, I don't know, we'll have to wait and watch. That's what the whole world is going to be watching, not to see the athletic performance, but to see whether or not they get it on, on the ice.
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, the thing that I found fascinating just in my vast knowledge of Canadian figure skating pairs is, you know, I was a huge fan of Jamie Saleh and David Peltier back in Salt Lake. You know, I think I've told the story before, I literally wrote off to them and they sent me a signed photo of them that was that I was in love with Jamie Saleh. But I didn't, at the time, I was like, oh, they have to be together. They weren't. They were with other people. Then I was reading that they both left their partners to be married. And I think that they have a kid together and now they're divorced again. Like, they actually ended up getting together, didn't they?
COLIN HILDING: Yeah. So, I mean, at some point, Virtue and Moy are going to ruin their relationships with others so that they could get married, have children and then eventually split up.
BEN WATERWORTH: As is life. So Australian perspective, Jessica Rich is in the big air tomorrow in the snowboard and Daniel Craig, as you were saying there, Jarrod is in the speed skating. And yeah, I'm sad that neither of you really talked up the ice dancing. You know, come on now. This is the rhythmic gymnastics of the Winter Olympics is happening tomorrow. So get involved, get excited. Have we actually seen the women's yet? The single? No, we haven't yet. They're kind of obviously the last ones off the...
COLIN HILDING: Yeah, the last.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah. Well, you know, as often is the case. But we'll be back tomorrow and no doubt be talking about the 117,000 replays of all the events that Channel 7 will be showing, all the alpine skiing that CBC will be showing, even though there actually isn't any alpine skiing on tomorrow, and everything else in between. Colin, it's good to have you back. I'm glad that Canada is back on this podcast. It's good to be represented by you guys. They're actually doing well because I think we've peaked now. We've won our three medals and it's time for Australia to go home.
COLIN HILDING: Yeah, you can go home and I'll just take over for the next week.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, pretty much. Pretty much. Jarrod, I mean, you know, I think we've kind of... That's it with Morris done. I'm not trying to put the mickey on Andy Jung here or, you know, Sammy Kennedy sin, but I just kind of feel we've got no choice, but having said that, this is the Australian way. We always end up with a sneaky medal that we weren't thinking of, a la David Morris four years ago, a la Chloe Esposito in Rio, so who knows? Andy Jung gold medallist in the 500 metres in a week's time.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Yeah, I think look out for the Bob Slade team to make a miraculous recovery tomorrow.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, we'll see how we play out. Anybody listening, of course, you can like us on Facebook. Remember to use the Off The Podium hashtag on Twitter. If you're listening to the show, we appreciate it. Any comments in between, we would definitely appreciate that. And if you've got any Channel 7 bashing messages, by all means, share them with us too, because it's, you know, the unofficial sport of the Olympic Games in Australia, it is bashing the national broadcaster and it's even more sweeter when it's Channel 7. So get involved. We'll be back tomorrow. Thank you for your company. We'll speak to you next time on Off The Podium. Good night.
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